Building The Story

I watched "The Imposter" last night.

www.imdb.com/title/tt1966604/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

It's one of the best examples of building the story in an edit I have ever seen. I'd recommend any editor/director to watch it. I'd love to hear of other examples/recommendations.

Been hearing good things about it, thanks for reminding me, I'll check it out.

Why don't more people respond to posts like this. I will never get it!

2 of my all time favourites for similar reasons yet entirely different reasons.

Sexy Beast

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_Beast

and

The Limits of Control

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_of_Control

A really important Scene in Sexy beast goes on form 2-3 minutes and is an editing orgy. Jumping between a murder on a Spanish Island and a bank robbery in a cellar in London. If you were to watch this Scene out of context you would think that it was complete madness. But it is all set up from the first Scene onwards when a rock rolls down the mountain for no apparent reason.

The limits of control really impressed me. Again the crucial scene towards the end of the film. A guy has to break into heavily guarded house to get his Job done. Like how many times have we seen this done. Slit the first guys throat, punch the other guy in the balls and head but the last guy…

In this film the clue is the guitar string. When I saw the edit from the heavily guarded house to the guy inside the house waiting to kill his man… Gulp. I simply thought OK he killed them all. It was completely believable because every thing lead up to this point. We don't need to see the security guards getting killed we all know how that works.

my 2 cents

Paul

It's been a few years since I saw Sexy Beast, what's stayed with me was the lightning rod performance by Ben Kingsley, such a bizarre character, & you couldn't take your eyes off him. It was as if he were about to explode. Also some film technique they used to pull us down into that swimming pool, which if I recall, then juxtaposed with their underwater cutting torch scene back at the heist.

But I have to comment on Dave's recommendation, just finished The Imposter, probably one of the best documentaries I've seen. Yet it doesn't feel like a documentary at all, it's so wonderfully cinematic. You're right about the editing building the story, back & forth between the parties. The way they overlapped dialogue so it was coming out of other people's mouths was compelling. Everything about it was drawing us in deeper & deeper, such gripping drama. In fact, I'd say it was flawless, I'm surprised it didn't score higher than 7.6 on IMDB. Some beautiful film techniques, the low tracking in the rain, the bokeh night lights overlays, the overhead tracking shots, just the right amount of lightleaks & flares, fantastic extended crossfades & excellent music. But what a story! The twists & turns really had us going, better than fiction. (thanks for not mentioning any spoilers) The editing trick they do at the end, starting with the credits, then going back for one last look... you're on the edge of your seat. Great bluegrass tracks during the closing credits too.

Some very impressive filmmaking. Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks for the links Paul, I've seen "Sexy Beast" before, it's a great film, Im a big Ray Winstone fane and also thought Ben Kingsley was great in tis film. I've not seen the "The Limits of Control", I'll check it out.

But I have to comment on Dave's recommendation, just finished The Imposter, probably one of the best documentaries I've seen.

I'd take this further and say it's one of the best pieces of film making I've ever seen.

I just thought of another great example, it's a bit of a classic "City Of God".

www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

This was the first film that made me realise that if the subtitling is done well it can make or break a film in translation. In english subtitles are excellent, to the point you can watch the film and forget your reading them.

I can't bring myself to believe "The Imposter" never got an Oscar nomination. The only other doc that did that I've seen is "Searching for Sugar Man", which I really enjoyed. But I don't think it got anywhere near as close to greatness as "The Imposter".

Don't even get me started on the Oscars. It's not about film, but more about politics, party lines, favors & favoritism.

Silver Linings is better than Lincoln or ZeroDark. Homeland is better than ZeroDark. So why are all the critics going crazy over these films? Except Rex Reed, best review of ZeroDark I've seen. Also, classifying Silver Linings as comedy takes it out of the running for the Drama win.

As for Lincoln, with all the black vs white business in the states, you'd think they alone invented abolition, but the film conveniently overlooks the fact that the Brits abolished slavery before the US, & produced a far superior movie about it - Amazing Grace.

AND, it wasn't a three hour bore-fest of self aggrandizing windbags pontificating ad infinitum.

Yes, Impostor was robbed.

Anyway, we're being too serious, Peter, requested a little humor in this category ... so...

College Humor's "More Accurate Posters for the 2013 Oscar nominees." bit.ly/UJtjC6





:: edit ::

Back to the title of this thread... we just watched Les Miserables tonight, very impressive on so many levels. The opening visuals first 2 minutes are breathtaking, but as a critic aptly pointed out, to act with this depth of emotion while singing is astounding. Anne Hathaway & Hugh Jackman deserve special recognition. But here's where we return to this thread, why does Hollywood need to go way back to the 1800's to find a script? For the quality of the story. And what a story it is...