Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 1 april 2019
In acclaimed ‘Diane,’ a film critic goes behind the camera

By JAKE COYLE with the certainty of a
Associated Press compass while sitting in a
NEW YORK (AP) — As an Park Slope cafe on a re-
esteemed film critic and di- cent morning in Brooklyn.
rector of the New York Film Such aspirations, of course,
Festival, Kent Jones’ perch do not always make sound
is the film world is a rarified life goals. Proximity to mov-
one. But he has long har- iemaking can cloud even
bored a dream beyond the most level-headed of
his day job. He doesn’t just thinkers. The New Yorker
want to write about and critic Pauline Kael infa-
curate movies. He wants to mously flamed out in Holly-
make them. wood after Warren Beatty
“It’s where I’ve always lured her to Los Angeles to
been aimed,” Jones said work on James Toback’s

This undated image released by Cinetic Media shows filmmaker Kent Jones, right, with actress
Mary Kay Place, left, and associate producer Gabi Madsen on the set of “Diane.”
Associated Press
“Love & Money.” singular rhythm in which to flow like honey dripping
Jones has carved out a life passes, perplexedly, in out of a bottle.”
career, and a sensibility, fits and starts, through pain Jones was once Martin
far different than Kael’s. and grace. It won three Scorsese’s video archivist,
But if anyone was skeptical awards, including best nar- and the two remain close.
when Jones, 58, went off to rative film, at last year’s (Scorsese is an executive
make his first fiction film, he Tribeca Film Festival, the producer on “Diane.”) As
understands. downtown New York festi- a critic, he’s shied away
“More than one person val alternative to the one from regular week-to-week
has been like, ‘I was very overseen by Jones at Lin- reviewing to craft a more
nervous about watching coln Center. varied relationship to cine-
your movie and then I was Jones wrote it specifically ma. He’s made documen-
relieved that I liked it as for Place, the “Mary Hart- taries on film history about
much as I did,’” said Jones. man, Mary Hartman” star, filmmakers with unique
“That’s been a common inspired by her perfor- interactions with movies,
thread. I think people were mance in Francis Ford Cop- including the B-movie pro-
kind of like, ‘He’s going to pola’s 1997 drama “The ducer Val Lewton and the
make a movie?’ But from Rainmaker.” They first met critic-turned-filmmaker
the inside, it was always while serving as jurors at Francois Truffaut’s storied
about moving in that direc- the Berkshire Film Festival. interviews with Alfred Hitch-
tion. I just took” — and here Jones grew up in nearby cock. Jones has also writ-
Jones roars with laughter — Pittsfield, the small, blue- ten some scripts, includ-
“a different route.” collar city in western Mas- ing 2013’s “Jimmy P.,” with
The result is “Diane,” a sachusetts. Place was flat- French director Arnaud
modest and raw charac- tered but skeptical. Desplechin.
ter study starring Mary Kay “I had no hope that it “I kind of created my
Place as a selfless widower would ever get financed. own idea of criticism,”
in wintery Pittsfield, Massa- I said to him, ‘You will not said Jones. “The deeper I
chusetts, where she spends a get a penny from me. got, the more my thinking
guilt-ridden days always on I am not a bank.’ But he about movies became ori-
the move: visiting her ad- never seemed daunted ented on the divergence
dicted and overbearing or even seemed to think between the way they’re
son (Jake Lacy), a soup much about it,” said Place, thought about in writing
kitchen, her diminishing speaking by phone from and what they actually are
community of friends and Los Angeles. “I said I be- — what the filmmaking pro-
family. lieve I’ll jump on that faith cess is for filmmakers as op-
Shot on a meager budget train myself. I still find it a posed to what the filmmak-
over 20 days in upstate miracle.” ing process is imaged to
New York (Place calls it “a When the script finally ar- be. And it’s really different.
59-cent movie”), “Diane,” rived years later, Place rec- That became more and
which is in limited release ognized, she says, “the part more apparent to me.”
Friday, has been hailed for of a lifetime.” “It has to live,” adds Jones.
its clear-eyed intimacy, for “It was one of the great “That’s a very different kind
the bracingly honest per- gifts of my life,” said Place. of enterprise from what
formance of its 71-year-old “I read that thing straight criticism tends to be aimed
veteran actress and for its through in a zip. It seemed at.”q