VIDEO: New Oscar Nominee James Franco Takes On Social Network, Touts 'Perfect' 127 Hours
James Franco has been an Academy Award nominee for a little less than two hours now, but he's already fired his first shot across the bows of The Social Network and other "classically made" but utterly conventional Hollywood offerings -- Oscar front-runners or not. And he let it rip exclusively in conversation with Movieline.
"I know I'm biased; I think it's the most innovative movie this year," Franco said in an interview at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival. "Look, Social Network is about new technology and how people are communicating now? Or it's supposed to be? They don't deal with any of that! It's a very classically structured movie and classically made movie. 127 Hours is about a guy -- one single character in a single place. That is like the cutting edge of moviemaking. Short of, like, doing it in 3-D or something. [...] I think the movie's perfect. The fact that people are scared shows they just want the old. They want more of the old, boring stuff."
And the rest, as discussed with Movieline's Elvis Mitchell:
What do you mean by 'old, boring stuff'?
People sitting around talking. And then, like, car chases. A couple love stories? I've seen, like, three love stories here at Sundance. Traditional love stories!
And?
It's the same old! [Laughs]
So you're saying people don't like new stuff?
Two white people... How many time have you seen the story where two white people can't be together? How many times have you seen that story? Romeo and Juliet! It's 400 years old!
That's why I stay away from that story; I've seen that story way too many times.
Yeah. I mean, they're well made movies, but the story itself...
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Comments
He needs to take a break from his self-importance and remember he's no master filmmaker himself.
We need more artistic outspokenness (and not the self-aggrandizing Vincent Gallo variety), but the only folks who can get away with it are those momentarily blessed wit the "cool kids" label. i.e. If Katherine Heigl had made these comments the voices of the Internet would be calling for her head! Testify while you can, James! (And before you allege he is a vastly superior artist, allow me to remind you of his long string of mediocrity before Franco went back to school and had his Pineapple Express/Milk creative re-birth.)
"The Social Network" is very good, but I'm kind of surprised at how many "best of" awards it swept. Did it really have a stronger effect on the viewer than the poignant end of "True Grit", or the soaring triumph of "The Fighter", or the WTF-audactity of "Black Swan"?
He is right, I am so sick of being told that "The Social Network" defines my generation. Really? A movie about a bunch of rich White kids from Harvard who get into a petty fight over a computer program and get their parents to pay for big time lawyers and then one of them ends up a billionaire. Yeah, that insular movie defines .000001% of my generation. So tired of middle-age people thinking they know what defines my generation. Franco is right, it's not an innovative movie. It's the same old same old about creed, friendship, corruption. As old as father time.
BTW I still think Franco is a douchebag pretentious prick who thinks he is better than everybody else but I agree with him on this one thing.
While I agree with his comment about TSN, how is 127 Hours more innovative than Inception? If we're solely talking about innovation, Inception is the king of 2010. By his logic, Buried would also be at "the cutting edge of moviemaking". Ugh, Franco.
"Blue Valentine" is a love story between two white people, and it's STILL the boldest movie I've seen in a while.
"127 Hours is about a guy — one single character in a single place. That is like the cutting edge of moviemaking."
Uh...Rear Window?