I was reading through this Awards Daily post concerning the foreign language film race (wherein Sasha Stone is quite flattering) and a link in one of the comments caught my attention.
I love fluid master shots. “Touch of Evil,” “The Player,” “Boogie Nights,” I love them. Sometimes they’re thematically relevant, other times they’re just a nice way to get through a lot of information quickly, but I’ve always had a geeky film school soft spot for them. And this became one of the all-time greats for me (even if it is obviously enhanced by digital trickery in the first portion):
There isn’t much in “The Secret of Their Eyes” like this shot. It’s almost out of place in the grand sprawling drama of the piece, but having said that, I was truly floored by its execution. And for the record, in my opinion, “A Prophet” is an instant classic. If anything is charging up on the outside, it’s that film, which went over well with the foreign language committee. Better than I expected, in fact.
Meanwhile, “The White Ribbon,” I’ve heard, was met with more muted response. The other two you can safely assume won’t figure in.
Still, I think the safe money is on the more traditional piece, as I laid out in our Oscar Guide last week.
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10 responses to “Stunning fluid master”
There are worse things you could have a soft spot for.
I wondered whether or not this would make your top ten shots of year, but then I remembered that it’s technically a 2010 release, so I figured it wouldn’t. Nice to see it get a bit of attention, though.
Great shot but there are quite a few splices (There one at 44 secs, another one around 48, etc).
Foreign race might be the most unpredictable category of all.
Starts off like a reverse Dirty Harry. As far as these types of shots go, the hallucinatory quality reminded me most of Irreversible.
But I still love extended tracking shots from the late-70s/’80s because they felt so new. Viewers were so used to seeing edits when characters changed rooms or went outside, etc. There was something really perverse about the extended shots where the camera is hurtling through space like during the chase in Raising Arizona or the creep on Hue in FMJ.
Somewhere along the line, and PT Anderson might’ve been the break, it became more about showing off — it became a big dick contest where the viewer is more concerned with the technique than concept.
Two words: Bela Tarr.
Pretty cool shot… i had some problems with A Prophet, hopefully going to catch White Ribbon and Shutter Island, hope to enjoy them both.
so well done, I remember I was amazed at the theater when I first saw it last year. It’s right in the middle of the movie and is so significant within the context of the movie. It pulls you electrically into the next half of the story.
Other fluid scene I really enjoyed and meant so much is the one at the beach shore in Atonement that follows James McAvoy around the madness of the war and his own mind.
when I first saw it I went back a couple of times. There articles and other links including interviews with Campanella, the director, explaining some stuff…they used Peter Jackson’s company for this, the guy is well connected it seems, he has directed plenty of things in the States including 30 Rock and House. I had no idea who he was before this.
Wow. That is extraordinary.
Idk why but this film doesn’t really capture my attention. The trailer was meh.
[…] Stunning fluid masterI love fluid master shots. “Touch of Evil,” “The Player,” “Boogie Nights,” I love them. Sometimes they’re thematically relevant, other times they’re just a nice way to get through a lot of information quickly, but I’ve always had a geeky film school soft spot for them. And this became one of the… […]