Friedrich --

A hundred years ago, when I was an even bigger hick than I am now, and I loved the arts but knew zero about them, I used to imagine that if I could only meet the artists whose work I loved most, we’d hit it off instantly. How could we not connect when their work affected me on such a deep, personal level?

Then I spent years and years as an arts reporter, as well as living in the media and arts world, and I learned a sad fact – that sometimes you like the artists whose work you like and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes they strike you as real assholes. And that sometimes (even more of a shock) you hit it off really well with artists whose work you aren’t crazy about, and maybe even look down on.

My useless, grizzled-old-vet generalization: You just can’t know in advance.

Adrian Lyne: Drinking buddy

I was thinking about this tonight because the Wife and I rented the DVD of “Fatal Attraction” and watched it with the Adrian Lyne commentary track on. I never liked an Adrian Lyne movie. I thought he was facile, silly, commercial, all surfaces, a symbol of everything wrong, blah blah, froth froth…

Then, doing a story about something or other, I interviewed him for a good half hour and found him perfectly charming. And, wouldn’t you know it, on the “Fatal Attraction” DVD, he’s once again charming -- diffident, appreciative of everyone else’s contributions, generous to the performers, willing to laugh at himself and to confess to uncertainty. Maybe it’s all an act, but I’d still rather have a drink with him than I would with many artists whose work I love.

And thank god for “Unfaithful.” Have you seen it? Really brilliant, I thought: adult, subtle and amoral, open-ended and “objective” in the French fashion, fabulously performed, with moments of surprising visual poetry. Better than (and quite different from) the Chabrol picture it was based on.

Phew: now, if I ever do have a drink with him, I can tell him quite honestly how much I admire his work. And, hey, tonight “Fatal Attraction” looked pretty darn good.

Best,

Michael