{"id":14722,"date":"2012-03-22T12:24:39","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T12:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=14722"},"modified":"2012-03-22T12:40:38","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T12:40:38","slug":"film-notes-1-ferris-buellers-day-off-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2012\/03\/22\/film-notes-1-ferris-buellers-day-off-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Notes #1: Ferris Bueller&#8217;s Day Off (1986)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Ferris-Buellers-Day-Off.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14723\" title=\"Ferris Bueller's Day Off\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Ferris-Buellers-Day-Off.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Over the past couple of weeks I&#8217;ve been conducting an experiment in film watching.<\/p>\n<p>The deal is that I must watch a film every day and make notes about it, with the following rules:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I&#8217;ve already seen it<\/li>\n<li>I must make notes <em>whilst<\/em> I&#8217;m watching it.<\/li>\n<li>Pauses are allowed but the viewing must all be one session.<\/li>\n<li>It can&#8217;t be a cinema release.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The point is to capture my instant thoughts about a movie and my overall film diet for 30 days, as well as post interesting links to the film in question.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to use <a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\">Storify<\/a> to curate interesting links about the film under discussion and embed them in the post.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the first one is an 1980s John Hughes comedy, I think in the long run you&#8217;ll find the choices eclectic.<\/p>\n<p>So, this is the\u00a0inaugural Film Notes post about <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091042\">Ferris Bueller&#8217;s Day Off<\/a><\/strong> (1986), which I watched on a PVR on Tuesday 20th March, after recording it on Film4 on January 1st 2012.<\/p>\n<p>What follows are my notes from that viewing session (there are spoilers, so if you haven&#8217;t seen the film you&#8217;ll have to <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/GFbTEm\">buy the DVD<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good to watch an 80s comedy in 2:35 aspect ratio<\/li>\n<li>Interesting use of sound to introduce the world of the film (e.g. Ferris&#8217; mother saying his name before the opening shot)<\/li>\n<li>One of the major themes of the film is the taboo subject that parents do actually prefer a sibling<\/li>\n<li>Energetic use of music contrasts with the quiet of the opening scene<\/li>\n<li>The original Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is the girl in the class who informs Ben Stein that Ferris is absent<\/li>\n<li>Surreal device of talking to the camera with text on screen<\/li>\n<li>What other teen movies include references to the &#8216;Laffer Curve&#8217;?<\/li>\n<li>Ferris uses an IBM PC XT to hack into the school systems and later also uses it to draw.<\/li>\n<li>Movie references to ALIEN (1979) and DIRTY HARRY (1971)<\/li>\n<li>Ferris seems to be using the red bat phone from the Adam West TV series<\/li>\n<li>Batman connection in that Nolan&#8217;s films use Chicago for Gotham and the Windy City is also the setting for Ferris&#8217; day off<\/li>\n<li>The idea of a lie about a dead parent an excuse for skipping school is also used in THE 400 BLOWS (1959)<\/li>\n<li>Tension between Cameron and Ferris in the kitchen is very well written and played<\/li>\n<li>Matthew Broderick has seemingly not aged since 1986<\/li>\n<li>Nice touch that we never actually see Cameron&#8217;s parents, which makes the Ferrari\u00a0sub-plot\u00a0feel more important<\/li>\n<li>Ferris is sort of a Bond figure: expert liar, computer expert, glamourous girlfriend, master of disguise,<\/li>\n<li>Incest gag outside the school when Sloane kisses Ferris &#8211; maybe influenced by BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)?<\/li>\n<li>Real location shooting, rather than green screen, which is actually used (or misused) in teen comedies<\/li>\n<li>Guy at the garage looks suspicious and the reveal of his character is interesting.<\/li>\n<li>Tension of Ferris&#8217; mother coming home to check on him is very well done with inventive staging, sound design and music<\/li>\n<li>What the hell is going on with the guys in the weird hats at the beginning of the Sears Tower sequence?<\/li>\n<li>Unusually for a teen movie Ferris actually proposes to the female lead<\/li>\n<li>The snooty (&#8216;snotty&#8217;) waiter at the restaurant has gets his comeuppance in a very economical comedy scene<\/li>\n<li>If there&#8217;s a moral lesson in the film it&#8217;s that a computer is better birthday present than a car<\/li>\n<li>Scene where Ferris&#8217; dad narrowly misses him in the restaurant is heavily stylised &#8211; almost as if Bunel did an 80s teen movie<\/li>\n<li>Wrigley Field makes another appearance in the movies e.g. THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980) and THE NATURAL (1984)<\/li>\n<li>Note the gag that Principal Rooney knows nothing about sport, as the cook deliberately says the Bears (football) are playing instead of the Cubs (baseball)<\/li>\n<li>Slow motion Ferrari sequence doesn&#8217;t appear to be using the London Symphony Orchestra version of the STAR WARS (1977) theme.<\/li>\n<li>Museum sequence has a definite Sofia Coppola vibe &#8211; you can see why it was used for a YouTube mash up<\/li>\n<li>Scene where Ferris notices his Dad in the car is a good example of a &#8216;Texas Switch&#8217; &#8211; an old Western trick of switching actors which is also used at the end of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)<\/li>\n<li>Did the float sequence get good production value out of a real parade?<\/li>\n<li>John Hughes movies are filled with doubt about the future, reflecting the very real anxieties of teenage years. But he finds reassuring comedy in this.<\/li>\n<li>Rooney&#8217;s middle fingered salute to the florist is comedy gold.<\/li>\n<li>Notice how Jeannie&#8217;s emergency phone calls don&#8217;t have any reply audio<\/li>\n<li>Cameron&#8217;s shock at the mileage on his Ferrari is depicted as a cut to black which is actually the inside of his mouth<\/li>\n<li>Cameron flipping out in the pool is similar to a scene in THE DESCENDANTS (2011)<\/li>\n<li>Charlie Sheen cameo (&#8220;are you in for drugs!&#8221;) actually prophetic about his later problems.<\/li>\n<li>Great close up of Jeannie&#8217;s fist and the sound of the knuckles cracking is a good pay off to the gag that Sheen knows Ferris<\/li>\n<li>Good tension as Cameron kicks the car &#8211; cutting, sound and dialogue all create the idea that the car is almost a living, breathing thing.<\/li>\n<li>Cheesy 80s music used for Cameron and Mia Sara&#8217;s final scene<\/li>\n<li>Her final line is &#8220;he&#8217;s going to marry me!&#8221; &#8211; maybe partly why it so popular with boys and girls<\/li>\n<li>Ferris is celebrated for being a liar and Jeannie is punished for telling the truth<\/li>\n<li>Interesting use of Steadicam and slow motion in the final chase sequence<\/li>\n<li>Climax well handled &#8211; the love of a teenage sister trumps her jealousy<\/li>\n<li>Good script\u00a0pay-off\u00a0with the baseball he caught at Wrigley Field to turn off the stereo<\/li>\n<li>Final freeze frame of Ferris was used on some posters (I think)<\/li>\n<li>Post-credits screen is a role reversal for the teacher &#8211; he has to endure the humiliation of a school bus ride (&#8220;Rooney eats it!&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>Playful final scene is Ferris telling the audience to stop watching &#8211; perfect for the VHS era where multiple viewings would reveal this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-1-ferris-bueller-s-day-off-1986.js\"><\/script><noscript>[<a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-1-ferris-bueller-s-day-off-1986\" target=\"_blank\">View the story &#8220;Film Notes #1: Ferris Bueller&#8217;s Day Off (1986)&#8221; on Storify<\/a>]<\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first part of a 30 day film watching experiment begins with the 1986 John Hughes comedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487],"tags":[1392,2488],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}