You guys clearly didn’t read my post on the first page about Fahrenheit 451 and The Magnificent Ambersons
What?! No one has mentioned Mel Brook’s Silent Movie where the only speaking part in the entire movie is that of Marcel Marceau?
Marcel Marceau is the world’s best known mime.
Does any movie besides The Wizard of Oz have flying monkeys?
I’ve heard that the language used in the 1989 film “Dom za vesanje”, or “Time Of The Gypsies” by Emir Kustarica, is a Romany Gypsy dialect obscure enough that the film has been subtitled in every country it’s been released in, including its country of origin.
It’s an amazingly beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. Actually, all his films are well worth watching, with “Underground” being his masterpiece. Most better video stores will carry his films.
I’ve not seen Chris Marker’s La Jetee, but I believe it consists of only still images with a sound track, and is thus possibly the only motion picture with no motion in its picture.
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire is, I would guess, the only horror musical comedy sports movie about the game of snooker in cinematic history.
Is Sunset Boulevard unique in being narrated by a dead person?
I’m sure some of the lame horror movies shot in the 1950s and 1960s by people like William Castle claimed unique cinematic processes and techniques, like the “death by fright” insurance free with tickets to House on Haunted Hill and the electrified theater seats of The Tingler (surely nobody ever repeated that gimmick?)
And isn’t the already-mentioned The Lady in the Lake, shot entirely in the first person, also possibly the only film in which you never see the star, Robert Montgomery?
No, there are others. One example is Scared to Death (1947), the only color feature that Bela Lugosi starred in. The movie is narrated in flashback by the dead character played by Molly Lamont. **
Mentions of this effect make it sound like audience members were electrically shocked, which wasn’t the case. An electric vibrating mechanism was attached to the underside of the seats, and was activated at key moments during the movie. Consider it akin to the vibrate option on a personal pager.
You do see him in one scene, as he dresses before a mirror.
Not quite–there is one subtle but beautiful moment when what you believe to be a still photo comes to brief life. Blink, though, and you’ll miss it.
Well, then, it isn’t title music, is it? It’s an overture. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and Gone With the Wind (1939) both had overture music. The latter also had entr’acte and exit music.
Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien features a flying monkey, and the main character writes a story called ‘The Flying Monkeys’.
American Beauty is another one.
I’ve seen a Jetee myself, and saw this brief scene. I thought he same thing – “it’s just stills, except for that brief motion”. Then I realized that, lik any motion picture, it’s eally all stillds. It’s just that those particular frames entrap moments so close together that our persistence of vision creates the illusion of motion. So the “exception” doesn’t really hold – there is no real motion in the film at all. But for that one brief scene only the stills don;t capture moments far apart in time, but rather those of the usual separation we experience in movies.
I really think that they had thi in mind when they mde the film. They were deliberately messing with our minds.
For more messing with your mind, consider that Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys is essentially a remake of La Jetee.
I believe there is a French film that is shot entirely in a long shot. (the main subject is fairly far from the camera)
*LSD-25 Well I guess the Wizard of Oz has an entire army of flying monkeys. (or would that be Air Force?)
theres Jerry & Tom, starring Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell, where the passing of seasons changes in the same scene.
eg- they’re both sat in a car discussing something (they’re hitmen) in the middle of a hot summer and the camera pans out and over a wall. once its over the wall (no cutaway or fade), its winter and they’re across the road at a shop. it happens quite a few times in the film denoting time passing/season changes. its a good film apart from this gimmick.
i’ve not seen this used anywhere else.
can only be a matter of time before someone rips it off though.
(expecting someone along soon to tell me that its ripping off some other film)
Actually, the seasons-changing thing happens in Notting Hill, too. There’s a scene where Hugh Grant is walking down a road in London (Portobello Road, maybe - lots of street vendors), and as he’s walking, the seasons change -through all four seasons. Some of the street vendors disappear and reappear, but Hugh just walks on through in one scene.
Hitchcock again. Rebecca may be the only movie where you never see the title character. Rebecca’s dead when the movie begins.
In Dark Passage, a man convicted of murdering his wife (Humphrey Bogart) escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence, but first he needs plastic surgery. You never see his face until after the surgery.
The Best Years of Our Lives featured Harold Russell, an army vet who lost both hands in an accident with TNT (and no, they weren’t TWIN BODY-POWERED PROSTHESES WITH DORRANCE #5X STAINLESS STEEL HOOKS, either…to the best of my knowledge).
If I recall correctly, this was the first picture to include such an actor. Actually, Russell wasn’t an actor until this movie. It was his first role (except for an army training film, where he was spotted), and he won two Oscars for it. One for Best Supporting Actor, and another for being an inspiration to the troops. March is the only actor to ever win two Oscars for the same role, I believe.
Except for the full length painting of Rebecca on the stairway.
I can’t believe you missed Elvish! There are, of course, 3 movies where characters speak Elvish, but you might consider them all ONE BIG move, which would make it unique. I’m sure they used to be listed as Elvish, ‘tho’ now they are under “Sindarin.”
Hmmm…and they now include the 1978 Ralph Bakshi LotR which was not true back when it was “Elvish.” Dang…not unique!
I think perhaps Barry Lyndon by Kubrick deserves some credit for being a well-budgeted film shot exclusively in natural lighting…
You never see the title character in Chasing Amy either.
2001, A Space Odyssey has several minutes of black footage at the head of the first reel with just music on the soundtrack. It was called the Overture. (At the theater where I saw it, first run, the Overture starting time was listed, then the film’s starting time after that on a card in the box office window!)
I believe, and I’m sure others will confirm or deny, that West Side Story, Dr. Zhivago and possibly Ryan’s Daughter also had pictureless Overtures before the opening credits began.