[HN Gopher] The 'impossible' crane shot from Soy Cuba (1964) [vi...
___________________________________________________________________
The 'impossible' crane shot from Soy Cuba (1964) [video]
Author : tehnub
Score : 421 points
Date : 2021-10-22 02:36 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| wiseowise wrote:
| What an amazing architecture. Shows just how ugly and deplorable
| modern architecture is.
| yuturs wrote:
| this was kind of a let down i watched until the end and was
| expecting something more.
| tehnub wrote:
| The first part that shocked me was when they went over the
| metal thing around 0:51, and then again when they went into the
| building. The effect they produced here without any CGI or
| drones is pretty amazing in my opinion.
| hungryforcodes wrote:
| Yeah, I know what you mean -- I guess its for film geeks.
| dmitriid wrote:
| It's 1964. No CGI. No drones. No lightweight cameras.
|
| And yet, today, such a shot is still as impossible and very
| rarely done.
| MikusR wrote:
| Movie was filmed on lightweight handheld camera.
| eXpl0it3r wrote:
| Why is it so impossible? I get that cinema cameras are a
| bit heavier to handle, but the trickiest part seem to be
| the hand-offs between walking backwards, pulling the camera
| up and receiving the camera on the upper floor.
|
| It's a complex shot and there isn't really that big of pay
| off beyond having done the shot, but it's by no means
| "impossible", or am I missing something here?
| dmitriid wrote:
| > Why is it so impossible
|
| Because it requires imagination. And then careful
| planning. And then execution.
|
| In the shot, there is a crowd in the streets, there are
| people on balconies and in the rooms acting in concert
| with the camera etc.
|
| These days this is offloaded to overworked underpaid CGI
| artists at a second production unit.
| kkiinnpptt wrote:
| And the coordination with the huge crowd.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| You surely don't have to be a film buff to appreciate the
| skill and artistry that went into that shot. I'm not at all a
| film buff but to me it is a work of art on par with other
| works of art regardless of medium.
| rsync wrote:
| Another "impossible" shot that I have always been impressed by:
|
| https://filmschoolrejects.com/contact-mirror-scene/
|
| "How They Shot the Impossible Mirror Scene in 'Contact'"
| albert_e wrote:
| Is it just me or the "seamless transition" in this much
| acclaimed, dissected and discussed shot is actually very un-
| natural movement of hands and legs by the actor -- and not
| "seamless" in that sense.
|
| I guess it must have been a result of conscious body movements
| by the actor or a many-retake attempt to get to a particular
| "target" pose at a particular point in the run to make the
| "seamless" transition of shots possible in post. Feels
| unnatural and forced to me -- and distracts from what could
| have been a minor mind bending effect as we watch the movie.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| https://nitter.kavin.rocks/nickdale/status/14506173593753436...
| joostshao wrote:
| great camera, i saw it in shanghai , Wo Shi Gu Ba , it is amazing
| film with fire in my heart, thank to the 4k fixed version.
| justshowpost wrote:
| Two soyjaks (Fidel&Ernesto) pointing at starving Russians who are
| making free(!) propaganda flick for them.
| artem247 wrote:
| Ehh, starving in 1964? Maybe not living extra lavish, but
| hardly starving.
| js2 wrote:
| I will definitely have to watch this!
|
| The opening of _Touch of Evil_ (1959) is a long tracking shot
| that is beautifully choreographed:
|
| https://youtu.be/mBAtcI_t-Z8
|
| But probably the most amazing tracking shot I've ever seen is the
| 59 minute continuous shot at the end of _Long Day 's Journey into
| Night_ (2018) which is in 3D, but I've only seen the 2D version.
| hardwaregeek wrote:
| And the opening shot of The Player, which references Touch of
| Evil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEk-QGNQ3OM
| js2 wrote:
| Ah... I probably haven't watched _The Player_ since it was
| released and I definitely hadn't seen _Touch of Evil_ then.
|
| Earlier this year I watched _Femme Fatale_ and the opening
| has * Double Indemnity* playing on TV which by funny
| coincidence I had just watched the night before.
| wyldfire wrote:
| I remember this movie was a gold mine but, man, seeing Buck
| Henry play himself pitching a sequel to "The Graduate" is
| hilarious.
| willmacdonald wrote:
| Le Haine (95) had a great flying camera scene:
| https://youtu.be/4qo3EwozH0Y (about half way through) Great Film
| too!
| lm28469 wrote:
| Other interesting scenes:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFkHadvj4DI
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSfciVMm5IM
|
| Fun fact: la Haine was filmed in color because the coproductors
| didn't believe a b&w movie would be a hit
| squarefoot wrote:
| Thanks! That Soy Cuba scene brought to mind one in La Haine to
| me too, but I couldn't locate it. Here's La Haine, complete
| with English subtitles; the famous scene starts at about 40:20.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKppkmlB5HQ
| 22c wrote:
| Not a cinematography buff but these shots are still impressive
| when you try to wrap your head around them.
|
| I wish there were a breakdown as to how these kinds of shots were
| done using the technology they had at the time.
|
| Edit: This tweet[1] suggests that the camera was being passed
| around.
|
| [1]: https://twitter.com/indiarama/status/1451251934879387651
| lucasgw wrote:
| There is, sort of. The Cinematographers' Mailing List, in
| constant operation since 1996, is an old-school listserv. Its
| members range from non-cinematographers, to beginners, to
| (many) academy-award winners. It is easily the largest single
| body of living knowledge in the world of cinematography and
| filmmaking. Join and ask... I promise you there are 100 people
| who know the granular, minute details of how this shot was
| accomplished, and chances are good that several members know
| people who worked on the movie. https://cinematography.net
|
| As a small bit of trivia for those who wonder - it has been
| diligently maintained as a listserv, and a very simple website,
| because it is actively used by filmmaking crews in active
| production, which frequently takes place in god-forsaken
| corners of the earth with extremely limited connectivity. If
| it's 2am in the desert in Morocco, and you need help on
| alternate solutions for the the gimbal rig that just crapped
| out... you need a low-bandwidth way to tap into the collective
| wisdom. And that sort of active community happens regularly.
| beebeepka wrote:
| Thanks for this wonderful piece of completely unexpected
| trivia
| wellthisisgreat wrote:
| they were using wires (source: heard from people who worked
| with authors of the movie)
| TylerE wrote:
| You can literally see the wires in the final section.
| superfrank wrote:
| That would be my guess.
|
| Camera man #1 is on the ground. They attach the camera to some
| sort of pulley which pulls it up the wall. Camera man #2 is on
| the roof and walks to the room where they're all sewing and
| then attaches to a second pulley that is suspended from cables
| running between the buildings (you can see them at the top of
| the shot).
| riffraff wrote:
| Wikipedia says it was just a single cameraman with a hooked
| vest, it was being attached and detached to cranes as he went
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba
| derekjdanserl wrote:
| Ex 2nd camera assist here. Handing off a camera mid-shot just
| asking for failure. Almost any cost to avoid that is going to
| be worthwhile. There are some maneuvers that can work, like
| one person to some mounts. 2 people to a mount is usually
| even better actually. I am being pretty abstract here because
| these situations are very rare, unique, and I only ever saw
| them on indie sets because it's just too expensive to even
| try this sort of thing otherwise. But the main point here is
| that a human + camera is an incredible combination and you
| want to take every measure possible to never come between
| them.
|
| As for how they executed this shot, there are a lot of
| possibilities, but I doubt there was a hand off, probably
| from a person to a cable if so, but in that case they had a
| poor plan with very good luck.
|
| Never come between a man and his camera!
| bazzargh wrote:
| On the other hand, if you can hand off to a cameraman
| disguised as a carseat, that makes it all worth it.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxb9xzAaYjM (The Raid 2,
| car chase behind the scenes)
| Syzygies wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba
| Animats wrote:
| _" "We used a special cable device which I built in Moscow before
| going to Cuba. We planned to fly the camera between two big
| buildings in a major street. Because of security and insurance
| problems we used it in a little street. We used two cables and a
| small cart with eight wheels and a fork underneath where the
| camera was placed at the [end] of a handheld move. The secret of
| how we attached the camera to the cart was a magnet, part of
| which was in the cart and part of which was built on the camera.
| From the window the camera moved out about 100 feet."_[1]
|
| The camera was an Eclair CM3 Camiflex, which is a beautiful
| little camera first built in 1945. There are still some for
| sale.[2]
|
| [1] https://ascmag.com/articles/flashback-soy-cuba
|
| [2]
| http://www.visualproducts.com/storeProductDetail02.asp?produ...
| com2kid wrote:
| Also from the first article you linked:
|
| > Very soon after we came back to Russia, more than half of our
| crew died. I survived because I was very young.
|
| The entire article is amazing, it talks about ingenious
| mechanical solutions created on the spot, hacks to get desired
| effects, and a team relentlessly perusing their dream.
|
| Incredible and well worth reading in its entirety.
| kakuri wrote:
| I went to the article hoping for more context, but it just
| leaves that statement about more than half of the crew dying
| without any explanation.
| eps wrote:
| > Very soon after we came back to Russia, more than half of
| our crew died. I survived because I was very young.
|
| This is misquoted, mistranslated or just plain nonsense. It
| is attributed to Calzatti, one of camermen. Accroding to his
| (ru) wikipedia page, his name is Arkadii Kol'tsatyi, born in
| 1905, which makes him ~60 years old when the movie was made.
| Not exactly "very young".
| justinator wrote:
| The lens must be super wide angle? The distortion looks similar
| to a GoPro.
| thegoleffect wrote:
| Yeah, most of the film was shot on a 9.8mm Kinoptic.
| justinator wrote:
| Pretty amazing. I've never seen b+w footage in a film have
| that sort of distortion in that duration.
| Giorgi wrote:
| Fun fact: Kalatozov was actually Georgian, born as
| Kalatozishvili. His family belonged to a noble Georgian Amirejibi
| house that traces its history back to the 13th century.
|
| One of Mikhail's uncles served as a General in the Imperial
| Russian Army, while Georgia was annexed by Russia. Another one
| was among the founders of the Tbilisi State University.
| YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
| Thanks for changing the absolutely insufferable title of the
| tweet!
| coolandsmartrr wrote:
| Soy Cuba contains lush and gorgeous B&W cinematography. The film
| opens up with the camera flying over the waters of Cuba; the
| reflection of the water is glistening in a way unlike other
| films. I believe they used an X-ray film strip to achieve this
| shot.
|
| Mikhail Kalatozov has included another impressive shot at the end
| of his previous work, "The Cranes Are Flying." (Palme d'Or at
| Cannes 1958) The camera follows the protagonist, then gets
| seamlessly lifted up by a crane to depict the entire street
| parading.
|
| While Soviet-era films does not have much exposure in the
| English-speaking world, there are so many gems, critically and
| technically. The filmmakers were acutely aware of great filming
| techniques.
|
| Also check out:
|
| Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964) - B-roll scenery contains
| another lush reflection of the Moscow waters
|
| Ivan the Terrible (1944/1958) - Eisenstein is an ardent
| practitioner of the montage, and prefers to static camera shots.
| However, his compositions are very imaginative, and there is no
| shot you want to miss. His film also briefly experiments with
| color, and he exploits colored lighting to emphasize the
| characters' psyche.
|
| Anything by Andrei Tarkovsky - Tarkovsky is indisputably a master
| of Russian cinema after Eisenstein. He often shoots in nature,
| but no director shoots with such rich texture of the mud. His
| long shots emphasizes the bleakness inherent in the Russian
| psyche.
|
| The Ascent (1977) - Set in WWII, the film shows the resistance
| escaping the Nazis covered in snow and panting in the cold. Great
| snow photography.
|
| Hard to Be a God (2013) - A sci-fi story on the immigration of
| humans to a different planet, the colonizers inhabit the
| inhospitable environment. Like Tarkovsky, the slow dragging in
| the mud conveys the dreary lives.
|
| These are recommendations I came up off the top of my head
| relating to cinematography, but there are definitely many more to
| appreciate.
| skhr0680 wrote:
| The shot from OP looks like IR film, it's what makes it look
| "HDR" with plenty of detail in the shadows and sky. If it were
| shot on normal film then exposing for the sky would make the
| areas in shadow look black.
| teh_klev wrote:
| Yes it's shot on infra red stock. From further into the
| twitter thread:
|
| https://twitter.com/NickDale/status/1450981356251451394
| FpUser wrote:
| >"...bleakness inherent in the Russian psyche..."
|
| This is one big pile of BS.
| [deleted]
| dustintrex wrote:
| Most Russians I know would agree that there's something along
| those lines in the Russian psyche, although I'm not sure
| "bleakness" is the right word. Fatalism, perhaps?
| FpUser wrote:
| I am Russian. Was born and lived in USSR until I was 30. As
| you might guess I knew a boatloads of them and I think most
| of them including yours truly would call a BS on that.
| Reading Dostoyevsky does not make one know Russians.
| TruthWillHurt wrote:
| You sound pretty bleak to me..
| dang wrote:
| I get the temptation to make a joke like that but please
| don't cross into personal attack.
| FpUser wrote:
| Well it is cloudy outside today.
| ithkuil wrote:
| Nor does being Russian make one know Russians. It helps
| though
| [deleted]
| culebron21 wrote:
| If you open YouTube in Incognito mode from Russia, with
| most watched stuff, you'll see no Tarkovsky, Dostoyevksy
| or other gloomy movies. Instead, half of the preview
| images are comedy movies and shows, and other half is
| boxing, cars, history.
|
| It would be really hard to find the psyche you're talking
| about in everyday artistic content.
|
| As for high art, like Tarkovksy, I saw the same tragic
| content in arthouse movies from Westrn Europe.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| A lot of the western idea of Russian seriousness is
| probably from the difference in cultural attitudes toward
| smiling.
|
| Westerners look at pictures of non-smiling Russians and
| think they are angry or serious or sad.
|
| There is a picture floating around with three astronauts,
| an American, a Russian, and an Italian: Big Smile, Soul
| Piercing Death Stare, Big Smile.
|
| If you are in any way familiar with russians, you
| understand why, but a lot of westerners just aren't, and
| completely misread it.
| dang wrote:
| Believe it or not there have been quite a few threads
| about this:
|
| _Why Russians do not smile (2002)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859 - May 2021
| (481 comments)
|
| _What a Russian Smile Means_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17445108 - July 2018
| (67 comments)
|
| _What a Russian Smile Means_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17381975 - June 2018
| (1 comment)
|
| _What a Russian Smile Means_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17376212 - June 2018
| (1 comment)
|
| _Do Russians smile at each other?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7491944 - March 2014
| (1 comment)
|
| _Why do Russians smile so little (and Americans so
| much?)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2375633 -
| March 2011 (105 comments)
| throwaway879080 wrote:
| we don't smile because we are banned a lot
| dang wrote:
| HN, happily, has many Russian users who follow the site
| guidelines and therefore are not banned.
| culebron21 wrote:
| That's rather correct, I'd say.
|
| The thing is, if I remember correctly, the habit of
| smiling in the photos appeared in the 20th century in the
| US. So it's still not here.
|
| As for public interactions, among Russians the difference
| is that you have to look at the eyebrows and the
| forehead, which indicate the person being attentive and
| welcoming, or relaxed, or tense.
|
| When Russians see Americans have smile with lips and
| cheeks, but forehead and eyebrows relaxed or tense, they
| probably can't realize it, but perceive this as "fake".
|
| The funny thing is, in Scandinavia, especially Iceland
| people tend to show even less signs of being "open" in
| public interaction. At least, I felt unease at first.
| FpUser wrote:
| >"Westerners look at pictures of non-smiling Russians and
| think they are angry or serious or sad."
|
| Please stop. If you ever bothered to look at regular
| people walking on the street you would find exactly the
| same proportion of smiling or neutral (mostly neutral)
| faces. When I first came to Toronto I actually paid
| attention just to that expecting to see this myth - bunch
| of people walking on the street and smiling. Did not
| happen. And if you ever bothered to punch "Russian
| astronauts group" into Google search you will find plenty
| of smiling faces except when those were taken during some
| highly official situation.
|
| So yes I am "in any way familiar with Russians" and from
| that perspective you are at least simply misinformed or a
| victim of how Western (totally unbiased and objective of
| course) media represents Russian.
| dang wrote:
| Hey, can you please follow the site guidelines
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)? I
| appreciate your points and the perspective you're
| representing. But we need you to do it without name-
| calling and personal attacks.
|
| I know that can be tough when sensitive places are being
| prodded, but I don't think anyone is being nasty here.
| Also, as a bonus, it will make your comments more
| persuasive.
|
| (One irony, btw, of threads where people argue about
| national characteristics is that often the arguments turn
| out to be between people of that background themselves,
| typically without realizing it. Of course that doesn't
| give anyone a pass to break the rules, but it does change
| the frame.)
| FpUser wrote:
| >"But we need you to do it without name-calling and
| personal attacks."
|
| I do not think I've made any personal attacks here. As
| for name calling - the post I responded to is way more
| fitting.
|
| >"Also, as a bonus, it will make your comments more
| persuasive"
|
| Maybe. I just said what I think about the statement. I do
| not really care if my opinion persuades anyone.
| dang wrote:
| I was reacting to "If you ever bothered to look at
| regular people" and your other use of "if you ever
| bothered". That was uncalled for.
|
| Please follow the rules if you want to post here.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| ithkuil wrote:
| The number of Italians emphatically gesticulating with
| their hands is very likely 0 if you take a snapshot of
| people walking on the streets of some big city in an
| average morning. Yet, that stereotype is not entirely
| devoid of information.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| This is not just speculation but personal observation. I
| am in the position of knowing several russians and
| americans (while living in nether country), and I do
| think this is a pretty pronounced difference.
|
| It's not people in the street perhaps that is the big
| contrast, but in social interaction.
|
| The americans pretty much always smile when they greet
| you regardless of whether you've met, and do the whole
| fake "how are you" routine. I've never encountered
| russians doing that. It's not that they never smile, but
| that the reasons for smiling aren't quite the same.
|
| It may be a generational thing as well. Russia is a lot
| less isolated from the west today, so these cultural
| clashes may be fading away.
| perl4ever wrote:
| It could be norms are different but people aren't.
| Clearly it is an American norm to smile, but a lot of
| Americans complain about it. Sometime pressure to smile
| is interpreted as racism or sexism.
|
| I was recently told that I only smile when I'm talking to
| a particular person at work. It wasn't hostile, but it
| did imply that I don't smile "enough" and that I haven't
| noticed other people smiling more.
| beaconstudios wrote:
| the idea that it's inherent to the Russian psyche is a kind
| of essentialism, no? I would think that if it exists at
| all, it would be cultural or environmental.
| wyager wrote:
| > I would think that if it exists at all, it would be
| cultural or environmental.
|
| Russia has both a culture and an environment.
| beaconstudios wrote:
| then it's not part of the "Russian psyche", is it? It's
| just that Russia can just suck.
| perl4ever wrote:
| It sounds like you consider the land to be separate and
| apart from the country or nation.
|
| Do words like rodina or otechestvo have a connotation of
| an intimate relationship between the people and the land,
| though?
|
| In English, one synonym for indigenous is autochthonous,
| supposed to stem from Greek for literally "people arising
| out of the earth".
| mabub24 wrote:
| Parajanov's works are also incredible. A lot of his stuff was
| not "acceptable" in the U(kr)SSR because of their regionalism
| and stark non-realist aesthetics, but _Shadows of Forgotten
| Ancestors_ is a fascinating and gorgeous look at traditional
| Ukrainian folktale and visual culture.
|
| If you like _Hard to Be A God_ , you should check out Aleksei
| German's other films, especially _Khrustalyov, My Car!_ from
| 1998, which is nominally a comedy film, but plays much more
| like a surrealist horror film that riffs endlessly on the
| Kafkaesque paranoia of Stalinist Russia. It would make a
| brilliant double feature with Iannucci 's _Death of Stalin_
| from 2017, which was definitely influenced by German 's film.
| YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
| My favourite is the "battle on the ice" sequence from Alexander
| Nevsky, by Eisenstein:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZPgGbUuX0
|
| ... well because it's epic! But also because it has a kind of
| comic-book or perhaps theatric aesthetic. I'm talking
| particularly of this scene:
|
| https://youtu.be/vKZPgGbUuX0?t=267
|
| Where you see the Great Magisters of the Teutonic knights
| riding on as their oriflames pass by (edit: also, Prokoviev).
| The most epic scene I've watched outside of the final battle in
| the original Conan movie. And while you can clearly see how it
| was shot, that doesn't detract from how badass it all looks.
|
| I don't think it's possible to create experiences like these
| with modern techniques, perhaps because the latter are so
| perfect they leave nothing to the imagination and the emotions
| of the viewer. I don't think modern audiences can even parse
| that kind of language anymore :(
| blancNoir wrote:
| For long, unbroken, takes I would additionally recommend Bi
| Gan's 2018 film Long Day's Journey into Night whose second part
| features an hour long take over various open terrain and
| enclosures. I would recommend it in any case, as it's a
| beautiful film by a highly creative young director who was
| inspired by Tarkovsky to become a filmmaker.
| austinpow wrote:
| Agreed! I knew to expect it, but not the slow burn of anxiety
| and mystery that (for me) resulted from being trapped in that
| single take as it evolved. Our screening was 2D but I think
| it was shot in 3D. I wonder if that would make the effect
| even more pronounced.
| mkl wrote:
| I would like to recommend Timecode (2000) [1]. The screen is
| divided into four quarters, each containing a single 93
| minute take, _all shot simultaneously_. A camera will follow
| one person into a room and follow another one out, or you end
| up with multiple cameras showing different angles of the same
| events, or four completely unrelated events. Careful audio
| mixing and timing guides your attention.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecode_(2000_film)
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| I saw this one in a theater when it came out. The audio
| effects were really good. IIRC many scenes were on an open
| set, in the streets of LA, so the actors and
| cinematographers had to deal with that in real time.
| martin_balsam wrote:
| Thank you! Long Day's Journey into the Night was the first
| movie I watch at the cinema after they reopened in 2020. I
| knew nothing about it. I was very confused by the first part,
| but when the second part started and I noticed they weren't
| cutting I was locked in like few other times. I had never
| seen a movie that depicts so well how it feels to dream, and
| be in a dream.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| There's also Russian Ark, which is an _insane_ 96 minute
| tracking shot of multiple scenes in the Winter Palace in St
| Petersburg.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark
| peter422 wrote:
| Yes a beautiful movie until that violinist looks at the
| camera.
| coolandsmartrr wrote:
| That was really impressive. From motorcycles to lifts, the
| camera continued throughout various platforms.
|
| Bi Gan's long shots are definitely influenced by Tarkovsky.
| It's also thematically interesting to see the lives of rural
| Chinese villages.
| justinator wrote:
| X-Ray or infra-red?
| AHabe wrote:
| IR.
| irthomasthomas wrote:
| Water absorbs IR, making it seem darker.
| aezell wrote:
| I'm guessing that, especially for the earlier films, if there
| are a lot of outside constraints on the stories you can tell
| then your creative energy goes into how you are telling the
| story that's allowed. That's obviously an oversimplification
| but for many creative folks, that drive to organize the world
| in a new way is what constitutes their art so it has to be
| expressed in whatever way possible.
| rusanu wrote:
| This scene from Cranes are Flying?
| https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/oqqgcl/this_amazi...
| dmitryminkovsky wrote:
| _Walking the Streets of Moscow_ is a beautiful movie. The
| cinematography, the acting, the music, the cast, the story.
| Young Nikita Mikhalkov[0] is excellent as the lead. Almost like
| if _Ferris Bueller 's Day Off_ was Soviet Socialist Realism, or
| something. So much in that one film. I love how it's framed by
| the digging of the metro.
|
| Haven't seen the other movies except The Cranes are Flying.
| Thank you for those suggestions.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Mikhalkov
| ivvve wrote:
| Saving this for later. Thanks for the informative post!
| griffinkelly wrote:
| I have an original movie poster from Soy Cuba, its a beautiful
| piece of art, along with all Cuban movie posters. They speak to
| the creativity and vibrancy of the culture. I suggest a quick
| google of 'cuban movie posters;' from what I've been told
| typically the artist had not seen the movie or a limited amount
| of it, then was tasked to make an original poster. They often
| have no similarity to their western movie poster
| bane wrote:
| Wow, the music is also very striking. Does anybody know if
| there's a modern recording of it?
| greenyoda wrote:
| About the movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba
| seibelj wrote:
| > _The third story describes the suppression of rebellious
| students led by a character named Enrique at Havana University
| (featuring one of the longest camera shots). Enrique is
| frustrated with the small efforts of the group and wants to do
| something drastic. He goes off on his own planning on
| assassinating the chief of police, however when he gets him in
| his sights, he sees that the police chief is surrounded by his
| young children, and Enrique cannot bring himself to pull the
| trigger. While he is away, his fellow revolutionaries are
| printing flyers. They are infiltrated by police officers who
| arrest them. One of the revolutionaries begins throwing flyers
| out to the crowd below only to be shot by one of the police
| officers. Later on, Enrique is leading a protest at the
| university. More police are there to break up the crowd with
| fire hoses. Enrique is shot after the demonstration becomes a
| riot. At the end, his body is carried through the streets; he
| has become a martyr to his cause._
|
| Uhh... wouldn't Cuba arrest and / or execute a capitalist
| university student protesting the communist government? Doesn't
| seem very accurate
| gostsamo wrote:
| Year 1964, don't you think that it would be a communist
| student protesting against exploitative US-backed regime?
| olegious wrote:
| You got it reversed, this is pre revolution, the student is
| the Marxist hero
| timecube wrote:
| This is set in pre-communist Cuba, under the dictator
| Fulgencio Batista.
| KarlKemp wrote:
| Well... where to begin?
|
| * it's a 1964 movie
|
| * it's set in pre-revolutionary times
|
| * the students _are_ arrested and /or shot, respectively
|
| * the students aren't capitalists
|
| * there were widespread protests, just a few months ago, and
| not everyone was arrested
| jhbadger wrote:
| And it was made by Mikhail Kalatozov, the famous Soviet
| director. Obviously the point of the movie was to support
| Castro's regime (the USSR's ally) by showing the oppression
| of the pre-revolutionary times.
| seibelj wrote:
| But that's my point - the oppression under communism is
| just as awful, except now you can't even own anything.
| Propaganda
| riffraff wrote:
| The student is the communist, they're protesting the
| government existing before the revolution.
|
| People do not generally equate fights for or against one's
| cause, even if the methods are the same.
| austinpow wrote:
| Personal anecdote: This was the first film I ever projected in
| 35mm. Our university theater obtained a print from the national
| film archive of Venezuela; it was a copy of the 1995 restoration.
| Incredibly striking, lush visuals, and partially responsible for
| my continued personal and professional interest in screening
| archival film. Six years later, I still remember the joy of
| projecting this exact sequence. I'm glad the film survives.
| dmcginty wrote:
| Does anybody know if it's possible to watch the entire movie
| anywhere? It looks like Milestone Films did a 4k restoration in
| 2019 but the link to watch it doesn't seem to work any more and
| their web page indicates that physical copies are "not currently
| available for home use".
| yurish wrote:
| In what language? You can watch it on youtube:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-RbV8KiC0 It is in Russian
| but there are subtitles.
| narrator wrote:
| My favorite unbroken take from a modern movie is from the opening
| scene of Spectre, a James Bond Film: https://youtu.be/cbqv1kbsNUY
| linster wrote:
| Johnny LaRue was onto something with getting a crane shot into
| Polynesian Town.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| The thing I have trouble figuring out - is Soy Cuba under
| copyright?
| [deleted]
| rdtsc wrote:
| It is really a beautiful movie. Highly recommended for anyone who
| loves cinematography.
|
| However, as a movie it flopped at the time despite the great
| technical work. The Soviets completely misread and misunderstood
| the Cubans and turned into a melancholic poetic piece, that had
| zero appeal, except maybe for the Soviet team who made it. I mean
| stuff like the address to "Mr. Columbus" in the intro on how the
| ships "took away all the sugar and left only tears". It's true
| figuratively on a level, but it just isn't how Cubans would have
| put it.
|
| There is a documentary that was made where they interviewed
| Cubans and the Russians who worked on the film. It's quite
| fascinating, but I can't seem to find it anymore to provide a
| link to it.
| RattleyCooper wrote:
| Looks like the legit just used a camera on a rope lol. Definitely
| "impossible" smh
| rudedogg wrote:
| If you enjoyed this check out the 6 minute shot with no cuts in
| True Detective. It's really something in HD, but I couldn't find
| a video.
|
| Here's the full thing but at lower resolution (the audio is
| muffled and it looks washed out to me), also [NSFW]:
| https://vimeo.com/172079250
| metabagel wrote:
| "Russian Ark" from 2002 was composed of a single 96-minute shot.
|
| https://filmschoolrejects.com/russian-ark-long-take/
| pantalaimon wrote:
| Victoria (2015) also did it in a single shot
| wiz21c wrote:
| Elephant by Gus Van Sant too :
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQjTAbt_e58
|
| (ah, my mistake, only the first minutes...)
| pfortuny wrote:
| The thing with Elephant is that many takes are just
| repetitions of others from the point of view of different
| characters.
| axiomdata316 wrote:
| Is this available to stream online anywhere?
| stareatgoats wrote:
| Mentioned elsewhere in the comments:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-RbV8KiC0 , in Russian but
| with English subtexts
| lqet wrote:
| Ah, no discussion about "impossible" shots is complete without
| mentioning the penultimate scene of Antonioni's masterpiece
| "Professione: Reporter" ("The Passenger"):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvbqy8FZq8Y
|
| I read somewhere that this is the film Jack Nicholson is most
| proud of.
|
| > In a DVD commentary, decades later, Nicholson said Antonioni
| built the entire hotel so as to get this shot.
|
| > Since the shot was continuous, it was not possible to adjust
| the lens aperture as the camera left the room and went into the
| square. Hence the footage had to be taken in the very late
| afternoon near dusk, in order to minimise the lighting contrast
| between the brightness outside and that in the room.
|
| > The camera ran on a ceiling track in the hotel room and when it
| came outside the window, was meant to be picked up by a hook
| suspended from a giant crane nearly 30 metres high. A system of
| gyroscopes was fitted on the camera to steady it during the
| switch from this smooth indoor track to the crane outside.
| Meanwhile, the bars on the window had been given hinges. When the
| camera reached the window and the bars were no longer in the
| field of view, they were swung away to either side. At this time
| the camera's forward movement had to stop for a few seconds as
| the crane's hook grabbed it and took over from the track. To hide
| this, the lens was slowly and smoothly zoomed until the crane
| could pull the camera forward.[Note 1] Then the cameraman walked
| the camera in a circle around the square, giving the crew time to
| shut the window bars before the camera returned to look through
| the window from the outside this time. Antonioni directed the
| scene from a van by means of monitors and microphones, talking to
| assistants who communicated his instructions to the actors and
| operators. [0]
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passenger_(1975_film)
| guenthert wrote:
| Yeah, very impressive, but uh, 240p.
| mahoro wrote:
| This film is absolute must see. But be aware you'll get both a
| visual pleasure and a shot of communism right into your heart :)
| prawn wrote:
| 1917 had some interesting shots where the camera was transferred
| from foot to wire to bike/car, etc. You can see a bit of it here:
|
| https://youtu.be/bW22bmSWKXU?t=209
|
| I worked on a shoot two days ago as a drone operator where we
| couldn't get a drone permit in the conservation park location
| (raptors nesting at this time of year), even for a few shots 2-5
| metres off the ground. The client had a particular shot in mind
| and literally brought a ladder which we carried a couple hundred
| metres for the photographer and camera operator to climb.
| wiz21c wrote:
| It makes me happy that at some point, someone says "environment
| first; non negotiable".
| prawn wrote:
| It is definitely much stricter here than other states of
| Australia. If there is a known sea eagle nest for example,
| there will be an exclusion zone with a 2km radius.
|
| In this case, the raptors on the cliffs meant that we
| couldn't use even a micro drone supervised by a ranger
| several kilometres away.
|
| (The project here was for a guided coastal walk.)
| mcculley wrote:
| I am involved in a project that is on hold right now because
| a sea turtle laid eggs on a beach. We are doing the right
| thing in some narrow areas.
| scrumper wrote:
| This entire thread contains some beautiful shots, I've really
| enjoyed watching them all this morning!
|
| I can add the battlefield traversal scene from Children of Men
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjFHqohaHYU which certainly
| doesn't share Soy Cuba's beauty but makes up for it in other
| ways.
| GameOfKnowing wrote:
| Without any context, this makes for a pretty epic article title
| cecilpl2 wrote:
| One of my favorite "impossible" shots is the mirror scene from
| Contact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0_5HFMPIg
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-10-22 23:00 UTC)