OK, this is one of the more interesting collections of footage I've seen recently. It looks like that madman with a movie camera, Robert Rodriguez, has decided to do a visually faithful film adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City series of comic books. Some of the results are on display
here. Warning: this is a big chunk of video.
This footage was apparently debuted at the San Diego ComicCon, which has become as important as a venue for film marketing as for the comic book industry. It looks like Rodriguez is shooting for hard-boiled, but he needs to keep his rating in mind, too; it's unlikely that what we see on screen will be quite as violent as the comics, or as saturated with mostly-nude women. (Jessica Alba, on the evidence here, seems to be playing a stripper who doesn't take her clothes off.)
Whatever. What's fascinating is that Rodriguez has managed to find a rough cinematic analogue to the stark black-and-white drawing style Miller employed for this series, aping Miller's compositions with extreme camera angles. Not only is it a pretty distinct match for the comics, but it also looks to be as close to truly expressionist film noir camerawork as anything I've seen in years. Will it hold together as a filmed narrative? Who knows? But I'm looking forward to finding out.
It certainly has the heavy shadows and deep blacks that you see in Miller's graphic novels. Very different from the low contrast lighting deployed by Deakins in The Man Who Wasn't There, which comes from a different noir tradition, but Rodriguez's movie certainly looks striking.
Whether it has the chance to be any good, consider me a skeptic.
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