| Film Chosen | Across the Universe (Julie Taymor, 2007) |
| Time Signature and Duration | 01:22:20:16 – 1:26:00:09 3 mins 39 seconds |
| Sequence | Strawberry Fields |
| Micro Elements | Editing, Mise-En-Scene, Sound, Symbolical meaning, Intertextual Reference – Linking back to stuff in the 60s in particular art. (Postmodern Film) |
| Macro Elements | Genre, Critical Response |
| Title | Preference | Memorable Scene | Film Element Focus |
| Across the Universe | 9 | Strawberry Fields | Editing and Mise-en-scene |
| Title | Preference | Memorable Scene | Film Element Focus |
| Pan’s Labyrinth | 8 | When the woman slits the man’s mouth | Editing and mise-en-scene |
Activity 1
Activity 2
I think the 2013 film Belle (aka La Ragazza Del Dipinto) explores the themes of the idiom White Man’s Burden. The film is about an illegitimate daughter of a navy admiral that is trained and brought up by her aristocratic uncle and his wife. She grows up to abolish slavery in England. The film won the 2014 British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent film, the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture and the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture. Belle is based on a true story about Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and an African slave woman.
Activity 1
Activity 2
Captain America – Transformation Scene
Before Captain America’s transformation he was a skinny kid with no muscle. The transformation made him taller and stronger. Before the transformation he looked like a child but after it he looked like a man. Before the transformation nobody really noticed him but after it he can walk into a room and be the centre of attention. Also after it woman come onto him more as he is a war hero and has a much better body.
C.J. Parker – Baywatch
This is a screenshot from a scene in Baywatch. This is the perfect example of the male gaze as the shot shows us what Ronnie is looking at and how he views C.J. Throughout the film C.J. is continuously shown through the male gaze viewpoint.
Activity 3
I think that The Fault in Our Stars is a good example of modern filmmakers attempting to take a less sexist and more female centric. The film is about two cancer-afflicted teens that meet at a cancer support group. They both share the same acerbic wit and a love of books. The director, Josh Boone, is male; this shows us that male directors are trying to change the stereotypical female actress and are trying to make characters in films more relatable to the average person.
The reason I think this movie is a good example of modern filmmakers producing a film that is less sexist and more female centric is because the film is a romance/drama and would normally be most sexist and show woman from a male perspective The Fault in Our Stars does not. The movie shows that people love for personality instead of looks. As the two lovers both have cancer they both understand what each other are going through and both know that they do not know what will happen, however they both have an uplift mood and try to make the most of time they have together. They both have fun and laugh a lot however there are still sad parts in the film. I think this helps us to remember that life is not always perfect and bad stuff happens; including this in the film makes it more like real life and less like a perfect movie. This helps us relate to the characters more so we make a stronger emotional attachment to the characters, which makes the film more impactful to the audience.
French cinema magazines in 1946/7 called filmmakers/directors artists and instead of using a pen to create their art they use cameras and that each of these artist owned the film, (a Hitchcock film is a Hitchcock film not a Paramount Studios film). Alexandre Astruc a popular film critique described a camera as a “camera pen” as it is a tool used to create art just as a pen is traditionally used to create art.
Andre Bazin co-founded a French cinema magazine called “Cahiers du Cinema” or ‘Notebooks on Cinema’ in 1951. It employed Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut; them along with others came up with a list of principles for auteur theory (“La politique des auteurs”). (An auteur is a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author). It made up the major tenants of the French New Wave. These were: an emphasis on the realism of mise-en-scene (giving an objective view of the world and helped with low budgets as no sets would have to be constructed), to use long takes and deep focus to achieve realism and made the viewer more active and enabled them to interpret what they are seeing, and the most important principle is that the film should be a conversation between the auteur and the audience.
The majority of French films were hollow adaptions of famous novels, lacking any vision from the director. So in 1958, Truffaut deemed the Cannes film festival (Showcasing of the best 12 French films made that year) for awarding these uninspired mediocrity, which got him banned from the festival. Because of this Truffaut made a film of his own called “The 400 Blows” which was about a troubled youth. He used his years of critiquing to help him create a masterpiece. He showed loads of people when his film got into Cannes Film Festival, where Truffaut went on to win the best director prize. This paved the way for other Cahier writers to make their own films.
One of these Cahier writers that made one was Jean Luc Godard and his film “Breathless” (1960). Which he used jump cuts, in which a single shot would appear to jump forward in time. His use of jump cuts purposely distanced the audience from the story and made it clear that they were watching a film. This is normally forbidden in typical film-making.
The French New Wave changed cinema and gave a voice to the voiceless. It also showed you don’t need the studio system or huge budgets to make great films. This inspired the filmmakers outside of France and played a role in starting the American New Wave.
The French New Wave filmmakers showed all other filmmakers that you don’t need elaborate sets or the latest and best equipment to make a great film. All you really need is a vision.