I think it's the sweeping spectacles that need big screens. Casablanca is a more human-sized drama and doesn't need a huge screen to work.
Simon: Captain... why did you come back for us? Mal: You're on my crew. Simon: Yeah, but you don't even like me. Why'd you come back? Mal: You're on my crew. Why we still talking about this?
'Safe'
Buffista Movies 6: lies and videotape
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Fred Pete - Apr 04, 2008 11:29:01 am PDT #4839 of 10000
Ann, that's a ferret.
Sean K - Apr 04, 2008 11:29:33 am PDT #4840 of 10000
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
It is long and Kubrick does take his time and the acting is about as flat as a flat thing under a piece of paper in a flat world
And it should be noted that the acting, like everything else in the film that tends to put people off, was a deliberate choice. Doesn't make the acting any less flat or the pace any less somnolent.
Hayden - Apr 04, 2008 11:31:12 am PDT #4841 of 10000
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Not said in the movie. Which I didn't remember until I watched it again on, I think, AMC a few weeks ago.
Man, I know! The reference on The Venture Brothers took me forever to figure out, because I read the book when I was in high school, but I've seen the movie maybe six or seven times as an adult. Anyway, I was shooting for an obscure funny, but I don't think I connected.
beekaytee - Apr 04, 2008 11:46:00 am PDT #4842 of 10000
Compassionately intolerant
Another example -- Lawrence of Arabia. You just can't get the vastness of the desert on a smaller screen.
I saw it at the Uptown. Enormous, wrap around screen...and I sat so close, I had to turn my head to see the action at the sides. It was AWE-SOME.
The drink sales during its run went up 300%. IJS. You came out feeling like you'd spent 3 months in the desert. One of the best movie going experiences. Evar.
megan walker - Apr 04, 2008 11:50:18 am PDT #4843 of 10000
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
I saw it at the Uptown. Enormous, wrap around screen...and I sat so close, I had to turn my head to see the action at the sides. It was AWE-SOME.
Was this yonks ago? 'Cause I saw it there when they had the reissue.
Aims - Apr 04, 2008 11:56:26 am PDT #4844 of 10000
Shit's all sorts of different now.
Hated 2001. Hated it a lot.
But - I'm not a Kubrick fan. I've other things to spend that much time on. Like watching paint dry and giving myself a tatoo.
le nubian - Apr 04, 2008 12:50:42 pm PDT #4845 of 10000
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
I'm with Aimee. Like 100%. I tried to watch it on a date in college and I fell asleep.
I don't fall asleep on movies.
I have only seen a handful of Kubrick movies (and even that depends on if you think AI is Kubrick or not) - and the only one I like is The Shining. I couldn't finish Dr. Strangelove.
Vonnie K - Apr 04, 2008 12:53:37 pm PDT #4846 of 10000
Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick.
My favourite Kubrick is Paths of Glory. I liked Lolita and Spartacus as well. After that, I found I didn't have too much time for the guy.
Signed, Also couldn't get into Terrence Malick or Sam Peckinpah, and if that makes me an ignorant film fan, hey, I'm OK with that.
§ ita § - Apr 04, 2008 1:07:07 pm PDT #4847 of 10000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I love A Clockwork Orange. Definitely a top 20 movie of mine. Strangelove and Lolita were good enough, I guess. And 2001 warrants no further thought.
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 04, 2008 1:26:05 pm PDT #4848 of 10000
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
On the flip side, there are some movies that should only be seen on the TV. My strongest memory of Gladiator was not lush scenery or Oscar-winning costume design or actor Russell Crowe, it was being traumatized by Oliver Reed's zombie-like postmortem CGI face stretching across the screen in extreme close-up until it was like a dumptruck-sized ventriloquist dummy parroting his prerecorded dialogue down at me.