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Oscar Winner Makes Me Dizzy


DesDownunder

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Slumdog Millionaire has won the Best Picture Oscar and I had to walk out after 20 minutes.

Why?

Why did it win, or why did I walk out?

I can't begin to guess why it won except to reward new wave filming for by-passing tried and proven techniques of movie making.

Why did I leave the screening?

Because the handheld camera and sloppy filming interfered with my being able to relate to the image.

The smart-ass cinematography and editing got in the way of the story for me. And when the hand-held camera did stop moving, the supposedly 'interesting' but really only perfunctory images were framed at an angle that made me feel like I should turn 122 degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise in order to comprehend what I was suppose to be looking at.

My natural view of the world does not tend be obtuse or at an obtuse angle, and I detest having such an obtuse view being imposed on my visual perception.

To me it would be like trying to read a story with the words all jumbled in a way that destroyed the message of the sentence.

Imagine the words all at odd angles, scrolling across the page and then suddenly scrolling up or down the page. There are reasons why the early directors and cinematographers spent so much time and effort developing conventions in the medium to communicate to audiences without the medium getting in the way of the story.

All the time spent, while I was occupied trying to ascertain what the hell I was looking at, slowly ate away at my desire to continue watching.

I was feeling a headache coming on, with a touch of dizziness, any longer and I would have suffered vertigo and nausea.

So I left. Reluctantly.

I say reluctantly, because I really wanted to see and understand what I thought would be an interesting movie. I have seen many Indian movies and know they can do better than this.

Sadly, I am not able to cope with its form.

Does anyone else have this problem with these kinds of modern filming techniques?

I'd be particularly interested to know if any younger people can relate to my experience, but I already have the feeling I have suddenly got old, if not a bit cranky.

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I can't speak specifically, but can generically. When The Blair Witch Project came out, it got so much word of mouth raving, I had to see it. And I, too, walked out, because the headache wasn't incipient, it was real. An entire movie filmed like that was way, way, way too much for me to tolerate.I didn't avoid seeing Slumdog because of that. I didn't even realize it was filmed that way. I avoided it because it supposedly has scenes, or a scene, of torture, and I object to torture. I also don't pay money to see it.But the message in the film is one of hope, and so I agree with you, Des: I'm sorry that other aspects of the film denied us the ability to see what the director intended us to witness.C

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I avoided it because it supposedly has scenes, or a scene, of torture, and I object to torture. I also don't pay money to see it.
Good for you Cole. Gratuitous violence is a turnoff for me too. Today's film-makers seem to lack the knowledge that suggesting the horror has more impact than showing it in all its gory detail.There is a divide, a line which is crossed solely for the sensational that deprives the film-make of subtlety and the audience of irony in their perceptions.
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I suspect that the film makers are aiming squarely at the video game generation. You know who they are; those kids with attention deficit disorder that is not medically induced, rather, by commercial interests.

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