[Frameworks] Drama films and the Avant-Garde

[mat fleming]

I feel daft as I write this and maybe I was drunk and impressionable when I
first saw it (in fact I know I was) but honestly I thought the Bourne
Ultimatum approached being deserving of being a bit Avant-Garde.
I say this in the sense that it pushes the boundaries formally. It is pure
action from start to finish. I don't think there is a shot in that whole
film that lasts more than 4 or 5 seconds. There are nearly no establishing
shots or interludes while story is developed - story and action are one. And
no interlude for love and all that normal routine. I think the trilogy has
changed that kind of action film forever - Bond looks ridiculous once you've
seen Bourne. You can tell the producers of the last one Quantum of Solace
were trying to incorporate the editing style but they missed the point
completely and the film is crap as a result in my opinion.

I'm not saying it's a great film or anything; thematically it's rubbish and
it's certainly not subversive - which I am always looking for in AG film -
but I do think that it's experimental in a similar way to Hitchcock's formal
feature experiments. And as a result it's exciting on a certain level. For
me Avant Garde is much more about breaking up the orthodox systems of false
realism in narrative than it is about messing with the material/photography
(which I love too).

Mat


On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Francisco Torres <fjtorrespr at gmail.com>wrote:

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