Jump to content

Rules Don't Apply


David Waelder

Recommended Posts

I attended a screening of Warren Beaty's new film, Rules Don't Apply, last night. It was a lot of fun and my wife, Susan, and I enjoyed it greatly. It's a fable intertwining the lives of the two young lovers with their mutual boss, Howard Hughes. A number of the prominent events of Hughes' life are dramatized in exuberant fashion and many scenes are a hoot.

It does suffer, I think, from wandering dramatic focus as the film seems to veer from being about the young lovers to being about the outrageous Mr. Hughes. It also has a peculiar timeline that purports to start around 1955 and end in 1964 but incorporates notorious events that took place both before and after that period. A plane crash featured in the narrative mirrors an actual event from 1946 and the telephone news conference that bookends the story is a thinly disguised account of the Clifford Irving scandal of 1972. Clearly the script events are meant as a fabulous tale and are not to be taken too literally but because the events of Howard Hughes life are so well known (and so well depicted in the recent Scorsese movie), it's hard not to be a bit distracted by the jumbled narrative.

Still, it's all a great pleasure to watch. The staging and performances are all outstanding.

And, the sound, by Jeff Wexler and Don Coufal, is terrific. All the dialog sounded good - more to the point, it all sounded appropriate to the scene and location. All too often I find my attention pulled from a film by radio mike sound that is either too intimate for the distant perspective of the image or, worse, still somewhat muffled from the necessity of burying microphones in clothing. There were no such artifacts in Rules Don't Apply, everything was entirely natural. There was a shot following Lilly Collins, the female lead, through her house where one could hear her go off-mike, only for a nanosecond or two, as she turned corners from one room to the next. Every word was clean and audible but one had the sensation of someone moving naturally through space. It all sounded like production track to me; if there was any looping, it was accomplished seamlessly.

It was a pleasure.

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...