The Munich Film Festival’s retrospective of my films is moving forward. I’m heading over at the end of June. They’re going to show all 7 films which is pretty amazing to me. Not that they’re going to show them, but that I actually made them.

They’re starting with Johnny Suede which has never screened in Germany. I don’t know who this guy is with Brad Pitt but apparently they share the same hair product.

I did an interview with the Festival website recently. Some good questions. Some may find a few of the answers familiar; some may not. Here’s a sample.

Over the years, you kept screening your films at Munich. What kept you coming back? What do you like about the city?
TD. One of the things an independent director looks for when bringing a film to a European festival is the openness and curiosity of its audiences, the festival’s devotion and support of filmmakers, the taste of the city’s pilsner and the quality of porn on the hotel television. In my experience I have found Munich to excel in all these areas.

Alright Wayne, you axed for it. Well, actually you didn’t but here you go anyway.

The financier of The Real Blonde told me at the beginning of production he felt it was time for me to make a “bigger film,” one that would play in Middle America. His first demand was that I not cast Catherine Keener, who had been in all my films up to that point, and for whom I’d written the part.

I say this only to illustrate that from the outset the battles were deeply personal and relentless and although I lost a few of them I also won some crucial ones. Catherine did end up playing the part; brilliantly.

But, other aspects of the script suffered from this insistence on making the film more commercial. The ending, with the stolen dog finding its way home was never intended to carry so much weight, or to be taken so literally. There was a scene just before it dealing with Maxwell Caulfield and his abusive relationship with Bridget Wilson, which was intended to add a contrast and counterbalance to this.

Under pressure, it was cut and as a result the film ends in a way that I never intended, nor do I believe.

But, one of my favorite scenes involved Caulfield’s obsession with finding a woman who is a real blonde. This of course is an idiotic quest, but like all obsessions it had a sliver of truth in it that interested me.

A theme in the film is the idea that most of the things its characters are concerned with are fake or artificial. Matthew Modine comes face to face with Madonna only to realize it is her body double, Elizabeth Berkely. I was interested in how frequently we can’t see the truth that stands right in front of us, and can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t.

Ultimately, Caulfield’s obsession drives him to devalue, and demean  Bridget Wilson, the only woman who truly loves him.

We all are driven by things we feel we need to obtain in order to be Happy. Most of the time these things are either unobtainable, or revealed to be useless when they are finally obtained. I’m repeating my fixation on the notion that the last place we look for self-value or meaning is simply within ourselves.

So, I filmed a scene where Caulfield, the affable, successful playboy soap star, sneaks into a porno booth on 42nd Street. He stands behind a tiny glass window and peers into a darkened, circular room, around which other men can be seen in identical windows. They are like viewers in some strange porno aquarium at the bottom of the sea.

The focus of their gaze is a woman half-reclining on a cheap, rotating stage. A disco ball circles slowly, scattering shards of light around the room. The woman is not attractive. She is not svelte. But, to Caulfield’s rapt amazement, she is a real blonde and that is all he cares about.

Absurd? Yes. Intense? Yes. The scene was one of the most cinematically rich and disturbing that I have ever shot. To me it perfectly suggested the uneasy underbelly of the film. But, just before the film was released the financier declared the scene would kill the film in the Heartland and insisted it be cut. I refused. He insisted harder. I said I was taking my name off the film. He said go ahead.

I sought the advice of everyone I knew in the business, personally and professionally. The sum of opinions was, yes, it will hurt you to cut the scene but for the good of your career, and the film, just swallow it and do it. And so, against every grain of my artistic instinct, I did. Little did I know that casting Steve Buscemi in the film as the indie director who moves up to directing Madonna videos would have so much personal resonance.

The film bombed. It never even got within 10,000 miles of Middle America. But honestly, that didn’t bother me even a fraction as much as knowing what I’d allowed to die on the cutting room floor.

I still wake up at night thinking about it.

Well, the actual Grammy arrived yesterday. I’m glad it did. It has a great weight to it. And I like the shape; it’s like a big, shiny, metal flower.

I’d been waiting for it as a motivation to put up a fresh post. I hear you, Elaine–I have been remiss. I do miss the exchanges with everyone; and god knows there are so many things to write about.

Osama dead in Pakistan, Obama born in America and Donald Trump clearly from Moronica. I feel it only fair that Trump now explains without reservation why he persists in wearing a dead cat on his head.

For me things are up in the air right now. So much seems so nebulous; which is probably why I’ve avoided trespassing here; it means having to face and acknowledge the actual state of things.

I’m going to Germany at the end of June. The Munich Film Festival is having a retrospective of all my films, from Johnny Suede to When You’re Strange. I’m excited by this, and incredibly honored, but a part of me flinches at the reminder of how many years have passed since I made Delirious.

There is progress on raising financing for the three feature scripts I’ve written. It comes in fractions of inches, but it comes. Someone asked me recently how I keep going. The question unsettled me. I couldn’t answer right away. Part of me was wondering if the question inferred another question, “Why do you keep going?”

I finally responded that I’ve had some thrilling successes and some crushing disappointments but since none of the setbacks have rendered me physically incapacitated I really have no excuse to keep me from picking up the phone and starting another round of calls.

But, for the first time I also answered that deep within my being I believe I have a vision that is unique; at least one that is absolutely particular to me. And I feel an unexplainable obligation to nurture, sustain and support that crazy thang.

Well, blow me down.

When You’re Strange just won the Grammy.

I’m celebrating right now. I urge everyone else to do the same.

Alright, I’m back from celebrating and doing what I should have done 3 hours ago; acknowledging the people who worked so intensely with me on this film. And I mean worked. The other people, you know; The Executive Folks, will be getting their congratulations all next week–and well they should. But, here are some of the people who worked in the pit, carving this film out of stone with me.

Micky Blythe and Kevin Krasny–Editors. Each was spectacular and crucial. The film was roughly divided in half; Kevin worked on one half with me and Micky on the other–in neighboring editing rooms. In its final stages when finances grew slim Micky took over and guided the film with me into its finished form. As amazing as the footage was, it might help to remember much of it was usable only in fragments. There was little if any continuity, or real chronology. Micky and Kevin helped me build a stone wall out of confetti.

Megan Robb–Assistant Editor. Megan edited many sequences herself. She was a wizard on the editing machine and also designed several of the graphics and photo montages.

Tim Deluca–Supervising Producer. When You’re Strange was edited in the post-production offices of Law and Order, on the Universal lot in LA. Tim’s job was to handle post-production on all the various L&O series–in addition to When You’re Strange; which was an add-on, an extra, a neighbor’s child hanging around for dinner. Tim fed us well.

Mark Dragin–Post Production Supervisor.  There was a great interaction between the editing room and Fotokem, the digital lab that handled all the different media used in the film. Mark co-ordinated all the excruciatingly fine details that went into making the final digital master, as well as making sure everything was organized and done correctly.

Paul Ferrara–Cinematographer. Paul shot Jim’s film HWY and Feast of Friends, in addition to much of the footage in When You’re Strange. Without the HWY footage, When You’re Strange would be minus a massive dose of soul. To all the genius morons who thought the footage of Morrison was faked I urge you to give Paul a call. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.

Andy Koyama and Chris Carpenter–Rerecording engineers and mixers. Andy and Chris blasted through an insanely brief studio mix period and offered great aural input in getting the final sound mix right for the film. It was very tricky balancing the effects, the Doors music and Johnny Depp’s narration and these two did it brilliantly.

Jeff Kaplan–Dialogue Editor and additional sound design. Jeff and his team cleaned up all the dialogue and built all the layers of sound that bring such crucial energy, fluidity and surprise to the film.

Deborah Ricketts–Archivist and Footage Researcher. Deb spent months bringing us amazing footage from the period; between 1966-71. She listened to my crazy, specific requests and always came up with the gold.

Gus Comegys–Online Editor and Graphic Design. Gus designed all the moving graphics in the film, anything that wasn’t a straight out shot of footage was created by Gus; all the freezes, zooms, text enlargements.

Kostas Theodosiou , at FotoKem–Colorist. Kostas sat with me for 3 days going over every frame of the film. He sharpened the images, brought the colors to life, adjusted frame sizes to their maximum visual impact. It is impossible to describe the enormity of what his eye brought to the finished film.

Kristel Crews–Peter Jankowski’s Assistant. Crystal helped me in so many ways during my lengthy relocation out to LA. She was always a voice of reason, calm and support.

Ida Miller–founder and administrator of www.idafan.com; the most comprehensive Doors site on the web. Ida came to an early screening and tactfully observed I’d completely left out any mention of Waiting For The Sun. Her suggestion ended up in helping create one of the strongest sequences in the film, I Am The Lizard King.

Jac Holzman–founder of Elektra Records, the record company that first signed the Doors. I interviewed Jac during my research for the film. Afterwards he came to several screenings and steadfastly offered his gracious enthusiasm and encouragement.

Peter Jankowski–Producer. Peter was the man who called me in 2008 and offered me the job. He was my ally in making this film for almost three years. We did not always agree but his passion for the film, and for the truth was just as relentless as mine.

Johnny Depp–Narrator. Johnny’s voice to me is the spirit of Morrison. The fact that he brought so much of his own intellect, soul and passion to the film actually leaves me speechless. He is not a voice in the film. He is in the film.

And can I just say, I’m fucking thrilled the film won this award. A Grammy. Recognition from musicians.

A few weeks ago Wayne, a frequent commentor and friend of this blog, sent me an email. Some of you may recall that Wayne made a huge career change a few months ago when he went insane and quit his day job to start film school in Ireland.

His email was about making his first film there. I found it so open and informative I decided to reprint it here.

On January 15 Wayne wrote:

I finally got around to making my film just before the holidays, we edit it in the coming months. It’s only a five minute short but let’s just say I have a new-found appreciation of the time and effort that filmmakers go through. Actually, last night I had something of a revelation when watching your film Living in Oblivion. I had one of my regular movie nights and I invited some friends over, three of them hadn’t seen Oblivion and they thoroughly enjoyed it, leading to their wanting to watch more DiCillo movies.

Living In Oblivion

Anyway, it was the first time I had watched Oblivion since my own filmmaking experience and I was blown away. I have always held your film in the highest of regard, but now I have an even higher appreciation for it; it was like reliving the horror of being on the set making my film and both the dread of endless re-takes and also the humour derived after the descent into madness after a long day of shooting. So, a film I have seen countless times took on a whole new meaning for me.

I wrote this back to him: 

Welcome to filmmaking, Wayne. How do you feel your film turned out? Were you able to enjoy yourself?

Wayne replied:

Would you believe, I had a pretty miserable time getting the film made; another reason I think Nick Reve’s journey resonated with me the other night. Because my script and storyboards were picked by the lecturer to be the film we would shoot out of the whole class, there was a lot of resentment towards me because I had to assume the role of director/producer, or in my classmates’ minds: dictator. 

There was a lot of apathy surrounding the roles assigned to my class (props, lighting, grip, etc) so I ended doing a lot of it myself, thank god I had an enthusiastic director of photography, but even there we were going mostly on shots I designed. At one point in pre-production nobody had any prep work done and I lost it, teetering on the edge of Nick’s outburst at the end of the first act in LIO.

I gotta admit, I was on the edge of tears through pure frustration; people in my class now hated me, and still do I think. 

They told me not to be so serious, “it’s only for a laugh”, but I felt that since it was my vision and I would be graded on it that I wanted to make a decent piece of work. I hope the tension and apathy doesn’t bleed into the film, I hope when I cut it it will come together. The tension in the class has never been the same since. I now know that film is also a competitive world, even in the confines of a film school.

Nick Reve is now my all time hero! Maybe when I edit the film and can burn a copy I could post it to you, haha if nothing else it will be a fine beer coaster.

I respect and greatly appreciate your honesty, Wayne. Listen, you survived. Just keep going. It is all you can do.

If Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) is your hero imagine what he is for me. Against my better judgment, and with a million other things I should be doing, I was inspired by your letter to go through the first half hour of Living In Oblivion and pull still frames from the film. They are all in strict chronological order. I can only view Buscemi’s descent into madness with awe, horror, admiration and utter fucking glee. The man is a genius. Watch him.

I woke up this morning to discover When You’re Strange has been nominated for a Grammy. The category is long form video (dvd) which is fine even though the film was conceived as a film, made as a film and released as a film.

But it is a great honor to receive this nomination from the music industry. I worked very hard to make the film be as much about the Door’s music as possible. Their sound is like no other. I’m thrilled for them and everyone who believes like I do that this band stands as one of the most singular musical collaborations to rise out of the American rock psyche.

Let it roll.

The Black & Blue Orkestre has completed a new track, called Slide On. It’s kind of a funk, gospel rocker that started as a semi-instrumental. Our bass player Grog suggested I write some real lyrics and it ends up she was right. I played some guitar on this one; Will played a lot more.

I enjoy this trans-global collaboration. I’ve met Grog once. We’ve never been in a studio together. Will has been over to my apartment for an hour and actually recorded some guitar for Will Been Done, another track of ours, but he started over when he got back to London and we threw it all out. Interesting what happens when ego simply disappears.

I’m in the middle of directing an episode of a dramatic series for network television. The cast is amazing. The writing is very strong. This one’s a little different from the other ones I’ve done. It’s kind of like a high-speed bullet train, sleek, taut and absolutely no room for error. Needless to say the pressure is intense. But, I feel good and am having a great time. Won’t come up for air until November 23.

By then Black & Blue might have an EP together.

It’s crazy; no sooner do I finish When You’re Strange, finding myself adrift yet again in a vast sea of nextfilm limbo, then my old friend Jimmy decides to reappear. You may recall our last encounter several months ago just before he headed west to direct the next Batman film.

As jealous as I was then of his incredible good fortune it turns out it was wasted negative energy. He got fired from the 200 million dollar film for resisting the producers’ demand that Trini Immlet, the film’s 7 year old co-star, get breast implants.  The firing seems to have woken Jimmy up to his true calling; political journalism.

“Oh, man, I’m totally into it,” he said last night at The Dip Stick, a Young Republican hang out on the upper east side. I was alarmed to see Jimmy sporting a tight new haircut, a red sports coat, an American flag necktie with an American flag pinned on both his jacket and the tie. But he assured me his neo-patriot look was just a disguise. Later he was meeting one of his ‘contacts’ for an upcoming interview with Glenn Beck.

“Movies are nowhere,” he rushed on. “Art is nowhere. Politics is the new drug and I’m on a mega-dose right now.”

“Which side are you on?” I asked warily.

“I’m on no side, man. I’m only out for the Truth.”

“What’s the Truth?”

“The Truth,” Jimmy said, “is something you’ve read or heard somebody say.”

He’s been working as a freelance journalist, “writing rogue” as he calls it, for almost a year.  Getting fired from a mainstream Hollywood movie earned Jimmy major cred from the Right Wing press. He’s been granted unprecedented access to such heavy hitters as Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.  His articles have appeared all over the web.

He showed me one he’d just written on Palin for ReLoad.Kom and I instantly felt my jealousy return. He really was out for the Truth and I was proud of him. I was so impressed my resentment stuck around even after Jimmy gave me permission to reprint excerpts of his piece here.

SARAH PALIN FOR LUNCH
by Jimmy Spangle

Moments after I sat down Governor Palin served us lunch, one of her own recipes called a Hotdogburger, which was raw hotdog ground up, made into a patty, grilled and served on a hamburger bun. We quickly got down to one of the Big questions, Women In Politics. Unsurprisingly Palin avidly embraces the idea of women as Mothers, Patriots and Leaders. Judging by the millions of downloads of this photo her fans do too.

“Oh, that’s not me,” Palin exclaimed. “Somebody just photostuck my head on some gal’s body. I’ve got a tattoo I can’t show you of Todd’s name where I use my bellybutton for the O.”

“Do you think women in bikinis with guns are sexy?”

“Not this gal cuz she’s kinda sloppy around the hips, but my lord nothing like Hilary Clinton. That poor woman looks like a walking sack of mashed potatoes. But, sure, I think a sexy woman has power. See, women are powerful cuz we can be hard and we can be soft. Men can be hard but they can’t be soft. I mean they can but where’s the fun in that?”

The former Governor winked twice, the second time so hard I thought a mosquito had gotten snagged in her mascara.

“And it’s time to give women the power,” she went on. “We’re strong, we’re American and we know how to take care of our young. ”

“What part do you feel intelligence plays?”

“Somewhat.”

“You’re against abortion of any kind.”

“Oh, you betcha.”

“Rachael Maddow stated on MSNBC last week that if a 12 year old girl was raped by her father you would be in favor of the government forcing her to have the baby. Some people might find that a little extreme.”

Palin’s brow furrowed in deep concern which was a little disorienting because she was still smiling. “Killing a little baby is wrong,” she said softly.  “And it’s not extreme. In fact if you checked some fact checking you’ll see that five major Republican Senate candidates, including my very own Joe Miller have all come out into the public with their same views.”

I was a bit confused. “I thought Republicans and Tea Partiers wanted less government interference in American lives.”

Palin leaned closer to explain. “Look, it’s a woman thing; you wouldn’t understand. Take my baby Trig. I had him, didn’t I? I coulda just said well, this little bunny egg is cracked or broken or whatever but I didn’t do that, didn’t I? That’s cuz I’m a mother and he’s a living creature and God loves him and I do too.”

“If you’d been raped by your father when you were 12, and you became pregnant, would you have had the baby?”

Palin’s eyes narrowed and chilled like the fading Alaskan afternoon. “My dad’s a total loving sweetie pie. He’d never do such a nasty thing. Last question.”

“Have you ever shot a grizzly bear?”

“Oh, you betcha,” she grinned, glad to be back on familiar ground. “I brought her down in four shots.”

“Why so many?

“Simple, you ninny. One for the mama and one for each of the cubs.”

When John Densmore and I were in Paris a few months ago we met Alexandre Isard, a French photographer who was shooting stills for a magazine article about the release of When You’re Strange.

Alexandre dragged us into some Parisian back alley and left us to fend for ourselves. As proof we survived he sent me these photos yesterday.

Without sounding too sappy it struck me in looking at these shots that Alexandre captured something real between us. I especially appreciate the last one.

It should come as no surprise looking at these shots that being in Paris with John was one of the most enjoyable moments I’ve had in this business.

I’d highly recommend checking out Alexandre Isard’s other work here www.alexandreisard.com. He’s got an amazing eye and an acutely human touch.

I don’t usually get involved with political groups but when founder and co-mama Ursula Forage contacted me asking for a pledge I complied without hesitation.

Ursula said her members, which now only number around 1000 in the entire continental USA, felt uncomfortable having Palin appropriate their image and identity for her ultra-Right vision of America.

“We don’t see her having grizzly qualities at all, ” states Forage. “Her claws and teeth are too small; she’s much more like a mouse or tundra rat.”