there has been blood (and now QT's review of CMBB)

Started by pete, November 06, 2007, 01:06:10 AM

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Pozer

#30
sal is right on this i suppose.  i asked the four who accompanied me to last week's screening, and they all felt the same way. 

Newsweek critic David Ansen, who was the only journalist on the set of the movie, moderated the Q & A and revealed that Paul Dano was originally cast as Paul Sunday, the guy who tips off Daniel Day Lewis's oilcatter to a possible oil strike in California. At the last minute, just as Dano was supposed to start filming, Anderson told him that he wanted him to play a second role, as Paul's twin brother Eli. Dano was surprised, but jumped right in. The problem is, the film is confusing. I was not sure that they were two separate people the first time. This time, I watched carefully; Anderson doesn't spell it out enough; it flies over people's heads. Several people at the screening were also confused.

B.C. Long

This is probably a bad example, but what about the 241 people that walked out of the premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Was it the fault of Kubrick or the audience that they didn't "get" (confused by) it.

The Red Vine

Quote from: B.C. Long on November 19, 2007, 01:36:47 PM
This is probably a bad example, but what about the 241 people that walked out of the premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Was it the fault of Kubrick or the audience that they didn't "get" (confused by) it.

No offense but I have to agree that isn't the best example. You have to consider the audience in the 60's when "2001" came out. It's true that some people today are still put off by anything unique in cinema but the differences between now and then are enormous. It could be that PTA's execution of the twins simply did not communicate well, but I have not seen the film. Judging from the script, the relationship between Daniel and Eli is much more important to the story than anything involving his twin.
"No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.">

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: The Red Vine on November 19, 2007, 07:31:56 PM
Quote from: B.C. Long on November 19, 2007, 01:36:47 PM
This is probably a bad example, but what about the 241 people that walked out of the premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Was it the fault of Kubrick or the audience that they didn't "get" (confused by) it.

No offense but I have to agree that isn't the best example. You have to consider the audience in the 60's when "2001" came out. It's true that some people today are still put off by anything unique in cinema but the differences between now and then are enormous. It could be that PTA's execution of the twins simply did not communicate well, but I have not seen the film. Judging from the script, the relationship between Daniel and Eli is much more important to the story than anything involving his twin.

"The differences between now and then are enormous"?

I definitely believe audience goers of 1968 were a much more alert audience and could be because foreign films were prominent everywhere. Ingmar Bergman said he loved that a film of his could open in the midwest and play after the run of a generic Western (paraphrase). That doesn't happen today. Challenging art cinema is regulated to large cities. Back then, Jean Luc Godard was a well known figure amongst cinephiles. A critic (who taught at university level) said if he asked people back in the late 60s/early 70s if they knew who Jean Luc Godard was, they'd throw chairs at him. In the 90s he'd be lucky to get one or two people. It seems cinephiles are dying out.

From what I've read it seems that There Will Be Blood is a film for an older generation. It isn't a comment on loud, over edited films. It also doesn't appease any sense of the entertainment value we find in most films. It has qualities found more in classical interpretations of art cinema.

pete

I disagree with the last three posts.
First of all, the comparison to 2001 is meaningless.  Walking out becomes an arbitrary link and it's not very useful because you fail to cite any other simliarity. 
Then you generalized the audience of the 60's by the "241" people who walked out of a Kubrick film.  That is probably not very useful either.
Then GT's anecdotes about the glory old days where serious people watched serious films everywhere, even in the Midwest, was total bullshit, and linking "There Will Be Blood" to some kinda return to the glory old days therefore became even bigger bullshit. 
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: pete on November 20, 2007, 02:51:19 PM
Then GT's anecdotes about the glory old days where serious people watched serious films everywhere, even in the Midwest, was total bullshit, and linking "There Will Be Blood" to some kinda return to the glory old days therefore became even bigger bullshit. 

I know we're friends and all, but fuck off for what you said there. You don't just disagree with me, but say something with enough hositility to make it a jerk comment. I'm not insinuating There Will Be Blood is a return to glory days, but I am saying it has little little recognition to most films made today. One reason is because it is a period film and seems to play out as such. I'm also talking about what it seems to be since I haven't seen it so don't try a debate with me there. It's called perception and I already labeled it as such. I have no comment about the midwest deal. There is little argument by anyone that foreign filmmakers weren't more prominent in the 1960s than they are today.

I should have kept it to a 'fuck off' because you didn't say shit yourself.

B.C. Long

Quote from: pete on November 20, 2007, 02:51:19 PM
First of all, the comparison to 2001 is meaningless.  Walking out becomes an arbitrary link and it's not very useful because you fail to cite any other simliarity.

It may be a bad example, but far from meaningless. Sal pointed out that he thinks that it was the fault of P.T. Anderson that people were confused by the whole "twin" subplot and that Anderson should of made it more "clear". So the only example I could think of where a lot of people were turned-off or confused by was 2001. I don't give a shit about all the little cultural details that separate 1968 from 2007. I'm just trying to offer a different perspective because I don't think the confusion is the fault of Anderson, which is why I brought up Kubrick's 2001. Both films use intentional ambiguous subtexts.


MacGuffin

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on November 20, 2007, 01:00:18 PMFrom what I've read it seems that There Will Be Blood is a film for an older generation. It isn't a comment on loud, over edited films. It also doesn't appease any sense of the entertainment value we find in most films. It has qualities found more in classical interpretations of art cinema.

Which why I'm afraid it will get no Oscar love.
"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

Pozer

we know the obvious, ddl cannot be ignored.  and if he is not nominated, i think it is truly time that i in turn turn my back on the ceremony.  so far he has my vote for best performance of the decade..  "DRAINAGE!  DRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAINAGE!"  gdamn you voters are fools if you say "yeah, he was good, but hanks + accent = daniel day-who?"

pretty sure theyll be happy enough that dano spoke, and that he did loudly.  so theyll book em.

i hav seen the film twice and must say that upon the second viewing i was looking forward to each sequence i knew was to come.  the editing is strong, i feel the strongest in any of pta's films.  dylan did amazing work in two of my favorite movies of the year, but if it had to be one, i would love to see him recognized here over taojjbtcrf.

the music... again, i give the cold shoulder to oscar if he dont say "what up" to jonny.

i want so badly (and prolly mostly) to see paul there waiting to be awarded as either best adapted writer or best director.  it's always tough for him to get the love he ALWAYS deserves.  so if there's too much ridley and nichols goin on, i think they might find room for him and do like theyve done with half his films by dropping him in the screenplay pool.

best pic is no doubt out of the question unless they think back to the old days that gt was talkin aboot.  but chere is still hope within me.

Derek

To those who have seen it, would you say it's his best work?

I've read the script. For anyone else who has read it and seen the movie (which I haven't) is it fair to say you get a good sense of the vibe of the movie from the script, or is it something different? I don't know if that makes a lot of sense...
It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

MacGuffin

Quote from: Derek on December 01, 2007, 12:27:25 PMTo those who have seen it, would you say it's his best work?

It's up there. I still hold Boogie and Magnolia higher, but it's a very close third for me. Of course, I say this just after one viewing.


Quote from: Derek on December 01, 2007, 12:27:25 PMI've read the script. For anyone else who has read it and seen the movie (which I haven't) is it fair to say you get a good sense of the vibe of the movie from the script, or is it something different? I don't know if that makes a lot of sense...

It's a good basis of the "vibe," but the film is entirely different entity from the script (the Final Shooting 7.25.06 copy, which I read after I saw the film). Scenes are expanded upon, you don't get what the score does to the senses, how the silences say so much and how DDL and Dano elevate the dialogue.
"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

Sal

Quote from: Derek on December 01, 2007, 12:27:25 PM
To those who have seen it, would you say it's his best work?

I would say conceptually it's his least ambitious, but you probably gleaned that from reading the script. I know oil is epic and the fact it spans centuries should make it his MOST ambitious, but structurally it does not build like his other films. It just goes from one scene to the other. The scenes are individually well directed but when it comes together as a whole, I'd say you get more wallop aka bang for your buck with Boogie Nights, Magnolia and PDL.

QuoteI've read the script. For anyone else who has read it and seen the movie (which I haven't) is it fair to say you get a good sense of the vibe of the movie from the script, or is it something different? I don't know if that makes a lot of sense...

Yeah you get a good sense of the vibe from the script. Not a lot changed from when I'd read it in early 06.

RegularKarate

I got to see it today.. how happy am I?

Loved it, of course, but it's not as immediate a love as I expected.... I really need to see it again (wish it were here already so I could see it tomorrow).

NCFOM gave me a much more immediate satisfaction in that I absorbed and processed it right away while I was watching it... that's not to say it didn't sit with me... I definitely thought about it a lot after I left, but with CMBB, the experience is so intense and raw that I wasn't taking it in real-time.

does that make sense?

Anyway, I feel like most of the main characters are the same person gone and going down different paths.

it's amazing... still playing in my head.

Pozer

Quote from: RegularKarate on December 06, 2007, 08:31:55 PM
the experience is so intense and raw that I wasn't taking it in real-time.

does that make sense?

it certainly does.  and that is the best way to put it.  when i fist saw it, right when it ended i was left with "that was it... i need to have a walkabout with it for a while."  the movie is indeed very raw and ends the same.  Plainview's voice was like an alarm clock the following morning and it played out amazingly in my head all the way thru my road trip back home.   

SiliasRuby

Quote from: pozer on December 07, 2007, 11:10:07 AM
Quote from: RegularKarate on December 06, 2007, 08:31:55 PM
the experience is so intense and raw that I wasn't taking it in real-time.

does that make sense?

it certainly does.  and that is the best way to put it.  when i fist saw it, right when it ended i was left with "that was it... i need to have a walkabout with it for a while." 
That's why I haven't really done a big review yet....but here it goes....

First of all, The chats with Mac and Omero were hilarious and wonderful...Mac actually thought one of my quotes of the night "If you give me enough sugar I could kill a man". Since I said that, the two of them were baiting me to drink more and more sprite and possibly have some-actually any- kind of sugar in my system, to see what the hell I would do.

I was getting more and more antzy as the day wore on and soon as the sun began to creep down I couldn't keep still whether it was physically or verbally. I am quite verbose and spurt out allot of explectives when I am antipating something or when I get nerveous.

Anyway, I saw it on my birthday. And what a present. I was entranced thoughout the whole screening. and I was completely quiet, the opposite of what I was outside. Daniel Day Lewis embodied everything about his character and I agree with others that you are not seeing him the actor on screen, you are seeing the character. This film is still with me after only one viewing. There are so many iconic images in the making presented on screen that, at least I, forgot I was in a theatre for the whole time. As far as the eli and his brother thing, I think it's brilliant that they didn't explain it, one iota, at least not a hit on your head explanation.

The score is mezmorizing and for the first few moments it seems to be out of place but the deeper you get into the movie and as far as the movie goes on, it seems to work more and more.

The film as a whole works on multiple levels. Now when it officially comes out, I won't be surprised if there are news reports from Fox News and other pundits that this is liberal propaganda about the bush administration, but none of us will notice and if we do we won't care. (Insert P's Joke: "Just like Silias's reviews")

It took a few days to really explain my feelings about how much I love and in love with this film I am. It's not my favorite of his, Magnolia is, but its now my second fav. I laughed at some parts and I thought I was going to be the only one, I wasn't.
All the hype that it's getting her and on other sites is true....

Another line we could put on the marque other than "You give me enough sugar and I'll kill a man" is.....

"We put on one hellava god damn show"
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

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