Brightonfan1983
Tiny member
I've been thinking how great film scenes, memorable scenes from the past, get to being great and memorable. How do directors do it? There are the famous stories of Ken Loach's improvising methods, actors secretly being told to do something unexpected to the other actor (Steve Martin licking Bernadette Peters' face in The Jerk springs to mind).
One of my favourite film anecdotes concerns the end of At Close Range with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken. Penn is threatening Walken with a *checked* gun; take after take, they can't get the sense of peril quite right. Then in front of everyone, Sean Penn demands to be given another gun, an *unchecked* gun, and tells the director to start filming. That take is what ends up in the film, Christopher Walken genuinely cowering as this gun is waved around in front of him.
There's the famous Exorcist final scene when a (real-life I think) priest is giving the last rites; William Friedkin couldn't get him to be upset/frightened enough, so slapped him hard across the face and yelled Action. And that is what ends up in the film.
Any more for anymore?
One of my favourite film anecdotes concerns the end of At Close Range with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken. Penn is threatening Walken with a *checked* gun; take after take, they can't get the sense of peril quite right. Then in front of everyone, Sean Penn demands to be given another gun, an *unchecked* gun, and tells the director to start filming. That take is what ends up in the film, Christopher Walken genuinely cowering as this gun is waved around in front of him.
There's the famous Exorcist final scene when a (real-life I think) priest is giving the last rites; William Friedkin couldn't get him to be upset/frightened enough, so slapped him hard across the face and yelled Action. And that is what ends up in the film.
Any more for anymore?
