Auteur Watch - Agnieszka Holland

Sorry, I got distracted there for a sec. This thing on Yahoo! caught my eye, and I thought about reading it. It was a list of the top 5 sci-fi movies of all time. But my shrink has warned me about that, about just leaping onto every other list out there on the web as though one's life depended on it. No, I'll just trust my intuition on that one, I guess. Well, I'm a lot like Sarah Palin, and I celebrate my ignorance openly, mostly because it's mine and mine alone, the only gift one ever really gives the world, when one gets right down to it... But back to the task at hand. Holland!! And I've actually seen some of her work, all you haters out there. You know who you are! But clearly, looking at her résumé, the 90s were her breakout decade. Maybe not her favourite, but when she took to the world cinema stage with a vengeance. First with Europa Europa, then Olivier, Olivier, and people of course started to typecast her, wondering how quickly she was going to go Hollywood Hollywood. Hah! Just thought of that one. Of course, with The Secret Garden, she sorta did. Boy, those were the days for somebody. Caroline Thompson was at the top of her craft then. But she's still doing quite well, of course, even if she faltered ever so slightly. We actually watched the garden way back when! Oh, the veritable Dark Ages, with ungodly videotapes. Must be a sign of my growing short-sightedness that whenever I see a film of someone using a videotape, I think whuh? What's that?
Anyway, back to Aggie. Actually, things sorta went downhill after Secret Garden, but work was more or less steady. She was thanked by Ed Harris for Pollock, and Ed apparently returned the favor in 2006 with Copying Beethoven. And then, Gasp! TV work! But I guess The Wire and Cold Case are a cut above. Cold Case, they always use pop songs to underline the action, right? I remember one with a Phil Collins song, "Long Way to Go"... something like that. Yeah, that's Bruckheimer for you. Is it just me, or does everything have about 10,000 producers these days? Boy, that must drive creative people crazy, having to deal with producers' notes and thoughts more so than ever before. But, as with a couple other directors I've profiled lo these many months, their brief flirtation with the tube makes them return to the silver screen with a vengeance. In Aggie's case, she's got Hidden and Janosik on the front burner, so cheers to you! Oscar still loves the Holocaust! Oh, but look @ that. People already badmouthing Janosik. It's Kasia's fault, damn it!