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Cinema techniques


This film seemed to introduce new cinematic styles.

The downside to that, however, is that I was always aware of the camera-person and the camera crew. Whether it was dogs that clued you in and watched the camera people, or the old woman practically running into the camera-person, this film more than most films made me aware that it was actually being filmed. It was almost, then, like the camera was another character.

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Ever seen Breathless? Came about 50 years before '4'. '4', although a movie with much potential (the bar scene and the few that followed were great), ended up taking on a very amateurish look. Sure, this may have been intended for style, but they began to overdo when the picture was often times out of focus and moving the around like grandma would when taping the opening of presents Christmas Day. Overall, this is one of the main things, along with the dying storyline as the movie progressed (after all, you can't lose both visuals AND story), that caused me to lose my interest in this otherwise great movie.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=10315342

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These aren't at all new techniques, in fact the film acts quite often as a homage to the great Russian directors of the 20th century, for example the car night driving scene is often attributed to the highway scene in Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky), and the whole editing and montage of extreme close ups followed by almost hallucinatory long wide angles pays credit to the likes of Sergei Eisenstein the film director and theorist.
The apparent obviousness of the cameraman, does I agree, appear to exist in a film like this, the expressionism derived however, shouldn't be seen as a downside, but more of a social commentary.

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