I've been on an old movie kick recently. Mostly film noir stuff, as research and inspiration. I've watched the Maltese Falcon, Vertigo and The Lady From Shanghai this week. Man, how times have changed.
The Maltese Falcon was great, I loved it. I won't say much more about it.
Vertigo on the other hand. Had an interesting plot and premise, but the execution felt laborious. I know Hitchcock is supposed to be revered and treated with utmost respect, but I can't. This movie could have been 45 minutes shorter, easily, without losing anything. In fact the quickened pace might have helped it. Everything is so internalized with the characters that you barely know what's going on sometimes, is Johnny insane, pining for Maddie, or up to something? How long was Johnny in the mental hospital? Is he cured? Insane? What the hell happened there?
Of course at 129 minutes Hitchcock didn't really have the time to explore things like that, unless he cut out the useless 45 minutes of watching Johnny follow Maddie down 50 side streets flashing from Johnny's face to Maddie's car turning a corner and actually put in something that would forward the plot.
These old movies also like to use dramatic music for nothing. Lady From Shanghai is a perfect example. There is a scene where one character is talking to Orson Welles character on a cliff overlook. He says he wants Welles to kill him and will pay $5,000. This is a tight shot, both characters close in frame. They talk some more and the guy says "goodbye" and the music goes DUN DUN!!!! And he walks off, but he does it so fast we were like" WTF? Did he jump? No, he walked off, but then why the OMG SOMETHING IS HAPPENING music?"
I'm getting a lot from these old movies. The plots are very interesting, the characterizations decent. But (and I am excluding crap like summer blockbusters made for mass consumption) film-making has gotten markedly better. Hitchcock might have been ahead of his time and set the curve, but Rian Johnson leaves him in the dust with 2005's Brick.
The Maltese Falcon was great, I loved it. I won't say much more about it.
Vertigo on the other hand. Had an interesting plot and premise, but the execution felt laborious. I know Hitchcock is supposed to be revered and treated with utmost respect, but I can't. This movie could have been 45 minutes shorter, easily, without losing anything. In fact the quickened pace might have helped it. Everything is so internalized with the characters that you barely know what's going on sometimes, is Johnny insane, pining for Maddie, or up to something? How long was Johnny in the mental hospital? Is he cured? Insane? What the hell happened there?
Of course at 129 minutes Hitchcock didn't really have the time to explore things like that, unless he cut out the useless 45 minutes of watching Johnny follow Maddie down 50 side streets flashing from Johnny's face to Maddie's car turning a corner and actually put in something that would forward the plot.
These old movies also like to use dramatic music for nothing. Lady From Shanghai is a perfect example. There is a scene where one character is talking to Orson Welles character on a cliff overlook. He says he wants Welles to kill him and will pay $5,000. This is a tight shot, both characters close in frame. They talk some more and the guy says "goodbye" and the music goes DUN DUN!!!! And he walks off, but he does it so fast we were like" WTF? Did he jump? No, he walked off, but then why the OMG SOMETHING IS HAPPENING music?"
I'm getting a lot from these old movies. The plots are very interesting, the characterizations decent. But (and I am excluding crap like summer blockbusters made for mass consumption) film-making has gotten markedly better. Hitchcock might have been ahead of his time and set the curve, but Rian Johnson leaves him in the dust with 2005's Brick.