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At the end of the 1800s a new art form
flickered into live.
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It looked like our dreams.
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Movies are multi-billion dollar
global entertainment industry now.
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But what drives them
isn't box-office or showbiz.
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It's passion, innovation!
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So let's travel the world
to find this innovation for ourselves.
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To discover it in this man,
Stanley Donen,
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who made Singing in the Rain.
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And in Jane Campion in Australia.
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And in the films of Ky�ko Kagawa
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who was in perhaps
the greatest movie ever made.
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And Amitabh Bachchan,
the most famous actor in the world.
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And in the movies
of Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee,
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Lars Von Trier and Akira Kurosawa.
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Welcome to the story of film,
an odyssey.
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An epic tale of innovation
across twelve decades,
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six continents
and a thousand films.
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In this chapter we explore
the movies of the Coen brothers
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and Quentin Tarantino and discover
Baz Luhrmann's Romeo Juliet.
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Almost every film made
during the first 100 years
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of the story of film
was made like this.
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To get a shot to move through space,
you put the camera on something that moved.
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To film a deer, as we do here,
fleetingly,
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you had to find a real
deer and photograph it.
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Unless, of course, you drew
an animated deer like Bambi.
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But then came
the first days of digital.
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Look at this shot.
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Smoke coming out of buildings.
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Sunlight from top right.
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It looks like the camera
was on a helicopter.
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All attempts to make the shot
look like a real city,
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photographed, but it isn't.
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These tiny horses kicking up dust,
look like the deer in the previous shot,
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but they're not.
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A place like this
is where this shot was made.
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Almost everything in the shot
was drawn on a computer, like this one.
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D.W. Griffith had to put
a camera on a giant crane
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to create this gliding shot
of an ancient city.
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Here, in the first days of digital,
director Ridley Scott
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wanted to create a gliding,
epic shot of an ancient city
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with tiny people,
like ants, too.
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Computers became central
to cinema in the 1990s.
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Instead of film imagery being made up
of tiny grains of silver halide on celluloid,
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it became tiny rows
of digital information: ones and zeros.
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In 1921, a boy electrician called
Philo Farnsworth, was plowing a field.
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He looked at the rows of earth
and realized that imagery could be made
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of tiny rows of picture information too,
scanned at incredible speeds.
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Jump 70 years, and you get this.
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A liquid-metal representation of a person
turns into a photographed actor.
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Director James Cameron,
had his design and technical teams
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scan the photographed image
into the computer.
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Then they drew shiny surfaces,
movements, and reflections
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to make it look like the man
had become Mercury.
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The technique became known as
computer generated imagery, CGI.
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Live action and animation
had been combined before,
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as far back as Gene Kelly dancing with
Jerry mouse in Anchors Aweigh.
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But this was crucially different,
Jerry looked 2-dimensional.
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The light on him doesn't change.
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He looked like he'd been drawn.
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But the liquid-metal man looked
like he'd been photographed.
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The metal seemed to have real substance,
as if it was actually in the helicopter here,
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reflecting the light in the shot
and the head of the pilot.
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Get out.
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The implications
were astonishing.
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It was if cinema had been rewound
and started again, from the olden days.
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The first animators tried
to show a dinosaur.
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The wobbly lines show that it was drawn
with real human hands.
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Now, Steven Spielberg could
do so with such hyper-realism
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that we could almost smell
a dinosaur's breath.
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Apprehend the texture
of the dinosaur's skin.
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The shadows cast by the small one,
the reflections on the floor
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of the feet
of the T-Rex.
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This is the only surviving footage
of the ocean liner, the Titanic.
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A flickering pan right that shows
its massiveness, its hope.
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As we watch we imagine
the grand tragedy that befell it.
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Eighty years later, James Cameron
shows us what we've long wanted to see,
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as if it had
actually been photographed.
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The sinking liner, by the light
of the silvery moon.
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Shots filmed in deep space
to show the height of the boat
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and the length of the jump.
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Seventies cinema had been
about what we wanted to see:
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Jaws, The Exorcist, Star Wars.
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Nineties cinema had become "can
see."
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This was exciting.
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Movies had become spectacle again,
about the thrill of seeing,
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as if for the first time.
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But once the thrill has passed,
old questions remain.
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The first is about admiration
or ethics.
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Real human courage and imagination
goes into a shot like this.
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The camera and the guy
are really strapped to the plane
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as it does
a scary loop-the-loop.
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Hard work and long hours
spent in relative comfort,
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eating pizza,
go into a shot like this.
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Despite its bravura,
has reality lost some of its realness?
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The second old question
is a human question.
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It's the theme
of the story of film.
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Innovation.
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All techniques, including CGI,
should be used inventively.
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The first mainstream feature film
to be made
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entirely with a computer
was this inventive one.
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Director John Lassiter and his team
use the new possibilities of CGI
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to render shadows,
do dynamic deep staging,
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and see from positions that would be
difficult for a real camera to shoot from.
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This was the pricey end of CGI but, as always,
innovation doesn't need to be expensive.
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This film was not only shot
mostly on low-tech digital video,
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but marketed on the Internet.
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It has the look and sound
of camcorder video footage.
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His voice is close to the camera,
recorded by its internal mic.
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The whites in her face burn out,
a very video effect.
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In the same year
digital cinemas opened up
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in America, Korea,
Spain, Germany, and Mexico.
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And, in 2001 to 2002,
George Lucas shot
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Star Wars: Episode 2 entirely
without using celluloid.
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And, as has often been
the case in the story of film,
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Asian filmmakers
were even more innovative.
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Here's Zhang Yimou's
House of Flying Daggers."
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A blind dancer.
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To challenge her, a man flicks a bean
against drums, to create sounds around her.
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The camera rushes forward
with the bean, then swishes left.
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The bean's computer generated.
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Motion blur,
again computer generated.
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Then her sleeve garment
picks up a CGI sword.
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Then the man
throws a CGI plate at her.
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She's seeing and not seeing,
but so are we.
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Images doing things
they could never do before,
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all with brilliant
Chinese choreography and grace.
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Remarkable innovation.
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The theme of the story of film.
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But if what ran
through the camera in the '90s,
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digital tape rather
than celluloid, changed.
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What ran in front of the camera
seemed to change too.
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Reality seemed
to lose some of its realness.
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Life was no longer just modern,
it became postmodern, playful.
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In the '90s, American films
like Schindler's List, LA confidential,
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and The Silence of the Lambs
were serious '40s genre pictures,
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in new guises.
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But the real flavors of the times
were irony and postmodernism.
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The idea that there are no great truths
and that everything's recycled.
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More than previously, filmmakers started
playing games with old genres,
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quoting from previous films,
making films about films.
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Even the master
of new American cinema of the '70s,
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Martin Scorsese,
started doing this.
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Look at the ending
of Scorsese's film, Goodfellas.
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Like several of his movies,
it's about gangsters.
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But what's different is
that this gangster
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looks right into the camera,
a very post-modern thing to do.
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I'm an average nobody.
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I get to live the rest
of my life like a schnook.
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And then, out of nowhere,
Joe Pesci shoots right down the lens.
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A surprising shot, until we remember
that one of the oldest films ever made,
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The Great Train Robbery,
did the same thing.
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Scorsese knew this shot
and repeated it.
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Film quoting film.
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A very '90s thing to do.
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American movies of the '90s were
full of playful twists on old films.
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In this classic film noir
from the '40s, for example,
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two killers
are about to do a hit.
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The lighting's dark,
the shadows are from German expressionism
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and, typically,
the killers don't say much.
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There's little dialogue.
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Compare that to this scene
of two killers about to do a hit
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in one of the most influential gangster
pictures of the '90s, Pulp Fiction.
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The lighting's much brighter
but what's more noticeable
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is that in Pulp Fiction,
they talk.
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A lot.
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Talking about everyday stuff,
like foot massages,
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isn't exactly something
that Humphrey Bogart would have done.
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Scenes like this breathed new life
into American screenplay writing.
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They stopped the story
but opened up the discourse.
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They have no sense of humor
about this shit!
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You know what I'm saying?
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It's an interesting point.
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Come on.
Let's get into character.
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It's as if they'd been
out of character.
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Like they forgot
that they're in a movie.
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What's her name again?
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Mia.
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Mia.
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As if to emphasize the dialogue,
the shot remains static,
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behind the two guys,
so we listen rather than look.
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Take care of her?
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No, man.
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00:14:18,208 --> 00:14:19,787
Just take her out, you know?
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Show her a good time.
Make sure she don't get lonely.
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00:14:22,921 --> 00:14:25,444
You gonna be taking
Mia Wallace out on a date?
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It is not a date.
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00:14:27,583 --> 00:14:29,502
You know, it's just...
it's like if you were
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going to take your buddy's wife
to a movie, or something.
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It's just good company,
that's all.
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It's not a date.
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It's definitely not a date.
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00:14:44,018 --> 00:14:46,529
This emphasis on the surrealism
of everyday talk
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became known as Tarantino-esque,
after the film's writer-director
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Quentin Tarantino.
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00:14:54,729 --> 00:15:00,746
Tarantino-esque somehow meant both more real,
and less real than life at the same time.
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And Tarantino wasn't only
significant for his dialogue.
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Like Scorsese, he was
a hyperlink to film history.
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00:15:09,823 --> 00:15:15,425
For example he championed in America
this Hong Kong director Wuen Woo-Ping,
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whom we've already met.
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00:15:18,108 --> 00:15:23,123
Tarantino then hired master Yuen
to choreograph the Kill Bill films.
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And look at this scene
in Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs.
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In long lens, wearing black glasses,
Harvey Keitel shoots the police with two guns.
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00:15:40,699 --> 00:15:45,741
Five years earlier, in Ringo Lam's
Hong Kong film, City on Fire,
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00:15:45,765 --> 00:15:51,225
Danny Lee, in black glasses,
shoots the police with two guns.
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00:15:51,870 --> 00:15:54,566
And here's the climax of
Reservoir Dogs.
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00:15:54,568 --> 00:15:57,751
Three jewel thieves
pull guns on each other.
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00:15:57,753 --> 00:15:59,136
A death triangle.
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00:15:59,138 --> 00:16:00,262
A warehouse.
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00:16:00,264 --> 00:16:02,611
A police mole's bleeding.
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00:16:02,613 --> 00:16:05,531
Wide shot then close-ups.
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00:16:09,844 --> 00:16:12,525
The thieves have just done
a failed heist.
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00:16:12,550 --> 00:16:16,065
Joey, if you kill that man,
you die next.
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00:16:16,090 --> 00:16:16,674
Repeat.
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00:16:16,699 --> 00:16:18,385
If you kill that man,
you die next.
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00:16:18,409 --> 00:16:20,822
Larry, we have been friends...
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00:16:23,597 --> 00:16:26,096
And here's the climax of
City on Fire.
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Three Jewel thieves
pull guns on each other.
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00:16:29,385 --> 00:16:30,875
A death triangle.
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00:16:30,899 --> 00:16:32,413
We're in a warehouse.
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A police mole
is sitting below them.
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Wide shot then close ups.
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00:16:44,601 --> 00:16:47,854
The thieves have just done
a failed heist.
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00:16:50,532 --> 00:16:52,245
Talk about d�j� vu.
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00:16:52,269 --> 00:16:55,472
Movie making
about the story of film.
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00:16:57,152 --> 00:17:00,299
And it wasn't only action cinema
that Tarantino admired.
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00:17:00,323 --> 00:17:04,186
He loved this art movie,
Jean Luc Godard's Bande � Part.
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00:17:04,210 --> 00:17:05,980
This is its title sequence.
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00:17:06,004 --> 00:17:08,637
Fast cut close ups
of the main characters,
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00:17:08,662 --> 00:17:11,454
the letters cutting
graphically up on screen.
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00:17:11,478 --> 00:17:15,329
Tarantino used this title
for his own production company,
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00:17:15,353 --> 00:17:16,961
a band apart.
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00:17:16,985 --> 00:17:19,901
He was punning on film history.
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00:17:19,925 --> 00:17:21,281
How '90s.
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00:17:21,305 --> 00:17:25,157
His company logo appeared
graphically, yellow on black,
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00:17:25,181 --> 00:17:27,334
at the start of "Pulp Fiction."
236
00:17:31,655 --> 00:17:33,664
Tarantino's postmodernism
was in his writing,
237
00:17:33,688 --> 00:17:37,273
but a look at Natural Born Killers,
made by Oliver Stone
238
00:17:37,297 --> 00:17:43,035
from Tarantino's screenplay, shows that,
visually, Tarantino was a traditionalist.
239
00:17:44,524 --> 00:17:47,019
A young couple is on a rampage.
240
00:17:47,052 --> 00:17:53,177
Stone has this scene shot on film,
on a glide cam, and graded green.
241
00:18:02,936 --> 00:18:06,320
This P.O.V. shot is also on film,
but in full color.
242
00:18:07,452 --> 00:18:10,241
Then we're on handheld video.
243
00:18:12,913 --> 00:18:17,232
This mash up of styles is almost
a definition of postmodernism.
244
00:18:17,234 --> 00:18:20,387
No one type of image
could capture the truth.
245
00:18:20,389 --> 00:18:24,150
Reality was multiple
and fragmented.
246
00:18:26,921 --> 00:18:31,277
A fourth strain of '90s postmodernism
was the kooky, technically brilliant,
247
00:18:31,302 --> 00:18:35,632
films of Minnesota born brothers
Joel and Ethan Coen.
248
00:18:35,641 --> 00:18:38,772
They started the '90s
with this great image.
249
00:18:38,796 --> 00:18:41,505
A hat falls into the foreground.
250
00:18:41,530 --> 00:18:43,397
Trees are out of focus.
251
00:18:45,618 --> 00:18:49,328
Then the wind blows the hat
and the focus follows it.
252
00:18:49,352 --> 00:18:51,620
The forest comes into focus.
253
00:18:51,644 --> 00:18:53,894
Then the story begins.
254
00:18:54,144 --> 00:18:58,944
The Coen brothers became masters
of visual and story precision.
255
00:18:58,969 --> 00:19:04,206
By the mid-'90s, the Coens had honed
their comic-discrepant world view
256
00:19:04,231 --> 00:19:08,204
by focusing on what used
to be called, in Frank Capra films,
257
00:19:08,228 --> 00:19:12,284
the "little man," caught up in events
that he barely understands.
258
00:19:12,308 --> 00:19:15,449
Here the little man is
a novice mailroom worker.
259
00:19:15,473 --> 00:19:19,318
But he becomes a chief executive
with the big cigar to show it.
260
00:19:19,342 --> 00:19:22,031
The film's shot
in blues and Navy's.
261
00:19:22,055 --> 00:19:25,094
The novice
is pure Coen brothers.
262
00:19:25,118 --> 00:19:28,940
A gormless, rather asexual man,
out of his depth,
263
00:19:28,964 --> 00:19:34,123
having strayed into the world of Capra,
or Preston Sturges, or Howard Hawks.
264
00:19:44,011 --> 00:19:48,556
George Clooney played a similar trespasser
in O Brother, where art thou?
265
00:20:08,607 --> 00:20:11,027
Clooney was wide eyed
and clueless.
266
00:20:11,051 --> 00:20:14,201
The imagery this time
was golden.
267
00:20:16,130 --> 00:20:18,007
And talk about wide eyed.
268
00:20:18,031 --> 00:20:21,917
Here's Jeff Bridges,
high as a kite, in The big Leboswki.
269
00:20:21,941 --> 00:20:24,376
A tower of ten pin
bowling shoes.
270
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,812
His are handed out
by Saddam Hussein.
271
00:20:26,836 --> 00:20:30,377
The war on Iraq was on
and the Coen's wanted to refer to it.
272
00:20:30,401 --> 00:20:34,618
And then we're in another '30s genre,
the Busby Berkley musical.
273
00:20:48,211 --> 00:20:52,689
The big Leboswki brilliantly married
slacker dude-ness with surreal design,
274
00:20:52,713 --> 00:20:56,418
a fondness
for old Hollywood and '90s politics.
275
00:21:05,513 --> 00:21:10,447
The Coen's affection for their men
gave their postmodernism heart.
276
00:21:28,750 --> 00:21:31,674
The most daring
American postmodernist of the '90s,
277
00:21:31,698 --> 00:21:37,337
and one of the country's greatest filmmakers,
was this man: Gus Van Sant.
278
00:21:38,065 --> 00:21:42,172
He's influenced by a wide range
of movies, styles and periods,
279
00:21:42,196 --> 00:21:44,460
and refers to them as he talks.
280
00:21:47,562 --> 00:21:53,535
Van Sant's film, My own private Idaho,"
was about this young narcoleptic hustler.
281
00:22:07,623 --> 00:22:10,587
To show what the hustler feels like
when he has an orgasm,
282
00:22:10,611 --> 00:22:14,495
Van Sant used the image
of a barn falling onto a road.
283
00:22:14,811 --> 00:22:18,585
Seldom had a sex scene been
pictured so imaginatively.
284
00:22:18,804 --> 00:22:25,850
I think when I was a painter
and I think by the time I stopped painting,
285
00:22:25,875 --> 00:22:29,118
the last thing
I was painting were these landscapes.
286
00:22:29,142 --> 00:22:33,424
And definitely in My own private Idaho
for instance,
287
00:22:33,448 --> 00:22:39,233
the whole barn crashing into the landscape
was literally from one of the paintings.
288
00:22:41,978 --> 00:22:47,213
The film was full of empty landscape shots,
golden light, the open road.
289
00:22:47,237 --> 00:22:50,129
Van Sant had intended
to shoot other images,
290
00:22:50,153 --> 00:22:53,753
and use them to show what the hustler
felt as he lost consciousness,
291
00:22:53,792 --> 00:22:56,368
but he didn't
have time to film them.
292
00:22:56,750 --> 00:23:00,864
But we did have the one image
of the barn falling.
293
00:23:00,888 --> 00:23:06,441
So, since I had this, like,
singular image, which was somewhat like,
294
00:23:06,465 --> 00:23:11,952
I guess, the singular image in The Shining,
of the blood coming out of the elevator.
295
00:23:19,128 --> 00:23:22,445
It was this one stand-alone special effect
that was really beautiful.
296
00:23:22,469 --> 00:23:27,278
So, we tried it just right
in the middle of his orgasm
297
00:23:27,303 --> 00:23:31,098
because it was another kind
of falling, you know, I think.
298
00:23:33,237 --> 00:23:35,518
Van Sant's signature film,
Elephant,
299
00:23:35,543 --> 00:23:38,906
was also about
the fall from grace of young men.
300
00:23:38,931 --> 00:23:43,823
No movie of the '90s was more
complexly connected to film history.
301
00:23:45,594 --> 00:23:51,062
Elephant was a response
to the shootings at a school in Columbine.
302
00:23:55,796 --> 00:24:00,005
The film's shot
in the unfashionable, 4x3 screen ratio.
303
00:24:00,029 --> 00:24:03,159
Van Sant follows
young men with a steadicam.
304
00:24:03,183 --> 00:24:04,892
There's little dialogue.
305
00:24:04,916 --> 00:24:06,862
The violence is unexplained.
306
00:24:13,979 --> 00:24:17,427
Fourteen years earlier,
the British director, Alan Clarke,
307
00:24:17,451 --> 00:24:21,308
made a film called Elephant, which used
steadicam to show the driven,
308
00:24:21,333 --> 00:24:25,376
almost trance-like walking
of gunmen in northern Ireland.
309
00:24:37,009 --> 00:24:41,215
HBO was the only company
that was interested in not making
310
00:24:41,239 --> 00:24:44,477
Columbine, but they were
interested in making Elephant
311
00:24:44,501 --> 00:24:46,620
and they were referring
to the Alan Clarke film.
312
00:24:46,644 --> 00:24:51,660
So it became known
to us as Elephant,
313
00:24:51,684 --> 00:24:57,847
because of that label and I think
it was a sort of similar statement
314
00:24:57,871 --> 00:25:04,367
it was a very abstract
statement about Columbine.
315
00:25:08,376 --> 00:25:10,598
The constant walking
in Clarke's Elephant,
316
00:25:10,622 --> 00:25:14,686
influenced the forward walking
in real time, without much cutting,
317
00:25:14,710 --> 00:25:19,042
in Van Sant's Elephant,
and in his earlier movie, Gerry.
318
00:25:19,066 --> 00:25:22,199
These films felt, in some way,
like video games,
319
00:25:22,224 --> 00:25:25,209
which became
a new influence on '90s cinema.
320
00:25:25,233 --> 00:25:28,790
This one, Tomb Raider,
with its image tracking forward
321
00:25:28,814 --> 00:25:33,149
to follow the main character, from place
to place, was particularly popular.
322
00:25:33,173 --> 00:25:38,251
Yeah, the videogame aspect is,
including "Gerry" and "Last Days,"
323
00:25:38,276 --> 00:25:40,929
is coming from video games.
324
00:25:40,954 --> 00:25:45,146
Me playing video games
was an effort for me to understand
325
00:25:45,171 --> 00:25:48,629
what was going on
with the Columbine characters
326
00:25:48,653 --> 00:25:51,231
because it was said
that they had played video games
327
00:25:51,255 --> 00:25:53,322
and so I didn't know
what they were.
328
00:25:53,346 --> 00:25:56,544
And I had a computer
and my assistant said,
329
00:25:56,568 --> 00:26:00,183
"oh, well you can download
the first level of 'Tomb Raider, '"
330
00:26:00,207 --> 00:26:02,399
and I was like, "what's 'Tomb Raider?'"
and he said,
331
00:26:02,423 --> 00:26:04,229
"oh, that's just like a game, you know?
332
00:26:04,253 --> 00:26:05,487
There's lots of different games."
333
00:26:05,511 --> 00:26:09,431
I said, "oh there's different ones?"
Like, I didn't know anything about it.
334
00:26:09,455 --> 00:26:13,412
They were playing "Doom,"
which is a different game,
335
00:26:13,436 --> 00:26:15,913
but I guess you couldn't find "Doom"
on the computer
336
00:26:16,843 --> 00:26:21,314
so I started playing "Tomb Raider"
and became very, you know, amused by it,
337
00:26:20,184 --> 00:26:28,929
and occupied by it in the way people
do become occupied by video games.
338
00:26:28,954 --> 00:26:33,070
And so the video games
were also informing.
339
00:26:33,072 --> 00:26:36,566
Video games are often doing
what we were doing in "Gerry."
340
00:26:36,591 --> 00:26:40,277
To get from point a to point b
you have to actually travel there.
341
00:26:40,283 --> 00:26:42,701
You can't cut like in cinema.
342
00:26:42,726 --> 00:26:44,302
You cut to the new location.
343
00:26:44,304 --> 00:26:46,394
You actually, like, walk.
344
00:26:46,396 --> 00:26:49,485
Like in reality.
345
00:26:55,986 --> 00:27:01,019
Because of that I started thinking
about like, cinema like that.
346
00:27:06,347 --> 00:27:09,929
And if the influences on Van Sant
weren't already rich enough,
347
00:27:09,953 --> 00:27:13,634
he then saw the brilliant
Hungarian films of B�la Tarr.
348
00:27:14,232 --> 00:27:17,497
Tarr's S�t�ntang� shows the beauty
of walking too,
349
00:27:17,521 --> 00:27:22,066
the epic forward camera moves,
and the expressionism of blowing litter.
350
00:27:27,023 --> 00:27:30,709
Compare this
to Van Sant's film, Gerry.
351
00:27:38,485 --> 00:27:40,628
But this obsession
with the beauty of walking,
352
00:27:40,653 --> 00:27:44,453
moving through space in real time,
couldn't be applied to another
353
00:27:44,477 --> 00:27:47,062
Van Sant film, Last Days,
354
00:27:47,086 --> 00:27:50,663
which was inspired by the death
of rock star Kurt Cobain.
355
00:27:50,687 --> 00:27:59,164
We had made "Elephant", which
was very long, pensive, travelling shots
356
00:27:59,188 --> 00:28:05,355
down the hallways of the high-school,
that recalled B�la's work.
357
00:28:05,380 --> 00:28:10,505
And we had... Now we're in a house
which had no expansive hallways.
358
00:28:10,529 --> 00:28:14,488
And so our DP, sort of like thought
of "Jeanne Dielman" and thought
359
00:28:14,512 --> 00:28:18,842
maybe we should think in terms
of that rather than travelling shots.
360
00:28:18,867 --> 00:28:21,690
Maybe, you know,
maybe more fixed shots which we did.
361
00:28:22,690 --> 00:28:25,808
Jeanne Dielman
is full of such fixed shots.
362
00:28:25,831 --> 00:28:28,921
It's this Belgian film by
Chantal Akerman.
363
00:28:28,946 --> 00:28:34,216
Akerman films square on,
in kitchens and domestic settings.
364
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:39,041
Some of the shots of the rock star
in Last Days are remarkably similar.
365
00:29:02,518 --> 00:29:05,159
- "Jeanne Dielman" is one
of my favorite films
366
00:29:05,184 --> 00:29:07,291
and, in fact, in this documentary that
we're making, in our section on Ozu...
367
00:29:07,315 --> 00:29:08,310
- Right, right.
368
00:29:08,335 --> 00:29:10,168
We put in a bit of Dielman
because the camera is as low as in Ozu.
369
00:29:10,193 --> 00:29:10,569
Yeah.
370
00:29:10,594 --> 00:29:17,311
Ozu was also on our minds,
and because of the...
371
00:29:17,335 --> 00:29:20,264
Where you have your camera
now, I mean, it was,
372
00:29:20,288 --> 00:29:24,111
you know, however many...
30 inches off the ground.
373
00:29:24,135 --> 00:29:29,047
I think it was, like,
a 40-millimeter lens, and so, yeah.
374
00:29:29,071 --> 00:29:32,683
We always had it like,
you know, 36 inches off the ground
375
00:29:32,708 --> 00:29:37,108
and it was always
a 35-millimeter lens.
376
00:29:37,132 --> 00:29:41,461
But not even Van Sant's close reworking
of Ozu and European cinema
377
00:29:41,485 --> 00:29:46,407
prepared us for this shot for shot remake
of Alfred Hitchcock's film, Psycho.
378
00:29:47,267 --> 00:29:49,671
The original was based
on a true story.
379
00:29:49,695 --> 00:29:52,029
The remake was based on a film.
380
00:29:52,593 --> 00:29:55,945
Anne Heche was playing
not so much a real person,
381
00:29:55,970 --> 00:29:58,777
as a movie star
playing a real person.
382
00:29:58,801 --> 00:30:02,023
Welcome to the first days
of digital.
383
00:30:23,674 --> 00:30:28,936
Van Sant's movie departed from the original
only in tiny details, such as here,
384
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:34,400
where he inserts unexpected shots of clouds
into the famous shower sequence.
385
00:30:41,375 --> 00:30:47,523
At the moment of death,
Van Sant's woman's pupil dilates.
386
00:31:07,646 --> 00:31:10,777
And in the '90s
you could show more nudity.
387
00:31:35,948 --> 00:31:40,017
Van Sant couldn't quite keep
his instinctive surrealism in check
388
00:31:40,042 --> 00:31:44,273
but, strangely, thinks his film
is very different from Hitchcock's.
389
00:31:44,283 --> 00:31:46,881
The intentions of the movie
was to see what would happen
390
00:31:46,905 --> 00:31:49,539
if you tried to, you know,
literally do the same thing.
391
00:31:49,657 --> 00:31:52,144
What did happen, and,
what I learned from it,
392
00:31:52,169 --> 00:31:56,487
was that even though
your camera angles are actually the same,
393
00:31:56,512 --> 00:32:02,055
the performances are close,
but the kind of intentions of the filmmaker
394
00:32:02,079 --> 00:32:04,767
and the soul
of the filmmaker is different.
395
00:32:04,792 --> 00:32:07,172
My "Psycho" became devoid of
396
00:32:07,197 --> 00:32:10,055
like some of the most important things
that were in the original
397
00:32:10,079 --> 00:32:16,167
which were these sort of dark,
underlying tensions.
398
00:32:16,192 --> 00:32:18,351
You know, in mine, it's...
399
00:32:18,376 --> 00:32:20,927
the dark underlying tensions
are kind of, like, not there.
400
00:32:20,952 --> 00:32:24,343
There's something else there
that doesn't really fit
401
00:32:24,367 --> 00:32:28,196
with what "Psycho" is,
so it kind of became a, you know,
402
00:32:28,220 --> 00:32:32,452
an example of like how you
can't really copy something.
403
00:32:32,476 --> 00:32:38,718
I think that... I think it's just
the way that I've been,
404
00:32:38,742 --> 00:32:45,113
you know, creating and relating
to film, structurally.
405
00:32:45,137 --> 00:32:51,832
As being a language all its own
406
00:32:51,857 --> 00:32:59,209
and being basically, the language itself,
being what the film is about, you know.
407
00:32:59,234 --> 00:33:01,188
What films are generally about.
408
00:33:01,212 --> 00:33:08,829
They can have subjects but in the end it's
the language that's the true subject.
409
00:33:11,781 --> 00:33:15,632
Jump from Gus Van Sant to this man
in the first days of digital,
410
00:33:15,656 --> 00:33:20,889
and you find someone pushing cinema
even further in the direction of art and ideas.
411
00:33:20,913 --> 00:33:24,705
The New York times called him,
"the greatest artist of his generation."
412
00:33:25,008 --> 00:33:27,179
Matthew Barney
used to be a sportsman.
413
00:33:27,203 --> 00:33:29,474
And just like sportsmen
work up a sweat,
414
00:33:29,498 --> 00:33:34,399
building their bodies, so Barney works
up a sweat making his films.
415
00:33:34,423 --> 00:33:37,523
Here he is doing something
like indoor rock climbing.
416
00:33:37,525 --> 00:33:39,416
But this is no ordinary scene.
417
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,390
Barney's playing a character.
418
00:33:41,414 --> 00:33:44,724
An apprentice-artist,
working hard at his art.
419
00:33:44,748 --> 00:33:47,928
The film's called Cremaster,
after the cremaster muscle
420
00:33:47,953 --> 00:33:51,214
that makes
human testicles rise and fall.
421
00:33:51,238 --> 00:33:54,859
Barney rises,
but other things fall.
422
00:33:57,821 --> 00:34:00,695
And we're in the Guggenheim museum
in New York.
423
00:34:00,719 --> 00:34:04,123
In Barney's film,
it represents a human vagina,
424
00:34:04,147 --> 00:34:08,018
and New York's Chrysler
building represents a penis.
425
00:34:08,042 --> 00:34:12,063
Barney is dressed in Scottish tartan
because in 1992,
426
00:34:12,087 --> 00:34:15,564
he did a drawing of a bagpipe
with five pipes,
427
00:34:15,588 --> 00:34:19,045
each representing a place
where he would film.
428
00:34:19,069 --> 00:34:21,133
One of the places was New York.
429
00:34:21,157 --> 00:34:23,896
That's why we're here.
430
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,322
Maybe this makes the film
sound overloaded with symbolism
431
00:34:27,346 --> 00:34:31,541
but it has the beauty and determination
of this silent comedy,
432
00:34:31,565 --> 00:34:34,462
in which Harold Lloyd
climbs a building.
433
00:34:34,486 --> 00:34:37,079
Lloyd encounters obstacles too.
434
00:34:37,103 --> 00:34:42,605
His climb is a vertical storyline
of little incidents, like Barney's.
435
00:34:52,656 --> 00:34:55,632
Now Barney's apprentice has reached
the top of the Guggenheim,
436
00:34:55,656 --> 00:34:59,806
where we encounter his master,
the sculptor, Richard Serra.
437
00:34:59,831 --> 00:35:02,103
In dark clothes here,
438
00:35:02,150 --> 00:35:04,386
who's melting vaseline
which will trickle down
439
00:35:04,410 --> 00:35:06,214
the corkscrew of the building.
440
00:35:06,238 --> 00:35:08,134
Rise and fall.
441
00:35:08,158 --> 00:35:11,880
Barney the surrealist loves
the texture of vaseline.
442
00:35:25,062 --> 00:35:30,742
On lower levels we glimpse a punk band
who've impeded Barney's climb.
443
00:35:30,766 --> 00:35:35,472
The first days of digital were full of films
referring to other movies and ideas,
444
00:35:35,497 --> 00:35:38,760
but few looked from such
a great height as Barney's.
445
00:35:39,253 --> 00:35:41,407
There are five cremaster films.
446
00:35:41,409 --> 00:35:45,272
They're a movie world
all of their own.
447
00:35:56,405 --> 00:35:58,852
The coming of digital
and postmodernism in cinema
448
00:35:58,876 --> 00:36:03,116
made America in the '90s
fizz like lemonade,
449
00:36:03,140 --> 00:36:06,363
but the movies of the times
were innovative in another way.
450
00:36:06,387 --> 00:36:08,069
Through satire.
451
00:36:08,663 --> 00:36:11,766
Two of the ballsiest satires
of the late '80s and '90s
452
00:36:11,790 --> 00:36:16,557
were directed by Paul Verhoeven
and written by this man, Ed Neumeier,
453
00:36:16,581 --> 00:36:18,903
who's as hyperactive
and as full of ideas
454
00:36:18,928 --> 00:36:21,479
as his films, and his times.
455
00:36:21,502 --> 00:36:24,366
Their first collaboration
was Robocop.
456
00:36:24,391 --> 00:36:28,645
It was certainly a reaction
to what was in the Reagan era,
457
00:36:28,647 --> 00:36:31,642
particularly though...
it was a reaction to...
458
00:36:31,667 --> 00:36:35,520
There was in the '80s,
there was a period where businessmen...
459
00:36:35,545 --> 00:36:39,626
Japan was on the rise,
and businessmen started kind of reading
460
00:36:39,651 --> 00:36:42,732
those samurai books and talking
about themselves as killers.
461
00:36:42,757 --> 00:36:46,892
And so there was this notion
of trying to bring actual violence
462
00:36:46,917 --> 00:36:48,691
into the boardroom, as it were.
463
00:36:48,674 --> 00:36:51,110
That was part of the idea.
464
00:36:51,134 --> 00:36:55,258
You now have 15 seconds
to comply.
465
00:36:55,282 --> 00:36:59,137
Businessmen want to make money
by launching this new police robot.
466
00:36:59,161 --> 00:37:01,322
It roars like a lion.
467
00:37:01,346 --> 00:37:03,735
We're in a typical
power boardroom.
468
00:37:03,759 --> 00:37:04,896
Fast cutting.
469
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,850
Steely blue colors.
470
00:37:07,392 --> 00:37:10,834
I am now authorized
to use physical force.
471
00:37:23,604 --> 00:37:26,522
I had a theory,
which is not an original theory,
472
00:37:26,546 --> 00:37:30,001
that if you did something very violent
in a movie and then you told a joke,
473
00:37:30,025 --> 00:37:31,417
that you would use...
474
00:37:31,441 --> 00:37:34,400
The tension of the violence
would come out in the laugh.
475
00:37:34,507 --> 00:37:37,421
Can you pull the plug
on this thing?
476
00:37:37,445 --> 00:37:39,727
Don't touch him!
477
00:37:39,751 --> 00:37:41,963
Don't touch him!
478
00:37:41,987 --> 00:37:46,004
He didn't hear it!
479
00:37:46,028 --> 00:37:50,121
Dick, I'm very disappointed.
480
00:37:50,145 --> 00:37:51,727
I'm sure it's only a glitch.
481
00:37:51,751 --> 00:37:53,086
A temporary setback.
482
00:37:53,110 --> 00:37:55,240
You call this a glitch!?
483
00:37:55,821 --> 00:37:58,627
But the businessmen try again
and come up
484
00:37:58,651 --> 00:38:01,526
with a more liberal
policing machine this time,
485
00:38:01,550 --> 00:38:04,650
a dead cop brought back
to life as Robocop.
486
00:38:04,674 --> 00:38:06,998
What their parents only read
about in comic books.
487
00:38:07,022 --> 00:38:08,190
Robo!
Excuse me, robo!
488
00:38:08,214 --> 00:38:12,593
Any special message
for all the kids watching at home?
489
00:38:12,618 --> 00:38:13,820
Stay out of trouble.
490
00:38:13,845 --> 00:38:17,723
Neumeier wrote scenes
that mocked the happy talk of TV news,
491
00:38:17,747 --> 00:38:20,392
the kind of satirical writing
that we saw in films
492
00:38:20,416 --> 00:38:24,166
like The Graduate
and Catch 22, written by Buck Henry.
493
00:38:24,190 --> 00:38:27,907
I think that people like Buck Henry
were luckier because
494
00:38:27,932 --> 00:38:31,069
they were working at a time
where you could be a little bit more free
495
00:38:31,093 --> 00:38:35,635
about making those kinds of comments
and being overtly satirical.
496
00:38:36,685 --> 00:38:40,596
We've also moved into an era
of marketing
497
00:38:40,620 --> 00:38:43,044
and sort of the corporate
blockbuster era
498
00:38:43,068 --> 00:38:46,162
where they're really going
for the widest possible audience.
499
00:38:46,163 --> 00:38:49,420
They want what they call "four quadrants,"
they want everybody to like the picture
500
00:38:49,445 --> 00:38:51,199
and they want them to like it
all over the world,
501
00:38:51,223 --> 00:38:53,488
almost regardless of culture.
502
00:38:56,624 --> 00:38:58,539
Ten years after Robocop,
503
00:38:58,563 --> 00:39:02,523
Neumeier penned this even
more satirical postmodern film,
504
00:39:02,548 --> 00:39:05,316
which was based
on a rabidly right-wing novel
505
00:39:05,340 --> 00:39:08,959
about the threat
to humans by alien bugs.
506
00:39:12,288 --> 00:39:15,451
The battle scenes were
as exciting as Star Wars.
507
00:39:15,475 --> 00:39:18,563
The bugs were
entirely computer generated.
508
00:39:22,468 --> 00:39:27,170
The look was bright and shiny,
the sound track was explosive.
509
00:39:34,567 --> 00:39:37,925
That scene where Johnny walks in,
Johnny Rico walks in
510
00:39:37,949 --> 00:39:43,970
to the brain bug cavern
and confronts the brain bug, is, you know,
511
00:39:43,994 --> 00:39:48,322
that's every American,
maybe not just American,
512
00:39:48,346 --> 00:39:51,328
but that's every soldier
in the world coming in saying,
513
00:39:51,352 --> 00:39:54,565
"yeah, you may be smart,
but I got a gun," you know?
514
00:39:54,589 --> 00:39:57,530
And "now who's smart?"
515
00:39:58,776 --> 00:40:02,823
Do you know what this is?
516
00:40:02,848 --> 00:40:04,832
Sure you do.
517
00:40:04,856 --> 00:40:10,284
You're some kind of big, fat,
smart bug aren't you?
518
00:40:10,286 --> 00:40:12,461
But the politics
of Starship Troopers
519
00:40:12,485 --> 00:40:15,424
went deeper than making fun
of macho soldiers
520
00:40:15,448 --> 00:40:17,800
and came from a surprising source.
521
00:40:17,824 --> 00:40:22,239
Paul said, �oh I've always
wanted to make this movie set
522
00:40:22,264 --> 00:40:26,537
in Germany in 1935
and it's about a bunch of teenagers.
523
00:40:26,561 --> 00:40:31,043
And they're all coming into their life,
and its exciting time,
524
00:40:31,068 --> 00:40:34,639
and things are happening in the country,
and everybody's joining the Nazi party.�
525
00:40:34,664 --> 00:40:38,112
And the thing that he thought,
that what was amusing to him
526
00:40:38,137 --> 00:40:40,442
was he said,
�and nobody knew it was wrong.�
527
00:40:40,466 --> 00:40:42,909
And I said to him, "oh, they'll
never let us do that!"
528
00:40:42,933 --> 00:40:47,858
In Hollywood, a real story
about 1935 Nazi Germany, you know.
529
00:40:47,883 --> 00:40:50,929
Young Nazi's who before
they know they're bad.
530
00:40:50,931 --> 00:40:53,044
But that's
where Starship came in.
531
00:40:53,069 --> 00:40:57,654
It's about, oh, I guess,
it was about 5 years later I thought,
532
00:40:57,656 --> 00:40:59,806
�oh, you could do that with this.�
533
00:41:01,689 --> 00:41:03,062
Officer on deck.
534
00:41:03,064 --> 00:41:04,998
Carry on.
535
00:41:05,023 --> 00:41:06,954
Varial detail.
536
00:41:06,956 --> 00:41:07,474
Dismissed.
537
00:41:07,498 --> 00:41:09,421
I think some people
consider it camp.
538
00:41:09,445 --> 00:41:12,400
And what Paul and I
decided to do was
539
00:41:12,433 --> 00:41:14,570
we decided not to tell anybody
what we were doing.
540
00:41:14,594 --> 00:41:17,089
We decided never, ever let on,
"oh yeah, these are the bad guys,
541
00:41:17,114 --> 00:41:19,380
these are the good guys,"
whatever.
542
00:41:19,404 --> 00:41:21,634
We just played it straight
down the middle.
543
00:41:21,658 --> 00:41:24,517
We sort of tip our hand
in the third act
544
00:41:24,542 --> 00:41:27,467
where Neil Patrick Harris comes
out in a Nazi uniform.
545
00:41:27,491 --> 00:41:30,435
And that was a bit
of a controversial decision
546
00:41:30,459 --> 00:41:34,303
because originally you were supposed
to understand that through his speech only.
547
00:41:34,327 --> 00:41:36,339
He makes a speech
about numbers and this and that
548
00:41:36,364 --> 00:41:37,737
and "i have to kill
people every day."
549
00:41:37,761 --> 00:41:39,339
It's a very fascistic idea.
550
00:41:40,609 --> 00:41:42,022
You don't approve?
551
00:41:42,046 --> 00:41:43,587
Well too bad.
552
00:41:43,611 --> 00:41:45,871
We're in this for the species,
boys and girls.
553
00:41:45,895 --> 00:41:46,818
It's simple numbers.
554
00:41:46,842 --> 00:41:47,859
They have more.
555
00:41:47,883 --> 00:41:49,792
And every day I have
to make decisions
556
00:41:49,816 --> 00:41:52,409
that send hundreds of people
like you to their deaths.
557
00:41:52,433 --> 00:41:54,827
Didn't they tell you, colonel?
558
00:41:54,851 --> 00:41:56,681
That's what
the mobile infantry's good for.
559
00:41:57,134 --> 00:41:59,962
Later I think we both decided
that that was,
560
00:41:59,986 --> 00:42:03,056
to make sure you got it,
that that was really the moment.
561
00:42:03,057 --> 00:42:05,154
And I think the audience
doesn't like that moment.
562
00:42:05,179 --> 00:42:07,916
I remember being in a preview
with...
563
00:42:07,940 --> 00:42:11,897
In the bathroom afterwards
when all these young men were coming in,
564
00:42:11,921 --> 00:42:14,250
they'd seen the picture
and they were kind of upset
565
00:42:14,273 --> 00:42:17,357
because this was a picture
they wanted to embrace
566
00:42:17,382 --> 00:42:22,482
but something in that ending had said,
no, maybe these aren't your heroes
567
00:42:22,506 --> 00:42:25,218
or maybe there's something...
I think it put a little bit of doubt
568
00:42:25,243 --> 00:42:27,658
into them about it or something like that.
I don't know.
569
00:42:27,979 --> 00:42:29,166
Whatcha thinking, colonel?
570
00:42:29,506 --> 00:42:33,774
This is the ending that Neumeier mentions,
filmed in golden hues.
571
00:42:33,798 --> 00:42:35,568
The enemy is humiliated.
572
00:42:35,593 --> 00:42:36,842
Tied up.
573
00:42:36,844 --> 00:42:39,741
It has a doleful look.
574
00:42:46,795 --> 00:42:48,445
It's afraid.
575
00:42:49,521 --> 00:42:52,269
It's afraid!
576
00:42:52,742 --> 00:42:55,559
Triumphal music begins to play.
577
00:42:57,877 --> 00:43:00,861
Science fiction particularly
allows you to do things politically
578
00:43:00,885 --> 00:43:01,800
that you wouldn't do...
579
00:43:01,824 --> 00:43:04,604
That might not be accepted
as easily if you did them straight
580
00:43:04,627 --> 00:43:07,468
because it's not here,
it's slightly over here.
581
00:43:07,493 --> 00:43:10,043
It's a little bit skewed
and I think humor does the same thing.
582
00:43:10,068 --> 00:43:12,306
And if you add them together
in the right way
583
00:43:12,330 --> 00:43:16,288
then you can probably get away
with murder if you want.
584
00:43:17,107 --> 00:43:20,706
Neumeier and Verhoeven combine
science fiction and politics
585
00:43:20,730 --> 00:43:25,324
to create the spiciest entertainment
cinema of their times.
586
00:43:30,678 --> 00:43:33,826
On the other side of the world
from America in the '90s,
587
00:43:33,850 --> 00:43:38,887
in Australia and New Zealand, at first
it looks like the big trends of the time,
588
00:43:38,912 --> 00:43:44,400
digital, post modernism,
and satire, were having no impact.
589
00:43:44,424 --> 00:43:46,944
This New Zealand director,
Jane Campion,
590
00:43:46,968 --> 00:43:50,304
emphasizes one of the timeless themes
in the story of film,
591
00:43:50,327 --> 00:43:55,427
that to make great movies you must
get your unconscious juices flowing.
592
00:43:55,452 --> 00:43:59,502
The unconscious mind is
a little bit like a quite shy pet.
593
00:43:59,526 --> 00:44:05,140
And you have to set conditions
where it trusts
594
00:44:05,164 --> 00:44:08,751
that if it comes out and plays
you'll feed it, you'll pay attention to it,
595
00:44:08,776 --> 00:44:11,975
you won't ignore it,
you won't scare it.
596
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:17,250
So, like, when I first started writing,
one of the things that I realized
597
00:44:17,275 --> 00:44:19,459
was that, you know, like,
for the first, like,
598
00:44:19,483 --> 00:44:25,254
3 hours when you sit down to something,
you know, nothing really happens.
599
00:44:25,278 --> 00:44:28,848
It's like it's testing you:
Will you stay for that fourth hour?
600
00:44:28,872 --> 00:44:31,949
I always thought...
I always think, you have to create
601
00:44:31,973 --> 00:44:34,628
a very safe environment,
you know, personally for yourself.
602
00:44:34,653 --> 00:44:39,882
And also, I think, when you collaborate
with actors and people like that too.
603
00:44:39,907 --> 00:44:42,950
Their unconscious selves,
you know, which you want to get into play
604
00:44:42,975 --> 00:44:45,066
because that's where the genius is.
605
00:44:45,090 --> 00:44:49,330
It's also shy, it's when
you know it's going to be safe.
606
00:44:49,354 --> 00:44:51,079
Once all the signs, you know?
607
00:44:51,103 --> 00:44:52,854
That, you can make mistakes,
it doesn't matter,
608
00:44:52,878 --> 00:44:55,279
you can be a fool,
it doesn't matter.
609
00:44:55,303 --> 00:44:58,463
We're here to play really.
You know?
610
00:45:00,709 --> 00:45:03,272
Campion's great film
An Angel at my Table,
611
00:45:03,296 --> 00:45:05,325
is about this very thing.
612
00:45:05,349 --> 00:45:08,587
A shy young woman
with a lively unconscious mind,
613
00:45:08,611 --> 00:45:12,174
Janet Frame,
doesn't feel safe in the world.
614
00:45:12,198 --> 00:45:14,311
Frame's training
to be a teacher.
615
00:45:14,335 --> 00:45:18,520
The whole class is looking,
and so is the training assessor.
616
00:45:23,580 --> 00:45:27,413
In this moment, Frame freezes,
has a panic attack.
617
00:45:27,437 --> 00:45:32,557
Campion and actress, Kerry Fox,
focused the scene on a piece of chalk.
618
00:45:32,581 --> 00:45:35,126
Campion has it filmed
in close-up.
619
00:45:47,427 --> 00:45:50,301
I didn't know why, "that will work",
that's what I thought, "that will work."
620
00:45:50,326 --> 00:45:51,833
I was looking for something,
you know.
621
00:45:51,858 --> 00:45:53,586
I have to admit that when I
was doing that I was going:
622
00:45:53,610 --> 00:45:55,391
"Well what's going
to make her turn," you know?
623
00:45:55,415 --> 00:45:57,882
How can we visually
kind of do something with it?
624
00:45:58,257 --> 00:46:04,714
And then just the idea
that I guess her world
625
00:46:04,738 --> 00:46:08,152
kind of crunched
into that piece of chalk.
626
00:46:14,091 --> 00:46:16,796
I like to be able to say,
"look, I'm really, "
627
00:46:16,820 --> 00:46:21,487
if I need to, " I'm confused
about what to do next."
628
00:46:21,511 --> 00:46:25,310
You know, I'm not really sure we've got
this scene or I'm not feeling the drama.
629
00:46:25,335 --> 00:46:27,645
It's all about a feeling for me,
again, you know.
630
00:46:27,669 --> 00:46:30,563
If I'm feeling it through my body,
I can feel it if it's happening
631
00:46:30,587 --> 00:46:33,819
and if it's not you have to say
something, because you can't pretend.
632
00:46:33,843 --> 00:46:34,431
You know?
633
00:46:34,456 --> 00:46:37,358
You've got to kind
of explore it.
634
00:46:37,382 --> 00:46:41,484
I think one of the things
I believe is that you have to be
635
00:46:41,509 --> 00:46:44,919
strong about vulnerability,
you know, like, stand up for it.
636
00:46:44,943 --> 00:46:48,007
And stand up for gentleness
and softness
637
00:46:48,031 --> 00:46:52,887
'cause I think they're
really powerful qualities.
638
00:46:52,911 --> 00:46:57,321
And...'Cause I think, you know,
the so called "bluff leadership"
639
00:46:57,345 --> 00:47:00,997
qualities of you know,
megaphone type voice on set,
640
00:47:01,021 --> 00:47:06,363
isn't really helpful when it comes for,
you know, actors feeling anxious and nervous
641
00:47:06,386 --> 00:47:11,236
and trying to make themselves vulnerable
because they're trying to find their channel too.
642
00:47:11,261 --> 00:47:13,433
You know, trust their instrument
and if they,
643
00:47:13,457 --> 00:47:16,690
"everybody! Okay! One, two, three. Off you
go, argh, argh, argh." You know?
644
00:47:16,714 --> 00:47:18,575
It doesn't respond.
645
00:47:18,599 --> 00:47:26,802
So I always try to create a really
relaxing and forgiving atmosphere.
646
00:47:34,195 --> 00:47:38,118
Campion's film, The Piano,
used very subjective images and sounds
647
00:47:38,142 --> 00:47:41,741
to suggest the inner world
of a girl who's growing up.
648
00:47:42,176 --> 00:47:44,460
Here the child is looking
through her fingers.
649
00:47:44,462 --> 00:47:48,463
They look like red curtains
about to open onto life.
650
00:47:51,058 --> 00:47:55,133
The voice you hear
is not my speaking voice.
651
00:47:55,157 --> 00:47:57,854
But my mind's voice.
652
00:48:01,452 --> 00:48:04,252
I have not spoken
since I was 6 years old.
653
00:48:05,956 --> 00:48:09,820
No one knows why.
Not even me.
654
00:48:13,231 --> 00:48:15,731
The Piano is the only film
directed by a woman
655
00:48:15,755 --> 00:48:18,827
to win the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes film festival.
656
00:48:19,247 --> 00:48:23,150
The majority of, and the highest paid,
screenwriters in early Hollywood
657
00:48:23,174 --> 00:48:27,323
were women, but then
filmmaking became more male.
658
00:48:27,743 --> 00:48:32,344
Women make up about 50%
of the whole world,
659
00:48:32,368 --> 00:48:40,080
but there's only about 3%
of women who are directors
660
00:48:40,104 --> 00:48:44,619
or are actually
probably selecting content.
661
00:48:44,643 --> 00:48:48,759
And, you know, it just seems to
me really sad that...
662
00:48:48,783 --> 00:48:52,529
Because women's, I think, interests
are a lot more, a lot different
663
00:48:52,553 --> 00:48:59,679
than male interests in large, you know,
they're, I think, they're a lot more nurturing.
664
00:48:59,703 --> 00:49:02,381
They're much more orientated
to connection.
665
00:49:02,405 --> 00:49:05,950
And male interests are much more
interested in, sort of, building,
666
00:49:05,974 --> 00:49:09,222
identifying their, sort of,
blustering egos or whatever.
667
00:49:09,246 --> 00:49:14,072
Bombing things, blowing things up, being
strong men, Spiderman or whatever, you know?
668
00:49:14,096 --> 00:49:16,471
Which I don't think women do
and I think, you know,
669
00:49:16,495 --> 00:49:19,264
what's important is to try
and not change the guys.
670
00:49:19,288 --> 00:49:21,064
I mean, I think it's fun
what they do but to,
671
00:49:21,088 --> 00:49:24,839
sort of, get the balance, you
know, have what women do.
672
00:49:24,864 --> 00:49:28,777
But because most of the men
run the business I think that's...
673
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,259
They understand or identify much
better with what the male interests.
674
00:49:32,284 --> 00:49:38,841
But the audience is actually
probably more identifiably female.
675
00:49:38,865 --> 00:49:41,504
Sometimes one of the great
betrayals of the female
676
00:49:41,528 --> 00:49:44,979
is that they want to see
themselves through male eyes.
677
00:49:45,003 --> 00:49:47,740
So they're very interested in
what men do too.
678
00:49:54,605 --> 00:49:58,171
If Jane Campion was the Ingmar Bergman
of Australasian cinema,
679
00:49:58,195 --> 00:50:00,932
making films about
intense human psychology,
680
00:50:00,957 --> 00:50:05,181
this man, Baz Luhrmann was
its flamboyant Vincent Minnelli.
681
00:50:13,333 --> 00:50:16,290
Campion's films could have been made
in the 1920s
682
00:50:16,314 --> 00:50:20,832
but Luhrmann's bring us
carousing back into the postmodern '90s.
683
00:50:21,051 --> 00:50:24,789
Baz Luhrmann defined
the first days of digital.
684
00:50:24,813 --> 00:50:28,202
Like the man himself,
his films are a meteor shower
685
00:50:28,227 --> 00:50:31,889
of references to everything
from Shakespeare to Bollywood.
686
00:50:31,913 --> 00:50:35,188
Shakespeare and Bollywood cinema
had something in common
687
00:50:35,212 --> 00:50:40,284
and what they had in common
was the blindness to taste
688
00:50:40,309 --> 00:50:46,218
or style or any of those imposed...
Posed ideals about art.
689
00:50:46,242 --> 00:50:50,199
What they were singularly focused on
was the engagement
690
00:50:50,223 --> 00:50:55,712
of as many human beings as possible,
from as many types of humanity,
691
00:50:55,736 --> 00:50:59,157
to be moved
and touched by story.
692
00:50:59,181 --> 00:51:03,832
To deliver a big idea, a big idea
through an emotional experience.
693
00:51:04,943 --> 00:51:07,491
Luhrmann used
these all-encompassing ideas
694
00:51:07,515 --> 00:51:11,970
about emotion and art,
what he called participatory cinema,
695
00:51:11,994 --> 00:51:14,646
to make one of the key films
of the '90s,
696
00:51:14,670 --> 00:51:18,485
his hyperactive version of
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
697
00:51:18,509 --> 00:51:24,034
Captions, fireworks,
splintered edits, flash forwards, choirs.
698
00:51:30,421 --> 00:51:32,768
A dog of the house of Capulet!
699
00:51:32,792 --> 00:51:36,928
Shakespeare starts "Romeo and Juliet'
with very broad, high comedy.
700
00:51:36,952 --> 00:51:38,686
You know?
Standup routine, really.
701
00:51:38,710 --> 00:51:40,782
You know?
Almost addressed to camera.
702
00:51:40,805 --> 00:51:44,909
You know? But it had to be broad,
it had to be fun, it had to be standup.
703
00:51:44,934 --> 00:51:47,132
Right? To engage the audience,
to disarm all of them,
704
00:51:47,156 --> 00:51:50,805
before he suddenly goes:
Enter the romantic lead.
705
00:51:51,388 --> 00:51:52,521
Romeo.
706
00:51:53,784 --> 00:51:58,572
Leonardo DiCaprio, back lit,
at sunrise, long lens.
707
00:52:02,024 --> 00:52:05,039
In the text the boys meet
in the town square.
708
00:52:05,064 --> 00:52:07,596
We're now transporting
"Romeo and Juliet"
709
00:52:07,620 --> 00:52:10,327
to a contemporary world
that is Miami life,
710
00:52:10,351 --> 00:52:12,548
where religion and politics
are mixed up with each other.
711
00:52:12,573 --> 00:52:16,633
There is no town square
in an American contemporary city.
712
00:52:16,635 --> 00:52:18,274
But there is a gas station.
713
00:52:18,276 --> 00:52:21,507
Because everybody, they don't ride horses,
they drive in trucks and cars.
714
00:52:21,532 --> 00:52:23,390
Where do those cars meet?
At the gas station.
715
00:52:23,392 --> 00:52:25,611
Where is the town square?
The gas station.
716
00:52:25,613 --> 00:52:29,353
What if we ironically quote
the world of cinema?
717
00:52:29,378 --> 00:52:33,361
What if it is like a Sergio Leone,
you know, piece of cinema?
718
00:52:33,386 --> 00:52:35,410
And what if it's like a western?
719
00:52:35,435 --> 00:52:35,909
Right?
720
00:52:35,910 --> 00:52:37,518
That would be a good way
of doing that.
721
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:45,141
Sergio Leone shootout meets the town
square gas station in high comedy style.
722
00:52:45,165 --> 00:52:47,242
Whether you think
we've done it well or not,
723
00:52:47,266 --> 00:52:50,016
if you look at that sequence
I think you can see
724
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:55,058
that that set of choices
has at least led to that result.
725
00:52:55,082 --> 00:52:57,821
Whether you agree with it or not,
that's how we got there.
726
00:52:57,845 --> 00:53:02,426
I will bite my thumb at them
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
727
00:53:08,179 --> 00:53:10,948
Shakespeare's exact comic dialogue.
728
00:53:10,972 --> 00:53:13,867
But his swords are guns here.
729
00:53:19,924 --> 00:53:23,664
And knights have become
street kids in Hawaiian shirts.
730
00:53:23,666 --> 00:53:24,630
I do bite my thumb, sir.
731
00:53:24,632 --> 00:53:27,086
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
732
00:53:27,110 --> 00:53:28,806
Is the law of our side,
if I say aye?
733
00:53:28,830 --> 00:53:29,542
No.
734
00:53:29,566 --> 00:53:32,687
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,
sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
735
00:53:32,711 --> 00:53:33,543
Do you quarrel, sir?
736
00:53:33,567 --> 00:53:34,768
Quarrel, sir!
737
00:53:34,792 --> 00:53:35,578
No, sir.
738
00:53:35,602 --> 00:53:38,559
But if you do, sir, I am for you:
I serve as good a man as you.
739
00:53:38,591 --> 00:53:39,468
No better?
740
00:53:40,226 --> 00:53:43,072
A Sergio Leone gunfight shot
in close-up.
741
00:53:43,096 --> 00:53:45,352
A track in.
742
00:53:45,377 --> 00:53:47,313
Draw, if you be men!
743
00:53:49,969 --> 00:53:50,737
Part, fools!
744
00:53:50,762 --> 00:53:52,313
You know not what you do.
745
00:53:52,401 --> 00:53:57,377
A Leone widescreen composition
and the pan pipe music from his films.
746
00:53:59,322 --> 00:54:02,429
One of Luhrmann's biggest challenges
in the film was how to stage,
747
00:54:02,453 --> 00:54:04,885
in an innovative way,
the famous scene
748
00:54:04,909 --> 00:54:07,938
where Romeo and Juliet
meet for the first time.
749
00:54:09,011 --> 00:54:12,776
The audience know
this is going to happen.
750
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:19,676
How can it happen a way
in which their delicious expectation
751
00:54:19,701 --> 00:54:22,370
and enjoyment of,
"it's going to happen,"
752
00:54:22,394 --> 00:54:24,851
can be suspended so that,
when it happens,
753
00:54:24,875 --> 00:54:29,122
it's a surprise that they knew
was going to happen.
754
00:54:29,357 --> 00:54:30,750
It was so perplexing.
755
00:54:30,773 --> 00:54:33,933
We were in Miami
and this is, I suppose,
756
00:54:33,958 --> 00:54:37,774
the spontaneous,
artistic, creative bit of it.
757
00:54:40,006 --> 00:54:44,153
That night we went out to dinner
and there was a nightclub.
758
00:54:44,177 --> 00:54:46,403
What happened was
I went to the bathroom.
759
00:54:46,427 --> 00:54:48,228
And I was thinking
about the problem.
760
00:54:48,252 --> 00:54:49,769
I go into the bathroom,
I'm thinking about the problem,
761
00:54:49,793 --> 00:54:55,966
and as I am down washing my hands I look
up and can see a girl's hair.
762
00:54:55,966 --> 00:55:00,124
And I look and I think,
"this is the most brilliant thing."
763
00:55:00,148 --> 00:55:04,203
It's the anti-chamber
of the girl's bathroom.
764
00:55:04,227 --> 00:55:06,947
And after you come out of the bathroom,
like I was, you wash your hands,
765
00:55:06,971 --> 00:55:12,378
you comb your hair and there's a fish tank
dividing the boy and the girl's anti-chamber.
766
00:55:13,982 --> 00:55:17,231
And it was as simple as going:
"That's it! That's the moment."
767
00:55:17,255 --> 00:55:19,570
And that's where it came from.
768
00:55:42,304 --> 00:55:48,037
So it was a combination
of extremely academic work,
769
00:55:48,061 --> 00:55:53,830
followed by methodology, just work,
labor, process, and
770
00:55:53,854 --> 00:56:01,595
I think maybe being open
to the world around us, and luck.
771
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:07,029
So that's how it happened,
that was that one.
772
00:56:11,002 --> 00:56:16,158
Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" took his ideas
about innovative cinema even further.
773
00:56:16,182 --> 00:56:18,622
At the start of the film,
the camera sweeps
774
00:56:18,646 --> 00:56:23,814
through model and computer generated shots
of the gray, dank alleyways of Paris,
775
00:56:23,838 --> 00:56:26,569
and then swoops up
to the garret of a poet.
776
00:56:38,295 --> 00:56:42,349
His face tear stained
because he has loved and lost
777
00:56:42,373 --> 00:56:44,302
a beautiful courtesan.
778
00:56:44,914 --> 00:56:48,517
Then we flash back
to the famous nightclub, the Moulin Rouge,
779
00:56:48,542 --> 00:56:50,377
where the love story took place.
780
00:56:50,383 --> 00:56:56,811
It's a frenzied, red, Luhrmann world
of wild postmodern song, and love, and space.
781
00:56:56,835 --> 00:57:00,270
At one point the girls sing
"voulez-vous couchez avec moi?"
782
00:57:00,294 --> 00:57:03,977
from LaBelle's Lady Marmalade
whilst the men crash into
783
00:57:04,001 --> 00:57:07,242
the chorus of nirvana's,
"Smells like teen spirit."
784
00:57:47,742 --> 00:57:53,484
No-one in the world was mashing up
Sergio Leone, MTV, Hispanic telenovelas,
785
00:57:53,508 --> 00:57:57,472
fashion, cross-dressing,
and the kaleidoscopic cinema
786
00:57:57,495 --> 00:58:01,027
of '90s Hong Kong
with such aplomb.
787
00:58:01,052 --> 00:58:04,186
Reality had lost
its realness in Bazland.
788
00:58:04,187 --> 00:58:07,371
The very definition
of the first days of digital.
789
00:58:21,049 --> 00:58:23,745
Luhrmann called Strictly Ballroom,
Romeo Juliet,
790
00:58:23,769 --> 00:58:26,551
and Moulin Rouge
the red curtain trilogy.
791
00:58:27,356 --> 00:58:30,976
To make them he set himself rules,
a kind of manifesto,
792
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,893
that were almost the opposite
of Lars Von Trier's dogma rules,
793
00:58:34,917 --> 00:58:37,762
the other great
'90s movie manifesto.
794
00:58:37,786 --> 00:58:42,961
The first of Luhrmann's rules
was that we need to know the story upfront.
795
00:58:43,251 --> 00:58:43,913
You get the feeling...
796
00:58:43,937 --> 00:58:46,384
I mean, "Moulin Rouge" opens, I think,
with the opening line, it's something like,
797
00:58:46,409 --> 00:58:50,283
"the woman I loved is dead.
She was the star of the Moulin Rouge."
798
00:58:50,307 --> 00:58:52,715
"Romeo Juliet" opens
with something like,
799
00:58:52,739 --> 00:58:58,262
"doth with their death
bury their parents strife."
800
00:58:58,286 --> 00:59:04,540
You are told right up front
that the lovers or a lover is going to die.
801
00:59:04,572 --> 00:59:10,076
And by the way, a recent epic, sort of,
participatory cinematic work
802
00:59:10,100 --> 00:59:14,001
in the beginning called, "Titanic,"
it's pretty clear in the beginning
803
00:59:14,025 --> 00:59:17,097
one of them's going to end up
below the waters.
804
00:59:17,121 --> 00:59:20,107
So, you... That's one rule:
You know where it's going to conclude.
805
00:59:20,132 --> 00:59:22,444
Two, in this red curtain trilogy,
806
00:59:22,468 --> 00:59:25,311
to keep the audience alive
and, by the way,
807
00:59:25,335 --> 00:59:26,358
it's kind of after the fact.
808
00:59:26,383 --> 00:59:28,521
I say you've got to have
a device, right?
809
00:59:28,545 --> 00:59:29,915
A distancing device.
810
00:59:29,939 --> 00:59:32,906
But really, why would you do
a musical without music?
811
00:59:32,908 --> 00:59:37,869
But essentially there's got to be something
that keeps the whole cinematic experience heightened.
812
00:59:37,893 --> 00:59:42,529
So you don't fall into, ever, a feeling
that it's somehow "keyhole."
813
00:59:42,553 --> 00:59:44,097
That's it's psychological.
814
00:59:44,121 --> 00:59:46,592
You know? In the case
of "Strictly Ballroom," you know?
815
00:59:46,617 --> 00:59:48,867
Even dramatic scenes
are danced out, you know?
816
00:59:48,869 --> 00:59:51,477
"Wes, come here!" You know?
It's dance.
817
00:59:51,501 --> 00:59:54,358
And "Romeo Juliet" it's the
language, you know?
818
00:59:54,382 --> 00:59:57,427
"Do you bite your thumb
at me, sir?"
819
00:59:57,428 --> 01:00:00,327
And then "Moulin Rouge,"
of course, it's song, it's music.
820
01:00:00,352 --> 01:00:01,781
? I was made ?
821
01:00:01,806 --> 01:00:03,188
? for loving you, baby ?
822
01:00:03,189 --> 01:00:05,793
? you were made for loving me ?
823
01:00:05,795 --> 01:00:07,629
? the only way of lovin' me ?
824
01:00:07,631 --> 01:00:11,329
? baby, is to pay a lovely fee ?
825
01:00:11,331 --> 01:00:13,292
? just one night ?
826
01:00:13,294 --> 01:00:14,740
? just one night ?
827
01:00:14,742 --> 01:00:16,574
? there's no way ?
828
01:00:16,576 --> 01:00:18,217
? 'cause you can't pay ?
829
01:00:18,218 --> 01:00:21,401
? in the name of love ?
830
01:00:21,403 --> 01:00:22,497
? one night ?
831
01:00:22,499 --> 01:00:24,635
? in the name of love ?
832
01:00:24,660 --> 01:00:29,529
Visually this is pure romantic cinema:
moonlight, a rooftop tryst,
833
01:00:29,553 --> 01:00:32,787
reverse angle
editing, two shots.
834
01:00:32,811 --> 01:00:36,536
But the music is a wild '90s
mash up of pop songs,
835
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:41,395
used almost like dialogue, as if reality
had been remixed by a DJ.
836
01:00:42,037 --> 01:00:46,874
? Don't leave me this way ?
837
01:00:46,898 --> 01:00:48,708
? you think that people ?
838
01:00:48,732 --> 01:00:50,504
? would have had enough ?
839
01:00:50,528 --> 01:00:53,530
? of silly love songs ?
840
01:00:53,554 --> 01:00:55,011
? I look around me ?
841
01:00:55,035 --> 01:00:58,330
? and I see it isn't so ?
842
01:00:58,548 --> 01:01:01,416
In this participatory cinema,
in particular, say, a musical,
843
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:07,326
you need to know where it's heading
and you need the story to be extremely linear.
844
01:01:07,350 --> 01:01:10,998
One thing happens precisely
after the other, like math,
845
01:01:11,023 --> 01:01:14,167
so that you can save time,
so that you can take the human moment,
846
01:01:14,191 --> 01:01:19,205
"oh, I love you, I love you, I love you,"
which in a psychological scene might be,
847
01:01:19,229 --> 01:01:21,582
"you know, I really love you."
848
01:01:21,623 --> 01:01:28,256
And music, and the expression
of that could take an extra 3 minutes.
849
01:01:28,280 --> 01:01:35,851
And we could expand the emotional experience
of that beyond the reality in life.
850
01:01:35,875 --> 01:01:38,807
And that's where the romanticism
comes in is that we're making
851
01:01:38,831 --> 01:01:42,266
something that happens in life,
better than it is in life.
852
01:01:42,290 --> 01:01:43,759
Bigger than it is in life.
853
01:01:47,544 --> 01:01:49,804
Better and bigger than life.
854
01:01:49,829 --> 01:01:52,213
Exactly what many movie
makers aimed for
855
01:01:52,237 --> 01:01:55,382
in the last days of digital
at the end of the old millennium.
856
01:01:55,882 --> 01:01:59,016
The story of film was full
of the fizz and feedback
857
01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:02,546
of those days, and the rapture
of self-loss.
858
01:02:02,571 --> 01:02:06,337
But then came the 21st century.
859
01:02:07,276 --> 01:02:13,135
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