I appreciate this class and the curriculum. And I realize a main part of this class is so we are exposed to many different types of foreign films and their styles.
However, with that said, I really do not have anything nice to say about this film. The music, the acting, the scenes, were, in my opinion - horrible. I had trouble getting through the film and really wanted to shut it off, but kept watching just in case we were tested on it.
And regardless of the supposed comedic content, I thought the film very degrading to women.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
International Cinema-The Flowers of War
So I was browsing on Netflix for a International movie and came across Flowers of War. It has Christian Bail and is about the war between the Chinese and Japanese. Wow this ended up being a great movie. All I can really say is wow. I copy and pasted the info for this movie if anyone is interested.
Cast:
Christian Bale, Paul Schneider, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang, Tony Dawei, Atsuro Watabe, Tianyuan Huang, Shawn Dou,Kefan Cao
In 1937, as the Japanese army brutally invades the Chinese city of Nanking, an American mortician is trapped inside a western cathedral and vows to protect a group of young schoolgirls and 13 courtesans who are seeking refuge from the soldiers.
You can view it without having to rent the DVD.
In 1937, as the Japanese army brutally invades the Chinese city of Nanking, an American mortician is trapped inside a western cathedral and vows to protect a group of young schoolgirls and 13 courtesans who are seeking refuge from the soldiers.
You can view it without having to rent the DVD.
The Bicycle Thief
A gritty, sad portrayal of postwar Italy. I think the primary theme was that times were tough all over. We saw this with the poor old man going to church for soup, the enormity of the pawn shop where they sold their sheets, the poverty that the actual thief lived in. Ricci tried to be the man his family needed, but in the end, as he and his son melted into the crowd, it was shown that he was another of the faceless masses simply struggling to survive the devastation and humiliation after the end of World War II.. Anti German sentiment was shown not only by the hat worn by the original thief, but also subtly by the group of German speaking priests, which I suppose illustrated the isolation from suffering enjoyed by the Vatican during the post war era.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Good Article/Metropolis number 1 on list
In high school, Colin Levy spent a year-and-a-half working on a five-minute short film. Little did he know that the film, which starred his father and was filmed in his backyard, would go on to win a national YoungArts award -- and a one-on-one meeting with legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Levy calls the meeting "a defining moment" in his path as a filmmaker, and in an email to The Huffington Post, he recalled meeting the Academy Award-winning director as a teen.
After receiving a personalized tour from Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's trusted film editor for over 40 years, Levy stepped into Scorsese's office, where, according to Levy, the director complimented the teen on his short film and his basic use of 3D animation.
Following his meeting with Scorsese, Levy sent the filmmaker a thank you card, and to his surprise, he received several books and DVDs -- including "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" -- as well as a list of 39 foreign films to watch, as recommended by Scorsese himself.
Six years later and Levy, now a filmmaker and visual effects artist, has finally started to check off the films on Scorsese's list with purpose. In an email to The Huffington Post, Levy said that he was recently inspired to start watching all 39 films, in order, as part of a screening series he organized at Pixar.
After Levy tweeted about his list on Monday, it was quickly posted to Reddit by one of Levy's followers. It received more than 250,000 views in a single day.
In high school, Colin Levy spent a year-and-a-half working on a five-minute short film. Little did he know that the film, which starred his father and was filmed in his backyard, would go on to win a national YoungArts award -- and a one-on-one meeting with legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Levy calls the meeting "a defining moment" in his path as a filmmaker, and in an email to The Huffington Post, he recalled meeting the Academy Award-winning director as a teen.
After receiving a personalized tour from Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's trusted film editor for over 40 years, Levy stepped into Scorsese's office, where, according to Levy, the director complimented the teen on his short film and his basic use of 3D animation.
Following his meeting with Scorsese, Levy sent the filmmaker a thank you card, and to his surprise, he received several books and DVDs -- including "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" -- as well as a list of 39 foreign films to watch, as recommended by Scorsese himself.
Six years later and Levy, now a filmmaker and visual effects artist, has finally started to check off the films on Scorsese's list with purpose. In an email to The Huffington Post, Levy said that he was recently inspired to start watching all 39 films, in order, as part of a screening series he organized at Pixar.
After Levy tweeted about his list on Monday, it was quickly posted to Reddit by one of Levy's followers. It received more than 250,000 views in a single day.
Here's the list of 39 foreign films supposedly given to Levy by Scorsese. The Huffington Post has reached out to Martin Scorsese and his representatives to verify the authenticity of the list, but they have yet to respond.
Levy calls the meeting "a defining moment" in his path as a filmmaker, and in an email to The Huffington Post, he recalled meeting the Academy Award-winning director as a teen.
After receiving a personalized tour from Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's trusted film editor for over 40 years, Levy stepped into Scorsese's office, where, according to Levy, the director complimented the teen on his short film and his basic use of 3D animation.
Following his meeting with Scorsese, Levy sent the filmmaker a thank you card, and to his surprise, he received several books and DVDs -- including "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" -- as well as a list of 39 foreign films to watch, as recommended by Scorsese himself.
Six years later and Levy, now a filmmaker and visual effects artist, has finally started to check off the films on Scorsese's list with purpose. In an email to The Huffington Post, Levy said that he was recently inspired to start watching all 39 films, in order, as part of a screening series he organized at Pixar.
After Levy tweeted about his list on Monday, it was quickly posted to Reddit by one of Levy's followers. It received more than 250,000 views in a single day.
Martin Scorsese Foreign Film List: Director Recommends 39 Films To Young Filmmaker Colin Levy
The Huffington Post | By Crystal Bell Posted: 03/27/2012 10:30 am Updated: 03/27/2012 10:37 am
Levy calls the meeting "a defining moment" in his path as a filmmaker, and in an email to The Huffington Post, he recalled meeting the Academy Award-winning director as a teen.
After receiving a personalized tour from Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's trusted film editor for over 40 years, Levy stepped into Scorsese's office, where, according to Levy, the director complimented the teen on his short film and his basic use of 3D animation.
Following his meeting with Scorsese, Levy sent the filmmaker a thank you card, and to his surprise, he received several books and DVDs -- including "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" -- as well as a list of 39 foreign films to watch, as recommended by Scorsese himself.
Six years later and Levy, now a filmmaker and visual effects artist, has finally started to check off the films on Scorsese's list with purpose. In an email to The Huffington Post, Levy said that he was recently inspired to start watching all 39 films, in order, as part of a screening series he organized at Pixar.
After Levy tweeted about his list on Monday, it was quickly posted to Reddit by one of Levy's followers. It received more than 250,000 views in a single day.
Six years ago, I had the chance to meet Martin Scorsese. He was gracious, intimidating. It was a defining moment in my path as a filmmaker.
The Bicycle Thieves
On a lighter note, I could see where Tim Burton used scenes from this movie for his first film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", a comedy about a boy trying to find his stolen bike....
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Arn: The Knight Templar (Arn: Tempelriddaren)
While searching Netflix for a movie to write about for our assignment, I came across this Swedish movie with some Norwegian credits as well. The movie was also shot on location in Morocco ( a very popular country to film movies of all genres requiring desert scenes or ancient scenes), Spain and Scotland.
Arn: The Knight Templar is the first movie based on Jan Guilliou's trilogy of the Crusades. The movie is sometimes spoken in English, but also spoken within the movie is Arabic, French, and Swedish. At times when English is not used, subtitles are.
I am a living history re-enactor and I love films such as these. I love them for historical content, sets, and costuming. I had not heard of Arn within history so I did a search to find out whether or not there had actually been an "Arn". My search was actually inconclusive, I don't have the time to devote to hitting the head on the nail for this as my school and life schedule won't allow. I found in a quick online search that probably Arn is a fantasy character, although I found a couple of sources that said he existed.
In short, the plot of the movie is about Arn who is raised in a monastery and grows up under the influence of an "retired" Knight Templar. He learns the values and moral of the knight as well as becomes an apprentice learning his fighting skills.
When he is of age to leave the monastery, Arn returns to his clan. He wins a dispute between his and a rival clan. He also falls in love with a young girl of nobility that is promised in marriage to someone else in the rival clan.
Arn and his lover create a child out of wedlock. The Church steps in and "sentences" the two. The girl to 20 years in a convent, her child taken from her at birth. Arn, 20 years to serve in the Crusades.
Of course, at the end, boy gets the girl - but not without tragedy involved.
There were some historical errors in the movie:
The Church was a powerful source in those days, and very political. I am not well-versed on ancient Swedish law or monarchy. I suspect that it is very possible that the Swedes may have allowed the Church even more power over political matters, especially since to this day it is the Swedish Guard who guard the Pope. It is possible that the Church may have had the power to "sentence" both Arn and his lover as they did in the movie. On one hand a political infraction was committed, yet on the other Arn and his lover sinned. Hard call without knowing more background history.
Arn's costuming was close to the time period, but the cross on his robe is not quite right for his time period of the 1180's.
Also, Saladin would have known he could not make an offer of safe passage of all Christians from Jerusalem in exchange for the surrender of the Holy City. He would have known that Arn didn't have the power to grant that. Saladin did make that offer historically, but he made it through the proper channels.
Anyway, sometimes we need to view a movie as strictly entertainment. Even when loosely based on historical facts, we need to keep in mind that a director always takes some liberty in artistry and ideas. We need to be smart enough to decipher between the facts and fiction and research things of interests when we are unsure.
Regardless, it was still a good movie. I enjoyed it. And I will be watching the other two movies within the trilogy.
Arn: The Knight Templar is the first movie based on Jan Guilliou's trilogy of the Crusades. The movie is sometimes spoken in English, but also spoken within the movie is Arabic, French, and Swedish. At times when English is not used, subtitles are.
I am a living history re-enactor and I love films such as these. I love them for historical content, sets, and costuming. I had not heard of Arn within history so I did a search to find out whether or not there had actually been an "Arn". My search was actually inconclusive, I don't have the time to devote to hitting the head on the nail for this as my school and life schedule won't allow. I found in a quick online search that probably Arn is a fantasy character, although I found a couple of sources that said he existed.
In short, the plot of the movie is about Arn who is raised in a monastery and grows up under the influence of an "retired" Knight Templar. He learns the values and moral of the knight as well as becomes an apprentice learning his fighting skills.
When he is of age to leave the monastery, Arn returns to his clan. He wins a dispute between his and a rival clan. He also falls in love with a young girl of nobility that is promised in marriage to someone else in the rival clan.
Arn and his lover create a child out of wedlock. The Church steps in and "sentences" the two. The girl to 20 years in a convent, her child taken from her at birth. Arn, 20 years to serve in the Crusades.
Of course, at the end, boy gets the girl - but not without tragedy involved.
There were some historical errors in the movie:
The Church was a powerful source in those days, and very political. I am not well-versed on ancient Swedish law or monarchy. I suspect that it is very possible that the Swedes may have allowed the Church even more power over political matters, especially since to this day it is the Swedish Guard who guard the Pope. It is possible that the Church may have had the power to "sentence" both Arn and his lover as they did in the movie. On one hand a political infraction was committed, yet on the other Arn and his lover sinned. Hard call without knowing more background history.
Arn's costuming was close to the time period, but the cross on his robe is not quite right for his time period of the 1180's.
Also, Saladin would have known he could not make an offer of safe passage of all Christians from Jerusalem in exchange for the surrender of the Holy City. He would have known that Arn didn't have the power to grant that. Saladin did make that offer historically, but he made it through the proper channels.
Anyway, sometimes we need to view a movie as strictly entertainment. Even when loosely based on historical facts, we need to keep in mind that a director always takes some liberty in artistry and ideas. We need to be smart enough to decipher between the facts and fiction and research things of interests when we are unsure.
Regardless, it was still a good movie. I enjoyed it. And I will be watching the other two movies within the trilogy.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Official Story - LA HISTORIA OFICIAL
Country: Argentina
Drama
Cast: Norma
Aleandro “Alicia”, Hector Alterio “Roberto”, Chela Ruiz “Sara”, Chunchuna
Villafane “Ana”, Hugo Arana “Enrique”
Director: Luis Puenzo
Screenplay: Aida Bortnik, Luis Puenzo
Director: Luis Puenzo
Screenplay: Aida Bortnik, Luis Puenzo
The Official Story was released in 1985. It is
an Argentinian Drama depicting the fictional story of a woman who is married to
a military man and finds out that her “adopted” daughter was one of the
children that had disappeared during the dirty ward of the 1970s, when people
were abducted by the military for suspicion of terrorism and never seeing
again, including their children or soon to be born babies. More than 45,000
people disappeared after they were tortured or raped, and subsequently killed. Although
this movie is not based on a real story, they do depict the realities of many
in Argentina and the story of many others who eventually were found by the Grandmothers
of Plaza de Mayo. The movie won the
Oscar for1985's Best Foreign Language Movie.
I lived through that era, saw the stories first hand and felt the cruelty of the Military in power. I can assure you that this movie is close to real life and very moving. Both men and women would enjoy watching it.
I lived through that era, saw the stories first hand and felt the cruelty of the Military in power. I can assure you that this movie is close to real life and very moving. Both men and women would enjoy watching it.
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