RUSSELL HARBAUGH: WHAT I'VE WATCHED (Week 1)

Screenwriter Russell Harbaugh talks about movies that influence him in and out of the process:

On days where I have nothing to do but write, I enjoy taking breaks in the middle of the day and putting on a movie. I brought several films to look at again: WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLF and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE for public airings of things better left private; A NOS AMOURS for its unusual structure and breathless spontaneity; RULES OF THE GAME and A DAY IN THE COUNTRY for their formal illustrations of big, unwieldy groups of people; MURMUR OF THE HEART for its playful mix of taboo and adolescence; THE MOUTH AGAPE for its scenes of death and dying. These are all films that are particularly useful for different sequences of LOVE AFTER LOVE and I’ve kept them within easy reach for most of the past year and half as I’ve been whittling away at what, exactly, this movie is.

I don’t always enjoy watching things as research assignments, though, and I often find daydreaming during unrelated films to be as useful as investigating those that resemble what I’m writing. An early trip to the library has cluttered our living room with a stack of movies.

Here’s what I watched this week:
The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
The Shining (Stanly Kubrick, 1980)
September (Woody Allen, 1987)
Another Woman (Woody Allen, 1988)
Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
A Nos Amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
The  Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)
Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, 2008)
Extract (Mike Judge, 2009)

-Russell Harbaugh