I saw a movie on HBO a monthish back ( actually on HBO -2 or HBO Signature , but I'm sure it was shown on the mamaship , too - ?? ) that I didn't catch the title of , and I don't remember any other " easily identifiable " characteristics about it .
Can youse guys - ? Well , you know .
Replies
...It was a documentary , probably shot on DV I'd think , rather a " personal/indie documentary " .
This was the subject:
An againg Baby Boomer who lived in New York City was the subject of the film .
Many years ago , he had started to make a film , which he never finished .
This film follwed his attempt in contemorary times to get the film finished .
He was Jewish, -ly accented , grew up an adoptee in an upstate New York town , at one point he visits the Jewish cemetery where his mother is buried in the ( Rather depressing and run-down looking , though it's the height of winter , too - at one point , he meets an old friend/acquaitence on the street and points to the camera following him , saying " They're making a movie about me . " . ) NYS town and tells an anecdote as to how , when he graduated from college in the early 70s , he took a trip to Italy only to have his mother die while he was in Italy .
He says that she never told him , at that time , that she was that sick ( I believe saying that she had tended to complain about illness before . ) , and that he did not know she was terminally ill then , as he poses next to her tonbstone ( Presumably his father's is next to it . ) with the Star of David on it . Returning to the primary theme of the unfinished film:
He is seen going through much old footage of what appears to be a vintage cable acess TV show hosted by a woman who is dead now .
In the past , he had married a woman from whom he is now divorced , they are shown meeting in contemporary times , and he also is shown having lunch alone with his now-grown daughter from the marriage .
We see old footage of him and the wife at their wedding dinner/celebration , many moons ago .
The fact that the ( I guess ) vintage cable-access footage of the cabaret/theater-ish show somehow figures into the never-finished film is all I picked up about it .
Again , after a long lapse , he is trying to finish the film .
...The film had been in storage for decades , apparently .
Eventually , to give him a deadline , his friends book a screen in an NYC multiples for the film's premiere - It plays , to a reasonable reception , and I guess the film ends there ( The film I'm asking about , not his film . ) .
However , in the end credits rool , it is noted that he still considers his film unfinished , and had asked the makers of the doc to put that notice there .
Real bright/sharp look to the whole film , incidentally...
Really , what was this ???
Oh , and I tried searching thru IMCB to the keywords " Unfinished Film "...Nope .
However , Orson Welles sure couldn't catch a break , could he ?
Luke Blanchard said:
...I suppose you must have read about it , then , to know what I was talking about ?
I'm rather an aspiring documentary ( among other ) filmaker myself - Emphasis on" aspiring " :-( - I see it was out in 2008 , I guess it didn't play SF , for me to have not read about it , likely .
Hey , please allow me to piggyback another movie - This one a fiction one . - that I saw on HBO about that same time ?
This was an affectionate parody of SF/fantasy fandom , it was about a kid in a - Utah ? A;aska ? - small town who has his Star Wars-style novel stolen by the " sorta Alan Moore/Grant Morrison-esque " Brit author of a SF series that he likes , the movie takes place in the 80s , the kid has a rather overweight , " homey "-looking single mother .
I did read of the film's release when it was out theatrically in 2009 .
I just cannot recall the title now ! It's like struggling under plastic wrapping to burst forward to the front part of my brain , like those plastic bubbles that would egulf people who tried to escape the Village in THE PRISONER...(yeah , great metaphor there , Chuckles)...
Um...again .
SF-fantasy fandom parody , a teenager in an isolated American town has his SF novel's plot plagarized from him by the Brit author of the series he admires . ( Great line: " There have been many TV-movies of it ! " ) , in a story taking place in the 80s . I can almost remember it !
Luke Blanchard said: