Friday 2 March 2007
Friday
The quote above from Alfred Hitchcock adorns the foyer of the Odeon cinema in Covent Garden (if I haven't already said, one of my favourites). It backs up the sentiments I expressed a few days ago, but there is more to it than that. Frequently filmmakers shoot more than one ending to a movie. They then show them to an audience and see what they prefer. One that immediately springs to mind is the original ending to Dodgeball where the good guys lose and the bad guys win. As you can imagine, audiences didn't like this at all and the ending was changed. So, Hitchcock's quote refers not just to spoiling a movie, but to movie-making in general. It makes you doubt a director's ability when you find out how many endings they shot - especially if you love the ending you saw. Can you think of any more? The Break-Up was one of my favourite films from last year, but apparently there were several different endings shot. All of them, however, only changed the emphasis slightly, not the facts. This gives me some faith in the filmmaker.
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The most famous example I can think of is that of the movie Clue (based on the board game of the same name / Cluedo in Britain for some reason). There are 3 (I think) endings and when it was released at the cinema you wouldn't know which ending you were going to get to see when you watched the film. On the DVD (and the video I had of it recorded from the television) you got to see all three endings one after the other. A very strange idea which certainly adds to the mania of the film when they are all watched together.
- I have been trying to post this comment since Friday but sadly I cannot comment on stranded cinema from home - I don't know why. Maybe my computer has risen up against me.
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