Links for the Day (October 23rd, 2007)

Links for the Day (October 23rd, 2007)

By Keith Uhlich on October 23, 2007 in Links for the Day Jump to Comments (0)

1. "Stanley Kubrick Celebration": A recent episode of the Movie Geeks United! podcast series in anticipation of today's release of the new DVD box set, Warner Home Video Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick.

["The Movie Geeks celebrate Stanley Kubrick with Eyes Wide Shut actress Julienne Davis and cinematographer Larry Smith...in conjunction with Tuesday release of the Stanley Kubrick DVD boxed set."]

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2. "Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable": From the San Francisco Chronicle, hattip to Ryland Walker Knight. Also check out the article's comments section for some interesting notes of dissent.

["More quickly than most anyone imagined, blogging is growing up. From the blogosphere's anarchistic roots, a professional cadre is emerging that is creating an industry whose top-performing businesses now earn serious money. The industry is expanding at warp speed. Blog-based media could just be poised to elbow aside traditional print and broadcast outlets to become one of the dominant sources of news, information and opinion, many observers believe."]

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3. "The Greatest Film Ever Made": Nick Schager reviews the Criterion Collection release of Days of Heaven.

["To hell with equivocation or beating around the bush: Terrence Malick's 1978 Days of Heaven is the greatest film ever made. And let the word film be emphasized, since Malick's sophomore masterpiece earns this exalted designation from its position as a work of pure cinema, a concoction of sound and image so formally sumptuous and yet effortlessly poignant that, upon my first viewing as a high schooler, it completely shattered my previous preconceptions about the possibilities afforded by the art form."]

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4. "What the F****?": Steven Pinker of The New Republic on the dirty words debate. Well Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits.

["Fucking became the subject of congressional debate in 2003, after NBC broadcast the Golden Globe Awards. Bono, lead singer of the mega-band U2, was accepting a prize on behalf of the group and in his euphoria exclaimed, "This is really, really, fucking brilliant" on the air. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is charged with monitoring the nation's airwaves for indecency, decided somewhat surprisingly not to sanction the network for failing to bleep out the word. Explaining its decision, the FCC noted that its guidelines define "indecency" as "material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory organs or activities" and Bono had used fucking as "an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation.""]

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5. Two new films from Jamie Stuart: The final entry in his New York Film Festival 2007 series (sort of Naked Lunch meets Joe's Apartment featuring John Landis); and Gravity Wins, ostensibly a test footage reel for the Panasonic AG-HPX500P (read Jamie's review here), but also an evocative single-take short.

["I just spent two weeks staring at a big-ass metal case on my floor. Yeah, I opened it once or twice just to look at the big-ass camera inside. The big-ass camera does have a proper name: the Panasonic AG-HPX500P, which, for the purposes of this review I'll be forced to use—though for me, it's still just the big-ass camera in the big-ass metal case on my floor."]

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Quote of the Day: William Shakespeare

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."

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Image(s) of the Day (click to enlarge): Potter Pride (Hattip to Kottke.org; click here to purchase the T's—four sizes each!)

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Clip of the Day: Talk about your viral videos.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.

TAGS: links for the day

There's nothing shocking about Kubrick's preferences if you realize that he composed for both formats simultaneously. Of course, if you know anything about cinematography or photography, you'd realize just how incredibly hard that would be, hence the occasional error like the helicopter blades in that shot from The Shining.

I honestly don't think Kubrick would have been annoyed with these new releases in light of the widening acceptance of HD TVs in the world, but it would have been nice if Warners could have offered both variations on the Blu-Ray discs versions. Oh well.

I'm not complaining. The new releases look amazing.
Posted by Joel on 2007-10-26 00:45:00 OK. Can't contribute to the Kubrick ratio discussion, but I can say that though I don't know what the hell she's saying, that clip of the day gal's post-vomit recovery is awe inspiring.

She's my new hero.
Posted by Nomi on 2007-10-24 05:17:00 I remember Siskel and Ebert talking about Manhattan and letterboxing when it happened and explaining to the viewer what it all meant. I was excited that they would all start doing it but it never took over with VHS. But DVDs, Christ I remember being thrilled in 97 when I got my first player and even though the selections were sparse they were all letterboxed (with a few exceptions). I thought to myself, "We won! The cinephiles finally won!" Even casual movie goers now prefer widescreen. Go to your average Target and the discount bins and endcaps are filled with the Fullscreen versions of DVDs that haven't sold.

And thanks to everyone for the insightful info on Kubrick's ratio choices for his final films.
Posted by Jonathan Lapper on 2007-10-24 00:38:00 Cropped, yes. But not subjugated to widescreen pan--and-scan techniques.
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-10-23 23:40:00 Well, at the time Kubrick started shooting at TV-friendly aspect ratios, directors had little control over how their films turned out on video (I distinctly remember seeing a P&S transfer of 2001 on Betamax in like 1981 or so). I don't know what year Woody Allen forced his studio to letterbox "Manhattan", but that was a real watershed where stuff like that was concerned. Kubrick of course could have shot FMJ and EWS widescreen after Allen's precedent had been set, but I'm assuming he figured better safe than sorry, especially if it would be several years until widescreen TVs were ubiquitous worldwide.

I'm really honked off about the lack of a new disc of Barry Lyndon, but the new versions of The Shining (letterboxed) and A Clockwork Orange (windowboxed at 1.66:1) are just stunning. I've only seen the regular DVDs, but I have Blu-ray copies coming and cannotfrickingwait.
Posted by Andrew Johnston on 2007-10-23 21:45:00 But at 1:85 they are cropped for tv at 4:3.
Posted by Jonathan Lapper on 2007-10-23 18:50:00 Scorsese only shot movies in 1.85 for 20 years because he didn't want his movies, if they'd been shot 2.40, to be cropped for TV.
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-10-23 18:04:00 Here's my larger point that I did not word very well (my fault): According to Warner Video, "Full-screen presentation of The Shining and Full Metal Jacket was also approved by Kubrick, who recomposed his original framing, reportedly believing that those films looked best on video in the full-screen format." What always surprised me with this was that it felt like Kubrick, when making his later films for the big screen, had one eye of concern on the tv screen instead of saying, "Screw it, I'm going to make this film to be seen in a theatre and not pander to those who only see it on tv."

I was always reminded of the story that Martin Scorcese told in an interview years ago about the making of Raging Bull. While in production he was visited by studio reps who told him that the excessive uses of the word "fuck" might make it more difficult to secure television rights for the film. He agreed and seemed complacent to this change until Joe Pesci, who had overheard the conversation, starting ridiculing Scorcese saying, "Oh gee I'm sorry Marty, I didn't know we were making a television movie. I thought we were making a theatrical one. My mistake." At this point Scorcese thanked the rep and then turned to the cast and said, "Say 'fuck' as much you like. I'm not making this movie for tv."

Now I suppose one could say that Kubrick knew a great many people would see his films only on video and did not want them seeing a poorly done pan and scan version. But then he could have made it a condition that they only be released letterboxed - except that he didn't like the way letterboxing looked on tv, which I'm sorry, strikes me as an even more bizarre thing for a film artist to say. You don't like it that the whole picture is shown? You're bothered by the black bars on the top and the bottom of the screen? Really? They're that distracting to you? It just seems odd to me for a man of his cinematic vision but what the hell do I know?
Posted by Jonathan Lapper on 2007-10-23 17:30:00 From what I've read, Kubrick intentionally framed his shots so that they could be projected in 1:85 in theaters and shown in 1:33 on televisions. Kubrick did this because he disliked letterboxing on televisions. The assumption that Warners is making is that he'd be okay with widescreen releases now with the advent of widescreen televisions.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-10-23 16:30:00 Whoops: make that *two* 'scope films. (Forgot about Spartacus.) And yeah, Michael, that seems to be one of his reasons for abandoning widescreen in the first place. He also avoided the multichannel formats because virtually any speaker set-up will preserve the basic integrity of a mono mix.
Posted by Bill C on 2007-10-23 15:29:00 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Kubrick actually shot his last three films (beginning with The Shining) at 1.33:1 because he didn't want them to be cropped or panned-and-scanned for TV broadcasts.
Posted by Michael Healey on 2007-10-23 15:11:00 Well, it was more that Kubrick felt letterboxing on 4:3 TVs was wasted real estate, and his films were shot open-matte (1.33:1) anyway with an eye towards 1.66:1 projection. He never preferred pan-and-scan: his one 'scope picture, 2001, has been letterboxed even on VHS since time immemorial.

That said, the widescreen version of The Shining finally crops that pesky helicopter shadow out of the otherwise sublime opening-credits sequence.
Posted by Bill C on 2007-10-23 15:01:00 You couldn't pay a professional foley artist for a better vomit splatter sound than that.
Posted by alsolikelife on 2007-10-23 13:50:00 #1 - So I'm assuming (hoping) that unlike the last boxed set The Shining will be letterboxed this time. I still can't believe Kubrick actually said fans of the movie prefer pan and scan! He died just before the widescreen DVD revolution of home cinephiles really took hold.

#2 - That's nothing, since signing up with Adsense I've made $3.56! That's three hundred fifty six cents baby! I shall soon be retiring from my day job.
Posted by Jonathan Lapper on 2007-10-23 13:44:00