Monday, October 19, 2009

Chuck Norris vs. Jacques Tati

Tati wins, obviously It was the 1980s. Things were different in those days. Some friends and I rented the movie Delta Force, starring Chuck Norris, with Joey Bishop and...some other people. I don't remember. Was Lee Marvin in it? I don't know what possessed us to rent the stinking thing. At least we didn't see it in a theater. 

But that was the '80s. In those days, in every commercial movie, the camera moved constantly and for no reason. Every shot was a tracking shot.

Delta Force's Zionist director Menahem Golan pioneered a money-saving technique I hadn't seen before or since. He would just roll the camera back and forth on a short length of track in each scene. The camera was constantly moving but he only needed to lay half as much track.

When you read anything about independent filmmaking in those days, they were always talking about improvised dollies, tracks, cranes. Wheelchairs were the big thing, of course. It was refreshing to see a Jacques Tati movie, shot entirely in static camera long shot. Look for Mr Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, and Trafic. And Playtime is interesting, with English dialog by Art Buchwald. 

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