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March 28, 2024, 08:46:48 PM

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Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Started by surreal, May 15, 2018, 02:51:48 PM

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Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 12, 2019, 08:03:29 AM
You'd have to say Oliver Stone's The Doors film The Doors was worthy of its subject, at least?


I mean, I thought so at the time, when I quite liked The Doors. I haven't seen the film since then, but I imagine my opinion of it will have followed a similar trajectory to my opinion of the band.

An abysmal film. It makes the cardinal error of taking Morrison far too seriously - he actually had a dry, witty sense of humour, but you wouldn't know that from watching the film - and either wildly exaggerates the truth or just makes a load of shit up.*

I honestly think that Stone's film actually harmed the legacy of The Doors, who up until then had been regarded as a cool counterculture rock band with a sexy (dead) singer. After the film was released, Morrison became a bit of a laughing stock. He may have been a tit in real life, but he didn't actually wander about in the imaginary company of a mystical Native American - yes I know it's supposed to be symbolic, but still - and all of that 'Lizard King' gubbins was at least partly tongue in cheek.

The wigs look ridiculous too, although Kilmer is admittedly very good as Morrison (well, he looks and sounds like him anyway).

* Stone is fortunate that you can't defame the dead, as the entirely fictional scene in which Morrison locks his girlfriend in a wardrobe then sets it on fire would be highly actionable.

NoSleep

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 12, 2019, 08:03:29 AM
You'd have to say Oliver Stone's The Doors film The Doors was worthy of its subject, at least?

It's terrible.

rue the polywhirl

Good music biopics - Shine, Jersey Boys, Lisztomania

Bad ones - Miles Ahead, Rocketman

Kyle Maclachlan's wig in 'The Doors' is fucking shockingly bad. Worst wig in cinema

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on February 12, 2019, 10:08:39 PM
Kyle Maclachlan's wig in 'The Doors' is fucking shockingly bad. Worst wig in cinema

Absolutely, he looks like he's wearing Dougal from The Magic Roundabout.

Noodle Lizard

One thing I'll say about The Doors is that it did feel more like an actual film rather than a cinematically-graded Channel 5 film, which is what Bohemian Rhapsody and many others have felt like.  It felt as if it could have stood on its own feet as a film without being biographical, whereas Bohemian Rhapsody would look/sound/feel completely surreal if you weren't able to tell yourself "oh this is about Queen and Freddie Mercury".  Hard to articulate what I mean.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I know exactly what you mean, at least The Doors is wildly cinematic. It's full of vim and vigour, I'll say that for it, and at least Stone approached the film with some visionary zeal. His vision was po-faced and absurd, but I suppose that's sort of fitting seeing as it's a film about The Doors.

To be fair to Stone for a moment, I don't think he was really interested in portraying the story of that band in a realistic way, it's a heightened, mythical celebration of what they supposedly represented. It's still a shit, silly film, but it could never be mistaken for a conventional biopic (at least in terms of surface style, as it's really just your usual rise and fall showbiz saga underneath all that kinetic, quasi-spiritual, rock and roll energy).

Talulah, really!

Wot, no mention of Sir Ken of Russell???

Lisztomania being surely his masterwork in this regard, though some people claim it is 'not historically accurate', on the piffling grounds that, for instance, Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein was not 'a maniacal dominatrix bat-demon with inverted crosses dangling from her nipples', let's face it, any film where Ringo Starr plays the Pope, has to be a good (bad) thing.

Trailer here

https://youtu.be/CeglJMCgnuw

NoSleep

So does Amadeus count? I don't think mythologising classical composers falls into the same category as the previous ones discussed, about the more recently deceased.

The only "biopic" I can think of that works in any way is The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, featuring the actual band in question.

rue the polywhirl

Quote from: Talulah, really! on February 12, 2019, 11:23:07 PM
Wot, no mention of Sir Ken of Russell???

Lisztomania being surely his masterwork in this regard, though some people claim it is 'not historically accurate', on the piffling grounds that, for instance, Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein was not 'a maniacal dominatrix bat-demon with inverted crosses dangling from her nipples', let's face it, any film where Ringo Starr plays the Pope, has to be a good (bad) thing.

Trailer here

https://youtu.be/CeglJMCgnuw

I mentioned it 4 posts above. :(

Talulah, really!


bgmnts

Never really been into the behind the scenes stuff for any band, I just enjoy music, so I can't attest for the accuracy and how embellished it id, but it was fine.

It made me want to listen to Queen because I forgot how ace Queen were.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: bgmnts on February 24, 2019, 10:23:43 PM
Never really been into the behind the scenes stuff for any band, I just enjoy music, so I can't attest for the accuracy and how embellished it id, but it was fine.

It made me want to listen to Queen because I forgot how ace Queen were.

Strange person


Noodle Lizard

I'm gobsmacked that it won "Best Editing".  It's the only recent example of a major film where the editing was actively and noticeably bad.  I think someone even shared a clip, pointing out how incompetent it is.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on February 25, 2019, 06:54:55 AM
I'm gobsmacked that it won "Best Editing".  It's the only recent example of a major film where the editing was actively and noticeably bad.  I think someone even shared a clip, pointing out how incompetent it is.

Yep, and it's being widely shared again this morning:

https://twitter.com/fiImargot/status/1099857035448012800?s=19

Crabwalk

That scene is fucking atrocious in about 50 ways. That's how you edit when you haven't got enough good takes or coverage, or you're recutting the dialogue significantly in post.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Crabwalk on February 25, 2019, 10:09:59 AM
That scene is fucking atrocious in about 50 ways. That's how you edit when you haven't got enough good takes or coverage, or you're recutting the dialogue significantly in post.

I think it's a combination of things.  I'm fairly sure it wasn't all shot at the same time, but even still that doesn't quite excuse the sheer amount of cutting unless the footage itself was completely incompetent.  A lot of the movie is like this.  Whether or not it's the editor's fault, there is no way it should have won any awards for editing, unless "Best Editing" really means "Most Noticeable Editing" - which it quite often does, with these things.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on February 25, 2019, 08:02:21 AM
Yep, and it's being widely shared again this morning:

https://twitter.com/fiImargot/status/1099857035448012800?s=19

The editing in that scene is atrocious.  Once again, the Oscars are proved to be utterly meaningless and purely a means for industry types to suck off other industry types, based around political motivations.

Twed

It's also either a


  • sign that the people involved aren't interested in movies enough to be aware of this criticism of the film that is enough of a meme that I, somebody who hates most films is aware of
or
  • they are well aware and are just saying 'fuck you'

MidnightShambler

My head was spinning watching that, I felt sea-sick it was chopping about that quickly. Also, it's just given me another reason to never watch the film (the other one being I think Queen are terrible). The Freddie Mercury was absolutely preposterous. I mean, I know he was a pretentious twat in real life but I found myself thinking that was a piss-take. Is he like that during the whole film? Christ.

Quote from: Twed on February 25, 2019, 05:19:48 PM
It's also either a


  • sign that the people involved aren't interested in movies enough to be aware of this criticism of the film that is enough of a meme that I, somebody who hates most films is aware of
or
  • they are well aware and are just saying 'fuck you'

Absolutely, unequivocally the former case. These are out of touch boomers we're talking about here. I'm still amazed that anyone sincerely thinks that twitter has any meaningful influence on anything

Keebleman

I haven't seen the movie, but based on that sequence I think the fuss over the editing is a little bit pedantic.  Nevertheless, this video essay is really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dn8Fd0TYek

Noodle Lizard

#203
Quote from: Keebleman on March 23, 2019, 09:18:27 PM
I haven't seen the movie, but based on that sequence I think the fuss over the editing is a little bit pedantic.

I wasn't sure if it was because I have been editing professionally for the best part of a decade and am a little more conscious of it than normal, but evidently it stuck out to a lot of people.  I think the fuss is mainly because it's surprisingly inept for such a high-profile movie, as well as the fact that it got nominated for the Academy Award - and won!

Like I think I already mentioned, I don't think it's necessarily that the editor is especially unskilled.  I think the entire shoot was such a poorly-directed clusterfuck that they had very little to work with, which sometimes can result in that bizarre constant-cutaway style.  The irony of the award is that if the editor had done a really stellar job of making the bad footage/coverage seamless, that achievement would have gone completely unrecognised.  Someone pointed out that "Best [Craft]" really does tend to mean "Most [Craft]" when it comes to these awards.

EDIT:  That video breakdown is very good, though, especially since he uses the available footage to prove that it could have been done better, regardless of how bad the coverage was.


Custard


St_Eddie

Is this a real movie? Paid £16.50
Kicking my back seat, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the screen and see
It's just a poor ploy, to watch this tripe for a fee
Because my money's easy come, easy gone, little worth, no refunds
Anyway the awards show doesn't really matter to me, to me

Tell a lie
I love the awards
Give me all of the applause
Oh, yes!  We will give you all of the awards

For being shhhiiitteeeeeee
For being shite

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on March 23, 2019, 09:57:45 PM
I don't think it's necessarily that the editor is especially unskilled.  I think the entire shoot was such a poorly-directed clusterfuck that they had very little to work with, which sometimes can result in that bizarre constant-cutaway style.  The irony of the award is that if the editor had done a really stellar job of making the bad footage/coverage seamless, that achievement would have gone completely unrecognised. 

it doesn't matter whether I'm a fan of the band or not, but I'm quite well-versed in their history, & this flick was bollocks.

the editing, the music editing & the liberties taken with the chronology of the band were just several of the issues I had with it, finally having watched the thing the other day. I wasn't sure what they intended to tell us, but if in any small part we were supposed to understand how & why FM had led his life as part of the band, then the historical errors built into the screenplay's structure completely fucked that right off.

I was cringing at the music edits a little less than five minutes in, so they lost me early on (& I don't remember stone being so rough-handed or just plain disrespectful with the doors' material; in fact, I think stone's worst crime was being in love with morrison, & letting himself get carried away a bit with the mythology...)

but when I glimpsed a les paul during the performance sequence ('fat bottomed girls', during the first US tour? fuck's sake), when the red special is visible in the other shots, I realised that singer hadn't got coverage, & dexter had been left scraps. not long after this, malik's eyes started changing colour between shots, & I thought to myself 'he won an oscar for this? he can't even get the fucking make-up right'

no sign of the sheffield brothers, whose managing of the band left a huge mark on them personally & professionally (they wrote a song about it, too).

no sign of any other bands before the live-aid sequence.
& that whole 'shall we let fred back in the band?' scene. fuck off. that never happened, & to invent it for dramatic purposes, with or without the guiding hands of may & taylor, is just cheap. possibly actionable.

nah. it would've been disgraceful as a tv movie. to be getting four oscars & nods for a dozen more, something's gone seriously wrong.

Bazooka

I'm in the dog house as of now, as my girlfriend was watching this and I mocked Malek's accent multiple times, the film looked like horseshit anyway, an hour before I had just shown her Mad Max.

Honest Sunday night review.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Bazooka on March 24, 2019, 01:45:11 PM
an hour before I had just shown her Mad Max.


wow. how'd that go? you known her long? I remember trying to get the now-mrs to sit through 'rumblefish' & 'eraserhead' quite early on, disastrously. we bonded over scifi though- 'event horizon', 'the terminator' & the first of the 'alien' flicks, & we agreed that 'prometheus' was atrocious. I haven't asked her what she thought of this flick yet- we live apart a lot of the time, & not for reasons of discord I should add- so we didn't watch it together. I got into mercury & co when 'seven seas' was on TOTP four years before my mrs was even born, while she's had to work backwards from 'scandal' & live-aid. some of the anachronisms, therefore, won't have bothered her, but she takes flicks pretty seriously & would have spotted a lot of the other shit.