Live By Night (Ben Affleck, Robert Richardson)

Manu Delpech · September 9, 2016

Ben Affleck's latest film, adapted from Dennis Lehane's Live By Night, taking place at first during the prohibition, and then over several decades if I'm correct. Shot by Robert Richardson mainly on the Alexa 65 (and Super Panavision 70 lenses) it seems, but I remember reading they used film & digital (some guy said that he saw them prepping film and digital cameras at Panavision), anyone close to the production knows anything about this? The first shot in the trailer definitely looks like film to me, and maybe a few other shots in the trailer.

Looks beautiful.

http://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/wb/live-by-night/live-by-night-trailer-1_h1080p.mov

Tyler Purcell · September 9, 2016

Yea, those first few shots for sure look like film. I wonder if part of the story is on film or something.

It's amazing how even in a low-res trailer, you can tell simply due to the motion blur of a camera move.

Rest of it looks great, maybe worth seeing in the theaters.

Clint Hulsey · January 17, 2017

I think I am going to have to see this again. I saw this at an AMC in Dallas and for some reason the right third of the image was tinted red for the whole movie. I guess I didn't know that that was possible on a projector and I certainly don't know why it would happen or be allowed to happen.

I'm a huge fan of the book (and even more of a fan of the previous book A Given Day) and I don't know that the movie really captured the darkness of it and pacing wise it felt a little rushed, as if the compression wasn't handled well in the screenplay or the editing like it was in The Town (I don't think it was as cutty as The Town though and I think in scene editing was better). Richardson is great of course, I loved the scene where Coughlin meets with the Cubans and the camera just circles around each character and moves around the room with them. Will have to see again before I can really comment on the look of it I guess.

Manu Delpech · January 17, 2017

The Town and Argo both had longer cuts on BD, The Town extended is like 30 min longer and a far superior film, I think we'll see the same thing happen here. Most reviews seem to agree on that same point, that it's rushed. About the look, I thought from a post on IMDB (yeah I know) saying they were prepping the film at Panavision at some point and it was a film/digital hybrid, it's all Alexa 65 after all.

Clint Hulsey · January 17, 2017

I have The Town blu-ray and Affleck said they had a near four hour initial cut. I honestly think the extended cut of the movie is a little repetitive. There are a couple of good extra scenes, but I honestly prefer the regular cut (we didn't need the extra little expository dialogue for example). Maybe that is just primacy bias, and it is certainly just my opinion. I need to see Argo again.

(Wasn't there some Red on Live By Night or am I wrong about that? IMDB suggests they used the Red Weapon Dragon, I don't know when it would have been)