But the idea of transformation has always been something that I romanticize in a work. I’m cautious of it but I also need it to connect my thoughts with the process of making. That’s really important.
—
Nari Ward
Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich by Nic Roman
Part of the Editor's Choice series.
- Edward Said by Phillip Lopate
- Margaret Cezair-Thompson by Randall Kenan
- Laurie Anderson by Clifford Ross
- Peggy Shaw by Craig Lucas
- Judy Pfaff by Mimi Thompson
- Carlo Ginzburg by Archie Rand
- Raymond Pettibon by Grady T. Turner
- Errol Morris by Margot Livesey
Interviews
- Erwin Pfrang by Carroll Dunham
- Mala Iqbal: Figure Becomes Landscape by Roberto Juarez
- Melissa Marks by Betsy Sussler
- David Seidner (1957–1999) by Betsy Sussler
Artists on Artists
- Field Trips by Stuart Dybek
- Untitled by José Guadalupe Posada
- Writing Class, Inpatient Psychiatry, Adolescent Unit by Belle Waring
- Women’s Pantomime by Ben Marcus
- Fragments and Poems From the Ancient Greek by Brooks Haxton
- The Right to Rave by Eduardo Galeano
- The Duration of Hell by Jorge Luis Borges
- Thirteen Poems by Lydia Davis
- Firefly by Rebecca Wolff
First Proof
- Macy Gray’s On How Life Is by Rone Shavers
- Television’s The Blow-Up by David Krasnow
- Mike Marqusee’s Redemption Song by Lawrence Chua
- Lucy Ellman’s Man or Mango? by Minna Proctor
- Maggie Estep’s Soft Maniacs by Suzan Sheman
- Melissa Monroe’s Machine Language by Thomas Bolt
- Mark Jude Poirier’s Naked Pueblo by Jenifer Berman
- Mayra Montero’s The Messenger by Betsy Sussler
- Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich by Nic Roman
- Mark Illseley’s Happy, Texas by Lynn Geller
- Romance by Liza Béar
- The Acid House by Joshua Wolf Shenk
- Lyle Starr by Nicole Burdette
- Bruce Altshuler’s The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the 20th Century by Saul Ostrow
Editor's Choice
Orson Bean and Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Photograph by Melissa Moseley. Courtesy USA Films.
Fantasies of escape—from the doldrums, inadequacies, disappointments, alarm clocks, from the inevitability of the daily—take myriad form, most frequently geographical. To the seaside, to the mountains, to the suburbs, to Paris!
…What if the escape were more metaphysical? What if you had the chance to escape your identity and rather than reinvent yourself, you could simply take on the enviable identity of a rich, famous, smart, sexy person? What if there were an Alice in Wonderland portal that plummeted you into the body (and mind) of John Malkovich? It’s an irresistably preposterous premise. And first-time feature director Spike Jonze runs headlong into the web of its completely mental implications; his glamorous-gone-frumpy stars Cameron Diaz and John Cusack (only a make-over away from Malkovich in real life) driving the skin-hopping astral cart with unflinching conviction. Being John Malkovich is a big, fat, marvelous, escapist trip. To the rabbit hole!
—Nic Roman
Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, will be released this October by USA Films.
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“I want the movie to be a living thing. I like the mistakes. I encourage the actors to go off and improvise and improve upon their characters. I like it when it’s a bit chaotic.”
Featuring selections by Jaime Manrique, David Grubbs, Molly Surno, Lynn Melnick, Lucio Pozzi, and more.
Originally published in
BOMB 69,
Fall 1999
Featuring interviews with Errol Morris, Peggy Shaw, Laurie Anderson, Carlo Ginzburg, Raymond Pettibon, Judy Pfaff, Mellisa Marks, Edward Said, and Margaret Cezair-Thompson.
