Gravity
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Skip Lievsay and Craig Henighan on Designing the Sound of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma
You should be able to watch a movie with the sound off — even before Mac Miller’s 2013 album, this was a phrase you’d hear from some producer or director extolling the necessity of purely visual storytelling. But if this dictum is true, then the inverse should be true as well: You should be able to listen to a movie with the screen turned off. Anyone wanting to try this experiment should start with the soundtrack of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, which is an astoundingly artful, immersive and intoxicating work. In addition to the crystalline dialogue tracks, Roma uses bespoke background […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 17, 2018 -
You Can Go Home Again: Alfonso Cuarón On Sound, Vision and Memory In Roma
Alfonso Cuarón reached the point in his career when he could do whatever he wanted. His last film, Gravity, was one of those that checked off all the boxes: It was a hit. It was critically adored. It won Oscars, including one for him. It was progressive, with a strong female lead (Sandra Bullock). It pushed the limits of filmmaking, commercial and otherwise. It used special effects in creative and innovative ways. It told a small, borderline minimalist story, focusing on at most two characters, but usually just one. And all this after such acclaimed pictures as Children of Men, […]
by Matt Prigge on Dec 17, 2018 -
Gravity‘s Supplemental Short Aningaaq Now Online
If you were desperate to know who was on the other end of Dr. Ryan Stone’s radio as she said her final goodbyes in Gravity, your prayers have been answered. Jonas Cuarón, Alfonso’s son and Gravity‘s co-writer, cajoled Warner Home Video into financing a companion piece to one of the heralded blockbuster’s many climatic segments, a seven-minute short called Aningaaq. After playing a handful of film festivals — including Telluride, where it preceded not the obvious choice, but John Curran’s Tracks — Aningaaq has found its way online, in conjunction with Warner Brothers’ announcement that it will be a Live Action Short submission for the 2014 Oscars. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 20, 2013 -
Making the Gravity Trailer Parody Alfonso Cuarón’s “IKEA”
Daniel Hubbard made a parody of the movie Gravity that has already received a lot of internet attention and over 640,000 views in just four days. The short features two people hopelessly lost in an IKEA store. Hubbard works as a video editor for Broadway.com in New York while studying improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and producing sketches with his group, “sure sure sure.” We asked him to explain how he came up with the idea and how it was shot. Filmmaker: How did you get the idea? Hubbard: I love Gravity, and I thought the trailer was […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 18, 2013 -
Venice International Film Festival 2013
To get to the Lido — the strip of beachy land upon which the Venice Film Festival is held every year — one must take the vaporetto (or water taxi) from the Marco Polo Airport. While waiting for the transport to arrive, one is stuffed into a rectangular holding pen that sways and jerks with the current, provoking a mild but unmistakable seasickness in the more sensitive among us. Little did I know I was to experience almost exactly the same feeling the following morning while watching festival opener Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s first since 2006’s Children of Men. It’s an […]
by Ashley Clark on Oct 21, 2013 -
A Rash of Survival Films
Well, Tom Hanks survived the Somali pirates. Sandra Bullock’s flying around trying to survive outer space. And almost every other dramatic movie I see is about survival. About staying alive. And that’s not even getting into the survival action films, like Hunger Games. The poster for Gravity says Don’t Let Go. Which sums up the message of all these survival films. Don’t Let Go! Don’t Die! Hold On To Yourself! Or, as Brian Wilson sang on Pet Sounds, Hang On to Your Ego. What about a surrender movie? A movie about letting go? What would that be like? Maybe instead […]
by Noah Buschel on Oct 15, 2013 -
“A Filmmaker Lives in a Suitcase”: Guillermo del “Toronto” Speaks During TIFF
At the end of a one-hour chat held on the first full day of TIFF, an audience member suggested that the Mexican director of Pan’s Labyrinth be renamed Guillermo del Toronto. The sentiment behind this fanciful idea lay in the fact that del Toro keeps returning to Toronto to film here, most recently the $250-million mega-actioner, Pacific Rim, and is now prepping the horror flick, Crimson Peak, before cameras roll next spring. “I’ve lived in L.A., Madrid, Budapest,” del Toro recalled before an invited audience at the Trump Hotel. “[A filmmaker] lives in a suitcase.” The Canuck version of the […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 15, 2013 -
Venice 2013 Critic’s Notebook: Gravity and Sorcerer, a Strange Alchemy
While international film festivals, especially those of the calibre and history of Venice (this year celebrating its 70th edition), are most commonly seen as a golden opportunity to catch new cinema from contemporary filmmakers, many offer meaty and mightily tempting repertory programmes loaded with restorations. This year’s Cannes festival, for example, featured restored prints of Vertigo, Hiroshima Mon Amour and Borom Sarret (the first film by a black African: Ousmane Sembene), among sundry others. Venice, as ever, has its own Classics strand, with 29 restorations (and documentaries on cinema), including works by Chantal Akerman, Nagisa Oshima and Satyajit Ray. However, the […]
by Ashley Clark on Aug 31, 2013 -
SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The 36th Seattle International Film Festival end this weekend with audiences flocking to the 25 day fest as nearly 20% increase from last year. From May 20-June 13, the festival had shown 408 films. The awards ranged from the audience-selected Golden Space Needle Awards; the five juried Competition Awards, as well as the FIPRESCI Award for Best American Film. Borys Lankosz‘s The Reverse won the narrative Grand Jury Prizee , while Marwencol, directed by Jeff Malmberg, took home the doc Grand Jury Prize. The winners of the Jury and Audience Awards are below. SIFF 2010 Best New Director Grand Jury […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 14, 2010
