In Which We Say Another Cool Thing About Inception

[spatch]

Another cool thing about Inception is that while parts of the film are set in Paris, not once is the Eiffel Tower used in an establishing shot. The initial establishing shot is of Montmartre, which is very Parisy, and L'Arc de Triomphe figures in the background of one scene. But the Eiffel Tower only shows up once, and even then it's way in the background of a wide nighttime shot. At that point in the sequence the focus is on the action and not the location, so the tower is just peripheral.

For some reason this really pleased me. It subverted not only the "Meanwhile, in Paris..." shot but the "Every window in Paris has a view of the Eiffel Tower" cliché as well, and it did so stylishly.

I'm sure there's entries for these on tvtropes but you go find 'em; I don't have two and a half hours to spare getting sucked in and ending up at some page deconstructing the Facts of Life girls. Which I would.

Comments

[lno.livejournal.com]

I live to serve.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=eiffel+tower+site:tvtropes.org

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EiffelTowerEffect

[zhym.livejournal.com]

My favorite recent offender in this category: Chuck, where the characters were such cool spies they managed to find a hotel room that looked down on the Eiffel Tower.

[saint-buddha.livejournal.com]

Then you must see GIJoe the movie because their geography of Paris is messed up as well. But you have to turn off your brain to watch the entire movie.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head:

DC establishing shots the involved the Capital, White House, Washington Monument and/or Lincoln Memorial. Although, that's a bit more diverse.

NYC that involved the Statue of Liberty, Chrystler Building, Empire State's Building, or The WTC (for pre-Sept 2001).

SF that involves the Golden Gate or Alcatraz.

St Louis and the Arch, LA and the Hollywood sign, Toronto or Seattle and their respective needles. New Orleans and the French Quarter. Rio de Jinaro and their christ-statue. Southeast asia and a Rickshaw. Sydney and the Opera House. Egypt and the Pyramids or Sphinx. Mordor and Mt Doom.

[zyrya]

But is there acordion music?

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

Its presence doesn't bother me so much as the fact that they always make it look bigger than it really is. It was such a surprise when I finally got myself over there and looked up on it from its base area.

[comfortslut.livejournal.com]

A couple of things I very much liked...

Nolan likes to play with language and refernce, but not to the point that it hits you over the head too hard...

"Ariadne" is a nice reference to the greek mythology of spinning/weaving/aiding theseus kill the minotaur, and "Mal" means "hurt" in french...Having the wakeup song be "Je ne regrette rien" by Edith Piaf, Cotillard's alter ego is also a nice touch. Many of these make me want to go back and watch it again to see what I missed. DiCaprio is still too self-consciously intense for me. He'll be a better actor once his spirit's been broken.

I didn't mean that to sound as cynical as it does...

[skeetlj.livejournal.com]

How much deconstruction do the Facts of Life girls really need? I mean, you take the good, you take the bad, and that's pretty much all there is to it.

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

An amusing thing I noticed when a friend pointed it out was that the initial train is headed towards Kyoto. But the next establishing shot has the Tokyo Tower.