LMU Homework - Ladri Di Biciclette and Rashomon - 10 and 11 of 15

While I almost immediately loved Rashomon, Ladri di Biciclette slowly grew on me as I realized the profoundness of the Italian neorealism movement.

Ladri Di Biciclette, or Bicycle Thieves, follows the story of a poor man and his stolen bicycle. His son also tags along. Generally it has hardly a plot... just lots of random encounters in Rome... This being the basis for neorealism, its point was to pare down the story and focus in on reality, the situations and walks of life in a truthful, documentary-seeming way. It moved the shooting off the set and into the streets with real people, with real architecture. The man never gets his bike back and is under such increadible pressure because of the poverty following the war and trying to provide for his family, he attempts to steal a bike himself... failing miserably. It ends with a big question mark, which emphasizes the fact that while we are obsessed with the future we have no control or answers to what is going to happen. We just have to live out what life gives us and that's the reality.

With Rashomon, Kurosawa completely questions reality. In this murder-mystery-esque Japanese drama we are told five completely different stories of a man's murder (the only fact we seem to have). All are shown to the audience, who, with artful camera work, seemingly become the interrogators trying to find the truth. Each story is completely different and suits each person's need to defend their honor, except that of the woodcutter, whom at first his story is a lie but then I think the truth finally comes out under the pressure of knowing. But then this again emphasizes that all men seem to be liars, and as the priest fears how can he trust humanity after all of these lies and betrayal.
There are so many great themes in this movie, its just such a smart look into a sort of psychology of man... we lie, we succumb to evils, we are selfish, we blame and yet are guilty, we hope and yet we fear, we trust and yet are skeptical...etc
But I like the way this movies ends, because there's this respect between the priest and the woodcutter that there is hope for some good in people, even if its only a few.

Anyways very interesting movies! :)

LMU Homework - Harlan County USA & Thin Blue Line - 8 and 9 of 15

DOCUMENTARY FILMS!
Oh how I adore your justice seeking ways!

Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris opens with a shot of Reunion tower in DALLAS!
That made me smile, but the rest of the film made me shake my head in disgust...
Dallas (the city itself) is one of the worst in the country for crime. We have the 6th largest prison in the US, and our criminal justice system is notorious for being pathetic and brutal and this film really highlighted that. Then again it certianly isn't uncommon in most the rest of the USA... Jurys putting away OBVIOUSLY innocent people.

The best thing that came from this film was that soon after its release the innocent man was finally released after 13 years in jail. I don't know whether to be happy this film made it possible for his release or if I should be upset to see another man's life ruined by the justice system. I'm pretty sure I would never want a jury trial... my fellow man is rather incompetent.

One other interesting thing was that in the bonus section of the DVD there was an episode of Morris' tv series... it looked into the range of human evilness, if there is a rating system at all and the extent of the horrendous things people do to one another. It was interesting despite its morbidity.


Harlan County, USA... Again a great documentary that lets you really get to know real people and their struggles. It focused on the coal miners strikes during the late 60s into the early 70s. It showed the point of view of why people wanted unions, these very poor people trying anyway to get what they needed to atleast live semi comfortably instead of straining in pathetic housing with no plumbing and no means to climb out of their situation. A undereducated, resilient group, coal mining is all they knew or had but they fought for better conditions and pay that they truly deserved...
Won the Academy Award in 1976.

LMU Homework - Raging Bull, It Happened One Night, and Talk to Her- 5 thru 7 of 15

Okay so in the last week I've watched several movies:
The Avatar Movie (Show Finale)
The Dark Knight
Raging Bull
It Happened One Night
and...
Talk to Her.

First, non homework movies:
The Avatar series is one of my favorite animated shows along with Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. It has great messages, very likeable characters, and an interesting plot. The movie was an awesome sum up of the whole series, very wise. I enjoyed it.

The Dark Knight... oh there is lots I could say on this and I'm sure each person has their own opinions. I loved it! (*SPOILER*) My dad said the fact they HAD to blame everything on Batman ruined it for him, and the fact Harvey was portrayed as such a strong person but then fell apart so swiftly into a villain, was kind of odd... somewhat akin to Skywalker's quick transition into Darth Vader... just didn't seem developed enough.

HEATH WAS AWESOME, the Joker was phenomenal! The whole battle against this anarchy-thriving villain was thrilling and scary... because it is really something we can fear... it is basically terrorism. And how far Batman could use violence and aggression to fight it was another concern that parallels current situations in the world. Also, Bruce's realization that his identity is Batman and Bruce is the mask is interesting... he can't just walk away from this life.

To me the best thing was that the characters were very real in their internal struggles... they came alive to me. The superhero, good vs evil, traditional structure is always fun but twisted with the smart, maturity of the overall plot it created a truly awesome movie... That really kicked butt with new box office records! :) I recommend this, (but for children over 12... because it is disturbing).

Homework Films: (more on these later)

Talk To Her - This is a really well acted and directed film despite its somewhat disturbing material... but I liked the way it was handled.
Utilized the movie within a movie style as a metaphor for what made this movie oddly disturbing to me... but it also kept you in suspense about the whodunit
The main character Benito was a likeable creeper, you were sympathetic to him until you really know what he did.

Funny thing... my waiter at Anamia's reminded me of him because of the intensity of his friendly-ness lol.

It Happened One Night by the legendary Frank Capra! Witty little romantic comedy that even though the actress did not want to do it, that played right into her little pretentious character... she won an oscar for what she thought was her worst performance ever. Clark Gable was the lead man, the Brad Pitt of the day... well I don't think so but most sources will say so. :) Fun watch if you are interested.

LMU Homework - Psycho - 4 of 15

Alfred Hitchcock. Master of suspense. The thriller.
I loved Psycho (although I could have done without the know-it-all psychiatrist at the end.) Anthony Perkins was awesome for the part and his acting was perfect... best I've seen for an old movie. Great twist (too bad I learned the entire story before seeing the movie, but my sister didn't know so it was fun watching her keep guessing). You think the story is about this girl's romance and lapse of judgment but no its about Mr. Bates and his mother. The very end was awesome... Anthony's creepiness was so great! :-)

Themes:
1. Madness, and how it effects people.
2. Traps, being in them
3. Mothers, their omnipresence
(there are many more... but these ones stood out)

Interesting thing about old shot-on-film movies is that they often have long continuous shots, many times starting from a full shot of the conversation and moving into a medium close up of one of the characters, or following them about the room at a steady full shot.

I think the most interesting thing I learned though was how Alfred directs... because he has storyboarded every shot and how his camera moves... basically what he tells the actors is that when my camera moves, you move, what you bring to the character and what gets you to the next mark is up to you. If you need help, I'll be there. Janet Leigh said often actors said this hindered them but she felt it was a nice challenge for her to find the motivation to move when he wanted her to.

Fun Facts:
1. The blood in the shower scene was Chocolate Syrup
2. There were 70 setups for the shower scene which took a total of 7 days to shoot.
3. First time a toilet was ever seen in a movie
4. The censorship department had a cow over the word "transvestite".

LMU Homework - Blade Runner - 3 of 15

Blade Runner. Hmm... I guess the good points about this movie are:
1) Technically it's awesome. The special effects are good for its time. The shots are interesting, with the lens flare sci-fi style. The red-eye flicker for the Replicants is cool symbolism (also key to second guessing Deckard's humanity).
2) It leaves you with more questions than when you started. Sometimes movies give you all the answers and you don't have anything to talk about after the movie. This one on the other hand wants you to think about the social and ethical implications of human-esque robots and just the value of life, as well as the idea of living in constant fear in this world.
3) I think its very intriguing how this movie combines, historically the fears and beliefs of the time.

The ambiguity got me. I still can't decide if Deckard was human or a replicant (the director, Ridley Scott, says he's a replicant). I also don't understand... Why a unicorn? I guess if he's a replicant that could be an inserted memory and the reason the creepy cop knows is that he oversees Deckard's operations. And also why does it end with him running out with the girl replicant? Sure they are acting on their newly developed emotions... but does that sum up the story? I don't know.

Overall this movie examines a lot of the fears of the future and are still present today as technology continues to develop.

LMU Homework - The Triplets of Belleville - 2 of 15

This somewhat silent film style animation, has quite a different story. The general plot... a little boy lives with his grandma (I'm assuming his parents have died) who tries constantly to make the boy happy, she buys him a dog... which helps but when she figures out he truly wants a bike she gets it for him right away. The boy's life is focused on training for the tour de france. In the race the boy along with two other of the last racers... are captured by the french mafia and put into a sort of derby-gambling bike show as a money making scheme. All the while the grandmother is in desperate search for the boy with his dog companion. When she starts to give up hope she befriends the triplets of belleville (old singers). They make music together until one day they discover the mafia and are able to team up to track down the boy and take down the mafia. The movie ends with a lovely chase scene where the old ladies kick butt!

Overall the main thing that surprised me was that this 2 hour was story was quite engaging for being nearly silent! The sound was either music or the over dramatized sounds of life. The animation was quite awesomely done everything was very big and proportions being completely distorted were very surreal.

There was a lot of satire in the film... Belleville seemed to represent New York. People are animated very large... obesity seemed to have a certian beauty or status in this society. The dog dreams made me laugh... and they were in black & white.

All in all a very interesting film and a very unique and unconventional way of telling a story. Watch it.

LMU Homework - Chinatown - 1 of 20

Chinatown has pretty much nothing to do with chinatown.
The basic plot as best I can retell it because this story was not predictable and quite unique... goes something like this:
Gitties (Jack Nicholson), a personal spy, is hired to pin Evelyn's husband as an adulter by a woman who we later find out isn't really Evelyn but Ina Sheilds. Anywho Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) later comes files a lawsuit against Gitties, while Gitties tries to figure out who set him up.

His next pursuit is of the husband himself... whom he finds dead. Now that he's dead Evelyn comes back and drops the lawsuit and suddenly the tables turn to where now Evelyn decides to really hire Gitties. As he still tries to unravel the mystery of her husband's death many things unfold coming upon these final facts: Kathrine (who the Husband supposedly had the affair with) is really Evelyn's sister and daughter... her father (who owns all the water supply of Los Angeles County) killed her husband due to disagreements about who should own the water and who should have kathrine... Everything was a huge set up to hide the father's power and money scheme... in the end evelyn is killed by the police (who her father owns) and the father takes the daughter, and Gitties is let free instead of arrested ("as a favor")... corruption and injustice win...

There were some great shots... and as with many movies made on true film the continuous shots have to be made more interesting to keep the story moving and the audience engaged. There is one shot where there is a spot on the lens!!! (even the classics have blunders) The sound is nothing brilliant... everything has a noise... props are more pronounced and sound Fx are seventies cheesy. One thing I noticed was there was hardly music... just when it was getting tense and/or something was about to reveal itself.

Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) is the director and has a wonderful little cameo where he cuts Jack's nose.
Just before watching this movie I watched a documentary on the trial scandal on his conviction: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. It was interesting to see footage of this man and here about his life. His mother was killed by the Nazis, his father was sent to a German concentration camp 2 years into the war and was killed... but he survived. From an early age he knew he wanted to have something to do with cinema. He moved out to London, free from the communist life he'd known, he now strove to become what he always wanted and nearly overnight became a sensation. He moved to Hollywood and made huge productions married Sharon Tate and generally was living the lime life. When Sharon, pregnant, was brutally murdered (Charles Manson)... Polanski crumbled and the media twisted it as though he was the murderer. He was able to recover from the slander but he was more insecure than ever. And as the trial unfolded the media never ceased to defame him and print lies. So he fled the country and has yet to return (until recently if he did return he would have been arrested). He is still held in high regard as one of the most influential directors of the time.

They talk in the documentary about how almost every Polanski movie dealt with how corruption and injustice triumphed over the young and innocent... Chinatown is no exception. The corruption of power wealth and greed in man.
Its odd though too that Polanski's life would continually be tortured by injustice specifically in the media.

Thinking about all this has left me with a question... What makes a great person?
Polanski is a star-studded, unique, talented director; but his morals seem to have been lacking greatly... was it just then? was it a lapse of judgment? Or do some people have a dark side?... Do you have to have morals to be great? (I would like to think so... but many could say Hitler was a great man in history for his amazing command over so many people but he had absolutely no morals... I do not know. Maybe its not about greatness... its about how humble you can be while believing in yourself.)