Old films shot like modern films?

[Visionist]

Are there any pre-war films or at least films from the 50s or at the latest the 60s featuring action scenes shot with a "modern" hyperkinetic style (quick cuts, dynamic camera angles, moving camera, POV shots etc?). Most films of the time have a rather plodding ABC approach to things.

Basically are there any 70+ year old films which a modern audience wouldn't be able to say "oh you can tell this is old!"

[Geoff D]

The overall style of the earliest Bond films is screamingly '60s (and fabulous for it) but I love Peter Hunt's slam-bang editing style, that fight between Red Grant and Bond in FRWL is still bone-jarringly awesome.

[imsounoriginal]

Dark Passage does the POV thing for like half (or maybe a third) of the movie. Kinda gimmicky but it's not bad.

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by Visionist

Are there any pre-war films or at least films from the 50s or at the latest the 60s featuring action scenes shot with a "modern" hyperkinetic style (quick cuts, dynamic camera angles, moving camera, POV shots etc?). Most films of the time have a rather plodding ABC approach to things.

Basically are there any 70+ year old films which a modern audience wouldn't be able to say "oh you can tell this is old!"

No, because film is an ever evolving medium which to a great degree is dictated by ever changing technology and shortening attention spans. I don't think a lot of the frantic action scenes we get in today's blockbusters are an improvement over the masterful blocking of a scene like Hitchcock's famous crop duster scene from North by Northwest.

North by Northwest (1959) - The Crop Duster Scene (4/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

[Al_The_Strange]

Speaking of Bond, I think OMHSS sticks out the most in terms of editing, especially the opening scene. Very fast cuts, some camera shake, more exaggerated choreography, and maybe some other camera tricks. I remember some neat POV shots towards the end. It's easily the punchiest of the classic Bonds, and the editing makes it feel more ahead of its time, foreshadowing Jason Bourne or QoS.

I think it only shows its age with the rear-screen effects (which are pretty horrid during the ski chases).

(1969) On Her Majesty's Secret Service Pre-Credits Sequence - YouTube

[Akibiyori]

Well, there’s the great Russian silents just to start with...

“Modern” doesn’t equate to fast pacing or oblique angles (Hou Hsiao-Hsien is neither) and a lot of those films you probably have in mind are less interesting than studio product from the 40s. It’s like saying post-Impressionism is better than Northern Renaissance - instead of one size fits all, take things as they are.

[Sommerswerd]

I am Cuba - The film is an encyclopedia of amazing cinematography. It was made in 1964 but was forgotten for many years until it was re-discovered in the 1990s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOLVm_9UcRw

[20th Century Boy]

Great thread idea! Bob Rafeflson's HEAD starring The Monkees fits in here nicely. Damn near flawless, smooth flowing sometimes frantic edits, particularly Davy Jones' 'Daddy's Song' sequence. It may be the first 'WTF' movie.

[notops]

Kubrick's The Killing and Paths Of Glory

[xbs2034]

In addition to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, another 1969 film, The Wild Bunch, has very modern and impressive cinematography/editing (I believe at its time of release it had the most shot to shot edits off a feature film). Those two always stood out to me as the oldest movies with action sequences that still fully held up today.

[charlieray1]

Originally Posted by Visionist

Are there any pre-war films or at least films from the 50s or at the latest the 60s featuring action scenes shot with a "modern" hyperkinetic style (quick cuts, dynamic camera angles, moving camera, POV shots etc?). Most films of the time have a rather plodding ABC approach to things.

Said the young and impatient film viewer ...

No, because film is an ever evolving medium which to a great degree is dictated by ever changing technology and shortening attention spans. I don't think a lot of the frantic action scenes we get in today's blockbusters are an improvement over the masterful blocking of a scene like Hitchcock's famous crop duster scene from North by Northwest.

Amen. Faster does not necessarily mean better. Much has been lost to the "modern hyperkinetic style" Mood, pacing, building emotion, etc have been pushed aside in far too many films for flashy eye-candy technique. To the point that far too many younger viewers must have instant gratification rather than story telling with depth.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

, The Wild Bunch, has very modern and impressive cinematography/editing (I believe at its time of release it had the most shot to shot edits off a feature film). Those two always stood out to me as the oldest movies with action sequences that still fully held up today.

Right on. And I'm guessing Authur Penn's finale in Bonnie & Clyde set the stage for that.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by charlieray1

Amen. Faster does not necessarily mean better. Much has been lost to the "modern hyperkinetic style" Mood, pacing, building emotion, etc have been pushed aside in far too many films for flashy eye-candy technique. To the point that far too many younger viewers must have instant gratification rather than story telling with depth.

I'd probably generally agree with that. The judicious use of fast edits back in the day made the sequences that more effective when they were employed. They really stood out and had an effect.

In the case of Rafelson's HEAD, few people saw it at the time, but nowadays it's an influential standard among editors.

[toddly6666]

If you watch Modern Times, Paulette Goddard looks like a contemporary hipster girl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KN2...ature=youtu.be

[testmon112]

More contemporary film (1990's) but I feel it applies here. Run Lola Run is great example of a film being made in the edit, fast cuts, multiple angles, playing with timing, slo-mo and a pumping classic soundtrack. It's influence was certainly felt thereafter. I love that it was an experimental sci-fi film dowsed with the thrill of a chase.

Run Lola Run (1998) - Trailer - YouTube

Lola Rennt - Opening Credits - YouTube

[Rory]

When I first saw Fritz Lang's M, I thought it amazingly contemporary.

[Todd Tomorrow]

Calling Run Lola Run an "old film" really is a stretch, especially when the OP specified 70+ years. That style of editing and shooting had been around since the 80s, when MTV started to exert a considerable influence on film-making. Top Gun, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Natural Born Killers, any Michael Bay film all display that hyper-kinetic, post classical editing style. The beginnings of what's called the post-classical editing style can be traced to the French New Wave, particularly Godard's Breathless who introduced jump cuts to narrative cinema and mostly utilized a hand held camera.

[lolwut]

I was just talking to my roommate about this. Persona, Dr. Strangelove, Ivan's Childhood...

[testmon112]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

Calling Run Lola Run an "old film" really is a stretch, especially when the OP specified 70+ years. That style of editing and shooting had been around since the 80s, when MTV started to exert a considerable influence on film-making. Top Gun, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Natural Born Killers, any Michael Bay film all display that hyper-kinetic, post classical editing style. The beginnings of what's called the post-classical editing style can be traced to the French New Wave, particularly Godard's Breathless who introduced jump cuts to narrative cinema and mostly utilized a hand held camera.

FFS, I said more contemporary example.

[kidglov3s]

First thing that comes to my mind are the pre-code gangster movies Public Enemy and Scarface.

Bowling with Karloff -- Scarface (Hawks/Rosson,1932) - YouTube

The Public Enemy Shootout In The Rain - YouTube