As for school this is what we watched:
Children of Men
I'm sure most of us have seen it already. However, what is fun to do is compare a director's work across genres. In this case, Alfonso Cuarón likes the one shot with intricate choreography. In Children of Men there is a lengthy shot of Clive Owen running through the refugee camp and dodging bullets - probably the best known and most obvious one in the movie. In Prisoner of Azkaban this takes place while Harry is walking out of the Dursley's and encounters Sirius for the first time (spoiler alert!!) Something that I also like is the personal qualities Cuarón brings to movies such as Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men... both of which have the qualities to make the audience uncomfortable. Even though Luisa is having sex with some pretty young (and borderline legal) boys, Julio and Tenoch, the audience still received a certain comfort through Luisa's story and the story of Mexico surrounding the trio's road trip. As for Children of Men, the uncomfortable level shoots SKY HIGH through the story's dystopia. And while we're dreading living in a world that can no longer conceive children, there is a sense of hope that Kee will reach the Human Project in time to save the human race (at the end the sound of children laughing can be heard.... which is up for interpretation). SO ANYWAY, seeing as Children of Men is a loaded movie in itself, I hope that the world will never end up like it does in the movie.
The Third Man
I'm pretty sure that I have half myself to blame but I blame the other half on the room we're stuck in to watch our Wednesday night feature. But, I designed a great ballroom gown during this movie. I actually really tried to get into at least the first 3 rows, but got stuck in the 5th. Yeah that sounds pretty terrible, but I did catch some of the movie. The Third Man is a great film noir which is known for its excellent work in cinematography. For those of you who don't really know the difference between a producer, a cinematographer, a graffer, a best boy, a grip and all the millions of other jobs that scroll past during the credits.... I don't exactly know what a lot of them do either, but what I do know is that it is (more or less) a cinematographer's job to filter in one ear what the director's (or writer's) vision and mood of a scene is and out the other is creating the scene through lighting, camera angles, the foresight for special effects and all that jazz. And what a Director of Photography does.... well I'm pretty sure he's the cinematographer's boss. Ya know, I could just go Wikipedia all this and just straight out tell you, but I'm blogging about my learning process and here you have it.
So, The Third Man.... very fun and suspenseful film noir about a man (Orson Welles) who faked his death and hid about post WWII Vienna. Well the girl causes the problems because the man is in love with her, but he faked his own death because he gave some wrong vaccines to some children... which is sad. Anyway, as for learning about cinematography through this movie, I caught an abnormal amount of canted (or Dutch) angles, which is when the camera is tilted a little to create a confused feel. .... and extreme high and lows.... well sue me for drawing because I can't see the film in this blasted room we have to sit in!!
Lastly, since I have to write a one page reflection on every movie we watch for my Contemporary Cinema class I'll just repost it here...
Mean Streets
The movie Mean Streets (1973), directed by Martin Scorsese, takes place in the streets of Little Italy in New York City. It tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and his friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) as they try to work up the ranks of the Mafia. Charlie, known for his straight antics and debt collecting, ends up trapped by his commitment to Johnny, who owes money to multiple people. Adding to Charlie’s anxiety is his love for Johnny’s cousin Teresa who has been ostracized due to her condition with epilepsy.
According to this weeks article, “The Sacraments of Genre: Coppola, DePalma, Scorsese”, Leo Braudy claims Scorsese as “the director who most thematizes his own authority even while he explores the final and perhaps most pervasive aspect of the intersection of Catholicism” especially within the “structure of sainthood”[25]. While I think that being a saint includes acts of selflessness and martyrdom for a justifiable cause (like Charlie’s love for his friends), Braudy says the saint in Mean Streets is Johnny due to his “self-sufficient isolation from the normal world”[25].
Braudy continues with Scoreses’ conscience authority over his work by saying “[he] considers the formal self-questioning of his own authority and complicity to be part of the story he tells” [26]. I feel that this is Scoreses’ way of asserting his authority and artistry into a movie by dramatically altering a story. As Braudy points out that he is the gunman in the back seat of Michael’s car that shoots down Johnny and in essence ruins Charlie’s chances of hiding what is precious to him (Johnny and Teresa) and moving up the ranks of the Mafia. For someone who is thought of as the creative mastermind behind a work, it’s interesting that a creator should kill his creation.
So, on top of my required viewings of the week, I caught a few extracurriculars.
The Big Lebowski
F-in' hilarious. I never know Jeff Bridges could be so funny. Dude, Dude, Dude... if you haven't seen this, it's great. .... I really don't want to put anything in here to ruin the movie for you, but please... please go see it!!
probably one of my favorite scenes!!
Howl's Moving Castle
Just beautiful. It's a beautiful story and it's beautifully animated. There is a part where Sophie cries in agony and I couldn't help but cry with her... which made me take a step back (at work) and wonder how a very obvious animated movie could make me feel like that. Which then made me wonder why any movie makes me feel the way I do since it's just moving images on a screen... which made me wonder why the heck I'm theorizing about this in the first place. But I digress... The story itself, at least to me, is about the value of love over hate. and you should just watch it.
Metropolis
I went on a little Anime binge this week. I think this one also has a great underlining story. That if emotional humans depends on emotionless robots (or technology), we will end up with an emotionless world that sees itself better of that way. This will sound ironic or hypocritical or what have you, but humans don't need to replace themselves with technology.... says the girl writing a blog on the internet. But seeing robots function independently from humans is a little nerve racking to me... think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But beggers can't be choosers and I think Metropolis is a good movie that depicts this conflict.
That and Fitz Lang used the Japanese novel of the same name for his silent movie Metropolis. :)
well, that's about it for me. I'm currently in the middle of watching Castle season 2 even though I've already seen it. and I still want Castle and Beckett to have babies, but at something like season 10.
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