Films where style over substance succeeds?
Thoughts? Recommendations?
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MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Films where style over substance succeed...
Shoot'em Up
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As a fan of older films I think Film Noir and a lot of old Westerns get it right. A lot of the time the story is pretty basic but just the way they film them, the dialogue, the way the actors/characters carry themselves it always looks good and even a bad film in those genres is still rather entertaining.
shareI agree with you. I love the old Westerns and Film Noir but in many cases they were telling the same story over and over. It had more to do with the style and the period.
shareIn some cases as well it amazes me they can tell so much without actually telling it at all. Shane (1953) is a good example when I watch it I think it is obvious there is some sort of chemistry/attraction between Shane the interloper and the rancher's wife. Nothing is ever directly said or done about it. But I just pick up on it.
If that were made now you would see Shane and the wife getting it on when the rancher is working the fields etc.
I think the subtext in old films adds to it the style as well.
The Maltese Falcon comes to mind - the plot is somewhat convoluted but the movie is good to look at with great characters.
shareI feel like this about a lot of Stanley Kubrick films. Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket...there's something about them that has me unable to look away but if you go just by the script, they could possibly be unwatchablely dull in the hands of another director. Definitely had a style all his own.
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Waking Life
Let the Corpses Tan (especially this one)
I'm just going to pipe in here all annoying as fuck and suggest reconsidering the idea of "style vs substance" altogether though. Style can be substance and more broadly, the further you dissect the concepts, I think you'll find there ends up not being any such thing as a duality of style as distinct from substance. Take for example the entire tendril of avant-garde filmmaking constituted by works like Begotten, Tetsuo the Iron Man, the films of Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, et al.
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