The Way We Watch

Film Posts You May Have Missed

 
image credit: E. Bartholomew (see link at bottom)

I've had a lot of film savvy folks join me in the blog in the last week so I thought I would compile my best Film posts.

• 25 Films To See Before You Die
• Missed Opportunity at Academy Awards (Why The French Love Jerry Lewis)
• The Ten Best Movies Ever...
• Cross Genre Dressing
• This Recession Is Your Man On Wire - Document It
• All I Really Know (about Social Media) I Learned Being a Production Assistant (PA)
• YouTube Interviews With Film Directors You Should Know

Agree or disagree?  Let me know and tell me your favorite films too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uber-tuber/ / CC BY 2.0

YouTube Interviews With Film Directors You Should Know

If you're a follower of this blog, you know my taste in movies. I've searched YouTube for some interesting interviews on film makers and how they think. Here's the best of them:

Stanley Kubrick

This short six minute clip of a longer piece focuses on Kubrick's early years as a bad school student (except for science). Instead of a school student, he became a student of photography - from taking pictures to selling them. I like his explanation of coming up with a generalized approach to "problem solving" as a way to help you in any thing.

Orson Welles

It would be great to see the entire interview of this. "Friendship is more important than art," remember that the great Orson said that.

Here's another Orson clip where I can't tell if he really believes what he's saying. Love that extreme close up.

Hitchcock - Form vs. Content

"What is in a film that makes an audience go through these various emotions," asks Hitchcock in this clip. It's not the content of the story. It's his technique of the subjective camera.

Francis Ford Coppola on The Conversation

Coppola considers The Conversation to be his best. Rent it if you haven't seen it. It's a million miles away from The Godfather.

The Late Bob Fosse

Rare interview of this theater film double threat. Any frame from any one of his movies is more inspiring than this interview, but it is good to see him in the flesh. You wanna say, "Put out the cigarette, Mr. Fosse." Unintentional funny: that last musical out-tro.

Charlie Kaufman

Writer of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and now director with his latest movie Synecdoche, New York. He's got to have one of the most creative minds out there. I like what he says about our culture only accepting one kind of narrative arc. He ends with, "Be diligent and some what courageous."

Woody Allen May 2008 Interview

In this interview from Time.com, Allen gives a great performance. Answer #2 is a home run.

Otto Preminger From 1972

"It would be wrong for me to tell you what to think." That's the essence of his film making style in a handful of words.

Ridley Scott On Creating A Convincing Universe

Sounds simple to say but what separates a dull genre picture into something more: good art direction choices.

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Cross Genre Dressing

What if you took a Martin Scorsese movie and made it a musical?
You would get New York, New York.

What if Hitchcock really wanted to make a movie like Otto Preminger?
You would get The Paradine Case.

And what if Dirty Dancing was directed by David Lynch.  You would get this: 

Click on pic. The embed is turned off on YouTube. Thanks to Creative Review for the original link to this video. 

Viral Video Thursday #3

Creative inspiration. Where does it come from? Albert Einstein is quoted to have said, "Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."  Of course some inspiration is just stealing. But in terms of movies like genre films - the whole idea is to borrow from the genre and make it your own.

Is it possible that this viral video...

 

Amazing Stuntman - video powered by Metacafe

...was the inspiration for this hoping to be viral video:

Thanks to The Halo Group and their blog for pointing me to the Levi's video.

Related Posts From The Way We Watch

Viral Video Thursday #2

Viral Video Thursday #1

25 Films To See Before You Die

25 Films To See Before You Die

image credit: julie falk

Know my favorite films and you will know me.  Tell me if you agree with these or what you think should be on this list.  These are all American films - so don't dis me 'cause there's no Antonioni!

You'll see that I have 5 musicals on the list. Why? Because the rules of the musical are so difficult to do well. How do you get people to sing out loud? And, if they do sing can you still make a film with dark overtones?

1. The Cameraman (1928) Buster Keaton knew better than Chaplin how film worked as a medium.  Some of the best movies are about the act of watching or making of movies. 
   This one belongs in that category.
2. 42nd Street (1933) Busby Berkely is still being quoted today.  He had the brains to put the camera just about everywhere. And he had one goal: to top himself.
3. The Lady Eve (1941) Preston Sturges could do no wrong when he was in the zone in from 1940 - 1944.  No one does dialog like this anymore. Juno got close.
4. Casablanca (1942) Just another picture made by the Hollywood studio system. But this one endures. Why? There's a clue in the song that Sam plays, "It's still the same old story - a fight for love and glory - a tale of do or die."  If your movie doesn't doesn't do that - it's not a memorable movie. Lesson to screenwriters:  Be audacious and go to the end of the line - do or die.
5. To Be or Not To Be (1942) If only to appreciate Jack Benny and the great Carole Lombard - this is a farce perfectly realized. 
6. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) You've seen it, right?  If you haven't - take someone you love. Sure, it's a happy ending but there's a lot of darkness too.
7. My Darling Clementine (1946) Henry Fonda was never better.  A well paced film. Perfect scenes that start in the middle. The dialog is forgotten afterwards but the images linger.
   
                                             *****
8. Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Elia Kazan directed the Broadway show and this film. He doesn't try to cinema-ize the film. He knows this is a showcase for Brando and Vivien Leigh (his favorite actress - he told me himself!).  Brando's performance changed film acting forever. Raw. Real. Effeminate but virile.
9. Anatomy of A Murder. (1959) One of Otto Preminger's best.  The objective camera.  As a TV producer, I can't imagine doing any shoot without getting "coverage." The amazing thing is that Preminger never had to shoot coverage. All the information was in his compositions and tracking shots.
10.  Pyscho (1960) Always experimenting this guy, Hitchcock.  "I know, I'll kill off the star in the first reel!"
11.  The Apartment (1960) I love this screenplay. So economical.  Nothing extraneous.  Fred McMurray doing a great "banality of evil" riff.
12. West Side Story (1961)/The Sound of Music (1965) Basically the same movie - not in terms of content - but in form.  Robert Wise directed with an editor's mind. He was Orson Welles' editor for years.  See how the edits work so damn well.
13. 2001 (1968) Just so you know what people are talking about when they talk about the apes and the monolith.  And, there is no better match dissolve then when that bone flies up.  Dave?
14. Planet of the Apes (1968) One of the best ending shots of all time.  Bonus: Best use of a leather vest on an ape.
    
                                              *****
15. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
    Robert Altman makes a western and sets it in a brothel. Strange, genre-bending, cynical, and dark.  No one would ever make this movie today. 'Tis a pity.
16. Cabaret (1972) Bob Fosse adapted the stage play perfectly. From the first song - he broke the rules and made the songs of the cabaret the back drop not the main event. 
17. The Conversation (1974) Coppola's favorite movie.  Harry Caul is a voyeur and is slightly nauseated with himself.  Sounds like a modern movie goer to me.
18. Jaws (1975) I was scared to swim in a pool after I saw in this in East Hampton, LI on opening night in the 70's.  It changed the big movie opening weekend forever. 
    
19. New York New York (1977) Imagine if Mean Streets was a musical.  A real genre stretcher. Fascinating failure and worth watching.  A blend of artifice and reality.
20. Manhattan (1979) Woody Allen is funny. Duh.  But see how his technique of long takes and beautiful compositions (with Gordon Willis' superb cinematography) wax the lane to make us hear those one liners so well. 
    
    
                                              *****


21. Raging Bull (1980) You just keep asking...How did they (Scorcese, DeNiro, Pesci, Chapman and Schoonmaker) do this?
22. Pennies from Heaven (1981) Herbert Ross put everything he knew about movies, musicals, and song and dance into this film and turned it all upside down. Christopher Walken is the scene stealer.
    
23. Tootsie (1982) Another great screenplay.  It's all about not saying what you mean: Last line (from memory): "You know that blue dress that you look great in? (pause) Can I borrow it?"
    
                                              *****



24. Boogie Nights (1997) The first half of this film is pure genius and maybe that was the point of this film as well.  Great second acts in Hollywood are rare.
25. Citizen Kane, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, Rear Window, Pulp Fiction, Network - Your pick!

Missed Opportunity at Academy Awards (Why The French Love Jerry Lewis)

If you saw the Academy Awards then you know Jerry Lewis won an honorary Academy Award - the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.  Whether he is or is not a humanitarian is up for debate. See here.

While Eddie Murphy was  - on the surface - a natural choice to present the award to Lewis, I thought there was a missed opportunity to talk about why Lewis is a terrific filmmaker - championed by the French - and misunderstood by American critics (who focus only on plot). 

He isn't loved by the French because he's a wonderful clown who makes us see the pathos behind the laughs.

No, the French love Jerry because he understands the formalism of film.

His use of the tools of cinema is what separates Lewis from the pack.  Lewis made us laugh with his point of view camera angles and his use of editing to create the laugh.

I found these samples from Youtube so that you too can see what I mean.

The Laugh Is In The Edit

Point of View and Edit

This next link is also from The Nutty Professor.  Before we see the transformed Jerry, there is an uncomfortably long POV shot and then some quick cuts for laughs...

Click Here

What do YOU think? 

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This Recession Is Your Man On Wire - Document It.

©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images

I saw the great documentary Man On Wire last week. It's a shoo-in for Best Documentary this year at the Academy Awards. (Update: Man on Wire won Best Documentary)!

If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it today (this may be the best advice of this post).

The film tells the story of how Philippe Petit dreamed of walking across the twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. 

After years of planning, Petit accomplishes his dream and walks across a tightrope that he and a few associates had put up the night before across the span of the WTC towers.

The movie uses archival footage, interviews and re-created scenes to tell the story.

One of the best parts of the movie was the use of archival footage of Philippe planning and practicing for his walk.  Shot in still vibrant 16 mm color film, we see how young Philippe was when he planned this walk, how his collaborators fought over major and minor details, and how much planning and rehearsing went into this incredible feat and act of art.

The archival footage when seen in juxtaposition to the present day interviews of Petit and his friends made you wistful about time's passing - but also put you so close to the hearts and minds of Petit and his friends. It was a window that I felt privileged to see.

The movie got me thinking to the great struggle that every organization is having right now.

Whether you are in a corporate or non-profit organization - you are struggling.

Turn the cameras onto yourselves, in meetings, in break times, in quiet moments and in loud ones.  Let's be totally and brutally transparent (as Petit and his collaborators were) about how we are making tough decisions, planning, and strategizing over details. 

For sheer survival, we all need to plan our next thrilling tightrope walk. 

When we finally get to the other side. It will be a great story tell.

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