Michael Tully does alittle bit of everything. He’s a musician. Journo/blogger/critic. Oh, and he’s directed a pair of acclaimed films, the down and out on drugs in Jacksonville narrative Cocaine Angel and the David Berman rock doc Silver Jew, which will be released on DVD next week by Drag City. Michael is currently the editor of the indie film criticism blog Hammer to Nail, creator of indiewire’s Boredom and Its Boredest blog and occasional contributor to Spout and Filmmaker Magazine. Here’s his take on why The Wire is our young century’s greatest artwork, what’s so special about Max Richter and just how tough it is to get the rights to Richard Yates stories.
What films or television shows have you seen recently?
Films: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (a pleasant enough diversion), Trouble the Water (major dopeness), Running Stumbled (wow, wow, wow), O Lucky Man! (i’m still not sure what that was, but i think i liked it!), Nobody Needs to Know (one week later, it’s resonating more deeply than i thought it would), Rude Boy (incredible live footage).
Television: I don’t have cable, so I’m at the mercy of Netflix to catch up on television shows. in the past year, the only ones I’ve watched are the first season of 30 Rock and the first four seasons of The Wire. I was so impacted by The Wire that I made the time to go to a friend’s every Sunday night to watch the fifth and final season. (I am interested in trying to find the time to catch up on Friday Night Lights and Mad Men, but who knows when that will happen.)
Which ones stuck with you and why?
I consider The Wire to be the greatest work of art of the 21st Century. it’s the best literature, the best cinema, the best television, the best social commentary, the best entertainment, the best everything. So, um, yeah, I’d have to say The Wire.
Does your interest in them have anything to do with your own work as a filmmaker?
Everything I’m interested in is in some way connected to my desire to express myself as a writer and filmmaker.
How often do you read fiction? Do you wish you read more?
I read fiction all the time. The more appropriate answer to this question is that I wish i read more non-fiction. I find my tastes are shifting all the time, so hopefully I can leave behind fiction and literature and get to more pressing matters at hand. I’m a little insecure about being so fictionally inclined.
What would be your ideal literary adaptation and why?
I just tried to get the rights to some Richard Yates short stories that I hoped to turn into a Short Cuts-esque portrait of mid-20th Century American sadness, but that didn’t work out. I also feel like I could do cinematic justice to the stories and novels of William Trevor. Maybe it’s my Irish blood that has me thinking that?
How, if at all, has reading informed your filmmaking?
Reading great writing makes me want to express myself as beautifully as the writer I’ve just read has. Depending on my general state of mind, reading something exceptional either makes me want to curl up into a ball and never write again, or, on a good day, makes me want to write, write, write the day away.
What are you listening to recently?
Deerhunter’s “Microcastle,” the soundtrack to Benh Zeitlin’s “Glory at Sea,” The Rub’s “History of Hip-Hop,” Ham1’s “The Underground Stream,” The Walkmen’s “You & Me,” JT Songs’ “Distractions of an Age,” Silver Jews’ “Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea,” that will do for now.
If you could collaborate with one musician on a film, who would it be and why?
Max Richter was kind enough to agree to let us use source music for Cocaine Angel, but my goal is to find myself in a position where I could pay him money to create an original score.
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog