Re: Film Club - Currently: Rashomon
I've been waiting to get a chance to type out a well thought out response on Adaptation, but since we're on to Rashomon I'll just throw out some unorganized musings.
I love and hate this film. It blows my mind that other folks minds can work like this. I've seen it seven or eight times and it still hurts my head when I try to figure it all out. I think that is the problem with the film. It wasn't until the last time I watched it that I even realized Donny dies, or at least remember that he dies. Instead of being wrapped up in the plot and wondering where the characters are going to go next, I am trying to figure out what is real and what isn't. I'm wondering stuff like "is Donny real, was the real life Charlie actually hired to adapt that dang book, is it a real book, and on and on and on" I think all those things serve to distract from the main point of narrative film, and that is the plot. It gets me thinking about things that aren't on the screen. It takes the audience out of the fictional world of the film and plops them right back into their theater seat. I compare this to lens flares, blood splattering the screen, and extremely long and fluid shots. All those things don't happen in real life, all they serve to do is make you think "ah that was cool/beautiful/amazing technical feat" and then you are right back in your seat. To me that momentary lapse of suspension of disbelief is a killer to a film. That being said I can point out a bajillion times that all of those examples, aside from the blood splatter, have been beautiful and I think served the film well.
I have strayed a bit from Adaptation. I still really love watching this film, even though it frustrates the piss out of me.
Now for Rashomon. Excited. I haven't seen it in years.
