As I have stated in an earlier post, CoCo and I have decided to watch the Alien prequel, Prometheus, on opening night. In an effort to have the series fresh in our minds CoCo suggested we marathon the previous four entries. Last night, we visited Ridley Scott's world of Alien (1979). If you're unfamiliar with the plot it can be found here.
Disclaimer: If I had to make a list of my favorite movies of all time I'm pretty sure Alien would be in my top 5. The Alien franchise is near to my heart as I got into these films as a pre-teen and used it as nerd currency with my girlphobic classmates. I love this franchise and especially the first entry in the series.
The suspense is so well crafted that I consider it more a suspense film or a thriller in the vein of Psycho with its slow boil pacing and nuanced approach to film scoring. Not only that but the lighting and shot selection of the film is phenomenal. After working on a couple sets and taking a cinema production class I can only imagine the ingenuity and hard work that went into the execution of Alien's cinematography. Most of the film is in the dark with sparse lighting that creates hard shadows on the set design and faces. Speaking of set design, my God. The set is meticulously designed in such a way that informs the claustrophobic tone and the dirty, lonely world of space mining. It serves as a perfect venue for a cat and mouse tale. I was so in awe of the film that within the opening five minutes of the film CoCo elbowed me to calm down. She took umbrage to my celebrations of long scenes of immaculately-lit empty corridors. In my defense, I was cheering silently by only thrusting my clenched fist into the air. I don't see how that could bother anyone.
So that's where I'm coming from. CoCo, on the other hand, figured out very quickly that she had never seen the original Alien. Upon further grilling, I discovered that CoCo had only seen Alien: Resurrection (the fourth installment) and was not sure if she had seen Aliens. It turned out she didn't remember a single thing about the Alien mythology (no recollection of face-hugging, chest-bursting, Ash's turn, nothing nothing nothing). You can imagine my envy. What I would give to experience this film for the first time again! Needless to say, this got me very excited. I felt like something important was about to happen -- our energies were about to intertwine in a way that only soul mates whom possess a love for the same bull can.
It turns out CoCo thought the movie was okay but slow and slept through some of it. In her defense we had just worked out and she said her body fell asleep on her (and then she proceeded to fall asleep on me). She gives it a 3 out of 5 stars which I can live with. This morning she woke up early with me and made and packed my lunch-- on a Saturday. So I have nothing to complain about. Quite the contrary.
It's just a shame she won't be down to watch the Director's Cut of Alien with me any time soon. :)
I leave you with what probably will go down down as one of the greatest trailers of all time. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment