Michael Clayton: Analogies to the book of Jonah?

Many have remarked the opening of Michael Clayton is an example of exemplary film dialogue, particuarly the extended speech of Clayton's colleague, who has discovered that his life is a lie (so to speak).  Is this the raving of a bipolar sufferer or the message of a prophet?   First consider the speech:"Two weeks ago, I came out of the building, okay. I'm running across Sixth Avenue, there's a car waiting, I got exactly 38 minutes to get to the airport and I'm dictating. There's this, this panicked associate sprinting along beside me, scribbling in a notepad, and suddenly she starts screaming, and I realize we're standing in the middle of the street, the light's changed, there's this wall of traffic, serious traffic speeding towards us, and I- I-I freeze, I can't move. And I'm suddenly consumed with the overwhelming sensation that I'm covered with some sort of film. It's in my hair, my face. It's like a glaze like a- a coating, and, at first I thought, oh my God. I know what this is, this is some sort of amniotic - embryonic - fluid. I'm drenched in afterbirth, I've-I've breached the chrysalis, I've been reborn. But then the traffic, the stampede, the cars, the trucks, the horns, the screaming and I'm thinkin' no-no-no-no, reset, this is not rebirth. This is some kind of giddy illusion of renewal that happens in the final moment before death. And then I realize no-no-no, this is completely wrong because I look back at the building and I had the most stunning moment of clarity.

I- I-I- I realized Michael, that I had emerged not through the doors of Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen, not through the portals of our vast and powerful law firm, but from the asshole of an organism whose sole function is to excrete the- the-the-the poison, the ammo, the defoliant necessary for other, larger, more powerful organisms to destroy the miracle of humanity. And that I had been coated in this patina of s--t for the best part of my life. The stench of it and the stain of it would in all likelihood take the rest of my life to undo. And you know what I did? I took a deep cleansing breath and I set that notion aside. I tabled it. I said to myself as clear as this may be, as potent a feeling as this is, as true a thing as I believe that I have witnessed today, it must wait. It must stand the test of time. And Michael, the time is now."

Consider the resemblances to flee. He goes to Tarshish. God calls up a great storm at sea, and the ship's crew cast Jonah overboard in an attempt to appease God. A great sea creature sent by God, swallows Jonah. Inside the fish's belly, he says a prayer in which he repents for his disobedience and thanks God for His mercy. God speaks to the fish, which vomits out Jonah safely on dry land. After his rescue, Jonah obeys the call to prophesy against Nineveh, and they repent and God forgives them. Jonah is furious, however, and angrily tells God that this is the reason he tried to flee from Him, as he knew Him to be a just and merciful God. He then beseeches God to kill him, a request which is denied when God causes a tree to grow over him, giving him shade.
In Michael Clayton, Michael may be God's messenger who involves himself in rectifying the evil that his colleague has uncovered.

50 films with the best Cinematography: Schindler's List is #1?

List of 50 Films with the best cinematography

Jack Cardiff: Rembrandt with a Camera?

In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.

Pan's Labyrinth: Deserving of an Oscar for Cinematography

Interview with Guillermo Navarro


Oscar for best Cinematography Goes to Pan's Labyrinth

For those that watch DVDs for the Commentary - Walk the Line Voted #1

 Walk the Line was voted the best in film commentary.  What do you think of the other 99?


Top 100 film commentaries on DVD 

Cinematography in The Quiet American

Roger Ebert's Review of "The Quiet American" (Four stars)

Where the film lacks dramatic tension, Christopher Doyle’s cinematography provides a much needed visual fillip. A veteran of the Hong Kong film industry and regular Wong Kar-wai collaborator, Doyle also shot Noyce’s other recent release, Rabbit Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, 2002). In The Quiet American, Doyle’s cinematography varies imaginatively from the destabilising, hand-held battle sequences to the static, Ozu-inspired interior scenes in Fowler’s Saigon residence. A particularly effective device, repeated on several occasions, has Pyle looming erratically into frame, an obliquely suggestive formal representation of the increasingly ambiguous status of his character.

Is there anything to learn about cinematography by watching Black and White?

Black and white feature films list: the best cinematography

Alfonso Cuaron on American producers

When I was developing the script for Great Expectations the producers were worried about my depiction of class relations. It's because Americans insist there's no class problem in the US. -- Alfonso Cuaron

Cinematographers pick the 50 best films 2000-2010

Do you agree with these choices? If not, which should be included? Which should be eliminated.

The 50 best films 2000 - 2010: Cinematographers Vote

10 Great Cinematographers - Film History

10 Cinematographers and Sample Clips

What is a Cinematographer? Cinematographer of The Kings Speech Explains

What is a cinematographer? Read an interview with the cinematographer for The Kings Speech

Read an interview with Danny Cohen, cinematographer for The Kings Speech here:

Interview

John Cassavetes talks about film and cinema

Most people don’t know what they want or feel. And for everyone, myself included, It’s very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to… As an artist, I feel that we must try many things – but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad – to be willing to risk everything to really express it all. –John Cassavetes

Christopher Doyle Masterclass in Cinematography

Ten Best Italian Films?

1. 'La Strada'
(Federico Fellini, 1954)

2.'The Conformist'
(Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

3. 'Ossessione'
(Luchino Visconti, 1943)

4. 'L'Avventura'
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

5. 'A Fistful of Dollars'

6. 'The Battle of Algiers'

7. 'Dear Diary'
(Nanni Moretti, 1993)

9. "The Consequences of Love'
(Paolo Sorrentino, 2004)

10. 'Pane, amore e fantasia'
(Luigi Comencini, 1953)

Robert Bresson on Film

Make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.

Wernor Herzog on Film

We live in a society that has no adequate images anymore, and if we do not find adequate images and an adequate language for our civilization with which to express them, we will die out like the dinosaurs.

Ingmar Bergman on film and art

I want very much to tell, to talk about, the wholeness inside every human being. It's a strange thing that every human being has a sort of dignity or wholeness in him, and out of that develops relationships to other human beings, tensions, misunderstandings, tenderness, coming in contact, touching and being touched, the cutting off of a contact and what happens then.

Christopher Doyle on Film

Christopher Doyle: The clouds moving across the road in random patterns, the traffic, what's going on by the roadside - all affect the shot. So you have to think just a little ahead, beyond your mundane self. Why fall back on old habits and other people's ways? Why not trust your eyes and intuition? Why not use taste instead of training? Try to find what best expresses what's going on, what's exciting to your eye. What you end up with may not be "new", it may not be brilliant, but at least you can say it's you.

Jean Renoir on Film

All technical refinements discourage me. Perfect photography, larger screens, hi-fi sound, all make it possible for mediocrities slavishly to reproduce nature; and this reproduction bores me. What interests me is the interpretation of life by an artist. The personality of the film maker interests me more than the copy of an object. Jean Renoir

John Huston on Film

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.
--John Huston

Martin Scorsese on Film and Art

There's no such thing as simple. Simple is hard. Martin Scorsese