View Full Version : Pecker -- THE RF Movie
CameraQuest
11-09-2005, 16:00
As strange as the title is, if there is a better movie on rangefinders and the rangefinder way of photography, I have yet to see it. The hero is a young teenage photographer with a passion for B/W with his Canonet 28 rangefinder. You can rent or better yet, buy the DVD.
see http://www.cameraquest.com/pecker.htm
unfortunately I am not selling the DVD...
Stephen Gandy
Todd.Hanz
11-09-2005, 16:08
I'll but the DVD if you'll throw in a 75mm external finder :D
Todd
that was on (I think) FX last weekend. I got to see it, and it wasn't that bad. I would share my opinions on "art snobs," but I don't want to offend anyone :) .
Did I mention I was looking at cameraquest.com when it came on?
Bob
My wife actually bought this movie a while ago. It is entertaining and fun to watch from the perspective of a camera freak. More and more I am getting to a point where I am taking pictures at all times.
That's a fun movie-I should watch it again. I'm something of a John Waters fan anyway.
Skinny McGee
11-09-2005, 16:38
Hey thats not the movie I saw called "Pecker " from the 70's
Pecker is a fun movie with some great scenes. Blow-Up is a good one, too.
:)
bmattock
11-09-2005, 18:04
One-Hour Photo.
more movies:
the bridges of madison county
the wooden camera
the killing fields
the year of living dangerously
salvador
rear window
roman holiday
city of god
One-Hour Photo.
Man.. ya know.. Robin Williams has only 2 types of personalities for films - the "really really insanely crazy always on speed funny guy" and the "seriously creepy loner".
I thought One-Hour Photo was decent and I like Robin Williams' portrayal of me..er... I mean.. of that creepy psycho. :D
As for Pecker, I've never seen the film but I'm aware it's staring Edward "Terminator" Furlong and is by John Waters so it can't be "all bad". I guess the only thing it was missing was Divine :D
Dave
JoeFriday
11-09-2005, 18:13
I must be the only one who didn't like Pecker.. the jokes and dialog all seemed to be geared toward young teens.. maybe it was just me.. admittedly, I only got halfway through it before I tired of it
and how about keislowski's camera man or camera buff-
pecker should be shown in all beginning photo classes on the first day of class.
Hey thats not the movie I saw called "Pecker " from the 70's
HAHAH! Oh man...
bmattock
11-09-2005, 18:28
Amazon lists these:
Under Fire (1983)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
Salvador
Blow - Up (1966)
Pecker (1998)
Photographing Fairies (1997)
Eyes of Laura Mars
Mad Dog and Glory (2000)
Road to Perdition (Widescreen)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
The Photographer (2000)
High Art
The only ones of these I've seen are "Road to Perdition" and "Pecker" and "The Year of Living Dangerously." I don't recall much of Road or Year, frankly.
I have had people try to get me to watch "Bridges" for a long time - they finally gave up. I refuse to watch it. I'm not going to pay to see someone portrayed as cheating on their spouses and claiming it is 'romance'. Been there, it's not nice and it's not romantic. It hurts people and destroys families. RRR. Don't get me started.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
celluloidprop
11-09-2005, 18:34
High Art is excellent. Patricia Clarkson is classic as the aging junkie Fassbinder starlet.
I wasn't sold on Pecker when I rented it a few years back. I know Waters style is a bit loose, but the direction was terrible (people talking past each other, bad acting) and the jokes even more juvenile than I like. The only JW film I've completely enjoyed was the Johnny Depp '50s thing - maybe I just don't share the right aesthetic.
celluloidprop
11-09-2005, 18:36
Salvador is pretty good - Oliver Stone before the coke completely took over his editing. (unrelated, but my favorite Stone moment is when he cuts scenes from Ben Hur into one of Al Pacino's big speeches in Any Given Sunday. Pure WTF)
tetrisattack
11-09-2005, 18:43
I mean. The title of the movie is "Pecker." Sure, he uses a canonet, but this is not a movie to be watched. It is a movie for laying down and avoiding.
:)
bill, you gotta see bridges of madison county! it is romantic! she does the right thing in the end, too.
bmattock
11-09-2005, 18:50
bill, you gotta see bridges of madison county! it is romantic! she does the right thing in the end, too.
No, thank you!
JoeFriday
11-09-2005, 18:52
Bill, I gotta agree that 'Bridges' is probably not what you think.. it's more a story about how a woman's devotion to husband and family overrides her personal needs.. I'm not a huge fan of Meryl Streep, but she was excellent in that one
bmattock
11-09-2005, 18:58
Bill, I gotta agree that 'Bridges' is probably not what you think.. it's more a story about how a woman's devotion to husband and family overrides her personal needs.. I'm not a huge fan of Meryl Streep, but she was excellent in that one
Her character and the one played by Clint Eastwood bump uglies, yes? Sorry, I can't even stand seeing the that implied on TV. I change the channel or leave the room. Too close to home, I spent ten years trying to put my life back together after being tossed aside. I have a great life now, but it took a long time to get it that way.
I mean. The title of the movie is "Pecker." Sure, he uses a canonet, but this is not a movie to be watched. It is a movie for laying down and avoiding.
:)
And here I thought it would be particularly heavy and only used for hand-to-hand combat ;)
Dave
...she does the right thing in the end, too.
...what ? Buys him a bunch of Tri-X? :)
:)
I mean. The title of the movie is "Pecker." Sure, he uses a canonet, but this is not a movie to be watched. It is a movie for laying down and avoiding.
:)
Agreed. Dumb and cheesy, yes. But any movie that features a RF in just about every scene should be required viewing here on RFF. I think there is a point in the movie where he gets a fancy-schmancy SLR, but I think he switches back to the good old Canon (?).
:)
f/stopblues
11-09-2005, 19:46
I'll put in another plug for City of God.. that's an *excellent* movie!
i need a nikon f w/black metered prism and 135/3.5 for my city of god collection to be complete.
Taipei-metro
11-09-2005, 20:25
City of God, I'll remember that one in video store nxt time.
High Art w Ally Sheedy and new commer Radha Michell is also pretty good. Sheedy, a druged out Photographer meets her new Photo mag editor girlfriend story. I think M3, M4 were used by her in the film.
Winter Sleepers, from your beloved Leica country, Germany. An excellent film by Tom Tykwer, in the movie one of the main character uses strangely, a Lomo to shoot every day event, since he has memory lost.
Why CQuest mentioned Pecker? Everyone knows Canonet 28 was the cam in the movie for years.
Did Capa and Ms Bergman had something going on back in 50'? like that Eastwood Bridge movie?
RJBender
11-09-2005, 20:37
As for Pecker, I've never seen the film but I'm aware it's staring Edward "Terminator" Furlong and is by John Waters so it can't be "all bad". I guess the only thing it was missing was Divine :D
Divine died in 1988
http://www.nndb.com/people/833/000031740/
R.J.
RJBender
11-09-2005, 21:09
I purchased Blow Up on DVD earlier this year. Great cast including David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck AND Veruschka!
One of my favorite films is Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. Kubrick had some 50mm f/0.7 Zeiss lenses specially adapted for his camera so he could film using candlelight!
http://www.archiviokubrick.it/english/movies/bl/index.html?main=making
I have all of Kubrick's films on DVD except for Killer's Kiss.
R.J.
Elmer Fishpaw
11-10-2005, 00:20
As you can tell by my username, I love John Waters! When I lived in Harrisburg, I'd go to Baltimore often, and have been to Hampden - the part of Balty where Pecker was filmed many times and have actually eaten (ate?) in that sub shop .. different name but always a restaurant.
The "Pecker" house burned down a year or two ago. Everything in that movie is geographically correct....they turn a corner and run into a store, you can do it in real life where they filmed. The DVD btw has a good feature on the fellow who actually took the movie stills. To quote Shelly.... "I HATE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY!!"
bruenhilde
11-10-2005, 00:22
Bridges of Madison County is beautiful, wonderful film, albeit it could make you cry...
Pecker is fun, fun, fun...
Blow-up is strange, weird film, but I like that aeroplane propeller idea very much..., and all that fancy studios and darkrooms, ;-)
And the best of all is..., of course master Hitchcock's Rear Window, timeless masterpiece, IMHO the best film of all times.
Divine died in 1988
http://www.nndb.com/people/833/000031740/
R.J.
Yes.. I'm aware of that.. hence the " :) " and the reason I mentioned him.
Dave
Pherdinand
11-10-2005, 02:29
Guinevere is pretty cool, i've found it a good movie as well
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160338/
[unlike the reviewer on imdb]
ok, interest awaken, i will try to watch Pecker. If it was all praise i've heard, i would not be too interested - if a movie does not generate contradictory oppinions, there's something wrong with it, in my view.
Yeah, the fancy SLR is an auto-everything Nikon, which he ends up smashing on the floor. That one scene is enough to put this on everyone's must-see list on this forum. Gratuitous violence to SLR cameras. :D
"The Weight of Water" with Sean Penn as a poor man's Hemingway, and Elizabeth Hurley as Penn's brother's girlfriend who's a photographer toting a black M4 (when shooting B&W). Decent flick, good script, nice scenery.
Not that I saw the movie but no one's mentioned "Closer" yet have they?
That's the one with Julia Roberts as a photographer... Jude Law as ..well.. Jude Law ;)
and Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala :P
hehe
Dave
"The Weight of Water" with Sean Penn as a poor man's Hemingway, and Elizabeth Hurley as Penn's brother's girlfriend who's a photographer toting a black M4 (when shooting B&W). Decent flick, good script, nice scenery.
Elizabeth Hurley = nice scenery
:)
RJBender
11-10-2005, 07:47
Yeah, the fancy SLR is an auto-everything Nikon, which he ends up smashing on the floor. That one scene is enough to put this on everyone's must-see list on this forum. Gratuitous violence to SLR cameras. :D
Now I'll have to see the DVD. In the USA, companies pay moviemakers to have their products used in their movies. I don't know if John Waters does that with his films. :confused: They could have used a Nikon rangefinder and Canon EOS. Hmmm :confused:
R.J.
Speaking of movies, I watched the Bob Dylan: No Direction Home dvd the other day. Very interesting if you're into early modern music scene. Several scenes show photographers hanging around using their Rolleiflexes, Leica Ms, and Nikon Fs.
celluloidprop
11-10-2005, 09:20
Something to watch for in Closer - Roberts' photographer starts shooting Portman, crying, in front of a window with her Leica. Later on these shots show up in Roberts' exhibition as full-frame square images. (Roberts had photographed Portman earlier with a Hassie, but only in front of a backdrop and not crying.)
It's depressing that I recall noticing that more than I recall Portman's stripper scene.
Later on these shots show up in Roberts' exhibition as full-frame square images.
Not only that, but they're wall-sized and have no grain to speak of. :rolleyes:
Krasnaya_Zvezda
11-10-2005, 10:48
....more than I recall Portman's stripper scene.
I had no desire to see this movie before, but suddenly that's changed.
canonetc
11-14-2005, 17:12
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" has a very funny scene at the very very end I think some of us here could relate to. Gwyneth Paltro uses an Argus, I think, but she only has five shots left througout the film and can't decide what to use the frames on. That's funny in her choices, but it's the last "frame" that's the gut-buster.
Chris
canonetc
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" has a very funny scene at the very very end I think some of us here could relate to.
Ah yes, I remember that well :D :D :D :bang: :bang: :bang:
aw, i didn't see that one. what's the joke?
RJBender
12-10-2005, 13:19
Yeah, the fancy SLR is an auto-everything Nikon, which he ends up smashing on the floor. That one scene is enough to put this on everyone's must-see list on this forum. Gratuitous violence to SLR cameras. :D
The scene where little Chrissy coughs out her Ritalin tablet and it hits the lens of Greg Gorman's Contax G is funnier IMO. :p
R.J.
Another movie that isn't really about photography, but has some elements is Euro Trip. One of the people in the movie saved up money all through high school so that he could buy a Leica M7 and have a photo tour of Europe. Its quite funny because there's one scene where he walks into a camera shop and the girl behind the counter is very impressed by the camera. So she takes him out back to show him just how impressed she is... :)
Best line by a photographer character in a movie:
"Hey man, you got any film?" ~ Dennis Hopper as the photojournalist in Apocalypse Now
CleverName
12-10-2005, 15:45
Another movie that isn't really about photography, but has some elements is Euro Trip. :)
I saw that movie. Now every time I get email my computer says, this:
http://members.cox.net/larkinfan/mail.wav
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT do not click the link when children are around. It says a dirty word. :D
Didn't he end up selling the Leica for bus tickets or something?
when i saw euro trip, i remember thinking "the m6 is the one with the built-in meter, stupid. your m7 has aperture-priority ae. get it straight, people!"
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" has a very funny scene at the very very end I think some of us here could relate to. Gwyneth Paltro uses an Argus, I think, but she only has five shots left througout the film and can't decide what to use the frames on. That's funny in her choices, but it's the last "frame" that's the gut-buster.
Chris
canonetc
I was going to mention this movie, because that last shot was the perfect culmination to a movie-long running gag. Gwyneth used an Argus C3 in the film. Such an interesting movie, too bad it wasn't all that successful.
Kragmeister
12-11-2005, 05:12
Another good one is The Public Eye with Joe Pesci. He plays a Weegee like crime scene photographer in NYC in the early 1940s. I saw it in the movies over 10 years ago...don't know if it is out on DVD.
Later,
Greg
I rented the "Pecker" DVD three weeks ago solely because of Stephen Gandy's review of the movie on his CameraQuest site. It's a quirky and funny movie. I saw it as more of a view into John Waters' kinky world than as a serious commentary on photography. But Waters did a great job of satirizing the New York art scene and the blather of art critics and rich collectors. He also showed that sudden fame can be detrimental to artists - young Pecker saw his past life and relationships disrupted by his new status as a recognized "artiste."
RJBender
12-12-2005, 14:54
I rented the "Pecker" DVD three weeks ago solely because of Stephen Gandy's review of the movie on his CameraQuest site. It's a quirky and funny movie. I saw it as more of a view into John Waters' kinky world than as a serious commentary on photography. But Waters did a great job of satirizing the New York art scene and the blather of art critics and rich collectors. He also showed that sudden fame can be detrimental to artists - young Pecker saw his past life and relationships disrupted by his new status as a recognized "artiste."
Take the quiz (http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz.cfm?qid=34920) and see if you pass, Prof. :p
R.J.
Take the quiz (http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz.cfm?qid=34920) and see if you pass, Prof. :p
R.J.
I scored 10 out of 20. I would have done better if I had known there was going to be a test - I would have taken notes during the movie. ;)
CleverName
12-12-2005, 15:47
Take the quiz (http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz.cfm?qid=34920) and see if you pass, Prof. :p
R.J.
I got 7 out of 20 :(
Of course, I haven't seen the movie in a few years. Most were guesses.
RJBender
12-13-2005, 02:47
I scored 10 out of 20. I would have done better if I had known there was going to be a test - I would have taken notes during the movie. ;)
I watched the movie twice, found the trivia test and aced the exam.
I usually don't care for movies that have goofs (http://www.jonhs.com/moviegoofs/) in them. For example, Pecker's friend steals Kodak color film at the supermarket but all of his prints are black and white. :confused: This movie was so bizarrely funny the goofs didn't matter. :p
R.J.
when i saw euro trip, i remember thinking "the m6 is the one with the built-in meter, stupid. your m7 has aperture-priority ae. get it straight, people!"
And "Arthur Frommer" had an M4 around his neck.
allthumbs
12-15-2005, 10:46
Born Into Brothels. While the kids steal the scenes it's easy to miss Zana Briski's style with a Leica (M6?). And you get to see quite a few of those shots, IIRC.
amateriat
12-28-2005, 19:16
One recent film which came to mind while follwing this thread is "William Eggleston in the Real World", about which I've heard mixed reviews, but sounds compelling ehough to seek out anyway (assuming it's still on a screen someplace...very much restricted to art-house territory). "Pecker" is one that I'll eventually get to.
Rich Silfver
12-28-2005, 21:54
I must be the only one who didn't like Pecker.. the jokes and dialog all seemed to be geared toward young teens.. maybe it was just me.. admittedly, I only got halfway through it before I tired of it
You're not the only one - I thought it was a horribly bad movie :)
Loved "Born Into Brothels"
caffeineshutter
12-28-2005, 22:08
I WISH that had been a better movie. I rented it with high hopes, but I guess I shouldn't have imagined what the film was like before I watched it.
The script in "Pecker" is filled with that odd sort of dialogue that you find in David Lynch films. Wait a sec...was he the one who wrote it? Too lazy to check IMDB at the moment, but in any case, the film is decent; I was just hoping for more camera junkie material. :-)
Kragmeister
12-29-2005, 05:28
Another interesting photo bit in a non-photo movie.
"Crash" with James *****r & Holly Hunter.
Scene where the character Vaughan decides to document a multi-car wreck on the freeway. He is using a Mamiya Super 23 it looks like. Then finds a stunt driver friend that tried to re-create the Jayne Mansfield crash while dressed in drag....
ChrisPlatt
12-29-2005, 12:18
Anyone who goes in knowing it's a John Waters film
shouldn't expect high art...
Keep Chris in Christmas
-Chris-
Pecker was based on a real guy--who wasn't especially happy about it, as I remember. The Public Eye was loosely based on Weegee.
I have purchase the Pecker DVD (in german language) yesterday, over amazon.de, as a second hand article for 9 Euro, after this great clue!
gabrielelopez
01-01-2006, 06:17
guess how is titled in ItalY????
Saw similar thread on a Model Railroad forum, about "railroad films". Doesn't have to be a good move if you are intersted in the setting or theme itself. Best railroad film I ever enjoyed was "Svetlana, Hero of the Soviet Union"(something like that). All about a busty blonde engineer who drives her train through hell to deliver ammo to the defenders of Stalingrad. End of the tape cuts to a tiny little old lady leaning on her cane, showing the camera her medel and wise cracking that the actress was much too tall.
Lot of nifty rail stuff, but you gotta overlook Stalin.
Bryan Lee
01-14-2006, 00:00
Saw similar thread on a Model Railroad forum, about "railroad films". Doesn't have to be a good move if you are intersted in the setting or theme itself. Best railroad film I ever enjoyed was "Svetlana, Hero of the Soviet Union"(something like that). All about a busty blonde engineer who drives her train through hell to deliver ammo to the defenders of Stalingrad. End of the tape cuts to a tiny little old lady leaning on her cane, showing the camera her medel and wise cracking that the actress was much too tall.
Lot of nifty rail stuff, but you gotta overlook Stalin.
Speaking of train movies did you see The Station Agent (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/station_agent/)
This is a great movie. I think the name and some of the images prevented a larger audience, but this is actually a pretty mainstream movie for John Waters.
I saw there was DVD available in HMV a couple months back and this made me rent one from Rogers Video. A basically hilarious movie by John Waters. Despite those gossip and nonsense about art, I like Pecker as a cute & happy-go-lucky teenage. Yeah~ and his crappy canon! :-)
Did anybody ever watch Tokyo Biyori which is a Japanese movie based on the true story between Nobuyoshi Araki, yes, the famous Jap photog, and his wife? It's an impressive movie well worth recommending. Besides its story, you'll see a fleet of RF's, from Leica M to Hexar!!! I guess ppl can find it on ebay.
RJBender
02-01-2006, 18:05
http://itchylot.com/ck/ck.furlong1a.jpg
source:http://www.davidtoc.com/ck/modelpix.cfm?Model_ID=85
R.J.
yossarian
02-01-2006, 18:23
"Pecker" (along with "Serial Mom") are the sort of John Waters stuff I really like.
The best serious depictions of photography I've seen in movies is "Z" and "Under Fire".
RJ is right that anyone who loves photography HAS to see "Barry Lyndon". To that I would add "The Third Man", "The Red Shoes", "Night of the Hunter", and even though it's perhaps David Lean's worst film, "Ryan's Daughter", if only for the storm
sequence.
cpranger
02-01-2006, 18:25
After reading this thread we picked up a copy at "half.com" for all of 4 bucks or so including shipping. We liked it. Very goofy in a relaxing way. The way Pecker related to the NY art scene crowd reminds me of the Winograd interview, the link for which I found somewhere else in this forum. And look what he did to that AF Nikon SLR. Ouch!!!!
35mmdelux
02-02-2006, 14:39
Wow, the famous S. Gandy!
I heard you were going to raffle off a ZI w/ 35mm, NOT.
Get back to shipping Bessas!
Regards, Paul
35mmdelux
02-02-2006, 14:41
LOL, LOL! Love that Pecker Calvin Klein foto. LOL.
RJBender
02-02-2006, 14:48
LOL, LOL! Love that Pecker Calvin Klein foto. LOL.
http://www.acuramdx.org/forums/images/smilies/jester.gif http://www.acuramdx.org/forums/images/smilies/biggrinbounce2.gif http://www.corvetteforum.com/images/smilielol.gif
I wonder if the modeling gig was before or after Pecker.
R.J.
35mmdelux
02-02-2006, 14:50
LOL. You guys are killing me.
SergioGuerra
02-02-2006, 14:58
Just saw this movie yesterday, and was a bit deception... I like to see photographers and cameras on movies, but this is just too ridiculous :|
A canonet used in those ridiculous poses, doing stuff that cant happen lol... oh well... even Christina Ricci didnt play very well...
I hope some directors read this little message of mine, and do a real film with cameras :) Maybe a HCB life history? ... just a thought! :)
RJBender
02-02-2006, 15:04
Just saw this movie yesterday, and was a bit deception... I like to see photographers and cameras on movies, but this is just too ridiculous :|
A canonet used in those ridiculous poses, doing stuff that cant happen lol... oh well... even Christina Ricci didnt play very well...
I hope some directors read this little message of mine, and do a real film with cameras :) Maybe a HCB life history? ... just a thought! :)
Sorry,
Did we forget to mention that it was a comedy? http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/images/smilies/dunno.gif
R.J.
SergioGuerra
02-02-2006, 15:17
I didnt laugh :p eheheh
But dont take my critics too seriously :)
RJBender
02-02-2006, 21:03
"Pecker" (along with "Serial Mom") are the sort of John Waters stuff I really like.
The best serious depictions of photography I've seen in movies is "Z" and "Under Fire".
RJ is right that anyone who loves photography HAS to see "Barry Lyndon". To that I would add "The Third Man", "The Red Shoes", "Night of the Hunter", and even though it's perhaps David Lean's worst film, "Ryan's Daughter", if only for the storm
sequence.
Thanks, Fred. The film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072684/) was made 31 years old, long before digital special effects. Kubrick had some 50mm f/0.7 Zeiss lenses (http://www.archiviokubrick.it/english/movies/bl/index.html?main=making) specially adapted for his camera so he could film using candlelight.
lI see a line from Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove made it into your signature.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/images/smilies/beerchug.gif
R.J.
smiling gecko
02-04-2006, 07:53
...in the movie Euro Trip they feature the Leica, but in the lobby at the multi-multi-multi-plex (and also on the poster - i think) they show a contax g2...curiouser and curiouser...
hasta la vista, adieu, dasvidanya,,fino al prossimo tempo, auf wiedersehen, and later y’all
__________________________________
"...patience and shuffle the cards" miguel cervantes
"nothing can be learned" herman hesse
"everybody knows everything" jack kerouac
"some memories are realities and better than anything" willa cather
" doo-wacka doo, wacka doo" roger miller
"we have met the enemy and they is us !" pogo
boilerdoc2
02-21-2006, 07:18
Guess I wasn't in the right 'frame' of mind when I watched Pecker. Actually only watched about 30 minutes and decided to not waste more time. Salvador was intense, as was Bridges.
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