Another movie originally seen in class that resonated with me.
The story revolves around a poor man trying to provide for his wife and child in urban, depression-hobbled Italy. He eventually gains a work opportunity putting up signs and is required to have a bicycle for the work. One day, his bicycle is stolen and most of the film follows his (and his sons') journey to retrieve the bike.
The film is a complete departure from Hollywood of the same time period. The film is shot completely on-location and almost completely in natural light. Also, there are very long takes and and a non-stationary camera that gives a deeper sense of immersion into the story.
The story also diverts from classic Hollywood in that it shows the good and bad in individuals and how each side can still make a normal person. Also, it shows the reasons behind why humans interact the way they do and take the actions they take.
Overall this movie is amazing for its time, the story is enthralling and the acting is more than believable.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Babel
Two young boys are playing around and shoot a gun in Morocco. The reulting actions throw multiple lives and storylines into disarray and even dredge up a possible international crisis. This is the basic premise of Babel, and the way it is executed make the film Oscar-worthy.
The storyline of Babel is like a threaded rope. Many smaller stories combine into one larger, stronger, and overall more interesting and complex story. The director sets up these stories in ironically opposed viewpoints to show how human stories from different backgrounds can not only be similar, but intertwined.
This movie makes the audience connect with characters in a way that most large budget films today cannot. The story is almost completely character-driven atfer the shooting and each brilliantly acted character draws us deeper into our story and lets us decide who can identify with the most. Not to say, however, that we cannot identify with all the characters on some sort of level.
Well acted, well-written, and amazingly directed. A must see.
The storyline of Babel is like a threaded rope. Many smaller stories combine into one larger, stronger, and overall more interesting and complex story. The director sets up these stories in ironically opposed viewpoints to show how human stories from different backgrounds can not only be similar, but intertwined.
This movie makes the audience connect with characters in a way that most large budget films today cannot. The story is almost completely character-driven atfer the shooting and each brilliantly acted character draws us deeper into our story and lets us decide who can identify with the most. Not to say, however, that we cannot identify with all the characters on some sort of level.
Well acted, well-written, and amazingly directed. A must see.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
To Live
This is a movie we watched in class, but I liked it so much that I rented it again to show to friends.
Dr. Hendricks described this as a prime example of a humanist film, and I can understand why. The entire story focuses on the family of Xu Fugui. The film describes their fall from riches into poverty and their fight through the Communist revolution in China. All the while, the theme of being tru to yourself, your family, and honoring those around you shine forth.
The film spends time letting the characters and story breathe. The story, while large in scope, doesn't feel rushed or contrived and allows the audience to really be absorbed into the lives of the characters they are observing.
The movie is touching, well-made, and true to the heritage of its country. The viewer can completely identify with every emotion felt by Fugui and his family and the director does a great job making sure you never lose that connection throughout.
Great movie, I would recommend it to everyone.
Dr. Hendricks described this as a prime example of a humanist film, and I can understand why. The entire story focuses on the family of Xu Fugui. The film describes their fall from riches into poverty and their fight through the Communist revolution in China. All the while, the theme of being tru to yourself, your family, and honoring those around you shine forth.
The film spends time letting the characters and story breathe. The story, while large in scope, doesn't feel rushed or contrived and allows the audience to really be absorbed into the lives of the characters they are observing.
The movie is touching, well-made, and true to the heritage of its country. The viewer can completely identify with every emotion felt by Fugui and his family and the director does a great job making sure you never lose that connection throughout.
Great movie, I would recommend it to everyone.
Children of Heaven
In Children of Heaven, two young siblings lose a pair of shoes. Their realize that their family is too poor to afford more and hatch a scheme to keep the secret from their parents.
Children fo Heaven is an Iranian film, and to me it shows. There are editing techniques and a cinematographic style that is different from classic or even contemporary Hollywoood. The film spends a lot of time focusing its field of view on objects that are not involved with a scene or storyline and by focusing on mundane action not necessarily involved with the story arc.
I would guess that this very unique style is a product of the relative seclusion that an Iranian filmmaker would experience growing up. Without that connection to Hollywood, a new perspective on filmmaking would emerge, and that is what I believe this film is an example of.
Overall the film dragged on for me at points, but the story and slice-of-life filmography kept me watching.
Children fo Heaven is an Iranian film, and to me it shows. There are editing techniques and a cinematographic style that is different from classic or even contemporary Hollywoood. The film spends a lot of time focusing its field of view on objects that are not involved with a scene or storyline and by focusing on mundane action not necessarily involved with the story arc.
I would guess that this very unique style is a product of the relative seclusion that an Iranian filmmaker would experience growing up. Without that connection to Hollywood, a new perspective on filmmaking would emerge, and that is what I believe this film is an example of.
Overall the film dragged on for me at points, but the story and slice-of-life filmography kept me watching.
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is probably known more for its rating, than for the great acting and heart-renching story. It is the only X-rated movie to win an oscar, and I believe that if it had achieved an R or less, than it would have won many more awards.
The story focuses on Jon Buck, a male prostitute struggling to get by in New York and a sick con-man Rizzo who becomes his best friend. The two go through ups and downs together and end up closer than they ever imagined by the time of Rizzo's tragic demise.
The true beauty of this film lies in the very human tale of fear and friendship, and how the two intermingle. While not a unique theme, he dramatic (almost melodramitic) circumstances in which the story takes places serves to focus the audience even more on the truth and importance held therein.
Great film, one of my favorites.
The story focuses on Jon Buck, a male prostitute struggling to get by in New York and a sick con-man Rizzo who becomes his best friend. The two go through ups and downs together and end up closer than they ever imagined by the time of Rizzo's tragic demise.
The true beauty of this film lies in the very human tale of fear and friendship, and how the two intermingle. While not a unique theme, he dramatic (almost melodramitic) circumstances in which the story takes places serves to focus the audience even more on the truth and importance held therein.
Great film, one of my favorites.
Pan's Labyrinth
The film centers around the story of a young girl who moves with her mother into the home of her mother's new husband. It's not all roses since it takes place during WWII and the new husband is a domineering, mean-spirited fascist. While the film also focuses on the political strife between communism and fascism, most of the film centers on the young girls experiences in the labyrinth and how it affects real life.
The one thing about the film that I was not expecting was how violently graphic the movie is. Not only is it a dark fairy-tale kind of film, but the director goes out of his way to make all the different forms of conflict in the film equally blood. My best guess is that he wanted to use that draw comparison lines between psychological/non-realistic strife felt in the labyrinth vs. the real conflict in the real world.
Much like Science of Sleep, this film stands out for its art direction. The plot is well thought out and the characters are performed professionally, but nothing bout the film will out-shine its original style and beauty.
The one thing about the film that I was not expecting was how violently graphic the movie is. Not only is it a dark fairy-tale kind of film, but the director goes out of his way to make all the different forms of conflict in the film equally blood. My best guess is that he wanted to use that draw comparison lines between psychological/non-realistic strife felt in the labyrinth vs. the real conflict in the real world.
Much like Science of Sleep, this film stands out for its art direction. The plot is well thought out and the characters are performed professionally, but nothing bout the film will out-shine its original style and beauty.
The Science of Sleep
It took me about five viewings to really understand everything at work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind... and it is WAY less wierd and complicated than Science of Sleep. Michel Gondry has made a masterpiece melange of romance, self-discovery, melancholy, and thought-provokingly ironic dialogue that drove me crazy and made me love it all at the same time.
The movie centers of Stephane, a young Frenchman living in South America and what happens to him upon moving back to Paris when his father dies. He ends up in a job he hates, finds a girl he loves, and spends most of the film reconciling his imagination with reality.
The art direction of this film was not only new and exciting, but brilliantly fit the word of Stephane's dreams. Gondry uses everyday, and relatively, cheap objects in stop motion animation to seamlessly mix with live action characters on the screen.
The writing is good, the characters are wonderfully acted, but it is the scenery, sets, and animation that are the true stars of this film.
The movie centers of Stephane, a young Frenchman living in South America and what happens to him upon moving back to Paris when his father dies. He ends up in a job he hates, finds a girl he loves, and spends most of the film reconciling his imagination with reality.
The art direction of this film was not only new and exciting, but brilliantly fit the word of Stephane's dreams. Gondry uses everyday, and relatively, cheap objects in stop motion animation to seamlessly mix with live action characters on the screen.
The writing is good, the characters are wonderfully acted, but it is the scenery, sets, and animation that are the true stars of this film.
The Searchers
John Wayne is John Wayne. People know who John Wayne is, and even if they've never seen one of his movies they know his voice and mannerisms well enough to imitate him. He is considered not only a great Western leading man, but one of the greatest actors of all time and he is on in full force in The Searchers.
The movie is an epic Western film, set shortly after the Civil War, that centers on part of the life of Ethan Edwards, and ex-Confederate army officer. He visits the home of his brother shortly before a Camanche raid that leaves his brother dead. Ethan then takes up the charge of finding his missing daughters and bringing justice to the raiders.
This movie is exactly what I think of when I think of a "western". It shows the classic "American" ideals thought to be present in the cowboys of those times. Even though Ethan does things his own way, he honors his family and lives his life with an overall sense of honor that eventually leads to his own pain and suffering.
Good movie, but drags in points for a modern movie viewer.
The movie is an epic Western film, set shortly after the Civil War, that centers on part of the life of Ethan Edwards, and ex-Confederate army officer. He visits the home of his brother shortly before a Camanche raid that leaves his brother dead. Ethan then takes up the charge of finding his missing daughters and bringing justice to the raiders.
This movie is exactly what I think of when I think of a "western". It shows the classic "American" ideals thought to be present in the cowboys of those times. Even though Ethan does things his own way, he honors his family and lives his life with an overall sense of honor that eventually leads to his own pain and suffering.
Good movie, but drags in points for a modern movie viewer.
Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp centers on Becky Fisher, who runs a Pentecostal "evangelical education" camp for children. The movie follows her and a few of her students throughout their experiences leading up to, during, and shortly after their experiences at camp.
The proprietors of the camp maintain that it solely to educate children on the need to be saved and lead holy lives, but it doesn't take long to see that there is more going on than meets the eye. The leaders give long seminars (attended mainly by kids 4-8) that include long diatribes on how evil they are, praying for President Bush, and why abortion is Satan embodied. Even the parts of this camp that dont cause children to cry because God hates them are tainted by a kind of political "hazing".
That being said, these are all impressions *I* made after viewing the film. The filmmaker does a great job of keeping the tone of her documentary very neutral. Other than very subtle, and maybe even unconscious on her part, uses of ironic editing techniques, she does a great job of leaving it open for viewer to make their own judgements.
Great film, hard to watch.
The proprietors of the camp maintain that it solely to educate children on the need to be saved and lead holy lives, but it doesn't take long to see that there is more going on than meets the eye. The leaders give long seminars (attended mainly by kids 4-8) that include long diatribes on how evil they are, praying for President Bush, and why abortion is Satan embodied. Even the parts of this camp that dont cause children to cry because God hates them are tainted by a kind of political "hazing".
That being said, these are all impressions *I* made after viewing the film. The filmmaker does a great job of keeping the tone of her documentary very neutral. Other than very subtle, and maybe even unconscious on her part, uses of ironic editing techniques, she does a great job of leaving it open for viewer to make their own judgements.
Great film, hard to watch.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)