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March 29, 2024, 01:57:18 AM

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Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here

Started by Twit 2, August 29, 2017, 03:04:18 AM

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rasta-spouse

I was onboard for Ramsay exploding this particular movie cliche, and it felt like she was going to nail it from the off. Someone's mentioned Point Blank above, and I'm also thinking of things like Runaway Train, Memories of a Murder, or even Miike's Dead or Alive where a director's aesthetic crashes into a mainstream idea and creates something fresh, sparkly and intriguing. I just felt that by the 2nd half the directorial flourishes were more like parlour tricks, entertaining distractions, rather than things that took the movie into new places.

Bence Fekete

He got a bit too invincible.  By the end I just thought he was doing a spot of DIY, and I thought the ending was flat although brave.  Defo worth watching though, very clever at times.  Perhaps we have a next gen Kathryn Bigelow, seems to have a healthy interest in ultra-violence.  Be interesting where she goes next. 

garbed_attic

Quote from: Sin Agog on April 15, 2018, 11:35:29 AM
That's how mixed-race bastard love children like Hausu are introduced to the world.

Nah~ Hausu comes from actually taking your 11-year-old daughter's ideas seriously!

As for You Were Never Really Here, I loved the phenomenological immersion, but I really don't like revenge thrillers. So, the plot did nothing for me, but as an experience it was blistering, especially the sound design. Loved the way the title credit was done too.

Vitalstatistix

I think I'm done with slow, emotionally empty, hyper-stylised, ultra-violent, macho revenge fantasies with delusions of grandeur.

For me, this film looks and smells and sounds nice but has nothing of note to say and no emotional impact, much like Refn at his worst.

sevendaughters

Quote from: Vitalstatistix on April 23, 2018, 02:57:46 AM
I think I'm done with slow, emotionally empty, hyper-stylised, ultra-violent, macho revenge fantasies with delusions of grandeur.

For me, this film looks and smells and sounds nice but has nothing of note to say and no emotional impact, much like Refn at his worst.

My review on another forum was 'a lot like Drive but if it was good'. I think this is saying quite a bit about trauma and gender without the heavyhandedness that that usually implies. It works because it is emotionally present and there are realist flourishes. It is violent and arguably macho (or paternal, you decide!).

rasta-spouse

Out of interest, what other films (not necessarily Greenwood ones) have sound design like this? I can't recall being put so on edge by something before. 

Z

Saw this, though it was okay enough but asides from a few nice shots and setups, I've already forgotten it and I suspect if I remembered it better i'd mostly just be appalled. Probably rate it below all her other films tbh.

Lynne Ramsey is the only director who has consistently made worse and worse films that I seem to always expect an awful lot from.

popcorn

Quote from: rasta-spouse on April 23, 2018, 10:06:21 PM
Out of interest, what other films (not necessarily Greenwood ones) have sound design like this? I can't recall being put so on edge by something before.

I've seen a few people talk about the sound design and I don't remember anything remarkable about it. Did I miss sommat?



Twit 2

the remarkable sound design

Did you see it in a cinema?

popcorn

Quote from: Twit 2 on June 12, 2018, 12:11:52 AM
the remarkable sound design

Did you see it in a cinema?

Yes mate. And this sort of posting is the opposite of conversation so make with the info please.

The one bit that stood out to me, soundwise, was the CCTV-style editing and how that fucked with the diegetic music. That was definitely the most interesting bit in the entire film all-round. Was there other stuff?

Twit 2

Sorry, was being deliberately flippant, there. To give you the answer you deserve I'd have to watch it again with that question in mind. If you saw it in a cinema and were unimpressed I'm unlikely to change your mind, which I know is a bit of a cop out.

I remember being very impressed by the sound whilst not actively noting its  precise effects - after all, it's a very impressionistic film and it achieves certain moods through the deliberate blending of cinematic effects. Like the adage about good film scores, if you're noticing it too much then perhaps it's not doing its job fully. That said, I seem to remember the scenes where he was wondering the streets (when he gets asked to take a photo) and the scene of him on the train station platform with trains whizzing past him, as being particularly effective. I guess it's also a case of certain sounds being very loud in the mix, as well as - and along with - the score, whereas in some films these elements take a back seat. In this, it felt that sound was one of the main things going on in the film, perhaps even more so than the photography.

zomgmouse

Well this was excellent. Took the brutal toughness of the book to new heights and expanded on the psychological effects of trauma. I like that it elevated the missing girl to more of a character and that they bonded over their respective traumas. Kind of wish it had had more of the precision of the book but it showed his worn-downness well and I liked the flashbacks. Super shocking in parts too but unexpected amounts of tenderness.

popcorn

(sorry for old quote)

Quote from: Wet Blanket on March 19, 2018, 03:51:29 PM
Didn't think much of the Michael Mannish, retro 80s score that they've all had since Drive (surprised to discover this was by Johnny Greenwood).

I see the comparison to those soundtracks but I think they're definitely different beasts.

The You Were Never Really Here soundtrack uses old vintage synth sounds and drum machines, but definitely isn't pop-retro. Instead it draws on harsh krautrock ideas, gnarly modular shit, and also modernist (minimalist???? lacking the vocab here) ideas exploring polyrhythm and microtonality.

Example: Nausea. This an exercise in rhythm and the way the brain perceives it. The way the two rhythms glide past one another is completely horrible, as the title suggests. The raw unprocessed drum machine and synth sounds are very unglamorous too. It's not your nostalgia arpeggios of Stranger Things.

I fucking love the soundtrack myself, probably my favourite Greenwood solo effort so far.

Wet Blanket

Didn't do much for me but horses for fuckin' courses and all that.

After that Jonathan Ames interview on Richard Herring's podcast I'm interested in reading the book.

greenman

I don't think you can avoid the comparisons with Drive personally but if that film was an LA art thriller I think this one is definitely a Newyork equivalent. Rather than Refn's light and wide/expensive shots it feels dark and confined with shots deliberately only giving you a piece of the location.

Z

My mind keeps mixing this film up with Good Time when I try to think about it now.

Good Time was a lot better though, a better kind of energy to it.... I dunno what I'm on about.