Notes On A Scandal

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: December 27th, 2006 (limited)

Starring: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy

Directed by: Richard Eyre (Stage Beauty; Iris)

Premise: When Sheba Hart joins St. George's as the new art teacher, Barbara Covett senses a kindred spirit. But Barbara is not the only one drawn to her. Sheba begins an illicit affair and Barbara becomes the keeper of her secret.

[MacGuffin]

Spontaneity was key in 'Notes on a Scandal'
Chris Menges, the film's soft-spoken cinematographer, kept things loose on the set with handheld camera work.
Source: Los Angeles Times

"Notes on a Scandal," is the story of a magnetic (and married) art teacher who has a sexual relationship with one of her 15-year-old students, and a disturbed spinster who uses this information to blackmail the art teacher for friendship. Chris Menges, the soft-spoken cinematographer who also shot "Dirty Pretty Things," "The Killing Fields," and "North Country" says it was the screenplay that first drew him to the project. "To me it is all about the writing," he said. "It is my first and foremost inspiration and whether I shall or shall not be hooked on a story depends entirely on how it is written." But it didn't hurt that acclaimed actors Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were set to star.

Weeks before principal photography began shooting Menges met with director Richard Eyre and production designer Tim Hatley to talk about locations and the right tone for the film. They decided that spontaneity would be key, and that all the shots would have a certain animation--cars moving in the foreground, people bustling in a cafe--to give the story more life. "It was a very considered script and the actors were fantastic, so we felt like, 'let's create an ambiance and atmosphere and then catch the performances on the wing,' " said Menges.

To get that feeling of spontaneity Menges shot most of the film with a handheld camera that weighed about 36 pounds. "It was quite heavy, but the actors could move as they felt inspired to because they didn't have to hit marks and they were not locked down to routines," he said. "And if you are using that kind of camera you respond emotionally and physically to their performance. It is more like a dance."

Menges said Eyre created a low-key vibe on the set. "He never yelled 'Action!' like on other films. It was more like a subtle turning the camera on and here we go," he said. "We would always be ready for that moment. It was a quietly marching forward rather than screaming and shouting."

In our conversation Menges kept alluding to Dench and Blanchett's understanding of space and how to use it to their advantage. He also said that most of the scenes (including this one) are pulled from the first or second take, and in fact, very few scenes were even shot more than twice.

"To shoot that way [with a handheld camera] your entire concentration is on the performance and the psychology of the moment and the story and capturing a certain spontaneity," he said. "You are thinking of all this going on at the moment and giving the actors as much freedom as they need. You react to the performance and it is very exciting because it has a life of its own."

[matt35mm]

This was like the Mary Kay Letourneau story boiled down to all of its most trite and uninteresting elements, plus Judi Dench as a sexually repressed predator type.  I disliked it more than anything else over the past year, and afterward, went to watch "Children of Men" to sanitize my brain.

I'm not too surprised.  I also have had to "sanitize my brain" once: after watching Hard Candy.  I went out the theater doors and right up to the box office again to buy a ticket for The Notorious Bettie Page.  That was much better.

[Ghostboy]

Alas, I went to the last showing of the day and thus could not go out and see something else afterwards. This was just stupid. There were about three minutes where the performances elevated the material, but otherwise it was too trashy to be taken seriously and not trashy enough to be any fun. At least Hard Candy provoked a response in me; this one just left me annoyed.

[meatwad]

This was horrible.

i can't believe nobody has mentioned the holy shit hilarious moment when blanchet ran out of the apartment screaming. That could not have been serious

and phillip glass managed to phone in a score and still outshine the film

[MacGuffin]

And the ripping continues...


It wanted to be a Hitchcock thriller adapted from a Patricia Highsmith novel, but it really came across as no better than a standard Single White Female, "*blank* from hell" knock-off.

[Pozer]

it was a'ight.

[Pubrick]

you're supposed to say "thread nowhere near rebalanced."

[The Red Vine]

What a piece of melodramatic crap. Dench and Blanchett go over the top with a dreadful script. Bill Nighy was particularly awful.

[Pozer]

you're supposed to say "thread nowhere near rebalanced."

shouldve.  and naturally, i havent even seen the damn thing.

[Alexandro]

this was pretty fun. i enjoy watching actresses like these two chewing up everything that comes in their way. mainstream popcorn films should be like this. i thought it was trashy enough to be considered fun, but i guess im in the minority around here...

its the kind of movie actors love.