Sin City

[Mark]

Sex yes violence no.

You and your wacky slogans... Though that one might catch on!

 

[barsoomcore]

It appears to be a happy ending for all concerned.

Even Jessica Alba.

Heck, if she IS getting spanked by Salma Hayek, I say "ESPECIALLY Jessica Alba".

 

[Hand of Evil]

Heck, if she IS getting spanked by Salma Hayek, I say "ESPECIALLY Jessica Alba".

She can't act but Jessica appears to be the 'hot' new female in Hollywood, two more movies this year, with one of those being Fantastic Four, move over Jennifer Garner. I do not think this is a good thing.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

You and your wacky slogans... Though that one might catch on!

Who wouldn't take sex over violence? I mean really...

 

[mojo1701]

Who wouldn't take sex over violence? I mean really...

And then there's people who will take both...

 

[barsoomcore]

And then there's people who will take both...

Have I mentioned the alluring combination of Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, and spanking?

 

[Pielorinho]

The script lacks suspense.

In film, suspense is a very specific thing, created by one particular technique -- by letting the audience know something the characters don't.

Hmm, so dramatic irony is the only source of suspense in films? That's interesting, but I"m not sure it's true.

Though many people didn't find Blair Witch to be remotely suspenseful, a lot of us did--and we didn't have any information beyond what the characters did in many scenes. (Well, we knew the postscript, but the scenes would've been suspenseful without it). In The Vanishing, we don't know until the end what's going on, but it's extremely suspenseful. In Das Boot, the "ping" scenes on the submarine are all kinds of suspenseful, but we have no privileged information in them, I think.

It seems to me that a director can create suspense by putting characters in danger, having the characters know they're in danger, and delaying the onset of violence (or other unfortunate events).

I agree that Sin City wasn't very suspenseful, though: I think it's because I didn't much empathize with anyone in it, so I didn't worry about whether they'd live or die. Either way would be cool.

Daniel

 

[Desdichado]

Jessica, that sound you hear is your scrawny ass getting beaten by Salma Hayek.

(which I would pay to see, by the way. Never mind)

Damn straight!

Whether or not Jessica Alba can act, I haven't the foggiest idea, as I still haven't seen this movie, and I don't think I've seen anything else with her either. But damn, she's hot. You'd think she could dance, at least, though. Wasn't that the whole point of Honey? Not that I saw that either...

 

[Hand of Evil]

And then there's people who will take both...

I think it was Sid Visious of the Sex Pistols that said "No violence in sex, try moving more" (msiquote).

 

[barsoomcore]

It seems to me that a director can create suspense by putting characters in danger, having the characters know they're in danger, and delaying the onset of violence (or other unfortunate events).

Yeah, fair enough. I have a tendency to overstate things.

I would have said, "I ALWAYS overstate things," but that would have been overstating things.



Actually, though, the idea comes from Hitchcock -- that's his analysis of suspense in cinema (that it depends on the audience knowing more than the characters).

But I think the key is really the passage of time. The writer of a book cannot control the passage of time for the reader -- what a writer needs to create are unanswered questions which keep the reader turning pages in order to acquire answers. The film director needs to create unresolved situations that they can then string out over the minutes of the film.

The two techniques overlap (you could consider an unresolved situation as an unanswered question) but I think there's a distinction buried in there somewhere, and I think it's THAT distinction (whatever it is), that Sin City missed out on.

Basically, a writer needs to keep the pages turning. A director needs to keep the moments "suspended". Something like that.