Film as a Subversive Art//Hiroshima Mon Amour

There are elements of Hiroshima Mon Amour that undermine "normal" narrativity. The use of flashbacks play with not only the two characters' perceptions of time and the viewer's perception of time but of the construction of time itself. Flashbacks of the affects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and to the beginning of the lover's relationship disoriented me. An effect of turning backwards actually unsettled any certainty of or for the future. This obliteration of linear time is surrealistic. The bombing of Hiroshima and the war overwhelmingly signify "the reality of a civilization in decline"(Film as a Subversive Art). The film is about personal anxiety (about the self, memory -the importance of remembering) that mirrors anxiety about past events happening again and anxiety about forgetting. In Film as a Subversive Art, Vogel writes "perhaps the most 'shocking' aspect of surrealism is that its imaginary nightmares and monstrous projections of the unthinkable have in our day become realities." I think that this realization is truly the most terrifying; furthermore, these horrific events and traumas affect our own states of being, thoughts, emotions and relationships with other people, as we can see in Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Made in 1959, the kind of sexual and love relationship the man and woman had was a taboo subject. In the beginning of the movie the lovers speak to each other so intimately that I thought they had been familiar for a long time (whatever that means). It was later shown that they had met only the day before.
I do not know if this day-long sexual/love relationship, between a French woman and a Japanese man, was "forbidden", but I also think that at the time the film was made, the relationship was not widely acceptable. It is eventually made clear that what is happening between them can be only a brief affair. The movie is honest about love -it opposes the illusion that it means only pleasure. Love here is lonely, incomplete and ephemeral.

There is another kind of breaking apart of reality in terms of characters. Their "difference" is emphasized by their talking about their hometowns, hers is called Nevers, his is Hiroshima. They once refer to each other by the names of their hometowns. For him Nevers is a vague unknown image. Hiroshima for her is similarly difficult to comprehend (especially the city he grew up in compared to the city after the bombing). Issues the characters deal with are (I'm sure there are many more I'm not including in this brief list): loss of identity (of origin), confusion with memory, and the painful apprehension of the future.

Un Chien Andalou

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí 1929.

I wanted to write about this film that we saw in one of our first classes, now that the discussion of subversive film is open.

This is a black and white surreal film of 19 minutes, which represents an exploration of the irrational state. It is meant to offend and it has shocking elements in it. This is actually Luis Buñuel first film work, and acclaimed to be one of his bests.

This surreal piece was part of the dada movement, which at the same time happens at the European Avant Garde period. Dadas and Surrealists were against WWI, the bourgeois, and rules in general, the logic and the rational, so their work was a critique and response to these.

The story behind this film is that Dalí and Buñuel once meet to eat, and they told each other about their dreams. Buñuel's dream was about a cloud slicing the moon, and Salvador's was about ants coming out of a hand; so they agreed to collaborate and make a film about those dreams, where the only rule was not to include anything that was logical or rational.

The film starts with Buñuel himself looking at the moon as in his dream, and then slicing a woman's eye infront of the camera. This image was extremely shocking considering the time period it was made. It was like "a rape of the eye" as the author Covey stated.

This film explores the subconscious; it has narrative units that can be discerned and distinguish in the film by having a tittle, front credits, and several inter titles. This film also explores themes as gender, dreams, morbid curiosity, violence, violation and love. It is a satire that makes fun and references western culture, but is meant to be agressive, mean and insulting.

Fact: About this film Buñuel said "nothing in this film symbolizes anything", but I think that that is just bullshit.

Down with Love

This weekend I watched Down with Love, a 2003 comedy directed by Peyton Reed, starring Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger.  I thought this movie was hilarious!  In the film, McGregor and Zellweger take part in a love-hate relationship involving loads of chocolate and false identities.  The sexual tension in this movie is incredible.  Although there aren't actually any sex scenes in the movie (I'm pretty sure both characters remain completely clothed) the puns and style of the film build up the audience's anticipation for all 101 minutes.  I especially enjoyed the costumes and set designs of this film.  While the outfits certainly mimic stereotypical garb from the early 1960s, everything has been pushed just a step further.  Dresses and furniture are vibrant colors which create a magazine-like feel.  Indeed, everything about this movie pushes the envelope, from the saturated colors, to the double entendre dialogues, to the film's ridiculous plot line.  I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a less cliche romantic comedy.

Forget Me Not (2010)

As most of the romantic movies are full of beautiful places, and since is base in London with many of the tourist places too. Such as, the London Eye, London bridge and so on. However, during one of the two shots you can actually see how the camera is moving because of the machine they were on.

The first is when shooting the two main characters, from the pervious cart of London Eye. It is a huge machine which movies in the certain pattern so it will remain comfortable, but through this moving cart you can actually see how the camera shot is also moving slightly up and down with London Eye.

There is another shot of London Bridge from a distance to capture the either morning or evening view with sun light beautifully behind the bridge. But it seems like the camera was place it on the lift machine, and when the machine moves from top to button, the camera also shacks with the machine.

Sherlock (2010 - Now) / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984 - 1994)

Sherlock Homes is not an unfamiliar character for many long years since the book, with great cases of mystery crimes. Over the years, Sherlock Homes have been on television series with new versions and updated. However, the basic idea of the characters involve has not been changed very much between the version, since 1984’s and the most modern on Sherlock.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were shot on films using the technique such as double explore when the scene is going from one to another location; also close the lens until it goes dark. Although the story is famous as being a mystery with a bit of fear, mostly are delivering through the music or the pace of conversation. Over all it is still consider mellow compare to the newer version.

Because of the modern pace is much faster with the technology that is available for today, such as cell phone and transportations. It is a replacement for the letters, but with shorter and direct conversations, and much faster cars. The cuts are much shorter to create the nervousness in the case, with music which slightly high pitch to get attention. Double exposure were also often used, but it is digital so more of words the images popping out in the air.

The brilliance about the new version is adding the new technology without distorting the expectation for Sherlock Holmes, and the preciseness of science is also heavily involve as old version of it.

Film as a Subversive Art

Reading the sections from Film as a Subversive Art, I was struck most by a paragraph in the book's introduction in which the author states, "[it is a] strange tribute to the faculties of a brain more affected by two-dimensional reflections on a flat canvas than by live actors performing in three-dimensional space."

In my own life I have certainly experienced the seductive power of screens.  Sitting with friends, it is far too easy to zone out of a conversation and focus instead on the muted television show playing in the back corner.  Show, or sports game, or even a commercial.  In truth, I actually watch very little television;  I don't remember a time when I have been more interested in a tv than in the person sitting across from me.  And yet, again and again my eyes are drawn the the glowing screen with moving colors.  I don't know what it is about screens that sucks me in, but it saddens me that an inanimate object can hold a viewer's attention so fixedly, when a fellow human being cannot.

I believe it is this magnetism of the screen that enables viewers to become so transfixed by films in a way that is not possible (or at least not common) in a situation with live actors.  The lure of that brilliant rectangle has an ability to attract my eye like no other.  However, saying all this I still love plays.  I have thoroughly enjoyed school productions, broadway musicals, and off-broadway Shakespeare.  In restaurants I purposefully sit with my back to the television, so that I will not be distracted from the conversations at hand.  It's not that I find activities on screen to be more interesting than the actions of real people, it's simple that I cannot resist at least a glance at that luminous machine.

Moonrise Kingdom

This week I went to see Moonrise Kingdom for the second time.
I'm going to talk about two things that I felt more strongly seeing the movie again -that made me think about what kind of world was created, whose world is it -whose perceptions frame it?

A camera work element that reinforced the feeling of a child's world(or a twelve year-old's world) or that it is a constructed world (with a system of rules and a power dynamic where the parents form the household and the children have to either work within their domain or escape it) was the introductory sequence of tightly composed panning shots of Suzie's house. For many shots the only people seen are Suzie and her three younger brothers occupying the spaces without their parents. Because of the panning, the space feels wider, and due to compositional choices interior images were shortened (not views of entire floor to ceiling). This series of shots makes the house look much more like a set than a house. The use of saturated primary colors and New England beach house style made the space in this sequence feel like a doll house -pristine and miniature. I think this effect works in terms of the film's narrative and what we learn about the two runaways -not fitting in at home or at camp and escaping to find a space of their own.

Another example of film technique helping to shape a unique world of the characters is shots framed by the black silhouette of Suzie's binoculars throughout the film. A little bit into the film we learn that Suzie carries her binoculars with her everywhere. When she wears them she feels that she possesses a magic power -another form of escape from home and school. This use of the binoculars to literally shape a shot aligns with my ideas about whose point of view the film expresses. At least partially, the film shows Suzie's way of seeing the world.

The richness and uniqueness of the movie's mise en scene, for example the simplified, sculpted Social Services' hair and clothing, make more sense if considered as a configuration of Suzie or Sam's individual perceptions and experiences.

Late Spring

This weekend I watched the film Late Spring, directed by Yasujiro Ozu.  Late Spring is a black and while Japanese film from 1949.  It tells the story of a father a daughter in post war Japan.  The daughter, Nori, is 27 years old and her aunt, father, and friends all feel it is time for her to marry.  However, Nori is extremely close to her father and fears that marriage would separate the two of them.  Throughout the film, Nori's father encourages her to accept the arranged marriage that her aunt proposes.  Although the father knows he will be incredibly lonely without his daughter, he wants Nori to create her own family and move on with her life.

The style of this film was very different than that of American movies I have seen from the same time period.  The most noticeable difference for me was the pace of the movie.  Although the scenes with dialogue kept a quick pace, there were many scenes of people walking, performers, or trains which flowed quite slowly and focused more on the aesthetics of the scene than the film's plot.  

Pictures from Revere Beach

Hi guys!

I thought that today's class was really awesome.

Going to Revere Beach came out so much better than I thought it would be, plus we had great weather and a beautiful day.

I took some pictures of the experience of going there to film, I want to share them with you.

I hope you like them.

Valeska!

Woyzeck

This week I watched a German film called "Woyzeck".  "Woyzeck" is one of five films created by the director Werner Herzog and staring Klaus Kinski as leading actor.  In this film Woyzeck, a soldier, has sold himself into experimentation with the army's doctor in order to earn money for his wife and son.  These experiments abuse Woyzeck both physically and mentally, so that the soldier is on the verge of going insane.  When Woyzeck begins to suspect that is wife, Marie, is having an affair, his suppositions plunge him into a downward spiral ending in mental collapse and murder.

Several parts of this film reminded my of Shakespearean plays, especially at the end of the film when Woyzeck, who has just stabbed Marie to death, struggles to hide his dagger and rise the blood stains from his clothes.  This scene of Woyzeck, shot with Marie's dead body in the foreground, seems to allude to Macbeth, both with the dagger and with Woyzeck's German version of "out out damn spot!"  I also thought it was interesting how frequently Kinski looks directly into the camera.  This technique creates a monologue feel within the movie, much like the monologues in Shakespeare's plays.  I found this style rather disarming.  Whereas most movies seem to exist in a world unto themselves, Kinski and Herzog reach out to their viewers when when Woyzeck makes eye contact with the film's audience.

The Winslow Boy by David Mamet (1999)

The Winslow Boy (1999) is base on a play, which was written by Terence Rattigan in 1946; this play is also base on a true story in 1910, England. Through out the film, camera has been steady as the characters appear in the story. Because the movie is base on a play, the accent of a play is greatly used in the director’s presenting to audience. And because the movie is base on a play, the tone of conversations becomes one of the most important elements to decide how close the shot would be.

When characters are having more private conversations, the camera would become a very close shot toward the speaking actor seems if they are whispering towards each other. With less private conversations would present with more background for audience to be more aware of the location.

In the film, when characters are inside of the Winslow House, tend to have closer shots than being outside in the garden shots. Personally believe it is because of the layout at the time’s houses, are usually design with many small rooms rather than few big spaces; which fits the eye for audiences if they are watching a play.

Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki

Howl's Moving Castle is an animated film. I am still going to write about it, even though I am not certain if it fits the requirements of the blog. I have decided to write about it because seeing it on a big screen in an actual movie theatre gave me a new perspective on the film.
I saw it on Sunday night at the Brattle Theatre, and it was shown on film -rather dirty film.

I think seeing this movie in a theatre full of its fans transformed the film for me. When I saw it for the first time this past winter, I was with my friend in front of a television screen.
So, the theatre space affected my experience watching the film especially because other people were laughing -it made me feel more connected to the movie and to the concept of the film as a living, pulsing event that occurs in a time and space and will end. I felt contained in a community of an engaged audience, contained in the dark room, in my seat. This containment was immersing -I'm conceiving of it as a positive thing, expansive, not limiting.

An intriguing element of Howl's Moving Castle were the combining of realistic skies (clouds especially -looked like they were filmed from life, not drawn) with layers of colors, swirling galaxies of colors. Sequences with this effect were often transitional, about movement, showing time moving and the characters' traveling (also could be symbolic of the characters' personal development). I think it was the most abstract imagery I saw. I like that a film that was adapted from a book, so it has a strong plot and narrative element, but it still uses certain unexpected abstract images that depart from a simply narrative film.

Another example of unexpected visuals was the decorations of Howl's bedroom. Toys and other objects (mechanical or unidentifiable doo-dads) had either slight movement or rotated slowly. It seemed that all of the objects twinkled. They were primarily glimmering pinks, greens and metallics. My sight was completely drawn to the decorative objects' subtle motion and their reflection of bright light. I did not pay much attention to the scene's dialogue. This element and other rich, exciting images made me wonder about the significance of grand, fantastical imagery for the movie -how much meaning does it add to the film, in terms of the plot and characters? Does the spectacle of the film add to its narrative meaning?