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Reminded me immediately of a tweet someone made about Dexter when the newest season aired: https://twitter.com/_katiestebbins_/status/1461348307901378561?s=20 h

Reminded me immediately of a tweet someone made about Dexter when the newest season aired: https://twitter.com/_katiestebbins_/status/1461348307901378561?s=20 https://twitter.com/_katiestebbins_/status/14613483079013785... Personally I don't agree with the take of the article in two ways. The first one is that it gives way too much default credit to realism as a stylistic choice. Movies are works of fiction and the creator has total artistic freedom in what aesthetic to go for, and being 'realistic' isn't necessarily a good thing, you still need to make the case for it. Secondly I think the bigger reason is a trend towards grittiness, bleakness or a sort of 'scandi-noir crime drama' look. People go for that mood not just visually but also in terms of writing, muted mumbly dialogue, minimalism, and so on. Villeneuve's Dune that's mentioned in the article is to me, despite the apparent popular appeal, a negative example of this trend. The movie is overly bleak and oppressive, cold, distant in a way that many of his films are and heavy on visual stereotypes. (the hairless, pale, black-dressed 'brutish' Harkonnen's, a caricature that the books deliberately avoided).

lozenge 4y ago
Yes, the article assumes the directors know their film will be unwatchable in certain contexts and have chosen to keep it that way. Is there any evidence for this? Have they ever actually watched it on one of those cheap laptop screens or TVs where the black shows up as bright blue, brighter than other colors? Because a lot of people have those screens.
- illiarian 4y ago
  They don't have to do it. The movie is supposed to be re-cut and re-color-graded and a thousand other things before shipping to home media. That's been the case since forever, and it was never the director's job to do that. These days for some reason studios forego that process and "meh, good enough, stream it".
- crooked-v 4y ago
  Well, at a minimum we know that Christopher Nolan's position is an explicit "I don't care about you if you don't watch the movie in the theater".
deleted 4y ago
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AmericanChopper 4y ago
I liked Baron Harkonnen’s depiction in the movie. The first time I read the book the image I had in my head of him floating around in suspenders just seemed silly to me. I’m hoping they make Feyd Rautha less silly as well. Sting in a metal speedo always seemed a perfectly faithful depiction to me, but it’s just so hard to take seriously. I’m personally more disappointed by the de-islamification of the Fremen then any of the stylistic choices.
- havblue 4y ago
  I think the stark colors made it easier to follow what you were looking at. The Saradukar wore white in the movie so it was a lot easier to follow that they were imperial forces and not Harkonnen. Anything they can do to make the plot more transparent, the better.
mypastself 4y ago
Completely agreed on Dune. Part of it is the barren production design, but the cinematography is drab and ugly as well. Compare and contrast with Villeneuve’s beautiful Blade Runner 2049 shot by Roger Deakins. The difference is night and (murky) day.

lozenge 4y ago

Yes, the article assumes the directors know their film will be unwatchable in certain contexts and have chosen to keep it that way. Is there any evidence for this? Have they ever actually watched it on one of those cheap laptop screens or TVs where the black shows up as bright blue, brighter than other colors? Because a lot of people have those screens.

illiarian 4y ago
They don't have to do it. The movie is supposed to be re-cut and re-color-graded and a thousand other things before shipping to home media. That's been the case since forever, and it was never the director's job to do that. These days for some reason studios forego that process and "meh, good enough, stream it".
crooked-v 4y ago
Well, at a minimum we know that Christopher Nolan's position is an explicit "I don't care about you if you don't watch the movie in the theater".

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

AmericanChopper 4y ago

I liked Baron Harkonnen’s depiction in the movie. The first time I read the book the image I had in my head of him floating around in suspenders just seemed silly to me. I’m hoping they make Feyd Rautha less silly as well. Sting in a metal speedo always seemed a perfectly faithful depiction to me, but it’s just so hard to take seriously. I’m personally more disappointed by the de-islamification of the Fremen then any of the stylistic choices.

havblue 4y ago
I think the stark colors made it easier to follow what you were looking at. The Saradukar wore white in the movie so it was a lot easier to follow that they were imperial forces and not Harkonnen. Anything they can do to make the plot more transparent, the better.

mypastself 4y ago

Completely agreed on Dune. Part of it is the barren production design, but the cinematography is drab and ugly as well. Compare and contrast with Villeneuve’s beautiful Blade Runner 2049 shot by Roger Deakins. The difference is night and (murky) day.