Swordsfight at Calahorra
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — El Cid
peterderijcker — 16 years ago(August 14, 2009 11:13 AM)
The joust at Calahorra, as much a single combat for the city of Calahorra (a mere territorial dispute for King Ferdinand) as a trial by ordeal and a judgement of God (in the Cid's mind, to clear him of any suspicion of murdering Chimene's father) was shot at the castle of Belmonte (in august 2008 still in restauration for years to come, as noticed during my visit of the site there).
I owne the so-called "digitally remastered picture & sound" single DVD disc (PAL, region 2, anamorph 2.35:1, discformat DVD 9, time 172min.), and recently (5/7/09) saw the whole movie on BBC again.
What striked me, as well in the original filmtheater version (1961) as now both on the DVD and in the movie broadcasting, is the fact that this spectacular and dynamic scene has clearly been shot on different days and in various atmospheric conditions. So the sky changes abruptely from blue or bright sunlight to clouded and overcast, even to stormy and dark.
This is particular prominent in El Cid/Heston's seeking the bischop's blessings on the field, and in his praying to God to clear him of all suspicions of murder (and win the heart of Chimene again).
As it's normal that such elaborate staging needed quite some time, it seems rather odd that neither version dealt in post-production with this colour rendering of the sky over the time of shooting the various stages of the tournament.
Even the digital process of remastering seems to have overlooked (if technically possible) the chance to colour all actions on a more homogeneous frame-to-frame basis. Or didn't bother.
I post this message as I noticed that this trivial (?) detail (?) has never been mentioned or commented.
Is there a story about the shooting conditions of the joust, and is there knowledge of deleted scenes? -
peterderijcker — 16 years ago(August 15, 2009 05:39 AM)
In addition to my initial post I'd like to refer to the excellent comments by Mark R. HASAN (extensively comparing the Criterion vs DVD editions) and Jeremy ARNOLD (TCM) in the "External Reviews"-section (n 16 and 24).
ARNOLD mentions that the thrilling scene of the joust "took 5 weeks to shoot despite its 10-minute length".
So this obvious explains all these unsettled sky and lighting, clearly caused by changing weather during shooting.
Although it's logical in the end, accurately reflecting the lengthy process of filming, I always felt a bit disappointed that this near perfect movie made it hard to belief the joust only lasted a limited time one day, and experienced it as unnatural.
As for now all versions and editions show the tournament in bits of filming on one day or another, with pieces of footage chronologically assembled in the cutting room. In my view this is a (major?) flaw of continuity in handling the time lapse in the narration of that particular event.
Should the film make to Blu-Ray I hope this will be corrected digitally (as well as for those tracks on the beach at the end). -
Karl Aksel — 15 years ago(April 06, 2010 01:26 PM)
As for now all versions and editions show the tournament in bits of filming on one day or another, with pieces of footage chronologically assembled in the cutting room. In my view this is a (major?) flaw of continuity in handling the time lapse in the narration of that particular event.
I find no errors in continuity in that scene. Could you be more specific? -
kducklin2 — 14 years ago(May 11, 2011 12:26 AM)
Two answers: I'd just watched the film when I wrote it, and it was the first time in a long time that I'd looked up "El Cid" on IMDb. I didn't realize there was a moratorium on posting after a certain period.
But you're right, it was mean-spirited of me and I apologize.
"Duck, I says"