The keystone arts movies are my favorite movies of all time. They are simply brilliant films that are so beautiful that I often wish I could make them on a daily basis. I have watched these movies over and over again since the 1980s when I first saw them. I have even made them up to watch them again, depending on when I am in the mood for them.
These movies are the result of the great minds of directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Audiard, Woody Allen, and Steven Soderbergh. These films all have the same basic story, which is that a bunch of talented people come together to create films that are a work of art.
Keystone Arts was the brainchild of Steven Soderbergh who was a student of Godard and an assistant, assistant and then full-time director to Paul Mazursky. Mazursky shot all the keystone videos during the early 1990s. Mazursky had a vision that Soderbergh was the one to bring his vision to life. Mazursky was a visionary, but not a master. He had the vision but not the money.
Mazursky was not the first filmmaker to shoot an entire video in one sitting. In fact, there was a long line of filmmakers before him who shot entire videos in one take. They were called “stunts.” But Mazursky took a different approach to shooting. Rather than sitting there with a camera for an hour and a half, trying to get the footage just right, Mazursky shot the whole video in one take, one second.
Instead of trying to get the footage just right, Mazursky used the footage to great effect. As one critic notes, “If you can’t even do that, you’re not a filmmaker.” His method to make sure the video was perfect was to walk around the set and shoot whatever he saw. This made the footage more authentic because Mazursky was there to see it, not to film it.
The video is a bit on the long side, but its effects are more than worth it. Mazursky’s method of filming is a bit unorthodox, but it works because the footage he shot was a part of the story. As one critic notes, he’s one of the few directors who is so careful to make sure he has the right footage and the right location.
Although Mazursky has made a few movies previously with other directors, this is the longest collaboration he’s made with another director. Its one of the more interesting collaborations I’ve seen because of how unusual it is. Mazursky is a master of the subtle and the unexpected, and his ability to get a director to work with him has been a bit of a surprise.
Its also a bit odd because Mazursky has never appeared in another film.
Mazursky is best known for his work on the Johnnie To series and his upcoming film The Last Detail, but he also has another long-running series he worked on that doesnt get the credit it deserves. This is the story of a wealthy and socially active man who loses his ability to walk and is brought down to Earth by a random bullet to help a group of people who have found themselves stranded on earth.
While the film is a bit of a mystery, the characters are well-developed, the world-building is really well done, and the execution is spot-on. The film does have some problems though. Mazursky is an actor who doesnt take any acting classes, and the script is pretty much the same for every scene.
