Monday, January 21, 2008

A Protocol Problem and the Lust Caution Taxi


People who talk in cinemas should, of course, be dragged out, tortured, shot and tossed in the nearest quarry. However, my protocol problem is this - is this course of action permissible for people who talk during the trailers and ads? My own feeling is that it is, but I would hate to find myself guilty of a faux-pas. Meanwhile, I found Lust, Caution tolerable primarily because Tony Leung would make a hedge fund's Christmas party tolerable. Ang Lee is all very well but he is, ultimately, superior white bread. However, in the Hong Kong scenes, an English taxi is seen twice. Nothing wrong with that except for the fact that it was an Austin FX4, which, as any fule no, did not come into service until 1958. The film is set in the war. This does not look remotely like any forties car - the Coke bottle style is something of a giveaway. Is this the worst props failure in any major movie?

7 comments:

  1. I'm always noticing "continuity" errors in films (people's shirts changing mid-scene), or problems with historical accuracy (people referring to their "libidos" before Freud gave them the terminology to do so), and sometimes with props.

    I finally got around to watching "Interview with the Vampire" on DVD and there's a scene where Christian Slater is suddenly pulled out of the driver's seat of his Mustang convertible by bloody-fanged Tom Cruise. While Cruise is shredding Slater's jugular in the backseat, you're supposed to see the Mustang careering across traffic lanes without the driver. However, what you see if you look closely is a guy in a black hoodie driving the car.

    Hey, who edits these things and checks the facts? Producers?

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  2. Apparently a plane passes over Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. By the way, those who let their mobile phones go off in cinemas should be kneecapped before they are dragged, tortured etc. I'm sure elberry will find a suitable punishment for the trailers - a lesser crime in my view.

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  3. I hardly ever go to the cinema these days, other than the occasional press screening, precisely because I can no longer watch a film without instantly hating every other human in the theatre. I exist from lights-down to end-credits in a state of unbearable agitation, recoiling from every half-mutter as if it were a shotgun blast. Worst of all are the inmates of Odeon Guantanamo in Leicester Square.

    Such people are beneath even the isolated morons who call out during minute-silences at football matches. There's no conscious element of protest or defiance, however miss-placed, in armchair chattering. It's simply a sneering contempt for fellow man.

    I'd settle for a simple slicing off of the tongue, with scope for nailing hands that fiddle with a mobile into the face.

    I should probably just chill out. Thank christ for massive HDTVs - the misanthrope's saviour.

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  4. The great Tony Leung. He's one of these perfect, subtle actors, everything he does is amazing; even when he's in shit films it's amazing because you're amazed he's wasting his talent in a shit film. He does a great pairing with Chow Yun-Fat in Hard Boiled, similarly excellent in Hero; you can see he doesn't have the martial arts chops in Hero but he's easily the most powerful presence.

    He has that wonderful balance between manly violence & sensitivity that's so rare these days, a killer who makes origami birds to commemorate each kill.

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  5. I think you may have gotten this a bit backwards, Master Appleyard. People who talk in movie ads are heroically resisting the pernicious advertising industry.

    We should all talk through movie ads. Also anything with Heath Ledger.

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  6. While I empathise, I feel, practically, that finding quarries local to Leicester Square will prove problematic. While we've plenty oop here int'froz'n North, I think you have to consider your carbon footprint. Pies are best...

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