David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson

[Michael Kerpan]

Still waiting on my copies of Tabu and Sansho/Gion!!!

[Awesome Welles]

Already covered here.

[Michael Kerpan]

Already covered here.

Oh well, wouldn't ever have thought to look at that thread for this topic. ;~}

[jguitar]

Not sure where to place this, so move as appropriate; however . . .
In David Bordwell's latest blog entry, which is about Godard and aspect ratios, he mentions having learned a lot from two threads on criterionforum.org: the Raro Video thread and the Godard in Japan thread. Let the speculation begin about his forum name (yes, I know that he probably just reads and doesn't post).

[ellipsis7]

Buried in DB's excellent blog is this...

This frame, from Rossellini's Golden Coach, shows the characteristic silver frame surround (and silver soundtrack) of a true Tech print. Nifty, huh?

Yes Magnani, no Rossellini, actually Renoir... Nice demo nevertheless...

[Michael Kerpan]

Kristin Thompson talks about the difficulties of putting together a complete Aardman filmography.

[Matt]

I noticed in that long list of sources she checked for the filmography, she doesn't mention the obvious: contacting Aardman directly. Surely they have records of some sort. Their archivist's name is Tom Vincent, tom.vincent at aardman.com.

[unclehulot]

One thing not mentioned in the article was that they had a huge fire around the time of the release of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

its "entire history" has been destroyed in a fire at a warehouse containing props and sets. See this article

[Matt]

I was under the impression that the fire destroyed only the production archives (sets, models, storyboards, etc.), so I would imagine that their business records were stored elsewhere. I can't believe that a film production would not have records of the projects they worked on, who worked on them, and when. It's not like it's Ince Studios she's researching, this is an ongoing, tax-paying business concern.

[MichaelB]

I was under the impression that the fire destroyed only the production archives (sets, models, storyboards, etc.), so I would imagine that their business records were stored elsewhere. I can't believe that a film production would not have records of the projects they worked on, who worked on them, and when. It's not like it's Ince Studios she's researching, this is an ongoing, tax-paying business concern.

Quite apart from anything else, Dreamworks, Channel 4, the BBC and all their various other production partners would have copious records.

Companies like Aardman generally don't work on spec - pretty much their entire output will have an offsite production partner, even if it's only a distribution/transmission guarantee.

[Michael Kerpan]

Kristin Thompson's latest blog post is about the various collections of early cinema that have come out (fairly recently)

All singing! All dancing! All teaching!

Comments on:

Discovering Cinema (Flicker Alley)/Les Premiere pas du cinéma (Lobster & histoire)

A Century of Sound: The History of Sound in Motion Pictures: The Beginning: 1876-1932 (UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Rick Chace Foundation).

The Jazz Singer (Warner Bros.)

[Michael Kerpan]

David Bordwell has a lovely piece about Hawks's "His Girl Friday" up on his blog.

[Michael Kerpan]

Kristin T does a little (well-warranted) tribute to Bob Clampett.

[Cold Bishop]

Kristin T does a little (well-warranted) tribute to Bob Clampett.

But no mention of Coal Black

[Michael Kerpan]

David Bordwell reports on a rediscovered "Mizoguchi film" and other matters Japanese.

[Michael Kerpan]

David Bordwell begins his blog coverage of this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Comments on a lot of things -- but more extended remarks on Gao Qunshun’s Old Fish and Johnnie To's Sparrow (2008)

[colinr0380]

I liked the Edward Yang picture very much. Also the title of one of the Indonesian films being advertised: Sorry I Made Your Wife Pregnant. All sorts of possibilities for plots of that film come to mind!

[Michael Kerpan]

I liked the Edward Yang picture very much. Also the title of one of the Indonesian films being advertised: Sorry I Made Your Wife Pregnant. All sorts of possibilities for plots of that film come to mind!

The little picture of Yang by Yang.

That Indonesian film definitely sounded lurid. I haven't seen any Indonesian films, but have seen a handful from the Philippines.

[Michael Kerpan]

On the editing of To and Wai's Mad Detective.

[yoshimori]

For those who've seen the film and read the blog (i.e. probably only one or two people!):

Bordwell has, he says, a theory about film production. That it's often about "problem-solving". Well, yeah. But it doesn't seem to me that To/Baz are "problem-solvers" here, at least not in the way Bordwell thinks they are, in that their problem has long been solved in exactly the same way many times before. Bordwell seems to treat To/Baz' editorial "strategy" as if it were not something we've seen in pretty much every film in which a character can see someone or something (e.g. ghosts) others can't see. His blog report seems to me to be another example of Bordwell's dabbling in an area of film production in which he has no real expertise, but a (sometimes pleasant) child-like sense of wonder.

Bordwell delights in now passe rules, e.g. "the rule of three" which he insists is at play here, despite Baz' seeming to scoff at it, and despite the fact that Bun's gift is presented not just three, but like thirty-three times in the film. Bordwell also claims the scene at the empty restaurant (Ho and Bun v. Chi-wai and his multiples) would have been too complicated for viewers if it had been introduced five minutes earlier because it included both info about Bun's gift and a dramatic fight scene. "Too much information!" Bordwell exclaims. This, though, is pure speculation. My own sense, having seen the film a couple of times, is the opposite: that the new interstitial materials on the street (that are supposed to clarify what happens later in the restaurant) are more confusing than the restaurant scene, and that the street scene might've been less puzzling after the (perfectly understandable, if you ask me) restaurant scene. That's also pure speculation - we don't have both versions of the movie to test audiences with - but I'd be surprised if anyone who saw the film didn't think this were equally plausible.

[Michael Kerpan]

Bordwell talks about sound editing with Martin Chappell (longtime sound editor for Johnnie To and other HK film makers).

[Jeff]

Discussion about the merits of this thread has been moved to the suggestion box.

[Kenji]

I admire Bordwell very much- psychology + sociology based theorising has often dominated film studies at the expense of close study of the actual film-making process itself. Bordwell consistently tries to heighten awareness of the film-making craft, but this isn't as sexy as much ill-informed + self-serving criticism. He debunks unfounded shallow or inflated theorising, but he does see his problem-solving model as a theory too (not merely an anti-theory approach).

[colinr0380]

The latest Bordwell post was from the Ebertfest. I found this one particularly useful because I posted a while ago about not particularly liking Hamlet (the play, rather than the Branagh adaptation per se) because of the main character's inconsistency and Bordwell does an excellent job of making a case for that inconsistency, so much so that I'm going to have to revisit the film soon with his comments in mind.

[Michael Kerpan]

I've been sort of avoiding the Branagh version of Hamlet, but Bordwell's post has _almost_ gotten me to the point of wanting to see it. ;~}

I am massively biased in favor Kozintsev's version. Have you seen this one yet,colin0380?