Topos Books

The dispute between screenwriters and Hollywood producers centres on how writers should be compensated for their work when it appears on DVD or the Internet. Since the talks between the two parts have come to an impasse the strike of writers goes on for almost two months now.
Here you may see a film, Speechless, a creation for the cause of writers, that has a symbolic value of its own: In black and white, with voice off, minimal, almost abstract, it's a creation that has nothing to do with the Hollywood entertainment industry.
As if, for once, now that vital rights are at stake, the creators of soap operas and sex / crime b movies realize the importance of being truthful, touchable, vulnerable, which wants to say: real and not simply realistic. And, by realizing this they realize at the same time that their «Art» has to draw inspiration from the European cinema (which in its poetic, more human style, uses the techniques of voice off, of the black and white etc). However just and fair the cause of the screenwriters might be, the fact illustrated by this «artistic» video is in itself absolutely ironic.
Just think of it: An American film, made in the style of a Godard, an Antonioni, a Venders or a Lars von Trier, AND, what is more, not intentioned for the box office! Even if the ultimate inspiration has its core in the need to cash more money, the irony of THAT AMERICAN ANTI-HOLLYWOODEAN PRODUCTION is astounding! In this context it should be nominated as the best American film of the year!

Our readers should have a close look to a comic created on the same subject (it has appeared on a major american newspaper). It is, in its way, supporting our argument.