hobnobbery

So, the 48 Hour Film Festival was fabulous, and guess who showed up: cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs! I got to talk to Laszlo and his wife Audrey, both of whom are superduper nice, discussing the sorry state of film schools today. Depressing, but great to pick the brain of the guy who shot Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon, New York New York, Ghostbusters, Little Nikita, and Say Anything.

Poor Laszlo was bemoaning the fact that, because he shot one romantic comedy really well back in the 80s, he's suddenly been pigeonholed as a romantic comedy cinematographer. He said that there were a couple of studio suits hanging out on one of his sets recently, and they were both like, "Hey, this Laszlo guy can sure light interiors well. Bet he has no clue about shooting exteriors." And Laszlo was all like, "I SHOT EASY RIDER. IDIOTS!" Actually, he's Hungarian, so it came out more like "EEDIOTS!" But you get the idea.

Audrey, meanwhile, had started out pre-med, then followed architecture, and was on the board of the Gamble House in Pasadena. So cool! She was telling me about how when she and Laszlo met, it took Laszlo forever to get up the nerve to ask her out, and then they went out once, and were engaged 8 DAYS LATER. And, 21 years after the fact, they're still happily married. It was a great conversation. I didn't get the chance to talk to their daughters, but they seemed pretty nifty, too.

Oh, and I won a cinematography commendation, which, along with $3, might buy me a cup of coffee. But, hey, I got a gold star! Gold stars rock. I was blown away by all the filmmakers, who had the greatest spirit of fun and adventure about filmmaking, and I met lots of terrific people, and the organizers of the fest are simply splendid. All in all, a very satisying evening.