more eloquent musing on Equilibrium
May. 22nd, 2003 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threeplusfireI wish I had seen this in the theater. How did I miss it? Ergh.
Director's commentary is fantastic. Kurt Wimmer speaks quite avidly about the film, about shooting, sets, actors, the story and a number of other things. He's articulate and interesting.
I'm blown away by the choice of Beethoven as the music that breaks into Preston's head, because Beethoven is one of the few pieces of music that makes me feel a connection outside of my head. A very personal thing for me, but I think other people might get it just because Beethoven is known as one of the greatest composers ever. The Mona Lisa is used for the same reason.
The work they did to get around having no money and little equipment... damn. Talking about how camera batteries failed, brute force solutions to not having certain equipment. They use some strange places for shots, all around Berlin, left over relics from World War II, and the references to Nazi Germany are pretty clear.
References a lot of other films, everything from Triumph of Will to Gattaca. Everything from numbness by self medication, hate crimes, socialism, minimalism, media saturation, facist architecture, memory, the burning of film, the dangerousness of ideas and feelings, geometry... It's a surprisingly well done thing.
The casting choices, both intentional and not so intentional, are good. He waxes poetic on Sean Bean's performance and choosing Christian Bale because he makes for a sympathetic character for does evil things.
I like the modified Berettas. Nice guns. And the firearms version of martial arts, and the development of gun fights in Hollywood and Hong Kong cinema. He invented it in his yard apparently. So amusing. It's great cinematic fiction.
The alternation of color, how everything is grey until a person is a sense offender, and then color enters into the scene.
I'm going to have to watch this again.
Director's commentary is fantastic. Kurt Wimmer speaks quite avidly about the film, about shooting, sets, actors, the story and a number of other things. He's articulate and interesting.
I'm blown away by the choice of Beethoven as the music that breaks into Preston's head, because Beethoven is one of the few pieces of music that makes me feel a connection outside of my head. A very personal thing for me, but I think other people might get it just because Beethoven is known as one of the greatest composers ever. The Mona Lisa is used for the same reason.
The work they did to get around having no money and little equipment... damn. Talking about how camera batteries failed, brute force solutions to not having certain equipment. They use some strange places for shots, all around Berlin, left over relics from World War II, and the references to Nazi Germany are pretty clear.
References a lot of other films, everything from Triumph of Will to Gattaca. Everything from numbness by self medication, hate crimes, socialism, minimalism, media saturation, facist architecture, memory, the burning of film, the dangerousness of ideas and feelings, geometry... It's a surprisingly well done thing.
The casting choices, both intentional and not so intentional, are good. He waxes poetic on Sean Bean's performance and choosing Christian Bale because he makes for a sympathetic character for does evil things.
I like the modified Berettas. Nice guns. And the firearms version of martial arts, and the development of gun fights in Hollywood and Hong Kong cinema. He invented it in his yard apparently. So amusing. It's great cinematic fiction.
The alternation of color, how everything is grey until a person is a sense offender, and then color enters into the scene.
I'm going to have to watch this again.
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Cool!
Date: 2003-05-22 04:39 pm (UTC)He's been tracking news and rumour and apparently some dweebs were concerned about being *too* topical what with the shot of Saddam Hussein early on and some were also worried about being compared to the Matrix, Brave New World, or being accused of ripping off 1984, BNW, and other dystopian worlds.
(I say, if you are going to "rip off" anyone, taking on the best and the masters of the genre is a GREAT place to start.)
Another friend of mine thinks it was too smart for the common market. He compared it to Gattaca, only without the big names. I had to point out that Bale, Bean, Pertwee, Watson, Tiggs, MacFadyen, Fichtner, and Purcell are not exactly unknowns. Even if you don't recognize the names you will probably recognize the pictures. There is a fan site that came up with a killer poster that would have had *me* at the theatre. (I'll post the site if I can find it again.)
I any case I think it is fab film and I want to get my hands on a DVD. So, where did you get yours?
Cheers,
Ekatarina
(The "fencing" duel near the end was my favourite. No slo-mo, no fancy shots, just real-time fast and furious. I actually kept yelping and twitching during the fight unlike other "oh my what a nice shot anglke and cool slo-mo" fight scenes.)
Re: Cool!
Date: 2003-05-23 01:22 am (UTC)You're right on. The last duel is amazing, the way they go back and forth with the guns, and I did think of fencing when I saw that.
Re: Cool!
Date: 2003-05-27 12:12 am (UTC)I like how they keep "just" missing. That is the key to a great defense - use the least amount of energy to avoid being killed.
Cheers,
Katja
p.s. The "big box" rental place near me has it in! Can't wait to buy it for Jody!