tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27825798.post7256988056972307767..comments2023-06-30T05:06:42.335-04:00Comments on My Life, at 24 Frames Per Second: Showing and Not Telling: Oscars, 4 Months, and "The Wire"Kenji Fujishimahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10635553450551818306noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27825798.post-28538845153869932502008-02-25T23:27:00.000-05:002008-02-25T23:27:00.000-05:00Thanks, Simon.What I love most about 4 months is i...Thanks, Simon.<BR/><BR/><I>What I love most about 4 months is its complete lack of flash. No calculated, cinema-verite-wannabe camera jerks (Cloverfield, Bourne 3), are used to arrive at realism.</I><BR/><BR/>Yeah I've never quite understood where people get the idea that all that camera shakiness in films like <I>The Bourne Ultimatum</I> is somehow inherently more "realistic" and/or "documentary-style." Sometimes it just seems unsteady. Maybe it just depends on how such an aesthetic is used. (I just saw Rossellini's <I>Open City</I> for the first time this past weekend, and I was startled by a few camera jiggles at one point that actually seemed like something out of old newsreel footage rather than just a director's affected attempt at faux-realism.)<BR/><BR/>And thankfully, the "right" movie---basically, anything but <I>Juno</I> (which I stress, again, is actually quite affecting for what it is---it's just that what it is, to me, isn't nearly as mature or profound as its boosters claim)---won last night. I probably wouldn't have broken out into a conniption fit if it had or anything, though; I probably would have done the same thing I did with the <I>Crash</I> victory two years ago and just quietly said "Boo."Kenji Fujishimahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10635553450551818306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27825798.post-71558046512424117682008-02-24T17:11:00.000-05:002008-02-24T17:11:00.000-05:00For my work's pool two years ago, my gut said Cras...For my work's pool two years ago, my gut said Crash, but all evidence pointed to Brokeback (I'm a scientist, what am I to do?). Add the fact that no part of me, even on a minute level, wanted to hope for Crash's victory, I went w/ Brokeback. Doh. This year though, my gut tells me Juno, primarily because TWBB will vote-steal from NCfOM. I don't despise Juno as much as some vociferous haters, but can you imagine the uttering the phrase "Best Picture Juno!" in 5-10 years? I hope I am wrong.<BR/><BR/>What I love most about 4 months is its complete lack of flash. No calculated, cinema-verite-wannabe camera jerks (Cloverfield, Bourne 3), are used to arrive at realism. Mingiu shows us what matters to him from the get-go, without hubris or self-consciousness (some of the complaints leveled against him). My other year-end favorite (yours too), No Country et al, also relies on a spare setup of still camerawork and soundscapes, but that movie was definitely more stylized (an observation). 4 Months stillness is hypnotic and beautiful, similar in quality to the works of Jia Zhang-ke and Hou Hsiao Hsien, both of whom have also never received an AA nom. The academy is wholly unequipped to discern between the good and the bad in the foreign department, a category that loses more value each year.<BR/><BR/>On the Wire: All us Wire-heads are so glad you're watching this. Better late than never right? Upon finishing season 1 early last year, I remember thinking "how can this show get any better?" The scope expands to such proportions that even calling it "epic" would cheapen its accomplishments. On a cinematic level, it's much more filmic than standard television, and it's lack of flare bears some comparison with 4 months imo. The payoff(s) you will receive in the coming seasons are possibly the most cinematically rewarding you will experience, a bold claim if there ever was one but damn if isn't true.Simon Hsuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07587022990493229569noreply@blogger.com