Movies 101 : Is Anybody There?

I almost forgot to recap my class last week! We watched the British movie “Is Anybody There?” with Michael Caine. It was okay, but I didn’t love it. People are saying that it is Michael Caine’s best performance ever and supposedly he says it is his favorite role ever. I thought he was good, but I don’t necessarily get all the hype. After watching the movie, one of the Producers, Peter Saraf, was interviewed. He has produced a lot of other movies, including “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sunshine Cleaning”. I thought this movie had a very similar feel as those. This was our first interview with a producer and I really enjoyed it. If I was ever involved in movies, that’s what I’d want to do. They get to see so many sides of film making and are involved in decisions from beginning to end of the process. But, I really got interested when he started talking about how they make their money. There are so many complicated equations that can come into play. I don’t love accounting, but I do love math and the math involved sounded fun to me!

So, I haven’t mentioned our teacher yet. He has been teaching this class for 40 years! Unfortunately, he is really starting to annoy me. I get the feeling that he has let the success of the class and rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebrities go to his head. Sometimes, he just won’t stop talking. He loves to tell his own stories, but honestly, I don’t think any of us are there to hear his stories, we want to hear from the people involved in the film! It’s fine when you have someone like Colin Hanks up there who totally took the reigns of the interview and made it his own, but most have not been like that. So, that’s my one gripe about the class and I hope that I get the opportunity to review the class because I think he needs to hear it…although, I suspect he already has heard it from others and doesn’t care.