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Modern cinematic language has become completely unbearable to me.


The constant "auteur" style, that destroys suspension of disbelief, annoying close up shots of irrelevant actions, the constant ping pong back and forth closeups between dialogues, the horrible closeups and long shots of people or scenes miles away while some action in the foreground is going on, the annoying "cool" montages with rock or popular music, all of them terrible techniques that simply don't add anything or make much sense and that only serve to remind you that it is a movie.

Golden age Hollywood, from 1900's to 1960's went out of their way to make sure you forgot there was a camera and THAT is true art. And the hardest thing to do and the best way to make a film.

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Can you provide some examples of this new technique you're talking about? I'm finding it hard to picture it.

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well it's not exactly new, this new techniques came along in the 70's, and all films have them. Jarring cuts for instance, the camera all over the place in action shots, etc.

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Cake, with a direct hit.

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Would these illustrate your point a little? The singers may not be your preference but check out the camera work. Both duets are the same song.

Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xafBWOxqssg

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPAmDULCVrU



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yes, exactly, but it is far worse in a film, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79o09D8cuo look at the insane amount of cuts, specially of cuts of characters that are not relevant to the scene, the so called "reaction cuts", well reaction to whom? These types of cuts just scream I'M THE DIRECTOR, I WANT YOU TO SEE THIS", it's terrible.

Again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V728Mx39NU&t=8s insane amount of cuts that scream I'M THE DIRECTOR, LOOK THIS WAY, well why? Why do you have to show something miles away? what is the relevance? the golden rule of golden age hollywood was, if it's not relevant to the story, do not show it, much less make a close up of it.

Another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUyl9Wmx6Fg Insane amount of cuts to closeups of absolutely redundant action. This is actually not the best example, but if you see this film from the beginning you'll get what I mean.

Another awful technique is the abrupt cuts to denote the passage of time. In the golden age, the passage of time would be conveyed by the dissolving or darkening of the image. Now it's just an abrupt cut that makes it seem like the characters simply teleported to the future.

Mind you, this happens in EVERY SINGLE MOVIE DONE TODAY, and believe it or not, the so called "auteurs" like Nolan, Tarantino, Fincher, are the worst at doing this, and they're films are really bad and nothing compared to golden age to me. Ironically films that were not well received or than weren't made to be "artsy" like Body Of Evidence actually have a much more immersive experience from a cinematographic point of view than garbage Tarantino films.

Now how did I make this discovery? Because growing increasingly disillusioned with modern cinema I completely immersed myself in golden age cinema, and when you go back to watching modern films, you can't, because the cinematic language of today is BAD.

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I get it. I like to say that directors get too 'artsy-fartsy' when they do these things. I too, hate abrupt cuts. This is why I also prefer to watch older music performances. You can actually watch them - see their faces, the emotions, the instruments being played, etc. "Pinball" camera shots make me crazy - you can't really see anything before they bounce to a different angle. Argh.

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...went out of their way to make sure you forgot there was a camera...


Excellent point and one that illuminates some of my perennial criticisms of modern cinematography.

"Shaky cam" employed to render a scene of three people sitting around a table and having a conversation? What is the point there? Would it look anything like that if I were sitting in the room? (Assuming I wasn't having a seizure at the time.)

Super-tight shots of everything? It makes me feel like I'm viewing the world through a straw.

Conversely, I absolutely love long takes, which can totally immerse you in the fictional world that is being portrayed.

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agreed, I used to like Melancholia by Lars Von Trier, and when I tried to see it recently, it was impossible because of the shaky cam.

I'm not sure what I want really, do I want films to be like golden age hollywood? I guess not, that world is gone, I guess what pisses me off is how high and mighty filmmakers and their fans feel today when in fact what they do and like is shit.

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Melancholia only abused that technique during its first half; the second half was ok.

That said, I had the same reaction as you and almost abandoned it for that reason. I'm glad I stuck it out. Shakiness aside, I thought it was an excellent film.

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Oh, the shaky cam! I actually turn off the movie or show when I discover it's done in shaky-cam. It gives me a headache. It's a little like the kid on a plane, who won't stop kicking the back of your seat - for Pete's sake! Just SETTLE, please! I can't stand the constant movement.

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I can't remember what it was, probably one of those cop/CSI-type shows, but they had "slightly shaky cam" or perhaps "drunken cam" constantly, and there were times when it ended up looking so forced.

I mean you're watching someone standing completely still, just talking calmly, and every so often the camera just slightly jars to one side or up or down... Softly, not too shaky, but still noticeable, highly artificial since the cameraman is just standing there, and COMPLETELY useless.

I bet some shaky cam is done in post. There are probably several popular camera-shake algorithms for different effects.

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I can understand that sometimes shaky cam has a purpose in the telling of the story, but you're right. It can easily end up looking forced.

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I couldn't see who wrote this post before opening it, not on my phone... But I knew it was you!

You have a very distinctive style of complaining.

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Read "Hitchcock/Truffaut". Hitch explains the importance of camera angles and closeups and WHEN they should/should not be applied. Even going so far as to admit his errors when using them. Great read.

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Hitchcock was the greatest film director of all time.

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Think of rapid edits as just a different method of storytelling. Hitchcock's "Rope" featured long 20 minute shots without a cut, but then Hitchcock turned around and did Psycho where the shower scene alone has 52 cuts in 45 seconds.

Me personally I'm a fan of long shots with graceful camera motion, but sometimes the story calls for different storytelling, jarring camerawork or disorienting shots. Orson Welles was another master at being able to switch gears. Citizen Kane makes great use of all these techniques in the opening shot. It's nothing really new or different, but today's popular films are more geared toward action and heart pounding thrills so they have a lot of that MTV style editing.

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That's not the point, the point is to not notice the camera. You speak of Hitchcock and Orson Welles, I don't know but maybe you haven't seen much golden age films outside of their work. I have been watching golden age films exclusively for almost a year and when you see something modern it is barely watchable because of how terrible and ineffectual the techniques are today, they do nothing for the narrative, they are cheesy and predictable and simply reveal an astonishing lack of talent and understanding of film.

I haven't seen Rope but I read that they are cuts in Rope, just dissimulated. The cuts in the shower scene in Psycho are NOT MTV editing. They were absolutely necessary and magnificent.

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the point is to not notice the camera


Wow. No. Just... no.

The point is to notice what the director wants you to notice. If you just want to be 3rd person omniscient, a passive observer, you're missing out on a ton of wonderfully artistic films. Trust me, I've studied Classical Hollywood (encompassing what you call "Golden Age"), Film Noir, German Classical Expressionism, Nouvelle Vague (you would hate Truffaut so don't bother), European New Wave (you would really hate Buñuel), and everything in between leading us up to today. I'm not going to insult your exclusive film preference, but it's just one small subset of the art form.

By the way, there is no official editing technique known as "MTV editing" lol. I used that term to define rapid jump cuts. As you agreed that they were necessary in Psycho, I'm not sure why you're arguing with my point. That was it.

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suspension of disbelief has always been the point of film, as a matter of fact, when D.W. Griffith introduced closeups, his argument was that that was how the eye saw and to prove it he got really close to someone in a conversation, so he sought the cinematic language to mirror the real life experience as close as possible, and this also become the point of Golden Age Hollywood productions, to create an immersive experience and to make people forget they were making a movie, which is truly the best and most artistic way to do it. Of course, artists broke the rules, like Woody Allen and the french directors and that is perfectly fine.

The point is that, directors today, including charlatans like Nolan, don't have a clue about how jarring their style truly is.

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