1 of My Stories

I forgot how good this movie was. Recently I watched it for a screenplay analysis. You can read that post here. This film is just so good. I believe Baz Luhrmann's masterpiece is what re-ignited interest in the movie musical. Everything about this movie keeps you captivated. The characters do an impressive job. Ewan McGregor is convincing as the starry-eyed idealistic poet who falls in love with Satine. He sees nothing but her, and his face lights up when she walks into the room. Nicole Kidman does a decent job in her role as well, although all she has to do is be gorgeous and tantalizing. Towards the end of the movie, she does pick up her game and presents a haunting portrait of a woman who knows she has doomed herself to a life of torment without her love. Both of them do fine as singers. I am sure their voices were touched up a lot, but who cares?

The supporting cast is great as well. The Duke sneers effectively. Jim Broadbent as Harold Zigler is great as the mana…

Recently, I had an author come and speak to the teens at my library about screenwriting. She emphasized that the key to writing a good screenplay is to read a lot of screenplays and watch a lot of movies. The watching movies part I can do! She challenged us to go home, watch a movie that was about two hours long and break it down. Here are the rules:

1. A good screenplay lasts no more than two hours. After that, an audience will get antsy. Of course, some movies are longer than two hours, but you do this at great risk and will have to do something special to compensate.
2. A good story is when someone wants something very badly and is having trouble getting it.
3. Each screenplay has three acts. Act I is about 45 minutes to an hour. Acts II will be the longest. Act III is the shortest because a movie should accelerate at the end. Each act ends with a cliffhanger to keep people from walking out.
4. Besides that structure, a two hour movie is made up of eight 15-minute seq…