Edgar Wright, le génie imprévisible du cinéma est dans le Video Club
All Konbini transcripts →
Summary
This video discusses various influential and inspirational films, focusing on their directorial choices, production challenges, and impact on filmmaking. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and highlights specific scenes or aspects that make these movies stand out.
Key points- The speaker discusses "Brazil" as an imaginative and technically difficult film to make, noting its unique 1940s styling despite being set in the future.
- RoboCop is highlighted as a savage satire of 80s America, with the speaker suggesting a film like it would be difficult to release today.
- Die Hard is praised as a masterclass in action filmmaking, particularly for its visual storytelling and construction, suggesting it be watched with the sound off to appreciate its direction.
- Escape from New York is noted for its imaginative premise and impressive production design achieved with a limited budget, including a notable miniature shot of Manhattan.
- The speaker discusses the influence of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and his personal connection with the director.
- Cube is presented as a great example of how to make a low-budget sci-fi film by focusing on one effective set.
Chapters
Notable quotes (4)
“Brazil. I think this is one of my favorite films actually.”
“But this this film is somewhat miraculous. Like when you watch it now, it's such kind of like a savage satire of like 80s America made by a crazy Dutchman.”
“It's so brilliantly constructed and brilliantly shot and directed.”
“Movie magic. I love it. This is an incredible film if you haven't seen it.”
0:00I think this is one of the greatest action movies of all time. PH to Crystal sounds very arty. I think Tom Cruz had given him the same advice. It's like film yourself running. So I absolutely love Delicatess and still don't think it gets enough credit. Lenu de Mo Vivant. Is that okay? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Doesn't sound very convinced. Yeah.
0:23[Applause] [Music]
0:33Tequila. [Music] [Applause] >> I'm still here, you [ __ ] eaters. >> So, hello, Edgar, and welcome here. >> Thanks for having me. I feel at home. >> Oh, wow. Okay, here we go. Here's a good one to start with. Brazil. I think this is one of my favorite films actually. Every time I watch it, I'm I'm more and more impressed. I mean, I I loved it when I watched it as a teenager on TV the first time as I become a filmmaker. Now, when I watch it, I'm just bowled over by how difficult it seems, as in how difficult it would have been to make. And if
1:20you've read anything about the production of Brazil, it was quite a tumultuous production. and release, but it's such an incredible film. So imaginative and uh I just love that it has every single possible effect within the movie. It's just like a staggering piece of work. I really really love it. And it had some influence on The Running Man in the sense that I love in this film, it's like a 1985, but it's styled like the 40s. It's almost as if Terry Gilliam took the idea that um this is almost like George Orwell's idea of the future. So it's it's got the same stylings as when that book was published
1:54in 1948. And The Running Man that we just made, Stephen King published the book in 1982. So we sort of thought, well, what what is a 1982 version of 2025? The book was was set in 2025 and the film is coming out in the same year. So I took some inspiration from Terry Tills. Um an amazing film.
2:17Um we can pick both of these up. Yeah, >> a little double whammy. There Starship Troovers will be around here somewhere as well. Paul Vhovven uh and with Starship Troovers as well. Like an amazing trilogy of sort of satirical sci-fi action, especially Robocop, actually. I mean, I love this too. I pro I'd probably say that this actually has more influence on my film than the original Arnold Schwarzenegger running man.
2:48[Music] But this this film is somewhat miraculous. Like when you watch it now, it's such kind of like a savage satire of like 80s America made by a crazy Dutchman. So, I mean, I I there's a really good documentary that came up if you if you haven't seen that documentary called Robo Do, which goes into the making of Robocop in granular detail, and it's really impressive to see how that film was made, but also how they manage to, I guess, sneak it out. Like sometimes films when how they get made and and when they get released. I feel like this is one of those like uh
3:35moments in time where somebody couldn't make a film like this now. It certainly seems like it's something this savage would probably not get released by an American studio in this day and age. Although although we tried. >> Don't you have the same feeling for your film for >> I do a little bit. I do I do have a feeling with my film that we're kind of like very um fortunate to have got it released in the way that it has. it like um you know if if it feels subversive then I'm happy.
4:04>> I got a grenade >> back at you. >> This is the film that I probably watched the most at the cinema.
4:19I don't know when the last time I watched it at home was it? So, it's probably a bad advert for the store cuz this is probably the one film that I would never watch at home anymore. Like, whenever it's on at the cinema, I'll go. It's become the film I've seen the most because I I every time I saw on on a big screen, I'll go.
4:37>> Um, >> why don't you want to watch it uh at home? >> I think sort of I I the first time I ever saw it was on TV actually, but it's uh this is a a big screen experience for me. Um, so, um, I mean, I I I would watch it at home. I'm not going to say no to it, but it's definitely that my most frequent, um, film that I've seen at the cinema.
4:58I did not know that the title for Die Hard was PH to Crystal. Sounds very arty. I like that. I think it's kind of like a masterclass in action. [Music] It's so brilliantly constructed and brilliantly shot and directed. Like it's a sort of I think for anybody um wanting to make films, Die Hard is a good one to watch with the sound turned off. I think you can learn a lot about visual storytelling when you watch a film that you really like with the volume down. And and this is a really good one. I think sort of is so beautifully made and um I think uh it's
5:43just a masterclass. I think sort of like really I I don't feel as strongly about any of the sequels but um the first one is just a classic. This is a film.
5:59I remember when I saw this at the cinema probably in 1989 999. I was so inspired and sort of envious at the same time. I remember seeing this at the cinema and coming out of the theater just like fizzing with like energy of like, oh my god, I have to make a movie. I'd actually already made my first movie when I was 20 and Shaun of the Dead was not till 2004. And so seeing a movie like this just made I I think it's one of those movies that just makes you want to pick up a camera and go.
6:36And I just rewatched it recently when they re-released it at the cinema and it really holds up. And uh I think sort of Tom Twer's film is just fantastic. This is a great 90 minutes of cinema right here. Always good to to have a little list of films that are under 90 minutes when you're in a rush. This is a good one.
6:55[Music]
7:04>> How difficult it is to shoot a scene where your character is constantly running. >> Well, I heard the story that Fanka Patente said to Matt Damon when they were making the Born Identity. She said, "Have you ever videoed yourself running?" And he said, "No, why?" And she says, "You don't look as cool as you think you do." And I told this story to Glenn and it was one of the things that I think I think Tom Cruz had given him the same advice is like, "Film yourself running." Um, because, you know, there are people who run really great on screen. I think the worst runner in the history of cinema is
7:41Steven Seigal. And if you've ever looked at the super cut of Steven Seagal running on YouTube, like, don't do it like he does. I mean, I think I would probably be a bad runner, but Steven Seagull is really bad. So, check that out. >> Not not a recommended watch, but but funny. >> Talking about Glenn Powell, I put it in.
8:01>> Yes. Well, we sort of owe it to this film for getting Glenn cast in the movie, and it's actually really sweet. I just literally on the way over here got an email from Richard Link later because he watched The Running Man yesterday, and he completely flipped over it. And I emailed him back and I said, "Well, we have you to thank for Glenn's casting." Because I had seen this at the London Film Festival and it was during the actor's strike. So Glenn wasn't present.
8:26But I texted him and he said, "Oh, I'm so sad I'm not there." And then he text me, he said, "Consider this my audition tape." And and then actually later when like Glenn was in the mix for The Running Man, Stephen King had casting approval for Ben Richards for some of the major parts and he wasn't too aware of Glenn's work. So I said, "Watch this." So Stephen King watched Hitman and then the next day said, "Oh yeah, he's great." >> You can't blame someone for taking the law in their own hands.
8:55>> You know, there's a thing I really believe in, >> okay? >> That is personal justice. for when our pussified justice system fails when we do this and we do it right. Right. >> So, thank you Glenn and Richard Linker for that. Let's go right here with this one. >> I also like the Escape from New York in in in France is called New York 1997.
9:18Now, interesting enough, like I love this film. >> Okay, now
9:30John Comter is a big inspiration for me and I just think it's really imaginative this movie. The premise is great but then they don't have a huge budget but they do amazing things with the production design and miniatures. Amazing. I if you've ever seen the making of this incredible um shot of um Manhattan seen through kind of like night vision and it's basically a a model I think partly built by James Cameron who worked on miniatures on this film that there's no actual kind of like it's precgi scotch tape and they've just lit it. So if you look on if you look on the internet you can find the photo of them
10:12shooting the night vision of Manhattan. It's extraordinary. It was it was also an inspiration for the production because when we were making the running man we had to find locations that we could make look like a future dystopia and their version of Manhattan in this movie which is like become a prison island they shot in St. Louis and partly I think there's one shot on Ellis Island by the Statue of Liberty and there's also some scenes in the LA River and they somehow make this all kind of blend together in a very masterful way.
10:42There's an amazing shot where it goes from Ellis Island and behind the sign and then onto the sort of the LA riverbed. But I I really really really enjoy this film. This I've never seen this cover before. This is George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Lenu de Mo Vivant. Is that okay? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Very convinced.
11:03>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's perfect.
11:12I mean, this is a big one for me, both this and Dawn of and Dawn and Day of the Dead. Um, but this is, you know, one of the most influential independent films of all time. I think, you know, me and Simon Peg got to know George Romero a little bit after Shaun of the Dead came out, and he was an extremely nice guy, and he was very generous to us and very supportive of everything we did. So I feel very fondly about him and the movie is just incredible >> because both of you were in the land of the dead after.
11:44>> Yeah, we did a cameo in the in Land of the Dead. [Music] >> I remember something that he said to me that's always really stayed with me is that we were having coffee and he asked us what we were doing next and we said, "Oh, we're writing this cop movie." And George said, "Oh, so not a horror film." And we said, "No." and he goes, "Oh, so you're getting out." And uh that really stuck with me. But I was very sort of like um you know, friendly with George and uh even though I didn't see him that often, we would see each other when we
12:16were in the same city. We used to email a lot and um very sad he's gone, but um what a legacy he leaves behind. I think neither of these uh this is Grindhouse split into two. Planet Terror and Bula Dalmore. That's a cool title. That might be a better title than Death Proof actually. >> You really need to be sitting in my seat.
12:50>> I remember I was actually at the can screening of this with Quentin and I think I seem to remember that he was really taken with the French title. It sounds cool. Boulevard Demote. I don't I don't know if either of these have my trailer on them because in Europe, Grindhouse was split up into two movies and um my trailer don't I think is only on the full American version.
13:14>> Talking about your trailer, uh some of the other trailers were adapted in future film. >> Yes. >> Can we hope for an adaptation in future film of Don't? >> I'm going to say no. And the reason is I think the best version of Don't is 90 seconds long. I think it's one of those films. This is the thing is I think you can't give into sort of like like fanfiction is people say when are we going to see a film of Don and I was like you've already seen the best version believe me I'm not sure that that I'm not sure that that previses to
13:4690 minutes. So I think the 90 version is is is the best version of don't. So please be happy with that. Um okay I want to talk about another one of Oh this is another good one. Cube. I don't think this gets enough credit. >> Stop in front of you. [Music] >> This is like I think sort of like is a real um great lesson of how to make a lowbudget sci-fi movie. Make one amazing set and then use it all the way through the movie. Change the lighting, change the sort of the the um the blocking, um change the kind of things that happen
14:25within the set. But I always thought this was like a genius idea for a low-budget film and um I've liked some of his other films. I like Splice as well, but I saw this at the cinema where it came out and it really stuck with me as an ingenious um lowbudget film. >> What do you think about the end? Because there's this kind of at the end of this movie.
14:46>> Yeah. Urban legend about um an alternative ending that Venzo Natali destroyed. >> Oh, I I didn't know about that actually. I would like to sort of see this again. I I saw it when it first came out of the cinema and have not seen it since. 1 hour 26. That's good as well. Put that on the run pile. This movie, The Getaway. Um, actually, usually when I make a film, I watch some kind of good luck film before starting shooting. And in this case, I watched a film with uh Glenn Pal. The getaway has the the police coming to get us.
15:32So th this film has some connection to The Running Man in the sense that usually when I start making a movie, I watch some kind of good luck movie to get us all in the mood. Myself and Glenn Powell and Michael Becc watch the Getaway cuz Glenn had actually never seen this and I just thought this is a really good movie to watch. Um, not only is it a great action crime movie based on a Jim Thompson book with a script by Walter Hill, no less, another one of my heroes, but also just for watching McQueen the movie star like Command the Screen sometimes saying very little. And
16:04aside from it being a great kind of like thriller, it's just sort of just a masterclass in movie star acting, like the way that McQueen kind of like holds the frame is really sort of astonishing. So I I love this movie. I I have never seen this movie, but I did direct one shot in this movie. Um about it's about 18 frames, but when when I saw at the cinema, I nudged my friend when it came up.
16:34>> Let's talk about Let's talk about this film. I think this is like super I think this is very underrated this film. This is Michael Cryon's film Looker from 1981. [Applause] paid career for you because it's a high paid career. >> And much like Stephen King is a bit of a Nostradamus with The Running Man, Michael Kryton with several of his books and films kind of predicted the future.
17:01And the premise of this movie is that models are being scanned into a computer and then this evil media corporation are killing the models um to keep their kind of digital rights rather than pay them anything sort of further. And only plastic surgeon Albert Finny realizes that these like sort of beautiful models are being sort of killed after they've been scanned into the computer. So, it's alarming. I remember when the SAG strike happened and most of it was about the rights of actors and whether once they've been digitally scanned using their likenesses, whether that was um was ethical. And this is a movie entirely about it from 1981. So, once
17:49again, Michael Cry predicts the future. I do I do find this film super entertaining and uh definitely if you haven't seen it, it's well worth a look. I think this is one of the greatest action movies of all time. [Music] >> I think it seems like the making of it seems borderline unsafe. There a lot of squibs going off by actor's heads. But it is an incredible piece of work and I saw this when it first came out of the cinema. And uh there's one shot in particular that uh is something that continues to inspire me is the amazing uh steady cam shot which takes place
18:31over two floors of the hospital. And I think I'd seen this shot and was kind of in awe of it. And then I realized that actually so the Tony Leong and Xiaoyang Fat are like sort of having this ongoing gun battle through this hospital and then they get in an elevator and then they talk and then they come out of the elevator on a different floor and they go back the other way and Cape on firing. It took me several watches to realize that of course the elevator is going nowhere. They're just on a set.
19:00The genius of it is whilst they're inside the elevator talking, the art department have completely redressed the set outside so that when they come out, it looks like they're on a different floor. Movie magic. I love it. This is an incredible film if you haven't seen it. What else we got here? Oh, an all-time favorite, Delicatess. I mean, this is sort of like a where it is kind of a dystopian film, similar to Brazil where it's kind of dystopian and yet retrofuturistic at the same time because it appears to be kind of set in some foggy postwar like France. But I saw this when it first came out and remains
19:42a source of huge inspiration to me. I love the rhythm of it. I love the the the the amazing sequence with the metronome is I think is one of my favorite sequences of all time.
19:59[Music] I just think everything about this film, the sense of humor, the camera work is just in astonishing. Is it Darius Kongji? Yeah. I mean I I've seen this film many many times and it really holds up as well. I I I mean I know it's quite celebrated this film but I still don't think it gets enough credit. So I absolutely love Delicatess and I would watch it anytime. This is a film that I think uh has a bit of I I wouldn't say has a direct influence on my film but it's a dystopian game show film that I really enjoy which I don't hear a lot of
20:34people talking about. Uh the 10th victim ladium victim. My pronunciation is terrible. Sorry. Martell, forgive me. I love you so much. >> But you fired anyway. >> Martell, >> stop right there. >> I'm sorry. >> And this is kind of like a pop arty. Uh, it's almost like a kind of spy versus spy thing of like a, you know, a competition between different assassins, um, flamboyant assassins like trying to kill each other. And so I I I can only assume that this had some influence on John Wick, but I I you know some of these films of this era, Italian films like um Danger Diabolic is
21:19a favorite of mine by Mario Baba and I think The 10th Victim by Idlia Petri is a really fun movie that not enough people talk about. Um here's another favorite of mine, all-time favorite. I love the title. Can you say this to me? >> Oh, you make it sound perfect. Um, uh, I'm not even going to attempt that pronunciation. You You made it sound like But the Warriors, Walter Hills, the Warriors.
21:45>> YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET, WARRIORS. YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE ORPHANS. [Applause] >> An alltime classic and one of the great A tob films of all time. I like any film with like a sort of like a very like simple kind of straight line quest. And in this movie, the warriors have to get from Central Park to Coney Island and traverse not dissimilar to actually escape from New York getting through Manhattan. But this film is like the the warriors have to get through both on foot and on public transport, get back to Coney Island with every gang in Manhattan uh on their tail. It's really
22:26imaginative. It's uh like got a I don't know. So, Walter Hill has that amazing knack of being both gritty and noirish and somewhat comic booky at the same time. Like this and Streets of Fire are both films I really really enjoy. I just love his his direction. I love how spare it is. And um it's never like a word wasted, never a shot wasted with Water Hill. He's incredible and uh you know is a real hero of mine both as a director and as a writer as well. I think he's just like again somebody that should be even more celebrated than he already is. So I love this film. Um I
23:07also want to give a shout out to another I did not know the French title of Logan's Run was La de Cristal. Very fancy. It makes all all of the French titles are so much more flamboyant and classy.
23:29Logan's run. As you probably know, the premise of the movie is that when people reach the age of 30, they're put out to pasture. So, you have a kind of crystal that kind of goes out at age 30. And I don't want to say this is like a perfect film, but it really stays with me. There's something about the premise and the the overall look, both the costumes and the use of locations and the production design and Jerry Goldsmith's score that really like sticks with me.
23:55In fact, when me and Michael Beccle were working on the Running Man script, the two scores that we'd listen to all the time were like John Carpenter and Alan Howard's score for Escape from New York and Jerry Goldsmith's score for Logan's Run, particularly the queue called The Dome. So, um, this is a film that's like really like stayed with me and, um, I love the the carnival section. It's, uh, it's it's it's really worth watching. I don't think it quite kind of like sticks the landing at the very end, but it's so memorable. And, um, you know, sometimes films are about firing up your imagination. Like sometimes the sort of
24:36the the memory of it might be like sort of um more powerful than the film itself. This is a really interesting film and I um I will watch it anytime. Uh this is another film I think very underrated. >> COME ON TONY, GET OUT HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN. >> And I've mentioned this on the press tour a couple of times cuz um there are other like dystopian game show films that come up a lot like um The Hunger Games and Battle Royale.
25:15But people don't talk enough about Series 7, which is a Canadian film from I think the sort of early 2000s. And what I think this actually probably is quite influenced by the Stephen King book. Um, but the great thing about series 7 is it presents you're watching basically like a marathon of episodes of a reality show. So that it's it's all done, you know, you're watching basically like clips from the show. And uh it's it's a clever way of doing a lower budget version of one of these films. Um but it's very witty. It's very well done. The person playing the narrator, uh you hear their voice all
25:55the way through series 7 is Will Arnett. A young Will Arnett is the voice of Siri. Um, so I I'm glad this is out here because I feel like people don't talk about this one enough. So, shout out to series 7. >> Was it important for you to really keep the televised aspect of The Running Man? Because in some adaptations, I'm I'm thinking about The Long Run, The Long Walk, sorry. Oh, yeah. Um, in the new adaptation in the the adaptation this year, the televised aspect is practically gone. But it's really what is really interesting about watching people being okay to be watched, trying to survive and trying to to get the
26:35money and to get the price at the end. >> Yeah. I mean, what in in in our movie, you're with Ben Riches the entire time, so there's not really any scenes without him. However, he is watching the TV in a number of different places. And so, he only gets his information from the TV, and of course, what's on the TV isn't necessarily the truth. So it definitely was a big part of the adaptation which is straight from the book to stay with Ben and see it subjectively from his point of view for the entire film. So, you do get to see a lot of other parts
27:14of TV shows, even just things where he's waiting it out and is bored in his hotel room watching like endless reality shows. Like you see the world through the TV and also you know the start of the film you establish that this is a cruel future society where poor people are asked to compete on game shows for desperate for money to risk injury or death. So it was really it was one of the more ambitious things about the movie was we had to tell all of Ben's story. We had to tell all the Ben's story but also we had to show just another world through the TV as well. So
27:53it was it was very um ambitious. I have probably along with 2001 this is another film that I've probably seen.
28:09This is a film that I I I I was already interested in film and I already think I wanted to be a director even though I didn't necessarily have the idea of exactly how to become a director. But when I was a teenager, there was sort of two movies in the same year that I saw that really like just kind of like the light bulb films for me in terms of the inspiration to actually really do it. And this was one of them. It was like Evil Dead 2 by Sam Ramy and Raising Arizona by the Cohen brothers, colleagues of each other. And in fact, I think even when
28:41this film came out, they had some sort of competition of doing the same shot in both movies. Both films feature a a shot where a a crane goes, this one, I think it goes up and over a car, and in Evil Dead 2, it goes through the back window and out the front window. So, they had there's some kind of continuity between the two movies. But this movie I just think is a real inspiration to me because so well written, so well directed, just like energy and invention in every single frame. It's one of those movies that I just watch it and think, how long did this take to make? How the
29:18hell did they do this? every single like sort of shot is kind of perfection and there's so much fun in every frame and it's just one of those movies that you could watch 13 times and still find something new. I don't know why I'd pick 13. You could watch it six times as well, but I just it's one of those films that's just like it's just absolutely just dense with detail. Rewards several viewings. But my Simon Peg is also obsessed with this movie. It also has so much foreshadowing in it. so much foreshadowing and so many great callbacks. So, it was definitely like a a um film that's a huge inspiration to
29:56me and I know they have lots of other favorites but still their best as far as I'm concerned. >> Growing growing up, did you watch more films in cinemas or did you used to go to places like this in video stores as well? I I used to watch things at the cinema up until the point my parents didn't have like a a VCR and so I used to watch films at the cinema and just watch films on TV and and and stay up late if something was on. So I think sometimes my school work suff suffered because if Halloween was playing at 2:00 in the morning, I'd stay I'd stay up and
30:32watch it in my bedroom quietly with the sound turned down. But maybe like when in my late teens, I think when I started working Saturday jobs, I got a like a a VHS for the house. And so it's definitely watching a lot of films around then. And then when I went to art college as well in Bournemouth, they had a library with a little viewing booth.
30:52And I used to go and just watch films in the viewing booth all the time. And sometimes there was a there was a there was a person I met at the university next door who had all of the video nasties on VHS. If you know in like the sort of the early 80s, the BBFC banned a lot of horror movies. You just couldn't get them on VHS. And this guy had all these like sort of second and third generation copies of all the video nasties. And because I didn't have a V like VCR where I was staying at college, I used to go and watch them in the
31:23library viewing booth back at the art college. But because sometimes they were so hideous, I would try and angle the TV away from the door as much because there was a port hole in the door and then you'd be watching something like nightmares in a damaged brain or I spit in your grave and think like I really hope nobody looks through this door. So I would like angle the TV away from the door when I was watching something truly horrific. I still feel the deep shame of that. I can I can feel I can feel myself getting flustered even thinking about it. If you could steal one film here and
31:58running as fast as you can and never get caught, what film would you pick? >> What would I You asking me to shoplift? >> Yeah. >> Oh my god. If I was running and keeping running, it would have to be Run Lola Run. We have to go back to Lola Rent. Um, this would be the one like sort of like um I think this is this is probably like the best running film of all time.
32:19So So why not this one? [Music] Heat.
Works on any YouTube video.
Swap youtube.com for 2outube.com in the address bar — or paste a link.
Read another video