GeekWeek‘s Mike Le has compiled a list of the 20 greatest extended takes in movie history (along with 20 YouTube clips illustrating same). His all-time #1 favorite is the entering-the-Copacabana sequence from Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas. My lifetime favorite is the assault-on-the-van sequence from Alfonso Cuaron‘s Children of Men (which ranks #4 on Le’s list).
An extended take “is a cinematic hire-wire act that pushes the director, actors, cinematographer, art department, sound design, and every other department to their limits,” Le explains. “They take a very long time to set-up, and are very easy to mess up. The longer the take, the more pressure is added to get it right.”
