Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

A morning like this is a perfect example of why I love working at AICN. We’ve got headlines about THE PRESTIGE, DREAMGIRLS, 300, SNAKES ON A PLANE, and MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS. That’s a whole wiiiiiiide range of filmgoing experiences, and I love that. To have a spy write in about the way Wong Kar-Wai works at the same time that we have Harry spraying himself with joyjuice over a movie about snakes... on a plane... well, that’s AICN all over, ain’t it?

Don’t expect any sort of comprehensive look at what MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS is from this piece. This is just one person’s take on what they saw on-set, and I thought it was loads of fun:

I just wanted to write a little bit about My Blueberry Nights, directed by Wong Kar-Wai and I think just finishing shooting. I was an extra at the Arcade Restaurant in Memphis, where the Firm, Elizabethtown and 21 Grams also filmed, and Norah Jones, David Strathairn, and Rachel Weisz were all there, Mrs. Weisz with a baby in tow, and Mr. Wong looking exactly like he does in publicity photographs: sunglasses (indoors and out), a loose-fitting shirt and jeans, and a cigarette in his mouth. He was laid-back, off to the side, while his crew swirled around. He stood outside staring at a traffic light for awhile, and my friend saw him experimentally balancing plates on his hands (though both of these could have served a purpose, in terms of lighting and the waitress characters). He only took his sunglasses off during lunch, eating with one other person away from the group.

Norah Jones plays a waitress who moves from town to town during the course of the movie. In one scene she rang Strathairn up at the register while he talked about having drank too much the night before. Strathairn, in a short-sleeve cop uniform, lamented that he was not a happy drunk, one who sang, and both of them agreed they couldnt imagine him singing. He had a Southern accent. He would walk out of frame at the end of the takes but his walkie talkie hovered in the shot at the end of two of them, getting a laugh and polite correction from the director.

There was no Christopher Doyle around, but some of the shots on the video monitors looked really great: Jones head was in the foreground, and it would move to her left and right but just stay in a sort-of-POV on Strathairn and Weisz. In her scene, Weisz talked to Jones about how she had a day job now, with a lock of hair completely covering one eye. Outside she had a nanny and seemed like a movie star, while Strathairn and Jones were more interested in mingling quietly. Strathairn signed two autographs for kids.

In another scene Jones was yelled at a lot by her boss, for dancing behind the counter with another waitress. They played Lets Stay Together and Across 110th Street between and sometimes during takes to set the mood.

If you use this, Im still Felt Pelt.

Thanks, man. I’m fascinated by this filmmaker and his approach to filmmaking, so thanks for a little peek behind the curtain.

"Moriarty" out.