1917, with its ingenious camerawork and set design, is getting plenty of award attention. (I feel obliged, though, to remind everyone that it’s not really one continuous take, it just looks like that. Others have managed to do that properly. Surely Russian Ark is the one to beat on that score. But anyway!) Its director, Sam Mendes, unlike David Cronenberg still sees potential in the cinema of the spectacle.
1917 director Sam Mendes “optimistic” about future of theaters – Collider
“I am optimistic, actually, but it’s in the hands of the filmmakers more than anything else,” Mendes said to The Hollywood Reporter backstage at the Golden Globes. “It’s up to filmmakers to make films that need to be seen on a big screen and make an audience feel like if they don’t see it on the big screen, they’ll miss out… I think what’s important is that filmmakers are ambitious and that they use the tools of cinema, surround sound, IMAX, and every fiber of their being to make big stories for big screens.”
Its dazzling, attention-grabbing camerawork has its critics, too.
1917 review: turning a nightmare war into a theme park showcase – The Verge
1917 has a small cast, but there are more than a few faces you’d recognize. Colin Firth makes an appearance, as does Andrew Scott of Fleabag fame, and Mark Strong. You might miss them entirely, though, because the camera never really gets close to them. It never lingers, never engages with them on a level any deeper than the bare minimum for establishing the action. Close cuts are used to foster intimacy, and if a camera never truly gets close to anyone, then we aren’t likely to either. In 1917, the horror and spectacle of war are impressive but never felt.It’s the visual language of video games, but video games pull it off because that distanced voyeurism also comes with something additive: interactivity. Eventually, you will become involved. That is not something a film can offer.
Others make more positive associations with video games.
‘1917’ is a movie that feels like a videogame—in a good way – WIRED
Perhaps that is why, at times, watching it feels like playing a first-person shooter in the vein of Call of Duty or Battlefield. Like the recently released Gears 5, Mendes’ film wants the audience to experience the trauma of war along with Schofield and Blake, not just learn about it like a history lesson.
If it’s video game cinema you’re after, these 8-Bit Cinema videos from CineFix will sort you out. The concept works especially well for movies that are practically video games to begin with.
But I think it works just as well for other kinds of movies too, that are perhaps like video games after all.
And what goes best with a little movie? A little popcorn.
You have to be careful with video games, though. They can become quite expensive.
Austria′s former Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache ′addicted′ to gaming – DW
The former Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache spent between €2,000 and €3,000 ($2,200–3,300) a month playing the mobile phone game “Clash of Clans,” and charged the fees to his political party, according to a lawyer formerly close to him.
So you didn’t like 1917 that much? I could feel the characters emotions despite the ‘game-play’ cinematography, but I’m super sensitive so perhaps that contributed to it.
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Perhaps it was my own fault for reading too much about its impressive film-making techniques first. I found myself disengaging with the story several times, distracted by thinking about a clever camera move or congratulating myself for having spotted a seamless edit…
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