Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 4, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 4, 2023 (edited) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Might the final line of the previous post recall 13:54? Edited July 4, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 5, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 5, 2023 (edited) Cinematic Reading of Poetry Scandebat roseo medii fastigia caeli Luna iugo, totis ubi somnus inertior alis defluit in terras mutumque amplectitur orbem : Achilleid, 619–621. Dunkirk (2017) (for example), like so many first-rate narratives, produces wondrous thematic effects through a stacking up of simultaneous resonances as the story progresses. The reading of first-rate poetry is a similar engagement. Reading, in this sense, is not exclusively about absorbing word after word to piece together a syntactic sentence. No. Just as the incoming data from a film frame communicates much more than simply the obvious, so the Reading of first-rate poetry grows in complexity (in what may be thought by the casual Reader as a curious procedure) on the way through the syntactic sentence to “general meaning”. For example : the above lines from Statius are about the rosy moon rising in the night. roseo : the two instances of the “o” in this word, a word relating to the moon, are hieroglyphs of the moon (as it were). Now, the reader wonders, for how long can Statius draw out the motif of the moon-“o” in the syntactic sentence about the moon? There are no further instances of the letter-shape “o” in the next three words, a phrase which expresses the vastitude of the wide-open evening air, hence all the open vowels : but wait : the five instances of the “i” each have a moon-shaped dot. Instances of the “i” and the “o” usher us through line 2. Line 3 : defluit : “to go down” : hence no “o”? But the use of the “u” is a climax of its own : a resolution (with mutumque) of its use in line 2. But the final word is orbem : “round earth” : “orb” : “o”. Please note the enjambment of “u” with “o” at the end of line 3 : amplectitur orbem : Travis Bickle looking in the mirror? What I mean is : Picture, Good Reader, the “o” of orbem dropping into the open abyss of the “u”. . . . the embrace (amplectitur) of the orbem by somnus . . . Just as in any other first-rate narrative, many vibes operate concurrently in Statius, requiring many absorptions to recognize, collate, and understand. In the three lines 619–621, it’s not only the letter “o” that the Reader pays attention to. What if the Reader concentrates on the outlay of every letter in every line? Reader-Participation Reading. Slowly. Such as how Alma pours her tea in PT. Just as, say, a Spectator can look wherever on a cinema screen, and not exclusively at the center, yet still follow the straightfoward aspect of the narrative without problem. . . . Art is Freedom. Edited July 5, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 6, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 6, 2023 Ancient Greek in Spielberg Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) : Roy Neary : a childlike character. A coincidence, then, that the word Neary derives from νέος : “young”/“fresh and new (like a baby)” ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 7, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 7, 2023 Statius, Achilleid. 16. Now the rosy moon was highest in the open-ended night; and Sleep, at his most passive, had his wings wrapped around the earth. The dance had left its space, the trumpet’s bronze pulse fallen silent. Achilles, alone awake among the rest, was lost in thought. “How much longer must I take this fakery from my mother? In the purest strength of my youth and I’m flinging around flowers? I want the arms of Ares in these hands, and hunt terrified beasts! Haemonia, where are your fields and rivers? Do you miss me, Sperchius, swimming in your waters? and leaving my cut hair in your honour? Or does no one care any more for what they call a deserter? Do people think I’m dead, and brought down to the shades of Hades? Does Chiron cry over my death? And my spears, and my bow, and my horses, reared for me—do you have use of these now, Patroclus? Meanwhile I hold a wand and I spin thread (how disgusting to hear myself confess this)! And I don’t even take that girl when I may, but keep my love secret for much of the time—a prisoner to my silence! I feel the heat flaming up in my heart! Night and day I burn! You shameful fool! Not even in love do you stand as a man!” Thus he said; then, making use of the dense shade of the forest silence, lay hard upon his conquest, possessing her with strength, and from his heart motivated by love wrapped her in many active embraces. From on high all the circling stars saw, and the crescent moon’s tips blushed red. And Deidamia’s cries filled wood and mountain truly and indeed. And all of this noise brought the sisters up out of their cloud of sleep, who thought the rites had begun again. Expecting themselves invited to dance, they raised a cry that filled the forest entire, and once more Achilles raised the magic wand and shook it in the sacred salute to Bacchus, and the sisters moved to and fro before him. Meanwhile let us hear what he spoke to Deidamia : “Why are you shaking? It’s all true. I’m Achilles. My mother’s a goddess, my father should have been Zeus. I’m the one who crawled up the snows of Thessaly. That first day there’s no way I would have worn any of this if I hadn’t seen you on the beach. I did it to get close to you. I hold wool and shake tambourines for you. Why are you crying? You are now related to the sea. Why this blubbering? You shall conceive remarkable grandsons for the sky. Have no fear of your father. Your Island Scyros will be torn to pieces and consumed in flames if your father answers our marriage with a death. My mother chose a peaceful life for me. For now on I am ready to reject all those hopes.” The princess, stupefied with such a monstrous situation (though long suspecting, and observing at close hand, and trusting) now shuddered as she saw the changes happening in his face. What should she do now? Tell her father everything, and bring with her Achilles—who might suffer cruelly for all this? Would she want to willingly worsen his pain? And the love that had endured through all of the deception burned still in her heart. And so she suffered in silence, concealing the crime they shared between them. To one friend only, her Nurse, she confessed her secret, who helped the young lovers (how could she do otherwise?) and through crafty ways hid the girl’s growing womb until she was brought through to term and Lucina, goddess informer, set the secret free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 7, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 7, 2023 The Dolly Zoom of longest duration in the history of Hollywood cinema? Phantom Thread (2017). The entire shot is 1:31:40-1:34:58. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 8, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 8, 2023 (edited) On the calligraphy of the title Phantom Thread (:30–:40) 1.Lettering : key items to consider : size, weight, width, form, placement, posture. (a.) Oppositions between letters.Opposing directions : P with h in “Phantom”Opposing directions : T with h, and h with r in “Thread”These oppositions skew the elegance : an instability to noble poise. (b.) Oppositions/anxieties within letters.P : irregular : the thickness of its swell with respect to its other (thinner) stroke-details (e.g., stem, head serif).h : the cramped width of its curved leg.Cramped : Note how the “bowl” (the open space) of the o has less of a swell than the bowl of the a. Is this uncommon? See, say, Hoefnagel’s lower-case alphabet of the 1590s. More generally, do more charts of the miniscule alphabets of European history contain more instances of a more-open “o” than “a”? Theory : yes. (c.) Optical Volume “The combined appearance of the spacing between letters is called Optical Volume” / Frank J. Romano, The TypEncyclopedia (London : Bowker, 1984), 100. The Optical Volume here—the widths of interspaces between the letters—is seemingly composed of different dimensions, generating uneasiness. (d.) Thematicr : the long spur approximates a slender thread. And . . . ? A reaching out? And . . . ? (e.) SerifsOpposition : letters with serifs mixed with letters without serifs (h; t, m, r).Opposition : the rectilinear serifs (P, T) with the jaunty curved swashes (e.g., d) and endings (e.g., a). We might say this penmanship is “dual” : both “masculine” (rectilinear) and “feminine” (curved). (f.) Verdict : Schizophrenia. 2. Note the visual noise. “As psychologists have so often pointed out, the serifs are not merely decorative. They connect the effects of irradiation (‘visual spead’); and in any passage of consecutive print, they contribute appreciably towards the horizontal movement of the eye.” / Sir Cyril Burt, A Psychological Study of Typography (London : Cambridge University Press, 1959), 9.Using the above quote as a guide, may we theorize that this title card contributes to a feeling of eye-whirling Vertigo? Note the knots. And the infinity sign : a separate stroke? Duality : The ornamentation surrounding “Phantom Thread” is not the product of one elegantly elaborate stroke, but two. 3. Closer detail The dot finishing the head-serif of the T : the P does not have one. Asymmetry. 4a. Final VerdictSchizophrenia. Visual Noise. Entrapment. Asymmetry. The set of relations here create an uneasiness amid the elegance. Artist William Hogarth definied the wavy line of calligraphy as the “line of grace”. Here, the lines of grace contribute to a knot. 4b. Final Verdict “De Divina Proportione” : Fra Luca de Pacioli (1400s) believed in mathematically-designed symmetry in designing letterforms. / See his alphabet in Stanley Morrison, Pacioli’s Classic Roman Alphabet (New York : Dover Publications, Inc., 1994).The title card of Phantom Thread does not convey the vibes of “De Divina Proportione”. 5. Other books consulted Michelle P. Brown & Patricia Lovett, The Historical Source Book for Scribes (London : The British Library, 1999). Lee Hendrix and Thea Vignau-Wilberg, An Abecedarium (London : Thames and Hudson, 1997). Edward Johnston, Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering (London: A&C Black, 1994). Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations (Cheshire, CT : Graphics Press, 1997). Edited July 8, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 8, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 8, 2023 Viri Phantom Thread, 1:12:20. vir = male. declension (genitive) : viri viri = also genitive form of virus Meaning? There is an inescapable etymological association between the words “virility” and “poison”, and an originary link is a word for “slime” (e.g., say, stromatolites, protoplasm). This chucklesome contrast recalls the etymological association between “marriage” and “grief” in ancient Greek (κῆδος). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 8, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 8, 2023 17. Now the ship of Odysseus skulks through the intricacy of the Aegean. The winds leave many islands behind him. Paros and Antiparos recede out of sight while he brushes past rugged Lemnos. Naxos shrinks as Samos grows larger. Now Delos darkens the mirrored surface of the sea. The cups are taken out to pray, and the prayers are answered. From the island’s high mountain bow-bearing Apollo stimulates the sailing air, and an easy wind bellies the canvas, and the ship sails on untroubled, an omen to all doubters— for in no way would Zeus allow Thetis to overturn the law of Fate. So the goddess is incensed with many salty tears that she is forbidden to destroy the man with winds and waves. For now all she can do to Odysseus is pursue him with an evil eye. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 9, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 9, 2023 Engineering Echoes Remember how at the end of The Irishman (2019) Robert De Niro’s open door recalls Al Pacino’s character? What follows are the first three words of two different paragraphs of Statius, Achilleid : Scandebat roseo medii . . . (619) Frangebat radios humili . . . (689) Wild Guess : Does the kind reader think these two different Situations may be associated in some manner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 14, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 14, 2023 And the sun passed over the zenith, and its rays fell gentler; so, just after noontime, Odysseus saw, rising ahead of him, the Island Scyros with its navigable harbour, and the sight promised rest. So he went to the stern and prepared the mooring-ropes, and ordered his sea-mates to speed up their oars. Island Scyros, then, mild land of Tritonia Athena, opened its shores. Heroes Odysseus and Diomedes stepped onto land, saying a prayer to the kind deity of the island; then they prepared to move forward cautiously. Smartly Odysseus ordered most of his crew to stay behind; for the sudden sight of them all, he said, might incite a fright, or worse, in the people of the town. So off the two heroes went, scaling a steep incline to get to high ground, to spy out the place. They went as on a freezing winter’s night two wolves unite in search of food; urged by hunger, their own and their cubs’, they step quietly, their heads bowed low to the ground, and sneak by the watchdogs, whom at any moment might bark and bring herdsmen running with weapons. In this same way, then, did Odysseus and Diomedes enter into an open plain. They spoke together as they kept as best they could off the beaten track; and first to speak was spirited Diomedes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 16, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 16, 2023 “How” (Diomedes asked) do you expect to pinpoint the truth? What you’ve put into my hands is curious indeed, and I have no sense yet of your plans. You’d have me carry into town these tambourines and silly wands and Bacchic drums? And these deerskins decorated with spots of gold? And headbands? Your idea is to give Achilles destroyer of Troy—these? Slightly, then, Odysseus’ serious mien relaxed. “Hear me now.” (He smiled) “All these, I promise, will be of use to us. Ensure you have them all when the time is right and you’re summoned to me in Lycomedes’ palace. This should make you happy : bring also a shield—a beautiful carven one— and a spear. That’s not all. Bring the man Agyrtes with you. Tell him to bring with him his messenger trumpet—but hidden.” So Odysseus advised friend Diomedes, who nodded his head, mystified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 17, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 17, 2023 “They’d rather live in perpetual war with each other then peace on his terms. So he took them all and their land and everything in it and contained them whether they liked it or not. And all those who attempted insurrection, outside his army and inside it, were treated in the harshest possible terms. If he wasn’t given want he wanted, he took it. And history has borne, up to now at least, he has been very successful in taking things, and in having things done his way. This is Caesar.” Emerging in 2024 : Caesar’s Wars A screenplay for Stanley Kubrick by JSB Here on Cinematography.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 17, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 17, 2023 As they approached the palace gates they saw the king standing there; so Odysseus held prominent before him a promise of peace, an olive branch. “Great words, I imagine” (he said) have come from all over for a long time now, common talk of war. Good king, it’s all true. Europe and Asia between them are set to shake the whole earth. If by any chance you have come to know the names of the commanders moving about at this time, this here is Diomedes, great-hearted Tydeus’ son. I’m Commander Odysseus. Let me tell you why I’m here. We’re all Greeks. We should share a common purpose of protecting ourselves. My friend and I have come to investigate the islands outside Troy, to see what each may be able to provide us.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 18, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 18, 2023 Thus Odysseus, to which King Lycomedes answered kindly : “Oh my friends!” (he said) “May Fortune smile on your enterprise! For your prosperity I pray to all of the gods that hear me! Now you two shall be my guests, blessing my pious and loving home.” And so without delay an array of tables and couches were set out, as many servants set the palace in order for a feast. Meantime, while Odysseus was led through the house his rapid eyes scanned every room, every hallway, for any sign of the boy. He noted the height of every person he saw, and the manner of their clothing. While marvelling in awe at the palace architecture, Odysseus roamed down every colonnade and wandered into every gallery, just as a hunter, approaching confidently the lair of his quarry, stays calm and cool as he moves with his tiptoeing hound through the branches and leaves till they come to their enemy laid out on the ground asleep, and the hound shows its fangs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 19, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 19, 2023 And so Rumor blazed quickly through the women’s quarters, and lit up the faces of all the girls. The island has taken in some Greek ship, with its crew and its two commanders! The sisters rose (justly) in awe and dread. Achilles, however, could barely contain his excitement, his eagerness to see these heroes and their weaponry. And so then all the girls in a clatter burst into the Great Hall like Amazons returning triumphant from a raid over the Getae. Down they relaxed their limbs onto embroidered gold, all these chaste girls, while their father smiled on his pious daughters. During all this ferment Odysseus admired their faces and figures, and with his eyes took their measurements, for he was looking for anything curious among this bunch of red-faced virgins. But by now night had come, and lamps were brought in, (conveniently) obscuring the girls. Yet Odysseus saw one with burning cheeks and eyes riveted on him, and he turned to Diomedes to point that one out. What if at that moment Deidamia didn’t throw her arms round her couch-mate and press herself hard against him, obscuring his face and arms and shoulders in the folds of her gown? And she slipped a new headband on his head quickly and swept his hair back. Odysseus turned for a second look. He then decided to go away and enjoy the feast with King Lycomedes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 19, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) 58BC. Military Dispatch from Gaul (in Caesar’s Wars 1.12–13) There is a river Arar which flows through the limits of the Aedui and the Sequani and runs into the Rhone. Its current is so remarkably sluggish that one cannot determine its direction by eye. The Helvetii were crossing over using rafts and boats tethered together when Caesar’s scouts informed him that three-quarters of the Helvetii’s forces had already crossed, while the fourth part of their army were waiting to cross. Caesar then set out from camp with three legions in the third watch of the night, and came up on the part of the enemy still waiting to cross the river. While the enemy stood there by the banks encumbered with their baggage and matériel, Caesar attacked. He caught the enemy completely unaware. A great number of the Helvetii were cut down by the sword, while the rest fled into a nearby forest. . . . When the combat ended, it was decided to immediately pursue the greater part of the Helvetians. Caesar ordered a bridge built over the Arar. What took the Helvetii twenty days to cross, Caesar crossed in one. Very quickly the Helvetii realized the unexpected approach of the Roman Army at their rear, and in answer sent a legation to Caesar to sue for peace. . . . Edited July 19, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 20, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2023 So following the pleasures of the feast (placed twice then three times before the Achaeans), the king winefully addressed his guests : “How I envy you” (he said) “your great undertaking, honest Odysseus! Gods in Heaven! If only I had the strength of my youth back, when I crushed the Dolopians as they came up to the shores of Scyros. I vanquished them in the water. You may have seen signs of my old triumph on your way into port : some of their keels are still sticking up in the waves by the rocks. Anyhow, if only I had sons to send with you to war! But you can see for yourself the strength of my many children. When will they give me a squadron of grandsons?” So spoke the king. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 20, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2023 (edited) CAESAR’S WARS by JSB based on Caesar : The Gallic War A screenplay for Stanley Kubrick begun : 20 July 2023 rough draft 1.0 EXT. SOMEWHERE IN WESTERN EUROPE - DAWN Harsh rain. A MAN (grizzled, warlike) leading a weary packhorse, comes into view of a colossal wasteland. Bleak mountains, stagnant lakes, sluggish rivers, hard soil, wide desert. Is this a post-apocalyptic world? No, it only looks like one. The time is 58BC. The Helvetian people live outdoors among the trees and rocks, and they look it : a dirty, long-haired, brutal people. The wandering MAN—let’s call him X—unrolls a map, scans it, then, exasperated, rolls it up. He approaches a FARMER working on a poor farm. X Good man! FARMER What is it? X Will you kindly tell me where I am? FARMER In hell. X nods. FARMER It’s not so hard to find it these days. X scans the forbidding environs, the back end of nowhere, and sighs. CUT TO : INT. ROYAL HUT - NIGHT CU of candle flame. Here are DAUGHTER of KING (PRINCESS) and her HUSBAND. PRINCESS Do I appeal to you tonight, my husband? HUSBAND War has come. PRINCESS What? Why? HUSBAND Because you’re the only one of all your people with a roof over your head. PRINCESS So? HUSBAND The Helvetians have had enough of living on hard earth. We’re leaving. PRINCESS Where on earth are we going? HUSBAND, noticing the SERVANTS (standing like statues nearby), leans in and whispers in PRINCESS’s ear. HUSBAND Ask the king your father. The rebellion is his. PRINCESS Daddy? Why would he do this to me? HUSBAND He’s done it. It’s begun. PRINCESS What are you saying? HUSBAND Trouble have already bound him up. He’s been betrayed—by our own informers. PRINCESS I don’t follow. Betrayed him how? HUSBAND Informing the enemy for gifts is apparently more appealing than freedom. What do you think of your people now? PRINCESS I never think of them. What do we do? HUSBAND We escape with them, like birds hiding in the middle of a flock. Do we have a choice? If we stay here we die. Who lives who stands on his own? PRINCESS Tell me. Is my dear father alive? HUSBAND strokes PRINCESS’s hair lovingly, with concern. HUSBAND Our good people haven’t taken the fight from him yet. CUT TO : EXT. PUBLIC MEETING PLACE - MORNING The KING stands in chains before his people in his royal robes and crown—Orgetorix is his name, and he looks stern and defiant. HERALD . . . In punishment for conspiracy to wage war against our enemies without public dialogue, you, King Orgetorix, are sentenced to death by fire— Suddenly appearing is a colossal number of ALLIES of Orgetorix, over a thousand, a great many on horseback, brandishing weapons, and holding back wild dogs on ropes. They surround the proceedings to the great excitement of the PEOPLE. ORGETORIX (shouting) Nothing is dying here except all your hearts! Amid violent wranglings his ALLIES cut him loose to the great shouts of the PEOPLE. The KING leaps onto a horse and gallops off while law enforcement sends arrows and spears in his direction. The man X has been watching (amused) amid the crowd. X (murmuring) He’s saved himself! CUT TO : EXT. HARSH DESERT ENVIRONMENT - DAY The KING—dead on the ground, bloody knife nearby. LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL 1 The man got away clean—then cut his own throat. LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL 2 Why would he do that? LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL 1 We’ll ask him someday. The man X is here. He looks quizzical, scanning the high mountains. Then he turns to the FARMER. X And your people? Now what do they think? CUT TO : EXT. HELVETIAN PUBLIC SPACE - DAY Everything is riotous with bright fire. Holding torches the PEOPLE are burning everything in sight, particularly all of their possessions and cropland. EXT. ROYAL HUT - DAY The PRINCESS stands with her HUSBAND in their doorway, watching the tumultuous spectacle. PRINCESS My dear father died two years ago. All this talk of insurrection—Wasn’t it over? What are our people doing? HUSBAND Destroying everything they have. PRINCESS Suicide? HUSBAND No. Warfare. When we advance, there’ll be nothing left to come back to. We fight or we die and there’s no in between. PRINCESS Why are they doing this to me? HUSBAND Maybe you’ll survive this. The PRINCESS frowns. EXT. HELVETIAN PUBLIC SPACE - DAY ANGRY HELVETIAN Now! All good people! We march out of here! Together! We walk straight through that scum and we take our freedom! CUT TO : EXT. ROMAN SECTOR - DAY A nineteen-mile-long WALL, high and impenetrable. A garrison of soldiers is stationed at every mile. No enemy is getting past this wall. ROMAN SOLDIERS (clean-shaven, well-dressed) are busy with their many tasks in the well-designed camp. EXT. NEARBY FOREST - DAY HELVETIAN SPIES study the Situation, and look at each other with concern. SPY 1 When the hell did they put that up? SPY 2 Now what? CUT TO : EXT. RIVER - NIGHT The HELVETIANS are carefully, dangerously, crossing a deep river, using rafts and boats tethered together. X and FARMER watch by the riverbank. X Twenty days of this, and nobody knows where they’re going. FARMER Go the other way then. X takes out his MAP and crumples it up disappointedly. He drops it in the river and it floats away. FARMER We’ve made it. Only a quarter of our people are left to cross. Once we’re over, how the hell are they going to chase us? We have a twenty-day headstart. X (unconvinced) Yeah. The MAP, floating along the river, rushes up against the legs of a group of men standing by the riverbank : Are they ROMAN SOLDIERS? Suddenly the ROMAN NAVAL FORCES appear! RIVER BATTLE! The ROMANS destroy everyone in the water. Floating up to riverside, by the feet of the man X, are the dead bodies of the King’s DAUGHTER and HUSBAND. Screaming, the FARMER takes up a tree branch and attacks some ROMAN SOLDIERS. For his pains he receives a decapitation. X sighs, then catches sight of something : A powerfully commanding MAN—CAESAR—standing far off, seen from behind, surrounded by ADVISORS. He is pointing to various places of the river and speaking with authority. (The cinema audience, too distant to hear, catches nothing more than the slightest of murmurs.) EXT. RIVER - NEXT SUNRISE ROMAN ENGINEERS are erecting a wooden bridge. EXT. RIVER - THAT SAME AFTERNOON The bridge is complete. X is watching from the trees, shaking his head in astonishment at the technical skill of Rome. EXT. FOREST (HELVETIAN AREA) - AFTERNOON A Helvetian on horseback gallops up to the rearguard of the procession of his people. HELVETIAN Twenty days for us to cross the river, less than one for Rome! They’re on us! EXT. FOREST (ROMAN AREA) - AFTERNOON A powerful man mounts his house : CU of the face of CAESAR. CAESAR Kill them all. Edited July 20, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 20, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2023 (edited) So spoke the king, and clever Odysseus stole softly into the moment : “Ah!” (he said) “as a man you have no wish to be scorned as weak! That is to say, what man wouldn’t burn to play a part in war? —with its columns of innumerous soldiers, its noble leaders and its splendid kings? All together now the powers of mighty Europe has joined to lift the two-edged sword against its enemy. Fields and cities have been emptied of men, while the sails of our ships spread out one colossal shadow over the sea. Fathers hand down their weapons to their sons, and the sons take them, theirs for all time now. Never before has an army of such magnitude been assembled to promise most glorious fame to all men in battle showing bravery and excellence!” Edited July 20, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 20, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2023 (edited) CAESAR Kill them all. INT. CAESAR’S HUT - NIGHT By candlelight CAESAR is relaxed on a couch, reading thoughtfully a manuscript of ancient Greek. As he reads, he sips a drink. TITUS, his second-in-command, steps in. At a nod from CAESAR, the GUARDS allow him entrance. TITUS sits on a couch. CAESAR Yes, my friend? TITUS Sir, in three days the army awaits the distribution of the corn ration. The hunger after this latest campaign is a powerful one. The troops are slithering on their bellies. CAESAR I’ve arranged for a roundtable with all of our allies in the area. Rome protects them from each other, the lunatics, and for that our corn ration is merited. I will tell them tomorrow we demand it tomorrow. TITUS The Helvetians have me wondering. CAESAR Yes? TITUS If all of our allies—Aedui, Allobroges, Ambarri, all the godforsaken peoples—if all of them, elated by another strong voice like that suicidal Orgetorix, set all their crops on fire at once, I wonder—if you allow me the bluntness—if we can make it home. CAESAR All these tribes you speak of want to live, just as the Helvetii did. For that they need protection from each other. Rome is that protection. TITUS Pardon me, sir, but how do you explain the insensibility of the Helvetii? CAESAR gestures to a map of GAUL tacked on the wall of the hut. He stands, and TITUS stands with him. CAESAR Look where the Helvetii were located. At the back end of us all. For that reason they’d always been the most warlike of the barbarians. They honed their skills fighting with the Germans since before we were born. CAESAR pours two drinks and hands one to friend TITUS. CAESAR (cont’d.) But the others—while just as strong—are more sensible. We’ll move some of the allies into the Helvetian lands and get those crops growing again. We’ll get our corn. The two of them touch cups. CAESAR Gaul is Rome. They drink. CAESAR looks thoughtfully at his friend, then sits, as does TITUS. CAESAR Now you make me think of something else. TITUS What’s that, sir? Thoughtfully CAESAR puts his hand on the ancient Greek manuscript. CAESAR Another time, Titus. Get some sleep. TITUS (looking at the manuscript) You too, sir. They smile at each other by candlelight—a private joke. CAESAR Yes. When my duties are complete for the day, it seems my work is only beginning—the work of words. It’s fascinating, these shapes. Now I’ll tell you something. Only words not meant to be read in our dispatches will teach you what words are. TITUS I don’t understand you. CAESAR You will. Words in our dispatches are blunt, just as the sky is blue, or stones are hard. Words in poetry, however, are like light, or fragrances : They resonate. Whey they echo in the head, you experience new things. Now we see for the first time a SCRIBE standing in the background, writing down every word spoken (like a minion of George Lucas’s entourage). TITUS You love the alphabet—is that why you love Rome? CAESAR laughs. These two are good friends. CAESAR (nods) Rome is the alphabet. (suddenly serious) And I am Rome. Edited July 20, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 21, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2023 CAESAR (nods) Rome is the alphabet. (suddenly serious) And I am Rome. INT. GREAT HALL - MORNING CAESAR arrayed on his military throne, rectitudinous, powerful. A CROWD of ADVISORS sit nearby, including TITUS. Before CAESAR’s throne stands DIVICIACUS, a leader of the Aedui tribe—and he looks very, very uncomfortable. CAESAR Friend Diviciacus— DIVICIACUS breaks down crying and drops to his knees, inconsolable. CAESAR (begins again) Friend Diviciacus, leader of the Aedui, the Roman people have determined that your ration of corn-crops are long overdue. Many times now you have held my ear with promises of collection, and of deliverance. But so far all we have received from you are words. These words, however, I know are not your own. (What doesn’t Rome know?) Diviciacus, friend to us, it is your brother—Dumnorix—who causes this great upset in me. Men say the failed push of the Helvetii haunts his mind still, and he would install himself as successor in insurrection against the god-given authority of Rome. His boldness is such that the fate of the Helvetii at the edge of my sword gives him no pause. I say questionable moves are being made behind the back of Caesar. Your brother conspires with our allies to stop our corn-ration. He seeks to starve us. With Rome gone, the power is his. But this is absurdity. One man against the might of Rome? Most concerning of all to our Law, it’s said he helped the Helvetii cross the river those two years ago—he supplied them with boats, and also secured the timber to make these, all of which I sent in fragments to the bottom of the bed. That is rumour, though, and Caesar does not act on rumour alone. Friend Diviciacus, I speak all this out of respect for you, and in honour of all the assistance you have given us regarding your people. So your brother lives yet. What say you to this? Still on his knees, DIVICIACUS weeps hysterically. With a frown and a wave CAESAR sends everyone out of the Hall. Now CAESAR and DIVICIACUS are alone. CAESAR steps down from his throne and stands over DIVICIACUS. Surprisingly, CAESAR bends down on his haunches to look DIVICIACUS in the eye, and listen—not in threat but in friendship. DIVICIACUS (terrified) Great leader, I am unable to confirm all that you say—my brother is his own man—but I know enough, and I am willing to speak, for you have always been kind to me and my people. Dumnorix my brother is a fiery man, a violent man. What can I say that he will listen to? You know my love for you and for Rome. You brought peace to our realm, and culture. I am in a most difficult position. Common talk will end my life if I help you stop my brother. When I’m dead I can help you no further. Yet I will yield my life to you, to answer my brother’s questionable activity. DIVICIACUS holds his head up, takes out a pocket knife, and offers his neck for CAESAR to cut. DIVICIACUS (somewhat comic, with his head in the air) But the following is no threat, great sir—if I bleed and die, the people may cease to listen to you. From all directions may come the return of the rage of the Helvetii. CAESAR calmly reaches out and takes the knife from DIVICIACUS’s hand. CAESAR Diviciacus, I have listened and I have heard. CAESAR helps bring DIVICIACUS to his feet. CAESAR Rise, and wipe these tears from your face. You are not here to be punished. CAESAR puts the knife back into the hand of DIVICIACUS, and closes DIVICIACUS’s fist around it. CAESAR Come. As the two men speak, they stroll through the Hall, admiring the many marble busts and other accoutrements of Rome. CAESAR You have spoken yourself into a solution, my friend. Caesar is strong, but Caesar is fair. You are loved, by my men as well as by yours. We must keep it that way. Your brother shall live. DIVICIACUS drops to his knees and kisses the marble floor before CAESAR’s sandalled feet. CAESAR (impatient now) Get up. DIVICIACUS rises in a flash. CAESAR Mark me well. Your brother must promise you to stop all his plots and plans, which will amount to nothing. If he ceases to warrant further suspicion, perhaps in time I will release the sentinels who, as of now, shall escort him through all the hours of his days and nights, so there will be nothing he can say or do that Caesar will not come to learn and know. This is not punishment. This is compromise. Your brother Dumnorix lives. Bring us the corn-ration. DIVICIACUS is about to answer, but CAESAR gives a wave, and TWO GUARDS take DIVICIACUS out of the Hall. CAESAR returns to his throne, where he sits with a sigh, observing the emblematic power in the architecture around him. TITUS is there. TITUS Sir, today’s dispatches are away to Rome. CAESAR I have scotched the revolution in its nest. TITUS Yes, sir. CAESAR We can’t kill every last one of them, or we’ll have no corn at all. Learn from me, my Titus. In this instance it was best to offer a pretence of forgiveness. Making deals with traitors—such is the daily coin of politics and business. TITUS I’m sure the Senate will be very pleased. CAESAR Careful what you write. Give Rome too much pleasure and you’ll get punished for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 21, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2023 Oppenheimer (Hughesian-beginning) : “Who’d want to justify their whole life?” Citizen Kane (end) : “I don't think any word can explain a man’s life.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 21, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2023 (edited) Oppenheimer (2023). PART I. Oppenheimer is a taking-on of PTA in various ways (an essay of its own). A considerable stretch of the first twenty-five minutes has the wondrous (improvisatory-but-engineered) dream-like real-life vibe of Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973). The pic’s swift pace pieced together by a lack of establishing shots recalls Scorsese’s Departed (2006). There is a cinéma vérité vibe to a lot of the geometry and editing : a look/vibe of remarkable ease. The lack of establishing shots is associated with characters “getting right to it”, such as the Op / Groves intro. This remark leads us to : Noteworthy is the film’s departure from classic Hollywood cinema. Part I of Oppenheimer is (seemingly) composed of a minimum of Hollywood story structure. That is to say, there is no real rising-and-falling action; no early set-pieces or elaborate sequences. All is temperate and characterological. Remarkably so. / Theory : The effortless look of Part I of Oppenheimer is the product of Full-Spectrum Genius (the blessing of craftspeople, all of them). / The western elements must be considered. Early Grand Visual Schemes (cutaways to CU quantum-physical sights; Congressional Headaches) virtually disappear as Part I proceeds : this withholding of burgeoning structural elements suggests a Tremendous Structural Situation : the Spectator knows the Grand Schemes will return, perhaps in an even Grander manner : By the end of Part 1, the Narrative of Oppenheimer is shaping up to be Massive. Screenwriter uses source material very well : e.g., condensing Op’s ability with languages to seed the fact in the Spectator’s mind (e.g., pushing up the knowledge of Sanskrit a number of years). We see an early edition (1922? 1923?) of The Waste Land (publisher apparently Boni & Liveright, New York). Some shots of stars in the sky could be from a silent movie : even the black-hole effect might be a clip from a 20s German Flick : fond recollection of the filmic ethos of Dunkirk (2017). / Highly charged moment : Connection of sex and death and ancient wisdom and all what else . . . / Opening : Looking into the lens. / Bergman-like dream. / Bresson also in Part I? / Op’s upbringing is absent here, but suggested : by the scenes in museum, and the Picasso. / The juxtaposition of Op in bed contending with visions of the Early Grand Schemes recalls Leonardo's exposed body projected with film and writhing in The Aviator (2004) : the Artist overcoming with Undifferentiated Energy. / Part I. By this point in the narrative Oppenheimer is Remarkably Understated. Remarkably controlled. This is our 70s movie, but this is no 70s movie. . . . / What has Nolan given us, that awaits our thought? Edited July 21, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 21, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2023 Oppenheimer (2023) : "Be yourself, only better." Color of Money (1986), Paul Newman : "He's got to learn how to be himself, but on purpose." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jeff Bernstein Posted July 21, 2023 Author Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2023 (edited) “Would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?” This question recalls the father-son relationship in Dunkirk (2017) : ingenuous connection. (Here, between Op and Groves.) How will Groves answer? is as Massive a moment in this narrative as any grandiose CGI something or other. Obviously : Nothing in storytelling is as important as the interpersonal. The storyteller of Oppenheimer is stirringly fundamental in approach : heroically so. Edited July 21, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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