Queer Cinema

Introduction

According to Hayward (2013), Queer Cinema had existed long ago before it was given for an official label until the global traumatizing effect of AIDS in the early 1990s. It was being introduced as a concept during the Toronto Film Festival in 1991. Queer Cinema had been identified with an avant-garde cinema. Its identification has emerged in the mid-1980s through the influence of Queer Theory.

Theory Discussion

Queer Theory is a development of the feminist theory which shares the interest to push further in the non-straight expression of sexuality and gender. As mentioned by Hayward (2013), the Queer theory can be considered as one of the earliest postmodern theories of the early 1990s. It combines a wide range of study which includes all homosexual approaches to the living practices, which includes those within our context and popular culture.

There are four approaches of the Queer theory that had been used to conduct a queer reading of texts. Firstly, queer theory can be seen through popular cultural texts that directly address the homosexual audiences. The filmmakers might overtly include homosexual context, such as homosexual characters in the film to target those non-straight audiences. Besides, we can also see queer theory through works that seem straight or direct to straight audiences, yet these works are also being appreciated by the non-straight audiences. Those contexts that were initially straight would also be viewed as queer. Thirdly, there are several contexts that are made by straight filmmakers, theorist, critics or producers but concerning the non-normative straightness. They would bring up some discussion regarding queer or homosexuality into their film. The last approach would be films and popular cultural context that express the topics beyond the gender binaries and sexuality categories. It can either go beyond the understandings of the normative straightness or the understanding of gay and lesbian.

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

Synopsis

Megan is a high school student who loves cheerleading and also looks at her fellow cheerleaders. Her lesbian behavior was being suspected by her family and friends, so she was being sent to the reparative therapy camp that “cures” homosexuality, which is called as the True Direction. After Megan realized that she is a homosexual, she started to fall in love with Graham. She was then being dispelled from the camp when she was found to sleep with Graham but Graham is staying till the end of the program and both of them were being separated. During Graham’s graduation, Megan confessed to Graham and both of them stays together.

Analysis

This movie is based on the first approach of the Queer theory mentioned. It is the assessment of popular cultural context that directly addresses the non-straight audiences. This is because it includes a lot of homosexual texts in the content. We can see several representations of queer characters from the film that are queer. For instance, Megan, Graham and those students from the reparative therapy camp are the homosexual characters, which consists of gay, lesbian and bisexual. We can see various representations of homosexual from these characters.

Firstly, Megan is a homosexual who realized her sexuality only after she participates in the reparative therapy as she seemed to be forced to admit her sexuality based on some of her homosexual traits. Before that, she always thought that she is straight despite that she already had a boyfriend. However, she did not realize that she does not really enjoy kissing her boyfriend and unconsciously interested in her fellow cheerleaders. After she realized her “true” sexuality, she slowly falls in love with Graham when time goes on. Therefore, Megan had represented the marginal character who shares the traits of a homosexual without any realization until the society labels her to be one and made her be the real homosexual. Next, we can see Graham as a representation of homosexual who afraid to counter normative sexuality given by the authority. Unlike Megan, Graham is clear that she is homosexual since the beginning. However, when it comes to the authority, it is hard for her to admit this to her parents that she is still a homosexual after several stages of “treatment”. We can also see the representatives of queer who did not want to admit their homosexuality because of the denial of the society. As we know, the society in this film is pretty much anti-homosexualism. Mike, who brought Megan to the camp claimed that he is an ex-homosexual but he seems to have interest on Mary Brown’s son, Rock. Eventually, Rock has also no interest in female as well. People think that both of them are straight as they hide their sexuality from the society.

In the society that I live in, homosexual is still not accepted in general as we have the anti-gay marriage in our country. There are people who are open-minded enough to accept the homosexual but there are still many more who against that and eventually discrimination and stereotype them. Therefore, I think that representations like Megan and Graham are not appropriate to the society. However, representations like Mike and Rock are appropriate as no one in the society knows their true sexuality and might think that they are straight. Hence, they are still acceptable for the society.

Conclusion

Queer theory re-examines the images and subjectivities of sexualities and genders. It encourages equality in the queer readings that should not have any domination but everything should be stand equal. It examines all the queer works regardless it was done by the straight or non-straight individual. The queer theory does not concern with the positive images for queerness but it emphasizes multiplicity. What we can learn from Queer theory is that nothing is objective and everything has more than one way of thinking.

References

Hayward, S. (2013). Cinema Studies The Key Concepts, 4th ed.. USA: Routledge.

Documentaries

Introduction
According to Desktop Documentaries (n.d.), the documentary is a type of film that utilizes the video and film scenes, photographs, sounds of a real person as well as a real event which combined together to create a story, viewpoint, message or experience. It is usually used to reveal the certain truth, story or viewpoint which had never been discovered.

Theory Discussion

To distinguish the style and type of documentaries, Bill Nichol came out with the six models of representation. It is used to categorize the type of documentaries so that the filmmakers can know their audiences in a more effective way. The following are the six models of representation:

1. Poetic

The poetic documentary filmmaker representing reality by creating fragmented footages and arrange them together to arouse the audience's association (Anderson-Moore, 2015). This mode of documentation emphasizes the mode, tone, and effect instead of displaying the knowledge or persuading the audiences.

2. Expository

This is a descriptive and informative formed of documentaries, which aims to share knowledge with the audiences. It will include an authoritative voiceover into the visuals to explain about things that happen inside the film. It is an objective documentary as it gives a direct description of the topic to the audiences.

3. Observational

Because of the changing of technology in the 1960s, the filmmakers embraced the observational documentaries (Anderson-Moore, 2015). This type of documentaries allows the filmmakers to record the subject without any interruption. Unlike expository documentation, this documentary doesn’t include any audio, interview or effects into the film. The audiences can only learn about the subject through observation of the film.

4. Interactive

These documentaries invite the subject to participate with the filmmakers. Unlike observational documentaries, the presence of the filmmakers can be known in this documentaries because of their interaction with the interviewees. The truth of a certain topic will be revealed by the interviewees instead of the filmmakers in this type of documentaries.

5. Reflective

Instead of asking the people about the truth of the topic, the filmmakers of reflective documentaries will put themselves into the situation or event for revealing the truth behind the scene. The camera movement in this documentaries may be shaky because it was shot in an actual incidence. It is highly believable because the filmmakers can make the audiences feel the filmmakers who engage themselves in the situation.

6. Performative

Documentaries can also be presented in the form of narration. In a performative documentary, the filmmakers focus more on the poetic and expressive aspect of the film. This type of documentary can be divided into two different type. One of them is the docu-drama, which is a documentary that uses multiple fiction filmmaking techniques in the documentary. Another one is mockumentary which uses various modes of representation of documentary to produce a fictional film so that it can bring out a realistic feel for the audiences.

Quarantine (2008)

Synopsis

Angela Vidal and Scott Percival are recording the documentary of the firefighters. An emergency happened in the neighborhood so Angela and Scott followed the firefighters to the scene, which is an apartment. There was an elderly woman turned savage and attack a police officer. Slowly, her deceased started to infect those she killed and it then spread to the rest of the people in the apartment. As all the people were trapped inside the apartment without any way to escape the apartment safely, they were all killed by the infected victims.

Analysis

This film actually falls under the performative mode of a documentary because of the fictional aspect of the film. This is actually a mockumentary, which the event that happened in the film is unreal and it uses multiple modes of representation in the film.

First of all, this film seems to be a reflexive documentary almost all the time. The reporter, Angela and the cameraman, Scott are actually putting themselves in the fictional event. The camera I pretty shaky most of the time. By using this technique, the movie seems to be realistic and it could trick the audiences to perceive this as a real incident that happened in the apartment.

Next, this film had also used the expository mode to describe the incident that happened on the screen by using the "Voice-of-God". We can hear the authoritative voiceover with the combination of the visuals that were recorded by Scott. For instance, when the CDC arrived at the apartment, they went to check the two victims that were being bitten in a room. They did not allow Angela and Scott to enter the room so both of them tried to sneak peak from the room next door. While recording that, Scott explained the things that he saw in the camera. This expository mode could let the audiences know about things that happened on the screen without using the reporter but using an authoritative voiceover.

This film had also used the interactive mode of documentary. We can see the presence of the cameraman is being known to the audiences while the reporter, the cameraman, and the interviewees are interacting with each other. For example, at the beginning part of the movie, Angela interviewed and firefighters in the fire station. We can see a lot of times that Angela or the interviewees are interacting with Scott by talking to him or just looking at the camera. This had made the presence of the cameraman to be known to the audiences.

Conclusion

Documentaries had been evolving since from a series of fragmented visuals to docu-drama over the years. Some filmmakers also try to implement the technique of filming a documentary in filming a fictional story, which knows as a mockumentary, like a movie Quarantine (2008). This is because it can make the audience believe the fiction as it seemed like it happens in a real event. Therefore, documentaries are no longer just something that is non-fiction and boring. It also requires a lot of creativity to make it interesting,

References

Anderson-Moore, O. (2015). Nichols’ 6 Modes of Documentary Might Expand Your Storytelling Strategies. Retrieved from https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling.

Desktop Documentaries. (n.d.). What Is A Documentary?: Exploring the world of non-fiction film. Retrieved by https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/what-is-a-documentary.html.

Rocchi, J. (n.d.). Quarantine. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/quarantine.

Feminist Film Theory

Introduction

Feminism is a political ideology which aims to achieve a social equality of sexes. In the film, the male is usually the one who plays a stronger role in the story, whereas the female is usually represented as a man’s supporting character or even a sexual object. Although we have films that were created by female filmmakers in the 1920s for women to express their own subjectivity, but the feminist theory only came fully in the late 1960s because of the second wave of feminism (Hayward, 2013).

Theory Discussion

Laura Mulvey plays a really important role in contributing feminism in the film. She attempts to address the issue of female spectatorship. She had expended the term “scopophilia” by Christian Metz which means the pleasure from viewing. This process involves the spectator getting pleasure from subsequently connects the point of view of the male protagonist to look at the female figure in the film. The ideology of feminism is against this act, which also can be called the Male Gaze because women should also have the opportunity to derive their visual pleasure from a film as a spectator.

There are several ways in which feminism can be seen in the films. Firstly, the mistreated and abusive act given to female can be shown in the film. This is could express the feeling of women while they were treated in a horrible way by a patriarchal society to increase the awareness of why the female should be treated equally in the society.

The next approach is using different female representatives in the film and studies the development of these representatives. By using this approach, more female characters would appear in the film as compared to male characters and it could enhance the role of the female in society from the cinematic perspective. Among all these representatives, there will be one representative who wins the rest of them and is the most preferred role for the female.

Lastly, we can see the element of feminism by creating a role for a woman and make the audiences feel about the woman. In this approach, the female is usually being represented as an independent or strong individual which could survive in a chaotic environment. This is to make the spectators feel the ability of women who can also be as strong as men.

Easy A (2010)

Synopsis

Olive Penderghast lied to her best friend, Rhiannon Abernathy about her losing her virginity on a date. This rumors had been spread all over the school and people had changed their perception of Olive. A lot of people started to seek Olive for helping them to increase their popularity by pretending to have sex with her. This had made Olive realized that more people started to harass her. As she wanted to change, she asked those who she helped to help her in return but none of them wants to. Therefore, Olive ended up spreading the truth via webcast and choose to live the life she wants.

Analysis

This movie can be considered as a feminist film based on the approach of using multiple female representatives in the film. As we can see throughout the film, the female characters are playing a bigger role than the men. This movie had also shown how all these different representatives developed in the whole narration and achieve their outcome.

First of all, let’s start with Olive Penderghast who is the main character in this film. This character is a helpful and kind person as she is willing to help a lot of people even though she needs to bear all the consequences. For instance, she is willing to help Ms. Griffith to save her marriage even though she puts the blame on Olive who is innocent for making Micah have chlamydia. Next, we have Rhiannon who is the best friend of Olive but turns out harassing her because Olive becomes more popular than she is. There is also another representative who seemed to against Olive all the time, named Marianne, because of her strong religious beliefs that disagree with the Olive having sex before marriage. Fourthly, Ms. Griffith, the counselor of the school, whom I think is the most terrible women among the rest because she blamed Olive for transmitting chlamydia to Micah though she is the one who did this. Although Olive helped her bearing the blame, Ms. Griffith is unwilling to help her when she is in need. Lastly, we have Ms. Penderghast who is a supportive mother of Olive. Even though she heard the rumors of her daughter having sex with many men but she still trust her daughter and gave her the support she needs instead of scolding her or make her feel bad.

Among all these representatives, Olive is the most preferred choice. Not just because she is kind but she had shown the audiences that all women have a choice to live in their own way to live and no one has to right to insult. For example, Olive declaring that "it's nobody's goddamn business" to know when she will lose her virginity on the webcast because it is all her choice and nobody has the right to decide.

Conclusion

It is good to see that many films nowadays are containing the feminist elements inside the show. Though there are still films which show female as a supportive character or even the Male Gaze object but the gender equality is still being achieved because there are still a lot of films which use female as a protagonist or a strong and independent character. Some films have also made male as the helpless character or even figure of a female gaze. Just like how the society is, we couldn’t really eliminate those sexual object element in the film but at least we can make it equal for both of the sexes so that the feminist theory can be achieved.

References

Hayward, S. (2013). Cinema Studies The Key Concepts, 4th ed.. USA: Routledge.

French New Wave

Introduction

French New Wave is a film movement that was introduced by a group of young filmmakers who did not manage to enroll in the French commercial cinema and turned out to write about films back in the 1950s. This film movement is totally revolting the traditional way of storytelling, and they had created a new language for the film (Parnell, 2016).

Theory Discussion

Similar to those traditional films, French New Wave films also have their own characteristics and principles. From the aesthetic point of view, their main goal is to reject the traditional filmmaking ways, such as the uses of plot and script. The filmmakers from the New Wave never write their own script. As stated in the article by Renée (2013),  the filmmaker from French New Wave doesn’t really care about the story but the artist's’ vision. They think that artists should not be restricted and have the freedom to experiment and make their story in their own unique way.

Besides, French New Wave films are using a unique way of shooting. Continuity is really essential for the traditional filmmakers in 1950s but the New Wave filmmakers don't really emphasize on that. Sometimes we may also see a shot or scene is taken in a long take. The filmmakers do not use a specific lighting but they rely on the available lights from the location and they usually use handheld cameras while shooting for their films.

Moreover, we can always feel that we are actually being brought into the scene and interact with the characters. The film often calls the attention of the audiences, not only through their cinematography but also the behavior of the actors. Even we see that the character is alone in a particular scene but this doesn’t really make us feel that way because the actors may communicate or talking to the camera and had created an interaction with the audiences.

Regarding the acting, we can always see that the actors will usually improvise their own dialogues that could reflect the real-life conversation as the filmmakers do not provide a particular script. Actors have a lot of freedom while they are acting and they can even create their lines spontaneously. Other than the dialogues, the actors also tend to behave immorally and they usually act in an anti-authoritarian way. We can also see that women play a really strong role in the French New Wave films. All these behavior of the actors in the New Wave films are totally against the acting from the traditional films.

Breathless (1959)

Synopsis

Michel is a criminal who killed a policeman that was chasing after him for stealing a car. As Michel was running away from the police, he met Patricia and fell in love with her. Patricia doesn't really know about the identity of Michel and unwittingly hid him in her apartment. When Patricia was being questioned by the policeman about Michel, the policeman revealed Michel’s identity as a criminal for Patricia. Patricia gave up Michel to the police and admit that to him. In the end, Michel was being found by the police and shot by them on the street.

Analysis

In this film, we can see the unique mise-en-shot of the French New Wave films. We can see that the filmmaker is obviously using a handheld camera because the footages are really shaky throughout the whole films. We can also find a lot of scenes are taken in a long shot. For example, when Michel encountered Patricia on the street for the first time, this scene is taken in a really long take without any close-up or over the shoulder shot. The whole conversation is taken in only one take which lasts for a really long period of time as compared to the length of an average shot from other films.

Besides, there are a lot of jump cuts can be found in the film. We can see that the event happened in a particular scene will suddenly change and this had literally broken the continuity of the scenes. For instance, after Michel and Patricia staring at each other in the apartment, the next shot will suddenly be their kissing shot without including them approaches each other or seduce for the kiss. The jump cut in this shot is really surprising but it loses the connectivity of the two shots next to each other.

In term of acting, the actors of this films had improvised their own dialogues. This may not be a good trait of a film in my opinion because sometimes the actors will include some really unnecessary lines in their dialogues and make the audiences feel bored. It was really boring when we see Michel and Patricia talk a lot of unrelated subjects while there are in the apartment and the whole point of this conversation that last for more than 10 minutes is Michel asking Patricia to join her to Italy. This characteristic had already distracted my focus in this scene because of including a lot of unimportant lines in the conversation for too long.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the French New Wave is similar to the YouTubers nowadays. Some of them are not from the industries and might not follow the norm of filmmaking, but they create films that are able to deliver to the mass amount of audiences. I don’t really like about French New Wave because a lot of their characteristics had made me lost interest in watching the film. Therefore, it is clear that the norm of filmmaking should be followed to create a film that is aesthetically and psychologically attractive to the audiences.

References

Parnell, L. (2016). The French New Wave: Revolutionising Cinema. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/.

Renée, V. (2013). The Script Doesn't Matter: French New Wave Director Claude Chabrol's View on Style. Retrieved from https://nofilmschool.com/2013/08/french-new-wave-director-claude-chabrol-on-theme.

Film Noir

Introduction

In French, the term “noir” means black or dark. Film noir is a filmmaking style that is characterized by the elements of using cynical heroes, distinct lighting effects, frequent flashbacks, complicated plots, and existentialist philosophy (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). This film movement often applies in crime film or mysterious films which features the theme of darkness and downbeat. It was started after World War II when women began to be independent, have power and social status.

Theory Discussion

The story in a noir film usually involves a male character who is cynical, hard-hearted, and disillusioned who encountered a female character who is beautiful but seductive femme fatale. The female character will usually use their sexuality to manipulate the male character to fall for her and fulfill her desire, which then leads the men to corruption and a downfall (filmsite.org, n.d.). The male main characters in film noir who are hard-hearted are usually detectives or investigator who solve the case and reveal the truth or plot of the femme fatale. This is to portray the independence and the job-earning power of women after the war that was being a threat to the men in the society and to preserve the masculinity, dominance or status of the men.

Moreover, the mood of a film noir is normally dark, pessimism, alienation, and the tones of the film are often hopeless and desperate. The narrations mostly relate to criminal motives and murders. The protagonist or the anti-heroes in the film are usually morally-ambiguous in nature which the bad side of them will usually lead them to corruption and downfall. They are normally cynical, insecure and obsessive which will cause them to fall for the femme fatale. This had also portrayed how men were corrupted because of the dominance of women in the post-war era.

Furthermore, the storylines are usually nonlinear and twisting. As it is a criminal or mysterious film, the plot is often meant to be complicated and indirect. The reason why for this is because the case that is going to be solved by the protagonist detective or investigator is often misled by the femme fatale so that she will not be found guilty. This could further enhance the hopeless mood and bring out the chaotic feel of the film.

Last but not least, film noir is actually an influence on expressionist films. Film noir films will also use low key and high contrast lighting to create a gloomy appearance. The shots are usually taken at night with a low lighting as it can bring out the sense of danger in the narration and the characters also tend to have a very huge and sharp cast shadow to show the morally ambiguous trait of the character. The shots are also often taken in low angle as another way to create the distortion feel for that particular scene without using an unnatural distorted background that can be seen in an expressionist film.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Synopsis

Sam Spade and Miles Archer were approached by Ms. Wonderly to follow Floyd Thursby. Unfortunately, Miles was killed while he was following Floyd Thursby. Then, Sam meets Brigid O'Shaughnessy and she seduces Sam for help. However, her identity had been revealed by Gutman to Sam. Sam turns over Brigid O'Shaughnessy to the police when he realized that she was the one who killed Miles.

Analysis

The Maltese Falcon (1941) is actually one of the famous film noir films. One of the film noir’s traits that we can find is the role of the cynical and hard-hearted man with a beautiful yet seductive femme fatale. Sam Spade is a detective who is cynical and hard-hearted. We can see him showing his traits in the movie. We can see a lot of time that Sam hardly falls for any of the women and his role had also dominated any of the women in the story. Besides, we can also see Brigid O'Shaughnessy to be the most obvious representative of a femme fatale in the film. She tried to seduce Sam a lot of time. It is pretty effective at the beginning but once the truth is known by Sam, her sexuality is no longer work for a hard-hearted detective, Sam who turned her over to the police even she tried to get the sympathy of Sam.

Besides, the setting of this film is also pretty much influenced by the expressionist. Some shots are taken at a low angle in this movie to show the distortion of the shape of the character. Other than that, we can also see a lot of scenes are being shot in a low key and high contrast lighting. For example, the scene where Miles is being killed is shot in a really dark but high contrast lighting. This is to show the darkness of the plot in this scene and also to give the sense of mystery for the person who killed him.

Lastly, this story is using a dark and pessimism tone throughout the film. As this is a crime film, this tone is suitable to show the mysterious feel of the story. It also involves murders, lies, and attacks which we couldn’t see any cheerful element in this film.

Conclusion

As the industries of the film slowly developed, film noir is also evolved as the time change. A lot of film noir films are shot in color but still featuring the femme fatale in the film. Besides, some films had started to use female as the anti-heroes or the protagonists. Modern noir films are using different cultural perspectives and involve women’s liberation in the narration. Regardless of how film noir had changed, the issues of corruption, greed, and lust still remain.

References
Encyclopaedia Britannica. n.d. Film Noir. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/film-noir.

filmsite.org. n.d. Film Noir. Retrieved from http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html.

German Expressionism

INTRODUCTION

Artists tend to convey their emotion or feeling in many kinds of arts, such as paintings, literature, music etc and creates an expressionist art. This had also included the film which was developed by German back in 1920. According to Bordwell and Thompson (2010), a lot of films back in that year were influenced by the style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) which was the first successful expressionist film in history and this had lasted for several years.

THEORY DISCUSSION

German expressionist depends heavily on the mise-en-scene of the film. This is because the visuals had actually played a very important role in the expressionist film to bring out the emotion of the narration. The themes for the German expressionism usually involves rebel, self-analysis, insanity, primitive and sexual savagery. There are various styles that often being used in the expressionist film.

First of all, expressionist innovated the use of oblique camera angles in most if their films. According to VideoEditingSage.com (n.d.), this type of angle is being known as The Dutch Tilt, which is one of the cinematic strategy where the camera is tilted to one side so that the plane of the horizon meets the bottom of the camera frame at a certain angle to create an “in balance” or “uneasiness” feel for the shot or scene of the movie. Audiences will also put themselves on a high alert situation and feel tension while watching the movie. This tactic often used by German expressionist as they are able to express the sense of insanity, madness, and betrayal in the movie.

Next, it is often to see distorted bodies and shape in expressionists’ films. The difference of using a character or an object with the correct proportion and using those with distorted ones is the feeling that it can give to the audiences. By distorting the shape of an object, it is more easily to express idea emotion or feeling. For example, instead of using a realistic tree, it is easier to use a really twisted one to bring out the fear of the audiences. This is why expressionist tends to against the actual proportion of some different objects.

Besides, expressionist will also tend to use high contrast lighting to create dramatic shadows. High contrast lighting not only can create a scary atmosphere in a horror movie but it also ideal to create a romantic and mysterious atmosphere. It might be unnatural sometimes but it could really express the emotion of fear, love, and curiosity.

Lastly, German expressionist will also create a surreal and Gothic content or unnatural acts in their narration, which is against the norm of a realistic story. They usually build a bizarre and incongruous setting in the storyline to express the chaotic situation of the content. Although it is unnatural but the exaggeration of the content can let the audiences to feel the story in a more effective way.

MOVIE: THE CORPSE BRIDE (2005)

SYNOPSIS

The parents of Victor and Victoria had planned a marriage for the two of them. However, Victor had created a huge chaos during the rehearsal and he ran to the forest. Victor unintentionally proposed to Emily while he was practicing for the wedding and he was brought to the world of the death. Victor was terrified but he slowly fell in love with Emily and he is willing to sacrifice his life to marry her. Nevertheless, Emily realized that she does not deserve to have Victor’s life for their marriage and she left him with Victoria.  

ANALYSIS

One of the traits of German Expressionism that can be found in this movie is the rebellion of norms from the characters, especially Victoria. The story reflects the restriction of Victoria’s freedom from her parents. As she fell in love with Victor so badly, she had started to revolt her parents’ order for the sake of her love. For instance, Victoria tried for a lot of times to tell her parents that Victor had married to a corpse, Emily, but they refuse to listen and eventually shut her up in her room. However, Victoria rebels the orders and sneak out from her room to save Victor. This scene had shown one of the themes of expressionism which is the revolt.

Besides, this movie also uses a lot of oblique angles in the scenes. For example, when Victor practices his vow after he ran into the forest, we can see several shots in this scene that is taken in an oblique angle. This tactic had successfully alerted the audiences and make them think that something bad is going to happen on Victor. Thus, we can feel the tension and excitement in a lot of scenes in this movie, especially those that were shot in oblique angles.

Last but not least, we can find a lot of distortion of shapes or bodies in this movies. It is really crucial for a horror story like this to have distorted objects because it can express the danger of the situation or the fear of the characters and the audiences. One of the examples is also the scene of Victor practicing his vow in the forest. Audiences are able to know that something bad is going to happen to Victor or he is staying in a dangerous place by just looking at the setting of the background. The trees that are designed in this movies are twisted and slanted. It is really abnormal and unnatural to have trees in such shapes but this distortion had successfully expressed the alarming atmosphere in this scene.

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, German expressionism can easily be found in fantasy and horror films. The distorted shape of the objects and the environment, as well as the unusual camera angles, are really crucial to bring out the sense of terror and mystery. Unlike the way they did in the past, these can be achieved without setting up the props in the studio but people nowadays are using CGI or Visual Effects to create such distorted visuals. A lot of animated movies, like Corpse Bride (2005) are applying expressionism style as well. Therefore, this trend is still being preserved in some modern films today.

References

Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York, America: McGraw-Hill.

VideoEditingSage.com. (n.d.). Camera Angles The Dutch Tilt: How to Set a Darker Mood!. Retrieved from https://www.videoeditingsage.com/camera-angles-dutch-tilt.html.

Italian Neorealism Film - The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Introduction

Before World War II began, Italian cinema was fell under Benito Mussolini. The cinema in the pre-war era was used as propaganda to promote fascism. (Collinson, 2012) After World War II, Italian Neorealism started to form and the cinema in that era was no longer meant for making propaganda anymore.

Theory Discussion

According to Bordwell and Thompson (2010), Italian Neorealism represents a younger generation’s desire in the early 1940s to break free of the conventions of the old Italian cinema. It did not serve for propaganda anymore and it started to highlight contemporary events or national experience that happened in the society.

The film of Italian Neorealism was usually shot in a more melodramatic way. The mise-en-scene by Neorealist relied on actual locales to bring out the realistic feel and the social consciousness. As World War II had brought an impact on the set supplies and sound equipment for the filming, the photographic work of Neorealist was tended toward the raw roughness of documentaries, and bits of negative stock from the street photographers were brought so that the films were able to shot with various photographic qualities.

Besides, non-actors were mostly being recruited in the films instead of actual professional actors because of their realistic looks and behaviors. The Neorealist often uses recorded audio and then inserts it into the film. They will also tend to loosen up the narrative relation. The events that happened in the film were sometimes unplanned and the Neorealists were refused to yield an omniscient knowledge of events.

Italian Neorealist Film - The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Synopsis

An unemployed man, Antonio Ricci received a job of hanging posters around war-torn Rome. As he needed a bicycle to work for this job, his wife sold his mattress to get him a bicycle. However, his bicycle was then being stolen while he was working and it could ruin his job. Antonio was desperately looking for the missing bicycle together with his son but they failed. Antonio then stole a bicycle from a random person but he did not succeed. Thanks to his son, the owner of the bicycle felt pity and released Antonio instead of bringing him to the police.

Analysis

This film can be considered as an Italian Neorealism film because several traits were found in the movie. First of all, this film is shot on actual locales or on-location. Like what we can see throughout the movie, the narration is totally shot in a real place. We can also see that this story happened in a post-war era based on the building at the beginning part of the movie, which is all new, clean and white. We can also learn this from the number of people who were unemployed when they were gathering at for the job announcement. Besides, this can also be shown by the goods selling scene. Other than Antonio and his wife, we can see a lot of people were also lining up for selling their goods because of the economic crisis that happened in that era due to World War II. This had also reflected the contemporary national experiences that faced by the people of that era.

Moreover, we can find certain scenes that are shot with unplanned events. For instance, the event that happened in the stadium at the end of the story was not planned by the director or the producer of the movie. It was an actual event that happened on that day. With the number of people came out from the stadium, I don’t think that this production had the amount of budget to recruit this much of people for the film, especially during the postwar era that affects the economy of the society so badly.

Another trait of Neorealism that can be found in this movie is about the use of non-actors instead of professional actors. Almost all of the characters in this film were actually non-actors, including the main characters of the film. The role of Antonio was actually played by a factory worker who does not want to be an actor (Snider, 2015). When this production is announcing for a 9-year-old boy to act in this film, a woman submitted a photograph of her boy. However, the director does not want the boy but the man behind, who is the father the boy to act for as the leading man. Furthermore, the role of Antonio’s son was actually played by a kid who was just hanging around. According to Snider (2015), this boy who was in the crowd of the spectators during the filming was hired on the spot by the director.

Conclusion

Italian Neorealism is a great approach to create a realistic film that reflects the contemporary events of the surroundings and raise the social conscious after World War II. As it motivated to rebuild national reputation, Italian Neorealism had brought to an end after Italy began to prosper. It was no longer popular in Italy, and the Italian cinema started to rely on the foreign appreciation.

References

Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York, America: McGraw-Hill.

Collinson, M. (2012). The Charming Story of Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Retrieved from http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/charming-story-cinecitta-studios-rome.

Snider, E. D. (2015). 11 Heart-Stealing Facts About Bicycle Thieves. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/70637/11-heart-stealing-facts-about-bicycle-thieves.