A single Man

opr

Did a search but can't seem to find a thread.

I was blown away by this film. Its completely captivating and while the contrived nature of some scenes should stand out it has of a way of mesmerizing you that these completely flow over your head.

Ford creates a world that is visually stunning and everything within the film is weaved wonderfully to come up with something very special. Colin Firth hits it out of the park and a huge amount of the films greatness is down to his performance.

In a film which places so much emphasis on style and art direction its amazing that it manages to be so complicated and deep below that superficial layer.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiOB_f6nc

johnny_ultimate

I really liked it, especially visually. Friend I went with said the colour contrasts were too obvious, but I think it worked extremely well, and gave the film a bit of identity. Colin Firth was very good, and backed up by a great supporting cast (nice to see Lee Pace get a cameo). I'm a bit of a sucker for 60s America dramas - mainly because of Mad Men - and this was an interesting take on the well-worn subject of middle-class depression. Probably more of a character study than that though, and built on a simple but effective tale of loss and love.

Interesting, powerful look at suicide too - seeing George taking care of his business without batting an eyelid is chilling!

marwelie

Saw it on Friday. It does look beautiful and to be honest I only noticed the colour contrasts about half way through. I love character studies myself and I though Colin Firth was superb in his role. Jeff Daniels will win the Oscar for Crazy Heart but if there is any justice in the world (which there isn't!) Coln Firth will win.

opr

I agree in that its chilling to see how apathetic someone can be towards ending things. The film just so cleverly deals with an amazing array of complex issues like isolation, the lost of a loved one and not being able to properly grieve for them, depression and a tonne of other stuff.

The most interesting of which I found to be what its like to know your experiencing your last day/days on this planet and the profound effect people in the real world have talked about this having. This is reflected throughout the movie with his new appreciation of things around him and his ability to stop and stare and take in the beauty.

The thing I struggled with and probably my only real complaint was in relation to the end and I felt it soured the movie a little. After reading Fords thoughts on it I feel a little better towards it but still not sure it needed to play out like it did. I also included some of his thoughts on the use of colour which are interesting.

Question: But can you talk about juxtaposing those two things?

Ford: Well, first of all it’s about life. For me the film isn’t at all about death. I would love it if you wouldn’t give away the ending but the end of that film is the end of all our films. It’s the end of your film. It’s the end of my film. That’s what happens. That’s what comes to us. This movie is really about living in the moment, appreciating the small things in your life that sometimes just go by without you really observing and understanding your connection to the universe and understanding that relationships with other people are really the things that matter. When George decides to take his own life all of a sudden the beauty of the world starts to pull at him because he’s really looking and seeing for the first time. We have so many eyes in the film because George hasn’t been looking people in the eyes. He’s been blank. Now, all of a sudden he’s connecting and people are responding to him in a different way. He’s responding to them and … Getting back to your question, I don’t know if I answered it but this film is not about death. It’s about life.

Question: Can you talk about the color pallet that you chose?

Ford: Well, it was to help us understand what George was feeling. At the beginning of the day he’s depressed. Everything is flat. Color is flat. He’s not seeing color. His flashbacks are vivid in his mind because there are moments when he’s alive and so when he’s thinking about to these moments, even the terrible moments like when he hears that Jim’s died there is color because it’s vivid in his memory, other than the one that’s in black and white. The reason that’s in black and white was that he was taking the pictures of Jim that day in black and white. He was thinking in black and white and so for him that entire memory is black and white. The color heightens when George really starts to look at thing and the beauty of things starts to pull on him. I had a friend who was dying of cancer and I remember him telling me that snow didn’t look like he’d ever noticed it looking, everything, because he was seeing these things for the last time and he knew he was going to die. Things took on an almost surreal quality. So I wanted the audience to feel that, to experience what George was feeling and as the beauty of the world starts to pull on him, by the time that we’re at the end of the film he’s living in Technicolor, very vivid. That was the point of the color.

http://www.collider.com/2009/12/07/director-tom-ford-interview-a-single-man/

Aidric

opr wrote: »

I was blown away by this film.

I won't quite stretch to blown away but I was hugely impressed with this movie. It involved and moved me in a way that a film hasn't done for quite some time
The performance of Colin Firth of course frames the picture and it's a performance hard to forget. The anguish and resignation in his demeanor is almost haunting.

That the film looks beautiful is no surprise given the Director involved and he should be praised for such a wonderful debut.

The only minor quibble I had was that I felt the script drifted in one or two brief moments.

I don't like drawing comparisons with Brokeback Mountain as people will latch on to the sexual orientation of the protagonists as being the reason for the comparison. I think the comparison is a valid one, however, as both these stories are a tale of love and loss essentially. Both also include powerhouse performances from the lead actors.

Finally a special mention has to go to Abel Korzeniowski for his work on the score, some of the most beautiful and touching music I've ever heard.