'Best' Puts Christopher Guest Above Rest
Actor-Filmmaker Defines Satire Genre With Another Mock-Documentary
As a film critic and an admirer of moviemaking, it's exciting to see the definition of a film genre develop right before your eyes.
Think of the incredible handle John Ford had on westerns and Alfred Hitchcock had with suspense, and that's what you get with actor-writer-director Christopher Guest and the "mockumentary" satire genre.
As a major contributor to the rockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" and the creative force behind the community theater send-up "Waiting For Guffman," Guest is up to his playful, yet emotionally fulfilling mockery again ?- this time exploring the ultra-intense world of dog-show handling in "Best in Show."
The key? They're all ?- from Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy, to Michael McKean, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock, Parker Posey and many more -- masters at the incredibly difficult art of improvisation. Guest appears, too, as Harlan Pepper, who shows his bloodhound, Hubert.
"You don't run across actors like this quite frequently," Guest told me in a recent interview. "It isn't as if there are 5,000 actors and I can say, 'He's a good actor, therefore he can be in this movie.' If you don't have the skill like these actors have, you can't really participate.
"I really like to use the analogy of jazz players who basically stand up on stage and play, yet people don't question that there is no music they are reading from. This is really the same thing, but we're actors and we're really jamming -- with people soloing occasionally."
To create his fake-documentaries, Guest films the scenes 10 minute at a time. And while Guest's method of filmmaking may seem unorthodox by most Hollywood standards (with scenes taking just a few minutes), it's essential in the creation of his brand of satire. Like "Guffman," he and co-writer Eugene Levy created an outline for the script, and turned the actors loose to improvise their dialogue from there.
"We shoot 10-minute scenes, while most movies are broken down to master shots of a minute and a half, then they shoot close-ups," Guest explained. "This way, the actors are talking for 10 minutes, so they feel as if they are really acting and behaving as (that) person."
While that method has yielded wonderful results for moviegoers, Guest assures that putting the film together is anything but clockwork. What makes that method difficult is that no 10 minutes are ever the same. Forget about an actor reciting the exact same lines from one shoot to the next. That's why Guest shoots so much footage.
In fact, for both "Guffman" and "Best In Show," he shot nearly 60 hours of film, some of which will turn up on future releases of the films on DVD. (Fans recently got treated to more of Nigel Tufnel (Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) in the recent special edition release of "This Is Spinal Tap.")
"They are different, and occasionally it ends up being difficult for me to use the footage because the actors are laughing, basically. Laughter wouldn't really fit in to well," Guest deadpanned.
Seeing Ourselves
Perhaps the biggest reason people respond to Guest's films -- whether they were a rock-and-roller or an actor-wannabe in "Guffman" -- is because, ultimately, we see and have the ability to laugh at ourselves. Guest says "Best in Show" is no exception.
"The backdrop of 'Best in Show' is somewhat irrelevant. It's about the people," Guest told me. "It's not a dog movie, it's a movie about dog owners. Truly, I don't think these people are any different than people in community theater or people who work in a bank or at an insurance company. There are eccentric people who work everywhere.
"That's what's great for me. I can look around and see what may seem arcane to somebody else but there's going to be something interesting," Guest continued. "I recently overheard a conversation that took place in a model-train store which was really amazing. For these guys, that was their world. And it was only some engine that was coming in from Germany that they were excited about.
"These guys couldn't have been more passionate about it and that's amazing. Then they go home and put on a train hat and those overalls, and they've got this layout where little trains go around and that's their world," Guest said.
Whether it's passion or passion to a fault, Guest says that it's an attribute we all have. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. As for the eccentric dog owners of "Best in Show," the fact that you can laugh uncontrollably at them is one thing; what's most important to Guest is you become emotionally invested in them.
"Hopefully there is some kind of depth in the terms of these characters and that is a serious discussion, because minus that, you have nothing -- you don't care at the end who wins," he said.
"Hopefully when the winner of the show is named, you have something going on, where you either like it or you don't -- as opposed to a sketch comedy where there are really superficial characters with funny voices and really stupid costumes. When that's over, it's over, and it has no resonance in your mind. I guess I'm drawn to the emotional part of it, as opposed to just the funny part."
As a moviegoer, I think that what I responded to the most in "Best in Show" is the fact that, like "Guffman," we discover in the epilogue that the experiences of the characters ultimately give them the courage to take a step forward into a different place.
As stated in my review of the film, what's wonderful about this element of "Best in Show" is that, no matter how quirky or insignificant those places may seem to us, the characters themselves are in a state of bliss.
And while we laugh at their expense, really, it should serve as an inspiration for anybody at a crossroads in their life. Being a show-dog owner, albeit a little too passionate about it, doesn't make them any less of a person.
Guest admits that he's never given thought to that concept, but maybe subconsciously he has. And that's the beauty of these movies: It might even take Guest himself six months to see something new in a scene that he hadn't seen before, and he suspects that's the reason why audiences have continually revisited "Spinal Tap" and "Guffman."
"That's what's so great about the material. There are nuances that are hidden within the story that can be interpreted through a number of different viewings," said Guest.
"I would say it's because of the real-time aspect of the performances that people find different things in multiple viewings," Guest told me. "That's the case particularly with 'Spinal Tap.' It is surprising that it's 16 years since the movie came out, yet it has a fresh feel to it.
"When we go out and perform as a band it feels like it did when we were playing on the road in 1984. It has the same feeling, except for the fact that people watching it are the kids of the original people that watched the film. It's odd," he said.
Of course, the burning question for fans of Guest films is not if, but when his next satire will happen. Whatever time it will take, it will certainly be worth the wait.
"It's really a function if whether or not I had another idea, and that I can't tell you right now," Guest said. "I don't have something in a drawer at home right now that says here's the next movie. I generally take some time off and try to be a regular person with my family and hope that something is going to jump into my head. There's no guarantee, because it's scary, but I hope something does because I like it. It could be another two-and-a-half years before this happens again."
From Dogs To Turtles
With over 24 million copies of the children's book series sold worldwide, in addition to a highly popular TV series and CD-ROMs, you would think there is little else for the lovable turtle "Franklin" to conquer.
But Franklin is coming out of his shell again, this time to the feature film format in the direct-to-video release "Franklin and the Green Night." The film explores the feelings the turtle experiences with friends and family while he waits for the birth of a new baby sibling.
Franklin's original author, Paulette Bourgeois (who creates the book with illustrator Brenda Clark) is excited that the film expands Franklin's story line and introduces new characters.
"What's really neat for me (is that) Franklin is allowed to have to a real adventure whereas in the book, he's pretty circumscribed by his world and his behaviors," the Toronto-based Bourgeois told me in a recent interview. "By moving him out, we've expanded his world and the world of the viewer, so he gets to go beyond what I could ever do with him in a book -- that's really exciting."
What Bourgeois also likes about the film is that care was taken by the filmmakers to respect children's opinion of the character, and interpret him the same way he's interpreted in the books. After all, it's their minds' eyes that have seen the turtle through to his enormous popularity.
"I think it's huge responsibility to be respectful of how the children see Franklin," Bourgeois said. "They know Franklin inside and out. There are 26 books out there. They form a bond with Franklin and see him as a peer, as a friend, and I think if we weren't true to who that character was, we'd have a lot of disappointed children."
Oddly enough, Bourgeois has never been asked why she thinks people are endeared to turtles in general. But her answer to my inquiry was rock solid.
"I think it may be that they have this hard exterior, and yet they are enormously vulnerable," Bourgeois told me. "I think that's a metaphor for who we are as people, and that's the connection. We put on this shell around ourselves so often, and yet there's this vulnerability inside. We all work with that."
- Next week: Get stuck in the time warp as I talk with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" creator Richard O'Brien, who also played Riff Raff in the cult classic -- now celebrating its 25th anniversary.
While it's also enjoying a renaissance of stage productions, people will be happy to know that can get "warped" too, by it's recent debut on DVD. Of course, the film can still be seen and heard in theaters at midnight showings all over the world.
"It's really nice to be a part of something that's made both theatrical and cinematic history," O'Brien told me in a recent interview. "It continues to astonish me -- it always did -- from day one."
Catch up with Tim on these recent @ The Movies interviews:
To read past @ The Movies columns, click here.
