The Journey Ends

This week we watched Run Lola Run.  Run Lola Run is an riveting, heart beating epic pick your very own experience. Composed and directed by Tom Tykwer, Run Lola Run is the tale of a young lady, Lola, who gets a terrified telephone call from her long-lasting boyfriend, Manni. Manni owes a mobster 100,000 stamps and doesn’t have any idea of what to do. Lola, desperate to spare his life, consoles him that she can get the cash to him by early afternoon, when he should meet the mobster or else Manni would rob a supermarket. From that minute on, the movie  takes us through three trials of Lola’s preliminaries attempting to get Manni’s cash in 20 minutes. With each individual she comes into contact with, their lives take on totally various structures, as appeared by 30-second photograph flash montages. the film attempts to use a wide range of filmmaking techniques to help get the director’s meaning and vision across to the audience. Some of these include speed-up, instant replay, black and white, and even animation in some parts. The ideas are basic. How do our activities influence our very own lives, just as those whom we contact? What part do shot and irregular occasions play in deciding a result? Would we be able to choose an alternate outcome by settling on various decisions? To put it plainly, what is reality? In a compact ninety minutes consolidating cuts of movement, film verité, particular characters, circumstances and discourse, and a pace that makes most music recordings seem as though they’ve been shot in moderate movement, three adaptations of a similar story grouping unfurl, and each time close with a shocking completion that opposes show, and keeps the watcher speculating until the last casing. I really enjoyed this film for its quick pace, creative style and logic. The film is an intriguing idea, with little occasions impacting the ensuing chain of occasions in a huge way. There are philosophical and mystical feelings, as Lola appears to remember components from past runs of life. This forms a commentary on the idea of free will and fate, or more specifically, determinism. Covering this is possibility, or powers of nature outside our ability to control. This should then lead you to address whether Lola winning that huge amount of cash was simply chance shot or maybe a deterministic result. It was well shot and the music was fitting. I like that it was a film that endeavored to investigate conceivable outcomes and how various choices open up that aren’t constantly anticipated. I know it doesn’t make too much sense logistically, however I don’t get the feeling that it attempts to. It’s straightforward and to the point and I truly have fun while watching it. This is one of those uncommon artistic occasions that is engaging, fulfilling, and retaining, just as perfectly acted, organized, altered, delivered and coordinated. I imagined that Lola ran her race with energy and style, and left all others route behind in the dust.

Kosta, Barbara. Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Runand TheUsual Suspects: The Avant-Garde,Popular Culture, and History. http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113844-ch11.pdf.

ScreenPrism. “ScreenPrism.” In “Run Lola Run,” What Is the Meaning of Lola’s Screaming, screenprism.com/insights/article/in-run-lola-run-what-is-the-meaning-of-lolas-screaming.

As we approach the end of semester, I have to say I really enjoyed this class and feel like I learned a lot. I am always watching current movies so I feel like this class was great for showing us 90’s babies which films were actually influential to that time period. We started with films in the 1900’s all the way to the 1990’s. Even though I might have heard of some of these films, I have never got the chance to actually watch them myself. With this being said, there were definitely certain movies that I enjoyed so much that I might just have to watch a second time.

I was more into 90s movies more than everything else so such motion pictures like The Fly truly impacted my preference for drama sci-fi films. I really appreciated this film so much that I watched it a second time alone. The beautifying agents upgrades and gross outs are top notch, yet what is most amazing about The Fly is that it winds up being an inside and out acted and excited sentimental story. Jeff Goldblum is such an incredible character in this movie as he progressively changes into an epic fly. The change is gross in explicit spots, and verifiably horrible to watch. Such an outstanding film.

I can’t compose a blog about my preferred films for the semester without referencing Bonnie And Clyde. It was simply by and large an extraordinary film. From dreams of acclaim to wrongdoing binges, this film is simply activity stuffed. I simply feel like this film enlivened an age of movie producers just as the audience to take a look at film from an alternate perspective. Bonnie And Clyde had a major influence in my life as I would dependably find out about the dynamic team and stories however viewing the movie out of the blue was amazing and gloom, for the straightforward certainty that I didn’t anticipate that it would finish in such a terrible manner. This film is amazing to the point that I could go on about it forever Unquestionably a film worth watching once more, even with the tragic ending that it had.

I was never really a fan of the black and white films but I have to say The Bride of Frankenstein is a classic masterpiece of 1930s horror films. A terrific, peculiar, high-camp, over the top, entertaining, absurd and surrealistic film. Not so much scary for us watching it in the generation but I really feel like this movie had a great message to give and I will always remember this part of the film, when the monster having survived the fire in the mill which had supposedly killed him is taken in by a blind man say the man was not blind, he would have feared the monster for his looks  just as everyone else in the town did. It goes to show that the loner genuinely saw a good enough being in the monster to give him a place to stay. The Bride of Frankenstein is the true definition of ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’.

I can honestly go on for days about my time and the fun I had in this class. With such a great professor who is always enthusiastic about each and every single screening of the week making us hyped up about it is just such great energy between Professor Schlegel and the class. Every journey has to unfortunately come to an end, so until next time.

Cinéma du look and Diva

This week in class we talked about Cinéma du look, which is a French Film movement in which the by and large look or style of a film takes priority or is progressively important, over the plot line or story of a film. Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix and Leos Carax, these directors were said to support style over substance, display over story. It alluded to films that had a smooth, dazzling visual style. It’s primary spotlight is on youthful minimized/estranged youth, destined relationships, skeptical perspective on police, films in which youngsters lean toward friend bunch alliance, rather than familial connection and utilization of scenes in Paris Metro, the utilization of underground transport to symbolize elective underground society. French movie producers were motivated by New Hollywood movies, late Fassbinder films just as, television commercials music recordings, and design photography.

https://rachelweavercinemadulook.wordpress.com/

On wednesday we watched Diva. Diva has so much plot that I don’t even know where to start. Perhaps I’ll start with the two tapes the film is about. Tape one is the contraband record of the wonderful aria Ebben ne andro lontana from Alfredo Catalani’s musical drama La Wally, taped during the recital of the renowned musical show vocalist Cynthia Hawkins. On tape two Nadja, a prostitute, unveils who is the man behind a prostitution ring. The man who has these two tapes is Jules, who is a mailman. He has tape one because tape one because he’s the one who recorded it. He has tape two because Nadja slipped it into his bag just seconds before she’s killed. Not knowing why, Jules winds up escaping from the police and from the mob as a result of the last tape. Since Cynthia Hawkins dependably would not make tape recordings of her voice, two folks from the Taiwanese mafia, who sat simply behind Jules when he recorded his contraband, see their opportunity to make a fortune with it. Meanwhile, Jule progresses toward becoming companions with Cynthia Hawkins when he brings her back a dress he stole after her recital and they spend the day together. He also encounters Alba who is a nice, slick girl with a talent for shoplifting. All this is handled by director Jean-Jacques Beineix with great skill. It is its pop-art style it is it’s one of a kind classification blend of thriller and romance. It is Jules’ loft, which resembles blend of a studio and a garage, it is that magnificent pursue scene where Jules drives down the stairs and takes the Métro with his moped. The list goes on forever. Diva has a diverting story, delightful pictures, abnormal characters and joyous direction. Overall, Diva is an exercise in pure style, combining exciting “hip” visuals with extraordinary music. There are many movies like that, but what makes Diva so memorable is the manner in which it consolidates this smart realistic sight to behold with a dramatic plot, great acting, a dash of sentiment and sex, and even a sprinkling of philosophy. This is a film where the excitement never fails.

“Diva (1981): Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Delirious Debut.” Emanuel Levy, emanuellevy.com/review/diva-1981-9/.

Gibron, Bill. “Style Over Substance: Diva (1981)/ The Red Violin (1998).” PopMatters, PopMatters, 25 Feb. 2018, http://www.popmatters.com/style-over-substance-diva-1981-the-red-violin-1998-2496148056.html.

The Fly

The time of the 1980s would in general merge the increases made in the seventies as opposed to start any new patterns equivalent to the extensive number of disaster movies. buddy movies, or “rogue cop” movies that characterized the previous decade. Planned and bundled for mass gathering of people offer, couple of 80s movies progressed toward becoming what could be called ‘works of art’. The time was described by the presentation of ‘high-concept’ films with true to life plots that could be effectively portrayed by a couple of sentences and hence effectively attractive and justifiable.

Film History of the 1980s, http://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html.

David Cronenberg redefined what we think of as creepy with this brilliant film. A revamp of a schlocky 1950s science fiction beast flick where a researcher/designer constructs a teleportation machine with unintended results when a trial on himself turns out badly. But this version stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in their primes, and is made by David Cronenberg. Goldblum’s character Seth Brundle offers so many insightful and sad sometimes very funny thoughts during his transformation. We see the war between the natural powers in Seth, spoke to both in odd anatomical changes and in unobtrusive movements of thought and conduct that are considerably all the more aggravating. The mass of his encounters are not on the grounds that they’re unnatural, but since of how absolutely regular they are. This is nature, and it is shocking. Life battling to endure, apprehensive and alone. The film centers around the connection between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis at the top and once it goes ahead towards frightfulness it truly satisfies. It’s not simply startling, it’s a catastrophe as well. Jeff Goldblum is marvelous. He is entrancing as he conveys incredible exchange and once he’s scarcely unmistakable despite everything he gets through the cosmetics and you can feel the human inside. I can’t trust he didn’t get an Oscar for this present, it’s effectively his best execution. The cosmetics enhancements and gross outs are first rate, yet what is most astonishing about The Fly is that it ends up being an all around acted and enthusiastic romantic tale. Jeff Goldblum gradually transforms into a colossal fly. The change is gross in specific spots, and unquestionably terrible to observe. It isn’t gore for comedy’s sake it is quite shocking and very gory. The genuine violence is kept for 2 or 3 key minutes and is all the all the more stunning for its limited idea go through till at that point. The end itself demonstrates that it isn’t only an outright loathsomeness and that it has a heart and a head to coordinate it’s solid stomach. You can simply feel his girlfriends’s anguish and awfulness as she observes Goldblums’ staggering physical and mental change. Geena Davis gives a persuading act in that jobs as “Veronica Quiafe.” But among all that, it’s still entertaining and unpredictable as suspense/horror, and both leads are great to see. Not many people dislike Jeff Goldblum or Geena Davis, and this is at the very root of their careers where that charisma is raw and obvious.

Valero, Gerardo. “David Cronenberg’s.” RogerEbert.com, http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/the-fly.

Midnight Movies

This week, we watched the documentary, Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream.  is a well-constructed documentary that is entertaining and informative. Midnight movies are cult movies that cater to a certain kind of audience. This is an absorbing documentary about midnight movies, how they began, why they existed and did as such well and what killed them. This documentary arrangements with a couple of the best Midnight Movies at any point made, back when certain gatherings of people were ravenous for something other than what’s expected in their film going. Movies featured are El Topo, Night of the living dead, Pink Flamingos, The Harder they come, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Eraserhead. They interview the directors and distributors of all six films and they discuss how they got them out and the reactions of critics and audiences. It also explains why these movies were only successful as midnight movies. The documentary clarifies how these films ended up well known in the midnight schedule vacancy despite the fact that some of them were attempted at ordinary time showings. John Waters’ Pink Flamingo’s had a multi year in a row run while The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the prevailing champ with midnight screenings today where individuals dress as the characters and chime in to the infectious tunes in the film. There are people who have seen this film over 1000 times in the actual theater.  

“Stuart Samuels’ Midnight Movies.” Point of View Magazine, povmagazine.com/articles/view/stuart-samuels-midnight-movies.

On Wednesday, we watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the whole class had a little dialogue between the movie and the people. The film praises sex, gratification, even while playing out the threat, brutality, and disaster it can result in. It permits the crowd of generally youthful children to radiate and cheer in their sexuality, whatever it is. without ever taking their clothes off. There’s a bliss, and a weird honesty, in tossing tactless remarks at the screen, watching the live entertainers in front of an audience showcase the scenes in scandalous ensembles, and sharing the vitality namelessly in obscurity with outsiders. The insane, enhanced and essentially exceptional characters where every one is by all accounts at a close equivalent dimension despite the fact that everybody appears to have an undisputed top choice. The appealing tunes where one hit hits truly the following, the exceptionally innovative and astonishing situation which respects numerous buzzwords of the ghastliness and sci-fi kind and the diverse activities that must be finished amid specific scenes of the motion picture have all added to the way that this film has turned into an artful culmination that has still a major gathering of fans and supporters these days and has been exhibited as a melodic in numerous nations. The Rocky Horror Picture Show” turned out to be such a colossal religion most loved so rapidly. So tremendous even that the fans went to screenings all spruced up like drag-queens, chiming in with the tunes and waving around cigarette lighters. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a fantastic and unique movie in every aspect, and a musical with not only wonderful songs but a wonderful message, the celebration of life, the celebration of being different.

Hadjis, Georgia. “Rocky Horror Picture Show: An Analysis.” Medium, Medium, 14 Nov. 2016, medium.com/@georgiahadjis/rocky-horror-picture-show-an-analysis-ffb92cf06e80.

1960s American Cinema

On Monday, group 2 did their presentation on the musical Singin’ in the Rain and I just want to say, after seeing my classmate’s presentation on it, I’m more eager to see what Singin’ in the Rain is all about. I’m already familiar with some of the songs on this musical from how popular and important it was in the 1950s. Some of my favorite songs that I recognized were, “Good Morning” “ Singin’ in the Rain” and “Fit as a Fiddle”. Overall, I feel as if group 2 really did their research and enjoyed it at the same time. I definitely left class on Monday with more knowledge.

On Wednesday, we watched Bonnie And Clyde. It was overall a great film. The story is of two Texas young adults who, exhausted with their lives and the possibilities of going no place on the planet, choose to experience their fantasies of fame by going on a crime spree. They think of their robberies as harmless fun. They begin little by robbing markets and corner stores, yet graduate to banks when they need more cash to oblige their way of life. Before long they hire a gas clerk named C.W. what’s more, Clyde’s sibling and spouse in the posse, and the team goes down into history. At that point the fun and games are over. With law enforcement authorities currently searching for Bonnie and Clyde, they become focuses of abundance seekers, untrustworthy cops and other eager people who wish to become well known, and they lose a piece of their immature guiltlessness as the acceleration of their violations influences them to turn out to be increasingly fierce. When death finally comes for Bonnie and Clyde, it comes with a vengeance. One confusing thing for me was the relationship dynamic between Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde had some sort of sexual brokenness, and no one was certain whether it implied he was gay or the casualty of some kind of sexual maltreatment. I’m not sure what the film was exactly going for there. Bonnie is stunned and shocked when, in the wake of spending the main bit of the film attempting to charm her, Clyde pulls back when she endeavors to straddle him. he endeavors to clarify it, saying “Look, I don’t do that.  It’s not that I can’t it’s just that I don’t see no percentage in it. I mean there’s nothing’ wrong with me, I don’t like boys”. She tries to leave, accusing him of being a tease, but he urges her to still consider a relationship with him anyway. All through the film, Bonnie keeps on attempting and advance past kissing and nestling, which Clyde rejects, repeating that he’s not “a lover boy” Bonnie becomes confused and frustrated, eventually screaming, “Only special thing about you is your peculiar ideas about love making’ which is no love makin’ at all’. Clyde’s friends try to get answers about his sex life with Bonnie. Clyde is hesitant to speak, but eventually lies and sheepishly calls her a good lay. By the film’s end, Clyde is convinced to have sex with Bonnie. The dynamic is all excessively strange. Clyde wants to kiss, sleep in a bed with, and even marry Bonnie, however rejects any sort of sexual contact. Not on the grounds that he is principled or rebuffed, but since he is unbiased and befuddled by it. He can tell Bonnie is confused and angry with this, and attempts his best to satisfy her. The movie Bonnie and Clyde inspired a generation of filmmakers to look at cinema in a different light. Actions movies were allowed to be funny from this point. In the end, this in an excellent film about Depression era gangsters. This film is so amazing that I could go on about it for hours. Definitely a film worth watching again, even with the depressing ending that it had.

Kael, Pauline. “The Frightening Power of ‘Bonnie and Clyde.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/10/21/bonnie-and-clyde.

1950s and 1960s InternationalCinema Rise of the Independents/Exploitation

It Conquered Hollywood! The Story of American International Pictures was an hour long salute to American International Pictures. Stimulation legal advisor Samuel Z. Arkoff established AIP on a $3000 loan in 1954 with his accomplice, James H. Nicholson, a previous West Coast exhibitor and merchant. The organization made its imprint by focusing on youngsters with immediately created movies that misused subjects standard movies were hesitant to handle. From beasts to shoreline gatherings to cycle gangs to the hallucinogenic youth, many film cuts are appeared, featuring the organization’s fruitful quarter century keep running in Hollywood. Interviewees include Arkoff, Nicholson, Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Burns, Herman Cohen, Roger Corman, Dick Dale, Joe Dante, David Del Valle, Bruce Dern, Roger Ebert, Beverly Garland, Pam Grier, Susan Hart, James L. Honore, Al Kallis, Aron Kincaid, Mark Thomas McGee, Dick Miller, and Burt Topper. I enjoyed this documentary a lot because inspires the best recollections of the Second Golden Age of Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film of the Fifties and Sixties. Alongside Hammer Films of the UK and different endeavors AIP were producing little marvels which kept many Baby Boomers terrified half out of our minds with tasty little bad dreams. The only problem that I saw with this documentary is that it was fairly short. This documentary covers about 25 years worth of movies made by American International Pictures. It is nice to see now renowned film stars in a portion of their most punctual jobs, and old stars on their way down. AIP gave the young actors a testing ground, or start point in their soon to be, versatile careers. They mass delivered the movies as quick as they could discover performers, the movies would proceed to net a considerable amount of cash.

“AMC Salutes American International Pictures With ‘It Conquered Hollywood! The Story of American International Pictures.’” AMC Networks Inc, 26 Mar. 2001, http://www.amcnetworks.com/press-releases/amc-salutes-american-international-pictures-with-it-conquered-hollywood-the-story-of-american-international-pictures/.

I missed class on Wednesday but took the time to watch Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies. The Documentary jumpstarts with the long center segment concentrating on David Friedman, Doris Wishman and Harry Novak and the less notable Nudist, Nudie Cutie and Roughie Sexploitation time. This narrative is stacked with interesting clips and interviews with individuals required with exploitation movies of the 50’s and 60’s. Such individuals as Roger Corman, Doris Wishman, Harry Novack and others give understanding into the creation of loathsomeness, sex, and other low-budget motion pictures that makes one wish that period was still near. A good look at the whole exploitation phenomenon that began in the 50s. This film does a really good job of informing the viewer how and why exploitation movies became so popular. It looks at social and political forces that guided the rise and demise of the industry. It also looks at landmark films, directors and producers. and rather than focus just on their effect on exploitation films, it looks at their effect on mainstream films as well. Movies highlighted and talked about incorporate “The Defilers” “Basin of Blood” “The Terror” “The Immoral Mr. Teas” “Fair of Souls” “Kiss Me Quick” and “Miscreants Go To Hell” including many more. The clips themselves are brilliant with treat hued lights and bunches of sound T&A, or dim with threatening shadows and splattered with blood. In any case, the review involvement here is much similar to enjoying a rich gala, and is nearly in the same class as observing the first movies themselves. From the enduring impacts of World War 2, the danger of atomic obliteration and the bloody change of America during the 1960s, Schlock demonstrates to us the occasionally revolting, some of the time interesting yet continually engaging truth about the starting points of these incredible movies and their own enduring impact upon advanced Hollywood. Amazing documentary

Murray, Noel. “Schlock!: The Secret History Of American Movies.” Film, Film, 20 July 2018, film.avclub.com/schlock-the-secret-history-of-american-movies-1798199322.

“The GCDb.” Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies – The Grindhouse Cinema Database, http://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Schlock!_The_Secret_History_of_American_Movies.

Wild Strawberries Analysis

I really enjoyed Wild Strawberries. This is the first Bergman film I watched. The film truly has a place with its star Victor Sjöström. Sjöström stars as a crabby 78-year-old single man who leaves on a road trip from Stockholm to Lund to gather a respect from a college for his long stretches of administration as a physician. He and his pregnant daughter in-law (Ingrid Thulin) drive off together, and it isn’t some time before he takes on hitchhikers, and their essence, alongside the district, sets off a surge of old recollections that come hurrying to the surface. Through lovely superimpositions, Bergman demonstrates the past barging in on the present, as Sjöström grapples with the regrettable choices that decided his life’s course. I do not think there is any call to judge the professor. It never occurred to me that it was important for Isak to be one thing or another. Despite what might be expected, the references to Pauline Christianity, the judgement belongs not even to God. The trial he undergoes has a secular, civil character and is the subject of flippant discussion from the hitchhikers. I think it was extremely essential to demonstrate that his expert accomplishments didn’t conceal the slip-ups he made previously, some of which he effectively and intentionally made and others he obliged. His Jubilee becomes a trial rather than a celebration and he condemns himself to loneliness. This was one of my favorite scenes. ‘You’ve been found guilty.’ ‘What’s the sentence?’ ‘Oh, the usual: loneliness.’ To me, his genuine issue was that there were not any more wild strawberries, that the satisfaction he foreseen was never given to him and thusly he never searched for it himself. Even corpses laugh at the way he sucks at life. Isak’s conflict is still existential, and I think his character is designed to forestall an easy interpretation. Like Isak, I think it’s very easy for people who work with their minds like this to be in denial or have their head in the sand. Bergman catches the comprehensive quality of the film, that even individuals who show up blameless from a social perspective are not free from remorse, from the allegation that they have betrayed their past, their loves and their wants. No matter how you play the books, there is a shortage in the strawberry column, which cannot be made up, even if you could repeat the past, which you can’t. So while I feel firmly that Wild Strawberries is an ethical film, I believe it’s good in a more positive than negative sense. Morally informative as opposed to morally censuring. Isak’s fundamental freedom is finally confirmed when even at his age he starts to make a change in his life, which doesn’t really take him exceptionally far, but it’s a start for him. I think Bergman fleshes out these ethical issues, imperfectly, maybe however in the most straightforward conceivable way. I might just watch this film again. I think this is a very important film, not just for me but also for the western culture.

Tobias, Scott. “Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries Finds Regret and Peace in Aging .” Film, Film.avclub.com, 23 Aug. 2017, film.avclub.com/ingmar-bergman-s-wild-strawberries-finds-regret-and-pea-1798235330.

1940s/50s American Cinema, Aftermath of WW II -Film Noir

Film Noir: Bringing Darkness Into Light was a decent start up prompting Casablanca, it gives an inside and out Film Noir that has been made. There is constantly a lot of discussion about what includes a film noir. Film Noir: Bringing Darkness Into Light isolates the distinctive parts and meetings chiefs, cinematographers, and performers about the different components. Everything is talked about in this narrative, including the femme fatale, the light and shadows, destiny, the mind boggling male, and the sexual imagery. It is an excellent narrative. As opposed to just talking about film noir movies and inspecting a few unique motion pictures, this story speaks with a wide combination of present day makers and offers vital conversation starters. A standout amongst the most vital questions that I feel was asked was “what is film noir”. The story inspects what was the fundamental film noir, the last, the societal effects that acknowledged it, why it stopped to exist, and why it returned. Absolutely fascinating.

“Film Noir by Title.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, http://www.princeton.edu/~howarth/302/film-noir/page14.html.

Casablanca is by far one of the most popular films ever made and one of my favorites. It is about a man and a woman who are in love, and who sacrifice love for a higher purpose. Nobody making Casablanca thought they were making an incredible motion picture. It was basically another Warner Bros. release. It was made on a tight budget and released with little expectations. Everybody engaged with the film had been, and would be, in many different movies made under comparable conditions. Humphrey Bogart played strong heroic leads in his career. In Casablanca, he plays Rick Blaine, the hard-drinking American running a club in Casablanca when Morocco was an intersection for covert operatives, backstabbers, Nazis and the French Resistance. The opening scenes are filled with comedy. The exchange joins the negative with the weary, jokes with mottos. I saw that Rick moves easily in the corrupt world. One of the funny parts in this film was when the German Strasser asks Rick “What is your nationality?” and he replies, “I’m a drunkard.” Ilsa Lund (Bergman), is the lady Rick cherished years sooner in Paris. Under the shadow of the German occupation, he masterminded their getaway, and believes she abandoned him,  left him waiting in the rain at a train station with their tickets to freedom. A few of the scenes in this film are also pretty emotional. The bar’s piano player, Sam (Wilson), a companion of Rick and Ilsa in Paris, is alarmed to see her. She requests that he play the song that she and Rick made their own. He is hesitant at first, however he does it anyway, and Rick comes striding irately out of the back room. Then he sees Ilsa. This scene is not as strong on a first viewing as on subsequent viewings, because the first time you see the movie you don’t yet know the story of Rick and Ilsa in Paris; indeed, the more you see it the more the whole film gains resonance.  Rick obtained the letters from the wheedling little black-marketeer Ugarte (Peter Lorre) that will allow two people to leave Casablanca for Portugal and freedom. The sudden reappearance of Ilsa reopens all of his old wounds, and breaks his carefully cultivated veneer of neutrality and indifference. When he hears her story, he realizes she has always loved him. But now she is with Laszlo (Henreid). Rick wants to use the letters to escape with Ilsa, but then, he invents a circumstance in which Ilsa and Laszlo escape together, while he and his friend the police chief (Claude Rains) get away with murder. I like to consider Casablanca to be a film about a man who rediscovers a reason worth slaughtering for. In addition to its powerful message, it’s just a splendidly made motion picture. The screenplay is loaded with incredible lines, the cinematographer’s ageless, the music’s moving, and the acting is flawless.

Evra, Jennifer Van. “Casablanca at 75: Fascinating Facts about One of the Most Famous Films of All Time | CBC Radio.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 1 Dec. 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/casablanca-at-75-fascinating-facts-about-one-of-the-most-famous-films-of-all-time-1.4413515.

Censorship, 1930s European Cinema

Starting off with Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema I thought it was a quite great narrative covering the early time of film and how sexuality delivered the Hays Code and after that the Production Code, just as others, who endeavored to represent everybody by pushing their ethics. The narrative covers shots from as early as 1890s all the way to the Hays code being put into place. The Hays Code was the casual name for The Motion Picture Production Code, embraced in 1930 however not genuinely authorized until 1934. The Code was a lot of rules administering American filmmaking that molded American film for more than three decades. It additionally happened to totally cover with The Golden Age of Hollywood.  This is the perfect documentary for someone who is unfamiliar with this era. I most definitely picked up some new information that I did not know before. The narrative does a decent job at giving us this fundamental data and it’s most grounded focuses is the point at which it talks about how certain stars got fed up for Hollywood attempting to control their private lives.

“The Hays Code / Useful Notes – TV Tropes”. TV Tropes, 2019, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode.

I also want to briefly talk about fascinating it was to me how involved Hitler was in the cinematographic process in Triumph of the Will, as well as how he had trenches dug so Leni Riefenstahl could film troops from far below, and tracks installed on which her cameras could slide.

This is a pretty cool photo I found of Leni Riefenstahl  filming from one of her custom-built elevators for Triumph of the Will.

Now onto our full screening of the week, The 39 Steps is one of the prior Alfred Hitchcock British government operative pursue anticipation spine chillers from a vintage period, his eighteenth film. This film concerns the unfortunate destiny of emigrating Canadian Richard Hannay. By incidentally grabbing the lovely government operative Miss Annabella Smith while on a night out at the nearby music lobby, he ends up entrapped in a trap of interest and mechanical surveillance things being what they are, the covert agent was being chased for her associations with the 39 stages; a criminal gathering of covert operatives out to release British air plan insider facts abroad. With the government agent slaughtered in his apartment, Hannay must go on the run from both the covert operatives now after him and the police who trust him to have killed Miss Smith. The epic pursue beginning from a train venture through to the foggy slopes of Scotland. The second half of the film wrenches up the tension with different arrests and it turns out to be evident that it’s amazingly hard to realize who to trust at this point in the film. Worried that he is actually the killer, Hannay forces Pamela to stay the night with him in an inn pretending they’re a run away couple. The 39 Steps is additionally one of the primary Hitchcock’s film to completely push and try different things with the visual components as well.  Even the simplest of visual components have been changed and refined to give new and startling impacts. Overall, The 39 Steps is a critical film for Hitchcock. It unites the greater part of his real topics effectively and demonstrates a craving for experimentation yet not at the expense of the story or diversion value of the film.

Most Influential, Significant and Important Films in American Cinema – The 1960s, http://www.filmsite.org/thirt.html.

Studio Profiles, Europe: War & Reconstruction

Grand Hotel remains a classic masterpiece as the first all-star Hollywood epic with many high-powered stars of the early 1930s. The classic MGM film was directed by Edmund Goulding who had acquired the nickname “Lion Tamer” for his ability to deal with many temperamental Hollywood stars, as he did in this film. This film is about the lavish Grand Hotel in Berlin, a place where “nothing ever happens.” That statement proves to be false, however, as the story follows an intertwining cast of characters over the course of one tumultuous day. Greta Garbo is Grusinskaya, a ballerina whose jewels are coveted by Baron von Geigern (John Barrymore), a thief who fancies Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), a stenographer and the mistress of Preysing (Wallace Beery), businessman boss of Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a terminally ill bookkeeper who is under the care of alcoholic physician Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone). Greta Garbo is the temperamental Russian ballerina Grusinskaya and her artistic tantrums are getting less and less tolerable in many ways because of the Depression. John Barrymore is the aristocrat now living in genteel poverty. His world ended with World War I, but the Depression reduced him to being a sneak thief. There are several moments when characters refer to their sacrifices in the First World War. Lionel Barrymore is the terminally ill bookkeeper who now just wants to spend his last days living it up. He’s just going to ignore the Depression. Wallace Beery is the Prussian industrialist who’s used to high living having married the boss’s daughter, but his firm as so many others is about to go under unless he can pull off a merger. Lionel Barrymore is one of hundreds who work for him and know what an extremely little man he is, that Beery is really lacking in any real ability for business. Finally there’s Joan Crawford who’s a working class girl, hired as a stenographer by Beery who has other things on his mind for Crawford. Nobody embodied class and old world polish like John Barrymore. He hates the life that poverty has reduced him to. Using his old world charm as a facade for being a thief tears him inside. Meeting Greta Garbo gives him a last chance at redeeming his life. Utilizing his old world appeal as an exterior for being a hoodlum tears him inside. Meeting Greta Garbo gives him a last shot at recovering his life. Garbo’s performance was also amazing. I don’t think any other actress could have made you sympathize with the emotional ballerina. When John Barrymore enters her life he’s like the audience she entertained over the years rolled up in one person who still cares about her.  It’s a last chance for happiness for her as well. Personally, my favorite in Grand Hotel would be Lionel Barrymore Playing the gentle, terminally ill Kringelein. Three very different roles yet Lionel Barrymore imprints his personality on every one. An easygoing little man, he’s got enough courage now, boldness that comes out when you have absolutely nothing to lose. Grand Hotel is now almost 87 years old. The style of acting you see here is old fashioned. No one could remake Grand Hotel in the same style. It’s melodramatic, but it works. It’s a fascinating look into the last days of the Weimar Republic as seen from the balcony of a suite at the Grand Hotel in Berlin.

Most Influential, Significant and Important Films in American Cinema – The 1960s, http://www.filmsite.org/gran.html.