DVD commentary track 3: Due before first day of school

6/11/2013

You know what to do.

Bernardo Sarti

7/3/2013 09:25:27 am

When watching a documentary on Stanley Kubrick's classic suspense thriller, The Shining, I came across a very interesting technique used by the film crew. Since Kubrick was a very unconventional director, scripts were being revised and changed on a daily basis. To ensure that everyone had the correct copy, each script printing used a different color paper. For instance, the first script would be white than the next would be blue and the next would be yellow and so on. In using this technique, it would be easy to ascertain if everyone has the most updated version. Even though it worked out at first, Kubrick and Jack Nicholson admitted that as principal photography progressed hardly anyone kept a perfect record in script up-to-dateness. Still, it is a pretty neat idea.

Another interesting aspect of Kubrick's filmmaking is his treatment of the actors. In particular with Shelley Duvall, Kubrick was demanding and aggravating. He did this on purpose so the actress could tap into the feelings of anger and resentment which her role required. All in all, Stanley Kubrick is one of the most amazing directors of all time.

Mr Smith

7/18/2013 04:46:27 am

I agree about Stanley Kubrick. Check out Full Metal Jacket, 2001 a Space Odyssey or Dr. Strangelove. The guy was a genius.

Bernardo Sarti

7/21/2013 01:19:59 am

I have watched all of those plus A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut. His aesthetic standards and vision are just mind-blowing.

* Do you know where I could get a copy of Lolita? I'm so curious to see how he approached that.

Cecilia Pacheco

7/9/2013 01:16:22 pm

“Cleopatra”- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rouben Mamoulian, and Darryl F. Zanuck

This film is considered to be a masterpiece, because of all the mega production it needed to involve in order to create this movie. Already in the commentary track it is stated that this film wasn’t supposed to be historically correct but to be a piece of art about Cleopatra’s life. I really heard very interesting comments in the commentary track in this film. The movie was actually filmed in Alexandria in Egypt. Initially was supposed to be a 6 hour film that was cut to 3 hours and 40 minutes after the changed of directors from Mamoulian to Mankiewicz, this last one being discredited at the end. Mamoulian wanted to cut the movie into 2 hours and 30 minutes but it was impossible with so many extra materials. Originally the director wanted to divide the film in two parts of Caesar and Cleopatra, and Anthony and Cleopatra. After the cut new scenes needed to be added, which were recorded six months after the end of the original shooting. Martin Landau remarks an interesting comment, he said that in the first part of the movie most roman character used clothing in brown leather and gold details, but in the second part they used black leather and silver details.

The most interesting is that when the movie was produced there were not enough special effects to appear then all that was done in the movie was actually made. That is why this movie is considered to be one of the most expensive films of all times, considering the inflation at the time. It was rumored that the film at the time possessed the third biggest navy in the world. Only the original shooting lasted one year. Some Egyptian replicas were made; some of these replicas were never used.

A general comment I would like to say about this film is that even when all this production it is actually a quite show to see and masterpiece, but due to its long time it becomes a tedious film, repeating some times the same argument over and over. Elizabeth Taylor makes a remarkable acting in my consideration; she really went into the last drop of her character. She is capable to be seductive as able to cause fear. I think the good things in this movie were overshadowed by her romance with Richard Burton. But at the end the film ends up being a piece of art that needs to be carefully analyzed to understand its beauty and greatness.

Mr Smith

7/18/2013 04:48:05 am

Very good.

Samantha Cavalcanti

7/31/2013 05:06:04 am

“Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” is a brilliant drama and, as one can presume, a great amount of work was required in order to make it come to life. They’d often shoot in ridiculously freezing weather, due to the scenery of the movie. Though, you have got to admit that a snowy beach and a frozen lake make for absolutely gorgeous scenarios! There were a few shots in which the actors, particularly Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst, got to improvise a bit, and came off as particularly natural in a movie that is, in any other shot, fantastically theatrical. The music, on several shots, went along with the dialogue, especially in the first couple of scenes, so that when the characters were done speaking, the music would pause or the volume would lower, which helped set a pace for these dialog-based scenes. Another fascinating facet of the movie edition was that, whenever Elijah Wood appeared in shots that were Jim Carrey’s memories, his face would either be shown partially, or not at all. This happens because Carrey’s character forgot about Elijah’s character, and that was a fantastic way of portraying that, especially because it is a movie that is so focused on memories.

Heather Freeman

7/31/2013 06:50:05 am

For the third movie, I choose an older movie as well, being that I am a fan of the older plots. I choose "My Cousin Vinny" directed by Jonathan Lynn. The commentary goes over a couple of faults that happen during the movie, and I found this interesting being that other movies normally only talk about the acting techniques chosen. The scene in which the judge grants a 60 minute recess has a fatal error. There is a clock across the street from the bar, which marks 12 o'clock and when the court session returns, it says that its 4. Another error mentioned is a hole in the plot. Although this does not make a huge difference to the story, when Vinny is about to tell Marisa Tomell's character that he is practicing the name under another name she runs off mad at him, however, later on she calls the clerks office and tells them that he is practicing law in fact under the name Jerry Callo.
Although the mistakes, "My Cousin Vinny" is a great film and the actors were well adapted into it. In the part which Vinny asks the hotel clerk if the train always comes by at 5, and he responds "No sir, its very unusual" the sequence of the scene was created by the actors on the set. Later when Vinny goes to complain, because the train did in fact pass by, the clerk made up the line "I know, shes supposed to come through at ten after 4:00."

Amaryllis Gounin

7/31/2013 08:43:34 am

La Guerre du Feu (Quest for Fire)

This movie has a very special characteristic: it has no oral dialog as we know it, as spoken language at that time was not enough developed. It’s set during the Paleolithic epoch in Europe, about 80,000 years ago. It focuses at the time were early humans fought for fire, as it was their main source of survival. The Wagabu tribe lost their fire during their last fight with another tribe, so they sent three of their best men to look for fire and bring it back to them. The movie shows their harsh adventures through the savage nature in search for fire. After looking into the commentaries I became shocked because the ways they used to make it was incredible. The most impressive skill was the make-up of the actors. They had to paint the whole body since in ancient times, the clothes were basically animal skin, and many of the actors were almost if not completely nude. The objective was to show early humans so the faces had to be modified; they used fake teeth and placed different types of masks (it did not always cover the whole face) so it resembled the structure found in humans bones of that time. Something else to mention is that even though we have found weapons and bones of ancient times, it still leaves us with many doubts like their skin color or size and form of their hair. The producers had to imagine all of those aspects accordingly to the level of the tribes. Another important thing to illustrate was the animals that lived then. To film wolves isn’t that hard if they can find tamed dogs with wolf appearances, but what about the mammoths? The director, Jean-Jacques Annaud commented that he asked for tamed elephants and that they had to dress them up with fake GGG fur to represent real mammoths. The realization was spectacular as they also had to film scenes were the temperature could reach under -15ºC or over 35ºC, depending on the places they filmed. I feel respect for this film for all the work and effort used on it and for such a representation of this cruel period in human development.

Justice Howard

7/31/2013 10:51:28 am

Watching the Making of The Italian Job I began learning new things in under a minute. The first new thing that I learnt was that the Italian Job was a remake from a movie made in 1969. The director changed the movie so much that the in the end the two movies were only loosely connected by a few things; those being heist, armorded truck, gold, and mini coopers. The director believes that the most important thing about making a movie is to hav a clear vision statement which I believe will come in handy for me later on. The director of this film, F. Gary Grey, was origionally making music videos so he was very visual oriented. Grey was also very involved and connected with his actor and they felt and apreciated that. The director points out that this movie works out so well because there is no real protagonist and that the characters have to play of each other and build chemistry, something which is uncommon in action movies. This was definitely worth watching and I learnt a lot from it.

Matheus Portela

8/4/2013 08:13:58 am

Comedy movies are my favorite ones, thats why I choose The Hangover 3, as my top number one. Todd Phillips work is more than unique. Its just fantastic how he can make a a movie very funny without losing focus of its plot. At my point of view, Zack Galifianankis is the best at the trilogy, especially in this movie. Its just awesome how funny and at the same time sad someone can be. Also I would like, to acknowledge Ed Helms work. I've seen his work previously, at some TV series such as The Office, and I can't say that he is a bad actor. How he can reintroduce in this movie, its very original. Despite the characters, the plot story of this movie is very good. How the plot is also reintroduced to the viewer in a different way is more than unique. Its like seeing the first movie of the trilogy again, although the story may go a different way making it very unique. The scene of the kidnapping was awesome! Phillips showed me how a movie can be really funny, and at the same time with out losing focus on its characters and plot. I could really enjoy this movie with a good laughter.

DVD commentary track 3: Due before first day of school

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