Jonathan Gordon: Self - Soundman
Quotes
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Bob Rosen - Production Manager : We're just sitting around here and we're just going to rap a little bit about the film. You know, we'll get into it and when we get into it, you know, the people out there will understand, you know. They'll catch on. And we'll explain it as we go along.
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : Okay. But, I think maybe we should say exactly how it occurred to us to be here, this way, without the Director, without the actors, and it's something which we know is not a part of the film. At least, not as far as we know. But, we were sitting around the other night and we - talking - a few of us, we realized that here is a - here is an open ended film, with no plot, that we can see, with no end, that we can see and an action that we can't follow. We're all intelligent people. The obvious thing is - to fill in the blanks, to create for each of our own selves, a film that we understand. And if we try to think about the reasoning of the Director for allowing us the opportunity to do this - giving us the circumstances that enable us to be able to sit here - we can only conclude, at least we did last night, that he wanted it like this.
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Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : Instead of commenting on the goodness or badness of Bill's direction, maybe it would be more useful to talk about how interesting the non-direction is. Because, you see, it doesn't make any difference at this point whether Bill's direction is good or bad. Bill's direction has enabled us to sit here and talk like this, has compelled us, even, to be interested this way. And so, its really his non-direction that interests us.
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Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : We are not trying to tell the Director what's in his own mind. I think the Director had this in mind. Don't you see? This is a movie where the Director plays a different role than, it seems to me, than in other movies. Here's a Director who sets up a situation, brings a crew of people who can think, and doesn't tell them what's going to happen and does exactly what Phil says. Well, let's just take that for what it is and say that it leads to our participation in it.
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Don Fellows - Actor Testing for Freddy : Okay, now. What'll I do? What'll I say? Why? Are you taping that? You dirty rat.
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : We tape everything.
Don Fellows - Actor Testing for Freddy : Oh, Jesus Christ. Don't you dare. That would be - unbelievable.
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Bob Rosen - Production Manager : It's not like Edward Albee. I mean, Edward Albee writes, you know, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" and George and Martha are super dramatic people - given lines that are brilliant lines, fantastically brilliant - that's right...
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : This is not good writing.
Bob Rosen - Production Manager : This is bad writing.
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : This script is not good writing and I think that that has everything to do with it.
Bob Rosen - Production Manager : Exactly. We're not in a dramatic bag here. I mean, we're somewhere else.
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Film Crew Member : Human life isn't necessarily well written.
Bob Rosen - Production Manager : But, that's the whole point.
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : That's the whole point.
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Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : Here we're confronted with - one of the ultimate banalities of life. And, a pair of actors says this ultimate banality. And, Bill has given them these lines to play in the first place - and then tells them how to say it. And the actors try to find the meaning in. Now, I look at it this way, I see every American man, at some time in his life, saying these lines to every American woman. Every American woman says to every American man, "Where are we?" and "Nothing changes." "Nothing is revealed."
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Bob Rosen - Production Manager : For all anybody knows, you know, Bill is standing right outside the door and he's directing this whole scene. Alright, he could be. Nobody knows. Maybe we're all acting. Alright. Maybe we're all acting. You know, I mean, I'm acting and that's it. I mean, I was, I was, Bill, Bill could have stood outside the door and told me, "Now, Rosen, when you get in there, you - tell them about this, you know, when you get to a certain point." Nobody out there knows whether or not we're for real and what is being revealed.
Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : My whole point is that: nothing is being revealed. And that's the genius of this film - if there is a genius. I think that the genius of this film was that it was provided that at somewhere during it's filming, the crew should decide to act as a an independent unit, come into a room and talk about this film and, thereby, possibly change the end of it. That this was planned, consciously or unconsciously, by Bill.
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Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : See, that's the whole thing. Faggot is not a homosexual. Faggot is a certain kind of mentality. And Freddy happens to be a faggot; but, not because he may or may not be homosexual. Because, a faggot - he doesn't know what he wants and he's like a faggot.
