Opening scene
Thought the opening scene was amazing. Reminds me of the long takes in I Am Cuba, Goodfellas, The Passenger. Anyone know of any other films with epic long takes like these?
shareCheck out Robert Altman's The Player.
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MovieChat Forums > Touch of Evil (1958) Discussion > Opening scene
I am glad you mentioned I am Cuba (Soy Cuba) because whilst I acknowledge the wonderful opening shot in Touch of Evil I have still not seen anything to surpass the opening sequence at that hotel pool in Soy Cuba. Unbelievable! How did they do it?
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There's a long "long take" opening scene in Boogie Nights, which is actually a very good film! Check it out!
sharei believe PT Anderson said he shot that scene as a tribute to the opening scene in Touch of Evil.
shareWow, that makes sense. It is a fantastic long shot. Indeed!
chile wrote: "i believe PT Anderson said he shot that scene as a tribute to the opening scene in Touch of Evil."
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What you see (and have seen) is what you get -- and have!
there's a russian movie called russian ark that was entirely shot in one take. if you want an epic take, there it is.
shareHmmmn... one take. Sound fantastic. How long is that film?
dylcoleman wrote:
there's a russian movie called russian ark that was entirely shot in one take. if you want an epic take, there it is.
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What you see (and have seen) is what you get -- and have!
El secreto de sus ojos (The secret of their eyes), an argentine movie with a 6 minuntes long take wit an air shot of a stadium and chasing inside that stadium.
Here's the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/
Here's the already famous long take, check it out!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hffLoBKeHWk
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."share
Wow! I just went to the link... What a long take! Simply wonderful. Wonder how it was accomplished? Especially from such a height!?? I looked at the comments but they were all in Spanish so I could only understand fragments...
Thanks for sharing the links!
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What you see (and have seen) is what you get -- and have!
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Mar_donnoli wrote:
El secreto de sus ojos (The secret of their eyes), an argentine movie with a 6 minuntes long take wit an air shot of a stadium and chasing inside that stadium.
Here's the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/
Here's the already famous long take, check it out!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hffLoBKeHWk
You're welcome!
The take took 9 months of post-production.
It required a lot of editing (technically, it is not a single shot, it's obviously edited and "glued" together, but narrative speaking, it's a long take, because there are no visible cuts)
They used the MASSIVE software from Lord of the Rings, to recreate the crowds in the stadium.
I would give you a link with the director explaining how it was accomplished, but it is in Spanish.
Besides that long take, El Secreto de sus Ojos is a wonderful film, and it is being considered for Best Foreign Film Category in the oscars. You should give it a try!!
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."share
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99 minutes all in one shot...
shareHow long is that film?
Just type the title of the movie into the IMDb search window. Most movies have the run time listed near the top of the page.
Always feel free to attack someone as a substitute for thinking. share
**Spoiler**
The scene in Boogie Nights when William Macy blows his own brains out is another epic single take...while a seriously cool song plays out in it's entirety in the background.
Hitchcock did one of the best "long shots" when he made "The Rope" shot entirely in long takes with the only cuts coming when he ran out of film! Each take was the length of one roll of film. The first cut is when the actors open the trunk into the camera and the screen goes black for a second, allowing the cut to take place.
shareHitchcock also used long takes for Under Capricorn.
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Yes, Russian Ark is amazing - 96 minutes long, with a cast of 2000. All done in one single take!
shareChildren of Men has 3 shots like that
shareyeah, check out "Elephant" and "Last Days" both by Gus Van Sant. Oh and "Brick" Good flicks.
share....Gerd Oswald's "A Kiss Before Dying"(1956) has a 3 1/2 min opening scene ( after an opening shot ), though with hardly a camera movement. James Crawford wrote a good piece on it:
....http://www.reverseshot.com/article/kiss_before_dying
De Palma's 'Snake Eyes' has something like a 18 minute opening shot, which was fairly impressive.
Hitchcock's 'Rope' also is famous for only having 6 cuts throughout the film, which are meant to be hidden but are blindingly obvious. Not as impressive for situation as the above mentioned films though, since it takes place in one (albeit impressive) set.
Touch of Evil is something else though. The movement, lighting and the point of focus are really something.
To be fair, Hitchcock wanted all of Rope to be one continuous shot, but due to technical limitations of the time, it wasn't possible. The camera at the time only held about 15 minutes worth of footage, but the shots attempted to pick up where the last left off. The transitions would occur on an extreme close up of an object (someone's back, a door, etc) and once the film magazine was changed it would zoom out from the same object. Leaving, what appears to be, a seamless film.
Would the Owner of an Ounce of Dignity Please Contact the Mall Security?
I lived in Venice on Rose Ave and Brooks Ave on the Speedway in the '70's and the long tracking shot down the speedway evokes nostalgia as does the canal shot where Quinlan meets his finis.
The oil derricks I remember are in Seal Beach, CA; so maybe the cinematographer moseyed over there on a 2nd unit photo shoot. In 1958 Venice may have been in a state of highly filmable shabby, decrepitude and the bars and *beep* could pass for those in border towns like Tiajuana (which wasn't allowed to be a mise en scene in the movie) which was great for Venice, that highly pestilential place where I lived from 1974 to 1992 and which I saw change from the time of the ruins of the old carny sites, where it was said even "the shadows moved..." and it was a place not to venture to at night.
Many of De Palma's films have really long takes.
Rope has a lot more than 6 cuts, so obviously they weren't that obvious. 3 of them are intentionally "visible" as well, and take on particular significance for that very reason.
The opening of Touch of Evil is one of the least technically impressive shots mentioned in this thread, but then, that is hardly the reason the scene is held in such high esteem.
in addition to the ones mentioned above, magnolia, pulp fiction, and kill bill volume 1 have some good long takes
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