Comments on This Weekend at the Movies

If you miss "if..." it finally comes out on DVD in a deluxe Criterion Edition next Tuesday. It was supposed to come out a long time ago but then Columbine happened.

The black and white sequences were the result of budget limitations. But Anderson knew this ahead of time and chose what scenes should be shot in B&W deliberately.

Well, I actually have the Criterion edition, and according to the introduction by David Ehrenstein, the cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek told Anderson he "couldn't guarantee color consistency in the chapel scenes."

Ehrenstein goes on: "Anderson liked the way they looked so much that he told the DP, "I'll just shoot a few other scenes in black and white when I feel like it. And thus If... goes from black and white to color and back again without any apparent reason--the result underscoring the fact that we're watching a movie, not life, and giving the movie the resonance of a half-remembered dream." [The quotations are not sourced.]

Doesn't sound like budget limitations per se, but they could be glossing over the fact. Where are you getting your info?

@1 AW: [quote] I coldheartedly question the necessity of the local production of "Inlaws & Outlaws", a feel-good gay marriage doc that plays like a PSA. [unquote]

And in 25 words or less, your point would be??? How about "straightheartedly question"? "Necessity" - would that be that it was programmed in the film festival or that it was even made? Shall we return to the tragic-ending stuff then - e.g. "Boys in the Band" - "City and the Pillar". Haysoose Mariah...get in the reel whirled, honey.

@3: My point would be: Read the 300-word review. Jesus, people, I LINK FOR A REASON. Here, for your convenience, is another link. Have at it.

You expect us to read? Next thing you know you'll want us to actually think ..

Annie, someday you may become "a dang cute old lesbian" and then perhaps you'll understand the importance of this movie. Your recent photo in these pages oddly does not reflect your mean streak. Goldurn photoshoppers...

Thank you so much for mentioning If....! I almost certainly would have missed it otherwise, and I've been wanting to see it in a theater for something like 15 years now.