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Neil Gaiman
is a name that should be a household word.
Well, I would guess it is in some households.
Of course many of those households are probably
located in the deepest darkest crevices
of most neighborhoods. Like mine. You see
Gaiman is a prolific writer, but his work
tends to lean towards the twisted and bizarre.
His is an imagination on the edge, and his
work generally appeals most to those whose
minds dwell in that same neck of the woods.
Over his long career, Gaiman has written
comics, novels and most recently screenplays,
most of which have won, or at least been
nominated for, every major writing award
in the sci-fi world. He is probably best
known for the creation of the comic book
“Sandman”, and most recently
has received acclaim for his novel, “American
Gods” (which is currently sitting
on my nightstand waiting to be read). And
if all that wasn’t enough, he also
wrote the English language script for Hayao
Miyazaki’s enormously popular “Princess
Mononoke”, as well as “The Day
of the Dead”, the one and only episode
in the last three season’s of “Babylon
5” not written by series creator J.
Michael Straczynski.
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In 1996, Gaiman, along with comic Lenny Henry,
created a six-part series for the BBC called “Neverwhere.”
It was followed up by a novel set in the world
created by the series, and the hope of a feature
film to be eventually filmed by Jim Henson Productions
(which would seriously rock if it ever got off
the ground). Also in the work is another feature
film, “MirrorMask”, which I’m
hoping will be ready in 2005.
Back in 2003, Gaiman showed a short film at the
Comic Con International entitled, appropriately
enough, “Neil Gaiman’s Short Film
About John Bolton.” Running only 30 minutes,
it elicited a great response from the audience;
in part because so many of the viewers were familiar
with artist John Bolton, but also because it was
such an oddly humorous piece of work.
I only recently familiarized myself with John
Bolton, due to the fact that I received the DVD
of said film. I though I might as well get to
know the guy before I saw a movie about him. In
visiting his website, I learned that he is a very
popular artist whose work runs the gamut of comic
books to cards for “Magic the Gathering.”
But it seems that he is best known for his provocative
paintings of nude female vampires. Because of
them, Bolton has supposedly been accused of having
a ‘damaged imagination.’ In reviewing
the site, I will have to say his imagination is
anything but damaged, but his sense of humor is
broad in its subtlety.
It is this sense of humor that comes through in
this little documentary, whose focus is on where
Bolton’s ideas come from. He is ‘stalked’
by master interviewer Marcus Brigstocke, who wants
to unlock the secrets of Bolton’s tortured
psyche. He wonders why Bolton carries around a
little ornamental dagger, as do we. The film,
as I was told, was as odd as I’d hoped.
The humor is rather subdued, but will definitely
appeal to the intellectual crowd.
The DVD for the film actually has extra features
that run much longer than the movie itself. As
a matter of fact, they come in at about 2 hours!!
First up is a commentary by Gaiman and Brigstocke,
which is as odd as the film in question. Plus
there is a feature length film of one of Gaiman’s
stage performances at the Aladdin. The best, at
least as far as the title goes, is a small making
of featurette, “A Short Film About a Short
Film About John Bolton.” Add to this an
audio recording of Gaiman reading “Drawn
to Darkness” (which served as the inspiration
for this film) and a John Bolton photo Gallery,
and you have ‘A Long DVD About Neil Gaiman’s
Short Film About John Bolton.’
If you’d like to know a little secret about
“Neil Gaiman’s Short Film About John
Bolton”, scroll down a little further past
the bosy of the review.
Directed by: Neil Gaiman
Starring: John O’Mahoney, Carolyn Backhouse,
Marcus Brigstocke, Jonathan Ross, John Bolton
Extras: “A Short Film About a Short Film
About John Bolton”, Commentary by Neil Gaiman
and Interviewer Marcus Brigstocke, Feature Length
Performance by Neil Gaiman – “Live
From the Aladdin”, Photo Gallery
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Docurama
Release Date: 12/7/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
We'll give Neil Gaiman's Short Film About John
Bolton an A.
The film is actually a
Mockumentary, in the vein of “This is Spinal
Tap.” John Bolton is real, it is not.
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