Dr. Jedidiah's Diary Episode #44. Director Leonhart

Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary

Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures. As a single father who lost his wife to drug overdose 10 years ago, he has not been his old perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world. Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or support groups for therapy. These people he has accidentally come across were the paths through which Dr. Jedidiah could look back on his own life, being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him with some food for thoughts in life….or a fodder to justify his own mistakes in the past.

 

 

Episode #44. Director Leonhart

He looked perfectly steezy when he stepped into my office a few years ago. As might be expected of people in the field of show biz, he had his own attitude somewhat condescending or free-wheeling like a scofflaw. Throwing his tired body onto the long couch next to my arm chair, He skipped formal greeting when we first met and said “Hey, I don’t like schmaltz kinda big hello. You know me, right? I’m the film director, Leonhart.”  I was like ‘Leonhart who?? Does this guy expect me to recognize him? Movie director? Gotta be a director of some unsung cheesy flicks.’

 

Leonhart had been directing horror films for 8 years, but all his movies had gained was no more than vituperation from critics and magazines. He felt frustrated and mad by the way his movies got panned. When I asked questions about what bothered him the most, Leonhard would say “What more do they expect from a horror flick? A bunch of wanton campers head out to an empty mansion through the path leading into deep woods, which is prohibited by the town or not recommended by the residents in the nearby area. The most reckless and pathetically courageous person in the group get killed first. The rest of the company get murdered one by one. And the most cautious chicken of all tend to survive the ordeal, and by the end of the movie come the stupid police officers to the rescue after the worst part has already taken place. Well… I know the audience and the critics enjoy the thrill on the edge of their seats, but they pretend this prefixed formula or elements of horror movies are not impressive enough to be a bloodcurdling spine-chillers.”  No offense, but each time he gave such a big talk, I’d put him down as just sour grapes inside of my mind. But one thing I knew for sure was that Leonhart had passion as a film director, which needed to be heard and rekindled by at least some horror flick aficionados who would see his movies sitting perfectly well with them.

 

After I had seen all his scary movies, I looked him in the eye and said what I truly felt about his pieces on our last office session. “Mr. Leonhart, you are right. The harsh critics who gave you acrimonious reviews must have been hiding their feelings about your movies under the guise of being an objective, logical movie evaluators. They talk about lack of verisimilitude in your films, but in actual life, things could happen out of the blue with no reason or predictable backgrounds. How would one explain those ineffable phenomena in life?”

 

When Leonhart won the best horror film director of the year, I saw him on TV, sending me a huge smile from the pedestal while giving his acceptance speech. Looked like he seemed finally able to assuage his rage and frustration as an undiscovered artist and get across his idea that “Horror story is life with less horrible nightmares cut out. I would like to thank my friend J for encouraging me to dream more and more nightmares that I’d embody on the screen.”

 

Expressions

    1.  steezy: (slang) easily stylish; exhibiting style with ease

    2.  free-wheeling: in a relaxed or casual way without making much effort

    3.  scofflaw: someone who flouts the law by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively

    4.  schmaltz: (Yiddish) excessive sentimentality

    5.  cheesy: cheap; of low quality

    6.  vituperation: bitter/ abusive language

    7.  to be panned: to be severely criticized

    8.  bloodcurdling: causing terror or horror

    9.  spine-chiller: a work of fiction that induces fear or nervousness

    10.  to put someone down as…: to insult or belittle someone as ….

    11.  sour grapes: someone who pretends to despise something because he/she cannot achieve or obtain or have it

    12.  aficionado: a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about something

    13.  to sit well with someone: to be acceptable to someone   

    14.  verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real

    15.  ineffable: inexpressible/ inexplicable

    16.  to assuage: to lessen the intensity of something