This man, Lee, was struggling having dead-end jobs, and was never fully satisfied with them. He came up with an idea to follow Herzog's advice,"filmmakers should skip film school and instead make a journey alone on foot, let's say from Madrid to Kiev... this journey would teach one more about cinema truly means than would five years sitting in a classroom." Lee took this advice, and he had no reason not to take this adventure. He met an elderly French woman who was picking asparagus on her birthday, and a man at a bar who wanted to take him home to give him something to eat, and various others with their own story to tell. This film is his journey, the people he met, the scenery surrounding him, the strangers who wanted to take care of him (sometimes reluctantly) and the lessons learned from this journey. He travels to Madrid to meet a friend from London to prepare for his trip.
Before watching this film, and part of what intrigued me was that I read On the Road by Kerouac a few months earlier. This was only a different version of that, and the man who went on this daunting journey by himself was in front of me. Amazing.
Before watching this film, and part of what intrigued me was that I read On the Road by Kerouac a few months earlier. This was only a different version of that, and the man who went on this daunting journey by himself was in front of me. Amazing.He becomes friends with fellow travellers, and meet the locals, and tries to avoid the tourist places, yet he still visits them. My favorite parts were his commentary, and the short stories given from the people he met on the road. Parts of life we never hear about, and the struggles or victories that we forget about...
I have now talked to Lee, asked advice about cameras, film stuff.
His film intrigued me in more ways than one. I am waaayyyy more interested in film than I ever was, and it has inspired me to backpack Europe (at least), but now take a camera along. I have read a book, by Robert Downes called Planet Backpacker (fantastic, instead of visually seeing his trip you read it) and now it's a dream, but I know I will make it a reality.
He has also inspired me to think of other movies I want to make. :)
This film is so good, and I hope you all will watch it. I have not watched it in over a year and I forgot how good it was.
If you want to check out his website here it is:
And it features music from a Brooklyn artist known as Birdie Hilltop:http://www.myspace.com/birdiehilltop
Thanks Lee~!
Thanks Lee~!
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