In contrast, I just now watched the first two minutes of the HD-DVD version of Bladerunner. What a picture! I swear it looks better than anything I saw in the cinema. Crystal clear, sharp, perfect, living color. Everything you could hope for, for the most visually rich of all movies since Metropolis.
It is weird about Bladerunner: three decades on, it still has not been matched in design and visual depth and beauty. How can this be?
What I really love about Bladerunner is the huge cityscapes, exemplified by the first two minutes. That huge model of future L.A., with thousands of tiny window lights. And the detailed buildings, like the immense Tyrell Corporation building (with the slanted side buildings). If that building was real it would house maybe 200,000 people. And the design of it is just beautiful and intricate.
Update: Apart from the visuals, my opinion is that the "magic ingrident" of the film is Mr. Rutger Hauer and his amazing delivery of his lines. His pauses are genius. "Men? ... Police... men?"
And of course those lines themselves.
"All those moments/will be lost in time/like tears in rain."
Has Hauer done anything else as great as this?
it still has not been matched in design and visual depth and beauty. How can this be?
ReplyDeleteIt was matched in design and visual depth in "City of Lost Children".
I think Gilliam did well in design and beauty in "Brazil". The Coen Bros matched visual depth and beauty in "O Brother Where Art Thou".
The only film I can think of which came anywhere close would be Appleseed, based on Masamune's manga BUT it did not carry the rich sounds of Vangelis.
Of course Blade Runner was matching design quality that Lang put into "Metropolis", and to some extent "M".
Of course Peter Greenaway floods his films with rich images, as in "The Pillow Book". But his films have an oft unsettling necrophilia and visual clutter that leave some people perplexed.
Along with "La Cité des Enfants Perdus" I would point you at "Perfume", especially the sets around Dustin Hoffmans studio/laboratory. There is Gilliamesque macabre grandeur with strong thematic coloring which blends to a film as pretty as Kirosawa's "Dreams", but as gritty as an early Besson.
Talking of which, between violent assassin movies like Leon and Nikitta he gave us "The Fifth Element", a film full of wonderful use of the color orange, much like Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" gave us examples of a good use of red.
Ridley Scott has yet to be bested in the genre though.
In addition to City of Lost Children and Brazil, maybe also Dark City.
ReplyDeleteThanks to mentioning Dark City, I just spent a minute on IMDb and remembered I like Jennifer Connelly, and by the way, she's in the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". Can you imagine her running up to a robot and shouting "Klaatu barada nicto!" then fainting dead away?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's more in line with Bates original short? Or did the "re-imagine" it.
What I really love about Bladerunner is the huge cityscapes, exceplified by the first two minutes. That huge model of future L.A., with thousands of tiny window lights. And the huge, detailed buildings, like the immense Tyrell Corporation building (with the slanted side buildings). If that building was real it would house maybe 200,000 people. And the design of it is just beautiful and intricate.
ReplyDeleteIt still looks really good even on my 20" non-HD TV. I know, I should come into the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure why they had to change the location for filming. They set the film in LA, but the book was in SF. Maybe they wanted to show bigger environmental impact, since it seldom rains in LA, then this would make the climactic change more dramatic.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is SF is so dense, packed in on the end of the peninsula like that. There would be no dramatic cityscapes of the order that the LA Basin permits. Don't get me wrong, SF can look pretty impressive from overhead, but it doesn't have the sprawl LA does. That Tyrell building would have filled The Bay, you'd never fit it in the Tenderloin.
Haur was in "Split Second", a near future monster loose in London low budget SF which was good fun. He was also in "Salute of the Jugger" opposite a young Joan Chen, again, rather a low budget feel, but still, has its moments.
ReplyDeleteHe also was the Guiness figurehead for a few years, as in the Irish beer.
I liked Rutger Haur in "Flesh and Blood" and "LadyHawke". He has been one of my favorite actors for years.
ReplyDeleteAlong with Alex wondering about locale, I'm still not sure why they had to change the title from Phillip K. Dick's almost perfect, wonderfully surrealistic title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
ReplyDeletewonderfully surrealistic title
ReplyDeleteI think that explains it. If someone says Bladerunner you think
"Blade = sharp, thin, dangerous
Runner = Fast, athletic
therefore
Bladerunner = one who runs a risk, walks a fine line with perilous rewards."
Someone asks "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" you either smirk, or think a little about whether androids dream. You don't think "Wow that young guy from Star Wars is going to be in another Action Film, lets spend my $2 in that theater."
Surreal or philosophical (or to translate into American sourcerical).
{I'm sorry, but I can't forgive a nation that feels it has to translate "Crumpet" into "English Muffin" on one page, and 20 pages later use "Crumpet" with gay abandon where the context is less important.}
Okay - a film to match Bladerunner in design, visual depth and beaty would have to be Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd".
ReplyDeleteFrom the opening credits which have the mixed looks of cardboard cut out (like in Jasper Morello) CG and matted in live action, through to the final second of a sad reunion, this film is chock full of visual treats, and excellent lighting/color.
The very textures of Dickensian London ooze from every frame of the film. You can almost smell the rank poverty and pollution in the colours. Remember when you first saw "The Secret Garden" in a colour medium (for me that was color TV) The shock going between the black and white house shots to the glorious Technicolor of the garden.
I am sure Burton has a lot of predecessors, but here we see all the play and tricks he put into Corpse Bride brought together in a comical slasher flick for us adults.
Cannot fault Rickman, Depp, Bonham Carter or Spall for a single action, from the subtlest eye movement to the boldest razor cut.
Sorry I couldn't have added it at the start of the thread, but I didn't get to see it until this morning.
I totally agree with you Blade Runner is in my top ten and will never budge from there. In my opinion Rutger has been in a few flops for sure but if you want to see him at his best (apart from blade runner) check out his performance in the hitcher, he is very menacing.
ReplyDelete