Monday, January 25, 2010

Ensemble: "The More Famous People in a Movie the ___________."

After seeing a preview for Valentine's Day over the holidays, my wife's step sister said...

"I have a theory. The more famous people in a movie the worst the movie is going to be."

Her other example was the similar love-themed comedy He's Just Not That Into You.

Of course, writing about M*A*S*H's anniversary, I can't help but wonder what it would be like in Robert Altman and ensemble-style-all-his-own directed the cast of Valentine's Day (including the entire cast, from Ashton Kutcher, George Lopez, Taylor Lautner, and Taylor Swift).

I miss Altman's ensemble pieces, because he can throw the most random assortment of talent into a film and create something wonderful. My favorite Altman film is Gosford Park. Gosford Park is certainly not short of famous people.

But Altman's mastery of the ensemble was unique.

There's other great ensembles, but there's only so many stars you can pack into a film, and if it's not the right story, more stars doesn't guarantee a lesser need for a storyline.

So it's your turn to finish the sentence..."The more famous people in a movie the ____________.

3 comments:

Lorna said...

-the higher the costume budget
-the more chance there is for skullduggery and sex scandals
-the bigger the bet that they can win the "cast ensemble" awards
-the longer the credits
-the more extreme the outtakes

and probably, because I'm basically pretty shallow, the more I'll enjoy it.

RC said...

@ Lorna, your comments crack me up here.

These are hillarious fill in the blanks...every single one of them!

Jordan M. Poss said...

...the busier the poster.

I think the golden age of ensemble projects is long gone. The 1960s gave us It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Escape. The last ten years gave us the wildly uneven films Rat Race and Love Actually. I think the best recent ensemble cast has been the first of the Ocean's series, which is just about the most perfect, fun movie in modern movie history.