Weekly Journal Blog Movie Review 8: Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica (1948)

So far we have learned that there is two impressionism which is the German Expressionism and the French Expressionism. This week we will be discovering a third impressionism that is called the “Italian Neorealism.”

Cesare Zavattini was the theoretical founder of neo-realism in 1942, suggesting a new form of Italian cinema that abolishes contrived and planned plots, use real people and locations so that direct contact is established with contemporary social reality. In plot terms, Zavattini looked at plots as a fake structure of “everyday life.” In actors terms, professional actors are hired to compliment the falsehood. They apply the Contemporary Social Realism by having unconditional on the ordinariness of Today, Today Today.

The elements of the Italian Neorealism includes:

l Shot on-location, in the ruins of the post-war era

l Used grainy film stock, giving it its newsreel look

l Sound recorded and added after the shoots

l Used mixture of professional actors and non-actors

l References to contemporary national experience

l Socially-conscious and humanistic POV (Point of View)

l Possesses melodramatic aspects

l Motivated to rebuilt national reputation

Neorealism was known as a cinema of poverty and pessimism. Its decline began in the fifties when the times were changing for the better. This is because it is revolutionary and happened during a time of non-revolutionary transition towards prosperity and affluence. It is not economically profitable. Unpopular in Italy, dependent of foreign appreciation. The Italian government does not favor neorealism, bringing about imports of American films.

This week’s goal is to achieve the evidence of the Italian Impressionism’s elements from the movie produced in the year 1948, Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica.

The theory that being applied in this week’s movie is called the genre and semantic/syntactic approach by Rick Altman. In semantic/syntactic approach, semantic represents the visual aspects and syntactic represents the thematic aspects of the film. The approach uses both semantic and syntactic complementarily to do a proper genre analysis on a movie. The problem that genre in film encounter is films cannot be imposed by a generic definition as genres are not static but evolutionary as the changing times. Genres evolve according to times and many sub genres or minor sub-genres have been spun out which in turn become hybrids of original genres or a mixture of several genres.

There are 3 condition under Genre. The first condition is that the film must possess universal/general semantics and syntaxes that are particularly found in corresponding genres. For an example, a western must possess the specific costumes and settings along with the cowboy that will display an aural of justice with a theme of good vs. evil. The second condition is that the spectator’s expectation and hypothesis must be present. To cite an example, the act of audience guessing the ending of the film. Thus, genres have to audience based, following the expectations of the industry. The third condition is that the genre exists like a paradox for being conservative and innovative at the same time, as long as they repeat “formulas” to display old conventions while modernizing new ones.

As we understand the impressionism and theory, we can start to search for our elements in the movie now.

Bicycle Thieves, an old post World War 2 economy of Italy film that follows an unemployed Antonio Ricci, who is on seventh heaven when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. His wife, Maria, sells the family’s bed linens to retrieve Antonio’s bicycle from the pawn shop so he can take the job. However, disaster strikes when Antonio’s bicycle is stolen, and his new job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his lively son, Bruno, Antonio comb the city, growing increasingly desperate for justice.

There is used mixture professional actors and non-actors elements found in this film. An example can be given is from the start of the movie where a bunch of guys walk together to a building and is ushered out by a high authority senior. At this moment, the high authority senior is portrayed by a professional actor. The guys that surround over the high authority senior at the building stairs is portrayed by the non-actors. The used mixture of the professional actors and non-actors displayed the real scenery of how the post-World War 2 atmosphere look like where the non-actors act according to their experience and the professional actor’s acting skills covers up the flaw of the falsehood.

There is socially-conscious and humanistic POV elements found in the film. This element of Italian Expressionism usually portrays problem happening in society’s daily life such as abduction of young children, arguments between neighbors or even a street thug stealing a bicycle from a person.

Even though it seemed like a small case to other people but for that person who is the victim might be experiencing a serious downfall that might affect he or she’s partner along with the family. To cite an example, Antonio Ricci, an unemployed man who is desperate for work but has no money along with his wife and 2 children struggle to survive in the depressed post-World War 2 economy of Italy.

He is delighted to at last to get a good job on hanging posters around with a sole condition in which he needs to have a bicycle to work. Knowing this condition, the wife pawns their bed sheets in order to get money to redeem his bicycle from the pawnbroker. On the first day of work, Ricci’s coveted bicycle is stolen by a bold young thief who snatches it when he is hanging up a poster. Soon after, a series of unfortunate events keeps on appearing as an obstacle for Antonio, hindering him from recovering his lost bicycle.

There is melodramatic aspects appeared in the film. Towards the end of the film, Antonio is seen sitting on the curb outside the packed football stadium with his boy, Bruno. He looks at the hundreds and hundreds of bicycles that are parked outside the stadium and as he cradles his head in despair, a fleet of bicycles mockingly speeds past him, making his desperation to get a new bicycle even worse.

All in all, this film shows how a simple crime that happened to an ordinary person can ruined his or her life entirely. From this film, I have learned that being alert and aware of your surroundings is important as danger comes in many ways that we would not expect.

All in all, this film shows how a simple crime that happened to an ordinary person can ruined his or her life entirely. From this film, I have learned that being alert and aware of your surroundings is important as danger comes in many ways that we would not expect.

Reference Link:

1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/synopsis

Weekly Journal Blog Movie Review 7: The Maltese Falcon by John Huston (1941)

This week we are discussing about a special film technique that was originated by French critics in the 1946 called “Film Noir.” Film Noir is a type of American film that “penetrated” French cinemas after World War II. Some great example of film noirs include The Maltese Falcon by John Huston, Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder, and The Woman in the Window by Fritz Lang. These films often featured an investigator who encounters deceptions and malice during his investigation of a case. In 1940s, film noir was an expression of male concern at women’s growing economic and sexual independence that threatens masculinity. In 1950s, film noir reinforces family values, thus overcoming the femme fatale is intricate to the reassertion to (male) identity.

Film Noir features a world of criminals, of darkness and violence with characters’ central motives are usually greed, lust and ambition, drench in fear.

The visual of film noir includes:

l Dark with lots of shadows

l High-contrast lighting (low key)

l German expressionistic - oblique vertical and horizontal lines

l Scenes are usually lit for night

l Locations such as alleyways, cramped corridors, etc

l Setting is city-bound, comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors

The theme of film noir includes:

l Cynical (negative), Pessimism, and Dark

l Corrupted characters, fatalistic themes, hopeless tones, blurred morals and intellect

l Hard-boiled antihero vs Femme Fatale

l Tales of Criminal Motives

l Narration

The content in film noir usually contains the woman is central to the intrigue, making her the object of the male’s investigation. Ultimately, it is her sexuality that is under investigation which threatens the male quest to resolve mystery. By being a strong, active, sexually expressive female, film noir tends to keep the woman contained. The closures of the film usually determine the containment of the Femme Fatale with sadistic closures such as death, outcast, mental torture or reintegration to the family to conceal her economic and sexual independence.

Film Noir is a type of film that only defined by more subtle qualities of tone and mood. Film Noir is a specific period of film history, comprising of films made during the forties and fifties that possessed particular themes and cinematic styles.

This week’s goal is to achieve the evidence of the Film Noir’s elements from the movie produced in the year 1941, The Maltese Falcon by John Huston.

The theory that being applied in this week’s movie is called the genre and semantic/syntactic approach by Rick Altman. In semantic/syntactic approach, semantic represents the visual aspects and syntactic represents the thematic aspects of the film. The approach uses both semantic and syntactic complementarily to do a proper genre analysis on a movie. The problem that genre in film encounter is films cannot be imposed by a generic definition as genres are not static but evolutionary as the changing times. Genres evolve according to times and many sub genres or minor sub-genres have been spun out which in turn become hybrids of original genres or a mixture of several genres.

There are 3 condition under Genre. The first condition is that the film must possess universal/general semantics and syntaxes that are particularly found in corresponding genres. For an example, a western must possess the specific costumes and settings along with the cowboy that will display an aural of justice with a theme of good vs. evil. The second condition is that the spectator’s expectation and hypothesis must be present. To cite an example, the act of audience guessing the ending of the film. Thus, genres have to audience based, following the expectations of the industry. The third condition is that the genre exists like a paradox for being conservative and innovative at the same time, as long as they repeat “formulas” to display old conventions while modernizing new ones.

Now we got all the important notes down, let’s dive down to the movie and see what evidence we got for our film noir. :)

The Maltese Falcon, a 1940s film noir classic about a detective named Sam Spade gets more than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman. As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam’s partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want: the bejeweled Maltese falcon.

There is cynical element found in the movie. An example can be given from the scene where two detectives from the police force interrogates Spade at an apartment. The two detectives questioned Spade with a negative mindset as if he have always been committing crimes. Spade quickly defends himself by justifying his situation with his quick thinking skills to persuade the two detectives off on putting the murder blame on him.

There is darkness element found in the movie. In character portrayal, the characters have motives behind their action. The individuals of such portrayal include greedy people, liars, corrupter, criminals and many more. One scene that perfectly portrays the darkness character is when the man named Joel Cairo, pay a visit to meet Sam Spade to offer him $5000 if he can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived. While Spade has no idea what the man is talking about, he plays along with it. Suddenly, Cairo pulls out a handgun on Spade, and declares his intention to search Spade’s office.

In visual terms, German Expressionism is applied to the lighting part of the movie where oblique horizontal and vertical lines are seen. A chasing scene where Spade is trying to escape from a suspicious guy portrayed a good example. The low key lighting created shadows to dramatize the whole chasing scene and exposes the character’s face with the high contrast lighting.

There is Femme Fatale element in the movie. The Femme Fatale role is a woman who is strong, sexual expressive, manipulative, and ambitious towards money and power. A character portrayed this role well is Miss Wonderly/Brigid O’Shaughnessy. She successfully pull it off the act of a Femme Fatale as she uses Spade to avoid getting into serious trouble. She also knows how to play her cards right by acting the innocent “school girl” act and lie to save her own tail from fire.

There is a scene where Spade interrogates Miss O’Shaughnessy aggressively about why she killed his partner Miles Archer. At first, she acts horrified at this accusation, but seeing that she could not lie anymore, she drops the act. Miss O’Shaughnessy wanted to get Thursby out of the picture so that she could have the Falcon for herself, so she hired Archer to scare him off. When Thursby did not left, she killed Archer and attempted to pin the crime on Thursby. When Thursby was later killed himself, she knew that Gutman was in town and that she needed another “protector”, so she came back to Spade.

In conclusion, this film have definitely portrayed that an ambitious woman, who will stop at nothing to get “what she wants” is a woman that needed to be contained as it is dangerous to mankind. From this movie I have learned that to be a person with intellectual street mind, you need to know your surroundings and the background of your friends well to prevent the charges apply on to yourself.

Weekly Journal Blog Update Movie Review 6: Sleepy Hollow (film) (1999)

This week, we will be discussing German Expressionistic elements found in the movie from the year 1999, Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton.

First of all, what is German Expressionism? German Expressionism is a filmic style that emerged in the year of 1919 to 1926 in Germany. It is influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art of early 1900s. Theme from this expressionism includes revolt, self-analysis, madness, primitive, sexual and savagery. Besides, this expressionism was not limited to painting but was manifest in literature, theatre and architecture of Scandinavian and German-speaking countries. It also spread into cinema in terms of narrative, set and mise-en-scene. The expressionism is most apparent in set design and chiaroscuro lighting.

The German Expressionism style includes:

l Oblique Camera Angles

l Distorted Bodies and Shapes

l Bizarre and Incongruous settings that are usually Gothic in Look and Framing

l High contrast (low-key) lighting creating dramatic shadows

l Content is usually Surreal and Gothic, about unnatural acts/realities

Most of the filmmakers migrated from Germany to USA, brought their filmmaking practice to Hollywood, influencing horror films and film noir. Germany Expressionism started to fade as 1920s German film industry tries to imitate and compete with Hollywood films, diluting the expressionist tendencies. Some of the German Expressionist filmmakers are Fritz Lang, Robert Weine, and F.W. Murnau.

The theory that the German Expressionism elements used in the movie Sleepy Hollow is the genre and semantic/syntactic approach by Rick Altman. In semantic/syntactic approach, semantic represents the visual aspects and syntactic represents the thematic aspects of the film. The approach uses both semantic and syntactic complementarily to do a proper genre analysis on a movie. The problem that genre in film encounter is films cannot be imposed by a generic definition as genres are not static but evolutionary as the changing times. Genres evolve according to times and many sub genres or minor sub-genres have been spun out which in turn become hybrids of original genres or a mixture of several genres.

After going through the background of German Expressionism, let’s dwell deep into the movie with an understanding mind :) .

Sleepy Hollow, a movie that sets in the year of 1799, “Sleepy Hollow” is based on Washington Irving’s classic tale “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Faithful to the dreamy custom-bound world that Irving illustrates in his story, the film mixes fantasy, romance, and horror, along featuring an extraordinary cast of characters that dabble in the supernatural.

A New York City police constable Ichabod Crane is dispatched by his superiors to the Hudson Highlands hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, to investigate a series of of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found beheaded. Ichabod Crane arrives in Sleepy Hollow armed with his bag of scientific tools only to be informed by the town’s elders that the murderer is not of flesh and blood, rather a headless supernatural warrior from beyond the grave who rides at night on a massive black steed.

Upon analysing the movie, there are several scenes that consists of the visual and the thematic aspects of the film. High contrast visuals are used in the film. Certain scenes in the movie such as thunderstorm in the night where the headless horseman beheading its victim or Ichabod Crane, the main character of the story and young Masbeth, Jonathan Masbeth’s son followed a guy into the forest during the dark night.

The director used high contrast lighting to create dramatic shadows here and there in the scenes such as lightning flashes across the sky and Ichabod carrying an oil-fueled lamp through the dark forest with young Masbeth, creating a focus point on Ichabod Crane in a dire situation.

Distorted bodies are found in several scenes in the film. One scene in particular is where Mrs Van Tassel’s sister, who is a witch living in the forest by herself, helped Ichabod to locate the headless horseman’s skull whereabouts to end the series of beheading murder cases by performing a witch ritual where the spirits possessed her. As Ichabod gets closer to her, her face from the veil is revealed, giving a shock to Ichabod. Her appearance being possessed by the spirits is wrinkled and paled where both her eyeballs are missing giving a soulless look which terrifies Ichabod himself. The other distorted bodies scenes are just the appearance of the headless horseman beheading its victim’s head.

Revolt elements are also found in the movie. An example can be given like when Ichabod Crane was called upon by the officials of New York State and have a discussion about Crane’s scientific method in deducing crimes. As Ichabod fights to defend for his revolutionary method, the officials of New York State deny Crane’s scientific method as it is considered new and unproven investigate techniques.

In few scenes in the Sleepy Hollow, the town’s elders and the townsfolk have a culture in their society where witches are not allowed in the town and if found, they will be sentence to death. According to their norms, witchcraft is represented as an act of revolt against the legal system.

There is primitive and sexual savagery elements involved in the film. At one point of the film, through the legend and the description of the headless horseman, the town’s elders said that the headless horseman filed his teeth to be sharped so that he can devour his victims to death. For the sexual part, there is one particular scene where Ichabod Crane and young Masbeth followed a suspicious guy to a dark forest and witnessed the suspicious guy is having sexual intercourse with Ms Van Tassel. In the process, Ms Van Tassel took a dagger and cut a wound on her hand, seemingly performing a dark satanic ritual.

In conclusion, Sleepy Hollow is a movie that tells a story about how a man willing to take the risk to investigate something with his new, unproven technology and proving it successful together with his new-made friends along the way to solve a mystery murder case. From this movie, I have learn that there are things that appear in front of us are something more than it meets the eye. At one moment you think the person next to you is a normal individual but the next moment he or she will appear as a serial killer or some sort. As an old saying goes, “never judge a book by its cover.”

Weekly Journal Blog Update Movie Review 5: In the Mood for Love

An impression that was popular from the 1919 until the 1928, The French Impressionist Cinema.

This impressionism explores psychological causes; gives narration considerable psychological depth, revealing play of the character's consciousness, concerns mental state, dreams or fantasies. In some occasion it manipulates plot time and subjectivity; showing flashbacks/memories. They use the art of cinematography and editing to depict their visuals such as:

• The uses of irises, superimposition, masks to indicate character's thoughts and feelings.
• Visual that are distorted/filtered/vertiginous cam movement to show dizzy or drunkenness.
• The use of POV editing, rhythmic editing to display character's experience of particular situation.
• Having cam movements that are smooth, brought about frame mobility; cam tied to cars,wheels, bobsleds, cables, etc.

This impressionism got triggered off in the end of 1928 due to the lack of interests by society accompanying with the rising production cost.

For this week, the movie that I'm about to break down have some relation with this impressionism. After having an understanding on this impressionism, let us continue to see which part of the movie show such evidence on the French Impressionist Cinema.

In the Mood for Love, a romance film that starts out in 1962 where a journalist Chow Mo-wan and his wife move into a Hong Kong apartment, but Chow's spouse is often away on business trip. Before long, the lonely Mr Chow makes the acquaintance of the alluring Su Li-zhen, whose own significant other also seems preoccupied with work. As the two individual realize their respective partners are cheating on them, they begin to fall for one another; however, neither wants to stoop to the level of their unfaithful spouses.

From this film, I've captured several scenes that applied the use of French Impressionist Cinema. Close up scenes are often used in this film to project different feelings or emotions of the particular individual from the story. A good example can be taken from the scene where Mr Chow and Ms Su having a deep conversation about their own relationship issues over dinner in a cafe.

The scene first played out where both of the individuals are in the cafe trying to order their meals. Ms Su asked Mr Chow to help her order her meal as she is curious what Mr Chow's wife would order. Mr Chow proceeded to ask the same question as well. Switching to the next shot, both of their ordered meals arrived and they are already digging in the food to find out what their spouses preferred eating.

As they are having their meal, Mr Chow added some dip sauce for Ms Su on her plate. Ms Su then dips her food on the sauce and taste it. Mr Chow asked her how was the taste and she replied that Mr Chow's wife likes to eat food with spicy sauces.

After few minutes, Ms Su ask Mr Chow why did he call to her office during the day. Mr Chow answered that he got bored and curiously wants to hear the sound of her voice. Ms Su chuckled and said that he and her husband have a common trait that is being a sweet talker. They both continue finishing their meals for the rest of the day.

Another scene comes in where both Mr Chow and Ms Su are taking the taxi ride back home. On the way back home, Ms Su asked why Mr Chow didn't call her at her office like last time. Mr Chow said that he was worried that if he called her everyday at her office it would slowly become a nuisance to her. Ms Su then tells him to never call her again at the office in the future. Mr Chow tries to move his hand over at Ms Su's hand but she rejected by keeping her hand back to herself.

The shot of Mr Chow places the spicy sauce on Ms Su's plate is a close up shot. It represents that Mr Chow is letting Ms Su aware that his wife likes to eat food with spicy sauces. Another close up shot  can be found is when Mr Chow moves his hand over at Ms Su's hand. This shot represents that Mr Chow wanted more than just "friend" relationship and to care for Ms Su but she quickly takes her hand away to indicate that they should not stoop to their cheating partner's level even if they do have feelings for each other.

Besides, the director likes to film the shots of the actor or actress' face up close. The director wanted to create a feeling where the character in the story feels trapped or no breathing room, forcing them to suffer the loneliness within themselves quietly.

One interesting fact about this film is that the cheating partners of both Ms Su and Mr Chow never appear on screen visually for the audience to see. "Why is that so?" you all might ponder. The director played with the story that both Ms Su and Mr Chow's cheating partner are always on business trips or oversea meetings to have affair that Ms Su and Mr Chow is unaware of. In return, creating an effect for the character of Ms Su and Mr Chow, always feeling lonely with a broken heart of disappointment.

Motivated light was applied in this film too to further enhance the use of French Impressionist Cinema. A lighting style in which the light sources imitate existing sources such as windows or lamps. The warm tungsten lighting from the lamps in the film gives out an effect of the character feeling confused, uneasy or helpless in one way or another.

In conclusion, this romance film can be said without a doubt that it is very abstract to understand. There are certain parts of the scene where they replay the same background music again and again. With the initiative to do a research on this film, one can find that the use of mise-en-scene in the movie has its own meaning to the story if pay more attention about. The love that cannot be expose to the world proudly and have to remain as a secret is the most bittersweet things in life. I believe that memories of sweet, sour or bitter holds a very important message and makes us who we are and what we will become in the future.

Reference Link:
1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/synopsis