Tagebuch Freitag, 24. April 2020 – Wiedersehen und Rotwein

Ich habe nach fünf Wochen F. wieder von Angesicht zu Angesicht gesehen und nicht nur per Facetime und ihn auch gnadenlos umarmt, wobei wir allerdings beide Mundschutze trugen und vermutlich in unterschiedliche Richtungen geatmet haben. Fühlte sich gleichzeitig sehr gut und sehr doof an. Ich weiß selbst noch nicht, wie ich dieses Distanzieren mit dem eigenen Lebensgefährten in Zukunft praktizieren möchte. Ich weiß, dass wir uns näher sein dürften, aber momentan habe ich Panik vor meinem eigenen Freund, was mich noch mehr nervt als geschlossene Bibliotheken JA DAS IST MÖGLICH.

Ich hatte eine Runde Pittole gemacht und es gab einen schönen serbischen Rotwein dazu, während wir zwei Meter voneinander entfernt rumsaßen. Es ist alles absurd und tut weh.

‘While You Were Sleeping’ turns 25: An oral history of the Sandra Bullock rom-com favorite

Einer meiner Lieblingsfilme, wenn ich einfach nur rumschnuffeln will.

„Co-writers Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow first pitched the idea of a man falling in love with an unconscious woman.

DANIEL G. SULLIVAN, co-writer: Nobody liked it. We went to Meg Ryan’s company and the development person there said, “Why would Meg Ryan want to do this movie? She’s unconscious the whole time.” So we decided to flip it, and once we made that switch, everything worked. When a guy is sitting next to a brain dead woman, it’s very predatory. But when you put a woman next to a guy, it’s sweet. We started calling it “Coma Guy,” but everyone still passed until we took it to a producer named Arthur Sarkissian.

ARTHUR SARKISSIAN, executive producer: I thought it was terrific, and I had known them to be good writers from another script we worked on together that never got made. […]

CATHY SANDRICH, casting co-director: There are a few auditions in your life as a casting director that you really remember, and Sandy’s was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen. We were all crying. She did the monologue at Peter’s bedside where she first explains everything, and it was just so beautiful.

TURTELTAUB: Sandy has that overwhelming charm that makes her so irresistible. As soon as she left the room, [producer] Joe Roth stood up and said, “That’s our girl.”

BULLOCK: I believe it’s because Demi Moore couldn’t do it, I got it. So, I’m grateful to Demi Moore every single day. […]

TURTELTAUB: The best compliment I ever got was a woman told me, “I went to that movie with my boyfriend, and by the end of the night he was my fiance.” That’s when you know you’ve done something right, when you can get inside a person’s soul a little bit.

PULLMAN: Usually people say, “My mom was in love with you.” My son Lewis is an actor now, and he’s really good with the YouTube stuff. By accident, I saw that he had saved two scenes from “While You Were Sleeping.” That was the most touching thing.“

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Und als Kontrastprogramm:

Blood, Boycott, and Body Bags: An Oral History of ‘American Psycho’

Das Buch las ich mehrfach, allerdings beim ersten Mal immer nur in Abschnitten, bevor ich es angewidert in die Ecke warf oder in den Kleiderschrank sperrte, weil es mir Angst machte. (True Story.) Ich habe es schon länger nicht mehr gelesen und ich kann bis heute nicht verstehen, dass ein Film daraus geworden ist. Ich hatte an der Oral History jedenfalls mehr Vergnügen als am Film.

„Gloria Steinem was one of a number of prominent feminists who expressed outrage over a novel that featured scenes where Bateman tortured women. After director Mary Harron turned it into a film, though, the story would become the basis for one of the most prominent works of feminist cinema of the early 2000s. Co-written by Harron and Guinevere Turner, the 2000 dark comedy offers a biting, satirical look at toxic masculinity, inviting us into a world where the men around Bateman are so oblivious to his psychotic tendencies that he literally gets away with murder.

The film had a rough start. It changed directors and screenwriters numerous times, each with a different vision for what the film should look like. After originally attaching David Cronenburg to the film, Lionsgate ultimately landed on Harron—only to let her go, and briefly replace her with Oliver Stone, because she was against hiring Leonardo DiCaprio for the Bateman role. Lionsgate eventually realized its mistake and re-enlisted Harron to write and direct. She insisted on hiring Christian Bale for the part, long before he became one of Hollywood’s biggest names. […]

Ellis: Ultimately, [having Leo] did not work out. Leo supposedly—this is the story—got cold feet.

Turner: I believe I’m the one who started that rumor. I mean, I don’t know if it’s a rumor. My friend, who had just spoken to Gloria Steinem, said that Gloria Steinem took Leonard DiCaprio to a Yankees game, I believe, and said, “Please don’t do this movie. Coming off of Titanic, there is an entire planet full of 13-year-old girls waiting to see what you do next, and this is going to be a movie that has horrible violence toward women.”

Soon after that, Leo dropped out, so who knows what really happened? Gloria Steinem ended up marrying Christian Bale’s dad, which is really interesting. I wonder what Thanksgiving was like!“