Sidney Lumet

Started by Stefen, April 28, 2004, 09:34:45 PM

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Stefen

Has anyone seen that tv movie he did Strip Search? A buddy of mine saw it and said it was fantastic. Anyone have any opinions on it?

Couldn't find a lumet thread. You people are either slacking or I can't search.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Ghostboy

As soon as I saw this thread, I was like, "Hey, I should plug that aweomse book of his." So anyway, my thumbs up join Mac's for this invaluable volume on the motion picture production process. It was and continues to be a great help to me.

And his movies are great too -- a lot of them, at least. 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon are probably my favorites.

cine

Haha, that makes THREE of us!  :yabbse-cheesy:

I, too, was about to promote Making Movies. It's a must. GB's movies are surely his classics and I would include Network as one of my favourites too.

Ghostboy

I'd heard so many great things about Network that, by the time I actually saw it about a year ago, I was a little disappointed. I could see its greatness, of course, it's just that I hadn't been expecting the level of satire to be so high -- not that that was a bad thing, but I had been expecting a straight drama.

Having seen Bamboozled prior to it, I was also surprised at how closely Lee adhered to Chayefsky's structure and tone.

MacGuffin

Quote from: 50 CentiphileGB's movies are surely his classics and I would include Network as one of my favourites too.

Can't forget Serpico. Plus, I have a soft spot for Garbo Talks because it's one of my mom's favorite films.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Kal


Stefen

Lumets movies are too inconsistent. I applaud him for always trying different things though. But come on, the wiz? as well as some other clunkers. But he would always come back with good stuff. Serpico, Fail Safe, Dog Day, and Network are my faves. Especially Network. Hes really the last of a dying breed though. Filmmakers who were always making movies. You don't see these respected and known new school filmmakers doing that(Soderbergh the exception). I think with the new school filmmakers filmography is so important to them. With Lumet he would make shit and come right back with something great, I wish the new kids would do that. I think it might be different now though cause movies make so much money thats its important for a filmmaker to not release movies so often. Thats how it is. Im probably just talking about of my ass.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Dottie_Hinkle

Has anyone seen The Offence?  opinions?
Does Anyone Know Where I can get the soundtrack/score to BANANAS?

SoNowThen

Quote from: StefenFilmmakers who were always making movies. You don't see these respected and known new school filmmakers doing that(Soderbergh the exception). I think with the new school filmmakers filmography is so important to them. With Lumet he would make shit and come right back with something great, I wish the new kids would do that.

Totally agreed. If/when I get to start actually making real movies, I really wanna try to do this. Not make one good picture and then one shit picture per se, but just try to keep constantly moving. Rather than 6 brilliant movies, I think I'd rather have 30 decent movies and maybe one really good one as a filmography.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

cine

Quote from: SoNowThenTotally agreed. If/when I get to start actually making real movies, I really wanna try to do this. Not make one good picture and then one shit picture per se, but just try to keep constantly moving. Rather than 6 brilliant movies, I think I'd rather have 30 decent movies and maybe one really good one as a filmography.
I would be very amused to hear an aspiring director talk like this: "Well, it's difficult to say which route I choose to go down. I think by 2006, I'll have made one decent picture and then release another decent one by then end of 2007. Then the general public will know my name so I figure that's the best time to release a brilliant movie for 2009. That should heat everyone up so I'll cool them down with a decent movie again in 2010. People will wonder what I'll make next or if I'm the real deal, so I think I'll hit 'em with another brilliant film in 2012..

And so on...

El Duderino

Dog Day Afternoon....great movie.

and Network
Did I just get cock-blocked by Bob Saget?

SoNowThen

Quote from: Cinephile
Quote from: SoNowThenTotally agreed. If/when I get to start actually making real movies, I really wanna try to do this. Not make one good picture and then one shit picture per se, but just try to keep constantly moving. Rather than 6 brilliant movies, I think I'd rather have 30 decent movies and maybe one really good one as a filmography.
I would be very amused to hear an aspiring director talk like this: "Well, it's difficult to say which route I choose to go down. I think by 2006, I'll have made one decent picture and then release another decent one by then end of 2007. Then the general public will know my name so I figure that's the best time to release a brilliant movie for 2009. That should heat everyone up so I'll cool them down with a decent movie again in 2010. People will wonder what I'll make next or if I'm the real deal, so I think I'll hit 'em with another brilliant film in 2012..

And so on...

:)

What I meant was that I would just like to make as many movies as possible in as little time as possible, and if one becomes a "classic", that would be good enough for me. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd rather try and fail a whole bunch of times, rather than have that Kubrick perfectionism that yields one amazing movie every six years.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Alethia

Quote from: Cinephile
Quote from: SoNowThenTotally agreed. If/when I get to start actually making real movies, I really wanna try to do this. Not make one good picture and then one shit picture per se, but just try to keep constantly moving. Rather than 6 brilliant movies, I think I'd rather have 30 decent movies and maybe one really good one as a filmography.
I would be very amused to hear an aspiring director talk like this: "Well, it's difficult to say which route I choose to go down. I think by 2006, I'll have made one decent picture and then release another decent one by then end of 2007. Then the general public will know my name so I figure that's the best time to release a brilliant movie for 2009. That should heat everyone up so I'll cool them down with a decent movie again in 2010. People will wonder what I'll make next or if I'm the real deal, so I think I'll hit 'em with another brilliant film in 2012..

And so on...

lol

ono

I'd love to have Kubrick's track record, but realize that that's not feasible for the average filmmaker.  Most filmmakers who try to go that route (or even bother to worry about such a thing) are just going to have a smattering of mediocre movies.  Also consider that critics have never liked his movies at first.  And the general public NEVER gets them until years after.

Case in point, probably what will be known as Kubrick's best movie 10, 20 years from now, Eyes Wide Shut, has a 7.0 on IMDb.  People just didn't get it.  Or they wanted to see Cruise and Kidman doing it and were let down.  On the flipside, Passion of the Christ -- AKA Snuff Fest 101 -- has a 7.4.  We all know IMDb is nothing but a measure of popularity among the geeks and those somewhat familiar to the Internet, so it is a popularity gauge.  But it's also very telling to see what people get, and what they don't.  Kubrick's most popular/highest-rated movie is Dr. Strangelove.  Sometimes cited as the best comedy ever along with Some Like it Hot.  They both have their moments, but that assessment is very questionable considering other movies out there.  Point being, well, I think Cinephile pretty much beat me to that one.  So yeah, what I said, and what he said.