David O’ Russell: Out Standing Directors Award

Reviewed by Kelly Bader. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014.

Waiting outside the Arlington for the presentation of the Outstanding Director’s Award, I noted that the crowd numbers were fairly light.  The red carpet activity was almost non-existent.  This wasn’t giving a good impression for the night ahead.  Fortunately, these signs in the end meant nothing as the evening turned out to be a fantastic beginning for this novice to the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Santa Barbara’s own Roger Durling introduced David O. Russell.  Russell came off very personable and likeable right from the start.  In fact he almost didn’t need Durling interviewing him, he just kept rambling.  At one point Durling mentioned that maybe he should leave, as he wasn’t really needed.  Russell assured him to just go with the flow, that often we over think things and sometimes the best moments just happen on their own.

This statement was an intro to Russell’s explanation that he had been advised in his past to be a bit more flexible.  That he had a “head in my ass period” that he learned to shake.  Russell is a self-taught director, who didn’t go to film school.  This can be an advantage, as he just doesn’t know he isn’t doing something right.  Russell claims that when he films, he treats each scene as if it is the last one to film.  There was a reference to an “Eagles” documentary where Glenn Frey spoke about song writing and said, “You have to write a lot of songs.  You’ll write nine bad one’s and then you’ll get one great one.”  Russell claims the same is true of directing.  You have to keep at it, knowing you’ll have some bad films along the way.  It makes it even that much better when you get that one great one.

Speaking of music there was a very special moment when Russell and Durling spoke about having actors sing in a film.  Russell spoke about his film, “The Fighter”, where he filmed a scene from the back seat of a car.  Christian Bale began to sing an old Bee Gee’s song called “I Started a Joke”.  At this point Durling sang a few words and was joined by Russell.  They discussed how important music can be in film and how it can convey a mood that often the spoken word cannot.  That Russell likes to use these moments, because in real life we all relate things to song.

The audience was given a nice retrospective of Russell’s work.  Durling provided insightful discussion before and after each film clip.  Russell gave some personal reflections after each clip as to what was transpiring in his life during the course of each of his films.  For instance, “Silver Linings Playbook” came just after having some difficult dealings with his teenage, bi-polar son.

It was a fantastic evening that was extremely entertaining.  I believe that audience members left wanting to seek out Russell’s other films.  This type of personal talk just could not be scripted. It was like having a cup of coffee with an old friend and catching up with each other.  This was an intimate evening that just happened naturally.