Detroit Film Theater: PROLOGUE

Big Fanpresented by

Karen McDevitt, Ph.D.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

In many ways, Big Fan intersects four of my favorite topics: television, radio, the internet, and film. It’s based on a story about the biggest fan of the New York

Giants football team. The movie is written and directed by Robert Siegel,

and stars Patton Oswalt – someone you might recognize from television.

“Spence” on The King of Queens

Oswalt played a character named “Spence” on The King of Queens, a sitcom that lasted for nine years on CBS, from 1998 – 2007.

And, of course, he was also the voice of the adorable Remy in

Ratatouille.

Still, he is known primarily for his stand-up comedy – here’s a brief clip from when he was on Letterman earlier this year.

OK, so topic #1 is: TELEVISION. One of the courses I teach at Wayne State is called “television criticism” – and we have much to talk about in class right now – there’s a lot going on in the industry. New shows, premieres of old

shows, and new shows that are really old shows.

And, of course, last Sunday night, we had the Emmys. I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for this stuff. Here we get to see great groups of people -- who clearly have nothing but a BLAST doing their jobs -- getting a TROPHY for a SHOW, even though it looks like

maybe they are being awarded for having discovered the key to world peace. There is fashion – tons of fashion. Heidi and Seal were there this year. There are even movie stars at

the Emmys. And this time there was a ton of technology. Look at the size of that screen.

QuickTimeª and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

So, did it win its Sunday-night time slot in the TV-ratings war?

No way. Beginning every September in the U.S. of A., Sunday nights – and

Sunday days, for that matter – belong to football.

The TV rights to the NFL are the most expensive not only of any American sport, but of any American entertainment property. Currently, four networks are paying a combined

total of $20.4 billion to broadcast NFL games through the 2011 season.

$20.4 Billion

And, last Sunday night’s game was

considered a marquee match-up – the New York Giants vs. the Dallas Cowboys.

Oh, but that’s not all. For the Dallas Cowboys, this game was the opener of their brand new $1.1 billion stadium. Take a look at the largest domed stadium in the world.

Fans streamed in four hours before kickoff; the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders appeared on the new big screen. Video clips then compared the stadium to the Egyptian Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum; next a flag was unfurled that covered the entire field. George and

Laura Bush handled the coin toss, and the crowd totaled 105,121 – the largest ever.

But the Giants won, 33-31. And, Giants fans are

pretty incredible.

So, in today’s movie, the main character, Paul, is not only a New York Giants fan – he’s a regular call-in contributor to a popular sports talk radio show. Which

brings us to our third topic: Radio.

More specifically, Sports Talk Radio. Just in case you are not one of them, I am going to tell you that MILLIONS of listeners are loyal followers of

hundreds of different shows throughout the country.

The Zone is “Atlanta’s Sports Leader”Chicago’s got THE SCORE

Dallas has THE TICKETCincinnati is the SPORTS ANIMAL

In Birmingham, Alabama, they are THE JOCKSIn Detroit, we’ve got our own version of THE TICKET

and on 1130 WDFN, we’ve got Shep and Sharp, to name just two among a field of many.Currently, every major market in the country boasts at least one sports radio station.

In addition, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio and Sporting News Radio have all launched 24-hour national sports talk radio networks.

PLUS, there are also nationally syndicated

radio shows, like The Jim Rome Show.

This one I have heard – in fact, when Rome was

asked to describe his audience, he said,

“I think they are rabid. I think they

are passionate. I think they are loyal.”

It’s important to note here, though, that the

FAN, -- that’s WFAN in New York – was the very first all-sports radio station in the

country and it set the tone for all the shows

that have followed. The FAN began in 1987 with

Don Imus, and soon after The Mike and MAD DOG show became The Fan’s defining program.

Now, of course, many listeners are just as likely to tune into the radio

as they are to the internet.

But this is not the case for our guy, Paul. He listens to the

RADIO and he gets on

THE PHONE . . . a landline, no less.

This is something that, for me, brought to mind the ways in

which new technologies are making those of us who still use the

conventional forms stand-out. It is also one of the techniques director Robert Siegel relies on

for his film. Paul is not connected in the “21st century” sense,

although he IS tied to – in particular – his chosen path.

This is why, in a recent interview -- of which I will play a part for you -- I found it fascinating that while Patton Oswalt talked about his character Paul, he also expressed a less than a positive view of social networking sites like Facebook.

Nonetheless, Patton Oswalt DOES have a website where he promotes his upcoming gigs – and here

he also blogs about his personal life. He even wrote not long ago about becoming a new father. Although,

as you can see, he’s still bashing the SNSs.

“My baby came 5 days earlier than expected. Today she’s one week old. Some people have already

Twitter’d or Blabbl’d or AssSqueak’d about it . . . so let’s make it official

– on Wednesday, April 15th, my way-more-brilliant-and-resilient-than-me wife gave birth to our first child – Alice Rigney Oswalt. ”

ROBERT SIEGEL, WRITER-DIRECTOR OF BIG FAN

But what really links our story today to the internet is the writer-director of Big Fan, Robert Siegel.Before he began writing screenplays, Siegel was the editor of

THE ONION – a so-called alternative news source.

Incredibly, but maybe not so surprisingly, Siegel made the leap from The Onion to the Sundance Film Festival. Let’s listen to Siegel for a moment during one of his interviews at Sundance.

Originally from Long Island, Siegel graduated from the University of Michigan 1993 with a B.A. in HISTORY. In 1994, he followed his then-girlfriend to Madison, Wisconsin, where she was going to grad school.

Siegel got a job working for the local newspaper while he also volunteered at Madison's public radio station, AND started writing for a small paper that was handed-out for free at coffee shops – it was called The Onion.In 1996, he became editor-in-

chief and began a major expansion of the paper –he put it online, making it a national and then international publication.

Darren Aronofsky

So, after years of writing and editing The Onion, Siegel wrote the screenplay for Big Fan, and started shopping it around.

This is how he met Darren Aronofsky – director of such films as Requiem for

a Dream, Pi, and The Fountain.

In 2004, Aronofsky got in touch with Siegel because he very much liked the Big Fan screenplay and

wanted to talk with Siegel about possibly directing it.

Although Aronofsky had opted not to direct Big Fan, he did call Siegel to ask if he

would be interested in possibly writing a different script.

This is then when Aronofsky commissioned

Siegel to write The Wrestler.

OK, The Wrestler, for me, is a small yet Hollywood film. If you’ve not seen the movie, I will tell you that there are SOME similarities between Big Fan and The Wrestler.

If you have seen The Wrestler, I’d like to say that the movies are more different than they are alike. Here is one of the promos for The Wrestler.

The Wrestler features Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson – a loser-like character who nonetheless is occasionally celebrated by his own fans.

On the other hand, Paul is NOT simply “socially marginal,” he is an OUTSIDER -- literally and figuratively.

He is not in the ring; he is not even in the building.

He works as a parking garage attendant.

He’s not from the Manhattan Sex-and-the-City-Sienfeld

version of New York City – he lives in Staten Island.

The woman in Randy’s life is played by the fabulous Marisa Tomei.

The woman in Paul’s life is played by the also talented (but much less hot) Marcia Jean Kurtz.

Marcia Jean Kurtz as “Paul’s Mom”

Paul is in long-term relationship. But it’s with his beloved New York Giants.His best friend Sal is played by the great indie-actor Kevin Corrigan. And, the object of Paul’s affection, Quantrell Bishop,

is played by newcomer Jonathan Hamm. Topping off the cast is Michael Rappaport who, even though he’s a native New Yorker, is able to more than convincingly present himself as Philadelphia’s #1 fan.

Kevin Corrigan as “Sal”

Jonathan Hamm (Quantrell Bishop)

Michael Rappaport:

“Philadelphia Phil”

So, today we are going to see a small film about a simple man.

What we call in film class a REALISTIC film – a slice of life, so to speak.

Siegel has said that he loves the edgy, handheld character studies of the 1970s, especially films like Taxi Driver and King of Comedy:“I knew I wanted it to feel realistic and gritty and '70s-ish . . .

I don't like things that look fake, or Hollywood movies where people's apartments don't look like real apartments and everything looks art directed and there's no clutter.

I wanted lived-in spaces. I wanted to shoot on location. I'm definitely a stickler for reality.

I wanted to shoot in a semi-documentary kind of style.”

A lot of descriptors have been tossed around about this character: obsessive, fixated, pathological, manic . . .

But, for me, this is a love story. Not just about Paul, but about the people who succeeded at making this movie.I am more than thankful for independent cinema.

And I am grateful to the Detroit Film Theater for allowing us to still experience the ART of film.