Rian Johnson Fakes It for The Brothers Bloom
Sometimes being a good writer-director requires being a great actor
By Rian Johnson
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/rian_johnson_the_brothers_bloom_faking_it_brick_20090514/
There’s a machine which, in the back of my mind, I always assumed existed. It’s called “The Legitimizor.” Housed in a lead casing, tangled in rubberized wiring and tesla coils askew, kept in the basement of an unassuming restaurant in New York, The Legitimizor hums with a solid low-range frequency and waits for its one purpose. Each year, sometime after Sundance, a new crop of moviemakers is invited by a mysterious engraved postcard to this restaurant. They are met by (for some reason) Peter Bogdanovich, who makes small talk over drinks, then leads them downstairs and feeds them, one by one, into The Legitimizor.