Tag: 50 Day Movie Challenge Page 7 of 8

50DMC #8: Favorite Opening Sequence

On July 6, 2011

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What is your favorite opening sequence?

A great opening sequence can either set the stage for a great movie or set an impossibly high bar that the rest of the movie can’t hope to live up to. I have many favorite opening sequences of both types; even those of the second type kind of gather a life on their own as that great opening sequence of a forgettable film. But at this moment, I will choose the opening of Manhattan as my favorite, and it happens to also be the beginning of a great film.

The opening sequence of Manhattan blends three fabulous things into a whole that perfectly defines the film to come. Beautiful black and white photography of New York City with George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” underneath, and Allen’s Isaac speaks over image and music talking about New York. But after a phrase, it turns out Isaac actually writing, trying to find the perfect opening for his novel about a New Yorker – as he goes through various options, shifting things to change the tone or the style of the piece (which, as he knows, will determine the tone of the whole novel), we not only understand more about New York City and about Isaac and about his relationship with New York, but about the kind of film we’re going to see, and the kind of people, always concerned about how they fit into their intellectual and cultural milieu, that will inhabit it. And then Isaac decides on his opening and lets Gershwin and New York reach their simultaneous climax.

50DMC #7: Favorite Soundtrack

By Jandy

On July 5, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What is your favorite movie soundtrack?

This one took me a while to think about, and I’ll probably change my mind five minutes from now. I mean, first of all, there’s the question of original instrumental scores vs. song-based soundtracks, both of which I assume are included within the scope of the topic. Then there’s the fact that a lot of my favorite instrumental soundtracks depend strongly on existing classical music, like the Tree of Life soundtrack pulling from Smetana’s Ma Vlast or True Romance‘s score based on Carl Orff. Of course, using existing music well is a huge bonus to a lot of movies, and I really respect directors/composers who do that.

But I think for now I’ll go with Ennio Morricone’s score for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which is both totally original, unique, and incredibly influential. All of Morricone’s scores are awesome, but there’s none more iconic than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And it’s one of the few instrumental scores I own and listen to regularly.

50DMC #6: Least Favorite Film from Favorite Director

By Jandy

On July 4, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What is your least favorite film from your favorite director?

My overall favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock, perhaps an overly safe and mainstream choice, but I can’t deny how much I flat-out enjoy almost all of his films. For as many films as he made, the fact that 99% of them are awesome is pretty amazing, but even he had a few duds. I haven’t seen quite all of his films (yet!) but my least favorite of the many I have is easily Under Capricorn.

It was made in 1949 with Ingrid Bergman (who had recently done Spellbound and Notorious for Hitch) and Joseph Cotten, which ought to be a recipe for success, but its very story of a love triangle in 1830s Australia is deadly dull. It’s not simply that the film isn’t really a thriller, because Hitch made other excellent films that aren’t really thrillers – in terms of a gothic romance, he’s got the very solid Rebecca on his resume, and Under Capricorn is not solid. It’s just there, heavy and uninteresting.

On the other hand, while looking up clips for it, I read that the Cahier critics thought really highly of the film. Maybe it’s time to revisit it.

50DMC #5: Favorite Documentary

By Jandy

On July 3, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What is your favorite documentary?

This is kind of a tough one – I’m not that big a documentary fan. On the other hand, that means I shouldn’t have too many to choose from. On the other other hand, I tend to only see ones that have really good reputations, so most of the ones I’ve seen are excellent. I turned to my Flickchart to see what input it had – it shows I rank Woodstock highest, and I do really love Woodstock. But I’m going to go off-chart and choose the entire Up series as my favorite documentary.

The thing is, each of the seven entries (so far) in the series doesn’t rank that highly, but all of them added together make an incredibly amazing experience that’s much greater than any of the individual films. The series was begun in 1964, when Paul Almond and Michael Apted made Seven Up, a program for British television that brought together fourteen seven-year-olds from diverse British backgrounds and interviewed them on various topics – social, political, personal, etc, with the thesis “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” The assumption was that UK’s social system was set to the point that whatever a child was socially and economically at seven would determine the rest of their life.

Every seven years after that, Michael Apted has returned to these fourteen people (though some have chosen not to participate in later entries) and interviewed them again, seeing what has happened in their lives in between. They’ve done up to 49 Up now, and though simple in idea, it’s a pretty incredible thing to watch, just to see how some people have thwarted their backgrounds, others have taken totally different directions than expected, and still others have remained very close to what the original program would’ve predicted. But more than a social experiment, you really get to see these people as people, and see their struggle not just with their lives, but with the fact that their lives are captured in this documentary series – it becomes to some extent a comment on the documentary process itself, as people will comment back on how they were portrayed or the reaction they got to previous entries in the series. It’s pretty riveting stuff.

50DMC #4: Favorite Animated Film

By Jandy

On July 2, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What is your favorite animated film?

The original thought behind this question was probably to choose an animated feature, but it doesn’t actually specify. If you include shorts in the question, my favorite animated film is by far Chuck Jones’ Duck Amuck. By this time Jones had refined Daffy Duck from a loony sidekick to Porky Pig and others characters into one of Looney Tunes’ most interesting characters – neurotic and self-centered, whose tendency toward misplaced self-confidence lands him in trouble every time.

With Duck Amuck, Jones gives Daffy center stage and spends the whole time basically screwing with his head, meanwhile breaking the fourth wall and highlighting the constructedness of the animation art form. It’s among the most postmodern of any film, not something you expect from an animated comedy short, but Jones consistently pushed the envelope on what kinds of things the animated short could do, and this is one his most experimental and most brilliant.