have you seen "the return"? i figured you are russian or something and you like movies, you have to have seen this s***. i saw it on wednesday it is pretty solid.

 

discuss.

have you seen "the return"?  i

Haven't seen it yet. Had a pirate copy on me hard disc a while ago, but I hate the quality of NON-DivX so I deleted it.

 

I know what it's about, read the script, know a couple of people who were involved in it (technical and artistic side), but until I see the finished product there isn't much to say.

 

It's sad that one of the lead actors, a 12yo boy, drowned shortly before the movie won in Cannes. Really sad.

 

I saw Russian Ark (2003), though. If you're a true history buff (namely, from Peter the Great to Boris The Great, lol) get a DVD and watch it fly. It's 90 minutes long and, believe it not, shot in ONE CONTINUOUS TAKE. ONE.

 

One of my all-time faves, though is Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo Detstvo). It's almost 50 years old, B&W, probably not the best of quality, but man I just love it, pure liquid movie poetry.

 

BTW....If you haven't seen the brazilian flick City of God, SEE IT NOW on DVD. Really good movie.

Man that sucks that Andrey died, I didn't know about that.

 

I haven't seen any of the ones you mentioned, but I'll have to check them out if I can. I saw The Return as part of this film festival class I'm taking. That's cool that you know people involved with it though.

I saw Russian Ark (2003), though. If you're a true history buff (namely, from Peter the Great to Boris The Great, lol) get a DVD and watch it fly. It's 90 minutes long and, believe ir not, shot in ONE CONTINUOUS TAKE.  ONE.

Is it truly a single take, or is it edited as a single take ala' Hitchcock's "Rope"? Rope, I know, was shot on 8 10-minute reels, but it is regularly referred to as being shot as a continuous take.

 

Surprising that Hitch has yet to be discussed much here. Some of his films can crack my top 20, depending on the day. Favorites are The Trouble with Harry, Rear Window, North By Northwest, Psycho, Rope, Vertigo, Sabateur, his second The Man Who Knew Too Mutch, and Strangers on a Train. The Birds is fun to see every couple of years. I actually have yet to see 39 Steps or the original Man Who Knew Too Much.

Man that sucks that Andrey died, I didn't know about that. 

 

I haven't seen any of the ones you mentioned, but I'll have to check them out if I can.  I saw The Return as part of this film festival class I'm taking.  That's cool that you know people involved with it though.

If you do see any of them (City of God is the more conventionally exciting of the 3), make sure you get DVD.

 

You might have to overpay by a dollar (less if you netflix it), but the quality is incomparable.

Is it truly a single take, or is it edited as a single take ala' Hitchcock's "Rope"? Rope, I know, was shot on 8 10-minute reels, but it is regularly referred to as being shot as a continuous take.

 

Single shot. No reels invovled. All-digital, in fact they had to invent a bigger hard-drive just for the movie.

 

Alex Sokhurov had only ONE chance to get the movie done. 2 days to prep the location. A real-life renowned conductor was flown in for just 2 hours. A single f***-up and the movie wouldn't get done. In fact there was a hilarious blunder that I took for the real thng at first and no way to edit (NO EDITING!) around it.

 

Watch the English-speaking German producer (another reason why DVD is a must) provide background explanations as an optioin during the second viewing. But beware, it's not for everyone's taste and patience.

 

Strangers on Train, eh? The SHOES sequence in the beginning is very cool.

 

Like Psycho, too. That Berstein score....shudder.

Like Psycho, too. That Berstein score....shudder.

You're making me doubt everything I THOUGHT I knew about film. I thout Psycho was scored by Bernard Herrmann, who also did North By Northwast and, years earlier, made his debut scoring a little flick called Citizen Kane.

 

I'll have to make a point of seeing this Russian Ark of which you speak. I think the single long-take effect was used to great effect in Rope - made everything feel very claustrophobic in the one room with all the dinner guests eating off a trunk that contained the body of the guy killed in the beginning of the film. You make Ark sound more grandiose than a take in a single room, so I'm intrigued.

You're making me doubt everything I THOUGHT I knew about film. I thout Psycho was scored by Bernard Herrmann

 

You're right, it's.