It’s film school week again, and I’m here early so I can get some work done. Yesterday was an all-day seminar with Ingolf Gabold, former head of national tv channel DR’s drama department, where he was responsible for developing series such as Borgen, Sommer and Forbrydelsen (aka. The Killing, remade in the US).
Gabold took us through Milos Forman’s timeless masterpiece One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I never gave thought to the fact that Chief is actually the main character, as he is the one who evolves the most in the movie, nor did I ever notice the Christ symbolism present throughout the story. MacMurphy is of course a martyr/Christ figure, sacrificing himself for the sake of his flock, and even has a “last supper” with his diciples, when throws a party in the ward the night before his death and subsequent ressurection – watch for the marks after his crown of thorns, when he returns after his frontal lobotomy! Oh, and the Judas, who betrays Christ and then kills himself? I’ll give you a hint; he stutters.
Analyzing OFOTtCN was fun, although exhausting. Some of the methods, like the Actantial model, seemed a bit old school and I didn’t neccesarily agree with every interpretation. What I take away with me is the inspirational stories from DR development meetings, a renewed respect for Milos Forman and the concept of adding subliminal layers for interpretation to my script – apart from the Christ myth, OFOtCN uses imagery that makes you think of fairy tales (Nurse Ratched = The Witch, Chief = The Gentle Giant etc.).
I’m not sure what we’ll be doing today, but tomorrow we are supposed to discuss these three:
…And I’m supposed to have read them, although we only got them yesterday..!
So I had better wrap this up and get to it.
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