shaysthoughts

I really enjoyed this film because it was funny, suspensful, and dangerous. At certain points in this film it seemed as if Bonnie was the aggressor; especially when it came to them being intimate. I loved that when they robbed a bank and fled; they happened to be close enough to the state line where they could escape without being chased by the cops. The convienence was a little unrealistic as was the fact that they weren’t being caught at all and they were bold enough to be seen outside in broad daylight. The scene where Bonnie reunites with her family allows us to see that she has a soft side even though she’s taken on this dangerous persona. Overall I really liked this film and wouldn’t mind watching it again.

I chose to analyze a scene from Bonnie and Clyde directed by Author Penn in 1967. The scene I decided to analyze was the reunion between Bonnie and her mother. I couldn’t help but notice the change in the color of the scene. The film went from being perfectly exposed up until this point and continues after this scene all the way through to the end. The scene seemed to be hazy and reminded me of a dream or maybe her having a flashback of what it was like to be around her mother and other family members. I was waiting for her to wake up or for her mother to disappear. When that didn’t happen it left me with a lot of questions as to why Penn decided to make this the way he did and if there was a deeper meaning behind it. The reunion with her mother allowed us to see the emotional side of a wanted criminal. It brought Bonnie back to her past and allowed her to reflect on what her life was like before she met Clyde.
This scene had different elements that made it stand out from the rest of the film. The fact that the color looked almost artificial could be because that scene was done using available location lighting as opposed to filming the scenes in a studio. The studio lighting seemed more natural than the actual natural lighting used in this particular scene. This could have also been a result of filmmakers of the 1960s adapting the European style of realism by using earthtone colors and being influenced by the “New Wave”.
Everyone in this scene including the children were all dressed in black and it sort of resembled a funeral. This could have been a symbolic way for Penn to compare her past life with her new one as a death and an afterlife. Bonnie looses her mother as a result of her decisions and now she has nothing from her past and has no other choice but to move on and continue her life with Clyde. The music used in this scene was also very different from the music heard throughout the rest of the movie. The other sounds that were in the movie were full of suspense and fit the action taking place. This scene the music had a calmer more somber sound which was more evident when Bonnie was speaking to her mother.
There were a lot of jump cuts that seemed like a mistake in the beginning of the film, but as it went on you can see it was an editing technique that was intentional. The jump cuts helped to connect the space in between the shots of the scene; which are similar to the jump cuts in ‘Breathless’. They connect the story without there being a need for dialogue. There are also symbolic messages in the scene. The little boy is making a sand dune with Clyde and he puts flowers on it. At this point you don’t realize that this acts as a precursor to Bonnie and Clyde’s death but when you look back on it it becomes clear. What I found to be a little weird was at this point where Clyde is playing with the kids the music has a light playfulness to it; unlike the rest of the scene where its almost depressing.
At the time that the film was released the country was going through many changes not only in the film industry but overall. There was the Woman’s rights movement, Civil rights movement, the Vietnam war and as a far as film was concerened the European influence on the United States’ cinema styles and techniques, and also the audience began to change. The audiences were now much younger than the previous ones because of the introduction of television in the 1950s. The older audiences that the cinema onced reached out to had embraced television with open arms and began to stay out of the theaters. Author Penn and other filmmakers of that time had to create films that would attract the younger demographic and entertain them as well. My opinion on why Penn decided to make this film that takes place in the 1930s when the U.S was going through the Great Depression is because he wanted America to see how it looked during that time. It was sort of like a window into the past and he used this film as a way to put a twist on the extremes that people had to go to in order to survive. The two characters where struggling to make ends meet and they had to steal from the banks because of the harsh economic times, but he makes sure that the two characters didn’t steal from the ordinary people who were struggling to make it by as well. Penn also puts the woman into a new light; it gave the female a new role in society. She wasn’t the typical stay at home wife but a daredevil who embraced the violence of being a wanted bank robber, and he also made her the sexual one and that was also a huge change in the roles that women traditionally played in the movies.

At first I was trying to get a sense of what the plot was about. I guess that is something that is automatic for me, but when that didn’t happen it frustrated me a little. Another issue that I had at first was getting used to the jump cuts that Godard used. It was a shock to see them enter the film after watching a steady shot, but as the film continued the jump cuts made sense. In my opinion it added to the meaning behind the scenes where they were put in. The one scene that I noticed them in and i feel it helped was when Patricia was being followed by the detective. The scene shows her passing infront of a store and our view is from inside the store and then it jumps and we see the detective, and it jumps again and we see Michel following behind. I assumed that the technique of the jump cut was put there to help move the scene along and not have it drag out just to allow the rest of the characters to pass infront of the camera. Another aspect of this film that I liked was the use of available lighting. I expected it to look darker during the night scenes than it did but it was bright enough to see what was going on. Aside from that I really enjoyed the film overall it was something that is different from what I am used to seeing.

I really enjoyed the film this week. I’ve seen a couple of Douglas Sirk films before including The Immitation of Life; which is one of my favorite movies. This film was full of bright bold colors that stood out and added to the pleasure of watching this film. It was not only pleasurable to me but you can tell that it was artificial. What I have noticed throughout his films is that he uses a lot of outdoor scenes and scenes that take place within the home. He also used a frame within a frame when lucy was looking through the mirror and the sister-in-law was also visible to us through the mirror. Another aspect of this film that was very noticeable was the music. It was very loud and at times it seemed a bit much for the scene that it was placed in. I found it interesting how the music in the scene with the daughter dancing matched the scene where her father was dying. Sirk incorporated normal everyday things like the family, business, and marital issues to create a great film.

         I chose to analyze a scene from the film Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US, 1941). The scene was the one where Mrs. Kane signs her son away to a wealthy banker from Chicago.  The film was done in 1941 which was at the end of the Great Depression. Throughout the movie it shows us the wealth that was going to begin spreading in the US, and this movie probably gave hope to many after suffering from hard economic times. The different types of music throughout the film made the movie entertaining and not to add to the depression that many still probably felt. The intro music to News On the March reminded me of how the end of the Great Depression might have been announced over the radio.  

The scene starts off with a POV shot of the mother looking out at Charles. The camera pulls out to show us a larger view of the room and the other two adults that were in the scene.  When the mother and the banker sit down to sign the adoption papers; they appear sharp and so does the husband who is off to the side. The most interesting part of the scene is that while they discuss the amount of money they will receive for sending him off u can see Charles outside through the window. This was a frame within a frame shot, and if this film was a silent one we as the viewers would still be able to tell who it is the adults were talking about. Orson uses close up shots of the mother and the banker as she signs the papers; which was more important than what the father was talking about.  He also uses a close up of Charles’ face at the end of the scene, and I think he does this to allow the viewers to see and feel the emotions of the characters.  This scene is crucial to understanding the movie. The film starts off with his death but later reveals how he came to be who he was. If his parents didn’t make the decision they made he would have grown up in that small town and never been as successful as he was.  You get the sense that Charles’ family wasn’t very wealthy by the front of the house that had a hand painted sign, what they were wearing which were dark  and old looking, and how gloomy it looked on the inside along with the old furniture. The banker on the other hand was dressed in fur and an expensive suit which displayed his financial status.  The decision to send him off seemed heartless but if we think about the time that Orson made this movie it seems like a decision that made sense. The banker offered the family money in exchange for their son until he turned twenty five years old.

When the scene switches from the three adults walking from inside to outside I was able to see that Orson used continuity editing. The camera went from inside and panned around the side of the house to film them walking out of the doorway into the front yard. While the camera went from inside to outside it didn’t seem to jump but it flowed into the next scene. The young child remains at the center of the frame in the outside shot which also helps us to know that he is the topic of the dialogue going on in the scene.  The banker was halfway in and halfway out of the frame while the parents were in-frame with their son. Another thing that I noticed is that the father always remains in the foreground throughout the scene which shows that he really didn’t have much of a say in what happened. The mother is seen closer up and there are close-ups of her face; which signified to me her authority in the situation. Orson uses non-diegetic instrumental music to set the mood and to evoke certain feelings from the viewers.  The scene ends with his sled that he called “rosebud” almost completely covered in snow.

This scene helps us understand the opening scene of this movie when Charles is in his death bed with a snowglobe that had a model of his old house in it and right before he dies he utters “Rosebud”. If it wasn’t for this scene we wouldn’t understand the connection that he had with rosebud. Orson included this flahback to help explain why the beginning of the film started the way it did.  Charles still remembered his childhood and where he was born despite his wealth and huge mansion he lived in.  At the end of the film after he died there are men throwing all of his belongings into a furnace along with the sled. This made me feel like he was only valuable and important to everyone while he was alive and if he would have stayed back in the country he would have been appreciated more.

 At first I was very anxious to see how a movie would look when it was filmed with a still camera, and the characters worked infront of it. In the beginning of the film it was ok and had some humor in it thanks to the kids, and as it progressed I longed for some action. I couldn’t tell what the next scene would be; it kind of bounced around and didn’t seem to have any direction. The scenes didn’t fade into each other like I’m used to seeing and just jumped to the next scene which was a little weird at first, but as the film continued I barely noticed it. The techniques that he used like the still camera, and the pillow shots made the film unique in that you don’t see that really in American films.   I feel like the movie was too long and that it should have had some more going on to keep me entertained. I would have loved to see another Japanese film that was a lot more interesting.

                I liked this film because it was different from what we’ve seen so far. It was dark and filled with suspense and the idea of not knowing what to expect was great. The film used a lot of shadows which made the daytime scenes more of a relief to me. I noticed that the women were always illuminated a little more than the men were. What I liked about this film is that it was filmed on location and not in a studio. That made the scenes more believable. It was amazing how the night shots came out clear enough to see with the only light being the moonlight. I found this movie similar to Lady Eve because the woman or the “dame” both used and tricked the men into believing that they loved them, and they fell for it. The women from both movies were a big part of the crimes that took place, but in Out of the Past she gets caught and is killed.

Hey! Citizen Kane is on TCM channel 256 if you have direct tv it started at 8pm 10/6. This is for anyone who wants to watch it again or who missed it last week.

I liked the movie that we watched on wednesday better than the one from the week before. I found it very funny that the guy never figured out that the woman was the same person throughout the movie. It was kind of frustrating to know that this was the same woman playing mind games with him and have the character not realize it himself. The way the film started didn’t really give you much of a heads up as to what will happen during the rest of the film. At first I thought it was going to be about the guy taking a snake back to america and doing some kind of research with it, but the twist really made the film interesting. The films are getting better, and I’m interested in seeing what the next film will be about.

Hi my name is shayna and I am a junior here at queens college. I am a media studies major and a film minor. Im looking forward to the rest of the semester and what it has to offer.