THE PAST IS ALWAYS PRESENT

The 1991 independent film "Daughters of the Dust," was unconventional, to say the least. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, it portrays the Gullah family Peazants' conflict of moving to the mainland of South Carolina or to stay on the island of their family estate.
It's a different American South history than we're used to, and that's refreshing. It shows a rich piece of humanity which was previously silent.
Though the story itself was wonderfully rich, the movie was terribly dull. I was open-minded and initially interested enough, but no matter how much I tried to invest myself in the film I was still bored by it. The characters, music, and the setting were beautiful, but the movie was boring.

Here's Looking at You, Classic Film!

1942's "Casablanca" is practically a cultural memory in this day and age, but sixty-seven years ago that was not the case or the intention.

It was a film made in the studio age. Studios were just popping films out regularly, and at the time "Casablanca" was thought to be rather unimpressive. It was later re-released due to popular demand.

This film takes place in an unoccupied province of France in Morocco called Casablanca. People trying to get to America during the Nazi's occupation were stuck indefinitely in Casablanca unless they could get a visa.

Rick Blane (Humphrey Bogart) is an American who owns Rick's Cafe Americain. He remains conveniently neutral so that his business does not suffer, but he is also a straightforward cynic. When the hero of the resistance Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) comes in for a drink with a beautiful woman (Ingrid Bergman), Rick is visibly rattled, as is the woman named Ilsa.

Old feelings are stirred and allegiances are made in Casablanca.

Editing in "Bonnie and Clyde"

This film showed a very cooperative and satisfying compromise of Hollywood continuity editing and the newer style, more disjunctive editing.

The scenes never jumped around to the point where the audience would be confused. It just jumped around in logical places. Sometimes it was a tad confusing, but never frustratingly so. It was part of what made that movie fun and not boring.

The rhythm of the editing in the movie was closely linked to the story's rapid progression and urgency. Things happened quickly between Bonnie and Clyde and things happened quickly to and for Bonnie and Clyde. The editing indicated this, especially in the final sequence when they were shot to death. Everything was very quick, yet their movements (which were in slow motion) sort of mirrored the audience's disbelief.

Emotional and intellectual responses evoked by the editing choices were complex. The audience is made aware of Clyde's interest in Bonnie, Bonnie's attraction to Clyde, C.W.'s amusement by the two, and so on.

Continuity editing was used whenever cars pulled up around a building or during the car chases. The practice encouraged the audience to identify with the characters or believe in the story's world because it makes everything reliable. The geography was faithfully established in every scene and the movie had a very linear time line. That said, whenever there was a sudden jump, one could always rest assured that it was at least a jump forward and not a jump backward.

Since both continuity and disjunctive editing were present in Bonnie and Clyde, they interacted with one another and that interaction was skillfully executed.

Along For the Ride with Bonnie and Clyde!

The story of Bonnie and Clyde is a famous one. They were notorious bank robbers and car thieves during the time of the Great Depression, and their actions took place in the Midwest and the South, where the Great Depression was felt the most.
The 1967 film entitled, "Bonnie & Clyde," performs what its title suggests, which is to tell the story of this couple. Warren Beatty played Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker was played by Faye Dunaway.

When Bonnie catches Clyde presumably looking to steal her mother's car, the two get to talking. Right away Clyde is able to sum up Bonnie's restlessness and her untapped potential and the two jump-start a relationship and a career of crime.
The film was able to represent a tight gridlock of morals which the Great Depression had thrust upon the poor folk of the country, therefore bringing sympathy and some justification to the Barrow Gang. They apparently never meant to hurt anyone, and the murders they did commit could be blamed on the overdeveloped trigger fingers of the policemen. They shot first - that sort of thing.

The film also got personal and inside Bonnie and Clyde's relationship. Love was mentioned and they were tender to each other. There was a unique closeness which everyone generally desires, and this would also bring sympathy to their story.

Overall, the details derived from the true story were obviously romanticized. However, I enjoyed this film immensely and will view it again at some point.

Editing in "Run Lola Run" and "Breathless"

The temporal organization in the two films were obviously unorthodox. Breathless not only jumped around, but it practically refused to explain much about the characters or the plot. The continuity was purposely nonexistent, therefore certain things feel unsure and I'm left to assume things.
Run Lola Run set up the plot and characters but jumped around to things that were happening simultaneously, in the future, or in the past. There were flashbacks, flash forwards, and the throbbing rave-techno soundtrack painfully illustrated the urgency with which Lola and Manni needed to act in their simultaneous situations. In the beginning, Schuster called it a game. Like a game, one can always go back and try something different when the end result is less than satisfactory. To use a mis-en-scene term, that makes the tradition in which the film was written more theatrical than naturalistic.

There is continuity in Run Lola Run. All of the characters' costumes and minor movements are consistent. There is disjunctive editing and it interacts with the continuity in a way that makes it complementary. When Lola is reliving some moments, there are discrepancies which are consistent with minor changes in the character's actions (like ripples in a pool outwardly affecting the rest of the water).

Cutting is used to extend my perspective in both of these films because it removes the audience from the story even more than a movie usually does. In some ways, both of the films sort of refused to share the whole stories, but Run Lola Run also shared intimate flash forwards of seemingly unimportant characters, and that's a privilege which the audience is never given. It may be sending mixed messages about the relationship between the film and the audience, but then again, being unsettled during a movie is hardly detrimental.

I think that's what this whole lack of continuity thing is about. If the audience is being kept on their toes and they're really thinking about the movie; and then they're actually investing more mental and emotional energy in the movie. Therefore, there's more reaction to certain events, and THAT'S entertainment.

YOU CAN'T GO BACK...OR CAN YOU?

This week our class viewed the 1999 German film entitled, "Run Lola Run." This film is fast-paced and is fueled by a throbbing rave-techno soundtrack.

It unfolds in a fashion somewhat comparable to a seemingly simple (yet surprisingly complex) mathematical equation.
Manni calls Lola with a serious problem. She must have the solution to the problem in hand twenty minutes from the moment of the phone call. She thinks about who can help her, then literally runs as fast as she can to implement her plan.

With an equation comes variables, and every variable has its own variability. Did I mention that this equation had a dizzying truth to it? Every character has a meaning, and all of their actions and words mean something to the grand equation.

Ultimately, trial and error lends its hand to the equation's realization and the film ends.

Mis-en-scene and "Do the Right Thing"

Throughout this film, a photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. shaking hands with Malcolm X was shown. This prop was both instrumental and metaphorical. It was instrumental because the character Smiley was going around the neighborhood trying to sell copies of this photograph. The metaphorical aspect came from the men in the photo. MLK promoted nonviolent resistance to injustice, but Malcolm X promoted the opposite. The conflict there is metaphorical to the conflict in the film.
When Buggin Out wanted some black heroes on the Wall of Fame at Sal's Pizzeria, his first action was to boycott the business and to try to get others in the community to do the same. Things then escalated from a boycott to intense vandalism and fiery destruction.
Another example of a prop photo being both instrumental and metaphorical was not prominently featured, in fact it was quite literally like a flash. One of the photos on the Wall of Fame was the scene in "Raging Bull" when Robert DeNiro's character was boxing against the black character. The movie was black and white, and the boxing match was black vs. white. When the scuffle between Radio Raheem and Sal erupted, this image was manifested.

The setting was a neighborhood in Brooklyn during a summer day. As it was reiterated numerous times, it was an incredibly hot day. The heat was not just a fact of the setting. It also served as a plot device as a crucible.
The heat was illustrated using costumes and props. People fanned themselves, shirts were unbuttoned, and shorts were donned. Characters were sweating and complained about the heat.

This film was definitely of the naturalistic tradition. There was nothing which broke or even bent the laws of physics. The neighborhood in which the film took place bore a familiarity to which most of the audience could relate.

CERTAIN ELEMENTS JUST DON'T MIX...

An independent film from 1989, Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," takes place in a neighborhood in Brooklyn which is predominately black and Hispanic. White folk in this neighborhood were few and far between and appeared to be not overly welcome.

The film follows Spike Lee's character, Mookie, his neighborhood and all its inhabitants for one excruciatingly hot day. As the heat rose, so did voices and racial tensions. Whether it was at the Korean grocery story or Sal's pizzeria across the street, someone was having a problem with somebody else. There became a pattern. There was very little reflection and mostly reaction.

Repeatedly featured in the movie is a photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. They were shaking hands, but at the time they were preaching very different things. Like the question of violence versus nonviolence, much of the characters were conflicted.

At the end of the day, the sun and the heat went down, but the momentum of unrest could not be stopped. The crucible was overheating and steam needed to be released.
When things blow up and go up in flames you're left wondering, "Did Mookie do the right thing?"

Mis-en-scene and "The Godfather"

The beginning sequence introduced Don Corleone's study and Connie's wedding. The events of the wedding and the events within the study are happening simultaneously, even though they contain contrasting imagery.
In the study, Vito is the character given the most presence in the scene, and not just because he's being played by Marlon Brando, the "star" of the film. He's the head of the Corleone family; the Godfather, and he is being requested to do things, per Sicilian tradition. There were many props in that set, two of which were very prominent. There was the cat which Vito was holding during his first medium shot. This cat contrasted the dark setting, both in nature and in color, and it was a symbol that though Vito is a foreboding figure he is a caring family man. The other was Vito's desk. This prop may have had even more of presence than Vito. That desk represented power, and it was a powerful symbol.

The best interaction of settings in the film was probably the back and forth viewing of the study and Connie's wedding. These interactions, as I mentioned before, contrast in elements but communicate the same things; the importance of tradition and family.

The overall setting for the movie was 1940's New York. The sets, therefore, reflect this time period. It's post-WWII America, and though most citizens are breathing a sigh of relief about peace time, the Corleones end up waging a mob war. Some scenic connotations therefore reflect and underworld war during civilian peace time.
One aspect of the set(s) which contributed to the understanding of this would be concealed pistols.

There was one scene in which the blocking was important and highly explanatory of the characters. It is the scene in which Clemenza, Tom Hagen, Michael, and Sonny are discussing the problem with Sollozzo and McCluskey. In one particular shot, Clemenza is not in view, but Tom is sitting and leaning back into a chair, because he is the one who always wants to talk things out. Sonny is standing, hungry for action (which usually means blood). Michael is sitting between them, and he is sitting in an unsettled way, communicating his ambivalence and balance between the two. In my opinion, it's as early as that scene when the realization that he would be the next godfather begins to set in.

Costumes play a monumental part in this film, partly because of the time period, and partly because of the occupation of most of the characters. There are a lot of suits. One example is that Michael makes a suit-wearing transition throughout the film. When we are first introduced to Michael, he's wearing his Army uniform. He's a war-hero, proud to be American. For a bit, he's wearing nice but casual clothes. He's a civilian. In Sicily he's wearing simple clothes. He's finding himself. When he's courting Appolonia, he wears modest but gentlemanly clothes. He's a nice, Catholic, Sicilian boyfriend. When he's back in America, his suits are very nice. He's the semi-head of the Corleone family. Toward the very end of the film, he's wearing fancy, expensive-looking suits. He is the Godfather.
Through costuming creating scenic realism, a stark contrast is drawn between Kay and Appolonia. Kay wears nice American fashion. She is a sort of simple and plain character. Appolonia is strikingly beautiful, and her subtle dresses accentuate her beauty.
Make-up is also integral. At one point, both Michael and Connie have badly battered faces and the make-up portrays that. Vito's aging is portrayed through make-up, and very well, too, considering that Marlon Brando was at least fifteen years younger than his character.

The mis-en-scene is this film definitely fits best with a naturalistic tradition. Besides the violence, there were really no grand, sweeping gestures indicating what the story was, nor were there any long monologues. Everything was subtle.