Famous long takes

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I'm trying to put together a list of films with notable long takes. I have the usual ones (Rope, Touch of Evil, Goodfellas, The Player), but I want to try to make this as comprehensive as possible, and my memory isn't serving me very well at the moment.

(Note - I couldn't search at all now, so if this has been done, please link me to the original topic asap.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Wavelength.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

TENEBRAE!!!

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Bonfire Of The Vanities.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

the "wannabe" video

― g--ff (gcannon), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

touch of evil is godhead though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

the end of the passenger (lots of shots in antonioni)

the pan across the audience in the rules of the game (it doesn't last as long as many shots from postwar long-take films but it is one of the most expressive single shots ever)

the rape scene in landscape in the mist

countless shots in mizoguchi's films

there are so many

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Hm, well, define *how* long. I noticed that the take near the end of The Hidden Fortress in the prison cell is quite longer than anything else in the film by a mile, but it might not seem so long to others in comparison.

Also, doesn't Russian Ark count as one big take?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

harry belafonte's shirtless solo in carmen jones

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

haha yes russian ark owns this thread

― amateu!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

the last shot of stalker too

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought one of the ones in Elephant was quite brilliant (the one where blondieboy walks from the playing field into the school).

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Snake Eyes
Mission To Mars
Femme Fatale

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

does the end of 'the 400 blows' count?

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

the traffic accident in weekend

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn, I want to watch that Elephant one now.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Just for the record, I'm starting up the Wikipedia article on this, so I'm just listing stuff for now. Therefore, directors are good, but some of the titles are better.

As for strict length, I think it's a subjective matter, so answer as seems fit.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

search: woody allen movies.

― Harold Media (kenan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Amateurist beat me to The Passenger. But yeah, The Passenger, or Profession: Reporter if you like.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Weekend (xp blah)

― dean? (deangulberry), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

some "famous" long take films that don't necessarily have one FAMOUS shot: jeanne dielman... .... satantango .... platform ... unbreakable (!!) ... india song .... the travelling players ....

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Irreversible
Peter Wolf's "Come As You Are" video

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ooh... how about the last shot in the third man? More for its content than its length, of course.

― Harold Media (kenan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

there are some hawks films that really discreetly use very long takes

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

also: the maltese falcon, angel face .....

ay ay ay

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the film talk on ile has been really good recently.

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

ingeborg holm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

les vampires !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

some "famous" long take films that don't necessarily have one FAMOUS shot

Not saying that they have to have famous shots...

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

SLACKER

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

What are some music videos - other than Lucas's "Lucas With The Lid Off" - that are only one take?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"bastards of young" naturally

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Persona, maybe? I don't remember if it's a long take or if it just feels like it, but the scene where Bibi Andersson is confessing her sexual liaison.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Chantal Ackerman's 'Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'

200+ minutes, I only remember 3 cuts, if that.

Also, Janet Jackson's "Escapade" video feels like 1 take, but there are a couple slick cuts.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Linklater's Tape

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Hithcock to thread

― kephm (kephm), Thursday, 2 September 2004 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the last shot of Marriage of Maria Braun (i think)

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a good point, how many takes does Rope have anyway?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember if it's a long take or if it just feels like it

haha

mostly it just made me feel funny, you know, down there.

― Harold Media (kenan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think Tape has any long takes, per se - it's just a film in real time.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

John Fogerty's "Old Man Down the Road" video

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

200+ minutes, I only remember 3 cuts, if that.

are you saying you think there were only 3 cuts or that you only felt the impact of 3 cuts?

cos the maximum length of a 35 cartridge is roughly 9 minutes. and i don't think there are any shots in that film longer than 4 or so. (which is plenty long--since the average hollywood shot now is about 7 seconds or less.) some of jancso's 1970s films push the long take principle to its technologically-determined extreme: agnus dei and elektra are, IIRC, comprised exclusively of 8- and 9-minute takes.

video provides the opportunity for much longer takes of course, which russian ark used to its fullest.

rope has some very long "shots" that were actually two shots carefully made so as to long seamless--actually i think hitchcock may have hidden certain of the invisible cuts by placing them at reel changes.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The end of Funny Games has that uncomfortably long take.

― Sean Witzman (trip maker), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a hell of a lot more than 3 cuts in Jeanne Dielman. The film is divided into three days, as discreet sections, perhaps that is what you're remembering.

So is ILF dead or something? I was actually just thinking of starting a thread on Last Tango in Paris (yeah, I know there is already a Bertolucci S&D, I wanted a dedicated thread), which I finally saw for the first time..

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post w/ amateurist

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

another hitchcock film to use v. long takes (though not as a formal principle as in jansco) is under capricorn

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

well there's the famous dancing shot in the conformist, but i always thought it was kind of prissy/showoffy

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

there are some neat ones, tho not incredibly long, towards the end of The Leopard, shots that start well before the principle characters enter the room.

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a hell of a lot more than 3 cuts in Jeanne Dielman

Sorry! I only remember 3 cuts from Jeanne Dielman.

Also, the end of The Third Man.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm .. that wasn't what I meant re: Bertolucci/Last Tango - I just wanted to talk about the film generally; but you're right to recall that dance scene, which is GREBT

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

first hitchcock long take coming to mind is the opening (?) scene in Rear Window. when you get the whole view of the apartment building across the way

― kephm (kephm), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

(dance scene in The Conformist, that is)

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Tommy Shaw, "Girls with Guns" video.

The "Head Over Heels" sequence of Donnie Darko, even though they messed around with the timing. It wasn't a real take, but it looked like one.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the whole long take discussion bugs me a bit, because there is this sense that pushing a take really long is somehow a heroic deed. it's a notion that seems to get reinforced in film school. there's even a gendered component. i think welles said something like "long takes are what separate the men from the boys." so you get stuff like the endless steadicams in p.t. anderson and such, and further many pedestrian hollywood films have to include one bravura steadicam shot. there was one in the opening of a walk to remember and a pretty obnoxious one in donnie darko.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

yes i think there was some digtial "fudging" of the long take in donnie darko

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

But IIRC, Tape only uses one camera: I remember lots of moments where the camera would zip from the door to the bathroom in order to capture both the action and the reaction, where most movies would use a cut.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

actually a lot of contemporary hollywood films open or nearly open with long takes, usually using a steadicam. i guess it's considered a suitably portentous effect, and the cliche is to use it to introduce a number of characters as they pass each other, etc.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I think Welles's statement was really more in regards to long takes to capture an actor's performance (opening to Touch of Evil not withstanding), as compared to huge moving crane shots and so on that require great technical prowess, but little else.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

in the godfather, when michael is sitting in the chair and you know he is going to take over the family.

― kephm (kephm), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the end of The Third Man.

Ah, good call! There are about five different points at which the take and film could end...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Nobody reads my posts. I am sad.

― Harold Media (kenan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

There's the feather flight in Forrest Gump.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, guys - I just gotta say:

moving/crane/steadicam shots != long shots (at least not automatically)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

woody allen bases the style of many of his movies (not all) on a sort of relaxed use of relatively long takes, to capture people interacting, to capture actors' performances (maybe one reason why every actor in hollywood has to say "but i really want to work with woody allen"?). it's not really far off from the unselfconscious use of long takes in classical hollywood films (esp. prewar ones).

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking more along the lines of multiple scenes occuring over the course of the same take than just one single scene long take - ie Slacker where one take consists of, fr'instance, those guys talking shit about Smurfs/krshna -> some ladies talking -> one lady getting up and walking out -> her encountering some other lady whose roommate was plotting her menstrual cycle in stones in the backyard.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

another hitchcock film to use v. long takes (though not as a formal principle as in jansco) is under capricorn

great, weird movie btw!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

also re: woody allen, that one shot where alvy & max are walking & talking with the "wagner, max!! wagner!!" line, that is a long take. they start way off in the distance and eventually pass the camera

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

when allen gets all artsy and tries to do bergman he usually uses quicker shots and longer scenes. also he sucks.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Take, n. A scene filmed or televised without interrupting the run of the camera.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Zhang Yimou movies have long takes...if I remember correctly.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

allen-as-fellini > allen-as-bergman

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

but just by a hair

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe nobody else mentioned or wants to talk about Wavelength - it's one long take as a movie!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

well sure almost all prominent filmmakers use "long takes" if we mean longer than whatever the average is for their time/place. just because most interesting directors will use a fairly wide range of stylistic options (obv there are exceptions to this!!).

because hollywood films are getting quicker and quicker, there's a tendency for fans to heroicize long takes as some kind of reaction against the majority tendency. but the long take has fairly recently become a familiar option in hollywood, as i noted above, used often for certain constrained purposes (introducing characters, establishing milieu). the long-take option is "available," but often in this sort of cliched fashion. i think in general the stylistic options for mainstream filmmakers have narrowed a little bit in general, which accounts for so many people's disappointment w/contemporary hollywood. but a lot of "long takes" in contemporary hollywood films don't seem so much an antidote for this as a symptom of it.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Take, n. A scene filmed or televised without interrupting the run of the camera.

D'oh!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG I almost forgot: KUBRICK.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

i think wavelength is another "fudged" long take, although it certainly functions like a long take. any as an experimental film it's kind of a limit case. though the "long take" is question is undoubtedly put to an interesting use. (actually the last shot of the passenger does something similar.)

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah the long take at the end of The Shining is a total Wavelength rip-off. And yeah, I always forget whether Michael Snow faked the latter, but hell it's so convincing, leave it in.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

nobody wants to talk about Wavelength because everbody's sick of Beatles records and Steve Reich album art.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

boo!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i have to admit i find "experimental film" pretty boring except as kind of stylistic limit cases

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

There are several scenes in Husbands that are lengthy takes.

― Allyzay Science Explosion (allyzay), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

MOST "experimental film"

but that's another discussion i guess

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

and in a woman under the influence

though i think a lot of cassavetes films have these loooooong scenes that have this almost halluciongenic strung-out feel, but they actually don't use many long takes as such

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

also it couldn't just be one take because the film obviously compresses time, moves from day to night, etc. Also the camera perceptably jumps ahead at certain points.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

re: Wavelength, x-post hell

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Royal Tennenbaums, the scene where Royal tells his wife he is dying and wants to be with the kids, then he says he isnt dying, then he gets slapped. ..

― kephm (kephm), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

some of the most inventive and strangest long takes are in dreyer's vampyr

(other super-long take films: gertrud, ordet, flowers of shanghai)

xpost

yeah that tenenbaums scene is lovely. very woody allenesque when you think about it.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The main one in Husbands that is sticking out to me is the scene in the bar where Peter Falk takes off his clothes, though I might be misremembering it cos you're right, a lot of the scenes just seem like really long real-time takes when they clearly aren't (ex. the scene on the street where they decide to go to London which bleeds into the scene in the front yard where they have the discussion about no longer showering--it is clearly multiple takes, I mean it's a different setting by the end, but the way the dialog flows you just don't remember them as being different).

― Allyzay Science Explosion (allyzay), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

if someone cd respond to my theory abt long takes in contemporary movies i'd be elated

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

ally otm

sort of like how some art filmmakers are perceived as making "slow" films although their average shot length isn't that much higher than contemporary mainstream films. slowness...the feel of a film...is determined by so much more than shot length.... dreyer actually had a theory abt this, the different aspects of film that contributed to a feeling of slowness or quickness. i will try to find it tonight and reproduce it here.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

so you get stuff like the endless steadicams in p.t. anderson and such

No kidding. The phone sex bit in Punch-Drunk Love stuck out like a sore thumb. It was awful.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

What about "The Celebration"???

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

the Dogme film? It's brilliant.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

End of 'Big Night'.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree it's brilliant...but isn't it a long shot as well? are all dogme 95 films of that style? the manifesto talks about the moment being bigger than the whole or something like that...

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 2 September 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I was trying to remember just how it was filmed; obviously on video, but I can't remember the editing style too clearly. The acting is incredible. The dinner scene is excruciating.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 2 September 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

gondry video for massive attack. maybe music videos don't fit? lots of one take videos,
but not very many as complicated as this one.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 2 September 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember a lot of long shots in Celebration but I could be totally wrong and it's been a while since I saw it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 September 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

best allen long take: hannah & her sisters round the table.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 2 September 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

animal house, bluto at the food counter

― lukey (Lukey G), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah firstworld, I was thinking of the Unfinished Sympathy video too.

― Anna (Anna), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:58 (twenty-one years ago)

'Eternity And A Day' (starring Bruno Ganz, director Theo Angelopoulos) from 1998, don't think this has a single cut in it apart from between scenes.

― Mog, Friday, 3 September 2004 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

the final shot of kenneth branagh's 'much ado about nothing' is quite long and very good! great choreography.

― pete b. (pete b.), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

the final long shot of 'through the olive trees' is among the seven most beautiful things I've seen.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 6 September 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a long Goodfellas style shot near the beginning of Boogie Nights too, iirc, although I've not seen it for a long time.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 6 September 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

the last shot of the suspended step of the stork

cozen otm

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

wait ... what is the last shot of Through the Olive Trees? I can't remember. Is that when the car keeps trying to climb the hill and fails? Or is that a different Kiarostami> I can't remember

― Reed Moore (diamond), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

you're thinking of life and nothing more...

the last shot of TTOT is an extreme long shot of the young man persuing the girl through the olive grove and then across the valley, the camera continues watching until they are just tiny specks in the distance, and eventually they disappear.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ah, of course... I remember now. Thanks, amateurist.

Yeah, Kiarostami is amazing. Maybe I like him better than my beloved Antonioni, come to think of it. Heck, I KNOW he's better than Antonioni; in my heart, I know it to be true. His humanism is simply unmatched. That is what sets him apart, I feel.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Life and Nothing More is so great too

― Reed Moore (diamond), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

his humanism is poo

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Bunuel possibly the greatest humanist, tho? Olvidados, Nazarin, Susana, Viridiana? Tough call

― Reed Moore (diamond), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

Let's start this again, shall we?

MUSIC VIDEOS
Lucas' "Lucas with the Lid Off" is pleasant enough, albeit a bit too gimmicky and contrived at times, like it's using a long take just for the sake of using a long take. Massive Attack's "Protection" is much nicer, utilizing it as a vehicle rather than as the primary substance. Then, of course, "Sugar Water" by Cibo Matto is just incredible and takes the cake.

― Nomi Malone and Her Bloodstains (Stevie D), Monday, 10 November 2008 04:57 (seventeen years ago)

are those all on the gondry music video dvd?

― donna rouge, Monday, 10 November 2008 05:05 (seventeen years ago)

wait i think they are actually

― Nomi Malone and Her Bloodstains (Stevie D), Monday, 10 November 2008 05:12 (seventeen years ago)

children of men, the car attack scene!

― not_goodwin, Monday, 10 November 2008 08:00 (seventeen years ago)

Bela Tarr's kind of the king of the long take isn't he? I don't know if his stuff qualifies as "famous" though.

― circa1916, Monday, 10 November 2008 08:05 (seventeen years ago)

Also some of those Warhol films.

― circa1916, Monday, 10 November 2008 08:09 (seventeen years ago)

Leone is a goldmine for these. My personal favorite of his is the train station sequence at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West. There are some good ones in TGTBATU as well.

Lynch also. Perhaps most notably, the opening scene from the Twin Peaks Season 2 premiere in which Agent Cooper is lying on the floor bleeding while "Senor' Droolcup" brings him warm mild & gives him the thumbs-up over and over: "I've heard about you."

― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Monday, 10 November 2008 08:29 (seventeen years ago)

*milk

― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Monday, 10 November 2008 08:30 (seventeen years ago)

Haha, yeah that was the perfect way to start Season 2. First season ends on a ridiculous cliffhanger and then we're welcomed back with that torturously drawn out WTF opening sequence. I'm so glad that show was made.

― circa1916, Monday, 10 November 2008 08:46 (seventeen years ago)

― Reed Moore (diamond), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:00 (4 years ago)

that last shot of 'the desert' came to mind, but this is sooo otm. antonioni kind of sucks compared to kiarostami and pretty much everyone else. i know we're talking about music videos tho. some chris cunningham has pretty long (edited?) takes in spite of his rep--his porthishead video, maybe autechre and bjork?

― Matt P, Monday, 10 November 2008 09:06 (seventeen years ago)

i think a lot of high-concept video directors do this but they're so heavily edited that it's like what's a long take and what isn't

― Matt P, Monday, 10 November 2008 09:08 (seventeen years ago)

the first shot of 'the wind will carry us' is pretty much the best long take of all time.

― Matt P, Monday, 10 November 2008 09:16 (seventeen years ago)

it's like 15 minutes or something and perfect, and the rest of the film is just as good.

― Matt P, Monday, 10 November 2008 09:17 (seventeen years ago)

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