Children of Men (and why it's my favorite movie)

This past weekend I watched the film Children of Men for probably the 8th time in the past two years. My girlfriend and I have a running list of films to watch and since she has never seen this movie and I have, we decided on it.

For those of you haven't heard of or seen Children of Men, the film is set in 2027 when infertility strikes the planet and women around the world are unable to reproduce. It's been over 18 years since the last child was born, and the world has literally gone to shit. Not only has the world stopped producing children, but much of the world is either at war or has collapsed. Britain, where the film is set, is the only functioning government. The country is dealing with a massive refugee crisis, with government propaganda everywhere telling the population to be vigilant and see something and say something. Seen throughout the movie are shots of people locked in cages, treated like cattle with dozens of police making their lives even more of a hell than it already is. The main character, Theo, who is played by Clive Owen, is a drunk living in Britain. After almost dying in a bombing, he is thrust into helping a young, pregnant woman, who is being moved by the Fishes, a terrorist group. The group wants to take her to meet with the Human Project, which is a group of scientists who are working to find a fix to humanity's most pressing issue ever. His ex-wife, who is the leader of the terrorist group, recruits him to get transit papers for the girl. Because of the complexity of these documents, Theo is accidentally pushed to come on the trip. Along the way, his ex-wife, Juliann, is killed by another member of the group who wants to use the woman's baby as a tool for a coming revolution. Theo learns of this and takes her to Bexhill, a large refugee camp on the coast where he finally meets up with the Human Project.

Wow, that was a lot. Through this film are heavy themes of dystopia and despair. These two are the reasons why I love the movie. I'm fascinated by the idea of the collapse of civilization. Not for the death of people, but how the world copes with such calamity, and how nature begins to take over. This can be seen with the schools that are
abandoned because of the lack of children. As for the world coping, in Children of Men, it is barely hanging on. For example, the United States, after having nukes dropped on the country, is embroiled in a civil war. One of the most powerful nations in history is turned to nothing.

Emmanuel Lubezki and Children of Men

The first time watching Children of Men, I was so struck by the visual language that you can get from the camera movements in this film. Unaware at the time, what really goes into filmmaking, I found the action happening onscreen extremely unique. Taking a look at the process of how some of the imagery was created in this science fiction adventure, can surely inspire. Emmanuel Lubezki, the cinematographer of the film, collaborated with Alfonso Cuaron, the director, in order to accomplish some of the many choreographed, long takes in this film.  There are more than three different long takes which are more than three minutes a piece, the longest of which is six whole minutes. During production, what has caused many problems, eventually paid out into a creative landmark. During an ambush sequence there was a special car rig for the camera, so that the camera could turn 360 degrees, and by allowing seats and actors to move, there was a floating-documentary style of capturing the story. Of coarse there are some instances with CGI aided effects to make seamless transition for the effect, but nevertheless Lubezki help create some really beautiful sequences.

The Looooonnnnnnggggg Take

Long takes are a directors best weapon in the fight against boring scenes. This is not to say that they are easy but when planned correctly, they are extremely effective and immensely entertaining. The flow and pace of the scene is carefully thought out and every single move matters in the end. One of the best long takes (in my humble opinion) is the car scene in Children of Men.

The car the used for this scene had a camera that hung down from the "roof" and could rotate 360 degrees. What resulted was an extremely complicated and highly emotional death of a main character all capture with little to no edits. 

Another impressive long take which I think beats out Children of Men, due to the level of complexity required from every actor on screen, is from a Hong Kong film called Hard Boiled. I put the clip in the post and its definitely worth the 3 minute watch because the choreography between the camera man and the actors is pure genius. Plus all the fake guns going off and squibs to match must have been a difficult time for the special effects team because we see people getting "shot" at very unflattering angles. 

I'm jealous of the one takes I'm going to be honest. The best one takes are usually the ones you don't notice are happening. Like most things in cinema, this is the goal to make it look as natural as possible. 

I included a compilation of impressive long takes. They don't include the entire take but definitely capture the essence and scope of each one.

 http://dfcovideo.com/film/12-best-long-takes-in-film-history/