extraordinary moments

Extraordinary moments, there are such things

I watched In the Soup last night and became overwhelmed with one moment, one scene ( well actually two ). It was with Steve Buscemi's character Aldolpho,  Jennifer Beals character Angelica, and her cousin/brother Paul (Sam Rockwell) on the roof. The three were on the roof and Aldolpho and Angelica took turns filming the other two. It is in Black and White ( I read that there was a color version too ). Snow came floating down and Angelica twirled round and round. Filmed in slow motion, to a close-up of her face. She had the most blissful, beatific expression on her face. I watched it over and over...time stopped.

In the special features after, she commented on that scene and she said that she ( the character ) just felt free...I just wondered how she was able to do it and how the director Alexandre Rockwell captured it.

There are those moments and I wonder what others people see.

I have some in Shame and the Eel, that I will put down.

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

They also mentioned on the commentary for that scene in In The Soup that the filming of that scene was not in the schedule at all.  They saw that it was snowing outside and quick ran up and just filmed without any script for that scene.  I also seem to remember them saying it was shot on a totally different camera than the rest of the movie too.  And I may also remember them saying this was one of the first things they shot...  My memory may not be perfect though.

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Risselada:

They also mentioned on the commentary for that scene in In The Soup that the filming of that scene was not in the schedule at all.  They saw that it was snowing outside and quick ran up and just filmed without any script for that scene.  I also seem to remember them saying it was shot on a totally different camera than the rest of the movie too.  And I may also remember them saying this was one of the first things they shot...  My memory may not be perfect though.

Very good memory!

Jennifer related in the interview that it started to snow, the director ( her husband at the time???)  saw the opportunity, called her, see hightailed it out of her acting class and they just did it, unscripted! I am not sure if the camera was different. It looked like the Zapruder Bell & Howell Model 414 PD 8 mm Zoomatic Director Series camera to me which made it all the more surreal.

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Perhaps this scene hit me so having suffered bouts of the deep and dark depression throughout my life, but in Mother Night, Nick Nolte's character, Howard W. Campbell, mid-morning, walking along the sidewalk in New York City full of others, just comes to a complete and full stop, stuck and stays there until late in the evening on the dark, deserted, streetlightlit sidewalk until a Police Officer comes up to him and through some questions, gets him to decide to move on. It seemed he could stay there forever. The voice over quotes follow:

Howard W. Campbell Jr.: I was deposited on to the streets of New York, restored to the mainstream of life. I took several steps down the sidewalk when something happened. It was not guilt that froze me; I had taught myself never to feel guilt. It wasn't the fear of death; I had taught myself to think of death as a friend. It was not the thought of being unloved that froze me; I had taught myself to do without love. What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction.

that was simultaneously aching and all too real...

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Soylent Green; maybe it is the Beethoven.

Or maybe the almost maudlin character of the  scene, or maybe something altogether different. 

However as Sol Roth ( Edward G. Robinson ) slips into the (his ) Suicide Theater, his theater screen goes live and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Third Movement begins... hardly a better way to go, I imagine. That movement, perhaps indicates dancing and just having a great time and then concludes In a faster tempo, ends and then begins the Fourth Movement Allegro. This movement portion perhaps is meant to convey a violent thunderstorm which ended the partying in the Third Movement.

I would have loved to see the suicide theater scene end with the music continuing straight in to the Fourth Movement and then cutting abruptly to rioting and the last hysterical lines:

Det. Thorn: It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange.
Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Very interesting Kubrick Site:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/

Worth a look a these 2 views/analyses of Kubrick's 'The Shining' and 'Eyes Wide Shut' and much much more on the site...

The Shining

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0052.html

Eyes Wide Shut

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Puhnner:

Very interesting Kubrick Site:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/

Worth a look a these 2 views/analyses of Kubrick's 'The Shining' and 'Eyes Wide Shut' and much much more on the site...

The Shining

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0052.html

Eyes Wide Shut

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html

Good stuff.  Thanks for that Puhn!  Man, I love Kubrick!

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

A couple of interesting references to Magnolia

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2006/03/name-that-tune.html

and 

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/08/what-do-kids-know.html

having trouble linking films, it may well be some sort of incompatibility with the Google Chrome browser I am using... will try to fix

Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Oh, for the love of Dystopia!

http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/

Re:Extraordinary moments, there are such things

Spoiler for Dr. Mabuse the Gambler...

The opening to Dr. Mabuse the Gambler has the very good Doctor, picking up large playing cards and placing them into his 'betting' hand. By the time he is done, there are 7 or 8 there. It is a rather exciting moment as the cards are turned over to reveal a picture of a character that goes into his hand. It took me a moment to realize each card and each character was our good Doctor in disguise. It was as if he drew the card and contemplated with each,  'who will I be today and whose reality will I change and control by being this one?'

I believe that the next portion of the film takes the chosen card/character and then some other ones through: a robbery and murder on train; a car crash  and offer of a ride, with the stolen document hand-off: a stock market panic and then panic ease when the stolen documents are found, seemingly un-opened; all done with the result of Dr. Mabuse with buckets and buckets of loot from the panic stock sales and the subsequent selling in the new confident environment price. An incredibly done bit of 10 minutes or so of film and storytelling. The figure of Dr. Mabuse standing tall in the Stock Market first buying at pennies and then selling at dollars is a sight to see all the power of Moses on the mount. It felt to me that Dr. Mabuse did not do anything for the money, but simply because he could.

I have not had a chance to find and read this book yet:

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Case-Dr-Mabuse-Twelve/dp/0786423374/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244662123&sr=1-1

'The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse', but it was mentioned in the special features on the Disks. Dr. Mabuse, whether he originally started out as or evolved into it, he is at once real and a mythological force, like other Horror Icons.

The film is long, 2 disks, about 6 or more hours, but it is something very special and seems to belong with any list of the greats.