tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76488592142124439962024-03-13T05:39:50.918-07:00Magic & Make BelieveWelcome to the world as seen through the eyes of visual artists, editing wizards, visionary composers, neurotic actors and literary geniuses; all striving to create an alternate universe for the audience in front of their screen.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-2926455778545894772012-06-15T17:27:00.000-07:002013-06-04T13:10:53.918-07:00The depths of the unknown: PROMETHEUS<div style="text-align: left;">
Note: I was going to talk about George Steven's <i>Swing Time</i> this week, but after watching it for the first time, realized that <i>Top Hat</i> and <i>The Gay Divorcee</i> deserve the praise that this film just didn't inspire in me. If you are are looking for the perfect night to bask in the heaven that is Fred and Ginger, rent one of these instead. </div>
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"Big things have small beginnings" </div>
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-David</div>
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The opening credit sequence of <i>Prometheus </i>(Scott, 2012)<i> </i>will take your breath away. The camera flys above lush green valleys with icy blue water running through it like viens. Cliffs of ice and snow create fortress of rock and create an ambiance of fear and awe. The sequence ends at a raging waterfall. As the camera flys above the torrent of clear and dangerous water, a man, full formed, appears at the top of the falls along the edge. The use of both practical effects and VFX design make this white skinned giant appear human while also creating an unworldly feel. He drinks from a small capsule, which oozes a black liquid that comes alive in front of his eyes. The substance enters his system and rapidly eats away at his skin and bones until he tumbles from the cliff into the water below, breaking apart as he falls. He hits the water with a loud thunderous crash. Welcome to <i>Prometheus</i>.<br />
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This film is masterful in the hands of its cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski. The sweeping camera angles and creation of space on the newly discovered planet incorporate a mythical and sinister feeling that alerts the audience to the fears they know are sure to unveil themselves around the next corner. Ridley Scott directed <i>Alien</i> in 1979. <i>Alien</i> is a film that stumbles upon a monster and inevitably becomes a fight for survival about all else. <i>Prometheus</i>, probably much to the dismay of <i>Alien</i> fans, is not that kind of film. Scott takes on a much more metaphysical approach in this film. His characters are seeking, not stumbling, to find answers to their past, present, and future. They seek out the monsters, hoping instead to find a land of ancient men. But even this naive search can lead to death and destruction for all who seek it. The title stems from the ancient greek myth of Titan Prometheus, a servent to the gods who gave human beings the gift of fire, leading to both prosperity and invention and also impending and inevitable destruction.<br />
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Noomi Rapace masterfully plays Elizabeth Shaw, a scientist on the verge of a major archeological discovery. With the aid of her fellow scientist and lover, Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green) they set out to find an ancient race, one they believe we have descended from. They seek to meet their makers and what they find instead both destroys their belief in faith itself, but also leads to there emotional and physical devastation. Michael Fassbinder effortlessly plays the android David, seemingly human but lacking in compassion and sensitivity. His separation from humanity is something that Scott is intent on exploring. The themes of human nature, destruction, dependence, faith, and trust are built and shattered as this film burns slowly at the beginning and builds to its climactic final moments. Due to the impeccable costume (Janty Yates) and set design (Arthur Max), the actors were able to truly inhabit the space of the ship and the planet outside of it. The helmets and space suits both protect and entomb the characters as they move from the space ship to the outside world. The production design is delicate yet forceful and precise.<br />
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I don't believe that this was a perfect film, but it was expertly crafted, and the acting, especially by Rapace and Fassbinder, was chillingly perfect. Rapace was the perfect successor of <i>Alien</i>'s badass female lead, Sigourney Weaver. Shaw is a fighter but she is also wounded and vulnerable. Towards the end of the film, she realizes that her insistent search for the answers to the past has irrevocably altered her future. This film sets out to explore the implications and possibilities of immorality. The financier of the expedition, Peter Weyland (played by a expertly made up Guy Pearce), seeks to find a way to erase the inevitability of death and never have to resign his "throne" to his family. This is a creation story, a exploration of myth and fantasy. It will not answer our questions about god, the afterlife, and inevitable nature of mankind, but it will make you hesitant to ask those questions in the first place. Sometimes what we seek to find only leaves us shattered and more lost then when we began. This is one of those films.<br />
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The engineers </div>
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Charlize plays Ms. Vicars, the expeditions overseer </div>
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Elizabeth as she enters the alien ship </div>
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The tomb of the engineers </div>
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Amazing production design, the mist and the vases. </div>
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Director Ridley Scott hard at work on set. </div>
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David discovering a whole new world </div>
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David watching Shaw's dreams </div>
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Landed on the planet. </div>
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<br />Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-64135582371203844202012-06-08T09:12:00.000-07:002012-06-08T09:12:12.085-07:00I am not an animal: THE ELEPHANT MAN<div style="text-align: center;">
"I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!" </div>
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-John Hurt as John Merrick </div>
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David Lynch's <i>The Elephant Man</i> (1980) was only his second feature film after his experimental feature debut <i>Eraserhead</i>. Mel Brooks, the famous satirical director, fell in love with <i>Eraserhead</i> and helped to finance <i>The Elephant Man</i>. This film was Lynch's first studio picture.<br />
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<i>The Elephant Man</i> seeks to explore deformity and social exclusion and its effects on society and its "freaks". This film is based on the life of Joseph Merrick who died at the age fo 27 at the Royal London Hospital. This film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, of which it won none. This film inspired the Academy to create a category for Best Film Makeup after Christopher Tucker, the chief makeup artist, did not receive commendation for the creation of the elephant man. To create the impecable realness of the deformities, John Hurt's makeup was crafted from casts of Merrick's actual body. The casts had been housed at the Royal London Hospital. This makeup took up to 8 hours a day to apply and created a realness that only makeup effects can duplicate.<br />
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Lynch insisted that this film be shot in black and white and, thanks to Brooks, was granted the artistic license to do so. The black and white photography, shot by director of photography, Freddie Francis, is so integral to the overall story and mood of Lynch's characters. The muted tones and dark shadows serve to define the overall themes of the film. Lynch seeks to explore deep longing, disguises and betrayals, both physical and emotional. John Merrick (played perfectly with passion and angst by John Hurt) comes to life with the shadows that Lynch painstakingly creates. There is a gorgeous sequence when Dr. Frederick Treves (in the best performance of his career by Anthony Hopkins) is introducing Merrick, stripped down to his deformities, to his medical colleagues. Instead of showing us the man as monster, Lynch illuminates a curtain from the front and John's twisted body shines through in shadow. We can hear Treves describing Merrick's various deformities but we are not a witness to his humiliation.<br />
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Lynch begins this film with an experimental montage. He superimposes images of a woman, screaming in pain, and the images of large elephant heads. A haunting musical score plays in the background as the woman's face and the elephant's face become one. This opening montage serves to disorient the audience. We are never sure what we are looking at. We enter this film under the guise of disorientation and like Treves slowly seek answers to the truth about the woman and her place within this dream world. We first meet Treves as he snakes his way through a carnival. He seems to be following someone, deeper and deeper into a maze of freaks and horror seekers. He enters the freak show through a back alley tent and we soon find he is searching for a scientific study patient. He slowly maneuvers his way to The Elephant Man tent and finagles a deal with the master of ceremonies, Bytes (played by Freddie Jones). Bytes reveals The Elephant Man to Treves and a slow push in reveals a single tear fall gracefully down his cheek. Treves is forever altered in this moment and at once sees a medical mirage and an abused man living like an animal. He insists that Bytes trade him, Bytes will get paid and Treves will have a medical marval to showcase in front of his colleagues. But the relationship begins to change when Treves learns that there is a man under the cloak of deformities. A man lives and breathes under the bulbous head, the crooked spine and the useless hand.<br />
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In a beautiful moment where Treves tries desperately to get John to talk to him, to show him he is a man, not some deformed animal. John speaks to Treves, telling him his name, forming words and sentences of great poise and grace. John is a man, a well spoken, gentle man, who until this moment has been treated no better than a mangy dog. Treves and Merrick become fast and fervent friends and Treves slowly tries to assimilate Merrick into civilized society, but then struggles with the moral implications of trading one freak show for another. Lynch spends the majority of this film weighing the cost of humanity. Merrick seems to be the only truly selfless human being and the rest of us are turned into monsters. Merrick makes a very poignant statement to a friend when he says people fear the things they do not understand, absolving the people surrounding him of their cruelties. It's the ultimate sign of forgiveness and humanity.<br />
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Dreams and fantasies play a large role in all of Lynch's distopias. Merrick, due to his deformities, is unable to sleep laying down. He has to sit upright or his body would be able to sustain life. There is a painting in his room at the hospital of a boy tucked into his oversize bed, fast asleep, safe and protected. John yearns for this sense of stillness and warmth. He spends every night watching this sleeping boy and wishing that he could lay his head down and dream with the same childhood innocence. John seeks nothing more than this small kindness. In the end, that kindness is granted.<br />
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I had the rare honor of seeing this film projected at the New Beverly's David Lynch retrospective a few weeks ago. This film was one of the most beautiful cinematic experiences of my life. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor, watch it now.<br />
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John laying down to sleep </div>
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Dr. Treves watching through the Freak Show</div>
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Torturing John </div>
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John single greatest moment of divine pleasure</div>
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John being beaten by "his master"</div>
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John meets Dr. Treves for the second time</div>
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The study of a man</div>
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John as Romeo</div>
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John trying to get back home</div>
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John mesmerized by his new gifts </div>
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The Elephant Man Trailer</div>
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<br />Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-78035823132808564372012-05-31T12:24:00.003-07:002012-05-31T12:24:50.439-07:00the crushing defeat of adulthood: MOONRISE KINGDOM<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I love you ba-aby, but you gotta understand. </i></div>
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<i>When the lord made me. He made me a ramblin' man." </i></div>
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Hank Williams </div>
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The year is 1965. The sepia soaked celluloid immediately orients us in uniquely symmetrical cinematic space. Welcome to a Wes Anderson movie.<br />
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A field of tall grasses displayed in a wide shot, two children are in the frame. A girl on the left and a boy on the right. The girl in a pink jumper and bobby socks is carrying a yellow suitcase, a portable record player and a wicker basket, something meows from inside it. The boy is decked out from head to toe in khaki, merit badges, a coon skin hat and a backpack with two small sleeping bags hanging underneath. We meet Sam (Jared Gilman) through the Suzy's binoculars, her magic power as she calls them. They help her to see things, even when they are up close. Sam, gazing sweetly at Suzy (Kara Hayward) also sees the world through lens. His wide black frames consume his small face. The two meet in the field with no name and hatch a plan to leave their worlds behind and travel together into the unknown (or as far as the map they have will take them). It turns out they met the year earlier in a very enigmatic fashion. As if struck by some magical arrow, niether Sam or Suzy would ever be the same from that moment on.<br />
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The island of New Penzance is the perfect stomping ground for Anderson's usual suspects. A few new faces grace his fairytale setting. Frances McDormand, plays Mrs. Bishop, Suzy's disillusioned and achingly lonely mother. Bruce Willis plays Captain Sharp, the sweet but somewhat absent-minded town policeman set to find the missing kids. Edward Norton plays Scout Master Ward, a man with the best of intentions for his small Khaki scout charges but who ultimately is unable to keep them under wraps. Bob Balaban plays the narrator, lovely in a heavy red coat and small snow hat and gloves. He takes us through the storybook that is <i>Moonrise Kingdom</i>.<br />
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This is the seventh feature film by Wes Anderson, the first of which began with <i>Bottle Rocket</i> (1996). Building on and expanding from his previous work, Anderson takes his characters out into the wilderness and out of the cookie cutter world they normally inhabit. Anderson uses a lot of hand-held camerawork and sets out to create a lot of movement with his characters and the space they inhabit onscreen. Unlike his previous work, Anderson allows his characters room to breathe here. They are stuck in the enclosed space of a small island but they can roam "free" within the space. The location shooting is still seeping with Anderson's visual style; symmetry abounds, even in the woods. There is a particularly Andersonian shot with a police station-wagon, a flag and a lighthouse, set side-by-side, all matching perfectly. His visual style is his most impactful mark as a filmmaker and his fans wait years to see what new worlds Anderson has been creating. His characters are always set up to inhabit a piece of celluloid that is uniquely their own. There are also plenty of the tracking shots that have become synonymous in Anderson's films, creating a specific orientation of space. They are stiking in <i>Moonrise</i> because they occur both inside and out. The camera is set up as if it's an active audience member, the characters have set the stage onscreen and the camera moves along a stationary plane, acting as the shifting eyes of the audience. We learn about the characters as they learn about themselves.<br />
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<i>Moonrise Kingdom</i> harks the same lyrical melancholy present in all of Anderson's films. Music directly influences the tone of the film, the characters and their emotional state of mind. Several songs in the film are by cowboy country legend Hank Williams. His twangy blues perfectly represent the quiet surrender of the adults in this film; all struggling with their adult problems that seem to pale in comparison with the angst of being young. <i>Moonrise </i>constantly toes the line between somber melancholy and sweet joy. It seems that New Penzance is an island of misfits. Parents act like children and children act like adults in this topsy turvy world of imagination. Anderson creates a world within the frame that alerts the audience that we are in a fantastical expression of reality. The dramas and actions of the characters of this film are extreme but completely believable expressions of loss, love and beauty. We can find a part of ourselves in all the characters onscreen, we have all been there; lost in the throes of first loves, dying loves, unfulfilled dreams and jobs that change who we are. We are Sam and Suzy at the same time. Anderson encourages us to find that sense of childish wonder singed with bitter realization of future disillusionment and get lost in love. The marching musical themes creates a calling to arms, a sense that both real and imagined doom is not far off on the horizon. The threat of a hurricane looms in reality while the emotional storms of the characters on Penzance churn as well.<br />
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Storytelling is of the utmost importance in this imaginative tale. Suzy packs a bright yellow suitcase to run away with; filled to the brim with stolen library books with stories of fantasies and mythical muses. There are several instances in the film where Suzy reads aloud from these books (the stories themselves created by Anderson and cover artwork commissioned specifically for the film). She invites us into the imaginative world that she so yearns to belong to.<br />
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The film almost feels as if Wes made a book for his audience to climb inside, making us long for a time gone by. A time where your favorite record, dancing in your underwear on the beach, and sweetly falling into your first kiss, is all you will ever need. At the end of this film, as the camera tilts down to Sam's just- finished painting, we all want our own private <i>Moonrise Kingdom</i>.<br />
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Suzy and Sam </div>
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Mr. Bishop, played perfectly by Bill Murray </div>
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The quiet troublemakers</div>
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Suzy and the world through her window </div>
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Sam and Suzy make a plan</div>
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Sam flys the coop </div>
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The dysfunctional yet extremely forgivable adult band of misfits </div>
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Suzy's magic power</div>
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The cast </div>
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Edward Norton as the lovable Scout Master Ward </div>
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We've lost them again </div>
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Suzy's perch </div>
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The narrator, the storm is impending</div>
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<br />Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-45107449348725551062012-05-24T17:42:00.000-07:002012-05-24T17:42:49.431-07:00Whimsy and Wonder: Chaplin's CITY LIGHTSThe Studio System embraced sound in 1929. Chaplin, among many other filmmakers, was a reluctant convert to the new technology and believed that the introduction of spoken words to the screen would mean the end of the silent characters he had created. Chaplin understood that the Tramp would no longer carry his magical gait through the advent of sound in moving pictures. The silents had captured the imagination of an international audience, and Chaplin believed that sound would close the boundaries between nations with differing languages.<br />
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Chaplin's misanthropic tramp; Keaton's coy and socially stunted traveler; and Lloyd's rich man with a purpose, brought years of films that will forever be cemented in film history precisely for their timeless and enduring nature. We didn't need words to feel their pain, the awkwardness, their sadness and their fantasies. We felt their moods through movement and fluidity in a way that we are unable to replicate in film's today. Physical humor has been much reduced to bathroom humor and stupidity but the films of the 20's represented a space to allow comedy to unveil itself in mood and body language rather than speak for itself.<br />
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<i>City Lights (1931)</i>, was Chaplin's last "silent" film before transitioning over to "talkies" five years later with <i>Modern Times (</i>1936). Although <i>Modern Times</i> was his first sound film, Chaplin stills defies the transition. When the tramp speaks his first words, (he sings a song to a crowded room) it's famously in gibberish.<br />
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<i>City Lights</i> is said to be a "crossover" film. Chaplin's use of simple sound effects and a synchronized score mimic the feel of the new talkies. He utilizes sound effects to replace speech in the opening sequence of the film, where unintelligible beeps mimic speech. Chaplin seems to be hinting that words are not always necessary to tell a story. Dialogue is still represented on intertitles.<br />
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In<i> City Lights, </i>the Tramp wakes atop a statue at it's unveiling. He is forced leave the square and aimlessly wander the streets. He buy a flower from a beautiful girl on the sidewalk. He quickly finds out she is blind when a car door slams and she tries to return his change to the wrong man. The Tramp sits by as she watches the man drive away. He falls instantly in love with her innocence and grace. He leaves her and she goes back to her daily routine with her live-in grandmother. Later that night, the Tramp is wandering alone by the waterfront, the girl's flower in hand, and convinces a suicidal, rich and inebriated older man to change his plans and return home. In a effort to thank the Tramp for his help, the rich old man showers him with gifts. Only to wake up the morning to not remember what had happened.<br />
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The Tramp is again turned out onto the street, but this time visits the girl in the rich man's car. He courts her for a while and states his intention to take care of her. The young girl believes that this rich man will be her prince charming. When she and her grandmother fall on hard times, the Tramp insists that he will take care of everything. He embarks on several wild adventures to procure rent money for the girl. Including a humorous interlude at a nightly boxing club. He eventually seeks the financial help of the rich man he saved but is mistaken as a thief immediately thereafter. The Tramp runs to the girl, gives her all the money, some for the rent and the rest for eye surgery, to get her sight back. He is then taken to jail after he leaves her house.<br />
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We see the girl again some months later, she has regained her sight and has opened a flower shop. The Tramp, after being released from jail, sees her in the window of her shop. The girl, finding a strange man staring at her through the window, goes outside to offer him some money. When she holds his hand, she finally realizes that this Tramp, not a man of means, was the one who ultimately saved her.<br />
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Chaplin was able to fund and distribute <i>City Lights</i> through United Artists, allowing him to make a silent picture amongst the new world of talkies. Ironically, even with the new sound technology, <i>City Lights </i>was, and remains, one of Chaplin's finest feature films and was his most financially successful venture at it's opening (it made over $5 million during it's initial release).<br />
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The final scene of the film remains one of the most beloved moments in cinematic history and was even a personal favorite of Chaplin himself. He believed it to be his most honest and least rehearsed moment on screen in all of his illustrious career. The final moment of the film between the girl and Tramp will leave you feeling wistful for a time that can only be relieved through the magic of cinema.<br />
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<i>City Lights </i>was selected for admission to the National Film Registry in 1992. Remembered for it's lyrical romanticism, especially in Chaplin's interaction with the blind girl. Most of Chaplin's film tend to grapple with social issues and strife but <i>City Lights</i> carries an air of simplicity and genuine good-hearted fun.<br />
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Chaplin's Tramp utilizes physical humor and exists on the fringes of society. He used body language as a form of speech that allowed him to interact with the space around him. Unlike Keaton who coexists with society, Chaplin is always in a stuggle with it. Chaplin's only friends in <i>City Lights</i> are those who cannot see him. They can't even remember he exists. The Tramp is a man living on the edges of the world, wandering around without purpose, but who helps his audience see themselves in a new light.<br />
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This film is, at its core, a humanistic struggle to survive in this cruel world. The little things; a dropped flower, the kindness of strangers, love in unexpected places, are the things propelling us through this hardness and Chaplin's Tramp helps us to remember them.<br />
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Opening sequence, the reveal of a new statue in the square reveals a sleeping tramp</div>
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Chaplin at the camera, still dressed as the tramp </div>
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The tramp wanders down to the river, where fate will change his life</div>
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The tramps first interaction with the blind flower girl, for him it's love at first sight</div>
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In an attempt to earn money for the blind girl's rent, the tramp enters the boxing ring</div>
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Opening Titles of City Lights </div>
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The tramp is smitten </div>
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The blind girl dreaming at the window of the love she seeks to find</div>
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The tramp awaiting his "fixed" fight at the boxing ring, things don't ultimately go his way</div>
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<br />Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-4395734116785156452012-05-17T06:00:00.000-07:002012-05-18T16:56:10.205-07:00The Wasteland: HOWL'S MOVING CASTLEHayao Miyzaki's film <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i> (2004), based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, creates a fantastical world in which witches and wizards live among ordinary people. From the opening scene, Howl's castle, on mechanical legs, moves majestically and somewhat heavy handed through the lush and vibrant landscape that is the wasteland.<br />
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Sophie is <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i> shining achievement. She is brought beautifully to life with the voices of Emily Mortimer (young Sophie) and Jean Simmons (Grandma Sophie). She transforms from a timid, fragile and isolated young woman into a self-assured, at peace and family forming old woman. Of course the aging is anything but willful, she is bewitched by a jealous woman's spell and is forced to live as an old woman until love can break it.<br />
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Sophie, an old woman now, leaves on a journey to find the Witch of the Waste (voiced by the always magnificent Lauren Bacall), but realizes her old bones are unable to get her there. She befriends a jovial scarecrow, which she nicknames Turnip Head, and she sends him off to find her a resting place. Little did she know he would summon Howl (voiced by Christian Bale) and his moving castle. She reluctantly (Howl is known to be a savage, heart stealing man) enters the strange castle and finds a small fire and a chair. She quickly falls asleep. She awakes to a ringing doorbell, a little boy named Markl (voiced by Josh Hutcherson) and a fire demon named Calsifer (brilliantly voiced by Billy Crystal) settled into the ashes on the hearth. Sophie immediately finds a way to stay on board the magical castle as the cleaning woman. Howl soon returns and the makeshift family of bewitched beings share their first family meal.<br />
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It is the journey that these unlikely characters find themselves embarking on together that is the heart and soul of this film. Through an impending war, followed by its actual commencement, these characters beging to realize that love is the only thing keeping them together. Howl is a moody and unpredictable master of the house. Each character finds his or her own way to maneuver around Howl's petty obsession with beauty and Sophie finds a way to teach him that he cannot always be afraid of his own shadow. Sophie is a willful and determined old woman, who overcomes her greatest fears and compels those around her to fight against the forces of evil to do right by each other.<br />
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Color plays a very important role in this film, from the lush green and blue landscape to the flame engulfed skies, Miyazaki creates a vibrant playground for his characters to move within. The bustling cities burst with color at the markets, in the peoples faces, and into in the sea. The castle is able to navigate between settings by a flip of the door handle. Sophie and Markl move between these doors quite often, enjoying the differences they bring. But war is moving closer and closer and Howl is forced to quit abandoning the real world for his fantasies. Sophie's courage sparks a fire in Howl's heart and he begins to find that staying to protect the ones you love is worth the costs of potentially losing them. Sophie teaches Howl that life requires reliance on other people, no matter what the cost.<br />
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Miyazaki plays with themes of beauty and ugliness, physicality is what hinders and also propels the characters of <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i>. Sophie believes that she is ugly and unwanted in her young state but immediately embraces her perceived imperfections as unnecessarily important with old age. Howl is unusually consumed by his physical beauty and only through an act of melodrama, when Sophie decides to leave, does his intense obsession begin to fade. Other characters deal with their various forms and measure their worth through the eyes of others. Only when they form their makeshift family do they begin to realize that beauty is so much more than physicality.<br />
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This is one of Miyazaki's finest achievements. The story is magical and yet grounded in reality. Sophie is a delight to follow and the people who become her family become ours as well.<br />
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Sophie with a renewed Calsifer </div>
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Sophie watching the war consume her world </div>
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The magnificent legs to the castle </div>
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Sophie and Howl at the market where they first meet</div>
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Madame Suliman's faithful companion </div>
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Howl in his bewitched state with Sophie clinging to him </div>
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Grandma Sophie and Markl outside the castle </div>
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The wonderfully realized moving castle</div>
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Sophie's first encounter with her transformed self </div>
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Sophie in the hat shop </div>
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The wicked Witch of the Waste </div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-57705785801662037982012-05-10T16:48:00.000-07:002012-05-10T17:38:59.421-07:00A fight to the death: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"They dance like they've danced before" -Honey </i></div>
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Mike Nichols' directorial debut film, <i>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, </i>is a character drama<i> </i>based on the play by Edward Albee. The film begins as the camera looks on, from far off down the campus green, as two figures emerge from a lit hallway, and exit into the dark woods. The two characters walk, silently and without touching, back to the house they live in nearby. All is silent except for the lulled music playing quietly over the opening sequence. As the figures approach the house, they are surrounded in darkness until the doors of the house open and Martha flips the switch, throwing them into the stark brightness, then George and Martha come out to play.<br />
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Martha and George silently survey the landscape of their disheveled living room and Martha declares, "What a dump." This single sentence begins the onslaught of the next two hours of screen time. It will not be this quiet again until two minutes before the curtain folds.<br />
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Nichols 1966 film is shot in black-and-white, a deliberate choice to utilize lightening as a means of distinguishing the opposing personalities of the film's four trapped characters. George (played by Richard Burton), Martha (exquisitely played by Elizabeth Taylor), Honey (Sandy Dennis), and Nick (George Segal) become lightening bugs trapped in a jar, bouncing off the walls, desperate to get out of the darkness and into the light. These two hours of unrelenting celluloid capture two deteriorating marriages brought to their knees by deception, jealousy, and hatred. Love has long left these four and they must each find a way to make the others weak so that they can stand a victor. Nichols traps both the old and the young under one roof and makes us watch until the the participants are beaten, bloodied and on the ground.<br />
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Nichols took extreme care with the blocking of his actors in this film. Each time a character stands, sits, or moves around the enclosed space of the house, the bar, the car, and even the front lawn; they are instantly imbued with a sense of power or impotence. George consistently towers over Martha's head, both in stance and through the camera angle. Most of the shots of George are from a low angle, giving him a perceived power over his wife. Martha in contrast with George gains her power when the camera goes wide and lets her move about the space. When she is in opposition of George, Nichols chooses to show her from a high angle, a position of submission, even if only physical. George and Martha only move with purpose, they move like boxers in the ring, each ready to throw out the next fatal punch.<br />
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Their are four locations in the film; the house and its grounds, the car, the roadside bar, and the party from the opening shot. Each location serves as a metaphorical cage for the characters that inhabit it. The confided quarters create a sense of mistrust that breeds paranoia. The increasing interest in getting drunk helps to fuel the linguistic battle. The camera moves in, out, and through these locations with the ease of someone looking on but unwilling to participate. The camera in this film feels more like an voyeur onscreen, and at times, the audience wants to turn away but the relentless stare of the camera denies us this simple pleasure.<br />
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The film also expertly uses sound to create an unrelenting cacophony of noise; screeching, yelling, growling, and screaming. The characters, as well as the audience, feel claustrophobic from the volume and consistency of the noises. Tone and inflection of the actors creates an immediate sense of intimacy with the audience. Over the course of the film, this forced intimacy creates an alienating effect on the viewer. When the final moment of the fim ends, and the camera blurs the image in front of the frame; we are glad to leave George and Martha clutching each other, we have finally found a way out.<br />
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Nichols' film expertly navigates the disillusionment and deterioration of a single portrait of a marriage. He examines the confines of social distrust and hierarchic structures that society has dictated to George and Martha and has slowly begun to work its way into Nick and Honey's lives as well. Through the quippy and sharp dialogue read by all the actors, Nichols was able to create a film that sought to define truth and illusion and argue that in the end truth is nothing more than a illusion.<br />
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Nichols debut film won five oscars at the 1966 Academy Awards for Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor), Best Supporting Actress (Sandy Dennis) , Best B/W Cinematography (Haskell Wexler), Best B/W Art/Set Direction (Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins) and Best B/W Costume Design (Irene Schaff) . The love and admiration shown by the academy and audiences effectively put an end to the Production Code. This film broke down the final barriers of language and themes that were beginning to overturn the code in the early 60s. It is still seen as a landmark achievement that cemented Nichols into a rare cinematic circle of auteurs, where he still stands today.<br />
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Nick, beautifully contrasted in the world of black and white</div>
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A beautiful rendering of the claustrophobic use of space</div>
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Opening title credits </div>
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Martha and her many forms of illusion</div>
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Nichols directs husband and wife in the kitchen</div>
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George pretends to execute Martha</div>
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Another glorious angle as Nichols directs</div>
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A rare wide shot to establish space and characters </div>
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A perfect view of Burton towering over Taylor's space </div>
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<br /></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-75469636147921421492012-04-04T18:10:00.000-07:002012-04-04T18:10:53.421-07:00Standing for the Silent: BULLY<i>Disclaimer: This review is more a call to action. This film truly had an effect on me and I think that more people should hear its message. </i><br />
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Over 13 million children are bullied each year, it's the most common form of violence experienced by youth. Bullying has varying definitions but most instances of bullying include; an imbalance of power, bullies seek to control and victims of bullying are often unable to defend themselves. Bullying also includes an intent to harm; whether that is verbal, cyber, emotional, or physical abuse and almost always includes repetition; bullies tend to single out and destroy the same kids over and over again. Bullying in schools has become an epidemic and students, parents, and schools have been ill equip to combat bullying on a national scale. As of now, there are no federal mandates to punish, correct or prevent bullying in schools. Each school system has to foster it's own effort to stop bullying on their campuses and most schools find themselves without the resources to do so.<br />
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Lee Hirsch's second documentary film, <i>Bully</i>, follows the stories of five kids (two of which committed suicide after years of tormented bullying) ranging in age from 11-17. Each child's story deals with a different facet of bullying and its effects in their school, their neighborhood, their home, and their own head. Hirsch allows the stories to unfold directly from the families and kids dealing with bullying; he lets them tell their own experiences in a way that speaks to them. This film is built around these testimonies and attempts to tackle bullying and its pervasiveness in all areas of the country with kids in differing in age, economic class, and social status.<br />
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Hirsch was granted unprecedented access to a single school system in Sioux City, Iowa for a full school year and was given permission to shoot on buses, in the lunchroom, and in the halls. Hirsch follows one young boy, named Alex Libby, age 12, as he moves through his daily routine from home to school and back home again. Hirsch very quickly noticed that Alex was set apart from the general population and was suffering from bullying. He had been ostracized on a daily basis by his fellow peers. Hirsch sought to give Alex the voice he so desperately needed. He followed many children in their daily routines at the school and although initially caused a stir with his camera, he quickly became just another person around the student population. Hirsch was careful not to single Alex out to encourage more mistreatment.<br />
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One of the most interesting facets of Hirsch's film explores the relationship that Alex Libby and his parents struggle with at home. Alex found that after so many years of torment and confusion about why bullying was occurring at school, was having trouble confronting his parents with the truth about his school environment. His parents knew that Alex was being tormented everyday but unsure of the emotional toll the bullying had taken on him. After witnessing several serious instances of bullying, comprised with Alex's lack of communication with his parents and teachers, the filmmakers intervened to bring light to the danger in his life. After finding out about the horrible bullying occurring on Alex's bus, his parents brought the issue to the school, only to be turned away and told that the school would take care of it. Alex and his parents were made to feel as though they were hyperbolizing the issue. Schools are facing a major challenge to combat verbal and physical violence in their halls but turning a blind eye to the issue is only causing more pain and suffering for the children being bullied. Solutions that abound at schools in the film, were "making up" with the bully, staying home to avoid to bullying, talking honestly with advisors and administration only to have nothing happen. In all of these instances the victims are made to feel ashamed that they "let themselves" be bullied and the bully walks away with an increased sense of power over the victim. Change will only occur when schools, students, and parents find constructive ways to manage, discourage, and eradicate bullying from occurring on campuses.<br />
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This film was made with the intention of starting a wild fire. Hirsch and the film's producer Cynthia Lowen, believe that bullying cannot be ignored and the families who shared their stories will not be silent any longer. I do believe that the film doesn't necessarily leave the viewer with a catharsis but it enrages the audience to make a change, to become part of the solution. <i>Bully</i> doesn't offer the audience a way to conquer bullying but it does encourage people to fight the problem, to stand up and fight for those who can't fight for themselves. The Bully Project's website offers the tangible solutions that the film urges students, parents, teachers, and advocates to explore. The website is an extension of the film and offers infinite resources for those being bullied and to those who know or love someone being bullied. This film serves as a call to action and its voices will be heard.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LL2idH2YNHo/T3zsJppL8_I/AAAAAAAAAS4/IH-bhgXmmbg/s1600/120309025720_bully-movie-640.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LL2idH2YNHo/T3zsJppL8_I/AAAAAAAAAS4/IH-bhgXmmbg/s320/120309025720_bully-movie-640.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">To learn more about <b>THE BULLY PROJECT</b> please visit: </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This website offers numerous resources for parents, students, teachers and advocates to fight against bullying. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thebullyproject.com/indexflash.html">http://thebullyproject.com/indexflash.html</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZjKUxwQCO7M/T3ztBUwM5wI/AAAAAAAAATA/ibIgrj5niqw/s1600/stand_for_silent.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZjKUxwQCO7M/T3ztBUwM5wI/AAAAAAAAATA/ibIgrj5niqw/s1600/stand_for_silent.jpeg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">To learn more about<b> STAND FOR THE SILENT </b>please visit:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"> an organization to combat bullying and encourage kids to stand up to bullies was started by Laura and Kirk Smalley, after their 11 year old, Ty, took his own life to end the bullying he experienced everyday. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.standforthesilent.org/">http://www.standforthesilent.org/</a></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-4216663667849570632012-02-12T13:21:00.000-08:002012-02-12T13:21:03.684-08:00A Madhouse In The Quarter: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIREElia Kazan's <i>A Streetcar Named Desire, </i>reminds me of Lewis Carroll's Alice falling into the rabbit hole.<br />
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Tennessee Williams wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning play "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1947. The play centers around the lives of four people: Blanche Du Bois (originally acted on stage by Jessica Tandy), Stanley Kowalski (originally acted on stage by a relatively unknown Marlon Brando), Stella Kowalski (originally acted on stage by Kim Hunter) and Mitch (originally acted on stage by Karl Madden). The play is set in the seedy strip of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The claustrophobic heat in the air of New Orleans lends itself perfectly to characters on the verge of boiling over and losing everything. Williams play opened to a shocked but fascinated audience. The plays themes of alienation, disorientation, redemption, loss, emotional and physical abuse, and mental illness pushed the boundaries of mainstream theater written during the 1940s. "A Streetcar Named Desire" was immediately hailed by critics as a boundary breaking masterpiece; a play for which Williams won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Just a few short years later, Williams approached Elia Kazan (who had directed the first US Theater production of Streetcar on Broadway) to adapt his play for the screen. Kazan initially objected to turning the already beloved play into a film but eventually, with the support of Williams, they adapted the story together. The film would go on to cast nine of the original cast members playing the same roles they performed on stage, including Brando, Hunter, Malden. The only change was the part of Blanche. Vivien Leigh was offered the part over Jessica Tandy, due to Leigh's rising star power. Ironically, Vivien later suffered from bi-polar disorder, much like Blanche in the film, and her mental instability would only enhance her performance of the fading and disturbed southern belle.<br />
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Because of the enforcement of the Hays Code, the film had to change two major plot points for film audiences. Blanche, citing the reason for her late husband's suicide as a general weakness, helped to imply that he was a homosexual, which at the time the film was made was not directly implicated onscreen. This narrative point helps to further understand Blanche and her compulsive need for male attention to survive. Clearly her husband's sexuality and eventual self inflicted death would've directly influenced her feeling of inadequacy and sexual impotence. This is one of the main reasons Blanche suffers a break from reality and begins to deteriorate mentally. The film deals with this "loss of content" rather eloquently, and even though the sexuality of her late husband is never directly referred to in the film, the viewer understands Blanche's feelings of loss and its impact on her mental faculties.<br />
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The second stipulation of the code was the change in the ending of the film. In the play, Stanley rapes Blanche and severs her last fragile tie to reality, plummeting her into the darkness of insanity. Even though the rape occurs in the film (although it occurs offscreen), the ending in the play and the film dramatically differ. Stanley is a brute, a man fueled by his desire. His relationship with his wife Stella is built on a sexual hunger and rests in the comfort of her willingness to stay with him, despite the violence. The play ends with the violent rape of Stella's sister. Stanley races to find Stella and the play ends with them wrapped in a embrace; Stanley on his knees grasping for Stella's breast. Stella stays. The ending of the film ends on a completely different note and tone. The code was implicit in it's insistence on punishing the rapist. So the end of the film ends with rape and Stanley frantically searching for Stella, only she (grasping onto her newborn child) runs away from his embrace and the film ends with Stanley's cries echoing through the quarter.<br />
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Kazan was insistant on using space to create a visual representation of Blanche's mental deterioration. His art director, Richard Day, along with the set designer, George Tompkins, create a space they reduced in size as the film progressed. The Kowalski apartment becomes smaller and contained the more that Blanche becomes consumed by the claustrophobic space inside her head. The space surrounding her is visually contracted to exhibit her mental state. This is a feat of production design and helps the viewer feel a sense of the agony that Blanche is struggling to breathe through. The film is masterfully shot in black and white, and captures through shadow and space, the violence that is constantly at bay lurking in the depth of each of these characters. Blanche, towards the final climax of the film, pronounces to her potential lover, "I don't want realism, I want magic. Yes, yes magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be true". This provides the moral of this story, Blanche would rather live her life in the shadows of her fantasies, because only within her mind, is she desired, beloved and held above all others. Reality only offers crushing disappointment and pain. She retreats into the recesses of her mind and creates a world without pain, and when given the choice, she would stay there forever.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YAz6RVC4_5k/TzgV7REnPWI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/hinTaY3I5lE/s1600/A+Streetcar+Named+Desire+(2).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YAz6RVC4_5k/TzgV7REnPWI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/hinTaY3I5lE/s320/A+Streetcar+Named+Desire+(2).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Opening Tiles</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lppok1JA-7M/TzgV73hp7dI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/i51mkKDOsC8/s1600/Annex%2520-%2520Brando,%2520Marlon%2520(A%2520Streetcar%2520Named%2520Desire)_NRFPT_02.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lppok1JA-7M/TzgV73hp7dI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/i51mkKDOsC8/s320/Annex%2520-%2520Brando,%2520Marlon%2520(A%2520Streetcar%2520Named%2520Desire)_NRFPT_02.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Stanley at the table, lost inside his own head.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hl0Y8g_rY9Q/TzgV8V2OYtI/AAAAAAAAARE/Gca8Se2-g7c/s1600/a-streetcar-named-desire-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hl0Y8g_rY9Q/TzgV8V2OYtI/AAAAAAAAARE/Gca8Se2-g7c/s320/a-streetcar-named-desire-2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The undefinable Marlon Brando as Stanley</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xBzGjciZ6gQ/TzgV8yaBkqI/AAAAAAAAARM/CpXDxNXDAGw/s1600/a_streetcar_named_desire_kim_hunter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xBzGjciZ6gQ/TzgV8yaBkqI/AAAAAAAAARM/CpXDxNXDAGw/s320/a_streetcar_named_desire_kim_hunter.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> After one of Stanley's violent moments, clinging to Stella, the woman he loves.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--XYD_to0xro/TzgV_QrN0HI/AAAAAAAAARU/oJLO0qZWHhU/s1600/streetcar+named+desire+4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--XYD_to0xro/TzgV_QrN0HI/AAAAAAAAARU/oJLO0qZWHhU/s320/streetcar+named+desire+4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Stanley exhibiting his anger and Blanche her poise</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GILD3EEg0cE/TzgV_sBW6UI/AAAAAAAAARc/J7VRTn9AFpE/s1600/streetcar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GILD3EEg0cE/TzgV_sBW6UI/AAAAAAAAARc/J7VRTn9AFpE/s320/streetcar.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The real Streetcar named Desire in New Orleans</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o7rLb99VEOY/TzgWBVEaAVI/AAAAAAAAARk/JRSsOaI1YPg/s1600/streetcartitlescene-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o7rLb99VEOY/TzgWBVEaAVI/AAAAAAAAARk/JRSsOaI1YPg/s320/streetcartitlescene-1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Stella begins to realize her sister is not herself</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-egP-UlK8YQs/TzgWEP8Ig2I/AAAAAAAAAR0/uEYSXv5Cvsk/s1600/Vivien_Leigh_in_Streetcar_Named_Desire_trailer_2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-egP-UlK8YQs/TzgWEP8Ig2I/AAAAAAAAAR0/uEYSXv5Cvsk/s320/Vivien_Leigh_in_Streetcar_Named_Desire_trailer_2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The unforgettable Vivien Leigh as Blanche</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mnvnqmgebEA/TzgWE1B-B8I/AAAAAAAAAR8/poGQG4a09AA/s1600/tumblr_l7siftLBU11qb0ssjo1_500.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mnvnqmgebEA/TzgWE1B-B8I/AAAAAAAAAR8/poGQG4a09AA/s320/tumblr_l7siftLBU11qb0ssjo1_500.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Stanley, going through Blanche's things, he is intent on hating her. </div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-77060863531194677832012-02-09T10:00:00.000-08:002012-02-09T11:36:22.648-08:00Guest Blog: THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE: a love triangle, old west style.<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';">I finished another guest blog for <a href="http://allowmetoretort.blogspot.com/">http://allowmetoretort.blogspot.com/</a>. Check it out below. </b><br />
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</span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> INFO:</span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">TITLE:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">YEAR OF RELEASE:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1962</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">DIRECTOR:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> John Ford</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">STARS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> Jimmy Stewart, John “The Duke” Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">EDITOR:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> Otho Lovering </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">AWARDS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> Edith Head was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1963. This film was also selected in 2007 to be inducted into the National Film Registry. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">BOX OFFICE:</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">$8,000,000 (USA)</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">RUN TIME:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> 123 min.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">RATING:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">VIEWING FORMAT:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;"> Netflix Steaming</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">SUMMARY:</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">A senator, who became infamous for the killing of a notorious outlaw, returns home for the funeral of his friend and finds himself telling the truth about the events of that long remembered night. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">WHY THIS IS THE FILM OF THE WEEK:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">The four-time academy award-winning director John </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">Ford was at the helm of<i> The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</i>. Ford’s westerns help shape what the boundaries of the cinematic west and this film has become one of the most beloved westerns of all time. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">The film also brings together two of the most talented actors of their time, John “The Duke” Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. James Warner Bellah and Will Goldbeck’s screenplay allows these two amazing actors to battle with words, not bullets. The verbal sparing that takes place throughout the film makes it impossible to tear your eyes from the screen. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">CRITIQUE:</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">Ford’s exacting use of space illustrates the abandonment and isolation of the American West. His characters have to learn to create a system of justice within the small constraints of Main St. <i>The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</i> depicts the nature of small town politics and the justification of rights and liberties for all men, regardless of their station and creed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">Jimmy Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, the man full of heart and inspired by injustice, that sets forth to change the dynamics of the town and rid its citizens of their notorious outlaw, who had been causing death and destruction for as long as they could remember. Stoddard sets out to bring Valance to justice with books not fists; he wants to change the laws of the land with words. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">But Stoddard must also stand up against the town’s protector, Tom Doniphon (played to perfection by John Wayne) a hard-edged cowboy with the fastest draw in the west. Doniphon is only out to protect the girl in town with who he is in love with. Hallie, played by Vera Miles, finds herself torn between Ransom and Tom. Both men find themselves entwined in the political nature of the changing times and the emotional upheaval caused by their hearts. This is what keeps this film interesting from beginning to end. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">Ford creates a stage for his characters, taking each actor to their limits and creates a beautiful dialogue between the old and new west to find a solid ground underneath. Its amazing ensemble cast expertly portrays the tensions in the film and the verbal battles that occur between Stoddard and Doniphon keep the viewer immersed in the action onscreen. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 10pt;">This is a must see for any Western aficionados and for any film geeks interested in expanding their cinematic vocabulary. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 13pt;">MY IMDb RATING:</span></u></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 13pt;">9<b> </b>out of 10</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-22864060855211160742012-01-25T13:26:00.000-08:002012-02-09T10:30:23.883-08:00Guest Blog: ON THE WATERFRONT: Survival against all odds<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">My review for ON THE WATERFRONT, which I guest blogged on <a href="http://allowmetoretort.blogspot.com/">http://allowmetoretort.blogspot.com/</a><br />
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<b>BASIC INFO:</b><br />
<b>TITLE:</b> <i>On The Waterfront </i><br />
<b>YEAR OF RELEASE: </b>1981<br />
<b>DIRECTOR:</b> Elia Kazan<br />
<b>STARS:</b> Marlon Brando, Karl Madden, Lee J. Cobb and introducing Eva Marie Saint<br />
<b>EDITOR: </b>Gene Milford<br />
<b>AWARDS: </b>Won 8 Academy Awards: Most Notably for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, best Film Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction<br />
<b>BOX OFFICE:</b> $910,000<br />
<b>RUN TIME: </b>108 min.<br />
<b>RATING:</b> N/A<br />
<b>VIEWING FORMAT:</b> Netflix Streaming<br />
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<b>SUMMARY: </b><br />
Tony Malloy, an ex-prize fighting boxer, becomes a longshoreman who has family ties to the mob wh controls the waterfront. When Terry is involved in the murder of an innocent man, he stuggles to break free of the corruption controlling the docks while leading other to follow his cause.<br />
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<b>WHY THIS IS THE FILM OF THE WEEK:</b><br />
<i>On The Waterfront </i>is one of the most critically acclaimed movie in the history of cinema. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards in 1955, winning 8. It consistently ranks in the top 100 of all major film lists.<br />
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This film remains universally relevant and the themes of injustice, plight of the common man, and the struggle for freedom remain key themes in cinema today. This film resonated with everyone who watches it and I believe is the reason for its timelessness.<br />
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<b>CRITIQUE: </b><br />
Kazan's tale of class struggle remains as relevant today as it did in 1955. Brando has been forever remmebered for his portrayal of Terry Malloy, a young man trapped with a system of unfairness beyond his means of control. When Terry is involed in the death of an honest man who tried to stand up to the mob, he begins to struggle within himself to find a way out. He cbecomes romantically involved with the victim's sister Edie, Eva Marie Saint, and together, with the town priest, decide to stand up against the corrupted mob controlling the waterfront.<br />
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This film is beautifully arranged in both its words and images. The stark black and white cinematography seeks to articulate the plight of the common man versus the indulgence of the mob bosses who seek to live their lives without consequences.<br />
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The acting performances in this film are what helps it to shine. I found the conflicted nature of Brando's nuanced performance both impassioned for his plight and apathetic to his circumstance. It is only with the insistent solidarity created by the community, that Terry is able to stand up agains the mob that tired desperately to contain him.<br />
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Kazan's fim will always remain of cornerstone of cinema, not only for its artistic merit but for its examination of struggle and captivity of industry that we still feel in this country today. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: orange; font-family: inherit;"><br />
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</span></span></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-67261169298595805342012-01-12T11:29:00.003-08:002012-01-12T11:29:56.897-08:00Life Among The Ruins: IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEYRefugee comes from the french word <i>refugier</i>, which literally means to take shelter. Shelter is hard to come by in the new film by Angelina Jolie, her debut effort as a director. This film explores the nature of becoming a refugee in your own homeland, being forced to flee for safety while watching friends turn into murderous foes.<br />
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Angelina's film begins with an image of Sarajevo from above, she allows us access to her characters world from a perched view, watching the landscape create a narrative of it's own. While we get settled inside the screen, into the lush landscape, we are pulled into her created reality by the words that appear on the screen. Jolie explains that the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was home to some of the most ethnically diverse populations that ever co-existed. Croatians, Serbians, Muslims and Yugoslavs all shared this land, spoke the same language, and embraced cultural differences. In 1980, when the Communist Leader of Yugoslavia, Marshall Josip Broz Tito, died the Serbians began to witness the simultaneous collapse of Communist governments across Eastern Europe. This collapse bolstered the Serbian nationalist movement to seek power across the Republic while splintering Yugoslavia's other republics to assert their independence.<br />
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The film explores the early origins of the conflict and it's ultimate descent into madness. We first met Ajla (Zana Marjanoić) standing in front of a painting, a face. She shares her small apartment in Sarajevo with her sister, Lejla (Vanesa Glodio) and newborn baby. We learn that Ajla has come back to Bosnia to help her sister care for the little one. The moment of calm and happiness erupts in the next scene when Ajla mets her lover, Danijel (Gornan Kostić), at the neighborhood bar. One minute they are dancing and whispering sweet nothings we never hear and, the next, a bomb explodes and the entire building collapses into smoke. The screen shuts to black and all we hear are the sounds of terror. This is what we are left with before the world falls a part.<br />
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Several months later, bombs alert a sleeping Ajla and Lejla to the onslaught of terror that has yet to grace their doorstep. The next morning, their apartment building is taken over by the Serbian Army. Everyone is immediately evacuated, forced to be paraded outside in the freezing weather. The men and boys are scrambled together and are forced to the side of the apartment building, Jolie doesn't allow us access to their slaughter but instead lets us witness the trauma on the faces of their widows left behind. The soliders then precede to pick out some of the younger women from the crowd left standing, pushing them all towards a van, the destination unknown, while the others stand aside to watch. Ajla is selected and the separation from her sister begins the first of many political, physical and emotional schisms throughout this film.<br />
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The horror that enfolds in the center section of Jolie's film is not for the fient of heart. Most of the story follows Ajla in a Serbian Army camp, where the women are used as sexual toys and house maids. They live in constant fear of repetitious rape and several of the women speak of their wish to die rather than endure the mental and physical deterioration. Jolie is very retrained in her cinematic license and mostly chooses to use sound and dialogue as vehicles for experiencing pain. One scene in particular stood out to me, mostly because of the subtlety of action. The scene takes place in the middle of the night, the camera sits to the right of Ajla, wide awake and shaking. From behind her, she hears a solider enter their sleeping quarters as he takes one of the women out of her bed and carries her away. The only sounds are Ajla breathing, the man's boots, and the woman struggling in the background. Jolie, refrains from calling melodrama to the moment of sheer terror, instead allowing us to be a silent witness along with her protagonist.<br />
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This film follows the four year conflict in it's entirety. Jolie sets out to explore the nature of war on all kinds of relationships; between lovers, friends, relatives, and strangers. Over the course of the conflict, over 100,000 people were killed, over 2 million were displaced from their homes, and between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped, mostly while being held in captivity. Over four years, over 360 shells were fired every day and citizens became caged in their own homes with fear of sniper fire outside the walls of safety. It was after the Bosnian conflict that the UN officially ruled that raped was a crime against humanity, on it's own accord. Jolie wants these issues to forefront her film. She wants her audience to leave the theater having learned something, She forces, repeatedly , the issues of international amnesia and insists that all conflicts that involve violations of human rights are international crises. She insists that we must sit up and pay attention. This is a tall order but is something that haunts every corner of her film; in television sets, newspapers, and radio reports which litter the background.<br />
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Zana Marjanoić, is stunning as Ajla. Her journey through this film is something that astounded me. I don't want to illuminate on the plot of the film, as I think the audience needs to experience it for themselves. Jolie's command of space and the world in which her characters inhabit is something that should be praised. She brings to life a beautiful story of love, loss, depravity, and the silver lining that sustained hope provides. This film demands to be seen.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kEYyRIvdqlU/Twstlz8OrbI/AAAAAAAAAKc/xhnMBDT8FIU/s1600/00000166_1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kEYyRIvdqlU/Twstlz8OrbI/AAAAAAAAAKc/xhnMBDT8FIU/s1600/00000166_1.jpeg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Ajla at the window, she spends much of her time in the camp looking out her window</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObUhBVgUW_o/TwstlxsMeqI/AAAAAAAAAKg/7Z-RU5uwjWo/s1600/84844_gal.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObUhBVgUW_o/TwstlxsMeqI/AAAAAAAAAKg/7Z-RU5uwjWo/s320/84844_gal.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Hearing the men in the courtyard below allows her outside access through her window</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F59AjF5e5FU/TwstmapKEAI/AAAAAAAAAKs/y3TLtQumfuk/s1600/84956_gal.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F59AjF5e5FU/TwstmapKEAI/AAAAAAAAAKs/y3TLtQumfuk/s320/84956_gal.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Danjiel and Ajla, the first time they meet again in the camp</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQ7N1ugKLxY/TwstmmXykOI/AAAAAAAAAK0/9590-Nwdpco/s1600/angelina-photo-film-580x400.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQ7N1ugKLxY/TwstmmXykOI/AAAAAAAAAK0/9590-Nwdpco/s320/angelina-photo-film-580x400.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Jolie at the helm</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxGw6bBspkc/TwstmwQewFI/AAAAAAAAAK8/rNRUVFEwYos/s1600/blood-and-honey-film-clip.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxGw6bBspkc/TwstmwQewFI/AAAAAAAAAK8/rNRUVFEwYos/s320/blood-and-honey-film-clip.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Ajla and Lejla watches the soliders coming into town </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3jMRo7pEhxY/TwstnNW0LAI/AAAAAAAAALE/1_6h7oyrLLE/s1600/in_the_land_of_blood_and_honey_03.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3jMRo7pEhxY/TwstnNW0LAI/AAAAAAAAALE/1_6h7oyrLLE/s320/in_the_land_of_blood_and_honey_03.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The lovers remain separated by differences but secretly long to be together</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hvHm6UBl4PY/TwstnbXr2DI/AAAAAAAAALM/mFY78AsBhXE/s1600/In-the-Land-of-Blood-and-Honey-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hvHm6UBl4PY/TwstnbXr2DI/AAAAAAAAALM/mFY78AsBhXE/s320/In-the-Land-of-Blood-and-Honey-1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> A firing squad </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drlPL-Scgb8/Twstn7RmkEI/AAAAAAAAALU/ltGUnhBTmbk/s1600/in-the-land-of-blood-and-honey-22.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drlPL-Scgb8/Twstn7RmkEI/AAAAAAAAALU/ltGUnhBTmbk/s320/in-the-land-of-blood-and-honey-22.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The world the captured women inhabit at the Army Camp</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vBImfRtd91c/Twstn6F7wCI/AAAAAAAAALc/7gfWA4HhZ94/s1600/In-the-Land-of-Blood-and-Honey-is-Drama-Movies-Photos-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vBImfRtd91c/Twstn6F7wCI/AAAAAAAAALc/7gfWA4HhZ94/s320/In-the-Land-of-Blood-and-Honey-is-Drama-Movies-Photos-2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Using the women as shields in a fight against the resistance</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6JcfOAth70s/TwstoXQ9CxI/AAAAAAAAALk/2QlvREvCBRI/s1600/in-the-land-of-blood-and-honey.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6JcfOAth70s/TwstoXQ9CxI/AAAAAAAAALk/2QlvREvCBRI/s320/in-the-land-of-blood-and-honey.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AMpojD1dGUw/TwstoonAyCI/AAAAAAAAALs/A5VogI1EGpI/s1600/In%252520The%252520Land-0024-20111202-182.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AMpojD1dGUw/TwstoonAyCI/AAAAAAAAALs/A5VogI1EGpI/s320/In%252520The%252520Land-0024-20111202-182.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Trying to escape</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Khh217Vz_gY/Twstoyt8fuI/AAAAAAAAAL0/Crf13_ylDvU/s1600/MV5BMTU4Njk0NjUzOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODgxMDgxNw%2540%2540._V1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Khh217Vz_gY/Twstoyt8fuI/AAAAAAAAAL0/Crf13_ylDvU/s320/MV5BMTU4Njk0NjUzOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODgxMDgxNw%2540%2540._V1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Jolie at the helm</div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-78698201023730836882012-01-12T11:29:00.001-08:002012-01-12T11:29:19.389-08:00Body Horror: THE SKIN I LIVE INThis weekend I attended an Almodóvar double feature at the New Beverly, first up was his new psychological horror film entitled THE SKIN I LIVE IN (2011), followed by his last release BROKEN EMBRACES (2009).<br />
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I really wanted to put together a blog post on THE SKIN I LIVE IN but couldn't find the words to write about the film without giving away any details of the plot, which I ardently believe you need to see to believe. So I am sending you to the New York Times review of this film, written by Manohola Dargis, who eloquently describes the interworking of this film without spoiling its intricate plot.<br />
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http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/movies/the-skin-i-live-in-directed-by-pedro-almodovar-review.html?ref=movies<br />
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This film is exquisitely pieced together with the artful touch of a master director. Everything about this film breathes new life into a genre built on pornographic slaying. Banderas and Almodóvar create a twisted fantasy world for Robert Ledgard to live and obsess in perfect isolation. Elena Anaya, who masterfully designed her character Vera, will leave you breathless by the film's end.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0cJL3xpc8U/TwtSMy4uKZI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/9cBRuJyyRSA/s1600/The-Skin-I-Live-In-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G0cJL3xpc8U/TwtSMy4uKZI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/9cBRuJyyRSA/s320/The-Skin-I-Live-In-1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MyXpUsRf14w/TwtSOdnnEhI/AAAAAAAAAMY/zAI1Xn5JWH0/s1600/the-skin-i-live-in.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MyXpUsRf14w/TwtSOdnnEhI/AAAAAAAAAMY/zAI1Xn5JWH0/s320/the-skin-i-live-in.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ixG69eUohWc/TwtSPv9GU_I/AAAAAAAAAMg/tPl9vbPPNV4/s1600/The-Skin-I-Live-In1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ixG69eUohWc/TwtSPv9GU_I/AAAAAAAAAMg/tPl9vbPPNV4/s320/The-Skin-I-Live-In1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-duDpyseMvL0/TwtSQ1oWHTI/AAAAAAAAAMo/KrjmtVGAc_M/s1600/The345tytd9.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-duDpyseMvL0/TwtSQ1oWHTI/AAAAAAAAAMo/KrjmtVGAc_M/s320/The345tytd9.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-78012118153719451402012-01-12T11:25:00.000-08:002012-01-12T11:31:13.273-08:00Feel Something: BEGINNERS<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Beginners</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, a film by writer/director Mike Mills, tells the real life story of his father, a man that was married to the same woman for over forty years and shortly after her death, came out at the age of 75. He was only out for five short years (shortly after coming out he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer) but instantly grabbed ahold of his unclaimed years and voraciously became the man he always wanted to be. </span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Beginners</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> stars Ewan McGregor as Oliver, Christopher Plummer as Hal, Cosmo the dog as Arthur, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 32.4px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 32.4px; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mélanie</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: 32.4px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Laurent as Anna, Goran Visnjic as Andy and Mary Page Keller as Georgia . This film is a singular portrait of an ensemble, which I know sounds counter intuitive, but each carefully created personality follows its own path in this film. Each character learns what it means to be comfortable in their own skin and a story that is essential about the experience of one man becomes something universal, it becomes a story we can all tell. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mills creates a kaleidoscope of images, words, drawings, and feelings to tell a deeply personal story of the life of his father without bringing his own sentimentality to the table. Hal, a fictional realization of Mills father, truly understands that life culminates in finding out who we are and embracing every aspect of its unexpected twists and turns. The narrative intertwines multiple spaces in time, both before and after the death of Hal. Olivier and his father's dog, Arthur, are the only two characters that inhabit both spaces, allowing the audience a narrative guide through the film. Olivier seems lost in his world, living in an blank space, free from interaction and mistakes. Next to the vibrant image of Hal and the shy yet hungry for experience Anna, Olivier feels outside the narrative space. He seems to move through the film like an observer until he is forced to bloom. The experiences Olivier shares with his father in the last few years of his life inspire something fierce in Olivier's bland existence. His father's relentless search for happiness and love is the launching pad for Oliver's encounter with Anna. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Anna and Olivier's love story is the perfect mirror to Hal and Andy, whose love transcends traditional boundaries and limitations. Hal and Andy embody an imperfect yet forgiving and tender love that blooms despite life's harsh realities, cancer and imminent death. They fall in love precisely because their love is a love worth taking a leap for. Having been the insider in Hal's life, Olivier utilizes his father's courage to venture down an unknown and formerly hard path to love. Anna is both a believer in magic and the intangible and yet, like Olivier, is tied firmly to the sad reality of empty hotel rooms and lost families. She and Olivier find a way to embrace their new relationship and learn to weather their own storms. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Although, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Beginners </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">doesn't offer a recipe for living, it does encourage the audience to embrace the unknown, to wake up everyday and remember why we are living. This film asks that you FEEL, and feel it, anything and everything, with a childish enthusiasm. We are all Beginners, at life, at love, at death, at living. This film's simple request is that we find comfort in that. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAVdaDs1j7g/Tf_qAyrFSEI/AAAAAAAAACw/-AvUNwKAUXA/s1600/FilmLead-Beginners-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAVdaDs1j7g/Tf_qAyrFSEI/AAAAAAAAACw/-AvUNwKAUXA/s320/FilmLead-Beginners-570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Olivier and Hal having a heart to heart at the dog park<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bPuXtMKhQjo/Tf_qGCqINBI/AAAAAAAAAC0/506jxE359sU/s1600/Melanie_Laurent_Beginners_film_Mike_Mills_0020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bPuXtMKhQjo/Tf_qGCqINBI/AAAAAAAAAC0/506jxE359sU/s320/Melanie_Laurent_Beginners_film_Mike_Mills_0020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> The beginnings of Anna's falling for Olivier<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yOz8A9-YyHc/Tf_qJAGD_3I/AAAAAAAAAC4/bwww-Wggc68/s1600/blog_mm_beginners_grid_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yOz8A9-YyHc/Tf_qJAGD_3I/AAAAAAAAAC4/bwww-Wggc68/s320/blog_mm_beginners_grid_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Walking through Eylsian Park in Los Angeles<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UXf6GuhwbhY/Tf_qM6MwM4I/AAAAAAAAAC8/rg4FtfBOEr4/s1600/beginners-photo-melanie-laurent-ewan-mcgregor4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UXf6GuhwbhY/Tf_qM6MwM4I/AAAAAAAAAC8/rg4FtfBOEr4/s320/beginners-photo-melanie-laurent-ewan-mcgregor4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Escapades in the Biltmore Hotel suite that serves as Anna's home<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iqPowfS5q64/Tf_qPlS5A_I/AAAAAAAAADA/pT7QmTeb6Cg/s1600/beginners-mike-mills-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iqPowfS5q64/Tf_qPlS5A_I/AAAAAAAAADA/pT7QmTeb6Cg/s320/beginners-mike-mills-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Arthur and Olivier, seeking some companionship<br />
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There is also an amazing array of videos, clips, and the trailer for the film on the Focus Features website. Mike Mills also has a blog link on that same site. http://www.focusfeatures.com/focusfeatures/film/beginners/<br />
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</span>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-5077038658287156992011-12-13T17:27:00.000-08:002012-01-12T11:21:11.086-08:00Creating cages of our own devices: SHAMEShame is a feeling that arises from the consciousness or exposure to unworthy or indecent conduct or circumstances. Steve McQueen's new film <i>Shame</i> peels apart the layers of meaning behind this multi-faceted word and leaves his characters to find themselves amongst the ruins. McQueen directs Michael Fassbinder (Brandon) and Carey Mulligan (Sissy) as a brother and sister who are seeking to find solace in a chaotic and unrelenting space.<br />
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</div><div>The film begins with Brandon, naked in bed. We see him laying with the sheet up to his navel, staring off into space, music swells the screen. He refuses to look at us, or even in our general direction. Brandon is not someone that McQueen is going to let us get close to. Brandon's apartment is a square, white space. We walk the entire length of the apartment with Brandon; from bedroom, to living room, to bathroom, fully nude, somewhat at peace, uninhibited in this sterile place. Brandon's world is constructed out of clean lines, there are no distractions here, nothing to excite the senses, this is a world in which Brandon's addiction can be released. Brandon is an addict, a slave to his body, perpetually fixed on getting off. McQueen never illuminates the cause or circumstances that lead Brandon to this place of alienation, of self-abuse, but we are allowed to see his deterioration, mostly without judgement because we are left out of his past. Brandon's daily routine is infallible; masturbate at home, watch porn at the office, masturbate in the bathroom at work, call a prostitute when he gets home, or watch porn till he falls asleep. Sex propels his day, he is bound by his innate and often unexplained urges. </div><div><br />
</div><div>His world, and the viewers, is turned upside down when Brandon's sister Sissy shows up unexpectedly in Brandon's apartment. Sissy is the alter ego of Brandon; chaotic, impulsive, overly emotional. McQueen counterbalances Brandon's world through Sissy. She is also pained, chained to her sensitivity, a similar victim of circumstance. They have several exchanges throughout the film, which I believe make this movie nothing short of special. Their interactions are heated, filled with confusion, anger, resentment, and an intense need for emotional connections. This pair of actors are the reason this fim exceeds beyond a simple exploitative film about the cage of sexual addiction and depression. Without Brandon and Sissy, this film is just porn, just a meditation on the breaking of flesh for carnage and self abusive needs. But with them, it surpasses the need for pleasure and breaks into a world of pain. The sex in this film is obtrusive, violent, at times the viewer feels the needs to look away from the screen, but through Sissy and Brandon the sex transcends the physical to become a representation of pain and suffering. These characters are locked in its embrace and are slowly churned into oblivion. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Fassbinder is fearless and naked (physically but more importantly emotionally) in this performance, allowing himself to be the instrument for his director's art. He brings Brandon's story to life and although we may not understand why he is the way he is or sympathize with his affliction, we care till the very end. Mulligan takes no prisoners in this film, she is uncompromising and doesn't ever plead the audience for their sympathy, though she may require it from Brandon. The siblings relationship is the heart of this film and honestly I wish McQueen could have found more areas to explore with them. The only fault of this film was it's insistence on pushing the envelope with it's NC-17 rating, giving the audience more flesh than we required and leaving us a bit high and drive on the emotional connections, but <i>Shame</i> doesn't ask more from it's audience than to open our eyes and drink in what we see.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vLfRd_Od9YA/Tuf-bIEDM1I/AAAAAAAAAJ8/lY5u6PDEDcg/s1600/movie-shame-stills-1583175457.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vLfRd_Od9YA/Tuf-bIEDM1I/AAAAAAAAAJ8/lY5u6PDEDcg/s320/movie-shame-stills-1583175457.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Brandon and Sissy before a moment of explosion. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu6MxC70718/Tuf7qmGhhqI/AAAAAAAAAJA/ldruACPTyog/s1600/bilde.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu6MxC70718/Tuf7qmGhhqI/AAAAAAAAAJA/ldruACPTyog/s320/bilde.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Brandon in his devoid white world. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--HHmGrP_T34/Tuf7r5Ar-DI/AAAAAAAAAJI/pxC2Vp7BQZ4/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--HHmGrP_T34/Tuf7r5Ar-DI/AAAAAAAAAJI/pxC2Vp7BQZ4/s320/image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> A victim of his fate. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h-VWbHj5scQ/Tuf7t9bGv-I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/Hr-5pFULHpM/s1600/Shame_02.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h-VWbHj5scQ/Tuf7t9bGv-I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/Hr-5pFULHpM/s320/Shame_02.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brandon's most intimate interaction that fizzles into impotence. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PZpjYOYmgUQ/Tuf7vVMlUxI/AAAAAAAAAJY/n_ElG274K6g/s1600/SHAME_5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PZpjYOYmgUQ/Tuf7vVMlUxI/AAAAAAAAAJY/n_ElG274K6g/s320/SHAME_5.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Brandon, in his empty space, watching porn. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xp3BBQ4ZLik/Tuf7xfbsIfI/AAAAAAAAAJg/Av9iGCpZj3Y/s1600/shame-movie1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xp3BBQ4ZLik/Tuf7xfbsIfI/AAAAAAAAAJg/Av9iGCpZj3Y/s320/shame-movie1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Sissy's heartbreaking performance of "New York, New York". </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9R0RXuzT70/Tuf7zKza93I/AAAAAAAAAJo/vOeZ98RQ3jY/s1600/Shame-stills-carey-mulligan-24091953-2560-1704.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9R0RXuzT70/Tuf7zKza93I/AAAAAAAAAJo/vOeZ98RQ3jY/s320/Shame-stills-carey-mulligan-24091953-2560-1704.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The pain is palpable. Mulligan is astonishing. </div></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-86860447101326917412011-11-16T18:48:00.000-08:002012-01-12T11:26:56.432-08:00The Lonely Hunter: BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORKBill Cunningham lives in a closet stacked from floor to ceiling with filing cabinets filled with film negatives, albeit a closet at Carnegie Hall, but he would be the last person in world to wear that title like a badge of honor. Bill, a man who has spent his life lurking invisibly (at least he says) in the background of the fashion world for the last fifty years, has made a life out of documentation. Bill writes the "On The Street" column in The New York Times. He has made a career out of belts, hats, scarves, patterns, shoes, shows, and women. He was given his first camera by photographer David Montgomery and was told to use his lens like a pencil to paper, to say something with it's images. Bill is the most jovial man I have ever had the pleasure of watching onscreen and his laughter and love for his job is infectious. He has had a very long and intriguing career spanning several heavy weight publications, including WWD, The New York Times, and The original Details magazine.<br />
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Richard Press's documentary <i>Bill Cunningham New York</i> follows Bill, now over 80 years old, through his day to day life. We follow Bill on his bike, in his blue painter's smock, a camera slung over his neck, riding up and down Manhattan, in search of the moment when fashion presents itself. Bill never sets out to find the perfect picture but instead prides himself on letting the street speak to him, "The best fashion show is on the street, always has been, always will be". Through the snow, sleet, sun, rain, and whatever else mother nature has to offer, the street is always there and so is Bill.<br />
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Bill spends a lot of energy conveying the importance of the clothes, he insists that his point of view is not of any importance, claiming "it's not what i think, it's what i see." Bill lets the street tell him the story it wants to tell. Bill is just the messenger, but he is also a man who has given up his life to capture culture in New York for decades and because of Bill we have an unprecedented record of the ebbs and flows of fashion's epicenter.<br />
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Bill has remained a figure set permanently in the fashion industry while striving and insisting on standing in its fringes. His photos are meant to be fleeting moments that catch his subjects in all their unposed glory. His steadfast belief that money is the root of all evil has allowed him to dictate his career and life's journey any way that he so chooses. Bill says, quite eloquently, "If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do kid, that's the key to the whole thing." He has never sold out and refuses to let anyone twist his work into anything other than pure observation.<br />
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In a interview from 1989, Bill beautifully expresses the need for fashion in a world fraught with wars, homelessness, sadness, and loneliness. He addresses those who believe that fashion is a frivolity that shouldn't be taken seriously in a world full of so much else but Bill insists, "Fashion is the armor that helps us to survive everyday life! I don't think you can do away with it, it would be like doing away with civilization". He insists that the mere existence of beauty allows for the world to find it.<br />
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This film must be seen by anyone who has ever craved to find their passion and once discovers it realizes that nothing else needs to exist as long as the path to that passion can be taken.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4rYyVZ49n9E/TsR20XdzTXI/AAAAAAAAAHA/uUfvcRewGsY/s1600/Bill_Cunningham.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4rYyVZ49n9E/TsR20XdzTXI/AAAAAAAAAHA/uUfvcRewGsY/s320/Bill_Cunningham.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bill's Column in The New York Times</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WemKlSXoIvs/TsR20wRBNiI/AAAAAAAAAHI/8J8UKatraOs/s1600/Bill-Cunningham-New-York-Trailer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WemKlSXoIvs/TsR20wRBNiI/AAAAAAAAAHI/8J8UKatraOs/s320/Bill-Cunningham-New-York-Trailer.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Another signature Bill. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q8UBFG9Og-c/TsR21NryVNI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/ESuWfgs58bQ/s1600/bill-cunningham-ny_320.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q8UBFG9Og-c/TsR21NryVNI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/ESuWfgs58bQ/s1600/bill-cunningham-ny_320.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">At war on the streets of NYC, capturing fashion as it happens. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">On the front lines of the Parisian fashion shows</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MKIbI9MncQQ/TsR22QWH-pI/AAAAAAAAAHg/JzU4_IEQpcg/s1600/billcun4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MKIbI9MncQQ/TsR22QWH-pI/AAAAAAAAAHg/JzU4_IEQpcg/s320/billcun4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Whatever it takes to get the shot</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Bill and his camera, in signature blue smock, which he wears purely for functionality</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H0bojiDYsts/TsR23R3fWyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/9ml95Jbu-lc/s1600/Bills-Apartment.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H0bojiDYsts/TsR23R3fWyI/AAAAAAAAAHw/9ml95Jbu-lc/s320/Bills-Apartment.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Bill's studio apartment, filled from floor to ceiling with filing cabinets of negatives </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NvFTJCwwm04/TsR23tfA6fI/AAAAAAAAAH4/bD8aAnSz9cU/s1600/esq-bill-cunningham-new-york-032510-lg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NvFTJCwwm04/TsR23tfA6fI/AAAAAAAAAH4/bD8aAnSz9cU/s320/esq-bill-cunningham-new-york-032510-lg.jpeg" width="218" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">On the street</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AnxX7rulBng/TsR287gVj2I/AAAAAAAAAII/vCoRRmqLt6E/s1600/22stre6001_2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AnxX7rulBng/TsR287gVj2I/AAAAAAAAAII/vCoRRmqLt6E/s320/22stre6001_2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-36941001231407440502011-11-07T16:54:00.001-08:002012-01-12T11:26:27.056-08:00Down the rabbit hole and into oblivion: MELANCHOLIALars von Triers' cinematic feast of tortured souls continues in his newest film <i>Melancholia. </i><br />
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<i>Melancholia </i>had its Los Angeles premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood last night, as part of this years AFI Film Festival. People stood in line for hours in hopes to experience a unique cinematic spectacle that would foray outside their comfort zones. A hush came over the room as a gushing Kirsten Dunst took the stage to introduce the film with her co-star, Udo Kier. Mrs. Dunst beamed proudly as she waved to friends and family in the audience and the lights slowly dimmed to blackness. Her smiling face only seconds before sharply contrasts to the film's opening montage, a sequence of slow moving shots of her face, absentmindedly unaware of the destruction taking place behind her. Dead birds are falling gracefully in slow motion as Kirsten tries to open her eyes. This is a stark image to initiate the viewer in von Trier's film but, as we will later discover, we will spend the next two hours as Kirsten spends the first two minutes, alone, trying to open our eyes to the world around us.<br />
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The film begins with an overture of images combined with Wagners' compositions from <i>Tristan and Isolde</i>. The epic scale of the images complements the grand operatic score. These opening images allow us to step outside the realm of a created reality and into a dreamlike space where the events of the film are foreshadowed in slow motion, encouraging the viewer to cement these destructive moments in their mind before the film thrusts forward into it's spiraling narrative. These moments are gorgeous interludes that allow the viewer, at the onset of the film, to mediate on the end of the world and the moments that encapsulate it.<br />
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The film is broken into two additional parts: Justine (Kirsten Dunst, who hasn't stolen the screen since her indelible performance in Sofia Coppola's <i>The Virgin Suicides</i>) and her sister Claire (played with perfect insecurity by Charlotte Gainsbourg). Justine's section takes place at her wedding reception; a dream world where all the guests are found inside a remote castle to celebrate an occasion that doesn't seem to be happy for anyone. This is the place where we are taken inside Justine's character and shown the darkness that is bubbling underneath. Dunst plays this role with perfectly nuanced moments of despair and longing fused with a slighted air of ineffectual happiness. We see her world crumbling around her elusive nature and this normally wonderful occasion is tainted with distain from beginning to the bitter end. This is the segment where we see Justine's happiness fade in a mere matter of moments into a fragmented series of moments that shred her character into pieces.<br />
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The second part of the narrative, follows Claire and the imminent disaster that awaits the planet. A newly discovered planet called Melancholia is on a crash course with Earth and the family is forced to, each in their own way, come to terms with the loss of everything. This part of the film is the most interesting to the viewer as it sets the stage for the disaster that the film's introduction already alluded to. The world is going to be disintegrated but how will these four people choose to deal with that reality is what interests von Trier.<br />
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The film's final moment in a field on a hilltop near the house allow us unique access to the mind of each of von Trier's characters. Hiding in plain sight from the looming planet, Justine tells her sister and her son to take her hand and close their eyes. As the camera moves to and from each of the three characters only the son, Leo (played brilliantly by Cameron Spurr) keeps his eyes closed, a image of placid childlike wonder on his face until the very end. Justine, intent on losing her grip on reality from the beginning, opens her eyes but her back remains toward the planet on the horizon. Justine, fearful of the world around her, fearful of all she has to lose, recoils from her son and sister and stares horrified into her fate.<br />
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This only being my second Lars Von Trier viewing, the other being his <i>Dancer in the Dark (2000</i>), I was expecting the violence that explodes at the end but the quiet surrender and total alienation of that destruction left me feeling hungry for the world outside the dark theater walls.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3x2kf9zLkZY/Trh-CqP068I/AAAAAAAAAFc/4ryk9NW2IuA/s1600/melancholia_01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3x2kf9zLkZY/Trh-CqP068I/AAAAAAAAAFc/4ryk9NW2IuA/s320/melancholia_01.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Justine in her moment of seclusion away from everyone else at her wedding</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L5SgAc4b-eM/Trh-Srq5jcI/AAAAAAAAAFk/N3KA9Vm5zhk/s1600/Melancholia_F11_framegrab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L5SgAc4b-eM/Trh-Srq5jcI/AAAAAAAAAFk/N3KA9Vm5zhk/s320/Melancholia_F11_framegrab.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> A dream that Justine alludes to later in the film, this image is from the beginning montage</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s1Hk8HMOHcc/Trh-TIwhzrI/AAAAAAAAAFs/_1Wqwa2n4s8/s1600/Melancholia-3-550x309.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s1Hk8HMOHcc/Trh-TIwhzrI/AAAAAAAAAFs/_1Wqwa2n4s8/s320/Melancholia-3-550x309.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Justine and her new husband, desperately clinging to a false reality. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zhu8vRwTsaI/Trh-ToTQMCI/AAAAAAAAAF0/sTnii4ULYhs/s1600/melancholia-photo-kirsten-dunst3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zhu8vRwTsaI/Trh-ToTQMCI/AAAAAAAAAF0/sTnii4ULYhs/s320/melancholia-photo-kirsten-dunst3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> One of the first hints of impending doom, a snow shower. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZLx1AS2snI/Trh-ZXZ3jgI/AAAAAAAAAF8/WsGYvmYyp9k/s1600/melancholia2011limiteddvdscrxvid-hls_screen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZLx1AS2snI/Trh-ZXZ3jgI/AAAAAAAAAF8/WsGYvmYyp9k/s320/melancholia2011limiteddvdscrxvid-hls_screen.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The first image of Justine on screen, trying to open her eyes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DL1zqC43EfU/Trh-nsX7tmI/AAAAAAAAAGM/zHo5HcGEmP4/s1600/01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DL1zqC43EfU/Trh-nsX7tmI/AAAAAAAAAGM/zHo5HcGEmP4/s320/01.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The three main characters in the film's beginning montage with Melancholia behind them</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0tn5VQj74ck/Trh-qWFtvwI/AAAAAAAAAGU/zYudX9LpnUY/s1600/tumblr_lrdjs4ozSN1qe77x1o1_500_large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0tn5VQj74ck/Trh-qWFtvwI/AAAAAAAAAGU/zYudX9LpnUY/s320/tumblr_lrdjs4ozSN1qe77x1o1_500_large.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">An image from the film's final moment, hiding in plain sight from imminent destruction</div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-49499795872235992822011-07-05T17:23:00.000-07:002012-01-12T11:23:17.257-08:00Light and Flickering Shadows: THE PURPLE ROSE OF CIAROAny film that opens with credits over black to the melodic melodies of Fred Astaire singing to his long time cohort Ginger Rogers has to mean that something almost magical is about to happen. The lyrics to "Check to Cheek" make me want to fall in love, make me to swoon, make my toes tap, and my head swim. <i>Top Hat</i> (1935) effectively changed my life and the fact that Woody Allen's T<i>he Purple Rose of Cairo</i> (1985) begins with Fred and Ginger's magical moment meant that something wonderful was about to begin.<br />
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</div><div><i>The Purple Rose of Cairo</i> is a film that holds a special place near and dear in this heart of mine. A love letter from Woody Allen to the generations of people who had and have shared a love affair with the cinema. </div><div><br />
</div><div>The film follows Cecilia (Mia Farrow) living a dreary and dull drum life in 1930's New Jersey. She has a husband who beats her, a job as a waitress that she constantly fails at, and a resilient and beautiful relationship with the cinema. Whenever life gives her lemons, and it happens to Cecilia a lot, she rushes to the cinema to sit for hours watching life flicker to life on the screen. She spends all of her time getting lost in the black and white worlds playing out in front of her. </div><div><br />
</div><div>After one particularly bad day, Cecilia decides to go to the cinema to see <i>The Purple Rose of Cair</i>o for the fifth or sixth time and all of a sudden one of the characters in the film meets her eyes and comes off the screen and into her life. Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) adventurer and explorer, has given up his life on the screen to find a new home in Cecilia's arms. This film is best discovered in the eyes of the viewer and it's a genuine pleasure to watch the drama that enfolds the world between reality and fiction. Cecilia is constantly at war with the moment she is living and the fantasy that tugs at her heartstrings. A woman who has always had nothing suddenly has the life she has always dreamed of, so what if it's fictional, as Cecilia says "You can't have everything". Her relationship with reality prevents her from truly giving herself over to her fantasy and yet at the same time makes her heart believe that love is truly possible in life, not just in the movies. This film will leave you wanting more and breaking your heart all in the same moment. </div><div><br />
</div><div><i>The Purple Rose of Cairo</i> is one of my favorite films, it reminds me that magic is always lingering around the corner and even when the world has grown dim and painful. We will always have movies to remind us that something better and more beautiful is lurking just around the bend. </div><div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8FCRdR_1FQM/ThOr6bw9NSI/AAAAAAAAAEs/jzS0-1oys2g/s1600/tumblr_lkc4s39LxN1qbmx5fo1_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8FCRdR_1FQM/ThOr6bw9NSI/AAAAAAAAAEs/jzS0-1oys2g/s1600/tumblr_lkc4s39LxN1qbmx5fo1_400.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Mia and Woody on set<br />
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Cecilia lost in wonder at the restaurant<br />
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Cecilia and her cinema<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fvq0ZXuzBuM/ThOr_GCumFI/AAAAAAAAAE4/9FiTurFZk58/s1600/the_purple_rose_of_cairo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fvq0ZXuzBuM/ThOr_GCumFI/AAAAAAAAAE4/9FiTurFZk58/s1600/the_purple_rose_of_cairo.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Cecilia and the actor who plays Tom Baxter in reality<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdMNqgI-fag/ThOsAqbwJSI/AAAAAAAAAE8/BYvOQFcsKnw/s1600/mia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdMNqgI-fag/ThOsAqbwJSI/AAAAAAAAAE8/BYvOQFcsKnw/s1600/mia.jpg" /></a></div><br />
One of the two most beautiful moments on film<br />
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Cecilia day dreaming about the movies she loves so much<br />
</div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-3077655899451664292011-06-27T23:27:00.000-07:002012-01-12T11:24:04.692-08:00Melancholy and the Many Faces of Love: MYSTERIES OF LISBONLet me start by saying, this film redeemed my entire week. After obtaining tickets to <i>The Guard</i>, <i>Winnie The Pooh</i>, <i>Love Crime</i> and <i>The Devil's Double</i> at the Los Angeles Film Festival this week, <i>Mysteries of Lisbon</i> was the only screening I was able to attend. I had never heard of Raoul Ruiz or his plethora of features. My only introduction to this 257 minute film (that's over four hours) was a picture on the LAFF website and the knowledge of its patience-trying running time, not the greatest source of inspiration for a film with a start time of 7pm. But, after David Ansen, Artistic Director of the festival, finished his opening remarks, praising Ruiz as an artist and visual story telling master, I was strapped in and ready to feast my eyes on the images coming to life on the screen.<br />
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This film was sumptuous in every way (the man next to me kept saying, "Oh my god, that's gorgeous" over and over and over again throughout the first thirty minutes). Ruiz creates a story which constantly intertwines the playfulness of fiction and the cold dark truths of reality. One of the ways in which Ruiz utilizes fantasy to tell his story is by incorporating a puppet stage, filled with all the characters from the film as paper cut-outs. He uses this stage to set up the tableau in the next scene, using these make believe characters to come to life (so to speak) into their real life counterparts.<br />
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The film follows three (you could argue more) main protagonists, all with hidden identities, all with dark and painful pasts. The beauty of the story is in the ways in which all of these characters come to find out who they truly are and how their lives had always been inextricably intertwined. Giving away the secrets would defeat the purpose of the film that Ruiz set out to create, so I will not attempt to do so here. His film is a woven tale of woe, we discover the characters as they discover themselves. This film is about secrets and the way they haunt our lives till the very end.<br />
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Ruiz narrative would be incomplete without the incredible art direction by Isabel Branco and set decoration by Paula Szabo. These two women create the world in which Ruiz characters get to breathe and it's a gorgeous world of muted colors and deep greens, you can truly lose yourself within the frame. The cinematography by Andre Szankowski has an indelible impact on the audience. He constantly plays with filters and alters his depth of field in moments of frustration, confusion, and utter loss. The camera work in this film is a journey all by itself.<br />
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In an industry which has lost itself in large studio pictures in order to secure a "big bang for their buck", this film was an experience I will never forget. This film helps me to remember why I moved here in the first place and helps me to have faith in filmmakers willing to take a chance on a cinematic experience that they know their audience still craves. It also continues to strengthen my resolve to participate in the festival experience, because films like this need to breathe, they need to flicker to life on screen in front of a captivated audience, they need someone to believe in them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQ-ODRD8svg/Tgl1roNDFWI/AAAAAAAAADw/GIPvClf65_w/s1600/nyffmysteries718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQ-ODRD8svg/Tgl1roNDFWI/AAAAAAAAADw/GIPvClf65_w/s320/nyffmysteries718.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Mother and Son reunited at last<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4x07MKH70qQ/Tgl1tJDioQI/AAAAAAAAAD0/nRF8GIn9ilE/s1600/mysteriesoflisbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4x07MKH70qQ/Tgl1tJDioQI/AAAAAAAAAD0/nRF8GIn9ilE/s320/mysteriesoflisbon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
A love triangle with a tragic end<br />
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Just feast your eyes on this gorgeousness.<br />
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A lover's quarrel<br />
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By her son's fevered bedside.<br />
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(All captions are vague, spoiling this film would be wrong in so many ways.)Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-43407210821871527842011-06-21T19:09:00.000-07:002012-01-12T11:26:00.325-08:00Overcoming Numbness: ORDINARY PEOPLE<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Robert Redford's</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>Ordinary People</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">, was a disjointed portrait of a family struggling to cope with loss. Redford's stunning cast is comprised of Donald Sutherland as Calvin Jarrett, Mary Tyler Moore as Beth Jarrett, Timothy Hutton as Conrad Jarrett, and Judd Hirsch as Dr. Tyrone Berger. I believe that Hirsch's very accurate portrayal of Conrad's psychiatrist provides this film with some throughly redeeming qualities. Sutherland and Hutton's strained and yet tender relationship anchors the audience firmly within the film's narrative, especially in the film's final minutes when both men come full circle to grapple with their debilitating grief. Mary Tyler Moore was the weakest and most unlikeable character in this fantastic ensemble. Her insistence on anger as a manner of managing her grief was believable but completely unredeemable.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Hutton is amazing in his portrayal of a young man lost within himself and amongst the living. The relationship he develops with Hirsch throughout the film truly requires the audience to approach Conrad cautiously, realizing that he is a ticking time bomb of emotion. We, as the audience, have to wait for the final explosion. Conrad and Berger spend most of the film rooting out the societal and familial insistence on closing down emotions, the notion that emotions should remain private, within the individual and/or the family, which in turn prevents Conrad from dealing with the amassed guilt over the death of his brother.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Beth, is an infuriating portrait of a mother. Sutherland sums it up beautifully in his final dialogue with her, stating that she not only buried their son but she also buried everything that made her a woman, a mother, and a human being. The loss of her son completely erased her presence. Her insistence on subtly avoiding and blaming her only living son makes her a monster in the audience's eyes, as we don't meet Buck (the deceased), we have little to grasp in terms of how much she has lost.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The film meanders through it's first hour, slowly building a narrative worthy of it's explosive climax. I think that the last thirty minutes are what pushed this film into the Best Picture category. I don't want to give all the details of the final dramatic scenes but Conrad, Berger, and Calvin find themselves at a crossroads and they all make it across the dangerous impasse to learn what each are truly made of.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Redford's honest portrait of a broken family is beautifully realized in it's characters, and the study of each of these people and all their rough edges make this difficult film an important film to see.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WsUon7cYq1I/TgFMWVpkZ4I/AAAAAAAAADE/3Aa7reWsS3s/s1600/tumblr_kxou6oPmN11qzezj5o1_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WsUon7cYq1I/TgFMWVpkZ4I/AAAAAAAAADE/3Aa7reWsS3s/s320/tumblr_kxou6oPmN11qzezj5o1_400.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Conrad and the distance between him and his mother.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DYKz42iyYg/TgFMYfdCgjI/AAAAAAAAADI/jmkHa7fHeUQ/s1600/ordinarydunce2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DYKz42iyYg/TgFMYfdCgjI/AAAAAAAAADI/jmkHa7fHeUQ/s320/ordinarydunce2.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Final climatic scene between Conrad and Dr. Berger</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0XcGXEo0vsM/TgFMaICHjBI/AAAAAAAAADM/qHr9ighLplU/s1600/ordinary1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0XcGXEo0vsM/TgFMaICHjBI/AAAAAAAAADM/qHr9ighLplU/s320/ordinary1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Calvin and Beth sharing a moment.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VGe_3CPGZM8/TgFMcErhd0I/AAAAAAAAADQ/ed-mirQJIYU/s1600/11295776_gal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VGe_3CPGZM8/TgFMcErhd0I/AAAAAAAAADQ/ed-mirQJIYU/s320/11295776_gal.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Dr. Berger, the most amazing portrait in this film.</span></div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-83436278862215016302011-06-19T15:48:00.000-07:002011-06-19T15:48:16.465-07:00RebootOk, so this is totally lame of me. My recent (snap) decision to start a blog during a very tumultuous time in my life (hence the lack of consistency with posts and research) already has me feeling guilty and full of anxiety. I wanted to use this blog to reignite that feeling that I had sitting in a classroom everyday. To help remind me why I love film and how much movies have changed my life and hopefully inspire someone, somewhere, to watch something they wouldn't thought to watch before.<br />
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Living in LA, I have come to realize that I have access to so many unique screenings both at home and at the theater; ranging from the strange (screening of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Fly</span>, one of my first ventures into the Horror genre), the unusual (attending a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Leprechaun</span> franchise series of screenings), the classic (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Casablanca</span> on a print for the first time ever), along with generally getting to see every film that piques my interest as soon as it hits the blogosphere.<br />
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This is an incredible opportunity to talk about the films that I see every week, both discovering and rediscovering. I want to WANT to write this blog and I boxed myself into a writers corner that I want out of. So as of this next week I am starting over.<br />
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Every Monday I will post a new blog, documenting, praising, ranting, or raving about something I have found the week before. Hopefully, I will get to uncover some interesting things I never knew about and maybe inspire someone else to seek out these movies and bask in watching them. I am still figuring out what I want to do in this crazy business of entertainment, but I do know that I want to be a part of finding audiences for films that deserve to be seen. After all, films are art intended to be seen by people seeking a collective experience. So, tune in next week for some good old fashion film talk.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-65605783535254448162011-06-11T10:31:00.000-07:002011-06-11T10:31:44.836-07:00A Love Affair with the Obsure: ED WOODIf <em>Edward Scissorhands</em> is a love letter to Tim Burton than <em>Ed Wood</em>, Burton's dramedy biopic of the late director Edward D. Wood Jr, is a love letter to the artists who work with the film medium. Again, as in <em>Scissorhands</em>, there are similarities between Burton's life and that of Ed Wood, both in regards to his imagination and precise insistence on creative control of content and artistic flourish. Burton's film, although I believe it to be his least interesting, focuses on the two major features that Edward made, now celebrated as cult classics, <em>Plan 9 From Outer Space</em> and <em>Bride of the Atom</em> (renamed under a re-released title <em>Bride of the Monster</em> later in the film). It also chronicles Edward's professional and personal relationship with Bela Legosi, which mirrors the relationship Burton created with his long time idol Vincent Price. <br />
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The film follows Edward on his journey to gain film recognition and fame and creates a sub narrative about his quest for love of women, despite the fact that he likes to wear women's clothing (he is especially fond of angora, used thoroughout the film as a constant reminder of this strange fetish). The most endearing qaulity of Burton's Edward is Johnny Depp's protrayal. Depp, perfectly cast as a the blissfully ignorant artist who truly believes that quaility and depth is overlooked by the audience in favor of the larger story, plays Edward to a tee. He creates a character we fall in love with for his naive nature and endless optimism, even in the face of muliple failed film financing, limited budgets, small crews, and limited production supplies. Edward and his crew could crank out a picture in only a few days, shooting almost fifty scenes in the same time it took other studios to shoot a meager three or four. At the end of the day, Edward just wanted to make pictures and he wanted people to sit in the theater and enjoy watching them. <br />
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Even though it never happened in real life, the scene at the end of the film where Edward meets his idol; writer, director and producer Orson Welles, provides the fictional Ed some solace and joy amongst his numerous failed films. Welles reminds Edward, and the audience, that the business of making pictures should always begin with personal integrity and a willingness to stand by your story, no matter what the reaction of the audience or the critics might be. <br />
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The realtionships, in the end, are what holds this film together and why I found some joy in it's conclusion. Ed, admist his professional follies, never lost faith in the people in his life and never sought out to make a movie he couldn't defend. This makes Edward like Burton in more ways than one. Burton fought long and hard to get the funds to make this film in black and white. He was convinced that Edward's story could only be told within the world of black and grey, the same medium in which Edward made his. It was a tough sell to the larger studios and after failing to get this movie finianced, Disney finally stepped in and told Burton they would not only allow him control over the film stock but also allowed him full creative control over the content of the film. Burton, like Ed, sought the difficult route to make the movie he wanted but in the end wouldn't compromise for his artistic vision for anyone. <br />
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I wouldn't recommend <em>Ed Wood</em> to the general film viewer but if you have seen the Burton canon, sans this film, you should really give it a watch. It fits within his larger eerily romanticized world but remains the most restrained of Burton's works.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-17736862353866987762011-06-03T18:42:00.000-07:002011-06-03T18:42:16.767-07:00The dystopian land of Edward ScissorhandsThe film begins encased in snow. An older woman is tucking her granddaughter into bed, oddly large for such a small little girl. The granddaughter asks innocently about the origin of the snow and the grandmother stares, lost in thought, out of the bedroom window. Her story begins with a boy, a mountain, and the street below.<div><br />
</div><div>As we get aquatinted with Burton's "idilic" world, which seems to confine its characters to roam a single avenue neighborhood of lollipop colored houses, we begin to realize that things are most definitely not as they seem. This film is filled with a bouquet of strange housewives and nosy neighbors, who seemingly are never allowed access off this confined cul-de-sac (at least the women are not ever allowed to leave, the men arrive and leave promptly at the same time each day, leaving home in their candy color coordinated vehicles and driving to the land off screen). Every house has an eerie familiarity mixed with the repulsive. We meet Peg Boggs, played by the fantastic Diane Wiest, as she is walking door to door trying to sell her neighbors Avon products with a plastered on smile and veiled disappointment. After striking out with every one of her neighbors,n she gets into her car and fixes her sights on the haunted mansion high up on the mountain above their town. What she finds when she pulls up to the overgrown gate is an entrance to another world altogether. Peg, enters through the huge doorway and finds life is flourishing beyond the broken gates. She is instantly mesmerized by what she finds. As she walks around the house and makes her up to its summit, she finds a small boy sitting timidly in a dark corner of the attic and promptly decides to take him back down the mountain to become a member of her family. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Edward, played by the indelible Johnny Depp, emerges from the dark, hands first, initially frightening the audience and Peg. But after the initial shock of Edward's appearance, we instantly fall in love. Edward is both initially horrifying and sad to the audience, at once we are hesitant to trust his body, but then we come to realize that he is hesitant too. Edward is a character created by its actor. Depp speaks for Edward in the movements of his face, the subtly of his expressions, and the sheer joy he experiences the moment someone accepts him. When Edward emerges from the light we realize that he has as much to fear about the world around him as we do. We simultaneously sympathize with his social unease and unfamiliarity and empathize with his grace at trying to be a regular human being. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Edward quickly becomes the oddity turned celebrity in his small town. He is celebrated for his differences and finds himself the center of attention in a town where the rumor mill is all that's interesting. But this fame quickly dissipates when the town ladies man accuses Edward of raping her. The town picks up their pitch forks and their idyllic world goes up in flames. </div><div><br />
</div><div>As the town begins to take it's revenge on the boy they can't define a sub plot has also been brewing. Kim, played by Winona Ryder, is Peg's daughter. She finds herself initially frightened of Edward and his strangeness but over the course of the film finds her love for him catching her off guard. Her boyfriend Jim, played by Anthony Michael Hall, who she loves for his aggressiveness becomes abrasive the more she interacts with Edward and his sweet awkwardness. Kim, finds herself at odds with the life she had created for herself and the one that Edward opened her eyes too. She realizes that Edward would always be more of a man to her than Jim could ever be. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Burton's creation and success of this film I believe lies in his familiarity with this story. Burton has always believed that Edward was the screen incarnate of himself. Burton grew up in a similar monochromatic suburban neighborhood in Burbank, CA that could not contain the dreams and make believe that little Tim Burton sought out to create. His vision of the world was larger than the perfectly manicured lawns and close minded natures of suburbia's residents. Burton would always see himself as an outsider looking in. This film was a way for him to express the dystopia he always found in his real life and create a character who ultimately cannot assimilate to the world around him, but in the case with both Burton and Edward, we wouldn't want them too. Burton's stylistically exaggerated world of color and form allow us access to a world outside of the one in which we live. His collaborators, Danny Elman, composer; Colleen Atwood, costume designer; Ann Harris, Rich Henricks and Paul Sonski, set designers; Tom Duffield, art director; Bo Welch, production designer; and Stan Winston, special effects producer all work seamlessly to create the world in which Burton's characters reign. Most of these amazing artists will continue to work with Burton on his subsequent films, which help to cement his visual style and production flair. Burton creates a true fantasy world that we, as the audience, want to crawl into and discover something we didn't know was possible. Burton takes us out of our reality and places us within his dreams. </div><div><br />
</div><div>More on Burton's style, collaboration, narrative structure, and films in posts all throughout June (I would like to have a new post up every Friday of the month). I also hope to go to the Burton Retrospective Exhibit at LACMA to gain some more information about his career, life, obsessions, and unique works of visual and cinematic art. </div><div><br />
</div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648859214212443996.post-85256504260893596752011-05-28T18:30:00.000-07:002011-05-28T18:30:28.559-07:00Here We GoI never thought I would delve into the totally cliched world of cinema blogging, but lately I have been feeling nostalgic for the countless hours per week that I spent watching, dissecting, critiquing, and generally loving films during my short but sweet time in film school. <div><br />
</div><div>It's been a hard real world realization that leaving school meant the end to the constant flow of new and exciting information, the end of being taught and inspired on a daily basis, and the end of the effortless encounters with films I had never before had exposure to. </div><div><br />
</div><div>This blog is meant to serve as a way for me to continue film school out in the real world. A place to spend a few hours every week to discover a director, writer, cinematographer, actor, director, or editor that I have had very little experience with before. It's my intention to use this blog as a creative outlet for the learning that I crave and miss in my life. It's a place to help take me out of the real world and into the cinematic illusions that movies consider their sole purpose to create. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Every month, I will select one artist whose body of work shares a consistent style, theme, and tone and set out to explore four of their films, one for each week of the month, to discover, engage with, and respond to. </div><div><br />
</div><div>First up, thanks to the opening night retrospective at the LA County Museum of Modern Art and my first unforgettable cinematic experience with EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, is the visionary director TIM BURTON. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Let's have some fun. </div>Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114140293958593496noreply@blogger.com0