April 25, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
While screening In the Heat of the Night for students last week, I found myself wondering: Do gay marriage opponents ever consider how stupidly bigoted they’ll look when they’re portrayed as villains in films 40 years from now?
watched MI:4 – all the seats filled up in the afternoon.
favorite part was sandstorm – don’t know how they did that..
the dubai part – well if they crashed into more windows.
30 minutes too long – i dunno how you guys could watch dragon tattoo with that running time …
somebody should remake MI:4 and put it into sundance festival then DP can finally get some DP/30’s out of it.
on the bonus side- somebody actually brought a baby to this movie and it started crying but it lasted 4 minutes.
also watched aliens vs cowboys on Christmas …
they could have cut 30 min.. and made a better movie
… okay the writing wasn’t the best – a lot of actors were
wasted – could have done by anybody else .
thats the power of directors these days – every movie is 2 hours long .
I don’t think they do Joe. They say that being gay is not the same as being black, that one is a choice and one is not.
Finally caught up with Attack the Block and Red State over the holiday weekend. Attack the Block is fun and I understand why it received so much geek love. It’s fast-paced, funny, and obviously made by people who love the genre. I didn’t quite love it though, and maybe that’s due to my own misguided expectations. I hoped it would be a little scarier, and it doesn’t deliver much suspense or really any scares. The creatures are really boring, too. 98% hair and some sharp teeth, not exactly inspired. It made for good home viewing and it’s very entertaining, but not a new classic.
It is, however, the greatest film of all time when compared to Red State. How anyone other than devoted Smith apologists could like this piece of worthless shit is beyond me. Easily one of the least frightening horror movies in recent years. Not a single second is actually scary. The three leads are complete idiots and not remotely likeable. They’re so desperate to get laid they are eager to share 50 year-old Melissa Leo in a trailer? And then we have to listen to what feels like an hour of Michael Parks rambling, an obvious attempt to pad the running time. The writing is probably the worst Smith has ever done. “Simple just took a shit.” Really? And after not being scary or interesting or entertaining for 45 or 50 minutes, we get an extended gunfight straight out of a low-rent, straight-to-DVD 50 Cent movie. Sad to see talented actors in such a horrible movie. I take back what I said above. I don’t understand how even diehard Smith apologists could like this atrocious mess. Just awful in every way.
Though I know nothing about Formula One and don’t watch auto racing of any kind, I loved every second of Senna. Totally and completely gripping. Superb documentary.
And the snarky comments about Forrest Gump being added to the National Registry will begin in 4, 3, 2…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/national-film-registry-forrest-gump-silence-of-the-lambs-276426
I loved the monster designs in ATTACK THE BLOCK. I thought they were really dynamic in their simplicity. I too found the hype odd for that movie, not because I didn’t love it (I did), but because one of the cool things about it is how modest and contained it is.
I found RED STATE basically worthwhile as an art house-exploitation movie, despite being flawed. I really don’t think Smith intended it to be a horror movie or scary, per se; it’s more like a multi-genre mash up that is most easily sold as being described as a horror movie. I also assume the leads in the first part were supposed to not be liked, since a lot of what he seems to be playing with is removing audience identification. For me, the big Parks monologue alternated between being riveting and incredibly boring. However, I liked the cast a good deal, and it’s a personal movie of ideas and interesting choices, so it worked for me in that sense. I do, however, feel like its most ardent supporters saw a different movie than I did.
I just liked RED STATE because of the fragmented/art house nature and agrte with JKill’s assessment. I’m a big fan of movies that are kind of scattershot in their layout and I liked how it just went BIG. It also touched alot of topics in one film that many films don’t touch at all and I really liked that as well.
I mean, look at how everyones all up in arms about the bill Obama signed allowing the destruction of habeas corpus (and rightfully so) but I loved how Smith touches on the idea that getting rid of it to shut asshole hate mongers up would raise nary an eyebrow. I also thought Parks was amazing. It’s by no means a perfect film at ALL but it’s still one of my favorites of the year.
ATTACK THE BLOCK is also one of my faves of the year but I agree with you, Paul. The creatures didn’t do a thing for me and I get that that’s a budgetary thing AND that they were done through practical effects…which is awesome. But it doesn’t matter HOW you do the effect if it isn’t totally effective. And the buzz over it was insanely overhyped to the point of where I almost didn’t want to see it. But I’m glad I did.
Ashens reviews lots of knock off tech gadgets ..
30 minutes review
iPhone 5G Review (knock-off) | Ashens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSO1KWLGd50&feature=channel_video_title
I haven’t had sex in nine years. In 2012 it will be a full decade.
I hang out with an ex, but technically speaking, I haven’t gone on a FIRST DATE since the late 90s.
Plus I am bald on top and pushing 40 and out of shape and drive an American car. What chick in LOS ANGELES is going to date a guy like THAT? None.
If I live another 20 years (unlikely, with my heart condition), it is a GUARANTEE I will never have sex. How do you hold out hope for ANYTHING IN LIFE under those circumstances, let alone ENJOY ANYTHING?
I feel like a walking corpse already, at 39. Nothing is going to get better. IT DOESN’T GET BETTER. It gets worse.
Happy New Year.
For months if not years Smith said he was making a horror movie, right? Isn’t calling Red State some kind of a mash up sort of revisionist history? It is fragmented because it’s a mess and terrible movie. I seriously doubt that was intentional on Smith’s part. That is giving him the benefit of the doubt, to say the least. And Smith may touch on ideas, but they’re hardly explored at all. They’re also drowned out by the awfulness of the writing and the sheer stupidity of the whole thing. Being ordered to kill them all? Sort of getting into Ron Paul, paranoid conspiracy theory territory. Ugh I really hated it. Different strokes I guess.
Yeah I kind of wish I had seen Attack the Block right away, as opposed to seeing it after months of geek raves and hype. But like you Don I am glad I saw it.
Damn it Lex I was in a really good mood, high off of two awesome season 3 episodes of Friday Night Lights.
HORSE POWER WAR HORSE BEST MOVIE OF 2011 BY A ZILLION MILES ALL HAIL SPIELBERG.
Also CELINE BUCKENS has the LOOK AT HER FACTOR.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK AT HER.
My TOP THREE GOALS IN LIFE that I will NEVER ACHIEVE:
1) SAG CARD
2) Eating a hot chick’s rim out for nine hours.
3) My hair back.
Glad to see Lex is onto big changes in his life and ours for 2012
If you could CHANGE your ridiculous opinion of the AWFUL Red State, that would be for the best as well.
Paul, the entire rest of Friday Night Lights is seriously amazing, so your spirits will soon be lifted if you continue to keep watching. I know and agree that Smith continually called RED STATE a horror movie in the build up to its release, but other than the first twenty, which is like HOSTEL and a million other fright flicks recent and old, I don’t think he’s trying to scare in a traditional way or follow those tropes directly. Has anyone else brought up how Rob Zombie-esq the movie is in its casting, gritty look, and talky-obscene dialogue? Because that is oddly the closest comparison I can think of.
I’m still playing holiday movie catch-up, and I’m excited about WAR HORSE. Lex, your rave adds fuel to the fire. I did get out to finally see HUGO a couple of days back, which is now playing at only a handful of times in my area, and I found myself basically on the side of its more bullish supporters. I was really with it but not over the moon for the first 2/3rds (it is a visual feast with the only 3D to rival AVATAR, and the cast is lovely), but then that last third hits, and while I’m sure I’m (and really all of us are) an easy marks for where it goes, it kind of destroyed me (in a good way) and filled me with joy and hope. I think it is a tremendous, moving film, and it was a huge surprise for me since I totally steered clear of spoilers or even a basic plot synopsis besides the trailer.
I liked Moretzy’s LITTLE HAT.
She is cute!
I didn’t think Red State looked at all like a Rob Zombie movie, and the cast in Red State is much better than the cast of a Zombie movie. I really don’t see any similarities. I think it fails to scare not because that is what Smith intended, but because Smith has no idea how to make a good horror movie. He tried and failed.
It looked like an Uwe Boll movie.
Rob Zombie is an INFINITELY better filmmaker (chops-wise and style-wise) than Smith.
Smith has a style? That IS news.
On the Friday Night Lights subject, aside from a bit of a hiccup in season 2, FNL might be one of the best dramatic series ever. My mother who HATES all things football agreed to watch one episode on my recommendation and was instantly hooked. She absolutely loved it. And really….. What’s not to love?
I had the good fortune to meet Kevin Reilly during my time at Fox. He was the one who green lit FNL while the head at NBC and then was unceremoniously dumped by NBC for little Ben. When Reilly returned to Fox, I managed to speak to him a couple of times about my great affection for the show. He’s a very nice guy and really loved FNL.
Coach’s Daughter on FNL = RRRROWR.
Aimee Teegarden. Yeah. Very cute and will likely grow into VERY sexy. But FNL launched the career of Minka Kelly. Forget her Jeter transgressions. She is absolutely SMOKIN HOT. And being 6’7″ tall, I can’t help but love Adrianne Palicki and all of her 5’11″‘s.
every year hollywood forces history movies just to get awards … j.edgar and iron lady seem to be the ones this year… a year from now will anybody remember these movies … mostly everybody remember forest gump and they still play that on tv .
what did forest gump do ?
, he wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, create the smiley, write bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times
what did j.edgar do ? be the president.
which one do people remember more. forest gump.
DP – get a dp/30 with forest gump or jenny. get on that.
sanj: There WAS a President Hoover, but, um…
I think RED STATE has a few very good performances, and it’s more cinematic than usual from Smith (which is pretty faint praise). The dialogue is lame, and the targets are easy. I can see how the genre confusion is frustrating, but at least this gives it a structure that keeps you on your toes, and you never know who’s gonna survive. So that’s marginally more satisfying than just watching the usual horror movie tropes play out.
Zombie is a far better director than Smith, that’s for sure. Not knowing who’s going to survive would be more interesting if there was a character or two to care about or some halfway decent writing/storytelling. I think it represented how much Smith was straining to make a shocking horror movie. “Look, Kevin Pollock! He says a line and is dead!” It’s just all so unintentionally comical.
I should clarify that I’m a definite fan of Zombie’s cinema, and I think he has serious, underrated chops (THE DEVIL’S REJECTS is an unsung modern classic). I would also add the odd, lopsided use of structure as a similarity, especially when comparing RED STATE and either of Zombie’s HALLOWEENs. I’m not comparing quality but surface attributes they seem to share that Smith could have been after but I could be reaching. It certainly doesn’t have the texture or striking images that I associate with RZ. Uwe Boll, especially his (actually good) RAMPAGE, are probably a more accurate comparison.
Yeah, the second season of FNL is really the only time they ever got off track, and even then there’s some fantastic stuff in that season. I am in awe of what they accomplished.
Red State was on my “worst of” list right next to Your Highness, Sucker Punch, and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.
Red State was first-time filmmaker bad. The kind of glaring indulgences usually found by people who have not had almost 2 decades to hone their craft.
Most filmmakers get better with age. Smith started off great and has been unraveling before our eyes with each subsequent film. You could probably teach a class on creative disintegration with Smith as your key example.
You could even use Smith as an example of how the internet can make you and subsequently break you.
Wired – 10 Most Hated Movies of 2011
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/12/movies-we-hated-2011/?pid=5865&viewall=true
I sorta enjoyed Red State. It introduced the concept of “Deus Ex Vuvezuela” to storytelling possibilities, and Michael Parks was creepy as heck. But again, Smith’s always been a better writer than director, and his writing felt like they went with the first draft of his script instead of fleshing out the ideas he’s raising. But the cast for the most part did quite well.
Speaking of people having decades to hone their craft, did anyone see Twixt?
Sanj, that list demonstrates that guy at Wired is a fucking moron. Seriously, half of those movies suck and the other half are some of the better stories of the entire year. You really have to be a complete and utter jackass to put TREE OF LIFE and JACK AND JILL ON THE SAME LIST!
Actually, I found Twixt interesting for its autobiographical subtext. But as a stand-alone movie… well, if it hadn’t been a Coppola film, I’m not sure I would recommend it.
BTW: Today is a day to celebrate!
http://www.movingpictureblog.com/2011/12/happy-birthday-cinema.html
“Smith started off great…”
Wait, he made a movie BEFORE Clerks? 🙂
I’ve never really gotten Smith, but I thought Chasing Amy was far and away the best of his films that I’ve seen (haven’t seen Mallrats, Jersey Girl, Zack and Miri or all of Clerks 2).
Did TWIXT ever come out anywhere? Is it shelved? Does it really have that VHS camera Dark Harvest II look of the trailer?
It has ELLE!
LexG: To gthe best of my knowledge, Twixt hasn’t had a theatrical run anywhere yet. (I caught it last September at the Toronto Film Festival.) Elle is… charming.
I thought Copploa was planning to take TWIXT on the road and do live edits based on crowd reactions? And Dan Deacon was going to be live scoring it as well? Then I heard the movie was a mess so maybe he abandoned that idea. It has been grape harvest season.
Speaking of movies that vanished or died on launch….was anyone remotely aware of that Gus Van Sant movie RESTLESS? WTF was that?? It was playing here in Nor Cal and after a few days I finally bothered to see who made it and was kind of shocked to find it was Van Sant. Weird.
Paul D/Stella:
Being GAY, like being BLACK, is NOT a choice. I thought people knew that by now. Wow.
the most hyped movie festival in the world – tiff – lots of movies hyped – some not in theatres yet.
not enough updates from super important film critics .
also at least 50 people didn’t get a dp/30 this year.
that part sucks – actors are waiting for a dp/30 they never got. … that includes the monkey from hangover 2.
25 years from now people are going to find the lost dp/30’s … cause DP forgot. but they won’t work
cause the dvd/bluray format is dead….there’s no way
to get the videos out.
Festival 2011: TWIXT Press Conference
30 minute video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnhTg_JMyiQ
“Being GAY, like being BLACK, is NOT a choice. I thought people knew that by now. Wow.”
Well, technically speaking, being gay is not a choice, but it’s generally what comes about when you have a cold dad and an overbearing shrew mom.
(I’m kidding. Except that theory is 99% sound based on every gay guy I’ve ever known.)
Smith calls RED STATE his “Tarantino film.” Had he used that description (instead of “horror movie”) from Day One, I suspect the reaction from some quarters would have been less hostile. I was very impressed with it myself, and Parks is certainly Oscar-worthy.
Yapur, Paul wasn’t saying he believed that, just explaining the lack of awareness of the bigots.
Joe, after the first time seeing Heat of the Night I was so pissed by the treatment of Tibbs I had to immediatly chase the experience with the bar scene from 48 hours just to see a little hillbilly ass get kicked.
Thank you hcat. That is what homophobes frequently say, that being gay is a choice while being black is not. I don’t and have never believed that.
Trust me, there are people out there who think homosexuals are evil sinners who are going to LITERALLY turn future kids gay and thus bring about the end of the world in an orgy of Satanic gay sex.
I know this because I’m related to like 30 of these people and grew up around hundreds of them. They are never gonna look back in 40 years and realize they were a bunch of prejudiced dumb-asses.
So I got the It’s A Wonderful Life blu-ray for Christmas, which has the colorized version on it as well as the black and white. I’ve never seen a colorized movie before, and grew up watching Siskel and Ebert tell me how black and white is perfect and colorized movies are the greatest sin ever.
But I decided to try the colorized version and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. I’ve seen It’s A Wonderful Life probably 17 times over the years, but I noticed things I’d never seen before in the movie thanks to color.
Anyone else had a good experience with a colorized film?
proof that lex has known 1 gay man.
(sorry to sound naive but what is the popular term for bisexuality now, is it pan-sexual? kind of cannibalising from another thread but it seems like there may be a paradigm now to label someone as gay who in fact fancies both sexes, i’d think many actors might fall into this category — both tom hardy and channing tatum have publicly admitted to bisexuality in their past, hardy saying something to the effect of “hey, i’m an actor!”. i wouldn’t be surprised if this applies to many thesps. is there pressure now (esp for men) to deny the shades of grey of bisexuality (or pan sexuality or whathaveyou) in favour of labeling as ‘gay’, somehow hinging on the notion that if a man has sex with both men and women, the dalliances with women must be a faux cover-up for pure homosexuality? maybe some of the celebrity actors who are in relationships with women/wives and are often referred to as ‘closeted gay’ are, in fact, bisexual…i know of two actors who i’m personally aware of having had bisexual experiences here, but who are in real sexual relationships with women; i’d think they are neither ‘straight’ nor ‘gay’, but somewhere in between… but that doesn’t seem like an acceptable place to be for some reason. this coming from someone who is ultra-straight and perhaps uninformed and ignorant on the subject)
anyway from the ‘great forgotten movie moments’ file, it’s always a delight when one can watch a movie COUNTLESS times and then be surprised by some little gem that just pops out at you after being overlooked/lost in the shuffle of repeat viewings/memory:
on our annual xmas pilgrimage to ‘die hard’, amidst all the chaos and imbibing and chatter, i looked over at the box as al comes walking out of the convenience store where he buys his twinkies to his car, where he takes the radio call re: driving by nakatomi tower… and there’s this quiet moment where he walks back to stare up at the tower itself in the distant skyline, and sees the faint flashes of light from the gun-fight occurring on the roof. a little beauty, made me smile
watched if a tree falls …documentary.
like 8 people doing bad things to save some trees .
but mostly focuses on a few really bad guys or are they ?. ….
good drama – worth checking out .
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVPH4hntyq8
To tie two threads together: As I have posted elsewhere — I had seen Citizen Kane and Singin’ in the Rain countless times before I started screening them for students in film history classes. But it wasn’t until I had students actually ask me if the characters played by Joseph Cotten in Kane and Donald O’Connor in Rain are supposed to be gay that… Well, I had never really considered that possibility before. And when I did, it struck me that, well, that’s certainly a valid theory.
It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth time I watched Scarface that I noticed Tony is eating the lemon slice from his finger bowl at the meeting with Sosa.
I haven’t seen the colorized IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but I imagine the B&W version contains everything Capra intended us to see. When you say the color made you notice some things for the first time, I assume you don’t mean stuff like, “Hey, I never noticed Ernie’s bow tie was red.” 🙂
It’s not that B&W is “perfect” — it’s just that imposing color on a B&W film years after the fact, with no input from the director or cinematographer, alters and probably distorts the filmmakers’ original intentions. Not that I’d be happy if the filmmakers’ did the colorizing either. If a B&W movie is great, it isn’t made greater by colorizing, only more commercial (supposedly).
its time for DP to fix up Lindsay Lohan..
DP – hooks up Lohan with a big name director …
Lohan does 3 dp/30’s..
Lohan gets nominated for oscar.
Lohan wins oscar. forgets to thank DP in oscar speech
see. easy.
Many years ago, I accidentally bought a colorized VHS copy of Laurel & Hardy’s “Babes in Toyland.” I simply couldn’t bring myself to watch it all the way through (it had been imprinted on my brain as b&w since the first time I saw it as a kid). Seeing it in color–a putrid yellowish tint that made everyone look as though they had hepatitis–made my physically ill.
One of these days I really need to buy a (b&w) dvd copy of it.
Yapur, thanks for explaining to us all how that works. You are a thorough and careful reader, and seem like a lot of fun.
LexG – check out this story …
Hipsters Drawing Penises – 3 minutes – no nudity . just funny story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=lWxeqqRL-Y0&v=0GJM0uSSSKE&annotation_id=annotation_588759
LexG – Caitlin Bell – probably not going to happen.
she’s a singer – some video blogs here.
http://www.youtube.com/caitlinbellvlogs
some music documentaries i liked
justin bieber – never say never
foo fighters – back and forth
u2 – from the sky down
its about music and how these people make it .
of course these people are too famous for a dp/30 /..
at least check out the trailers .
gakwers best movies of the year
the artist #1
http://gawker.com/5869456/ranking-every-movie-i-saw-this-year
Yancy, I’ve seen It’s A Wonderful Life something like 17 times and if someone was to ask me which they should see, I’d tell them black and white. So I don’t think I’m doing Capra any grave disservice by watching the colorized version out of curiosity. I don’t think the film became greater in color, just a little different. Nor, do I think it’s an abomination because Capra didn’t oversee the colorization. Colorization, like having to film in black and white or without sound, is an artifact from a different time.
Noticed that a local Redbox increased to 1.20 a night. Is this nationwide or do the individual leasees set the prices.
And as an open letter to Universal, either allow me to fast forward through the trailers on rentals or stop putting that Goddamn Honey 2 trailer in front of everything. If I hear ‘we gots to take on the 718’ one more time I’m just skipping your stuff entirely.
rango dvd is 5 bucks at walmart – Johnny Depp is getting super rich off this isn’t he.
dp/30 just on dvd money would be nice.
some actors might be super happy with walmart dvd sales.
ain’t nobody asking. somebody gotta ask all them actors.
huge discussion about movie experience – lots of various
rants.
http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/nv07x/ill_tell_you_why_movie_revenue_is_dropping_roger/
Recent articles said $1.20’s the new rate, I’m pretty sure.
“Colorization, like having to film in black and white or without sound, is an artifact from a different time.”
Not sure I get what you’re saying. B&W went from being a necessity to a choice; sound went from being an impossibility (except for music) to a choice (briefly) to pretty much a commercial necessity. Colorization was always a choice (made by the copyright holders, not the filmmakers), and always imposed on a completed work.
Capra is an interesting case, because he wasn’t opposed to the idea of colorization at first. He actually signed a contract with the developers of the process, but when they learned IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE was in the public domain, they voided Capra’s deal and refused to allow him any creative input. After that, he joined the opposition.
But many other filmmakers did indeed see it as an “abomination” from the outset — both morally and aesthetically (good B&W requires specific lighting and design choices, which some random colorization tech may not know or care about). I know if I made a movie in B&W because it’s the look I wanted and thought best for the project, I wouldn’t look kindly on the money people deciding to colorize it.
Obviously, I have no problem with you watching the colorized version out of curiosity, especially since you clearly love the film. And I realize there is a generational thing at play. Some folks who grew up in a mostly post-B&W media landscape apparently find it impossible to appreciate the aesthetics of the process (even though B&W continues to have an occasional vogue in music videos and still photography). Maybe we could call it visual tone-deafness. Anyway, I think it’s truly a shame.
Great storytelling, directing and acting exist independently of B&W or color. Great cinematography can be achieved in either form. Why would anyone want to throw out so many beautiful babies with the B&W bathwater? (And I realize you’re not in that camp, Mike.)
Yes, Redbox is now $1.20 a night nationwide.
i still want the dp/30 clips to end up on tv . seems like a waste just being on youtube .
now would be a good time for DP to go on a country wide tour just to promote all the videos .
DP can drive around in a big van with a huge dp/30 logo
and get it sponsored by one of the movie studios .
go out giving away bluray of award nominated movies already out …give it out to regular people.
2 minute song
What Are You Doing New Years Eve? by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSq1cez_flQ&list=UUyW-Owx53Zfd2dGlC0PS9JA&feature=plcp
Does Sanj ever sleep. He’s like the frickin energizer bunny.
just a simple request
i want a dp/30 with Paul McCartney for Yellow Submarine
for LexG
Elle Fanning video – 3 minutes – she likes fashion and Ryan Gosling
she’s an actress who freaks out about being on a cover of a magazine.
http://www.celebuzz.com/2011-12-28/elle-fanning-freaking-out-over-ryan-gosling-crush-video/
Yancy, I think what I was trying to say is that the fight over colorization is long since over, and there’s no chance that colorization will ever come back into style. Therefore colorized films are an artifact from an era where the films’ owners tried to modify their films for a new audience, who refused to watch black and white, and in some cases had success with it. And I think that says something interesting about film and other historical items that a lot of people tend to forget – they aren’t just a look back to when they were originally filmed – they also spoke to audiences in the intervening time, and had changing impact.
The story of It’s A Wonderful Life isn’t complete if you only want to talk about Capra and Jimmy Stewart. When the film went into public domain, and would be shown on tv constantly (I still remember one Christmas Eve when I watched the film in black and white on one channel while a friend was watching it in color on another channel), and came to be associated with Christmas memories, it took on a whole new life. Now I can’t go through a Christmas season without watching it.
I think what I’m ultimately trying to say is that colorization is part of a film’s history (a bad part of its history for some, a curiosity for others) and shouldn’t necessarily get swept aside because it doesn’t align with the original filmmaker’s intent.
I sort of get that, Mike, but I still don’t really agree. I mean, some folks’ memories of certain films are now associated with those companies that edited out profanity, nudity and other “objectionable material” so that Christians could enjoy them. For that matter, I don’t like it when a channel edits films for time and content and/or shows widescreen films in pan and scan (or breaks them up with commercials). I certainly grew up seeing many films that way, because it was the only way to see them, but I came to realize that I wasn’t seeing them as their makers intended. If the correct versions had been available to me, I would have chosen them and “swept aside” the bastardized forms.
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