Self Evaluation

In order to develop new skills in analyze and understand films, it was assigned the creation and maintaining of this blog. Some of the skills developed are the understanding of film techniques and its purposes, like mise-en-scene, cinematography, music, acting, etc. For me all this techniques and the way we can analyzes them is new and I consider that with this course I learned very much.
The postings in this blog have to fulfill the requirements of the course in terms of completeness, time, and quality.
About completeness, this blog have all the postings required plus a bonus posting. The bonus posting was about the movie Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese.
The main part of the blog postings and responses were completed by the date assigned. Some others were not possible to be completed at time because reasons of time or because it was difficult to watch the movie by the time required.
This blog was made with the goal of make postings that have analyses and comments that efficiently contribute with the discussion of the movies. In order to make that possible, the analyses posted in the blog were made considering the quality of them, because they are part of the open discussion of analyses between our classmates. For some postings, moreover than watch the movie, it was needed some references like the class book to improve the quality of the postings by having a good knowledge of the topics discussed.

Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York (2002) is a movie by Martin Scorsese that like Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, is focused in the battle of the man in the search of power. However this movie looks very different from the others mentioned in terms of time, what also change others aspects like the mise-en-scene, music, acting and others. The perception of this movie is also different from the others mafia/ gangsters movies by Scorsese because it is developed in the story of a revenge. In this movie, there is not a main story of a group of gangster that rises in terms of success, became rich and famous and then fall up to get nothing. There is a story of a boy that lost his father and after a childhood full of suffering wants to avenge his father death. In this movie Martin Scorsese presents the main ideas presented in other movies, but with a different inspiration.

Q Tarantino

Something that I have learned with the course of Topics in Film, is that an auteur puts its own and unique stamp in his work, making it different from the other’s, although it may be about same genre or same topics. Quentin Tarantino makes his works mainly focused in gangster, crimes, and violence, how the underworld works from his perspective. Tarantino likes to use music, costumes, and all kind of mise-en-scene to give to his movies a “retro” style. This is a characteristic of his work. This helps to portray a vision of gangster/mafia more informal than the one presents in Scorsese works. It may be also because the mafia presented in Tarantino work is inspired in a more “down street” mafia, with a lot less glamour. Another thing that makes different Tarantino movies is the humor he integrates in the dialogues. Although the scene can be about a torture, a murder, or about crude violence, the way he integrates humor in the movie, make the scenes ones possibly funnies instead of cruel or crudes. I think that Tarantino works have their own style and the way he presents topics in the movies make them more interesting.

Reservoir Dogs by Q Tarantino

In the first movie of Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs (1992), we can see the elements that in further productions will become his marks. One of these elements is the violent crime and the graphic violence scenes. Tarantino have many productions in which we can see his unique style of portrays violence. Although the movie Reservoir Dogs is kind of simple in terms of space and location, because almost the entire movie was filmed in the same place, it has a lot of scenes in which violence is present. Violence is represented in many ways, since a gun shot up to cruel and crude torture. However the special style of Tarantino, sometimes fill with kind of humor these scenes in order to make them more digestible and enjoyable to the viewer, and in the best of the situations, make these scenes funny.

Scorsese's Ideology

I think that M. Scorsese presents in the movies Mean Street, Casino and Goodfellas what he thinks about mafia style of life. In this movie is very clear that the purpose of Scorsese is to give to the audience a portray of the gangster "world". In all these three movies we can see first the benefits and glamour that being part of the mafia gives. Then he presents us how this world works when things go bad. There is no friends, no loyalty,no benefits and no glamour. There is a lot of violence, crimes and no compassion for anybody. I think that Scorsese make the viewer very clear the statement that although in first place it looks very nice and very easy, at the end it have a lot of consequences.

Goodfellas...

The movie of Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas is a great example of the crime/mafia genre. In this movie we can see the formation, development and end of a mafia gangster, Henry Hill, and all the transformation (physical and psychological) he suffers meanwhile. This movie is amazing because we can almost see the entire life of this man who since he was a kid wished to become a member of the mafia. In this movie, as the genre description says, we can see a mafia gang that operates outside the law (specifically bribing the police, etc), stealing and murdering. I think that Scorsese in this movie achieved a deeper representation of the mafia world than in Mean Streets. In this movie, Goodfellas, Scorsese presents the good and the bad of being a gangster, the benefits, but also all the sacrifices and all the anti moral acts that a man have to do to form part of it. I like this movie because in a beginning he presents it as the easy way to get the best, good cars, a lot of money, respect, and a high position in society. Then he presents the moral disintegration of his main character, product of that same “easy” style of life. I think that Scorsese let very clear the meaning that although maybe it looks like very easy and glamorous at the beginning, at the end crime, mafia, violence, steal, etc, let nothing to the people.

Meaning in Taxi Driver

In the movie Taxi Driver we can find more than one meaning through the movie. I think that one of them is criticism to war. The character of Travis, played by Robert De Niro, is a Vietnam War veteran. He also is a lonely and depressed man who fear the scorn from the society and suffers of chronic insomnia. I think about the criticism of war because we know about this life style of Travis after his experience in war, and it is a trashy, sad, and poor style of life.
Other meanings of this movie are about racism, violence, prostitution and society moral decay. The character of Travis began to feel worry about all this forgotten side of society, and he began to take action in order “to make a difference”. With this character and his part of the movie we can see a clear meaning about all this society problems, problems that, as we can also see in the movie, politicians says to be looking for solutions but at the end they are just looking for votes. So trough Travis, Scorsese let a clear meaning about this.

St. Kubrick vs Scorsese

For me a difference between the work of Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick is the way they present their ideas in movies. I think that Kubrick like to emphasize the conflicts and problems in the movies by the use of mise-en-scene (with costumes, décor, etc), while Scorsese uses to presents the conflict in a very natural way. I compare the movie Mean Streets with Clockwork orange. In Mean Streets we can find a lot of messages behind the main plot for example racism but is something that we find out because a simple conversation or commentary. In Clockwork orange when Kubrick wants the viewer to catch something he try to exaggerate it with a high contrast between what is natural or common and what is forced to be noticed, for example the kind of boy that Alex is, is exaggerate with a uncommon costume, make up, décor and colors.

FULL METAL JACKET

Full Metal Jacket is a movie about the war in Vietnam at the style of Stanley Kubrick. In this movie we first see the hard process of become part of the Marines, and then we see the action inside Vietnam War.
One character that attracted my attention was Rafterman. Rafterman was the photographer of Stars and Stripes who decided to go with Joker to cover the action directly from battlefield. One scene in which we can see a big difference between a soldier “prepare to be in battlefield” and Rafterman is the one in which Joker and him were in the helicopter with that rebellious soldier who was killing Vietnamese people. In this scene we can see the reaction of Rafterman. At first time I though that he was sick because he was afraid of traveling in the helicopter, but then I realize that his reactions was because the other soldier was killing innocent people, and he kill them without any feeling of compassion. During the rest of film we can see how Rafterman react at the different situations he had to confront in battlefield. At the end Rafterman had to kill a sniper and save the life of Joker. In this part we can see Rafterman feeling proud and happy of what he did. So we can se an before and after of Rafterman in this movie. Kevyn Major Howard is the actor who plays the role of Rafterman in this movie. By the way he develop his function as Rafterman this character was a credible one and the purpose of Kubrick to show us the transformation of him was asserted.

Clockwork Orange!

Stanley Kubrick definitely has a variety of themes and purposes on his productions. All the movies are very different and a Clockwork Orange is not an exception.
The scenes I selected for this analysis were the ones were Alex and his small gang invades a countryside house, beat the owner and Alex rape his wife while singing and dancing “Singing in the rain”. The first thing I did was look for the lyric of this song, in which the first verse says “I'm singing in the rain, Just singing in the rain, What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again…” The rest of song tells that it is an optimistic song; although around you become dark clouds, you can have the sun in your heart. For me the dark clouds that the song talk about is the pain and suffering that he is doing to that people, and he is singing because he enjoy to do that things. We can appreciate the way he smile and dance while he is singing; he looks very happy and victorious maybe, like if he was doing something very nice. I think Kubrick want that the viewer understand how sick of mind is this boy, and for me he achieved his purpose. The music comes from another production so it is a song not a score composed for the film. Also we can see that the source is onscreen because is Alex directly who is singing it.

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A space odyssey is a slow but interesting movie. In this movie Kubrick combines visual effects with sounds rather than with intense dialogues throughout the movie. In my opinion, the music used in this movie was great and help to make the scenes more intense.
The scenes were Dave is traveling by the kind of tunnel with colorful lights is the part that most catch my attention. The way these scenes were edited helps to create a confusing and desperate feeling. First you see the brilliant lights with powerful different colors for a long time. You feel that you are the one traveling through this tunnel. Then suddenly and just for a second you see first Dave expression of panic, then lights again, and then his very open eye. This is repeated for a few minutes and at the end he is in the spatial pod inside a bedroom that has a very classic décor. How he arrive in this room? I don’t have any idea because by the way the scenes were edited you just jump from Dave’s eye to this room.
Other scenes that I found kind of confusing were the ones where Dave is outside the pod but still in this room and he began to explore the place. Then he found an old man eating in one of the rooms, then the very old man in the bed, and then the fetus after the strange black figure appears. It takes a time for me to understand that all of them were the same Dave in different steps of his life. First when he arrived there, then old, then in a deathbed, then back to the fetus. It was confusing because in all the shots appear the previous Dave, so you think there are two persons in the room.

DR. STRANGELOVE...

“You can’t fight on a war room”. It sounds a little sarcastic right? Well this kind of sarcasm is part of the elements than make the movie “Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” one filled with humor and satire. This movie also combines a lot of elements of cinematography such as lighting effects, camera angle, movement and others.
For example, there is a scene in which Group Captain Lionel Mandrake is in General Ripper’s office trying to convince him to stop the “Plan R”. Dr Ripper had no intention to stop the plan and then comes a close up to General Ripper’s face. This close up emphasizes an important dramatic moment to come. Also the DP combines this close up with the lighting. First we can see that the quality of the lighting is a hard one, because it reaches Ripper’s face directly from the source. The source seems to be a lamp, so it comes from a normal direction. Then we found that it have a fill lighting because although we can distinguish very well General Ripper’s face there remains some shadows. Actually all the background looks to be in shadows. This helps to make the scene one more intense. The camera angle is a key in the director’s objective in this shot. We can see that it is a low camera angle; it looks like if we were looking General Ripper from the bottom. This kind of angle helps to create a sense of superiority on the character, and he is really playing a superior role. General Ripper is the only one who can stop the Plan R so stop the possible war, depends on him. By other way the point of view of this scene is from the Group Captain because, first, he was the only one in the office, and second, the Captain was afraid, what makes him felt inferior in front of Ripper, just like the low angle camera suggest.

Mise- en-Scène for Lolita

The group of scenes that I’ve selected from Lolita was the ones that start with Charlotte waking up and looking for Humbert. In this scene Humbert is not in the room but by the way the bed sheets are over the bed we know that Humbert decided to be with Charlotte. Humbert is a man with a perverse mind who writes his secrets on a diary with games of sophisticated words. We can see in the same group of scenes, when Humbert was over Charlotte in the bed and he is looking a picture of Lolita while he is kissing Charlotte. I assumed that he is imaging that the women he is kissing is Lolita and not his wife. I also supposed that every time they were together in the intimacy, he was thinking about Lolita.
We can also hear the rain outside the house, which can be associated with Charlotte’s style of life. Although Charlotte get what she want (get married with Humbert), we can appreciate she is not happy at all. We can perceive insecurity, loneliness and sad eyes in her. The group of scenes ended with the death of Charlotte, after she discovers the truth about her husband. I think that Kubrick use a rainy day to emphasize the miserable life of Charlotte.
The design of the scenes helps us to feel that they are true. The way Kubrick uses all the elements around the house make it a credible one. The posters on the wall, the localization of the bed, the nightstand tables, lamps, and all the accessories of the bed room make it a real one. The costumes of the movie also make us to travel to those times.