Cinema Paradiso
Movie: 1988, color, 124 min
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Actors: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale and Antonella Attili
Cinema Paradiso is about a boy that falls in love with film at a young age and pursues it as a career when he grows up. The movie is a flash back of Salvatore di Vita’s life growing up in Italy. The movie opens with his mother calling him in the present day and telling him that the man that introduced him to film, Alfredo, is dead. We then go through Salvatore’s entire life in Italy starting from a very young age and progressing through his departure from the country to go on a become a famous director. We see how Alfredo introduces him to film and how he fell in love with it. When he comes back for the funeral everything has changed and he cannot accept it and chooses to go back to his life of being famous.
- How does the relationship between Alfredo and Toto progress throughout the film?
In the opening scene of the movie we see that Toto and Alfredo have a very close relationship. We are shown this in that the only way that Toto’s mom could get him to return home was by informing him of Alfredo’s death. We then see their early relationship. At first Alfredo was not very fond of Toto although Toto greatly admired him. To Alfredo, Toto was a bit of a pest. He was always bugging him while he was tring to do his job. Then, Toto being a sly dog showed Alfredo that he knew the basics of how to work the projector. Alfredo, admiring his perseverance, showed him how to work the entire thing. Eventually Alfredo goes blind due to a fire and Toto is left to do the projecting business. It is then that Toto and Alfredo bond and become the best of friends and by the end of the movie they are so close that Alfredo sends him away from Italy to go do better things as he knows Toto can.
- How does Tornatore differ between the childhood of Toto, and his years as a teenager?
In the movie, when Toto is a child, the movie is much darker and the colors are not as vibrant also people are not wearing colors that are extremely bright. Also the people that Toto interacts with are mainly wearing black and grey. When Toto becomes a teenager everyone begins to wear colorful clothing as well as Toto himself. Alfredo becomes happier with his progress and everyone is in a much better mood. When he meets the women he loves, everything is gleaming with color. It is not until we find out that Alfredo dies that the movie becomes grey again. When we see Toto as an adult, the movie goes back to its grey tone and it stays like that for the rest of the film.
City of God
Movie: 2004, color, 130 min
Director: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Actors: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele and Leandro Firmino
City of God takes place in Rio de Janeiro and is based on a true story. It is about all of the crime that goes on in the town that Rocket lives in called the City of God. Rocket is the younger brother of one of the top three gangsters in the city. When one of the little kids attached to the gang, Li’l Dice, becomes power hungry and kills the three gang members so he can have the city to himself. The movie is the story of how Rocket evades death while pursuing his true passion for photography. Eventually when Li’l Dice grows up he becomes Li’l Ze. He is now the leader of the gang of the City of God. When the little gang members get too power hungry they end up killing Li’l Ze. Rocket goes on living his life as a photographer.
- How is lighting used to set the tone of the movie?
Throughout the movie the movie there is a very dark shadow over all of the characters. This is to make the mood more serious and to also get viewers on the edge of their seats. When in the film, Rocket is narrating the movie; all added light seemingly goes away. Only natural light is used to show the true slums of the City of God. Since this movie is based on a true story, Meirelles and Lund choose to make it as real as possible. With making all of the lighting natural it really gives the movie the effect of being a true story. At the end of the movie, once things get resolved and Rocket goes off to live the rest of his life, the movie gets a bit brighter. There is a bit of added light and it is not only natural lighting.
- How do Meirelles and Lund use foreshadowing as a key element in the film?
Foreshadowing is probably the technique that is used most and well used in the film. The opening scene to the movie is foreshadowing the entire film. The opening scene of the movie is the introduction to the ending scene of the movie. The directors do this to show us what is going to happen. This is another technique used to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. Since we know how the movie is going to end we are wondering how we are going to get to the finish throughout the entire film. The foreshadowing also lets us relax a little bit. Instead of wondering who is going to die, we see in the opening scene that is still alive therefore we know who is not going to die. Foreshadowing is used to make this movie much more enjoyable.
Breathless
Movie: 1960, black and white, 90 min
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg and Henri-Jacques Huet
Breathless is about a man who lives off of crime. The movie begins by Michel stealing a car a killing a police officer. Then he meets up with an American women whom he was previously involved with. When the police get on his tail and the women, Patricia, finds out she is forced to choose between Michel and turning him in. Throughout the film Michel must manipulate and steal from people just to get by. His methods of getting money include mugging people and for food he just leaves before the bill comes. As a method of transportation he goes around stealing cars. He is a criminal on the lose and the movie is his adventure of the detectives chasing him while he is trying to win over Patricia’s love.
- What role does music play in the film?
Throughout the film there is always a sort of charming music playing. The music always depends on the main character, Michel. When he is driving in the opening scene he is very happy, thus the music playing is upbeat and charming. When he sees the police officer he gets very worried and the music begins to speed up and gets much more suspenseful. When he meets up with Patricia the music gets very calm as if it is a love song for the two of them. When any scene is fading out the music tends to fade with it. The music is sort of a cue for the movie. The music tends to begin before the scenes do. It is in this way that the music is a cue for the movie. The viewer knows what to prepare for by listening to the music. In one scene when detectives are looking for Michel the music is sort of like the pink panther theme song. It is like they are searching for clues but they cannot find any. Then it cuts to Michel and the music is sort of a sigh of relief because Michel had just nearly escaped the police. The music plays a key role in the pace of the movie.
- How do the quick cuts affect the viewing of the film?
When watching the movie I noticed that there were a lot of quick cuts that really had nothing to do with the plot of the film. At first this confused me but then I realized that it was not meant to do this. After viewing the film I looked it up and I found that the cuts were used to cut down the length of the movie. When it was first filmed the movie was too long. The editor cut out bits and pieces of the film to make it shorter. This later became known as jump cutting. This is now a very popular editing technique. To me it made the film very hard to view. They would be driving in a car and there would just be cut after cut after cut. After viewing another short clip with the same technique I realize what its purpose is. Its purpose is to draw attention to the constructed nature of the film.
Wild Strawberries
Movie: 1957, black and white, 91 min
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Actors: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson and Ingrid Thulin
Wild Strawberries is about a man named Isak who is about to get an award for being a doctor for 50 years. Isak is a very old man and is beginning his downfall in life. The award ceremony is a plane ride away but he decides that he wants to drive. He is going by car with his daughter-in-law who has decided to accompany him. Along the way they pass a few places that Isak has some fond memories of. These memories make him dream and hallucinate. In these dream worlds Isak begins to realize everything that he has done wrong in his life. He realizes that he has made many mistakes and that he is must a grumpy old man. He quickly tries to right his wrongs by helping people out and becoming less bitter. In this attempt he comes to realize that he is too late and he is just going to die hated.
- Why does Bergman choose to make the film a first person narrative?
In the film there is a narrator, Isak. The entire movie is told from his point of view and from time to time he goes on a rant where he is talking to the viewer and it is a narration. Bergman chooses to do this so that the viewer can relate to Isak. Since he is narrating the story of his life we can tell how sad he truly is. Whenever Isak is in a glum mood the viewer knows instantly because he is constantly telling us how he feels. In the last hallucination it is very confusing as to what is going on. There are a bunch of things that do not make sense. The only reason that I was not extremely confused was because of the narration. So, Bergman also puts in the narrations to clarify confusing things.
- How does Bergman differ between the real world and Isak’s dreams and hallucinations?
There are two main techniques that Bergman uses to differ between the real world and Isak’s dreams and hallucinations. Fist off, the dream worlds are filled with impossible things. For instance he is talking to his cousin that is the same age as him only she is a teen and he is still his 80-year-old self. Another thing that Bergman does, probably the most recognizable, is that he fades in and fades out to every dream. Most of the time before a dream we see Isak dozing off. When this happens the film fades away and then fades back in. when it fades back in we see Isak looking around dazed and confused. IN the first hallucination, he is in this memory of his. No one knows he is there and no one can hear or see him although he can hear and see everyone in the dream. This is also how we know it is not real. These are the techniques that Bergman uses.
M
Movie: 1931, black and white, 117 min
Director: Fritz Lang
Actors: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann and Inge Landgut
M is about a child murderer in a German city. In a German city children are being kidnapped and murdered every day. This makes the police very tense and on edge every day. When police begin to intrude on people’s business because they are looking for the murderer, people begin to get upset. For a group of criminals this murderer is putting them out of business because they cannot do crime with the police this careful. They decide to take matters into their own hands and hunt down the murderer themselves.
- From time to time the movie goes completely silent, why does Lang choose to do this?
At certain points in the movie the film just goes completely silent. Lang does this because he wants the viewer to focus all of their attention on what is going on the screen. He does not want the viewer to have to listen or in our case read the subtitles. This usually happens when something important is about to happen. In this way Lang prepares the viewer. He tells us to pay attention by making the movie dead silent. Not only does Lang cut the dialogue in the movie but he gets read of all non-diagetic sound as well. This is how we know that Lang really want the viewers’ attention.
- How does the opening scene foreshadow the rest of the movie?
In the opening scene of the movie we see a group of young children singing a song about a serial killer. They sing that if one is not careful the killer will take him. Then we see a maid tell the children to stop singing because that is an awful song and it will bring bad things. In the end the main girl that is singing the song gets taken and murdered by the killer that they were singing about. We could have guessed that something bad was going to happen because of what they were singing about. This is how the opening scene foreshadowed the rest of the movie.
