Zalman King Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I decided to see Crazy Again at SXSW because I was intrigued by the idea of Zalman King making a documentary about Dale Watson. King has directed movies such as the 1990 "erotic thriller" Wild Orchid and an adaptation of Anais Nin's Delta of Venus; co-wrote 9 1/2 Weeks; and created the Red Shoe Diaries TV series. I didn't quite understand what inspired him to shoot a film about an Austin country-and-western musician.

As King explains in the movie, he had been in Austin researching potential musician-actors to star in his film Austin Angel, met Watson, and decided he was an ideal casting choice. To learn more about Watson, King joined one of his band's tours through the South, and brought along a digital video camera.

Driving from town to town, Watson and his road manager Donnie tell King the story about Watson's girlfriend Terry, who died in a car accident. Shortly after hearing the news, Watson "went crazy" for a weekend. Afterwards, he mourned Terry by writing songs about her. Everyone assumed he was dealing with her death normally.

Karina already discussed a good half-dozen films she plans to see during SXSW this year, including the big-name opening-night film A Prairie Home Companion. My favorite films at SXSW have always been the smaller ones, the movies you figure you had better catch now because who knows, you may not have an opportunity to see them again. I am particularly fond of low-budget documentary features, and I love the animated shorts. On the other hand, it's also exciting to see a preview of a wider-release film before all your friends do, and start spreading the buzz.

I've spent entirely too much time this week tinkering with my SXSW schedule to balance the small films with the big premieres. This is silly because after the first day or two, various forces of nature and filmmaking will probably cause me to change the schedule all over again. A huge "must-see" buzz will focus around some film I hadn't planned to screen, or I'll find that I may be too weak and wimpy to see three films a day for more than a couple of days in a row.