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April 22, 2005
a very long engagement
Ages ago Jed sent Ohna the piece on A Very Long Engagement from American Cinematographer. He wrote 'Go see!' at the bottom of every page.
After Robbie gave it the double thumbs-up ('best film I've seen in ages!') we finally managed it on Thursday. We were both tired and wanted to spend some time together so we weren't sure if a movie was the right thing, but it was great and just the right movie to see at that time - we even managed to stay awake long enough for a bite and a chat afterwards. Jeunet is very comic-booky which is only one reason why you'd expect Jed and Robbie to like the movie. The pacing was less frenetic and the storytelling a bit less gimmicky than Amélie but it was also a 'fabuleux destin'. This one was both a fairytale and also to do with real things (such as World War One). It was fascinating to read about it from a technical point of view (mainly Bruno Delbonnel the cinematographer's) in American Cinematographer, with details of lenses and colour mixing and testing to see which lenses would work with Audrey Tautou's face, given that Jeunet wanted lots of wide-angle close-ups with a slight tilt:
We saw that her face worked well with the 25mm and the 27mm. The 21mm still works for her, but you have to be careful; the 18mm doesn't work, nor does the 35mm.
I was particularly impressed with the 460-square-foot frame, with lights attached, that they suspended from a 70-ton crane above the trenches to block out the sun. The frame could also be tilted to change its orientation. Quite a contrast from some of Ohna's low-budget affairs, and of course totally pointless if the story's no good...
And then there was all the detail about the 'naked' camera with a foam cushion on the side so that offscreen actors could be really close to help the onscreen ones. And on and on...
Also interesting to hear him talk about how definitely he wanted it all not to be realistic ('Realism doesn't interest me! I strive for an unrealistic approach') but also didn't want the scenes in the trenches to be too beautiful to depict the horrors of war.
I could go on...
B-)
Posted by Billy at April 22, 2005 10:34 PM
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