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Topic: REAL CAP code on Matrix Revolutions?
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Bevan Wright
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 176
From: Fountain Valley, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 11-04-2003 11:21 AM
Sorry if this has already been posted, see Steve Kraus' quote in the middle.
Movie math doesn't compute with reality
October 5, 2003
BY ROGER EBERT
In your review of "The Fighting Temptations," you note that Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character returns to his hometown and is promptly resmitten with his "childhood sweetheart," played by Beyonce Knowles.
I understand the movie math that allows characters played by Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones to be possible romantic partners as adults. But even in celluloid-fantasy reality, wouldn't anyone played by Cuba Gooding Jr. be way too old to have had the hots for anyone played by Beyonce Knowles in childhood without the authorities (or at least an angry father) becoming involved?
Harris Fleming Jr., Dumont N.J.
Let's see. Cuba Gooding Jr. was born in 1968, and Beyonce Knowles in 1981. When he was in love with her, she wasn't even born. No wonder she has to remind him who she is.
Q. Have you been seeing spots when you go to the movies? It may not be your eyes! More than 20 years ago Kodak devised a system called "Cap Code" designed to uniquely mark film prints so that pirated copies could be traced to the source. Cap Code uses very tiny dots that flash occasionally but are so small that the average viewer almost never notices them.
Well, something new and horrible has been introduced on some studios' prints. Sort of a giant picture-marring version of Cap Code dots: Very large reddish brown spots that flash in the middle of the picture, usually placed in a light area. They flash in various patterns throughout a given reel while other reels of the same film may have none at all.
A Kodak spokesman who helped devise the original Cap Code says this is not the work of his company but theorizes that it may be intended to be more visible on the murky compressed copies that get posted to the Internet where the original, very subtle Cap Code may be difficult to discern.
On one movie technical forum they are referring to this new system as "Crap Code" or "Cap Code on Steroids." There are reports coming in of viewers complaining of the spots on the pictures. While theaters strive to keep prints free of dirt and scratches, Hollywood starts sending out prints with built-in marring. Among the films known to be afflicted are "Ali," "Behind Enemy Lines," "28 Days Later" "Freddy vs. Jason" and "Underworld," probably many others as well.
Steve Kraus, Chicago
A. You're the expert projectionist at our Chicago critics' screening room, with a fierce love of high-quality film, so I can imagine how upset you are. What's amusing about Crap Code and the other efforts to catch pirates is that most of the thieves are apparently industry insiders. A recent news story says studios may even be discouraged from distributing advance DVDs of their Oscar contenders to academy members, because some of these movies quickly find their way to the Web.
Q. I saw an ad for "The Rundown" with a whole series of alleged critics' raves, including one saying something like "quite possibly the first perfect action movie."
My question: Do you think a single human being in that movie -- including the director (Peter Berg of "Corky Romano" infamy), writer (R.J. Stewart, whose finest credit appears to be "Remington Steele") or stars (The Rock and Christopher Walken among them) -- would actually say that it was the first perfect action movie? Or that it is a perfect action movie?
Bill Childs, Washington, D.C.
A. No, although it's a good one, but congratulations on discovering the first perfect action movie blurb.
Q. Considering the mixed reaction the late Elia Kazan got for his Lifetime Achievement Award -- due to his artistic brilliance but lousy moral judgment -- do you think Leni Riefenstahl will be acknowledged during the "in memory of" presentation at the next Academy Awards? If so, do you predict applause or protest?
Alexander Higle, Stamford, Conn.
A. Riefenstahl, sometimes described as "Hitler's favorite filmmaker" although she claimed she was never a Nazi, died Sept. 8 at 101. Of course the academy must include her in its portraits of movie giants who died during the year. There may be some boos. Kazan, who died last week, will also be included in the memorial tribute; when he got his Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, as many as half the audience members withheld their applause, but no one booed.
Q. I have heard that Fox Searchlight will release Berto-lucci's "The Dreamers" as an R-rated film, instead of unrated or NC-17. If Fox knows that the audience for the film will be adults, and that educated adults will not want to see a compromised version of a movie by a great director, then why are they releasing it as an R? Why not have it be like "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and release it as unrated?
Gary Rancier, Brooklyn, N.Y.
A. The NC-17 rating is unworkable, thanks to Blockbuster, which refuses to stock such films, and the MPAA, which refuses to create an A (for "adult") category that would stand between the R rating and actual pornography. The movie could and should go out unrated.
If Fox Searchlight does not want audiences to see the movie that Bertolucci made, then they should do the decent thing and give up distribution rights to a company prepared to stand behind its films. To buy a film and then cut it because of the MPAA rating amounts to vandalism.
Q. Regarding the Answer Man discussion of Japanese stereotypes in "Lost in Translation": One thing Western writers have largely missed is how much experience Sofia Coppola personally has of the whole "Western celebrity in Japan" thing. Her first film, "The Virgin Suicides," was an enormous art house hit in Japan, grossing more than its entire American gross on one screen in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, and it was one of the key films that launched a boom in American independent cinema in Japan.
I can only assume that rather from caricaturing stereotypes, Sofia Coppola is in fact writing from pretty extensive personal experience: Japan is at times incomprehensible and deeply strange, but somehow many people from both sides have great fondness for the culture of the other side.
Michael Jennings, London
A. It's also true that the movie deliberately and obviously sees Japanese culture from the outside, through the eyes of tourists who are preoccupied with one another. The movie is in Japan but not of Japan.
Q. Have you ever loved a movie so much that you never wanted to see it again? That you never wanted to revisit it at another time or place in your life when you might look at it differently? That is how I feel about "The Hours" and "Far From Heaven." They got to me at the right time and the right place and I am therefore reluctant to see them again.
Jeff Young, Las Vegas
A. I love my favorite movies more the better I know them, and have been through most of my favorites one shot at a time. I've probably seen "Citizen Kane" at least 50 times that way. But there are some movies based on surprises that lose power once you know when to expect from them. "Jaws" would be an example.
Q. I have been following with great amusement the "Brown Bunny" imbroglio. Now, Vosges Haut-Chocolat, a chocolate store in Chicago, has introduced the "Vincent Gallo truffle." I had a sample and it is delicious, a blend of cheese, walnut and chocolate. It's also bigger than their other truffles.
Vosges' Web site describes it as "arresting in its visual shape." The owner of Vosges, Katrina Markhoff, said in her monthly e-mail to Vosges members that she knows Mr. Gallo and made the truffle for him.
Gelsey Kinsey, Chicago
A. Now the question is, how does Chloe Sevigny like it?
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