comment #1

115thDreamer says ...

Saw this picture over the weekend and loved it. Has the Academy ruled on this one yet - whether or not the "recreation" scenes will disqualify it from the Documentary category? Surely there have been other docs nominated that contained similar scenes...Errol Morris' stuff springs to mind.

comment #2

T. Holly says ...

The money quote is Lorenzo's, at the end (6:14), "This is a documentary, that, like a good documentary, shows you something absolutely you didn't dream about, about an event you know." Or...

PRIDE: And you've said, you did have all these serendipities and fortuitous elements. The worry is that it could fall into the area of documentaries that aren't aware of just what they have in front them, that settle for subject without finding form, what I call "too true to be good."

MARSH: I've never heard that before. That's absolutely right. This whole movie was is almost the opposite of that. It was constantly surprising. When documentaries are at their very best, and Touching the Void is a good example of that, you feel that you're finding things out that you could never invent. You couldn't make that up. You feel that's where myth and legends come from. They come from these kinds of stories, where someone does something that's so remarkable and so unbelievable, it's a real story, but also it's a mythical story. An exemplar, a template, an idea for us all.

http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/pride/2008/080821.html

comment #3

berg says ...

when they previewed this film the tuesday before it opened the first reel was fucked up; the left side of the screen is covered with a yellow splotch is the only way to describe it. I went back to see it on opening night and it was the same print with the same fucked up first reel. Perhaps not odd that Magnolia and Landmark have the same corporate parent.

comment #4

BurmaShave says ...

Could also have gone for them talking about THE WIRE

comment #5

T. Holly says ...

Mark Cuban had a nice clean copy running when I saw it on the hell and gone west side. I wore my silk screened hand drawn NY skyline t-shirt with the towers in the center. Did you see how I juxttaposed the quotes berg? They're all talking about the same thing.

comment #6

K. Bowen says ...

It's interesting that he mentions Touching the Void, which I suppose does have re-creations. It also reminded me of Kevin MacDonald's other prominent doc, One Day in September, in its willingness and ability to inject a real sense of risk into situations of which we already know the outcome.

As to the Oscar Doc committee. The film is amazing, so I'm sure they'll figure out a way to disqualify it. But responsible film bloggers ought to push it for a Best Picture nod. Will it happen? Probably not. But like for Grizzly Man, it will push it further into the public sphere.

comment #7

T. Holly says ...

Cool review K.

comment #8

K. Bowen says ...

T.,

Thank you. Glad you liked it.

The best stuff in that MCN interview has to do with the pastoral idyll footage, the break in the middle where Petit and his friends are shown in their home movies practicing and playing around in the fields. I loved that stuff. Marsh calls it a mini-Truffaut film, and that's exactly how I saw it. There's something so naturally lyrical about it.