You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Woody Allen, 2010)

[montgomery]

I think Manhattan Murder Mystery and Don't Drink the Water (if it counts) were also mostly tripod-free. But yes, it's promising that Allen may be trying out a new style with this new one.

[domino harvey]

How awesome would it be for Woody Allen to sweep the Oscars again and put all those "He's not as good as he used to be" rumblings to bed once and for all?

[Fiery Angel]

Never happen.

[Napier]

How awesome would it be for Woody Allen to sweep the Oscars again and put all those "He's not as good as he used to be" rumblings to bed once and for all?

Never happen.

Monkey's might fly out of my butt, and triodelover and panicprevention will smoke'um peace pipe.

[domino harvey]

If the Oscars want history, I think he'd be the oldest director to win the competitive Oscar?

[foliagecop]

If the Oscars want history, I think he'd be the oldest director to win the competitive Oscar?

Given that he'd be 75 come Oscars '11, then yup, he'd trump Eastwood's current 74.

[AWA]

To add to the Zsigmond quote earlier, another poster here provided the original complete article found here at TheCinematographer.info. The article is interesting and has plenty of technical info about the process - including Zsigmond using Photoshop to adjust colours and contrast to his and Woody's approval and taste for the labs to process and emulate. The quote in detail has more details about the stedi-cam work, which sounds enticing and that Woody is taking some artistic / stylistic risks with this one that he hasn't done in a while:

Zsigmond estimates that they shot 98% of the film with a single camera that was generally on a Steadicam tracking with the actors. He compares Allen’s approach to covering scenes to a choreographer planning a ballet. Allen kept the camera moving for up to three minutes while they covered scenes in one shot.

One location was an apartment with two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen connected by a long hallway. Zsigmond described a Steadicam shot that followed a character walking through the front door, down a hallway, into and out of the kitchen, and into the living room, where there was some brief dialogue with another character.

The camera followed the character as he walked back down the hallway into a bedroom. He sat down and looked through a window. The shot concluded with images seen through another window of a girl playing a guitar in a building about 100ft away.

And yes, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Don't Drink The Water were indeed mostly tripod free. It has been a while since Woody went for that kind of immediacy.

The article also has some more details on the plot and characters.

I wouldn't expect Woody's films to be up for Best Picture these days... but then again, they have ridiculously expanded the Best Picture category to 10 films to exploit the film goers who will go to see all the major nominations before and after, so I suppose the odds of it becoming at least filler for that nomination are much improved.

[domino harvey]

There have been memorable long shots in recent Allen flicks like Cassandra's Dream and Whatever Works, so he seems to have been building towards a movie composed almost entirely of them. Allen gets short-shrift for his flair for visuals but his films are often quite striking for more than the words on the page

[GaryC]

If I remember rightly, most of Bullets over Broadway was done in single-take scenes.

[AWA]

I should add here, having rewatched Vicky Cristina Barcelona for the first time since it was in theatres tonight, it was almost entirely stedi-cam shot to quite decent results. I would imagine this will be very similar in style then.

I found VCB also holds up pretty well in most places, btw, especially after Cruz hits the screen.

[jsteffe]

RopeOfSilicon.com has details on the film, including comments from DP Vilmos Zsigmond:

"There were no storyboards, Woody and I spoke about how he wanted to cover each scene, and then did a rehearsal. We shot at least 98 percent of the film with one 35 mm Panavision film camera that was frequently on a Steadicam following the actors. It wasn't unusual for us to do three minute takes in one shot with Woody standing next to the camera experiencing the film the way audiences will see it."

Based on the plot and Zsigmond's description of the camerawork, it sounds as if Woody Allen is channeling Max Ophuls. This is *very* welcome change from his older Bergman fixation, which spawned so many bad films and crippled some of his better ones.

[Fiery Angel]

I'd rather he channeled Bergman than Ophuls any day.

[nsps]

There have been memorable long shots in recent Allen flicks like Cassandra's Dream and Whatever Works, so he seems to have been building towards a movie composed almost entirely of them. Allen gets short-shrift for his flair for visuals but his films are often quite striking for more than the words on the page

It will be interesting to see how exactly he's assembling the long takes—he may be using one take per scene, or he may be editing a few long shots together (ie the multiple cameras rotating around the table in Hannah and Her Sisters). Neither would surprise me.

[AWA]

First clip from the film online. Doesn't reveal much in the way of plot or context, but it is an example. Photography does look similar to Vicky Cristina Barcelona (which is a good thing). Banderas' stuttering / nervous Woody-ish schtick thing gives me some reason for concern though. Hopefully that isn't prevalent throughout the film... shades of Branagh.

[domino harvey]

Some hilarious comments from Woody Allen at Cannes

[rohmerin]

Horrible reviews for the new Allen by all the Spanish critics, so, it must be an excellent film.
The Mike Leigh has got the opposite, they say it's a perfect movie.

[AWA]

Second clip from the film online - Hopkins' character hiring a "part time" hooker. Pretty funny bit about "I wasn't thinking about AIDs....". Also good to know that a large portion of the storyline deals with the more senior characters Hopkins and ex-wife played by Gemma Jones (whose performance is apparently Oscar worthy).

Reviews seemed mixed to good so far, which is probably a good sign.

[rohmerin]

Joder, a 150 quid tip! I want to be a part time hooker in W11 too.

[rohmerin]

Remember that legally this is Spanish film, so, here the official trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaymrLsuyiM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AWA]

Also - Spanish poster:



Which is better than almost all of his recent posters outside of maybe VCB.


The trailer looks fine, although I don't understand Spanish. Photography looks good, although Woody's films these days lack a lot of... shadows / darkness / depth. Everything is hyper-light all the time, more like Hollywood or a senior citizen home. Too many bounce cards in the room. But still - plenty of reasons for hope in this one.

Also hope the music in the trailer is just trailer filler - hope the entire soundtrack isn't re-recordings of Benny Goodman and Django impressions.

[rohmerin]

[Markson]

The same trailer as above, but in English.

[AWA]

Yahoo has the US / North American trailer, which, for the first time in recent memory, is actually somehow better than the European trailer IMO.

[Markson]

That was, indeed, better than the international trailer. Looks like the film will employ the same audiobook-esque narration as Vicky Christina Barcelona. And, I'm not sure if this has been noted elsewhere, but, I've noticed that it's rated R. The first since Celebrity (!)?

[Fiery Angel]

Match Point was rated R