Via_Chicago wrote:That's great. Woo has always thought of himself as the heir apparent to Melville. Melville would have approved - if only to have actually had himself a real disciple (see this interview). In reality though, Woo is merely a pale imitator - a mediocre stylist with little of Melville's restraint or command over his themes.HerrSchreck wrote:Anyone else catch this?“I’ve always thought that I had a lot in common with Jean-Pierre Melville. He is a silent tiger, a desperate romantic . . . He is a master.” —John Woo
Next weeks quote from Kevin Smith:
"I always thought I had a lot in common with Orson Welles. He is a film wizard, a visual poet. He is a genius-- just like me."
Woo's comment is at least, as HerrSchreck pointed, moderately justifiable (speaking as an admirer of his work). You can't really say the same for this gem I just picked up during an ill-advised visit to Zach Snyder's wikipedia entry:HerrSchreck wrote:Yea I've caught the ongoing tributes by Woo to Melville, but I've seen little in terms of mise en scene to associate the two of them with each other-- aside from maybe this fixation on this idea of a non-cinematic, real world masculinity. I E bring the sensibility of (what they imagine to be) a real career criminal, a genuine contract killer living on the fringes, etc, into the generally sterile world of film with it's plastic screen criminals. In reality an advertisement to more or less degree for the amount of Street Cool residing in the filmmaker himself.
But whereas Melville registers as a real master and innovator of film grammar, who can say more with a moment of silence than most filmmakers can across a decade of filmmaking, Woo's most beloved films are the precise opposite... gymnastic events with a "more is more" sensibility, hoping to cram more action into a minute of film than most action directors do across a decade of filmmaking.
Outside of that, I just think it's hokey and risky to say "I remind myself of (Insert Brilliant Artist For the Ages), who is a master."
'Best known for his cinematic wide screen shooting style, Zack has been compared to a young David Lean to which he remarked, “the similarities are inevitable.”'
