Cosina Voigtlander rangefinder aping the Leica IIIF rangefinder film camera using 35mm film. The camera requires an auxilary viewfinder.
below: T101 with 50mm f3.5 collapsible lens reputed to be one of the sharpest 35mm film camera lens made.
Cleaner is one of those movies that makes you want to cry a little at the lost opportunity. With Samuel Jackon, Ed Harris, and Eva Mendes as the main players, and great supporting actors like Robert Forster in the mix, I was hoping for something great. This does not deliver this. The premise is startling and new – Jackson, a former cop runs a specialized cleaning service, he cleans crime scenes. He gets an order for a cleaning job but only realizes after he completes his work that he may have destroyed all the evidence of a murder. But the plot that follows has too many holes in it. It is a little sad to watch great actors work with substandard dialogue in a story that does not deliver on its tantalizing promise.
If you want a delightful movie to watch, rent this. Brad Silberling wrote and directed this low budget but highly entertaining movie starring Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega. Freeman plays an actor researching a part in an independent movie set in a supermarket. Vega plays the overly competent check out cashier who runs the 10 items or less check out line. Their worlds connect, their characters delight. Highly recommended.
I didnt enjoy this as much as i hoped going in. Thriller about a forensic psychiatrist who receives a cell call informing him he has 88 minutes left to live. It was a little muddled to me but did show up in a slightly deficient way the true meaning in cinema story telling between shock and suspense. The audience has to be told things before they happen for suspense to build. Too many things in this plot move ahead with no effort to keep the audience informed. A lot of the time we have no idea where we are going or why. One major problem with the character of Dr. Graham (Pacino) he is painted with too many flaws and is basically unsympathetic, although every female character is enamoured with him.
I started rereading this fascinating book tonight. Bogdanovich is to be thanked for making the determined effort to question film directors about their art and preserving their answers. Allan Dwan is the first director in the book. He was born in Toronto in 1885. Dwan was among the earliest of directors, a contemporary of D.W. Griffith. He explains the techniques developed during the days of one reelers as well as his work on features with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. He was one of those who invented the language of movies. Other directors: Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, and Raoul Walsh.
A great book. Highly recommended.
Bluetyger - William J. Gibson's Notebook 