i remember reading an australian review of pdl a while back in which the critic said the following; "this is the kind of movie other directors wish they made." that's probably one of the best compliments one could give a director.
ergo,
i gots da thinkin' about what i hope will be an interesting thread.--> name a movie that you wish was on your filmography and explain why. it could either be a film that really emulated your style (say, if you write in a similar vein of woody allen or the coen brothers and one of their films really feels like something you would write, then that would be a good choice) OR you could pick a film that, say, was a great theater experience for you. like, for example, the usual suspects, because you remember how the audience was so into it and when the twist ending came and the credits rolled the people cheered and you wished your "written and directed by..." credit popped up and people were talking about you as they exited the theater.
the rules
1. don't simply say "jurassic park b/c it made so much money and it would've made me rich." box office results are irrelevant in this hypothetical game. think of the film itself.
2. if you really, really feel the need to have taxi driver, 2001, or any pta movie on your filmography, feel free, but ideally, ppl would choose a more diverse, less-known and cannonized array of films.
3. pick as many as you feel the need to, but give a reason!
so okay, i'll go first.
most recently, i saw collateral on dvd (i'm always the late one) and um, wow! if i were ever to make or write a thriller, i would only hope it was as good as this. such a great, menancing feel throughout the whole film. terrific performances, radical cinematography (the POV shot from overhead of the dead guy falling on the cab would be something i definitely would have done). love the banter between foxx and jada and tom. great dialogue. thoroughly enjoyed it and i wish my name was on it! :bravo:
now someone else go!
I wish I had made Schizopolis because it really does what I want my movies to do. It is easily dismissed as a movie with no plot by people who don't have the patience to look deeper. It really is weird, but the more you watch it, the more you understand it. I choose wanting to make Schizopolis more than wanting to make any Lynch film (because they havea smiliar effect) because Schizopolis also stands as a hilarious movie, even if you don't understand it.
I might have mentioned this before, but mine would definitely be 'Owning Mahoney.' It's the closest thing I've ever seen to a movie that could have been made by me. First off: it's a paint-yourself-in-a-corner movie, which is a theme that I find myself constantly coming back to. Second: the visuals are simple, yet carefully designed (and also repeated at times, I love repetition of sequence/shots w/ subtle tweaks as time passes, another thing I do). And third: the movie is filled with awkwardness. The uneasiness of lies and deception. And what happens w/ PSH's car at the end is just perfect. I watched it both enthralled and horrified-- in the sense that I knew if I ever got my shot, I would end up making something like this... and probably would have zilch box office to show for it :( Maybe this why I'm having such career troubles.
cbrad, one idea...can you add a rule or ammend this thread to including movies that you could've done better? For instance, I was watching Dreamcatcher today, and while it was fucking horrible and I stopped watching after an hour, I kept thinking how clearly wrong some of the narrative structuring was, all the dialogue and the dumb line between humor/horror it was drawing. I would love to explain why I would I do that movie better than Kasdan.
If you feel this defeats the point of your thread, or is available in another thread, it's cool. I could always start one.
The very first time I saw "Blue" (Trois couleurs: Bleu) it kicked my ass. I remember laying on the floor in my apartment and watching Kieslowski pour his character's grief and anger through my television. It was all I could think about for weeks.
Everything about it is perfect for me..
The soft focus and dolly shots..
Wonderful use of fade in/outs in places other than the end of an act..
It's one of those very rare intimate films for me. So yeah, I wish I had half the talent Kieslowski did.
Quote from: Gamblor not so gone.cbrad, one idea...can you add a rule or ammend this thread to including movies that you could've done better? For instance, I was watching Dreamcatcher today, and while it was fucking horrible and I stopped watching after an hour, I kept thinking how clearly wrong some of the narrative structuring was, all the dialogue and the dumb line between humor/horror it was drawing. I would love to explain why I would I do that movie better than Kasdan.
If you feel this defeats the point of your thread, or is available in another thread, it's cool. I could always start one.
YES! great idea. rock with it.
A movie I wish had my name on it is Before Sunset. In no way do I think I could've actually pulled off such a miraculous movie given the oppurtunity, but there are things about it that are very close to my own style, such as Linklater's use of music. For instance, when Jesse and Celine round the corner to that accordion, and then you see the accordion player leaning against the wall and it all just flows, that's the way I try to make movies. And if I ever ended a movie on that kind of grace note, I would gladly die young.
Alright kickass.
Dreamcatcher: The timeline is totally fucking horrible. I am only speaking of the first hour of the movie, as I didn't finish watching it, it wasn't worth it. It would've been best to start the movie with the car salesman helping the lady, that was the most powerful scene. Then, I would've written a better scene either Damian Lewis or Thomas Jane to follow it up. Then, cut back to them as kids and Duddits. Then back to the present, developing more with Jason Lee. For god's sakes I wish Kasdan had just slowed down the scene where Lewis gets hit by a car, it was so fast and awkward. Made no sense, he should have showed Lewis see Duddits across the street first. Anyhow, after all that, I would've rewritten every last bit of dialogue, gotten rid of Jason Lee's cute lines, and stopped the farting noises. I mean Jesus what horrible decisions they made.
I totally agree about Collateral, cbrad. I'm watching it right now. I'm so glad I got the dvd, I forgot how absolutely great and incredible this movie is.
First off, by acknowledging how rare it is these days that a Xixax thread reaches eight posts with the length and thought/ feeling put into these, I hope I'm not triggering a joke response by some jackass. Definitely refreshing.
Withnail & I: Reminds of how nice it is to see a fantastic film that just tells the story without to many stylistic roadblocks. It's got what I always strive for; a sense of being compact, that the film would fall apart if one simple scene should be removed. I.e. every scene is perfect. It builds up future payoffs and jokes without most people even noticing. Expositions are jokes themselves, and it's never glaring. How it matches classical with modern is another example. Music-wise it mixes Henrix and the Beatles in with a lovely classically inspired score, but where it really hits the mark is with the dialogue. Mixing Shakespeare with sixties vernacular. The dialogue is so morbid and darkly funny that when the tables have turned serious you don't even notice. And hadn't it been for the tears down your chin, you still wouldn't.
What you laugh at: however big their problems are, these people are overreacting. They seem to manage just below fine, yet they envision it armageddon measured against their unfullfilled pipe dreams. As unemployed and habitually boozed up actors it's just normal that they use every waking moment to affirm their unproven worth to one another, especially the bigheaded Withnail. This paves the way for the actor's dream of doing Shakespeare filtered through the drunken sight/ vocabulary of Withnail. Melodramatic, drunken and narcissistic Shakespeare.
What you cry at: In more general terms, their sadness also relfects the end of the Great Sixties. The film has an inherent dreariness, and contrasted with Danny's poignant talk of the "greatest decade in the history of mankind", this theme becomes quite apparent. The points where comedy is completely stripped away, when you're stuck with the dark points; the situations where you realise it's more about the ups and downs of their friendship than the ups and downs of their social situation, that's when it really hits the emotions.
In other words I would've given so damn much to have written such a smart and fucking funny film, not to mention the pathos carried by the ending, which I won't spoil here.
Next up: Le Mepris and Back to the Future.
PS: Until just now I didn't realise the irony of being somewhat drunk whilst writing this.
being john malchovich
i remember leaving the theatre with a tingling sensation. i knew i had just witnessed something special. i saw it with my mother and she'd fallen asleep somewhere in the middle; easily lost and bored. during the drive home i was ranting on and on like a fucking retard, and she patiently listened. it was finally the alice in wonderland i'd been looking for, i could not figure out how a film like that ever got made. not that it shouldn't get made, but the conviction of some executives who believed in pushing the envelope. and yet in the middle of this outlandish story there was an undertone of loneliness; as you all know the film works on so many levels.
then i realized no one could do it again; at least not for a long time. charlie kaufman owns that territory, it was so unique that i could never get the chance do something similar without it being referenced back to malchovich. i remember getting angry, well not really... but very disappointed that i had just been apart of the beginning middle and ending of a film movement. a movement that was so authored, it encompassed one film.
so you can imagine how pissed off i was when Adaptation came out. He did it again. true work of genius, and two of the most important films since the 70s.
the only other movies i could think of are: 2001; contempt; royal tennenbaums; Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Le . these are the only other films that ever came close to making me feel the same thing.
-sl-
u guys these are all great! keep them coming! :-D
Yeah, good thread!! BTW, Weak2nd, kudos on picking Owning Mahoney -- great explanation!
Anyway, I would have said Taxi Driver, but I'll move onto something more off-the-beaten-path.
Auto Focus.
This would fit right into my filmography. I think I've said before that I feel closest to Schrader in terms of the ideas I keep wanting to express on film. Plus, the fact that it seems like the ideas and the writing itself might have been the best part of it, and the actual directing of the film may have taken it down a notch, well, I get that feeling from Schrader's work sometimes, and it's the same feeling I have whenever I finish shooting something. But the perverse and hilariously pathetic obsessions in this film are right in line with some of my favorite characters I've created...
Also, if I had to think of a PERFECT film that I wish had my name on the "written/directed by" credit, then it'd be In The Mood For Love. That slow moving and nearly silent but oh so heavy sorrow that comes from pure unrequited love, and the repetitive echo of its pain throughout your memory for the rest of time -- there isn't a second of this movie that's not in the 100% right place.
the purple rose of cairo. reflects a certain part of my personality quite well.
to go to the opposite end of the spectrum, a film i wish i had made that reflects my sensibility in a wholly different way - Pixote, by hector babenco. the depiction of children who are hardened to things they dont even fully comprehend yet (like violence, sex, etc) had a supremely powerful effect on me, and the last ten minutes kept me up for hours.
pi: i like disturbing and dark films but they have to have a point, purpose and not there just for "shocks"....but rather give me an emotion.... while lynch is my favorite director, aronofsky is easly second in my book..and his style mirrors mine or "what i would like to do"...........also, i love vusual filmaking....i really dont mind "mtv style" films because there fun to watch..........you know like flasy quick cuts, etc..etc..while lynch is dark, strange, disturbing and sexual /beatuful....aronofsky is sometimes more unrelenting.......and in only two films EVERY MORTHER FUCKER KNOWS AND WILL NEVER FORGET THE CLIMAXES..........the drill and the requiem......seriously, what kind of cinephile doesnt like this shit?..........besides the new world, only the fountian is all we have to look forward to.......but i would of loved to gather soem friends save some money and make this film..
When I think about a film I would like to have made, I think not so much about the film itself but how they where made. So my list is...'
- Apocalypse Now -
It's a masterpiece. Let's start with that.
It's a work of a passionate genious. A film by a man who put his life, his sanity, his family, his wealth on the line to make it. That's how I want to live my filmmaking life. In theory, anyway. It's true what they say, a great filmmaker (artist) should have a few misses under his belt. It's a sign of courage.
- Amores Perros -
The film reaches the emotional gravity I want my films to have. The behind the scene stories I've heard about the crash and the mugging (and how the robbers became the on-set security) etc makes for great stories to tell for years.
Alejandro is one of my rolemodels. Not only as a director but as a person. He wasn't 20 when he made his first film, he's traveled the world doing a wide spectrum of things. He's lived life. There are too many wunderkids out there with no experience in life making films. His journey inspire me to do and experience different things.
- Amelie -
Why? The music, the music, the music.
I often put on the soundtrack and dream myself into a huge premiere screening...and I'm the director.
Way of the Gun.
A movie I keep going back to rewatch over and over again.
The movie is all about the characters and their relationships with one another. Just stunning. It keeps coming back with surprises and little hints at things. Listening to the commentary McQuarrie talks about how as a director he took out everything from his own script that explained things a bit too much. Finally a film that does not underestimate its audience.
And the script itself... Infinitely quotable.
"There's always free cheese in a mousetrap."
"You the brains of this operation?" "To tell you the truth, I don't think this is a brains-kind of operation..."
"A plan is a list of things that don't happen."
"You know what I'm gonna tell God when I see him? I'm gonna tell him I was framed."
All with performances to match.
And let's not even begin to talk about the action scenes... Harsh realism. Where both sides of the conflict actually know what they're doing. Just watch the beginning of the kidnap scene and tell me it isn't one of the most unique (non-)action scenes ever made...
To know that this film practically killed McQuarries career just hurts me so much. Genius stuff, ignored by most critics and definitely by the paying audience.
Yeah, ok, end geekboy rant here...
One film I wish I would have made would also be David Lynch's Lost Highway, but I've tried working with slightly more experimental/avant garde elements and it just ends up being embarrasing for everybody involved... I could never work as intuitively as Lynch does. I need structure and form, but am always amazed by his work and wish I could do something similar...