The French Connection is one of those movies I felt guilty about stumbling onto when it was on television, as I'd seen several scenes in the movie multiple times, but had never watched it all the way through. Having finally seen the entire thing, it is a brilliantly shot movie. There is a recent trend towards fragmenting action scenes with so many cuts that the viewer can no longer figure out what is going on (recent Bond films, the Bourne series are good examples). The French Connection shows that a film can still have high tension without overwhelming the viewer.
One of the things I feel is most overlooked about films is their location. The French Connection is, of course, a gloriously New York film. Too many films take place in MovieLand - an indistinct nowhere. The characters are therefore given no locale, no origin; we're set in a weightless story, where there is no past besides what is written into the film. I am aware that it is more expensive to shoot a movie in an actual place, but fantasy is far more vivid when mixed with familiar elements.
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another great thing about Heat. they tell me that it was shot without use of a single soundstage.
ReplyDeletei do not believe this, because the scene where deniro and amy brenneman first get together on his balcony sure looks like a soundstage. but the point remains.
for some reason the scene from french connection that most sticks with me was when they took the car apart to find the drugs hidden inside. maybe just because they actually made it look like hard, heavy, greasy work to disassemble a car.
asdasda i still haven't seen heat. it's been on my queue for over a year, the randomizer hasn't gotten to it yet. and yes i have already been raked over the coals by people on the internet for saying that i have not seen heat.
ReplyDeletebut i agree; i feel like the french connection made everything look like hard, heavy, greasy work - stakeouts and chases are almost always made as exciting as possible in films, but the first tailing scene, it's almost intentionally 'dull'.
And 2 more go on the queue :-)
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