Saturday, August 7, 2010

Life Imitates Art

I screencapped this shot of Cliff Robertson, from Underworld USA (1961, Sam Fuller), because it cracked me up that the espresso bar shares a name with the Elite Groceries store I photographed the other day.

I'd never seen a Fuller film before. He's a low-budget, B-movie director whom filmmakers such as Martin Scorcese name among their influences.
I can see why now: his bold black and white and extreme close-ups pack a punch so strong the shoddy sets fall away. It almost overcomes the stinker of a plot and the ludicrous dialogue.
(Well, the ludicrous dialogue has its own charm.)

Vision and energy can still trump big bucks.

In comparison, this summer's Inception has a clever plot but the visuals were zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (Well, unless you've never seen a big-budget movie or a video game before.)