One of them anyway: restraint.
In particular, and by way of neatly segueing away from the film this post is supposedly about halfway through my first sentence, I was reminded of a great scene in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in which the inmates are seated at a discussion group and talking amongst themselves while the camera remains focussed on McMurphy. There’s some great acting from Nicholson as he watches each person talk and reacts to what they’re saying – you can see the cogs turning in his head as he figures out the dynamics of the relationships and as the reality of the situation becomes clear to him. It’s brilliantly done.
Of course it would be wrong to say that there’s no restraint in modern filmmaking, but this particular technique – closely following a character’s expression even while there are other, more conventionally interesting things going on – is not something you see often. The temptation, overtly or otherwise, is to pander to the audience, so it’s always nice to see someone really take hold of a narrative and do their own thing.
your review is so much more sophisticated than mine.
I was going to say nonsense, but you do use the phrase “pretty ridey for a robot”. At least your review is actually a review though.
Things Blade Runner does that (alot of) newer films don’t is be good
There is that, yeah.
Wow – I bookmarked this a very long time ago.
I agree!
Also, I think there’s a few movies that pull it off still. The wonderful Lost in Translation just let the movie slowly tell itself without forcing anything down our throats. I feel the same about Frost/Nixon (which I watched yesterday). Towards the end they dwell on Nixon’s face for a long time and it’s strangely one of the most riveting parts of the movie. But yes, these are just some of the very few exceptions. I think most modern movies assume the audience is a little slow and therefore the aim very low.
They really are awfully patronising sometimes. But not necessarily on purpose – it’s a confidence thing with inexperienced writers, they’re insecure about their abilities and so they overexplain. I’ve managed to punt myself in the opposite direction, and now no one but me knows what’s going on in my stories. Hooray!
Sometimes I do but I prefer when I don’t because then I can imagine something unique to my brain …like a movie that only I can see *cackles*
I don’t know if I’m comfortable with people enjoying my work so… withchily.
I like writing stuff where people can invent a context around it. It’s very satisfying when you get a reader to join in like that.