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Bridge of Spies FILM discussion


mrbellamy

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Sounds like the best we may get out of it is some caustic THIRD MAN-like imagery in the East Berlin locales. All the rest sounds like 'Atticus Finch goes to Russia' and seems strictly for a rainy sunday afternoon.

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I'll probably watch this on a snowy Sunday afternoon.

I am most interested in seeing Mark Rylance's performance. He was brilliantly understated but powerful in Wolf Hall.

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I will most likely see this at the end of November when it comes out here. I have some gift movie tickets to spend ere the year is out.

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Bridge of Spies is mid level Spielberg. Enjoyable but thoroughly predictable, it's solid adult entertainment @thenyff. Hanks/Rylance strong.

— Joey Magidson (@JoeyMagidson) October 4, 2015

Hehehehe. "Adult entertainment."

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The reviews have certainly piqued my interest in it. It sounds really good!

Lincoln had better buzz.

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Yeah but that was of only specialist interest to anyone outside of America. I'm not particularly interested in American history and I'm not Lewis' biggest fan.

For example I watched 12 Angry Men on a Tuesday evening

You are a strange, strange man. If you indeed are a man.

I don't think you've ever gotten my brand of humour tbh.
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Yeah but that was of only specialist interest to anyone outside of America. I'm not particularly interested in American history and I'm not Lewis' biggest fan.

I know what you mean. It's one of those film that I always plan to have a look at, yet somehow still havent.

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Yeah, standing ovations are pretty common at film festivals, as is raucous booing (especially at Cannes). Kind of embarrassing, really.

Never doubted this would be well-crafted on all ends, but I'm liking the praise for both Hanks and Rylance and also those saying that it isn't without a sense of humor. Spielberg's movies have usually been good with that but I was wondering if the Coens' sensibilities would perhaps get lost in translation. Apparently not the case, people seem to be enjoying that aspect of it. Interested to see how they mesh.

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Did Indy 4 really get a standing ovation at Cannes? I remember it being on the news here at the time, and I distinctly remember "mixed" being the choice word when said reactions were reported.

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Yeah, it did, but Ebert clarified in his report that the ovation was in the evening where it's a pretty easy get (though he liked the movie and felt most people were being genuine, anyway)

There are really two premieres at Cannes: The press screening at 8:30 a.m., and the black-tie, or "official," screening in the evening. Both fill the vast, 3,500-seat Lumiere auditorium. The morning offers a tough audience: Critics, festival programmers, people who have may have seen hundreds of other movies in this room. They are free with their boos, and if a movie doesn't work for them have been known to shout at the screen on their way out.

The black-tie screening, on the other hand, includes many people who have a financial motive for wanting a film to succeed: The worldwide distributors and exhibitors, their guests, and lots of Riviera locals. Or they may have been given tickets and are thrilled to be there. ("I recognized the woman sitting next to me from my hotel," Rex Red told me one year. "It was my maid.") In some cases, they may simply think it's good manners to cheer movie stars who flew all the way to Cannes. Then too, the stars are seated in the front row of the balcony. Everybody below stands up after the movie, turns around, and sees them bathed in spotlights. The Standing O creates itself.

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Confirmed, I'm on Quint's ingnore list :(

tumblr_m8f3upuMfe1qg4blro1_500.gif

What makes you think that?

Let's face it, even that would be a chasm of difference to your kraut idea of humour.

You wish.

Ooo that burnt deep man! Jesus Christ you're quick!

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Let's face it, even that would be a chasm of difference to your kraut idea of humour.

You wish.

Ooo that burnt deep man! Jesus Christ you're fast!

Another one from the bottomless pit of witty bon mots á l'anglaise.

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Not so sure about the Cold War thriller... I keep imaging something in the style of Robert Redford's 70's pictures, but I really doubt that's the direction they're going for.

They already tried '70s style with Munich.

Alex - who watches the new Spielberg movies when they are on TV

Maybe Mr. Williams should have reached back to the 70's with this:

Munich main title sounds like leftover Zimmer from The Gladiator.

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So I just came back from the film (an early screening for the movie business, and not allowed for the press -- but we know the Fox representative, so he made an exception for me and two of my colleagues).

Well, it's a GREAT film, first of all. It looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous from start to finish -- even the talky office sequences are staged in an interesting way. Kudos to Spielberg and Kaminski. And it has some fantastic edits too -- typical of Michael Kahn. It quickly went into my 5th place of all the 120+ 2015 films I've seen so far.

HOWEVER, I was not quite as enthused as my two colleagues. My main problem was the awkward comedy in a few segments (mostly due to the script by the Coen bros., who I'm no big fan of). Also, it drags a bit in a few scenes, so the whole film feels a bit uneven.

But these are all minor quibbles! From the very first image, the Spielberg trait is obvious (playing with mirror surfaces much the same way he did in LINCOLN) and throughout the film, there are plenty of "Spielberg faces", backlight, glowing lamps, smooth storytelling etc. But surprisingly restrained, much like MUNICH. It also feels refreshingly "old-fashioned" in a time where every thriller is basically done the same way. It's just incredibly COOL -- both in the slang sense and in the audiovisual sense.

So Thomas Newman's music.....well, it's absolutely fine. The first bit we hear is for a gorgeous 'night rain' sequence, with those small, AMERICAN BEAUTY-like ostinati going on. Later, he expands into the brass-led Americana that we know so well from John Williams. So yeah -- you could argue that Newman channels Williams here, but we have to remember that Newman, too, does this sound very well (SHAWSHANK, GREEN MILE, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD etc.). Finally, the music is truly allowed to SHINE in some specific moments, especially towards the end. Oh, and there's some great Russian choral music too that is drowned a bit by sound effects, unfortunately.

Those are some intital rough thoughts. I'll have to let it sink in more to give a more coherent review.

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I don't know about "hummable", but there are very clear melody lines in the setpiece tracks. Looking forward to the soundtrack, which -- from what I've heard -- contains unusually few tracks for a Newman album.

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Absolutely. There's a gorgeous cue for the exchange scene that goes on for quite a long time and rises to an absolutely epic climax. So there are plenty of cues in the film that work all alone; the album doesn't need to be all short cues that are edited together in single tracks.

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