Jesus Camp

“Jesus Camp,”  2006, is a film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, and follows three young children, Levi, Rachael, and Victoria, as they prepare for and attend “Kids on Fire,” an Evangelical Christian summer camp. The film cuts between footage of the camp and a children's prayer conference, a gigantic conference that took place just prior to the camp. The biggest question raised in “Jesus Camp” is whether or not the children attending this camp are being brainwashed. The voice of the director is absent in the film in an attempt to present this community with as little bias as possible.

To me, the film was equal parts hilarious and terrifying. There are multiple references in the film to the children being made into “soldiers of Christ.” In the scenes where this is referenced, we see the children performing strangely militant plays and praying in tongues. Children collapse in tears and vow never to sin again while heavy, tribal music (diagetic) sounds in the background. One of the scariest things to me about this film is the fact that the people running the camp feel secure and justified enough in their lessons and teachings that they see nothing wrong with putting their camp out there for all to see.

Besides the question of brainwashing, “Jesus Camp” also makes us wonder where the line between strict religion and extremism lies.

Parents

“Parents,” 1989, is a film from director Bob Balaban is about ten-year-old Michael Laemle, who lives in suburban Massachusetts in the 1954. His mother is loving and sweet and his father has a high-paying job at “Toxico.” As the film progresses, Michael begins to suspect his parents of cannibalism, and the more he pushes to find out, the more tension he creates with his short-tempered parents. Michael fears his parents more and more until the climax when his parent end up killing each other.

The style employed in “Parents” is unique, comedic, and haunting at the same time. The brand of humor is blunt and dark. For instance, the fact that the chemical plant Michael’s father works at is called “Toxico” is absurd. Also the way Michael’s parents act in the home is so stereotypically 50’s that it borders on being ridiculous. The characters are emotionally unstable with the exception of Michael, who stays impossibly neutral throughout the film. Because of their instability, the characters are unpredictable which interrupts whatever linear plot line might be running throughout “Parents.”

What I found so interesting about “Parents” is that we are given all the facts almost immediately. From the beginning of the film we know that Michael’s parents are cannibals and we know where the meat comes from. Because of this, the film is completely about the characters. However, even though the focus is almost completely on the characters, they are completely and purposely unrelatable, which has great affect in the film. 

Marwencol

“Marwencol” is a documentary by Jeff  Malmberg. The film follows Mark Hogancamp, who after being viciously beaten, sustains brain damage which destroys his fine motor skills. As his own therapy, to work on his fine motor skills as well as deal with and avoid the outside world, Hogancamp constructs an elaborate WWII-era town on a 1/6 scale which he names “Marwencol”. He lives his life as the main character in this town, and is surrounded by action-figure representations of important people in his life. Eventually Hogancamp, “Marwencol,” and his photos are discovered. When the opportunity arises for Hogancamp to show these photos in a prominent New York gallery, the film takes a turn, focusing on Hogancamp’s mental struggle considering making his private, therapeutic world a public entity.

            “Marwencol” is shot in documentary style, and Malmberg’s presence as the director is minimal. I got the feeling as a viewer that Malmberg cultivated a friendship with Hogancamp before the film was shot, because for someone who is generally quite socially inept, Mark seems very comfortable going about his life with the presence of the camera.

            Some of the big questions raised in “Marwencol” are ones that don’t have straight answers. Should art be considered art if the maker doesn’t and has never seen his or her work in that way? Is Malmberg being helped or exploited by putting these photos on exhibition? In conclusion the film offers few answers to the questions it raises. Since the film is a portrait of Hogancamp, there can be no real answers to these questions since he himself is still struggling with them.

"Freaks" Tod Browning

Tod Browning’s “Freaks,” circa 1932, focuses on the affair of Hans, a circus midget, and Cleopatra, a circus acrobat.  Hans falls in love with Cleopatra and she eventually marries him when she finds about his great fortune. The rest of the film chronicles Cleopatra plotting with her true lover, Hercules to murder Hans and inherit his fortune, and what ensues when the other ‘freaks’ hear of their plan.

            Because of the time period and the filmmaking style associated with it, ‘Freaks’ tends to read more like a play than a movie. It relies heavily on dialogue and each scene seems to take place on a fixed set. Most of the sounds in the film are diagetic. Though the plot of the film is very linear, leaving little to the imagination, it is nevertheless haunting. Browning decided to hire actual sideshow performers to act in the film, however, it is hardly this fact that makes ‘Freaks’ so haunting, as generally they are presented as perfectly well-adjusted people given the circumstances. It is their fierce loyalty to each other, leading to the mutilation of Cleopatra and Hercules which has the most impact.

            ‘Freaks’ is a story about love, loyalty, and corruption which speaks more to the absurdity of human greed than the much more obvious strangeness of the sideshow performers who are the main characters.

The Mongreloid by George Kuchar

The Mongreloid runs for about nine minutes. It opens with images of a city. Then,  with Kuchar having a heartwarmingly one sided conversation with his dog, Bocko. He recants stories of their travels and all the people they've met together. He asks Bocko if he remembers salami and pooping all over San Francisco, "America's favorite city". He remembers their trip to lakes and to see a horse, one who didn't take kindly to Bocko. He relates between them what his dog likes, like curling up with Kuchar as he has dinner, and how his dog's aged since taking some of those trips.

It doesn't come off as too much at first, just Kuchar being wonderfully crazy Kuchar, but it seems to be something else as well. Kuchar is observing the passage of time with his dog, a very close friend. Bocko's been in movies with Kuchar, traveled across the United States with him and now they are in his apartment, eating, playing with toys and just talking. Included is still the vibrant big band music that is characteristic with Kuchar, but the imagery isn't any grander than anyone would remember it being. It's used to illustrate what Kuchar is recalling, rather than create something new to remember, which is usually the take of other Kuchar films. The shots are still aesthetically pleasing, colorful and specific, but the tone of the film is different, more reverent.

In Mongreloid, George Kuchar seems to reflect on time both with his usual absurdness and with a tenderness any man would feel towards his dog. All in all, Mongreloid is a lovely film in which Kuchar shows his audience a different, more sentimental side of himself, a screen presence which continues into some of his later video work. It's really rather sweet.

Solo by William Forsyth

Solo is a black and white film running about six and a half minutes. It opens and focuses on a man performing what one can only identify as some kind of modern dance infused with ballet and, occasionally, hip hop. His performance is accompanied by a violin, and an offstage male voice giving the occasional direction.
This seems to be practice for the man. He is on a stage and the accompaniment periodically chimes in, but the audio of the violin does not correspond with nor do they influence the movement of the man.
The light is harsh and the man does not stop moving or talk at all until the very end. As a subject, he is not relatable. He is rather a panting body, flailing and spinning wildly to some kind of internal rhythm.
As well as the violin and the man out of frame, we the audience hear the squeaking the dancer's socks make against the floor upon which he is performing. They clash with the violin enough to make the sounds harmonize.
The sound accentuates the image and the image is pretty clean and dry. Neither overpowers the other. If anything, they compliment one another.

Little Love Directed by Laura Scravano

Little Love is the title of a monologue by Jessica Bellamy. It has also been adapted into a short film, but I am referring to the performance of the monologue itself.
The story is told by a man with blueish green eyes, ones that almost match his shirt. He is much older than someone who would be in school, but he recants a brief school love, a girl called Bat Eyes. She can barely see, but when he insults her, she smacks him hard across the cheek. She then takes him to her room and shares some of herself with him, some of what she can't help but find beautiful. She cannot see but she can feel, touch, smell, hear, and everything is in her room. Every texture, every aroma, everything is in there with the two of them. They are together and suddenly they are not.
Let's start with setting, costuming and casting. The set itself is a bathroom, one within a house or apartment. It has brick walls, tiling, and an oval mirror. Talking to the audience is a pale, blonde australian man around his later twenties. He is likely wearing pants, but all we see is his blue button-up shirt. The light is soft and mostly to one side.
The man himself, we'll call him Adam, recants his story with conviction, the conviction of something that is irrevocably true. He looks into your eyes and relates exactly how it went with him and Bat Eyes, hinting that he misses her both with his body language and his tone.
The monologue mentions a poem, When You Are Old, by William Butler Yates. It comes up several times and is a main thread to the narration. It ties one bead to the next. Wonderfully, the monologue itself is written and recited like a poem, one that's real. There is a live rhythm as well as a lively and convincing actor to play the part of its storyteller.
All of these elements put together do not detract from the story itself. They do this wonderful love story justice in a careful, loving way.

Noctiluca by Hollis Frampton

Noctiluca is a silent film. It's composed of a series of circles resembling the earth's own moon. They are brightly colored, swerve in and out of the frame, and glide behind fencing and mesh as if rising into the night sky.

This film is about three minutes long. As it progresses, the colors shift from blueish purple to more reddish orange hues. As well as a color shift, the circles become more numerous and more frantic within the frame. They pass over each other, flash, disappear and flit in and out of frame with ease. 

The shapes themselves and the things they pass behind directly reference the moon, it seems. Honestly, though, it's disorienting. If there was some kind of distinct time element, like some kind of sound to ground the images, it would be a lot easier to digest overall. 

Russian Rhapsody Directed by Robert Clampett

Russian Rhapsody is more or less a moving political cartoon. It's set in 1944 but is recalling 1941, at a time in which Hitler holds a press conference. Through his thick shouting, he declares he has decided to bomb Moscow personally. as none of his men would be fit enough to do it.

On his plane ride over, tiny Russian gremlins infest his plane and begin to take it apart from the inside out.  They sing, they saw, they destroy, and eventually the Fuehrer catches on and chases them around the cabin. The gremlins saw a hole in the bottom of the plane and he plummets to the ground, his bomber following him. 

In each shot, there is a lot of movement. It's really quite impressive. It's exaggerated of course, but not unbelievably so. 

Also, a great deal of care is given to perspective and camera angles. There are dolly shots and pans up and down, close ups and zoom outs. And this is all just painted sheets of acetate layered atop one another. Granted, there isn't a lot of shadow, but there really is everything else. 

In terms of the sound, much of the music is that characteristic of the big band. It's very grand and kicks in to further the timeline of the story. The dialogue is sarcastic and satirical, cleverly taking jabs at the nazis at almost every turn. All the peripheral sounds(sawing, crashing, banging, etc.) are pretty literal, but still well done. At no point does the sound overpower the image.

In summation, Robert Clampett and his team knew what they were doing. 

Police Car by John Cale

Police Car is about a minute of silently blinking lights. First, one blinks near the bottom right hand corner of the frame. Later, two blink together More towards the middle of the frame, occasionally syncing up.
What's really lovely is the simplicity of these images. They seem pretty deliberate, but also simply observational. There is no personal narrative attached to the police cars' blinking lights.
What's interesting also is the exemption of anything extra. What has blinking lights? Which blink like those? Police cars. Everything but what is necessary is enveloped into darkness. Simple, to the point. Lovely.
Police car is one of many in a series, but even by itself the images are charming in a very quiet, identifiable way.

Puce Moment by Kenneth Anger

Puce Moment runs for about six minutes. The first third of this film is of beaded flapper dresses being taken off a rack one by one. The way they move, they seem to be dancing.
The last dress, a slinky, sequined black number shimmies to the front and takes up the screen. Moments later, it reveals a woman with short dark hair. This woman slips on the dress and a pair of heels. She mists herself with perfume and lays on a long couch. The couch migrates, with the woman perched on top, out to the porch, where the woman is met with three dogs. She breathes in the fresh air, soaks up some sunlight and takes the three dogs for a walk.
In terms of the meaning behind Kenneth Anger's short film, it seems to be more of an observant exploration into glamour. The dresses are glamorous, the woman is beautifully made up, the scenery is picturesque and even the dogs look just plain fancy.
By that token, the audio is just as ornate. While the dresses are being taken off the racks, playing is up beat "folk music". From the applying of the perfume onward seems to be a more mellow version of this.
Puce Moment is rife with color and extravagance, in true Anger style. Everything from the dresses and how they move to the scenery surrounding this house is intricately lavish. All together, this film is just nice to look at.

She Puppet By Peggy Ahwesh

She Puppet is a film which reflects upon the ideas of mortality and identity. It aims to do so by use of voiceovers and footage captured from playing Tomb Raider.
"Why did they give me a kingdom to rule over if there is no better kingdom than this hour, in which I exist between what I was not and what I will not be," says the first voice over.
Laura Croft is then killed a few different ways and drops to the ground, moaning in defeat.
The idea behind this strategy of using digital animation coupled with verbal text is a valid one. The execution is kinda lacking in She Puppet, though. At least a third of this film could be lobbed off and it would likely be stronger. As is, its a mesh of haphazard gameplay clips and an unenthused but culturally diverse group of women reading lines from books aloud to the audience.
Don't take this the wrong way, though. I personally watched this about three and a half times and think there's potential, especially with the text that's chosen. Some of it is really beautifully appropriate. Conversely though, some of both the audio and the image just come off as frayed ends, the part where a train of thought derails into the countryside for a while before returning to the point. They do not adequately give justice to the idea at hand, nor do they advance the film.
To sum up, the idea is more than valid. The raw material is there. The peak though, to me, was just not reached.

Eclipse of the Sun Virgin by George Kuchar

Eclipse of the Sun Virgin opens on an image of Jesus Christ. This fades into a graduation photo of a young George Kuchar. Over these two images is music and a voice over, a woman's voice reciting what sounds like something biblical. "He that shall loose his life for me shall find it. If thou were to be perfect, go sell what thou hast, give to the poor and come follow me."
This then cuts to George Kuchar's character pouring wine into a large mug. He takes a swig then gags on it.
Eclipse of the Sun Virgin seems to jump around a bit, as any good Kuchar film does, but it seems to touch on something throughout the film: the meaning of manhood in the context of sexuality and religion.
Kuchar's character in the film is tied to his mother. One of the first scenes is one of the two playing piano together in the same room. She picks up a photograph of the two of them and sobs over it, as if she has lost him. Kuchar looks over to her with an expression of longing and guilt.
This cuts to Kuchar confronting an attractive young man of a similar age. First the young man turns to him in a bedroom, a silver cross around his neck. Then, in a red button up, the man turns to him again in the bathroom. This shot is repeated a few times throughout the film. The first time, the audio is a heart pounding.
The film continues and Kuchar's character finds himself a girl, a girl who looks like a younger version of his own mother. Kuchar from then on is clad in black and leather and sunglasses in an apparent attempt to renounce his boyhood as well as any inkling of homosexuality that might have been a possibility. At one point, he is sitting with his girl in her bedroom among a crowd of fluffy pink and white stuffed animals in his getup.
What really drives this film with conviction is the attention to detail, particularly in costuming, set design and the audio. Everyone within the film is pretty distinctly put together:
Kuchar is nerdy and feeble, then seems to have been dipped head first into a bin full of motorcyclists.
His mother is in some kind of floral house coat and is topped with a cloud of impossibly orange hair.
The young man he is confronted with is consumed in simple clothes, ones that don't distract from his body and draw attention to it simultaneously. The cross around his neck also challenges the feelings the audience can infer Kuchar's character holds for him.
The young woman he becomes involved with is of a larger build with a larger nose, just like his mother. But she's young, dresses in pink, dons flippy 60's hair and spends time with Kuchar, the time his own mother seems to have lost.
The audio is a mix of biblical verses and 60's pop music. From scene to scene, there are shifts between what seems to be moral, expected and proper and what seems to be fun. There is set of lines which is repeated twice. "We will have exercises to develop charity, oberance and humility and tests to destroy love of self. Two of these tests is the culpa and the penance. The degree of humiliation will tell you how much pride is still alive in you. Only as your pride slowly crumble will you get the first glimpse of true humility." This seems to be speaking directly to Kuchar's character's possible homosexuality as well as the internal conflict it drums up.
The sound and the image work together flawlessly in Eclipse of the Sun Virgin. They together convincingly tell the story of a young man searching for both freedom and recognition while grappling the expectations and restrictions fostered by his upbringing.

Burning Car by Superflex

Burning Car is a nine and a half minute-ish documentary chronicling the stages of a car burning from the inside out. 

A fire is ignited from within the cabin, smoke bellows from the seams between the front and rear doors, the paint bubbles, the tires pop. 

What's striking is not so much what's happening, but how it's captured. Several times, the camera pans across the body of the burning car. Each time it does so, the image is significantly different. The thing itself is degrading pretty quickly. As well as general panning and circling around the car, there are close ups. They emphasize the changes more directly, more viscerally. 

Even so, I as the audience was more fascinated by the process than what it might mean or be trying to say. Why? I think it's because of the sound. With each cut, each angle, the sound shifts slightly. One can tell you're in a different spot somewhere near this burning car. But it's totally irreverent. There are no sentamental undertones, no inkling of a personal connection to this car, the fire pouring out the top or the smoke pluming from the sides. We the audience are just looking. We're watching this car being stripped to the bone by the crackling and popping of fire.  

All in all, Burning Car documents with an eye that is interested but not sappy, which is really quite nice.

Samuel Beckett - Not I (1973)

Imagine being seated in a theater- all the lights go dark- all the exit lights have been removed- even the lights in the bathroom have been taken out- and the doors are locked, so you are there for however long the piece will go on. And then a single spotlight- a single spotlight on a mouth, and all around the mouth is black, and everywhere else in the theater is black, and the mouth starts speaking, frantically, subject matter unclear but implied, with so much intensity and emotion.

This is what Samuel Beckett envisioned for his 1973 production of Not I, starring and introduced by Billie Whitelaw.

Visually, there is only one thing to see- the mouth. And when the mouth is moving in the spotlight and it is the only thing you see, you can begin to see it as a separate entity, not connected to a body at all, but just a mouth. There are so many associations that we have with the mouth- what it does, what it says- the mouth is very powerful. We experience things with our whole bodies but if we want to talk about them we need only the mouth- and when shown alone, without the body, the mouth becomes such an expressive creature. If this piece were presented with the whole body showing, much of our attention would be distracted from the mouth and go to other parts of the body, because the body as a whole has many different expressive elements. However, Beckett wanted only the mouth, only this one small piece of the body, to tell the story.

From the mouth comes sounds- words, rhythms, pitches. In this piece, I find it hard to make out all of the words, even though they are being spoken with the utmost clarity. I believe that it's difficult to make out all of the words because the rhythm and pitch of the voice, not to mention the rise and fall in intensity throughout, are so powerful on their own. They distract from the words, but in a way that definitely adds to the piece.

Beckett has managed to use the mouth and words in ways that pull many dimensions from these things.

If you haven't seen this piece I highly recommend it. It is so brilliantly constructed and executed, with so much coming from what may at first seem to be so minimal. I have found it to be a huge inspiration.

George Landow (Owen Land) - Remedial Reading Comprehension (1970)

Considered to be part of the structural film movement, Owen Land's "Remedial Reading Comprehension" combines found color footage in a manner which does not feel like the real rhythm of watching life, but rather embraces the unreal quality of watching pictures unfold on film. Land is known for embracing the quality of film itself rather than creating a narrative within his pieces.

The pieces begins with a woman's head at the bottom of the screen, and then a green blur appears at the top of the screen. The shot zooms into this blur, implying that the woman is dreaming about it. It stays unfocused and cuts back to the woman. Then it zooms in again and this time comes into focus. The shot transitions away from the green color and into a full color shot of people sitting in a room, presumably about to watch a film. The camera assumes the perspective of the film/screen where people will be watching it. I didn't realize this the first time I watched it, but after watching it a few more times I got the connection between this shot and the rest of the film- A man running, a commercial about rice, sounds of a dog barking, text being thrown at the viewer in flashes with sound to accompany it- and the text, THIS IS A FILM ABOUT YOU... NOT ABOUT IT'S MAKER. Once you really consider those words and watch the film again, you can start to embody the different people in the scenes and realize that everyone could do this on some level.

The film feels much longer than 4:50. Something about the way the images were cut together really made time stretch out for me as I watched it.

George Landow (aka Owen Land) - Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc (1966)

"I didn't want to make films that were narrative. I found the whole traditional narrative approach was really non-visual." - George Landow


This film starts with an image of a Kodak test strip with two photos of a woman, sprocket holes in the middle, dirty film. The sound is perhaps that of a projector running?


After about four minutes of watching, the image is still the same. The sound is also the same, with the exception of a few instances where the ticking sound slows and changes pitch briefly. 


This film is really interesting to be because initially, the sound and image remain seemingly stagnant- yet when experienced for several minutes, patterns and nuances from within the one sound and one image begin to emerge. 


I had an interesting experience about halfway through the film. If you let your senses of sight and sound merge together, your eyes begin matching the little jumps and ticks in the sound to the flickering of the dirt on the screen. They begin to play off of one another and start feeling like one "thing." Not something just visual, not something just auditory, but an experience of combined senses.


After seeing the film, I noted to myself that I would have appreciated if the film was longer. The rhythm of it, with the sound and image meshing, was just getting started for me when the film ended. I would love to see it for an hour or more. I find this kind of viewing experience to be very powerful- it would be very intense as a durational piece. 


Then I read a bit about it and realized that it is intended to be shown in this way, in a loop. I was pleased to read that.


Landow studied painting and was quoted in saying, "I think the films I make are much more related to painting than to film as commonly taught." 


I am excited to watch more of his films. 

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist (2011)

The Artist was shot on color film stock and then drained of the color digitally. I assume that this gave them precise control over the lights and the darks, which were beautiful and rich.

The actors that they chose filled their roles brillantly. If I didn't know that this was filmed present-day, I might assume that it was from the early 1900's. They got the set and costumes right on, and the overall aesthetic of the film felt accurate to the time period that they were going for.

I enjoyed the use of sound throughout the film. I went into the theater thinking it was entirely silent, but was pleasanly surprised by the sparse use of sound. When sound is only used in moderation, is really is accentuated. In addition to the sparsely-interwoven sounds, there were several instances in which the viewer was presented with text to accompany what was going on. I thought that these were well placed and succeeded in telling the story with very minimal verbal cues.

I liked the concept of making a film about making films. It gave an interesting degree of separation from the footage of Peppy and the Artist acting together. In a way, it gave me the feeling that I was more of a personal friend of theirs, watching them go through this time in their lives.

The film was very well edited. I especially appreciated the cuts towards the end where the car was driving to The Artist's house and the shots kept cutting back and forth between him and Peppy. The pacing was just right- it created the perfect amount of suspense for the scene.

Gunvor Nelson - My Name is Oona (1969)

In My Name is Oona, the juxtaposition of the sound and image was truly brilliant- From the start, the way that the two were fighting, mingling, giving and taking- it was incredibly complex and very moving. 

The following are the notes I took while viewing the film for the second time:

Begins with a shot of Oona's face

Goes into her name being rhythmically repeated over highly overexposed, thick foliage

White greatly overpowers black

Double exposure of her face over trees- At this same time, the music begins to be overlayed

Black starts to overpower white in the image

A honking sound is added to the soundtrack and the scene flashes to Oona running

She is getting faster, spinning around

The soundtrack grows increasingly chaotic

The scene turns to Oona spinning around with another young child- It looks young and innocent at the same time as looking animal, mature

The soundtrack switches back to just a repeated "Oona" as her child voice comes in saying the days of the week...

Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday... Friday

Scene flashes to Oona walking her white horse away

The days continue to be spoken

A man's deep, serious, and informative voice comes in in the background, but his words are unclear

Still, "Oona" is repeated as the childlike voice says the days of the week

Oona is brushing her horse

The child voice says "Tuesday" -pause- giggle- pause "Tuesday

A faraway voice begins to say My name is Oona... MMMMMY name is Oona... repeated again and again and again

The days of the week are said again and Oona is riding her horse

The lighting looks like a breaking dawn

Oona looks dreamlike and carefree- she is wearing a cape as she rides her horse and it is shimmering as it flies in the breeze

As the audio becomes increasingly chaotic, Oona rides her white hrose in her white cape into the bright sunlight- this is the part that really got me. The image was so beautiful, so serene with so much optimistic life, and the soundtrack is getting darker and darker and darker. The image looks to be at a stopping point- when I first saw the film, I nearly expected it to end there- around 6:32.

Instead of ending, the image comes on again, getting darker now in the lighting to accompany the darkening soundtrack- it is extremely uncomfortable and eerie, the word becoming not words but noise.

To counter this auditory climax, Oona is now riding her horse calmly- it is no longer galloping away- it is walking calmly through the woods. 

The densely layered soundtrack which has built until this point cuts to a soft woman's voice singing- Oona is again running around, on a black background this time, on her legs instead of on her horse, her white cape shimmering.

What really makes this film work for me is CONTRAST- within both image and sound, and of the two together. The pacing of this contrast feels natural, yet succeeds in this without being predicable.

Roman Polanski - Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown was filmed in the 1970's but set in the 1930's in Los Angeles. JJ Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, is a private investigator who gets entangled in a murder mystery with costar Faye Dunaway at the center. 

I was focused intently on the color of the film throughout- it begins with a palette of primarily reds, blues, and yellows. As the mystery begins to unfold, the scenes move to interiors in sepia tones. This change in color brilliantly reflects the change in mood and allows the viewer to get a feeling for what's happening before they are even really told what is happening. The scene cuts to an outdoor scene of primarily green, and then folds back into a layered palette with an emphasis on the color purple. The film continues in this fashion, with the colors matching the mood perfectly. 

I'm very interested in this use of color to match the mood- Color can have a profound effect on the viewer, as it registers in the subconscious part of our brain, allowing us to make connections and draw conclusions before we are even given any actual information. 

The screenplay, done by Robert Towne, was awarded "Best Original Screenplay." The film moved gracefully from scene to scene, and the cinematography was very creative and very successful. I particularly noticed a few times when the movement was captured through reflection in a secondhand source- a mirror, the lens of a camera. I found this to be very interesting, giving the viewer a kind of second-hand viewing experience. Rather than viewing the scene directly, you see it reflected, making one ponder- what would you see differently if you were to see the scene directly? What do we miss when we only see a small sliver of motion? What does the mind do to fill in these gaps?

The neonoir film, layered in mystery and drama, is paced well and presents answers to the questions it poses gradually, keeping the viewer entangled in the story to the end.

Jorge Furtado - Ilha das Flores (1989)

The Isle of Flowers is simultaneously informative, evocative, and amusing. It follows the life of a tomato and the places it goes, all the way to the landfill, and shows the people it comes into contact with along this journey.

The name, "The Isle of Flowers," comes from the name of the dump in Brazil. This title is ironic because it hints to the viewer that they might be seeing a film about something beautiful. In reality, this piece has a much darker tone. Through images and words, the film interweaves shots of the dump, shots of where the waste origintates, shots of the typical American family and how they are tied to this waste, and does this in a way that draws connections between all of these things.

The language used is simple yet potent, and often sounds as though they are speaking about something scientific.

The thing that I found to be the most satisfying about this film is the way that it ties together information from every "subject" that a student would study in school and juxtaposes it in ways that force the viewer to make connections that they may not have made on thier own. This film should be required viewing for middle school aged students everywhere. This film does a fantastic job of bringing awareness to issues that many people do their best to avoid.

It is a portrait of our society, told in bold images and dry, honest words. The content is at times hard to come to terms with, but this is necessary in order to really get across the point of showing the connections between all of these different levels of humanity. Some parts of life are beautiful, some not so much.

This film has succeeded in creating a portrait of connections in society and of showing some of the often-ignored truths in a way that is hard to forget.

Mark Leckey - Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999)

Mark Leckey has created this fifteen minute piece using a mix of original and found footage.

The movement within the frames and the way that he spliced them together to have continual movement as the image shifts was to me the most moving part of this piece. There were many times thoughout the film where the image changes but the movement continues. For example, at 1:48 a man is spinning around and then the frame cuts to another man spinning in the same motion, and then to another. This continuation of movement passed from human to human draws an interesting connection between the movements of all humans- there are a number of movements that we all make and that can be spliced together to make a continual moving figure even though the actual person changes.

The variety of footage was impressive. Leckey managed to find or film at least twenty different disco scenes that all had very unique  properties and their own individual aesthetic. Even though the subject matter stayed the same, the feel of each scene varied greatly.

The stopped frames throughout the film really tied it all together for me. Since there was so much movement in the people in the film, the scenes in which the movement stopped for a moment and froze on a person's face gave me time to reflect on the images I'd seen and connect the movements of all of the people combined through that one face, that one personality. These scenes made me feel more personally connected to the people in the shots. Had these shots not been included, there would have remained a much greater gap between the viewer and the masses of people in the scenes.