Notes on “How To Do A Plot Twist – Knives Out” Video Essay

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Warning: Spoilers for Knives Out, The Last Jedi, and a small spoiler for Game of Thrones

  • In Knives Out, the plot twist improves the story
  • Director, Ryan Johnson’s last film was The Last Jedi, which was overwhelmingly criticized for the fact that it subverted people’s expectations
  • Director fails to use a device in one story (The Last Jedi) and learns and succeeds in another (Knives Out)
  • Ryan Johnson made an intentional effort to be divisive in The Last Jedi
  • Divisiveness itself is not bad
    • Taboo topics are divisive, but nothing is inherently wrong with them
  • Johnson wasn’t divisive because he raised valid and interesting questions that some don’t want to be raised, but simply because he compromised fundamental elements of his story for a quick, short, cash in on shock
    • Achieved polarity by intentionally incorrectly using storytelling devices and decreasing the quality of his work (“subverting expectations”)
  • Johnson learned a valuable lesson with these two films, that subversion done right doesn’t reduce the quality of your story, it enhances it
  • (3:29) 3 core rules that decide whether your subversion, shock, or twist will be an asset to your story or a detriment to it
  • (4:00) Rule 1: It must enhance your story going forward
    • How does it enhance your story?
      • The main subversion in Knives Out is that it flips genre’s halfway through
        • Entire advertising campaign for the movie, and the whole first act, a murder mystery “who-done-it”, trying to find the killer
        • At the end of the first back, we see exactly who did it and it seemingly answers all the questions
        • No longer “who-done-it”, but “how is she going to get away with it?”
        • Johnson weaponized the tropes of the murder mystery genre
          • The audience believes Marta poisons Harlan Thrombey by accident, so far she has been a kind and likable person, we are rooting for her to succeed
          • In every murder mystery, the detective finds the killer, it’s a trope that every murder mystery has
            • In the end, the detective gathers everyone around, goes through all the clues, points at the person who did it, and they get caught
            • Johnson weaponized this trope, because of it, we genuinely believe Marta is going to be caught at the end and she will go to jail
            • Makes every interaction more interesting because we are rooting for her while simultaneously believing she will be caught at the end
            • Knives Out exploits and weaponized its own tropes
  • (8:44) Rule 2: It must have a strong verisimilitude with the story told before
    • Verisimilitude means that a thing makes perfect logical sense in light of all the other logic that surrounds it
      • Can be foreshadowing but not just that
        • The infamous scene where Rey gives Luke his old lightsaber and then he throws it over the cliff
          • Goes against what Luke would actually do as a character
            • That lightsaber is a sentimental object, created by his mentor, used by his mentor, used by him, the only family heirloom that he has
            • Bad verisimilitude, not bad foreshadowing
        • Knives Out shows less foreshadowing and more good verisimilitude
          • Makes a good, easy to swallow twist
          • Good example Ned Stark’s death in Game of Thrones
            • You expect his life to be spared
            • Almost no foreshadowing, but is a good shocking surprise that fits
        • (12:03) Foreshadowing
          • Some of the best clues ones that you don’t notice until the twist has happened
          • You can still have a great twist that people see coming, but it’s hard
          • It needs to fall in a sweet spot between being logical and too predictable
          • In Knives Out, Ransom is revealed to be the real killer behind it all, he swapped Harlan’s medication to make Marta accidentally give him a lethal morphine dose
            • This is a good example of the sweet spot, near impossible to figure out beforehand but almost obvious in hindsight
          • Order in which clues are delivered
            • Not often talked about in the context of plot twists
            • Has a massive effect on how easy to guess the twist is, but little to no effect on how cathartic the twist is
            • In Knives out, the very first clue we get that Ransom is the murderer is in the very beginning, when everyone in the family is interviewed by the detective and we are told that at 3am in the morning, once everyone is in bed, the dog starts barking
              • We absorb this information but don’t know what to do with it
              • We are then given clues throughout that slowly fill in more pieces of the picture
                • Such as, the dogs are friendly towards everyone except Ransom, they are friendly towards Marta during the night, the detective, etc.
                • The only time we see them aggressive towards someone is when Ransom first arrives and they bark at him and harass him
                • The detective even says, “A good judge of character is a dog”
              • If these clues were given in the opposite order, the twist would be more obvious
              • Cathartic not only because we discover it is Ransom, but because we realize it only ever could have been him
  • (15:12) Rule 3: It can’t break any promises
    • People’s main issue with The Last Jedi
      • We were promised certain things, like Rey’s parents
        • In The Force Awakens, we find her parentage is a mystery, but we are promised an interesting answer, and hyped up for this plotline, for this interesting mystery, people were speculating, they were interested
        • Then, Kylo Ren delivers the news (in The Last Jedi) that her parents were nobodies
        • It takes a mystery that was hyped and gives an answer that is mundane, that makes it not matter
        • It achieved nothing except disappointment
    • In Knives Out, Johnson learned from his mistakes, he keeps his promises
      • He lets you think he has broken his promises, but then it turns out to be a really fun, interesting climax
        • We have that murder mystery plot, and it fizzles out, goes away
        • We then have a new plot, of Marta trying to get away with it
        • In the end, we not only resolve the plot of Marta, but we also resolve the murder mystery plot, delivering on a promise we already thought was broken
        • The plots recombine and every single promise made is delivered in the climax

Invisible Man Inspired Production Project

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“Film Production: Cinematography” by vancouverfilmschool is licensed under CC BY 2.0

SUMMARY

Role: Cinematographer

Main Inspiration: The Invisible Man (2020)

Intention (SMART Goal)

Specific: I want to create tension, like a horror/thriller movie, with my camera work, utilizing eerie POV shots and empty space.

Measurable: This is measurable in what the film made those who watched feel, so it is measured by feedback from the audience.

Achievable: The motivation for this goal is my interest in making films of the horror/thriller genre, and my interest in The Invisible Man (2020), and how the cinematography contributes to the suspense.

Relevant: I am setting this goal now because it is what I am interested in, and I have never worked on a film in the horror/thriller genre, so it will be expanding my skills and perspective.

Time-Bound: We will be setting a deadline for the film, about 1-2 months from when we start, and it is realistic because it is more time than we had last year for the production cycle. This extra time should account for the challenges of completely online learning, and it is also flexible.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

I chose Leigh Wannell’s The Invisible Man

  • (0:27) We see Cecilia (played by Elisabeth Moss) framed on the far right, leaving lots of empty space to her left, unsettling the audience and making us think something is there in that empty space.
  • (0:40) Cecilia sets the knife down on the counter and walks to the right, but we see the knife “fall” off the counter. The knife is small in the frame, and watching it the first time, the movement catches your eye and it looks like the knife fell, but you never hear it hit the ground, which is very unsettling and makes us as the audience think it may be the invisible man.
  • (0:46) The burner is turned up, which, just like the knife, is a small almost imperceptible motion, and the first time I saw it, I wasn’t even sure if it had been turned up at all. These small things leave us feeling unsettled and anxious, as it is somewhat clear to us that the invisible man is now here.
    • This is further corroborated by the fact that Cecilia is now out of the frame. We are anxious to see where she is, and we feel that the man is here because the frame is just the empty kitchen, with odd things happening.
    • We continue as the camera stays still, with the same framing, and we slowly see the pan (with eggs and bacon in it) burn and start smoking, and then catch fire. This is the slow, unsettling suspense that this movie has.

  • The covers are pulled off Cecilia as she sleeps. When she gets up to get them, and she grabs them, she senses or hears something odd, so she turns around and looks at a seemingly empty chair.
  • (1:24) We see this empty chair, framed in the middle of a shot like a subject would be. Cecilia’s fear, along with our knowledge from the previous breakfast scene that the invisible man was in her house and still could be, makes us wholeheartedly believe he is sitting in the chair.
  • (1:57) Cecilia is pulling the blankets back to the bed and someone steps on the end. She tries in vain to continue pulling them but then sees the outline of footsteps on the end, and the footsteps slowly walk towards her. The lack of most sound in this scene besides muffled footsteps and her breathing makes for an even scarier scene.

  • (3:04) An open, seemingly empty doorway is framed. Though the video clip above does not continue the scene, Cecelia talks to the man she thinks is in the doorway, invisible. We know he is real, and because of the framing and her, we highly suspect he is right there. But, because he is invisible, and this is present throughout the whole movie, we never know if he is actually there unless he is actively doing something. We get lots of slow shots of empty rooms, doorways, etc, and we suspect that is where he is, but we will never really know.

The New York Times: ‘The Invisible Man’ Review: Gaslight Nation, Domestic Edition

“Whannell does a lot that’s smart here, including the way he uses bodies in rooms. He likes to isolate Cecilia in the shot, surrounding her with negative space that at first seems to be just visually expressing her feelings of isolation. This dovetails with how he deploys differing points of view, as he shifts from what Cecilia sees to seemingly unmotivated camera moves, like a pan to an empty corner.”

This article is a positive review, talking about Elisabeth Moss’s “full bore-performance” and the director’s smart decisions.

Training Source(s)

  • (0:39) Start of example
  • Observations:
    • Blue/green dark lighting
    • Tracking shots
    • Lots of shadows
    • POV shot from outside the house looking in
  • (1:47) Breaking the example down
    • Slow camera movements to create suspense
    • (2:18) First shot long slow one-take shot
      • Makes the viewer anticipate what could be next, where Sarah went, and what’s around the corner
      • Leaves the subject (Sarah) for a few seconds, the empty kitchen we see creating suspense
      • (3:16) Using negative space
        • Framed Sarah on the far right of the frame, leaving lots of negative space to the left, makes it feel like something belonged in that left side of the frame, we see the shadow of a mysterious figure run by
        • (4:35) Utilizing really long shadows
          • Adds mystery as we don’t know what is causing the shadow
          • Use hard lighting and low key lighting for strong shadows
    • (3:59) The second shot is from outside, we see Sarah looking out her window, we are in the POV of what could be hiding in the bushes
      • Shooting from behind something gives the viewer the perspective of someone or something that could be there
      • Adds to the fear factor of being watched
    • (5:04) Summary:
      1. Slow camera movements
      2. Part ways with your subject
      3. Negative space
      4. Shooting from behind something
      5. Shadows
    • (6:09) Lighting
      • Moonlit scene
      • Many horror movies take advantage of low key lighting
        • “Low key lighting is a lighting technique for film that focuses on accentuating shadows by using hard source lighting in a scene”
      • Relied on just the moonlight lighting, no additional lights inside the house
      • Moonlight for first shot
        • Aputure Mini 20 aimed at the front door where Sarah is walking in
          • Cooler temperature, around 700 degrees Kelvin
          • No diffusion because shears/light see-through curtains on the doors/windows acted as diffusion
          • On full blast because not very strong light
        • Aputure Mini 20 aimed at camera right, window right by the door
          • Keeps consistency in the moonlight
          • Casts lots of shadows
          • Silhouettes Sarah
          • The same curtain on the window acting as a diffuser
        • Aputure 120DII pointed through the back window at the couch
          • No diffusion to keep shadows but reflection cone that came with it
          • Windows don’t have any curtains
          • CTB color temperature blue gel over it to match moonlight
          • 75% power
      • Mirrors good tool to use, to add depth, add a character in the mirror, etc. Just be careful and make sure you can’t see the camera, or cinematographer, etc.
      • Second shot lighting
        • Light straight above the bush shooting down to give an edge to the leaves
        • The light inside the house bouncing off a light reflector card to side light her face, so we can see enough of her face to see her expression
        • Low power light shining on the side of the house to keep up the moonlit look

Project Timeline

  1. Obtain the skills needed for the session by researching cinematography, and more specifically, the cinematography in horror.
  2. Create/share trello board and google drive team folder with the group
  3. Set film intention/goal with the group and record in Trello
  4. Set the tone for the film with the group after discussing genre, style, theme, and inspiration for the film and record all in Trello
    Prepare equipment
    Practice set up and recording
  5. Work with the director on:
    1. Add equipment to shotlist
    2. Compose mise-en-scéne in the storyboard
    3. Map lights / reflectors / green screen for blocking
    4. Map camera(s) and movement for blocking
  6. Compose equipment checklist
  7. Record on storyboard/shotlist:
    1. Light meter settings
    2. Camera manual settings
    3. Camera ISO, shutter speed
    4. Lens focal length
    5. Lens aperture
    6. Composition Rule(s)
  8. Film scenes with group
  9. Help with shot log

Complete film production forms with linked resources

Comparative Study Worksheet 2020-21

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“Film scripts for sale in Soho! #newyork #newyorkcity #nyc #movies” by Nat Ireland is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Summary

A guide to planning, researching, and creating your Film Comparative Study

Student Work

Neil’s Post

Steps and Tasks

  1. Brainstorm possible films for the task. You must select TWO films from contrasting cultural contexts.
  2. Brainstorm and justify at least three different areas of FILM FOCUS for your two chosen films.
  3. Brainstorm and justify at least two different CULTURAL CONTEXTS for your two chosen films.
  4. Consolidate your ideas and develop at least three different RESEARCH QUESTION topics for your study.
  5. Finalize your choices and select your RESEARCH QUESTION. Choose two films for comparison.
  6. Develop the main arguments you will make about your topic.
  7. Collect evidence from the films that support your argument.
  8. Research secondary sources for information that supports your argument.
  9. Write your Narration and plan the audio-visual components of your video essay.
  10. Record, assemble and edit your Comparative Study Video Essay.
  11. Create a Works Cited document (separately) once your Comparative Study is finished.

Guidance for Your Work

“Simple formative analysis of film elements, no matter how precise or insightful, won’t cut it which is why the research question needs to be crafted in such a way that it provides scope for theoretical and socio-historic exploration. It’s basically an EE in disguise but focusing on two very different textual sources.”

Comparative Study Task Components

For this assessment task, each student identifies, selects, and researches each of the following task components.

  1. TASK 1: One area of film focus.
  2. TASK 2: Two films for comparison from within the chosen area of film focus, one of which originates from a contrasting time (historical) or space (geographical) to the personal context of the student, and the other film identified for comparison must arise from a contrasting cultural context to the first film. Students are required to select films they have not previously studied in depth. The selected films cannot come from the prescribed list of film texts provided for the textual analysis assessment task and, once selected, the films cannot be used by the student in any other assessment task for the DP film course or the extended essay.
  3. TASK 3: A clearly defined topic for a recorded multimedia comparative study, which links both the selected films and the identified area of film focus. Each student should invest time in researching, developing, and honing their topic (which in most cases is likely to be expressed in the form of a research question) to ensure it is clear, focused and concise, in order to provide them with the maximum potential for success in this task. The topic should seek to enrich the student’s understanding of the chosen area of film focus and should avoid a plot-driven approach to the comparison.

The assessment criteria for this task requires students to provide a strong justification for the choice of task components as part of the recorded multimedia comparative study. This includes the student’s justification for how films arise from contrasting cultural contexts.

1. FILM Choices List

  • How much time you spent: 15 minutes
Which films are you considering for your final Comparative Study? List as many as you wish below as part of an initial brainstorm. Remember that you must select ​​TWO​​ films from contrasting cultural contexts for this task. e.g. CITIZEN KANE Year, Country, and Director of the film. e.g. 1941, USA, Dir: Orson Welles
Joker 2019, USA, Dir: Todd Phillips
Seven 1995, USA, Dir: David Fincher
Parasite 2019, Korea, Bong Joon-ho
  • 1917: 2019, England/USA, Sam Mendes
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: 2016, USA, David Yates
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: 2014, USA, James Gunn
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home: 2019, USA, Jon Watts
  • Avengers: Endgame: 2019, USA, Jon Russo, Anthony Russo
  • Zodiac: 2007, USA, David Fincher

2. Areas of FILM FOCUS

Film Focus Possibility – identify the broad focus area and then add specifics (e.g. “THEORY – Auteur theory” or “GENRE – Horror”). Develop at least THREE options…you can create more by adding more rows. Justification for this Film Focus. Be as specific as possible.
GENRE – Thriller/Suspense (psychological) Story-driven instead of action-driven, both films are of this genre, and I really like how deep and complicated these films can be.
THEORY – Freudian theory In Joker, Arthur was abused as a child, and we see newspaper articles talking about how his mother neglected him. This may be why he seeks out recognition throughout the entire film. In Seven, John Doe also had a bad childhood, with his mom beating him, and headaches as a result of shock treatment. When he was a grown man, he found his wife cheating on him. He never had children, because his wife was unable, and for that reason, he never touched her. In his teen years, John goes back to his childhood house and finds his mother was burning his belongings and is telling him he will go to hell for his sins. John found a key and left her as she caught fire and burned to death, using the key on a box that contained a book of the seven deadly sins, and then started his crimes. This shows his crimes could stem from his abuse as a child.
THEORY – Marxism The economic gap in Joker between people like Bruce Wayne’s family who get tons of recognition and have much wealth, and people like Arthur who are left without counseling and medication due to budget cuts.  When Arthur kills the host of a talk show, he becomes a symbol, a face for violent protests with signs like “kill the rich.”
  • THEME – Recognition: John Doe in Seven wants recognition, from people and from God, for this “good work” he is doing punishing people for their sins. In Joker, the entire film is about Arthur trying to gain recognition.
  • THEME – Reality in mental health: In Joker, we are seeing Arthur’s story, so in a way, he is the narrator because we are seeing what he is seeing/experiencing. It is an unreliable narrative, and throughout the movie, we find out some things we see aren’t real, and we are left at the end to question, with no “real” or “right” answer, which parts of what we saw were real and which weren’t. In Seven, John Doe is under the delusion that it’s his job, given to him by God, to punish people for their sins. We as the audience know what is real, and John is obviously under a delusion. But, we as the audience also only know what the detectives know; we don’t know John’s plans, and we are left to reel at the discovery with the detectives at the end.

3. Chosen CULTURAL CONTEXT

  • How much time did you spend: 40 minutes

For this assessment task, “cultural context” involves consideration of some of the following factors, some of which may be blended (such as socioeconomic factors).

  • Economic, Geographical, Historical, Institutional, Political, Social, Technological
Identify at least TWO Cultural Context possibilities for your chosen films.
 Justification for this Cultural Context. Be as specific as possible.
Seven: More complicated crime film which wasn’t common Silence of the Lambs, a psychological horror film, came out in 1991 and was one of the few thrillers to ever receive the best picture oscar. Before, in the 1980s, crime films were more about mute, emotionless killers.
Joker: More polarized political climate in America With Trump as president, there is a lot more polarization politically, and fewer people are willing to compromise. This had led to a higher rate of hate crimes under his presidency, and other things such as Obamacare trying to be taken away. A reflection of our real world can be seen in Arthur’s medication and therapist being taken away due to budget cuts, and violent protesters in the streets, very radical with their violence and signs like “kill the rich.”
  • Joker: Mental health issues less stigmatized: A film like Joker may not have been as well accepted by audiences if it had come out any earlier, and we can partially see this in the critics. A lot of critics think that some young white males may come away from the film seeing Arthur as the protagonist, and think violence is okay. Despite some past films being just like Joker in their depictions, with no spikes in violence or radical teenagers coming away from them, and Joker not picturing Arthur as victorious, people, mostly critics, were shocked by this movie. (Why Do Critics Hate Joker? Video Essay)

4. RESEARCH QUESTION Possibilities

  • How much time did you spend: 5 minutes

Consolidate your thoughts above and develop at least ​THREE​​ different research question possibilities. More are possible by adding additional rows to the table below. FYI these will be shared with the full class for discussion of strengths and weaknesses.

Your Chosen Area of Film Focus Topic for Comparative Study (written as a research question)
Genre: Thriller/Suspense (psychological) How has time impacted this genre?
Theme: Reality in mental health How do these two films depict reality in mental health?
Theory: Freudian theory How do these two films showcase the Freudian theory?

Setting: How does the setting in these two cities affect the story?

5. Final Decisions

  • How much time did you spend: 10 minutes

Using your topic options in the table above, select ​ONE​​ to be your final topic for this Comparative Study task. NOTE: There are examples from the IB of what this should look like below this table.

Your Chosen Area of Film Focus Film 1 Film 2 Contrasting Cultural Context Topic for Comparative Study practice task (written as a research question)
Genre: psychological thriller Seven (1995) Joker (2019) 20+ years apart How has the psychological thriller genre changed over the years with the times?

6. Developing Your Topic

  • How much time did you spend: 25 minutes
Develop 3-5 main arguments that can be made about your topic based on your research question and chosen film focus. Brainstorm how you could support these arguments within your video essay.
drugs use over the years-joker, how both films frame drugs?
politically tense time-3 strikes your out, sex scandals, unjust imprisonment of black people, rioting after Rodney king, an all-white jury acquitted all policeman Compare how politics affects different films, Seven less political than Joker, Rodney King shows not everyone punished by the law (connection to Seven), Joker riots show politically tense time, a reflection of the 90s and now
serial killers in 1990s, seven, hate crimes/violence in 2019, joker Compare how different films use/frame violence
blame simply on John Doe but the whole story told with Arthur Compare how different films frame mental health. Arthur was abandoned by the system, erratic, John Doe methodical, both films ended in them killing someone but different forms of mental illness

7. Selecting Supporting Evidence (Primary)

  • How much time did you spend: 2 hours 30 minutes
Identify at least 15 scenes from your chosen films that will help support the arguments you have outlined above. Screen clip a frame from each scene below. Write notes about how this scene helps support your argument. (These notes will help form your voice-over narration.)
Man fed until he dies, for gluttony John Doe wants to punish people in a way he feels appropriate for their sins, not by the justice system, see seven scene below
Scene where rioters in the street, laying Arthur on the top of the broken police car, worshiping him

Scene of protesters rioting

 Reflect the politically tense time that we have today, we are polarized sides pitted against each other. In Joker, the protesters are radical, signs like “kill the rich” instead of trying to redistribute wealth.
Goes with the seven scene above, car scene, same as below

Seven – Scene – Creating expectation for the climax (Youtube)

 John Doe clearly doesn’t completely believe in the fairness of our justice system, since he says the detectives should be thanking him for killing a lawyer who “dedicated his life to lying with every breath he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the street.” There was distrust of the justice system after an incident in 1991 (detailed below) with Rodney King being beaten on camera by police and the judges acquitting all the officers.
Seven car scene, John talking about the lawyer John Doe in Seven does not necessarily have a political agenda, politics are not really mentioned throughout the film, besides when he talks about the lawyer letting criminals go free.
Scene of protesters rioting

 

 Arthur in Joker also doesn’t really have a political agenda. Politics are a lot more present in the film, as Arthur sparks an entire political movement resulting in riots and violence, but we see throughout the film that he doesn’t really care. He doesn’t try to spread awareness when he’s on the tv show or with other people, he is just seeking recognition. He wants to be seen, to be recognized. (wisecrack video below)
Arthur kills three guys in the subway | Joker [UltraHD, HDR]

Scene of the sin sloth

 Both films have the same result, John Doe and Arthur killing, but they get there different ways. Arthur is more rash in his actions, for example, he doesn’t plan to kill those men on the subway, while John is methodical and calculating, as is shown by the fact he’s had the man being punished for sloth tied down for a year. They have different types of mental illnesses, where Arthur is irrational and erratic in his actions, uncontrollable, unpredictable, while John is delusional in a different way, un-empathetic (to say the least), but cold and calculating, even toying with the police (box head scene). It is clear he knows what he is doing, and can do it well.
Arthur kills three guys in the subway | Joker [UltraHD, HDR]

Joker Kills Murray Scene – JOKER (2019) 4K Movie Clip

 Joker shows Arthur killing people, when he kills the three men on the subway and when he kills Murray. This has a different, but arguably just as effective, effect as Seven, because it showcases Arthur’s erratic-ness. When he kills the people on the subway, it’s clear he didn’t plan it, and we as the audience are shocked, it comes as a surprise, just as him killing Murray happens in a second with no warning.
Scene from one of the murders, scene of man crying describing the lust murder Seven shows the results of John Doe’s murders, or has someone describe them, but does not show John Doe actually killing anyone. This allows the film to get it across to the audience these horrific murders, and all the psychology behind them, but without being a “slasher” film or succumbing to gore for no good reason.
Near the end of the film, when Arthur kills Murray

Joker Kills Murray Scene – JOKER (2019) 4K Movie Clip

 Arthur uses violence to get a point across by making the ‘joke’ “What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? I’ll tell you, what you f*cking deserve!” And then kills Murray on air. He uses this violence that is literally broadcast to spread his message about the broken system.
John Doe in the back of the police car talking with the detectives, saying people need to be forced to see. “You can’t tap people on the shoulder anymore, you have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you have their strict attention.”

Seven – Scene – Creating expectation for the climax (Youtube)

 In both films, violence is a way to get a point across. John Doe wants to punish people for their sins, and he wants people to know about his crimes so they can hopefully see the error of their sins, or be scared. He also says “Who I am doesn’t matter” and “I’m not special. I have never been exceptional. This is though, what I’m doing.” This contrasts with Arthur since throughout the entirety of Joker, we see that Arthur just wants to be recognized. John doesn’t care about personal recognition, just about recognition of the work he is doing.
Arthur realizing his relationship with the girl next door wasn’t real Again, we can sympathize with him. Since we see his perspective throughout the film, we don’t know what is real either, and we can put ourselves in his shoes and imagine how hard it is to be abandoned, un-medicated, lonely.
Arthur on the train before he kills the three men, them making fun of him for uncontrollably laughing

Arthur kills three guys in the subway | Joker [UltraHD, HDR]

 We see what Arthur has to deal with, he’s being made fun of, they take his stuff, beat him up.
Mills about to kill John Doe John Doe does not care about his life, he believes he deserves to die, and we as an audience are also made not to care, he’s less humanized than Arthur which takes on the stance of the time
John Doe in the back of the police cruiser, near the end of the movie, leading the detectives out to a field, they are talking about who John is and why he does what he does

Seven – Scene – Creating expectation for the climax (Youtube)

 John clearly never got medication, and is mentally ill, delusional, but the blame is placed solely on him. We are not made to consider his backstory much, even though he had a rough childhood/life (fanwiki). He himself says who he is is of no consequence, as said above. Also, it is important to note he is more human than previous films killers (cultural context: Silence of the Lambs, a psychological horror film, came out in 1991 and was one of the few thrillers to ever receive the best picture oscar. Before, in the 1980s, crime films were more about mute, emotionless killers). This shows more humanization than before, but nothing compared to what we have now, like what is shown in Joker.
Arthur talking to his therapist (for the last time) learning that he will be losing her and his medication due to budget cuts Humanizes him, leads us to sympathize with him more, blames the system instead of him, shows a more modern take on mental health.

8. Selecting Supporting Evidence (Secondary)

  • How much time did you spend: 15 minutes
Identify at least 3-5 secondary sources (articles, books, websites, video essays, etc.) which provide information that help support your arguments being made. In this column include the specific source citations. Summarize the detailed information from the secondary source that you can use in this column. (You can copy+paste if they are from online sources.)
Wikipedia – Rodney King “Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an American author and activist who was a victim of police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department. On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving on I-210. A civilian, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA.[2]:85 The footage showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor. At a press conference, announcing the four officers involved would be disciplined, and three would face criminal charges, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates said: “We believe the officers used excessive force taking him into custody. In our review, we find that officers struck him with batons between fifty-three and fifty-six times.”… he (Rodney) spoke to reporters from his wheelchair, with his injuries evident: a broken right leg in a cast, his face badly cut and swollen, bruises on his body, and a burn area to his chest where he had been jolted with a 50,000-volt stun gun…Four officers were eventually tried on charges of use of excessive force. Of these, three were acquitted, and the jury failed to reach a verdict on one charge for the fourth.”
How Arthur is just seeking recognition throughout the film and does not care about the political movement he has sparked.
How Seven keeps from showing John Doe committing the murders, and how this is an amazing asset to the story telling and film.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61908/14-things-you-might-not-know-about-se7en Silence of the Lambs, a psychological horror film, came out in 1991 and was one of the few thrillers to ever receive the best picture oscar. Before, in the 1980s, crime films were more about mute, emotionless killers.

*Add more rows as needed.

9. Writing Your Narration

  • How much time did you spend: 1 hour 30 minutes and counting

Using the information, scene choices, and external sources you have compiled in steps 6-8, you will now write your voiceover narration and match it up to your chosen visual examples.

Length (</= 10 Minutes)

  • For the final Comparative Study, your narration should be no longer than 10 minutes in length.

Remember that you need to:

  • COMPARE and CONTRAST your two chosen film using the arguments and evidence you identified in parts 6-8, above
  • Begin your narration with a detailed justification for the chosen cultural contrast
  • Use an equal balance of the two selected films.
  • Write in a third-person voice to construct your argument (similar in tone to your Extended Essay and other
    comparative analytical work you have written in Film class).
  • Identify where any WRITTEN TEXT will appear on the screen and highlight this (to reference during the
    creation/editing stage)
Which Visual Evidence/Scenes line up to this part of the narration? Voiceover Narration Ideas

Formatting Guidelines

Screenshot from Celtx.com

10. Assembling the Comparative Study

  • Set a timer
  • How much time did you spend:  ? 

Now you will collect all media resources needed for the task and construct your video essay.

REQUIRED STEPS

  • Import the digital copy of your chosen films into editing software
  • Identify and extract chosen scenes and clips
  • Place and edit clips into a rough timeline for your video essay
  • Record audio narration (both partners should participate in narrating this practice task)
    into an audio file using recording equipment (Zoom recorders, iPhone, DSLR Rode video
    mic, etc.)
  • Import your recorded narration audio file into your project timeline
  • Assemble, edit and fine-tune clips and narration until your video essay takes shape
  • Create and add any required textual information in the timeline (including black slate at the start)
  • Audio mixing of narration and movie clips (adjust levels so that narration and movie sounds complement each other)
  • Export the final video essay movie file
    • Upload Unlisted draft to YouTube for peer review

11. Create Works Cited

  • Set a timer
  • How much time did you spend:  ? 
  • Create Works Cited list separately (Google Doc)

Examples of Possible Task Components (from the IB)

Area of film focus Film 1 Film 2 Possible topic for comparative study
Film movement: German Expressionism The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Edward Scissorhands (1990) How and with what effect are specific film elements of German expressionism used within a chosen contemporary film?
Film movement: French New Wave Breathless (1960) Badlands (1973) The influence of the French New Wave on New Hollywood’s use of innovative film elements in its representation of youth and violence.
Film genre and film style: Black comedy No. 3 (1997) The Big Lebowski (1998) To what extent do “black comedy” films differ according to cultural context?
Film theory: Soviet Montage Battleship Potemkin (1925) Koyaanisqatsi (1982) To what extent are specific features of Soviet montage theory faithfully employed in a contemporary experimental film?

External Assessment Criteria SL and HL

Peer Review Checklist

 

TASK COMPONENTS (ACTION) Notes / Suggestions
__ Assemble Findings
__ Develop a personal and critically reflective perspective
__ Identify and gather appropriate audio-visual material to support the study
SCREENPLAY
__ Justify the chosen topic and selected films
__ Make sure that the text is in a formal academic register (can be in the 1st person)
__ The balance between visual and spoken elements
__ Make clear reference to your sources as on-screen citations (text on-screen)
__ Make sure the primary weight of evidence for the study from the two chosen films
__ Make sure each film is given equal consideration
__ Make sure film language information is communicated clearly throughout (avoid “to be” verbs – make statements like “blah is this.”)
__ Make sure information is communicated logically rooted in film language
__ Have another student highlight the WHAT WHY HOW in your draft screenplay
VIDEO ESSAY
__ Recorded voice and edited commentary numerous times until happy with the material
__ Make sure your name and the school’s name ARE NOT IN THE ESSAY
__ Make sure to have 10-second title card with:1. Area of film focus

2. Titles of the two films for comparison

3. The chosen topic
__ Include breaks in your recorded commentary to enable other audio-visual material included in the study to be clearly heard (if needed)
__ Make sure film clip length matches points being made
__ Make sure still images have citations on-screen if you have them
__ Make sure text on-screen is legible and spelled correctly
__ Make sure information is communicated audibly (levels are good for all sound)
__ Make sure information is communicated visually appropriate manner
__ Make sure background music is from Creative Commons and is cited
__ Make sure edits are clean
__ Make sure the presentation is 10 minutes maximum, including title card and credits
__ Make sure two films are listed in sources

Recipe for Success: Steven Spieberg

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Ready_Player_One_Japan_Premiere_Red_Carpet_Steven_Spielberg_%2841564864062%29.jpg/220px-Ready_Player_One_Japan_Premiere_Red_Carpet_Steven_Spielberg_%2841564864062%29.jpg

Born: December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, OH

Personal Success Definition

I define success as somehow happy with their job, who makes a difference in the world, and influences other’s lives in a positive way.

Steven Spielberg works in an industry he is passionate about; having what most would call their “dream job.” He enjoys what he does, and he has said, “I dream for a living” (Steven Spielberg Inspirational Speech). He has made a difference in the world by telling stories and influencing countless films by becoming a part of film history. People enjoy watching his movies, and they create entire cultures to be a part of.

Skills for Success

Steven Spielberg is 1) dedicated to learning the latest techniques and technologies, 2) committed to making original content, and 3) can speak to viewers of all demographics. From experimenting with some of the first animatronics in films in 1975’s Jaws and 1993’s Jurassic Park to his Dreamworks Animation company pioneering works of 3D animation such as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon, to one of his latest movies Ready Player One, Spielberg has always kept up with the times. Spielberg criticizes the over-use and reliance on franchises, and the only movies he has returned to are Raiders and Jurassic Park. He is focused on creating original material, and it shows in the fact that his films gross so much and are enjoyed countless times. His ability to speak to audiences of many demographics is another reason he is so successful. His variety is shown in the differences between demographics of films he has made; adult films such as Schindler’s List and children’s films such as Hook. He has also been able to make singular films that appeal to both demographics, balancing the line between keeping kids entertained, but being thoughtful enough to not patronize the adult audience. This is shown in films such as ET, Raiders of the Lost Arc, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

How They Used These Skills

Jaws Poster from IMDb

Spielberg used the (new at the time) animatronics technology in Jaws and persevered with it despite the shark often not working. He used different cinematic techniques and the amazing music to amp up the tension, instead of just relying on showing the shark. Jaws also shows his dedication to remaining original, as he refused to come back for a franchise, despite Universal pushing him. His ability to appeal to multiple audiences is shown in ET, which on the surface is a story of a sweet small alien trying to go home, but “its power-hungry military, meditations on otherness and the nature of friendship coupled to an intelligent script take it out of the realms of children’s filmdom” (The National).

Challenges Overcome

Steven Spielberg had to overcome being embarrassed for being an Orthodox Jew, and all the bullying and anti-semitic acts he faced as a child. He also had to overcome the challenge of getting a directing job in the film industry, and he did this by making a name for himself before he even entered the industry. He overcame people doubting him because he was young as well.

Significant Work

This is one of the famous scenes from one of Spielberg’s first iconic movies Jaws.

This is the 25th-anniversary official trailer for Schindler’s List, an emotional movie showcasing the horrors of the holocaust.

Resources

https://youtu.be/ULwhcNgf3jA

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/why-steven-spielberg-is-the-world-s-most-successful-director-1.716337

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg

The Story of Film – Episode 15

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Notes:

2000 Onwards: Film Moves Full Circle – and the Future of Movies.

  • Swiss Miss (1938) dir. John G. Blystone and Hal Roach
    • Putting a piano in the Swiss Alps, shot on a set with a painted background
      • We know something will go wrong, it always does
  • Blonde Venus (1932) dir. Josef von Sternberg
    • Hollywood at its most playful, absurd, new
  • Employees Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Louis Lumière
    • Movies started with this documentary
  • Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) dir. Michael Moore
    • First time in the story of film that non fiction cinema held it’s own on the big screen
    • One of the biggest box office hits in the history of documentary
    • All they had to do was show the footage, add a commentary, and time stamps
  • The Bourne Supremacy (2004) dir. Paul Greengrass
    • Film above made the same amount of money as this one
    • Filmed more like a documentary, the director came from documentary’s
  • Être et avoir (2002) dir. Nicolas Philibert
  • Zidane – A Portrait in the 21st Century (2006) dir. Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno
    • Documentary
    • Used extra long lenses to film a football match
      • Follows one player, not the overall match, we see his thoughts as subtitles, although he never speaks
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) dir. Andrew Dominik
    • Shallow focus, no attempt to computerize the images
  • Way Down East (1920) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. D. W. Griffith
    • Film above has the delicate photo-realism of this film
  • Climates (2006) dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    • Shot digitally
    • A hotel room, a wife in close up, the drip of water on the soundtrack
      • We cut to her older husband, his face half obscured
      • Lots of mysterious focus shots
    • Sad film about marriage
  • The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) dir. Cristi Puiu
    • New Romanian cinema
    • Passionately showed that we are all in this scary new century together
  • The Headless Woman (2008) dir. Lucrecia Martel
    • Argentinian film
    • Static camera with one shot shows woman in her car, reaching for her ringing phone, accidentally hitting something, pulling over, trying to calm herself down, then driving off
    • The camera stays in the car as she stops again, gets out, leaves the shot
    • We see her keep secrets from her family and from herself throughout the film
    • Hauntingly unglossy movie
  • Battle in Heaven (2005) dir. Carlos Reygadas
    • Close up of a dark hand holding a light-skinned one
    • When they are shown having sex, the camera travels up and we see a single uninterrupted over 3 minute long crane shot showing people repairing a satellite dish, and other homes
  • Oasis (2002) dir. Lee Chang-Dong
    • A man who is just out of prison is dominating the conversation at the dinner table
      • He has brought with him a young woman with cerebral palsy, it is uncomfortable
  • Memories of Murder (2003) dir. Bong Joon-ho
    • A cereal killer has killed 10 Korean women, which is a true story
    • A cop is looking for the killer, he seems haunted by the memory of the murder
    • A girl then approaches him, and reveals that she may have seen the murderer
      • A conversation, simply shot
    • All through the film, the detective has been looking for this kind of breakthrough, and now that he finally gets it, it’s just ordinary, it doesn’t give him anything
  • Oldboy (2003) dir. Park Chan-wook
    • Film based off Japanese manga cartoon book
    • The camera keeps its distance on a dolly during the fight
  • Le Voyage dans la lune (1902) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Georges Méliès(Although Mark Cousins and the title on the screen indicate that the scene being shown is from La lune à un mètre, the scene is actually from Le Voyage dans la lune.
    • One of the first science fiction films
  • Mulholland Dr. (2001) dir. David Lynch
    • A girl falls asleep and dives down into her own consciousness
    • Then the girl grows up, falls in love with another girl, and gets so jealous she hires a hit-man to kill her
      • Another man is there, and it is as if he is seeing her commit the crime, the thought-crime
    • So innovative because it was the wizard of oz plunging into a black rabbit hole
  • Requiem for a Dream (2000) dir. Darren Aronofsky
    • Looked at people on drugs
    • Movie about how drugs distort the world
  • Songs from the Second Floor (2000) dir. Roy Andersson
    • Man has burned down his business and is on the train, the walls a bad green, but suddenly heightened, like a musical fantasy
    • In the ending, symbols of religion are being dumped into a wasteland beyond the city
      • Uncut shot lasts for minutes, and then people stand up from the field, like the day of judgement, they have been there all along
  • Way Out West (1937) dir. James W. Horne
    • Previous director fan of this
  • Indiscreet (1958) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Stanley Donen
  • Rules of Attraction (2002) dir. Roger Avary
    • We feel in the middle of this flirtatious conversation
  • Avatar (2009) dir. James Cameron
    • CGI really helped make this movie
    • In real life, the man is a marine and cannot walk, but he runs in his avatar body
    • The faces were filmed for realistic facial expressions
    • Managed to insert the mystery of human thinking and emotion into a digital animation
  • Motion Capture Mirrors Emotion (2009) dir. Jorge Ribas
  • Tropical Malady (2004) dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
    • Backdrop so still it looks almost painted
    • The film then seems to break down, it goes to black, restarts, we see a man in the dark, looking up at a tree lit by fireflies
      • We learn that his friend is now a tiger, and he must hunt him
      • The film seems to have been reincarnated, from a naturalistic tale of friendship, to a tale of hunting and hunted
  • Mother and Son (1997) dir. Alexander Sokurov
    • Russian cottage in the countryside, mother is dying, her son tends to her, she is happy dying in his arms
    • Many critics feel this is one of the best films of its time
  • Russian Ark (2002) dir. Alexander Sokurov
    • A ball from older times, they flow down the steps like a river, but we feel when they leave their heads will be cut off by young men waiting, they are going to slaughter and it is unavoidable
      • There was nothing noble about the slaughter, just violent, disgusting
    • Director saw the film as the last breath of this society
      • Because of that, filmed it all in one take, there is but one cut in the entire movie
  • In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2003) dir. Knut Elstermann
    • Documentary footage from when the film above was finished

Epilogue the Year 2046

The Story of Film – Episode 14

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Notes:

The 1990s: The First Days of Digital – Reality Losing Its Realness in America and Australia.

  • Gladiator (2000) dir. Ridley Scott
    • Digital cinema, overhead shot as if camera was on a helicopter, but all created digitally
  • Intolerance (1916) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. D. W. Griffith
    • Put camera on crane to get opening shot
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) dir. James Cameron
    • Scanned a photgraphed image and then painted silver metal over it and made different movements, to make the man look like he turned into mercury
    • Before, digital characters were cartoon characters, two dimensional, not real
  • Anchors Aweigh (1945) dir. George Sidney
    • Two dimensional mouse dancing with person
  • Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Winsor McCay
    • One of the first animations
  • Jurassic Park (1993) (introduced in Episode 11) dir. Steven Spielberg
    • Reflections on the floor of the feet of the t-rex, looks very real
  • Titanic (1997) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. James Cameron
    • We see the sinking ship as if it had actually been photographed
  • Toy Story (1995) dir. John Lasseter
    • First mainstream feature film to be made entirely of CGI
    • Allowed deep staging and shots that were hard to get in real life
  • The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
    • Shot on low tech digital video
    • Marketed on the internet
  • House of Flying Daggers (2004) (introduced in Episode 12) dir. Zhang Yimou
    • A blind dancer
    • A man flicks a bean at the drums to confuse her, we see the bean and track it as it hits drums
    • The bean is computer generated
    • The man throws a CGI plate at her, she wields a CGI sword at him
    • Allowed us to see things in a way we hadn’t before
  • Goodfellas (1990) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • About gangsters
    • This gangster looks right into the camera
  • The Great Train Robbery (1903) dir. Edwin S. Porter
  • The Killers (1946) dir. Robert Siodmak
    • Two killers are about to do a hit
    • The shot is dark, the shadows from German expressionism
    • They are quiet
  • Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino
    • Two killers about to do a hit
    • They talk a lot
    • The shot is a lot lighter
    • Both more real and less real than life at the same time
  • Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir. Quentin Tarantino
    • Long lens, wearing black glasses, man shoots the police with two guns
    • Climax shot of three thieves pulling guns on each other, one police officer on the ground bleeding
  • City on Fire (1987) dir. Ringo Lam
    • Long lens, wearing black glasses, man also shoots the police with two guns, an inspiration for the shot above, very similar shots
    • Same with the second shot described above, the exact same in this film, wide shots and then close ups, three thieves, police officer on the ground, in the climax of the film
  • Bande à Part (1964) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
    • Tarantino used A Band Apart as the name for his production company
  • Natural Born Killers (1994) dir. Oliver Stone
    • Tarantino wrote the screenplay
    • Mash up of styles, no one type of image to capture the truth, fragmented multiple realities
  • Miller’s Crossing (1990) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
    • A hat falls into the foreground, the trees in the background out of focus
      • The wind blows the hat farther away, backwards, but the focus follows it and we see the leaves and the trees in the background fall into focus
  • The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
    • A little man caught up in events he doesn’t understand
  • O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
    • George Clooney played a similar “trespasser” in this movie
    • Clooney wide eyes, clueless
  • The Big Lebowski (1998) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
    • Surreal design, fondness for old Hollywood
  • My Own Private Idaho (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant
    • Was about a young hustler
    • To show what the man felt like when he had an organism, the director showed a barn crashing into a landscape
      • Never had sex been shown in this imaginative way before
    • Film full of empty landscape shots, golden lighting, the empty road
  • The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick
    • One singular alone beautiful shot, like the barn in the film above
  • Elephant (2003) dir. Gus Van Sant
    • Shot in 4 by 3 ratio
    • Needless violence, about a school shooting
  • Elephant (1989) dir. Alan Clarke
    • Used a steady camera to show the glide-like walking of gun men in Ireland
  • Gerry (2002) dir. Gus Van Sant
    • Filmed like in videogames, no cutting, you have to walk from point A to point B
    • Obsession with the beauty of walking
  • Sátántangó (1994) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Béla Tarr
  • Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) dir. Chantal Akerman
    • Full of fixed shots
    • Filmed square on, in domestic places like kitchens
  • Last Days (2005) dir. Gus Van Sant
    • Some shots remarkably similar to film above
  • Psycho (1960) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
    • Original, based off a real story
  • Psycho (1998) dir. Gus Van Sant
    • Based off the previous film
    • Departed from the original with only tiny details
    • This version became devoid of the original dark underlying tensions
    • “Became an example of how you can’t really copy something” because of the different intentions and such, -Director
  • Cremaster 3 (2002) dir. Matthew Barney
    • Director used to work in sports
    • Worked up a sweat making his movies as well
    • He is filmed rock climbing
    • Film overloaded with symbolism
    • Similar to the determination of man climbing building in film below
  • Safety Last! (1923) (introduced in Episode 2) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
  • RoboCop (1987) dir. Paul Verhoeven
    • Businessmen want to make money by launching this new mechanical cop, but it turns on them
    • They try again, and come up with a more liberal version
    • Satirical script
  • Starship Troopers (1997) dir. Paul Verhoeven
    • Even more satirical about the threat to humans by alien bugs
      • The bugs were all computer generated
    • Decided never to let on who was the bad or good guys
    • In the ending, the “queen” bug is tied up, humiliated
      • A man puts his hand on it and cries out “it’s afraid” and everyone starts cheering
  • An Angel at My Table (1990) dir. Jane Campion
    • About a shy young woman training to be a teacher
    • She is standing in front of the class, and a trainer, and a person who is going to asses her
      • She freezes at the chalkboard, has a panic attack, we focus on a close up shot of the chalk
  • The Piano (1993) dir. Jane Campion
    • The child is looking through her fingers, they look like read curtains about to open
    • Only film directed by a woman to win a certain award at a film festival
  • Romeo + Juliet (1996) dir. Baz Luhrmann
    • Director defined the first days of digital cinema
    • Director collection of history of film, lots of inspiration and fondness for Bollywood, Shakespeare
    • Hyperactive version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
    • Leonardo De Caprio played Romeo
    • Translated to modern American times
    • Comic dialogue
    • Knights have become street kids in Hawaiian shirts
  • Moulin Rouge! (2001) dir. Baz Luhrmann
    • Fashion, cross-dressing, kaleidoscope

The Story of Film – Episode 13

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Notes:

1990-1998: The Last Days of Celluloid – Before the Coming of Digital.

  • The Apple (1998) dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
    • Feels like an intimate personal myth about parental love and how it can go wrong
  • A Moment of Innocence (1996) dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    • A real life policeman directs a film about his life
    • He casts a quite handsome actor to play his younger self, already adding a touch of glamour to the real story
  • Where Is the Friend’s Home? (1987) dir. Abbas Kiarostami
    • Director filmed like a football coach
    • Wanted to take the fake things out of filming, like unnatural lighting, dolly shots, etc.
    • One of the greatest films about childhood and friendship
  • And Life Goes On (1991) dir. Abbas Kiarostami
    • The film is about after the earthquake that struck where the director filmed the above film, and they went looking for the two boy actors that lived there but found something else; the love of human life
    • He made a short scene about him meeting a man who shared some of his values, and he fell in love with the woman playing his wife, but she did not love him back
  • Through the Olive Trees (1994) dir. Abbas Kiarostami
    • Made this film about that one tiny scene in the above film, and his feelings for the woman who was playing his wife
  • Days of Being Wild (1990) dir. Wong Kar-wai
    • Soft shadowing, shallow focus, beautiful natural colors
  • In the Mood for Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar-wai
    • Time slowed down, a woman passing a man, he glances, music in 3/4 time, it rains like in a movie
    • The man and the woman are in separate marriages, but lonely
    • They are in the mood for love
  • Irma Vep (1996) dir. Olivier Assayas
    • Director scribbled on the celluloid to show what directors sometimes do to actors
  • A City of Sadness (1989) dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien
    • Late 1940s
    • Long, static shots, average 40 seconds each
    • Director said that holding a long shot holds a certain kind of tension
  • Tokyo Story (1953) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
    • Previous director was inspired by and revered this director
  • Vive L’Amour (1994) dir. Tsai Ming-liang
    • About the loneliness of life in modern cities
    • At its end, a young woman walks to a park bench and cries, we don’t know exactly why
      • Waves of emotion cross her face as the sun comes out, we stay in a static shot
      • That scene lasts 7 minutes
  • Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
    • “Combination of something that felt like eroticism and something hard like metal” -Director
    • Black and white captures the man’s terror and fear
  • Videodrome (1983) (introduced in Episode 12) dir. David Cronenberg
    • Previous director was inspired by this film and this director
  • Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
    • A man has transformed into a gun
    • 43 seconds of single frame shots of biology
    • Partially inspired by fear of technology
  • La Roue (1923) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Abel Gance
    • Above shot partially inspired by shot in this movie
  • Ringu (1998) dir. Hideo Nakata
    • Film about people who die after watching a videotape
    • The horror is that it takes place in our own home
    • Avoided the christian idea of the soul made it distinctly Asian
  • The Exorcist (1973) (introduced in Episode 11) dir. William Friedkin
    • Above director loved this movie and borrowed the normal setting from it
  • Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
    • Eerie cam of dreamlike female ghost
  • Audition (1999) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Takashi Miike
    • The camera is very stable
    • Uses blankness to surprise us with the terror
    • Used stillness as a counter to violence
  • Breaking the Waves (1996) dir. Lars von Trier
    • About the suffering of a naive young Scottish woman
    • We follow her with a mostly handheld camera
  • Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999) dir. Tom Fontana
    • No continuity, a burden to be freed of
  • Dogville (2003) dir. Lars von Trier (introduced in Episode 2)
    • Director often operated the camera himself
    • Again, breaks the editing rules
    • Used no sets
  • La Haine (1995) dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
    • Shot in black and white
    • Sometimes static camera stared at it’s black characters
    • The beauty of old style film techniques
    • About a black teenager
  • Do the Right Thing (1989) (introduced in Episode 12) dir. Spike Lee
    • Previous film inspired by this one
  • Humanité (1999) dir. Bruno Dumont
    • As unglossy as an early silent film
    • In the very last image, the man is filmed in medium long shot, and we glimpse handcuffs on him
      • Could the policeman be the rapist, or is he just an innocent man, paying for all out sins?
  • Rosetta (1999) dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
    • About a feral teenage girl, who is desperate for a job
    • She runs throughout the film, and we follow her with a handheld camera
  • Touki Bouki (1973) dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty
  • Beau travail (1999) dir. Claire Denis
    • People say that cinema is men photographing women, but this movie is about women photographing men
    • The two men fight, the but director films their fight minimally, without testosterone
    • One of the men kills himself, and the last scene we see is him dancing to music, in the dark with lights, like in a disco, the death of disco and the death of celluloid
  • Late Spring (1949) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
    • The director of the above movie compared the last dance seen of the previous movie to the last scene of this movie, the father peeling the apple alone, peeling the apple sadly, not sharing it, sitting alone in a chair
  • Crows (1994) dir. Dorota Kędzierzawska
    • Used celluloid in a non-masculine way
    • About an older girl who kidnaps a younger girl, the girl is ignored by her parents
    • Film color coded in yellows and greens
  • Wednesday (1997) dir. Victor Kossakovsky
    • Man tacks down every single person in the city who was born on the day he was
    • All photographed naturally, like a documentary
    • Celebration of real human beings in the last days of celluloid
  • 24 Realities a Second (2004) dir. Nina Kusturica and Eva Testor
  • Code Unknown (2000) (a.k.a. Code inconnu) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Michael Haneke
    • Shot lasts 11 minutes, and the camera starts to move in complex ways
  • Funny Games (1997) dir. Michael Haneke
    • Anxiety, sense that something is on the brink, that humanity is becoming something else
    • Boys brutally terrorize the family
    • He looks straight into the camera and asks if it’s enough, to us, it’s unsettling
    • The woman they are terrorizing shoots one of them, and the other frantically scrambles for the rewind button
    • The film rewinds, to right before
    • He is commenting on how we enjoy violence, it is revolutionary
  • Persona (1966) (introduced in Episode 7) dir. Ingmar Bergman
    • The film melts in one scene

The Story of Film – Episode 12

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Notes:

The 1980s: Moviemaking and Protest – Around the World.

  • The Horse Thief (1988) dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
    • A horse theif’s son dies
    • For the burial, vultures eat the son’s body and when they are done they soar into the sky, bringing the spirit to the sky
  • Yellow Earth (1985) dir. Chen Kaige
    • Communist soldier collects folk songs, writing the lyrics that he can hear
    • He meets a 14 year old girl, and she questions him, but doesn’t look at him
      • Completely static shot of her while they have their conversation
    • Had little action or conflict
    • The girl wants to join the army to strike out against the world, rather than staying home
    • Using emptiness in the frame as a compositional element
  • Raise the Red Lantern (1991) dir. Zhang Yimou
    • Director cinematographer of previous movie
    • Boldly symmetrical and had striking orange red color palette
  • House of Flying Daggers (2004) dir. Zhang Yimou
    • Slow motion, amazing imagery, studied painting
  • Repentance (1984) dir. Tengiz Abuladze
    • Created a sensation
    • Tells, in an almost comic book way, a story about a dictator with a hitler mustache
    • The dictator dies, but someone digs his body up and ties it to a tree in the garden of his morally corrupt son
      • The corpse looks unremarkable, as if just sitting there relaxing by the tree
      • A symbol for the fact that atrocity cannot be buried
    • Film seen by millions, a rare example of film actually changing the world
  • Arsenal (1929) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Alexander Dovzhenko
    • Above film similar
    • Haunting static shot of dead smiling soldier
  • Come and See (1985) dir. Elem Klimov
    • Nazi bombs have just exploded, into the frame we see the teenage boy who is fighting the Nazis
    • We zoom out and up, because of the wide angle lens he seems to get smaller, the brim of his hat reaching out to us
    • He cannot find his family, and is this girl is going to help him search
    • They run off together, and he does not see, but we do, his families bodies with other bodies piled behind a building
      • The wide lens combined with the editing suggest this is what the girl is seeing
    • They go through a bog, we hardly hear their screams, very physical
  • Long Goodbyes (1971) dir. Kira Muratova
    • Throughout the film, the mother and soon look away from each other
    • They are on a train, but we never hear the sound of a train
    • The theme of the film was about how people can suffocate each other
    • About psychological bondage
    • Muratova was accused of being anti-soviet because of his the way he filmed, his camera as if hidden
      • They claimed it was a commentary of Soviet surveillance
  • A Short Film About Killing (1988) dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
    • Pictures 20 year old boy in yellow and green imagery
    • Boy sees rock, decides to do harm with the rock
    • Makes us scared of him, if he can do that he can do anything
    • He gets in a taxi, he is going to kill the taxi driver, but the taxi driver of course does not know
    • Taxi driver stops to let kids cross the street, echoing shot of people crossing the street from a view inside the windshield in below film
      • The lady driving the car in Psycho does not know she is about to die, just as the taxi driver does not
    • The boy strangles the man, we see his foot come out of his sock, he takes forever to die
    • The scene lasts 3 minutes and 45 seconds, real-time shots
    • The mask on the imagery so heavy, it looks as if it is night sometimes
    • The boy is sentenced to death for his crime, but he is gone in a moment, again with green lighting and darker imagery
    • The film has to be seen to be believed, it changed the death penalty in Poland
    • Talking truth to power
  • Psycho (1960) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • Wend Kuuni (1983) dir. Gaston Kaboré
    • Orphaned boy with name meaning gift from god
    • Camera follows him from a distance
    • We get a flashback from when his mom is still alive, they are sick, underneath a tree
    • Film takes place before colonial society
    • Speaks truth to the past
  • Yeelen (1987) dir. Souleymane Cissé
    • Title means brightness
    • Man has to destroy his father, so he is in tears
    • A water buffalo in slow motion and a sci fi roar on the soundtrack
    • Tracks up from his feet to show his stony look
    • His father becomes a mythic elephant, and the man is a lion
    • Mystical rods seem to brighten, channeling the cosmos
  • Video Killed the Radio Star (1979) (music video) dir. Russell Mulcahy
    • Very first music video
    • About imagery, showed screens within screen
    • Became language of popular imagery around the world
  • Flashdance (1983) dir. Adrian Lyne
    • Shows how music videos influenced film
    • Fast cuts, sexy imagery, popular music, we do not hear the woman who is dancing’s feet
  • Top Gun (1986) dir. Tony Scott
    • Rich color, a roller coaster in the sky
    • Close ups of pilots, like star wars
    • Advert for the new dream, the new masculinity, the new America
  • Blue Velvet (1986) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. David Lynch
    • We float into this movie as if in a dream
    • Children go to school in slow motion
    • White picket fences, a dream
  • The Elephant Man (1980) dir. David Lynch
    • Dark american dreamworld
    • Shows us the surrealism of his world
    • Director’s movies protest against the rationality and understand-ability of everyday life
    • Had an abstract fear of the world, but viewed that fear through a beautiful lens
  • Do the Right Thing (1989) dir. Spike Lee
    • Shot on a block in Brooklyn
    • Used saturated colors to show the heat of the day
    • Film takes place on one hot summer day, as tensions rise between black and Latino people
    • Borrowed some techniques from the below film, such as a skewed camera showing the skewed world
  • The Third Man (1949) dir. Carol Reed (introduced in Episode 5)
  • Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) dir. John Sayles
    • About the reunion of a group of college friends, 10 years after they were arrested on their way to an anti-war protest
    • The film feels truthful, because it is not edited in a flashy MTV way
    • Director was always interested in what do we see in real life that we don’t see in movies
    • Director and producer always wanted to make the movies in their own way, cast their own actors
    • Most of the do it yourself approach in individual cinema came from the Director and Producer’s ideologies
  • Subway (1985) dir. Luc Besson
    • A roller skater slashes a bag, and runs away from cops
    • Filmed like a car chase, from the skater’s point of view
  • Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) dir. Leos Carax
    • Fireworks, public enemy plays, could be a modern dance about high class people but the people are homeless, the girl is going blind and the man is a drunk
  • An American in Paris (1951) dir. Vincente Minnelli (introduced in Episode 5)
    • Modern dance, color splashed across the screen, romantic ecstasy
  • Labyrinth of Passion (1982) dir. Pedro Almodóvar
    • Camp, a touch of goth in his eyeliner, and purple sideburns
    • A porn shoot, the porn star is male, the style cheap, not glassy
      • Challenged old fashioned spain with sex and style
  • A Hard Day’s Night (1964) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Richard Lester
    • Camerawork that makes you feel as if you are there
  • The Quince Tree Sun (1992) dir. Víctor Erice
    • A man has been painting a Quince tree for weeks
    • Uses no camera moves, natural lighting
  • My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) dir. Stephen Frears
    • We are in London, a high level shot like a musical, a Pakistani man is re opening his laundry place
    • Britain loves entrepreneurs, but not immigrants
    • In the back room, his nephew is having sex, with a white man
    • “A knee in the balls for the right wing government”
  • My Childhood (1972) dir. Bill Douglas
    • Far more serious but equally bold
    • Woman takes a swig of beer, the beer seems to warm her heart
  • Gregory’s Girl (1981) dir. Bill Forsyth
    • Looked at young people and the ordinary places where they fall in love
    • For most of the film, it is horizontal, but then it becomes tilted, a touch of poetry
  • Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) dir. Terence Davies
    • A family home terrorized by a father
    • Signature slow dissolve
  • Intolerance (1916) dir. D. W. Griffith (introduced in Episode 1)
    • Director from above films love of slow tracking shot comes from this movie
  • Young at Heart (1954) dir. Gordon Douglas
    • Another influence on Davies, director of one above movie
  • A Zed & Two Noughts (1986) dir. Peter Greenaway
    • Director likes his frames to be perfectly symmetrical
  • The Last of England (1988) dir. Derek Jarman
    • Inter cut shots of male dancer and fire, we hear a Nazi speech
  • Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
    • A man is watching TV late at night, alone
    • Half switched off, half turned on
    • The TV throbs and we hear a sensual woman’s voice
    • The idea that a machine can be sexual, something to touch, something to kiss
  • Crash (1996) dir. David Cronenberg
    • A car shown as an erotic place
    • Wanted to show modern society that we are all more down and dirty then we would like to think
  • Neighbours (1952) dir. Norman McLaren
    • Two neighbors fight over a flower
  • Jesus of Montreal (1989) dir. Denys Arcand
    • Brilliant assault on hypocrisy

The Story of Film – Episode 11

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Notes:

  • The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959) dir. Li Han-hsiang
    • A 50s world, feminine, studio set, highly colored, musical, a perfect world
  • A Touch of Zen (1971) dir. King Hu
    • Changed the world of Hong Kong cinema
    • More aggressive, swishing camera, swords, every move designed, graceful, engineered cinema
    • When Kung-Fu took over Hong Kong cinema
    • No ordinary kung fu movie
      • Turns into a ghost story, and then a reverie
      • Sunlight cuts like a sword, it sounds like steel
      • The Buddhist monks levitate
  • Enter the Dragon (1973) dir. Robert Clouse
    • Bruce Lee’s fighting had more sweat, anger, agression
      • Real anger in Lee’s face came from his own life, dealing with racism and other things
    • Though Lee was fast and furious, the camera work was anything but
    • The camera simply filmed, stayed out of the fight
      • Not a lot of editing in old Hong Kong cinema
  • A Better Tomorrow (1986) dir. John Woo
    • 80s clothes, sex, a story about more male bonding, loyalty, and betrayal
    • Filmed shoot outs with several cameras and used slow motion
      • Scenes broken down into glances,
    • Director made Mission Impossible 2
  • Iron Monkey (1993) dir. Yuen Woo-ping
    • Director choreographed as well
    • Cutting as fast as John Woo movie
    • Spun his characters in the air
    • Scene where actors fight kung fu on poles with fire underneath them
    • Director says he seldom uses a storyboard
      • Says he’s always thinking about the movie, the scenes
      • Director of the Matrix approached him
        • Said he wanted to infuse special effect technology with Chinese and Hong Kong Kung Fu techniques to create a brand new look
  • The Matrix (1999) dir. Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
    • We can see Yuen’s influence in the kung fu style fighting scenes
    • Yuen says “The hardest thing was that the actors did not know Kung Fu- not even how to use their fists”
      • It took him four months to train them
      • He taught them how to do all of the moves
      • He designed the moves for the characters based on what the director told him of what he wanted their personality to be
      • Yuen liked the freedom of not having a storyboard set in stone, liked making movies in Hong Kong because it felt more free, in Hollywood everything was set and you had to follow the storyboard exactly, after that there were no more changes
  • Once Upon a Time in China (1991) dir. Tsui Hark
    • Director is Steven Spielberg of Hong Kong
      • Directed 44 movies
    • Staged a small scene where a man and woman meet as if it was a gunfight, there was no logical reason
      • Over 25 shots just for them meeting
  • New Dragon Gate Inn (1992) dir. Raymond Lee
    • Two women fight as if there is a whirlwind in the room
      • Spinning, erotic
  • Mughal-e-Azam (1960) dir. K. Asif
    • Took the box office as the sound of music did in the west
    • Director wanted to make the film in color but couldn’t
  • Devi (1960) (introduced in Episode 6) dir. Satyajit Ray
  • Mausam (1975) dir. Gulzar
    • 70s cinema unthinkable without this director
    • Influenced a generation of Indian women
    • Man and woman on mountainside, having romantic scene
      • Older version of the man is standing there, walking around on the mountain behind them, his future self looking back on when he was happier
  • Zanjeer (1973) dir. Prakash Mehra
    • Zooms, freezes, close ups, dramatic fragments of rage and anger, panic and fear
  • Sholay (1975) dir. Ramesh Sippy
    • Widescreen titles like an epic, music like an adventure film, landscape like a western
    • Huge box office success and played at one cinema for 7 years
    • Captured the feeling of that time
    • Freeze frames, slow motion, as a main character is shot down
      • Trauma electrifies the film
    • Fearlessly inventive shifts in tone
    • Scene where bad guy has main character’s sidekick’s girlfriend dance for his life
      • To make things more interesting, he places glass shards under her feet
      • Adds element of horror where no Bollywood or Hollywood film has dared to go before
  • The Message: The Story of Islam (1976) (a.k.a. Mohammad, Messenger of God) dir. Moustapha Akkad
    • Perhaps seen by as many people that have seen any film in the history of cinema
    • Biblical epic
    • Islam doesn’t allow the depiction of Mohammad, so we never see him in the film
    • Amazing scene where the uncle of Mohammad is talking directly to the camera, we see from Mohammad’s perspective
  • The Making of an Epic: Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976) dir. Geoffrey Helman & Christopher Penfold
  • The Sparrow (1972) dir. Youssef Chahine
    • Stunning account of terrible event in Egyptian history
    • The president of Egypt announces they have lost territory to Israel
    • We see everyone’s shocked faces, people rush outside, everyone gathers, chants, raises their fists, “Long live Egypt!”
      • It is treated slightly as a victory as people come together in shock and protest
  • The Exorcist (1973) dir. William Friedkin
    • A believable, middle-class home
    • Handheld, wide angle shot captures the panic and fear of the scene
    • Director wanted to take horror cinema and combine it with realism
    • Tells the story of a teenage girl possessed by the devil
    • Actress that did the voice of the devil ate raw eggs, drank, and smoked cigarettes to make her voice gurgle and sound more realistic
    • One of the most innovative vocal performances in cinema history
    • Director pushed other actors far too, slapped man actor on the face just to film his trembling reaction right afterwards for the film
    • Had some traditional techniques as well
    • Director had no-nonsense approach
    • Audiences across America fainted, threw up, a documentary was even made about people’s reactions to the film
  • A Guy Named Joe (1943) dir. Victor Fleming
    • Steven Spielberg was influenced a lot by this film
    • Pilot says goodbye to the woman he loves, because he was hilled in the war, and has to watch as she is falling in love with another man
  • Jaws (1975) dir. Steven Spielberg
    • Both an establishment film and an innovative one
    • 3 very different men on the boat, filmed in three shot
    • Spielberg wanted realism
    • Had one character crush a Styrofoam cup in mockery of the masculine crushing of a beer can
  • The Making of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1995) dir. Laurent Bouzereau
    • In the scene where the boy on the raft is attacked by the shark, Spielberg imagined it as being filmed all in one shot
      • Had the brilliant idea of actors in colorful bathing suits walking in front of the camera as the police chief is sitting there, one color as he looks out, another to wipe away what he is seeing
        • Clearly establishes that we are seeing from his point of view
  • Vertigo (1958) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) dir. Steven Spielberg
    • Shows his signature move – the awe and surprise reaction wise shot with a dolly moving in, we do not see what they are looking at, the tension builds, the music rises
  • Jurassic Park (1993) dir. Steven Spielberg
    • Same shot as mentioned above of person looking again, and again, the music rising, they remove their glasses to see better, they get out of the car to see better
  • Star Wars (1977) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. George Lucas
    • Almost doubled the box earnings of Jaws
    • We are in a realm of myth
    • Luke dresses like a Samurai
    • Draws richly from film history
    • Fast cutting, the music crashes like waves in the climax
    • In that moment, the hero decided to feel, not think, which is what happened to American cinema itself
    • Everyone fell in love with this cinema of sensation, not contemplation
    • The two robots play off the two characters in Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress below
      • Spears in that film became lightsabers
  • The Hidden Fortress (1958) dir. Akira Kurosawa
  • Triumph of the Will (1935) (a.k.a. Triumph des Willens) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Leni Riefenstahl

The Story of Film – Episode 10

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Notes:

1969-1979: Radical Directors in the 70s – Make State of the Nation Movies.

  • Fox and His Friends (1975) (a.k.a. Faustrecht der Freiheit) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • The idea was to make films as beautiful as America but about different things
  • All That Heaven Allows (1955) (introduced in Episode 6) dir. Douglas Sirk
    • Same idea as above
  • Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) (a.k.a. Angst essen Seele auf) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Far less beautiful, more glossy
    • Director uses dolly/tracking shot to show racism
    • About the darkness of humanity
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (a.k.a. Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • About the darkness of humanity as well
    • Actors move slowly as if haunted and exhausted
  • All About Eve (1950) dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    • About two women controlling each other
  • Alice in the Cities (1974) (a.k.a. Alice in den Städten) dir. Wim Wenders
    • Women falls in love with another woman and becomes her slave
      • That shot filmed with the background being a mural of Midas begging someone to rid him of his gold touch
    • Took an American story and rubbed it in the dirt
    • Loved Hollywood cinema but was snobby at it’s lies about identity
    • Long roaming lens, as if looking to remember
  • An Affair to Remember (1957) dir. Leo McCarey
    • 17 years earlier than previous film
    • Precise camera
  • Gods of the Plague (1970) (a.k.a. Götter der Pest) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
  • The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978) (a.k.a. Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages) dir. Margarethe von Trotta
    • One of the least tense robberies ever filmed
    • Focuses on relationship between Christa, main character, and her relationship with the clerk
    • Christa is finally caught, and the clerk confronts her and tells the police it wasn’t her
      • Close up shots, almost exactly at eye-line level
    • About women’s intimacy during difficult times
  • Burden of Dreams (1982) dir. Les Blank
  • Arabian Nights (1974) (a.k.a. Il fiore delle mille e una notte) dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
    • Young man has been looking everywhere for his young lady servant
    • He is on the bed, tired, and in the room is a young king wearing a golden beard
    • He eventually relents to the king asking for sex and pulls his pants down, but the king is really his young maiden and cannot contain her giggles
  • The Spider’s Stratagem (1970) (a.k.a. Strategia del ragno) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
    • Tracking shots show woman how has been static for decades, the tracking camera seems to give her life
    • Man finds out his “hero” anti fascist father was really collaborating with them and was no hero, he doesn’t know what this makes him
    • Director loves the haunting light of dusk
  • The Conformist (1970) (a.k.a. Il conformista) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
    • About fascism and identity
    • Bold composition, plunging perspective
  • Taxi Driver (1976) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • Violent scene  filmed with perfectly still camera
    • Has camera glide across the ceiling, an ugly event filmed in beautiful style
  • Women in Love (1969) dir. Ken Russell
    • Films sex scene as slow motion outdoor dance
    • Puts camera on its side, so they are vertical
  • Performance (1970) dir. Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg
    • About London gangster who keeps checking himself in the mirror
    • In one shot we see the two mans faces melding together, they are becoming more and more like each other
    • Greatest 70s film about identity
  • Mean Streets (1973) (introduced in Episode 9) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • About another narcissist getting all donned up
  • Persona (1966) (introduced in Episode 7) dir. Ingmar Bergman
    • Original dissolve strangely similar to show two people merging together, becoming one another
  • Walkabout (1971) dir. Nicolas Roeg
    • A white city girl and her brother are off in the desert
    • Their father has just shot himself and tried to shoot them too
    • Film about the contrast in Australia between the city and wilderness, sea and swimming pools
    • Woman wears makeup like a mask
    • Has a half dreamlike memory of swimming naked with an aboriginal man
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) dir. Peter Weir
    • Group of girls wearing white, Victorian style dresses in the desert heat of Australia
    • Filmed in slow motion, ghostly, one girl watches and screams as the rest disappear
    • At the end, we see more picnic scenes, but slow, with no synced sound, the girls are ghostly again
  • My Brilliant Career (1979) dir. Gillian Armstrong
  • Minamata: The Victims and Their World (1971) dir. Noriaki Tsuchimoto
    • Documentary filmed over 17 years
    • A chemical company dumped chemicals in fishing waters causing hundreds of deaths and deformities
    • People there to protest, families of the dead, trying to get the company to accept responsibility
  • The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) dir. Kazuo Hara
    • Handheld camera
    • Director came to belief that unbearable truth was buried between layers and layers of lies
  • Black Girl (1966) (a.k.a. La noire de…) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Ousmane Sembène
  • Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941) dir. Richard Thorpe
    • Scrubbed clean white family having breakfast in a jungle
    • Not realistic
  • La nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1971) dir. Assia Djebar
    • No sync sound
    • Poorly preserved but dreamlike
    • More realistic picture of Africa
    • Looks at Algeria through a feminist lens
  • Xala (1975) dir. Ousmane Sembène
    • Follow up to The Black Girl
    • Starts at the end of colonial rule
    • Director against religion
  • Sinemaabi: A Dialogue with Djibril Diop Mambéty (1997) dir. Beti Ellerson Poulenc
    • Djibril spoke slow in an almost dreamlike way
    • Had a great love of cinema
  • Badou Boy (1970) dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty
    • A man and a boy saddle up a horse
    • Repetition of standing up and hunkering down of the two people give it an abstract look
    • Director said you either engage in stylistic research or simply film reality
  • Hyènes (1992) (a.k.a. Hyenas/Ramatou) dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty
    • Woman half made of gold, returned to village where the man who spurned her lived
    • She treats the villagers to luxuries, consumer goods
    • But the villagers become greedy
    • Village becomes like a shopping channel, a fun fair, a way to celebrate capitalism
    • Villagers so hooked on capitalism that they kill the man who spurned the woman for more
  • Kaddu Beykat (1975) (a.k.a. Lettre paysanne) dir. Safi Faye
    • Director first important African female director
    • Offscreen in a gentle voice she describes what we see
    • Show and tell for the world
  • Harvest: 3,000 Years (1976) (a.k.a. Mirt sost shi amit) dir. Haile Gerima
    • Starts at dawn, as if all of history has been just one day
    • Low contrast, black and white
    • Extremely long lenses to telescope the land
      • Makes us feel distant
    • Man tells story about the queen
      • Colonial power, told almost like a myth, not necessarily to anyone
    • Fight breaks out, voices start to flood the soundtrack, people are starting to talk to each other
  • Umut (1970) (a.k.a. Hope) dir. Yilmaz Güney & Serif Gören
    • Main character scruffy, masculine hero
      • Illiterate man who searches for treasure to feed his family, almost going insane
  • Yol (1982) dir. Yilmaz Güney & Serif Gören
    • Man has been released from prison for 5 days
      • Long lens filming, wind in the grass, wide shots, freedom
    • The music dies, the smile dies on his face, the state military are there
    • Still life shots of confrontation
    • No words needed, people look imprisoned in their own windows and doorways
    • Guney was a communist
  • The Battle of Chile (1975/1977/1979) (a.k.a. La batalla de Chile) dir. Patricio Guzmán
    • About identity and betrayal
    • Wide shots from above to show soldiers running around like ants
    • No filters, no gloss
  • The Holy Mountain (1973) (a.k.a. La montaña sagrada) dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
    • When the thief gets to the top of the tower, it becomes something like the wizard of oz, an odd corridor
      • This scene is in a way, a man climbing into his own mind and discovering archetypes and people that are like him