Moments in Film

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Funny you should say that - didn't Boris Johnson name him as his filmic hero? Figures.

It's such an amazing film for so many reasons. For me, the way he shoots it like a Nouvelle Vague film (or indeed a 70s New Hollywood film influenced by the Nouvelle Vague), even though it's also the first blockbuster, probably had more impact upon my preferred aesthetic than anything else I've ever watched. Arthouse and mainstream all mixed together. Alien again fits into that pattern.
 
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version

Well-known member
"The real hero of Jaws is the mayor," Mr Johnson said last year in a speech at Lloyd's of London.

"A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor - we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer."
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
It's a perfect Johnson quote. Utter shit, totally incoherent, trying desperately to appeal to as many reactionary constituencies as possible.
 

version

Well-known member
The zoom on the beach is another standout. They did something similar in Fellowship of the Ring when the ring wraith is on the road. I think you either zoom in whilst pulling the camera back or you zoom out whilst moving the camera forward.


 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I was gonna say the dolly zoom, until I realised that it wasn't one of my own personal favourites, but just an objectively excellent shot. Vertigo was the first to use it, I think?

I'm now trying to think of other films with that 'in the background' shot, where something important happens without the usual appropriate focus. Actually, Paranormal Activity might have a few of those....
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Omg, I was bowled over when I watched Cache, but never saw it again. I have a spectral sense of what you mean, but can't remember the details.
 

version

Well-known member
The shot of the family photo at the end of Repulsion is one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen in a film, explains the entire thing in a single image and just makes your stomach drop.
 

version

Well-known member
Omg, I was bowled over when I watched Cache, but never saw it again. I have a spectral sense of what you mean, but can't remember the details.

It ends on a shot of a bunch of people outside a school and if you look carefully you can see the two sons talking.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'm not sure how up for watching Polanski films I am at all these days. I saw most of them a long while back. The Tenant remains the one that affected me the most.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I was gonna say the dolly zoom, until I realised that it wasn't one of my own personal favourites, but just an objectively excellent shot. Vertigo was the first to use it, I think?
Yeah also called Hitchcock Zoom for that reason - the camera zooms in and the dolly moves away - or vice versa for opposite version of same effect.
 

version

Well-known member
I'm not sure how up for watching Polanski films I am at all these days. I saw most of them a long while back. The Tenant remains the one that affected me the most.

I think he's finally been ostracized from Hollywood but he won an award in Venice recently and the European industry continues to back him. There are plenty of Hollywood names who've worked with him within the last decade or so too: Ewan McGregor, Jon Bernthal, Kim Cattral, Olivia Williams, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Wilkinson, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
(@Rich) It's a good 'un.

Actually, add The Birds to that list of films that are made up of great moments. Some of the scenes in the first half, before it transmogrifies into a horror film, are monumentally weird and brilliant.

As to Polanski....yeah, he's never been short of actors to work with. Everything he's done since the 90s (that I've seen) has been shocking imo.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I liked it very much. And it warps one's sense of time as well, very effectively.

The scene where she's playing piano in that is so laden with pathos it's set to buckle.
 
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