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Wolfgang Pauli posted:Is 300 the political satire that time forgot? It's hard to pick up on that stuff because, if you take it at face value, he's glorifying them and making them the protagonists. It's easy for people to not think about it much further than that, and just enjoy the cool action scenes. Clearly he meant to do that - make it pretty enough so people will watch it, but add some layers and themes that, upon second thought, bring to light those various things.
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Jan 5, 2011 07:02
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It doesn't appear to be a supported theory at all, but at the very end of Into the Wild, when Christopher is near death and jumps into his bed, he wipes his leg with what seems to be a bloody cloth/sponge and brown/reddish liquid runs down. Do you think he opened up his veins and committed suicide? Or was it a starvation/natural death?
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Jan 5, 2011 10:17
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bl4d3 posted:It doesn't appear to be a supported theory at all, but at the very end of Into the Wild, when Christopher is near death and jumps into his bed, he wipes his leg with what seems to be a bloody cloth/sponge and brown/reddish liquid runs down. Do you think he opened up his veins and committed suicide? Or was it a starvation/natural death? I haven't seen the movie in a while and don't remember that specific part, but I would think he's making GBS threads himself because of the poison berries he ate. Edit: durrr Toebone fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jan 6, 2011 |
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Jan 5, 2011 12:46
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Toebone posted:I haven't seen the movie in a while and don't remember that specific part, but I would think he's making GBS threads himself because of the poison berries he ate.
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Jan 5, 2011 12:52
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quote:300 is about a militaristic, xenophobic, sexist slave society with rituals of eugenics and 80s action movie homoeroticism that refuse to consider diplomacy and mock those who do. They project their force across neighboring cultures to destroy the outsider encroaching on its sphere of influence and are in such a state of persistent war that there is no other profession for able-bodied male citizens save soldier - lesser work is the work of the inferior slaves and women, and politics is the domain of those soldiers who have lived long enough to retire into leadership. "Submit to Xerxes or die" is diplomacy?
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Jan 5, 2011 12:53
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GORDON posted:"Submit to Xerxes or die" is diplomacy?
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Jan 5, 2011 13:02
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bl4d3 posted:It doesn't appear to be a supported theory at all, but at the very end of Into the Wild, when Christopher is near death and jumps into his bed, he wipes his leg with what seems to be a bloody cloth/sponge and brown/reddish liquid runs down. Do you think he opened up his veins and committed suicide? Or was it a starvation/natural death? I don't have an explanation for that scene itself, but he most definitely died of starvation and did not commit suicide by opening a vein. Some (or many?) disagree with the claim that the seeds or berries or whatever they were contributed to his death and feel that he simply starved outright.
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Jan 5, 2011 15:28
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Wait, what? How can you possibly disagree with that? It's this massive "Oh poo poo, I'm hosed" event, and then shortly thereafter he is in no state to find or consume food so he dies. I had no idea people thought it was ambiguous, I don't see how they could make it clearer that the former caused the latter.
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Jan 5, 2011 19:46
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penismightier posted:Apparently, by the height of the silent era the actors had to be careful to say the right poo poo because avid filmgoers got pretty good at lipreading. The Beloved Rogue has one scene with John Barrymore being refused a drink and he clearly shouts "Son of a bitch!" There was a project where silent home movies of Hitler were "dubbed" by a lip reading process. Kind of creepy. When Lawrence of Arabia was restored, they used lip readers to catch all the dialogue for scenes that lost audio recordings. the Bunt posted:I always wondered something about silent era films. Was it impossible back then to do modern-style subtitles instead of title cards? It still bugs me to have the visuals chopped up and segmented by screens of text every few seconds. Part of it was practical. Even if subtitles were not a pain to insert, it would distract from the visuals. Silents required even more concentration on body movement and composition. Films were also edited with intertitles figured as part of the rhythm of the film. Some even had quite detailed cards designed like a lot of German films - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a good example. Metropolis has a lot of instances of animated text. Some of the more "talky" silents can get distracting (The Phantom of the Opera), but I was surprised by how few are used in silent comedies. I think City Lights and Modern Times only have around 50-60 each. There's actually a site that lists some text cards from silents: http://silentintertitles.tumblr.com/  and here's the aforementioned example from The Unholy Three 
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Jan 5, 2011 19:52
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Akuma posted:Wait, what? How can you possibly disagree with that? It's this massive "Oh poo poo, I'm hosed" event, and then shortly thereafter he is in no state to find or consume food so he dies. I had no idea people thought it was ambiguous, I don't see how they could make it clearer that the former caused the latter. I think he might be referring to the real life events that inspired the movie/book.
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Jan 5, 2011 19:54
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Akuma posted:Wait, what? How can you possibly disagree with that? It's this massive "Oh poo poo, I'm hosed" event, and then shortly thereafter he is in no state to find or consume food so he dies. I had no idea people thought it was ambiguous, I don't see how they could make it clearer that the former caused the latter. The end scene where he wipes his leg and appears to be bleeding was such a weird scene to include right before the death climax. Then too, the personal opinion that bleeding out is better than starving to death, and the fact he did have access to a hunting knife, would seem to lead credence to the theory that he committed suicide.
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Jan 5, 2011 20:10
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bl4d3 posted:The end scene where he wipes his leg and appears to be bleeding was such a weird scene to include right before the death climax. Then too, the personal opinion that bleeding out is better than starving to death, and the fact he did have access to a hunting knife, would seem to lead credence to the theory that he committed suicide. Akuma fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 5, 2011 |
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Jan 5, 2011 20:33
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Akuma posted:Wait, what? How can you possibly disagree with that? It's this massive "Oh poo poo, I'm hosed" event, and then shortly thereafter he is in no state to find or consume food so he dies. I had no idea people thought it was ambiguous, I don't see how they could make it clearer that the former caused the latter. Jon Krakauer, the author of the book the film is based on, essentially came up with the theory that the seeds poisoned him and/or led to his death. Tests performed in a lab at a later date did not find toxins in the plants or seeds that McCandless had been eating. The "Oh poo poo" moment you speak of may have been completely fictional, as no one knows exactly what happened apart from the diary entry where McCandless theorized that the potato seeds may have caused him to take ill. Locals near where he went into the wilderness feel he was wholly unprepared and simply starved to death for lack of proper nutrition. The film adaptation simply stays faithful to the book and Krakauer's theory. More information here if you're interested in a brief overview. You should read the book, though, it's very well written and insightful (potentially apart from the above).
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Jan 5, 2011 22:54
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Well, that's all well and good (and I didn't know that, that's interesting, thanks) but since this is a discussion of the film the only thing that really matters is what the film presents.
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Jan 5, 2011 22:58
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Does anyone know if Rotten Tomatoes are going to do their worst reviewed movies of the year list again?
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Jan 6, 2011 01:46
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Egbert Souse posted:Part of it was practical. Even if subtitles were not a pain to insert, it would distract from the visuals. Silents required even more concentration on body movement and composition. Films were also edited with intertitles figured as part of the rhythm of the film. Some even had quite detailed cards designed like a lot of German films - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a good example. Metropolis has a lot of instances of animated text. Indeed, silent movies were like a different medium. Part of the "art" of it was to have as little dialogue and try to represent as much as you can with gestures and imagery. It's a similar concept to "show don't tell". Also the way the titles work, it's like constant little "rewards", where you wonder what is being said, then it shows it. Something that doesn't happen with subtitles.
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Jan 6, 2011 03:05
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Anyone know about the 1979 film "Being There?" It was one of the first movies I saw on VHS. I'm pretty shocked that so many people have a hard time interpreting the ending. That is, until I read it wasn't the original ending. The walking on water ending was a change made at the last minute by the director. I've read quotes claiming that he had no intention of making religious parallels, but the ending isn't the only symbolism in the movie. You've got two characters that doubt Chance's persona and they're both named Thomas. You have the main character cast out of a garden. You have a love interest name Eve. You have a bunch of God symbolism referring to the Rand character. "America ain't poo poo 'cause the white man's got a God complex." Etc. Even without that one scene at the end, there's enough "evidence" to argue that the film was partly a commentary on interpreting Jesus' teachings. Does anyone know the real story? The studio seemed to think the ending was too controversial, so it's possible the religious angle was downplayed when discussing the film at the time.
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Jan 6, 2011 04:43
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the Bunt posted:I always wondered something about silent era films. Was it impossible back then to do modern-style subtitles instead of title cards? It still bugs me to have the visuals chopped up and segmented by screens of text every few seconds. I wonder if theatres would have local actors lip sync along with the film during the showing and avoid all the dialogue cards. Seems like a great idea. I have a question. The Coen Bros. were supposedly working on Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, to be released later this year. Now, it's disappeared from IMDB and I'm finding nothing about it anywhere. What happened, and if it's no longer happening, are we going to have to go a year without a Coen Bros. movie? 
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Jan 8, 2011 06:19
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bananasinpajamas posted:I wonder if theatres would have local actors lip sync along with the film during the showing and avoid all the dialogue cards. Seems like a great idea. Having actors for every showing in every theater across the country sounds prohibitively expensive.
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Jan 8, 2011 06:24
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bananasinpajamas posted:I wonder if theatres would have local actors lip sync along with the film during the showing and avoid all the dialogue cards. Seems like a great idea. I think if anyone back then had thought of this, they would have immediately thought to just have a single recording to sync with the film.
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Jan 8, 2011 06:39
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Rake Arms posted:I think if anyone back then had thought of this, they would have immediately thought to just have a single recording to sync with the film. They were working on this pretty early.
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Jan 8, 2011 06:50
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Binowru posted:Having actors for every showing in every theater across the country sounds prohibitively expensive. Yeah, my hypothetical scenario involved just one or two theatres doing it.
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Jan 8, 2011 07:28
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I base most of my assumptions about early talkies on what I saw in Singing in the Rain. Does anyone know, aside from the comedy elements, how accurate the portrayal of both silent films and talking pictures was in that movie?
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Jan 8, 2011 08:18
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I have an XBMC media center, and I'm playing around with a plug-in called 'Cinema Experience'. Normally, when you play a movie, you'd just see the movie. What this plug-in allows you to do is try to emulate the full cinema experience by allowing you to show a variety of content before the movie plays. It allows for image stills for trivia, movie trailers, audio and rating clips (play a Dolby or THX intro video if that's what the video file uses), and intro and outro videos for coming attractions, feature presentation, and so on. I'm looking for recommendations of music to play during the trivia portions. What kind of music do you expect to here when you're at a movie theater, and it's before the trailers, when they're showing the trivia, quizzes and local business advertisements?
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Jan 10, 2011 00:15
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I hate the music they play. I suggest you look into Lil B The Based God.
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Jan 10, 2011 00:22
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Revol posted:I'm looking for recommendations of music to play during the trivia portions. What kind of music do you expect to here when you're at a movie theater, and it's before the trailers, when they're showing the trivia, quizzes and local business advertisements? A lotta fuckin' Dixie Chicks.
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Jan 10, 2011 00:24
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Revol posted:What kind of music do you expect to here when you're at a movie theater, and it's before the trailers, when they're showing the trivia, quizzes and local business advertisements? ~10 years ago one theater by me was playing a lot of Frank Sinatra music for a while. My Way, Chicago, New York, New York etc. Others would just have it on a lite-FM style station which played softer pop music AKA "dental chair music." Not my favorite music but it's what I expect. airy vocal music: vanessa williams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EdmHSTwmWY celine dion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxoj-tDDIU duran duran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM Lately they haven't been doing the movie trivia by me. It's a blank screen until they go to the ads for a few minutes and then multiple creative "TURN OFF the cell phones" messages.
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Jan 10, 2011 00:51
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In China and Japan, silent films were shown with a "Benshi" who would read the intertitles out loud. Guy Maddin had live narration for his film Brand Upon the Brain! (not surprising considering most of his films are essentially silents).Snak posted:I base most of my assumptions about early talkies on what I saw in Singing in the Rain. Does anyone know, aside from the comedy elements, how accurate the portrayal of both silent films and talking pictures was in that movie? Some of it is exaggerated for comic effect (i.e. the heartbeat bit), but 99% of the early talkie stuff is accurate. The sync issues, the problem with actors with bad voices, odd performances, and voice doubles are all based on fact. The bad acting for the "I love you, I love you, I love you!" bit is from The Hollywood Revue of 1929, which has a particularly embarrassing scene between John Gilbert and Norma Shearer. Gilbert actually had a great voice, but even Richard Burton would sound dumb if given bad direction and dialogue. Blackmail required a live on-set voice double because the lead had a thick Czech accent. Even the brief silent film is spot-on as a parody of John Barrymore in Don Juan, down to the typeface on the intertitles. I think that's why Singin' in the Rain is such a praised film. Few comedies would go through the trouble to be accurate in parody.
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Jan 10, 2011 00:51
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I wouldn't want to use any music that I can recognize, even if it's something I like, like Sinatra. I guess "dental chair music" is a good idea. Not quite sure how I'd find some, though. edit: Found some smooth jazz which I suppose will do the job. Revol fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Jan 10, 2011 |
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Jan 10, 2011 01:32
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Revol posted:I'm looking for recommendations of music to play during the trivia portions. What kind of music do you expect to here when you're at a movie theater, and it's before the trailers, when they're showing the trivia, quizzes and local business advertisements? Kenny G
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Jan 10, 2011 02:37
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Revol posted:I have an XBMC media center, and I'm playing around with a plug-in called 'Cinema Experience'. Normally, when you play a movie, you'd just see the movie. What this plug-in allows you to do is try to emulate the full cinema experience by allowing you to show a variety of content before the movie plays. It allows for image stills for trivia, movie trailers, audio and rating clips (play a Dolby or THX intro video if that's what the video file uses), and intro and outro videos for coming attractions, feature presentation, and so on. Is this really something people enjoy? I never would have thought there were people that enjoyed the preshow enough to want to add it to their home viewing.
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Jan 10, 2011 02:54
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Dr_Amazing posted:Is this really something people enjoy? I never would have thought there were people that enjoyed the preshow enough to want to add it to their home viewing. I can see it being fun if you are having a bunch of people over, allowing time for everyone to get settled before the movie starts.
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Jan 10, 2011 03:34
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The less dweeby alternative would to just play music on the stereo and make popcorn. Playing ice rink music and trying to get people to guess what actor in Titanic also appeared in The Aviator sounds really awkward. I mean, unless you've got one of those cool decked-out home theaters with a big screen and everything, then go for it because it fits the theme, but I can't imagine doing that on a regular television with some friends over.
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Jan 10, 2011 03:43
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If I were to put together one of those elaborate home theater systems, I'd have a fake opening on Powerpoint. Same cheesy music except questions like "What is the name of the sled in Citizen Kane nicknamed after Marion Davies' clitoris?" and "Who nicknamed a female police officer Sugar Tits before arrested on DUI charges?"
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Jan 10, 2011 03:54
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Dr_Amazing posted:Is this really something people enjoy? I never would have thought there were people that enjoyed the preshow enough to want to add it to their home viewing. I have no idea. I'm just doing it for myself, really.
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Jan 10, 2011 05:57
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Egbert Souse posted:"Who nicknamed a female police officer Sugar Tits before arrested on DUI charges?" What's the answer for this? I've never heard of this. I was looking at the new Metropolis bluray, and I was wondering just how good could a movie that is nearly 100 years old can look transferring it to HD. Do they simply take the film and digitize it, or is there clean up done during production? I've heard some old films look great, and others look like crap. I was told there was a older John Wayne film where you can see all the makeup caked on his face.
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Jan 10, 2011 06:41
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Its Mel Gibson. Everyone ignored that for the jewish comments.
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Jan 10, 2011 06:54
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twistedmentat posted:I was looking at the new Metropolis bluray, and I was wondering just how good could a movie that is nearly 100 years old can look transferring it to HD. Do they simply take the film and digitize it, or is there clean up done during production? I've heard some old films look great, and others look like crap. I was told there was a older John Wayne film where you can see all the makeup caked on his face. It looks pretty darn great.  Click here for the full 1280x720 image.
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Jan 10, 2011 11:38
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bananasinpajamas posted:I have a question. The Coen Bros. were supposedly working on Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, to be released later this year. Now, it's disappeared from IMDB and I'm finding nothing about it anywhere. What happened, and if it's no longer happening, are we going to have to go a year without a Coen Bros. movie? I saw Chabon at a book signing around a year ago and from what he said it was going to be their next film after A Serious Man but then True Grit happened so I'm not sure.
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Jan 10, 2011 20:05
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Jack Bandit posted:I saw Chabon at a book signing around a year ago and from what he said it was going to be their next film after A Serious Man but then True Grit happened so I'm not sure. I remember on their Wikipedia page and IMDB it was A Serious Man in '09, True Grit in '10 and Yiddish Policemen in '11. Now there's no trace to be found :/
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Jan 10, 2011 21:42
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