11 Questions: Jan Peters
interview by Brent Cole
(Excerpt)
What was the last great movie you saw and what was so good about it?
“Her” was fantastic, but I want to tell you about “Dean Spanley.” Based on an adaptation of Irish author Lord Dunsany’s short novel My Talks With Dean Spanley, it stars Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam, Peter O’Toole, and Bryan Brown. Set in Edwardian England, it’s about a struggling father and son relationship and O’Toole is transcendent. He is so d**n “right” about everything but belligerent as h**l. Anyway, they go to hear a swami talk about reincarnation and end up meeting the Dean Spanley.
From there it becomes what was to me an incredibly insightful and moving story of how a dog might really tell his story, and of how humans can be moved to change in most unexpected ways. Not a single wasted word in the dialogue of the entire film. It’s less of a treatise on reincarnation than on human relationships, stubbornness, pain, revelation, and healing. “Only a closed mind can be certain,” said the Dean.
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. (Charles M. Schulz)
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