Interference Movie Club - Round 5- "They All Laughed"

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
After Storaro and Deakins, it's hard for me to say. Probably Vilmos Zsigmond. I know may would put Lubezki up there, but I'm not sure if he's Top 5. We're talking career here I'm assuming and not their current work only.

Also, it should be noted that New Wave cameraman Raoul Coutard is still alive, and should definitely be in the conversation.
 
Career-wide my list would probably look slightly different, but if we're talking those currently working, I'd probably tend to focus more in their current artistic level. So Lubezki, Chris Doyle (though he's got quite the resume under him already), Agnes Godard would all make the list, but probably a couple career-guys as well like Muller and Slawomir Idziak.

Deakins and Storaro are obvious high picks as well. As for some more newer guys, Eric Gautier, Dion Beebe, and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, though like Lubezski all only really have a handful of top-pier projects under their belts.
 
Forgot about Doyle. He'd definitely be in the Top 5 current, maybe living, period.

Storaro is still "working" but hasn't done anything of note in a while. Deakins is king of the hill right now, in my opinion.
 
Contrarians and misogynists would say Dancer in the Dark :)wink:), but I don't know how you couldn't side with either Paris, Texas or Down by Law. I've always been a big fan of his work in Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, too. Kings of the Road is also pretty bad-ass.
 
I'll take his work in Dead Man over any of those mentioned. As for color I think his work in Until the End of the World is very underrated, whatever you think of the film. And the extended cut just underlined his achievement.
 
Dead Man has some killer work, for sure. Great stuff. I guess the Until the End of the World issue just further underlines the subjectivity of taste--the B-movie/TV-inspired photography is one of my biggest gripes with the film! I guess you can't please 'em all. But any way you cut it, it's clear that the dude's a master.
 
I did think that Until the End of the World had its moments, though! Some cool stuff. I just didn't think there was nearly enough to pad out however many hundreds of minutes I watched.
 
Sorry for the delay in responding to this, I've had a busy week. Anyway, the reason why I picked this was two-fold. First, I had been meaning to watch more of THE BOG!'s work after reading about him in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and reading his own criticism. More importantly, my buddy sent me the link to an interview he did with Wes Anderson which focuses on They All Laughed (Available on the DVD). Bogdanovich's Renoir impression is tremendous. Shades of Charlie Rose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQPzzNhqGCo

After hearing that it was his most personal and favorite of his films then hearing how it was a large influence on Anderson, I figured it'd be a good place to start, and for the most part, it was. I found myself agreeing a lot on what Lance said earlier about the genre mash-ups not working towards a cohesive whole, with the heightened dialogue and situations flourishing in various subplots (Russo and Angela's burgeoning relationship and Arthur and Charles' encounters, namely) and totally falling flat in others (I wanted to shoot Christy multiple times. In the head. Good lord). It was hard to keep track of each character's motivations at first, but after settling with the fact that the film will continue to be that loose, I enjoyed it. The manic energy was certainly elevated by Bogdanovich's emphasis on purely visual storytelling, made even more stellar by the guerilla nature of the shoot itself. And holy shit, was it gorgeously shot - that was a saving grace for me when I had to suffer through any scenes involving Christy or Ritter's seemingly out-of-place slapstick.

It was an interesting starting point, to say the least. I'm hoping to watch The Last Picture Show and What's Up, Doc? in the near future. You know, besides Colonel Blimp. Also, I feel a Jarmuschathon coming, or at least a jump into his work.
 
Also, seeing Bogdanovich's ascot in the same frame as Anderson's jacket is almost too pretentious for me to handle.
 
Speaking again of the cinematography here and everybody's best pal Bobby Muller, I just watched my Mystery Train Blu-ray. Gorgeous color photography as to be expected. Visually probably closest to The Limits of Control as any of Jim's other films. Going with more Bog and leaping into Jarmusch feels like a natural fit, bastard. That should work well. I'll check out that Anderson interview a little later. Though just mentioning it, I can see where this film influenced him in certain ways. Very interesting. Particularly with the cluttered mise-en-scene and heightened acting/dialogue.
 
The influence Bogdanovich has on Anderson is there, absolutely, but it's interesting to see how Bogdanovich keeps the pacing fast and loose while retaining a strong visual control while Anderson lingers almost too much on the construction of the world around his characters and minutiae.

Jumping from Bog to Jarmusch feels natural, like you said, with both of them being quintessentially American auteurs. Although THE BOG! almost fetishizes Old Hollywood while Jarmusch seems to try to do his damnedest to stay as minimalist as possible and avoid any sort of classically mainstream tropes. At least that's what my limited knowledge of the two leads me to believe.
 
I think you're right on the Bog's account there, though I wouldn't entirely say that's true about Jarmusch. His work can be minimalist to an extent, surely, but he's as much a rabid film buff as any of those post-New Hollywood American guys, and the influences seep into the fabric of each of his films, particularly with Mystery Train, Ghost Dog and Limits of Control. Though his work is influenced just as much by musical ideas, along with poetry and architecture and painting as it is by cinema, which is somewhat unique.
 
Then I'm glad that I'm wrong, that sounds awesome. I'm gonna work my way through his filmography chronologically.
 
Sounds like a plan. Just know the beginning films do tend to be the more minimalist ones for a while (until Limits I guess, heh). Lots of long takes and static compositions. Great shit though, but yeah. things get more lively as you go though.
 
Solid. Speaking of long takes, my roommate rented Wreckmeister Harmonies and is very set on watching that soon. That'll be fun.
 
Hah! I almost switched gears for my movie club pick and went with Tarr's The Man From London, since it popped up on instant. Then remembered I really don't like Tarr at all, so I tried to rewatch Werckmeister the other day. Couldn't get past the 15 minutes mark. The man makes films I admire on particular merits, and I like impressive long takes, roaming cameras and high-contrast black and white as much as the next guy... but his art just really rubs me the wrong way for some reason.
 
Sorry I'm late to the game, but I just watched They All Laughed last night. It's a big sloppy but hard to deny its charms and how refreshing it is considering the time period. Unlike other films of its kind, the disparate couplings don't always mesh, but there are certainly some great scenes.

Dororthy Stratten is a complete blank, and as terrible as the tragedy of her death was, I don't have a lot of respect for THE BOG! going all ga-ga over her and treating her like a muse. At least when he was boning Cybil Shepherd and put her in a period piece he was dealing with someone who actually had acting talent. Ritter is a gifted physical comedian and a likable presence but he can only do so much with what he's given to do.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved Patti Hansen as Sam the cab driver. Perhaps THE BOG! fell in love with the wrong model, because shortly after this film Hansen married Keith Richards and I'm pretty sure they're still together. She has an effortless charm and spunk that had me liking this film from the beginning. Great chemistry with Ben Gazzara, who's likely the all-star of this thing. Guy is one cool customer, and he also works very well with Hepburn. I was expecting much more from the latter but she was certainly good. I also liked Colleen Camp a lot, need to see more of her. And of course the Howard Stern guy provided some good moments, and he should be acknowledged for co-writing the screenplay and producing.

The photography stood out for a type of film that usually doesn't impress in this department.
 
I haven't had a chance to watch the movie yet, so I've come to comment on one thing.

Also, seeing Bogdanovich's ascot in the same frame as Anderson's jacket is almost too pretentious for me to handle.

I almost choked laughing when I saw that still shot.
 
Back
Top Bottom