Really interesting, rather atypical filmmaker interview with Tomas Alfredson, director of Let the Right One In.
He was a rock drummer for 10 years! His dead was a famous comedy director!
I noticed the visuals are very important in your film: the snow landscapes in the forest are stunning, for example. What influences your visual choices?
I am very tired of hearing filmmakers talk about other films like visual cannibals. When my crew and I discussed the look of the film, I tried to get into it through Renaissance painters: namely, the lightning, the composition, how the eyes meet the viewer.
I was especially inspired by Hans Holbein, the Dutch painter who painted at the British court in the 1500s. In his paintings, the people are looking slightly out of frame or under the frame. We worked a lot with the angles of the eyes to create a strange feeling.
As for the forest scenes, I was influenced by Raphael's painting from the Vatican, his way of treating white. He uses it really effectively, a deep grey tone with lighter grey tones. Snow shots can be very flat and ugly. I achieved the right color for the snow by having all the lighting come from very far distance, from a forty-foot distance above, so it is very soft. We invented a name for it: "spray lighting."
I also thought this was really good advice for any kind of artist:
What is the most important skill for a film director?
Part of being a filmmaker is to know that any decision is better than the wrong decision or the right decision. The set designer comes with a blue cloth or green cloth. What is best is just making a decision. You can always change the decision later.
you can see the pool scene here, though
Ah, I did find that but Adblock was blocking it. Now I can watch it, hurrah!
“Coming out of the new Tintin film directed by Steven Spielberg, I found myself, for a few seconds, too stunned and sickened to speak; for I had been obliged to watch two hours of literally senseless violence being perpetrated on something I loved dearly. In fact, the sense of violation was so strong that it felt as though I had witnessed a rape.”
The comments on that are great.
“We cut a sequence involving a coyote attack—supernatural coyotes—and a small animated segment.”
Bruckheimer on how they trimmed the budget for the new Lone Ranger.
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Flavorwire's Ten Creepiest "Family" movies of all time.
I thought it was going to creepy movies *about families, like
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
or something. I have to admit I was disappointed.
We saw
Take Shelter
yesterday. Mike Shannon (who I know very slightly) was excellent, as was Jessica "I'm In Everything" Chastain, but I just didn't like the film much. It seemed, I dunno, to think it had a lot more meaning than it actually did. Anyone else see it?
Angsty take on Species, starring ScarJo. I dunno, the premise makes me all eye-rolly, but much of that might be my lack of respect for the lead actress and her reputed sexpottiness.
