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**PrinceOfCats** · 02-24-2008, 04:25 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="nycd"]I just watched La Jetée again - can't count the number of times I've watched this now.


All directors should be required to make a film entirely from stills. To be fair, they get one short shot with motion - as in this film.



But just one.[/quote]

When I started film studies two years ago, the lecturer made us watch Marker without sound pretty much straight after we'd all sat down in the seminar room for the first time. Half the class had changed course by the next week!

IIRC the camera pans twice in La jetée. It seems to me a moot point whether or not the eyelid actually 'opens'.

**Fuuma** · 02-25-2008, 05:18 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

Watched My blueberry nights last evening, I?ve been keeping abreast of the most recent releases from the pillars of pan-Asian cinema that are Wong-Kar-Wai, Takeshi Kitano and Johnny To so I?ll be drinking their idiosyncratic brand of cool-aid within the next few days.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Very quick review (who cares about the story, there?s some longing, some cigarette smoking and a road trip).<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The good<o:p></o:p>[/B]
· The first part is set in Jeremy?s (Jude Law) café and is a fine example of WKW creating his special brand of confined world inhabited by a limited cast of night-bound urban characters who create emotional connections by creating a common meaning out of the endless repetition of mundane gestures. The cinematographer helps further drive home this idea by using limited depth of field and playing up the cluttered world of the small café, a place that he wisely avoid displaying in full.<o:p></o:p>
· The cast delivers their lines with gusto and really understand the broad brushstrokes WKW uses to introduce a character, before he concentrates on peeling of the layers of complexity behind the façade. I won?t lie and say I didn?t think of Takeshi Kaneshiro in the Law role and Maggie Cheung as Norah Jones, who?s not stellar but is doing a serviceable job in her first starring role.<o:p></o:p>
· The bluesy soundtrack is nice and so are the blue font on black background intertitles used to mark the passage of time (and reference Godard).<o:p></o:p>
· There are guest appearances by a cast member of the Wire and Cat Power.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The bad<o:p></o:p>[/B]
· The montage and narration seem to have been streamlined to appeal to the widest-audience possible and avoid turning, twisting, fast-forwarding, replaying and cutting time to accurately reflect the subjective, mood-driven manner that governs temporality in the WKW universe (life as a languorous montage with most parts staying on the cutting floor). There are some moments where we get a glimpse of what could have been, notably during a fast-forwarded brawl in the café seen through a surveillance camera (the patented WKW cinematic reference).<o:p></o:p>
· The movie does not use the impressive sight of the great American outdoors in any meaningful way, Wim Wenders WKW is not.<o:p></o:p>
· The new cinematographer is obviously talented but plays it a little safe, I miss the go for broke bravura of Christopher Doyle.<o:p></o:p>
· Wanders the same territories as his usual movies but suffer by comparison and you can?t help but compare. I miss his good voice-overs, not many people can do that right.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The ugly<o:p></o:p>[/B]
· Stilted dialogue that is too literal and robs the characters of any possibility of accurately evoking the opacity of alterity.<o:p></o:p>

**Fuuma** · 02-25-2008, 05:20 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

Thread derail, I like this Marker photography book: http://www.amazon.com/Staring-Back-C...747&sr=8-2

Gave a copy to the dhonggger but not sure it's that fun for someone who's not a fan so buy at your own risk.

**Tiger** · 02-25-2008, 08:19 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

wonder if My Blueberry Nights will be showing in the states anytime soon...

**matthewhk** · 02-26-2008, 03:26 AM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

my biggest problem with My Blueberry Nights is how Wong's non-native English scriptwriting translated into awkward, choppy pacing in the dialogue. Agree w/ what Fuuma said about shooting American space, although the Vegas Natalie Portman segment was the one part I think was done quite well in the film. It basically carried over Wong's visual style and flair for musical backdrops into a Hollywood context (and if you consider the themes/characters, i guess you can say the film is a watered down WKW 101 for beginner audiences to his catalogue), but other than that it left me empty.

**Servo2000** · 02-26-2008, 04:19 AM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

I had no idea that Be Kind, Rewind was a Gondry film, which was disappointing since I was looking for generic comedy fluff and got Gondry instead.

**ddohnggo** · 02-26-2008, 11:23 AM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

i had never heard of this movie until a few days ago when someone said it wasn't that good. disappointing because i really like gondry's work with eternal sunshine, science of sleep, and all his music videos.

**Faust** · 02-26-2008, 11:26 AM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="Jun"]wonder if My Blueberry Nights will be showing in the states anytime soon...[/quote]

I can make you a DVD, if you want.

**philip nod** · 02-26-2008, 11:44 AM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="ddohnggo"]i had never heard of this movie until a few days ago when someone said it wasn't that good. disappointing because i really like gondry's work with eternal sunshine, science of sleep, and all his music videos.
[/quote]

there's a art gallery version at deitch projects up...ny times profiled it somewhere --- you can make your own movie in 2 hours using sets / props he's built. that sort of stuff never interests me

**Fuuma** · 02-26-2008, 12:14 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="philip nod"]

[quote user="ddohnggo"]i had never heard of this movie until a few days ago when someone said it wasn't that good. disappointing because i really like gondry's work with eternal sunshine, science of sleep, and all his music videos.
[/quote]

there's a art gallery version at deitch projects up...ny times profiled it somewhere --- you can make your own movie in 2 hours using sets / props he's built. that sort of stuff never interests me

[/quote]

I've never seen a Gondry movie...

**philip nod** · 02-26-2008, 12:21 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

you should check eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. its fantastic, and actually one of the few movies that makes me believe in, gasp, love.

**Faust** · 02-26-2008, 12:24 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="philip nod"]you should check eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. its fantastic, and actually one of the few movies that makes me believe in, gasp, love.
[/quote]

i liked it too, it's sweet without being sugary - a rarity.

**philip nod** · 02-26-2008, 12:27 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

and sometimes its hard not to fall in love w kate winslet. (w the exception of titanic)

**Faust** · 02-26-2008, 12:43 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="philip nod"]and sometimes its hard not to fall in love w kate winslet. (w the exception of titanic)
[/quote]

yes, in titanic one tends to fall in love with leonardo

**philip nod** · 02-26-2008, 12:52 PM

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

you took the words right out of my mouth[83]

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