The long overdue _Blade Runner_ thread

Robots are obsessed with precipitation, for obvious reasons.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cYD9LtTFMPk/maxresdefault.jpg

I still get a laugh every day thinking about the scene where Deckard locks the door behind him and K runs through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man. That could have been out of a Buster Keaton movie, or Young Frankenstein.

What a grand lark to STILL NOT TELL US FOR SURE if Deck is robo-Deck or not. A brilliant wheeze that, i bet Hampton Fancher was pissing himself.

― piscesx, Tuesday, October 24, 2017

anyone who bought a ticket looking for THE ANSWER TO THIS ANCIENT MYSTERY deserves exactly what they get

yeah loved this. Watching baseball right now so will post something more extensive tomorrow.

I loved this. Just loved being immersed in it (it's to the film's credit that I, a pregnant parent of a toddler who can barely sit down without desperately needing to go to sleep, did not begin to doze off). Perhaps flagged a bit in the last 20 mins or so.
From the first shot that was in (white smoggy) daylight it was kind of refreshing yet familiar. Gosling a bit too broody though? Like there's only a couple of glimpses of the impact of what he's finding.

https://www.facebook.com/WetaWorkshop/posts/10154685746932303

Weta behind the scenes building miniature BR 2049 sets

gosling appropriately affectless for the numbing existence his character leads but yes i kind of agree, if he's a Real Boy he sure doesn't show it very often

The donkey doesn’t show what it’s feeling in Au Hasard Balthazar very much either—and it’s maybe an over the top comparison but his character’s final moments struck me as similar.

That comparison makes sense and brings to mind Descartes' relevantly wrongheaded conception of animals as automata.

It all traces back to the Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud. The protagonist of that poem is an outmoded piece of technology that wanders the Earth for decades past its expiration date. So are the replicants. I actually think they lifted parts of the original screenplay's dialogue directly from the poem.

Compare this stanza:

I know the skies bursting with lightning, and the waterspouts
And the surf and the currents; I know the evening,
And dawn as exalted as a flock of doves
And at times I have seen what man thought he saw!

with Batty's speech from the original:

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-Beams glitter in the dark
Near the Tannhäuser Gates.

Not to mention the 'sidereal archipelagos'. I'm not convinced, mind you, but you can add that to your dossier.

Hauer wrote those lines himself iirc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue

that description of the Drunken Boat had me wracking my brain for when I'd seen a cartoon about a robot who helps throughout all of human civilisation. thought I was going mad. but it was a little story within Fargo s3.

Yeah, was going to say. "I can help!"

I finally got to see this last night. I had expected it to be good, but I'm very pleased to say that I think it's flat-out great. Sure, Villeneuve didn't craft a perfect movie, but then again, who does?
It's the first time that Gosling has impressed me as an actor - in particular, at the moment that the gigantic Joi addresses him as "Joe", and his head sinks as the last of his illusions evaporates.

CS-80-esque Vangelis-tribute sounds were terrific

Yes. There's a soundtrack-making-of on YouTube, in which Wallfisch is filmed recording a part with Zimmer's CS-80, and expertly using the pitch ribbon to achieve those trademark Vangelis slides.

Tons of great stuff here, it goes deep:

https://www.provideocoalition.com/AOTC-Bladerunner-2049

planning to attend on the 18th, will report DV's remarks

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/3690?locale=en

thank you for your service

Rewatched the original last night; about as I remembered it, ie good and short of a classic, cuz Sean Young reminded me of Carol Burnett as Joan Crawford, and humanwise [sic] it's saved by Rutger Hauer.

The sequel -- Jesus fuck, what a soporific UGLY pile of waste. I left before Villeneuve's q&a was over. Yeah you had to dive in and make the release date, and it shows.

fair in its way, any highlights from what you saw of the q&a?

we’re in the most monotonous grey waste period of film i’ve lived through right now

Carol Burnett as Joan Crawford was a classic though no?

but intentionally funny. Young's look was risible, and her dialogue was making me roll my eyes even in the clips used in the sequel.

D.V. just had a lot of standard praise for Deakins and the effects people, and talked about how he brought in Hans Zimmer late bcz he needed a Vangelis vibe. He needs to go back to doing the stuff he did in Canada.

I'm amazed I'm not seeing more writing about the backward sexual politics of this thing, despite the foreseeable "child" countertwist.

i saw the new one over thanksgiving break (on literally the last day it was playing where my parents live) and i straight-out loved it. great movie theater movie.

ie big, loud, and ugly

yeah i'm glad i saw it in the cinema. the sound alone is just flat-out amazing. and the glitched-out nightclub scene would not have been as great on my 27-inch TV.

i can't remember if i mentioned this yet or not but i did notice jaggy pixels on the introductory text, which ironically would probably not have been visible on my TV but eh. it's weird that digital projection is still sort of shit? i also looked for ryan gosling's personality really closely but when i zoomed my eyes in real close it was just de-rezzed artifacts

I'm amazed I'm not seeing more writing about the backward sexual politics of this thing

Why invite that torrential backlash of nerdbro ragegarbl on yourself over a movie everybody will have forgotten by the time the next Star Wars movie comes out?

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/11/denis-villeneuve-blade-runner-2049-dune

Some critics accused the “world” in Blade Runner 2049 of being hostile to women.

I am very sensitive to how I portray women in movies. This is my ninth feature film and six of them have women in the lead role. The first Blade Runner was quite rough on the women; something about the film noir aesthetic. But I tried to bring depth to all the characters. For Joi, the holographic character, you see how she evolves. It’s interesting, I think.

What is cinema? Cinema is a mirror on society. Blade Runner is not about tomorrow; it’s about today. And I’m sorry, but the world is not kind on women.

There’s a sense in American cinema: you want to portray an ideal world. You want to portray a utopia. That’s good—dreams for a better world, to advocate for something better, yes. But if you look at my movies, they are exploring today’s shadows. The first Blade Runner is the biggest dystopian statement of the last half century. I did the follow-up to that, so yes, it’s a dystopian vision of today. Which magnifies all the faults. That’s what I’ll say about that.

(That first line is the interviewer)

that answer is some bullshit

dumbstopia

The female characters in this were cardboard af. And the entire holographic girlfriend thing didn't work as far as I was concerned.

strike *female* in my last post and it's probably closer to the truth.

Trying to remember, was Robin Wright the only non-robot (that we know of) woman in this movie?

i think that's right

luv wasn't cardboard! or at least she was the sort of cardboard that gives you the worst papercut of all time

on imdb i think they said there are only three characters who are not replicants (not counting the question mark of deckard) - robin wright, edward james olmos, and ... someone else i'm forgetting

i guess jared leto

i saw this in the theatre in 3d and it looked and sounded very good but it was just a load of blah. really washed over me.

Does Deckard's daughter count as a non-replicant? She wasn't manufactured.

yeah but Leto has some kind of trans-human brain stem implant

I'm sure he really does, and that it's long since on the fritz.

I finally got around to seeing this on two nights ago. Visually lovely, if sparse - the original had a claustrophobia that's absent here. Loved the nods to industrial landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky. The screenplay has issues, trimming would have improved matters. Not so sure its misogynist (there are impactful female characters with their own motivations), but it does cater to hetmale eyes.

Mostly just came here to post this promotional ephemera, which offer post BR/pre BR 2049 vignettes, the first in very Ghost in the Shell anime style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DEPwVo8xZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgsS3nhRRzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ9Os8cP_gg

some discussion on those upthread

the whole movie shoulda been about bautista bot.

i actually loved this. i got complaints but they’re all minor

Yeah same. I want the art book.

I'm amazed I'm not seeing more writing about the backward sexual politics of this thing, despite the foreseeable "child" countertwist.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Sunday, November 19, 2017 10:11 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Morbs, it's out there, if not via the highest-profile outlets.