film studies

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari

2006-12-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari is about a man named Francis who is telling a story about what happened to his friend Alan at a carnival. There was a man named Cesare who can read the future. Alan went to Cesare and asked when he will die, and he says he will die at dawn. Alan dies at dawn, everyone thinks that Cesare killed him. The real murderer was Dr.Caligari who had mind control over Cesare.

I liked this film because it was unlike anything ive seen. There were a few things that stood out, whenever Dr.Caligari was in the frame it would be crooked. This hinted around the fact that he was the mastermind behind the murder. I alos liked how it started with a story and ended with him telling the story. It was like it was a glimpse into the past.

Rope

2006-12-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope is about two men that commit a murder for the fun of it, and have a party to celebrate their murder. In Rope they have know cuts, the whole movie is in one continuous tracking shot. The movie gets better when one of the guests starts to get suspicious. The movie ends with the suspicios man calling the two other men out on what they did.

Rope is now one of my Fvaiorte movies. The tracking shot makes the movie that much better. There is only one cut in the whole movie, when the men are talking about how they lived around chickens. The man that suspcts them catches on to what they are talking about and it cuts to him. It shows that up till that point they were doing good covering everything up, but at the point is where they messed up everything. I really enjoyed watching Rope I think this is a movie I may buy.

The Testament of Dr.Mabuse

2006-12-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

The Testament of Dr.Mabuse is about diffrent gangs that are being brain washed by a man in a hospital for mental illness. He tells the gangs to kill certain people and they do it. The way the movie starts is really good. I liked how it was silent while they are looking for the man that was watching the gang. Fritz Lang did a good job on the explosion at the end of that scene. This movie was made in 1933 and it amazed me that they could have special effects like the one in the begining. The movie was in German which was one thing that I did not like. It was not because it was in German, but because the subtitles were white. I missed alot of the dialogue. Overall I liked this movie because it really made you think about what was going on, Im still a little confused about the movie.

Shadow of the Vampire

2006-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Shadow of a Vampire revolves around the making of Nosferatu. In Shadow of a Vampire they show a crew making the movie Nosferatu. The person in Nosferatu that plays the main character Count Orlok is named Max Schreck. In filming Nosferatu the cast and crew supposedly didn’t see much of Max except when he was acting. In Shadow of a Vampire we get the impression that Max Schreck is a real vampire.

German Expressionism helped us see the main views of the director and what he was trying to get off to the audience. Shadow of a Vampire is a real good example of this because it has a movie about a movie. The director of Shadow of a Vampire worked off the director of Noseferatu, to come out with a really good film.

I enjoyed this film because it showed the director that was truly about the art.

Nasferatu

2006-11-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

Nasferatu is a silent film, that was made in 1922, it was directed by F.W. Murnau. This film is a example of German expressionism, it's the way that the director is expressing his views on life. Nasferatu is about a man that gets an idea to go to count Orlok's castle, to try to recieve money from him. The man, Harper, gets to the town where Orlok's castle is. He is told not to leave at night, because that's when spirits come out. When Harper finally goes to the castle, he soon finds out that count Orlok is a vampire that wants to suck his blood. The movie ends when count Orlok goes into the sunlight and dies.

I did not enjoy Nasferatu as much as I thought I was going to. I thought it started good but got slow through the middle. The eerie feeling to the castle and the town itself was really intresting. I liked it when Harper said to the waiter to hurry up because he had to be at count Orlok's castle. Everyone in the resterauent stopped and looked at him like he was crazy. That part made the legend greater because, it made you know that no local would never set foot anywhere near Orlok's castle. It expressed the fact that Harper is a complete tourist to the town, and that he has no idea what he is in for. Overall the movie was okay, I think if i watch it over I would enjoy it more.

Don't Look Now

2006-11-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

Don't Look Now is about a family that has a terrible accident when their daughter dies in a pond near their home. While coping with the lose of their young daughter, the wife meets a blind women and her sister. The blind women claims to be psychic and tells the wife, Laura Baxter, that she has seen her daughter and that she is happy.

I enjoyed what I saw of this movie but, I would have liked to see the enitre movie. I thought the movie was good in the begining but got slow through the middle. I think that towards the end the movie probably picked up alot more. In the first scene where they show a picture of a church, when the daughter is drowning, shows red ink that becomes part of the picture. The dad, John Baxter, is looking at this picture closely before running out to try to save his daughter. I think that it has something to do with being psychic, like it showed the death of his daughter before it happened. If I would have seen the ending I may have understood it better but that is what I thought of this film.

Night of the Living Dead

2006-10-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is about the dead coming back to life and hungry for human flesh. the movie revolves around a small farm house with seven people inside that are trying to stay alive. The movie starts out in a graveyard with a girl named Barbra, and her brother visiting the grave site of their dad. They are shortly noticed by a zombie, the zombie kills Barbra's brother. Barbara runs to a nearby house where she meets Ben, a black man, that is looking for a place to go. This was a new thing that George Romero did, because the audience had never seen a black man as a main character. They board up the house and find more people that were hiding in the basement. Everyone ends up dieing except for Ben, he lives through the night. A search party is sent out to find people that are still alive and they accidently shoot Ben thinking that he is a zombie.

Night of the Living Dead is said to be the movie that started a new wave in horror films. It influenced movies like The Omen and The Exorcist because it made the humans the enemy. The humans were not murderers, but something was taking over their body to make them kill people. Night of the Living Dead started really cool because it immediately brought out the zombies. It did not have like a begining, the audience jumped right into the story. The ending was really good because it did not leave you with good thoughts about the movie. It made you sad about Ben dieing because he did not deserve to die. At the end we see Ben's body being placed among the other dead bodies, it relates to Martin Luther King dieing, because Martin Luther King did not deserve to die, Martin Luther King was placed with other dead bodies, just like Ben, but they both should not have been in that category. I really enjoyed watching Night of the Living Dead.

Bubba Ho-tep

2006-10-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Bubba Ho-tep is about a olf folks home that looks nice from the ouside, but from the inside it has a big secret. The two main characters are impersonators of Elvis and JFK, and they believe that something strange is going on at their old folks home. A mummy, they believe, is sucking the souls of their fellow residents in the home. They team up to kill the mummy.

Bubba Ho-tep is a cool movie that is alot of diffrent genres. We could classify it as horror, comedy,and drama. Bubba Ho-tep may be very strange and stupid, but it ultimately has a point. Bubba Ho-tep is a insane movie that shows the ends of peoples lives. The mummy is these peoples way out of life. The history behind the mummy is really intresting of how he got there. I thought this movie was okay, it was funny but somewhat stupid is some places. Bubba Ho-tep is a good movie if you look past the stupidity.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

2006-10-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was made in 1974. It revolves around five friends going to their grandfather's old house. They are surprsied when one by one they start to be killed by Leatherface. Leatherface is a cannibal that belongs to a cannibal family. When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre first came out, it is easy to see how people could believe that they are supposed to sympathize with the five kids before the family of cannibals.

The family is only trying to protect their house by killing all of these kids. After the kids pick up the hitchhiker they go to a gas station, where they meet the cook in the family. The cook warns the kids that they should not go anywhere near other people's property. The kids pay no attention to the warning and go there anyway. Another reason of why we should sympathize with the family, after Leatherface kills Jerry he looks out his window trying to see where the people are coming from. This shows that he is confused at the situation because he does not know why all the kids are coming into his house. Leatherface seems like he does not want to kill any of the kids but is forced to because they trespass into his home.

A very intresting scene in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is when Pam, one of the kids, is stuck in the room with all of the bones. There is a rapid montage of diffrent things in the room. Throughout the montage they show many diffrent things but always revert back to a chicken stuck in a cage. This symbolizes that the girl in the room is trapped just like the chicken in the cage, they both won't get out alive. This movie is a good horror movie because it shows a real life situation that could actually happen.

Psycho

2006-09-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was made in 1960 and is said to be his greatest film. Psycho is about a women named Marion who is on the run because she stole forty thousand dollars from one of her bosses' clients. Marion goes on the run from the police and stops at The Bates Motel. Marion meets a man named Norman Bates who is the owner of the motel. Norman is a psychotic momma's boy who is still sad over the death of his mother. Norman is schizophrenic, one half of his body is his mother and the other half is Norman. Norman's mother half kills Marion because she is jealous. Norman also kills a private detective looking for Marion because he became suspicious of his non-existent mother. It ends with Norman talking in his head, in his mother's voice about how he is trying to prove that he is innocent by not killing a fly that lands on his hand.

I liked Psycho because it made you believe that Mrs.Bates is the killer and that Norman is just covering up all of the murder's his mother commits. The scene in the parlor of the office when Norman is talking to Marion about his hobby, we see all different types of birds in the background. They are all birds of prey that hunt like owls, and crows. This shows that Marion is they prey of Norman. But in Marion's room she has all helpless birds in the pictures, when Norman goes in to kill her he knocks down a picture of one of those birds. It showed that he was the killer because he knocked it down, it wasent his mother. It is kind of Ironic that Norman's hobby is taxidermy because taxidermy deals with dead animals and Norman also deals with dead people. The music is goes very well with the movie, the music is just as scary as some of the scenes. I have seen this movie many times and everytime I pick out something unique that Idid not see before.

Frenzy

2006-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy was made in 1972 and it was one of his last films. Frenzy is about a notorious murderer in London who uses a necktie to kill his victims. The necktie murderer kills many women without getting caught. When the police get their first suspect for the crimes they decide to go after him. But what the police don’t know is that they have the wrong man as their suspect. A man named Richard Ian Blaney is the main character who is the suspect that did not actually commit the crimes. Richard is continually in the wrong place at the wrong time. The real murderer is close friends with Richard, his name is Bob Rusk.Richard visits Bob,looking for a place to hide,Bob plants clothing of the last women he had killed, in Richard's bag. Richard gets put in jail, but escapes, and then he goes back to Bob's house and finds a body in his bed. The movie ends with a policeman walking in and saying to Bob "Mr. Rusk, you're not wearing your tie."

This movie was very good, I liked alot of the camera views. When Bob is about to commit his second murder of the movie he takes the women into the room and shuts the door. The camera goes back down the stairs and into the street, Alfred Hitchcock leaves it all up to the imagination of the audience to fill in the holes. I also liked it because when the camera is back tracking down the stairs I expected to hear a scream. I was a little happy that I did not hear a scream because i have seen it in many other movies. Hitchcock uses food alot in this movie. When Inspector Oxford is eating his breakfast a man is talking to him and telling him wrong information. Inspector Oxford's wife is making him dinner, but all the food is not appetizing. The inspector's wife is telling him that he most likely has the wrong man but the inspestor is so engulfed in the disgusting food that he pays no attention to what his wife is telling him. I really enjoyed watching this movie, I thought the ending was really good because it left us with the ending. It kind of gave us the chance to "end" it. If I wanted too I could think that Bob killed the Inspector and then killed Richard. The ending did not leave the audience with a direct "this is what happened" it gave the audience to be the director. I really liked that.

Garden State

2006-09-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Garden State is about a man named Andrew Largeman who is living in Los Angelos until he gets the news that his mother has died. Andrew goes back to his New Jersey home for the funeral. Over the next few days in New Jersey Andrew goes through many journeys with him and his friends. One of his new friends Samantha is with him throughout the whole movie. Andrew has a certain connection with Samantha that he doesn't have with anyone else. Andrew even says he feels "safe" with Samantha. This is another movie that relates to the wasted childhood, because Andrew relationship with his mother is not strong because he was the reason she was in the wheel chair. Andrew pushed her when he was nine years old and it caused her to be paralyzed, This is what ultimately caused her death. This movie was really good because it was a diffrent type of movie that you don't normally see. In Garden State we see that they have many clues that show that largeman misses his mother and did not have a good relationship with her. They show Sam's mom hugging largeman and when this happens we see that he has not had a hug in awhile and he cherishes that one hug from someone that is not even his mother. The music in Garden State is really good, all of the songs are modern and flow good with the movie.

Go

2006-09-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

Go was directed by Doug Liman in 1999. Go is a great movie that has many flashbacks, it is based around three people in one night. The first person it centers around is Ronna Martin who works at a grocery store in Los Angeles. When Ronna is at work she meets two men who want to buy drugs. These two men are Adam and Zach, they are really looking for their regular dealer, Simon Baines, who is in Las Vegas at the time. Ronna gets the drugs for them but when she gets there something seems suspicious so she leaves to go to a rave. Then we jump to Simon in Vegas where he ends up shooting a bouncer at a strip club and stealing a car. Finally we jump to the two men, Adam and Zach, who wanted to buy drugs from Ronna. They are actually two gay men who were charged with possesion. To get their record cleared they have to do a favor for the police, that favor was setting up Ronna. After getting their record cleared they also go to the same rave Ronna is at. Adam and Zach end up hitting Ronna with their car not knowing its her. This is a fast movie with alot of action, I really enjoyed watching it.

Buffalo 66'

2006-08-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Buffalo 66' was directed by Vincent Gallo in 1998. Buffalo 66' is about a man named Billy Brown that just got out of jail after a five year sentence. Immediately after Billy gets out of jail he kidnaps a girl named Layla so that he can pretend that she is his wife infront of his parents. Billy's parents would be described as many things, loving is not one of them. When Billy goes to see his parents, Jimmy and Jan Brown, they seem not even happy to see him after not seeing him for five years. Billy's parents care more about Layla, whom they have never met before, before being loving parents towards Billy. As the story goes on we find out that Billy bet 10,000 dollars on the 1967 Buffalo football game. Billy loses his bet and the bookie tells him to confess to a crime one of his friends did to be able to get out of his debt. In jail, Billy finds out that the game was rigged and Billy sets out to kill Scott Woods, the field goal kicker for Buffalo,to get his revenge.

Buffalo 66' was a very good movie in my opinon because it showed a lonely man in the begining then a completly happy man at the end. The only reason that he did not kill Scott Woods was because he knew he finally had a girl, that loved him for who he was, waiting for him. It relates to Citizen Kane because just like Kane, Billy had a wasted childhood.

Citizen Kane

2006-08-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

Citizen Kane was directed by Orson Welles in 1941. Orson Welles not only had all rights to the movie but he was also the star of the movie. Citizen Kane is about a man named Charles Foster Kane who is a very dominate newspaper publisher that is very wealthy. The movie starts with Charles Foster Kane saying the word "Rosebud" right before he dies. The film is mainly about a group of reporters trying to find out what his last word means. The reporters interview many people in Kane's past that would lead them to the meaning of this word. The movie has many flashbacks of Kane before his death and of the reporters trying to find what this word means. The reporters never find out what the meaning of the word is but the audience finds out through film language, I thought this was a very good way to tell everyone but not letting the people in the movie know what the meaning was. At the begining of this movie i was bored and thought it was not going anywhere, but at the end i relized that everything they showed leading up to the end was all for a reason. It was showing that "Rosebud"was his childhood that was taken away from him.