MCN Blogs
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Netflix’s House Of Cards

So the big grab at the top is talking to camera while no one else is aware of the 4th wall being broken. Iffy. The wave would have been more effective off of a voice over… an unexpected beat instead of a payoff right in line with the first dialogue.

One journalist on the show… complete whore. Does anyone – even Nikki Finke – lie down that overtly?

Spacey can do this in his sleep… and it feels a little like he is doing just that. I am fascinate by the choice… all minor keys… but low key Spacey without the nuke going off? Great, great actor, but not his thing, really.

And the next-to closing line makes no sense. “Take a step back. Look at the bigger picture. That’s how you devour a whale, one bite at a time.” That’s not the big picture, really… that’s the small picture, no? The small bites that eventually change the big picture. I’m guessing that we are missing lines in between and that someone really liked that dialogue.

Is this a vampire series without the blood? Given the talent involved, my guess is that the show is going to be a lot better than this trailer. Nice to see a show, though, that will drive grandma crazing, screaming over and over, “Turn on a light! This is no good for your eyes!”

On the business side… there is a reason why this dropped AFTER the quarterlies. It probably won’t hurt anything, but it certainly doesn’t look like a game changer either.

Be Sociable, Share!

13 Responses to “Netflix’s House Of Cards”

  1. Captain_Celluloid says:

    Certainly looks like FIncher has significantly raised the bar for
    TV — can we really call it TV any more. The look is wonderful as to be expected; FIncher channels Gordon WIllis view of the 70’s yet a again [ which I love. ] LOVE that he’s doing the series letterboxed 2.35; only a FIncher would have that kind of clout AND makes it work for the story. I agree that Spacey comes off the tad low-key if almost awkward in this trailer; I will also guess he will be much better in context. Amazing cast full of under used yet terrific actors. DAMN looks like I’ll have to hold on to my NETFLIX account a little longer . . . but I do hope they will release on Blu Ray ala HBO.

  2. DiscoNap says:

    The original miniseries is pretty great, and the device ends up working well. As with Veep, I’m not sure if it translates as well to our form of government, where fortunes and position can’t change quite as quickly.

  3. dan says:

    I think it looks stunning. I don’t know why the breaking the fourth wall is so “iffy.” As far as I can tell, it works.

    Are you at all familiar with the original BBC series, by any chance?

  4. David Poland says:

    I have no problem with the 4th wall being broken. In the context of this trailer, however, it doesn’t play as well as it should. Plays like a trick, not an effective narrative device.

    And no, haven’t watched the original.

  5. sanj says:

    Kevin Spacey keeps wearing suits – it makes him look super smart… plus he’s always yelling at people.
    that gets him awards everytime.

    on showtimes house of lies – Don Cheadle talks to the camera …it works there.

    DP – get a house of lies dp/30 – Kristen Bell power!

  6. palmtree says:

    This looks phenomenal.

    Now, will they please start trailering Arrested Development?

  7. Rashad says:

    Spacey’s accent is horrible.

  8. Js Partisan says:

    This looks tremendous and it totally looks like a game changer. David, there comes a point where you may have to accept that Netflix aren’t a complete bunch of loons, and that you are out to lunch when it comes to this trailer.

  9. jujuju says:

    choices made by spacey and fincher is ‘iffy’… that’s brilliant. well, ‘brilliant’ may not be the right word. let’s see. i’ll go with ‘spotty’. yes, calling this ‘iffy’ is definitely ‘spotty’.

    this trailer is powerful. if anything is iffy it’s you, poland

  10. Triple Option says:

    Ehh, I’d check it out but I’m not 100% sold on it. I think in general I’d prefer a 1st person voice over to breaking the 4th wall as it won’t take me out of the story or have it lose cred.

    It looks like it could get really trashy w/a buncha people sleeping around and things get all gossipy and backstabbing which yes happens in politics but I’d rather see strategic manuevering than sensationalism. I’ll just have to see what it’s about. So I guess the trailer’s a success in that I’d consider and likely watch but I’m not a definitely can’t wait to watch.

  11. Think says:

    Okay. We get it. You hate Netflix.

    That was a really fucking weird and hyper OCD piece about a trailer/commercial.

  12. alynch says:

    And don’t even get David started on the credit font.

  13. storymark says:

    Looks damned good to me. Looking forward to it.

The Hot Blog

Quote Unquotesee all »

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