Meshes of the Afternoon

Maybe it is because I am fairly new to the dissecting of cinematography, but no matter how hard I try I just can not grasp the concept of Maya Deren's Meshes of The Afternoon, or the significance of experimental films in general. I recognize that the issue most likely lies with me, considering that Maya Deren and her experimental films have gained so much notability over time from her critics, so I suppose I am one of few who do not particularly like this film. To be honest, my favorite part was that it was only fourteen minutes long.
Although personally I found it grueling, I suppose I can appreciate the symbolism found in Meshes of The Afternoon. It was clear through the repetitive imagery in Deren's film that there was significance behind the many symbols displayed throughout. First, and in my opinion, probably the most important is the key. The film begins with a woman trying to unlock what is assumed to be her door, and this is where the key is first introduced, when it falls from her grasp and bounces down a flight of stairs. There are a couple different things I considered as a reasonable perception: this was showing her reluctance to go inside maybe fearing what is behind the door, or possibly it was symbolic of opening the door to opportunity and her inability to do so. There was a scene where Deren's character is sitting at a table with three other woman, who are in fact her. The woman seem to be taking turns grabbing the key off the table and then returning it. It almost looked like a game, and when one of the Deren's lost, the key turned into a knife, where she then walked across the room to a girl sitting in a chair and killed her. In my opinion, this scene may have been symbolizing the game of life.
Following the same idea of opportunity and life, and continuing with some of Meshes of The Afternoon's symbols brings forth the robe wearing, grim reaper like figure that seems to be just out of reach for Deren's character. Deren repetitively shows herself chasing this grim reaper who always just slips around the corner. In addition, The robed, hooded figure does not have a face, but instead it is a mirror reflecting the image of whomever looks at it. Lastly in regards to the grim reaper, I also considered the possibility that it may be symbolizing death, as the grim reaper normally does, and that it is always lurking.
Finally, I found it interesting that although the film was originally completely silent, 16 years after its creation music was added. The majority of the clarification attempts came through the symbols presented in the film, but the music to me, seemed as important as a character or symbol itself. The music gave an eerie feeling and provoked a sense of paranoia throughout the film. Meshes of the Afternoon is a very complex short film, seasoned with many symbolic images, and although I can not say I particularly enjoyed this experimental film, I can definitely appreciate a master in their trade.

Work's Cited
Paghat, Maya Deren, 1999. Weirdwildrealm.com Accesses Feb 28,2010. (photo)

Meshes Of the Afternoon. Dir. Maya Deren and Hammid Perfs. Maya Deren. NFR films, 1943. (film)

Der Untergang

I have seen many films about WWII, but never quite the way Der Untergang is presented. This is the first film about WWII through the eyes of another country I have ever seen, in this case through the eyes of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Germany. The film, although completely in German with English subtitles, makes it's point soon after it starts. Within minutes from the start of the film, Hitler is advised that the Soviet troops are about twelve kilometers from the Berlin center, and have already opened fire.
The fury of Hitler at this moment, and it continues for the duration of Der Untergang, is extraordinarily portrayed and you can almost sense the fear of this loud, firm spoken Furer. At this point I was pretty much fully engaged in this foreign film. The battle scenes, although brief, were equally intense as Hitler himself. The Soviet soldiers were never actually introduced or seen in the film, and I think this was to give the viewer the same feeling of mysterious fear that the actors and actresses were feeling. From beginning to end Der Untergang follows a linear chronology (249) with great climax, and a suicide filled intense ending.
In the face of danger, and utter hopelessness Hitler remained persistent in his ruling and insists on further fighting. He insisted on either being dead, or continuing Hitler Germany. As horrible as his intentions were, his pride and patriotism was easily visible. I mention this because not only does the film portray great scenes and intensity, but it provides understanding of feelings and thoughts, which for me at least, is tough to do.
Another thing that I found particularly interesting was the scarce use of music. For the majority of the film there is no music, only the words and gestures of the cast. For me, this contributed to the intensity of the film. When music was used, it was often a light, smooth, climatic orchestra that was perfectly embedded in each chosen scene. I can not mention intensity enough when discussing this film, and also contributing to this mentioned intensity is not what you would typically call music, but in this case I think the sound effects and the realistic sounds ofartillery and tanks is safe in itself to call music. Perhaps that is why actual music was so scarcely used.
In the end of the film, high ranking soldiers began dropping like flies, most by way of escape, and the most loyal by way of suicide. Not only did five of Hitler's most loyal advisors and generals commit suicide out of pure fear, but Hitler himself, along with his wife, committed suicide in the face of hopelessness . Throughout the film Hitler should no compassion for anything, especially the German people. This cold-heartedness persists right up until the moment he commits suicide, and dies as he lived, with no emotion. I think Oliver Hirshbiegel stresses suicide so much towards the end of the film, not only to provide the understanding of the fear at the end of Hitler's reign, but also to symbolize the situation Hitler, through his persistence and fantasy, put Germany into.

Work's Cited (photo)

Scott Morris, Hitler, 2004. Oneliner.com Accessed Feb. 19, 2010

Mulholland Drive

After watching Lynch's Mulholland Drive, aside from feeling completely baffled, I was impressed by the continuous intensity and unexpected twists to the plot. As the story unfolded I became more and more confused, yet simultaneously more and more interested. Now the only thing left for me to figure out is, is Lynch a lunatic, or is there a method to his madness.
If the auteur theory (464) applied to Mulholland Drive, I think it would be safe to say that Lynch is legally insane, but possibly a savant. I enjoyed the way that hallucination and reality beared no clear difference between one another, and as far as the details go, ended up being closely related. Everything that you thought was going on, was never what it seemed, but reflected what was really going on. In order to fully understand what was happening you have to relate things that were going on, the book calls this intertextuality (471).
Aside from lurking behind Winkie's Restaurant, the dirty rugged man has been lurking in my mind. I still can not grasp the symbolism, if any, that was behind his character.What the hell was he doing there? I suppose it is left to the viewer to decide, but even the best of imaginations would have a run for their money trying to create Lynchian puzzle piece that fits the scrambled plot.
Because of my lack of understanding of this film, I decided to discuss the one scene I did fully understand, you guessed it, the Camilla and Diane sexual encounter. Not only was this my favorite scene of the movie, but to me it seemed like the whole film revolved around this one scene, or at least their relationship with each other. Diane was in love, maybe obsessed, with Camilla who was a fellow, but more successful actress. Her love was accompanied by jealousy and envy and throughout the film you get glimpses of this. Even when Camilla tried to break it off with Diane, she was almost seduced into, what would have been, my second favorite scene. I also found it interesting how the role Diane tried out for, was very similar to what actually happens when Camilla tries to break up with Diane, both start with " what are you doing here, you don't belong here", yet another example of intertextuality.
Although the film may lack clarity and realism (481), it is without a doubt a masterpiece. When I was walking out of class the day we watched this my first initial opinion was that I did not like Mulholland Drive. But after a day or two of marinating I realized that whether it is easily understood or just plain ludicrous, Lynch and his film do exactly what they are intended to do, grab your attention and keep it.

Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers boldly goes were many other war film makers have gone before, into the WWII era. Although there have been countless films about wars throughout time, Flags of Our Fathers does it like no other. Counting last weeks class, I have seen this film three times and enjoyed it the third time just as much as the first, if not more. The first time I watched it I was at the theater with my Grandfather, who is a WWII veteran, and although I enjoyed the film, I could not imagine the memories it stirred up for my grandfather, and any other veterans who watched it for that matter.

I remember my Grandfather as a strong, kind, and proud veteran. Our whole family knows he served in WWII, but with the exception of my grandmother, we have never heard the stories my Grandfather brought back from the war, that is until he watched this film. He was deeply moved by the portrayal of Pearl Harbor and talked about it for weeks after seeing it. As much as he liked it and as much as he talked about it, he never again watched the movie nor did he say why. It is my assumption that he was brought back to experiences he had tried to forget for the past few decades, and only found it necessary to do that once. The picture of the marines putting up the flag had been hanging in his room for years, and he often talked about how he had met Ira Hayes in the years following the war, so to him it had personally meaning that is unexplainable.

The film started with a flash back of the horrors of the war, and then transitions into context of WWII and how the marines were looked at as hero's. There were many instances where irony showed its face in the film. In the beginning of the film it shows Ryan Philippe, the medic, trying to save a dying soldier and ironically the soldier says "go help someone who is hurt". In addition, when the medic gets to another soldier and is busy working on him a Japanese soldier jumps out and tries to attack Philippe he gets stabbed and then asks for help, again, kind of ironic.

Eastwood must have understood the events of the landing in Iwo Jima the same way my Grandfather experienced it because, according to my Grandfather, " is the next worst thing to actually being there", he did a great job of portraying the seriousness of the violence that occurred on that day. I can not help but to admire the role played by Barry Pepper as the sergeant. He played the role of a man of courage, dignity, and pride. During the film he was offered a promotion that would get him off the battle grounds but he denied because he gave his word to his men, "I promised them I would bring them back to their mothers, I already lied to half of them", and he intended to keep his word to the others, however impossible that may have been.

I truly did enjoy watching this film and I think that veterans can appreciate it more than I could. I am not claiming to understand what the WWII vets went through, because to me it is unimaginable, but after watching Flags of Our Fathers I know I have a little better of an idea.

Star Trek

As far as experience with film goes, I would consider myself, at best, average. I enjoy a good movie but have never experienced or knew how to appreciate the work behind the scenes in a film as we will do in this course. I am looking forward to the upcoming semester and hope to see some good movies and hopefully learn to analyze them well enough so I can fully appreciate all aspects of any given movie.

There were three main reasons why I decided to take this course. First, I was hoping to learn more about the filming world because a career in that field has always appealed to me. Secondly, I have almost a “self-obligation” to try new things, and I have never taken a course even remotely close to this one. Lastly, as my fellow class-mates will soon see, Dr. Carreiro has a unique way of teaching and promoting class participation that to say the least, is very effective. As I said, aside from watching an occasional movie, I have minimal experience with films, but more importantly I enter the course with an open mind and plan to make the absolute best of it.

As I mentioned in class, my favorite movie is Running Scared with Paul Walker. Despite what the title may lead you to believe, this is not a horror film. Like most other Quentin Tarantino films it is a violent, bloody, action movie. If I had to make a decision on what my favorite genre of film is, I would have to say it is action movies.

Our First meeting we watched the film Star Trek. This first film really put my open-mindedness to the test. My least favorite genre of film, hands down, is sci-fi. So when we first were told we were watching Star Trek, I considered dropping the course, because I hated Star Trek and Star Wars and all those other intergalactic movies that much. To my own surprise, I loved the movie. Not only was it packed with action that literally kept me on the edge of my seat, but it had a good story line as well. It would be hard not to appreciate the special effects and fight scenes, as they were all done so well.

One thing that stands out to me is the irony in the two main characters lives. James T. Kirk was always expected to be an asset on the Star Fleet, because of his father’s prior success. With Spock it was the exact opposite, because he was half human, he was always expected to fail, and actually prevailed far more than he was expected to. Spock and James T. Kirk argued and fought throughout the whole film, and to me it was almost a foreshadow of what was to come because the two eventually relied on each other for their crews survival.

The second, and last thing I decided to discuss, as Dr. C mentioned in class, J.J. Abrams the director threw in a random element, destiny. James Kirk was thrown off the Star Fleet and landed on the same planet where Spock, or the future Spock, was also exiled to by Nero. After this was pointed out I came to the conclusion that this whole film was based on destiny, the destiny of Spock, of Kirk, and of the Star Fleet. Whether my assumption is wrong or right, it truly makes me appreciate the movie more when I look at it in this light. So since that is what makes this movie most entertaining for me, I chose to watch it a second time keeping destiny in mind, and it just kept jumping out at me.