Jean-Luc Goddard began pushing cinematic boundaries with his very first feature, Breathless. Even into his 80s, he’s keeping up with the times, using 3D to create arresting visuals, usually with at least one element seeming almost to touch the viewer. Whether abandoning any notion of traditional narrative can be considered boundary-pushing is another story. But “story” is not a word one would associate with this collection of philosophy, classical music, occasional screeching car noises, and ever-changing images. There are recurring characters, but they do not have anything resembling normal conversation. Or, not for more than a few lines, anyway. Most of the time they, or a narrator, are saying things like, “Animals are not naked, because they are naked.” In one of the more straightforward scenes, a man sitting on the toilet explains to his lover how everyone is equal when they poop. They are both naked. (Or, perhaps, not naked.) In another, the man says that zero and infinity are humankind’s greatest discoveries. No, she says, sex and death are. Hitler is discussed as well as the French Revolution. Several scenes feature a dog, hence the above quote. Others feature blood. Sometimes Godard is clearly being playful, as when he blends two shots so that by closing one or the other eye I saw a completely different image. In other shots he’s used filters to distort the image or the colors.
Beyond the lack of a plot, having all of the dialogue be quotes (from Satre, etc.) and non sequiturs, plus the car noises, made this a seriously annoying movie to watch. It’s slightly redeemed by some truly innovative 3D images and by not also being glacially paced. Quite possibly I am a philistine missing Godard’s genius. I definitely missed whatever he was trying to achieve.
IMDb link
viewed 10/22/14 6:45 p.m. at Prince Music Theater [Philadelphia Film Festival]
Showing posts with label 3-D. Show all posts
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Friday, April 27, 2012
Pirates! Band of Misfits! (***)
What director Peter Lord calls “a schoolboy version of history” with a gloss of silliness is the unifying principle of British author Gideon Defoe’s series of novels, the first of which Lord has adapted here in appropriate cartoon form.* In Defoe’s history, Charles Darwin is a short geek wishing he had a girlfriend and employing a well-trained monkey butler/henchman who, in one of the funniest contrivances, communicates via title cards. (It’s also anachronistic, as Darwin had by the date provided, 1837, concluded his sailing days.) Queen Victoria is a wobbly, pirate-hating Machiavellian who, incidentally, looks nothing like Emily Blunt.**
The pirates themselves are led, naturally, by the Pirate Captain, whose crew includes the Albino Pirate, the Pirate with Gout, and so on. They are not all fearsome so much as not fearsome at all. The Pirate Captain is unusually kind and unusually bumbling. He’s the sort of pirate who, were this a live-action film, might be played by Hugh Grant, who instead merely lends his voice.
Though Defoe himself has crafted the screenplay, the movie differs with the book in important particulars. For example, in the book, the Pirate Captain’s crew conclude that the best part of being a pirate is the sea shanties, whereas, in the movie, they agree that it is “Ham Nite.” However, in both cases the humor, frequently, stems from infusing the story with modern sensibilities. The “pirate of the year” and “scientist of the year” presentations, upon which much of the plot revolves, become parodies of awards show. The latter is held on Blood Island, so named “because it’s the exact shape of some blood.” That bit also gives the flavor of the amusements.
Visually, the film has much appeal. The 3-D theatrical release is nice and bright, and the animation seemed flawless. As with Lord’s previous film, Chicken Run, it employs stop-motion animation. It’s remarkable that most of this was done shooting puppets frame by frame, yet you may well not notice and assume it was done by computer. I enjoyed these Pirates! but, although the comedy, as with Rango! or Bugs Bunny, has some elements pitched more at adults than kids, its appeal is slightly on the “cute” side, a problem I didn’t have with the superior Chicken Run.
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* Gideon called his book Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! That title was used for the UK version of the film. Perhaps it was thought that Americans (and Australians) might be frightened by the (unfounded) suggestion that there was actual science in the film.
** …who played her in Young Victoria.
viewed 4/17/12 at Rave UPenn [PFS screening] and reviewed 4/17–4/28/12
The pirates themselves are led, naturally, by the Pirate Captain, whose crew includes the Albino Pirate, the Pirate with Gout, and so on. They are not all fearsome so much as not fearsome at all. The Pirate Captain is unusually kind and unusually bumbling. He’s the sort of pirate who, were this a live-action film, might be played by Hugh Grant, who instead merely lends his voice.
Though Defoe himself has crafted the screenplay, the movie differs with the book in important particulars. For example, in the book, the Pirate Captain’s crew conclude that the best part of being a pirate is the sea shanties, whereas, in the movie, they agree that it is “Ham Nite.” However, in both cases the humor, frequently, stems from infusing the story with modern sensibilities. The “pirate of the year” and “scientist of the year” presentations, upon which much of the plot revolves, become parodies of awards show. The latter is held on Blood Island, so named “because it’s the exact shape of some blood.” That bit also gives the flavor of the amusements.
Visually, the film has much appeal. The 3-D theatrical release is nice and bright, and the animation seemed flawless. As with Lord’s previous film, Chicken Run, it employs stop-motion animation. It’s remarkable that most of this was done shooting puppets frame by frame, yet you may well not notice and assume it was done by computer. I enjoyed these Pirates! but, although the comedy, as with Rango! or Bugs Bunny, has some elements pitched more at adults than kids, its appeal is slightly on the “cute” side, a problem I didn’t have with the superior Chicken Run.
_______________________________
* Gideon called his book Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! That title was used for the UK version of the film. Perhaps it was thought that Americans (and Australians) might be frightened by the (unfounded) suggestion that there was actual science in the film.
** …who played her in Young Victoria.
viewed 4/17/12 at Rave UPenn [PFS screening] and reviewed 4/17–4/28/12
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