Children of Men

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What crying scene? The epihany for me, the moment that the entire film up to that point worked so hard to produce, was when the couple brings the baby out of the apartment building and all the army guys just stare. Great film. Best-in-genre (near-future, negative-utopia, without-flying-cars movie). Best in realism.
 
Dude the scene where they walk with the baby outside had me tore up inside... seeing how it could bring peace.
 
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Did anyone else cry? :Drogar-Thinking(DBG

Yah, that is what I was talking about. I think there is something universally inherent about the sound of a crying baby and how humans react to it. Within the movie, it was enough to stop the killing, if only for a minute. I guess humans urge to kill is greater. :furious3:

Alfonso and the everyone else who worked on the script did some big changes to the novel. I have never read it, but I have looked online and read a synopsis. If anyone here has read the novel and seen the film, could you post the differences.

Since I am not a fan of Moore I was happy as hell she died!
 
Really good film. It was worth seeing for the cinematography and production design alone. I've been a fan of Cuaron since Y Tu Mama Tambien, and he did not disappoint.
 
Saw this tonight, it was fantastic. Camera work was beautiful and good performances all around. I'm going to see it again friday when it gets wider release. Cant wait! Seems like one of those films you could sit around and dissect for hours.
 
I saw this movie this evening and what can I say. Brilliant brilliant filmmaking. This guy is a master. A pure master. That movie could've been a clinic on master filmmaking 101. So good.

***SPOILERS AHEAD****

The long shots, especially any scenes where there was multiple shooting, were amazing. That scene in that car was so freaking intense and amazing! First of all, I couldn't even fathom, once they got out of the car and we look back at it, how SMALL THE CAR WAS! When we were inside it looked like a huge minivan. Where the hell did the camera go??? That was the best scene in the film.

And then the way he made simple car chases non-cliche! (PAY ATTENTION FUTURE DERIVITIVE FILMMAKERS) The first part of the chase, the cars weren't even on! I mean how brilliant is that. It just goes to show if you sit down and say to yourself, "how can I make this different from any car chase that's ever happened?", you can come up with something. But you never will if you don't try.

I know that Cauron is obsessed with long takes ever since (I believe he made this movie) Great Expectations. ONe of the selling points of that movie was an eight minute take where the characters are in one restaurant, we watch them do an entire scene without cutting, and then we watch Ethan Hawke go outside, still no cut, and then run all the way across new york and into another restaurant, SEEMINGLY not cutting. But the reality is that he did cut. He snuck a cut in there. So I can only imagine, ten years later, that the technology to hide cuts has grown exponentially, and I'm sure he used some of those tricks. Because there's no way he could've gotten the performances he got and had the actors hit the marks that they hit, and timed everything perfectly, and the cameraman and the crew all flew through it flawlessly. I mean **** was just too perfect.

Now, I will say this. The movie had a HUGE plot hole. And if this weren't so masterfully made, this would bother me a lot more. But I'm giving Cuaron the benefit of the doubt (barely). There is no way in hell. No way ever, that the British government would've killed this baby because it was from an immigrant (thus ensuring that the plot worked - sneaking a pregnant woman through Britain). I mean sure there would've been some major politicking going on. But PLEASE. HUMANITY was at stake here. No baby had been born in 18 years or whatever it was. The future of the entire planet is at stake! And you're telling me that the British government, if they found a woman who could actually have babies, that they would kill her and the baby and cover it up just because the woman was an immigrant??? No way. I don't buy it for one second.

So that bothered me. But it was such brilliant filmmaking that in the end, I didn't care.
 
yay I finally got to see the movie. Brilllant camera work, I can't praise that enough. One of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. I want to know where they found or how they created those massive sets....amazing. I've always loved Cauron since Great Expectations (I liked that movie).

Anyways it was great except for the large amount of people talking in the back of the theatre.

One thing that I kept thinking about tho, is this story was taking place in Britain, so what about the rest of the world? Were they having the same problems? I understand that really makes it very complicated, but I couldn't help wondering that. The story kinda made it seem like britain was the only place of civilization.
 
The rest of the world was in chaos, while "Britain stands strong", or whatever that ad said on the bus.
 
Yeah, a lot of those shots COULDN'T been done in one take, although WHERE some of the cuts could have taken place baffles me. I saw a behind-the-scenes shot of the rig they used to film the car scene, and it was this VW Beetle-sized, scaffold-like contraption on top of the car that housed the DP and camera operators, with the camera suspended on a rig tht could move freely from front seat to the back (there was no roof on he car, and the actors had levers to lower their seats out of the way as the camera went by). The actual drivers of the car were low to the road on rigs in front of and behind (for when the car's driving in reverse) . Obviously, the rigs weren't there when the camera got out of the car, so...

Bloody hell. I'm gonnahave to see this one again. Worth it even apart from the amazing camerawork.
 
During the long shot, Alfonso supposively called CUT, but due to the noise he wasn't heard and they continued filming. The blood hitting the camera was an accident and needed to be cleaned.
 
Yeah I was definatly blown away by this film. I was so psyched to see it and was not dissapointed! It is definatly a must see. The best thing about the movie were the long takes. Also I loved how whenever there was a huge "action" part, that it felt like a dagger had just been drived into your heart! I loved it!! definatly one of the better films I have seen in awhile!
 
jpeck said:
During the long shot, Alfonso supposively called CUT, but due to the noise he wasn't heard and they continued filming. The blood hitting the camera was an accident and needed to be cleaned.
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I could tell from watching this that the blood on the lens was not done on purpose, but the shot was soo long there was probably no way they could do another take. Do you think they rotoscopred the blood out, b/c as the scene went on the blood jsut disappeared.
 
There is suppose to be an edit in there, when everything is dark. Then with a clean camera they added in similar looking splatter and phased it out, because once Clive Owen started going up the stairs it was all gone.

Now, I have read something on this a while ago, but forget what was actually done, most of this is passed on from what a friend told me, but it sounds good to me. Looking forward to the commentary once its on DVD. :D
 
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c.g._eads said:
The movie had a HUGE plot hole. There is no way in hell. No way ever, that the British government would've killed this baby because it was from an immigrant (thus ensuring that the plot worked - sneaking a pregnant woman through Britain).
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I so totally agree. As poignant and beautiful as that moment was when they exit the apartment building with the baby, that was the moment that I thought, "Gee, why didn't they just go to the authorities (or the media, as Clive Owen first suggested)--everything would've been all right." I know they try to set up the first "youngest person in UK" as going through a lot of publicity, but, that was weak. It was the biggest plot hole in the film--one you could sail the Titanic through. But the film was so well done, I was able to overlook it as well.
 
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I thought it was said (speculation by people at the farm) that the government would give the child to a citizen and say she had the child. I have watched the movie a few times and can't remember anybody mentioning killing off the child. However, I have been known to be wrong, from time to time.
 
Bsmith said:
I could tell from watching this that the blood on the lens was not done on purpose, but the shot was soo long there was probably no way they could do another take. Do you think they rotoscopred the blood out, b/c as the scene went on the blood jsut disappeared.
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Found this quote on IMDB "Even though the blood on the lens disappears after a short time, the entire sequence is one take. There are no invisible cuts. Cuaron said, "The blood was great, but after a while, it started to feel like it was on your face." He hired a digital artist to remove it, and they had to go frame by frame to do so."

So yes, the entire 20 or so minute scene is one take. I also heard a radio interview recently which also confirmed this. They only had one day to do it and with all the setup required they got about 2 or 3 tries I think he said. It's completely mind numbing the preparation that must have been required to get it all to work that well.
 
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