MovieChat Forums > Bu san (2003) Discussion > Good Movie, But It Needs Camera Movement...

Good Movie, But It Needs Camera Movements!

posted 15 years ago by Vertigomovie
2 replies | jump to latest

I like this movie. I have been to those run down Asian movie theaters.
And I can relate.....

My only complain about this film is that It Needs Camera Movements!
That's why it's call a "movie" - movements with pictures.

Maybe the director purposely kept the camera still to show or signify
the death of that cinema and the death of that movie theater or a movie still.
But I think it's a too high price to pay.

There was a lot of homage to walking "has been" celebrities in that movie theater, why not also celebrate "the camera" itself too by showing all the
fancy camera movements......?

[–] Eva_Yojimbo 15 years ago

Static cameras are a staple of Tsai Ming-liang's cinematic style. Moving Pictures doesn't denote that the camera must move, simply that the pictures on screen must. And Tsai is far from the only director to use a consistently static camera; Ozu is probably the most famous example who very rarely ever moved the camera and usually filmed from the same/similar angle.

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[–] davidevoid 15 years ago

I agree completely (with Eva)... also worth noting the relationship that the camera has with this movie, and the subject matter of cinema. I think movement of the camera would kill this film. I think there are two pan shots in this film, one i think is when the woman is working down the hallway from the right side of the screen to the left (there are posters for the film The Eye in the background) and the other one is when that male is walking around the cinemas many rooms, i think it pans on one of the rooms that is full or boxes (i think it pans left to right)

Apart from these i think a relationship is created between the camera, the cinema screen, the movement in front of the camera and the duration of the shots that would have become something different had the camera zoomed in or swung from one side to another. In particular I'm thinking of the shot in the toilets and also the shot in the cinema of the mans face crying (one of the actors from the film). The duration of these shots and the lack of camera movement give a strange impression of space and intimacy that would have been broken if the camera did something out of character.

I personally love the way Tsai treats the camera most of the time. He knows what he's doing, when to do something and when not to (much like Ozu).

Another extremely good example is the first shot of The Wayward Cloud of the X shaped underground pass. The camera angle and stillness is immense and absolutely makes that shot incredible and entrancing...