μεταμορφώσεις

[Jeff Bernstein]

Cinematography : Oppenheimer (2023).

After Part I the geometry of the frame changes significantly : Complexifies :

Oppenheimer : Masters at Work, Frame by Frame.

[Jeff Bernstein]

The Henry James Positive-Negative Statement.

 

“You are an American Prometheus—the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves, and they’ll respect that.”

 

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

The recurring sound of phantom trains recalls Fassbinder (Marriage of Maria Braun); and the CU of schoolkid feet in shoes stomping on the floor in rows recalls the students early on in Heaven's Gate (cinematographer : Vilmos Zsigmond). (Doesn't it? : a criticism of the Situation?)

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : Truman on the radio sequence 1945 : echoes of Spielberg's Munich (2005).

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : telephoto jitters, conveying characterological interiority, seems inspired by Lynch's focus-skew fugues in Lost Highway (1997).

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : a realized dream of 1970s Hollywood : the American European Film.

[Jeff Bernstein]

 

CAESAR

Careful what you write. Give Rome too much pleasure and you’ll get punished for it.

 

EXT. GERMAN TERRITORY (55BC) - DAY

 

A bloody CAESAR struggles to extricate himself from under his dead horse. SOLDIERS bustling around him are setting aflame the (timber) buildings in a rough village.

 

Some SOLDIERS assist CAESAR in getting to his feet.

 

SOLDIER 1 hands CAESAR the Leader’s Sword. With a bored grimace CAESAR sheathes it at his waist. He surveys the flaming devastation round him with annoyance.

 

CAESAR

(to no one in particular)

Is the corn crop being cut?

 

PASSING SOLDIER

Yes, sir!

 

CAESAR looks as bored as any general might be who has won over a dozen battles (with no defeats) since the last time we’ve seen him.

 

Not noticing who it is he meets, a RUSHING SOLDIER plants a flaming torch in CAESAR’s hand as he rushes past.

 

CAESAR contemplates the torch, and leans over to set a hut aflame. Then he stops—and flings the torch into the forest.

 

SOLDIER (to TITUS)

See that!

 

TITUS

No.

 

SOLDIER

Caesar refuses to burn the enemy!

 

TITUS shoves his open hand onto the SOLDIER’s face and forces him to the ground. He unsheathes the SOLDIER’s own sword and runs it through his neck. Blood sprays up into TITUS’s face. Then he drops the sword disdainfully on the corpse.

 

CAESAR, wiping blood from his face with a cloth, has walked up to his friend.

 

TITUS

What was that you did with the fire?

 

CAESAR helpfully hands TITUS his washcloth.

 

CAESAR

Before God, I’ve become too bored to destroy.

(acknowledging dead soldier)

What’s this?

 

TITUS
A doubter.

 

CAESAR

That would be me. I’ve killed my last German. We’re cutting sail and crossing the Channel. We must produce new reading for our friends back home.

 

TITUS

What do you intend to compile for good Rome’s pleasure?

 

With a fingertip CAESAR casually lowers TITUS’s weapon.

 

CAESAR

Relax your sword and preserve the strength of your writing hand. You shall give them the size and shape of the island, and who the hell is on it—or rather, who shall be left on it.

 

TITUS
You shall rewrite the map, sir.

 

CAESAR

Rome is the map.

 

TITUS

Soon you’ll have drawn for us the entire round world.

 

CAESAR

(staring into the fire)

Indeed? Maintaining one’s power, Titus, is like standing on hot coals indefinitely. But stepping off would be far less pleasurable.

 

TITUS

You think Britain will be pleasurable to take?

 

CAESAR

(psycho)

Depend on it.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Odysseus sees them all ears around him, taking in his words

eagerly (though a few girls, trembling in fear, have lowered

their eyes). Now the clever Ithacan lays it on even thicker :

“Whoever comes from a great family of superb ancestry,

whoever has skill with horse and spear, whoever thinks he has

superior power with the bow—all honour will be his,

when he stands against the great names in battle! Even little

mothers, even their girls, need restraint from rushing into fight!

Ah!” (he went on) “any man is doomed to many useless years

to come who lets this chance for glory pass him by unanswered.

A man’s weakness and cowardliness are detested by the gods.”

 

Achilles jumped up from his couch then, but Deidamia

and sisters enclosed him in a crush of bodies, and held him

fast there, and together they fled in a bustle from the Hall,

leaving Odysseus to watch them with a sparkle in his eye.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : “J. Robert Oppenheimer.” “What does the J stand for?” “Nothing.”

 

North by Northwest (1959) : “Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for?” “Nothing.”

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : throwing the ball/glasses while thinking.

 

A Man Escaped (1956) : 22:24 . . . .

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : Christopher Nolan Kubrick-ing audience expectation

 

In A Clockwork Orange (1971), murderer Alex is perversely forced to watch violent cinematic Situations—while the innocent audience, in comparison, could have fled the perverse and violent Clockwork Orange at any point in the screening.

 

In Oppenheimer, storyteller Nolan gathers many of his characters at a screening to watch the after-effects of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan. (Dead) reckoning with this sort of tumultuous footage—large-scale wide-screen mayhem—is, a student of Hollywood cinema might think, a common expectation of the audiences of Oppenheimer : but in this scene the main character keeps his eyes away from the screen for the colossal duration of 30 seconds.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Truth Hurts / Trained Spectators

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : fundamental theme, perhaps the fundamental theme : Failed Progress.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023)

 

Theory : In more than fifty percent of his own shots, the main character inhabits the frame with a window or windows.

[Jeff Bernstein]

At some point it had to be said that Oppenheimer (2023) is in spirit and vibe more resonant with Z (1969) and The Battle of Algiers (1966) than with, say, All the President's Men (1976). Another clue to a vibe in Oppenheimer's multivibe : The Day of the Jackal (1973)?

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : Just as the foundational story structure of Dunkirk (2017) incorporates a Colossal Literary Technique from the ancient Greek authors, so in Oppenheimer : the narrative's basis in a series of interpersonal betrayals places this particular story not in the Greek, but in the ancient Roman tales. / It's obvious that as an Artist-Thinker Nolan's Mind has "Evolved Beyond" the status quo. So the all-too-common phenomenon of confidently calculating an "understanding" all-too-quickly what has been created here is all the more contemptible in this monumental instance. This Artwork exists to Inspire Thought. Why would anyone be quick to excoriate such a Voice? To quickly cricitize ("Twitterize"?) the complex Oppenheimer (2023) is to criticize Hollywood itself. But to slowly understand an Artwork requires Personal Responsibility.

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Remember the razor-sharp editing : Oppenheimer (2023)

 

Tense sharp control : His wristwatch rising to his sight, in the run-up to detonation : a one-of-a-kind special editing sophistication in the film?

[Jeff Bernstein]

So, then, the clever Ithacan concluded his theme, but for one

last salvo : “Ah!” (continuing) “what paradise this place is!

King, you live enthroned in blessed peace, arranging one marriage

after another for your beloved daughters, whose faces

are equal to the goddesses of the stars. How lucky it was

I came here! The honesty of this palace touches my heart.

And your daughters : their beauty strikes me with the force of soldiers.”

 

And the father responds :  “What if you saw them praying at midnight

to Bacchus? Or surrounding Athena’s altar? If the weather

holds out, I’ll show you these sights.” In response Odysseus smiled,

and hope added power to his silent prayers. All round them

the palace lay still. The night, as it turned out, was a long one

for Odysseus. His avid mind raced while he waited for dawn.

[Jeff Bernstein]

When rosy dawn arose, Diomedes and the trumpeter

Agyrtes together came to Odysseus, carrying

all the gifts he’d previously specified. While from the women’s

chambers came the sisters of Scyros, who proceeded to show

their dances to the honoured guests, and show them other sacred

rites. Most prominent of all the dancers was brilliant princess

Deidamia and her dearest friend, who (most all knew) was Peleus’ son.

Now their dance steps followed the tones of a flute. Now the cymbals

crashed—a sign for the chorus to turn round; then again—the crash,

and the turn; and as one they raise the magic wands of Bacchus;

and their steps multiply, and complicate; and the sisters show

the style of the Curetes, then the Samothracians,

then perform sophisticated Amazonian movements.

Meanwhile, Achilles stands obvious. His turns are all wrong,

he links arms awkwardly, he looks more than ever unhappy

in his girl’s clothing. So as he moves he continuously

disrupts the precision dancers, and his confusion is clear.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : The thoughtful quietude of the main character’s enuncation, well-nigh the dulcet sounds of HAL 9000, is remarkably noteworthy—because the main character speaks a tremendous amount of dialogue!

 

The enduring calm of Oppenheimer recalls the enduring calm of EWS : films of reflection.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : Sound. The sequence which might turn out to be “unforgettable” to audiences (relax, Friedkin, we’ll take an audience poll in ten years and let them determine it) is founded in a Colossally Clever Use of Delicate Sound. (It’s certainly far from the first time such a technique has been deployed, but doesn’t a technique deployed to perfection automatically justify itself?) Both Dunkirk (2017) and moments of Oppenheimer recall the silent era (e.g., a surprising and beautiful silent-era lens-flare-animation-type effect)—yet here a clever use of sound (extensive in screen-time) by Nolan and Technicians persuades the Norma Desmonds of the world that Hollywood Sound, cleverly used, can solidify a memory just as profoundly as faces do.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Music : Ludwig Goransson, Oppenheimer (2023). “What We Have Done” (5:45) is a wondrous concatenation of musical history, founded in a two-note motif and an unsettling key. (Thoughts of Beethoven, Violin Concerto, Mvt II.) The piece begins in European Symphonic History (e.g., in the use of the unsettling searching motif : e.g., Beethoven, e.g., 20th-century Russian symphonic geniuses). At 1:12 or so the piece morphs into a passacaglia such as Shostakovich, Symphony No, 8, Mvt IV. This lasts for a minute. Eventually the piece becomes, in sound, futuristic.

 

It is absolutely no stretch of whimsy to remark that this piece could be a composition by Shostakovich or Schnittke.

 

Theory : the touch of religiosity allowed by the contemporary technics here (e.g., around 2:40) would have impressed the ear of Shostakovich and Schnittke (who himself made electronic experiments as early as 1969). Both of those composers produced a great many scores for the cinema.

 

In spirit, 4:10 or so recalls a "weird" sound element in an early work of Schnittke, Nagasaki (1958), Mvt. IV, but moreso later Schnittke and his abyssal phenomena (e.g., in spirit, Goransson, 4:18 = e.g., Schnittke, Symphony No. 2, Mvt 1; or the two upward climaxes of his Symphony No. 4).

 

The organ sound at around 4:35 reiterates the foundation of the piece in European musical history (recalling also Schnittke).

 

Generally : The piece progresses from a 20th-century symphonic ethos to a 21st-century Abyssal Futural Ambient sound in a wondrously coherent manner.

 

Yes, perhaps a composition by Shostakovich or Schnittke. Not only in the orchestration of instruments, but also in the choice of instruments employed. (Is that a vibraphone at 3:00? This extremely rare symphonic instrument recalls various symphonies of Schnittke.)

 

Obviously, no question, a brilliantly composed technical exposition.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Good luck and good night

 

Your author checked online Variety today and scrolled through the entire home page and found but one, minor-looking article referencing the Situation. I honestly thought I was hallucinating the entire Situation and required double-checking what was what with Google. Yes, strikes are taking place. Someone email Variety with the news. The phenomenon is intolerable, such as a 9/11 collapse being ignored by passersby. The ice is cracking. But under whose feet? That depends on courage.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Oppenheimer (2023) : most general structure

 

1. nostalgia

2. work

3. life

 

Part of the fascination here are the stylistic correspondences between Pts 1 and 3—rather than, as an audience might expect, a developing, complexifying mutation of the ongoing narrative, as suggested by Part I, and audience knowledge of other Nolan narratives such as Dunkirk (2017).

 

1. Growth to vision.

2. Nurturing vision to reality.

3. Reality deteriorates vision and visionary.

 

Part III of Oppenheimer may be described as an narrative expression of Daniel Plainview’s acid pronouncement : “People.”

 

1. Personal Potential, opening up different potential pathways.

2. Life seduces/bullies/mindf**ks Visionary onto specific pathway.

3. Life then punishes Visionary for its sins.

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : Life punishes Truth. The larger the Truth, the more absurd the punishment.

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : Life corrupts and exploits the Visionary, then kicks them until satisfied; then erects a celebratory monument over the wrecked.

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : Life defines the Other as Criminal in order to reflexively self-define as Just. Life : a burlesque of bullying.

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : Think fast : whatever the Truth was, it’s already gone.

[Jeff Bernstein]

EXT. PORT OF BOULOGNE (Northern France) - DAY

 

Snow flurries. Over a dozen Roman ships are being prepared in port.

 

INT. DRINKING ESTABLISHMENT - PORT - DAY

 

Overlooking the ships, the man X, shivering in the cold, is sipping a drink. A rough-looking NATIVE approaches him.

 

NATIVE

It’s said you know the seas.

 

X

I’m like anybody else.

 

NATIVE sits down.

 

NATIVE

Been west?

 

X and NATIVE share a significant pause.

 

NATIVE

Come with me.

 

X

Finish my drink first.

 

NATIVE looks around, as if for spies.

 

EXT. PORT - DAY

 

NATIVE leads X through the busy industry of PEOPLE.

 

INT. SHIP INTERIOR - DAY

 

CU of a rough map of Britain.

 

X

What’s that supposed to be?

 

TITUS steps into view.

 

TITUS

What’s it look like?

 

X

It doesn’t look like Britain, if that’s what you mean.

 

Sighing, TITUS points, and an ATTENDANT removes the map from the table and takes it away.

 

TITUS

Landing-places.

 

X

Ask the traders.

 

TITUS

You ask the traders.

 

X

(understanding)

I ask the traders.

 

TITUS

Ask the traders which harbours are best for large ships.

 

X

Why would they know which harbours are best for large ships?

 

 

TITUS looks sternly at him, as if to say, Are you questioning me? X is silent.

 

TITUS

No one on the continent here knows anything of that island. We cannot hope for anything more than knowledge of the coast?

 

X

(shakes head)

Those traders don’t go inland.

 

TITUS

Acquire information of the size of the island, the number and strength of its inhabitants—who know whom you shall please.

 

EXT. ROMAN GARRISON - DAY

 

The man X is hanging by his neck on a gallows, dead. Snow falling hard now.

 

INT. WAR ROOM - DAY

 

CAESAR, inspecting paperwork, enters with TITUS.

 

CAESAR

(inspecting map)

Whoever he was, he gave us appreciable information.

 

TITUS

I thanked him for his kindness.

 

Together they reach a table where GENERALS, etc. are standing over strategic paperwork (e.g., maps).

 

CAESAR

Before any further action we must confirm this rendering.

 

CAESAR places the map down before an officer, VOLUSENUS.

 

CAESAR

Volusenus. This is the harbour you want to reach. Currents in the Channel are unknown, as are the weather patterns. Follow the winds as best you can. Use your skill, and gather as much information as possible in preparation for attack.

 

VOLUSENUS

Yes, sir. And if I and my men are particularly adventurous, sir?

 

CAESAR

(smiles)

Engage, and announce to the natives the invitation to enjoy the protection of Rome. Use your best judgment. Weigh up your numbers against theirs.

 

EXT. CLIFFS OF DOVER - MORNING

 

The entire colossal edge of the cliffs is populated by NATIVES with weapons : a threatening sight of thousands.  

 

EXT. ROMAN SHIP ON THE SEA - DECK - MORNING

 

VOLUSENUS, frowning. Beside him a SURVEYOR's hand is working.

 

CU of hand of SURVEYOR : he is drawing a map of the coast among papers covered with numbers, star charts, etc.

 

TITUS (o.s.)

Volusenus perspected all the region possible from the deck of his ship. He dared not face off against the natives.

 

INT. CAESAR’S HUT - NIGHT

 

By candlelight CAESAR is admiring the maps and other paperwork from Volusenus’ reconsaissance.

 

CAESAR

He followed the word of Caesar.

 

TITUS nods, raising his cup to his mouth—

 

CAESAR

. . . and the word of Caesar is Rome.

 

—TITUS hesitates, beginning to look uncomforable at Caesar’s third-person speak.

 

EXT. PORT OF BOULOGNE - DAY

 

Snow is falling. The ROMANS are overseeing the disembarkation from a number of ships fresh from across the Channel a large number of BRITISH NATIVES.

 

ONLOOKER

Looks like the Britons were kind enough to send over hostages as tribute. They don’t want war.

 

REVEAL the many huge Roman warships still being prepared in port.

 

ONLOOKER 2

They didn’t send enough.

 

INT. CAESAR’S SHIP - STRATEGY ROOM - MORNING

 

CAESAR standing with TITUS and GENERALS over a table.

 

CAESAR

Here is the disposition of our eighty ships by general and commander. Nine more transports of calvary shall be added. Sulpicius, you’ll hold the port open for us.

 

SULPICIUS

Yes, sir.

 

CAESAR

(to all)

Is the engagement hierarchy all the way down to deputies clear to everyone?

 

No one has a problem.

 

CAESAR

Very well. At the first sign of fair weather we go.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Casting : The Gentle Threat

 

Oppenheimer (2023) : Casey Affleck

The Hateful Eight (2015) : Channing Tatum

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) : Henry Fonda