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Registered: 04-2005
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The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


Dear Gregory and Maria,

You may be interested to see my new documentary. It is not quite finished (I have some issues with the voiceover but have a deadline for submitting the film) but pretty close.

http://democratfilm.angeltowns.net/Savonarolafilm.html

All the best,
Nathan
3/10/2006, 6:39 pm Link to this post Send Email to NPCoombs   Send PM to NPCoombs
 
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Re: The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


This is a genuine masterpiece! Combining cinematic poetry with the realism of a compelling story, this film masterfully integrates all the elements of the truly artistic filmmaking. Amazingly successful usage of the voice-over technique proves here to be even more effective than in Sokurov's "Russian Ark". Anyone, who is secretly hoping (like we are) that art cinema is not yet dead, should see this film.
3/13/2006, 10:43 pm Link to this post Send Email to questers   Send PM to questers
 
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Re: The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


Dear Mr. Coombs,
 
I was deeply impressed with your Savonarola film.
 
I was amazed to find myself drawn into the film the very instant it opened. Very few films can achieve this from the word "go"; it usually takes everyone awhile to get going. One just gets used to giving films that chance. Here, however, it wasn't necessary, because I was captivated (at times, even enthralled) from the very first shot to the last - and for me, I must say, this is unusual.
 
To condense the essence of someone's life into 10 minutes and to have it feel as a fully satisfying experience is an astonishing achievement! I don't want to comment on separate elements, because for me the unique mastery of the film lies in its seamless and effortless integration of all the elements - as if the film came together in one breath. One utterance, one breath, which somehow miraculously captures the experience of a lifetime! (The burning sequence is amazing. Also the image of a shadow climbing up the stairs is particularly unforgettable and, I think, completely original as well - but it doesn't protrude from the whole, doesn't draw attention to itself and would be meaningless outside the context of the film.)
 
Voice-overs can be tricky: for some reason it is very difficult to make them sound as though they are really arising out of and through the images (maybe because the brain "knows" that they have been tacked on later). Your film is the most successful example of this technique that I have ever seen (much more successful, I think, than Sokurov's "Russian Ark", for instance). There is just something very compelling about the whole film; you have managed to keep all the poetry of your imagery and yet at the same time combine it with absolute realism. I was totally convinced that it is Savonarola himself, who is speaking to me and that he has something urgent to say. It is urgent for him, for his soul - and therefore it becomes important for me too, because the story of someone's soul is always important. To make this type of inner experience feel genuine is what is so very difficult to achieve. And you have managed just that: the honesty and genuineness of someone's inward experience expressed through the means of truly artistic cinema. Probably, one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
 
As I have come to expect with you, the camera work was simply superb. But for me, with this film you truly became a director.
 
With warm wishes,
 
Maria Wagner


Last edited by questers, 3/14/2006, 11:35 pm
3/14/2006, 9:15 pm Link to this post Send Email to questers   Send PM to questers
 
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Re: The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


My film was just shown last night in a local festival.

How was it received? Hm...not very well. As I have come to expect this kind of fragmented, transcendental-style went down very poorly..I think I averaged about 5/10 on most people's score cards, with an audience of 120.

The crowd pleasing spoof horror films and sting-in-the-tail comedies seemed to do much better.

All this only makes me more motivated to do a more conventional film (actors, lighting, tight script etc.) next time and speak in a language which more people can understand and relate to - but still put across the themes and concerns I cherish.
4/12/2006, 10:57 am Link to this post Send Email to NPCoombs   Send PM to NPCoombs
 
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Re: The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


Hi Nathan,

Sorry to hear your film was not so well recieved.

Last year I’ve got the financial help of a productioncompany to write out my screenplay for a feature film. After a couple of months they realized I wrote a different kind of film. They said to me they wanted a happier ending, more psychological explanations of the characters and a more conventional story. They also wanted a lot more talk in the script. I really couldn't do that because that would completely destroy my intentions. It was really hard to see my script being butchered like that. A hundred times I motivated everything and explained what I wanted to achieve with my script. But they didn't understand it (or they will not understand?). Eventually they decided to let me go. In the end all they wanted to make was an easy conventional entertaining film for the masses.

Chris.
4/22/2006, 11:18 am Link to this post Send Email to Chris Kelvin   Send PM to Chris Kelvin
 
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Re: The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola


quote:

Chris Kelvin wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Sorry to hear your film was not so well recieved.

Last year I’ve got the financial help of a productioncompany to write out my screenplay for a feature film. After a couple of months they realized I wrote a different kind of film. They said to me they wanted a happier ending, more psychological explanations of the characters and a more conventional story. They also wanted a lot more talk in the script. I really couldn't do that because that would completely destroy my intentions. It was really hard to see my script being butchered like that. A hundred times I motivated everything and explained what I wanted to achieve with my script. But they didn't understand it (or they will not understand?). Eventually they decided to let me go. In the end all they wanted to make was an easy conventional entertaining film for the masses.



Its definitely an uphill struggle. But to be honest my film was not shown to kind of people who were ever going to like it, most would probably walk out of a Tarkovky movie if they accidentally ended up in the cinema watching one.

I am going to send to more experimental festivals, even museums and photography exhibitions, where I think it will get a proper audience.

This isn't the USSR and films do not get commissioned based on merit, but rather whether they appeal to lowest common denominator. (Not a defense of the USSR, but disorganized state systems do have less chance of weeding out challenging cinema than the rigorous censorship of capitalistic production.)

My strategy is that I am attempting to move into more commercial productions (arts documentaries for the BBC) and I hope to reinvest any money I may make through that into my more creatively ambitious projects. Although breaking into TV is proving very difficult in itself.

I suggest that you start with shorts, build up some experience and try to find your own way, rather than going through conventional channels, which will lead nowhere artistically.

I am now selling the DVD of this film for $7. You never know, I might get 2 or 3 sells!

http://www.workhorse.tv/dvd.html

best wishes,
Nathan
4/23/2006, 2:32 pm Link to this post Send Email to NPCoombs   Send PM to NPCoombs
 


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