Children of Men by Alfonso Cuarón

Children of Men by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, and Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, is a futuristic story unlike many of the movies we have today in the same genre. Most movies today are cut, cut, cut, with edits lasting a few frames and moving on - desperately trying to convey action, pacing, and suspense.

In Children of Men, Cuarón slows things down. We are able to see the characters come to life and transcend the frame, something very powerful when done correctly. In some instances there are shots that last minutes, although with so many wonderful aspects of film making - directing, acting, cinematography, set design, etc. - we do not feel the shot drag on, nor do we realize that there hasn't been any edits.

I very much enjoyed the look of the film, and I feel it enhanced the storytelling greatly. Here Cuarón and Lubezki use a desaturated palette, enabling the futuristic world to seem grey, hopeless, and grim. Lubezki also operates the camera handheld in many different scenes, enabling us to dive into the world with the characters.

This is an excellent adaptation focusing on the societal aspects of the hopeless future thought up in P. D. James' novel, "Children of Men."

Touch of Evil by Orson Welles

If you ever want to see one of the longest and most elaborate introduction sequences to a movie you need to watch the movie Touch of Evil by Orson Welles. It is outstanding! It is a very long tracking shot using a crane on a dolly and finally finishes hand-held, clocking in at about 3 1/2 minutes long! It's very suspenseful and interesting, and while the camera movements and technique are smooth through out most of the shot, at the end it switches to hand-held to stir up our emotions and help us feel like we're there-- amid the chaos.

Another interesting note about this movie is the fact that the studio re-edited, re-shot, and even replaced some parts of the movie with out Orson Welles permission. He later wrote and turned in a 58 page report stating the things he didn't like about the current version and what needed to be done to make the story work. The studio ignored him and released their own version instead. In the 70's they found a preview print before the final edit was done, and in 1998 another producer decided to re-edit Touch of Evil following Welles's report as closely as possible-- a task only for the legendary editor Walter Murch.