What makes a writer's movie??

At long last, I watched the film, Monster, and was utterly overwhelmed by it. The acting and the story line, director and actors alike delve fearlessly into the light and dark of the human psyche and are not afraid of the places that human passion takes them.

Althought a largely dark film, it is so interesting that it is a love story, too. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.Another powerful, dark movie, a great writer's movie that doesn't pull punches when it comes to human passions and the places it takes us, is Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson.


As as writer, it is so important, I think, to watch your own emotions during and after watching movies like these. What do they open up for you? What do they close down? How can you use the emotions to open up your own writing.

A wonderful exercise is to take a scene or incident from movies such as these ... scenes that clearly open to other scenes that are not actually in the movie. And use what the movie didn't show as a jumping off for a story or scene of your own.

Jumpstarting your writing from movies such as these can be very powerful.

What do you think?

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