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Movie Weekend
The Great Gatsby (2013): When the trailer crossed my path, I thought this would be fantastic! Moulin Rouge-style hectic, saturated cinemetography to capture the dissipated party scene and the Buchanans' self-absorbed ennui - what a great combination!
Well, half right. The party scenes worked, but Baz Luhrmann wants me to have empathy with Daisy, Nick and Gatsby? Not happening. I think the novel's artifice is its power; one might as well weep for the interior life of a bishop or rook cruelly sacrificed to a literary checkmate. Doubtless a generation of high school english students will suffer through this on slow afternoons and write essays on 21st C interpretation of a 20th C literary classic.
Or maybe the artifice was in the cinematography? The movie felt flat, aided by some choices on depth of focus, especially in the Jay-and-Daisy scenes (notably when they sneak out of the party and make out under the trees). It seemed just weird at first, but now I am conidering whether that was an attempt to distance the viewer.
With that said, I was underwhelmed by the execution of Myrtle's death. One can imagine the power of setting the accident against "Love is Blindess", but the movie didn't earn my investment in the moment. It also didn't earn the pool scene, see again artifice vs empathy.
Blue Jasmine (2013): Picked up largely to play a game of Spot the Onsite Shooting. The cinemetography was pretty. The acting was good. The script was not really my thing, which got in the way of a truly satisfying Geography Bingo.
Well, half right. The party scenes worked, but Baz Luhrmann wants me to have empathy with Daisy, Nick and Gatsby? Not happening. I think the novel's artifice is its power; one might as well weep for the interior life of a bishop or rook cruelly sacrificed to a literary checkmate. Doubtless a generation of high school english students will suffer through this on slow afternoons and write essays on 21st C interpretation of a 20th C literary classic.
Or maybe the artifice was in the cinematography? The movie felt flat, aided by some choices on depth of focus, especially in the Jay-and-Daisy scenes (notably when they sneak out of the party and make out under the trees). It seemed just weird at first, but now I am conidering whether that was an attempt to distance the viewer.
With that said, I was underwhelmed by the execution of Myrtle's death. One can imagine the power of setting the accident against "Love is Blindess", but the movie didn't earn my investment in the moment. It also didn't earn the pool scene, see again artifice vs empathy.
Blue Jasmine (2013): Picked up largely to play a game of Spot the Onsite Shooting. The cinemetography was pretty. The acting was good. The script was not really my thing, which got in the way of a truly satisfying Geography Bingo.