The Film Talk » It’s A.I.

It’s A.I.

March 3rd, 2009by Jett Loe · Comments

a.i. steven spielberg kubrick

Congratulations to ‘Chris Johnson’ – his entry, ‘A.I.’, has won our DVD Commentary Competition:

A.I. seems like the right choice for our first DVD commentary; it’s an unusual film, a tribute picture. Developed for years by one director, then subsequently produced by another, A.I. is quite unlike anything I’ve seen before.

Gareth and I will record the commentary next time we’re in Nashville; we’ll post the MP3 on the site for download.

clockwork orange

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(Screengrab at top from A.I. directed by Steven Spielberg, screengrab above from ‘Clockwork Orange’ directed by Stanley Kubrick)

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Tags: Competitions · Gareth Higgins · Jett Loe · Science Fiction

Ronster

I'm really excited about this.

Its a movie I've almost tired of defending to people, so it should be fun to watch it with a couple of folks who'll at least THINK about what is happening on the screen, rather than simply react in a cynical fashion.

Have you recorded it yet? I'm not sure if this is a rights issue (a lie, I'm pretty sure it is), but is there anyway you could have the actual soundtrack below you in the mix? I hate DVD commentaries where the voices are all you hear, for some reason?

Alternatively, go the whole hog and add your commentary to a DVD-Rip of the movie, and then return it to Jeff Love's library...

Jett Loe

hmm...you raise an interesting point there re: audio - i think the thing we have to do is an 'audio only' track - but with 'queues' so that people know where they are in the movie

+ re: rights issues - yeah we couldn't get Jeff Love involved and offer AI on our site at this time...but we're not that far off from studios getting enlightened, (think music companies and DRM); one way in the near future to get more revenue from existing product will to allow people legal right to mashup/alter existing work:

http://www.thefilmtalk.com/2009/01/26/lets-have...

Tom

Oh I can see this continues to divide folk right down the middle - so it'll make for an interesting commentary indeed.

I myself fall into the fans of AI club (there are at least 4 members). I'm delighted you've decided to do this one, can't wait!

Matt

I see you've turned the idea of "the Fountain' commentary on its head. Instad of us asking you to watch a movie you don't want us to see, you're asking us to watch a movie we don't want to see.

Jett Loe

you know i haven't seen A.I. since it came out - and then under dubious and distracting circumstances... oh boy, I hope we haven't picked out a stinker.

kiley

crud...i have a sneaking suspicion that i'm going to end up liking this film after ya'll get done with it...crud....

StanleyRumm

I might even re-watch AI for that commentary. That's not something I ever planned on saying. I mean, I have seen it once and I actually _tried_ watching it a second time but couldn't.

One thing I'd like to hear you discuss is the selfishness of the mother. She doesn't deserve the love of the son, even if he is a robot and in my opinion this collapses the whole film (well, there are other things that do that too). We can't empathise with his longing for "mother" because his mother is the 2-dimensional offspring of Meryl Streep from Kramer Vs. Kramer.