tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post9117456922342504323..comments2022-03-24T16:11:50.124-04:00Comments on The Man From Porlock: Words and PicturesCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-88985089523914596392008-04-05T14:08:00.000-04:002008-04-05T14:08:00.000-04:00I've revised this post with Hans's correction and ...I've revised this post with Hans's correction and am keeping it on the homepage for a little while longer.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-14914857280078443952008-04-04T06:52:00.000-04:002008-04-04T06:52:00.000-04:00Hans, thanks for the correction. As you've indicat...Hans, thanks for the correction. As you've indicated, Weir fuses original and previously composed music so seamlessly that sometimes it's hard (for me at least) to keep them straight. Thank you and J.D. both for your comments.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-3516257476341457042008-04-04T00:11:00.000-04:002008-04-04T00:11:00.000-04:00Came over from the House Next Door... great to rea...Came over from the House Next Door... great to read posts on my all-time favorite director. YOLD was a touchstone for me as well in my romantic college days. Russell Boyd's glowing images, and Jarre's score: I think the Jarre/Weir collaboration thru several films ranks among the best.<BR/><BR/>And in many of his films, Weir's use of 19th/20th Romantic classics has always been on-the-mark. YOLD introduced me to Strauss' Four Last Songs, my favorite music of any genre to this day.<BR/><BR/>A correction though:<BR/><BR/>"Jill, having just translated a coded message with dire portents, walks dazedly through a monsoon to Guy's studio to the sound of Maurice Jarre's playful score"<BR/><BR/>That specific cue came from Vangelis' work "Opera Sauvage" (a score from another film I believe).<BR/><BR/>None-the-less, Jarre's scores for YOLD, Witness, DPS -- the list goes on -- were great inspiration in my work as a composer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-85468692697000109012008-04-03T15:23:00.000-04:002008-04-03T15:23:00.000-04:00Great article. Weir is such an underrated filmmake...Great article. Weir is such an underrated filmmaker as your profile on him so rightly points out. I was just thinking about this particular film and how it had been years since I'd seen it. It is definitely time for another look.<BR/><BR/>It's amazing how far both Gibson and Weaver have come but there is a real kind of energy and electricity to their chemistry in this film that is fascinating to watch unfold. I also love the atmosphere of this film.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164105442273577128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-2239812763631984062008-04-02T19:21:00.000-04:002008-04-02T19:21:00.000-04:00Peter and Tina -- thank you both for your comments...Peter and Tina -- thank you both for your comments. Gibson and Weaver do have potent chemistry in this one, in a way strangely: he's short and she's tall, he's blue collar and she's aristocratic, yet they mesh in all the right ways.<BR/><BR/>I'm willing to bet that Gibson learned a great deal from Weir on how to tell a story visually. Too bad he didn't pick up on his humanism too.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-35144575286161944222008-04-02T00:49:00.000-04:002008-04-02T00:49:00.000-04:00An underrated gem of a film, and one that is a bit...An underrated gem of a film, and one that is a bit of a touchstone for me. The lyrical and yet somehow absolutely straightforward tone that Weir achieves never ceases to enthrall me, no matter how many times I've seen it. Weaver and Gibson's embrace in the rain, Gibson's reverie while listening the the Strauss lieder in Billy's office...simply beautiful. <BR/><BR/>Weir makes real cinema.p ramseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08498194630186909404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-63802459923165462062008-04-01T18:11:00.000-04:002008-04-01T18:11:00.000-04:00Thanks for this, and for your essay at THND. As f...Thanks for this, and for your essay at THND. As for the scene in question, it didn't bother me. Yes, it's big, perhaps too big for the context, but through the movie we see Billy go from in control of his world to losing it, to his final grand-but-meaningless gesture. To me it's desperation that Billy can't hide, and Hunt as usual makes it work.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, nice to think about this movie again. Whatever Mel Gibson does these days, he gets a little pass for this one. I can still remember, when I was just recognizing what chemistry between actors was, seeing Gibson and Weaver demonstrate it in such an unmistakable way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-47466961032653738612008-03-12T23:03:00.000-04:002008-03-12T23:03:00.000-04:00Glad you stopped by, Matt. Like you suggested, con...Glad you stopped by, Matt. Like you suggested, context is everything: for me, "I drink your milkshake" is a crazy line from a crazy actor in a crazy movie, and therefore stands out less. But I think we're ultimately arguing the same thing. The scenes some people nitpick about -- including the one I cited here -- are often the ones that make a movie memorable. Criticism becomes irrelevant in the face of it.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-74058789328099594462008-03-12T19:07:00.000-04:002008-03-12T19:07:00.000-04:00Great piece about a movie I adored when I first sa...Great piece about a movie I adored when I first saw it at a young, impressionable age. My only quibble: I used to agree with you that "Hunt's great performance is undercut only by one of her last scenes -- when Billy tells Guy that he "created" him -- which requires her to get self-consciously actorly." The scene makes subtext text, which is always a dicey proposition, and yes, all things considered, it's probably too much within the context of an otherwise subtle movie. But compared to "I drink your milkshake!" it's pretty low-key. And as much as I quibbled with Billy's declaration even as an adolescent moviegoer, I can still hear Hunt saying that line quite clearly, and I can still picture the spooky certainty in her (his?) eyes; that I've forgotten the entire contents of other movies I saw that year but can still picture Hunt's Oscar moment makes me think there are times when too much is just right.Matt Zoller Seitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16921028537989131859noreply@blogger.com