The Better You Are, The Better You Have to Be

Making the right kind of “moves” in a movie, doing everything right (cinematography, music placement, storytelling, transitions, etc.), will make every move before and after all the more prominent.

Analogy: If you paint the walls of a white bedroom with a fresh coat, you’re going to notice that area, the underlying coat, you missed.

Be it the director, editor, or producer, someone’s going to have a brush.  Most likely, all three will be lending a hand.

The lingering question: Should you have painted the wall white in the first place?

Well, the undercoat was there first.  Maybe it now represents character, the imperfection of the world, or a portion of the real world – the blank canvas.  Or maybe it was just an oversight.

Paint the wall white?  Draw the viewers’ eyes to your imperfections?  The imperfections of the brush strokes?  Of course you should.

Some of the better films, and best, have their moments in question because they made so many right moves.

“The Usual Suspects” – To many, the perfect film.  From character development to a film noir score by John Ottman to innovative editing (by Ottman) to a coffee-mug dropping ending.  Is it odd to have Keyser Söze hold the gun gangsta style during the flashback execution?  (I know, I know.  It’s to add mystery to the suspects and the way they hold their pistols.  But director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie do mention the “sideways” pistol on the DVD commentary.)

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – Does Brad Pitt’s shrunken head wobble like Mike Myers’ in “The Love Guru” or Shawn Wayans in “LiTTLEMAN,” or is that really good old-man acting?  And does the cold-girlfriend love story and Benjamin’s travels too closely resemble “Forrest Gump” (especially since this storyline doesn’t exist in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original short story)?  And although dream-like, should the man/boy fart and fall from the chair at “cutting” points?  Was Fincher’s “Fight Club” beyond anyone’s grasp before or after its climax went a little schizo?

“Forrest Gump” – Too surreal or just right?  The line of reality is blurred, so does there need to be any?  Some were convinced by Robert Zemeckis’ directing and Tom Hanks’ acting that a Wilson volleyball could be a friend (“Cast Away”).  Others hated this concept with a passion.

“The Mothman Prophecies” – Inspired by true events which are … what, exactly?  Therefore, we immediately question the husband and wife fooling around in a closet while the realtor’s downstairs.  Perhaps we question one’s will to deliberately freeze to death outside.  Or do these questions strictly arrive in the mind because our guard is up?  Previous thought patterns protecting themselves from an eerie-channeling movie?

Sometimes your enjoyment (be it in escaping or a desperate need of realism) simply depends on your mood.

What about the magnificent workmanship of the car chase and balance of music and comedy in “The Blues Brothers,” the enthralling story of “The French Connection,” and the perfected and grandest classic ending of “Casablanca“? All invented as they went along (more or less).

Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” is the perfect example of the almost-flawless movie.  (Or is it flawless?)  Anderson, and his script supervisor, time out certain shots with a stopwatch (as he mentioned when interviewing Peter Bogdanovich about Bogdanovich’s directorial debut work on “Targets” starring Boris Karloff in one of his last roles with footage that was given to him by living icon Roger Corman.  Whew!  Let’s see you make a perfect film under those conditions.)

The stopwatch is for control.  Control over the world you’ve invented.  Painting the white room a brighter white.  Inviting all to approve of your walls.  Just look at the control, and NOT contrived setups, Anderson had with the stop-motion animation of “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”  The sky wasn’t even the limit.

Let’s use “Moonrise Kingdom” as our analogy for this theory …

“Moonrise Kingdom” Analogy:  If Wes Anderson draws the map of an island off the coast of New England, the audience is going to notice that area, the cartoony climactic scene, he shot.

The lingering “Moonrise Kingdom” question: Should he have kept his audience within the walls of the New England home or at least the “fourth wall” of reality?

I’m not sure.  (He’s gone with the fake route before with the ocean life effects of “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”)

“Moonrise Kingdom” is, however, an example of perfection that exists in cinema.

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