Summer Journal #10

M

Movie: 1931, b/w, 117min

Director: Fritz Lang

Actors: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann and Inge Landgut

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

What role does sound play in M?

In Fritz Lang’s M sound plays a very important role in culminating meaning to the film. The film has both dialogue and silent sequences that are complemented by music of sound effects. Lang treats the sound as if he were editing the visuals. When we are introduced to the murder we speak to Elsie, a young girl who is visible but we only hear the conversation he has with her, we don’t see him. We see his shadow on a poster that is in fact his wanted poster, a brilliant trick on Lang’s part. All of the scenes rely wholly on sound for continuity. 

Summer Journal #9

Wild Strawberries

Movie:  1957, b/w, 91 min. (Sweden)

• Director:  Ingmar Bergman

Actors: Victor Sjöström

Bibi Andersson

Ingrid Thulin

• Gunnar Björnstrand

Tiny synopsis: A bitter aging professor has come face to face with the reality of the emptiness of his life.

What is the theme of Wild Strawberries?

The theme of Wild Strawberries is about how life can become sort of withered and shrunken, a bit dull and uncreative, something that is habit from generation to generation. Bergman’s kind of message about this is kind of ironic and humorous even though the film is far from that sort of tone. What Bergman is saying is that in almost any case in which this empty life theory is applicable to a person, the person has no idea it is happening to them.

What triggers Isak’s journey of self-recognition?

The trigger of Isak’s self-recognition journey is the coincidental pairing of Marianne, Isak’s daughter-in-law and himself in the car for a long journey in which Marianne confronts him of his values and family traditions. Her honest confrontation sets off this realization that his life is in fact vacant and dull.

Summer Journal #8

La Dolce Vita

Movie: 1960, b/w, 180 minutes

Director: Frederico Fellini

Actors:

Marcello Mastroianni

Anita Ekberg

Anouk Aimée

Yvonne Furneaux

Magali Noël

Alain Cuny

Nadia Gray

Lex Barker

Annibale Ninchi

Walter Santesso

Jacques Sernas

Nico

Valeria Ciangottini

Adriano Celentano

Journalist and man-about-town Marcello struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

What is the theme of La Dolce Vita?

La Dolce Vita is Italian for the sweet life which is the line defining main character, Marcello’s life. The film depicts main character Marcello as a as a journalist in Rome during the late 1950’s. The film’s theme is a concentration on the café society/bar society  and the contrast between that glittery world and the world of ruin and poverty that still exists in Rome in the post war period.

How does Fellini convey this thematic message in the film?

In the very first scene this is represented by the statue of Christ that flies overhead in a sort of blessed like way and ironically flying over now neo-modern Rome founded on the economic miracle that magically occurred in fifties Rome. The statue also flies over Rome’s antiquity in have shown an aqueduct and few ancient runs which juxtaposes with the profane lifestyle of today’s Italy. This is then repeated in Marcello’s character who represents modernity in a man of Rome as he follows the statue in a separate helicopter behind antique Rome. 

Summer Journal # 7

Rashomon

Movie: 1950, b/w, 88 minutes

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Actors:

Toshirō Mifune,

Masayuki Mori,

Machiko Kyō,

Takashi Shimura,

Minoru Chiaki

Four accounts of what occurred in the woods of Japan are told by three of the people involved and a narrator who witnessed the occurrence.

How does Kurosawa play with framing?

Kurosawa really uses the set and actors for frames in his film. In one particular scene at the beginning of the film when the narrator discovers the body, the frozen clenched dead hands and arms of a corpse enclose his face. The expressive face of the actor is framed by the very thing that is causing him to be so taken aback, a genius composition with dual meaning on Kurosawa’s part. Another scene where a utilized framing tool is used like that is when the characters are walking through the woods, Kurosawa frames one of them between two trees and he plays with framing in different ways as he again does the same in the courtroom with the narrator placed in the back of the frame of the psychopath/rapist recounting the events that occurred in the woods. This is symbolic having seen the end because it as if he is looking on the crime once more. a new crime of that which is lying.

What are some allegories in Rashomon?

Some allegories are truth as a light in the darkness of sin. Kurosawa displays this message throughout the entire films as he shows this in filming the sun’s streak through the branches, leaves in the sky. That there is a innocence which is truth in a place of darkness like where the crime was committed. Another one is the idea that faith is something very scary to people. To believe in another’s words as the truth and to be surrounded by 4 different account all lies produces a ignorance in refusing to believe someone else like at the very end of the film. 

Summer Journal #6

The Rules of the Game

Movie: 1939, b/w, 106 min. (French)

Director: Jean Renoir

Actors: Nora Gregor

Paulette Dubost

Marcel Dalio

Jean Renoir

Julien Carette

Tiny synopsis: Renoir's look at bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II. An assorted cast of characters - the rich and their poor servants - meet up at a French chateau.

What kind of filming techniques does Renoir use?

Throughout the entire film Jean Renoir uses a long take technique accompanied by a deep focus which makes for a long uninterrupted take. This action is underlined by a unique rhythm that adds to the film without being to distracting. Renoir’s choice to avoid the difficult and intricate way of editing was demonstrated best in the hunting sequence in which it is sharply cut. He believed and it shows in this film that long takes create a more bona fide real life beat which decrease the amount of manipulation that occurs in over-editing.

Why did the film’s release cause such an uproar in France and Paris specifically?

The film concentrates on a group of well off French people. Upon it’s premiere in Paris the film was not greeted well. There was much disapproval of how the wealthy French were depicted in the film. Renoir, surprised by the actions France took, the people and the government did as well was truly hurt. The film only became one of the greatest Renoir ever made in the late 50’s as a result of his being able to grasp hold of the power to edit it back to its natural state. Due to not being warmly received on its original release in the late 30’s, audiences in Paris on its opening night were explicitly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of contempt. Distributors cut the film from 113 minutes to 80minutes. If you can’t do the math that’s 33 minutes that was chopped from an artists work without his consent. It was also banned as morally hazardous during the German occupation and the only negative was destroyed during WWII. The film was condemned because of its satirical material of the upper class. 

Summer Journal #5

City Of God

Movie:  2002, color, 130 min. (Brazil)

• Director: Fernando Meirelles
• Co-director: Katia Lund

Actors:

Alexandre Rodrigues

Alice Braga

Leandro Firmino

Phellipe Haagensen

Douglas Silva

Jonathan Haagensen

Matheus Nachtergaele

Seu Jorge

Roberta Rodrigues

Graziella Moretto

Tiny synopsis: Meirelles sheds a new light on one of the most beautiful places in the world. From the perspective of a young boy named rocket who tells a story of how the city in which he lived came to be known as the “City of God.”

What is the main theme of the film and how does it take shape?

The main theme is spotted at the very beginning of the film when chickens are pressed as a main focus in preparation for mealtime. One chicken observes the people butchering his fellow chickens and in haste decision, which demonstrates the animal’s intelligence, the chicken decides to jump off and run away. This scene becomes the symbolic theme of the film in which either you run away from this “city of god” and escape your expected fate or you change your path and try for a different life without getting killed. First, the audience is introduced to this idea when one of the three boys from the “Tender Trio” tries to escape the godforsaken city just outside of Rio, and gets a move on with his girlfriend. In this scene the boy is pointed to by a man who tells the police that e is responsible for the killing that occurred a few months earlier. This leads the police to run after him as he is pushing his getaway car on foot in effort to aid the man they are holding unwillingly to get it going and his wife in the backseat. Whilst this is happening the police chase after him as in the first scene of the beginning of the film where the gang chases after the chicken. They catch him after a few shots to the body and the car gets away without the chicken, Shaggy. The very tagline of the film is "If you run the beast catches, if you stay the beast eats." So in that sense, there is a deliverance of a negative tone. This is best embodied when Benny decides to leave with Angelica and Ze cannot stomach the idea of being alone for the first time. His anger translates into trouble that he creates which in turn creates massive chaos that is really the bullet that kills Benny. No one can escape the city of god.

How does cinematography add depth to the story?

In a film where the story is a true first person narrative there is already a structure that is to be built by how the main character would like to tell his or her story. Especially with a narrative involving so many people there is much to say. The cinematographic tools used complement this account. Rockets first person telling involves much rewind and fast forward moments. The most helpful in establishing setting, person’s position and situation is the Matrix, 360 shot used in one of the first scenes of the film where Rocket is transported back to his childhood in the sixties. This shot is just one of the many cinematic tools used. The high contrast lighting during the day in the young boys memories at the slums expresses how hot and scorching it is in that small village like city. The night cinematography is dark and gritty, just like the mood of the night in which the tender trio robs the motel. The scene in which the two fellows are atop the tree and chaos and haze ensues, the filming of the bead of water dropping off of a leave close to one of the boys is such a contradictory peaceful moment in contrast to what is occurring. The whole film is done with a photographers eye most understood when Rocket expressed his admiration for photography. The film is artistically done in its expression of colors and its detail assures the genuinety of the storyteller. 

Summer Journal #4

Breathless

Movie:  1960, b/w, 87min. (country)

• Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Actors: Jena-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg

Tiny synopsis: A young thief kills a policeman and tries to convince a girl to run away to Italy with him.

What is the main idea of the film?

 Breathless is a film that centers on characters, a character study. The film is really about psychology; it deals with situations that people find themselves in. A film that is about human character. Not all of the characters are likeable but the main point is that there is relation, and the audience must relate with at least one of the characters. So this brings the main idea of the film, which is running away. Both Michel and Patricia are caged, and wanting a different life than the one that they are trapped in.

What does the music say about the film?

Most of the music throughout the entire film is a cine-jazz type sound, uplifted giddy soundtrack that complements Belmondo’s witty character Michel. The streets of Paris shown with the same sort of jazzy sound, chaotic clashing of the cacophony of daily life underlined by the soundtrack. 

SUMMER JOURNAL #3

Cinema Paradiso

Movie:  1988, color, 155 min.

• Director: Guiseppe Tornatore
• Actors: Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin.
•  

Tiny synopsis:

A now famous filmmaker recalls his childhood and how he fell in love with film and the person who guided him to a better life.

What are some ironies in the film?

The film takes place in the late 40’s just after World War II in a small town in Sicily. This time and setting is pertinent to the setup of a few key ironies in the film. First, we have the priest who enters the Cinema Paradiso as a representative of the Vatican, he watched the new influx of films that are about to be beheld by all the villagers and cuts, edits them of all sexual scenes. This is one irony because the priest beholds the immoral acts himself. So in fact the censorship theme of the film that reoccurs more then a couple of time was sort of hypocritical. Another one is when the town ousts a family because the father works for a communist and is supposedly Stalinist all the while ignoring the actual communist repression vital in the town.

What are a few key scenes of symbolism?

One scene in which the townspeople are not allowed in the theater and become an angry riot results in Alfredo moving the projection reflection onto the wall of the court square. Whilst the reflection of the film is moving across the walls in the room, Toto is amazed by this magic. A magic that is film and the beauty of it’s ability to silence a crowd and thee beauty in which Alfredo used this trick to please the people. It’s like the moment Toto fell in love with film, before he was a lover of it but now he is in love. A second scene where there is much symbolism is Salvatore’s return to the village, his home and his mothers travel down the stairs where she unravels this thread, something that signifies her attachment to her home, her life and he village. She is unable to leave, stuck by a threaded umbilical chord. The very theme of the entire film, the desire for a better life and Alferdo's execution in persuading Salvatore to escape the wretched city where dreams die.

SUMMER JOURNAL #2

8 ½

Movie: 1963, color, min.

• Director:  Frederico Fellini
• Actors: Marcelo Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo.

Tiny synopsis:

Guido Anselmi is a director who is at a standstill with his work and life as he tries to finish his new film despite marital issues and memories that are causing chaos in his mind.

What does the first scene signify for the entire film?

The first scene represents his suffocation in that he cannot see his life clearly, in fact the smoke that enters into his car is representative of this suffocation of work, love, memories… The immense amount of traffic around him represents all the people that surround him in reality, his production crew, his lovers and friends etc… In this the scene holds much meaning as he then escapes that traffic and heads towards the clouds his inner want to flee from the chaos.

What methods of transition does Fellini use in order to establish that the audience is now watching Guido’s dreams and not reality?

Some methods of transition are Guido is always asleep when he goes into these dreams, whether it be in the first scene of traffic and heat that caused him to nap or in bed with one of his lovers and he’s fast asleep. Characters appear as if really just being present, his mother in the room leading to the location of a vacant set. Then his flying into the sky which was a quick change from the car establishment. 

SUMMER ASSIGNMENT JOURNALS

Wild Strawberries

Movie:  1957, b/w, 91 min. (Sweden)

• Director:  Ingmar Bergman

Actors: Victor Sjöström

Bibi Andersson

Ingrid Thulin

• Gunnar Björnstrand

Tiny synopsis: A bitter aging professor has come face to face with the reality of the emptiness of his life.

Literary Question What is the theme of Wild Strawberries?

The theme of Wild Strawberries is about how life can become sort of withered and shrunken, a bit dull and uncreative, something that is habit from generation to generation. Bergman’s kind of message about this is kind of ironic and humorous even though the film is far from that sort of tone. What Bergman is saying is that in almost any case in which this empty life theory is applicable to a person, the person has no idea it is happening to them.

Cinematic Question What triggers Isak’s journey of self-recognition?

The trigger of Isak’s self-recognition journey is the coincidental pairing of Marianne, Isak’s daughter-in-law and himself in the car for a long journey in which Marianne confronts him of his values and family traditions. Her honest confrontation sets off this realization that his life is in fact vacant and dull. 

Summer Journal #1

The 400 Blows

Movie:  1959, b/w, 99 min. (France)

• Director: Francois Truffaut

Actors: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Calire Maurier, Albert Remy, Guy Decomble.

Tiny synopsis: Antoine Doinel is a young adolescent in Paris, a boy considered by his parents and teacher as a troublemaker.

What does the famous gate scene represent?

The gate scene is at the end of the film and therefore is one of Truffauts final messages. What this represents is Doinel’s confines. His limitations within society as an already marked troublemaker, misunderstood by his parents and teacher. His boundaries within the world he lives in, a trouble world and the fence representing this very restriction, this border which blocks off his hopes and desires, his dreams in other words.

How do camera angles play an important role in the film?

The first scene demonstrates this well in its use of high camera angles to portray an innocent vibe to the film that is appropriate considering the fact that Doinel is innocent in the beginning of the film. The film uses a ground shot in this sequence looking up to the sky, crowded by buildings, which give of an intimidating feel. Establishing a childlike intimidation of a large world.