'Gravity' (2012) dir. by Alfonso Cuarón 3D sci-fi space thriller

[JarodRussell]

Of course, many filmmakers that would disagree with that assessment. Hitchcock chief among them; he viewed cutting as a valuable tool, and saw his experimentation with long takes in Rope and Under Capricorn as failures that didn't take advantage of the medium.

And still, it was a great achievement of all of the involved. It takes quite a lot of talent and effort to get 10 minute long takes done, and even more to make seamless transitions between several of those 10 minute takes. There are many out there who wouldn't manage to do that.

 

[Harvey]

Oh, there's certainly a sense of technical virtuosity on display in long, uninterrupted takes that's very exciting, and there are a number of filmmakers who make great use of them (chief among them Max Ophuls, Otto Preminger, and Mikhail Kalatozov, who's film I Am Cuba must be seen to be believed), but cutting can be just as impressive.

 

[trevanian]

I notice that this teaser is all one long shot. Cuaron seems to like those long shots. I remember he included at least two of them in The Prisoner of Azkaban and several more in Children of Men.

The short film he contributed to Paris, je t'aime was also one long take. It seems to be his preferred mode of shooting, at least when the budget allows for it.

It's theatre, basically. There are no cuts in a stage play.

Theater with all the audience members mounted on technocranes that thrust them right at the actors, then boom around behind them. The change of perspective is a pretty huge difference from theater (and probably why I don't much like theater, because I want a variety of perspectives.)

Though there's something to be said for subtle invisible long takes. You've got that one at the start of TOUCH OF EVIL that everybody goes on & on about, with the car and going through town. But later in the picture, there's a long take in the bomber's apartment that involves only some innocuous lateral movement, and THAT is the one Welles is most proud of.

 

[trevanian]

Sweet Zombie Jesus. Give me this film NOW.

QFT... I am getting really excited about this, especially since they seem to be taking the science seriously. Perhaps if it does at all well it'll even give some more impetus to the public conversation about space junk, which would be a great thing.

Space junk was one of my TNG pitches, a race and world where they had pretty much cut themselves off from space because they had too much crap up there to be able to fly through.

There's a Ben Bova story about a moonbase [I think it is called MEN OF GOOD WILL, in the FORWARD IN TIME collection] where you have russians at one part of the moon and americans at another. They took some shots at each other at some point, and the bullets just keep going round & round, so at a certain point every month they have to lay down on the floor as the bullets come back to perigee and shoot the hell out of each base. It's pretty funny, as it is the only place in the verse where russians and americans are no longer able to fight each other.

 

[Klaus]

There's a Ben Bova story about a moonbase [I think it is called MEN OF GOOD WILL, in the FORWARD IN TIME collection] where you have russians at one part of the moon and americans at another. They took some shots at each other at some point, and the bullets just keep going round & round, so at a certain point every month they have to lay down on the floor as the bullets come back to perigee and shoot the hell out of each base. It's pretty funny, as it is the only place in the verse where russians and americans are no longer able to fight each other.

I definitely remember this story, had forgotten who wrote it and where I read it...

...and I like that TNG pitch too.

 

[Myasishchev]

When I saw the first trailer a while back, I knew I'd heard of this movie before. And there I was. I was full of anger back then. It made me strong.

Loved the new trailer. As of now, after a year that has almost entirely failed to live up to its potential--thanks a lot, Shane Carruth, Shane Black, James Wan, James Mangold, Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, and Nicolas Winding Refn--it's my second-most anticipated film remaining for 2013. Well, that or Wong Kar Wai's Grandmaster.

So will Alfonso Cuaron's new film beat the car chase movie from the director of Dungeons of Dragons? The smart money says yes, but I've never been smart money once in my life. It's pretty rare that I've even been money.

P.S. I would still like to see Solaris II.
P.P.S. Hi everybody.

 

[Kelthaz]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how this limited premise has enough content to justify a 90+ minute film. Watching two people float in space as they slowly (very slowly) fall towards the Earth isn't very interesting. I don't get the hype.

 

[AvBaur]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how this limited premise has enough content to justify a 90+ minute film.

Actually, it's exactly 90 min. long - and we don't even really know at this point whether that's ALL the movie is about, do we?

What we (or I, anyway) DO know is that Alfonso Cuarón is an amazing director and that the trailer looks really impressive, and that's enough to get me into the theater.

 

[Kelthaz]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how this limited premise has enough content to justify a 90+ minute film.

Actually, it's exactly 90 min. long - and we don't even really know at this point whether that's ALL the movie is about, do we?

What we (or I, anyway) DO know is that Alfonso Cuarón is an amazing director and that the trailer looks really impressive, and that's enough to get me into the theater.

Well all I have to go on is the trailer and I thought it looked absolutely awful. I'm honestly not sure what it is that people find so impressive about the trailer. At least with Transformers I understand why people like those films, but with this I've got nothing.

Is it the potential for interesting dialogue between two people near death? The realistic sci-fi setting? The fear of dying from suffocation? The fear of being alone in the vastness of space? The visuals?

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

So it's "Open Water" but in space?

 

[JarodRussell]

I don't like films with bad endings like Open Water (yeah, I know, it's based on a real event, I read the news). What's the point of wasting two hours on a struggle that ends bad? There's no payoff and certainly the path isn't the goal in a film where the path is extremely unpleasant.

 

[Lookingglassman]

I'm going to wait until I can see it on HBO or free. Two folks floating in space? Doesn't sound too exciting to me. The previews are ok, but nothing that will make me want to go out to see it.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

This article indicates that the movie was quite popular at the Venice Film Festival:

Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" is heading out of the Venice Film Festival with a boatload of critical raves and a full head of steam that may carry the space opera all the way to Oscar night.
Reviews for the film overflowed with synonyms for brilliant, as critics tried to find new ways to heap praise on the Mexican filmmaker and his galvanizing science fiction adventure.

 

[davejames]

Yeah I saw some of the reviews on Dark Horizons earlier:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/28361/first-reviews-for-gravity-arrive

I have to admit I wasn't terribly excited for this movie before, but hearing all the praise definitely makes me a bit more curious.

 

[DalekJim]

I don't like films with bad endings like Open Water (yeah, I know, it's based on a real event, I read the news). What's the point of wasting two hours on a struggle that ends bad? There's no payoff and certainly the path isn't the goal in a film where the path is extremely unpleasant.

An unhappy ending is as valid as a happy one, and often fits the story more. I'd kill to see the original ending of The Magnificent Ambersons.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Score samples!!

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2013/08/28/gravity-soundtrack-details/

 

[trevanian]

I don't like films with bad endings like Open Water (yeah, I know, it's based on a real event, I read the news). What's the point of wasting two hours on a struggle that ends bad? There's no payoff and certainly the path isn't the goal in a film where the path is extremely unpleasant.

An unhappy ending is as valid as a happy one, and often fits the story more. I'd kill to see the original ending of The Magnificent Ambersons.

AMBERSONS intact would be something else. When I think of Robert Wise, even before thinking DAY THE EARTH or TMP, I think, 'this is the jerk who didn't think to save a copy of the original cut!'

And yeah, the endings are fine when they are dramatically valid. Who the hell wants Se7en with Kevin Spacey winding up behind bars as Freeman and Pitt do some bonding and end with a punchline after Gwyneth's funeral?

Now that I've interviewed a bunch of GRAVITY folks, I am even higher on the pic. They're doing the nosoundinspace thing and doing it right, they've got real respect for how things move in that environment and in terms of the tech, what they accomplished on this is nothing short of amazing.

I figured whatever followed CHILDREN OF MEN would suck by comparison, but now I'm not so sure ...

 

[propita]

I don't like films with bad endings like Open Water (yeah, I know, it's based on a real event, I read the news). What's the point of wasting two hours on a struggle that ends bad? There's no payoff and certainly the path isn't the goal in a film where the path is extremely unpleasant.

An unhappy ending is as valid as a happy one, and often fits the story more. I'd kill to see the original ending of The Magnificent Ambersons.

An unhappy ending is valid. It may even be MORE valid than a happy ending. But I don't like to leave a theater sad. I can watch the news for that and not pay extra.

I can be spoiled--do they off themselves, lose pressure and air, drift into the cold of space, or burn up on reentry. Cause I don't think rescue is on the list. Overall, I think this one is too sad for me to watch.

 

[Set Harth]

Rescued by aliens.

 

[trevanian]

Illegal aliens?