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Comment by js2 | Hacker News Reader

Despite Gattaca being one of my favorite movies for years I only recently learned, right here on HN, that the cinematographer is Sławomir Idziak, frequent collaborator of Krzysztof Kieślowski, which explains why Gattaca looks so much like one of my other favorites, The Double Life of Veronique.

> create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

See also: Dark City

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And for the love of god, watch the directors cut of `Dark City`, not the cinema version.

I watched the cinema version and found it outstanding. What are the changes in the director's cut?

I second this, I love dark city and never knew there was s director's cut.

The main reason director's cut is recommended for first-time viewers is theatrical version having an intro that reveals many elements. That said the list of all the differences is quite extensive: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/alternateversions/.

Interesting. Will definitely watch the director's cut.

I must say though that I don't think the opening monologue reveals too much. It reveals something but the city still feels weird, you don't truly understand the strangers' goals at the beginning, and there are still plot twists. If you don't even know about the strangers at the beginning, I wonder how the movie would play... a pity I cannot wipe my own memories and re-experience it ;)

A general rule of thumb that I've adopted is to intentionally skip the first 10 minutes of any movie.

This happened accidentally with Memento [0], it it became an incredible film. Without all that setup in the first scene, you exist with the protagonist as he discovers his world.

I've tried it with other films and they give away too much information, you the viewer are practically handed the whole script.

Give it a shot, you might like doing it that way.

[0][https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/ ]

I observed a similar effect with University lectures: being there from the start I often lost myself in some embarrassing state of deep distraction, but when I missed the beginning I went into attentive panic to make up for what I missed that echoed on even after I fetched up.

The difference between university lectures and movies is, of course, that one is not normally trying to derive a lesson from a movie; there's nothing to "optimize". Every part of the movie is necessary unlike a lesson.

So you use the Wadsworth constant on movies?

"The Wadsworth Constant is the idea (and 2011 meme) that one can safely skip past the first 30 percent of any YouTube video without missing any important content."

I don't quite think the UI_at_80x24 constant has the same ring to it.

I really don’t see how that changes Memento.

Part of the tension is knowing Leonard is going to kill Teddy, we just don’t know why.

I think it does change Memento... for the worse. The beginning is a powerful, integral part of the movie.

Skipping the first 10 minutes is like skipping the last 10, "I just know where this is going anyway". Nope. So much can happen in 10 minutes! Plus, you know, they filmed that part for a reason.

It's also like skipping the first chapter of a book: sure, some books would be improved by trimming their clumsy beginnings, but good books aren't.

Yea, it's just an incredibly silly "general rule of thumb".

I think skipping the beginning of Memento is a mistake. It's a powerful beginning that sets up expectations (the movie is "pre ordained", but we just don't understand why) but at the same time it explains nothing.

In general, I disagree with your rule of thumb. My favorite movies have cool beginnings, and it'd be a shame to miss them.

Just don't do it with The Lobster.

The first scene really drew me in to wondering WTF is this movie going to be about?!

The first scene created the mystery. One of my favourite movie openings.

In the past, I used to rent DVDs for director’s cut where the director explains the scenes. Do we still have rental services where we can get director’s cut DVDs?

I have never watched the directors cut of any movie. This will be my first.

Director’s cuts and Director’s (and actor’s) commentaries are a good reason to still buy physical media.

These are also available on the high seas as I found after posting this comment.

it's too bad so much goes missing from the original DVD / Blu-ray - not even sure if the streaming releases are cut further or not.

Probably there's also less effort in collecting and making this content available.

Also check out the one for Bladerunner.

Arguably, the theatrical version of Blade Runner is better for first-time viewers, because the voiceover explains a lot of stuff they don't understand.

Fans almost always say they prefer the DC (or actually the "Final Cut"), but my theory is that their opinion isn't really valid because they all saw the theatrical version first, so upon viewing the later cuts, they had the benefit of already knowing the story and background, and of course they can't just forget that when watching a voiceover-less cut.

I'm not one of those who saw the theatrical version. I didn't see the movie until much later in my life. I think actually read an article about how the "Final Cut" is Ridley Scott's "true vision" for the film before I actually saw it. That prompted me to go track it down and watch it for the first time with that version.

So, I've never actually seen the theatrical version with the voiceover. However, I don't believe there's anything in the film that I don't understand. I understood the symbolism and the message that was being conveyed. I'm being deliberately vague here because I don't want to spoil it for any random reader who might see this.

I don't think there's anything particularly difficult to understand about the film. Perhaps you think I am giving people too much credit? I don't think I am. There are lots of films out there with deeper meanings and hidden ideas/messages. There are lots of very critical viewers out there who pay attention and don't need everything spelled out for them. These are also the people most likely to get annoyed when a voiceover spoils it for them.

I had no idea about the Kieslowski connection, wow. I follow his other great collaborator, composer Zbigniew Preisner, where if you take anyone involved with Kieslowski chances are it's going to be a good film. I have his tri coleurs and decalogue on dvd, and double vie on vhs in a box somewhere. Strange to think when these things were artifacts now that nothing is, and that they could even be somewhat rare. I have the original House of Cards series on dvd in that box, The Big Sleep and other classics as well.

Kieslowski's "thou shall not kill" and "thou shall have no other god" from Decalogue remain some of the most haunting films I've seen.

Dark City is one of my favorite movies.

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