Is it possible to adapt/translate the dark, impressionistic aesthetic

>>8901087
Tarkovsky's films have a similar dark and ethereal atmosphere, but as far as McCarthy-esque The Revenant came pretty close.

M A L I C K

>>8901087
No Country For Old Men. Film was better than the book.

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>>8901109
I agree 100%. If Malick were concerned with ugliness as he is with beauty (or at least approached the conventionally ugly to find beauty, which he kind of does with Thin Red Line) then he would be 100% McCarthy.

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>>8901133
im with these guys. his loose approach to narrative is how McCarthy novels play out in my head.

>>8901117
is it? That's one of the few McCarthy I haven't read. Where does the book fall short?

>>8901102
I agree with the Revenant in aesthetic but the narrative was waaay too Hollywood. Funny that you mention Tarkovsky too, since Inarritu took a tone of imagery from Tarkovsky: https://vimeo.com/153979733

Watch the Homesman or Bone Tomahawk

>>8901188
Bone Tomahawk was great, loved the way it portrayed violence. The characters felt too flat but as far as capturing a mood it nailed it.

Haven't seen the Homesman but I remember some critics getting upset over it taking an unconventional turn in the narrative and that interested me.

Bresson

>>8901087
>>8901674

Was Bresson in a state of despair at the end of his life?

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>>8901087
michael mann would do a good blood meridian

Kurosawa.

>>8901087
I think a filmmaker who could bring McCarthy to the screen would have to be able to oscillate between the minimal McCarthy and his maximal moments as well. And I can't think of any filmmakers who can do that.

There aren't many writers who move between those modes. Between the stripped back action and dialogue and the lavishness of the other aspects of his novels. There's a definite tension.

The Coen Brothers film captures "sparse" McCarthy pretty well, but I don't think they could adapt a book like Blood Meridian or even the Crossing.

All the impressionistic filmmakers mentioned itt like Malick and Tarkovsky to me are too much the other way, too maximal to capture this other aspect of McCarthy.

So to answer your question OP, idk. But I don't know a whole lot about film so maybe someone else can help

>>8902052
Do you think it would be best to have a structure of a film be based on switching between those modes? Like when we follow one character, we get the sparse, and when we follow the other we get the maximal. Or should it oscillate more freely throughout the film?

>>8902080
It's a pretty difficult question, how to represent these modes without a jarring shift. But I think it's best to make the segments large, so a long atmospheric, impressionistic landscape section, kind of like Malick does, excluding his treatment of people, which would not fit in a McCarthy film, and the more minimal, stripped back and bare character sequences.

Like I say, I'm really not much of a film guy so I'm not sure, but I think cutting between the two with too much frequency would ruin the film.

>>8901785

blood meridian as a film would just be 90% landscape shots of people riding on and 10% dialogue and spitting

>>8901152
It doesn't. It was great. The movie was incredible though.

>>8902118
What would be the proper McCarthy treatment of people?

And I think you not being a film guy is actually a plus. All the film people I talked to on this topic come up with less robust methods than what you're talking about.

>>8901152

I'm not the guy you're replying to but I agree with him.

The book isn't bad, it's just that the movie is better. The book is basically a standard thriller with some interesting characters and McCarthian bleakness.

What the film adds is:

1. An element of humor. The Coens put a few nice humorous touches to the script that bring the rest of the film's bleak tone into contrast and also gives the watchers something to cling onto. In the book Moss isn't as relatable as in the film and humor is part of that.

2. Performances. This goes along some with the first point but the conviction that the central trio of actors bring to the film is amazing. They make pretty good characters great by giving the viewer more to grab onto.

3. Visuals. The Coen's visuals in "NCfOM" are like the prose from Blood Meridian. The book of NCfOM doesn't actually have that much stage-setting, it's mostly just plot, plot, some rumination, plot. In the movie this sort of world-building is done well by the Coens and somewhat built into the medium of film.

>>8902151
Well, McCarthy's way of depicting people is very concrete for the most part. We don't get any sense of interiority, and the way they're depicted can be described as minimal to my mind, because of this lack of detail.

This is something I don't see blending with someone like Malick (though I've only seen his early films and some of Tree of Life), where characters are depicted in a way that's hard to describe other than "fluid" (?), not in the sense that they shift and change but in the sense that they interplay and become indistinguishable from the world of his films. There aren't many scenes in Malick's films where characters sit and talk, while in McCarthy these kind of concrete interactions are essential.

Like I say, not sure if this makes sense. It's been a while since I've watched a Malick movie.

Any particular reason you're interested?

>>8902181
>interiority

/r/literature is on a completely different site

>>8901087
Blood Meridian should be an anime desu.

>>8902210
Oh you!!!!

>>8901117
Although the movie is definitely one of my favourites, compared side by side I liked the book slightly more. I felt the side-plot of the hitchhiker girl and making the death of Carla explicit were integral parts of the story that should have stayed in the film. I also don't feel as though the film did justice to the underlying sense of moral decay and impending societal collapse that was the central point of Bell's character, and arguably the entire story.

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>>8902181
I've studied Malick quite a bit and totally agree with you -- the characters are super fluid. One overarching idea in his work is that there is a unity with all things, including the characters/people of his films. I think I feel that unity in McCarthy's works, as his characters don't have to prove to be a part of nature -- they are never anything but. But you're right there is a HUGE difference between how Malick and McCarthy characters interact -- I'll make sure to do more studying on that.

And the reason for all of this is that I'm going to be making a film in this coming spring and one of its main goals is to evoke the McCarthy style onto film. Its a kind of challenge and a lot of it is to do with the process. Bresson's filmmaking philosophy/method (detailed in Notes on Cinematography) along with a lot of the aforementioned techniques of Malick were the best avenues I've found to getting that McCarthy style.

Has anyone seen The Proposition? It made me hopeful that a Blood Meridian film could be made. It has the same sort of bleak violence and beauty.

>>8902217
I agree with the Bell side being kinda neglected in the adaptation. The scene between Bell and his uncle was fantastic, the texture of McCarthy was almost entirely there. But that kind of stuff was few and far in between for Bell, and a lot of the time spent with him was to establish his character instead of using him as a lens for the world around him.

>>8902243
my only beef with the proposition was the score. i wish they did what the No Country movie did and kept the score as ambient as possible, if there at all.

>>8902140
K I N O

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Heidegger (and, inevitably, Nietzsche) through Malick for McCarthy.

I don't know how it'll end up, but I'm excited.

>>8902052

Gus Van Sant can do both minimal (Gerry, Last Days) and maximal (in terms of stylization My own Private Idaho, and Drugstore Cowboy) fairly well.