Margaret

johnny_ultimate

Out tomorrow, so probably a good time to start a discussion thread about it. Kenneth Lonergan's long-delayed follow up to the superb You Can Count on Me. Stars Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and many other recognisable faces. The trailer does the film no justice, so I won't include it

Review over in film reviews, but can't wait to hear some more reactions to it. I think it's a fascinating, possibly brilliant film but I can see a lot of people hating it. Really think it's a must-see for any cinema fans, though: even if you end up despising it, it's one of the most distinctive and unusual films to emerge from America in a long, long time.

Been so long waiting to see the damned thing that I nearly gave up hope. Odd to think that it's thanks to Matthew Broderick that we can finally see it. When Fox Searchlight and Gary Gilbert refused to finance the edit any further Lonergan borrowed the money he needed off of Broderick.

I hope that we can see his cut at some stage, I believe that the one opening in theaters was was edited by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker and that Lonergan gave it his approval before the studio released it.

bnt

Meryl Streep has been quoted (in this IFI article) as saying "in any other year, it would have won every single award". It starts at the IFI today. They're calling it a "time capsule" of post-9/11 angst, filmed in 2005 for release in 2007. I might just head in there today or tomorrow.

Sad Professor

I probably won't get to see this until Monday or Tuesday, but looking forward to it. Such a terrible release it's getting though.

quickbeam

Loved You Can Count On Me. Definitely up for seeing this one.

JP Liz V1

Is it only out in limited release?

Sad Professor

It's exclusive to the IFI at the moment. But we should probably be grateful for that because I don't think the distributor wanted to release it at all.

johnny_ultimate

Was unceremoniously buried at release in both the UK and US.

In fact, Im surprised Fox even managed to get Lonergan over for the film fest. Must be the warmest reception he's received.

OldeCinemaSoz

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Out tomorrow, so probably a good time to start a discussion thread about it. Kenneth Lonergan's long-delayed follow up to the superb You Can Count on Me. Stars Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and many other recognisable faces. The trailer does the film no justice, so I won't include it

Review over in film reviews, but can't wait to hear some more reactions to it. I think it's a fascinating, possibly brilliant film but I can see a lot of people hating it. Really think it's a must-see for any cinema fans, though: even if you end up despising it, it's one of the most distinctive and unusual films to emerge from America in a long, long time.

Nice rec. Sadly it won't be playing in The Bridgewater.

[as usual]

Miguel_Sanchez

Deleted User wrote: »

I hope that we can see his cut at some stage, I believe that the one opening in theaters was was edited by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker and that Lonergan gave it his approval before the studio released it.

The impression Lonergan gave at the masterclass/interview he gave at JDIFF was that there won't be another cut coming out. And the rumoured 4 hour cut doesn't exist according to him.

sxt

Really enjoyed this movie. It is a very thought provoking, angst driven, emotional rollercoaster of movie, with an enthralling performance by Anna Paquin that kept you in the thick of it! This is definitely an active movie experience that keeps your mind involved. One to watch again I think

Even the couple behind who kept knudging their knees into the back of my seat, and whose phones went off during the movie , couldn't distract my attention

One thing I did notice, was that several groups of people left after about an hour and a half( The movie is probably an hour longer than the average movie duration at 150 minutes). I don't know whether that was because they had seen enough of the movie, or because they were starving and hadn't brought any grub with them. Maybe a bit of both.

Sad Professor

I finally got around to seeing this. I thought it was superb. It's rare to see an emotionally immature teenager as the focus of a film, and Paquin gives a very brace performance as a modern day female version of Holden Caulfield.

There are some loose threads and stuff that doesn't seem to be particularly relevant to the overall story, but that's no bad thing. One of the problems with Hollywood studio films is that they often have the feeling of having gone through too many re-writes, becoming too homogenised, too tightly woven with everything but the absolute essential cut out. Much of the power of this film is in the raw, unrefined nature of the material. The messiness just makes it feel more real. I liked You Can Count On Me, but this is on another level entirely.

Catcher7791

Given the film's troubled history, this is going to sound like I'm taking the proverbial, but it could do with a tighter edit. So many ostensibly key scenes have music instead of dialogue, so many arguments are resolved without explanation . . . it might be a case of form mirroring content, but it's frustrating. The three lead females are outstanding, and the film as a whole is intriguing, but it doesn't quite gel to be the amazing film that's obviously trapped in this edit, in my irrelevant opinion.

Sad Professor

In light of the rumours about film's editing room battle, it's easy to assume that there must be something wrong with the editing. However, to my eyes, the film's unwieldiness was clearly intentional. I'm sure the studio felt that that a shorter, tighter, more focused version of the film would have been perfect, but that could just as easily have cut the life out of the film.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah I'd imagine it was impossible to make anything 'tighter' than this without severely impacting upon Lonergan's vision. I'd be fascinated to see a 'looser' edit if anything: perhaps to give the handful of scenes that admittedly seem ill-fitting that space to breathe. It's a remarkably dense film as is, but if this is pretty much as short as they could make it - literally on the button of two and a half hours - I'd be far more interested in how it originally played out.

As I said before, I'll need another watch to make up my mind on the Jean Reno stuff. I can see where all the other subplots fit in thematically, but that one just struggles to leap off the screen. Even the legal stuff, with those handful of heavy exposition scenes, led to a worthy, relevant climax, and were a vitally important insight into Paquin's character.

noisenotmusic

I saw this last week after also giving up hope I'd never get to see it. I'm laso of the opinion that I'd have prefrered the full 4 hr cut or a real tight sub-2hr cut to the one presented. Really wish they had cut the scene where

she tells the teacher she had an abortion

though as it was a really bad misstep in tone. The whole idea about Pacquins character being so self obsessed that her entire life was a narrative that's she's constructed around herself was excellent, when she's looking at photos with the womans friend and she talks about how she felt like she was her daughter for a moment and then the friend throws her out of the house because of it was excellent. I also thought the

final opera scene really nailed the fact that the film really is a constructed narrative of the girls life

.

By the way, incase anyone misses it this is getting a DVD/BluRay release in the UK/Ireland in July.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Blu-ray-Anna-Paquin/dp/B006DZZ62S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1331255295&sr=8-4

johnny_ultimate

noisenotmusic wrote: »

Really wish they had cut the scene where

she tells the teacher she had an abortion

though as it was a really bad misstep in tone.

According to someone who was at the masterclass

there was an actual abortion scene that was cut

. Would be fascinated to see how that factors in.

I liked the scene though. Thought it really showed her manipulative nature at its most extreme. But it got to the point when other characters were able to react against here, and I loved the dynamic going on between the three characters (particularly the blissfully ignorant second teacher) in the sequence.

Really thought the Broderick scenes worked fantastically too: that shot of him walking away from camera said an awful lot.

Sad Professor

3 hour long director's cut on DVD/Blu-ray!

http://fb.indiewire.com/~r/indiewire/theplaylist/~3/0P-KVqt9m0E/****-yeah-kenneth-lonergans-margaret-arrives-on-dvd-blu-ray-this-summer-complete-with-new-directors-cut-20120515

johnny_ultimate

Do want.

Sad Professor

Sad Professor wrote: »

3 hour long director's cut on DVD/Blu-ray!

http://fb.indiewire.com/~r/indiewire/theplaylist/~3/0P-KVqt9m0E/****-yeah-kenneth-lonergans-margaret-arrives-on-dvd-blu-ray-this-summer-complete-with-new-directors-cut-20120515

Word is that the extended cut will only be available on the DVD, which will be bundled with the Blu-Ray. This was confirmed to me by someone working on the release.The reasons fir no HD version being given are that they haven't the time to master it in HD or the more believable one that they can't be bothered to go to the extra expense of creating one.

I was told that this may change in the coming weeks and the UK release may include the extended cut in HD.

Sad Professor

Yeah, I heard about that. I don't really mind TBH. I'm just glad they are releasing the film at all. The longer cut is a bonus.

I assume the extended cut is the version Scorsese/Schoonmaker helped with. But I'm not convinced that a longer version of this film will be better than the theatrical cut.

QikBax

Can only find a Bluray listing for America and all Fox Blu's are Region Locked.

Region 2 only seems to be getting a DVD release.

Can't wait to see this.

johnny_ultimate

The funny thing about Margaret is that some subplots could do with an extension, while others could potentially do with a trimming (it would be great if there was a way to work around the cafe legal exposition scene, for example, but who knows what footage they have to work with). Still, I very much anticipate seeing Lonergan's directors cut and how he negotiates through that slight contradiction. He at least deserves the chance after all the nonsense he had to put through. The film as is is terrific anyway, so at worst the director's cut will be a curio.

jamc

jamc wrote: »

Can only find a Bluray listing for America and all Fox Blu's are Region Locked.

Region 2 only seems to be getting a DVD release.

Can't wait to see this.

There are plans for a UK Blu-Ray, just no date as of yet. I'm hoping that the lack of a Blu over here is because they plan to release the extended cut and are waiting for the HD master of it.

Sad Professor

This is out on DVD now. Although you wouldn't think it since Fox apparently didn't send out any review copies. Like Darko said, no Blu-ray for us, though some sites are still mistakenly listing it.

johnny_ultimate

Does it contain the extended cut? Amazon says it has a running time of three hours, but no other details...

Sad Professor

That's what I've spent the last few days trying to find out. I think so. The BBFC rated the extended cut and there's guy on Twitter who claims Fox confirmed that it is indeed included on the UK DVD. However, since I haven't got my hands on the DVD myself, I can't say for certain.

QikBax

Just watched it. It really is fantastic.

Definitely sprawling and messy but also really gripping with some excellent performances and barely a sympathetic character in it. Anna Paquin is tremendous.

One big gripe though is the scenes with the lawyer (Sydnor from The Wire) and Alison Janney's friend. They seem really awkward and not in keeping with the rest of the film and the actress is truly terrible.

Sad Professor

I just finished watching the extended cut. Unfortunately I don't have the theatrical cut to compare, only my recollection of it, but the extended cut adds quite a lot of short additions to the film. There are many small little moments that emphasise the New York setting: the people, the sounds, the atmosphere, the conversations of regular New Yorkers, all of which seems to tie in rather nicely with the opening sequence.

Among the additions I noticed: there's a very slow zoom-in on Paquin in a restaurant with the background conversations of other patrons overwhelming her shortly after the accident. There's an exterior tracking shot of Paquin's apartment while she talks to her mother and a scene of them walking to the police station in which, again, we hear the voices of regular New Yorkers on the soundtrack. There's a scene with Culkin post-sex in which she considers the possibility that he might gotten her pregnant or given her AIDS. A scene of Paquin and her drama class rehearsing and being berated by their teacher, including a bizarre moment in which she cries. There's a few more overt 9-11 references as well: planes flying over the city, panning shots of the skyline etc. And of course, there's the

abortion

sequence. It's pretty short and doesn't add anything major to the film, but for narratives reasons probably shouldn't have been cut.

I get the impression Lonergan cut the theatrical release as tight as he could while preserving as much of the actors and their performances as possible. I'd be curious to see the studio cut. I presume it was much tighter and cut out some of the superfluous subplots, but also losing the messy complexity that makes the film so great.