Sunday, September 21, 2008

Some Stuff I'm Ripping Off Referencing

As I work on the screenplay for my Fly movie [still unnamed], I find I keep saying, "sort of like..." and referencing other works.
Here are a few examples.

The feel of the movie will be like Irene Pappas (cf. Greek actress of Iphigenia, etc.)...


...meets Jean Cocteau's Greek trilogy...

...meets Monty Python.

I mean, in my dreams, of course.
.
.
.

1. The Narrator.
S/he will attempt to explain (briefly) the curse on the tangled House of Atreus.


[Cf the Narrator in Rocky Horror Picture Show]


2. Menelaus and Helen pose for their picture, before Paris takes Helen away.
They are not a happy couple.
[Cf. Grant Woods "American Gothic"--yes, I know they are daughter and father. Maybe more like Prince Charles and Diana on that trip to Asia, was it, where their unhappiness was so visible.
They pose in front of some tacky American image of Greece. Greek Gyros in a restaurant window, or a Greek Tourism Board poster.]

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

3. To get the Trojan war going,
Menelaus's brother Agamemnon sacrifices his own and Clytemnestra's daughter Iphigenia.

[Cf. Klingon kills Kirk's son.]



4. Ten years later, Agamemnon returns from the Trojan war, and Clytemnestra kills him as he bathes, saying "You bastard, you killed my daughter."
[Cf. Kirk says, "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son."]


5. Agamemnon lies dead in the bath.
[Cf. Jacques-Louis David's "Death of Marat."]



6. The messenger god Mercury will be a bike messenger,
sort of like Tyres here, from Spaced ("You lucky people!"),
except a lot cuter, as L's niece has agreed to take on that little part.

The messenger will carry news of Oreste's act of matricide to the Fly,
whose job is to avenge such crimes.

7. The Fly, however doesn't like Avenging Fury work. The Fly wants to be a tap-dancer.
[Cf. Fred Astaire.]


.
.
.
.
And the end is a bit of something out of Gods and Monsters....



with a dash of Cabaret.


A friend e-mailed me, suggesting I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
Maybe so.
Possibly my film will end up looking like my dalek [post below]--more than a bit jolly-whompered.
But it's too late.
My visions, like sugar plums, dance in my head.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

it just gets better and better...

Rudyinparis said...

Wow. If I was eating food, it would be dropping out of my mouth.

Fresca said...

R: Um, I'm thinking that's a good thing, right? :)

You should see the inside of my brain--it's a big jumble of this stuff!
I'm having sooo much fun!