Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakihara
I must be crazy. I'm not a rich man and my rent just went up...and yet I just placed an order for 14 Criterions in the BN sale. 
I couldn't help myself. I need help!
I'll feel a little better once I get these in my hands. Lucky I'm single these days lol.
[Show spoiler]Here's what I ordered:
Branded to Kill
House
On The Waterfront
Rififi
Le Samourai
The Innocents
Ugetsu
Tokyo Story
Rashomon
The Killers
Night and the City
Kiss me Deadly
Thief
Rules of the Game
Worth it, guys? Or am I insane?! Luckily, I just did get a $225 bonus. |
So long as you're not stretching yourself
so thin that the power is turned off, and you've got some Spam or Ramen noodles to survive on until next pay day, you're good to go.
And yes, I think your
investment is worth it.
Which of the films you bought have you watched before? Of those, I've seen
On The Waterfront,
Rififi,
Tokyo Story,
Rashomon, and
Thief. All are outstanding.
Really nice haul, overall, and quite the eclectic bunch, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jw007
For all the David Fincher enthusiasts out there... [Show spoiler], I was just an extra for 2 days on the Netflix TV series Mindhunter and the first episode of season 2 was being directed by Fincher himself.  I have to confess, I knew that he was a very visually-oriented and detail-obsessed filmmaker but had no idea what I was getting myself into these last 2 days on the set! David Fincher is a director that actors either love or hate (Robert Downey Jr. left jars of urine on the set of Zodiac because he couldn't stand having to deal with an excessive amount of the same takes of the same scene... while Ben Affleck was deeply inspired by Fincher's meticulous work and waited until he directed his first film in part because he wanted to learn more from him).
Anyway, I showed up to the sound stages with my friend John (our call time was 8:30 am yesterday after a more tolerable 8 hour day on Monday) and a few hours later, I found myself on the sound stage and was one of the "bar townies" in a scene shot in a "smoky bar" full of marines and townspeople set in the late 1970s. I saw David Fincher standing behind an array of many ADs, camera operators and RED cameras. At times I watched him walk to the bar to direct this modelesque actress playing the bartender. But my god... he shot over 100 takes of the same scene for those 2 days and the dialogue was the same, with just 3 or 4 different camera angles! I was basically directly in the background in the path of the A cam lens too, so I'll be in the scene (one of the AD's stuck some tape on the floor and told me to "hit my mark" cause I'll be visible in the shot). I was standing with a vintage bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon talking to two other guys in the shot (my friend John and this older fella named "Rik" who I discovered was an actor in a bunch of B films for the last few decades). We had to pantomime most of the time as the main actors were being filmed in the foreground. The smoke was fake aside from one extra lighting a real cigarette and smoking it at the bar for each of the 100+ takes (I'd imagine her lungs weren't feeling too great after yesterday!). I knew the set decorator and she did an INCREDIBLE job helping recreate a bar set in 1977. The props were authentic for the most part and even the liquid in the bottles was drinkable (they poured a non-alcoholic beer in my bottle before I walked into the set itself).
Being an extra (or background actor) can be boring however. You're sitting around a lot for hours upon hours waiting until you're called into the soundstage. They put you in a gigantic holding room. I felt like both a student back in elementary school as well as a prisoner at times, rounded up and told to stand in line and wait until we get "looked at". One of the makeup people smudged some hypoallergenic powder on my tanktop to simulate dirt. My 1970s period clothing the wardrobe gave me was hideous, as my super tight-fitting brown/beige shirt was worn out and my ugly blue pants had holes and stains in them, not to mention the decrepit black boots were almost falling apart. I showed up to the sound stages with a little beard and they said it was okay to keep it which was great, because back in the late 1970s a lot of men had beards too. One of the funniest things I did while standing in line for an hour or so was give lead actor Holt McCallany (Bill Tench) a handshake when I saw him walking out of the soundstage towards the catering section and bathrooms. I said "Hey Holt!". He immediately gave me a handshake saying "Hello! How are you doing?" like he knew me. I wasn't expecting that and froze and said "Oh, I'm good!". It's amazing how these actors are able to get out of character (or maybe stay in it) and treat strangers like people they know in real life.
I gotta say, its an honor having a chance to be in a scene directed by David Fincher, even if I'm a background actor with no dialogue! But, man, that guy is a damn perfectionist if I ever saw one. After 5 hours on the set yesterday, a lot of extras (about 60 or 70 in all) were exhausted and some were a bit upset over how many times Fincher reshot the same take over and over and over AND OVER again. I feel like an idiot that I didn't realize that he averages 50 takes a scene on his films and productions as opposed to a typical director shooting 5-10 takes of a scene (I spent hours after being on the set yesterday reading articles about Fincher's directing methods). There is no doubt that David Fincher is a perfectionist much like Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock were, or how Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese are these days. Fincher's films are cold and clinical and have a dark, visual palette all their own (Fincher makes "dank and dirty" walls seem glamorous in my opinion). I still admire his films ranging from Se7en to Fight Club to The Game to The Social Network. But let me tell you, if you ever want to work on a David Fincher film or TV series like Mindhunter (and its being shot here in my city), be prepared for a massive amount of repetition on his set (ie. hearing the same dialogue from the actors being one factor). To be honest, Fincher heavily prioritizes style over substance. Maybe he's a Virgo (earth sign) and they tend to be all about the aesthetic elements, as well as details, structure, rigidity, perfectionism, neuroticism, and form. Fincher though is able to marry technology and visual art to being an actor's director too (something Kubrick wasn't known for - being an "actor's director").
A lot of extras agreed with me that the dialogue in that particular bar scene we were in the last 2 days was rather obtuse and brainless. Some asked "Why would he reshoot over 75 or 80 takes of that same scene with such stupid dialogue?" (ie. "I'm a red blooded American patriot" and "Eyes forward, Maggots!"). As for the scene Fincher shot over 100 takes of the last 2 days, it was about 90 seconds long I'd say. In any case, the whole experience of being an extra (the first time I've been one in about 20 years when I was an extra on an NBC miniseries called "The Temptations") was exhausting and also exciting. The pay for being an extra on Mindhunter was $10 an hour for 8 hours and $15 an hour for overtime work. We spent 12 hours in the sound stages yesterday so I got paid $140 that day and $80 the previous day (not to mention $40 for wardrobe fitting). It's not about the money that made me interested in participating in this though, but the fact that I'd be in an episode directed by the legendary David Fincher and I wanted to see him work and experience what its like being on set with him. Suffice to say, I did... and then some!    |
Jonathan, it's so cool that you got to watch David Fincher work up close. Appearing as an extra in something he shot is just the icing on the cake.
Fincher is one of those directors I didn't know I liked until I owned just about every film he's done. A few years ago when I began collecting blu-rays, I started out buying movies that I had seen and wanted to either add to my collection for the first time, or upgrade from a DVD. Well, a friend who was also a movie lover struck up a conversation with me one day, asking for my impression of Fincher. I was embarrassed to admit that I knew nothing about him. When he mentioned five or six of the movies he'd directed, I realized that I owned them all.
"I guess I'm a David Fincher fan!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by ravenus
Blowout is a De Palma classic. The only thing to consider here is if you want to buy the Criterion or (B-locked) Arrow release.
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Blowout is fantastic. One of my favorites from De Palma, and I think it contains one of John Travolta's best performances.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MifuneFan
Traffic, and length of stay have been down on the their site since the revamp, so I'd say most people probably don't care for it. I barely go there now. I don't buy into form over function.
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Agreed completely. I've tried to keep an open mind since the redesign, but I'd say I spend no more than 10-15 minutes a week on the site, now. That's
way down for me.
The old layout was clean, and navigation was easy, so finding what I was looking for was a breeze.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BluProofie
Hoping that Lost Highway gets announced for October. Last year’s October slate was pretty eclectic and it had Lynch's Fire Walk With Me so you never know. More Lynch please!
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I'm on board with Criterion releasing more from Lynch, but I'd hope
The Elephant Man is at the top of their list.
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