Saturday 1 March 2014

Atonement (2007 Joe Wright)

Atonement  is one hell of a film and Joe Wright is one hell of a director.


Just when you think you have been dazzled enough by a wonderful Dario Marienelli score featuring a typewriter, scenes which take place from different points of view and David Lean moments (Brief Encounter in a tea room, Doctor Zhivago with a bus) he throws in the most amazingly choreographed and shot five minute single take which - like Soy Cuba - defies the brain with how it was achieved: it clearly isn't hand held / steadicam, so how does it traverse the steps? (OK. It is a remarkable Steadicam shot, operated by Peter Robertson, sometimes in a vehicle, sometimes being pulled on a two-wheel trolley and sometimes hand-held. Full info here.) Naturally, we had to watch it twice.

Full marks go to Seamus McGarvey (DOP) and Paul Tothill (editor), Christopher Hampton and Ian McEwan (screenplay and novel), and a great cast, headed by the fantastic James McAvoy, comprises Kiera Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brenda Blethyn, Danny Huston, Daniel Mays (superb), Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave and Romola Garai.


The film showing is apparently Le Quai des Brumes (Marcel Carné 1938).

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