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Writers are story-tellers. They tell stories, whether they are real or purely based on their imaginations. They pour out their thoughts into words that form sentences and then into paragraphs of words. They may not express themselves well in real life, but they express their feelings through words for you to read them to understand them. Writers are not romantic, although there are a few exceptions. Writers know all the struggles associated with putting the words down onto a paper or typing out their thoughts. Inspiration is what writers are constantly looking for, thus they read more and write more. There are different kind of writers in this world but some of the movies here best portrayed writer’s life and their process of writing.
1. Ruby Sparks
When the character created by the writer transforms into actual human form, that’s when a writer starts to question his own sanity which blurs the line between fiction and reality. Calvin is a genius novelist who struggles with his writing until he decides to create a character based on his dream. But of course, he doesn’t expect anything would happen to in his romantic life, until he meets Ruby Sparks, the dream girl and the character in his new novel came into his life. As perfect as it sounds, the relationship does have its fun moments until Calvin is controlled over Ruby’s life through his words.
2. The Words
For most book lovers, “The Words” feels like a book being told in such smooth and beautiful way that it feels like reading a book. “The Words” follows a story of a young writer Rory Jensen who rose to fame through his novel struggling with his life now for stealing another man’s work. Starring by Bradley Cooper, Jensen was being portrayed in such a surreal way and the film was complicated yet mind-blowing that keeps us watching the film. The imagination runs wild and for some, it is hard to keep up with the film but overall the film is pure brilliant.
3. Wonder Boys
All writers struggle with writing before, so did Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), who is now struggling with his second novel for seven years after he became successful with his first novel. “Wonder Boys” is a novel-based movie that tells the story of the English professor in an university who encounters several matters all at once during the week-end long writing festival. From the crazy editor to the odd student to his pregnant lover and now a college girl who lives under the same roof with him, Tripp’s life is all-rounded literary life which is both fun and inspiring at the same time.
4. Deconstructing Harry
Inspired by his own writer’s life, Woody Allen directed the film “Decontrusting Harry” and portrayed his own feeling through Harry Block, a well regarded novelist. The film follows Block’s life in facing all the challenges throughout his writing life, including his bad attitude and unfocused mind that makes him interact with his own characters. Although this film contains foul languages, what makes the film so interesting is that it largely extends Allen’s self loathing with dark sense of humour.
5. Midnight in Paris
You can expect romanticism as well magical tales when you’re filming a movie in Paris. At least, that’s what most believe in. “Midnight in Paris” is another movie directed by Woody Allen and unsurprisingly the film itself portrayed some traits of Allen as a writer too. A successful Hollywood screenwriter, Gil travels to Paris as a tag-along vacation with his fiancé, Inel on her parent’s business trip. Gil’s daily midnight walk in Paris to search for his source of inspiration for writing has distance himself away from Inel who doesn’t share the romantic fascination of the city.
6. Howl
Although “Howl” tells the story of a poet instead of a writer, but the film revolves around the life of young poet, Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) in creating a masterpiece poem, Howl. The film’s main focus is not only on Ginsbery’s life, but also the struggles on creation of poetry through a string of words. The poem was put on obscenity trial as it echoes his surreal feeling and Ginsberg faced all the dramatization with this poem that expresses his homosexuality. Similar to writer, poets find their way to express themselves through words and “Howl” simply brings out all the spirit of poets and writers.
7. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
“The Diving Bell and The Butterfly” is based on true story of the editor of Elle France, Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Although the film is entirely spoken in French, the film still successfully portrayed Baubay’s interior world as he wrote a book through the blinking of his left eye, even without any subtitles. The process of writing his own book is a daunting task as he uttered his words through blinking of his left eye but with such great patience and commitment, the book was finally published 3 days before he died.
8. Stranger Than Fiction
Some movies about writers often take audience to writer’s complex mind but “Stranger Than Fiction” takes you to a man, Harold Click who realized all his life is a story. When the narrator reveals that he is going to die, Harold must find the author of the story to change the ending of the story before it is too late. The interesting part of the movie is that, the fictional story has intersects with the real life that creates an almost surreal content for the film. “Stranger Than Fiction” may be odd but Harold’s escapism makes the comedy film a whole lot more funnier.
9. Chinese Coffee
“Chinese Coffee” is nothing but two aging writer friends who argue about their past in a room. It’s merely about an aging, unsuccessful writer Harry Levine, who asked for Jack’s opinion on his work of semi-fiction based on their longtime friendship. The story all happens in 1 room with 2 writers interacting with each other. The film is neither dull nor boring at all. The cinematography brilliantly captures the story, and the film was good at portraying the interaction between two writers through the words, instead of the unnecessary flashback scenes.
10. Reprise
Two young men, Erik and Phillipe, fueled by their passion in writing and both trying to become authors. However, only Phillipe successful published his first book while Erik suffered from mental condition that interferes his writing. But “Reprise” is more than just a movie about the writer’s blocks, but also the friendship between a group of friends and the writer’s burdening career. The main focus is about recapturing the past and it was done beautifully with explanatory flashbacks. As depressing as it sounds, the film is more about the excellent portrayal of human emotions.
Source: Worldfilm
