A Short and Last Blog Post

I did enjoy the last film, La Noire de, we watched for the class; directed by Ousmane Sembene, the "Father of African film." I still don't feel the film entirely convinced me that this woman had no other option but suicide though. It never tried to explain what would happen if she just left, but this may just be because It would've been more clear to the audience at the time and location of the film, so c'est la vie... or maybe such is death (don't know the french for that). This point, though, is why I enjoyed an earlier effort by Sembene, Borom Sarret, much more. It's a short film of around 2o minutes about a wagon driver; I loved how the film just showed another day on the job and how easily it can take a turn for the worse. It puts the poverty of the city right in your face and it also contains, like La Noire de, extensive use of voice-over. Check it out sometime.

Soma

Here's the short film I wrote/directed/edited for my final project in the class if you want to check it out online.

Hiroshima mon GODZILLAAAA!!!

It was stated in the Caruth text we read, which was in regards to Hiroshima mon amour, that instead of making a documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima, Alain Resnais chose to shoot a film of fiction. Caruth goes on to say (and I'm paraphrasing) that she thought a more powerful truth was achieved by doing this; by shooting something close but indirect in its telling. Which brings me to Godzilla. More than just a potential monster cash-cow, Godzilla is an awesome answer to nuclear bombing and testing. Taken from Wikepedia: The opening scene of the Bingo Maru being obliterated by Godzilla's first attack and later scenes of survivors of other attacks being found with radiation burns, were inspired by the U.S. testing of a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. A real Japanese fishing ship, the Lucky Dragon 5, was overwhelmed when the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear test had a yield of 15 megatons rather than the planned 6 megatons. Military personnel, island natives and several Lucky Dragon 5 crew members, persons believed to be in a zone of safety, suffered from radiation sickness and at least one died six months later. This created widespread fear of uncontrolled and unpredictable nuclear weapons, which the film makers symbolized with Gojira. The actual event played a major role in drawing attention to the hazards of nuclear fallout, and concerns were widespread about radioactively contaminated fish affecting the Japanese food supply.Godzilla's climactic attack on Tokyo was meant to exemplify a rolling nuclear attack, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only much more slowly. Honda had plotted it this way, having been shocked by the real devastation of those cities.

So while these nuclear warnings can be read from the English version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, (which has cut scenes of more direct nuclear references and added footage of American actor Raymond Burr) the Japanese version, Gojira, is where the power of responsible film-making is really at.... Well, as responsible as a man in a lizard suit with radioactive breath who has the ability to spawn multiple cheesy sequels can get, that is.

Original Japanese trailer Link. May need to copy/paste:

http://youtu.be/eSk-i1UFJWA

The horrible sequel where Godzilla gets a son. So so bad.

The Ascent of Apocalypse Now

For my final paper, I researched the soldier's psyche and how it was represented in the two films of Larisa Shepitko's The Ascent and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. I had, originally, chosen The Ascent, simply, because I love the film and because it does a fantastic job of showing Russian warfare in WWII; After re-watching it for this paper, I was pleasantly surprised by the other connections it had to Apocalypse Now. While the ascent in Shepitko's film is hopeful, I liked the idea of an ascent into madness that Coppola's film showcases. I use "ascend" instead of "descend" because there is a truth discovered at the end of the film that is only revealed to the soldiers because of their madness; and also because of the more literal use of them travelling up-river into madness. There is also some great ties to religious undertones in both films. We have a Christ/martyr role in The Ascent and a taking over the role of god by killing a god in Apocalypse Now. Anyways, I totally recommend Shepitko's film; it's really awesome and I'll provide you with a clip below; it's in Russian with no subtitles, but the visual power is what is at the forefront here.

Track-o-rama

I've only seen a few French New Wave films; those being Truffaut's 400 blows and Godard's Breathless and Contempt. From what I have seen, however, a sense of reveling in cinematic technique is observed. And while there can be some amazing things conveyed with the cut, I've always been fascinated with the tracking shot. It just reeks of directorial hard-work and, I feel, can be a true testament to an actor's skill. I love the tracking shot at the beginning of Contempt where it sways from right to left when the producer is met for the first time. Good stuff. So I thought I'd share some of my favorite tracking shots from two films separated pretty far, both temporally and geographically.

Orson Welles' Touch of Evil

and John Woo's Hard Boiled
http://youtu.be/CTCymujrkMg

Blade Runner Is For Fake

I remember there being talk about whether we should care or not for the Replicants, in class. Some brought up the "ghost in the machine" idea and another questioned whether a "soul" could exist anyplace but inside a human being. After seeing Orson Welles' F For Fake (aka F Is For Fake aka F Is For Fakes; I'm still not sure what the correct English title is) a couple of weeks before re-viewing Blade Runner, I started to see the Replicants in a new light; a light based in a theory put forth by F For Fake. It, basically, talks about the artistic merit of a forgery; when we see the fake and find it beautiful on first sighting why do we hate it when we find out the truth behind it? Is it because we feel our experience wasn't true? We feel cheated now?... Why should our initial reaction be tainted though? Is it not still as beautiful as when we first spotted it? Did we only like it because of the original painter? And what if we find it to be better than the original? I feel like all of these questions are just as viable to the Replicants as they they are to paintings. Anyway, it's a good and strange movie which I recommend checking out.

Blade Runner/BTAS

Yessss, I believe it's now time for the "Matthew Reagan catch-up blog posts for lit/film class" hour......... (Probably going to take me longer than an actual hour) Let's start light: In the film, Blade Runner, there is the character of J.F. Sebastian, a genius designer who works for the Tyrell Corporation and also suffers from progeria. Now I brought this up in class a long time ago and I thought I would expand for this is kind of my nerd area of expertise. I am, of course, referring to the character of Karl Rossum from Batman: The Animated Series or BTAS. Rossum is a total wink of the eye to the character of Sebastian; He is a creator of robots and advanced toys and is even voiced by the same actor who played Sebastian, William Sanderson. (a fantastic actor that plays dopey better than the best. See him in Deadwood for a prime example) Even more fascinating than this clever inclusion of the character is the selection of the name Rossum. This goes back to the play from 1921, R.U.R. or Rossum's Universal Robots. Wikipedia provides a fascinating read about it; the best part being where the word Robot actually originated from this play. Awesome! check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.

Video of the BTAS character:

My final paper about the meaning of photographs

The Meaning of Photographs Today

In the past taking a photo required a lot more work than just pressing a button. Old time cameras were more complicated than today’s digital ones. Since taking pictures has become so easy there have been an abundance of landscapes, celebrations, and memories captured than ever before. I believe that photography today has a different meaning than it did in the past. For example, certain Native American tribes and certain religions had, and some still have, negative views on having their picture taken. There is the belief that if you have your picture taken that it will “steal your soul” (Bobos). Even Sontag comments on how people felt about photographs stating “the less sharp is the distinction between images and real things; in primitive societies the thing and its image were simply two different, that is, physically distinct, manifestations of the same energy or spirit” (155).

In the films Last Year in Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, the use and meaning of photography is different than what earlier “primitive” societies thought about photography. In Last Year in Marienbad the main character Mr. X is trying to convince the woman that they had met the year before and had a love affair. In the middle of the film he shows her a picture that he says he took of her last year. In this instance the picture’s purpose was to evoke a memory, it was supposed to make her remember that she had met him and that he wasn’t lying. In the beginning of Hiroshima Mon Amour the woman is talking about how she saw the pictures and other artifacts of Hiroshima in a museum and says that she “saw everything”. The man however states, “You saw nothing in Hiroshima, nothing” insisting that just because she saw photographs doesn’t mean she knows what it was like. In this film the photographs in the museum were meant to show and try to evoke an understanding of what it was like in the aftermath of the bombing in Hiroshima. To the woman she felt like she could understand what it was like in Hiroshima after viewing all the things in the museum, especially the pictures. Sontag believes that pictures can elicit some kind of sympathy or empathy stating “the quality of feeling, including moral outrage, that people can muster in response to photographs of the oppressed, the exploited, the starving, and the massacred also depends on the degree of their familiarity with these images” (19). What she means is that it is possible to have certain feelings and understanding of what is going on in a picture if you are familiar with the images, but none the less you can still have feelings about a picture.

“A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a give thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture” (Sontag 5). In Sontag’s notion of photography in her booked titled “On Photography”, she illustrates what photography is and the progression of photography from what people thought about it in the beginning to, for the most part, what it meant to the generation of her time. She states that “photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it” (5). By this she means that people believe things when they can see it. For humans it is hard for us to believe anything if it is not tangible so in a sense seeing something in a picture, which is tangible, evokes a belief in what is being seen. This is what I feel photography is about, being able to see things if you were not physically there to see it in person or also to remember something you once saw. Which ever it maybe, essentially you will believe it because it shows proof. This is only true though if the picture was not manipulated in some way.

Usually when you look at a picture that means something to you it will elicit emotions in you. “Memorializing the achievements of individuals considered as members of families (as well as of other groups) is the earliest popular use of photography” (Sontag 8). This explains that photography started out with wanting to capture special events to be remembered. When one looks back on a picture it evokes an emotion and memory of what was happening in that photo. An example would be photos of a wedding, every time the bride or groom looks back on those photos, their memory of that day comes to mind and all the emotions that were felt on that day will usually also return. Today photographs are not used merely for “memorializing achievements” they are for remembering everything from a baby’s birth to a vacation in the Bahamas. Sontag also explains the evolution of taking pictures for any situation was brought about when cameras were made to be easily used. Pictures became especially prominent in travel, to the traveler photos are “a way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it, by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir” (Sontag 9).

Since the invention of cameras photography has become a new art form but is also a highly used amateur practice. It has become so well known a practice in today’s time probably because the rate of change of the world is happening. There are “an untold number of forms of biological and social life are being destroyed in a brief span of time” (Sontag 16) and now there is a device to capture all that is disappearing. Most people want to capture certain moments, scenes in nature, and landmarks because they know they won’t always be there but if they have a picture of it, they will always have that memory.

I have now discussed the evolution of the meanings of photography starting with early native people thinking that taking a picture would steal someone’s soul, to then photos being used for family rituals and tourism, now in the present photographs are used for social reasons. One main example of social usage of photos is the social networking site Facebook. With more than 500 million people on Facebook and billions of pictures posted each month this is just one of the examples of the use of photos in a social context.

The snapshot camera was introduced in 1883 by Kodak and was a “portable medium that allowed users to record personal experiences” (Lee 266). Now with the “development of digital cameras, and their connection with communication networks, has transformed photo-taking conventions and expanded the range of photography’s social usage” (266) as described by Lee in his article Digital Cameras, Personal Photography and Reconfiguration of Spatial Experiences. His article goes on to explain that photo sharing used to be “home mode” which is the act of compiling pictures into a photo album and building a “mnemonic framework for oral presentation and collective conversation that brings one’s stories into the presentation of the album” (Lee 267). This allowed people to share their moments and experiences with only those close, intimate family and friends. These days it has become more common with the younger generation to post pictures on the Web for almost anyone to see. The digital age has transformed the “nature of photographic performance and its cultural significance” (Lee 267). Since digital cameras are so easy to use and the images are inexpensive to create, it has allowed people to capture every moment of their experience of life (Lee 276).

With social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and blogs photographs are now meant as personal expressions. This is a major difference between earlier meanings of pictures and present day meanings. Research on photos being posted on Facebook and other social sites has began to emerge. Such research contains the relationships between personality and how many photos a person is “tagged” in on Facebook and also on the personality trait of narcissism and photo sharing. A big research topic in psychology on this subject is the fact that most people using Facebook are using it to “hype themselves up”, trying to make themselves look like they are a certain person rather than who they really are. Since a picture can say a thousand words, people use this to their advantage. For example if a person believes that partying makes them “cool” then they would most likely add photos of themselves at parties in hopes that people will think they are “cool” and will like them. Again this is only an example of what could be a possible mental process of a Facebook user. These are just a few examples of how people are trying to understand this new meaning of social usage of photos.

“Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted” (Sontag 24). Taking pictures has progressed as a form of remembering and personal expression. Today’s generation wants to be more individualized and social networking sites have made this possible by allowing one to make their mini home pages unique and expressive. Photographs have turned into a social usage that I believe will continue in the future as long as there are social networking sites. Photos are still used for capturing achieving moments, celebrations and tourism today but have also evolved into the meaning of personal expression.

The Bells!

Here's a link to the video I showed in class
http://vimeo.com/cassiehanks/thebells23327439

Into the Darkness

Short Story

It was the fall of 2003 that I found myself a member of the fourth infantry division of the United States Army. It had always been a dream of mine to be able to fight for my country and our beliefs but after my first mission I would no longer share that enthusiastic viewpoint that once occupied my innocent mind.

There is an eerie feeling in the air of death and suffering that can be felt by even the most robust men at the moment of arrival in the desert. The ruthlessness of events to come haunt would haunt every man that survives to remember. There are two types of people in the world. Ones that rise up to define themselves as heroes in moments of great challenge, and others who let the moment define them only to slip into darkness forever.

Almost no time at all passed before we were summoned to receive our mission objectives from Lt. Lazarus. He had a reputation of an unrelenting nasty human being. He did not except failure, it was not an option. When the lieutenant had informed us of the important terrorist figure we were to locate from deep in the heart of the country we knew it was either return home with a body or no return at all. It was known this would be a long vigorous manhunt but nothing could have prepared me for the experience that lay ahead.

We were to meet up with another unit that had been on the trail for many months already. The group was led by a man named Kurtz, I received a stern warning that he had been out in the desert for a long time and was mentally unstable. His tactics immoral but effective, like the lieutenant, he had one objective and would at all costs succeed. The second objective was to bring urtz back after we completed the operation as he was deemed unfit to lead any further missions.

We would travel up the main roadway for hundreds of miles to reach Kurtz then commence to into the unknown. The path we were taking was known as the "highway of death"; many men have died along the way to say the least.

After two days of rest at the military base we began our operation. The first couple for days were uneventful, as I was constrained to my spot in the humvee to reflect on our mission objectives. The greatest challenge thus far was adapting to life in an environment so different from anything in america. It seems as if a dust storm is permanently situated in our area making it hard to breathe and see. I quickly learned how to chug water as it was necessary to drink an enormous amount to maintain hydration. It was lie living on a strange planet; there was so sign of life in any direction.

The vehicle began slowing down as we approached a rundown town. It appeared to be uninhabited but slowly sickly faces started peeing out of window and from behind buildings. I felt as if I was looking at skeletons. It was inconceivable to me how they remained living but I ponder now if you could even label their way of life as living at all. Being only meters away from the shadowy figures I realized our men stationed on the turrets were completely unnecessary, these things were nothing more than rats infesting the buildings.

We stopped to investigate as they just stood there glaring at all of us. All it took was a few rounds fired into the air from a soldier's M16 to send them running back into the holes they had crawled out form. The structure I stood in the middle of did not even resemble a home; it was missing all of the features that would classify it as such. There was no bathroom, only a bucket in the corner. Bugs coated the walls like decorations. Experiencing this for the first time was confusing, there were many emotions to feel. The town was declared nonthreatening and within a blink of an eye we disappeared never to see those souls again.

To take my mind off the dreadfulness, I spent the next few hours in the humvee reading about Kurtz's past reports. It was easily seen why he had received the reputation as a madman. In every description of action that passed my eyes it became clear that he might very well be every bit as insane as he was made out to be. In an effort to strengthen my knowledge of Kurtz and the happenings of his career I read every piece of information I could on him. I felt a strange connection to him, although he was an unstable mind he was a brilliant one as well.

After several days of staring out the window into nothing and raiding homes it all became second nature to me. The further we traveled up the highway the more I realized that my emotions were fading. Seeing the repugnance of the death and suffering at every village had become monotonous. However, the routine was broken when we received word that Kurtz and his crews' whereabouts. He was only about a days' worth of travel away in a place called Adwar. It was believed that our target may be hiding there.

Once we had reached Adwar we spotted a group of men who appeared to be part of the U.S. Army but were completely out of uniform. There were five of them and they all were nonchalantly going about their business as if they were in their own backyard instead of a hostile war zone. I realized this had to be Kurtz's crew judging from the absence of organization to the group. I stared at the men trying to figure out who was the infamous one. It was then that I noticed a sixth man in the shadows, he blended in with the night so well that he was almost invisible. When he stepped out of the shadows I took quick note of his appearance. Before me stood a tall older man mounted with his arms crossed as if judging all of us. As he came closer it was clear he had some sort of illness. At first glance at his face, he had a blank expression that rendered him almost incapable of feeling.

The silence lasted for what seemed like hours, but was finally broken by our new leader. He went straight down to business and made it clear that we would be pillaging every building in the city until we found what were were searching for. At first impression, I had no idea what to think of him. I was expecting a hyperactive wild killing machine but Kurtz did not fit that role the least bit, he was different from the stereotype. The more and more I watched him operate I could detect his underlying disturbance.

The next night we began our task with the first building on the west side of the town, Kurtz ordered the raid. The men crushed the door in and immediately took any inhabitants prisoner. The rest of us would then begin ravishing through the rest of the building destroying everything in the way of the path. We kept a keen eye for any underground rooms or trapdoors that would be able to hide anything.

Each house seemed to have the same disturbing consistencies of dead bodies, dead animals, diseased people, and a stench that I swear still fill the air around me today. Flies filled the air as rain does during a storm.

There were many instances in which we would burst through the doors and encounter armed attackers which would inevitably end up lying in a pool of their own blood on the floor.That is to be expected. It is not the taking of an armed mans life that sticks to your mind. It was the occurrences of unarmed individuals that Kurtz would order to be tortured and killed for no reason at all that haunts someone forever. Occasionally the enemy would succeed and ill one of our soldiers which ultimately adds fire to our already trigger happy crew.

This went on for days and it seemed that the more deaths that occurred, the further Kurtz's mind fell into darkness. The way he did things was so disorganized and aggressive that he had almost sunk down to the level of the enemy we were trying to rid the world of. He once said to me, "We live as we dream, alone", truly the voice of one consumed by madness. Everyday his illness became more apparent, by the sixth day he was noticeably coughing up blood. On the ninth day of our rampage we cleared a house, it was extremely heavily armed. We lost several men. After hours of examining, a hole was discovered filled with the target of our interest. When he refused to surrender there was no problem finding the courage to pull the trigger of loaded gun. The coward lay in the hole as we glared down at him. We had succeeded in finding the man responsible for so much evil in the world. I thought I would be relieved in the ending of our mission but instead the sun refused to shine.

The news spread fast of our accomplished feat as this was a moral victory for our country. Somehow though, we did not feel the same joyful feelings. Just as we had lost all sympathy for the terrorists, we also were unable to be happy. Our emotions were inhibited by those lifeless faces that we had grown so accustomed to seeing.

We had plenty of time to analyze our efforts of the last couple of weeks on the return trip. Kurtz remained silent in his own little world perhaps trying to justify his actions. It is the men like him who let that defining moment get the best of their soul. There is no returning from the darkness that is the evil side of the human mind.

Kurtz would not stay alive long enough to see all of the American smiles we had brought to their faces. The entire country found justice in our actions of killed the wicked man who had killed so many of our friends and family members.

I wished to join their merriment but all that would occupy my mind was the last words of a corrupt man, "the horror, the horror".

The mask in La Noire de...

Here is a clip from the end of the La Noire de... film. Go to the 10min mark and watch from there til the end. This is where the little boy chases the man with the mask. What significance do you think the mask has?


http://youtu.be/_MVJo4AkqWI

-Danielle Holub

Here is a short explanation to the my short story, "The Crown Victoria."




The Crown Victoria Explanation
I wrote “The Crown Victoria,” as a psychological short story involving both the fantastic, the uncanny, and doubles. I originally planned on writing a screenplay, but I decided that a short story was a better medium, as I really wanted to get into the character’s head. I think with some work though, it could easily be adapted into a short film.
Todorov describes the fantastic situation. It is when we are in a world that is our own, but then some event occurs that is out of the ordinary and unexplained. This is the introduction of the men in the black suits in the short story, who appear and disappear throughout the story. He describes the fantastic as that period of uncertainty. In this story, the entirety fits into the fantastic, as you are never really certain whether the protagonist, Patton, is crazy or of this is really some sort of supernatural event. Whether it is the uncanny, where the event is explained in logical terms, or the marvelous, where the event is just accepted as supernatural, is really up to the reader.
I bring about the theme of doubles in several places. The first is in which you often see reflections throughout the story, starting with the windows of the car. Then following with the mirror at the bottom of the staircase, which Patton often sees himself, but sees his image deteriorating as he becomes more paranoid and stressed out. He also sees his reflection in his phone as he tries to call 911. Lastly, he views himself at his worst as he sees his own image in the reflection of the barred window in the mental hospital. Doubles are also apparent in the two men in the black suit, who are dressed exactly the same.

RSD

My Short Story: The Crown Victoria

The Crown Victoria
I worked hard to be where I was. I started out as a carpenter, and over time, moved all the way up to superintendent of the company. I liked my job. Sure, it was day to day, but it was an income, a desk job, and respectable. Through my journey up the company, I gained a lot of self confidence, and saw the world as an open book full of possibilities. I never let those terrible news reports bother me, and always focused on the good side of things. Sure I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t going to let a few details from my past hold me back. That was until that day that black car showed up.
I had just gotten home from work when I noticed a black Crown Vic with windows tented even darker than the paint of the car. They were the type that were so reflective that you couldn’t see the inside at all, just an image with the neighborhood houses with the cloudy blue sky above. I glanced at the license plate and memorized the sequence in my head, just in case anything strange happened. It was a custom plate. G1LT-E4. I took a glance at it and thought out loud, “Hm, that’s weird, I wonder who’s car that is?” I went on with the day, quickly forgetting the strange crown victoria. I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer, the blue mountains on the can told me it was, “as cold as the Rockies.” I flipped the TV on and scanned through the channels and found some cheesy police chase show. Just another relaxing Friday to myself, as always. “Ah, forgot to check the mail,” I remembered. The car was still there. As I walked out the house down to the street and to the mailbox, I thought I saw a light turn on and off in the Crown Vic. I thought, “Is someone in there… Am I being watched? Am I in trouble?” I quickly and inconspicuously tried to grab the mail, and walked as casually as I could into the house, trying to pretend like I hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
That car stayed there all day long. I peeked through the blinds at it from my bedroom window every ten to fifteen minutes. As I sat there, waiting and wondering, I began to look at my life over the last few years. Had I done anything wrong? Every instance of me doing anything questionable flashed through my head. There was the time I found $100 bill on the floor of a restaurant and I picked up and kept it for myself. Or the short span of time after high school that I sold drugs. Only marijuana and small time. But I made a good deal of money. It was easy money. And then I told myself it was just my paranoia getting to me. I thought, “How would anyone find out?” I thought, “and why would they care?” But then as my thoughts continued, I remembered something that I had forgotten. I had been drunk, and done something terrible. But I couldn’t distinguish whether it was part of some dream or something real. Why would this just come back to me at this moment, how could I have forgotten about it. The phone rang, interrupting my thoughts.
“Hello,” I said, panic in my voice.
“Hey bud, its Tyler,” he said. “What the hell’s wrong with you, you’re breathing really hard.”
“You know man, it’s probably nothing and this is going to sound crazy, but there’s this black car in front of my house and it’s just kind of odd you know. I even thought I saw a light go on and off.”
“Well I’m sure it’s nothing, your neighbor probably just got a new car,” Tyler said.
“Yeah you’re probably right,” I remarked, a little ashamed but comforted.
And then I heard a car engine turn on and peeked through the blinds of my front window, the black Crown Vic turned the corner and a feeling of relief moved through my body.
“Patton,” it was faint but grew louder. “Patton,” he said again, louder.
“Oh, sorry Tyler, I was watching the car. It drove away.”
“Ah see, you big wimp,” he laughed, “Well anyway, I was just calling to see if you wanted to come grill tomorrow night with us.”
“Yeah definitely,”
“Great well come over around 7:00, the kids and the wife are looking forward to seeing you.”
“Alright, have a good one Tyler.”
“You too bud, later,” Tyler said.
As the night went on, my comfort diminished as I continued to think about the black car. “What if they were monitoring my phone and knew I was on to them, or what if they saw me looking at them? I’m sure I saw someone in there.” After tossing and turning for a few hours I finally managed to fall asleep at 1 o’ clock.
I woke up to the sound of a car driving down the street. “Shit,” I thought, “is the car back?!” I looked out the window. Two men in suits stood outside the car, looking up at me.
RING RING RING! The doorbell rang. I stood stupefied for a moment. RING RING! “What do I do now?” I frantically questioned myself as my heart raced, beating at what felt like 500 beats a minute. “They know something, I don’t how, but they do!” I opened the door and slowly crept down the stairs, taking each step as quietly as I could, but the stairs seemed to crack and moan louder than ever before. Facing me at the bottom of the stairs was a mirror, and I saw myself, but I didn’t recognize myself. The person in the mirror was a Pale, large eyed, and rigid version of myself. I made it to the front door. I looked out the peephole. No one was there. “What the Hell?” I thought. “I’m really losing it.” I sat down in front of the door shaking, and fell asleep sitting with my back against the door.
I woke as if an explosion had gone off. The door was being pounded upon. “We just need to talk to you for a second Mr. Williams,” came a low voice but in a strangely calm manner.
“We’re investigators with the police and heard something about a friend of yours,” the right man quickly remarked afterward.
“Why the hell would you come here this time of night?” I asked, still sitting against the door.
“It’s 10:00 in the morning Mr. Williams.”
All of a sudden light crept into the window next to the door and filled the front room of my house. “It wasn’t just…. That just happened!” I stood up and looked out the peephole again. There were two men standing there, both in black suits.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Williams. We’ve just heard a few rumors that we hoped you could clear up. If you could just let us in and we can talk it over, and clear up this mess,” the man on the left stated.
“What the hell? I haven’t done anything!”
“Well then you have nothing to worry about. But if you don’t let us in, we will have to use force, and that will cause a huge scene. You don’t want that, do you Mr. Williams?”
I was dialing 911 before he was finished speaking and quickly walked into the other room.
“Hello, emergency service, how can I help you,” A soothing woman’s voice came over the small speaker in the phone.
“There’s two men here at my house that claim to be investigators, my address is 302 Longflower. Should they be here? Something is weird here, I think these guys might be trying to rob me or something.”
“Yes sir, a police officer is on his way to check out the situation,” the woman responded.
I stumbled over to the door and looked out the peephole, the two men and the black Crown Vic were already gone. I waited in the chair by the front door for the police to show up, it only took about 10 minutes. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, I opened to door.
“Hello sir, we got a call about some suspicious characters,” said the officer, a big man with short dark hair and a tiny mustache. He looked exactly like any cop you would expect to see in a crime drama.
“Yes officer, two men showed up in a black Crown Victoria, they were sitting outside my house all day and knocked on my door about twenty minutes ago, claiming to be part of some sort of investigation. I refused to let them in. I called you and then they took off.”
“Ah,” the officer replied, “probably just some guys trying to rob you, they’ll post out and watch the habits of a house pretty often. They’re definitely not with us though. We’ll be on the lookout for these guys, thanks for your information.”
“Thank you, but I’m worried there might be something more to this,” I stated.
“Probably just being a little paranoid sir, just give us a call if you see anything else.”
“Ah ok,” I said, frightened. “Thank you officer, have a good night.”
I watched him drive away from the front window, and stood there watching for about five minutes looking through my screen door, and all of a sudden, I saw the Crown Vic pulling down the street, followed by two Escalades. “Oh my God, they’re back.” I slammed the door shut and locked both deadbolts. I tried to make a call on my cell phone it was completely dead. I only saw a black screen with a reflection of myself, looking worse than I could ever imagine. The next part is real hazy in my memory. I don’t even know how many men were there this time, but the two original men led them.
“We gave you a chance to comply Mr. Williams. We know everything.” The man on the left said coldly. “We’re going to have to use force now.”
“Who are you? What did I do?” I yelled as my body tensed up and I could feel the adrenaline rush through my body. I couldn’t even move. The rest is like a series of still images in my mind. The door was busted in. 5 men came in and grabbed me and restrained me, one frame at a time. They held me down and I thrashed wildly. The man that was on the left pulled out a huge syringe and injected it into my thigh. I screamed out but there was no sound. I must have passed out or there was something in there to screw up my memory, because I woke in my bed. I looked at the clock in my room, flashing showing 3 o clock am. The power must have gone out.
I woke up with a startle, and looked at my leg, there was no hole or bruise or anything. I walked down the stairs and again at the mirror at the bottom. I looked normal again besides the idea of being a little sleepy. I looked at the door. No sign of a struggle. But when I looked out that same window, I saw that same Crown Victoria. All hopes of it being a bad dream were gone. The reflective window rolled down, and the driver, the man who was on the left, gestured with his hands and lip signing “I’m watching you.” The car drove off. “What do I do now?” I asked myself as began to panic.
I drove to the hospital and told them someone had injected something in my leg, they told me there was nothing there. I insisted. I couldn’t take it anymore. I went straight to the police station and told them everything. I told them how I had hit that guy when I was driving home drunk 9 years ago. How I stopped to look at him, but was too scared of the consequences. I told them how I drove away, and managed to forget about it for these 9 years, but I couldn’t suppress the memory in anymore. Someone’s body had been found 9 years ago, a 15 year old girl named Theresa, who had run away from home. It was on the highway right by my house. I confessed to the crime and went to court. I couldn’t stand to be terrorized by the men in the black suits and that freaking. They ruled me not stable enough to stay in jail so they sent me here. And that’s the whole story Dr. Terry.

“Mr. Williams, you have a problem, but it’s not your fault, you suffer from a disease of the mind. You need to realize you have a problem.” Dr. Terry said calmly. He was a strange man with a monotone voice, grey hair, and glasses. He was exactly the way you would picture a shrink.
“I can’t believe this!” Patton yelled. “There is something crazy going on here, but its not me! I can’t just make stuff up like this, can I?! It’s all real, it’s all real. I don’t know what these guys wanted with me but they injected me with something and I’m either some sort of weird experiment or their tracking me or something but I know I’m not making this up!”
“Mr. Williams, you need to calm down.” He said as he pressed a button on his desk. Two men came in and grabbed Patton, injected him with a shot and took him to a small cell like room.
He woke up.
“I can’t believe this,” he said to himself as he got out of the tiny cot. He looked out the tiny window with the black iron bars. A reflection of himself stared back at him in the mirror. He didn’t recognize himself. His eyelids drooped down, he had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was disheveled, and his skin paler than ever. The bars behind interacted with the reflection to give him a clear picture of his captivity. “At least I’m safe here,” he thought as he followed the road away from the mental asylum with his eyes. But as he followed the road his eyes got bigger and a panic-stricken look came across his face, reflected back at him through the window. A black Crown Victoria was driving up the road, towards the asylum. The license plate read G1LT-E4.

Final Projects!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW060Qwc94U

Here is my robot film for anybody who wants to watch it. Everyone else post their film and works in the comments section or in another post!

The Whole Shootin Match

The Whole Shooting Match was an interesting film as part of the Texas Independent FIlm Network series. Significantly it was an influencing factor in the creation of the Sundance Institute, and the prints of the film were lost for many years. While I'm well-aware of old film reels and German cinema disappearing and considered "lost" from the beginning of the 20th century, it was surprising to me to hear that a more recent film has the same fate. Fortunately however a print was found, and it was a pleasure tohave experienced the film with the star, Sonny Carl Davis. The film itself seems to be a personal vision from the director Eagle Pennel about what it meant to be a white, male, heterosexual Texan living in that era. While most of the story involves slice-of-life moments, including getting in a bar fight, discussions with the wife over money problems, and going hunting with the best friend, it has a considerable amount of humor and an articulate understanding of this context.

Additionally the film is incredibly fluid and a perfect example of independent filmmaking at that time. It's not a Hollywood production-- it was shot in Texas, and the camera is often handheld. A lot of the actors' performances are also improvisational at many points, and Sonny Carl Davis pointed out that the director had a series of notes and that the actors would rehearse to the vision of the director.

Racism in Heart of Darkness?

My group's topic when we were discussing Heart of Darkness was whether or not it was racist. I know that we've discussed this topic thoroughly, but I was actually pretty interested in the opposing viewpoints' arguments. The novella seems to be blatantly racist, but the novel was written in a time when racism didn't have the same understanding as racism today. What I thought was interesting was how he wasn't concerned about the impact that colonialism would have on the savages, but rather the "deterioration of one European min caused by solitude and sickness". The novella was also told from a narrator behind a narrator, showing that perhaps the opinions held by the character was not of Conrad's (completely). I think that Conrad was using Heart of Darkness to express his disgust over colonialism and merely talked how everyone else talked during that time period.

Heart of Darkness- Congo River

I think it's very interesting to compare Conrad's description of the river to the Garden of Eden.

I thought I would put in some pictures of the river.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUjr7G0KNpSOseeZBiH0K3H_hum-k8feNS23pNSM0JvDTw8n83St4sfD90nj5Sn1CHn2VoqCqZzv30u3ukL8mvWjODGT-dY5VdH4uC6rcD-j2zAOH8HeY2xjHsMQHRpPhfBKL-nnFJDN1/s1600/congo-river-nat-geo.jpg

http://www.wackyowl.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/congo-river.jpg

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/43011/2344088890102973086S425x425Q85.jpg

What do you think? Did you think of the Garden of Eden when you first read the description of the river? Do you believe Marlow is voyaging back to Eden? But also, in what ways do you see this as evil?

I think it's interesting that the Conrad describes the river as snake-like and evil. Much like in the Garden of Eden, with the story of Adam and EVe, the snake represents evil. Could Marlow himself represent Adam being tempted by the "snake" and also going mad as the river continues? Or do you have a different version of this idea?

Just something to think about.

Colonialism and Ethnocentricism in Heart of Darkness

There are many things that happen within the book, Heart of Darkness, that are either blatantly racist or in many ways heartless. A lot of scenes lend themselves to hinting at the idealized western culture and how the people in the jungle are 'untamed' or animal-like. There is also a strong sense of the need for colonization and to 'improve' this culture. What are some ways that Conrad makes this evident in his book? And do you think that he himself believes this is right or is it him trying to make known an issue in our society?

Apocolypse Now

Apocolypse Now is a metaphor for a journey into the self and in the face of war the self "darkens". As the characters move upriver, Willard and the PBR crew become more and more agitated not to mention seperated from reality. Each crew member goes through some kind of mental breakdown due to this. The film starts as an exciting voyage but morphs into a decent into hell and the characters response to this is to harden themselves. They begin to withdrawl and tranform into different people entirely. The coming maddness is shown by cloaking the journey in darkness.

Any other thoughts about this connection between war and the darkening self?

Heart of Darkness

The question of how Heart of Darkness compares with other works was brought up in class.

I wanted to comment that when taken in comparison with something like Mrs. Dalloway it is difficult to see this book as being experimental. However it is not the timeline that makes this story different it is the use of emotion (through the many adjectives) that makes this book experimental in nature.

For those of you that did not comment in class what are your thoughts?

"Apocalypse Now" opening

In the opening scene of Apocalypse Now, the mise en scene brought to attention includes a contrast of nature and society (cutting back and forth between the shots of the Vietnam jungle and the clean room of Willard respectively). There are visual representations of a kind of “hell” as the fire consumes the trees in Vietnam. The most interesting imagery though is the use of the ceiling fan blades as the helicopter blades as Willard stares up at the ceiling from his bedroom, symbolizing the haunting memories of the gliding helicopters in Vietnam. The cinematography includes interesting lap dissolves of Willard’s face over the images of the Vietnam jungle burning and helicopters. It's a really interesting dynamic and certainly sets the tone for the dreamlike aesthetic that the rest of the film carries.

Additionally, I'm on the side that would argue that the film gets better throughout, as it builds on itself on a psychological level, getting more intense throughout, even if it's subtle.

Racism in Heart of Darkness?

In class we were discussing the two articles that are about the Heart of Darkness novel. Chinua Achebe claims that Conrad is a racist but Edward Said sympathizes with Conrad. I would agree with Said because yes it may look like racism to us but you have to remember that Conrad was born in a different century where saying things a certain way was normal. I believe that he grew up in a certain environment and when he was exposed to another he described it the only way he knew how which was different than what he was used to. Everyone is susceptible to thinking that another culture is different or weird just because it is not like his or her own. Any other comments?

-Danielle Holub

"The Whole Shootin' Match" and regional film.

On this past Wednesday night, I saw the Texas independent film "The Whole Shootin' Match" and listened to Sonny Carl Davis speak about his experience with the film and what he is currently working on (including one of his newest experiences with the film "Evil Bong 3-D"). One of the biggest points discussed was that "The Whole Shootin' Match" was made as a regional film, where it is tailor made for those living in one specific area. Filmed in the Texas hill country, this film was made for Texans.

My question is this: What advantages does a film like this have over a bigger, Hollywood production. "The Whole Shootin' Match" had no effects, no big name actors, and its humor is only understood my Texas residents. Why make a film like this?

-James Kennedy

Theme of Light and Dark

The theme of the light and dark is prevalent throughout Heart of Darkness. The light is the more intelligent, civilized, and calm part of humans whereas the darkness represents human nature, as thought of by Conrad. He thought that the savages represented the darkness: their urge to survive and control along with their greed. The themes are also present in Apocalypse Now. We hardly see Kurtz, he is mostly in the shadows. When he is watching the tribal rituals, you can only see his silhouette almost as if he is descending into the darkness. It could be argued that Willard was also descending into the darkness, such as in the last scene where there is a shadow over his face. Do any of you see any other things in the movie or the book that support this theory?

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a film that focuses on a deranged soldier that has been given a mission to hunt down and kill yet another deranged ex-soldier. How does this make the climax of the movie more enticing? Also along with the fact that they are both mentally unstable, are these characters foils of one another and if so how does this make the film a success or does it make it unsuccessful?

Apocalypse Now

Being a psychology major, I thought that the psychological elements of the movie were very interesting. In the very beginning, viewers are exposed to a character (Captain Willard) who clearly suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As the movie progresses, he becomes more and more conscious of the atrocities of war. I feel that this is effective in really opening our eyes to the harsh realities of war. We see how it can tear people down and destroy their lives. Willard is completely distraught but then is expected to return to battle. Kurtz was also a very interesting character psychologically, along with his hold on people. I thought it was so odd that the American photographer was so infatuated with Kurtz and that he also was able to get all of the natives on his side; it seemed as though he was brainwashing them. At the very end, after Willard kills Kurtz, I feel as though he replaces or becomes him and I liked how they left the ending up for interpretation.

"Da Buddha"

At first the association with Buddha was somewhat puzzling. I wondered if Coppola was making use of the stone images simply for atmosphere's sake. Aesthetics is a driving force for him, and it is one of the very first things that strikes some about this film, its beauty. Maybe he is just playing with extremes for a purely visual effect? It seems that morality is intamately interwoven with this film in which a feeling determines right and wrong; what is "good" or "bad". The relationship between feeling and insight is critical- and I feel Coppola might have portrayed this through the visual extremes throughout the movie and how Kurtz is represented. We never really see him in full daylight, only in hard contrast. His bald head beaming from the darkness, almost as perplexing as the stone Buddha's, and a scene of Kurts reading dissolves into an extreme close-up of the Buddha's lips.

"A Buddha is any human who has fullly awakened to
the true nature of existence, whose insight has totally transformed him or
her beyond birth, death, and subsequent rebirth, and who is enabled to help
others achieve the same enlightment"

Could it be possible that Buddha mirrors Kurtz, and at the end, Willard?

Film Noir in Apocalypse Now

Obviously the film noir style is present in Apocalypse Now. Such as visually in the introduction you have the character looking through the classic venetian blinds, as well as shots of alcohol, smoke, guns, fans and characters light in low key lighting (especially in the end with the Marlon Brando character).

Audio wise, you have the voice over first person narration of Sheen as well as quiet ambient noise, and a melancholic rock soundtrack, which is arguably what was popular at the time just as jazz/big band music was in the early 40s with film noir's melancholic jazz soundtrack. So does the noir-esqe narration help reinforce the idea of unreliable narrator of the uncanny?

In addition the plot is similar to the classic film noir detective story where Sheen's character plays this military 'detective' on a mission to track down the 'criminal' Kurtz, as well as battling internal moralistic values. So, is the film noir style effective in the adaptation of Heart of Darkness to Apocalypse Now? Why do you think the director Coppola chose to film it this way?

-Cassie

Is "Apocalypse Now" true to the novel "Heart of Darkness"?

I think that the themes are the same between the to two pieces but I don't think the movie is an exact depiction of the book. I see it as a more modernization of the book because Apocalypse Now's setting and time is different than the "Heart of Darkness". I agree that it has the same kind of characters and plot but the time is completely different. Any comments? Agree or disagree? -Danielle Holub

Ride of the Valkyries

One of the comments I didn't mention in class refers to the song "Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner.

When I first heard this music in Apocalypse, Now, it reminded me of Birth of a Nation.

For some of you that don't know, Birth of a Nation is a black and white silent film made in 1915. It was considered highly controversial because it depicts blacks as "unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women. It also portrays the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force." Wiki. I haven't seen the movie, but I came across one of the scenes on youtube upon doing research in the past. In the film they have a scene where the KKK rides to "victory" in the sense of rescuing the white women and disarming the blacks. Thus making them heroes and bringing order to a nation during Reconstruction. This song was played during this scene. It's probably one of the few films that will forever be controversial that is still being debated to this day.

So yeah. When I saw the scene in Apocalypse, Now, I felt like it didn't show the Americans in Vietnam in a good light because of the song. You have these "white" Americans coming in to Vietnam and basically destroying the villages in the scene. They think that what they are doing is right, but at the same time and really, it is wrong. The scene depicts American imperialism at it's best/worst.

Something to think about.

Olga Martinez

Mass Tragedy from a smaller point of view in film

During last Monday’s film, we discussed Violence when we were talking about Hiroshima mon Amour. The point was brought up that violence often evokes a purely emotional response before bringing about logical thought. I agree with this statement. We also discussed how bringing a massive tragedy into the perspective of a few people can have an interesting effect on the viewer.

As we were talking about this, I thought of the film Hotel Rwanda. I believe it is a great example of both of these topics. Hotel Rwanda drew attention to an event that wasn’t extremely well known and didn’t gain a lot of it previously. It does this by establishing a connection with individuals, mainly Don Cheadle’s character and his family. It continues by showing the horrible events of the Rwandan genocide. It shows scenes of mass violence, and how it effects this family. I think one of the most emotionally grabbing scenes was the one in which they are driving in the van and hit some bumps on a foggy day. They step out of the van and there are bodies everywhere.

I believe much of the film’s success comes in the story telling from the point of view of the hotel owner, who took in the oppressed people and protected them in his hotel. It helps the viewer relate to how such a huge tragedy could effect themselves, which I believe really puts it into perspective. If you haven’t seen Hotel Rwanda, I would highly recommend it.

RSD

Hiroshima mon Amour

I wanted to talk about the begining of the film when it is stated that she doesnt know what she is talking about and that she did not see anything. I agree with the idea that it is not him telling her that she does not know what happened but instead that she just only knows basic facts because she was not there. He was not their but he has family that was so he feels more tied to the incident he knows more about the details and feels more intimately tied to the whole thing. When she says that she was the things at the museum and he tells her that she didnt he is doing the same thing again. He is telling her that seeing something in a museum is not like seeing the distruction in person it does not even compare. Does anyone think differently?

Narrator Credibility

The topic of Narrator Reliability was brought up in class. I did not find the narrator of last year to be reliable because the scenes were so scattered (past/present) that it was difficult to trust him on what was real and what wasn't. It was also difficult to trust the narrator because he said allot of things that were not true. For instance a door would be clearly open and he would say that it was closed. Situations such as this caused his credibility to diminish throughout the film for me.

Hiroshima Mon Amour Language Barrier

I think a very interesting scene in the movie is towards the end. Lui is at a station with Elle and a Japanese lady is between them. The Japanese lady talks to Lui asking him about French woman and what's wrong with her. In the script, that particular scene was suppose to be completely untranslated in film, not giving the audience the chance to understand what exactly they're talking about. They both speak Japanese, a language the French woman doesn't understand. It's funny how this particular scene wasn't translated for the audience. What do you think the purpose of this scene was? Why was it not translated exactly for the audience? My own little theory is that since the french woman doesn't understand the language, the audience too shouldn't understand it either, unless you know Japanese. But why?

Just something to think about.

Memory

In both Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad, there are themes of repetitiveness and seemingly lost memories. The movies are both directed by Alain Renais and the characters are nameless. The woman in Last Year in Marienbad denies ever meeting the man who is incessantly telling her that they had met before and in Hiroshima mon amour She is telling Him, using repetitive dialogue certain things that Him denies ever happened.

What do you think was the point in not giving the characters names? I think it makes the viewers wonder if the memories were in fact true.

Pictures for Memory

In both films, Hiroshima mon Amor and Last Year in Marienbad, we see the director use almost photographic clips to portray memory and when he does this allows the audience to question whether or not the memories are in fact real. This type of cinematography allows the audience to question what is being shown and the authenticity of what they see. Since the director does this, he gives a lot of control and power to the audience to decide or create their own understanding. Most directors seem to use film to make the audience think a certain way, but he allows the audience freedom in understanding what is taking place in the film. With this in mind, is the director truly giving freedom to the audience to create their own conclusions or is he giving the audience a false sense of control? How do you think this plays into what the director wants? And is the sense of control actually more of a puppetiering act by the director and we just aren't aware of it?

HIroshima and the Confused Memory

In the beginning scene of the movie Hiroshima mon Amor, the man is questioning the woman what she remembers or if she remembers Hiroshima and when she answers, he diligently responds with denying her the recalled memory. My thoughts after seeing this scene, I couldn't help but wonder if the two intertwined people we are seeing are in fact her and this man or glimpses of her memory with her deceased lover back when Hiroshima was attacked. With this in mind, this would support the that what we were seeing and what she was recalling, in the picture like memories would in fact be true because she remembers her previous lover and also is recalling the memories of Hiroshima, however she may just have intertwined these harsh and hurtful memories together unable to separate them. This arises an interesting point or portrayal of these past memories through the director and what he intended to accomplish with this inital scene in the movie.

Memory, shared consciousness

The Cathy Caruth reading and its analysis of the Resnais film Hiroshima mon amour are interesting when studying the connection between memory and history, trauma, and how a story is composed. It brings up a lot of questions about authenticity and accuracy of history, and whether it can be reached on different paradoxical levels in art, and film. It reminds me of the idea of the unconscious as sort of a shared space, turning it inside out and no longer a deep well which we only privately share. It's a space which we all freely draw from and because of this, we are connected and/or making connections.

Here's a music video for the Scissor Sisters song "Invisible Light" that plays around with tangent imagery that somehow seems to make sense in our mind, based off rich experiences in visuals we encounter in our daily lives, in film, etc. http://vimeo.com/17444911 (probably NSFW by the way)

This sort of buildup of motion vectors within the piece always leads the audience to a new interpretation. It plays off what Eisenstein did in Battleship Potemkin. What do you think? Does this make sense when we look at these like this, as it connects to framing a narrative from memories, and our unconscious?

The self-reflexivity of Contempt

While I think all of Godard's films are at least interesting, Contempt is probably my favorite for the way it builds tension and emotion between the characters through such a subversive cinematic way. The mise-en-scene works in a way with shot framing, French flag colors (though arguably also connected to America), and Brechtian form techniques. The film is about a French screenwriter, Paul, who is being courted by a vulgar American producer to rewrite the script for Fritz Lang. Self-conscious in many different ways, the film is about a movie being made, and has a rebellious tone in what would seem to be at face-value a pretty straightforward adaptation of the Italian novel on which it is based. Working off a big budget in a studio system setting, Godard still maintains complete control over every element of his film. While Brigitte Bardot was chosen with the producers' insistence to visibly showcase her sensual body, Godard manipulates studio intervention like this with the way he puts together the opening scene. It becomes a mockery of the cinema as "business" by taming the nuditiy, having Bardot spread across a bed naked while discussing something mundane. The dramatic music also repeats the same part over and over again, coming in at inappropriate times where it doesn't make sense to emphasize anything on-screen, and cuts off abruptly for no reason. The camera will also linger on certain dead spaces where characters leave the framing entirely, and certain framing of characters in shots tests the limits of the wide display of Cinemascope. But Contempt isn't just subversive of all these things formally but also in terms of content, as it challenges "epics". A review by Nathan Gelgud from the re-release of the film in 2008 sums this point up well: "Contempt is a movie about boredom, disgust and impatience told in the heightened language of vivid imagery."

I wonder if a lot of the sarcastic, self-reflexive, ironic things that Godard was doing in Contempt were just going over the heads of the producers or whether they gave in to his creative manipulation.

Last Year at Marienbad

The opening scene of "Last Year at Marienbad" really stuck out to me because of the similarities it has with Edgar Allen Poe's "House of Usher". The screen is filled with various shots of an old mansion inside and out. There is a voice that repeats the same ideas of dark long corridors and empty rooms. An eerie feeling is created that almost makes the viewer feel trapped much like Poe intended to do in his writings. To top it all off, the music that plays constantly could be classified as suspenseful and frightening. The sound track actually got annoying after about the third time hearing it. Overall I really enjoyed watching the film, mainly how it was shot. The way the characters seem to freeze and unfreeze was intriguing.

Contempt and language

So- I am an Anthropology major, and language is a big part of what I study. Because Contempt is in french, I couldn't help but feel that we were missing out on the some of the essence of the film due to english being our native language.

Do you think that language influences us to percieve the world in a different manner than another language would?

Let me elaborate with a study one of my professors did...

Follow me to Pormpuraaw, a small Aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia. she went here because of the way the locals, the Kuuk Thaayorre, talk about space. Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space. This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." One obvious consequence of speaking such a language is that you have to stay oriented at all times, or else you cannot speak properly. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." If you don't know which way you're facing, you can't even get past "Hello."

The result is a profound difference in navigational ability and spatial knowledge between speakers of languages that rely primarily on absolute reference frames (like Kuuk Thaayorre) and languages that rely on relative reference frames (like English). Simply put, speakers of languages like Kuuk Thaayorre are much better than English speakers at staying oriented and keeping track of where they are, even in unfamiliar landscapes or inside unfamiliar buildings. What enables them — in fact, forces them — to do this is their language. Having their attention trained in this way equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities. Because space is such a fundamental domain of thought, differences in how people think about space don't end there. People rely on their spatial knowledge to build other, more complex, more abstract representations. Representations of such things as time, number, musical pitch, kinship relations, morality, and emotions have been shown to depend on how we think about space. So if the Kuuk Thaayorre think differently about space, do they also think differently about other things, like time?

To test this idea, they gave people sets of pictures that showed some kind of temporal progression (pictures of a man aging, or a crocodile growing, or a banana being eaten). Their job was to arrange the shuffled photos on the ground to show the correct temporal order. They tested each person in two separate sittings, each time facing in a different cardinal direction. If you ask English speakers to do this, they'll arrange the cards so that time proceeds from left to right. Hebrew speakers will tend to lay out the cards from right to left, showing that writing direction in a language plays a role.3 So what about folks like the Kuuk Thaayorre, who don't use words like "left" and "right"? What will they do?

The Kuuk Thaayorre did not arrange the cards more often from left to right than from right to left, nor more toward or away from the body. But their arrangements were not random: there was a pattern, just a different one from that of English speakers. Instead of arranging time from left to right, they arranged it from east to west. That is, when they were seated facing south, the cards went left to right. When they faced north, the cards went from right to left. When they faced east, the cards came toward the body and so on. This was true even though we never told any of our subjects which direction they faced. The Kuuk Thaayorre not only knew that already ,but they also spontaneously used this spatial orientation to construct their representations of time.

There are so many examples of how language effects the way we think about things..

Does treating chairs as masculine and beds as feminine in the grammar make Russian speakers think of chairs as being more like men and beds as more like women in some way? It turns out that it does. In one study, they asked German and Spanish speakers to describe objects having opposite gender assignment in those two languages. The descriptions they gave differed in a way predicted by grammatical gender. For example, when asked to describe a "key" — a word that is masculine in German and feminine in Spanish — the German speakers were more likely to use words like "hard," "heavy," "jagged," "metal," "serrated," and "useful," whereas Spanish speakers were more likely to say "golden," "intricate," "little," "lovely," "shiny," and "tiny." To describe a "bridge," which is feminine in German and masculine in Spanish, the German speakers said "beautiful," "elegant," "fragile," "peaceful," "pretty," and "slender," and the Spanish speakers said "big," "dangerous," "long," "strong," "sturdy," and "towering." This was true even though all testing was done in English, a language without grammatical gender. The same pattern of results also emerged in entirely nonlinguistic tasks (rating similarity between pictures). And we can also show that it is aspects of language per se that shape how people think: teaching English speakers new grammatical gender systems influences mental representations of objects in the same way it does with German and Spanish speakers. Apparently even small flukes of grammar, like the seemingly arbitrary assignment of gender to a noun, can have an effect on people's ideas of concrete objects in the world.

With all that said, do you think that even with Comtempt dubbed in English, or having English subtitles, that we miss out on the complete essence of the film? I'd love to hear yall's thoughts on this!

Themes of Last Year at Marienbad

There are many themes in this film. A big one is memory, the whole movie he is trying to convince her that they have met before and planned to meet a year later but she says she does not remember. There is also this repetition that goes through out the film with the repetition of certain statues, rooms, etc. There is a lot of repetition in the dialogue, the same phrases keep being repeated about the mansion, about the really cold day when the lakes froze over, and he always says "I met you once" a lot. What other themes do you see? -Danielle Holub

Tracking Shots in Film

I think for me the tracking shot is a way to have the audience member to be more involved in the scene. The tracking shot makes it seem like you're actually there watching the couple argue in Contempt like you would in real life. It's not telling a story to you by cutting to different shot scenes. It's one whole scene. For me, that makes all the difference. It draws you in more than ever. It really gives the audience the opportunity to be in the scene in a way. It makes it more exciting, or makes the audience more nervous as in Contempt. I found this on youtube a long time ago and I thought I should share. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8kqNSQn5QU It's from Revenge of the Warrior and it's labeled the best one-shot fight scene. I would only watch the first half since it's all in one shot. But techniques like this really makes the audience more involved in the scene. I think stuff like this is amazing since it really allowed cinema to evolve to other tracking techniques with our current technology. For example, Carousel is an awesome tracking shot for a TV advertisement. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend watching it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5yhxqkJiAQ&feature=related Something to think about. Olga Martinez

The Motion of the Camera in Contempt

A common trait in the French New Wave movement is long tracking shots through camera movement. The camera motion stands out in Contempt. The scene of the argument in the apartment is very antsy to watch. The camera slowly swings back and forth between the characters arguing in long takes, that you start to get even dizzy and get the feeling that this argument is going no where. This nausea is a technique intended for the audience to give them a feeling that this couples relationship is doomed from the start. Do you feel this technique was successful or do you think Godard had other reasons to shot this scene the way he did?
Yet at the same time, Godard almost seems to critique the idea of the tracking shot in the very beginning by showing a camera itself tracking a scene.

And for those are a fan of the tracking shot, I suggest for you to watch one of the most epic tracking shots, done by Godard himself in the short Weekend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ScGLdfqdYo

-Cassie Hanks

An interesting thought via candy95...

So I was listening to the radio the other morning and they were discussing a new facebook app that is in development stages that really reminded me of class and the themes of the uncanny and machines mimicking humans. Basically the app allows a guy (I'm sure a girl version will be developed soon as well) to make a fake girlfriend to make other girls think he is unavailable and thus want to date him...this goes beyond just making a fake facebook account. He can provide information to facebook about a compatable type for him and then "she" will write on his wall and be controlled by facebook itself. He can send updates about his life so "she" can make timely relevant posts. When a real person does eventually show interest he just has to notify facebook that he needs a "breakup". This is the extent of my knowledge on this application, but it was interesting to me and would add a whole new element to facebook in regards to figuring out what is actually real, or not. I can't quite figure out the logistics of what they are promising or if it will ever be widely used, but it is kind of unsettling nonetheless. One point the host brought up was, what if the guy starts to fall for this "girlfriend" that is showing so much attention. This of course was exactly the problem in the Sandman. What do you all think of this program, will it ever be widely used or is it something to just get people to talk about facebook more?

Contempt-Cross cultural relations

I didn't get a chance to make this point in class the other day because we ran out of time, but I wanted to bring up the scene where the two movie producers are meeting and walking the movie lot. It struck me as very odd the way Prokosch is speaking and touching Javal through out this interaction. I definitely get the point that he is arrogant and doing these things to establish dominance in their working relationship, but it seemed off to me in execution. From having worked with translators in the past I felt very uncomfortable watching Prokosch hold Javal's shoulder while he is listening to the Italian translation of his most recent statement. To me it would have been more effective to have made this first exchange of words more laid back, especially with the thought that Americans, men in particular, typically aren't very touchy upon first introductions. Javal however seems perfectly at ease with the entire exchange. I would find it more natural for him to have at least been taken a back by the things Provosch was demanding and asserting, if not showing discomfort at the delivery. My reasoning for discomfort I think comes from my desire to fall into the movies I watch, and when subtle interactions do not match up with my experiences, especially with regards to culture, it pulls me out of the experience a little bit. With that said though, what do y'all think? Does this exchange fit in with the tone and theme of the rest of the film? Did this scene strike you as odd or did it work for you?

Contempt

Contempt was kind of a difficult movie, but I thought it was really intriguing. What happened behind the camera was also interesting. As said in class, Jean-Luc Godard directed the movie and it was his first big budget film. Contempt is also considered one of Godard's best films; however, he actually hated filming it. I thought it was interesting how certain scenes were added to make the film more popular, especially in America. Godard did not want Brigitte Bardot to have any scenes with nudity in them, but the producer insisted on it to please the masses. He did it in a way that wasn't completely revealing and it seemed to me that it was in such a way that criticized the very thing he was showing in his film. Bardot was sitting a bed nude, talking about mundane things such as her feet and chins; dialogue that is not typically featured with a scene such as that.

Contempt

Its been awhile...

So I just got done watching Contempt and I admit this was a very unique film. I understand that the film is about a film being shot but wow the men in the film really irritated me. What annoys me the most is the way the women were portrayed in the film. Of course, they are viewed as nothing but sex objects and I noticed a few inappropriate parts coming from Jerry and the way he treats Francessca. Although there weren't any actual sex scenes in the film it was obvious from the scenes where Camille is lying naked talking to Paul that those were suppose to represent sex. The truth is Jerry's character made it really hard for me to even like this film to begin with.

Also, it was strange to see Paul's character have no emotional response to Camille's death. All through out the film the two were bickering and fighting and yet he loved her so much. As soon as he finds out that Jerry and Camille are dead it was as if he was reading something in the newspaper but saying it aloud to Francessca. There was no grieving or feeling sorry for Camille who did love her husband but had fallen out of love because he kept leaving her and letting her go with Jerry instead. I think the reason why the film didn't bother to show Paul's character in grief is because the love was already gone between the two. In the film, Paul talks about how if he kills his lover's suitor then she will be mad and he will have lost her forever, but if he killed his lover then he would be all alone and have lost his love too. I think at that moment when he found out that she had died there was nothing else to feel because he had already lost her when she admitted that she despised him. Her mind was already made up so there was no changing it even if he tried some more.

What are your thoughts on the role of women in the film and Paul and Camille's relationship?

Human-like Robots > Robot-like humans

We have been talking a lot in class about the uncanniness of robots displaying human characteristics such as emotions. Today I watched a new movie out in theaters called Source Code and *spoiler alert* the movie ends by revealing information about an injured man who they are using for their new computer program that will prevent major man-made disasters, such as terrorism attacks. So what I started to think about was how much more horrific it is to use a person as a tool, or a robot, or as a "thing" instead of treating them as an able-bodied person. The effect of using humans as technological tools is so much stronger to me than in Blade Runner using robots as functioning humans. Maybe it is because of the idea of what is cruel and unusual or maybe it is because I can relate with an emotional human more so than a robot.

What do y'all think is more uncanny? A functional robot with emotions or a human being used for technology purposes alone?

Identies in Blade Runner: Last Thought

Near the beginning of the film, Deckard is sitting at a dinner ordering food from an Asian man that acts like he doesn't understand any English that Deckard is telling him. Then when the authorities appear to apprehend Deckard speaking another language, the same Asian man translates to English for Deckard. All of the sudden he knows English, so why did he hide it?
In the world of Blade Runner, where big corporations rule and it is melting pot of all cultures, races and class, it seems to be really easy to hide who you are. And maybe, that's why Deckard lost his identity amidst the chaos of this society.
-Cassie

Voice Dubbing in Film

It was interesting talking about how translation is lost in the movie Contempt.

What exactly is Godard trying to say about translation in films?

Going back to the musical act scene, I noticed that the girl was lip-syncing to the music that was played. Not only that, she looked like her mouth movements wasn't even in sync with the music. The whole thing seemed funny and a joke.

When thinking about voice dubbing in films, I believe it makes the movie look more unrealistic. The audience tends to notice that the voice in the movie isn't matching the movements of the character's mouth. And because of this, I think some part of the movie's purpose to give a realistic impression of the storyline is lost. The artistic expression and emotion that the actor is trying to portray is gone, or even made it funny.

Is Godard saying that voice dubbing in film making is just a joke and loses the connection between the film and the audience? Does the scene actually lose it's seriousness when a voice is dubbed?

Here's an example of what voice dubbing in film looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfxFhn-atSk&feature=related

It just makes the scene hilarious. I'm not even going to get started on Kung Fu movie dubbing.

Another thing to think about is the idea of casting actresses or maybe even actors in lead musical roles. In some of these films, their singing parts were dubbed by someone else. One example is Natalie Woods and Marni Nixon in West Side Story.

West Side Story youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtYTqYrYXJs&feature=related

What does this say about the film making industry?

Olga Martinez

Last thought on Blade Runner

One last post from me on Blade Runner.

In the movie, it seemed like the whole planet Earth was just one big slum that are inhabited by poor people and rejects. It's interesting, because I believe all of the rich people that could afford to leave the plant had left. Sebastian was unable to leave because he had a biological defect. Which gave me the idea that perhaps the replicants weren't made to create some sort of higher race. The corporation was probably making a superior race with the humans by sending them to another planet if they had the money and the genes.

One of the things that I noticed was in the hustle and bustle of the streets of Earth. I have not seen ONE child in the movie. Usually in a busy area like that, especially in this day of age, you're bound to see one kid with their parents. I don't remember seeing any. Which made me wonder just where in the world they were.

Eugenics? Perhaps?

Hmmmm....

Emotion

There was a discussion in class regarding the Replicants emotions, actually there were many. I am referring to the one regarding the Replicants acting even more human than the humans themselves. It seems as though the Replicants were trying to be portrayed as examples of what it truly means to be human, something that has been lost up to this point. The film makes it seem as though the humans have forgot what it means to be human and the exaggerated emotions of the Replicants are representations of what being sad for example should actually look like. The woman Replicant that was killed in the film through the glass she looked completely terrified when she was running and was shot, where as Deccard lives with limited emotion.

Blade Runner

I really enjoyed the conversation that we had in class comparing Tyrell to a Pharaoh. I found it very interesting because I had never thought about it that way but it makes sense with him at the op of the pyramid with all of the replicants as his slaves. Created to be laborers and such. He even has one as his assistant to show how much control that he has, he can even have one working at his side without fear of being killed or overthrown.

What is the purpose of giving replicants emotions?

The discussion was brought up in class about the replicants having emotions. I agree that the replicants should not be given emotions. Why make them more human like if their purpose is to do dangerous labor. It's understandable for certain jobs to have some sort of emotion but giving them emotions makes them harder to separate them from actual human beings. I don't understand why the Tyrell corporation gave them artificial memory either. There slogan was "more human than humans" which makes me believe that the only reason for making these replicants was to make some sort of Utopian society of perfect beings. Any thoughts? -Danielle Holub

Blade Runner/Artificial Intelligence

I've always been interested in dystopian society novels movies, such as 1984 and The Anthem. I really enjoyed seeing the novels that I love come to life through watching Blade Runner. Also, being a psychology major, it was interesting to see how much human emotions and memories make up our identity in the within ourselves and the world. Although the replicants were convinced they were human, their lack of emotions separated them from humans.

This movie also made me think of how, ever since AI existed, people have had the fear that one day they will over power humans and take over the world. The other day my friend showed me a website (www.cleverbot.com) where you could talk to a robot and it will, for the most part, seem like you're talking to a human. If you try it, there will be certain instances where you think that there is no way this is not an actual person. Although the bot can be convincing at times, there will be many times where it will not understand what you're trying to say and reply with something completely off topic and not make any sense. Nevertheless, this is just one example of how technology has become so advanced, that even humans don't realize it's not human -- a very scary thought.

And Life is Brief: On Blade Runner

I should begin by pointing out that I am not the greatest fan of Philip K. Dick. I have always found his syntax prosaic and his thoughts far too heady and philosophical. Sociopaths (those cruel, wily creatures) make for wonderful literature, but Schizophrenics (which I've been assured from an avid reader of his, PKD suffered from and whose stories fill his texts) don't. As far as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? goes, I found the novella disenchanting. Both in its fondness for faux-philosophy and its philosophies concerning compassion. The film is decidedly more romantic (in the common, not the literary sense); however romantic one can be in LA, which is presented in its post-WWIII state, but seems in the present already dystopian enough. The lovely Rachael becomes the stories love interest that Deckard ends the narrative with, and his wife with her fake empathy machine is stripped entirely from the story. When first I saw Blade Runner, which was very long ago, I was thrown by the pacing. I was confused by its stretches of eruditness, violence and certain leaden, ruminating passages. The climactic battle of androids (Deckard and the "Aryan" Nexus-6 Roy) runs out of life at the end, and melts into poesy: Roy, clinching a dove dies with words pouring from his mouth: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...All these moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain." And there the lachrymose replicant fades. This late climax, this late linchpin of the movie seems poetic (too waxy, perhaps, a bit loud, maybe) but it does go out of its way (romantically, I'd say) to ensure that there is a hero. To install one in the story. Handsome and youthful heros are not easily found in PKD. And the most classically heroic character in Blade Runner (though Deckard seems to be reasonably gallant in the novella) is a replicant. Why is he heroic and why does he save his enemy? Because he has suffered. To be a replicant is to be a slave and the film quite eloquently summerized the psychological state of a slave. This fear of being chattel; the fear of having lost one's humanity is a fear that only those who maintain some humanity can have. And there we are; the replicant is more human than the human. (I'd go as far as to say the dolls, which Pris hides among show startling amounts of humanity as well.) Then again, how human is Deckard, himself? And how human is a replicant? Deckard shares a literary derivation with his character in Do Androids Dream and, shares an interesting daydream with Edward James Olmos and shots of his hands with Rutger Hauer. First and foremost, the character in the novella is a replicant, whose retirement is seeminly not approaching, and this man becomes the Deckard of the movie. The daydream sequence is recurrent in Gaff's origami, and most commonly associated with a ringing voiceover maintaining that Deckard's death is coming. But there are also shots of his hands (when Deckard's fists are broken and Roy's are decaying), and his opposition to the Rutger Hauer character in the final violent confrontation is also a sign; the two are classic foils, doubles almost and destine to retain similarly sythetic DNA. The two are simulacrum of themselves. (Though the geneticist in the novel and movie create their replicants with the flesh and the cellular structures of human beings.) Then there is Rachael and Tyrell. When Rachael asks if Deckard has "retired a human by mistake" Deckard, flustered by the question says no. That "is a risk" Rachael continues. And when Tyrell enters asking if this test Deckard has come to perform will be an "empathy test...dilation of the pupils." Even while Tyrell refers to Deckard's administering the test, it is Reachel inquiring about Deckard's empathy, or perhaps sympathy for his kills. It even seems Tyrell, who appears quite suddenly may be referring to Deckard's emotionality with his statement. Later, of course Rachael asks Deckard if he has taken the "Voigt-Campff" test himself. The answer is obviously no. Then again, how human is a replicant? The true climax, the destruction of the father by the son, contains I belive the most literate dialogue; this when two vastly intelligent men describe the true nature of the replicants, not only as beings that deteriorate, but as human beings, whose only distinguishing quality from the rest of humanity is the quickness, or to Tyrell, the expediency of decay. "What seems to be the problem," asks Tyrell. "Death," returns Roy. "The facts of life--to make an alternation in the evolvement of an organic life sequence is fatal." Every proposition made by the seemingly informed Roy (educated by his genetic engineer makers) is answered in the negative by Tyrell. Death, as it is commonly observed is part of life. The rest of the scene, becomes more muddled with violence, sexuality and religion; it is marked by this great rumination of science-fiction tropes. In fact, the whole rest of the film ruminates, only stopping for a moment so that Gaff can declare, oh and how life is brief! And what makes life worth living? To Deckard in the novella, it seems to be more intelectuallized (knowledge? understanding is what lifeforms desire?); but in the move it is clearly Rachael that brings out Deckard's humanity. Deckard will not hunt her down if she "goes north" in the movie. And only in the movie. The love scene however seems relatively ascetic. But then again, it is, is it not, if they are not fully human. The question of sexual desire works alongside the question of empathy, but no character ever denies that the Nexus-6 models own a certain amount of both. Empathy, the most human quality, is something denied lower replicants, but not the Nexus-6s. "A strange obsession," is found in these beings. If Tyrell acknowledges the humanity of the Nexus-6s, and he does in the case of Rachael and Roy, then does he or does he not know that Deckard is (or is not) a replicant? And are lesser replicants typified by shorter life spans? The story arc insists that they are. Deckard, Gaff insists, like anything "won't last." CMH