Bit of a late starter, me , when it comes to the film reviews! :)
Anyway, Dr Caligari I found to be highly theatrical - the sets and costumes lending the whole thing a pantomine feel ("he's behind you!" ) I think it's quite hard for us to get our heads around movies with no speech, as you find you are having to concentrate in a whole new way- it is actually quite tiring. It does however, force you to look a lot more carefully at the action, and consequently you notice the scenery a lot more than you might do in a more modern film.
I really liked Metropolis! I had, of course heard of the film, but had somehow never got round to watching it (shame on me!) There were so many hints of other films to come that its hard to know where to start really - was I the only one have thought of the Oompa Loompas during the scene where the hero first goes to the underground machine city?
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8388683946945239928&ei=8zLvSq7xFdOg-AaTsJ3pBQ&q=metropolis+workers+video&hl=en&view=2#
It's that whole group of workers performing en masse, keeping the wheels of the Machine going thing...
Anyway, todays film 'Night of the Hunter' gave us sound again!
Once again, I really enjoyed this film - it was interesting to see the quite negative portrayal of women, either as gullable gossips or easily-manipulated wives...but then again, putting into context, this was a time when women were possibly less able to have a voice in the household.
The film worked particularly well for being in black and white, as it allowed the use of shadow and silhouette to produce both a sinister and fairytale quality. I was reminded of traditional German fairytales, which are often illustrated using silhouettes...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2564/3912658963_4b068fea66_m.jpg
and also shadow puppetry, both of which more often or not feature a baddie after the hero or heroine.
I found it an interesting twist that 'villain' was a man of God, and first sight we get of the 'heroine' is of her threatening to beat the children - it throws into question the whole idea of morality and trust...should we believe and be led by a man of the cloth, just because of his dog-collar?
Hi Jacke - the Oompa-Loompas - yes - totally! :-) I love that you're supplying links to images/videos too! Below is a copy of a general bit of advice I'm circulating around the blogs...
ReplyDeleteOkay - some important tips re. the essay. What I DON'T want is 1,500 words of general observations about the 'look' of a game or film; what I'm looking for is some genuine research into the creative team/rationale behind the creation of a particular world (for instance, for Superman Returns, there was a conscious effort on behalf of the production designers to create an amalgamation of time periods, so that the film had a retro/contemporary quality that referenced the forties as well as the present day); another way to discuss the 'look' of a film/game in a contextualised way is to gather together lots of film/reviews and cross-reference the similarities between observations, as reviewers identify 'trends' and 'meanings' in the production design. I want you to actually 'deconstruct' the look of something in intellectual terms, and not just bang on about the obvious stuff - this should be your mantra - AVOID GENERIC OBSERVATIONS! Find an angle, support it with external evidence and PROVE your analysis... Obviously then, I'd choose something about which you can dig up the relevant information...