After discussing the goods & bads of Steven Soderbergh’s CONTAGION, Lawrence French and Dan Persons take a few minutes to debate George Lucas’ motivations for constantly revising his STAR WARS saga and continue to explore CONTAGION’s place in the highly virulent universe of biothriller films. Click the player to hear the conversation.
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Originally commissioned by the Sci-Fi Channel but then bumped up to A&E as a “television event,” the new version of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, based on Michael Crichton’s bestseller, will be broadcast over two nights this Memorial Day weekend. I have fond memories of Robert Wise’s film version, which I first saw in the theater in 1971. Wise was a master of using space. In films such as THE SOUND OF MUSIC, WEST SIDE STORY and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE his camera revealed a world of wide vistas and soaring grandeur. However, he could go the other way as well and confine us in a frame that was extremely insular and claustrophobic. Watching films such as RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP and THE HAUNTING this unseen side of the frame helped him create a unrelenting sense of menace. His version of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN contained both. The film begins with high angle wide screen views of the infected town Read More