Week 8 Discussion

 

This week in class we go to watch Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and after coming off the boring Lost in Translation, I'm glad to say that I really liked this one. I thought they meshed the fantasy with the reality of the time really well, and I really liked the historical feel of the film. My favorite (and the saddest part) was when Ofelia was running of with her brother, and the general shoots her. I liked how that scene was shot because the at first I thought the Faun might have done something to save her but then the Ofelia turns and you see the blood. Followed by Mercedes' reaction the scene really had an emotional impact.

I also thought the whole time that the Faun was actually manipulating her to do something evil, because whenever Ofelia would question him he would kind of brush her aside and especially when the Faun wanted her to kill her brother. I also liked that Ofelia didn't sacrifice her brother and that really made me respect her as a character.

After the movie ended we briefly discussed whether or not all the magical stuff was real and how it is kind of left up to interpretation to the the viewer. To me, the film is a lot better if Ofelia was imagining the whole thing. She's a young girl with her head always in a fairy tale, so it's definitely within her character. I think there's also some evidence of this when Ofelia early on talks to the dragonfly/insect thing following her and talks to it and is like this is what a fairy looks like and the bug changes shape to copy the image in her book. I think this was actually in Ofelia imagination and Guillermo is actually showing the audience that all this from the start is Ofelia actually trying the register the the trauma going on around her in her own child like way. We know that her father recently passed away amidst a bloody civil war, and her mother is pregnant with a man that is she is now expected to view as her new father. Any child would need an outlet to be able to make sense of what is going on an the whole princess thing was just to help her cope.

Week 7 Discussion

 

After 30 min of watching Lost In Translation, I couldn't wait for it to be over. During the film I went on Rotten Tomatoes and found that the movie had a rating of 95%, so I guess it's just me that didn't enjoy the movie which is okay. I thought the movie was absurdly slow, and felt like nothing was really happening. I didn't really care about any of the characters and what they were going through, because I feel like the movie never showed me why I should care about them in the first place. From the beginning were are tossed into Bob and Charlottes lives and although they both seem lost in life I didn't really care. I feel these types of movies just aren't for me, because I didn't like Good Will Hunting either and I feel like these movies are kind of similar in how their both trying to be super philosophical.

As for Sofia Coppola, this is the first time I've ever seen one of her movies I think. Some aspects of the film that might make her an auteur and are unique to this film were the amount of shots with characters sitting still with view of a city behind them. We saw multiple shots of New York and Tokyo which was definitely very noticeable. Something else I noticed was that some of the dialogue was sort of awkward between some characters, which I think was done purposefully.

Week 6 Discussion

 

This was the first time I watched Get Out and I'm glad to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it was the best movie we've watched this year. I have been a big fan of Jordan Peele because Key and Peele was such a vivid memory from my childhood. I remember just binging all their shorts on YouTube with my friends and to this day I find them hilarious. Since I've always viewed Peele as a comic, it's surprising he was able to make a scary movie like this one. 

This movie did such a great job of keeping me on my toes. I really did think in the beginning that Rose and her family were good people. Even when the parents were being weird I still thought Rose was the good one until she too was revealed to be a monster, and I really appreciated.

I also thought it was kind of interesting how one the main premises of the movie was that the white people wanted the "genetic gifts" or things that to black people inherently have and give them to white people. Chris literally asks, "why black people" to which it is explained to him that being black can be perceived as more attractive, have better genetics, etc. However, instead of accepting that a colored person might have inherent gifts that white people don't have, they decide to take it from them with force.

Another interesting part that I thought was great writing was the scene when Rose is eating fruit loops, but she doesn't put cereal in a bowl with milk. Instead she takes a bite of a cereal separately, then a sip of milk from a glass. I think the reasoning for this is because the writers want to show that she doesn't want to mix the colored (the fruit loops) with the white (the milk).

In terms of Peele as an auteur one thing comes to mind is the humor in this film. Since I've been exposed to Peele at an early age I was waiting for some really funny moments, and although they weren't there were moments jokes were made that made the story feel more real. I think that is one of his main distinct features as a writer.

Week 5 Discussion

 

This week in class we watched the Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. This was my first Wes Anderson film and I'm glad to say that I really liked it! I loved the humor and I thought having a really complicated main character played by the amazing Bill Murray was really interesting. After watching this movie I am really interested in watching more Anderson films like The Fantastic Mr. Fox which I've heard is really good.

I'd like to first take a moment to talk about Murray's character Steve Zissou. For most of the film I didn't really like him. I thought he was a bad leader and very hypocritical. One example of him being hypocritical was how he kind of puts on a facade that he doesn't care at all what people thought of him, but he is constantly throughout the film bugging the reporter about getting certain moments down in her piece. I also thought he was quite mean to Ned, even though he was at times trying to be nice. However, I did feel bad for him when it came to his career and how everyone thought he was a joke, and I did feel happy at the end when the documentary was a success.

In this week's reading, we learned about Mise-en-Scene and my take away was that this concept is basically the arrangement of shots, actors, writing etc in film and how each director has there own certain style. This was the only Anderson film I've seen but one aspect of this film that I feel like is unique to him and his style as a director is kind of the animation of the sea creatures. I thought it was really unique and something I didn't expect in this movie, which makes me appreciate it. 

Week 4 Discussion

This week in class we watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. This was my first time watching a Hitchcock film and I thought it was okay to be quite honest. The best part of the movie for me was when Thornwald finally fault L.B Jeffries looking at him towards the end of the movie. I loved how the slow burn of the whole movie and all the build up had a good pay off with that moment, specifically with how Thornwald caught Grace Kelly's character pointing to the ring on her finger and how the camera pans to Thorwald making eye contact with Jeffries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-etZtN9Stc

I can see why this film was so popular at it's time. It was interesting how it feels like we are never really leaving Jeffries apartment, and everything we know about the outside world is from the view of the window. I thought it was really claver how the camera was used and how it really feels like we are spying on the neighbors. I also find it impressive that something like this has never been done before, and I applaud Hitchcock for being innovative.

There was one glaring thing I didn't like about the movie though at that was the final encounter between Thorwald and Jeffries. I understood the special effects weren't what they are now, but I just thought that writing was that it was so stupid that Thorwald just kept lumbering towards Jeffries without covering his eyes despite Jeffries obvious attempts to blind him. Like he's literally in a wheel chair and he can't hurt Thorwald, so I don't know how Hitchcock decided that was the way to go.

Story and Film Form Discussion

 From this reading I was really interested by the narrative form the screen play. I thought it was interesting how I'm not really a film person but by looking at the example in the reading I could understand everything going on, like the setting and what the characters are doing in the scene. I thought the author made a nice analogy of how a screenplay is kind of like explaining what is going on in a show to your roommate who isn't paying attention as efficiently as possible. Another thing I thought was interesting from the reading was the narrative structure, and I started to apply it to films that I have seen. Like in Into the Spiderverse, the protagonist is a young Miles Morales and the antagonist is Wilson Fisk. His obstacles include finding a way to stop Fisk from destroying New York while at the same time trying to figure out how to be Spiderman. The structure is extremely simple but I think that's why it works so well.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eazNXtXuohc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This scene is one the pivotal moments in the movie, where Miles faces his obstacle of figuring out how to be his own Spiderman. The whole movie up until that point is Miles struggling with his identity and not viewing himself as someone worthy of being Spiderman. But in the scene he literally takes a leap of faith to be that Spiderman and believe in him self, and overcome that obstacle to save the ones he loves.

Film Story Narrative

           It is a sunny August day, and I am in the backseat of my black 2011 corolla cruising down

 the highway with my family. I'm in the middle with my 6 year old to my left and my mom to my

 right. My other sister was in the front so my parents didn't have to deal with the inevitable 

fighting that would occur between us if we had sat next to each other. I'm also in a horrible mood

 because we just wasted half the day at the dentist. 

I never liked the dentist, but what made it worse for me is we would drive an hour all the way to Gurnee for our appointments.  I didn't understand why we had to drive this far just for a routine cleaning, since there were multiple dentists closer to home. When I asked, my parents said that these dentists were good friends of theirs, but that never justified the trek we would make. In my opinion, no friend is important enough to warrant driving an hour for them to stick metal things in your mouth for half an hour. We would also always drive past the Rainforest Cafe on the way there, but my parents would never stop there, which only poured salt in the wound.

 So while I am hating my life as we drive back home, I start to hear a strange noise outside our car. It sounded like a noise in movie when the bad guy would appear. Just a loud deep noise that just forebode bad things to come, which of course, it did. After not thinking much of the noise, our tire suddenly blew out.

            We immediately start swerving, like a roller coaster. My mom instinctually put her  arm in front of my sister and I as we quickly served from lane to lane. Somehow, my dad regained control of the car and we safely pulled to the side of the road. After a few moments of pure shock, we finally got out of the car. My dad made a call and half an hour later a mechanic put a spare in and we were back on the road like nothing happened.

 

            Flashforward about 10 years later, and to this day I still have absolutely no idea how we didn’t hit anyone while we were swerving. It turned out we drove over a nail on the highway and that was the reason the tire blew out. In the moment, it all happened so fast that I forgot how cranky I was, but now that I’m thinking about it now the whole experience still doesn’t feel real, almost like a movie. It was just so random, and I will never forget about the noise. It sounded like the noise that played in Into The Spider verse (best animated movie of all time btw), when the Prowler would come on screen and it was just this kind of deep loud noise that screamed something bad is going to happen.

            Although this moment felt really random, I think it does have a meaning in which we should always value life because it is so fleeting and could be gone in literally any moment. There was a very real possibility that my family and I wouldn’t have made it home that day, and that goes to show that we should never take anything for granted and we should learn to appreciate life and everything around us.