More on Saving Mr Banks 2 Modern censorship

I came across this fascinating clip on Youtube.

More on Saving Mr Banks 1 Eye for detail

This is from an interview with the director of Saving Mr Banks John Lee Hancock. It shows an eye for detail, which I often lack but on this occasion did notice while watching the film. A eureka moment indeed. This is also a good general point on preparation for anything.

 

I think movies are made in prep. I think a lot of problems that movies have when they’re over budget is because of a lack of prep. Sometimes it’s because an actor’s schedule means that he or she is only available at this time - so we’re going to be shooting in a month. You don’t want to do those movies, because they’re going to fail at some level. Every decision you make in prep, whether it’s the colour of the walls in a character’s bedroom, or what he or she wears, these are all character related, so little by little you’re able to build a character and build a story and support the themes.
I think it’s incredibly important, especially when you’ve got Kelly Marcel, who’s so bright and wrote such a beautiful script. Kelly, she goes "oh god, don’t tell me we’re going through props again," and I go "yes, we’re going through props again!" And then all of a sudden we have something where your props master says "I want you to look at rings for Colin [Farrell]. I have an idea: this is the ring that Mr Banks wore in the actual movie, this pinkie signet ring." And so all of a sudden, we’re going "let’s make this all flow back and forth; let’s make that the ring that Colin wears in the movie." And nobody’s going to ever see it, but maybe you might sense it. And then we said, let’s go one step further, let’s have P L Travers wear it as well - that’s the connection to her father. As though somehow - we’re inventing the story - that this was her father’s ring, and then it became her ring, and in the process of her making the movie, it became Mr Banks’ ring. That’s a little, tiny victory. A Eureka moment.

Six stars for Saving Mr Banks

 

Saw the film Saving Mr Banks this week with Tom Hanks (Walt Disney) and Emma Thompson (P L Travers). I went with Eleri as it was one of those rare moments when we both think we'll like a film and we're able to get round to seeing it. Put simply, it was absolutely stunningly brilliant. This is what films should be like but rarely are - funny, sad, interesting, evocative, nostalgic, simple but compelling, telling a story. It is even worth knowing why it has the title it does.

I do not honestly know whether I have seen a film in the cinema that both made me laugh out loud and quietly cry. It's extremely rare for a film to do even one of those things. When you throw in the fact that it is about a film I know (Mary Poppins) and yet a story that I don't know (the life of P L Travers) then the recipe is a powerful one. I especially loved the moments when the Sherman brothers are writing a song and trying to get it right and because you know how it should go you get a tremendous buzz waiting fro them to work it out.

What was so funny? The hilarious way the Emma Thompson character objects to almost everything that is suggested and treats the co-writers like naughty schoolboys. So sad? Chiefly P L Travers inability to forgive herself but plenty of sadness from Walt and others too.

Seeing this film has convinced me that Gravity was very poor indeed as are most of the films that come out. Almost never do I want to see a film again but this one I would happily see again. I'd also like to watch Mary Poppins again some time.