Attention and Nostalgia in Nostalghia

There is a sequence near the beginning of Nostalghia which begins in the “present” of the main storyline.  However, it soon switches to a black and white with some extra hues scene of Andrei’s life at home when he was a child.  The dialogue continues throughout these scenes. To me, this represented those moments when you could still be listening to whatever is going on around you but your mind has drifted off to a nostalgic memory.  This movie captured the feeling you get during these moments with no sound from the memory.  It’s an odd paradox: you are paying attention to your world around you but you are also lost in a world of the past.

My entire experience of viewing this movie was similar to the feeling represented by the above scene.  The movie itself seems to suggest nostalgia to the viewer, but one experience in my life made the movie have a slightly different impact.  I spent 6 weeks living and taking two classes in a small town in Tuscany over this past summer. The landscapes, buildings, people, and rooms of Nostalghia all reminded me of my times in Italy.  Yet it was odd because I was still paying attention to the movie and plot but also basking in the memories of Vicchio, Italia.  This ability of humans to be in the present moment and paying attention but also thinking about a past time and place is very interesting.  The movie was VERY slow and confusing, but this recurrent feeling was felt several times. Perhaps it is simply my psychology background that makes me focus on this aspect of the film (the idea of being attentive and present but also “somewhere else” is very intriguing), but the entire movie seems to investigate this idea; it only explores the idea, it doesn’t seem to judge or make any suggestions about it.  The movie brought to light a very interesting human phenomena.

Tim K.

The extreme focus on music and dance in Om Shanti Om

Why does Om Shanti Om heavily focus on both music and dancing?

Om Shanti Om features many elaborate and lengthy dance numbers along with a strong emphasis on music.  Music is not so much a background tool used to help set the emotional atmosphere of a scene but rather something that takes on as much importance as the visual content. I have a feeling many people enjoy this movie specifically because of the music and dance and not necessarily because of the story or acting. It seems that Indian culture heavily emphasizes both music and dance.  One root of this seems to be the Hindu religion’s use of dance and song in ritual, based on my limited knowledge of the religion.  However, I think there is another reason for this emphasis on music and dance.  The elaborate song and dance routines feature several parts, often with a large crowd that participates.  These scenes would most likely get many audience members to not only watch the movie but also to participate by singing or even dancing.  Perhaps there is a large emphasis on activities in which large amounts of people can easily participate.  Based on limited knowledge of Indian culture, one can infer from this movie that large ensemble song and dance is valued highly by Indians. -Tim K.

Sound enhances emotional impact in Bowling for Columbine

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Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine contains a background soundtrack reminiscent more of a non-documentary film.  The sounds or music are effectively placed to heighten the emotion he intends the viewer to feel.  One background sound in particular caught my attention.  Near the halfway point of the film, a series of clips depicting “alarming” advice and information from the media is put together.  In the background, a heart can be heard beating.  As the clips continue, the heart  beat increases. This further enhances the actual anxiety the viewer experiences while watching these clips.

 

Whether or not this technique is legitimate, fair, and honest is a hard question to answer.  It does subtly influence our views on the issues presented in the movie.  However, its usage is not too extreme. Most likely, a person’s opinion of whether or not this technique is lying or not will depend on their views of the issues presented. The sounds aren’t lying to the audience and most likely a good portion of the actual raw content isn’t lying either, but Michael Moore may not be telling the entire truth, simply taking the evidence that supports his ideas. Background sound is simply a tool to help in this endeavor. – T.Kelley

Limited Use of Music in Unforgiven Heightens Emotion and Immersion

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven hardly uses music throughout most of the movie.  The few instances of music are merely to help make the repetitive “traveling” scenes more interesting, as can be seen in the below scene.

Most movies have a full soundtrack, often composed by some famous studio using some famous orchestra or band.  However, Unforgiven doesn’t falter because of the lack of music.  This lack instead heightens the emotion and immersion of the movie.  Take the scene posted below: the ominous thunderclaps in the background are a great example of diegetic sound being used to heighten the slight fear and foreboding of this scene.

The very next scene contains no extra sounds.  The only sounds are the dialogue and the creaking wood.  This scene feels very right with this limited amount of audio.  Instead of being slightly distracted by music, the audience can focus on every sound.  And it is the complete absence of sound that creates immense tension between the characters.   This scene glues the audience to the screen. Because the scene feels so real, the suspense and tension of the scene are very powerful.  Music can enhance the emotional impact of a scene but this scene would not benefit.  Only the lack of sound builds tension as the audience sits at the edge of their seat, waiting for the next movement.

Establishing irony through reference to convention in Shaun of the Dead

The main method for portraying comedy in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead is irony.  This irony is established by referring to classic scenes and conventions in zombie movies.  Early in the movie, a cut is made to a person feet which appear to move very lethargically. The audience expects a zombie to appear as the camera pans upward but instead are greeted with the yawning Shaun.  This irony garners a few laughs from most people.  Perhaps one of the greatest instances of irony and invention in Shaun of the Dead is ending.  In most zombie movies, the zombies are somehow wiped out or the survivors make it to a safe zone.  However, Wright completely goes against our expectations by having zombies instead integrated into society either as laborers or pets.  This is a novel idea and its unexpectedness fittingly ends the move with a burst of humor. – Tim K.

Mise-en-Scene Creates Comedy Amid the Heat in Do the Right Thing

In Spike Lee’s famous “Do the Right Thing,” editing is effectively utilized to increase the comedic value of some scenes. One scene in particular uses several editing techniques to add comedic qualities. The scene is posted below.  As the scene begins, Spike Lee utilizes mise-en-scene.  This allows the local DJ (Samuel L. Jackson), to make comedic gestures in the upper right corner of the background. This choice of mise-en-scene creates comedy because the audience sees the increasingly desperate calls for food from the DJ in real time while the delivery men appear to remain oblivious. His next choice of editing is an odd one, he utilizes a quick cut to an inside view of the station while maintaining the audio from the outside shot.  The film then cuts back to the same shot on the street less than a second later.  I am not sure why Spike Lee chose this quick cut. Mise-en-scene is continued with more antics from the DJ before Mookie raises the bag to signal that the food is coming. If Lee chose another editing style here by cutting from the street to inside the station, the scene would lose some of its comedic value because it wouldn’t feel natural. These sudden cuts would jar the audience from the previous long take of Mookie and Veto walking down the street. This is further proven when Lee does quickly cut to inside the station; the choice feels very out of place in this scene and confuses the viewer’s attention. With the continued use of mise-en-scene, the entire scene feels very natural, allowing for better comedy.  – Tim K.

A Twisting Narrative Stlye in Adaptation

Spike Jonez’s Adaptation begins very oddly.  We are witness to the thoughts of Charlie Kaufman.   This establishes a few private goals of Charlie stereotypical of many middle-aged men facing a mid-life crisis.  From here, the movie begins to jump around in both time and style.  The first half feels like the stream of consciousness more commonly found in literature. This first half can be viewed as a reflection of Charlie Kaufman attempting to write the screenplay for The Orchid Thief in a non-traditional way.  He doesn’t want to follow the guidelines that McKey later lays down. However, Charlie eventually realizes this method of writing the screenplay is futile and seeks the advice of McKey and his own brother Donald.  From this point in the movie, things fall into a more linear and classical Hollywood narrative style. There seems to be two ideas the real Charlie Kaufman is attempting to convey with this movie.  One is the inevitable futility of attempting a screenplay without following classical narrative style as can be seen in the switch to a classical style halfway through the movie once Charlie has completely given up on writing a new and original style of screenplay.  Another possibility is the real Charlie Kaufman is making fun of either Hollywood itself or our acceptance of the classical Hollywood narrative style. -Tim K.

Heigtened Action Through the Use of Film Convention in Bad Taste

Despite its low budget and cheesy feel, Bad Taste utilizes several classical film conventions to heighten the action scenes. Near the beginning of the movie, Derek has to fight off a group of aliens atop a cliff.  Before the actual action even begins, Jackson utilizes the xy-axis to add suspense to the coming conflict.  As can be seen in the below frame grabs, the aliens ascend towards Derek on a bottom right to top left movement while Derek begins to descend into the woods from the top left to bottom right, hinting at the coming clash.  Also, the “bad” aliens are going in the most difficult direction while Derek descends using the easiest xy direction.

After killing several of the aliens, Derek struggles with his uzi and Jackson uses the z-axis effectively in two ways.  In the first screen grab, the camera focuses on the head of the sledge hammer the alien carries.  It dangerously swings into the frame and with this use of rack focus, the danger presented to Derek by the alien is heightened.  The camera then moves past the alien and focuses on Derek, as seen in the screen grab. Jackson used the z-axis very well here by first showing the large hammer filling the screen and then moving the camera towards Derek, who appears small in comparison to the hammer.  This contrast impacts the audience with both the danger of the large hammer and the frailty and weakness of Derek. – Tim Kelley