posted
So I recently watched the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko. I like the theatrical cut better, though it's interesting. One thing the commentary with Kevin Smith and Richard Kelly did not explain was this image:
Specifically why it seems SO familiar. It's from one of Donnie's premonitions/hallucinations. Does anyone know or have any ideas about where this imagery might have come from? Been inspired by? Sky and hallway? Water and hallway? A painting? A children's book? Videogame? It's been bugging me since I saw the movie the first time. It's amazing. I just don't understand why. Please don't tell me it's from a tangent universe.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
The only thing that comes to mind is the Crimson Permanent Assurance sketch/supporting feature from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Although that was a stylised city surrounded by sea.
But it is a strange image, yes. Obviously meant to represent Donnie's flooding of the school, but what else? The idea that there's a big wide world beyond school?
posted
Actually there was no sea surrounding the city in the CPA sketch. It actually looked more like a desert. The fact that the building is "sailing the wide accountancy/accountansea" play on words didn't mean that there was the actual sea. After all. the build was standing in a city before they broke it loose.
The image in Donnie Darko didn't seem very familiar to me.
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Reminds me of Gateway To The Mind's Eye, a 3-D monatge movie that Thomas Dolby did the soundtrack/songs to.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Never seen it. Interested though. I was always curious about the Thomas Dobly thingy too. Maybe it was a music video.
Scary enough, one of the first things I thought of was that film, Lee. I couldn't remember its name, so thanks. I looked at some stills, but none of them was it.
Anyway I decided to listen to the commentary on the theatrical release DVD again, and Richard Kelly does start describing it before Jake cuts him off:
quote:
RICHARD KELLY
...Donnie senses something. His senses are on overload right now. He's been gifted with this new ability. And this dream sequence here is symbolic of the drowned school. The school hallway. It's inspired by a famous photograph, uh. I don't recall the photographer, but it's an escalator composited into the ocean. Where you see the escalator, black and white photograph coming down into the ocean and the scale of the ocean makes the escalator look as though it's--
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
That shot right there I just have to say we were shooting really late and I was really hungry and I remember they got pizzas on the set...
Fuck I wish he'd finished his thought or remembered the photographer's name. It's strange the image I remember as being in color. Specifically, the blue of the water... Crap this is really bugging me now.
Registered: Sep 2000
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(I intensely enjoy DVD audio commentaries; but, I like annotated stuff in general. ((And the Fight Club actor/director track is by far the most interesting on that disk, as a data point in the defense of thespians.)))
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The only honest-to-god enjoyable director's commentary I have ever seen is on the Spaced DVDs. Although Ghostbusters wasn't bad.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I rather enjoyed the Futurama commentaries actually, lots of fun and even math jokes (Mucus is in the Math faculty)
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by B.J.: Is this picture by Scott Mutter what they're referring to?
By George, I think he's got it. Well the one they're talking about in the commentary anyway. Thanks, B.J.
Cool as that image is, I don't think it's the one I'm thinking of. I almost wonder if it might not be some obscure Rene Magritte painting. Seems like his stripes. This one is close:
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: The only honest-to-god enjoyable director's commentary I have ever seen is on the Spaced DVDs. Although Ghostbusters wasn't bad.
The commentary for John Carpenter's The Thing is pretty good: lots of technical details and you can imagine Kurt Russell and John Carpenter are drinking beers during it: they even make Quaker Oats jokes when Wilfred Brimley is onscreen.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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