Conclusion

Well here it is, my 30th and final blog credit. It's been great seeing a variety of short films in class over the semester.

My favorite of the films we watched would have to be World Of Glory.

The Tree Of Life

I had been wanting to see this film for a while now, and I had high expectations. After having the chance to see this film this evening, my expectations were not just met, but exceeded in ways I did not think possible.

Wow. I find it hard to adequately express myself at the moment. A film hasn't affected me so significantly in some time. This is an incredible film. Within the first minute, the film captured my attention, and I could not tear my eyes away. Every frame of this film is breathtaking. Malick uses vivid images to tell a story filled with beauty, mystery, and abstractness.

Our Group Project

The following is our group project. The effects were done in Adobe After Effects

Stanley Kubrick

"The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle." -- Stanley Kubrick

It is not a stretch to say that Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest filmmakers...ever. Of the thirteen feature films he directed over his life, here are just a few.

Dr. Strangelove
Kubrick's dark comedy classic that satires the Cold War nuclear scare. Peter Sellers play three different characters.

Lolita
A controversial film adaption of an even more controversial book. The subject matter is handled in a matter that any sexually explicit material is implied rather than depicted on screen. This film also features Peter Sellers in a pre-Strangelove role.

The Shining
This horror classic, although not well received initially, is now one of Kubrick's most widely known and seen films. My personal favorite horror film, in fact.

Barry Lyndon
Absolutely beautiful storytelling. This film has absolutely gorgeous cinematography, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Kubrick's most underrated film in my opinion, and also my second favorite film of his.

2001: A Space Odyssey
I first saw this film at a young age...and thought that it was one the most interesting things I had ever seen. Looking back, I can now see how much it has influenced me. My favorite Kubrick film, and one of my favorite films of all time. An absolute masterpiece.

The Underrated Films Of Ridley Scott

My favorite film director is Ridley Scott. He directed my favorite film, Blade Runner, as well as popular films such as Alien, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Here are three of his films that were either negatively received critically, or have been forgotten about as of late.

Thelma & Louise
The most popular of the three films on this list, Thelma & Louise is often written off for its stars, and isn't always remembered as a Ridley Scott film, which is a shame.

White Squall
Probably the most underrated of these three, White Squall is a drama/adventure film about a group of guys on a school sailing trip.
Oh yeah, it stars Jeff Bridges.

A Good Year
This is Ridley Scott's most poorly received film, at 25% on rotten tomatoes. I believe that the critical reviews for this film were low due to people's expectations, and how different this film is from R. Scott's others. I like this film, but I acknowledge that it may not fit with everyone's taste.

The Apostle

I'd like to briefly talk about one concept concerning The Apostle. That concept is the character of Sonny, and the portrayal of Christianity in general, in contrast to other films. In The Apostle, Sonny is a dedicated, enthusiastic Christian preacher, but is also shown to have flaws. This is truly refreshing to see a character have such depth. Most films don't bother to show Christianity in this light. While it isn't necessarily crucial for a filmmaker to pick flaws that a character should have, and then exploit them, it is important to have a character that has more than one dimension.

Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone was one of the best picture noms that I missed seeing before the Academy Awards, so I'm glad that I was able to see it at Signs & Wonders.

Winter's Bone is very much a character-driven film. The main character, 17 year old Ree Dolly (played by Jennifer Lawrence), bears the responsibility of caring for her two younger siblings, as well as everything else around the house because her mother is handicapped, and her father, who is out of jail on bail, hasn't been seen for some time. After the sheriff notifies Ree that their house will be taken unless her father shows up at his court date because it was put up as part of his bond, Ree sets out to find her father. Throughout the film, we see Ree's character traits of strength and unflinching resolve. Not much later, we are introduced to the character of Teardrop, Ree's uncle. Teardrop is an interesting character because of the fact that although he comes off as being coarse, and uses questionable methods to reach his goals, the viewer is still led to feel sympathy for him as the film goes on.

Winter's Bone is a well-made film that gives the viewer a glimpse into a meth-infused Missouri social structure that has consequences for breaking what is considered acceptable behavior. Highly recommend.

Short Film: 'The Gift'

Here is an interesting short film that I found on vimeo. It's a sci-fi piece called 'The Gift', and I think it's a great example of proper use of CGI. I would embed it, but blogspot isn't letting me right now.

http://vimeo.com/33025640

DM105 Trailer

It has been a common occurrence to post the trailers we made in DM105 on this blog. Here's mine. It's not in the form of a traditional trailer for this length, but it still might be interesting.

Barry Lyndon Fan-Made Trailer from Luke Myers on Vimeo.

Anticipated Films

Here are, in order of release date, some of my most anticipated upcoming films.

The Artist

It's great to see a film made in such a classic style get so much recognition. Really looking forward to seeing this.

Shame

I've been following this film since I heard about it several months ago. So much talent involved in this film. It also embraces its rating, apparently in a non-explotative fashion.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Wow. Where to start? Great cast, and a spy thriller that doesn't appear to be cluttered with CGI explosions.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This film isn't getting as much buzz as I thought it would. Talented director, and an original concept. Can't ask for much more.

Wild Strawberries

One of the reasons that I chose HU over Full Sail is the opportunity to see great films like this, and it certainly did not disappoint. Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries is truly a masterpiece.

This film is the story of an elderly professor (Dr. Isak Borg) as he reevaluates the life he has lived. Wild Strawberries is an excellent example of visual story telling. Bergman skillfully presents the viewer with Dr. Borg's dreams, nightmares, memories and emotions.

Words cannot do it justice. This beautiful film is a must see. Can't recommend it enough.

Hudsucker Proxy

The Hudsucker Proxy is about a large corporation that installs a naive young man (played by Tim Robbins) as company president as part of a stock scam. Of course, things don't go as planned.

Hudsucker Proxy is the fourth Coen brothers film that I saw at Signs & Wonders this semester. This film is a screwball comedy, and pays homage to films of the 1930s and '40s, especially films by Howard Hanks and Frank Capra. This gives Hudsucker a distinct feel from not only other films from the Coen brothers, but modern films in general. Definitely an underrated Coen brothers film.

The Lives Of Others

I've unfortunately missed several Signs & Wonders showings recently, so I decided to go back and blog about films screened earlier in the semester.

The Lives Of Others is 2006 German drama film about a couple living in East Berlin who are being monitored by a secret police agent.

One of the great strengths of The Lives Of Others is its characters, with the government agent Wiesler being the best example. Throughout the film, we see Wiesler sitting alone in an empty room wearing headphones, listening to the every move of Georg Dreyman (played by Sebastian Koch) and his girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). The film shows the stark differences between each of their existences, and eventually Wiesler himself can't help but compare their lives to his.

In conclusion, The Lives Of Others is an excellent film, and I look forward to getting the chance to watch it again. Highly recommend.

Anti-Drug PSAs

Yesterday, I looked up anti-drug PSAs. After wading through a lot of crap, I found a few that were effective.

This is one of the better 'celebrity speaking into the camera' PSAs that I watched. Hey, it is Clint Eastwood after all.

This next one is from an organization called The Montana Meth Project. Most of the videos I watched from them were rather poorly made in my opinion, but this is an exception.

This last one is the best one I have seen yet. This is a recent one from The Montana Meth Project, with Darren Aronofsky directing, and the results are outstanding.

Deep End from Organic Inc. on Vimeo.

The Catcher In The Rye, Nigel Tomm, and My Interest in Experimental/Avant-Garde Film: Part One

This summer, I read The Catcher In The Rye for the first time. Over the years, I had heard stories of J. D. Salinger's unwillingness to have his book adapted for the screen, and the claims of it being "unfilmable." Despite this, I googled 'catcher in the rye imdb' out of curiosity to see if there were any current or failed projects listed. What I found was this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206286/.



The Catcher In The Rye, created by Nigel Tomm, is a silent 75 minutes and 6 seconds of blue screen. When I first discovered this film, my initial reaction was that this had to be a joke. I read what information I could find about him online, and it appears that Tomm takes himself and his work completely seriously. I'd like to believe that this is a hoax to try to ensnare art snobs who worship the god of all things abstract and avant-garde, but it doesn't appear to be the case. Also, I found that Tomm had also released at least six others in different colors. (He was generous enough to let us view them free of charge. Imagine that.)

A positive outcome from this discovery is my very questioning of what defines art, as well as the line between good and bad art. While I honestly beleive that Nigel Tomm's films aren't 'good art' (if there is such a thing as that), I feel that this had led me to search out truly innovative and rich abstract art. And so begins my journey.

12:08 East Of Bucharest

"Is it a revolution if people took to the streets after the fact?"

12:08 East Of Bucharest is a Romanian comedy-drama film that deals with the subject of the Romanian revolution of 1989. Before seeing this film, the Romanian revolution was just a footnote in history to me, so it was interesting to see how they presented the subject. About the last half of the film shows almost entirely nothing more than a television host interviewing two people on the sixteenth anniversary of the revolution on Dec 22, 1989. I feel that this works in the film's favor in the sense that it makes it unique and interesting.

One scene I found noteworthy is the tracking shot of the car as it drives toward the television studio. The camera follows the rear of the car at an odd distance, and continues to follow the car for several seconds, longer than the average shot to simply make sense of where a character is traveling, but still shorter than some abnormally long scenes in other films.

Although I didn't find 12:08 East Of Bucharest to be overly funny, the film redeemed itself for me because of the fact that it is both unique and well made.

The Cinematography Of Barry Lyndon

In my opinion, Barry Lyndon is a criminally underrated Kubrick film. One unique aspect of it is John Alcott's cinematography. It is shot with almost entirely natural light to achieve the look of eighteenth century paintings. This meant that the interior shots would be lit by candlelight. To make this work, Alcott used very fast 50mm lenses that were originally developed for NASA.

The result is a beautifully shot film that effectively evokes the period it takes place in.

Blood Simple.

"But what I know about is Texas...And down here, you're on your own."

What jumped out the most to me about Blood Simple was its suspense and unpredictability. The most unpredictable moment for me takes place after Ray finds Marty shot at his bar, and tries to cover up the murder, thinking that Abby committed it. Ray throws Marty's body in the backseat of his car, and drives away to dispose of it. During this drive, Ray hears the sound of heavy breathing and realizes that Marty is still alive. After bolting from the car out of fright, Ray sees Marty crawling down the road with his last breath. Ray gets into his car, and throws it into drive. He decides to not run over Marty, and gets out of the car to grab a shovel out of his trunk. Ray walks over to Marty, and raises the shovel above him. He holds it there for a long moment, but decides not to bring it down on Marty when he sees a truck approaching from the opposite side of the road. Ray drags Marty back toward his car, but doesn't leave him in the path of the oncoming truck, as I thought he might. We then see Ray digging a grave in a nearby field. Ray throws Marty in the hole, and proceeds to kill him in an even more brutal way than any of the other opportunities he had before: by burying Marty alive.

Shower

I saw the Chinese comedy-drama film Shower for the first time at Signs & Wonders on Thursday night. The film focuses on a Chinese man called Old Liu who, along with his mentally handicapped son named Erming, runs a traditional bathhouse in Beijing, China. Old Liu's eldest son, Daming, has left the family business to try to earn his fortune in a city in southern China. He only returns to his family when he is led to believe that his father is dead. This is played for laughs at first, but as the film goes on, is used to show the importance of family.

Shower is notable for me because of how it portrays the mentally challenged son. It is shown that he truly enjoys helping run the bathhouse. He is also shown being very loving to his father, and to his brother when he returns home. We, the audience, are never manipulated or shamed into feeling sorry for Erming, like some other films with mentally handicapped characters do.

As a side note, another theme in Shower is the clash of tradition and modern technology. This is even symbolized by showing Daming using the automated shower system (in the opening scene), and later the regular customers in the family bathhouse.

Drive.

"If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down. I don't carry a gun... I drive."


Drive is a film that focuses on a man who is a movie stunt driver by day, and a getaway driver by night. He gets drawn into a failed heist, and tries to find a way out while looking after his love interest.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this film takes a relatively basic storyline and revolutionizes it through his incredibly talented direction and shooting style.

One of the things that helps set the tone of the film is the soundtrack, which has an 80's-esque synth sound to it. When matched with the sharp visuals, Drive is a film with a lush, controlled atmosphere.

The remainder of this blog post may contain spoilers. If you haven't yet seen Drive, then I don't recommend reading on.

A unique aspect of Drive is its small amount of dialogue. Refn not only uses montages to effectively tell the story, but also places long pauses in conversations between characters. This not only remains true to Driver's character, but also keeps the audience on edge to maintain the film's tone.







The violence in Drive is highly stylized, yet gory and realistic enough to still be believable and disturbing. Refn uses it effectively as a tool to create tension in the film.

There is one scene in particular that I would like talk about: the elevator scene.

In this scene, Driver and his love interest Irene enter an elevator, where a man happens to be in alone. Driver spots the man's gun, knowing that he was sent to kill them. Driver then gently pushes Irene to the back of the elevator and kisses her. Refn shoots this in slow motion, and even has the light get harsher in the elevator at this moment. Driver then gruesomely kills the hitman. This scene shows great contrast between a beautiful image: Driver saying goodbye to the woman he loves, knowing that he probably won't come back, and a morbid one: Driver stomping the man's head in.