chaplin

Monday, March 07, 2011

Are even turkeys made with loving care?

Watching the "making of" documentary that comes with "The Social Network" I came to the conclusion that these films are mainly done to gratify the egos of the film's makers by underlining just how seriously they take their work. From the scenes where David Fincher, Aaron Sorkin and the two lead actors sit in a conference room and weigh every word of the dialogue (most of which is going to go right over the audience's heads) through the ninety-nine takes of the opening scene in the bar to a Winklevoss twin confiding that somebody had pinned his character's notional Harvard timetable next to his desk, it was a portrait of almost demented fastidiousness. This being "The Social Network", it's all seen as worthwhile, but people must presumably be going to the same trouble on films that are going to open on Friday and then close a day later.

3 comments:

  1. I hardly ever bother with DVD extras as they rarely offer much enlightenment. There's occasionally a documentary made by the BBC etc on vintage releases which is worth watching but the modern ones are often just tarted up press junket fodder.

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  2. "people must presumably be going to the same trouble on films that are going to open on Friday and then close a day later."

    Or maybe not. And maybe that's WHY they're going to open on Friday and then close a day later...

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  3. Having just watched the extras for Zodiac (also a Fincher film), this fastidiousness is definitely his hallmark. They recreated entire copies of period San Francisco Chronicles from the microfilm. In the film all you saw was a stack of newspapers.

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