The Bus

<a href=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321865/">IMDB | Trailer | Metacritic: 93

The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting.

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Taking the day off tomorrow to see this film at the IFC Center. Pretty excited. Apart from the subject, the length, and the director, I don't know anything else. I don't even want to see the trailer.

If anyone else in NYC wants to join me, let me know.

PopcornTreeCt

I like the 1970's style poster. It's definitely something I want to check out but I can't do 5 1/2 hours in a movie theater. I'll wait for the DVD/Blu-ray.

Dr Mabuse

Glancing at IMDB I see varying runtimes, some significantly different in length. So this is the NYC Film Festival version shortened by 11 minutes you'll be seeing? The 319 minute version?

Post your thoughts after for sure.

resinrats

They really know that much about him. Wasn't Carlos never caught or am I thinking of some other guy. Something tells me that much of this movie is a bunch of made up stuff to string together the known Carlos actions.

FRwL

I agree the comeback of old style poster is good also like The Bank Job.

eXcentris

You must be thinking of some other guy.

eXcentris

"It will be released into American theaters by IFC as two 140 minute films."

If that's true, it's neither the full cut (330 min) shown at Cannes nor the NYC Film Festival cut (319 min).

Rypro 525

In late november in Silver Spring md, they are showing the 5.5 hour cut with a 15 min intermission at the AFI Silver. Also, there's technically a thread in TV talk since the movie premiered on the Sundance Channel as a 3 part miniseries
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/580...annel-9pm.html

The Bus

IFC is showing the full-length "roadshow" edition, to my knowledge. After seeing Mesrine I'm not sure how many 4+ hour French biopics of murders I can see, but I'm willing to give it a go.

Rypro 525

From what i understand, the version that will be on ifc on demand, will be the shorter verison. The long roadshow version (aired on 3 back to back nights) already aired on sundance.

The Bus

I meant the IFC Center, where I'm seeing the film.

I think the theaters at BAM showed the roadshow version last week as well.

wendersfan

Olivier Assayas = I'm there.

The Bus

Saw this today.

Generally, I feel in these types of movies you can go for an in-depth character study (like Soderbergh's excellent Che), or you can broaden the political scope to really help the audience connect the dots (like Syriana, one of my favorite films of the decade). With Carlos, Assayas attempts both; it's a noble pursuit, but I feel he ultimately misses the mark.

That's not to say the movie isn't good. It's excellent, but it could've been a lot more.

I will say this, though: at 5½ hours, it feels exactly the right length.

wendersfan

It's playing here later this month, an all-day showing with two intermissions.

I'll be in the front row.

Rypro 525

lucky that you get 2 intermissions. The one for DC only gets one 15 min one (but free popcorn and a 40 page program sounds like a winner(

The Bus

I wouldn't have needed a 2nd intermission. The program is useful, as it gives you a little bit more background.

wendersfan

My aging knees and bladder will welcome the second intermission.

Nausicaa

I watched this over the weekend. I can't imagine watching it in the theater, but I really enjoyed the film overall. I knew nothing about the subject before watching the film, so I can't speak to its accuracy, but it felt very authentic. The direction and cinematrography were excellent, as was the spare use of music.

The film is really, really epic. I don't think there ever been a movie which takes place in so many different locations. They do a great job of selling all the locales from East Germany to Sudan. It's also very talky, but not boring. Lots of plotting and intrigue. And of course the plotting is punctuated by scenes of pretty stark violence.

For such a long film, the pacing felt right. This was one of my main complaints with Che, which seemed overlong and ponderous. There is a much stronger narrative drive in Carlos which keeps the viewer interested.

I'm not sure which version I saw, but I'm pretty sure it was the full uncut version. Three seperate films of about one hour and fifty minutes each.

Giles

I'm still digesting the movie as I finally finished Part III, this morning - on the whole I thought this was an excellent movie. I thought Assayas's choice in music was one of the best aspects of the film.

question - how is IFC distributing the film, 35mm or digitally?

Rypro 525

Presented in digital format (HD Cam). (from the afi site)

also, on demand they have Carlos up as one 148 minute movie, so the so called "cut" version omits more then half the movie

GenPion

I wonder when we will get an announcement that Criterion will be releasing this on Blu-ray? At least, I hope so, as all these comments on the film make me want to run out and watch this.

Naturally, I have to wait for it's home media release. I loved Assayas' Summer Hours and the Criterion Blu was excellent so I truly hope we see that kind of treatment again here.

Rypro 525

It wouldn't shock me, as several IFC titles have been released by Criterion.

islandclaws

This sounds like something I'd love, and I really dig that '70s style poster. I hope I can catch it sometime.

Dan G

Sundance Channel will be replaying the 3 part series in January.

Giles

what the hell does that mean, I've never seen AFI denote a film that way, the film wasn't even shot originally in hidef, it was 100% film, granted that the TV airing looked super glossy - the AFI Silver has gotten recent shit for showing 'films' sourced from DVD's/Blurays, a simple 'DLP' would have sufficed.