Sunday, March 04, 2007
FAMOUS FILM SCENES
The Oddessa Steps sequence (above)from "Battleship Potemkin." Maybe the most influential film clip in the history of cinema. It awakens everybody who sees it to the power of editing.
Leni Reifenstahl's 1936 footage of divers at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Once again, the power of editing.
Orson Welles'famous uninterrupted scene from the start of "Touch of Evil".
A trailer for Godard's "Breathless". Godard may have been a flake in his personal life but he sure could cut film.
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17 comments:
Good examples! The Welles clip could have been captioned "the power of not editing -- ie., using camera movement to change point of view, instead of cutting from one piece of film to another.
Welles' bravura opening shot from "Touch of Evil" makes Robert Altman's 1970's overlapping dialogue theories, hailed as absolute genius at the time, look like amateurism.
While editing is about cutting, it's also about knowing when not to cut. Welles was a brilliant director.
I like the girl from "Breathless." She's cute despite having short hair.
It's weird to watch a clip like that (potempkin) outside of the film. NOt so sure how I feel about that.
But within the film, ya I agree, an incredible sequence. The whole film builds up to that one moment.
I had to analyze that Touch of Evil scene for a class assignment- I still haven't even seen the whole film!
"She's cute despite having short hair."
Despite having short hair- what's wrong with short hair?
That Leni Reifenstahl one is really something! In some of the parts shot from below, it looks more like the divers are flying than falling.
i loved the Leni Reifenstahl clip it's amazing at the ending how dizzy i felt! she really manage to put us in the eyes of the diving guy. i started to dig about Leni Reifenstahl and her olympics work was incredible
please post more famous film scenes to inspire us
What is considered MTV style of cutting should be called Potemkin cutting.
great selection, I love all those movies. Nice that you picked Breathless, I don't like Godard much but that is one of his i really dig. I like Alphaville too. Funny, I thought you americans didn't pay much attention to foreign cinema (except english), maybe i'm wrong...
oh, and i disagree with anonymous about the short hair thing too!
What is considered MTV style of cutting should be called Potemkin cutting.
Or Dziga Vertov cutting! Eddie should put something about MAn with a movie camera!
Yeah, I had to watch "Touch of Evil" for a film appreciation class approximately 2500 years ago at the dawn of Western civilization. I enjoyed it! This was back before everyone who likes "film" had seen it or at least read about it in order to pretend to have seen it.
The editing and non-cutting and disguised edits and camera moves are still pretty impressive. Not as impressive as that swimming pool scene from "Soy Cuba," though. That's some crazy stuff.
The story on the other hand? Pretty ludicrous. Pot addicts? Charlton Heston as a Mexican DA? Thank god for Welles gussying it up.
I don't understand the false dichotomy of Welles versus Altman, though, Mr. Anonymous. I like both for different reasons! It is possible to like both... not everything has to be a competition.
Eddie: What specifically do you find so gripping about the editing in these. I mean, I guess I might learn more from a well edited clip next to a poorly one. What specifically are you calling to our attention with these clips? The contrast in pacing? The staging? Just looking for specifics.
I wanna understand, but I'm groping in the dark here.
Gabriel: I love Vertov! I'll do something about him one of these days!
Katz: Comparring similar clips would be a terrific way to go but locating, uploading and editing them would take more time than I've got.
Your question about what constitutes great editing (as opposed to good editing) is a really interesting one. Probably only a great editor could answer it. I read Eisenstein's two books about editing but they weren't very helpful.
Vertov is great- I'd love to see Man With A Movie Camera again.
No,Joel Bryan,not everything does have to be a competition, but the point I was trying to make is that in "Touch of Evil" Welles has his actors talking all over each other yet every syllable is crystal clear. Altman, working decades later with a special Nagra recorder devised especially for his 'overlapping' dialogue technique, came up with unintelligible mud on the track. That may not constitute a competition, but in my book, it's two directors doing the same thing with dialogue and Welles alone pulled it off.
Despite having short hair- what's wrong with short hair?
With short hair, there's nothing to pull.
Chris: Interesting trailers, especially the one for "Masculine/Feminine."
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