The Social: The Price of Truth, the follow-up to The Social Network, arrived quietly and turned out to be a flop; Aaron Sorkin is fully aware of it, having written both films (earning an Oscar for the first) and even taking on the directing role for the second installment, since Fincher was tied up with Netflix. A guest on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Sorkin proved to be remarkably frank about his own work.
Aaron Sorkin and Directing: “I Think I Don’t Have a Visual Sensibility”
Although it was the follow-up to The Social Network (2010), a film written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, which with a budget of $40 million grossed over $220 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo), The Social: The Price of Truth, written and directed by Sorkin, for the same budget stopped at not even 17. A real disaster for the fourth directorial outing of one of the most acclaimed American screenwriters. Despite already having substantial experience behind the camera, having summoned the nerve with Molly’s Game (2017), Aaron is tempted to admit to himself a rather bitter truth: “There is a large part of me that feels I entered the world of cinema just minutes ago, and there are many things I still don’t know.” Sometimes screenwriting students ask me: can the art of screenwriting be taught? And I answer: there are parts of writing screenplays—important parts—that can be taught and learned, but this does not apply to others. And which are they? They typically fall under what we call talent. I am very concerned: the parts of directing where I am not good are probably the ones that cannot be learned. […] I don’t want to stop working with great directors, but with them I would have been truly distracted not to learn anything. […] I’m surprised at how little directing craft I’ve managed to absorb. I think I lack a visual sensibility.”
These words may read as a concession and a retreat to pure screenwriting, but at the last moment Sorkin leaves a door open: “There are things I’m doing well. Give me one more chance and one of these days I’ll manage to find the right balance.”
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