Daily Dialogue — November 14, 2015

Lipnik: Okay, the hell with the story. Wallace Beery is a wrestler. I wanna know his hopes, his dreams. Naturally, he’ll have to get mixed up with a bad element. And a romantic interest. You know the drill. Romantic interest, or else a young kid. An orphan. What do you think, Lou? Wally a little too old for a romantic interest? Look at me, a writer in the room and I’m askin’ Lou what the goddamn story should be! [robust laugh] …Well Bart, which is it? Orphan? Dame?
Barton: …Both maybe?

There is a disappointed silence. Lipnik looks at Lou. Lou clears his throat.

Lou: …Maybe we should do a treatment. 
Lipnik: Ah, hell, let Bart take a crack at it. He’ll get into the swing of things or I don’t know writers. Let’s make it a dame, Bart, keep it simple. We don’t gotta tackle the world our first time out. The important thing is we all have that Barton Fink feeling, but since you’re Barton Fink, I’m assuming you have it in spades. Seriously Bart, I like you. We’re off to a good start. Dammit, if all our writers were like you I wouldn’t have to get so goddamn involved. I’d like to see something by the end of the week.

— Barton Fink (1991), written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing.

Trivia: Written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen after a trip to see Baby Boom (1987) while suffering writer’s block writing Miller’s Crossing (1990).

Dialogue On Dialogue: When I made my first round of meetings in Hollywood, I kind of felt like Barton Fink trying to make sense of these people with strange energy and buzz words. Sometimes still feel that way!