ROTS to open at Cannes Film Festival

[TheEdge]

its announced that ROTS will open at the Cannes Film Festival. The news here film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1417550,00.html

but some people ( possibily the anti-SW crowd! ) are saying that this action has made the Cannes lose its credibility. some makes headlines titles like "Cannes goes to the Dark Side". sheesh. i think its great. The SW saga was a groundbreaking saga which changed the way movie was made. is it not a fitting way to say goodbye as the saga finally comes to an end ?

[Plo Strax-Avix]

TheEdge said:

but some people ( possibily the anti-SW crowd! ) are saying that this action has made the Cannes lose its credibility. some makes headlines titles like "Cannes goes to the Dark Side". sheesh. i think its great. The SW saga was a groundbreaking saga which changed the way movie was made. is it not a fitting way to say goodbye as the saga finally comes to an end ?

Those who mock Star Wars are those who knows nothing about movie history and the influence SW had on a generation(or even two) of film indistry people from producers to directors to stunt people to special effects specialists etc etc etc.

[K9]

Just to clarify, I think for those who actually know more about the film industry would probably want to see their dead bodies over seeing SW appearing at Cannes Film Festival.

The only reason they are showing the premiere at Cannes or should I say the only reaons Cannes allows such commercial film to screen there was because they have been loosing the crowd this few years and last year they had to draw the crowd back by inviting more celebrities and premiering more movies from Hollywood (last year we saw Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino etc there).

I meant no disrepect to SW but it is a sci-fi movie with amazing CGI scenes probably no other movies can compete (in the future maybe). But the story and script written by Lucas isn't the best, no it is actually pretty badly written. The dialogues were just painful to hear. It does not belong at Cannes. You may call it art if they are just still images but as a moving talking pictures they are just plain commercial frainchise at best and a cult movie.

[TheEdge]

K9 said:

just plain commercial frainchise at best and a cult movie.

actually, i would like to think of it as a cult movie at best, commercial franchise at worst.

i am an avid movie watcher myself. i know good movies from bad. i know SW isn't Oscar material. it's not going to win best picture ( our best bet was back in 1977, but that's over now ) or best actor ( our best bet was Sir Alec Guiness in 1977, but that's over too ). SW is not so much of an original story then it is a wonderful blend of familiar mythology, themes, pop culture and saturday morning sci-fis. Lucas is a genius of a cook for mixing all of these together into something everyone can take in. sure, the dialogues are corny, but only because it was Lucas' tribute to the sci-fi serials of his time. but it also worked great because SW ( or at least OT ) had simple and pretty straightforward lines that even a kid could understand. and that too has been SW's appeal, to both young and old, and the young at heart. many directors will also admit that SW changed the way movies were made. the word "blockbuster" didn't mean anything until after SW.

we now call LOTR a saga, a cinema masterpiece. i agree fully to this claim. but can we deny that LOTR (the movie) wasn't influenced by SW's success and Lucas's way of filmaking ? ( the fact that SW has elements that seemed like it was borrowed from the LOTR the books ties back to the argument of Lucas mixing different influences )

i can't say i know much about the techincal side of the Cannes Film Festival, but i found out that one of the conditions for submission of a movie to the festival is that it must respect the aims of the festival. and one of the aim of the festival is "to reveal and focus attention on works of quality in order to contribute to the progress of the motion picture arts and to encourage the development of the film industry throughout the world."(Article 1 in the festival submission rules and regulations) personally, i think ROTS qualifies.

so about ROTS screening at the Cannes, it's a surprise. but a welcomed one. ( woah.. undertones of Palpatine... )

[K9]

Crap, my message didn't go through and now have to rewrite

OK, here goes again. I agree much about your points but there is one thing I need to add. Tolkien's LOTR wasn't the work that has the most influence on Lucas in creating his SW world. The work of Frank Herbert, the Dune series were the ones that Lucas openly admitting has great influence on SW in an interview (unsure when). Fans of Dune have even compiled a list of similarity between SW and Dune.

I personally like Dune more than SW for various reasons, Dune world shows more complex historical background, richer cultural diversity, languages, and even philosophies. The Dune world was carefully written in great details as was Tolkien's LOTR. SW especially the prequels are merely "patching-up" work and Lucas tried so hard to make his SW world more complex and more details but he really failed to show more depth to his world as he seems to be more interested in making his world looks good with heavy CGI and great prop design plus extravagant explosion scenes while neglecting his script.

[TheEdge]

i, too, think Herbert's Dune is rich. (although i doubt i have much right to say that because my only encounter with it has been the Dune computer games and the TV miniseries )

the Dune books is how one calls a milestone in the richness of storytelling. the movies, however, cannot be considered because they are not technically original.

SW, by technicality, is original, but drawing heavy influence from many sources. deny that i do not, and neither does Lucas. i believe we shouldn't be questioning SW's ( or Lucas) credibility because of it drawing influences elsewhere. rather SW (agains OT, not so much of PT ) had the uncanny ability of making these elements accessible to the common cinema-goer and made sci-fi fans out of them. i was such a case. ask the average person about Dune and he'll give you a blank stare. but ask a sci-fi fan and he'll sing praises of it. you prefering Dune to SW is great, i am glad that a quality story such as that is your choice for precedence over SW, and not something lesser.

i think the most misgiving people have are againts the prequel. that i personally feel is unfair. SW maybe Lucas's creation, but over the years, he's given many artist and authors the chance to expand on the universe he created. take Expanded Universe for example. many will say it can even rival the movie saga in terms of story quality. I know Lucas gives the stamp of approval in this, but at least he's not all that selfish in just himself making up SW stories. actually, a little like how Brian Herbert expanded Dune a little, isn't it ?

i don't really think its fair to compare something as great as LOTR or Dune againts SW. which is bigger commercially isn't the question, rather the all compliment each other in many ways. Dune storyline helped on SW, SW help making sci-fi and fantasy a box-office potential, LOTR movies came forth from that school of thought and made the average person take notice and read Tolkien's books.

if Dune influenced SW that greatly, I'd like to think it something like an older brother to SW. (okay, maybe not the best or most agreeable illustration, but just something i cooked up in my head ) do you like to compare two brothers and expect them to have the same qualities ? that usually doesn't happen. rather they bear close resemblence, may influence each other (or in my illustration the older influencing the younger), but each are individuals on their own.

ah. just my 2 cents. Long live the fighters ?