The Art Film Experience

wow... thats all.... but seriously. This movie was jacked up. It was obviously a kind of montage thing about family's and how despite the rapidly changing times there lies similar problems and they have to deal with it in similar ways. The hardships are also the same. The only way that I could really make out what time I was in was by the use of different filters, which was ultimately a successful device in conveying that information.

UPDATE:
So I just went to IMDB.com to try and shed light on what exactly was happening in that film. The plot synopsis was as follows:
"The director mixes flashbacks, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II, adolescence, and a painful divorce in his family. The story interweaves reflections about Russian history and society."

Once I read that it hit me that all of the strange imagery was to show the confused mind of a dying man, and the title was to imply that he is reflecting in his final hours. I'm kinda wondering that if I were to watch the film again with this synopsis in mind if I would pick on some of the more subtle things that the director placed in the film. I still think however that a lot of the film was an experiment, and could draw some similarities to "The Man With the Movie Camera." Maybe when I have some time I'll go download it and give it another watch.

Ivan the terrible pt. 1

So in all honesty I have a pretty killer sinus infection or something, and I took some drowsy type meds for class. So I was kinda spacey through most of it. But I did pick up on some really interesting techniques that Einsentien is using that he wasn't using before. The first one is the way he was having his actors move. Their posture reflected what the actor was trying to do in that scene. If said actor was trying to undermine Ivan they would have lower posture with shoulders inward and a curved back. The other thing I took note of where the use of shadows to convey the actors "size" in a given situation, or to assert their dominance in the scene. And the final thing that was peculiar to me was that Ivan's beard grew with his power as well as reflecting on how he was becoming hard and calloused by being the Tsar.

Circus

So sounds to me that the USSR is the place to be. That poor American girl came to them after being run out of America because of a "mistake" she made. Now in the USSR however she is excepted and should have no fear of what she did fear in America. Realistically that movie was pretty incredible. I think with about a few more propaganda I may actually support the soviets. In all honestly though, and satire aside, i do really enjoy these movies. This era is actually really fascinating to me. Well I hope the quality of the films continue on this streak. Awesome.

We, 'gents, are going to the talkies.

So let me just open by saying holy weird character development batman. But seriously, a lot of things happened in that movie very fast. That could have easily been a modern movie. The modern equivalent however would have shown a lot more about the characters, such as back stories and more dialogs shared in private. In all though I thought it was pretty entertaining. I just can't get over how many personal stories that were only gone into at half depth. There was the love story, the commissar's, both of them, the defector with the beard, the guy who was arrested, and on top of all of that there was still things going on in the other camp that were vaguely explained to us. When you combine all of that and most abrupt ending that I've seen since the sopranos, I can only say it was ok, but as a early film, it was excellent. Bring on some more talkies.

Man With the Movie Camera

So as the movie started I was expecting something weird, but not this strange. After the first few minutes of the film I decided to take some notes, this was pointless. I tried to keep up with the little bits of information that I was being bombarded by, but this was frivolous and after only ten minutes, I declared defeat. From what I did notice however this movie was cool. Not just regular cool, but completely interesting. Some of the shots that the director was working on getting were things that i see still today. One thing in particular stood out to me. The scenes that quickly switched from close ups on eyes to other shots reminded me of scenes from horror movies from the 1970's and 80's. Other than those small things there was kinda too much to wrap my head around. Hopefully this trend won't continues in the upcoming films, my head might just 'splode.

Battle ship

So this movie was a little weird and confusing. It was easier to follow than the other movies we have watched so far. The entire movie I was split between weather it was a good thing a bad thing to rebel. In the end however I believe that it was trying to show people that everyone that is not a part of the tsarist nation is your brother. I think. Oh well, this movie though was much more enjoyable than movies from only years before it. Well thats all for now, time to go to work.

Day 3

Well I'm not gonna lie, coming off of the other movie into today was pretty hard. From the semi modern "Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath!" to the montage-esque series of short films from the turn of century was rather grueling. You have to guess emotions and assume story lines, but I guess I can see how that would not be a problem in that time period. Nowadays story lines and character development is so straight forward there is little left to assume or look into (unless its at sun dance or it's a Spike Lee joint.) Oh well, regardless of my initial frustration, by the time we watched the first example of early movies I could understand what Gorky was saying, the colorless soundless picture was actually very eerie. Maybe this will grow on me, I sure hope it will.