From the movie, The Dish and the Spoon.
Have you ever experienced the temporary psychosis that results from a major betrayal in a love/sex relationship? I know I have. And though I said “temporary,” I suspect some betrayals leave permanent pathogens in our relationship DNA.
Writer/ Director Alison Bagnall, along with collaborator/ actor Greta Gerwig, explore this phenom in The Dish and the Spoon, a story of romantic insanity and paradox. I spoke to Ms. Bagnall at length about her film, and her experience screening it at the Maryland Film Festival. She described the MFF as among the best, because of the excellent programming that placed filmmakers and their work above celebrity and hype, and because MFF’s extraordinary efforts to insure that the filmmakers personally attend the festival. This created an environment of collaboration and shared ideas between the filmmakers, and between festival attendees who have easy, casual access to the artists and their work. I placed a high value on this, because I am shooting a film (ROWS) this summer that will employ the production methods utilized in many of the films screened this year at the fest.
From the making of the movie, The Dish and the Spoon.
From the making of the movie, The Dish and the Spoon.
The Dish and the Spoon was one of several films shot with the Canon 7D or 5D that screened this year. These are DSLR cameras adapted to shoot motion pictures and which yield terrific images, even when projected on the largest screens. (I saw Dish & Spoon at MICA, on the big–ass screen). This doesn’t make movies a point-and-shoot proposition: it takes enormous talent and skill to shoot a film, and Cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard applied plenty of both in his excellent work on Dish & Spoon. Mr. Schwartzbard is a veteran of the BORAT, RELIGUOUS, and BRUNO camera teams. When Dish & Spoon went into production in 2009, the Canon7D wasn’t quite the household tool it is now. Schwartzbard had planned too use an EX3 as the “A” camera, but soon the 7D displaced the more traditional video capture tool. Mr. Schwartzbard found his director to be more committed than most to scheduling exteriors for times of optimal lighting. Attractive Interior work was accomplished with a bare minimum lighting package, including 1’ X 1’ LED panels.
From the making of the movie, The Dish and the Spoon.
But what makes Ms. Bagnall’s (and many of the better new-crop indies) special is the agonizing intimacy portrayed in the story, and its devastating denouement. The intimacy is not only between the characters in the story, it’s between the actors and the filmmakers. Ms. Bagnall shot Dish & Spoon over a four-week period in the post- Thanksgiving off-season in and around Rehoboth beach, with a crew of six people. This allowed for improvisation and invention within the confines of the powerful dramatic story: There was freedom to incorporate ideas and location quirks without resorting to guesswork in the dramatic narrative arc. Local non-union bird populations were used to great effect.
From the movie, The Dish and the Spoon.
Alison Bagnall’s exploration of the temporary (or not so temporary) insanity brought about by romantic and sexual betrayal breathes with real sweet life. One wonders if that would have been possible with a company of sixty-plus people on a back-lot in Burbank.
David Warfield
