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Joined:
Sep 06
Posts: 1547
kubrick says:
Gentlemen,
after having littered another thread with a decidedly off-topic discussion on the use of vintage cars on motion pictures, I thought it might be worthwile to stard a dedicated thread in order to further delve into this subject.
The usual "The Greatest Car Chases Ever" debates are fair enough, but I'm more interested in a broader picture of the automobile as portrayed by the filmmaking world.
There are the usual icons of movie cars (think The Graduate's Duetto, Bond's Astons - and a Lotus -, Doc Brown's DeLorean), then there's the omnipresent product placement and, perhaps most interestingly, there are also cases in which a director and/or screenwriter has paid great attention to which automobiles he lent to his characters: proper car casting, if you will.
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Among the most recent cinematic experiences to leave an impression was a somewhat unfortunate one. Brad Bird's fourth instalment of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise was a decent piece of popcorn entertainment overall, but BMW's blatant product placement was overly attention-grabbing in an annoying way. Almost any form of motoring that powers Mr Cruise's drive just happens to be a Baravian produce. A chase between a new BMW Six convertible and an X3 SUV could only keep up a realistic appearance if it took place in DIngolfing. So the accompanying sandstorm might have been a hindrance to any claims to realism anyway, but to me the all-Bavarian line-up was much harder to swallow (in the context of a big blockbuster, that is).
At the other end of the scale is "Les Choses de la vie", the 1970s classic starring Michel Piccoli, as well as an Alfa Giulietta Sprint. Though it might just as well have been chosen because it gets crashed in rather spectaculaf fashion, but to me the choice of the Alfa seemed like a perfect fit for Piccoli's character. He could afford a more modern car, or should - being a family man - have chosen something more utilitarian, but instead he keeps the roarty little Italian, which he'd probably bought back when he was young, free and uncommitted. His looks might have matured, but the Alfa serves as a reminder of an idealised past - both for himself on a personal level, as well as for society as a whole - he yearns after. Therefore his relationship with the Alfa (probably) outlasted his marriage and remains steadfast as his relationship with his fiancé is beginning to show cracks.
Oct 06
Posts: 3048
Sam the Eagle says:
Un Homme et Une Femme (1966 - trailer here).
It's a celebration of cars and women, and those who ride them - sponsored by Ford.
Hell is other people.
Also from 1966, Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.
David Hemmings plays an obnoxious and controversial photographer (based on David Bailey) who drives an equally obnoxious and controversial (to some - I quite like it) Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Drop Head Coupé “Chinese Eyes”, by Mulliner Park Ward. The car apparently was bought from Jimmy Saville and re-sprayed in blue/grey for the film.
[This Reply has been modified by the Author]
@AReader
don't forget to turn off the lights when you're done filling page after page on this thread
Mar 08
Posts: 4892
Batty says:
A great idea for a thread Kubrick, well done. I will immediately confess that I am a very poor movie person and that I soon forget if any car was in the movie and if it made any sense so for my oafishness I apologise.
In Ferris Beuller's day off we all know what a central role the 250 California plays but what I really like was that Cameron Frye drove an Alfetta. It would have been very easy to have him in any car (as it was a fleeting glimpse of the car's exterior) but they chose an Italian one which I thought shows the familial influence of his father. Subtle, but very realistic for families such as mine smitten with Italian cars.
Oooh shiny!
Batty said: In Ferris Beuller's day off we all know what a central role the 250 California plays but what I really like was that Cameron Frye drove an Alfetta. It would have been very easy to have him in any car (as it was a fleeting glimpse of the car's exterior) but they chose an Italian one which I thought shows the familial influence of his father. Subtle, but very realistic for families such as mine smitten with Italian cars.
------ End Quote ------
Alternatively, the car was just there to suggest that he too was likely to fall apart at any time
- just a thought...
Ah, the Chinese Eyes Royce in Blow Up - that was quite a memorable one, indeed! Even though I'm personally not that film's biggest fan (or Antonioni's, for that matter) I just loved that strange, empty London which Hemmings roams in his barge of an automobile.
Another case of car casting that's not nearly as ironic, but very interesting (to me, that is), would be Dr William Harford's (Tom Cruise) Range Rover in Eyes Wide Shut. I know the role was created as the archetypal East Coast vanilla upper class American, hence his conservatively elegant clothes and Harrison Ford-inspired name. In that vein, wouldn't a Cadillac Seville appeared to have been the more appropriate motor for such a character in the late 90s? Nothing ever happens without a reason in a Kubrick film, but this choice wasn't the most obvious one he could make. Did owning a couple of Range Rovers at his Hertfordshire home play a role? Does anyone - bar myself - care?
This weekend I watched Alexaner Payne's Sideways.
Apart from the delicious combination of broad humour and precise characters I also enjoyed Paul Giamatti's car of choice - a run-down SAAB 900 convertible, as befits a Californian English teacher with intellectual pretensions.
Kubrick I think the Range Rover suits far better than a Seville. Although I haven't seen the movie (Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise together don't make for pleasant watching), if the characters are as you describe, then a Seville wouldn't be sufficiently different from an upwardly aspiring "lower class" type to distinguish their middle class. A Range Rover that is just too expensive for them to run comfortably seems perfect.
@kubrick and batty
You two are both missing the point about the Range Rover in Eyes Wide Shut.
I know the role was created as the archetypal East Coast vanilla upper class American, hence his conservatively elegant clothes and Harrison Ford-inspired name. In that vein, wouldn't a Cadillac Seville appeared to have been the more appropriate motor for such a character in the late 90s?
The characters are not a bunch of rednecks out in the sticks - why would they drive a Cadillac??? It seems perfectly appropriate that they would drive a European car instead.
if the characters are as you describe, then a Seville wouldn't be sufficiently different from an upwardly aspiring "lower class" type to distinguish their middle class. A Range Rover that is just too expensive for them to run comfortably seems perfect.
The characters are young(ish), but highly educated, very succesful and living in Manhattan, so no middle class issues there and certainly no issue with the running cost of a RR.
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