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August
20 Bourne: Action Advance or Queasicam?

DamonbournencrowdThere seems to be some debate about whether Paul Grassgrass's radically hand-held mise-en-scene in The Bourne Ultimatum is too herky-jerky to be good cinematography. I will argue that whether it's hand-held or not, shot-for-shot Paul Greengrass's Bourne Ultimatum advances the art of action filmmaking and will change it forever. David Bordwell compares Greengrass's smartly-edited direction to Tony Scott. There's no comparison! Two different animals, entirely.

[Hat Tip: David Chute]

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Posted: Mon, August 20, 2007, 10:08 AM

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Anne, while I agree that Paul Greengrass's Bourne Ultimatum is smartly edited, wildly entertaining and a major achievement, I beg to differ with claims that his direction and style "advance" the action genre, for this reason: Screen Peter Yates' BULLITT and you will see the root DNA of this very style (albeit with more tripods and circa 1968 pacing sensibilities). The parallels are stunning, from the signature car chases to tension-filled action in public spaces. (Bullitt's climax in the crowded baggage claim area mirrors the Waterloo Station sequence in Ultimantum.) So while we're tipping the hat to major talents at work today, let's also remember the innovators on who's shoulders they stand while they shoulder their hand-held rigs... John Arends

Posted by: John Arends | August 20, 2007 at 11:29 AM

i remember having to walk out on blair witch because there was so much camera movement i became nauseous -- i mean really bad, i was just about to hurl. (for those that didn't experience bw in theaters -- they offered airsickness bags to the audience. i had read accounts of people getting sick but thought that was a publicity stunt. i thought handing out barf bags before the show started was a gimmick -- i was wrong)

the action sequence may have been done so many times that a new unsteady-cam/you are there (right there -- 2 feet away) approach may be necessary in order to keep things fresh. so, we may be seeing a lot more queasicam in future.

as for the camera in ultimatum being too jerky it's important to note that the way the movie appears in theaters is not the permanent record. it's how the movie plays at home that is definitive. on a smaller screen the jerky camera work in bw is not as pronounced -- and it's much less disorienting.

i suspect there won't be nearly as much mention made of the camera work in ultimatun as it will appear when played at home on dvd. on disc, at home, ultimatum will probably be much easier on the eyes and the equilibrium.

if i had the opportunity i would ask greengrass if he considered any of this. (did he see the daily footage on a monitor or on a screen)?

i'll have to check out the interviews with him, see what he may have said

Posted by: Alan | August 20, 2007 at 11:45 AM

I had no trouble with it at all. I wonder if the reaction to this cinema verite style is a generational thing, where some viewers are still more accustomed to "seeing" things a certain way. This style brings you viscerally close to the action and the character's POV;and yet as practiced by Greengrass & Co., all the information is there; the sequences are clear and easy to read.

Posted by: Anne Thompson | August 20, 2007 at 12:55 PM

I totally agree. Unlike Tony Scott or especially Michael Bay (the action sequences in The Rock are a complete mess with his twitchy restless camera always in the wrong place at the wrong time to capture the action) there's a logic and an excellent sense of the spacial relationship between the characters and their surroundings within the frame in Greengrass action scenes. He genuinely creates the experience of "being there". You get the experience of being involved in the frenzied chaotic movement within a fight scene or a car chase. I think Greengrass is the one of the best action directors working today.

But John Woo is still THE KING!

Posted by: Sergio | August 20, 2007 at 02:05 PM

When I saw United 93, I had to close my eyes for about half the movie to prevent myself from vomiting. I had a major headache and was nauseous for the rest of the day. So, for Bourne Ultimatum, I was prepared. The answer? Dramamine. No kidding. Don't attempt Greengrass without it.

Posted by: Cathy | August 20, 2007 at 02:42 PM

I finally caught up with The Bourne Ultimatum this weekend, which is pretty remarkable as trilogies go (in that it brings everything full circle, with each film advancing the story, rather than simply repeating what auds liked about the first movie).

I also caught up with your column on the subject, which emphasizes the realism of this technique. But it's the IMMERSIVE quality that interests me most. Whereas most moviegoers can easily call up iconic shots from classical films, this new, faster approach situates the audience within the action and demands that we construct the three-dimensional space in our heads (incidentally, I agree with Bordwell that Tony Scott is experimenting with the same thing, though he's achieved considerably less success).

Cinematography is important, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to editing (the most invisible and misunderstood art, since when it's working, you shouldn't even notice it). Every cut requires us to resituate ourselves, which puts the burden on the editor to second-guess what we want/need to see in order to follow along.

This is where Bourne 2 & 3 editor Christopher Rouse (Oscar nominated for United 93) has proven himself so exceptional. There's something intuitive about the flow from shot to shot despite the jarring, ever-moving nature of what's actually unfolding on screen. In the third movie, Rouse juggles flashbacks and other perspectives as well, and even though we can't always make out the action, we're never confused about what is going on (contrast this with the ridiculous editing in the Batman Begins subway fight, where a nonsensical flurry of images is used to represent action, and you'll realize how much artistry such work requires).

On a personal note, the example that impressed me most was Dreamgirls, which used editing and multiple camera angles to compress what felt like six hours of story into two hours (proving how vital music is to such audacious montage in the process). On the other extreme, I can't quite figure out what Michael Winterbottom is trying to do in A Mighty Heart.

Like Greengrass, he is also constantly cutting between handheld, verite-style points of view, but the editing in A Mighty Heart actually prevented me from getting into Mariane Pearl's head (what does it mean to cut from Angelina Jolie's face to a shot of someone washing lobster in a strainer to a baby crying in the backyard to random strangers in the street?), but then, given how innovative his other films have been, it's possible that he's just ahead of his time.

P.S. In terms of nausea, that's a real issue with this approach. In Babel, I would've given anything for a tripod, and the "artsy" simulated handheld in Battlestar Galactica just makes me laugh. From the second-to-last row, the Bourne Ultimatum was just fine, but as Rouse himself warned me, "I would not recommend watching 'Supremacy' or 'Ultimatum' from the first three rows of the theater!" If you're sensitive to this style, hold off for DVD, where the experience isn't so overwhelming (Moulin Rouge earned a fresh crop of converts on the small screen).

Posted by: Peter Debruge | August 20, 2007 at 03:52 PM

Ramesh on brodwell is available on david chute's blog.

I only wish to add briefly here Greengrass must wonder what he did to deserve either pillory on one hand or hagiography on the other. The film hand held and all is pretty pedastrian (sply compared to the book) and PG didnt do something that the John Demme film "Truth about Charlie" didnt do three times better.

I think either of the two films are just but raindrops in a monsoon and will have negligible impact on filmmaking as a whole.

Posted by: Ramesh | August 20, 2007 at 04:47 PM

ramesh,I couldn't disagree more! The Truth About Charlie???!!!

Posted by: Anne Thompson | August 20, 2007 at 05:07 PM

Ann,

See it and believe it. it even starts the same dude in a similar hat in france....or someplace close by..

Posted by: Ramesh | August 20, 2007 at 05:10 PM

Peter - what a terrific post! It's an eye-opener for me (a writer, not an editor), and I now get it, seeing and appreciating what Greengrass and Rouse are shooting for, and achieving. So thank you!

Here's the thing, though: I saw Bourne Ultimatum on a Saturday afternoon, opening weekend, and that night, by chance, TNT was running Bullitt as part of its "long live 'cool'" series. And there it was -- the same drifting over-the-shoulder CUs on the eyes....almost identical to the shots that opens Ultimatum, with the journalist talking to the CIA man. The parallels just kept unfolding, all the way through, to the final scene, where McQueen's character looks into the mirror, his eyes asking the same question at the heart of Bourne: who am I and what have I become? It was just a weird collision of two films from two eras by two directors who were/are elevating the genre... Anyway, thanks, Peter -- and Ann! -- for the insights...very cool, indeed!

Posted by: John Arends | August 21, 2007 at 06:13 AM

Anne -- humble apologies about dropping the "e" in your name on my too-quick-to-hit-enter post just now... I'm married to an Anne with an e...so I should absolutely know better! D'oh!

Posted by: John Arends | August 21, 2007 at 06:20 AM

I never married an Anne (at least not so far), but I shoulda known.

Sorry Anne,(sez Ramesh who sees this as returnigh the world a favor for how my name usually gets mangled...it such a simple one and easy to spell, you'd think no?)

Posted by: Ramesh | August 21, 2007 at 08:22 AM

I haven't seen the new Bourne pretty much because I've seen enough of Greengrass' work to know that I don't like it. I appreciated Bloody Sunday because the low budget 16mm approach worked for it. But he's continued doing the same thing for his past 3 films without change -- bigger budgets, same style. And the more I see, the more I'm coming to think he's the worst working major director at the moment. I have yet to see him actually stage a single believable dramatic scene, create any shifts in his monotonous pacing, or feel that he's created any characters that rise above being cardboard.

Furthermore, what he's doing isn't cinema verite. There's no such thing as cinema verite when you're shooting Super-35. And on top of that, what he's doing doesn't strike me as the least bit realistic BECAUSE of all his cutting. Edits are lies. Edits are manipulations. If he wanted to make his films feel realistic he'd be using long tracking shots so all of the action is taking place within the mise
en scene -- show the characters stumbling, fumbling, etc.

All that said, this movie won't change action. Because the movie that this style descends from is the one that changed action: Saving Private Ryan. But (bad script aside) Spielberg at least knew how to tell a story, define his characters, and allow breathing room between the actions scenes. Greengrass can't do that, because it would reveal that nothing's actually there.

Posted by: Edward Wilson | August 21, 2007 at 04:40 PM

Those are strong words, sir. For my money, Greengrass is one of the ost interesting, sophisticated and intelligent directors working today. And I do think this way of shooting action on the fly at the studio big-budget level with hand-held cameras didn't exist before because the cameras didn't exist before--they are lighter and more portable than ever. Yes, Spielberg did some of this in both Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. And as I wrote in my piece, so did Pontecorvo in The Battle of Algiers.

Long takes vs. cutting is not the issue. This argument goes back to Andre Bazin and Eisenstein. Artful editing in combination with strong POV cameras is going to continue to be a powerful aesthetic as we head into the future.

Posted by: Anne Thompson | August 21, 2007 at 05:37 PM

I'm not arguing against artful editing or strong POV cameras. I'm arguing against bad filmmaking.

It's not a comparison of Pudovkin to Eisenstein -- they're both right...when the circumstances permit. It shouldn't be all one or the other. A good filmmaker knows when to use what methods and styles. The Godfather could be argued as being mostly Pudovkin, but it's the shift to Eisenstein during Vito's assassination attempt that makes the sequence pop. Greengrass is one style all the time. And it's a bad style.

Running around covering every moment with multiple handheld cameras, then throwing the footage into an Avid blender isn't interesting or impressive. In fact, I consider what Greengrass does a virtual abdication of direction.

I wasn't crazy about Children of Men, because it was pretentious and simplistic, but compare the so-called realism of that picture's longtake aesthetic to the frenzy of Greengrass' work. Yes, both employ many handheld shots -- but in one, the audience is stuck in the action because the camera isn't cutting away, and the other is supposed to be realistic because there's too much editing to allow the audience escape. Aside from the handheld camera, they're functional opposites.

That said, for me, Greengrass isn't intelligent, effective or sophisticated. In fact, just the opposite. I think he's fat and brutish. I think the success of his work relies on creating an immersive theatrical experience. However, I saw both U93 and the previous Bourne only on DVD. And they fell flat. It's usually been thought that good directors plan their shots and editing carefully, while hacks shoot "coverage." Greengrass shoots coverage on meth.

This so-called verite, which it is not, will date itself to this period. Unless Greengrass can shift gears and show himself to actually DIRECT real scenes he will date himself as well.

Posted by: Edward Wilson | August 21, 2007 at 07:13 PM

I wish it were a Pudovkin VS Eisenstin debate. They both made good films.

What greengrass TRIED to do in the bourne ultimatum is laudible.He tried to bring in a handheld camera aesthetic into what is essentially the big studio screenplay. what he ended up doing was proving the fiction that visual storytelling needs a verbal screenplay to communicate a narrative.

An Esienstin pudovkin debate it ain't.Except in demonstrating what DOESN'T work. Maybe its that debate in the reverse.

Posted by: Ramesh | August 21, 2007 at 08:40 PM

and PG didn't shoot Coverage. He shot a proper dramatic screenplay complete with choreographed action and planned /timed editing and music, sometimes on the "shakey" handheld cam, to give us an illusion of coverage.

Posted by: Ramesh | August 21, 2007 at 08:55 PM

So what you're saying is he shot it differently than U93 -- which used quite a bit of 2-camera coverage?...

Posted by: Edward Wilson | August 21, 2007 at 10:08 PM

I think the differences were more in the way he planned and edited the shoot to a screenplay.

I think he struggled with some form of grammar for the handheld camera cinematography, the bourne sequences(intercut or not) with one camera The CIA sequences with more than one camera , and some panorama shots with a regular team doing the shoot.

Posted by: Ramesh | August 21, 2007 at 10:37 PM

To a growing band of visual story tellers, video journalists and indeed film makers I know (very few :)) Greengass' work represents something significant.

That it attracts a wide array of opinions, more often than not evoking discussion about the craft of film making, is part testimony.

Film making irrefutably is a living art and every director possesses a DNA, unique or recombinant, which either adds to the gene pool or not.

Pudovkin, Eisenstein alongside Greengrass isn't contestable; they're the Eves or Adams, much studied and dissected in film schools and in which thousands following have paid hommage one way or another e.g. BattleShip P. and The Untouchables.

The kinetic-aesthetic look Greengrass rides us along in Bourne has strands from a milestone visual shift in the 90s with US drama Homicide - Life on the Street (handheld) and Bochco's NYPD Blue, where the plane of filmmaker frees up again and the viewer appears almost to be onset caught up in the frenzy.

Peter Yates' Bullitt freed up areas of film directing before and many others have done since and indeed before. Hit TV series 24 does handheld, in some parts even with a DVCam - see if you can spot it.

For videojournalists like myself producing, filming, editing and voicing docs and features as one person, Paul and his team up the ante.

There's a photojournalistic quality and an added energy within the lens (those movements), let alone the scene, that has a visceral quotient a bit like Marmite (British spread) you either absolutely love it or you absolutely don't.

Personally, and from my class of Masters students I am involved with we're hugely wowed, which obviously won't be the same elsewhere.

But just as other directors and movies have influenced a genre, Greengrass has done something with the spy narrative and dramatic film (U93) that will yield comparisons alongside other directors and films I reckon for a long time to come.

David
www.viewmagazine.tv
UK

Posted by: David Dunkley Gyimah | January 10, 2008 at 02:42 AM

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Alice (Jovovich) joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corp.; Director: Sean Penn Starring: Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn; THERE WILL BE BLOOD chronicles one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a silver miner into a self-made oil tycoon. ; There Will Be Blood; Here's an exclusive look at Joel and Ethan Coen's trailer for their Cannes hit "No Country for Old Men," starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and uber villain Javier Bardem. ; trailer; movies; No Country for Old Men; Tomy Lee Jones; Ethan Coen; Josh Brolin; Javier Bardem; Joel Coen; Directors: Nadia Conners & Leila Conners Petersen Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sylvia Earle Ph.D., Mikhail Gorbachev...;

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