'Children of Men', the new Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi flick

Definitely.

Currently on HBO Go

Had no idea it was a financial failure

overrated (by me at first too)

i havent see this movie in ten years and it still haunts me

^^^ the ambush scene on the road

on some weird instinct i watched this like 3 or 4 days after the election and my unconscious otm

I watched it with the film class that I'm TA'ing a few months back, and while I acknowledge that a second viewing cannot possibly have an impact that an initial one does, I still think its a masterpiece.

(on the whole, my students didn't seem too wild about it, though)

incredible film

"overrated (by me at first too)

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius),"

why am I not surprised

Watched it again this week. Still love it.

so glad this piece reminded me of that sigur ros song that was in ALL the ads

Even a big screen TV diminishes the impact slightly vs. seeing it in the theater.

Was Saving Private Ryan the first movie whose sound design mimicked ear damage from a loud explosion, a high-pitched buzz or ring? Obviously this movie does it, too, but it shows up in pretty much every action movie now.

Come And See did the same kind of thing in 1985.

Huh, don't know that one. Did any film that you know of do it between Come and See and Saving Private Ryan? How did the sound design of Come and See, well, sound? Are there clips?

Here it is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMxI6YERzQU

Around the 40 minute mark, maybe?

Man I've been wanting to see Come and See for years. Not going to watch it on youtube though.

oh I can rent it on amazon. SD though.

Good movie.

"Soviet Definition"

Even scrubbing through it on Youtube I can tell that's not a film I need to watch right now in my life

Come and See is certainly a bucket list film, and I still remember scenes like Glasha's dance in the woods or the einsatzgruppen commander putting his helmet over his marmoset clear as day a dozen years after my last viewing.

What I remember from Children of Men at a similar remove are the two extended single takes (the ambush, & finding preggo Joy in the Bexhill tenement under attack), and an attention to background detail that's up there with Gilliam. Its the background detail fleshing out the world that rewarded a second viewing at the time. nerdwriter1 did a recent praise video on this, in fact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-woNlmVcdjc

The aforementioned reappraisal brings that up, how Cuaron wanted to include background stuff in every scene to avoid awkward exposition, which always seems to sink dystopian stuff.

Together, they hit on the idea of loading up the background with information — graffiti, placards, newscasts — and thus limiting the kind of expository dialogue that often plagues dystopian stories. Cuarón recalls Lubezki declaring, “We cannot allow one single frame of this film to go without a comment on the state of things.”

Rewatching it again recently, knowing the plot and dialogue very well made it easier to pay attention to all those details.

Huh, don't know that one. Did any film that you know of do it between Come and See and Saving Private Ryan? How did the sound design of Come and See, well, sound? Are there clips?

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, December 31, 2016 8:47 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cop Land does, Stallone's character is already deaf in one ear and someone shoots a gun next to his other one

(Cop Land being a 1997 release, Saving Private Ryan in 1998)

Wow, that's right!

I should research that. Recall Sly's character as really sad but richly drawn.

Gah, rewatch.

Rescreen

Cop Land is p good, lot of Sopranos alumni in the cast iirc

Lots of lots of people, iirc. And lots of Springsteen on the soundtrack.

what a great movie copland was. seems very forgotten now

Got me into Darkness on the Edge of Town.

there's at least one film writer on twitter who loves Cop Land. finally watched it a couple days ago -- which is why i knew about that hearing loss scene. i'm not really capable of pulling references like that out of a hat!

Had no idea it was a financial failure

― Οὖτις, Friday, December 30, 2016 9:35 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same! that's...really surprising? i remember hearing a lot about it, and assumed it had done well

It's a bit weird, the put it mildly, that that nerdwriter video doesn't credit or even mention Zizek's own film essay on CoM. I mean Zizeks's film was an extra on the first DVD release.

and the blu-ray I have.

As someone with actual tinnitus, I hate the tinnitus sound effect, it's always pitched on a note I find unbearable to listen to. It's always magical how it disappears so quickly too.

Haha yes

yup. At least one TV show has it at the end of the opening titles every episode too, I hate it.

Can anyone recall which reviewer slammed the tracking shots as being overly showy? It's bothering me that I can't recall if it was another director etc.

Mikey D.A. (AV Club, ex-Dissolve): http://www.avclub.com/article/ichildren-of-meni-35640

^ Thanks!

I have nothing against lengthy shots per se—there are certainly times when a steady, unblinking gaze is the most effective choice, even if I believe to my core that the essential power of cinema lies in how shot A cuts with shot B.

I'm trying to come up with an analogous statement from the ILM end of things and I'm stuck.

Dynamics? If you don't build to something and release or vary your tempo then it all just fades into background music?

To which point, I'd say that something like Children of Men's long shots are effective precisely because so many other films are either whipping you back and forth with cuts or so boring cinematically that you're just watching people talk back and forth in shot and reverse.

I get the annoyance with conspicuous use of long takes, but I save my annoyance for things like True Detective. Those scenes in Children of Men are great, and they wouldn't be the same if they were full of cuts. I'm not going to complain about something that works.

I don't buy that essay. He even says the average viewer most likely wouldn’t even recognize its technical virtuosity

It's like, it ONLY bothers people who notice it and think it's showing off. The rest of us find it effective.