One Hour Photo
Clay Waldrop
performance by Robin Williams. There's some Kubrick-like scenes
therein, too: several tracking shots that follow Williams down long
corridors (a la PoG) and a few symmetric and near-symmetric shots.
Clay
s_o_keefe
other directors are allowed to make sterile, symmetrical cinematography
without it being noted as a homage to SK. Cronenweth is certainly a
wonderful DP...his father was the cinematographer of "Blade Runner",
BTW.
I liked Robin William's work, and the other performers' work, quite a
bit, but I found "One Hour Photo" far too contrived. It felt very much
like the work of a first filmmaker (it may have been Romanek's first
feature). (SPOILERS AHEAD) The setup that the Will Yorkin's 'other
woman', Maya, would be taking pictures during a secret(?) affair was a
bit too much, then compounded when she used the same photo lab as Will's
wife, Nina. Maybe if another photo lab in the department store chain
had broken down or closed at that time it would have made that
contrivance more acceptable. Then there was the issue of Sy's having
followed the family through their photos for years, yet the buildup of
events occurred over what seemed like a few weeks. Likewise, the store
manager noticing the click counts in the photo processor - during these
weeks - seemed calculated. Perhaps Sy could have accidentally wrecked
the Agfa photo machine instead, bringing the repairman's words of
"spouting fire" full circle, and lending more spontaneity to Sy's
termination? It would have felt less contrived if the events that led up
to Sy's breakdown would have occurred over the years, or
seasons...easily done with some seasonal in-store set dressing. The
dream sequences were also forced and botched surrealism. The FBI's first
examining Sy's hotel room, instead of Will and Maya's hotel room,
without police support, was very odd - especially when their goal was
protecting Will and Nina from harm after they couldn't be reached. This
may also seem like nit-picking, but when you have a film that evolves at
a moderate pace, leaving lots of time to think about the flow of events,
the plot logic really has to be tight. These things can be
inexpensively handled at the script stage. "One Hour Photo" really
needed to feel naturally spontaneous and less "concept" IMHO.
More than these contrivances, it may have been better not to start the
mood music when we learn Sy has a picture collection of the Yorkin
family. Is it that bizarre that a lonely single man would find some
cute baby pictures in the day's photo batch, and begin collecting them
as the kids grow older? Perhaps if the original setup had of been
played for some emotion and made him initially warm, then events
gradually (over seasons) twisting his collection into a coveted
obsession, his arc could have played in a more natural way. I really
thought there would be more revelation in his final "confession" scene
to the detective than Sy's innuendo implied. There was just too little
background on Sy to become interested in why he preferred to look at
life through the Yorkin's world. Great acting, but the film was a let
down.
My $.02
Regards,
Steve
pitch audio
An excellent movie. I just wanted to point out something I noticed
right away in this film that's similar to Kubrick. The chairs in the
interrogation room have this 'molded' style and are blood red, and the
room itself (including Sy for that matter) is completely white. An
obvious reference to 2001.
Also, those tracking shots down the aisles of the pharmacy were
genius. Did you guys notice that the Steadicam operator was the same
one on Eyes Wide Shut (Elizabeth Ziegler). Just a bit of cool
trivia...
GS George
kdc
"pitch audio" <pitch...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1d7cd7e7.02090...@posting.google.com...
Director Mark Romanek has said, "I think I've always been drawn to these
giant, overlit, consumer emporiums that are open twenty-four hours. There's
something very Kubrick about them; they seem to be such a surreal
environment to me." (from July/August 2002 'Creative Screenwriting')
iHĞ
>An excellent movie. I just wanted to point out something I noticed
>right away in this film that's similar to Kubrick. The chairs in the
>interrogation room have this 'molded' style and are blood red, and the
>room itself (including Sy for that matter) is completely white. An
>obvious reference to 2001.
>
>Also, those tracking shots down the aisles of the pharmacy were
>genius. Did you guys notice that the Steadicam operator was the same
>one on Eyes Wide Shut (Elizabeth Ziegler). Just a bit of cool
>trivia...
>
>GS George
Dang. I hope you're right -- I mean I hope I agree with your
assessment. You guys don't know how irritating it is for us poor
deprived euro-spenders to have to wait months and months and months
and... to see the latest US films. So important is it to the studios
to keep us safely apart, they even created a DVD region specially for
us! (Yes, you can watch movies on your little screens that we're
still waiting to see on the -- nowadays ever-more relatively -- big
screen.)
Thank goodness for the convention of "SPOILERS AHEAD".
pitch audio
> Director Mark Romanek has said, "I think I've always been drawn to these
> giant, overlit, consumer emporiums that are open twenty-four hours. There's
> something very Kubrick about them; they seem to be such a surreal
> environment to me." (from July/August 2002 'Creative Screenwriting')
I couldn't agree more! Every time I walk into a CVS or Rite-Aid
(that's what we have around here, I dont know about others across the
country), I can't resist taking a few Kubrickesque snapshots of the
place--even though taking photos in such stores is forbidden. I'd
like to meet this guy Romanek, he sounds like the type you could
discuss consumerism and pop culture for hours.
GS George
Philip Sondericker
NOSPAM...@attbi.com wrote on 9/3/02 7:46 PM:
I've been meaning to ask someone who's seen "One Hour Photo"--how similar is
it to "Red Dragon"? I know, the film of the book won't be released until
next month, but Thomas Harris's novel is about a lonely psychopath who works
at a film developing laboratory and spends his days living vicariously
through the families in the photographs and home movies he develops.
mathew
iH? <talk...@talk21.com> wrote:
> You guys don't know how irritating it is for us poor
> deprived euro-spenders to have to wait months and months and months
> and... to see the latest US films.
Yeah, but on the other hand you got to see Eyes Wide Shut in the
cinemas, which we still haven't. (I finally gave in and ordered it on
Region 3 DVD...)
mathew
--
Journal and other stuff at <URL:http://www.pobox.com/~meta/>
Boaz
> I also notices some Kubrick-esque compositions but, by the same token,
> other directors are allowed to make sterile, symmetrical cinematography
> without it being noted as a homage to SK. Cronenweth is certainly a
> wonderful DP...his father was the cinematographer of "Blade Runner",
> BTW.
I agree with you here, Steve. It seems whenever anyone uses wide angle
lenses, a sterile white environment and tracking shots it's
automatically considered "Kubrickian." However, I think Romanek *was*
trying to go for Kubrick like shots in this film, including slow
zooms, both reverse and forward. But he also seemed to want to try for
Hitchcockian themes and visuals, which he didn't succeed in doing
either. It was almost as if one canceled the other out. But, then, the
script did that as well.
I agree here too, Steve. I saw this with a friend tonight, and we both
agreed the script was weak and needed a couple of rewrites. And the
things you pointed out above were similar to what we noticed as well.
The argument between the parents seemed by-the-numbers and didn't
offer much insight that we didn't already figure out ourselves. The
alienation the boy was feeling was never developed, and it was almost
forgotten by the film's end. I was almost expecting a kind of "Shadow
of a Doubt" effect of the kindly photo lab technician bonding with the
lonely, frustrated boy, but that never really developed. In fact, for
a film that dealt so much about photography there was very little in
the story itself that seemed to develop properly.
I don't know if this is Romanek's first film or not, but it does seem
to suffer from some of the mistakes first time directors tend to make.
The dream scene is "botched surrealism," and seems to be a mix of
Bergman and Bunuel without an understanding of Jung. There is also the
obligatory "movie scene," where a scene from a classic film (in this
case, "The Day the Earth Stood Still") is watched by the protagonist,
as an attempt by the director to help explain his themes and subtext,
but too often becomes a distraction, and here it only made me think
about digging out a copy as soon as I got home to watch instead of
seeing where it connected with the story.
> More than these contrivances, it may have been better not to start the
> mood music when we learn Sy has a picture collection of the Yorkin
> family. Is it that bizarre that a lonely single man would find some
> cute baby pictures in the day's photo batch, and begin collecting them
> as the kids grow older? Perhaps if the original setup had of been
> played for some emotion and made him initially warm, then events
> gradually (over seasons) twisting his collection into a coveted
> obsession, his arc could have played in a more natural way. I really
> thought there would be more revelation in his final "confession" scene
> to the detective than Sy's innuendo implied. There was just too little
> background on Sy to become interested in why he preferred to look at
> life through the Yorkin's world. Great acting, but the film was a let
> down.
>
> My $.02
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve
It almost was like a TV movie, something that one would find on the
Lifetime Network, instead of being worthy of a theatrical feature. On
the other hand, the other Robin Williams-as-psycho-role he played in
"Insomnia" was a much better film, far superior to this one, with
Williams and Pacino giving great performances, and it had a strong
story as well, something this sorely lacked.
I think one of the reasons posts came up discussing the "Kubrick-like"
techniques the film had was that there was so little to be involved
with in terms of a story that one couldn't help notice the mechanics
of its production.
> Clay Waldrop wrote:
>
> > "One Hour Photo" is a really fine movie with a spectacularly creepy
> > performance by Robin Williams. There's some Kubrick-like scenes
> > therein, too: several tracking shots that follow Williams down long
> > corridors (a la PoG) and a few symmetric and near-symmetric shots.
> >
> > Clay
See what I mean?
Boaz
Rod Ramsey
"Boaz" <boa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> I don't know if this is Romanek's first film or not, but it does seem
> to suffer from some of the mistakes first time directors tend to make.
It's his second feature, I think. Something called "Static" in the distant
past. This is probably hist first feature with something resembling a real
budget, however.
He's primarily known for his music videos, and in fact he was probably the
best video director around at one time. He's got stacks of awards for his
work with Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc.
I think his visual style is about as good as it gets. I think his story
sense needs a little boosting here and there, but considering the music
video background, he's miles ahead of others who made the transition.
Fincher is maybe a bit better, but then he doesn't write his material.
I'm also pretty sure he's a Kubrick fan ;-).
Rod
Gordon Dahlquist
seeing that he occasionally posts here, it wouldn't be a surprise.
Rod Ramsey
"Gordon Dahlquist" <gd...@columbia.edu> wrote in message
> > I'm also pretty sure he's a Kubrick fan ;-).
>
>
> seeing that he occasionally posts here, it wouldn't be a surprise.
>
Well, I wasn't going to say it if he didn't ;-)