Low-budget films - Miramax. The rise of Sundance and independent cinema - Film Hall (16)

Author: Peter Biskind (USA) / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Harvey loves being in the spotlight, as it makes him appear particularly charming. He cares deeply about others admiring him. He is very witty, having honed a kind of mischief that can be used to target himself or, at the ready, to attack others, making an adult cry. When he's in high spirits, others are in for trouble. He once described someone as "the kind of guy you want to grab his hand and chop off his head." However, deep down, Harvey harbors a passion for movies—even if he's not a poet, he's at least a cinephile. He genuinely loves films of all kinds—A-list, B-list, horror, science fiction, comedies, musicals, kung fu films, and more. He is particularly fond of foreign films, art films, and "cult" films. He enjoys recounting the story of watching The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) at the age of 14. He assumed it was a sex film, but after spending an hour and a half in the theater, he was captivated by the magic of Fran?ois Truffaut. Mark Lipsky, who served as head of distribution at Miramax in the late 1980s, said, "This story—the one about how The 400 Blows changed my life—I've heard it countless times. What's more noteworthy is that it's Harvey, not Bob, who tells it." Bob, who always wore black, often seemed absent-minded and awkward, as if he was never quite at ease anywhere he went, lost in his own world. If Harvey's style was more flamboyant, Bob was more reserved, tough, and minimalist. If Harvey was extroverted, Bob was the opposite. He was quieter, more content to linger in the shadows of others. Whether people liked him or not was irrelevant to Bob. Bob once told the media, "We are artists; we are not interested in money." But he didn't care much for Truffaut. Patrick McDarrah, a former Miramax executive, bluntly stated, "Their business can be summed up as self and greed. Harvey represents self, and Bob represents greed." Bob was interested in profits, in products that could be directly turned into audiovisual goods. He focused on the net income and net losses on financial statements. No matter what the film was, he would ask, "Can this make money, Harvey?" If Harvey's intentions were clear, Bob was deeply calculating and emotionally unpredictable. "You never know what Bob is thinking," Mark Tusk, one of the most productive members of the top film acquisition team in the mid-1990s, later said. "Even a penny would excite him." P10-11