In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)

French Impressionist

The french Impressionist movement is popular during 1919-1928.The movement was inspired by a variety of factors, including anti-establishment, foreign/Asian influences and a desire to paint modern life instead of academic subjects of history and mythology.

SYNOPSIS:

Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. They have everything in common from noodle shops to martial arts. Soon, they are shocked to discover that their spouses are having an affair. Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.

ANALYSIS:

Firstly, the rhythmic editing was used in this film. In rhythmic editing, the content is not only determined by the absolute length of the sequence, but also the action within the frame. As the above picture shown, Mrs.Chan was running up and down the stairs and also running back and forth at the corridor of the hotel where Mr.Chow stayed. She's thinking whether to find or not to find Mr.Chow as because Mr.Chow was sick but there's an internal struggles in her heart. 

Next, from the picture above, it show that there's an internal struggle between Mr.Chow and also Mrs.Chan were having a conflict about whether continue stay beside their spouses forever or they have to confess out their real feeling towards each other. As the smoke from the cigarette, it give a sense of the representation of his mind of his own true feeling towards Mrs.Chan and also his spouses who had love affair with others. 

CONCLUSION:

Every slow motion in this film could actually give a sense for us on the interaction between Mr.Chow and also Mrs.Chan. Their relationship was became more deep heart from a neighbor relationship to a liking each other relationship. Gone through all the struggles, end up they were separate and live their own life. 

  

REFERENCE:

Rocchio, V. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~film01/editing.html

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

INTRODUCTION:

Film Noir is a term coined by French critics in 1946. It's a type of American films that "invaded" French cinemas after World War II. Film Noir emerged from a period of political instability within 1941's until 1958's, the time of WWII and the Cold War in United States. The characters are cynical and the Film Noir is filled in malice, features world of darkness, violence, paranoid and fear. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

Usually, the visual of Film Noir is dark and with lots of shadows. It also has the high-contrast lighting and the German-expressionistic. It always have the locations such as alleyways, cramped corridors and so on.  The setting of Film Noir is city-bound, comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors. The thematically of Film Noir is usually features a narration and also consist of hard-boiled antihero versus femme fatale. 

SYNOPSIS:

In this noir classic, detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets more 

than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman (Mary Astor). As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam's partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want the bejeweled Maltese falcon. 

ANALYSIS:

In this film, the low angle shot was mostly used as it can create the tension of the atmosphere of the scenes. The above picture is one of the particular scene example where Sam Spade met with Mr.Gutmen in his hotel. Obviously, this scene is using the low angle shot where Mr.Gutman was holding his cigarette. This show that Mr.Gutman was trying to dominating the particular scene with the cigarette in his hand by the low angle shot. 

In addition, the high-contrast lighting was used in this film too. As the above picture shown, it's the scene where Sam was trying to keep away/ have a distance with Wilmer from following/ stalking him. Refer to the above picture, there's obvious shadow which gave a sense of Sam seems like a good person from his appearance but actually there's a dark side in Sam like the shadow. 

Last but not least, the femme fatale was showed. The woman is central to the intrigue, making her the object of the male's investigation. Ultimately, it is her sexuality that is under investigation which threatens the male quest to resolve mystery. In this film, Brigid O'Shaughnessy act as the femme fatale where she asked Sam and his partner to search for her sister as her sister was missing. Sam and his partner immediately promised to give her a help. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, everyone has an evil or a dark side in their life. This film quite surprised me where I thought that the main character must be an evil person but actually he's not. Even though this Film Noir is in black and white, but the combination of the setting and story line were actually attracted me.  

REFERENCE:

Film noir. (2005, October 3). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://global.britannica.com/art/film-noir

   

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)

INTRODUCTION:

French New Wave was started in 1959's and ended in 1969's, possibly with the Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard. French New Wave film are looking for the truth which focus on a person daily life. So, there's no scripts are using for this kind of film as this is to make the film seems more natural. In addition, French New Wave is challenging the traditions of films which truffaut rejects heavy emphasis on plot and dialogue, preferring visual aesthetics and mise-en-scene. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

This French New Wave had an independent economic and also used low budget to make the film. Not only this, it rejects the film traditions and the editing of the film usually is a jump cut and it also consists of long take shot. 

SYNOPSIS:

Petty thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) considers himself a suave bad guy in the manner of Humphrey Bogart, but panics and impulsively kills a policeman while driving a stolen car. On the lam, he turns to his aspiring journalist girlfriend, Patricia (Jean Seberg), hiding out in her Paris apartment while he tries to pull together enough money to get the pair to Italy. But when Patricia learns that her boyfriend is being investigated for murder, she begins to question her loyalties.  

ANALYSIS:

To be honest, I don't really like this movie because it shows too much long take shots. The above picture is one of the long take shot example in this film. I get bored after watching this long take shot because the entire scene just focused in the same location for long period. I've lost my patient while watching this scene as the shot of the conversation between Michel and Patricia on bed was too long and boring as well.

 

Last but not least, there's also the jump cuts editing in this film too. The above picture show the scene where Patricia sat on Michel's car. This scene show a lot of jump cut which actually made me felt confused on what is happening and I can't get what's the film gonna tell us at the particular scene. It made me felt impatient too as I don't really understand what's going on in this film. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, this Breathless film is the best film to represent the French New Wave. As what I had mentioned above, I don't really like this film as it keep confusing me and also lost my patient as well. But, I do think that even it's long take shot, I can see the interaction between Michel and Patricia in this film.  

Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (Tommy O’Haver, 1998)

INTRODUCTION:

Queer Cinema has been in existence for decades but without a name. It's identified with avant-garde cinema. In 1991, Queer Cinema was introduced at Toronto Film Festival as a concept that re-examined and reviewed the image of homosexuality. It's become more visibility increased in 1990's. In fact, this film is related to the queer cinema as because it's about the romantic gay film. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

Queer theory has re-evaluated subjectivity, male gaze and so on; by incorporating the question of pleasure on screen and the celebration of excess, resulting in a subversion of previously considered mainstream genres. The Queer Theory takes pride in difference. It's also re-appropriating the romantic films where the normal romantic films would just about the love story between a girl and a guy but the queer theory is different. 

SYNOPSIS:

Billy Collier (Sean P.Hayes) is a photographer working on a series of pictures featuring recreations of movie kisses, with drag queens playing the female roles. For this male model, he hired Gabriel (Brad Rowe), a young waiter on whom he has developed a serious crush. While Billy is openly gay, Gabriel said that he's straight and even claims to have a girlfriend. However, as they spend much more time together and grow closer, Billy becomes increasingly unsure that this is true. 

ANALYSIS:

As the above pictures shown, it's few of examples in this film which show how the queer theory re-evaluated subjectivities and takes pride in difference. This film was actually a re-appropriating romance films because usually a normal romance film create a love story between a girl and a guy (heterosexual) whereas for this homosexual film, it included the romance between the heterosexual and homosexual but obviously we can see that the homosexual romance was the dominant and the heterosexual romance was the minority in this film. 

In addition, this film also used the feminist theory. The above picture shown is the example of feminist theory in this film where this pinky lady was having a performance and she's singing all the way. She has a woman voice but her face don't really look like a woman at all. Usually, the man will give label such as slim body, long hair and so on towards the woman but actually not all the woman look like the label given by the man. It could be different sometimes. And this scene was the suitable example which shown the feminist theory. 

Lastly, at the last scene is where Billy having an photography exhibition. As at the last shot, the dark side gave a sense of heterosexual people do not share homosexual and the dark side were actually bigger than the bright side as where Billy and another guy stand. Hence, it show the dark side (heterosexual) is the dominant whereas the bright side (homosexual) is the minority. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, even this film is a re-appropriating romance film, but at the end, it still created a setting where giving the sense of the heterosexual are still the dominant whereas the homosexual still remain as the minority and still can't accepted by others as the reflection of reality society.   

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

INTRODUCTION:

The very first films (pre-1900’s) were called "actuality films" because they captured short snippets of real "actual" events, such as a boat pulling up to the dock or workers leaving a factory. So in essence, the first movies ever made were documentaries, also called newsreels. In 1926, the first recorded mention of the term "documentary" (by Scottish-born filmmaker John Grierson) to describe a non-fiction film. In 1960’s to 1990’s, television becomes an important outlet for documentary film making, putting more of an emphasis on journalistic and educational programs. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

As proposed by Bill Nichols, we should look at documentaries via the particular techniques selected by filmmakers when they record/ shape the events such as the way they represent the documentary. Nichols suggested 6 modes of representation which are poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative. 

SYNOPSIS:

Found video footage tells the tale of three film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams) who've traveled to a small town to collect documentary footage about the Blair Witch, a legendary local murderer. Over the course of several days, the students interview townspeople and gather clues to support the tale's veracity. But the project takes a frightening turn when the students lose their way in the woods and begin hearing horrific noises.

ANALYSIS:

Basically this film used three modes of representation which are the reflexive, interactive and also the performative. Overall of this film was used the performative representation as it use the documentary techniques to shoot by interactive and reflexive. 

 

As the above pictures shown, it's the first few scenes where this team was gathered together and having a preparation to start their journey which is to shoot the documentary about the Blair Witch Project. In this whole film, it actually shown the flow where from beginning, this team was gathered up to shoot the documentary, after all they encountered a few problems in the forest and they started to blame and fight each other. At the end, all the members in the team were died. 

In addition, the next mode of representation is the reflexive. This representation focuses on film properties and film making process, reminding and informing audience, besides the represented issues, that they are also watching a film that is attempting to represent reality. Overall effect of this mode is lack of objectivity which does not necessarily compromise the impact of documentary but instead,provide more valuable views of the issue at hand. As the above pictures shown, it's the example of few scenes where the members of the team show the shots of equipment use and also the handheld camera was used to create the shaky scene as to remind the audience that they watching a film or movie. 

Lastly, the interactive representation mode was used. Interactive representation mode is allow the filmmaker's presence to be felt by the audience via interviews, posing questions on/ off screen as mediator for interviewees and audience. The overall effect of this mode exposes the process by which the documentary is made, instead of hiding it. As the pictures shown above, it's the examples of the scenes which obviously shown this mode. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, The Blair Witch Project is a film which actually make the fake story seems real to the audiences. To be honest, I thought this film is real but at the end I get shocked when someone told me that this film was actually a fake story but just seemed real. 

 

Easy A (2010)

INTRODUCTION:

Started in the 1920's, looking at women's expression of her own subjectivity. Feminist film theory matured in the late 1960's, after the radicalized feminist movement (of sexual liberation and political debate of female representation in society and culture).

THEORY DISCUSSION:

Feminism is a set of a political practices seen through the analyses of the social/ historical position of woman as subordinated, oppressed or exploited in dominant modes of production (such as capitalism) and/ or by social relations patriarchy or male domination. Because films are viewed as a reflection of the society (and vice versa), we can seek out the ideological and social constructions of woman in films. Themes explored in feminist theory include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression and patriarchy. 

SYNOPSIS:

Prompted by her popular best friend to spill details of her boring weekend, Olive (Emma Stone), a clean-cut teen, decides to spice things up by telling a little lie about losing her virginity. When the high-school busybody (Amanda Bynes) overhears the conversation and spreads it all over campus, Olive is suddenly notorious but for the wrong reasons.

ANALYSIS:

In this film, Mrs. Griffith is the wife of Mr. Griffith and the guidance counselor at North Ojai High School. But, she is having an affair with Marianne’s boyfriend, Micah and she has given him chlamydia. She throws a fit, which Olive is privy to, and Olive doesn't want Mrs. Griffith to lose her job. Because Olive has been so "out there", Micah said that Olive had given the chlamydia to him. Olive asked Mrs. Griffith to call Micah and tell him that she confessed to giving him the chlamydia, so as Mrs. Griffith can keep her job. Towards the end, Olive begs Mrs. Griffith to tell everyone the truth with her, but Mrs. Griffith refuses to do so. Obviously, Mrs. Griffith is a slut because at the beginning where Olive met her, Mrs. Griffith is making a judgment on Olive’s character purely on the basis of what she is wearing by judging Olive who dress like prostitutes. But on the other hand, Mrs. Griffith has an affair with Marianne's boyfriend and having sexual relationship between them even she's married with Mr. Griffith. 

Olive is a kind, selfless and sympathies girl in this film. Brandon, who is a gay comes over later and propositions Olive. she pretended to sleep with him at the party just to help over Brandon by letting others know that Brandon is not a gay but in fact he is and she just keep up her bad reputation as well. Besides, she's also enjoyed the attention despite being victims to rumors and accusations as in this film, she never wanted to clarify about the rumors but just let the rumors become more and more but until the end, she did clarify about the accusations from others. She also acted the "slut" roles and let people think on what actually she's doing. This shows the reflexive.

Marianne who is Micah's girlfriend in this film. She's fanatic on the own religion which she's a Christian, it pops up in a more general sense in a few other places. The most important comes when Olive has just encountered the proclaiming that she is a slut, citing the Bible as evidence of course, and she decided to see what the heck they’re all talking about and consult a priest herself. This is what Marianne has been trying to get her to do and after all, it turn to God. This is the scene where shows Marianne made a closed minded judgmental towards Olive. 

Marianne is also a hypocritical girl in this film. She mentioned that "Jesus tells us to love everyone", she can accept the homosexual but she just can't accept Olive who has too many sex partners. She's a strictly religious in Christian, she talked about Bible all and also mentioned the sentence as well but she just can't treat Olive as normal as others she treated just because Olive has a lot of sex partners.

Rhiannon who is the best friend of Olive at the beginning and the brief best friend of Marianne when she's having a fight with Olive. In this film, Rhiannon is a attention seeker who wanted others focus on her. All in awhile, she's having a fight with Olive just because of she's jealous that Olive had a bigger reputation than her.  

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, it portrayed that men are the dominant in the society which actually reflect in our reality life. It gave a sense of men can exploit women to get what they want as because of the patriarchy theory.

REFERENCE:

Laura, B. (2016, July 14). Feminism. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from https://global.britannica.com/topic/feminism

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

INTRODUCTION

The World War II devastated the national cinemas tremendously, affecting the economic stability of the cinema industries. The Nazis destroyed prewar European economy, and setting up its own economic threshold. By the end of WWII, the Nazi economy was eliminated. Mashall Plan rebuilt the European national industries, allowing production to go on a large scale. For Italy, due to the early surrender, the production facilities were pretty much intact. For Pre-War Italian Cinema, in 1922, Benito Mussolini seized power and Italian Cinema was used as a form of propaganda, educating Italians with documentaries and newreels. He set up Cinecitta studios in Rome and in 1937, he took charge of the studios and doubled Italian production within a year. 

THEORY DISCUSSION

The Italian Neorealism was founded in 1943 by Cesare Zavattini, suggesting a new form of Italian Cinema that abolishes contrived and planned plots, use real people and locations so that direct contact is established with the contemporary social reality. The Plots are fake structures of "everyday life",the actors are contribute to the falsehood and establish connection to Contemporary Social Realism by using real locations.  

SYNOPSIS

Unemployed Antonio Ricci is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. His wife, Maria, sells the family's bed linens to retrieve Ricci's bicycle from the pawnshop so he can take the job. However, disaster strikes when Ricci's bicycle is stolen, and his new job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his lively son, Bruno and also his several friends, Ricci combs the city, growing increasingly desperate for justice. Ricci desperate until caused him to steal the bicycle and end up he got caught.  

ANALYSIS

In this film, the shots of locations were shown as in the ruins of the post-war era. In film making, a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialogues. Film makers often choose to shoot on location because they believe that greater realism can be achieved in a "real" place. In this scene, it's a long takes of locations, buildings, roads and the bridges. 

Besides, this film used the grainy film stock which giving it its newsreel look. Obviously, the visual of this film was not that clear enough to be watch. 

In addition, the socially conscious and the humanistic point of view were shown in few scenes of this film. For example, the socially conscious was shown at the first scene where Ricci was at the employment booth (disseminating job). This is the Ricci unemployed scene which show the situation of of unemployment in the post War World II. Furthermore, in the police station scene also shown the humanistic point of view. In this scene, the police was not helpful at all when Ricci went to make police report about his lost but the police do not even want to bother him as the police think that it's just a small case or crime which not worth enough for them to investigate. Not only this, the humanistic was shown in the church scene where the church offered the foods, haircut service and so on for free. This whole film also possesses the melodramatic aspects such as the background music and the sound effect was quite loud enough.

  

Ricci is an useless husband and father in this film. In the beginning of this film, her wife was asked whether Ricci could get a job and she's carrying a water bucket at that moment. All along the way they back home, Ricci not even help his wife to cary the water bucket but just letting his wife carry the water bucket for so long. Besides, he also show the characteristics of a useless father where Ricci was focusing on looking for his bicycle until he do not know his son was fell down at the street. He has never been concerned about his son's health at all when he asked his son to look for his bicycle for whole day even when it's rainy day. What he want is just to get back his bicycle but at the same time, he already neglected his own son. 

Last but not least, this film also emphasis on the present. From the beginning of this film, Ricci get his job and her wife exchange her bedsheet and got some money to get back their bicycle. Unfortunately, Ricci lost his bicycle on the second day which also his first day of working. When the third day, Ricci, his son and his several friends were looking for the bicycle but at the end still cannot find it. 

CONCLUSION 

As a conclusion, the points mentioned above were combined in order to make an Italian Neorealism film. Those points were actually the characteristics of the Italian Neorealism film. Even the film was in black and white but all the elements included could bring out different meaning to the audiences as well.  

Dark City (1998)

INTRODUCTION

Dark city (1998) is a movie that released on 27th February 1998 which directed by Alex Proyas, who is an Australian film director, scriptwriter and producer. He is a best known for directing this Dark City film, Gods of Egypt and others. 

So basically I would like to choose the German Expression as the theory to discuss about this film and how this theory shown and applied in this film. So what is German Expression? German Expression is an artistic genre that originated in Europe. In this film, there are few characteristics or styles of German Expression were included. And now, I would like to discuss about what's style were included in this film as below. 

SYNOPSIS

John Murdoch awakens in a strange hotel to find that he has lost his memory and is wanted for a series of murders. He stumbles over an evil underworld controlled by a group of aliens which known as The Strangers who possess the ability or power to make people in city sleep and transform the city when John Murdoch trying to piece together his past. John Murdoch got to find a way in order to stop the aliens or strangers before they control and destroy John's minds or memories.

ANALYSIS

First of all, the styles in German Expression which included in this film is the distorted bodies and the shapes which give a meaning of the spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance. The most obvious example is the movement of the Aliens or the Strangers move is not by walking but is fluttering.   

For example, the buildings in the city were changing landscape when The Strangers tend to catch John Murdoch. Obviously, this scene shown where the buildings in dark city were twisted and squeezed when The Strangers and John Murdoch who having the ability to make the buildings changed were fighting each other. All the buildings sprout from the ground up in a very realistic form, shaping and deforming as they shoot upwards. This overall shown the density of the city.

Not only this, John Murdoch and the head of the Strangers or aliens begin their "tuning" combat battle, resulting in a brilliant display of light and the crook effect. This scene shown the distortion wave popple from the center of the Strangers' machinery. 

Furthermore, the Surrealism also can be found in this film. Surrealism gives a meaning of super real. It's the superior reality of certain forms of association found in dream. In this film, the city as facts of the different eras on earth. For example, the Dr.Schreber put the two rats into the small maze shown that the city was the maze and the rats were the human who lived in the city and all of this is an experiment as well. Humans' memories keep on changing until all the humans thought that the memories in their mind were real but in fact it's not. 

In addition, the chiaroscuro lighting was used. Chiaroscuro lighting is the high contrast or the low key lighting. For example, John Murdoch walked in the dark street which people can't even see his face due to the lighting setting. 

Last but not least, there are few categories which fall under the themes were also included in this film which are the sexual savagery, the primitive, the self-analysis, the revolt and the madness. 

In this scene, the sexual savagery theme shown. The Strangers or Aliens murdered the woman by using the knife to draw a circle with no ending. 

The primitive theme was existed in this film where the Strangers use the knife which counted as a slasher weapons to murder the human or the woman. 

Beside this, the self-analysis theme was existed too where John Murdoch trying and wanted to find his own identity after he woke up and encountered with the memories lost problem. He keep on questioning himself and also the things surrounded him.

The revolt theme was existed in the scene where John Murdoch supposed not to be have the ability of tuning power in the system but he tend to adapted and developed it. He also went to against the Aliens and the system as well, this action called revolt. 

Lastly, the madness theme existed where the inspector Frank Bumstead was mad when he broke down the wall in order to search for the truth. Another example is John has the ability to reshaping the city in whatever way he want. He end up reshape the city as the shell beach and also the Anna due to the reasons of John was too obsession with the shell beach and also Anna. 

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the combinations of those theory as above mentioned could really make this film become more attractive and interesting. A film should not only include the mix genre but also need too include the theories as above so that can bring out a more different film as well.