references

Well, to start with: all movies are in dialogue with other movies, and with certain genres like kung-fu movies or horror or musicals that tends to be magnified, as they rely on codified conventions that are integral to how the narratives are constructed. How often does someone write a song or build a sequence to top one from a film that they either love or hate? - I mean, we gave Paul Harris a fully realised life as a novelist, including fictional novels that he'd published - Ethan wrote hilarious summaries of those for the book jackets of his books that cracked up the cast and crew while we shot at real locations - they're all real places, and there isn't a single set. There's also nods to My Fair Lady, Meet Me In St. Louis and Brigadoon in Portrait of a Knight, so it's hardly like it's all about Stephen Sondheim. I wouldn't deny that he was an inspiration for Paul, though; that's fairly obvious. It's more in dialogue with Les Demoiselles De Rochefort than Les Parapluies de Cherbourg: same as La La Land. - My own personal rule of thumb is that the scene should still make sense even if the audience isn't aware of the film or cultural artefact that you're referencing. For example: it doesn't really matter what the name of Jerome and Emily's kid is in Portrait of a Knight, but if people catch that reference, then it adds another layer. - I think that rule holds true for the Dakumentary, but it's more interesting to talk about the internal web of references that is absolutely critical to the Movie Orgy construction idea. When I read Joe Dante talk about his one, that book said that there were 5-6 overlapping narratives that they interweaved in the original Movie Orgy. That's what I mean by the semiotic code: things like the guitar imagery, or the mysterious black-haired woman, or Dakta and Gary themselves. Plus obviously all the journos were very aware of the project, and totally playing along. That's the Kiwi sensibility: everyone doing their bit for the cause, as Chloe memorably said. I sincerely hope that it really is changing minds among the coalition government. 👋🏻