SCREENING NOTES: THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
-First thought on movie: black and white again?
-skinny old beaten man surrounded by military
-obviously he’s being tortured
-Takes them to an apartment with a secret hide-out
-military is looking for a fugitive named “Ali le Pointe”
-takes us back a couple years
-Ali is seen getting arrested and joining a rebellious group
-it’s mostly Muslim/Arabs
The Arabs are the rebels who want their freedom so they employ terror as their primary tactics to get what they want. The bombings get to a point where the army is finally called in to alleviate the situation. The Colonel of starts his investigation and finds out how the rebels are structured into different sections in a pyramid like structure. He also points out the two important details; one, because of the structure of the organization it’s almost impossible to identify FLN members from regular Arabs since each FLN member only knows at most three other members. Secondly, he compares FLN to a worm, and states that unless the worm’s head, referring to FLN leaders, is destroyed it will keep regenerating itself. I like some of the film techniques used in this film however the one that stuck out the most to me was the way smoke was used as a motif. Smoke was employed throughout the whole movie, but the scene that I particularly enjoyed was towards the end where the Arabs are asked what they desire, at the time of the question it’s silent and nothing but fog is seen. However, as the fog slowly blows away you seen more and more Arabs starting to yell out what they want, so as the smoke goes away, you see more clearly who they are and what they desire.
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SCREENING NOTES: REAR WINDOW (1954)
- Recorded on a set
- Very nice job introducing characters
- Interesting characters nonetheless
- Very old movie yet you can still relate to it very well
- Very pretty ballet dancer
My initial reaction, when I heard Disturbia (2007) was the remake of this film, was why are we not watching Disturbia (2007)? Why are we watching the old version of a film instead of the contemporary one? All of my questions were answered within a short period of time as the movie wasted little time before I was intrigued by its characters.
The primary protagonist is a injured photographer L.B “Jeff” Jeffries, played by James Stewart, who is bored out of his mind at an apartment and spends most of his time observing his neighbors. He is fascinated by intruding in on his neighbors privacies. The neighbors consist of a beautiful ballerina, a newly-wed couple, a married couple with a dog, a suicidal woman, a struggle musician, and a very unusual couple. He notices everyone as they go about bickering, loving, and etc. The conflict starts as Jeff wakes up in the middle of a storm one night and notices his odd neighbor Lars Thorwald, played by Raymond Burr, going in and out of his apartment. The very next day he also notices his wife is missing which awakens his curiosity that something is very wrong and initiates the plot.
Only pure pleasure can be derived from the ending of this movie as the mystery is solved and the whole neighborhood seems to be happier as some find love, others find motivation, and some are even re-united with their loved ones. The two casualties of making such a wonderful film was the loss of Mrs. Thorwald and a dog (in the film), an expense anyone would be willing to pay had they had seen the movie.
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SCREENING NOTES: ATONEMENT
- Setting is the past, 1930’s +
- Main characters are aristocrats , besides one
- Seems to be some sort of tension around the house
- Cecelia is obviously upset about something
- Briony seems to be strange in her hobbies, movements, and etc. (not very usual for normal 13 year old girls
- Robbie, down in the social ladder but filled with passion, good natured
- Robbie aspires to go to med school; Cecelia not too happy about it
- Briony def. shows slight interest in Robbie
- Very disturbing scene in the library
I have heard very good things about Atonement (2009), but I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to enjoy it. I love movies that employ the structure that Atonement did; it’s a narrative yet it keeps going back and forth, does it to a point where the a lot of things are left for interpretation by the audience. The best part, for me, is when all the questions are answered, all the loose ends are tied together, and the audience gets the closure they need to feel good about a movie.
Movie starts off by showing a very typical normal family in the mid 1930’s with the primary character/narrator Briony Tallis, 13 back then, which just finished writing her first play. As the movie progresses it is revealed that her elder sister and their servant’s son, Robbie, have a very passionate love towards each other. I love the way the movie shows their passion and the respect they share for each other at the same time. Other characters are introduced such as the eldest Tallis sibling, Leon and his friend Paul Marshal, who tells the audience he’s up to no good with just his looks and blank stares. However, the plot emphasizes more about how a little girl’s imagination combined with a couple misunderstandings and unfortunate exposure ruins the lives of Cecelia, Robbie, and Briony.
The rest of the movie is about Briony’s atonement for what she did, and how she deals with her guilt. Although not evil at heart, she is seen to grow old with the guilt in her heart that she ruined her sister and her lover’s lives, and finds refugee in her novel, Atonement, which also serves as a refugee for Cecelia and Robbie’s love story.
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SCREENING NOTES: BREATHLESS
I must say I went into the screening very biased and upset as it was one of those days, for me, when you just want to get your daily errands over with just so you could go back to your comfy bed. So when I heard we were about to watch a French movie with English subtitles, I was not in the jolliest mood.
I was, however, surprised by “Breathless” (1960) and its protagonist, Michel Poiccard, who is shown running from a cop chase right in the beginning of the movie. Naturally I take an interest in movies such as this which contain suspense, action, and a little bit of romance. Therefore, I must admit that I enjoyed the screening. My initial reaction to the movie was “da*, another black and white film”, but slowly but surely I was drawn into the movie’s fibula. I could care less about the color when I went deeper into the plot. The plot consisted of a man who is car thief, con artist, and everything else that a law abiding citizen is not. So watching him run from the cops and woo one woman after another while stealing from them at the same time was very comical to me. All in all I thought it was a very enjoyable screening with some interesting characters who had some interesting habits and lives.
I thought that the key moment was when the protagonist’s lover, Patricia Franchini, calls the cops on Michel. Now let me explain why that scene stuck out to me. Patricia in the beginning is portrayed as a New Yorker who’s adapted very well to the French way of life for girls back in the day, sleeping for benefits. However, as the movie progresses she’s displayed more as a character who’s very vulnerable and filled with feelings for Michel. She even mentions being pregnant and thinking that it’s Michel’s baby. I was totally convinced that Patricia is down for the ride with Michel after the scene where she helped Michel escape the law enforcement, but I was dumbfounded when she decided to call the cops on him right before their escape. Also at the end where she rubs her lips, like Michel use to, assures my suspicious that Patricia is little disturbed, mentally.
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SCREENING NOTES: THE HURTLOCKER
-people scattering
-landscape seems like the common middle city as portrayed by mass media
-soldiers running and women in borkas running around confirm my guess
-in Iraq there seems to be a bomb somewhere
-small automated car like equipment strapped with a camera
-POV shots moving around
-a bomb squad, a 3 member team, a brother like bond between them
-one of the equipment fails so one of them put on a suit to go in
-man with a cell phone triggers the bomb, team leader is dead
-2 other team members are extremely disturbed
-gets a new team member
-New team leader= Daredevil who lives off the rush of danger
-New leader cares more about his teams lives than him own yet never gets appreciated for it
-as others fight till death to go back home he faces the possibility of death head on
-has a beautiful wife and a precious baby boy, but can’t seem to let go of his addiction
-cannot let go of his addiction to war
-he seems out of place in U.S, cannot adjust to it anymore
-simple tasks such as picking a cereal gets him frustrated yet he can cut off wires in the face of death
-tells his son the older you are the less things you love
-he starts off by saying he loves two things
-something clicks in his head and he corrects himself immediately saying it’s just ONE
-very small but pretty direct few moments of his life in U.S
-pretty clear though, he’s not use to being in a normal setting anymore
-he lives off the rush of war, it’s to a point where he cannot survive without it
-his addiction of war leads him right back into it, where the film ends
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SCREENING NOTES: CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS
-First thought after the first scene: Wow! This is going to be a LONG night!”
-Conclusion after the movie: “Daang! What just happened?!”
-starts off with a typical middle class family
-every member seems to be happy and shows great merit
-father is a successful teacher
-mother takes care of the kids
-3 kids, all males :David, Jesse, Seth
The film starts off but introducing a very cheerful family through home videos. The characters are introduced as very happy and content with their life. The father, Arnold, is a renowned teacher who’s happily married to Elaine Friedman, the mother of his three children David, Jesse, and Seth. The kids seem to be very happy growing up as well as displayed by the videos. Gradually as the movie goes on, like every other film, it turns out that there is no such thing as a perfect family and that the world we live in is far from perfect as well.
Arnold is prosecuted for child molestation after receiving a child pornography magazine in the mail. The authorities started to suspect that he might’ve been molesting his students with the help of his son Jesse so they are both prosecuted. Although Arnold confesses to child molestation he denies any of it occurring during his computer lessons and pleads guilty so his son could be spared. His brother and wife is shocked the whole situation, the family falls apart as the children go against their mother thinking she abandoned their father.
The director did a good job with the order in which he revealed his information as it did a tremendous job getting a reaction out of its viewers. For example, the fact that Arnold’s brother, Howard, was also a homo sexual was revealed almost right before the end of the film. This was done because due to current trends of homophobia, had he exposed this piece of information before, Howard might’ve lost some credential to most of the film’s viewers. Also the fact there are a lot of mysteries that were unsolved contributed to the success of the film, ranking 7th best reviewed movie in 2003.
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SCREENING NOTES: SINGLE MAN
-one man kissing another dead one? Brothers maybe
-Not related; they’re actually homosexual lovers
-some awkward scenes
-takes place during the 60’s
-Middle-aged professor had a lover who seems quite younger than him
-they don’t seem to be openly gay
-the lover’s parents knew what was going on as they clearly didn’t want George at the funeral/service
-George keeps having flashbacks of his lover
-he seems miserable even though its been months since his lover died
-he is very gay, but he seemed to have an affair with one of his best friends back in the day
-it was just an experiment for him
-one of his students is clearly homosexual and shows interest in him, yet he is unsure about what to do with him, hence the awkward scenes
-he is creeped by the student, ends up having a good time with him
-decides not to commit suicide, has one of his happy moments
-internalizes it by having a heart attack and dying
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SCREENING NOTES: GOSFORD PARK
-Very wealthy old women with a driver and a maid
-must be pretty oldà the car is a very old model
-going to another aristocrat’s house for a hunting
-all the wealthy upper class travel with maids
-weird sex-crazed young guy
-something weird going on, multiple possible affairs?
Right away the movie distinguishes between the wealthy aristrocrats and their maids showing a very old women being walked to her car by her driver and maid, who does not seem to mind getting drenched in the pouring rain. She appears to be very snobby as she gives an American director the cold shoulder when she was greeted in the middle of her journey.
The two classes are clearly separated once the old women gets to the mansion, as the wealthy upper class live and/or sleep upstairs while the low class maids/servants sleep in the lower floors or basement. Also the movie does splendid job showing the true nature of those whose life revolve around money, everyone is having an affair with everyone else, while one “bi-sexuall” American actor chases any female that is willing to sleep with him.
The cinematographer does an excellent job creating the illusion of space and metaphorically showing how big the mansion is by following different characters into different hallways. Also he was far from shy to use deep focus whenever you he could to show how people go about their own business in a very big world, compared to the huge living room and with the help of deep focus, the multiple activities that the people are partaking in can be seen quite easily as well.
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SCREENING NOTES: SHARK IN THE HEAD
First thought on the movie:
What the heck was that?!??!?!?!?!
Notes as the movie progressed:
-Old man, lives alone, enjoys sitting by the window
-greets random people, shows slightly immature behavior, sort of creepy
-very friendly and generous, helpful
-very fascinating imagination, artistic, takes pills for something
-fascinated by people’s trash, very positive outlook on things
-one middle-aged lady shows slight interest in him
-he likes art
-random little girl drawing with chalk, old man so fascinated starts painting
-lives alone so spends a lot of time painting alone
-paints lots of chickens, they come to life
-has schizophrenia
-thinks he’s a government worker holding a key to a bomb?
-has to go retirement home but does not want to lose his only friend
-she agrees to write to him
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Screening Notes: Memento
-short little narratives
-interesting story
-very writerly
-confusing at times
-uncommon structure
-actors did a good job
-sort of lengthy
Critique
I really enjoyed watching “Memento” as it (at least to me) seemed like a very fast-paced movie. Also the structure of the story kept the audience very captivated the way the movie told the narrative. It kept posing a question and answering it on the next scene which showed what happens before the previous scene, weird right, but also very interesting as it keeps the audience very involved throughout the whole movie. One cannot help but keep asking questions in ones head as every scene leaves you stranded with questions about what happened right before what just happened on the scene that you just saw. Watching the movie gave me the feeling that I get when I watch a mystery, thriller, suspense, or how I feel when I take a test. Memento makes you ask yourself questions, then makes you answer yourself, and finally shows you the answer, so in a way you’re almost testing you’re movie interpretation and reading skills.
Only thing that I did not enjoy or get too much pleasure out of Memento was the fact how it gave you the correct answer to all your questions, it does not give you the answer to whether Natalie, one of the female leads, is a protagonist or an antagonist. Although I am suspicious of myself;as the screening was kind of late and my brain was not functioning to its full capability. Maybe it did give an answer to my question of Natalie’s character, maybe it was me that failed to decipher the direct or indirect answer, but either way the movie was very enjoyable as most of Chris Nolan’s films are, for me atleast.
Rating
I give the movie a 7.5 out of 10 because although I enjoyed the story and structure, I would have enjoyed it more if it had a better cast, and a just a little more action.
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Screening Notes: Psycho
Question: What will happen to this lust-full couple shown right in the beginning of the movie?
Formulation: Right of the start you can see a very passionate couple who has to meet up secretly because the man is in the process of getting a divorce and does not have enough to financially afford another marriage at the moment; and the story seems to follow the girl, named Marion Crane.
Promise of an answer: The story follows Marion who seems to have a nice job, and it gives a sense of comfort that Marion is a smart and sensible young lady who has her head on her shoulders.
Fraud: All of a sudden Marion steals $40,000.00 from her boss’s client and leaves town with the money.
Equivocation: She is seen by her boss while driving out of town. Also Marion gets tired while driving on the highway for a long time and wakes up to a cop knocking on her window, who follows her for a long time; all the way until she exchanges her car for a different used car.
Blocking: She comes to a motel where she meets Norman Bates, a very kind and charming young man who is also owner of the motel.
Suspended Answer: While eating a late dinner Norman gets something to click in Marion’s head which makes her realize that she’s headed for a downfall. Also Marion realizes there’s something a little wrong or weird with the Bates.
Partial Answer: She realizes that she cannot steal $40,000.00 and get away with it, and that she’s setting herself for a fall so she decides to go back and confess that she had plans to run away and pay back the $700 she used to exchange her car.
Disclosure: She goes to take a shower and is killed by Norman Bate who suffers from a mental illness and sometimes takes the roll of his possessive and controlling mother.
