Spike Spiegel

Spike Spiegel

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The Best of Spike Jonze on Satellite TV

American director/actor/producer Spike Jonze ne Adam Spiegel got his start in the film business directing music videos and commercials. He was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Achievement in Commercials in 2005. He founded Dirt Magazine and worked as a photographer for several skateboarding outlets. He formed a dance group under an alternate persona called Richard Koufey. Currently, he’s creative director of VBS.tv. Here’s a look at his films and videos, which have all aired on satellite TV.

How They Get There: This is an early piece by Jonze. It’s actually a short film in which a woman and a milk carton and a man get into an awkward situation. There are only four cast members and the film lasts three minutes.

Amarillo by Morning: This is another short, this time a documentary. It follows, in one afternoon, two teenagers who aspire to be cowboys.

Torrance Rises: Jonze directed, wrote and acted in this short film. It’s a mockumentary of Jonze’s work with his self styled dance group and their work for Fatboy Slim’s song Praise You.

Being John Malkovich: This was Jonze’s breakout movie. It also marked the beginning of the director’s collaboration with writer Charlie Kaufman. Making its debut in 1999, Being John Malkovich touches on themes of being, self, perception and absurdity. In the movie, John Cusack, a puppeteer called Craig Schwartz, discovers a portal into the actor John Malkovich’s head. Anyone who goes inside the portal gets to be the actor, see what he sees, feel what he feels, etc, for 15 minutes, after which they are tossed onto the New Jersey turnpike. John Malkovich plays himself, incidentally. Schwartz decides to start a business out of this portal with his coworker, Maxine, played by Catherine Keener. A love triangle between Maxine, Lotte, Schwartz’s pet obsessed wife played by a frizzy haired Cameron Diaz, and also, to an extent John Malkovich, evolves. The movie was well received by audiences and critics alike. It often airs in HD on satellite TV.

Adaptation: Following on the success of Being John Malkovich, Jonze again paired up with writer Charlie Kaufman to direct this 2002 movie. It’s another sort of high definition meta-film, a meditation on being and self and the creative process. Adaptation stars Nicolas Cage as the twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman (Charlie is supposed to be the writer of the movie). The movie follows the Kaufman brothers as they try to write a script for the Orchid Thief, a novel. Charlie is recruited to adapt the book during the filming of Malkovich; there’s a lot of self referential moments. In fact, the film is highly reflexive, looking back on itself, the art of writing and making films in general. Critics loved the movie as did audiences. Spike Jonze got an Oscar nom, as did Kaufman, Cage, and Meryl Streep who plays Susan Orleans, the author of the Orchid Thief.

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Hard Time Killing the Blues: The Spike Spiegel Song



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Spike Spiegel