It's a long time since I have been so transported, impressed and inspired by a film. There are so many things I love about everyone's work here that I simply don't know where to begin. Except to say that in my humble opinion, it really is a masterpiece. See it as soon as you can!
14 Comments
Martin
12/11/2011 07:32:35 am
I thought it was ever so slow. You can count a clear two seconds between every single line of dialogue. I know, because I got so bored in places I started doing it. If only it had been edited with a bit more variety of pace, without all those langeuse for 'acting', all placed with the same plodding rhythm then it might have been quite a sweet 90 minute movie. And I hated the 3D. I hate 3D full stop. Film is ALREADY three dimensional - in fact 2D film is inherently FOUR dimensional because it is a temporal medium. All 3D does is make the frame dark, give the viewer a headache, distract, and disorientate. And then when he started to use focus pulls, I thought 'Gordon Bennet, make your mind up'.
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Matthew
12/11/2011 08:15:14 am
Very interesting Martin. Thanks so much for responding here, hopefully you'll stimulate a heated debate! I respect your opinion.
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Martin
12/11/2011 08:52:09 am
No, I was going anyway because it was MS, and despite some lukewarm reviews in the Brit papers, that made it sound worthy but ultimately a bit dull, which I concurred with. Bits I liked? It looked pretty - but I would have preferred to have seen it in 2D. There's a view in the UK that 3D is on the way out, and I certainly hope so. I won't go and see 3D generally - preferring the 2D screenings of 3D films - and many people feel similarly. Indeed there have been a couple of movies recently where the 2D screenings have outsold the 3D The 3D is projected ok, it's just that it's a crappy technology that doesn't really work. There will always be ghosting around figures, and bits of 3D that simply don't equate with how the human eye works, and so all that does is wreck the visual clarity of the cinematography. I chose to see this in 3D because it wasn't retro fitted (like most 3D these days) and it was specifically designed for 3D by Scorcese.
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Matthew
12/13/2011 02:49:39 pm
Have you seen "The Artist" yet? Everyone's raving about that. It's meant to be good (won Cannes and all that) so I'm looking forward to it. Two movies about silent cinema, what does this mean?
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MArtin
12/15/2011 06:48:28 am
It means that people know that 3D is bogus - even though Hugo is in 3D - and they want to remind people of the fundamentals of cinema. Also note that The Artist and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights (which is sadly a disappointment) are both shot in the Academy ratio.
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Matthew
12/17/2011 07:24:48 am
(corrected)
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Smartartz
1/2/2012 03:34:24 am
I think Wuthering Heights is actually square.
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Matthew
1/2/2012 04:33:23 am
Is the acting square as well :) (I haven't seen it)
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Smartartz
1/2/2012 11:51:22 pm
No, far from it! It's Andrea Arnold so it's in the style of Fish Tank, but it's quite disappointing. I struggled with Heathcliffe saying: 'Fuck you, you cunts'. Not that he wouldn't have done, but it made me laugh, and I missed the next three minutes... also the older Cathy is miscast. But it's such an interesting take on a classic that it's definitely worth catching it if you can.
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Matthew
1/3/2012 12:15:21 am
I had no idea it's Andrea Arnold. She's wonderful. I often show Wasp to my students as a wonderful example of getting great performances in a short, and Fish Tank drew me in like the best of Ken Loach. To think of her doing Wuthering Heights ... Wow!
Smartartz
1/3/2012 01:22:56 am
Don't get too excited. There are a lot of disappointed AA fans around... it never really takes off, but it's a bold attempt. In some ways it reminded me most of Ken Loach's film of the Leon Garfield book Black Jack. But with lots of swearing.
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Smartartz
1/7/2012 08:43:11 pm
Went to see The Artist. Now THAT'S a coherent film about early cinema that tells a proper story rather than giving us a bleeding' lecture.
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Matthew
1/8/2012 04:51:54 am
Good point. I enjoyed it too, even though I was a little bit disappointed by how predictable the story was.
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Matthew
1/24/2012 11:15:02 am
"Hugo" 11 Academy Award Nominations and "The Artist" 10 nominations. How apt.
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