Chen G.
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Posts posted by Chen G.
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I think a story - as told in a film or in a series of films - has to have a certain dramatic shape.
Gladiator's dramatic shape is complete. To make a sequel would mean to take the bow that had been wrapped over this most wonderful present, and unravel it anew.
I find those kinds of films - we're getting many of them nowadays - depressing.
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4 minutes ago, Thor said:
But isn't the Roman empire rich enough to room more stories?
All the more reason to do more Roman epics that aren't directly tied-into Gladiator. Just like Robin Hood isn't trying to suggest its a sequel to Kingdom of Heaven.
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3 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:
I don't understand what drives anger in response to a sequel that doesn't have any immediately evident reason to exist.
I guess part of the issue is that the whole point of Gladiator is Maximus gives up his life for what we are led to believe is a better future for Rome. Throwing us into another movie where things invariably goes to pot, casts a pall on the radiance of that ending.
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I guess I just don't see the point of taking a historical (okay, using that term loosly here) film like Gladiator and making a sequel to it.
I mean, by that token, Ridley could have cast Iain Glenn as the King Richard in his Robin Hood film, and thus present it as a sequel to Kingdom of Heaven. But he surely realised it served little to do it that way, and so he didn't do it.
- Richard Penna, JTN and Edmilson
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17 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:
Top 5 worst ideas in the history of the world:
5. New Coke
4. Themed Restaurants
3. Hooked on Classics
2. Filling the Hindenburg With Hydrogen
1. A Gladiator sequel.
I might go as far as to say someone who is set to make a Gladiator sequel probably kinda misses the point of Gladiator.
The same is applicable to other movies. Ahem...
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12 hours ago, Bespin said:
I had never really grasped this whole Rings thing... why the elves, dwarves, and men had them, and why Sauron's ring controlled them all. In short, this series helped me understand the deception Sauron created in wanting to conquer Middle-earth
Good!
For my part, I never had that desire to know: Jackson interperates the Rings as giving their wielders power of domination. Tolkien explains their power is one that preserves Middle Earth for the Elves. But to get more into the mechanics of it... its one of those things that ultimately boils down to "its a thing because we need it for the plot to happen."
For me, whatever successes the show does contain - and they are limited successes in my mind - is in places where it succesfully illuminates and explores concepts, visuals and story elements not explored in other Tolkien adaptations: The hyper-urbanism of Armenelos and Eregion, and a slightly different take on the Orcs, most notably.
But hey, horses for courses!
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16 hours ago, JTN said:
“It’s hard to believe, but I imagine people are seriously counting.”
I realise more and more that "counting" and designating the motives, in and of itself, is a rather reductive exercise. Of course there'll be a difference, in a score of a given length, between one with a four or five "signifying" motives like Euryanthe to one with several dozens like Das Rheingold, or between a cycle with 60 motives (Star Wars) and one with 180 (The Ring). But when its more on points (say, squabbling over whether there's 55 motives or 86 motives which can be quite elusive), its really not an exercise that gives you a lot of insight as to how the score functions.
The defining structural conceit of Williams' score is less the individual motifs, how many they are, or how we name them, but rather the way they musically fall nicely into being either "Sith/Empire" motives or "Jedi/Rebel" motives, and how these two musical factions are juxtaposed. You can think of it a little like the contrasting theme groups of a symphony, although it has antecedents closer at hand in programmatic music a-la Freischutz or Lohengrin, and certainly in previous Hollywood scores.
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Good!
...
What did you like? And what did you think you understood?
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15 hours ago, JTN said:
“Over the nine “Star Wars” films he scored, Williams has written 45 identifiable, recurring themes — or so he’s been told by fans.
I seem to remember that in an interview from the time of Attack of the Clones, he also gave a kind of estimate on the number of the themes. Can't remember how many he thought he was up to then.
The latest version of Frank Lehman's document lists 70 themes across the nine films, Adventures of Han, Kenobi and Galaxy's Edge.
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You admire this man, this...William Wallace. Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage, so does a dog. But it is exactly the ability to compromise that makes a man noble.
QuoteNobles...now tell me, what does that mean, to be "noble"? Your title gives you claim to the throne of our country. But men don't follow titles. They follow courage.
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1 hour ago, Holko said:
And Order 66
And some of the opening sequence: the oner that starts the film is pure Spielberg, and is unlike anything in Lucas' oeuvre. I think Coppola also gave the rough cut a look.
Its another failing of the "The prequels is what Lucas flying solo looks like" narrative.
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7 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:
Anyone else here like me and fully relate to Paul? Especially in the next film.
I do!
But I just found Jessica - in Part One - more relatable on a human level.
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2 minutes ago, MaxMovieMan said:
I found myself relating a lot to Chani in this one. She sorta takes on that role as the audience surrogate. You’re right the other characters are cosmic in level/belief which is again why I love the change they made for Chani.
That's true. Although it didn't resonate as strongly with me, personally.
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1 minute ago, MaxMovieMan said:
I loved what they did with Jessica in the film.
That's probably a huge reason why I liked Part One more. The character I felt I could relate to in Part One was Jessica: Paul's predicament, in both parts, is much too cosmic and kind of beyond us, to be relatable on a human level. Jessica was just the worried-sick mum.
In this, she's that for, oh, ten minutes and then she's becomes a personality-less oracle figure.
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My understanding is he had shot scenes, but in editing the film Denis cut them clean out of the movie.
Yet another thing that makes the two parts feel quite distinct.
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This is the first that I've sat through a complete Euryanthe:
I don't really know any of the cast, except Wendy Bryn Harmer as Eglantine. The libretto for this opera had often been a laughing stock, but frankly, is it really that much worst than Weber's previous and much-admired Der Freischütz? At any rate, I found it workable.
The music is mighty pretty. I was led to believe Euryanthe was only "through-composed" in the sense that it wasn't a Singspiel (that's to say, broken up with segments in spoken dialogue) like Freischütz and Oberon, but that's not the case: beyond the two act breaks, there are virtually no complete cadences a-la Mozart to accomodate for applause, so the story can unfold pretty naturally, except for ensemble singing and the strophic repetitions in the arias. There's no German Romantic Opera or French Grand Opera that I'm aware of that's quite like this until we get to the Flying Dutchman.
I have written about this before, but a most unique, quasi-symphonic structural conceit of this opera is the theme associated with Emma's Ghost (the deceased sister of the tenor). Its this tense, chromatic violin divisi in the overture that only at the very, very end of the opera is resolved diatonically. Was Weber thinking of a Beethoven coda?
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Isn’t the name of one of the Dune sequels “Heretic”?
Yeah; that’s what you lot are.
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53 minutes ago, Edmilson said:
Well, I guess Dune Messiah is on?
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Yeah, I just saw.
Did they just...finish recording? I'm not sure they had because he mentions only winds and strings, and the score also specified brass (unless that page was from a different score OR if he counts the horns are woodwinds, as one would a woodwind quartet, or if its a dreaded midi which I don't think). Wilsher said he's in New Zealand for a couple of weeks' worth of scoring.
https://www.instagram.com/stephengallaghermusic/p/C4FjVATr3tl/QuoteAbout 82 minutes of winds and strings recorded this week with the amazing @stroma.ensemble featuring orchestrations by the excellent @hammckeich and @harrybrokensha , engineered by the one and only @soundjohn69 , produced by the best of the best @pin3hot , we have the splendid @janet.grab and #alanajanssen handling edits and programming as well as our wonderful intern @caoimhesadventures . We had it all super co-ordinated by the brilliant @katemulls with the lovely @_robyn_bryant_ .
Looking out for us all were the incomparable @musicgirl44 and @pbroucek , @joeyg3 , @clarknova @phobear @artypapageorgiou
It was a privilege to work with these amazing people to bring the score to life for #kenjikamiyama ‘s extraordinary film.
Surround yourself with a great team and anything is possible.
#wotr #lotr #waroftherohirrim #composerlife #filmscore #soundtrack #musicteam #dreamteam #aotearoanz🇳🇿Names that I can pick from here are John Neill (Head of Sound at Park Road Post), Mark Wilsher (Sound Mixer), Kate Mulligan (New Zealand Scoring Coordinator) and Paul Broucek (Warners music branch executive).
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Gallagher had previous checked recording venues that could host a sizable orchestra: I doubt he'd do that if he intended to mock-up many of the parts. At least, that's what I tell myself.
I mean, if we look at Gallagher's previous work, you can see the effort he went to to create certain sounds rather than just turn to midi files: for the "Blunt the Knives" gigue, he wanted a Hardinfelle (ironic) and since there wasn't one in New Zealand, he didn't go the synth route: instead, he layered a bowed banjo with a violin. For the Goblintown diableries he and the sound team engineered all sorts of weird horn sounds and metal percussion, instead of just synthisizing the whole thing.
Gallagher was a music editor on the scores and Doug relays that he had read his book. I assume he's aware of how much Howard prized not having the score "plugged-in" and will hopefully want to continue in that direction.
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5 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:
It's really a pity WB didn't have the courage and foresight to just let Villeneuve film both parts simultaneously (assuming it was their, not his, choice).
I read about it at the time, and it seems like a kind of joint decision: They had talked about it, but it was clearly risky and at least in hindsight Villenueve said it was the better choice for him. I don't think he even started doing the treatment for Part Two until he saw the first film was doing okay at the box office.
I mean, The Lord of the Rings is way more...accessible than Dune, and to underline that, while Lynch's Dune flopped, Bakshi's Rings did not. So there was more reason for trepidation ahead of Villenueve's film.
So Ridley Scott is directing a Gladiator sequel...
in General Discussion
Posted
I think we just define "story" differently.
I don't mean story strictly in the sense of plot mechanics unfolding. I mean story in the sense "characters going through something."