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Film Critic Quote of the Week

Cinema academic David Bordwell, whose book I read back in my college film classes, is on my side:

A spectre is haunting contemporary cinema: the shaky shot.

Viewers have been protesting for some years now. I recall friends asking me why the images were so bumpy in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives and Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. The Bourne Ultimatum, this summer’s wildest excursion into Unsteadicam, has put the matter back on the agenda... In an earlier post, I quoted Hong Kong cinematographers’ saying about the shaky camera. The handheld camera covers three mistakes: Bad acting, bad set design, and bad directing.

It's the worst cinematic development of the year, by far. And Ebert is with me too.

Posted by Stephen Silver at September 11, 2007 12:33 AM