Last week I bought a great book by author J.J. Murphy called “Me and You and Memento and Fargo: How Independent Screenplays Work”. It examines a number of the most influential independent American films of the past 20 years or so, including some of my favourite recent films; Elephant, Fargo, Mulholland Drive and [SAFE].
Murphy’s introduction describes the traditional rules/conventional wisdom of screenwriting, as proscribed by such screenwriting ‘authorities’ as Robert McKee, Syd Field and Linda Seger, before going on to demonstrate how the screenplays of the aforementioned films (and over a dozen others) utilise innovative new approaches to structure and character.
These films bend the rules to breaking point at times, and yet have their own narrative integrity that is not so reliant on such well-worn devices as turning points, goal-driven protagonists and classic act structure. And yet all the films evidence a keen knowledge of classical form; they are not pieces of naive art. In the book, Jarmusch says; ‘Before you break rules, it’s good to know what they are.’ Or, as I like to say, learn your craftsy before your artsy.
‘Me and You…’ is a very entertaining and illuminating read, and Murphy demonstrates great insight in the thematic and structural analyses of the representative films.
This one will sit proudly among my library of screenwriting reference books, right alongside my other two faves:
1) ‘On Film-Making’, by the wonderfully eloquent Alexander MacKendrick, is a book ostensibly about Directing, although almost 3/4 of its length is devoted to screenwriting (which gives you some idea of how important Mac considered the script to be in the scheme of things).When I first got my hands on this, I was so impressed by MacKendrick’s insights – which were gleaned first-hand, through his 30-odd years as a director actually making films, and not simply a bunch of formulas cooked up by a self-proclaimed ‘guru’ – I was almost tempted to toss out all my other screenwriting references.
2) ‘Writing For The Screen’ by Arrar Jackson is an ancient, ancient screenwriting book written in the late 1930’s, which focuses almost exclusively on writing scenarios for silent films – it is ALL about visual writing, and mentions ‘talkies’ as if they were a passing fad; brilliant! No cover image for this, as it is extremely old and out of print. Shame, because it has a beautifully designed Art Deco dustjacket.
