4 posts tagged “film”
Two young psychos come to borrow some eggs from a couple in a gated resort community and exact torture on the family over the next 12 hours.
It gets pretty gruesome.
The cinematography is good early HD - low lighting with few highlights to blow out, but with some long takes that take advantage of the medium. What's interesting is how bad this good example looks now, as HD has begun to come into it's own as a viable medium. You can see this on television in shows like 'Nip/Tuck'.
The lack of breathing room in wide shots is sorely missing. So much so that, when we finally get a wide shot of a house during a brief escape attempt, it's refreshing.
But, I would say that the composition is spot-on, with no noticeable mistakes to speak of.
I'm surprised that it's being remade by Haneke himself, and, more surprisingly, for an American audience. I'm not sure that there's any point to it, and it seems rather shallow by this rather thoughful filmmaker. Although, he does like thumbing his nose at his own kind- namely middle class suburbanites, and one can easily make the assumption that he would relish the opportunity to do the same to some quote-unquote Americans.
If he shoots again on HD, it will be interesting to see if he uses more contrast, maintains the longer takes, or goes more 'American.'
The DP also shot 'The Time of the Wolf' which I thought was masterfully done.
One of Bresson's earlier films, it again holds it's hero closely, more so than before with Diary of a Country Priest, I think. One of the first things you notice is that Bresson isn't going to show us what we expect, and we won't know what to expect becuase of it - it immediately gets us off balance. All we see of a robbery is the dough, all we know about the heroes back story is that it was something remarkable. The hero is moving deftly through our emotional audience, picking up what he wanst, his technique is his only exposure. He shows us how its done, and that's about all we get.
Until the third act, when we finally get what really made this sociopath tic. SPOILERS- He wanted nothing more than to succeed on some level for his mother, impress the girl and make good. It wasn't just a life of thievery that led him astray, but one of false philosophy. He was a psuedo intellectual with a desire to stay away from society.
But, like all the smart ones, he wanted to dare them to catch him and we all know how that ends.
But, he gets his love in a way in the end, and it's all hopeful and stuff.
Again, we stick with the medium shots and close ups. Bresson always plays it close to the chest it seems. His most dramatic framings seem to be the crowded long shot and the filled wide shot in an interior. Mostly, it's medium close and two shot wide.
The lighting stuck with hard contrast and naturalistic. In the black and white with the simple camera moves, it worked. I can see where Harneke and Jarmusch are influenced by him. It is fun to watch a smart man get turned around, here it's largely his own doing, but you can feel the desolation of the economic world hanging on this smart, young man's shoulders. He got dug into the dumb trenches, he comes home, a supposed smarty and can't eat unless he figures something out.
But, he ends up with the good blue collar girl who wasn't in love 'enough' with his straight-shooting pal.
I'm looking forward to more from Bresson, but up next is "Funny HA HA" a little DIY indie I've heard a lot about.
FLOG- Really just thoughts for me that I'm sharing. Not to be read as any sort of 'film writing' or criticism.
Bresson does it again. It's a shame that this filmmaker is so well known to critics and scholars and filmschool kids (sometimes) and not to more film story lovers. Anyway, again camera movement that's decades ahead of it's time, tight, complex moves that keep the focus on the hero. Contrasty lighting, big sources. Again, the focus is always on the hero. It's a simple story - a man imprisoned in a German jail plans to escape. What makes this such a good movie is how well Bresson keeps us focused on the story of the escape. It's been done a hundred times since, but here, we never leave his face.
My ability to complete a coherent thought is leaving me. He keeps us focused on the moral dilemmas as well as the physical risks involved. He has us asking "what's going to happen next?" when we know that all he's going to try to do is escape. It's really great minimalist story telling. Writers of all kind would be wise to watch and learn. I'm impressed.
FLOG- Really just thoughts for me that I'm sharing. Not to be read as any sort of 'film writing' or criticism.
Claustrophobic witch-hunt. The camera movement that you wouldn't see in hllywd for decades. Big, single source lighting and almost entirely medium close-up. What makes it great? Tragedy that survives the ages, storytelling of a kind that we rarely get to see done well. ***********SPOILER ALERT*************** When the main character, the hero, dies in a movie, it's always difficult to make the audience feel that sense of relief, expulsion you feel at the end of a really good story. It gets tried frequently, notice the number of remakes of 'Joan of Arc'. But, with rare exception, tragedy fails. Here, I think it succeeds. Why? Not necessarily because the priest is likeable, but because we can see ourselves in his heroic shoes. He has set out to save someone who might not deserve it, whom we certainly believe won't accept it and who then dies saved, completing a rare success in the priest's life. esp. this one. That Bresson is able to hold our attention - with some investment early on, to be sure - is remarkable. It breaks many rules of film story-telling. Voice over, death of the hero, passive first-person narration. But, where it succeeds is in keeping it about fighting the good fight. One man against the onslaught of small town small-mindedness. That's something we all aspire to, to be wiling to die in the fight for justice.
