Children of Men
I have seen Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men twice now. Before I sat down to watch it the first time I did not realize the film was made by Cuaron, one of my favorite directors.
Describe one moment from Children of Men in detail.
Characters:
· Theo Faron (Clive Owen): Protagonist
· Nigel (Danny Huston): Theo’s cousin. Government official. Keeper of the Ark of the Arts program, an attempt by the government to rescue as many well renowned pieces of art as possible.
Moment:
Theo and Nigel are standing at a window at Nigel’s house. The window is just a wall comprised almost entirely of glass. The men are facing each other.
A smirk appears on Theo’s face to which Nigel asks “what?”
Theo responds, “You kill me. In 100 years there won’t be one sad fuck to look at this,” gesturing at the works of art scattered in the room, the camera does not move however.
Theo continues, “What keeps you going?”
“You know what it is Theo?” Nigel responds, “I just don’t think about it.” Nigel then gestures back out toward the window.
Outside is a bleak scene. It is heavily polluted, so that you can hardly make out the buildings. Directly outside of Nigel’s glass wall is an old slaughterhouse, above which floats a gigantic blimp of a pig.
Music:
Playing in the background is King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King.”
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HUGO
I have seen Martin Scorsese’s Hugo two times now. In my second viewing I noticed many more things than in my first viewing.
One thing I noticed was Scorsese’s use of technology to create illusion and manipulate reality.
· In Hugo, there is a sense of all of these characters being confined within their own stories. The side characters play no important role in Hugo’s story. They are mostly confined to their own lives and yet the commonality between all of the characters is being confined to the train station.
o Toward the end of the opening sequence, Hugo is peering out through the clock’s mechanics at all of the side characters and their stories, as if the spectator at the movies. The camera then moves and is a POV shot of Hugo staring out at the digital rendering of Paris, as if to suggest a vast unfamiliar world for Hugo. Finally, the camera cuts and is now outside of the clock tower, looking in at Hugo, which to me plays further into this idea of being stuck inside this world.
· More to this idea of being stuck of confined behind digital worlds
o When Isabella trips and fall into a large crowd that is walking in the opposite direction of her, the camera cuts to a shot looking straight above her lying on the ground. At first, the shot is just of Isabella as she tries to get up, but then there is a very short shot added in of Isabella underneath glass trying to get out while people continue to walk over her.
· Hugo is constantly peering out through grates, vents, and clock mechanics.
· Choice of Jude Law – He plays a robot in A.I.
· Constantly alluding to magic, including the some of the cast.
o The Librarian – the actor play a character in The Lord of the Rings
o The Couple with the dogs – both actors appeared in Harry Potter films
o Mama Jean – appeared in a Harry Potter film
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A Single Man:
Cinephiliac Moments in Tom Ford’s
· The scene at the bar with George and Kenny – I could not stop staring a Kenny’s fuzzy white sweater throughout this entire scene.
o I could almost feel the process that went into choosing that specific sweater.
o He was completely dressed in white as though a symbol of innocence.
· The countless amount of trinkets that Charley had displaced in her home. She is a very superficial representation of women.
· The poster for Psycho at the liquor store George pulls into. It is the same liquor store where George encounters a Spanish James Dean. This lighting in this scene is in stark contrast with most of the rest of the film.
· The lighting of the two cigarettes by George – taken from Irving Rapper’s 1942 film, Now, Voyager.
· On the film’s poster, George and Charley are lying down side by side, each looking in different directions. George is wearing the thick black-framed glasses he wore throughout the entire film while Charley has thick black eyeliner drawn all the way around her eyes.
· The very obvious Bridgette Bardot look-a-like in Kenny’s friend.
· The choice of Jon Hamm as the man who calls George and informs him of Jim’s accident.
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The Prestige
I have now seen Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige twice:
· The first time I was thirteen. I know I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but I am pretty sure I did not picked up on Nolan’s stylistic traits.Because I noticed many more things on the second viewing it was as though I was watching the film for the first time, aside from the ending of course.
Examples of Nolan’s hand:
· Cinematography - Nolan has been using Wally Pfister to photograph his films since Memento. Pfister’s photography aids Nolan’s film in immense ways.
o The tone of the photography together with Nolan’s non-linear direction in the films Memento and The Prestige resulted an imitation of the running mind. The way human beings process information.
§ Memento - when they have lost a bit of their memories and are trying to find them as quickly as possible.
§ The Prestige – the act of trying to figure out a complex magic trick.
As much as I like Scarlett Johnasson, I think she was the weakest link in this film. By the time she is introduced into the film, Bale and Jackman’s characters have already showed us what falling in love or being in love looks like. Rebecca Hall, who plays Sarah Boden, gives a particularly strong performance and completely upstages Johansson’s character and performance. Maybe that was the point.
Overall, I really like The Prestige and believe that it is a good example of Nolan’s obvious storytelling skill.
Also, two things that the general spectator got from this film:
· Michael Cane’s fantastic delivery of the film’s opening and closing lines.
· The opposite sides of the coin duo of Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johnasson in Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona.
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Melancholia
I have seen Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia twice now. The first time, I found myself having to justify to many people why and how I could enjoy such a film and thus began to second-guess my initial reaction. After viewing it for a second time, I can honestly say I really do like this film and a few things in particular stood out to me.
· The Cinematography and the Setting – the colors in Melancholia are deeply saturated, almost as though not real.
· The opening montage, which puts out on the table right away that a planet is in fact going to crash into Earth.
o It is in extreme slow motion – I think this opening shot sequence allows the audience to put away any preconceived notion they may have about Kirsten Dunst. We are used to Dunst playing a kind of flowery, girly girl, with the exception of The Virgin Suicides.
§ Kirsten Dunst does a fantastic job in this film, as do all the actors. She completely encapsulates this multi-dimensional depressed human being.
· Part One:
o Although there is no back story when part one opens on a seemingly happy newly married couple, the progression of events at their reception lend the audience insight into Justine’s depression and an assumed back story.
o Part one is actually kind of funny – the father character with his spoons.
o Having been to a few weddings before, this depiction was pretty spot on.
· Part Two:
o Takes place the day following the reception. After the guests have gone home we are left with the four central characters, John, Claire, Justine, and John and Claire’s son Leo. This part is the majority of the film and is used to completely deconstruct these four characters and how they react to this idea that a rogue planet could collide with them.
o In part one Justine’s family is keeping it together for Justine and her guests while Justine has basically lost her mind. She sleeps with a stranger during the event somewhere off on the property. In part two however, Justine’s depression has turned into a sort of apathy. Claire, on the other hand, begins to freak out and ultimately John commits suicide when he realizes that the planet is in fact going to collide with Earth.
Over all, I think Lars Von Trier portrayed depression in an extremely captivating way in Melancholia. I will say that the premise and the title of both the film and the planet are a bit heavy handed.
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The Hurt Locker
3 Moments in The Hurt Locker that portray war/violence/death:
The death of Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson
a. Shot in slow motion. Crisp.
b. Documentary esque filming style.
c. Filmed in a documentary esque style. The lighting is very natural. It’s crisp and visceral. Conveys a sense of urgency.
d. Quick cuts capture different angles of the same event further conveys a documentary feel.
e. Long shots when a soldier goes into battle gives the spectator almost security or relief of being far from battle. Conversely, extreme close ups, particularly when Sgt. James defuses a bomb, make the audience sweat. You feel antsy, like you need him to get out of there as soon as possible.
The Taxi Scene and Bomb Defuse scene in which Sergeant James takes off his gear before beginning
a. Documentary esque filming style.
b. Filmed in a documentary esque style. The lighting is very natural. It’s crisp and visceral. Conveys a sense of urgency.
c. Quick cuts capture different angles of the same event further conveys a documentary feel.
d. Long shots when a soldier goes into battle gives the spectator almost security or relief of being far from battle. Conversely, extreme close ups, particularly when Sgt. James defuses a bomb, make the audience sweat. You feel antsy, like you need him to get out of there as soon as possible.
Viaggio in Italia
1st Order: Denotation
· About one-fourth into Roberto Rossellini’s Viaggio In Italia there is a shot, during the scene when Catherine and Alexander first bring up the notion of divorce, which I thought should be mentioned. The shot, which starts at 36:36 and lasts until about 37:00, frames the married couple at their hotel room window. They have just returned from a party for their late uncle and are arguing about how each other seemed to be having a good time at the party. The shot begins from behind Catherine so that you see her back and a slight profile and Alexander’s face. Alexander then moves, still in frame, around Catherine so that he is in the foreground. He stays there for a couple of seconds, and then walks out of the shot so that all we see is Catherine who is standing in front of the window, facing the camera. The framing of Catherine in this shot, however, allows us to see Alex’s reflection in the window behind her.
2nd Order: Connotation
· The blocking in this shot is pertinent in understanding the cultural and specialized codes.
o Cultural Codes:
§ This is the first audible notation of separating. Their trip to Italy had been tense and brought realizations to both Alexander and Catherine that maybe they don’t know each other after eight years of marriage. Alexander makes the break. He leaves the shot first, initiating the separation.
o Specialized Codes:
§ When the couple is first at the window they are side by side but we can’t see all of Catherine’s face. Because Alex is facing the camera, we are first going to empathize with Alex. Every movement in this shot is critical in how the audience understands and relates to how the couple first splits. Alex walks around Catherine into the foreground – implying there is a possibility for a separation – but he is still in the shot, close to her. When he finally leaves the frame that lingers on Catherine the spectator understands that Alex made the leap, he has essentially given up on their relationship. We can also see this in Catherine’s facial expression. And yet, because we can still see his reflection in the window, the audience can still have hope in their relationship.
3rd Order: Myth Production
§ Predominately Heterosexual Relationships.
§ The man must initiate the idea of divorce or separation in a marriage.
§ It is up to the other person in a marriage to make you happy.
§ Happiness can only be found in relationships
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Psycho
· Moments of Significance
o Hitchcock is able to build tension and anxiety through Marion in the scene where she is sitting at the red stop light after just stealing the money. This scene is so effective that the viewer becomes paranoid with Marion.
o Hitchcock kills his heroine less than half way through the film.
§ This must have been a really visceral shock for audiences at the time. Much like how we felt when the Cohen brothers killed off their hero very early in No Country for Old Men.
o The editing done for Marion’s death scene seemed to accentuate her fear and let the viewer feel it right alongside her.
The Grapes of Wrath
What moments are purely cinematic?
- Extreme long shots that reveal breathtaking images.
- Effective use of shadows and silhouettes throughout the film. Mostly in the first act.
- Opening shot, which introduces Tom walking in a direction the viewer is not yet let in on.
* The opening shot of Buffalo 66 is a long shot of a prison and then cuts to Vincent Gallo walking in a shot very similar to that of GOW.
- Scene where Tom first bumps into the preacher is very similar to a scene in Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot.” In it, one of the two main characters is sitting in front of a dead tree with one shoe off of his foot. Coincidence?
- Depth of field is used in almost every scene. Framing of shots allowed this. From street signs being very close to the camera as the Joad’s truck drove away, to the scene when Tom decides to leave and his mother is standing close to the camera as he walks further and further away.
- Montage using flashbacks was an effective form of exposition.
- Grandfather dies very suddenly.
- Film with epic proportions.
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Midnight in Paris
o Portray people as close to reality as possible.
o Document movement.
o People seem more willing with film than with any other art form to be taken on the filmmaker’s journey and accept what they see to be true.
The opening sequence of shot is the most accurate perception of Paris in the entire movie.
o Woody Allen’s Paris is a romantic one. Allen portrays his Paris with the words of his character Gil and on screen. He never lets the audience glimpse at anything which contradicts Gil’s point-of-view.
I find it interesting that Gil is the only person in the movie, during present time, who sees Paris as the most wonderful city in the world. A place for inspiration, romance, and art. Even though many of the characters express less than enthusiastic feelings for the city, Woody Allen only lets us see Gil’s perspective or delusion.
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Masculin, Feminin
· By filming conversations between characters from non-traditional angles, Godard is able to capture the setting that surrounds the characters on screen.
o I don’t think Godard uses the shot/reverse/shot technique once in Masculin, Feminin.
§ The exception may be in an early scene where Paul is reminding Madeleine that it’s the 23rd. She had told Paul that she would go out with him on the 23rd.
· Although the scene is comprised of shots back and forth between Paul and Madeleine, it is always from the spectators point-of-view.
o In the opening scene and many times later, Godard has the camera on one of the main characters and either cuts, tracks, or pans to reveal situations in the sidelines, usually involving someone being shot or stabbed.
· Film is shot in 15 scenes, long and short, and each one is introduced with a different title.
o Opening title, which is the same as the movie’s, appears broken up between shots. The word masculin is split up into three syllables that appear on the screen separately and in succession, while the word feminin is whole and neatly comprised within one shot.
o Another title “We are the children of Marx and Coca-Cola,” could very well summarize much of the film’s theme.
· Godard's style of directing captures the youth of the late sixties. The film is propelled by Godard’s erratic storytelling.
· Conflict between old and new.
o With the attempts of flicking a cigarette in his mouth every chance he gets and asking a woman in a café for sugar just so he can brush his hand across her breasts, Paul presents a naivety.
§ And yet Paul seems to represent an opposition to a modern age.
§ The first time Godard breaks the “fourth wall,” is in a scene that opens with Paul staring directly into the camera.
· Reveals that Paul may not be as naïve as he seems? Gives the audience some insight on Paul’s character?
§ While most of the characters are concerned with names like Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Paul seems completely unaware of the modern artists of the time.
· This is reinforced when he plays a classical record for one of the female characters.
· Side Note: Tarantino pays tribute to Godard’s techniques. For example, in Pulp Fiction Tarantino uses a similar unconventional and nonlinear form of story telling.
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