The Great Gatsby

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Wed, 2012-05-23 12:45

Catchfire

The Great Gatsby

[quote]And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning —

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.[/quote]

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Wed, 2012-05-23 14:01

Kaitlin McNabb Kaitlin McNabb's picture

i for one am excited! Baz Luhrmann!

Based on the trailer it already seems like he is (again) melding different eras through music and costume. I think it will be done justice, unlike Benjamin Button, which was just super boring.

Wed, 2012-05-23 14:16

MegB

If the trailer is any indication, this version will be a vast improvement over the one made in the 70s.

Wed, 2012-05-23 18:49

Catchfire

Heh. We'll see. Although I still think Robert Redford was an almost wordperfect Gatsby. The screenplay and pacing let him down though. Here's why:

Quote:

Truman Capote was the original screenwriter but he was replaced by Francis Ford Coppola, with some scenes re-written first by Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, and Thomas Pynchon.

Now how did that lot fail to put together a coherent, smooth script?

Wed, 2012-05-23 18:51

Catchfire

Oh. And here is a (fake) NES version of The Great Gatsby.

Wed, 2012-05-23 19:54

MegB

Hate to disagree, but while I have huge respect for Redford as a director, his acting seems to me to be superficial. Out of Africa with Meryl Streep as Isaak Dinnesen was the penultimate example of skill versus show (read the book so not really unbiased). His calling is direction. His work as an actor belies his perception and intelligence as a director.

Wed, 2012-05-23 22:55

Grandpa_Bill

Rebecca West wrote:

Hate to disagree, but while I have huge respect for Redford as a director, his acting seems to me to be superficial. Out of Africa with Meryl Streep as Isaak Dinnesen was the penultimate example of skill versus show (read the book so not really unbiased). His calling is direction. His work as an actor belies his perception and intelligence as a director. (emphasis GB)

I'm wondering Rebecca: what is your nomination for the ultimate example of skill versus show? Are you meaning Redford/Farrow's Gatsby or something else?

Thu, 2012-05-24 14:30

Catchfire

Heh. I don't mind people disagreeing with me over Gatsby, Rebecca. I just fail them.

Actually, I don't disagree with you--but I think Redford's shallowness was perfect for Gatsby. He's affable, likeable, charismatic and utterly inch-deep (not to be oxymoronic or anything). I still like him more than Clooney though.

From the trailer, it looks like Luhrmannn is really making a meal out of this famous and understated scene in the novel:

Quote:

Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.

“I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.”

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher — shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”

Sat, 2013-06-01 17:31

Catchfire

So, I finally saw this last night. I realized that there was just no way I would ever like a film version of this movie. I know it basically by heart, and so how can any filmmaker fulfill every subtle potential lying under the surface of this intricate text? I found myself saying: they missed this, they murdered that, they fell short here, they chickened out there, etc. While my partner enjoyed the whole thing.

Also, I accidentlaly saw it in 3D. That was stupid.

Sat, 2013-06-01 20:18

#10

6079_Smith_W

Especially that book, and after having seen Australia, I expect especially that director, too.

Haven't seen this one yet.