The Miracle of... I don't know: Deren and Brakhage

Maya Deren's shorts were definitely films that rejected narrative devices and emphasized a visual impact on the audience. I noticed in all of Deren's shorts a spirit of choreography, not only in how characters react to each other, but also in how the films were shot. There is excessive use of repetition, which is key in choreography and in music. It is as though Deren is creating a musical form in her film than just experimenting with film.

Brakhage, with his shorts, went beyond just filming. I've never seen an example of drawing directly onto film celluloid. It does look a bit weird, yet it is a very interesting concept of finding another way to explore art through film. Brakhage's filming of childbirth wasn't as disturbing as I thought it would be. The graphic visual of the birth was not pretty, but it was fascinating to see Brakhage take something so personal and allow the audience to become personal with it. After the film, the class would not let go of discussing it. Brakhage's intent, I believe, was to make the film of birth personal for us, not just for him.

Last Year at Marienbad: F*****g weird

Last Year at Marienbad was a film that was not logical but ambiguous. It had a sort of enigma attached to it. You could only guess and question the theme without coming to a full conclusion. I agree with Sarah (I think that was her name sorry) when she talked about being tricked throughout the whole film. Because of that feeling of being tricked, I couldn't help but notice that I whole movie felt like a dream from the jump cuts and endless repetition of narrative (if it was that) to the character of "A" and "X" and the demeanor of "M". It was very much a dream-like sequence of event and surreal.

The dream-like mentality of the film reminded me of Freud because his theory of the unconscious through dream interpretation. The conversations between "A" and "X" seemed like it was going on in a dream, revealing what "A" wants rather than what is going on in a state of consciousness. That leads me to René Descartes and his philosophical statement "I think, therefore I am". Descartes questioned whether he truly existed and led to the conclusion that if he thought he existed, then hem ust have existed. I believe that question holds true in the film. Do the characters, the rest of the people, the hotel itself exist? Or does it exist in the mind of one individual, going through a state of unconsciousness? That is what I believe should be asked of the film.

Orpheus or suehprO

Orpheus by Jean Cocteau was definitely a film where the dialogue was second to the visuals. The special effects that Cocteau used in the film were very simple, yet effective in how the story was being told. One theme of the film that was conveyed through special effect was to look forward, not backwards. You see it when Orpheus look at the rear-view mirror and Eurydice disappears; when Orpheus travels to and from the Underworld. We see this theme throughout the film.

Another theme that was shown throughout the film was death. Death, in the form of a woman, is obsessed with Orpheus, and vice versa. Now, I could believe that Orpheus was obsessed and in love with death. Orpheus, while considered a National Hero for his poetry, was searching for meaning in his life. His poetry was not well like anymore; he was in a conventional marriage. Orpheus was going through an existential crisis, where he questions his life and its meaning or purpose. However, when Orpheus encounters death, it becomes this obsession. Death falls in love with Orpheus and becomes obsessed herself. When I think of Death as a person, I think of of a male with the coldest personality and incapable of having the slightest hint of emotion. With Death in Orpheus, we see that's not the case. When Death is confront about her "love" for Orpheus, her clothes turn white; when she reverses time to save both Orpheus and Eurydice. That is not how Death is usually portrayed. Death, in a sense, is repressed and starts to lose control of her situation through obsession. Death could also be seen as a deus ex-machina, because her reversal of time, and "saving" Orpheus' marriage, something Eros would've done.

Laura - What the f***!?

Please, do not let the title fool you. It is not meant to say whether or not I liked or disliked the film Laura (but I am in the former.) While Laura, directed by Otto Preminger is a good film and a product of film noir, it isn't your typical film noir. If you compare and contrast Laura with other film noirs like The Big Combo or Double Indemnity, Laura stands by itself.

Let's cut through the bulls***. John Blaser, in his article "No Place For A Woman", he focuses on the Femme Fatale. While he artfully discusses the role of the femme fatale, he fails to realize that the title character in Laura is somehow not a femme fatale. The femme fatale, while strong-willed and independent, is also the cause of her downfall and that of others around. However, in Laura who is to say that the femme fatale is Laura or even a woman. Her suppose "death" causes her so-called "devotees" to be looked upon with suspicion and make the audience prejudice in the characters' downfall. The femme fatale in Laura is the character Waldo Lydecker. Think about it! He is sophisticated, and charming. Yet, he is feminine and seductive, who obsesses and wants Laura to himself. And if he can't, then no one can have her. Like the femme fatale, he is able to alude everyone through his personality and wit, but by the end of the film, his actions becomes his own downfall.

Citizen Kane: The greatest?

I love film. Period. I love to watch them, take them in and think about it while enjoying them. With that said, before last week, I had never watched "the greatest film ever made" called Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. It was not the fact that I was not interested. I just never found the time to sit and watch the film. I didn't know what to expect in watching this film. It reminded me of a post-modern film like the work of Tarantino. So many jump cuts on editing were prevalent, jumping from eerie scenery and sound, to jubilant music and bright. Citizen Kane took the uncommon approach of focusing on the memories of people who were associated with a larger than life dead man. While it may appear that, as an audience, we are looking at objective point of views, human memory is flawed and for the most part, one-sided. All around this film, excluding the accounts characters from the film made, Kane was larger than life. For example, Xanadu, the gargantuan estate built by Kane is the name of a city built by the Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan as a "Summer retreat". Even by looking at Orson Welles while making this film, we can see that Citizen Kane was made to be a larger than life film, something that had never been done before until that point. The question is not why or how the focus is on a dead man, but why and how Citizen Kane is larger than life.