Mikarrhea

Random neuron firing, lame philosophy, literary pontificating, movies, sex, clothes & other femme stuff

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Do we have time for a movie montage?
catherine meng asks for favorite movie montages. i have a few. i wrote her the following email, but i figured i'd post it here too, 'cause--for the reason i mention at the end--i really want to hear others' suggestions too. please forgive the lack of capitalization. i just started the list that way and was too lazy to fix it up. i'll put the film titles in italics later

some favorite montages of mine below. i'm using the notion of montage in the strict sense of "communicating to the audience, through the editing-together of disjunctive cinematic images, a meaning which the images themselves don't directly represent." a common special use of montage, which maybe you have in mind instead (& if so, sorry about all the irrelevant examples!), is the representation of change (usually involving a sequence of lap dissolves) over a period of time much greater than the duration of the montage itself (a character's increasing success over years conveyed in large part by dissolving shots of a succession of newpaper headlines; one or more characters really buckling down and training hard for the big event; characters taking a long journey to a new important setting, etc.). it's worth noting, though, that the paradigm montage, eisenstein's odessa steps sequence, actually stretches what must have been (i think) about three minutes of massacring to more like fifteen minutes of film

might as well start with the mommy: the odessa steps sequence with the baby carriage from battleship potemkin

two completely delicious homages to it: the station steps gunfight in the untouchables and the battle in bananas.

donald sutherland & julie christie having sex in don't look now (simultaneously intercut w/ their getting dressed later & remembering)

james fox & girlfriend having rough sex intercut w/ chauffered rolls royce being driven in performance

mick jagger, michelle breton, and anita pallenberg having a threesome (with a super-8 camera)

all the beautiful being-on-drugs scenes

of course, "memo from turner," one of the forefathers of the rock video (and maybe my favorite of all)

some of the earlier forefathers from a hard day's night (especially "can't buy me love," and the final concert scene)

helen mirren & alan howard having sex (in bread room?) intercut w/ the beautiful & erotic food preparation in the neighboring kitchen (set to michael nyman's orgasmic processional) in cook, thief.

julie christie chasing after donald sutherland chasing after the red cloaked dwarf in don't look now

the children's long desert walk in walkabout

jenny agutter swimming, intercut with the aborgine boy hunting for their food

the aborigine boy's night-long death dance around the abandoned house

david bowie's first walk into human civilization in the man who fell to earth

david bowie having extraterrestrial sex with candy clark

david bowie having human sex with candy clark’n’ a gun to "hello mary lou"

(you may remember how i feel about david bowie's penis)

primate learning over also sprach zarathustra that a bone can be a weapon, throwing bone in air, which becomes the docking sequence of the shuttle and the space station to the blue danube in 2001 (“Captain, I think somebody just threw a bone at our space ship”)

hal 9000 unplugged--"dave. please dave."

the "jupiter & beyond the infinite" (or whatever it was called) sequence

the sculpture of the dancing jesuses set in motion via rhythmic editing to the second movement of the ninth in a clockwork orange

the gang rumble to the thieving magpie overture

alex & two teeny boppers having sex to the william tell overture

al pacino at his first christening ceremony to be a godfather, intercut with his systematically rubbing out all his rivals, underscoring his simultaneously acceding to the mafia role of the godfather.

de palma's homage to this scene in the untouchables with the murder sequence intercut w/ de niro's enjoying the opera.

the opening sequence of apocalypse now to the doors' "this is the end"

the ride of the valkyries helicopter attack

the shower sequence in psycho

the crop-duster attack in north by northwest

the murder of farley granger's slutty wife (reflected in her glasses) in strangers on a train

the tennis match, intercut with robert walker’s trying to retrieve the crucial evidence (keys?) he dropped down the sewer

transforming judy into madeleine in vertigo

the bus exploding with the little boy on it in whatever ancient Hitchcock film that was (blackmail? saboteur? )

the opening sequenceof trainspotting ("choose life") to iggy pop's "lust for life"

the whole fabulous sequence in the dance club (its opening an homage itself to clockwork orange) starting with the song "temptation" and leading into "atomic," where renton meets diane & goes home with her, "atomic" following them extradiegetically the whole way

the "it's such a perfect day" overdose sequence

in the loneliness of the long-distance runner, the brutal capture and reincarceration of runaway stacy, intercut with all the boys faces at evening services singing blake's jerusalem ("and did those feet") [this one really probably hits me the hardest emotionally of all]

the mother's shopping spree with the dead father's pension money

the final cross-country-race sequence, intercut with images from throughout the film

another montage of faces singing: the soldiers joining the frightened german girl at the end of paths of glory

the entire opening sequence of faster, pussycat, kill, kill with its perfect poetry voice over (this may actually be my favorite.)

the opening sequence, repeated at the climax, of beyond the valley of the dolls

the sequence following "let's make love! . . . . in l.a.!" (telegraphic adjectives matched w/.5-sec. shots) concluding with the "come with the gentle people" journey across the a map of the u.s. (i guess i have to claim this one as pretty much my favorite)

the crime career of the girls after dropping out of school in female trouble

divine running away from home after not getting her cha cha heels for christmas

entering the blue box in mulholland drive (& basically the last minutes of the film)

lots of eraserhead

the entirety of un chien andalou

the "do we have time for a movie montage?" sequence from the sweetest thing

the "how did i get here" montage from the beginning of adaptation

i have a bunch more 'cause i'm working on a screenplay that's partly about favorite sequences and i've been thinking about mine a lot in the past couple of weeks

Posted by: Mika / 10/07/2003 06:52:00 PM permalink · 0 comments

Comments: Post a Comment

Mikarrhea

Click here for the new and improved mikarrhea!

email michaela cooper

Archives

great lynx to the poetry blogosphere

other nourishing lynx

evil lynx to monitor for safety's sake

Web Ring

Tuesday, October 07, 2003