World premiere in Cannes: BMW Films production "The Calm", starring Pom Klementieff, Uma Thurman and the BMW i7 M70 xDrive

Giannis · May 12, 2023

I doubt it will be "The Star" good, but bringing back the BMW Films series is one of the most exciting new from Munich for me lately, including their latest models...

Matski · May 12, 2023

I might have to give the first 9 a re-watch this weekend.

Giannis · May 12, 2023

Matski said:
I might have to give the first 9 a re-watch this weekend.

That's a very good idea!

Matski · May 13, 2023

Giannis said:
I doubt it will be "The Star" good,

Fast way to F*** up a Five series..

... though I doubt the Z4 from 'Hostage' faired any better...

SCOTT27 · May 13, 2023

The Z4 had its own series. The James Brown, Gary Oldman starting “Beat The Devil” being the particular highlight.

dalab · May 13, 2023

SCOTT27 said:
The Z4 had its own series. The James Brown, Gary Oldman starting “Beat The Devil” being the particular highlight.

Crazy short, pure excellence, and the car and its flame surfacing still looks as good as the first day

Matski · May 13, 2023

SCOTT27 said:
The Z4 had its own series. The James Brown, Gary Oldman starting “Beat The Devil” being the particular highlight.

'Beat the Devil' was certainly original, can't go wrong with Danny Trejo, though the editing is a Red Bull fuelled ADHD experience like rolling down a hill in a barrel full of neon lights. I thought it was actually pretty weak in terms of the car action though - just focusing on how the cars are filmed, this film fell into the Fast & Furious downshifting drag race visual tropes more than any of the other films.

dalab said:
For example, the G30 bored me so much that I was not even inspired to watch its own movie from the BMW Films series, it was also boring and predictable as that car is, despite having Clive Owen and Dakota Fanning, or it fell bad to me in In relation to the previous ones that I am passionate about up to now, "car character" of each film is important.

Though I'd quote you here as it seemed more relevant.

Personally I think 'The Escape' stands up fine, I'm not a particularly big fan of the G30 either, but none of the films really feature a particularly flamboyant car, with the possible exception of the M5 in 'Star', 'Chosen' similarly featured a fairly pedestrian looking 5 series. I've just watched all 9 films again and overall my opinion hasn't really changed, 'Ticker' is my least favourite - though I completely missed Ray Liotta being in it before!

dalab said:
* Clive took off in his career thanks to this series of shorts, nobody knew him before and he was great

He was a relatively well known face to British TV audiences. I think at some point people were chucking his name out to play James Bond. In any case, it'll be a bit of a shame for the character of the Driver to no be in 'The Calm', be good if he got a cameo or something.

J.E · May 16, 2023

Another WOKE piece of shit film where "man are bad and woman are good" just like that huge flop called The 355. BMW pandering to an audience that doesn't care about 'em and only wants a f#cking Tesla. How sad and pathetic of those morons in Münich. f#ck off BMW.

And f#cking hell, the new 7-series still is ugly.

Matski · May 16, 2023

J.E said:
Another WOKE piece of shit film where "man are bad and woman are good" just like that huge flop called The 355. BMW pandering to an audience that doesn't care about 'em and only wants a f#cking Tesla. How sad and pathetic of those morons in Münich. f#ck off BMW.

And f#cking hell, the new 7-series still is ugly.

Run out of Prozac again?

J.E · May 16, 2023

Hey @Matski do you still have the black 320is?

SCOTT27 · May 16, 2023

J.E said:
Another WOKE piece of shit film where "man are bad and woman are good" just like that huge flop called The 355. BMW pandering to an audience that doesn't care about 'em and only wants a f#cking Tesla. How sad and pathetic of those morons in Münich. f#ck off BMW.

And f#cking hell, the new 7-series still is ugly.

Steady on. Sweetie. There are a lot of great action films not just necessary American but in European and Hong Kong cinema where the Main protagonist is female. Contrary to recent media opinion Jennifer Lawrence is not one of them. Unless you count her scenes in The Great Fappening”

Matski · May 16, 2023

J.E said:
Hey @Matski do you still have the black 320is?

<Scratches head> Nope, never had a 320is. Not even sure if there's any in the UK.

J.E · May 16, 2023

Matski said:
<Scratches head> Nope, never had a 320is. Not even sure if there's any in the UK.

Oh really? Because LY06KPU has a SORN status and its MOT expired three months ago, so my guess it's that it's broken down sitting abandoned on a driveway or backyard.

Matski · May 16, 2023

J.E said:
Oh really?

Yep really.

J.E said:
LY06KPU

... is a 320si. Small detail, significant difference.

J.E said:
SORN status and its MOT expired three months ago, so my guess it's that it's broken down...

Went in for it's MOT on Jan 24th, and some remedial work, as per this post. One thing has led to another and it's ended up having a much more thorough going over (in some ways good, in others, bad) than I originally expected, which is taking rather a long time. Since the MOT expired I'm no longer able to tax it and thus have had to SORN it, though it is still insured against loss.

J.E said:
... sitting abandoned on a driveway or backyard.

Not quite. I've planned to post about the place it's gone to since it was loaded on to the trailer, as it could be quite interesting for Bimmer enthusiasts - however I'm waiting for the transaction to be finished so I can post a fair review of the service received and expertise demonstrated.

dalab · May 17, 2023

SCOTT27 · May 17, 2023

The Best things about these short films is that the car itself is written as a character. They use the features perfectly. And if you listen to the music you can hear that Hans Zimmer uses the actual sound of the car within the soundtrack.
At least Uma Thurman gets to see what’s in the briefcase almost 30 years later. Will she avenge Vincent or Bill?

Matski · May 17, 2023

SCOTT27 said:
The Best things about these short films is that the car itself is written as a character.

I know that's what they say in the marketing material for the film, but I don't really buy that in terms of the creative process.

Generally I don't think the cars in such films are treated as characters... it's typically a tool for the protagonist (BMW seven hundred and fifty, in 'Tomorrow Never Dies'* anyone?), and an extension of their character. It can reinforce or suggest an element of the protagonists style or nature, if the car is understated, you assume the character is understated, if the car is professional, you assume the character is a professional, if the car has wild performance, you assume the character would utilise wild performance. The choice or cars for the original series of the hire made a lot of sense in this regard.

For the second series, with the Z4, they handled it differently. Since we don't really know anything about Clive Owen's Driver character, the fact he uses one car for the three outings suggests the car is more of his ally, perhaps more of it's own character in this regard, but - not a particularly interesting one. There's not really any faults or foibles, there's no 'connection' between the car and the driver - Clive Owen doesn't talk to his car like Memphis spoke to Eleanor... the car has no quirks, nor anything memorable about it's spec...

... so the Z4, like the E39 from 'Chosen' or the X5 from 'Powder keg' was kind of just there, and sometimes the car is just simply there, ideally it's a car appropriate for the story being told, but it's not really it's own character, and that's not a bad thing. Whereas the cars in 'Gone in 60 seconds' were very much treated as characters - even given names, and traits that complimented their owners - the cars in 'Ronin' were just there, it wouldn't have mattered what they were, they just had to function as believable cars capable of high speed manoeuvres. Both cases are perfectly fine if the treatment is well executed. As a side note, BMW didn't really have anything new when the second series of the Hire was released, the Z4 was it. I think they could have put the Z8 in 'Beat the Devil', that might have worked - perhaps more plausible that an M-Power V8 would have won the drag race at least, but maybe they wanted to keep the Z8 product placement exclusive to the Bond Franchise.

Anyway, having said all that - in this case, it's a car that is passed between characters and simply adopts the nature of the person driving. It's not portrayed as a car that any character has a bond with, it demonstrates little of itself that's relevant to anyway, or the 'plot'.... so I'm saying 'treating the car as a character' is marketing speak. One interesting thing that maybe I'll touch on in a bit, is we don't actually know who's the car is - who is the protagonist that this car was intended to be the reflection of? It's not the black henchman with the wounded cheek, it's not Kiff Pommelhorse's... so whose is it... perhaps it's Uma's, or perhaps it belongs to a different Driver

As for the film itself...

On first viewing, the opening establishing shots and use of tech in the car turned me right off... but to be fair, they mostly worked them in with some creative relevance. The use of the gestures controls for example... it had me cringing until they used it as set up for a comedic moment (during the fight when the system is responding to errant gestures), which to a general audience, I thing works. Similarly, they worked in the big rear screen, but it was done in a way that works as the protagonist's reveal, both to the audience, and to the henchman, as it folds up... To me it's noticeable, because we're all aware of how they're pushing the tech, but basic interaction with the car isn't new to BMW Films, and nobody complained when we saw window switches and the radio being used in the first season....

... the bit that does chap my ass, is the auto-drive bit. If the intention is to use valid creative scenarios to subtly make the audience aware of features, throwing in 'auto drive' is bull she-it to the level it has to be disclaimered out in the small print. They didn't have to do that when they folded a Z4 after a 108 foot jump and portrayed it as normal, because they weren't so heavily focused on promoting the cars features in 'the Hire', as they are in 'The Calm'.

Anyhow, moving on...

On my initial viewing, I liked how they shot the car. I liked the cinematography in general (same guy that did Fight Club), but I specifically liked the use of drone cameras for some shots, where in the past they'd have used shaky handycam stuff - though in either case, fooling the viewer into thinking the cars are going faster than they were during the actual shooting, is (for me personally) the biggest issue with car action in films - it's different with drones, but same same.

Generally I think the car came across well. The movement evident in the suspension helped convey the dynamics of the scene to the audience which I like, I thought the frames after she enables boost made really captured the performance well - both her expression, hair movement, and the way the nose-lift on the car was captured. To mention 'Ronin' again, I always liked Natasha McElhone driving the E34 in that film because the movement of long hair betrays the forces acting on the car and driver - any chump can lean as they're cornering like Dale Earnhardt, but the small things like that really help to convince the viewer that they seeing something genuine.... (I also liked Natasha McElhone driving the E34 because A) Natasha McElhone, and B) E34.)

I think the feel overall was good... some very well established shooting styles and audio cues... One thing I like about BMW Films is how much of an imprint the Director left of their own style on the film - I'm not sure I get that with this film, though it completely makes sense when you look at his resume. You can show me 'Hostage' and I'll know it's John Woo, I think 'Star' oozes Guy Ritchie, 'Ambush' is very Frankenheimer, 'Beat the Devil' is somewhat clearly Tony Scott, though the production values suit a tranche of early 2000's directors and producers.

The 'plot'? ... m'eh. I spent a while thinking about this. Complex underlying plots within 'tip-of-the-iceberg' story telling, can make for some great films... Tarantino did this well in 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs', and so did Lucas in 'Star Wars'.. the implication to the audience that there's something more to the plot, more layers to the story, is generally a good thing - but it has to make sense. I think they've gone for that in a superficial way with this film, but not given any real thought to what the underlying story is. The Briefcase is a lovely nod to Uma Thurman via Pulp Fiction, but it's still just a McGuffin, and in this case, there's literally nothing riding on it. Nothing about the sequence of events in the film actually makes sense. The implication is the person on the other end of the phone to Uma, is orchestrating a turn of events that otherwise wouldn't have happened, yet Kom Piffleliffles character was a willing participant anyway... she was expecting the car, but the driver is portrayed as subverting the original driver... what were the [incomprehensible whispers] that led to the henchman throwing himself out of the car? Then there's the gun hand off at the hotel... I really doubt there's a narrative that ties this together in a coherent way... and to me, if you're implying tip-of-the-iceberg storytelling for the likes, it better make sense - else you're trying to make something look like a Tarantino movie - just with none of the substance. The references to the red steps and Cannes, the ticket, and the 'falling down the steps (2011)' meme references I think are just there for the audiences at Cannes, I'd like to think there was more to it at the outset than that.

Overall I liked it. But.. I think there's clearly been a shift frim it being director based, to being product promotion based...

... and I wanted a Clive Owen cameo. It makes sense to me that the driver of the car Fom Kemmelstraight was expecting, was Clive's Driver... subverted by the person Uma was on the phone to at the end, in order to manipulate the protagonists actions. Much of the rest still doesn't make sense... but Clive Owen - even at 58, would have helped suspend narrative interrogation.

edit: I forgot the * ...

At my cousin's wedding I sat next to the Stuntwoman that did Michelle Yeoh's bit on the R1200C

dalab · May 17, 2023

Matski said:
I know that's what they say in the marketing material for the film, but I don't really buy that in terms of the creative process.

Generally I don't think the cars in such films are treated as characters... it's typically a tool for the protagonist (BMW seven hundred and fifty, in 'Tomorrow Never Dies'* anyone?), and an extension of their character. It can reinforce or suggest an element of the protagonists style or nature, if the car is understated, you assume the character is understated, if the car is professional, you assume the character is a professional, if the car has wild performance, you assume the character would utilise wild performance. The choice or cars for the original series of the hire made a lot of sense in this regard.

For the second series, with the Z4, they handled it differently. Since we don't really know anything about Clive Owen's Driver character, the fact he uses one car for the three outings suggests the car is more of his ally, perhaps more of it's own character in this regard, but - not a particularly interesting one. There's not really any faults or foibles, there's no 'connection' between the car and the driver - Clive Owen doesn't talk to his car like Memphis spoke to Eleanor... the car has no quirks, nor anything memorable about it's spec...

... so the Z4, like the E39 from 'Chosen' or the X5 from 'Powder keg' was kind of just there, and sometimes the car is just simply there, ideally it's a car appropriate for the story being told, but it's not really it's own character, and that's not a bad thing. Whereas the cars in 'Gone in 60 seconds' were very much treated as characters - even given names, and traits that complimented their owners - the cars in 'Ronin' were just there, it wouldn't have mattered what they were, they just had to function as believable cars capable of high speed manoeuvres. Both cases are perfectly fine if the treatment is well executed. As a side note, BMW didn't really have anything new when the second series of the Hire was released, the Z4 was it. I think they could have put the Z8 in 'Beat the Devil', that might have worked - perhaps more plausible that an M-Power V8 would have won the drag race at least, but maybe they wanted to keep the Z8 product placement exclusive to the Bond Franchise.

Anyway, having said all that - in this case, it's a car that is passed between characters and simply adopts the nature of the person driving. It's not portrayed as a car that any character has a bond with, it demonstrates little of itself that's relevant to anyway, or the 'plot'.... so I'm saying 'treating the car as a character' is marketing speak. One interesting thing that maybe I'll touch on in a bit, is we don't actually know who's the car is - who is the protagonist that this car was intended to be the reflection of? It's not the black henchman with the wounded cheek, it's not Kiff Pommelhorse's... so whose is it... perhaps it's Uma's, or perhaps it belongs to a different Driver

As for the film itself...

On first viewing, the opening establishing shots and use of tech in the car turned me right off... but to be fair, they mostly worked them in with some creative relevance. The use of the gestures controls for example... it had me cringing until they used it as set up for a comedic moment (during the fight when the system is responding to errant gestures), which to a general audience, I thing works. Similarly, they worked in the big rear screen, but it was done in a way that works as the protagonist's reveal, both to the audience, and to the henchman, as it folds up... To me it's noticeable, because we're all aware of how they're pushing the tech, but basic interaction with the car isn't new to BMW Films, and nobody complained when we saw window switches and the radio being used in the first season....

... the bit that does chap my ass, is the auto-drive bit. If the intention is to use valid creative scenarios to subtly make the audience aware of features, throwing in 'auto drive' is bull she-it to the level it has to be disclaimered out in the small print. They didn't have to do that when they folded a Z4 after a 108 foot jump and portrayed it as normal, because they weren't so heavily focused on promoting the cars features in 'the Hire', as they are in 'The Calm'.

Anyhow, moving on...

On my initial viewing, I liked how they shot the car. I liked the cinematography in general (same guy that did Fight Club), but I specifically liked the use of drone cameras for some shots, where in the past they'd have used shaky handycam stuff - though in either case, fooling the viewer into thinking the cars are going faster than they were during the actual shooting, is (for me personally) the biggest issue with car action in films - it's different with drones, but same same.

Generally I think the car came across well. The movement evident in the suspension helped convey the dynamics of the scene to the audience which I like, I thought the frames after she enables boost made really captured the performance well - both her expression, hair movement, and the way the nose-lift on the car was captured. To mention 'Ronin' again, I always liked Natasha McElhone driving the E34 in that film because the movement of long hair betrays the forces acting on the car and driver - any chump can lean as they're cornering like Dale Earnhardt, but the small things like that really help to convince the viewer that they seeing something genuine.... (I also liked Natasha McElhone driving the E34 because A) Natasha McElhone, and B) E34.)

I think the feel overall was good... some very well established shooting styles and audio cues... One thing I like about BMW Films is how much of an imprint the Director left of their own style on the film - I'm not sure I get that with this film, though it completely makes sense when you look at his resume. You can show me 'Hostage' and I'll know it's John Woo, I think 'Star' oozes Guy Ritchie, 'Ambush' is very Frankenheimer, 'Beat the Devil' is somewhat clearly Tony Scott, though the production values suit a tranche of early 2000's directors and producers.

The 'plot'? ... m'eh. I spent a while thinking about this. Complex underlying plots within 'tip-of-the-iceberg' story telling, can make for some great films... Tarantino did this well in 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs', and so did Lucas in 'Star Wars'.. the implication to the audience that there's something more to the plot, more layers to the story, is generally a good thing - but it has to make sense. I think they've gone for that in a superficial way with this film, but not given any real thought to what the underlying story is. The Briefcase is a lovely nod to Uma Thurman via Pulp Fiction, but it's still just a McGuffin, and in this case, there's literally nothing riding on it. Nothing about the sequence of events in the film actually makes sense. The implication is the person on the other end of the phone to Uma, is orchestrating a turn of events that otherwise wouldn't have happened, yet Kom Piffleliffles character was a willing participant anyway... she was expecting the car, but the driver is portrayed as subverting the original driver... what were the [incomprehensible whispers] that led to the henchman throwing himself out of the car? Then there's the gun hand off at the hotel... I really doubt there's a narrative that ties this together in a coherent way... and to me, if you're implying tip-of-the-iceberg storytelling for the likes, it better make sense - else you're trying to make something look like a Tarantino movie - just with none of the substance. The references to the red steps and Cannes, the ticket, and the 'falling down the steps (2011)' meme references I think are just there for the audiences at Cannes, I'd like to think there was more to it at the outset than that.

Overall I liked it. But.. I think there's clearly been a shift frim it being director based, to being product promotion based...

... and I wanted a Clive Owen cameo. It makes sense to me that the driver of the car Fom Kemmelstraight was expecting, was Clive's Driver... subverted by the person Uma was on the phone to at the end, in order to manipulate the protagonists actions. Much of the rest still doesn't make sense... but Clive Owen - even at 58, would have helped suspend narrative interrogation.

edit: I forgot the * ...

At my cousin's wedding I sat next to the Stuntwoman that did Michelle Yeoh's bit on the R1200C

Matski said:
At my cousin's wedding I sat next to the Stuntwoman that did Michelle Yeoh's bit on the R1200C

*At my cousin's wedding, I sat next to an older woman, quite overweight and very drunk.

Good review and very complete, I agree with a large part, for me that the audio says "auto pilot" it is very subtle, rather than showing the screen dashboard with the function on, as I said in the other thread it is the first time that the car loses the driver and it does not fall to the precipice, also the first "silent" chase in general a lot of interesting things.

The main thing is that it did not bore me, but rather entertained me, unlike the last one from the G30.
It is clear that a continuation is pending, where hopefully Clive appears, *I read that the girl is the one from Guardians of the Galaxy, she does a good job.

Matski · May 17, 2023

dalab said:
also the first "silent" chase in general a lot of interesting things.

If you listen to the rest of the films, they've never fallen back on a 'Hollywood engine note', the fact this was 'silent' is almost negligible at least for the hero car, the anonymous henchmen on the bikes would have been black-clad dirtbike riders with Uzi's in decades previous.. that buzzy note of a dirtbike jumping in was more missed, than the sound of the engine in the car - to me at least.

dalab said:
*At my cousin's wedding, I sat next to an older woman, quite overweight and very drunk.

I too am quite overweight and drunk whenever I sit next to anybody.

World premiere in Cannes: BMW Films production "The Calm", starring Pom Klementieff, Uma Thurman and the BMW i7 M70 xDrive

Giannis

Matski

Giannis

Matski

SCOTT27

Drift Dynamo

dalab

Silver Arrow Expert

Matski

J.E

Torque Titan

Matski

J.E

Torque Titan

SCOTT27

Drift Dynamo

Matski

J.E

Torque Titan

Matski

dalab

Silver Arrow Expert

SCOTT27

Drift Dynamo

Matski

dalab

Silver Arrow Expert

Matski

Similar threads

BMW

Thread statistics

Trending content

Latest posts

We value your privacy