I’m running American Beauty, which, in my world, may be the perfect movie. This time I ran the director/writer commentary. I found out something obvious, but amazing nonetheless:
It’s perfect. But it might not have been.
There are elements of the original script which were wisely dropped, along with music, entire scenes- the whole impact of the film would have been diminished if not destroyed.
When I see something that resonates so strongly with me, something that strikes me as perfect, I am filled with a sense of wonder that this moment, this pearl, emerged fully formed in some form of immaculate conception.
But that’s not how it happened. It took work, and passion, commitment, trial and error.
Why does this matter?
Because it means it’s not impossible.That the trials and failures that myself and my brothers have experienced are not unique to us, That as nice as it might seem to be Mozart and write masterpieces at first draft, not being Mozart does not mean you cannot create something beautiful.
Something perfect.
Sometimes I need to be reminded of that.
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5 responses to “Perfection”
It’s been in my all time top five since it debuted.
In my experience as an artist and teacher of artists it is exactly that misconception about the process of creativity (that is one of inspired flowing perfection from start to finish) that keeps most people from ever attempting it and leads most people to abandon it at the first setback. Ninety percent of my job is reminding people of the facts that you’ve stated above.
One of the things I LOVE about DVD is just that – the glimpse (when we get it) into the how, why and what might have been. It is inspirational.
Sometimes I need to be reminded of that, too. Thank you.
I love this quote:
“Because it means it’s not impossible.That the trials and failures that myself and my brothers have experienced are not unique to us, That as nice as it might seem to be Mozart and write masterpieces at first draft, not being Mozart does not mean you cannot create something beautiful.”