COM123 ASSESSMENT 3
Shutter Island
Synopsis
Shutter Island is the story of 'Teddy Daniels' and his partner 'Chuck Aule', both ex US marshals, sent to investigate the disappearance of one of the patients/inmates at a hospital for the criminally insane – Ashecliff Hospital. It is 1954. The Island is an ex army fort adapted into the facility. Apon arrival at the complex, there is a definite feeling of being trapped and a darkness or morbidity that carries out throughout the whole film.
Teddy quickly discovers that all is not as it would seem, and aggressively investigates a conspiracy that would later be revealed as an elaborate roleplay by the whole institution. In an attempt by Dr Cawley (the hospital's head psychiatrist) to tap into the mind of 'Teddy' (who is revealed to be the alter ego of Andrew Laeddis, a patient of the hospital who will not admit to the murder of his wife) and get him to realise his crimes, a web of mystery unfolds.
Camera
The camera techniques used in the film give us a sense of Teddy's emotions.
The movie opens with Teddy and his partner 'Chuck' coming toward us through the morning fog on a boat, and the lifting fog reveals Shutter Island to them and to us, the audience. Apon debarkation, they are led toward the main gates by the main prison officer. The complex's main structure and walls are all shot low to indicate a position of power, confinement, and also concealment.
Throughout the film, there are many intimate conversations, one on ones. The shots were usually either straight on with both subjects in focus and only enough background as what was needed to implement or sustain the emotion of the situation or conversation, but mainly what struck me as interesting, and put me directly in the mind of the characters was the close ups. Low light, focused mainly from above exposed the rawness of a character's physical appearance and excentuated emotional gestures. This gives us an intimacy with the characters, an intensity and perhaps a suggestive recognition that we share with Teddy.
Dr Cawley was usually shot slightly higher, giving the impression that he was helpful, non threatening, but also it portrayed that he was not to be trusted, sly almost. This was effective and added to my own confusion, in complete empathy with Teddy's. Long shots of Dr Cawley usually put him behind a desk, even in the lighthouse at the end of the movie. This shows us his position in the complex's hierarchy. His importance and organisation are reflected here to us, but mainly I think to Teddy. Andrew Leadiss is trying to break through and this is just one of the subtle ways of suggesting this to him and to us.
The lighthouse and Ward C are usually shot at a distance, until he actually encounters them. They are the mysteries in Teddy's mind. He fabricates the rule that he is not permitted to these areas. This is one of his 'defence mechanisms' that Dr Naering suggests to him. The distance between the camera and the subject are proportionate to Teddy's distance from the truth. What lies within the walls of Ward C and the lighthouse are a mystery to Teddy's reality as they are the truth to Andrew's.
Lighting
The lighting, or lack of it, reflects the mood of Teddy, other inmates/patients and especially the whole complex. Teddy's reality sees a lot of shadows on the island as he comes to 'discover', or fabricate, a conspiracy wherein the doctors of the hospital are doing experiments on the patients, namely lobotomies. They are creating super soldiers with no feelings/morals, and thus endless capabilities, to be used in the civil war. This is another part of the reality of Andrew subtly shining through, as if trying to warn Teddy of his own lobotomy if he doesn't find the truth. Also the lack of lighting gives us an insight into Teddy's mind, and again gives us that feeling of confusion and an unknowingness of the whole picture, focussed only on parts of the story.
As mentioned before there is the low lighting from above our subjects to exaggerate personal defects, expressions, emotions etc.
One scene that relates directly to that of targeted revelations is the scene where Teddy discovers George Noyce in Ward C. The power is down and there is total darkness in most parts of the ward. When Teddy engages in conversation with George, the only source of light that any of us have is Teddy's matches. Every time a match goes out, we are left in the dark. As long as one is lit, we are in the light and subsequently being enlightened. I found myself waiting for Teddy to run out of matches, and we again would be left in the dark, but as more of the story is revealed, part of Teddy gives in to the reality of Andrew and the whole room is lit up, although dim, but with the aid of no matches at all.
The general surroundings are usually dark, even the weather. A hurricane and rain rips through the island without even the sign of lightning. There is two scenes that stood out to me as an exception to that rule.
The first one is the scene where Teddy and Chuck are being introduced to Dr Cawley, apparently for the first time. The three of them are in Cawly's office, or place of power. There is a shot where Cawley is addressing Chuck (really Andrew's main psychiatrist Dr Sheehan), but the shot is of Cawley and Teddy. They are both facing opposite directions as Cawley is speaking, as if Teddy is ignoring him, not acknowledging him at all. There follows a bright light from outside that causes Teddy to suffer a migraine and eventually is given drugs and carried off to bed. Too much light.
The second is a scene that struck me as quite strange. Following a night in a cave with Rachel Solendo, Teddy is picked up by the warden, a hard and militant man. The sun is shining for the first time in the film as they drive through the forest. The warden is almost glowing like an apparition as he advises Teddy of the violent nature of God and thus man. It is so bright it was the most surreal part of the movie for me, more so than the dreams and hallucinations, almost like an epiphany. Is it that Andrew holds the warden up so high that the advice, which completely relates to him, defines him and his crimes 'My violence will beat your violence', is like a message from God?
Sound
The score was mostly music from around that era.
The dialogue seemed to be (although 50,s style text) put together as though it was written in the 50's. There were times in the film that were almost corny, as though it wasn't written without present day technologies, or knowledge.
Continuity
There was a lot of incontinuity in the film, but I firmly believe it was put there as a tool to confuse us as much Teddy. There's goofs on the internet that were definitely intentional, the drive through woods for example. It was overcast before Teddy got into the warden's car . The matches lit up George's cell too much, and then it lit up by itself. He had a syringe to the neck of Dr Neahring, then he didn't, then he did. Inconsistent like Teddy's recollection of anything, everything.
Conclusion
All in all I thought 'Shutter Island' was a well put together movie that did have me guessing. It seemed that a lot of people found it predictable, and the story line had been done before, but haven't they all? There is a definite intensity to the whole film, that draws you closer to the plight of Teddy on what I found to be a personal level.
Travelling Film Festival
The travelling film festival was an insight into cultures that I would not otherwise have experienced without being forced to attend. I have been educated in ways that I would not have freely pursued. I'ts being a great experience. Also, I won't be reviewing much of the technical side of these films, because I don't believe it would be fair to the creators. Most of the films I saw were low budget, but with a great idea, so it would not be respectful to 'pick the guts out of' poor camera work, acting, lighting etc.
My Tehran for Sale
It was a big eye opener having the writer/director of 'My Tehran for Sale', Granez Moussavi there to speak to us about the movie. Although most of the questions were to do with the issues of Iran and mainly Tehran, I found the content to be quite informative and shocking. The courage of everyone involved in making the film is amazing.
The main actress, Marzieh Vafamehr, whose character's name is also Marzieh, has been persecuted for exposing her face (she is Muslim) throughout the film. She now lives in Paris. The film reflected the personal life of Granez, with a strong emphasis on the underground world. To make a film in Iran, and release it to the world without censorship, it almost has to be done in secret and either be co or fully funded by another country. There is a need to educate the world, whatever culture you are, without censorship and propaganda.
As for the actual movie, it didn't move me as much as I would have expected. Understandably, films that come out of a place like Tehran are not going to be of the same quality as those that come out of Hollywood. There is a rawness and a freshness I love that only comes from arthouse films, and the storyline's never that same old American formula. I just think that the passion of everyone involved in the production was not reflected by the film. It has been a battle to get the film screened outside Iran in it's entirety, and I don't think the content has done the effort justice.
Besides that, the idea as a whole is empowering.
Red like the sky
Red like the sky was a movie that caught my own personal interests as it is about a would be sound engineer.
In 1971, Micro Mencacci was blinded by a gun shot accident on his father's farm in Tuscany. By law he was required to attend a special school for the blind. He later became one of Italy's leading sound editors. After hearing his story over lunch one day, filmmaker Cristiano Bortone, together with Mancacci, went to work on the film.
The David Chiossonte Institute in Genoa was a religiously influenced special school for the blind. It ran on the belief that the blind were somewhat retarded and could not hold a job any more advanced than a switchboard operator. Micro defies his teachings there as he defies his impending blindness.
What little sight Micro has on his arrival at the institute deminishes, as is portrayed in scene of the film, where he is seen flicking the lights on and off, complaining that all of the lightbulbs are blown.
After a tantrum in one of his classes, he finds an old tape recorder with a recording of bible readings. Micro, with the aid of the doorkeeper's daughter, who is not blind, begins to record and splice sounds around him, creating stories.
A class assignment about spring, brings Micro to enlist the help of his classmates to help him create an audio story of the seasons. The strict religious views of the school oppose these ideas.
He is later expelled for taking the group off school grounds to see a film. He is re-instated after a protest by the town's workers, threatening to shut down the local blast furnace.
The film closes with an inspiring scene of triumph as Micro presents his final work to a blind folded audience of parents and teachers, leaving the viewer empowered and with a sense that Micro is destined for greatness.
Amreeka
Amreeka is a film about Muna Farah and her son Fadi. They are Palestinians living in the West Bank during America's invasion of Iraq. They dream of immigrating to America, as Fadi's intellectual talent is being wasted in a war torn country with constant border checks wherever they go.
An application made in the past comes fruitful for Muna, and they move to America to live with her sister and her family, who have been living there for the past 15 years.
Fadi finds himself segregated at school for being a 'terrorist', although he is not even Muslim. Muna is forced to take a job in a fast food restaurant, although she worked in a bank before immigrating. There is alot of emphasis throughout the film on the kind of ignorance that causes racism, especially in the western world. The portrayal of our lack of insight into other cultures, especially the issues regarding Iraq, is curious and enlightening.
After many trials and tribulations, clashes of cultures, Muna and her new American male campanion share a traditional Palestinian dinner at a restaurant with the rest of her family. Seemingly, their culture has found it's place in America and in the minds of the children, who I believe are most affected by these differences.
Seraphine
Seraphine follows the lifestyle of French artist Seraphine de Senlis. Seraphine's hard exterior as a house maid is only challenged through her ability to paint beautiful depictions of flowers and fruit. She says that she is encouraged by a guardian angel.
She is discovered by German collector, Wilhelm Uhde while working as his maid in Senlis, near Paris.
The film is quite soft, with some magnificent shots. It follows Uhde's support of Seraphine's work, and also his eventual breaking away from her work due to financial problems. This, being misunderstood by Seraphine, leads her to become delusional and she is eventually committed to the Clermont-de-l'Oise psychiatric hospital.
The final shot of Seraphine finally coming to terms with her surroundings at the hospital, in a private room that Uhde has paid for, shows her taking a chair to the top of a hill and sitting alone under a tree. This shot appears to portay, in my mind at least, the loneliness of Seraphine's life. Had she not been discovered by Uhde and made somewhat famous, she would have been left to her own devices. Perhaps she may not have gone insane with the loss of things that were shown to her by Udhe's encouragement. A fate which, in the end, left her alone anyway.
The French Kissers
What can I say? The French Kissers is a French film by debut director Riad Sattouf that strongly resembles American Pie, but without any of the glamour. Although it was a refreshing account of the teenage sexual plight, I found myself grimacing my way through too many masturbation scenes. Why do filmmakers feel that these scenes are necessary to depict adolescent reality? Sattouf already had the pimple faced, mullet headed kid. He already had the awkward sexual encounters. He already had the rawness of debut teenage actors that were anything but perfectly sculpted.
The French Kissers didn't thrill me as much as the rest of the Film Festival, mainly because it didn't show me a culture that varied much from our own. Maybe if I had seen this film independently of the others, my perception of it would have been different.
I do appreciate the fact that Sattouff sought out the characters directly from the not so cool classes of Paris schools, and alot of the film's rawness can be accredited to Hervé (Vincent Lacoste), Camel (Anthony Soningo) and Aurore (Alice Tremoilieres).
Probably a good debut for the adolescent novelist, but maybe not my style.
Beneath Hill 60
Beneath Hill 60 is a film based on a book written by a Queensland tunneller, Captain Oliver Woodward. The film is set in 1916 in the First World War, mainly in Belgium.
The 1st Tunnellling Division was appointed to dig under enemy lines in the war,with the intension of detonating underground explosives supposedly forgotten by the Germans, with little to no experience of war or combat. Deep beneath German lines, the tunnellers are depicted in a silent eeriness that is assisted by the film's low budget of less than $9 000 000. The trenches and mines in the film were dug by professional miners in Townsville.
I enjoyed the uncomplicated style of the movie that seemed to add to it's authenticity. Before watching this, I had no idea of the tunneller's role in the first world war. I've always had an admiration for the miners that I have learned about here in Australia during the gold rush, so when I heard about this film I was definitely interested.
The opening scene grabbed me right away. Woodward is working his way through the tunnels with nothing to light his way except for a candle, the light accentuating his expression of being lost. The silence in the tunnels that is carried out throughout the movie with great intensity gives you a sense of claustrophobia.
This is especially prominent in one of the closing shots of the youngest miner trapped in the tunnels, right as the explosives are about to be detonated. There is no choice but to leave him there. He is left holding a candle, and the sound of explosions is heard rumbling through the ground. The feeling of being trapped and alone is captured as we hear and see the final explosion for a split second. Then nothing.
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker was interesting because, like Beneath Hill 60, it depicted an aspect of war that is under acknowledged, the bomb squad. The American interpretation of Iraq is definitely focused on bombings, but we rarely see a film made primarily about the bomb squads that deal with all these bombs. It was refreshing to see a war movie without a lot of actual combat.
The only scene where there is any shooting is a drawn out, intense sniper scene. This is the scene where our cliché, rebellious, replacement leader of a group, shows some compassion and comradeship with the others in his squad. He suddenly changes from a complete larrakin whose risks endanger the lives of the whole squad, to a calm, collected leader.
This sort of stereotypical hero formula is something that American filmmakers cannot escape, usually no matter how original the plot is. This is especially the case with any sort of action movie about American war, American cars, American football etc. Overdone.
I did enjoy the special effects in the film. The production of cameras with incredibly fast shutter speeds gives slow motion a whole new avenue as descriptive tool. To see the ripples of a car roof and the detailed propulsion of the rust as the force of an explosion gradually rips through it, gives us a more visual idea of the kind of power that a bomb produces.
Generally, I did enjoy the film, but also found that an attempt to produce something refreshing was foiled by the characters being written as the same four or five clichés that I have seen too many times.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I was enjoying this film up until the rape scene, when I walked out. I don't understand the need to show these types of things in such detail. I managed to sit through the Australian film 'Black Rock', which is a true story. A girl is gang raped on a beach and it is all shown in slow motion. Why? The images wouldn't shake me for a long time.
This is maybe not as comparable to the film, but:
My wife and I enjoy scary movies, some of them gory, like 'Saw'. But sometimes when renting a scary movie, we come across some low budget ones that are made somewhat like a poorly done blue movie: The almost non existent plot only exists to lead on to shots of body parts being used in a manner that is overly grotesque.
It takes at least a reasonably sized group of people to make a movie, and it scares me to know that they can come together to represent a common idea as depraved as some ideas are.
The Road
'The Road' tells the story of our planet's impending doom. The view that we will eventually destroy ourselves has been done before in films like 'The Day after Tomorrow' among others. The eerie quietness of the film enforced the fact that civilisation had taken a big hit. We follow a father and son on their trek to warmer territory, as part of the Sun has been blotted out. The cause of this apocalypse is never known, nor is the character's names, which I found to be effective in describing the alienation of everybody in the film.
The underlying message in the film is one of trust and the question of faith in humanity. After reaching the coast, the boy's father dies from a wound he has in his leg. It is then revealed that the boy has been followed by another family and they take him in.
Alice in Wonderland
I watched Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I found it to be more enjoyable than I had expected, due to poor reviews from my peers. I did find the 3D effects to be a little distracting, and although mostly effective, I thought that they were poorly done in places. Hopefully 3D will develop more in the future, although I thought that Avatar was very well done, almost making me dizzy with some of the landscape scenes.
Johnny Depp's role as the Mad Hatter didn't stray far from just about every other role he has had. I do enjoy his character though, and at least I can trust that when he is playing a role in a film, I will not hate it. Kind of the same as the way you can trust McDonalds to always deliver something you like if you enjoyed that something before.
Tim Burton always manages to capture that dark feeling rife throughout his films. His style is somehow warming, while at the same time being a little bit morbid and, gothic, maybe?
Overall a good film.
Precious
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why do people have to make these films? Does it make you feel healthy and better educated on the issues affecting society in this day and age? Is it a fucking brilliant idea to produce material that any given rapist, child molester, wanna-be sicko can download from the privacy of their own home? They can take notes on ideas that they haven't even had yet. And if it is still necessary to share this with audiences of people, sitting in the theatre, eating popcorn and sipping away on a jumbo Pepsi, then at least do some research first.
It is impossible to be born with down syndrome on account of incest.
A Single Man
A Single Man is a film about George, a gay... ?widower?... in the sixties. He is an English Professor at university. He struggles with the death of his lover, Jim, to the point of intending to commit suicide. He carrries his gun with him everywhere he goes, flashes of it being hidden in his suitcase etc, reminding us of his intentions. Something always gets in the way of him carrying out his plan.
He meets a student who he finds comfort with, and there are constant run ins with him. There is even several flashbacks of the student at times when you think that George just might do it this time.
George's dialogue is somewhat poetic and sad, giving the viewer a sense of his softness and tragic longingness at the loss Jim. In the end, George can't bring himself to commit suicide, and dies of a heart attack later that night.
I like the idea of the film's timeline only being one day. It works especially well in this case, as it is the day of George's death, whether he chooses it or not. Because of this, the flashbacks work well, as they are almost like the idea of your life flashing before your eyes, a summary of events.
Class Films
In our first class for COM123, we learned about the advantages/ disadvantages of light exposure in film, through the documentary 'Visions of Light'.
The documentary, told by various camera men, takes us through the development of cinematography as it has progressed from the first well known films such us 'Birth of a Nation' through various styles to the films we watch today.
It was a good introduction as a basis for what to expect from COM123, but I believe recent advances in technology- such as high definiton, surround sound and 3D- need to be addressed to fully understand the current progression of film.
DW Griffith's 'Birth of a Nation' (1914) was the first blockbuster film, taking a realist approach to the Civil War. Griffiths was from the south, and his interpretation of events is reflected by this. The post war liberation from the savage blacks by a heroic 'Ku Klux Klan' shows us what we would clearly see today as ignorance.
Although seen as one of the most successful films of that time, Griffith's views were generally unwelcomed and court cases ensued.
The film was a good description of realism, using long shots, the acting very practical and literal.
Robert Weine's 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligary' (1919) is an expressionist film, the story being told through the narration of an insane asylum inmate. This was the first film of its kind to make use of the idea of expressing a story through the imagination of a person. This method of storytelling gave way to the use of skewed sets and an overall abstract approach that has made this film a classic example of expressionism.
Eisenstein's 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925) is an example of Russian formalism. Formalism concentrates on the technical elements of a film to express emotion within a story.
Eisenstein regularly used a form of editing named 'The Kuleshov Effect' after Lev Kulashov, who developed the method. It involves editing in cuts from a subjects expression or situation with shots of an object to describe that situation. This method was so effective that when Kuleshov screened the same expressionless shot of famous Tsarist actor Ivan Mozzhukhin, cut with shots of a plate of soup, a girl and a coffin, audiences were amazed with Mozzhukhin's ability to show expressions of hunger, desire and grief.
'Battleship Potemkin' uses this effect in a less literal sense. Shots of rifles firing are cut with shots of people falling to the ground in the film's popular 'Odessa Steps Sequence'.
Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) is a film based in Germany during WWI. Captain De Boeldieu and Lieutenant Marechal are 2 French officers captured and detained by German officer Captain von Rauffenstein. They are taken to a POW camp, where they are treated with the utmost respect on account of their rank. Basically, the film is a sarcastic undermining of war and of the etiquette surrounding the ranking system of the military that only exists within its structure.
Renoir himself was a French aviator during WWI.
The film's score was recorded as an optical soundtrack, one of the first to use this method of recording sound onto it's own line, coinciding with the visual recordings of the film.
Existentialism in film is an idea that pokes fun at the general morals of life that society teaches us to take so seriously. Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus- French novel and play writers after WWII- paved the way for existentialist film of that time.
Francios Truffoit and Jean-Luc Godard pioneered the French film movement called 'New Wave'. They began their careers writing for Cahiers du cinéma, a film critic journal that was opposed to the more formal styles of filmmaking common to Hollywood and French films. New Wave saw filmmaking as more of an artform and was also used as a tool for political expression or rebellion.
Godard's 'Breathless' (1960) uses an artistic approach to portray Hollywood's cliché detective character- for which Humphrey Bogart is known for- and sends up many of the common traits and formulas used in traditional films of that time.
Breathless was also one of the first films to use 'jump cuts'. Godard, in attempt to make the film shorter, had to cut out the middle of extremely long shots. The result was artistic and effective and has been used practically ever since.
Rob Rodriguez and Frank Miller's 'Sin City' (2005)
Orsen Well's 'Citizen Kane' (1941) uses shots of newspaper reels and flashbacks to tell a story. The film has made famous the montage of news headlines to describe a chain of similar events, rather than try to portray so much information and passing of time using individual scenes. Some films have used this to tell an audience that a crime has been committed, without having to subject the audience to horrific visuals.
'Natural Born Killers' (1994) has a headline montage describing such crimes as an adolescent slumber party massacre that, if made into a scene, would have probably seen the film banned in many countries. Nonetheless, we still know these events took place.
The film's final revelation is also only explained through text. The main character, Kane's, dying words are 'Rosebud', which is the motivation for the investigation into his death/life. The investigation reveals the story of his life, shown through flashbacks. One of these flashbacks is of Kane as a child, being taken from his parents by Thatcher. In this scene, he is playing on a sled that has 'Rosebud' painted on the bottom of it. As the movie closes, the words are revealed on the sled as it is thrown, unknowingly, on to a fire, the mystery never being revealed.
posted by Peter Fraser @ 11:56 PM
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