Brief on Brief

I’ve only been on my course at the Glasgow Met for a short time but really it just gets better every day. New brief in a nutshell: design an A3 film poster for the GFT using only a small selection of text quoted from a classic film.

I’ve to choose three from the following:

On the Waterfront (1954)

To Have and to Have Not ( 1944)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Now, Voyager (1942)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Shamefully, I haven’t seen…uhm…any of them!

From the audio samples we’ve been given along with transcripts of the chosen snippets ‘On the Waterfront’, ‘Bringing up Baby’ and ‘Brief Encounter’ stand out the most. If I can find a cheap way ie free of watching the the above that would help dearly. Not youtube, dodgy wifi connection at home and I need a half decent picture.

Incidentally, The Guardian on Saturday voted – from their assembled team of experts, natch – Brief Encounter the greatest romantic movie of all time so I have even more impetus to see the damn thing.

From the list I would probably choose Lost in Translation as number one. I prefer films I’ve seen to ones I haven’t. It’s a classic example of those films you either love or hate. I can see why you wouldn’t be swept away with the whole thing – some folk cite the lazy Japanese stereotypes and the fact that nothing much really happens but if you can get past that it’s a sombre, beautiful, funny and dreamlike experience, really made for the cinema or at least a giant high-def telly with several carefully placed speakers.

John wonders how he got from Frankfurt to Tokyo.

The elongated sequence in the middle where Bill Murray and what’s-her-face explore night time Tokyo is sublime in a way that I really can’t do justice in words – it has to be seen. If only for Murray’s bittersweet and slightly sloshed Roxy Music karaoke turn.

BTW if anyone knows what those weird electric blue laser pellet guns which are fired at the pair after they outstay their welcome at a latenight establishment are please let me know. It’s now been bugging me for years.