UCLA Sneak Screening of "Nobel Son" - November 25th, 2008
So, last Tuesday, November 25th, there was a free sneak screening of "Nobel Son," which was only open to current UCLA students.  Afterwards, Alan Rickman and Randall Miller answered questions.

Here is my recap of the evening, including my pictures of the event.

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We were in line at 5:00 p.m., and the staff let us in at about 7:50 p.m. We run up the stairs and streak across the ballroom to the first seats we could get. Movie trivia begins after about 150-200 people are seated. The questions include, "Alan Rickman was and is going to star in two movies with Johnny Depp. What are the movies?" (Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland) and "What other film did Randall Miller direct that also stars Alan Rickman?" (Bottle Shock). One of the questions included which year the first Nobel prize was given (1901). D. got a prize (Love Guru t-shirt and Bolt poster) for correctly answering a question.

The movie screening begins. It was an enjoyable movie. Parts of it is utterly hilarious. The editing of the film leaves you feeling disjointed and pieced together, fragmented, which reflects the storyline thematically, but also is also ironically paradoxical.. The colors are vivid, with gory parts and fantastic details, almost hyperrealistic in a way, and the actors are all quite good, music ranged between electronic and instrumental, the screenplay was witty and hysterical, and overall, I give this movie a 3 out of 4 stars. It was quite entertaining, and I enjoyed it. Go out and see it when it is released on December 5th.

Alan Rickman's character is an egocentric and socially inept philanderer, and Alan Rickman's portrayal of him is wonderful and completely convincing.

The audience seemed to enjoy the movie. Lots of laughs were had, as well as moans of disgust.

Afterwards, Randall Miller and Alan Rickman came to the front of the room.



The audience was definitely excited. There was a hum of nerves in the room, and people readied their cameras. I was self-conscious about my big camera, and being in the front row with my bright flash, but whatever, I was here to get some good pictures. I sparingly took pictures.

The first few questions from the audience had nothing to do with the movie. A girl wanted Mr. Rickman to say hi to her mom, another girl asked about the end of "Love Actually" and whether Alan's character and Emma Thompson's character had reconciled. Mr. Rickman asked her, "well, what do you think?" and the girl started rambling about the scene at length. It was cute, she was obviously nervous, and she just kept talking about the scene for about two minutes straight, and when she was done, we were all kind of laughing at her, and Mr. Rickman said, "Well, looks like you answered your own question." Someone else asked him why he seems to be playing "mean" characters, and we all kind of groaned at that question. Mr. Rickman said that she (the audience member) probably did not see some of his movies. Another audience member asked whether JK Rowling had informed Mr. Rickman on Snape's true loyalties and what was revealed in Book 7. Mr. Rickman gave his standard answer, that he does not like to talk about it until everyone has had a chance to learn about the story themselves (i.e. after part 2 of movie #2 is released). But the person pressed him and wanted a "yes or no" answer. Mr. Rickman was reluctant, but said "no." Interesting...

Finally, some questions about the movie. I stopped cringing when some really interesting questions came from the audience, ranging from the music choices, to what the director and Mr. Rickman would have done differently. "Awws" came from the audience when Mr. Rickman said he does not like to watch his own movies.

Mr. Rickman really took his time to answer questions in depth. He talked about Randall Miller's work and efforts in getting this movie made, that he was constantly on the phone with everyone from catering to advertisors to fund raisers. He talked about the freedom of acting in an independent film, and how it is different from studio films like Harry Potter.

Randall Miller talked about how he managed to get a massive poster for Bottle Shock installed on the building by the side of the 405 by buying the workers and employees sandwiches, and how the La Puente Mall was the only mall that allowed them to shoot the car chase scene within it. He said that the mall was actually open that day, and the car was actually going about 40 mph with a person driving it in a reclined position. He talked about why he chose cannibalism for Barkley's thesis, and that it was his wife's roommate's thesis at college. He talked about how Alan's character, Professor Eli Michaelson, is actually based on his father, who was a UCLA professor.

More pictures from the Q&A follows: 















Mr. Rickman and Mr. Miller finished answering the last question (I think the second to last question was from our friend D. who asked, "What would you have done differently in retrospect?" to which Mr. Miller answered that there wasn't much he would have done differently, perhaps he would have liked to put Alan Rickman in more rock n' roll t-shirts, and Mr. Rickman said he wouldn't have done anything differently.

When Mr. Rickman and Mr. Miller turned to walk to the left...for a few milliseconds I was waiting to see what would happen. No one had left their seats. The whole auditorium seemed to be quiet. Then a mob gathered around Mr. Rickman. It all happened quite quickly.





I just started snapping pictures. So I got all of these pictures of Mr. Rickman gesturing to people, and random fans standing by him waiting for their picture to be taken.



At some point, Mr. Rickman was trying to organize the crowd, saying, "well, why don't I  get up here and we can take one group photo" (and he climbed the steps). 

Below: here is he on top of the steps, and he's gesturing to people to join him to take one big group photo. Of course, no one was really listening to him.



After a few minutes, I turned to leave, and this was what the mob looked like from afar. This actually wasn't the whole picture, just a small portion of it. He was really very gracious and tried his best for everyone, but I assume at some point, some handlers came and helped him get out of there.