Guess the pic...

« Lawrence of Arabia (no 28)

The Wild Bunch: director’s cut (no 27) »

Guess the pic…

April 30, 2009 by wondersinthedark

Jon Lanthier opts for a touch of minimalism.

jonsscreenshot2

About these ads

Posted in Guess the pic | 45 Comments

45 Responses

on April 30, 2009 at 9:05 am | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Let me kick things off by guessing….
….Hou Hsiao-hsien’s film Three Times.

Deedee
on April 30, 2009 at 10:27 am | Reply Phil

I’d recognise that shade anywhere – that’s Derek Jarman’s “Blue.”
on April 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm | Reply Ed Howard

Well, I suppose it has to be Jarman’s Blue, unless of course it’s the introductory blue screen to Van Sant’s Gerry, a Jarman homage….
on April 30, 2009 at 1:05 pm | Reply Sam Juliano

While the answers here by Ed and Phil appear to be correct (and Jon Lanthier will confirm that as it’s his cap) I can only say that I would not have immediately guessed it.
on April 30, 2009 at 1:11 pm | Reply Sam Juliano

Ed is super-sharp as always, to provide that Van Sant homage as the back up.
on April 30, 2009 at 3:34 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Hmmm, actually none of those are correct, and what’s more I hadn’t even considered that option despite having seen Jarman’s final piece…shows you where my head is, I suppose.

But no, this is a bit earlier than Jarman and Van Sant. It would be interesting to investigate possible connections between this film and those auteurs, however.
on April 30, 2009 at 6:39 pm | Reply Allan Fish

Well, I have to admit when I replied by email to Jon listing Jarman myself I had doubts, for the cap looked older, and Jarman’s film was shot in 1.85 so the ratio was wrong. I could be really perverse and say the blank credit background to Johnny Guitar.

Nothing to do with Warhol, is it?
on April 30, 2009 at 6:44 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Believe it or not, it’s not an avant-garde film in the least, unless one truly stretches the term for some serious accommodating. Which is one of the reasons that this scene where this appears was so effective and, for me, memorable.

The only thing I’ve seen that approaches this ingenious integration of primary color, at least in the mainstream film category (although others could probably come up with other examples) is Paul T Anderson’s “Punch Drunk Love,” which is littered with glowing, Rothko-like tone bars at key intervals.
on April 30, 2009 at 7:45 pm | Reply Sam Juliano

Wow Jon, we’ll really have to think hard here.

To Allan and others here, I will be leaving within 30 minutes to head over to Manhattan for my second Tribeca Film Festival feature this week, a Chinese film, titled FISH EYES. So I won’t be back till later this evening, to check on things, including any further’s guesses to Jon’s challenging cap here.
on April 30, 2009 at 8:17 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
This have nothing to do with guessing the screenshot, but instead of, one of my favorite painter Mark Rothko’s painting(s)…

… that screenshot looks similiar to artist Piet Mondrian’s Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow ….or at least the blue panel from Mondrian’s painting.
Maybe I’am wrong?!?

Deedee
on April 30, 2009 at 8:29 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Hey Deedee

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both Rothko and Mondrian were influences on these filmmakers, although there’s no direct connection (that I know of). One could do an interesting study juxtaposing the work of Mondrian to exemplars of two- and three- strip Technicolor, though.
on May 1, 2009 at 3:35 am | Reply MovieMan0283

“these filmmakers”…

Coens? I’ll let that be an assist to someone else as I don’t think I’ve seen the film this is taken from (if it is one of theirs’) and it would be unseemly to win by guessing correctly (though that hasn’t stopped me from taking shots in the dark over in Filmbrain’s neck of the woods…)
on May 1, 2009 at 4:09 am | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
This has to be the final scene of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue. …. No?

Deedee
on May 1, 2009 at 3:09 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Hmmm…for some reason I thought this would be found out quicker — especially by Allan, since I know he’s a fan of the film (though I know of few people who dislike it).

Coens are more than a little late, as is “Betty Blue” — but that’s a damn good guess, Deedee.
on May 2, 2009 at 8:41 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
I wonder if it a “shot” from Saul Bass’s short film
Why Man Creates?

hmmm…but you said, “especially by Allan, since I know he’s a fan of the film, but I’am not sure if Allan, is a fan of the film (Why Man Create)?!?

I don’t think that my answer is correct…because you also said, “though I know of few people who dislike it.”
I’am not quite sure how many people are even
aware of Bass’s short film?!? ….hmmm

Deedee
on May 2, 2009 at 8:43 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

As much of a fan as I am of Saul Bass and his fine short “Why Man Creates,” I must unfortunately identify the guess as incorrect.
on May 2, 2009 at 8:54 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Oops….I forgot you used the word(s)….”filmmakers,” but you could be referring to Jarman and Van Sant…
…and not the director of this film.
hmmm…yet, it sounds as if more than “one” person directed this film.
on May 2, 2009 at 9:01 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

hmmm…yet, it sounds as if more than “one” person directed this film.

That is correct.
on May 2, 2009 at 9:32 pm | Reply Sam Juliano

Thanks very much for holding the fort today Jon and Dee Dee. I am still stymied, but th etwo-filmmaker clue may help me solve it yet. Ha!

I have been busy writing my review of the play OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder, and am now preparing to head over to the Film Forum for an evening showing of a Chinese neo-realist drama titled TREELESS MOUNTAIN. I hope both of you have interesting plans for this evening as well.

http://www.filmforum.org/films/treeless.html
on May 2, 2009 at 10:29 pm | Reply Allan Fish

OK then, Jon. If filmmakers, though there have been plenty of individual films made by duos since the dawn of colour from Delicatessen to Viy to little Miss Sunshine, I get the feeling it’s one of five…

Straub/Huillet
Coen Bros
Dardenne Bros
Taviani Bros
The Maysles Bros (with or with Zwerin et al)

Is it?
on May 2, 2009 at 10:36 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Hmmm…sadly my pair is not in the list. The Tavianis would I think fall closest to the mark chronologically, though the filmmakers in question began their careers a bit earlier.
on May 2, 2009 at 11:02 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Phew!…. Jon, good thing that I read your response to Allan, before I heading over to Google!

Deedee
on May 3, 2009 at 3:08 am | Reply MovieMan0283

I would like the believe its the Quay Brothers, but among other things, their work is avant-garde, in the least. Still stumped.
on May 3, 2009 at 3:14 am | Reply MovieMan0283

Pretty much since the start, I’ve had Powell-Pressburger in mind. However, your Rothko/Mondrian “influence” threw me off, as I thought Rothko emerged after their heyday. Upon looking it up, he was established a bit earlier than I thought, so I’ll roll the dice.

Powell-Pressburger? Uh…The Red Shoes?
on May 3, 2009 at 3:42 am | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

hmmm….let me wait for your response…before
I try to guess again!….and yes, The Brothers
Quay are involved, but while I’am here let me ….
… rephrase my earlier comment.
“Phew!…. Jon, good thing that I read your response to Allan, before heading over to Google!”

Deedee
on May 3, 2009 at 3:58 am | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

With MovieMan mere yards from the finish line, allow me the indulgence, if you would, of this enigmatic clue drawn from personal experience.

Have you ever lost consciousness due to nerves — quite literally worked yourself up to a faint? It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt, and most frightening. Despite being staunchly anti-transcendentalist I might yet characterize it as a numinous event. Your frenzied, addled mind first begins emitting acute sensations throughout your face’s nerve endings — as though each facial muscle were an electric wire suddenly gone live. A blanket of boiling snow clouds your vision, initially so imperceptibly you might mistake it for ocular weariness, but inevitably it envelopes and obstructs everything. You feel both alive and dead, somehow — corporeal and abstract, like in a lucid dream, shed of all but your essence, which seems to be shrieking. After this feverish plateau, points of sweat collect above your pores — and there’s an overwhelming coolness, not unlike the color blue, signaling your return to the land of the living.
on May 3, 2009 at 4:53 am | Reply MovieMan0283

Black Narcissus?

Jon, you almost make me want to try it…you don’t have flashbacks like with LSD do you?
on May 3, 2009 at 5:07 am | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
Once again…this has nothing to do with guessing your screen shot, but the symptom(s) that you just described sounds similar to the symptom(s) a person would describe if they were experiencing an “anxiety attack”….hmmm…maybe I’am wrong?!?
on May 3, 2009 at 5:23 am | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
Is the title of the screenshot just “Blue”

The picture had cost £570000, and it was Powell-Pressburger’s ….last film.
(He lost his sight, and Blue, his last film, is nothing but a blue screen and a commentary.)
Before Allan, can say it courtesy of Google.

Deedee
on May 3, 2009 at 5:37 am | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

And we have two winners (of sorts)!

Black Narcissus?

Yes! The scene where Sister Ruth escapes the convent and confronts Dean in a lusty froth.

Jon, you almost make me want to try it…you don’t have flashbacks like with LSD do you?

Thankfully, I do not, and the incident I describe above only occurred that severely once (despite a smattering of other, lesser, “spells” or whatever one wishes to call them). I can’t really recommend the experience, though it was truly something…

Once again…this has nothing to do with guessing your screen shot, but the symptom(s) that you just described sounds similar to the symptom(s) a person would describe if they were experiencing an “anxiety attack”….hmmm…maybe I’am wrong?!?

You are not wrong, Deedee, you’ve in fact hit the nail on the head.

Thanks for bearing with me, all, this was once again a pleasure…
on May 3, 2009 at 12:22 pm | Reply MovieMan0283

Wow, I can’t believe it was that and we were all running off further and further into left field! Ha!

So does this mean I get to pick out the next one?
on May 3, 2009 at 1:13 pm | Reply Allan Fish

Oh yes, Movieman, you’re up…

BTW, just to be pernickety, I don’t count Powell and Pressburger as a directing partnership, they both produced the films, but Pressburger wrote alone and Powell directed alone. Though credited as one for space purposes, there was really one director.

The same ironically, was true of the Coens, except they both wrote, Ethan produced alone and Joel directed alone. Only recently have they shared duties on everything. Other partnerships like the Boultings and Lauder and Gilliat never co-directed (I tell a lie, L & G co-directed one film, Millions Like Us in 1943).

When I think of filmmakers in the plural, I’m thinking of co-directors. OK, rant over!
on May 3, 2009 at 1:25 pm | Reply MovieMan0283

Allan, I had a similar feeling at first (combined with the Rothko mistake) but eventually overcame it because, hey, they go down in the history books as P&P, so whatever. That said, I have noticed (and commented on a recent thread…somewhere out there) that 10-15 years ago everyone was talking about these films as Powell’s…now they’re back to crediting Powell & Pressburger together (which I though was more of a gesture from Powell, who handled most of the direction chores, to Pressburger, than it was a space consideration but I confess I have not looked into the matter very deeply). Influence of the Criterion Collection’s press materials? Fall-out from the auteurist re-evaluation of Powell, led by Scorsese? I’d love to know.
on May 3, 2009 at 1:26 pm | Reply MovieMan0283

P.S. Do I e-mail you & Sam a still?
on May 3, 2009 at 1:45 pm | Reply Sam Juliano

What an absolutely enthralling thread here, and I thank Jon Lanthier, Movie Man and Dee Dee for making it all happen. Jon, your choice generated a passionate response!

Movie Man, you can indeed send the still on to either my own e mail address:

TheFountain26@aol.com

or Allan’s:

rollo.tomassi@btinternet.com
on May 3, 2009 at 2:43 pm | Reply MovieMan0283

Sam, you can expect it by the end of today.
on May 3, 2009 at 4:09 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

That’s a fair quibble, Allan, but after reading Michael Powell’s autobiographies (especially “A Life in Movies”) I came away with the impression that the writing/directing duties were not at all mutually exclusive. It’s at least probable that Powell helped with some of the dialog, and while Pressburger was seldom present for shooting he was always involved with the editing process, making a number of creative decisions along the course of each production. I suppose it depends on how you define “director,” but my sense is that there’s no question about their equality as auteurs of their films. So perhaps I should have used clearer semantics…
on May 3, 2009 at 4:38 pm | Reply Allan Fish

Oh yeah, agreed, youw eren’t wrong, Jon, just that I misinterpreted…but at the end of the day I feel Pressburger was to Powell what say Samson Raphaelson was to Lubitsch, Jacques Prévert to Carné, Yoshikata Yoda to Mizoguchi, Charles Brackett to Billy Wilder. And remember, Brackett and Wilder is a good example, as thay had a partnership, too, with one directing, one producing and both writing.
on May 3, 2009 at 8:20 pm | Reply MovieMan0283

Maybe
on May 3, 2009 at 8:38 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
Believe me…I really, really try to “contain” myself, but I couldn’t “no longer”
Oh! no!…I have to say it…not “Sister Ruth!”

Deedee
on May 3, 2009 at 9:13 pm | Reply DeeDee (Dcd)

Hi! Jon,
My response wasn’t correct!…therefore, I don’t
quite understand your response that I quoted
below…
…Jon said,”And we have two winners (of sorts)!”

My quote from…(As I clear my throat…Google)
“It was Powell-Pressburger’s ….last film.
(He lost his sight, and Blue, his last film, is nothing but a blue screen and a commentary.)”

hmmm…Did Powell-Pressburger ever release a film called….Blue?

Deedee
on May 3, 2009 at 10:30 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Hey Deedee

You were wrong about Powell and Pressburger — Derek Jarman’s last film was called “Blue,” made after he had lost his sight, and was one of the first (erroneous) guesses in this thread.

However, you correctly identified the symptoms of an anxiety attack (the second “win”). This may not get you many points on a film criticism site, but it could be very helpful in other areas of life.
on May 4, 2009 at 4:22 am | Reply MovieMan0283

My submission will be in tomorrow, I hope (do I get an extension, professors?)
on May 7, 2009 at 3:22 am | Reply Jamie

Fun, reading the thread all the way to the end. Once my initial (and only guess) was thwarted– i thought it was Jarman for sure I switch gears.

I immediately recognized this still from every film I ever watched as a kid. It’s the blue screen from a VCR on ‘stop’ right? LOL.

nice work, and tricky too. Jarman would have been hard enough.
on May 7, 2009 at 7:39 pm | Reply Joseph "Jon" Lanthier

Jamie, I was totally waiting for someone to guess that! Also known as the “Input” or “Aux” screen…