English 422

I was pleasantly surprised by the artist. I think as most people do, I assumed it being a silent film that I wouldn't like it. That it would be boring and not worth my time. I couldn't be more wrong about it. The black and white aspect gave it character to start. It made the film unique for its time and was a sort of wow factor. It also gave a sort of history lesson by example on an era of film. It also went with the story nicely as the story talked about the end of the silent films. I think there is also a bit of a critic of the current film industry within it. The film shows that it isn't necessary for a film to have amazing shots and high resolution and fanciness which seems to flood movies these days. The film rather focuses on technique, masterful acting and well planned scenes to make up for this. And I think that people who held their judgement found this to be accurate. The film was excellent, the actors were excellent and the plot was excellent. You got to know t

I think the first thing I noticed when seeing more modern films is the content of the films. In all of the films we see the presence of social issues. Although the topics change all of the films focused on current, for the time, social issues. From post world war Europe to feminism the films shed light on these issues through the use of story. I don't think this changes through the years. What does change is the way in which the story is told. I felt that the earlier films were smooth. They followed a storyline pretty tight and worked to give only the information needed to get a point across. Like in red balloon we see a boy and his balloon. Almost no dialog and we don't meet many characters. We see them in a variety of locations but we get to see how things are in these different locations. We don't get to know the characters around he balloon or the boy. We don't even get to know much about the balloon and the boy, just how they interact with a series of environment

Amelie was very good and I am going to need a second watch to completely gather my thoughts on it. I think the film paints Amelie to be a sort of vigilante in the way she goes unseen and keeps her identity a secret. through out the movie we see her attempting to improve the life of others around her and while doing that she has improved her own. The movie has a positive attitude throughout and I felt uplifted at the end of it. Much like the last film we watched the film is a bit sporadic and seems little unorganized. It throughs in random mini stories within. Unlike the other film I felt that it all added to the vibe of the story. Whenever there was a strange added scene it packed some kind of emotion or gave a view into Amelie's head. In the Roger Ebert review it said " Of course this is not a realistic modern Paris, and some critics have sniffed about that, too: It is clean, orderly, safe, colorful, has no social problems, and is peopled entirely by citizens who look like

Run Lola Run was a film working hard to be unique with it's artsy animations and sporadic film style. Although I think the film succeeded in being unique I feel that it tried little to hard. It wanted everything to poplar the time and I think that caused the plot to become glazed over. I can see kind of what it was trying to do, but it's little over the top. Lola is running through the city trying to find a hundred thousand dollars in twenty minutes in order to save her boyfriend. In the film we see in three different sceneries. Each of them changing only slightly in their sequence of events but very different in how they end. By doing this we see the importance of timing and choices as each aspect plays a major role in the ending. Seconds difference in when Lola is running by changes the outcome in each situation she is put in. I think there is also an aspect of consequence buried in the plot. In each of the three different outcomes we see at least one person die as a result

I think this was my favorite short film we have watched so far. The film was able to capture a moment and a single feeling and stretch it over seven minutes. The scene is set up with a man listening to his girlfriend on the phone. She is giving him a speech that sounds as if she is breaking up with him. In this moment he has a flashback. As she is talking to him the flashback takes over. He is launched into past events in order to review where he went wrong. He is searching for what might have been the moment or the reason she is breaking up with us. I think most people can relate with this feeling, when your stomach drops as someone is telling you bad news and you a tossed into your own mind to reflect. That is exactly what happens to him. We first see the build of his relationship, the good times that kept them together. Through the clever use of time-lapse we are shown time flying by and the use of a train station to show transitioning. The he begins to dive into fighting, his foc

Rashomon is a story about truth and questioning fact. In the movie we are told four different accounts of the same story. But none of them line up and we are left to question who is telling the truth. We are told from the beginning that everyone lies and it is human nature to lie. Roger Ebert says " What he doesn't understand is that while there is an  explanation  of the film's four eyewitness accounts of a murder, there is not a  solution" , which is important to consider while watching the film. There are three people involved in a murder of a man. A bandit, the dead man and his wife. Police are brought in the investigate and they take the stories of the bandit and the wife, and call in a medium to get the story from the dead man. In the end we are left with three different stories. We can assume that the dead man is telling the truth. Then we learn there is a witness, one of three men who are later going over this case in the ruins of a temple. The witness tells