MIFF Day 15
Murch: Walter Murch on Editing
Amateurish on-the-nose directing detracts from what is essentially a class by Walter Murch on film editing, and his theories on the matter. He's an engaging and articulate speaker, but when he talks about jump cuts the film jump cuts, when he talks about layered sound the film layers his speech, it's pointless wankery by two directors obviously keen to intrude on the subject and remind the audience that they're the ones interviewing the great man. But he is great, and the potted history of American Zoetrope, the birth of 5.1 audio (designed for Apocalypse Now), his experiments with sound design and his issues with being called a Film Editor are all great stuff. He's not my favourite editor in the world, (I think Lou Lombardo was a far more significant figure in the history of film editing), but I do appreciate what he has to say.
The Maid
A maid/nanny has been with a family for almost 20 years, and she's a little bit of a psychopath. Coming to believe that she's part of the family, and that he has more authority than she really does, she makes life hell for the daughter, abuses and torments other staff hired to help her, and somehow still have the love and devotion of the mother of the household. Slowly, you realise that though she's obsessive and paranoid, the work for the family is what has made her that way. She believes they can't cope without her, and will do anything to stop them from diminishing her role in their lives. It's an accomplished film, as it moves from depicting a figure of comic insanity into a well-rounded person that you ultimately come to love. And it's funny as all hell too. Though on I'm starting to hate hand-held digitally shot films. The over-exposed white just irritates me, is it too much to ask for a DP who knows how to fiddle the white balance and get a bit of beauty in the colour of the image?
The Sky Crawlers
Is Mamoru Oshii the most over-rated anime director alive? The Patlabor films were cool, albeit foundered by their philosophical moments, but ever since then he's given us pretentious and boring crap. Ghost in the Shell is not a touchstone film, it's just well-animated and stupid. This is his worst to date though. Impressive CG airial scenes, fairly weak cell animation and what sounds like an interesting setting and story are all irrelevant in the end. This is a monumentally boring film, full of itself, and even the dogfights aren't all that inventive or exciting. Drag in musings on love, life, reincarnation and pilots who remain perpetual children because why grow up when you're just going to die anyway and you have a mountain of frustrations. It could have been incredible, the material was right there, but it's shit.
The Chaser
Finally! A Korean film I can rave about. This ruthless and energized serial killer film is highly original and intensely paced. Instead of the typical hunt for a serial killer, he's caught almost immediately. The rush is to find his last victim, who may still be alive, and to gather enough evidence to guarantee a conviction since it turns out he's been caught twice before. The prevailing view of the other two cases was he was a nuisance confessor, but the cops know better. Unfortunately, this is a film of bureaucratic incompetence, political positioning and general disinterest. The violence is harsh and bloody, the characters are likeable, or at the very least understandable, and the story unfolds with a clinical horror for the injustice that comes from so many different agendas conflicting. It's not quite Memories of Murder, but it comes close. I loved it.
Amateurish on-the-nose directing detracts from what is essentially a class by Walter Murch on film editing, and his theories on the matter. He's an engaging and articulate speaker, but when he talks about jump cuts the film jump cuts, when he talks about layered sound the film layers his speech, it's pointless wankery by two directors obviously keen to intrude on the subject and remind the audience that they're the ones interviewing the great man. But he is great, and the potted history of American Zoetrope, the birth of 5.1 audio (designed for Apocalypse Now), his experiments with sound design and his issues with being called a Film Editor are all great stuff. He's not my favourite editor in the world, (I think Lou Lombardo was a far more significant figure in the history of film editing), but I do appreciate what he has to say.
The Maid
A maid/nanny has been with a family for almost 20 years, and she's a little bit of a psychopath. Coming to believe that she's part of the family, and that he has more authority than she really does, she makes life hell for the daughter, abuses and torments other staff hired to help her, and somehow still have the love and devotion of the mother of the household. Slowly, you realise that though she's obsessive and paranoid, the work for the family is what has made her that way. She believes they can't cope without her, and will do anything to stop them from diminishing her role in their lives. It's an accomplished film, as it moves from depicting a figure of comic insanity into a well-rounded person that you ultimately come to love. And it's funny as all hell too. Though on I'm starting to hate hand-held digitally shot films. The over-exposed white just irritates me, is it too much to ask for a DP who knows how to fiddle the white balance and get a bit of beauty in the colour of the image?
The Sky Crawlers
Is Mamoru Oshii the most over-rated anime director alive? The Patlabor films were cool, albeit foundered by their philosophical moments, but ever since then he's given us pretentious and boring crap. Ghost in the Shell is not a touchstone film, it's just well-animated and stupid. This is his worst to date though. Impressive CG airial scenes, fairly weak cell animation and what sounds like an interesting setting and story are all irrelevant in the end. This is a monumentally boring film, full of itself, and even the dogfights aren't all that inventive or exciting. Drag in musings on love, life, reincarnation and pilots who remain perpetual children because why grow up when you're just going to die anyway and you have a mountain of frustrations. It could have been incredible, the material was right there, but it's shit.
The Chaser
Finally! A Korean film I can rave about. This ruthless and energized serial killer film is highly original and intensely paced. Instead of the typical hunt for a serial killer, he's caught almost immediately. The rush is to find his last victim, who may still be alive, and to gather enough evidence to guarantee a conviction since it turns out he's been caught twice before. The prevailing view of the other two cases was he was a nuisance confessor, but the cops know better. Unfortunately, this is a film of bureaucratic incompetence, political positioning and general disinterest. The violence is harsh and bloody, the characters are likeable, or at the very least understandable, and the story unfolds with a clinical horror for the injustice that comes from so many different agendas conflicting. It's not quite Memories of Murder, but it comes close. I loved it.
posted by Andrew Lee at 11:29 PM
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