Comparing Pre to Post 20th Century Films
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 environments. This changes when when we look at film in the 21st century. These films flood your senses with information on main characters, secondary characters, setting, etc. This is almost opposite of what we see in the earlier films. In Amelie there are a number of characters being built. Amelie the main character is the most focused on and we get to know her personality well. We don't just focus of the fact that she is trying to do good things for other people. We get to know a bit of why. We see the pleasure of she gets out of peoples happiness. Theres also the factor of her wanting to be anonymous throughout all of her dealings. This is besides the point however. I think this style of film is the result of our modern media. People are no longer content with just having a plot with a point and a story that goes to it. With social media being what it is and the amount of information we have about everyone, people are now looking for this in film. A secondary character in the older films were truly secondary. They are lucky to have a name but in the more modern films we see them having their own stories in depth we wouldn't see in the earlier films. This is also the cause of the spastic jump cuts to seemingly unnecessary scenes. It adds back stories which modern viewers want to see. They want to know more about the story and about characters that in the past may of not gotten much attention. I think this could be a result of modern media and social networking.
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 environments. This changes when when we look at film in the 21st century. These films flood your senses with information on main characters, secondary characters, setting, etc. This is almost opposite of what we see in the earlier films. In Amelie there are a number of characters being built. Amelie the main character is the most focused on and we get to know her personality well. We don't just focus of the fact that she is trying to do good things for other people. We get to know a bit of why. We see the pleasure of she gets out of peoples happiness. Theres also the factor of her wanting to be anonymous throughout all of her dealings. This is besides the point however. I think this style of film is the result of our modern media. People are no longer content with just having a plot with a point and a story that goes to it. With social media being what it is and the amount of information we have about everyone, people are now looking for this in film. A secondary character in the older films were truly secondary. They are lucky to have a name but in the more modern films we see them having their own stories in depth we wouldn't see in the earlier films. This is also the cause of the spastic jump cuts to seemingly unnecessary scenes. It adds back stories which modern viewers want to see. They want to know more about the story and about characters that in the past may of not gotten much attention. I think this could be a result of modern media and social networking.
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