[HN Gopher] Cinema's greatest scene: 'Casablanca' and 'La Marsei...
___________________________________________________________________
Cinema's greatest scene: 'Casablanca' and 'La Marseillaise' (2015)
Author : mooreds
Score : 194 points
Date : 2022-07-25 13:07 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (seveninchesofyourtime.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (seveninchesofyourtime.com)
| aksss wrote:
| Honestly, this scene was never my favorite, and in fact may be
| one of the the few points where I find the gears grinding in the
| film. I can understand the author's reasoning and desire to
| wallow in it frame by frame, but reading the article makes me
| roll my eyes almost as much as the scene does.
| throwaway_1928 wrote:
| mastax wrote:
| I just googled "Casablanca" intending to check my recollection
| that Casablanca is a city on the Moroccan coast.
|
| Of course all the results (but one) are about the film or the
| surprising number of local businesses named Casablanca.
| Apparently the film is being shown in a local artsy theater
| tonight. Maybe I should go, I haven't seen the whole thing yet.
| mcculley wrote:
| It is worth your time.
| moehm wrote:
| Go and watch it. It's great!
| mastax wrote:
| I was able to get an eye exam appointment _today_ and just got
| my eyes dilated so i r probably won 't be going to the theater.
| Oh well.
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| Yeah it's a good story, good characters and chemistry, good
| writing, and the source of numerous quotes you still hear
| people say today. Worth watching at least once.
| iainmerrick wrote:
| The number of famous quotes is really amazing -- it's like a
| Shakespeare play in that respect.
| tremendo wrote:
| Including a famous misquote
| homarp wrote:
| https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0069097/
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| Which is that?
| the_af wrote:
| "Play it again, Sam".
|
| Similar sentences are said in the movie, but not that one
| -- which everybody "remembers"!
|
| Actual quotes from the movie that sound similar:
|
| "Play it, Sam."
|
| and
|
| "Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake."
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| gnu8 wrote:
| By all means, that is a great film to see at the local artsy
| theater!
| chernevik wrote:
| Don't miss the chance to see it in an actual theater.
|
| Once of the greatest movies ever made, you won't be sorry.
| aksss wrote:
| This parody scene from Carrotblanca is golden..
| https://youtu.be/sKxP18Kvgr8?t=290
|
| ...lets we take Casablanca too seriously.
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| What a marvelous analysis of such a classic and important film.
| I've seen Casablanca 10 or 12 times but I don't think I've ever
| paid that much attention to the background characters. Obviously,
| they've affected me as the scene brings tears to my eyes every
| time but never really stopped to wonder why. I guess it isn't too
| surprising since the focus is always on its main characters. I
| mean, who can really look into the background when you've got
| Bogie, Rains, Henried, and Bergman to pay attention to. This just
| makes me love this movie even more.
| throwaway123989 wrote:
| If you watch old movie, you start to understand the modern CGI
| produced movies are having a problem of the movie makers cannot
| decide what they want to tell the audience, and they start to
| throwing as much staff on screen and hope they can appeal to most
| of the people.
|
| In addition to the splash of pixels and colors, the dialogue is
| hard to follow in modern films, google "modern film voice is hard
| to hear" you'll see that's a common complaint.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/a723x7/do_you_find_...
|
| The last batch of movies that do not suffer these are LOTR
| trilogy, and the matrix (not the sequels). Then from then, I
| cannot recall any film that has a clear idea and is keen to focus
| on the idea and develop the film accordingly.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| I have noticed re: the speaking that they no longer allow space
| to happen between lines of dialog. For example Char A speaks
| and B replies in like... what 100 milliseconds? Then back to A
| then C then B in rapid succession. Enough time to hear, but not
| enough time to understand with my slow processor.
|
| As a result, I've started watching everything with English
| subtitles on so I can fully understand what is happening. Not
| just Trainspotting any longer, but run-of-the-mill Hollywood
| schlock that should be in my wheelhouse. :-D
| Ballu wrote:
| Top comment on youtube (makes sense, how lively this scene came
| out):
|
| "Interesting thing to note: in the Casablanca script for this
| scene, NONE of those actors were given the cue to cry. Due to the
| fact that this was being filmed whilst France was occupied by
| Germany in the war, and coupled with the fact that a lot of these
| extras were French or from French territories, a lot of them
| swelled up with emotion during the song and started crying
| spontaneously. Those tears that you see on their faces, my
| friends, are truly genuine! That's why this has always been my
| favourite scene!"
| [deleted]
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _Cinema's greatest scene: 'Casablanca' and 'La Marseillaise'_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15847331 - Dec 2017 (86
| comments)
| [deleted]
| lkbm wrote:
| I remember watching at least part of the film as a child (too
| young to appreciate it at all), and seeing this scene particular
| later as an adult. It's intense, and as mentioned towards the end
| of this analysis, the actual words of the anthem are brutal.
| They're not singing "God save the king", but rather "we will
| water our fields with the blood of our enemies."
|
| What I don't think I ever realized is that the film is from 1942.
| Pretty much every WWII film is from long after the war ended, but
| this was released early in the France occupation. That adds so
| much to its meaning and power.
| neves wrote:
| I really like the fact that Rick represents USA.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| As it happens La Marseillaise was originally the war song of
| the French Rhine Army, which was led by a German-born
| (Bavarian) field Marshal at the time, and was written after
| France declared war to Austria.
|
| This was long before German unification and the head-on rivalry
| it created.
| smcl wrote:
| I mean, God Save The King/Queen is not exactly passive either.
| For a period it briefly had a mask-off moment, where my people
| were to be "crushed":
|
| > Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
|
| > May by thy mighty aid,
|
| > Victory bring.
|
| > May he sedition hush,
|
| > and like a torrent rush,
|
| > Rebellious Scots to crush,
|
| > God save the King.
|
| So that's nice, when your own national anthem called for you to
| be crushed. This verse is not used anymore, but the UK national
| anthem is obviously not popular in Scotland. I have never
| learned the lyrics to it and haven't the faintest interest in
| doing so. For me it starts "God save our _something_ Queen,
| bleeh bleh bleh bleeeeeeh bleh bleh, god save our queen... "
|
| I know "Kde domov muj" more than I know that song.
| jll29 wrote:
| > Rebellious Scots to crush
|
| Someone anticipated the Scottish independence referendum
| already a long time ago!
| [deleted]
| smcl wrote:
| Well it was in reference to the _original_ independence
| movement (which would just have installed a different fancy
| lad as King) in the form of the Jacobite Rebellion so yeah
| :D
|
| But in honesty, the anthem isn't technically prejudiced
| against the Scottish identity today, it's just sort of ...
| weird due to this history and some accumulated shit, and
| many of us just fucking don't like it, but can't really do
| anything about it.
|
| Flower of Scotland is very slow and brings an odd vibe to
| sporting events. I prefer Loch Lomond and how it builds :D
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| I feel like a lot of national anthems have some bits that
| people gloss over, or have quietly done away with. Part of
| the charm innit. The Irish national song talks about the
| 'Saxon foe' in the English version[1] (the English version
| isn't normally the one sung, and only the chorus of said song
| is the national anthem proper).
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amhran_na_bhFiann
| smcl wrote:
| Yeah it's possible that by now many anthems don't truly
| _mean_ what they currently or originally said, or reference
| things that are kinda irrelevant today. They 're just
| rousing words that fit a tune, and people sorta go along
| with it. And tbh as I said the UK anthem doesn't
| _currently_ openly call for my slaughter and I don 't live
| in fear that I'll be persecuted by the UK government on
| account of my national identity. But I think it's one thing
| to have a "Remember this external foe we defeated in our
| independence struggle" section in your anthem and another
| to have had one saying "A very large part of our nation
| must be defeated and its people subjugated", particularly
| if you are one of those people
| jcranmer wrote:
| > It's intense, and as mentioned towards the end of this
| analysis, the actual words of the anthem are brutal. They're
| not singing "God save the king", but rather "we will water our
| fields with the blood of our enemies."
|
| La Marseillaise, if you boil it down to a single sentence, is
| basically "Fight on, Frenchmen... because we are _utterly
| screwed_ if you don 't."--almost all of the violence in the
| song is about the violence directed towards the French by the
| various coalitions arrayed against it at that time. (Also
| extremely notable for a national anthem of that period, it
| never specifically identifies an enemy--contrast that to the
| dueling German anthem in the film, which is a rather explicitly
| anti-French anthem.)
| pmontra wrote:
| Or the Italian one which is anti-Austrian.
| smcl wrote:
| But in doing so it features some solidarity with the Polish
| :D
|
| > Son giunchi che piegano (Mercenary swords)
|
| > le spade vendute (they're feeble reeds)
|
| > gia l'Aquila d'Austria (The Austrian eagle)
|
| > le penne ha perdute. (Has already lost its plumes)
|
| > Il sangue d'Italia, (The blood of Italy)
|
| > il sangue Polacco, (and the Polish blood)
|
| > beve, col cosacco, (It drank, along with the Cossack)
|
| > ma il cor le brucio (But it burned its heart)
|
| ... this is actually reciprocated in the Polish anthem:
|
| > Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski, (March, march, Dabrowski)
|
| > Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski. (From the Italian land to
| Poland)
|
| > Za twoim przewodem (Under your command)
|
| > Zlaczym sie z narodem. (We shall rejoin the nation)
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| By contrast, the Russian national anthem just calls their own
| country awesome over and over again.
| bsaul wrote:
| it's actually a common misunderstanding (even amongst french) :
| the "impure" blood the french anthem is talking about is their
| own blood, not the one from their ennemies.
|
| Nobility was calling them impure (since not from noble blood),
| and they reversed it to something to be proud of (kind of).
| the_af wrote:
| > _Nobility was calling them impure (since not from noble
| blood)_
|
| Did the nobility in any country use to consider the blood of
| the people they ruled "impure"? Lowborn, sure, but "impure"?
| lou1306 wrote:
| Are there any reputable sources for that interpretation? At
| face value, it seems like a flimsy attempt at sweeping the
| unfortunate implications of the words "impure blood" under
| the rug.
|
| But since nationalism was widespread and encouraged in that
| zeitgeist, and considering the context of a foreign invasion
| in which the lyrics were written, I am way more inclined to
| assume that the "impure blood" is that of the "ferocious
| soldiers" coming for the French.
| rawgabbit wrote:
| Well, as the song warns that foreign soldiers will come
| slit the throats of our women and children... I agree with
| your interpretation.
| bsaul wrote:
| It looks like i got fooled by that alternate theory which
| gained a lot of popularity in the last 10 years, but is
| apparently fake..
|
| Sorry about that.
| btat1-2 wrote:
| First, Remember it was written in 1792 for the army of the
| French revolution. I'm French, I've heard a lot of of
| explanations about these words since I'm a child. Here's
| one of them: https://fr.quora.com/La-Marseillaise-contient-
| Quun-sang-impu.... Sorry for the French text.
|
| This is a question that is sometimes very much discussed in
| France. Always in French : https://www.uneautremarseillaise
| pourlafrance.fr/blog/2015/12...
| coolsunglasses wrote:
| La Marseillaise was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget
| de Lisle and the "impure blood" clearly refers to the enemies
| of France. Take a look at the lyrics immediately following
| the controversial section.
|
| Here's a translation from Wikipedia:
|
| "Let an impure blood
|
| Water our furrows!
|
| What does this horde of slaves
|
| Of traitors and conspiring kings want?
|
| For whom have these vile chains
|
| These irons, been long prepared? (repeated)
|
| Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
|
| What furious action it must arouse!
|
| It is for us they dare plan
|
| A return to the old slavery!
|
| What! Foreign cohorts!
|
| Would make the law in our homes!
|
| What! These mercenary phalanxes
|
| ...(later)
|
| Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
|
| Bear or hold back your blows!
|
| Spare those sorry victims,
|
| For regretfully arming against us (repeated)"
|
| Okay so Frenchmen are magnaminous, valorous warriors. The
| enemy are the slaves of tyrants. And we're meant to believe
| the impure blood in a song written by a French revolutionary
| era freemason refers to the third estate? Seems unlikely to
| me.
| bsaul wrote:
| https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-clement-
| martin/blog/100116/q...
|
| Damn ! it looks like you're right. I fell for this fake
| interpretation that got spread for the last 10 years on the
| net, and even reached wikipedia...
|
| Sorry about that.
|
| edit : it's even worst than that, that alternate theory
| reached the ministry of education and the parlement, since
| 2006...
|
| https://blogs.mediapart.fr/rouget-de-
| marseille/blog/130718/l...
|
| Looks like we're having a lot of trouble with the original
| super barbaric lyrics :)))
| forty wrote:
| I'm not sure what's the original interpretation was
| supposed to be, but as a French, bsaul interpretation is
| the one I choose to believe, and I think that matters more
| :)
| [deleted]
| hairofadog wrote:
| Many of the extras (including Madeleine Lebeau, whose face is
| arguably the symbol of that scene) had recently fled Nazi
| occupation in Europe, so their emotions were genuine.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Lebeau
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)#Cast
| dmitriid wrote:
| There's a scene that's a jusxtaposition to Casablanca's (and
| bow I realise it may have been intended as such): Tomorrow
| Belongs To Me from Cabaret. It's intense, chilling, and
| ultimately frightening.
| [deleted]
| rospaya wrote:
| It's brilliant and I always thought it shows the way
| something innocent can be appropriated, both the kid and the
| song.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv0jav4lNsk
| baud147258 wrote:
| > They're not singing "God save the king", but rather "we will
| water our fields with the blood of our enemies."
|
| Well, when the Marseillaise was written, they were about to
| kill the king, forgo any reference to God and were watering
| fields with the blood of their enemies (and French soldiers),
| so it was appropriate, no?
| Juliate wrote:
| The song was written in April 1792 in the context of the
| declaration of war from France to Austria.
|
| The then very recent constitutional monarchy fell in August.
|
| The king trial began in November and even then, although
| death was requested by some, it was not an evidence yet.
|
| Death was voted with a small majority in January.
| kergonath wrote:
| It was complicated. It was a constitutional monarchy at the
| time, and killing the king was at least one sub-revolution
| away. Seriously, there were many, many ways he could have
| avoided being executed. The Revolutions podcast has a decent
| summary of all of it, including Louis XVI's many mis-
| calculations and stupid PR mistakes. If you can call "a
| summary" 20 hours worth of podcast.
|
| They were at war with half of Europe though, and directly
| threatened by the Austrian army, amongst others.
| rodgerd wrote:
| Much like the Tsars and Charles I and James I, the French
| monarchs of the time seem determined to escalate until it
| got them killed.
|
| Modern billionaires could probably do with some history
| lessons.
| kergonath wrote:
| You're right, it's like something that did not happen in
| their lifetimes will not happen ever.
|
| To be fair to old Louis though, he _did_ learn from the
| English civil war: he read Hume's _History of England_
| and was well aware of how Charles I got killed. He tried
| very hard not to be as inflexible. So instead he got
| killed for going with the wind and saying yes too often,
| to the wrong people. And trying to flee, which was really
| un-patriotic, completely sank the legitimacy of the
| constitutional monarchy, and opened the door for the
| radicals.
| wefarrell wrote:
| Ironically Casablanca was produced as a b-movie and marks the
| hight of the studio system. It didn't have a huge budget and it
| was rushed out to coincide with the allied invasion of North
| Africa.
| coderdd wrote:
| We watched it recently after decades of hearing how great a
| film it was.. it was a superficial letdown instead.
| barrkel wrote:
| Full of cliches, right?
|
| (/s -- victim of its own success...)
| wefarrell wrote:
| It invented a lot of common cliches and tropes that are
| frequently used in other movies so in many ways it's a
| victim of its own success. For example in Star Wars the
| planet of Tatooine is Casablanca and the Cantina is Rick's
| Cafe.
| idhqbfojqbx wrote:
| What is it with people trying to quantify and categorize art? Yes
| this scene is significant for both the history of cinema and
| artistically and I personally love it as well, but the quest of
| defining "the greatest scene" or "the best film of all time" just
| screams pure naivete to me and I honestly don't understand why
| people would ask such questions?!
| antiterra wrote:
| Quantifying and categorizing is one of the great human
| pursuits, sometimes to disastrous end.
|
| However, with the sheer volume of creative works that exist,
| curation can help us find an exceptional needle in a haystack.
| This is why this kind of clickbait resonates.
|
| This is part of why we want things like the Academy Awards to
| be objective & authoritative, when they are neither.
|
| The real value is in the argument for art, the argument for
| beauty. Someone says, "sure grape juice is fine, but try this
| wine," and they are making an argument that the initially off-
| putting flavors and lack of sweetness aren't a bad thing. The
| ultimate judge is you, however. You are the person who can
| decide if the scene in Apocalypto where they have to jump over
| the waterfall provides a better or more useful artistic
| experience to a scene in The Godfather. And then, you can
| change your mind, or not.
| allenu wrote:
| I've been thinking about this recently because so many trending
| topics on twitter are about "the greatest band" or "best film
| of 198x" or whatever. I think if I were younger, I would be
| excited by such discussions, but now it seems silly. My
| conclusion was that it's a sort of fun game (young) people play
| as it feels like you're shaping culture by debating the
| greatness of works of art or artists.
| notafraudster wrote:
| I tend to just manually translate "best", "greatest", etc. into
| "A great" in my head, and then it's just a love letter to an
| awesome scene. Which this is!
| e1g wrote:
| Another excellent hack is to mentally prefix "I think " in
| front of almost everything people say. "[I think]
| Democrats/republicans are idiots!", "[I think] Micro-
| services/monolith is the best!", "[I think] This PR is
| good/bad"
|
| "I love you" is a tricky one.
| ge96 wrote:
| [I think] I love you [I think]
| dylan604 wrote:
| 'When you respond to me the first and last words out of
| your mouth are "I think"' just doesn't resonate the same
| athenot wrote:
| "...today"
| corrral wrote:
| "I think" can usually be inferred from context and isn't
| needed, but bad or adversarial (hard to tell the
| difference) reading & online forums have encouraged
| everyone to write worse, in order to defend against flames
| from poor readers and assholes. You have to try to cover
| every stupid way your words could be read if you don't want
| other posters to pounce on you, like by throwing "I think"
| in front of things that are _obviously_ opinion or
| otherwise not being advanced as absolute, indisputable
| truth.
|
| [EDIT] Point is, yes, making that assumption is a normal
| part of ordinary communication outside the "well akshually"
| Web.
| [deleted]
| js2 wrote:
| > What is it with people trying to quantify and categorize art?
|
| What is it with people leaving controversial rhetorical
| comments?
|
| It spawns discussion. Which really, is the whole point of art.
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| > It spawns discussion. Which really, is the whole point of
| art.
|
| Arguably not. My understanding is the only purpose of art is
| to be art.
|
| _Ars Gratia Artis._
| bananarchist wrote:
| The saddest art is that which is undiscussed, for it has
| inspired nothing, evoked nothing, changed nothing,
| _created_ nothing.
| parhamn wrote:
| It's fun? This sort of comparison is very common in sports too
| and makes for some of the best discussions around the subject's
| legacy and the history of the sport.
|
| Sure, unknowables are unknowables. But many Lebron v Jordan v
| Wilt discussions are full of gems and help relive their
| legacies.
| blowski wrote:
| To be fair, I don't understand it in sports either.
|
| Would Brazil 1970 beat Spain 2008 or Man Utd 1999? Since we
| can't accurately predict the results of real games, it seems
| irrelevant to predict the results of hypothetical ones.
|
| I know people enjoy it, but it's not for me.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| >I know people enjoy it, but it's not for me.
|
| Well, there's your answer! Some people love gardening. I
| find it dull, hot, just generally uncomfortable work. It's
| a chore - no, it's a _job_ to me if I 'm being honest.
|
| So I just let others enjoy it and I take in the visuals
| when their work is complete.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| > it seems irrelevant to predict the results of
| hypothetical ones.
|
| It's probably not difficult to understand, by analogy to
| things that you might be passionate about. I have zero
| interest in professional sports, but it's clear to me that
| hypotheticals like this are a way to motivate deeper
| structural thinking about your perception of the quality
| and strategy of given teams. You already have an intimate
| understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your team
| in the context of their modern competitors. The thought
| experiment of pitting them against the challenge of
| historical teams can easily deepen your understanding of
| them.
|
| Hell, you don't even need the idea of "fun" to explain
| this. The concept of a thought experiment is widely, almost
| universally useful. I might have a blindspot due to working
| in research, but it's my impression that modeling
| hypotheticals that are impossible is a fundamental skill
| for creative work.
| stinkytaco wrote:
| > Would Brazil 1970 beat Spain 2008
|
| No. Spain 2008-2012 may be the best _overall_ international
| team of all time. Too organized even for the front five of
| Brazil.
|
| > Man Utd 1999
|
| Yes. Good team, but a lot of things broke their way that
| season and they were defensively somewhat weak. Though
| Schmeichel was one of the first goalies to be very good
| with the ball at his feet, so that may give an advantage in
| the modern game.
|
| I think the exercise is fun partially because it makes us
| ask questions about the game, how it's changed and where
| it's going. To answer this question you need to think about
| the modern tactical game, the backpass rule, how players
| have changed and all the other factors that make me
| interested in a game.
|
| In the same way evaluating movies makes me think about the
| context of a movie and how it was made rather than just a
| pure evaluation of its "quality".
| jagrsw wrote:
| You didn't want to hear this answer :) but most 2008
| football teams would beat their typical modern-day
| opponents - ie. their 1970 versions.
|
| Players are being noticed much earlier now (pro training
| starts much much earlier, and from a wider pool of talent),
| and also modern players are (mostly) saints in terms of
| maintaining their fitness ("healthy food" based in
| individual medical testing, no alcohol/smoking/drugs - and
| tested regularly for this) - while as for the 70's players
| - it's full of stories of late-night partying.
| jahnu wrote:
| Even up to the mid to late 90s for soccer
| simonh wrote:
| If the result is a discussion thread as informative, insightful
| and thought provoking as this one, IMHO it's all good.
| corrral wrote:
| I think it falls naturally out of trying to recommend greats to
| people--at some point you need an, "OK but if you are only
| going to watch _one_ of these, it should be this one.... "
|
| Not objective, sure, and not authoritative. On a ranked list
| of, say, 500 great films, what's the difference between 100 and
| 101? Probably not much and the ordering of them's basically
| arbitrary... _but_ if you 're only going to watch 100 of those
| 500, it likely _is_ a better idea to watch 1-100 than 401-500.
| Some truth does fall out of the rankings, especially if you
| factor in more than one person 's opinions. Keep seeing the
| same few movies near the tops of lists, then they're probably
| damn good.
| rootw0rm wrote:
| I nominate the ending scene of 'Uncut Gems'
| smm11 wrote:
| The first ten minutes or so of Apocalypse Now. Take your pick.
| badrabbit wrote:
| Personally, I thought the ending scene was the best. The
| apathetic american and the corrupt policeman decided to continue
| to be friends. Rick's act of resistance against the Nazis was
| overlooked, a possible indication of the start of a resistance in
| Casablanca.
| nikolay wrote:
| It's all subjective and a matter of taste - to me personally, the
| greatest scenes in cinema are all from The Last of the Mohicans!
| borroka wrote:
| Among cinema's greatest scenes, there is certainly the ending of
| "The Battle of Algiers", directed by the extraordinary Italian
| director Gillo Pontecorvo (Kapo, Operacion Ogro, Queimada).
|
| Another amazing scene, not tremendously well know, is the one
| with the final words of Sacco and Vanzetti during their trial in
| the movie of the same name directed by Giuliano Montaldo. Gian
| Maria Volonte interpretation of Vanzetti was monumental.
| roter wrote:
| Final scene of Paths of Glory (1957) [0]. The transition from the
| whistling and humiliation of a girl to shared humanity is my
| favourite Kubrick scene.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ifRA0Kj-8
| belter wrote:
| It's mentioned in one of the comments at the bottom of the
| article, but it seems many of the Nazis cast in the movie were in
| fact Jews escaped from Germany. So in this scene, many of the
| actors tears are real.
| mmaunder wrote:
| I think the street shootout in Heat (1995) is one of cinema's
| greatest scenes. It's the audio that makes it incredible - the
| guns echoing off the buildings. And Val Kilmer, Sizemore and De
| Niro trying to run carrying large bags of cash - greed vs
| survival.
| whartung wrote:
| When I saw that scene in the theater the first time, it left me
| shaking in my seat. It's still powerful today.
|
| Watching Val Kilmer's facial expression change at that start.
| "At the drop of a hat, these guys will rock 'n roll."
|
| I'm one in, I imagine, a very small group. But I find Mann's
| "Miami Vice" to be one of my favorite films of his. It's the
| most dangerous movie I've ever seen, it (almost) never lets up.
| Even the sex was dangerous. Heck, the ROSES were dangerous.
|
| The minor nemesis Neptune is one of the scariest characters
| I've seen, and we only see a glimpse of him. And John Ortiz'
| Jose Yero. Sheesh. "I'm a disco guy."
|
| The Heat gunfight scene is intense, the audio is amazing. A
| late friend of mine was in downtown LA during one of the
| shooting days, and relayed what it was like.
|
| But MV is intense throughout the whole movie. Just never lets
| up.
| aksss wrote:
| Curious what you think of The Gray Man (2022).
| blueline wrote:
| Miami Vice has acquired a pretty substantial cult following
| in recent years, and among the people i know who are "into"
| Mann, it pretty commonly ranks as their favorite as well.
|
| For me it's still Thief (or Heat) but MV is very close
| rintakumpu wrote:
| I just (re)watched Heat last night and when I saw this
| article/thread I immediately thought of that scene! BTW there's
| a sequel novel coming out in couple of weeks
| https://www.amazon.com/Heat-2-Novel-Michael-Mann/dp/00626533...
| drexlspivey wrote:
| Heat (1995) is actually a remake. The original movie is
| called L.A Takedown and was also written/directed by Michael
| Mann
| Inconel wrote:
| While the shootout scene is indeed great, the 2 scenes in Heat
| that I consistently find myself rewatching on YouTube are the
| diner scene with De Niro and Pacino, and the final scene in the
| fields beyond the runways at LAX. The sound and light from the
| incoming planes mixed with the score is incredible, and I never
| tire of it.
| readenough wrote:
| I was impressed with the the look on King Arthur's face when he
| walked in on Guinevere and Lancelot in the movie First Knight.
| I'm not talking about the dialog; I can't even remember it.
| cm2187 wrote:
| I can think of dozens of great scenes.
|
| the elevator scene in Usual Suspects
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyCSU9yG63Q&t=57s
|
| Carlito's way station scene
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzzxbe1IsiI
|
| Miller's Crossing shooting scene
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgz-CKRzs-4
|
| Basic Instinct's Sharon Stone first scene:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-t9QZgbDwU
|
| Pirates's island scene (I can only find a dubbed version):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYLNrnsqoqY
|
| Children of men car scene:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVg66ndzfpU
|
| Hudsucker proxy board scene:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FPuyMHo2N8
| Arrath wrote:
| Wow the Carlito's Way scene is just great
| galgot wrote:
| Indeed, when first saw (or more appropriately heard) that one,
| thought "the guy who did this Must have been in a city shootout
| at one point..."
| disantlor wrote:
| saw it in theaters for the first time last night. the gunshots
| are so loud and it's amazing
| factotvm wrote:
| Your talk of audio reminds me of how the climax of The Last of
| the Mohicans (1992) is so powerful because of its restrained
| sound. The silence of Chingachgook's inaudible wail makes me
| want to weep. The slicing of knives and reports from rifles are
| second to the score:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BxDpOu3cD0&t=320
|
| (It won the Oscar for Best Sound that year.)
| tiahura wrote:
| Always draws a tear from swelling with national pride - for
| France.
| ggm wrote:
| yes, this scene always makes me cry. The number of people on
| the cast/crew who were refugees is also notable, I think it
| brought a certain focus to what they were trying to do.
| croes wrote:
| What about the Odessa scene of Battleship Potemkin?
| chrisdhoover wrote:
| Or when Michael tells Fredo he knows it was him. Or when
| Michael dispatches his enemies while Ava Maria plays at his
| child's christening. Or probably scores of more examples
| ausbah wrote:
| I think one of the greatest scenes in cinema was the end of
| Infinity War when Tony Stark snapped his fingers and undid all
| the damage Thanos had done
| pachico wrote:
| I must say that La Marseille, as composition, plays a great role.
| Very few national anthems have such emotional composition (the
| Russian also, maybe?).
|
| It wouldn't be the same scene if they started to play the Spanish
| or Italian anthems...
| julienchastang wrote:
| Except the actual words to La Marseillaise are quite terrible,
| at least by modern standards, "Qu'un sang impur Abreuve nos
| sillons!" "That their impure blood Should water our fields!"
| Ugh...
| erazor42 wrote:
| << Impure >> does not refer to enemy blood but refer to the
| own blood of the French republican. (Versus the << pure >>
| blood of the royalist)
| corrral wrote:
| A huge part of the Anglophone Web, including much of the
| left, is currently casually referring to Russians as "orcs"
| and gleefully speculating about how many sunflowers will
| sprout from their corpses.
|
| "Modern standards", ha! Hasn't changed a bit.
|
| (and-- _sigh_ --no, I'm not pro-Russian when it comes to the
| invasion of Ukraine, or much else for that matter)
| the_af wrote:
| I find the "orcs" thing appalling. Especially since in my
| country, Argentina, the same word is casually used to
| describe poor people, implying they are a thieving,
| untrustworthy, dumb mob.
| kergonath wrote:
| They are the reflection of their times. Their are outdated
| now, and not taken literally, but they are a relic from the
| foundation of the Republic. As a pacifist I don't think we
| should get rid of them. History is important.
| anamax wrote:
| While Casablanca is a better movie, the scene that introduces
| Omar Sharif's character in Lawrence of Arabia is better, as is
| the scene that introduces John Wayne's character in Stagecoach.
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| That scene from Lawrence of Arabia was absolutely magic. Done
| in a single, unbroken take, David Lean had personally paced off
| the distance when Sharif began his approach so that he would
| start out invisible only to slowly approach. I've rerun that
| scene multiple times and I can't decide just where he actually
| becomes visible.
|
| The other great scene, which is probably more editing than
| filming, is near its beginning where Lawrence blows out the
| match where the film immediately cuts to the sun rising out of
| the desert sand dune landscape. Just awesome.
| sytelus wrote:
| As people pour in, it appears I am the only one left with
| contrarian view. I had watched this movie and didn't realize the
| scene was really all that special. I couldn't even recall it, let
| alone remember it forever. I have seen perhaps hundreds other far
| more moving scenes in other WWII movies (everything from
| Schindler's List to Saving Private Ryan to Downfall) that I far
| more vividly remember. It feels like one of those fallacies where
| someone will come up with why certain wine is best in the world
| and then crowd joins in to agree while everyone else wonders what
| was so special about it.
| rajman187 wrote:
| Completely agree, unremarkable film that has stood the test of
| time due, I'd argue, not through substance but sizable
| celebrity. Certainly important in terms of the history of film
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Casablanca begs to be remarked on. As the great piece linked
| demonstrates.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| In other words, you didn't understand it yet. That's ok. Always
| found it enjoyable myself but I didn't fully comprehend it
| either until reading and watching again recently after a bout
| of WWII history. If you've read the linked piece in full, you
| will on the next viewing.
|
| Or course it can't compare to modern production, and even was
| considered a "filler" film at the time. As it sometimes shows,
| filmed on the lot in Burbank. Ingrid's daughter is on the disc
| saying her mother barely remembered making it and was surprised
| when people asked about it.
|
| A lot of folks get tripped up on that and its "economy" of
| story as others mentioned here. But the important things, power
| of the screenplay, emotional impact, philosophical questions,
| performances, and "fit" with history are all top notch. Doesn't
| really get better than that.
| kergonath wrote:
| > I have seen perhaps hundreds other far more moving scenes in
| other WWII movies (everything from Schindler's List to Saving
| Private Ryan to Downfall) that I far more vividly remember.
|
| It's completely different. _Schindler's list_ is great, but
| reads like a documentary. _Downfall_ is flashy, but lacks the
| spontaneity of _Casablanca_ , which was filmed in the thick of
| it. Completely different atmospheres.
|
| Also, if you are into this kind of films, _the Pianist_ is an
| absolute must-see. I would put it at the same level than
| _Schindler's List_ , way above both _Saving Private Ryan_
| (which is way, way too much of a Hollywood action movie) and
| _Downfall_ (which is fine, but really not in the same league).
| hondo77 wrote:
| > ...Saving Private Ryan (which is way, way too much of a
| Hollywood action movie)...
|
| The hand-to-hand combat sequence with Adam Goldberg is one of
| the most amazing I have ever seen. _Not_ a typical action
| scene.
| the_af wrote:
| That scene is pretty good.
|
| Saving Private Ryan has top-notch action and production
| values (yes, I know about the inaccuracies, that the Tiger
| tank isn't a Tiger, etc. Still top notch).
|
| The problem with Saving Private Ryan is that it looks and
| plays as American propaganda. American flags waving bookend
| the movie, there are famous quotes by American politicians,
| Tom Hank's larger than life "earn this" quote, rah rah rah.
| That's what makes it "too Hollywood", not that the action
| is bad. The action is good!
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| The article's link to the AFI's top 100 list is broken, so here's
| a more recent link:
| https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversa...
| jwilk wrote:
| That's the new edition from 2007, where Casablanca is only #3.
|
| https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/ is the original
| list from 1998.
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| So there's it's #2. I've seen it on another list at #1. I
| think top 5 or even top 10 is all the same, within that range
| the particular ranking just subjective.
| roryrjb wrote:
| Definitely up there with one of the greatest scenes for sure. As
| the article states the impact of the scene is only magnified by
| real world events at the time, but it's also timeless. I've
| always loved Casablanca and this is without doubt my favourite
| scene, it gives me goosebumps.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| As I mention below: I ran the Google Cinema Club for 10 years.
| There were great movies that hardly anyone came to, and there
| were not-so-great ones that drew a big crowd. But the most
| satisfying thing, for me, was to put on a great film and have
| everyone come (for some value of "everyone")!
|
| For _Chinatown_ (a big crowd!) I asked for a show of hands with
| "How many have seen this before?" About half.
|
| We never showed _Casablanca_ because we figured everyone had seen
| it, but now I 'm realizing maybe that's not true.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| The WWII generation is all but gone, though a friend has a 95yo
| grandmother still alive from the era. Was also shown a lot on
| TV in the 80s for GenX and older, but no longer.
|
| I'd definitely love to see it on the big screen.
| chernevik wrote:
| Give me a brass band and I too can drown out a bunch of drunken
| Nazis.
|
| Better would be for Victor to start singing himself and have the
| the crowd join him. Then, once the Nazis are already drowned out,
| have Rick tell the band to join -- best if because Sam gives him
| a you-know-what-to-do look.
|
| Good scene but the trumpets vs voices thing has always struck me
| as a flaw.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| And only 15 more years for it to become public domain.
| Surfactant7 wrote:
| > Casablanca is widely remembered as one of the greatest films of
| all time, coming in at #2 on the AFI's top 100 list and similarly
| regarded by many other critics. You can quibble with its exact
| rank, but it's at least undeniable how iconic Casablanca remains.
| Even now, more than 70 years after its 1942 release, few movies
| have ever produced as many enduring quotes.
|
| The link to the AFI top 100 appears to have moved here:
|
| https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/
|
| The top movie is Citizen Kane, released one year prior to
| Casablanca (1941). The most recent movie on the list, released in
| 1994, was Fargo.
| svat wrote:
| Umberto Eco wrote an essay called "Casablanca, or, The Cliches
| are Having a Ball" that I quite like / find interesting ( _" Two
| cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us."_):
| https://web.archive.org/web/20150503233823/www.themodernword... =
| https://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/eco.html
| aksss wrote:
| Great critique, thanks for sharing it.
| jll29 wrote:
| This is indeed the best individual scene of any movie of
| cinematic history, to the best of my knowledge and taste, and I
| applaud the OP's brilliant analysis. The whole movie is a gem,
| and a rich source of unforgotten quotes ("Major Strasser appears
| to have been shot - arrest the usual suspects", "This is the
| begin of a wonderful friendship"), and the "anthem-against-anthem
| scene" evokes that rare combination of tears and goosbumps that
| is only present where human sacrifice is needed and volunteered,
| but without guaranteeing a happy outcome.
|
| Other posters have suggested a range of other scenes; I shall
| just propose one more movie - a lesser known one - that is
| sacrifice-themed: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4263229465/
| hprotagonist wrote:
| _Yet perhaps the greatest thing in this scene is that most of the
| people in it weren't actors at all; rather, director Michael
| Curtiz filled the scene with actual French refugees.
|
| Keep in mind, this movie came out in 1942 and was filmed at the
| height of World War II, at a time when Germany looked nearly
| unbeatable and Nazi occupation of France was indefinite. And here
| was a group of refugees from that occupation, given the chance to
| sing their anthem with defiant pride.
|
| For one brief moment, this wasn't a movie. It was real life, and
| it was tragic, and it was brave. Reports have said that extras
| were crying on set during filming, and the passion is evident any
| time you look past the main actors to the background singers._
| DocTomoe wrote:
| The "resurrection scene" from "Das Boot" does that for me: In the
| scene, a German submarine, against better knowledge, follows
| orders to pass from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and gets -
| to absolutely no-one's surprise - plastered with British water
| bombs. After pushing the machine far beyond its construction
| limits, they lay 'dead' on the bottom of the sea until their
| attackers call the search off, then manage to survive. The
| suspension, the fear of imminent death, and the resurrection-
| style resurfacing is intense.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ANbZsnjx9Q
| mherdeg wrote:
| Rick's nod is one of my favorite and most memorable moments in
| cinema.
| galgot wrote:
| - The slow motion pass of the Mustang in Empire Of The Sun, that
| is for planes nuts like me ...
|
| and
|
| - the ending scene of Le Train (1973) with Romy Schneider.
|
| But so many movies scenes I like... That's just the ones that
| come to mind at the moment.
|
| As for Casablanca, shame on me, I've never seen it. Just some
| small parts, and each times it looked so cliche that I had always
| delayed when I would watch it. Only in Hollywood could one have
| the idea of a French Prefet de Police (Louis Renault character,
| well named) always wearing a uniform, wearing a ridiculous kepi
| (Prefets have caps, not kepis) tilted on the side, with a small
| moustache and a eyebrow higher than the other. I mean, the scene
| mentioned may be beautiful (again I've never seen it) but that
| character is sooo much the anglo-saxon cliche of the "untrusthy
| Frenchman" ... almost a cartoon character.
|
| Anyways, have to take time to watch Casablanca, and die less
| dumb.
| the_af wrote:
| "Empire of the Sun" is a pretty good movie. I must read the
| novel one day.
| stormbrew wrote:
| I mean, a lot of things in Casablanca are cliche because of
| Casablanca. The impact of it on the pop culture zeitgeist is
| massive.
| yohannparis wrote:
| As a Frenchman I felt the same... then I watched it because my
| wife's family wanted to watch it. Now I understand what a
| masterpiece it is, even today, 80 years later, it's still a
| great story!
| corrral wrote:
| > - The slow motion pass of the Mustang in Empire Of The Sun,
| that is for planes nuts like me ...
|
| "P-51! Cadillac of the skies!"
|
| God, that's a powerful scene. So much tension of themes and
| emotions and situation.
| pradn wrote:
| A few other "greatest" scenes in cinema:
|
| * Isak's vision of his family picnicking at the end of Wild
| Strawberries (1957), where a man finds peace in his journey
| through the memories of his life
|
| * Hidetora walking out his burning castle in Ran (1985) amid a
| battle amid his two eldest sons for supremacy, his plan to divide
| his kingdom among his three children having come to a disastrous
| end - a man realizing his children (and humanity in general) are
| more horrible than his naive dreams of unity could sustain.
|
| * Two scenes in The Cranes Are Flying (1957): a montage of
| Veronika's beloved dying in battle (he falls as his soul seems to
| ascend bc the camera angle) while she goes about her life;
| Veronika finding out Boris is dead for sure at the train station,
| giving the flowers intended for Boris to the returning men and
| their families, and then she sees the cranes above Moscow - hope
| and renewal.
|
| * In I am Cuba (1964): a martyred revolutionary, a student, is
| carried through Havana as the whole city stops what they're doing
| to honor him, solemnly, cigar-factory workers and all.
|
| * In Andrei Rublev (1966), there's an extended sequence where a
| bellmaker's young son agrees to pour a bell for a local lord. You
| see the entire process of making the mould and pouring the metal.
| It has a town-fair atmosphere. But at the end, there's tremendous
| pressure on the young bellmaker to have the bell ring properly
| and have no cracks. And it does. The protagonist, the lapsed monk
| Andrei Rublev, regains his faith, seeing the result of the young
| bellmaker's hope. (I've shared this a few times on this website.)
|
| * At the end of L'Ecclise (1962), the two lovers decide to meet
| the next day but they don't. Instead, we see thirty shots of the
| empty city - a devastating way to get to the heart of loneliness
| and lack of connection in modern life.
| marcodiego wrote:
| > * In I am Cuba (1964): a martyred revolutionary, a student,
| is carried through Havana as the whole city stops what they're
| doing to honor him, solemnly, cigar-factory workers and all.
|
| One of the best takes ever:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjuLkJ4m-mc
| tootie wrote:
| Ran is absolute feast for the eyes. I've never been so absorbed
| by a film as the first time I watched it. Just the whole
| openings sequence with boar hunt is instantly mesmerizing. And
| the fall of the castle at the end was just was electrifying.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| You are a scholar, sir.
|
| I ran the Google Cinema Club for 10 years, and I held up the
| flag for films like this. I'd rather show a good movie with
| lousy attendance than a shit movie that everyone likes.
|
| I'm embarrassed to admit we only showed _Wild Strawberries_ out
| of all those (many other Kurosawa flicks, though). _Ran_ was
| just too long for a movie that started at 7:00 pm, while people
| had a last shuttle to catch.
| pradn wrote:
| A few of these (I am Cuba, The Cranes are Flying) have only
| recently been restored and publicized so maybe they weren't
| available as well back when you ran the club. :)
|
| I work in the Google NYC office, and there's even a fairly
| large new screening area (floor 6). But I think office-based
| clubs and such are practically dead because of remote work.
| Maybe they'll come back.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I was in touch with Janet Traub (I think I got that name
| right) who was hoping to start a NYC club, but I don't
| think she ever did.
|
| I have to admit I've never even heard of those two flicks.
| pradn wrote:
| It's okay. :) They were known only in niche film circles
| because there was hardly a good print, restoration, or
| subtitled-version available for decades.
|
| No such Janet Traub at Google at the present. :)
| FabHK wrote:
| > * In I am Cuba (1964)
|
| That is the funeral scene with that long shot in a single take
| where the camera "floats" up, and that back in 1964.
| Impressive.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjuLkJ4m-mc
|
| Discussed here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28953167
| pradn wrote:
| It's a technical marvel, but also perhaps a rare case where a
| long shot matches both the physical environment (the camera
| floats along a street, long as the long street) and the
| emotion (slowness, somberness).
| borroka wrote:
| The ending of "L'Eclisse," directed by Michelangelo Antonioni,
| is one of the most mysterious endings in cinema. It's one of
| those scenes that doesn't impose a vision on you, but pulls
| something out of your subconscious, invites you to reflect on
| events that could have happened, should have happened, but
| didn't happen.
|
| The two lovers never meet again after promising not only to see
| each other that day, but also every day thereafter.
|
| For almost ten minutes, while we are waiting for Alain Delon
| and Monica Vitti to meet up, the camera points at small
| insignificant structures in the Roman suburbs, then at a
| balcony, water running on the ground, ants climbing a tree,
| leaves moved by the wind. A bus stops and one expects to see
| one of the two lovers appear, but it is only someone who looks
| like them.
|
| It is a magical ending because it is not an ending, it is a
| fragment.
|
| It reminded me of the ending of one of my favorite interviews.
| Donald Keene, the American-born Japanese scholar, was
| interviewed by David Pilling in the "Lunch with the FT" series.
| The interview closes off with a reflection by Pilling:
|
| "Keene's eyes are moist. He is staring past me or through me.
| The restaurant is still quite empty but Keene has flooded it
| with the memories of people, mostly long dead. He stands to
| leave and is helped up the narrow stairs to the city above.
| Down in the basement, I am left at the empty table. There is
| nothing, not even the wind in the pines."
|
| As Antonioni, a director I recommend especially to Americans,
| who are culturally oriented toward appreciating stereotypical
| linear stories with unambiguous endings, said in an interview:
|
| "What people ordinarily call the "dramatic line" doesn't
| interest me [...] Today stories are what they are, with neither
| a beginning nor an end necessarily, without key scenes, without
| a dramatic arc, without catharsis. They can be made up of
| tatters, of fragments, as unbalanced as the lives we lead."
|
| I also cannot but recommend Antonioni's "La Notte" and its less
| ambiguous but still poignant ending. Do yourself a favor and
| watch it.
| pradn wrote:
| Thank you for your detailed analysis. When I saw it I think I
| zoned out, but that's part of it I think - the lack of
| anything of note that happens, the nothingness.
|
| Of the three films in the trilogy, my favorite part is the
| letter-reading scene at the end of La Notte. A married woman
| reads a letter to her husband, who had been conspicuously
| philandering all night, and he asks who wrote it. She says
| "you". So sad, the fading of love as memory.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOmEkqWnvsA
| borroka wrote:
| It is a terrific scene with equally terrific acting by
| Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni.
|
| She tells Mastroianni of having had in her life a man, whom
| we saw at the beginning of the film to be at the end of his
| existence in a hospital bed, who loved her, wanted her, but
| she preferred a man, the novelist played by Mastroianni,
| who never paid much attention to her. It is the usual story
| --I loved you but you loved and preferred somebody who did
| not--but the stillness of the two in the grass field, the
| broken voice of Jeanne Moreau, and the "lost and guilty
| look" of Mastroianni, made it so incredibly moving.
|
| Another brilliant scene in "La Notte" is when Mastroianni
| is leaving the hospital--his wife has already left because
| she cannot bear to see the man who was in love with her die
| --and he is caught by another patient, a woman who seems to
| have some mental problem, and the two kiss.
|
| As someone who has sometimes found himself inexplicably
| lost in the tourbillon of events--why am I doing this? This
| makes no sense!-- the scene was able to describe what I
| felt and saw in those bizarre moments.
| dxbydt wrote:
| This is a very good collection. Especially The Cranes Are
| Flying. I like the very last scene in Seven Samurai where
| they're looking at the funeral mounds of the 4 dead samurai.
| Shichiroji says to Kambei - once again, we both survive! Its
| quite amazing how the four talented young samurai are killed in
| battle and finally the two geezers who survived the previous
| battle by keeping their wits about, manage to survive yet
| again.
| js2 wrote:
| - The opening long shot in _Touch of Evil_ with the ticking
| clock building suspense.
|
| - The final scene in _La Haine_ is devastating.
|
| - The final scene of _Sweet Smell of Success_ for pure
| cynicism.
|
| - Pretty much all of _The Wages of Fear_ for suspense, but if I
| have to hold up some scenes: 1) the confrontation in the
| restaurant; 2) the platform scene; 3) the boulder scene; 4) the
| Blue Danube scene.
|
| - The raw emotional impact of the final confrontation in
| _Secrets & Lies_.
|
| The NYT has a series of "Anatomy of a Scene" videos. These are
| mostly not very notable scenes, but it's still interesting to
| see what goes into them:
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/column/anatomy-of-a-scene
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| - The Anakin and Padme picnic scene in Attack of the Clones
|
| No other scene in the history of movies has made me
| contemplate my life choices and the choices of others to that
| degree. I believe that is what Lucas was aiming for in the
| next film, but it really hit right there like a mallet to a
| rubber chicken launcher.
| pradn wrote:
| I do wonder if my response to La Haine has been tempered by
| me seeing the movies that came after it and were even more
| blunt and raw. It's a fantastic watch none-the-less.
|
| Thank you, I'll have to watch the other films you mentioned.
| :)
| udev wrote:
| The Andrei Rublev bell scene is forever embedded in me.
|
| Every time I am working on something complex I ask myself: will
| it "ring" in the end?
| telesilla wrote:
| Andre Rublev's ending is immaculate.
|
| Miller's Army of Shadows (1969) was the the first time I saw on
| film how it might be to know you are about to die. I can only
| find an unsubtitled version: the German officer tells the
| French resistance protagonist that he has a chance if he runs
| and gets to the back wall before being shot by the machine
| guns- he'll live to be executed another day. At first he
| refuses but survival kicks in and he runs believing he will be
| shot in the back at any moment. I urge you to watch the film in
| entirety to experience the intensity of the scene, alone
| doesn't do it justice. The first time I saw this it was like it
| was in slow motion, after so much had already happened in the
| film.
|
| https://youtu.be/LJtTPzrDtkM
| david927 wrote:
| This is a great write up of why Casablanca is an immaculate
| screenplay: economy of vision. Great architecture doesn't need a
| thousand beams but just a few, perfectly placed arches. Picasso
| could draw a single line and capture more than the thousand lines
| of a poorer artist.
|
| In Casablanca, there are no unnecessary scenes: every single
| scene has one or more uses in terms of plot. As they say here,
| Yvonne's a background character found in three small scenes and
| when we see her in her third and final scene, joining in 'La
| Marseillaise' it's like a gut punch so hard that it takes my
| breath away -- every time I see it.
|
| This is what you can do with storytelling. These are the heights
| we can reach.
| tootie wrote:
| Everyone knows that Fistful of Dollars was a retelling of
| Kurosawa's Yojimbo, but there's also a direct line from
| Casablance to Yojimbo. A lot of the elements of the sangfroid
| hero playing both sides, risking his life for another couple's
| chance at happiness are right there. It's amazing to think that
| so many of the elements that are still tropes of modern heroic
| action adventures were all there in 1942.
| coredog64 wrote:
| Which was a film version of Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest".
| There's nothing new under the sun.
| jaclaz wrote:
| >This is what you can do with storytelling. These are the
| heights we can reach.
|
| Absolutely OT, but you made me remember an old (very funny)
| spot for Canal+ (circa 2009/2010):
|
| "Never underestimate the power of a great story"
|
| JFYI:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFnfH_kxFyQ
| dylan604 wrote:
| Okay, I think I now have a new appreciation for Canal+. They
| seem to have a similar approach as the curated content before
| a feature at Alamo Drafthouse.
|
| After watching your link, it auto-played into the next one
| for me which was just as entertaining:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNd_hUqEEl4
|
| My only previous experience with Canal+ was engineering
| digital US content workflows for their platform. I never got
| to see any of their local stuff like this.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I don't think I've ever seen a French film that did NOT
| have Canal+ in the credits.
| jaclaz wrote:
| yes, that's another classic.
|
| ... when they pass their eggs to each other ...
| dylan604 wrote:
| sliding on their bellies. the seal. it was sold by the
| lady's single reaction shot at the beginning. it's just
| so well done
| chernevik wrote:
| Ok, this got an actual spit-take from me
|
| Brilliant
| david927 wrote:
| Not OT. Casablanca is considered by most film critics to be
| one of the greatest films created and that's one of it's most
| powerful scenes. But I'm glad it made you think of that
| commercial; it was really funny.
| peter303 wrote:
| First Star Wars first space battle. Nothing like that before.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-07-25 23:01 UTC)