Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => Paul Thomas Anderson => Topic started by: brockly on October 05, 2003, 08:58:36 PM

Title: just forget it
Post by: brockly on October 05, 2003, 08:58:36 PM
Disco movie that really made you feel you were there -- in an icky way, not a fun way?

Goldmember
Boogie Nights
Thank God It's Friday
Saturday Night Fever
54
Summer of Sam
The Last Days of Disco
Xanadu
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Can't Stop the Music
Nighthawks
Other


vote for boogie
Title: just forget it
Post by: Sleuth on October 05, 2003, 09:05:31 PM
The answer is:  because they built it with a screen door
Title: just forget it
Post by: Find Your Magali on October 06, 2003, 12:09:23 AM
I love the first 30-40 minutes of The Last Days of Disco -- which absolutely has the feel of an authentic early 80s disco -- but then the movie can't sustain that momentum and really falls into mediocrity, in my eyes.

Boogie Nights is great, of course, but they don't spend a whole ton of time in the disco.

The disco scenes in Summer of Sam felt staged and cramped to me. Not authentic at all.

Haven't seen 54 and not sure I should bother.

I seem to remember a groovy disco scene in "Foul Play," with Goldie Hawn picking up Dudley Moore at the bar.
Title: just forget it
Post by: prophet on October 06, 2003, 05:02:09 PM
i think he means poll
Title: just forget it
Post by: Cecil on October 06, 2003, 06:45:39 PM
no, hes just getting ready for festivus
Title: just forget it
Post by: brockly on October 06, 2003, 07:43:56 PM
Quote from: Cecilno, hes just getting ready for festivus

what?! i don't even believe in jebus.
Title: just forget it
Post by: Cecil on October 06, 2003, 07:51:51 PM
festivus isnt about jebus. its a FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US
Title: just forget it
Post by: brockly on October 06, 2003, 08:00:41 PM
oh i see what this is about.... fixed
Title: just forget it
Post by: Cecil on October 06, 2003, 10:13:40 PM
well, if youre gonna cheat...
Title: just forget it
Post by: brockly on October 17, 2003, 06:23:14 PM
New one:

Best use of voice-over narration in a feature film?

Manhattan
Jules and Jim
All About Eve
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
Goodfellas
Days of Heaven
Sunset Boulevard
Double Indemnity
Fight Club
Citizen Kane
Magnolia
The Man Who Wasn't There
The Manchurian Candidate
The Opposite of Sex
Rebecca
Raising Arizona
A Letter to Three Wives
A Christmas Story
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Royal Tenenbaums
Other

tough one... think i'll probably go with Magnolia though. Apocalypse Now and Goodfellas are pretty damn good too though. There are some other really good ones in there aswell, like other. What's everyone else think?
Title: just forget it
Post by: MacGuffin on October 17, 2003, 10:49:49 PM
No "Shawshank Redemption"?
Title: just forget it
Post by: ono on October 17, 2003, 11:35:26 PM
I really think the voiceover in Goodfellas detracts from the film and shows an inability to tell a story without using it as a crutch.

*prepares to be crucified*

It's just, I think voiceover should be used sparingly, and the most glowing examples are unobtrusive (such as that of Magnolia).
Title: just forget it
Post by: cine on October 18, 2003, 01:19:00 AM
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaI really think the voiceover in Goodfellas detracts from the film and shows an inability to tell a story without using it as a crutch.

*prepares to be crucified*
You shouldn't be crucified for it. It's not like its a stupid thing to say, but I think its safe to call it ignorant - for the simple fact that I doubt you read Wiseguy. If you did, you would respect the way the film uses the narration more. At least I think you would..
Title: just forget it
Post by: ono on October 18, 2003, 01:55:59 AM
Well, I believe a film and the book it's based off of to be two separate entities, so one should be able to appreciate a film on its own terms, apart from the source material.  It's the job of the filmmaker and the screenwriter to make sure the important information is carried over from the source to the film.  The crutch, then, here is the voiceover narration.  Sure, you could praise Scorsese for "breaking the rules."  But I don't.  Because the fact is, the first time I watched Goodfellas, I loved it.  However, the second time through, not nearly as much.  It doesn't hold up to repeated viewings (which is one of the signs of a great film), and one of the major reasons is because of how weighted down it is because of that voiceover.  And this statement is hardly ignorant of the filmic text, especially considering that 1) I have seen it twice, and 2) as stated above, the source material and the film are to be considered independent from each other.
Title: just forget it
Post by: Alethia on October 18, 2003, 10:35:59 PM
goodfellas ages like a fine wine.
Title: just forget it
Post by: Squawks on October 18, 2003, 10:59:27 PM
I like the use of VO in About Schmidt. It's not as arbitrary as most VO.
Title: just forget it
Post by: coffeebeetle on October 18, 2003, 11:14:55 PM
Quote from: ewardgoodfellas ages like a fine wine.

As do a couple of my bodily fluids.
Title: just forget it
Post by: Alethia on October 18, 2003, 11:41:51 PM
slurp-slurp.