| Author | Message | ||
     Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I'll name it, have no fear, but first I was wondering if anyone else has a favourite of their own. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
Films, I presume, that make memorable use of colour? Vertigo. Or 2001. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.232.245 |
THE WIZARD OF OZ. Hands down. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
If Ramsey means the best use of colour in motion pictures, I'd suggest Disney's 'Fantasia'. Before the widespread use of colour film: Dreyer's 'The Passion of Joan of Arc': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAqnUPqj3JY | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
If.... Especially the black and white bits... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Wasn't it in the 'Masque of the Red Death', that a section of film was hand painted? Not in the Price version, an even older version? Oz certainly has one of the big memorable transitions to colour in film. I'll have to admit that I still think that Fincher's Seven is one of the most beautifully shot colour films of all time. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.83 |
Got to agree with Craig here - THE WIZARD OF OZ easily, for me, mainly as the effect it had on me with the change from monochrome/sort-of-sepia to colour was stunning the first time I saw it as a lad, with my mum and sister, when it had a re-release in the cinema. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Are you sure it wasn't The Phantom of the Opera, Karim? From 4:26 onwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7qZPmhTP-o | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
DON'T LOOK NOW. Though the use of colour is practically a plot device in that case. STALKER comes to mind as a combined May Eve and All Hallow's Eve for the eye. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.158.59.70 |
Death in Venice... For the painterly shots of Venice, of the characters within thoose 'paintings', the Proustian beach-huts, the entropy of plague and an individual's death ... and the 'colour' of Mahler's music... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
That is also a fantastic sequence Mick- I believe however, that there is an even older film that has a handpained sequence of a phantom coming down a flight of stairs? I saw it a long time ago and it has stayed with me since, but I can't seem to remember in what film the sequence appears.(I didn't dream it) It was a screening in college actually, and I remember the film professor mentioning how there were several different hand painted versions of the film... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
I mean Steve, sorry. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Stan Brakhage also hand painted a good number of his last films. 'Water for Maya', which I saw him personally screen in New York a couple of years before he died, was a beautiful hand painted film as well. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Karim, the staircase scene is indeed from the Chaney Phantom of the Opera. Am I being obtuse about Dreyer's Passion? Surely it's monochrome. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
psycho | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Yep, of course you're right about Passion, Ramsey; I just wanted an excuse to 'plug' the film. :D I just feel that it's a masterpiece...and the modern score really complements the images.  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Weber, PSYCHO is a good film, but in what way does the colour matter? I saw it twice on my parents' old black and white TV and enjoyed it at least as much as when I saw the DVD last year. In fact, I struggle to confirm from memory that it's not a black and white film! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
P.S. Given the difference it would make to the shower scene I think I'd better shut up as I'm simply proving what a burnout I am... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Marc's kidding, Joel, either about Hitchcock or Van Sant. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Or indeed both... Serious suggestion - Schindler's List. The use of colour only for candle flames and the girl's red coat was a masterly touch | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I must admit I found the use of colour in Schindler's List a bit distracting, perhaps because it reminded me of similar effects in Them! and The Tingler. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Both gretat films in their own way...  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
Nosferatu? Do tints count? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
It's influential, but perhaps not a GREAT film, though. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
I heard that IF... used black and white because they ran out of money. Is that a myth? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.83 |
I heard that IF... used black and white because they ran out of money. Is that a myth? 'tis true, J. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.83 |
I must admit I found the use of colour in Schindler's List a bit distracting, perhaps because it reminded me of similar effects in Them! and The Tingler. ...and SPELLBOUND... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.83 |
Ramsey, is the thread about the greatest film ever seen that also happens to be in colour, or one that is great through its use of colour? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
The Tingler is arguably the greatest film ever made. I'm not saying the arguments would be in any way effective to anyone with an IQ greater than their shoe size... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
But there must be some idiot somewhere who would argue the point | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Weber, you play the mind games, making me think my memory is defective when it isn't. Be warned: the last person who did that had to be identified from dental records.  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
That's right: he owned a copy of Max Bygraves' You're A Pink Toothbrush, I'm A Blue Toothbrush on vinyl. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Mick, interpret it as you will! I had the use of colour in mind, though. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
Am I conceding my ignorance by suggesting that a lot of the brownness in Polanski is notable and resonant? | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Honourable mention for Pan's Labyrinth. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
And Burton's Sleepy Hollow - monochromatic colour and beautiful. But Oz gets my vote too for the most striking use of colour. @ Steve re: Passion of Joan of Arc - I saw it for the first time last year and it blew me away too. I'm a little too modern to appreciate it purely silent, as I hear Dreyer intended, so I can't imagine it without the modern score. | ||
| Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly) Username: Michael_kelly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 70.53.86.32 |
Singing in the Rain, and my guilty pleasure - Dark City. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Yes, Niki, the music is as haunting & poignant as the film itself. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.251.246 |
I assume Ramsey meant use of color in film, in which I think OZ can't be beat. The colors are so vitally a part, a theme, of that entire movie - red slippers, yellow-brick road, emerald city - heck, the very theme song, is "Over the Rainbow".... Two French films come to mind though, that utilize color quite nicely: LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG and, of course, LE BALLON ROUGE. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.189.213 |
Powell and Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, where, contrary to what one would expect, the scenes on earth are in vivid colour, and are warm and lovely, while the scenes set in Heaven are in black-and-white. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Time for me to contribute, I think! The film I was going to rave about is Lola Montes in the wonderful recent restoration, now to be had on Second Sight DVD. I'd previously seen the disgracefully bad Fox Lorber release (muddy colours and incorrect ratio). This new release is absolutely beautiful, and I confess that I was so ovewhelmed by it that I've only begun to appreciate the expressiveness of the colour. Many more viewings to come, I think. And Craig - Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is a favourite of mine, and now I assume Demy was influenced by the Ophuls film in his use of colour. Demy's first feature Lola is meant to recall the Ophuls too, I think - it's even dedicated to him. But I do also think Vertigo is a masterpiece of eloquent colour! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.86.67 |
Hasn't The Red Shoes just been touched up to bring back the colour? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
Magical Mystery Tour on acid is pretty good. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
The Mighty Boosh just came out on DVD in America this week. I saw my first episode last night. It was good. And it was in color. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
I liked the colour in Marnie, and Di Palma's Dressed to Kill. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.186.252 |
I like the way Bava used colour in his films. Argento, too. I've always loved Zhang Yi-mou's use of colour, especially in his earlier films like Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.158.59.70 |
I can't imagine how everyone (except me) avoids mentioning 'Death in Venice' in ths context. The only film that uses colour like fine art paintings. 'Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring', when compared, is like a tin of baked beans. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.186.252 |
I must admit I haven't seen it, Des! Is it available on DVD? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.158.59.70 |
Yes, I've got it on DVD. But I originally saw it when it first came out in a cinema, in Purley. Nudge Nudge. Seriously, it's the only cinema film I seriously watch these days. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 38.113.181.169 |
I always liked the used of colour in "Dorain Gray" myself | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Oh, The Red Shoes, yes! Definitely! I don't know if the version I have is a remastered one but I remember being struck by the vividness of the colour. And Suspiria gets a vote from me as well, just to make a nicely eccentric bookend with The Red Shoes. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.5.161 |
My mom turned me onto Les Parapluies de Cherbourg Ramsey, I quite like that film. I will have to see Lola Montes.... btw, slight tangent: but so far, 1 hour into Watchmen, color is quite a vibrant element in this movie. This utterly ludicrous, unintentionally-hilarious, rot-crap poser piece of garbage. Some memories - like my memories of loving the graphic novel intensely - are best left undisturbed, and unrevisited.... | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.169 |
The colour in American Beauty is striking. And I like the way David Fincher uses colour in his films; Fight Club and Se7en in particular. I'd also agree with The Wizard of Oz, Marnie, Vertigo, Don't Look Now, etc. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.114 |
Re Fight Club and Se7en: in the development stage the films were bathed in solutions containing silver (if I remember correctly), to get that distinctive eerie quality. A similar technique was used on Alien resurrection. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.114 |
To be more precise: the process used to be called silver retention and is now called bleach bypass or CCE. Apparently the effect can also be obtained via Photoshop. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.213.212 |
Both films used the same cinematographer, Darius Khondji. The bleaching stage of film processing removes silver grains that have formed. Bypassing that stage retains areas on the film that have a high density of silver (those high density areas corresponding to bright areas on the frame). The result is a higher contrast look with crushed blacks. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.169 |
Whatever the science, it definitely makes for an important piece of the film. In fact, cinematography is a fairly underappreciated art to the average audience member, I'd say. More's the pity. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Ramsey it must be from Phantom then, though I'm sure, even after seeing Steve's clip, that I saw another, even older film that had a hand painted stair sequence. I believe the technique is called Silver Nitrate Retention- and then the film is split printed on a black and white track for the richer blacks...And today there are short cuts in digital colour correction. I believe Dharius Khondji first used the technique on Delicatessen-another wonderful colour film. Dharius is a huge talent, though Fincher is sort of the cinematographer on his own films, that is why they look the same no matter what cinematographer he uses, but he worked with Dharius on three films? Dharius also shot the Beach and The Ruins and they look very different from his Fincher work. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
'2001 : A Space Odyssey' has the best use of colour (and music, and space, and darkness) in cinema for me. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
'2001 : A Space Odyssey' has the best use of colour (and music, and space, and darkness) in cinema for me. Yep - saw that on the big screen (yet again) at the weekend. Striking film. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
...plus it uses silence to great effect too. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Has to be seen on the big screen otherwise the whole effect is lost. Yes, the cold vast silent darkness of space is brilliantly evoked. Saw the new sci-fi film 'Moon' this week and, while nowhere near Kubrick's league, it's a cracking piece of work! Reminded me a lot of 'Silent Running', the original 'Solaris' and, oddly enough, 'Space 1999' - I intend that as a compliment. Everything that 'Sunshine' promised to be and so almost was... Sam Rockwell is the new Bruce Dern! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.114 |
I've tried to figure out what is wrong with Sunshine and can't put my finger on it. Pinbacker was too much of a rehash from Event Horizon and things start falling apart way too early in the film. Other than that . . . The music and acting are fine, so what is it? | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
'Sunshine' felt the need to inject some "excitement" with the introduction of a "monster" when all it needed was to rely on the spectacle and very idea of a huge shielded spaceship's journey to the Sun. Where 'Moon' worked for me was in its very economy and deliberately slow pace i.e. it respected not only the audiences intelligence but their patience as well and had the guts to rely on the strength of the story's central conceit to keep us riveted. It could well end up my film of the year... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
I think it fell apart at the end, Hubert. I thought it was quite good up until about the two-thirds mark. Also, as you say, it was very derivative of films like Event Horizon. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Have to agree with that. I was thoroughly impressed with 'Sunshine' right up until it suddenly morphed into a psycho thriller/horror movie near the end. Having said that I also, for the most part, loved 'Event Horizon' but it set its stall out to be a deep-space supernatural horror from the very beginning, and as such worked fine I thought. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Sin City | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"I've tried to figure out what is wrong with Sunshine and can't put my finger on it..." Danny Boyle, I'd say. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I like Danny Boyle's films. I've not seen Sunshine yet but it's in my tbw pile. I'm looking forward to watching it. There's no trace of irony there. For a change I'm completely serious. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
I liked Trainspotting, but none since. Haven't seen Slumdog yet, tho. Didn't like Shallow Grave nor 28 Days Later. They struck me as being brittle. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
He's a talented but seriously hit-and-miss director. 'Shallow Grave', 'Trainspotting', '28 Days Later' & 'Sunshine' are the ones I liked - though only 'Trainspotting' is what I'd call a great film. Too many of the rest just left me cold... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Trainspotting, shallow Grave, the Beach, 28 Days Laater, Millions I loved all of them - even though I didn't expect to like the beach or Millions. Not seen Slumdog yet. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
28 days laater was a special version for the dutch market... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I'm probably lowering the tone a bit here, but regarding colour in film possibly my favourite film death scene is the frog's head mask in The Abominable Dr Phibes. The scene is shot in a way which gives the viewer the victim's perspective - the view from the mask going red with blood, and also the wonky camera work which gives the impression of someone going dizzy, about to collapse as he stumbles up the stairs with all the faces watching him. Nice (I have strange taste!). In this case it isn't just the colour, but the whole camera work. I'm not sure you can separate the two. Like Steve said above, cinematography is an underappreciated art. On a completely different note, did someone mention Fantasia? Yes, I agree. I saw this on the big screen as a kid (there were no cinemas near me and we had no transport, so I saw very few films at the cinema as a kid). I was awe-struck. But, again, it's not just the colour, but the art of animation, the music - everything about it really is just wonderful. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I thought the last reel or so of Sunshine was perhaps the most pointlessly frenetic piece of filmmaking I've ever seen - ridiculously bad. I did like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting from before he started chucking his camera about. To return to the theme of the thread, I think Miyazaki's and other Ghibli films often show an extraordinary sensitivity to colour and to the way light changes it. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.217.209 |
Irvine Welsh and Danny Boyle are charlatans relying on designer nihilism to hide the fact that they contribute nothing to art. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Forgot to mention House of Flying Daggers and Hero. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.114 |
I like the way everything is filtered through a sort of bluish haze in Hannibal. Even the scenes in sunny Florence look dark and nightmarish. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
"Irvine Welsh and Danny Boyle are charlatans relying on designer nihilism to hide the fact that they contribute nothing to art." I thought TRAINSPOTTING was a really strong novel, if not quite the revolutionary work some judged it to be. Unforgivably, the film leaves out the single most important episode: the one that explains the book's title. As a slowish reader who prefers short stories to novels, I hold fast to the creed that a writer who has written one really good book remains an important writer, no matter how much his or her reputation is diluted by other stuff. Books are permanent (not really, but don't spoil my little fantasy, I need something to hold onto). I always approved of Joseph Heller's comment: "People tell me I haven't written anything else as good as CATCH-22. I say, that's okay, neither has anyone else." | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.217.209 |
"I thought TRAINSPOTTING was a really strong novel, if not quite the revolutionary work some judged it to be. Unforgivably, the film leaves out the single most important episode: the one that explains the book's title." Maybe I'm in a minority, but I'm only bothered by film adaptations that don't deviate from the novel. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
I liked Shallow Grave very much. Think it is an excellent film. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
The big movies of Powell & Pressburger's classic period have the most beautiful glowing colours I've seen on screen. There's a rich warmth and painterly use of colour saturation and contrast to the imagery that compliments the action and character motivation like nothing else I've seen. 'The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp', 'A Matter Of Life And Death', 'Black Narcissus', 'The Red Shoes', 'Tales Of Hoffman' are visually stunning works of art I never grow tired of rewatching. Even the artistic misstep of 'The Elusive Pimpernel' is gorgeous to look at. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Hard to track down a copy however. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
I can't like those amazing Japanese epics. They feel like slightly kitsch prints on a pub wall, sort of accomplished but unaffecting.  The photography in the latest Harry Potter is among the most beautiful I've seen, too, in recent years. As is the use of sound (there's almost no music either). Pity it never quite changed gear from first... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.69 |
I'd like to echo Ramsey's admiration for Miyazaki's work - it's brilliant, and gorgeously filmed. I just missed his recent film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea at the cinema, unfortunately. Which Japanese epics did you have in mind, Tony? Studio Ghibli? I can't think of any that fit that 'kitsch' description, but to each his own. I'd say Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan makes great use of colour too. The opening sequence alone has a hypnotic beauty, and Yukionna is stunning. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
Stephen - I agree about P&P's colour films; they are absolutely stunning, and must have been amazing at the time compared to the mostly monochrome offerings around then. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.69 |
The Tales of Hoffmann is one of my favourites. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
It's things like Hero and Golden Wotsit. The recent ones. They just have no effect on me whatsoever. It's like they're just aping what Lean did. I like Ghibli. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.213.93 |
I know what you mean, Tony. They feel like adverts for themselves. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.31.153.8 |
Best uses of colour in horror pictures: I'm with Miss Flynn on Suspiria. Otherwise I think it's difficult to beat a good transfer of The Curse of Frankenstein - I still find the use of Eastmancolor in that stunning. Otherwise Wizard of Oz ("Make this better than Gone With the Wind or we'll kill you" was apparently the studio's helpful advice to director Victor Fleming) & The Red Shoes would get my vote. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"It's things like Hero and Golden Wotsit. The recent ones. They just have no effect on me whatsoever. It's like they're just aping what Lean did." Lord, I don't think they remotely resemble the tedious David Lean (if that's the reference). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
Gosh! I quite like a bit of Lean... but then I saw Lawrence very young, when viewing films at the pictures was quite overwhelming. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.200.219 |
I first saw LoA at the pictures too and still think it has some of the most awesome images I've experienced on the big screen. But Lean is shallow and perhaps a David Attenborough documentary would have a similar effect if projected large enough. Also, even Lean's widow says he was an awfully foul-tempered man. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
It's things like Hero and Golden Wotsit. The recent ones. They just have no effect on me whatsoever. God yes, all those big "epic" Asian martial arts fantasies of the last lot of years leave me completely cold. There is just no sense of watching real people or real fight scenes or anything remotely convincing whatsoever. Give me Akira Kurosawa any day!! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.10.38 |
Lord, I don't think they remotely resemble the tedious David Lean (if that's the reference). ?!? I actually quite like the heavily-flawed PRIVATE LIVES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (and I've not even seen the unexpurgated version, supposedly even better), not to mention of course his famous others. I've heard this is itself an English cliche, this film, but over here, many have never seen/never heard of BRIEF ENCOUNTER - and I had never seen it, until I saw it for the first time earlier this year, and maybe I'm just a soft-hearted (headed?) soul, but... I thought it a brilliant film.... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.139 |
Do you mean Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Craig? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.225.43 |
Ulp.  Was that really Billy Wilder?!... God, I could swear it was David Lean!... Well, in that case... fuck Lean.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
Lean directed one of my least favourite films; Blithe Spirit. Apart from Margaret Rutherford (who somehow manages to be inexplicably sexy in it) it's absolute shit. You see, I liked Lean, but now seeds of doubt have been sown! I do love that mathstick/sun/Sharif cut though, very much. Anyone who can do that is ok. Maybe watch his films silently? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
I thought Ryan's Daughter had some unforgettable images. Hm. Images. The thing I'm knocking those Japanese films for... But it's the kind of images; what makes an image work, stick in the mind, and others not? This year I saw a Bergman film and in it some tanks were coming up a street. In a room a boy saw the first sign of this; water rippling in a glass. It was the Jurassic Park moment, but about forty years earlier, and more unsettling and beautiful (and less random - I mean, a glass of water in a jeep?). It speaks volumes about cinematic awareness that in all my reading Empire they never mentioned that blatant referencing/nicking an image once. In fact I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
I like Brief Encounter. In Lean's defence, he reckoned himself to be mediocre too. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
'The Golden Wotsit'  I guess the Asian films I mentioned don't really belong in the company of such excellence as Black Narcissus, 2001 et al. They are striking, though, in much the same manner as a Rossetti painting is striking & memorable...even though it must be admitted that the work is perhaps second-rate. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.195.220 |
Tony, I know someone who's head of a media department in a uni over here. One of her lecturers is teaching film history backwards (starting with modern film techniques and following them back to their roots). I've been reading Edith Hamilton's "Mythology". I hadn't realised that the end of Romeo and Juliet is probably based on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which goes all the way back to Ovid (and maybe beyond). | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.139 |
Tony, the ones you're complaining about aren't Japanese, they're Chinese. I think the best Asian cinema absolutely stands in the same class as the best 'western' films. Ozu? Mizoguchi? Zhang Yi-mou? Kurosawa? To mention just a few. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.139 |
Proto, I still have a worn, much-used copy of Hamilton's Mythology on my shelves. It's a lovely book packed with classic stories. I learned a lot from it (along with the myths my parents read to me when I was young) and still go back to it when I need to look something up. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.210.98 |
Huw, that book feels like a piece of the past, doesn't it? It's a lovely object. I'd recommend anyone who's buying it to get the hardback version. In addition to the woodcuts (if such they are) being better printed, you'll get a golf-leaf gorgon guarding your book on the front cover! | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"I just missed his recent film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea at the cinema, unfortunately." It most resembles Panda Kopanda, Huw - the visual style is in that naive (and for me very charming) style. Beware of the Malaysian DVD, which has a decidely jittery transfer, unless it's just my copy, and English subtitles that often grow surreal. Oh, and let me add my voice to the enthusiasm for Michael Powell. The version of The Red Shoes you have won't be the new restoration, Niki, I imagine. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.81.114 |
Does this disturb anyone else? Reading between the lines, it seems that 3D is being pushed on us as a way to re-release films in yet another format. This seems to have everything to do with $$$ and nothing to do with art. Are Cameron and Jackson seem to be suggesting that the possibilities of 2D have been exhausted? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090725/ap_en_mo/us_comic_con_cameron_jackson Why are most of the 3D films we see children's films? Is a generation being programmed from a young age to accept nothing else? Who is pushing this and why? | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I wouldn't worry overly much. 3D has always come in and out of fashion from the early 50s on but people always grow tired of it again after a couple of years. I don't think our brains are primed to take the distraction of what we know is really a 2D image. Same goes for those 3D comics that come in and out of vogue every now and again. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.220.186.44 |
>> Who is pushing this and why? It's James Cameron, innit? Everyone says the 3D wave will make sense when AVATAR comes out. Me, I'm fine with 2D, as long as it's done well. So many recent films are just other films redone (poorly). I'm starting to prefer movie trailers to the actual movies; by omitting information, at least movie trailers respect the imagination. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
I don't think 2D is dead at all, in the way painting or photography isn't dead (though many say otherwise). That said, I did enjoy Ice Age 3 in 3D (the first I've seen of the new slew); they tried for subtlety in a lot of places and the use of space and landscape was quite beautiful. It did make me want to see an adult, 'straight' film done using the format. Hitch would have loved it. (I must add that I don't PREFER 3D, I just don't mind it) And btw; the process doesn't seem to make the things we are seeing any bigger, they looks sort of like toys on a table. But it's not remotely bad. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
I saw BOLT 3D and that was fun - John Lasseter was there and explained how they mostly went for a 'window on the world' feel rather than have things fly out into the cinema, and I think that approach worked very well. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Hitchcock did make a 3D film, don't forget, and very impressive it is in its sparing use of the process. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
He did, although I've only ever seen it in 2D, unfortunately. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Did watch a section of The Birds in 3D at Universal studios. Much fluttering of wings and waving of arms. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
And speaking of Birds Mick, I thought the pigeons were funny in Bolt. Also 'Rhino the hamster'- in the plastic ball'. Also a fun character. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
Karim - yes! The pigeons were so well realised... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
Ah yes! Dial M. I'd forgot - or so I thought. I had an idea that westerns would look good in this format, too. All those canyons. Just caught John Wayne in The Comancheros this afternoon. So beautiful in a way we never got to see on seventies square tellies. It felt new. Also, is it me or was the film a forerunner of the Bond films? Wayne had to infiltrate a baddy base and defeat a baddy in a wheelchair who had an indian in a suit of armour for a henchman. Great it was. It also reminded me how just very natural a performer Wayne was. I'd just thought he wasn't acting, not realising he was just being. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
John Wayne certainly wasn't himself in either 'Red River' or 'The Searchers'... then again maybe he was just being more of himself than he ever allowed to be seen on screen elsewhere? Gotta lot of time for the big man. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.214 |
3D(ante)! http://www.movieset.com/thehole/home/ | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.204 |
Thanks for the warning regarding the Malaysian Ponyo DVD, Ramsey. I noticed from the posters and trailer that the style was similar to Panda Kopanda, which I haven't seen yet (I have it, along with everything else - I think - by Miyazaki, but it's one of the few I haven't watched yet). The 2-disc Japanese editions of the Ghibli films are very good quality, I've found. My limited edition of Spirited Away came with a replica statue of the strange mansion that Chihiro/Sen finds herself in. I don't know how many were made, but it's quite a thing to behold! | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.131.100 |
I managed to see Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D at the cinema when I was about 12, which was an absolute joy. Still one of my favourite films, even in 2D! S | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
Mine too!! Jack Arnold was another one of the gods of my youth. I remember thinking 'Tarantula' was just about the coolest film I had ever seen at one time. And still love all those great B&W creature features from the 50s. 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' is still one of my Top 10 movies. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.131.100 |
Yep - CFTBL is, I think, still genuinely creepy, and I love things like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Incredibly Shrinking Man, Them (just a fantastic movie! my God, what some filmmakers of today could learn by just watching Them a few times!) and The Thing From Another World. S | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.206.170 |
I used to prefer Them to Tarantula once upon a time, but recently had a turnaround; the image of that spider ripping a house apart was as nightmarish and strong as anything from Jaws. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
A kindred spirit, hooray!! Everything about 'Tarantula', from the horribly deformed scientist to the (increasingly large) scariest of all spiders to those horses found slaughtered by something unseen to that brilliant scene you mentioned with the thing gazing into the house and on to the apocalyptic climax is pure pulp genius for me. It kind of works like a direct inverse of Arnold's masterpiece, 'The Incredible Shrinking Man', by having the monster get bigger and bigger and bigger and scarier rather than that most resourceful of all sci-fi heroes getting smaller and smaller and smaller and more vulnerable... They REALLY don't make 'em like that anymore. Why? Because the enthusiasm and sense of wonder has gone out of genre cinema - for me anyway. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.39.227 |
Yes! You're completely right! I enjoyed that Eight Legged Freaks a bit, but the irony sort of does it down. It feels like a kind of shame. In Tarantuala, was it me, or did that spider's mouth at the window look nothing less than a giant vagina? I gasped aloud watching it with my kids but couldn't tell them why. I LOVE Shrinking Man. That ending did my middle kid's head in, as he said it. One of the best endings ever. These films work on the level of nightmare and can't be scoffed. I got a box set of basically all the Arnolds recently and every one has been a stunner. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.39.227 |
You know? I bet Shrinking Man becomes a Will Smith movie. There; I've cast a rune. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.39.227 |
Fuck it. They got the wrong black guy. http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-ratnerdirectingtheincredibleshrinkingman,0 ,2325433.story | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.82 |
I have to count "Black Narcissus" among my favorite uses of color in film; the drenched colors in the context of the Himalayan setting, I think, really both mirrors the intense interior world and unleashes the suppressed emotions of those cloistered nuns--especially when Kathleen Byron stalks around in that form-clinging red dress: Note how it contrasts with her raving ravishing eyes; chills my epidermis as I stir it around in my memory. A bit of satire on what Americans call "pork barrel" spending at my Red Room site this week (I think you folks in the Motherland have been dealing with this recently) at:http://www.redroom.com/articlestory/like-shootin-fish-a-pork-barrel | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I thought you were joking Tony... I for one will NOT be going anywhere near this no doubt CGI-fest travesty of Arnold & Matheson's original. I mean Eddie bloody Murphy!!!! My favourite Michael Powell movie keeps changing but currently it's 'A Matter Of Life And Death' until the next one I see on the big screen. Truly beautiful films as discussed above. And let's not forget his directorial work on my favourite children's fantasy 'The Thief Of Baghdad' - again utterly glorious use of colour! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.118.49 |
My current favourite Powell film is I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Get this... I've never seen it! In B&W isn't it? I think, of those I've seen, 'A Canterbury Tale' is the most underrated. A wonderfully odd little film with a magical quality all its own. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
For use of colour - probably 'Don't Look Now' and probably 'Suspiria', although I think that visually 'Inferno' is every bit its equal. |