Borat
Went to see Borat last night, second film I’ve seen in the cinema this year. I used to go every week but paying to watch bad films just lost it’s appeal. From a complete nerd/writers point of view (yes I'm calling myself a writer now) it really is a remarkable film. Besides the dick and bum jokes, the trademark cringe-comedy and genius improv, the direction is unbelievable . To be able to create an engaging narrative from disparate skits while still working on several levels of comedy is amazing. Yeah of course there are loads of parts of knowingly going along with the joke from interviewees and rehearsed bits but sweet fuck it all worked. Can’t fault it all. I’m very hard to please when it comes to films, Jesus Christ, the past 4 films I’ve seen failed to tell a compelling story in over 2 hours of shite with millions of dollars and the co-operation and resources of hundreds of people. And they can’t tell a story. A start, middle and an end.
Peter Jackson, a master of the medium said recently that he’s tired of films and now instead anticipates the release of video games. I feel what he’s saying. Mark Kermode, (my hero and who actually slated Borat), constantly rants about the death of narrative cinema and not just tripe like Little Man but the bulk of modern releases. His rants are hilarious but he speaks the truth. If you haven’t heard him go for it, check it out here.
Like comics I think that films should rely less on dialogue and make the audience work for it through empathy and relating to what they’re seeing. Most films are just insulting. The trailers before Borat included Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage with a terrible wig and lame CGI and some other sub-LOTR Dragon film that looks completely shit.
The one thing that nagged me all the way through Borat was something I heard recently on Howard Stern about clearance, that the victim of a hoax has to agree to air the footage. I’ve heard victims of Brasseye lament that it’s their own fault because they signed the release but how does it work for things like Trigger Happy, Naked Camera etc, Ali G? It’s something I’d like to know more about. Does a signed waiver need to be filled out or just a verbal agreement? I’m sure it’s the least of his worries being sued, I reckon he’s on several hit lists.
Deadly film. It has scored high on my barometer: I will illegally download it tonight.
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Peter Jackson, a master of the medium said recently that he’s tired of films and now instead anticipates the release of video games. I feel what he’s saying. Mark Kermode, (my hero and who actually slated Borat), constantly rants about the death of narrative cinema and not just tripe like Little Man but the bulk of modern releases. His rants are hilarious but he speaks the truth. If you haven’t heard him go for it, check it out here.
Like comics I think that films should rely less on dialogue and make the audience work for it through empathy and relating to what they’re seeing. Most films are just insulting. The trailers before Borat included Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage with a terrible wig and lame CGI and some other sub-LOTR Dragon film that looks completely shit.
The one thing that nagged me all the way through Borat was something I heard recently on Howard Stern about clearance, that the victim of a hoax has to agree to air the footage. I’ve heard victims of Brasseye lament that it’s their own fault because they signed the release but how does it work for things like Trigger Happy, Naked Camera etc, Ali G? It’s something I’d like to know more about. Does a signed waiver need to be filled out or just a verbal agreement? I’m sure it’s the least of his worries being sued, I reckon he’s on several hit lists.
Deadly film. It has scored high on my barometer: I will illegally download it tonight.
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19 Comments:
Shows like Trigger Happy and Naked Camera reveal the joke to the victim after the fact. They will then usually sign a release at that stage. As far as I know stuff wont be shown if the victim has a real problem with it, and they can't con them into signing a release.
CCTV footage etc usually just gets the faces blurred out, which gets them around it.
There's also an element of taking a chance on it in general. You weigh up if someone's likely to either see the footage or follow up on it if they do.
Brian sez:
Yeah saw it yesterday, did you notice how in that clip someones face is blurred out, but it WASN'T in the film I saw yesterday....its obviously an american trailer, and when they show it in Europe they probably think "Fuck it, that clown in New York will never find out".
hee hee
top 100 comedy films was on for the millionth time this weekend and Trigger happy guru was on saying they never asked for clearance from celebs because most skits were at actual press release etc. It was like 'you asked us to come so what if we didnt tell you we were going to punch up a man in an ape suit when i was talkin to you about iraq' etc.
Absolutely dynamite flick. Didn't realise there'd be as much of a plot as there was but it worked brilliantly. Best bits are the interviews tho, i love how he uses people's predjudaces against them. He's accused of being anti-semetic or whatever, but all he does is hold a mirror up to his interviewees. If thet're naiive, they'll come across as that. If they're racist pricks, same thing.
Brian Sez:
This will be a classic "14 hours of unseen foorage" when the DVD hits the shelves.
I also loved the use of a plot, plus making it a trans American trip was cool, you knew that when they hit California the flick would come to an end....my brain needs to know these things, cos my brain is in my arse, and i get numb down there.
Also the juxtaposition of the 8mm hand held in minimal light was breath taking.....and not enuff tits & ass and too much dick!
meh, i wasnt too impressed . thought it was funny but 60 percent of the good jokes were shown in ads, etc.
-p
Sacha Baron Cohen hit the money button brilliantly with Borat. Real Kazakhstani officials running around all over the place whinging and yapping, lke the baby that throws the bottle out of the pram never knew they were being played. You just can't buy that so of publicity. Brilliant.
Bob sez: All the best bits weren't in ads man, the naked wrasslin bit was a shock to me. Come on dude, that girl falling off the horse was worth the price of admission.
Loved it. Would give my left nad to hear a decent dvd commentary on it.Just reading there that the 'tache is real.
The bear in the ice cream van.
Another thing to add to my list of things to do before I die.
The need for clearance varies from country to country. Having a sign on the camera might have been sufficient for the public shots. the interviews and dinner party would have been signed for beforehand.
Gar
"From a complete nerd/writers point of view (yes I'm calling myself a writer now) it really is a remarkable film"
I know it sounds weird to say unless you actually get paid for writing, but... Bob, you are a writer.
Haven't seen the movie, but may tonight if there's a late showing...
Man, I did love it,
3 things I'm surprised at:
that such an alternative Ch4 comedy concept became such mainstream hit
that they (almost) managed to cobble together these sketches into a narrative movie.
that people still don't realise, that if we've seen it, the person who has been featured in the film has signed a legal agreement to allow us to see it, doesn't matter if they're a celebrity or an average schmoo, doesn't matter, if we've seen it, they have too and they have agreed that we can see it too.
don't mean to be a media geek,
this was probably the funniest thing I have seen in years
there's probably about 10 hours of boarat footage where people told him to go fuck himself, but we'll never see it
10:1 to law
you shoot ten times more footage than you can use,
or in another sense the Ted Sturgeon law,
The professor read a few selected passages of "purple prose" from popular science fiction works, and declared "90% of this Science Fiction is crap." Sturgeon replied "90% of everything is crap."
fuckin' hell that was a bit preachy! think it was beacause I've just seen Saw III and then Borat on the same day and with both, people have all these urban myths like, 'ohh you're going to Saw III, don't faint!' I'm like, yeah like I'm going to faint at one of the most tame horror moves I've ever seen, why is it tame? not because of any gross-out special effects but because it makes no fucking sense!
Bob sez: Whew! Fucking hell Lorcs, you write more on this site than me.
So what have we got, different forms of release for the different set ups.
"if we've seen it, they have too and they have agreed that we can see it too." You're studying this shit, is that what the book sez?
Saw 3? That better have been research.
The bear sequence was nuts!
Yeah there looks to be tonnes of footage that didn't make it in. I reckon there's a whole reel of him getting slapped.
Oh yeah, the director was Larry Charles of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame
Sorry for clogging up the comments boards with my rants, see what happens when i don't blog it ends up here! Maybe I'll do some blogging tonight and plagerise this stuff! check out this
http://www.slate.com/id/2151865/?nav=fix
it's got a copy of the release forms the people in borat signed
("if we've seen it, they have too and they have agreed that we can see it too." phew, i just made that up last night, luckily I found the evidence.
saw III *could* be research I might do a paper on shit horror movies wot make not sense, I feel another post coming on Dracula 3000 versus Saw III the shit movie smackdown
Gotta disagree, Bob. Myself, I thought Borat, for the most part, was just a verbal Jackass – and sometimes just Jackass.
Funny as it is, you know that Cohen has done a Martin Bashir on the folk featured, and this leaves a sour taste. We don't see the lengths he goes to to gain their trust (the footage we won't be seeing on the DVD), only the betrayal of this trust, which makes these people seem patronisingly polite and silly – with the exception of the Jewish B&B couple and the feminists. (Isn't it interesting how the Jewish couple are portrayed as wholesome while the feminists appear to be humourless cunts despite the fact they should be commended for actually refusing to tolerate Borat's shite-speak? Most of the film seems to be devoted to either re-enforcing stereotypes or, fair enough, ridiculing anti-Semitic viewpoints.)
Yeah, it's hilarious and all, but the only other road movies I've seen this year were both superior to Borat – Trans-America and Little Miss Sunshine. Hell, Borat wasn't even the best film I saw that day – I also saw Red Road. There are good flicks out there, Bob.
John
Bob sez: Yes that's something that I've always thought about even with the shorter Ali G segments, that how many legit questions are asked and how much trust building is done before bagging the good footage.
Neh, watched another film on Sunday, Hard Candy and it just left me feeling annoyed. Have Little Miss Sunshine at home on the list.Of course there are good films but the bulk are shit
Maybe the feminists come across as humourless because they just are.
Get up to the minute playing video game information!!
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