Outside Viewing

Outside Viewing Assignments
-Two Foreign films-

‘Life is Beautiful’
Directed by: Roberto Benigni
Place: Italy

This is a classic tale of love between a man, a woman, and their young son. It epitomized the bond and love between a man and his son. The tale opens with an Italian man, Guido, is going about his daily business. He then runs into a beautiful woman. The film then continues as he goes about his life from day to day, constantly running into this woman. He then rescues her from her fiancé that she does not want to marry and they end up together. I loved the way they showed the time laps between them sneaking off from the party and hiding to then coming out of the hiding space married and with a son. It was a little shocking and confusing at first, but a very unique way to do it. The woman, Dora, and their son, Joshua, live a very happy life until the war hits home for them. The men of the house, Guido being Jewish, get taken off to a concentration camp. Dora is spared because she is not a Jew. But she goes and boards the train with them just so that she can be with them. They end up separated anyways. Somehow, his son ends up with him, and not in the gas chamber with the other children, so he must now hid him all day while he is forced to work. To save the innocents of the child, Guido makes the whole thing a game for the boy. He creates a point system for him, and if he stays hidden and does not complain, he wins a tank at the end as the grand prize. They continue to go through the horrors of the camp together. Then ending has a wonderful twist that epitomizes the love a parent has for their child and the constant struggle that a people endured. It is a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it.

‘Love Actually’
Directed by: Richard Curtis
Place: England

If there is one movie you watch about love, this would be it. Sure, you might think that this sort of subject for a film would be sappy, but let me tell you something: I hate romantic comedies and was very uncertain about watching it. But once I got into it, I absolutely loved it. I even went into it thinking that I was going to hate it but no, I loved it. This film is the perfect example of how love really and truly is all around us. It explains that we can’t run from it, that we must confront it, that no matter how old or young it affects you, and that it can be especially found around this season. This film was very well done. In its direction from Richard Curtis, it cuts back and forth between multiple struggles of love, each dealing with its own crazy mixed up situation. The really cool thing about it is that at the very end, all the stories kind of tie into each other. Each one has a little something to do with the other. There are some parts that are definitely not suitable for young ears, so its best to watch this one with out the kids. The coolest part to me is that it starts and ends in the same place: an airport, the perfect place to show how much people really love each other. What with the constant goings and comings that take place there, of course love is all around. That’s it! If there was one phrase to sum up this movie…its love is all around…“I feel it in my fingers…I feel it in my toooeeess!!!” (Don’t ask…if you’ve seen it you’ll get what I mean!)

Hitchcock

The Auteur Theory is insane!!!


From what I understand of the auteur theory, which is not a whole lot (I’ve kind of got a jumbled about understanding of the whole thing and I’m still really confused but I’ll do my best!), I believe that any director could be an auteur. Considering all the criterion, the parts of it, and its circles, if the director meets the qualifications certainly he/she could be an auteur. When you take Hitchcock into consideration, when you look deeply at his works, you can see that all of his movies are linked. He is the master of the suspense film, making people sit on the edge of their seats at every given moment. He uses all the elements of film and uses them to do just this. The camera angles, the soundtracks, his pattern of sound and dialogue, set pieces: it all fits into the auteur theory and does their job to create him a pedestal that he has built from his hard work to make him an auteur. Hitchcock also has a pattern which he uses throughout most of his movies: the MacGuffin. This plot device is his trademark; it’s in just about every film he makes, to some extent.
I would go on to state what directors, in my opinion, are auteur too, but I don’t really understand this enough to explain it. I love movies, but this is just crazy.

Musicals!!!

Musical

In my own personal opinion, the reason for the sudden uproar of musicals is the simple fact of what the people want, and what is going on in history. Right after the great depression, people needed a ‘pick-me-up’ so to speak, and the musical was just the thing. It combined a fast paced style with singing and dancing too! The musical also created for new jobs that other movies didn’t have. They had to have more elaborated stages, costumes, huge to the tee dance numbers, and fantastic singing voices. People who were recovering could come and build sets, work on costumes if they could and the dance studios that had begun to go under during the harsh time could come in and choreograph.
Recently there has been another great uproar of musicals, but this country has not just suffered from another great depression, thank goodness. No, what I think happened with that is it was just a train that came back into town that everyone decided to jump on. It was just a media hype. It somewhat went along with the culture of the time too. Everyone was all about vintage fashion all of a sudden and I think that had something to do with what the media does. We are, after all, a media fed nation, we can’t live without it!

Horror II

Horror film survival guide:


Section 1
How to survive in a Sci-Fi film:

First of all, if you live on a farm, now would be the correct time to move…NOW
Don’t eat anything that looks even remotely strange.
If objects start to glow or give off an aroma of some sort that is other-worldly to your nostrils, don’t touch, consume, or give to children.
The possession of a special talent or power will make people come after you, so keep it on the DL.
At anytime during the movie you feel a certain disturbance in your stomach, get away from populated areas.
Attention, spaceships are not to look at, they do shoot lasers and have a tracter beam.
Those beautiful women that keep showing up, the perfect ones, yea they aren’t real, they will kill you.


Section 2
How to survive in a Slasher film:

Histories of mental corruption or of family members doing bad deeds will come back to haunt you, seek medical help or disown yourself
Get rid of all the knives in your kitchen
When a friend starts to act strange, have bags under their eyes, or take a strange liking of walking around the woods at 4 in the morning, it would be wise to get as far away from that person as possible
Never, ever say whose there and then go looking for the source of the sound if your home alone, you will always die…always
Bad dreams? See a shrink! And take caffeine pills!
Wear protective led body armor, they always go for the chest first.
Panicking is bad, but when you wake up from being unconscious and you hear a little voice go “hello, I want to play a game.”…that would be a good time to panic.


Section 3
How to survive in a monster film:

Houses upon hills that make strange noises are not good places to go
Transylvania, for most, is an unwise choice to build your vacation home.
You thought your quacky professor was really quacky, well wait till you see what he does at home…or better yet…don’t.
A note for young ones: when your out playing and you notice a large green being approaching, don’t go up and ask him to play with you.
Don’t go outside when it’s a full moon, and if you do, carry a silver rod with you.
Ingesting odd objects is harmful not only to you but to society as a whole.


Section 4
How to survive in a Supernatural film:

When things cant be explained, don’t be stupid and go and try to figure it out…bad idea
Not remembering what you did the day before usually is a very bad sign…you’ve just contracted schizophrenia…congratulations!
Always build new houses…never move into a 50 year old house and never ever move into a castle
Catholic priests…news flash…when a woman runs up to you requesting an exorcism, just ignore her and keep on doing communion
Burn all Ouija boards…no exceptions
Dig in your back yard just to make sure your house isn’t built over a grave yard



Section 5
How to survive in a Thriller film:

Go find someone else…quickly…this guide doesn’t know much about thrillers…except to keep your kids away from them!

Sci-Fi

Sci-Fi assignment

Considering the fact that I wasn’t in school on Friday (hehe), I will discuss how the movie Serenity is a mix of multiple genres and has a view on dystopian society.

When someone mentions the words science fiction to you, most people would think of aliens running around, popping out of human’s stomachs, and causing a complete destruction to the entire world. No, not with this movie. Serenity combines many different genres, including adventure, sci-fi, action, and even a bit of romance. In most viewers mind, they love the combination of these genres to be all pulled together into one fantastic movie. Audiences get bored really quickly with either constant romance or constant action-packed thrillers; this movie allows them to witness a happy medium of just about everything.

A dystopian society is one that was once a utopian one, but governmental corruption has caused it to fail tremendously. Serenity is the epitome of an example of a dystopian society. The movie starts out by explaining how man got to these outer planets: over population, all the people had to go somewhere! So everyone moves out to one of these planets, many of them being the core ones, lush with resources, and others being ‘outer-rim’ planets, to use a Star Wars term, which are corrupt and unwilling to conform. A government is set up to control the central planets and to keep the outer ones in line. The whole example of the dystopian society is somewhat on the side, but it is the motivation and the moving medium that causes all action to occur. The government had another problem, the same one as before: overpopulation on a lush and an absolute utopian planet, Miranda. So they interfere and create a certain “de-populating”, so to speak, agent to go into the air to “help” reduce population. But little did they know that it was slowly killing the peaceful people with every breath they took. All it was supposed to do was calm the people down to make them well, stop populating, to control them. This had a reverse effect on some of them, creating horrible creatures that do absolutely horrible things: Revers! This is a shining example of a dystopian society that was once a utopia, but when the government intervened, it turned completely around, creating a dystopian society.

Horror Genre

One of the greatest links between nosfuratu , Frankenstine and horror films today are that they all use an extreem amount of makeup and special effects makeup to make the characters believe able. With nosfuratu, the monster wasn't as hevily made up as our monsters are todoay or even as the monster in frankenstine. What the actor did wear was false teeth, a pair of ears, and slip-on's on the ends of his fingers to make his fingers look longer. Its not all about the make up either, if you look closely, and pay attention, you can see that the actor never ever blinks on camera, makeing him seem more and more like a vampire to the viewer. To have a sucessfull monster you have to have a believeable actor to play the part. Also, with the directer insisting that the man playing the vampire only be seen by his fellow actors and actresses as the vampire. He was never out of character.
To move on to Frankenstine, this monster was more made up than the vampire in the previous film. A man called Jack P. Peirce, one of the greatest masterminds in horror makeup history, spent months upon months createing the ideal look of the monster. Once he had come up with a look he liked he got to work. He studied anatomy, surgery, medicine, criminal history, criminology, burial customs and electrodynamics durring his search process before he put the actor who would play the monster, Boris Karloff, through a 5 hour makeup aplication process and a 2 hour removal process. But it was all worth it. As in nosfuratu, the actor really made it believeable. The strain of makeing his character come to life on screen make Karloff loose 20 pounds in course of the 6 weeks it took to film the movie. He even had to be hospitalized after the climatic scene of the monster taking Dr. Frankenstine to the top of the windmill and struggleing with him.
In todays world of Horror film, most of the special effects with make up and such are done with a computer. But back in the 70s and 80s, you didnt have that soffisticated of technology to work with, so you were forced to apply make up. In 1973, the Exorcist came out and spooked the entire world. Apart from the terrifying storyline, the makeup effects used on the character of Regan made it the epitome of terror. Dick smith, who was the makeup artist for this film, also had to work very hard to turn a 12 year old girl into a possesed monster and make it look believeable. He went through many test runs before he landed the perfect look for the monster. Blair had to go through a process much like the frankenstine and nosfuratu process all in one. She had to have prosthetics to make her face look distorted and so they could make slash marks in it and aply fake blood and scaring, dentures to make her teeth look decayed and rotten, and even go through getting her hair done just right in the tossled, tangled, and matted form that a possesed person might have had.

Film Noir

Film Noir Assignment

The film noir genre is a very complicated and interesting form within itself. It uses lighting to manipulate the viewer and set the mood of the film. It’s a kind of drama that puts their protagonist in a world perceived as corrupt and unsympathetic. Like in “touch of Evil” our main guy, Mike Vargas, seems to be set in a world that is very corrupt and he seems to be the odd man out, set to deal with everything single handedly as it goes on around him.
Being considered the last film in the film noir period, it is often used as an example for the genre. It not only uses very different takes and shots, like the very long shot in the beginning, but it also uses the lighting characteristic of the film noir to its advantage. When we are in the house and our guy finds the planted evidence, the lighting is manipulated to show us that the box on the toilet is very important. The light hits it just right in order to show us the box’s significance. This is just one example of many in the film that show us that something is important.
Significance is not the only thing the light can do in a film noir, when the lady is in the darkened room getting dressed with the man across the street flashing is flashlight at her, we are aware of a since of tension on account of the lack of lighting. Even when she switches on the light we still feel that something is not right, the suspension of the single bulb is really interesting but at the same time odd.
In short this film and this genre fit hand in hand on account of its unique use of lighting to manipulate the viewer and make us notice certain elements that would be otherwise been unseen in a color film.

:-D

Romance Genre

Romance Genre Assignment

This is your Meg on the street here to enlighten you about the latest gossip in celebrity romances! Our favorite little heart breaker is at it again! My camera happened to catch little Miss Holly Golightly up to something sketchy. As we all should know, our diva of the day always goes to Tiffany’s when she’s feeling a bought of the mean reds coming on, well after following her from her breakfast break,

I found out that she has a new neighbor in the small little apartment building in which she is currently residing. I might note that this new neighbor is male and dashingly hansom at that. So that night I decided to send out one of our reporters for the news paper to watch the apartment building to see if anything happened. You will not believe what they saw, Miss Golightly was climbing up the fire escape up to the new mystery neighbor’s floor. Your reporter has seen them all around town doing the most scandalous of things. For one thing, I witnessed them stealing from a dime store!

They have also been seen going to dinner and having quiet little conversations on the streets.

After I got back from a short business trip, while driving back from the airport I saw the mystery man and Holly in their own cab. She looked very upset and they seemed to be having an argument. Your reporter is totally responsible for taking this trip and missing this great piece of gossip. Not only have we not uncovered the mans name but we missed the entire fight! Oh! This just in, one of my undercover reporters has just informed me of the mans name, it is Paul Varjak, the newly aspirating writer with one book under his belt and many more promised to come. Which also makes him a ‘starving artist’ and not very rich, obviously not the kind of man our girl is after. No wonder they were fighting, maybe she found out that he had no money, or maybe there was another man. Whatever the case my be, my best guess that the poor girl has no clue who she is, who she is becoming, or even who she wants to be. The sad thing is confused about life, love, and basically everything! Anyways, they where stopped and I saw a pair of hands come out and throw ‘cat’, the lady’s no name cat, out into the down poor outside. Then drove a little further, and of course I followed. The next time the doors opened, Paul stepped out and started calling for the cat as the cab drove off. I followed the cab further to get this shot of a distraught Golightly. Well, after I got the shot, the cab stopped, the car door opened, and she ran back to Paul, they found the cat, and then said some words to each other. After that I knew what was going to happen, they embraced and kissed in the rain in the middle of new York city, and went on to live what this reporter predicts as a happily ever after.

:-D

Heist

The perfect Heist (it’s a little ‘out there’…just to warn you!!!)

Description of the Heist:
The year is 2074 and the galaxy is in peril. We have set up stations on Mars, Mercury, and Venus but our Government is refusing to send anyone up there except for NASA trained astronauts and for maintenance purposes only, for now. The government actually has schematics to set up a new society on the stations. The worlds population has gotten out of control, food, shelter, and protection are at the lowest of the low for the large mass of people. A group of NASA workers have noticed that we are surely doomed if we don’t start moving people to the stations on other planets. Because of the world’s constant use of power, water, and pollution in all forms, Earth is a slowly dying planet. The group of NASA skeptics decide that unless they steal one of the high technical space shuttles that they just designed, humans will be extinct. They figure that they must take all the plans the government has to explain in great detail how living beings would survive in these stations in the vacuum of space. For starters they are going to need a space shuttle, to get them there. Since they have thought up the plans for these new high Tec space shuttles (these guys are geniuses remember, they are predicting the end of all humanity as we know it unless they do something about it.) they can organize a test run that usually just keeps the rocket on the ground and makes the boosters run for about 5 min to make sure they are all in working order. (in all reality this really does happen, NASA runs these tests on the space shuttles today, or they did at least, before Columbia…in case you haven’t guessed, I used to want to be a astronaut so I know sooo much about space…its kinda sad really…ok I’m done…back to the heist!) If the plan works, it will go as followed:
(insert diagram A)
They plan on grabing as many people as they can, people of high intelligence of course, it all goes back to that “city upon a hill” complex, they want as much as a perfect society as possible so that this sort of problem does not happen again.

Descriptions of crew:
All of them were the nerdy kids in highschool that actually made something of themselves after the many years of school. They are top notch as far as brain power goes.
Comander – Lewis Wensky, the smartest guy in the world, first to realize that things are going down the drain and organizes the whole thing with out getting a big head
Seccond in command – Sandy Shootburt, smartest woman in the world, Lewis’s brother, (good genes eh?), she did most of the disighning of the new rockets.
Piolet – Orville Watts, flew his first plane by himself when he was 3 years old, been flying ever since, was kicked out of the aviators academy because he was so good he demoralized the other fliers so they all droped out.
Mantience man – Harrison Driverson, little bit on the stupid side (although none of these crew members are stupid to any extent) when it comes to social skills or English stuff but can take anything, and I mean anything apart and put it back together again, he has written 1500 books filled with his numerous inventions (much like Michelangelo), did the technical preparations on the new shuttle
Public relations – Thomas Lark, a bit fruity, orientation questionable, but can read body language like its on paper in front of him, disowned his own family because they were social outcasts.

Plan B:
If they get discovered, they advert to their plan b. They have built a jettison rocket on the side of the new Shuttle that is a disguzed, extreme, military wepon. Its compleate with enough feul to get them to the moon at least and as far as Jupiter, has the highest of power of atomic and nuclear bombs. They have deducted that they will get as far as getting their wives, husbands, and children on board before they get caut. These passengers will be stored in the jettison rocket in case for a quick getaway and a ruthless fight. If everything goes according to plan A then they will be able to get more people on there. Plan B goes as follows
(Insert Diagram B)

Finall plot twist:
Our final plot twist is that the government is actually in favor of all of this and knew about it all along. All through the sceme the group had been growing suspicious that the government knew but they always where reassured. They are about to execute plan b since plan a was failing, when their public relations guy, Thomas, tells them of the government affiliation, that is they are sideing with them. They stop everything, grab the smart people they wanted to take in the first place, and leave. The end shot is the piolet, Wells, looking out the window as he flies saying “That right there just goes to show how ignorant the world has become, and how perfect our new worlds will be”



::Diagrams to come later...:-D::