Yeah there is definitely a mirror behind the guy in the second shot, but then I think they're also using a split diopter which further messes with my spatial perception.
Yeah, that's the thing about this movie: It holds nothing back on any level. I think time tends to be kind of films like that, even if they were once thought of as fiascos.
“psychosomatic color-blindness that afflicts its lead character.”
This is the most prominent of several things that make me feel like this was supposed to be a De Palma movie.
As someone who was in his late teens when all of these Basic Instinct imitators were released, I remember each and every one quite well. This one was easily the most interesting. Of course, I wasn’t thinking of directors at all at the time, would not see Stunt Man for many years yet. Now I want to go back and re-watch this; I really enjoy all of the other Rush films I’ve seen, as it turns out.
This is very much in the De Palma vein. The only way in is to embrace the absurdity, accept that the movie’s interests and aims are not conventional, and decide that whether or not it’s silly or alienating isn’t material to its success because that simply wasn’t the filmmaker’s concern in the first place. I wouldn’t necessarily call them or this a comedy, but they do crack me up.
Oh, just FYI if anyone’s interested: this appears to be available to stream on Criterion bug if you don’t have Criterion it’s also available on Hoopla, a service that’s free to anyone with a library card number.
Based on this essay, it's clear that when I "saw" this back in the '90s, I FFed through the wrong parts. Need to remedy this and finally see THE STUNT MAN!
The Stunt Man is a delirious masterpiece, It’s goofy and gangly and also oddly spiritual with a unique visual sensibility and some huge performances. I also highly recommend Freebie and the Bean, a nasty and hilarious subversion of cop buddy comedies starring Alan Arkin and James Caan as a pair of racist, brutal, lunatic cops who spend two hours yelling over each other and casually destroying any part of San Francisco they can aim a car at.
Both “Color of Night” and “The Lover” are guilty pleasures of mine for obvious reasons. So are “Butterfly” and “The Lonely Lady,” to be perfectly honest. There does seem to be allusions to “Psycho” and “Dressed to Kill” in “Color of Night,” but perhaps there’s also a nod to “Marnie” in how the color red has traumatized principal characters.
I love this movie and Rush’s entire bananas filmography. Among friends, I will admit to being an unreconstructed Freebie and the Bean fanatic, even though I can’t imagine a movie more out of step with contemporary mores, right down to the ugly racial slur that’s conspicuously half of the damn thing’s title.
I remember being 13-14 and finding this movie while channel-surfing (it was, understandably, quite prolific on premium late-night cable for a while) a few minutes in, and not just thinking it was a comedy but actually briefly believing it might be HUDSON HAWK, which I was only vaguely familiar with. The transition from the po-faced suicide to Willis in the optometrist's office seemed like an unusually morbid Naked Gun-type gag. "So anyway, doc, I think that might be related to my vision problem"
You're right about the movie, though. For all its failures and discordance, it... has a quality. There's something weirdly watchable about it, even beyond the obvious prurient stuff.
I missed this one at the time, but how convenient that it's part of the new "Erotic Thrillers" collection on the Criterion Channel!
I was just wondering if it was. Thanks for confirming!
Just watched this recently, and speaking of reflections, this shot reverse shot towards the end (so spoilers, kinda I guess) broke my brain: https://twitter.com/SenorMustachio/status/1642655657932509186?t=_jPl0pJ-L7zjQvgoVnXv9w&s=19
Looking at it again, I still am having trouble making sense of the geography
Hmmm... is this another reflective surface thing maybe? There's so many in the film.
Yeah there is definitely a mirror behind the guy in the second shot, but then I think they're also using a split diopter which further messes with my spatial perception.
Yeah, that's the thing about this movie: It holds nothing back on any level. I think time tends to be kind of films like that, even if they were once thought of as fiascos.
This is just a fantastic point. I think it calls out for deeper investigation.
“psychosomatic color-blindness that afflicts its lead character.”
This is the most prominent of several things that make me feel like this was supposed to be a De Palma movie.
As someone who was in his late teens when all of these Basic Instinct imitators were released, I remember each and every one quite well. This one was easily the most interesting. Of course, I wasn’t thinking of directors at all at the time, would not see Stunt Man for many years yet. Now I want to go back and re-watch this; I really enjoy all of the other Rush films I’ve seen, as it turns out.
This is very much in the De Palma vein. The only way in is to embrace the absurdity, accept that the movie’s interests and aims are not conventional, and decide that whether or not it’s silly or alienating isn’t material to its success because that simply wasn’t the filmmaker’s concern in the first place. I wouldn’t necessarily call them or this a comedy, but they do crack me up.
Oh, just FYI if anyone’s interested: this appears to be available to stream on Criterion bug if you don’t have Criterion it’s also available on Hoopla, a service that’s free to anyone with a library card number.
Always like when stuff pops up on Hoopla, because I have Kanopy envy.
Based on this essay, it's clear that when I "saw" this back in the '90s, I FFed through the wrong parts. Need to remedy this and finally see THE STUNT MAN!
Definitely see THE STUNT MAN. No qualifications necessary for that one. Just a straight-up excellent film.
Love love love The Stunt Man.
The Stunt Man is a delirious masterpiece, It’s goofy and gangly and also oddly spiritual with a unique visual sensibility and some huge performances. I also highly recommend Freebie and the Bean, a nasty and hilarious subversion of cop buddy comedies starring Alan Arkin and James Caan as a pair of racist, brutal, lunatic cops who spend two hours yelling over each other and casually destroying any part of San Francisco they can aim a car at.
Just an utterly confounding movie.
Both “Color of Night” and “The Lover” are guilty pleasures of mine for obvious reasons. So are “Butterfly” and “The Lonely Lady,” to be perfectly honest. There does seem to be allusions to “Psycho” and “Dressed to Kill” in “Color of Night,” but perhaps there’s also a nod to “Marnie” in how the color red has traumatized principal characters.
I love this movie and Rush’s entire bananas filmography. Among friends, I will admit to being an unreconstructed Freebie and the Bean fanatic, even though I can’t imagine a movie more out of step with contemporary mores, right down to the ugly racial slur that’s conspicuously half of the damn thing’s title.
I remember being 13-14 and finding this movie while channel-surfing (it was, understandably, quite prolific on premium late-night cable for a while) a few minutes in, and not just thinking it was a comedy but actually briefly believing it might be HUDSON HAWK, which I was only vaguely familiar with. The transition from the po-faced suicide to Willis in the optometrist's office seemed like an unusually morbid Naked Gun-type gag. "So anyway, doc, I think that might be related to my vision problem"
You're right about the movie, though. For all its failures and discordance, it... has a quality. There's something weirdly watchable about it, even beyond the obvious prurient stuff.