|
 |
|
| |
American History and Emotional Impact |
|
|
| |
|
| 11/12/2010 |
|
|
|
“I’m interested in American history between 1926 al 2006, a period that I transform into a kind of set in which I move my characters around. Each state has its own language, its own atmosphere, even its own religion that influences how the characters behave. My novels are about men who live in environments as close to reality as possible, but who find themselves in extraordinary situations. My next book will be about the juvenile detention system and the one that will come out in 2013 about Vietnam.”
So says Roger Jon Ellory, who still lives in native Birmingham, in the UK. His second novel, A Quiet Vendetta, presented today, also takes place in America, in New Orleans, where the teenage daughter of the governor of Louisiana disappears under mysterious circumstances, leaving a trail of blood behind her.
“I don’t create a rigid structure when I write,” says writer. “To me, writing is in part following an architectural form that I’ve built, and in part a jam session. Ultimately, it’s not very important that people remember my name or the story’s plot. I’m interested in the emotions that my writing evokes. I personally like books that have a strong emotional impact.
“Essentially, there exist three types of novel: Those in which the plot is fundamental, and which once you start reading can’t wait to finish. Those that pay more attention to form, with beautiful prose, which force you stop and think about what you’ve just read. And then there are the masterpieces, those books that on the one hand force you to race through them, because you have to find out how they end, but on the other force you reflect upon the sentences. These books are very rare, but they are what I aspire to.”
Ellory’s novels are very visual, but have not yet been adapted for the cinema although there is some interest: “Olivier Dahan, the director of La vie en Rose, wrote me in May 2009 to tell me he was interested in A Quiet Belief in Angels. He invited me to Paris, they took me to an office full of smoke and Coca Cola, and they were all excited because a soundtrack had just arrived that was composed by Bob Dylan. After listening to it for four hours, Olivier look me to a Lebanese restaurant. I asked him about the project and he said we’d talk about it the following day.
“In the morning I returned to the office. Olivier took me around Paris, made me drink a lot of coffee, talked to me about the Yardbirds, Apocalypse Now, showed me all the bridges of the Seine, the Eiffel Tower and all the rest of Paris’ tourist spots. But he didn’t say anything about the project. The third day, back in the office, I asked him to tell me about the film and he said it didn’t make sense to talk about it yet, and that obviously I’d write the screenplay myself.
“I went home and began working on it. It was very interesting because writing for the cinema forces you to change your style completely. I sent the screenplay, they told it was fine but perhaps too long and I didn’t hear anything else. For months. On Christmas Day I got an email from Olivier saying “Merry Christmas.” And then nothing else.
“I think they’ve now sent the screenplay to Clint Eastwood, it may even be with Dreamworks (though I don’t know how). I think that Michael Connelly figured out the best way to work with ‘film people.’ He says you have to go to a park at night and built a two-meter fence. You call them and throw the screenplay over the fence. You take the suitcase with the money that they toss over to you and then you never see them again!” |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
