Director, writer and producer Mark L. Lester will forever be tied to a handful of quintessential ’80s hits and cult films, among which a place of honor goes to the Joel Silver-produced, over-the-top Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Commando (1985). A film which irrupts in cinema theatres after another two of the director’s most well-known efforts: Class of 1984 (1982) and the Stephen King adaption Firestarter (1984). In the following interview, Lester reminisces on how he transitioned from drive-ins to the Hollywood studio system.
Let’s start with a question on the narrative structure of your films. Within the last act of some of your biggest hits there will be a total narrative suspension, and what will take place is essentially a completely cinematic mechanism, a cinematic mayhem if you will, that often becomes playful and deconstructs any pretention the film has built upon previously. I’m thinking of films such as Firestarter...
Let’s start with a question on the narrative structure of your films. Within the last act of some of your biggest hits there will be a total narrative suspension, and what will take place is essentially a completely cinematic mechanism, a cinematic mayhem if you will, that often becomes playful and deconstructs any pretention the film has built upon previously. I’m thinking of films such as Firestarter...
- 2/25/2021
- by Eugenio Ercolani
- DailyDead
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