Merits of Neo-Realism
Sneelock
A.I.
Speilberg.
bla bla bla
Wordsmith
We thought you were going to launch into a lenghty tract on *The
Bicycle Thief*.
Wordsmith :)
Sneelock
> We thought you were going to launch into a >lenghty tract on *The Bicycle Thief*.
Happy to oblige!
In my opinion no finer film came ot of the....
Ooops!
Spilled my highball.
Maybe later.
Ray Milland
Winston Castro
wrote:
It's interesting you mention that film with the current tirades
about A.I. and SS taking place on here.
'The Bicycle Thief' was done (shot) in a very unsentimental and a
very detached manner, (one might even call it cold) yet it's probably
one of the most moving films ever done and one would need a heart made
of 'rail-road steel' not to experience some fairly intense emotion
when seeing it. I think Kubrick understood this approach more than SS
does, the audience doesn't need violins in the background and rays of
sunshine beaming down on the characters to express feeling or emotion,
the events happening on screen, if done well enough, take care of
that.
SS might as well provide those small lamps they using during
television taping that state "laugh now" for audiences, only changing
them to read "cry now" or "feel sad now".
SS's approach comes off as being way too trite.
M4RV1N
writes:
> It's interesting you mention that film with the current tirades
>about A.I. and SS taking place on here.
>
> 'The Bicycle Thief' was done (shot) in a very unsentimental and a
>very detached manner, (one might even call it cold) yet it's probably
>one of the most moving films ever done and one would need a heart made
>of 'rail-road steel' not to experience some fairly intense emotion
>when seeing it. I think Kubrick understood this approach more than SS
>does, the audience doesn't need violins in the background and rays of
>sunshine beaming down on the characters to express feeling or emotion,
>the events happening on screen, if done well enough, take care of
>that.
Nice observation. The most powerful emotional experience I've had with a film
(as an adult at least), is in the final scene in "Barry Lyndon" where
Bullingdon tries to comfort his mother by squeezing her hand. A lesser
director (in fact the vast majority of directors) would have taken the cliche
and overbearing tactic of a close-up on the hands. Kubrick's shows us their
faces, both trying to hide their thoughts and feelings--making us >think< and
feel at the same instant, and carefully using the music and the lighting to do
so.
This is more powerful than the forced emotion in all of Spielberg's films
combined, and why superficial and ignorant critics who talko of emotional
coldness in Kubrick films are like kids whose ears have been destroyed by heavy
metal, trying to listen to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and saying they can't
hear any music going on.
<stepping down off my soapbox for today>
>
> SS might as well provide those small lamps they using during
>television taping that state "laugh now" for audiences, only changing
>them to read "cry now" or "feel sad now".
>
>SS's approach comes off as being way too trite.
It often is, but he can create a subtle moment if he wants to. The scene where
the mother receives notification of her son's death in "Private Ryan" is an
example. Don't look for any in "E T."
The most sophisticated director (living) in terms of handling emotion right now
is probably Atom Egoyan, IMO.
Mark Ervin
Wordsmith
Yes, the way she is photographed in silhouette was a lovely touch.
She sees the car driving up, loses her balance in anticipation of the
inevitable and falls. I wish SS would use such nuances more often.
> The most sophisticated director (living) in terms of handling emotion right now
> is probably Atom Egoyan, IMO.
Egoyan's a poet with a camera.
Wordsmith :)
> Mark Ervin
Gregg V. Carroll
> The most sophisticated director (living) in terms of handling emotion right
> now is probably Atom Egoyan, IMO.
He did some really wonderful work with Sweet Hereafter. Kubrickian in the
composition of shots too, some long holding shots in there as well, if I
recall correctly. Also one of the few non-Kubrick films in which I think the
V.O.s are done exceptionally well and aren't intrusive.
- Gregg
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| http://www.outplace.net/gregg/ gr...@outplace.net |
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Tobasco
M4RV1N wrote
> Nice observation. The most powerful emotional experience I've had with a
film
> (as an adult at least), is in the final scene in "Barry Lyndon" where
> Bullingdon tries to comfort his mother by squeezing her hand. A lesser
> director (in fact the vast majority of directors) would have taken the
cliche
> and overbearing tactic of a close-up on the hands. Kubrick's shows us
their
> faces, both trying to hide their thoughts and feelings--making us >think<
and
> feel at the same instant, and carefully using the music and the lighting
to do
> so.
>
> This is more powerful than the forced emotion in all of Spielberg's films
> combined, and why superficial and ignorant critics who talko of emotional
> coldness in Kubrick films are like kids whose ears have been destroyed by
heavy
> metal, trying to listen to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and saying they
can't
> hear any music going on.
>
The writer of the Salon article on Osment posted elsewhere on the ng, (I
gave up trying to keep up with A1 threads around here), noted
" The film has difficulties telling us what to feel, because Spielberg
himself dosen't know what to feel at several points" sic
Interesting that the reviewer considers that she should be told what to feel
by
-any- film. That a didactic nature of exposition is considered a priori in
the experiencing of art. Which is not to say that SS track record would not
indicate that this kind of pandering to an audience's expectations is not de
riguer in his canon, and that the writer may very well be pointing a change
in course when this approach is lacking in A1. However, she uses this as
criteria for an evaluation of the effect of the film.
"Can't you people just FEEL anything?!"
D.T. Suzuki to a group of western academics who >would not - could not<
refrain from analytically intellectualizing the simple experience of a
one-shot sitting in Zazen, using a Bassho Haiku as focus point. Suzuki -
completely exasperated at this time, I'd add.
All this linking to SK's quote of the "feel vs think of it" and my own
misgivings regarding a culture that requires it's art to provide an
emotional map as in so many technical manuscripts supporting an industrial
procedure.
Literally so - so literally...
Is it safe?
Tobasco
M4RV1N
writes:
>> >SS's approach comes off as being way too trite.
>>
>> It often is, but he can create a subtle moment if he wants to. The scene
>where
>> the mother receives notification of her son's death in "Private Ryan" is an
example.
>
>Yes, the way she is photographed in silhouette was a lovely touch.
>She sees the car driving up, loses her balance in anticipation of the
>inevitable and falls. I wish SS would use such nuances more often.
I think what's frustrating at times about Spielberg is that he is capable.
There are scenes in "Sugarland Express," "Empire of the Sun" and even in "Jaws"
that are truthful observations about humanity delivered with fine artistry.
Sometimes it seems like this Spielberg is squashed under the hippopotamus of
boxoffice blockbuster expectations.
>> The most sophisticated director (living) in terms of handling emotion right
>now
>> is probably Atom Egoyan, IMO.
>
>Egoyan's a poet with a camera.
And with actors and performances. I was very disappointed that he tripped up
on "Felecia's Journey" but hopefully he'll be back on track with his next film.
Mark Ervin
Holderlin
> > is probably Atom Egoyan, IMO.
>
> Egoyan's a poet with a camera.
>
I've seen every one of Egoyan's films and find them all (that's every
single one, in toto) to be trite, obvious, often laughable attempts to
explore facets of our psychological makeup. His films are laudable in
theory, but in execution, they're execrable. And he keeps foisting his
untalented actress-wife on us in film after film!
As a long-time attendee of the Toronto Film Festival, I've seen many
more Canadian films that I'd ever have attended on my own, and
Egoyan's are typical: it's difficult to describe a Canadian film
except to say that it's usually pretty bad. Egoyan's work - and that
includes such alleged masterpieces as CALENDAR, THE ADJUSTER, EXOTICA,
FAMILY VIEWING, THE SWEET HEREAFTER - fits right in with the rest of
his filmmaking friends North of the Border.
A poet with a camera? Perhaps...he's certainly not a director with
one.
Wordsmith
Is "Holderlin" your real...nah, too obvious!
Nomdeplumesmith :)
mrs. torrance
And here I was worrying only I loathed Mr. Egoyan's flatulence posing
as art....thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't feel so inadequate
any more!
Mrs. Torrance