Errol Morris S&D

you mean Gates of Heaven right? i was just thinking about how wonderful that movie was today.

d'oh..yes...not the epic money loser.

i have done that many times.

i can barely remember it to be honest, i but recall that the last few shot, in total silence if i remember correctly, are very moving.

Gates of Heaven is extraordinary. It has very strange rhythms--initially off-putting but ultimately quite soothing almost seductive. Morris allows for empty moments before and after people talk--which turns out to be quite revelatory, as the body language and facial expressions conveyed by people in these quiet moments offer a deeper understanding of what it is they meant when they were talking in-between. In general the editing is extraorindary. I don't know how true to the people profiled it is, but Morris seems to find a deep sadness in every gesture. I'll never forget the shot where the young man takes his guitar and amps out to the hillside and begins to play.

Ebert loves this film and has written a nice review of it.

The Thin Blue Line is also amazing, in a very different way. Morris's subsequent work hasn't impressed me as much. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control felt arch and much too cute for my taste, although isolated bits of it were powerful and fascinating.

I've always meant to see Gates of Heaven (largely because of Ebert's impassioned appreciation) but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Thin Blue Line I found very haunting and strong.

And I rented Fast, Cheap and Out of Control recently. I wasn't nuts about the way it was put together, but a lot of what the people had to say was quite intriguing.

(my favourite bit was when the roboticist recalls someone asking "but how do you tell it to walk? and he's all "but it's in its nature to walk!")

(that probably didn't make much sense)

He is, without question, the most influential documentary filmmaker from the mid-eighties on. You wouldn't see films like "Hell House," "Hands on a Hardbody," etc. without "Vernon, Florida," which has always struck me as being WAAY overlooked.

the DVDs for Gates of Heaven, Vernon FL and Thin Blue Line are finally announced for July