Minor's Blog

Textual Analysis: New Boy

ibfilm — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:21:37 +0000

Watch the short film New Boy:

http://www.shadowandact.com/?p=14347

Answer the following in the comments section:

1. Who made this?

2. Why?

3. How is the film constructed according to narrative?

4. Is the narrative organized by plot or time sequence, or some other way?

5. How are characters and issues presented?

6. How is meaning created by camera angles, shots and camera movement?

7. How is meaning created by editing and sequencing?

8. How is meaning created by lighting, shade and color?

9. How is meaning created by sound and music?

10. How is meaning created by location and set design?

11. Does the film make use of symbols, metaphors or allegories? What are they and how do they work in the film?

12. What is the film’s theme?

13. What features help to determine its genre?

14. Who is the target audience? Why?

15. How is meaning created by technical elements such as production design, mise en scene, composition or special effects

Traditions and Genre Assignment! Senior Summer Assignment

ibfilm — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:00:58 +0000

You must choose one of the traditions and its associated exemplar films from the list below. Watch the films with a notebook taking notes of anything that strikes you as significant whether it is plot, character or more technical aspects of the film. You will then research the critical background for your tradition and write a blog to be shared via this site. This must include a brief overview of the generic features of the tradition or genre, a list of the major filmmakers and their films involved in the tradition, a still image from each of the key films in the tradition with a brief summary of why you chose that image, a summary of two critical essays from reputable sources with views on the tradition, a 300-500 analysis of either mise-en-scene, cinematography or sound design in your films and a student-created bullet list of “what to watch for” in an exemplar film within your chosen genre.

Italian Neo-Realism

1. Rosellini’s Roma, citta apert

2. De Sica’s Umberto D

3. De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette

French New Wave

1. Truffaut’s Les Quatre cents coups

2. Godard’s A bout de souffle

3. Godard’s Week End

Central & South American Cinema

1. Inarritu’s Amores perros

2. Meirelles Cidade de Deus

3. Sorin’s Bombon: El Perro

Iranian New Wave

1. Panahi’s Offside

2. Kearostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us

3. Mehrjui’s The Cow

Chinese/Hong Kong Cinema

1. Clouse’s Enter the Dragon

2. Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern

3. Woo’s Hard Boiled

Outsourced

ibfilm — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:42:28 +0000

Amazon.com
The low-key, charming Outsourced is a thoughtful satire about the human side of contemporary frustrations associated with the global economy. Josh Hamilton (The House of Yes) stars as Todd Anderson, vice president of customer relations for a Seattle company that sells phone-order, patriotic kitsch. Part of Todd’s job is keeping his operators’ order-taking time down to a few minutes. He’s good at what he does, but that doesn’t stop the company from outsourcing Todd’s entire department to somewhere in India, where local workers can field customer calls more cheaply. A reluctant Todd is sent to the subcontinent to train his own replacement and get the new operators up to speed. Neither task goes well, but adding to Todd’s frustration is culture shock over everything from Indian table manners to public transportation to minimal bathroom fixtures. There’s something familiar about this particular fish-out-of-water tale (television’s Northern Exposure, as well as such features as Local Hero and Doc Hollywood). The gentle but illuminating Outsourced proves the story, as long as it’s told well, never gets old. Todd eventually realizes the best way to escape India and get back to Seattle, ironically, is to let go of his resistance to India’s culture and people. Transformation precedes liberation, but the lovely question in Outsourced is this: once Todd is transformed, what does he need to be liberated from? The film’s deliberate, carefully paced narrative can’t obscure the feeling of epiphany that permeates Outsourced. Nor can some of its other delights: assured location shooting and a fine supporting cast, including a wry Ayesha Dharker as Todd’s romantic interest, and a brief appearance by Larry Pine as a kind of older, more serene version of the disoriented central character. –Tom Keogh

Light comedy worth seeing for some wonderful moments filmed in India. The acting is average and the story-line a bit trite, but the movie is well-worth seeing.

Bella

ibfilm — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:39:11 +0000

Amazon.com
Life is a complicated journey in which right and wrong are sometimes indistinct and where the things that really matter are often unclear. Bella is a powerful, leisurely-paced film in which Jose (Eduardo Verastegui) and Nina (Tammy Blanchard) struggle to do what’s right while seeking meaning in their lives. A quiet, brooding man with a dark past, Jose works as a chef in his brother Manny’s (Manny Perez) restaurant where he mostly keeps to himself until young waitress Nina is fired. Touched by Manny’s unfair treatment of Nina, Jose impulsively leaves work to follow Nina and spends a day with her where he discovers that she is pregnant and alone. The two become incredibly close in the space of a day, sharing their pasts, feelings, and fears, and a lasting friendship is born. As Nina struggles with her pregnancy options and Jose comes to terms with a horrific incident from his past, the pair’s newfound friendship aids in growth and healing. In the end, Jose and Nina’s lives become permanently intertwined in a most beautiful and unexpected way. Bella is a moving, introspective film that will inspire serious personal reflection. –Tami Horiuchi

Simply put, this is a wonderful heart-warming film set in New York. I really enjoyed the understated-acting, the wonderful filming of New York City and the lovely ending. This film does require a small “leap-of-faith” in parts.

Step Brothers

ibfilm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:57:20 +0000

Amazon.com
Crude, juvenile, and proud of it, Step Brothers stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as two 40-year-old men, both living at home and leading the lives of 13-year-old boys, who are thrown together when their single parents (Mary Steenburgen, Parenthood, and Richard Jenkins, Six Feet Under) get married. Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) start out hating each other as only teenage boys can–but things get even worse for their long-suffering parents when they become best friends. Step Brothers gets most of its mileage from very lowbrow humor, but hidden among the farts and masturbation jokes is the suggestion that while these guys may be emotionally arrested, so are Brennan’s hotshot business executive brother (Adam Scott, Tell Me You Love Me) and his high-fiving frat-boy pals, just in a way that’s condoned because it makes money. Also crucial is that Ferrell and Reilly capture adolescence in all its gruesome glory–the awkward insecurity but also the egomaniacal, arrogant self-centeredness. Mind you, this isn’t the American version of The 400 Blows or anything–one of the movie’s setpieces features Brennan tea-bagging Dale’s drum set (and if you don’t know what tea-bagging is… well, you will after seeing this movie). All in all, Step Brothers combines the adolescent humor of producer Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up) and the comic chemistry of Ferrell and Reilly (who previously costarred in Talladega Nights)–fans of either will find plenty to enjoy. –Bret Fetzer

Totally idiotic! And I thought you could learn something from everyfilm even when they were bad. That proved that theory wrong!

Unbreakable

ibfilm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:55:29 +0000

Amazon.com essential video
When Unbreakable was released, Bruce Willis confirmed that the film was the first in a proposed trilogy. Viewed in that context, this is a tantalizing and audaciously low-key thriller, with a plot that twists in several intriguing and unexpected directions. Standing alone, however, this somber, deliberately paced film requires patient leaps of faith–not altogether surprising, since this is writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s daring follow-up to The Sixth Sense. While just as assured as that earlier, phenomenal hit, Unbreakable is the work of a filmmaker whose skill exceeds his maturity, its confident style serving a story that borders on juvenile. However, Shyamalan’s basic premise–that comic books are the primary conduit of modern mythology–is handled with substantial relevance.

Willis plays a Philadelphia security guard whose marriage is on the verge of failing when he becomes the sole, unscathed survivor of a devastating train wreck. When prompted by a mysterious, brittle-boned connoisseur of comic books (Samuel L. Jackson), he realizes that he’s been free of illness and injury his entire life, lending credence to Jackson’s theory that superheroes–and villains–exist in reality, and that Willis himself possesses extraordinary powers. Shyamalan presents these revelations with matter-of-fact gravity, and he draws performances (including those of Robin Wright Penn and Spencer Treat Clark, as Willis’s wife and son) that are uniformly superb. The film’s climactic revelation may strike some as ultimately silly and trivial, but if you’re on Shyamalan’s wavelength, the entire film will assume a greater degree of success and achievement. –Jeff Shannon

Mr Minor felt that this movie was a bit of a stretch at times and didn’t really enjoy the movie while watching it, yet I can’t wait for the sequel?!?!

Before the Rains

ibfilm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:53:08 +0000

Amazon.com
Set in India’s colonial past, circa 1930, Before the Rains is a period drama exploring how imbalanced socio-economic landscapes negatively affect the personal lives of those seeking to function in corrupt systems. Director Santosh Sivan’s intricate love story begins as a passion play and quickly unravels into a crime scene which has the entire police force searching for an innocent victim. Set mostly on British spice planter Henry Moores’ (Linus Roache) plantation, the viewer learns from the outset of his affair with servant Sajani (Nandita Das). Sajani’s marriage to an despicable Indian villager spells danger, though it’s not until Henry’s wife, Laura (Jennifer Ehle) comes to visit that one discovers how the infidelity destroys the lives of both participants. Worst off is Henry’s other servant, T.K. Neelan (Rahul Bose), torn as witness between covering for his employer and helping his vulnerable female neighbor. Though it is easy to sympathize with Sajani, Before the Rains does well to show Moores as a character worthy enough of redemption, as he constantly checks his moral temperature and is nearly undone by guilt. Charles Humphries (John Standing), Moores’ boss heading up plans to build a road into the village for increased production, serves as the capitalist swine, coloring Moores less oblivious to the Indian position. Aside from being a tale about the high cost of colonial endeavors, Before the Rains is a human tale of how love can be confused by what is foreign or forbidden. –Trinie Dalton

Mr. Minor gives this film 2.5 stars. It is beautifully photographed though!

The Interpreter

ibfilm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:51:10 +0000

Amazon.com
Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack’s 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack’s expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn’s sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. –Jeff Shannon

Mr Minor gives this movie 3 stars.

Calamity Jane

ibfilm — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:36:52 +0000

Amazon.com essential video
This 1953 musical is very much a vehicle for Doris Day, in the title role, as a wild cowgal who can outshoot and outsing any boy on the range. When an actress arrives in Deadwood and uses her feminine charms on Jane’s secret love, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), Jane tries to mend her tomboy ways. Not exactly up to the feminist code of honor, this is still energetic and Day is very perky. Of course, one could almost detect a homosexual undercurrent with the cross-dressing Jane, but this was Hollywood in the 1950s, so we best not. This won an Oscar for Best Song–”Secret Love,” by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. –Rochelle O’Gorman

Mr. Minor hated this film and wouldn’t recommend his dog Caesar spend 101 minutes of his life in front of the screen. However, if you want to watch this “essential” film, its soporific effect will have you snoozing in no time.

Cache

ibfilm — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:34:27 +0000

Amazon.com
Hidden throughout Caché is the sense that you should be watching every moment in this film closely, just as the protagonists are themselves being watched by someone unknown. Georges and Anne Laurent’s (Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche) enviable lives are terrorized by the sudden arrival on their doorstep of a videotaped recording of their Parisian townhouse. It’s nothing but a long, unedited shot of the façade of their house, but it’s disturbing nonetheless. Soon another arrives, this time of the farmhouse Georges grew up in, and then another of a car driving down a suburban street, and a walk down a hallway to a low-rent apartment. Again the videos are benign but unsettling. Then the mystery becomes more threatening when they receive gruesome postcards depicting child-like drawings of bloody, dead stick figures. Georges believes he knows who the culprit is, but for reasons all his own refuses to let his wife in on the secret. Clearly more is hidden here than just the identity of their stalker. In Caché, writer and director Michael Haneke skillfully, methodically pulls back multiple layers of deception, like new skin being pulled off an old wound. he masterfully fuses elements of his predecessors to create a film that is haunting and memorable. There is Bergman’s fascination with the complexity of relationships, the suspense and lurking danger of Hitchcock, and the unique cinematic sensibility of Antonioni. In fact, the provocative final shot is practically a tribute to The Passenger–a lot of people will want to rewatch it many times to see what they can find in it (if, after watching it, you are still unsatisfied with the resolution, then watch the interview with Haneke in the DVD’s special features for his insights). It’s a film of great effect and intrigue. There are no easy resolutions, and the answers given in this mystery will only lead to more questions. –Daniel Vancini

Mr. Minor recommends this film for an interesting study in narrative technique, the focus on both what is seen and not seen within the scope of the characters’ development and the mise-en-scene.