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Noir-tastic production stills: 1 - 2 - 3

Wow; those really do look great. I'm kind of ambivalent when it comes to Soderbergh, but I will definitely be checking that out.

i'm guessing that this is not one of those 6 or so films that he signed up to do for HDNet Films (the first being Bubble)...

miless wrote:i'm guessing that this is not one of those 6 or so films that he signed up to do for HDNet Films (the first being Bubble)...

No, it's WB. It would be somewhat interesting, however, if someone made a b&w film in HD. If those stills are any indication, it should be good.

I can't stop staring at Clooney's perfect, perfect teeth.

Cate Blanchett offers some interesting bits of info in a brief Q&A with NY Mag:

[quote]Cate Blanchett: Highbrow Brilliant

By Emma Rosenblum

What was Soderbergh like as a director?
The Good German is a highly stylized noir piece, so he'd written this little one-page manifesto for us that began, “Dear Thespian,â€

Casablanca, anyone?

Still, best Soderbergh poster since Out of Sight.

As long as we're speaking Soderbergh posters, I'm a big fan of The Limey poster myself. But I do love the Good German poster too, wouldn't mind getting one for my wall (if I had space for one that is).

The film looks really good too, as do George's teeth. Wouldn't want to have to wait for the dvd, hopefully it gets a theatrical release over here at some point.

Len wrote:As long as we're speaking Soderbergh posters, I'm a big fan of The Limey poster myself.

I had forgotten how good that one was. A nice take on Blue Note album covers (and the poster references a particular one that I can't quite place at the moment).

this one?

Nice work.

Matt wrote:Casablanca, anyone?

Still, best Soderbergh poster since Out of Sight.

Agreed! That is one helluva nice poster. Very classy and retro.

Here is another Casablancaesque still. The official site is up, but has nothing on it apart from some more cool key art.

Does anyone know how Soderbergh went about shooting this in black and white? There are a few ways to do it.

a.) Shoot on actual black and white stock. (Schindler's List)
b.) Shoot on color stock and print to high-contrast black and white. (The Man Who Wasn't There)
c.) Shoot on color stock and digitally color time to black and white. (Good Night and Good Luck)
d.) Shoot on HD Digital.

I'm guessing that option (a) would be the one most likely to make the film look like it was shot in 1945, which certainly seems to be what he's going for here, but that is so rarely done anymore. Also, IMDb (which I realize is wrong more often than right) lists the aspect ratio as 1.66:1. Since no theaters in the U.S. regularly project at this ratio, and most mainstream ones are not even equipped to do so, I'm guessing that he has hard-matted a 1.66 image within a 1.85 frame. Probably a compromise between Soderbergh wanting to do it in academy ratio and the studio saying "no way."

Jeff wrote:Does anyone know how Soderbergh went about shooting this in black and white? There are a few ways to do it.

a.) Shoot on actual black and white stock. (Schindler's List)
b.) Shoot on color stock and print to high-contrast black and white. (The Man Who Wasn't There)
c.) Shoot on color stock and digitally color time to black and white. (Good Night and Good Luck)
d.) Shoot on HD Digital.

Which option did Soderbergh choose when he filmed Kafka? That might be a good indication, though I'm not sure if that movie's color segments forced him into an option that he wouldn't choose now.

tryavna wrote:Which option did Soderbergh choose when he filmed Kafka? That might be a good indication, though I'm not sure if that movie's color segments forced him into an option that he wouldn't choose now.

That's a good question, and one I'm afraid I don't know the answer to. I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't seen Kafka. Since it was made 1991, I'm betting that the black and white sequences were shot on black and white film.

I hate Steven Soderbergh but this looks excellent. I'll check it out on the big screen for sure. I would love to see it be Academy ratio, that would rule.

Soderbergh also used black and white on"Equilibrium," his segment for Eros.

Here's the trailer

And holy hell, does it look gorgeous.

Blanchett evoking Dietrich in what will probably be another brilliant performance she won't win the oscar for

che-etienne wrote:Blanchett evoking Dietrich in what will probably be another brilliant performance she won't win the oscar for

God, how I love her. On the Oscarwatch.com predictions, this picture seems not even to be in consideration. But Blanchett is in their sights for both Babel and Notes on a Scandal (which was a bad book destined to be a forgettable movie; I don't care if Patrick Marber did write for I'm Alan Partridge).

Matt wrote:

che-etienne wrote:Blanchett evoking Dietrich in what will probably be another brilliant performance she won't win the oscar for

God, how I love her.

Just a quick dart further off-topic: have you seen Little Fish? The film gets more conventional as it goes on, but the performances are superb, with Cate approaching career-best in a completely uncharacteristic role.

zedz wrote:Just a quick dart further off-topic: have you seen Little Fish?

Haven't, but I'll drop it in the queue.

it's great that you can sort of tell what the movie's really like, even though it's been edited together into a braindead plot driven action thriller by the trailer.

For those in the L.A. area, the American Cinemateque will be doing a public sneak preview of this on November 12 - a good month before its actual release. It's on a double-bill with (surprise) Casablanca, with Soderbergh speaking between the films.

It looks like this is Soderbergh's homage to the classic noirs from the war era. Check out the press materials (via The Hot Blog):