35mm Film Shoot

Around two months ago, my roommate decided he wanted to shoot something on 35mm. About three weeks ago, he finally got around to shooting it. He got the film processed and telecined last week and recently took some screen grabs that look pretty amazing. He has a real talent for lighting a set and some of this stuff just looks awesome. Still frames don't do it justice, but still, it looks pretty darn good.

I wish I could take credit for some of those shots, but, sadly, I only script supervised. Anyway, I think they look beautiful and look even better when they are moving. He says that doing this project has spoiled him for digital because film looks so much better. I agree. But it's so expensive. So is the life of a film student, though.

I watched Tornatore's Malena last night. There are so many beautiful metaphors in the film and I really, really liked it. Tornatore is very Fellini-esque (not always a bad thing) and overly sentimental at times but I can't help it: I absolutely love his style of filming and will probably end up imitating it if I ever make a film. I know what Flannery O'Connor says about indulging in sentimentality, but please forgive me if I like a little sentiment every now and then. Anyway, Malena was a very good, extremely beautiful, and sad film. The townspeople in this film make me sick with their attitude: "The voice of the people is the voice of God." It hurts even more when I realize that I'm capable of alienating people out of jealousy or my own "righteous indignation." Monica Bellucci is exquisite as the beautiful Malena whose crime is her beauty. And, of course, the movie is made whole by Ennio Morricone's score that he garnered an Oscar nomination for. A little romance does the heart good sometimes even if it just goes to show that "the only true love is unrequited love." I'm guessing we've all felt that feeling of unrequited love every now and then.

I *might* be going to see The Lives of Others tonight. I've been wanting to see this film for so long and am extremely anxious. As usual, I'll probably be seeing it alone because I don't have many friends here that can appreciate a good, artistic film. But I'll leave them to wallow in 300. Or Shooter. Or anything else that will satisfy blood lust and end up in the Top 5 weekend box office charts.