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July 18, 2008
Gross On The Dark Knight's Roots.... & 48 Hrs
On the issue of The Dark Knight's models – There is the sublime, unbelievably ahead of its time, 1928 Fritz Lang silent movie thriller, Spies, an astonishing techno thriller about a maniacal chaos spreading agent, infiltrating every sector of Weimar society. The image of Joker burning a mountain of money is an inspired commentary on the opening image of Spies where a banker has gone insane while being surrounded by piles of devalued currency.
ALSO - Episode 7 Of The 48 Hr Diaries went up earlier this week.
JUNE 27, 1982 - DAY OFF
Went to Blade Runner that we've all been looking forward to for so long.
My favorite line, the dancer-replicant to Deckard:" You think I'd be working n a place like this if I could afford a real snake?"
There's rich thematic possibility in juxtaposing, the sci-fi future with old fashioned film noir and making that duality, an analogy with the duality of human/inhuman. It was Godard by the way who invented this future/self-consciously noir past juxtaposition, with Alphaville. Point Blank, Roeg's Performance, and Altman's The Long Goodbye all played this game to a certain degree. I wrote about this "genre" in Film Comment about eight or nine years ago
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JULY 6, 1982
Walter has a bad cold today. It's the scene of Nick meeting Eddie for the first time at the jail.
After a take fails: "Let's go again. Debbie picture up--picture now."
Eddie, improving. His rendition of Roxanne, by the Police, -- super.
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JULY 7, 1982
This morning, a long elaborate take of Nick and Eddie at the prison, Eddie in his armani suit for the first time in the film, Nick angrily pushing Eddie around, fluffing his lines a few times, Eddie much better still yelling at Nick.
Nick got very tense and frustrated, sluffing his lines, and oddly I think it's because he's reluctant to be as mean and aggressive as the scene requires him to be. The odd thing is of course is he's so good at it. But I almost feel like it makes Nick feel guilty to be good at this kind of being rough and even vicious. It's like a part of him feels like these were the kinds of feelings he got into acting to avoid. He's such a gentle and not violent person.
To everyone's despair -- Walter's, Joel's and mine -- the studio furnished us today with their list of alternative titles.
Posted by dpoland at July 18, 2008 05:40 PM
Comments
Bladiblah bladiblah to the top part.
Posted by: IOIOIOI ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 18, 2008 06:20 PM
Not a fan of Fritz Lang, eh?
Posted by: jeffmcm at July 18, 2008 06:50 PM
Wells' The Trial was out before Godard's Alphaville. That was real mindfuck noir and it even had a giant computer in it. Conceptually, it predated Godard, though most people probably miss that because they're trying to compare it to Kafka instead of actually paying attention to what's onscreen.
Posted by: mutinyco at July 18, 2008 06:53 PM
Met him once. I am still owed 2.85. Freakin heck.
Posted by: IOIOIOI at July 18, 2008 06:54 PM
Care to explain that IO? Sounds interesting.
Also, Alphaville showed up in my lettebox yesterday. Freaky.
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at July 18, 2008 07:23 PM
I'd say the giant computer in The Trial gets its origin from movies like The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. I don't think it's going for the same conceptual thing as Alphaville, though.
Posted by: jeffmcm at July 18, 2008 07:34 PM
Not the same. It's certainly better than Alphaville though. And they both have Akim Tamiroff.
Posted by: mutinyco at July 18, 2008 07:47 PM
I watched Spies earlier today - unfortunately I already returned the video, but I'm pretty sure it didn't open with a banker surrounded by piles of money, but rather with a string of document thefts and political shootings. Can somebody corroborate this or tell me what I missed?
Posted by: jeffmcm at July 25, 2008 03:20 AM
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