| Re: Season of the Severed Head, resumed |
http://groups.google.com .. |
| JBENWAY (JBENWAY@NYC.RR.COM) |
2003/07/11 16:54 |
elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F0A3C4D.8AC42312@cloud9.net>...
> Parry wrote:
> >
> > elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F066371.15889405@cloud9.net>...
> > [snips]
> > > Parry wrote:
> > > > Anyway, attempting a survey of all the decapitations in
> > > > movies and literature would be quite an undertaking. Alas, I have
> > > > other utterly pointless projects to attend to first.
> > >
> > > The good thing about being a Filmmaker is that every project has a point
> > > if you just attach it to some future film springboard. Currently I'm
> > > watching as many silent films as possible; the point of which only I can see.
> > >
> > > Any suggestions?
> >
> > I've seen only maybe three dozen silent features, and many shorts, but
> > have found most of them very affecting,
>
>
>
>
> If I may, I'll suggest a few favorite gems which represent the pinnacle
> of the silent era...
>
> Sunrise (1927) F.W. Murnau, Pandora's Box (1928) G.W. Pabst, The Crowd
> (1928) King Vidor, The Lodger (1926) Hitchcock.
>
> I've purposely restricted these to more available titles, and I've
> avoided comedies because the list would be 100 films long.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > as if their lack of colour and
> > noises give their imagery a more direct and intimate impact, like
> > being visited by ghosts.
>
>
>
>
>
> I do find that the mental mechanics of watching silents is very
> different. The imagination must work on a different level when dialogue
> is banished, Eventhe titles seem to be processed through the visual filters.
>
> In the age of mobile phoning when we're all assaulted by an increasing
> barrage ofbabbling inanities I've gained an increasing appreciation for
> the world of silence.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > In a respect, the increasing verisimilitude
> > of films -- via colour, dialogue, sound effects -- takes them further
> > from dreams, and the current enthusiasm for special effects seems to
> > me to distance them from all human concern.
>
>
>
>
>
> I agree with the above sentiment. Much of the current cinema seems fit
> only for heavy gamers or perhaps to entertain the machines themselves.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > It's also a lost art, for a film done like that now would seem very
> > self-consciously stylized.
>
>
>
>
>
> That's true to a large degree, but I won't let that stop me. If a
> film's funny it doesn't really matter what style is used to cobble it together.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > There's a Canadian director named Guy
> > Maddin who tries, using iris shots and stilted action, but I've never
> > been able to sit through more than twenty minutes of one of his
> > movies. Tati's films were low on dialogue, which gave them a
> > deceptively "silent" feel.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yes, I really love his films. It shows that even w/in the context of
> color/sound film it's possible to make essentially silent/monochrome
> work in the spirit of the best of the silent era. His films give me
> hope that I can realize similar goals.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Sometimes the influence of silents burble
> > up in interesting ways. Coppola's Dracula relied on old-fashioned
> > in-camera effects, which I really liked.
>
>
>
>
> There's a great silent robbery sequence in Pierre Melville's "Cercle
> Rouge" (Red Circle) that you'd likely appreciate.
>
>
>
>
>
> > What I feel are James
> > Cameron's best movies are structured like the chase films one finds in
> > silents (I've suggested this unpopular theory here previously).
>
>
>
>
>
> An interesting observation... I wonder if the influence was direct or
> once removed via more recent film history. Do you think Cameron makes
> time for the silents?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > I once made a 16mm film that had sound/dialogue but also intertitles
> > that looked like silent film cards. I wasn't trying to be retro or
> > anything, it just seemed like an appropriate device.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Personally, I feel that every existing film technique should always open
> for consideration. I don't mind a touch of whimsy and I experience film
> history as more or less simultaneous... "retro" styles can always be
> renewed. I don't
> think there's anything inherently "dated" in any technique. Of course
> the audience may disagree.
>
>
>
>
>
> > The cards would
> > comment on or confuse the action, and were good for making abrupt
> > transitions. When a scene was stopped by a title card, the action
> > could resume anywhere. I was probably taking after "O Lucky Man,"
> > which had title cards. Another time I crudely re-edited an 8mm copy of
> > a silent film and made a soundtrack for it from a Popeye the Sailor
> > album. It was almost watchable.
>
>
>
>
>
> I'd be willing to watch it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > What sort of approaches do you think you could take? Perhaps just
> > filming with the intention of projecting the final result without
> > sound? Or are there other aspects of silents which appeal to you?
>
>
>
>
>
> Well, what I'm thinking of right now is making a silent cartoon w/
> synchronized music roughly in the style of 20's cartoon's, which I've
> lately been researching. It's really just a convenient peg upon which
> to hang a loosely structured series of visual gags, while borrowing the
> more absurd and dreamlike ideas from throughout the history of the early toons.
>
> I like the idea of working in a simple and graphic style and borrowing
> some of my favorite themes from the Jazz age like Rum Runners, Hobos &
> Flappers. It doesn't have to literally seem like a lost film from the
> era but that's the general idea visually. Thematically, the story board
> is looking increasingly like early Fleischer Bros. stuff.
>
> At the very least it will be a load of fun to make.
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/h/human/artist_statement.html
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