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Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity (pg. 5)
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| srussell0018 |
| Speedracer is a pretentious twat who doesn't know what he's talking about 90% of the time, but this actually was a good movie. |
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| Trance-MB |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Why is that special? XD isn't really any different than IMAX other than it's projected onto a smaller screen. |
It has 64 channel Dolby Atmos (94k Watt) with speakers in the ceiling. Also there are a number of D-box chairs, those which move and vibrate (which could be annoying). I don't know if the screen is much smaller, could be, currently the one we have here should be the biggest xd in Europe, but I'm sure that will be only for a short period of time. |
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| GoSpeedGo! |
| quote: | Originally posted by AlphaStarred
Although Béla Tarr films are much more philosophical in nature, and usually don't suggest anything about loss or rebirth, but just the banality of an ordinary existence. |
I only mentioned Tarr because he had worked a lot with long takes, I don't see any other similarity with Gravity there. This was to support my argument about Gravity actually being story driven, even though its style - including shot length - may in some aspects be closer to an art film (like Tarr's) than to a Hollywood blockbuster.
Compare the opening shot from The Turin Horse with the one in Gravity. In Tarr's film the camera is much more autonomous and the absence of any kind of narrative action (other than the horse cart going forward, but that's very simple) enables it to move freely around it and so on. The film invites you to contemplate the moment, not to absorb new information. In Gravity the camera always follows what's important at the moment with regards to the narrative. We focus on Ryan & Kowalski when they work together, we look at the Earth when Kowalski says it's a beautiful view (it then basically becomes a POV shot) - in short, the camera is there to follow important narrative action and to give you, the viewer, the information.
Just wanted to clear that up, I don't think Tarr's films and Gravity are similar in any other way. |
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| srussell0018 |
| Ugh. Wannabe movie critics are just the worst. It has to be like verbal masturbation for them. They're the only one who cares, and they're the only one it pleases. |
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| WittyHandle |
| Kind of like your posts then. |
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| srussell0018 |
| You're trying pretty hard aren't you? Keep going, one of them might land. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
I've just discovered that this bloody thing isn't out in British cinemas until November 8th, so no chance of me offering any thoughts on the film itself for some time yet.
| quote: | Originally posted by GoSpeedGo!
Some people keep saying it has no story, but that's wrong. I was surprised by how much everything there has its symbolic or storytelling purpose. Even those incredibly long takes are always strictly subordinated to the narrative, even though their length could suggest something like a Béla Tarr film. Gravity is first and foremost a deeply humanist film about coping with loss, and more universally and symbolically about rebirth. |
You do realise that symbolism, subtext or themes are no guarantee of "story" whatsoever? |
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| GoSpeedGo! |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
You do realise that symbolism, subtext or themes are no guarantee of "story" whatsoever? |
Jesus, you really must think I'm an utter idiot. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| I certainly entertain the thought when you counter the idea a film lacks story by discussing its symbolism and shot lengths. |
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| GoSpeedGo! |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I certainly entertain the thought when you counter the idea a film lacks story by discussing its symbolism and shot lengths. |
That's taking things out of context and misinterpreting what I said:
| quote: | Originally posted by GoSpeedGo!
Some people keep saying it has no story, but that's wrong. I was surprised by how much everything there has its symbolic or storytelling purpose. Even those incredibly long takes are always strictly subordinated to the narrative, even though their length could suggest something like a Béla Tarr film. |
| quote: | Originally posted by GoSpeedGo!
In Gravity the camera always follows what's important at the moment with regards to the narrative. We focus on Ryan & Kowalski when they work together, we look at the Earth when Kowalski says it's a beautiful view (it then basically becomes a POV shot) - in short, the camera is there to follow important narrative action and to give you, the viewer, the information. |
This is obviously only one of the aspects of filmic storytelling, but I thought it could be the one where most people get confused (I often read how Gravity is "style over substance and/or story".) I could also go into the structure of the syuzhet and other conventions of classical Hollywood storytelling, but I'm not sure if you want me to spoil anything. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| One day, GoSpeedGo! will enter a movie theater on a particularly hot night, and in the sweltering dark of the cinema, its ruddy tapestries and velvety sconces unveiling a divine perception as the redolent curtains pull back and the chamber darkens, it will overtake him: Film is home. Film is mother. He is witnessing mother from within mother. As he stares blankly at the film before him, the dancing lights reflected upon his visage, the warm walls reverberating to the thrum of the spectacle, he will break into a rosy fever as the likewise womb symbolism within the very film pours over him like so much amnia. And then, without pretense (a first), he shall cease to exist; the universe's resolution to a null integer. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by GoSpeedGo!
That's taking things out of context and misinterpreting what I said |
You made an entire post, which I quoted in full, which didn't talk about any aspects of plot at all. You should know that the fabula is the "story", and the syuzhet is merely the presentation of plot points. A film can have an extremely sophisticated syuzhet and still have practically no story whatsoever. And again, symbolism and subtext are largely irrelevant.
I can only play devil's advocate and I don't want the story spoiling for the sake of this discussion, but I just felt the need to point out that nothing you've written has come close to addressing the issue. |
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