The Long Take

In todays class we discussed and saw clips centered around the long take. I'm going to take this opportunity to express my thoughts on  a few of the clips, and why I thought the long take was used in those circumstances.

The first clip I want to talk about, which is conveniently one of my favorite films, is Children of Men. I agreed with many of the sentiments given out by my fellow students, and have a few things I thought of myself that support those opinions. Firstly, I agree with the comment that the use of long take throughout this scene demonstrates a pseudo-POV view of the uprising, giving the viewer a sense of suspense that would be otherwise lost with an average scene in plenty of cuts. Another point I thought of after class is that the way the other characters are shown throughout the clip; only Theo and Kee are shown in a close up fashion, while none of the other characters are shown closer than a medium shot. I believe that in doing so the director accomplished in making this battle an anonymous one; the viewer is not meant to choose sides, they are solely focused on the outcome of Theo, Kee, and the baby. Another way the anonymous nature of the war enhances the scene is it paints the fighters on both sides as unknowns, and in a setting with so danger makes the viewer believe they are capable of anything; for example, when Theo is trying to get into the building that Kee is taken to, the viewer is unsure what the soldiers would do should they capture Theo.

The second clip I had thoughts on was the clip we saw of the traffic jam in Weekend. Unlike Children of Men, I disagreed with a few of the opinions said in the class. I never saw the clip as something funny or humorous, and I believe the sounds of the car horns works in a way above annoyance in relation to the scene. The clip (even before the unexpected end) is full of broken down cars that have in way been dealt with, creating a mise-en-scène that's filled with uncertainty and danger. I also believed that instead of just being seen as a way in which to prove a social point, that the car horns had another reason for being used. The first time I saw this clip, we didn't get to the punchline at the end with the bodies; instead we cut it short, leaving us just with an instance of a long take with annoying car horns in the background. Upon seeing the finished scene, I felt at times as if the car horns came together to create an ominous orchestral score, almost like credit sequences to film noirs; it works to get the viewer uncomfortable and unprepared for what's going to happen next, although Godard did this in a strictly diegetic fashion.

Finally, I wanted to share two clips by an incredible director, Leos Carax. Both clips are centered around characters portrayed by Denis Lavant, who appears in many of the directors films. Both of these clips utilize the long take, and I thought it would be interesting to share these with whoever reads this. The first clip is taken from the newest film by Carax, titled Holy Motors. The 2nd clip is from Carax's segment of the film Toyko!, which also features work from directors Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-ho.

HOLY MOTORS - ACCORDION SCENE





TOKYO! - INTRO TO MERDE