One of the classes that I found similar to the film class was English, in that we produce creative ideas from various processes in both classes. I also think that they are similar in that we both work in groups for big projects such as performing play.

The Wrestler (2008)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler is a drama film that depicts the story of a retired wrestler Randy ‘the Ram’ Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke. Randy, once one of the most popular wrestlers in the 80s, is now nothing more than just an ‘old, broken down piece of meat’ who can’t even pay for his rent on time. He is on the verge of starvation as he constantly hurts himself in weekend fights in small and cheap wrestling stages where he has to risk his life. Throughout the first half of the movie, Randy struggles through his way for nothing more than a peaceful life, only to be struck with a sudden heart attack after a painful wrestling match. With such shock, Randy gets into a long talk with Cassidy, a stripper he falls in loves with and decides to completely retire from being a professional wrestler and go back to his only daughter Stephanie. However, as he fails to keep his promise with Stephanie, Randy realizes that the only place he can hold and go back to is the small square ring that he dedicated his life to.

One of the best elements of the movie is lighting. The grim and soft lighting, added to the movie’s elements of Mise-en Scene very well conveys the sad and depressing mood that the plot overall depicts. The soft and dim lighting behind Randy and Cassidy in the strip club helps to create a romantic/alluring mood while the two get into amorous talks. In more than one of the wrestling scenes in the movie, pretty harsh lightings are used to depict the intenseness and hardships that Randy has to go through as a ‘Professional’ wrestler.

An interesting fact about this movie is that it very well depicts the life of Mickey Rourke himself. Once considered as one of the most attractive movie stars in hollywood, Rourke had degraded into nothing but an ill-tempered old man. His experiences on the boxing ring (where he thought true men really belonged to) had rewarded him a series of plastic operations which turned him into what some people even referred to as a ‘monster.’ Like Randy, Rourke finally realized that the only place he belonged to now was Hollywood and indeed, he has made a fantastic comback to the film world with this movie.

Below is the official trailer of the movie.

Focus on a central character/actor. How would you describe his or her acting style in the film? Does the style seem compatible with the story?

Reese Withespoon, as Tracy Flick in the story, quite decently acts out the a girl possessing what I saw as a duplicated style of life. On one side, she is an all-A student with intelligence and leadership. But on the other, she is an outsider with no friends, unable to think for anyone other than herself. To her, her success and well-being was the only concern she had for her life, and in that I think Witherspoon had portrayed such intentions of the writer quite well, and very compatible with the story.

2. Elements of Cinematography
a. Examine one or two shots in which camera movements – tracks, pans, zooms, or others – are important. Why is a moving frame of a single shot used here instead a series of shots? How does that movement comment on what is happening in the shot?

In the scene where McAllister witnesses that Linda, who was supposed to be having an affair with him actually told his wife the whole story, the camera slowly zooms into his face about ten times closer from where the camera is. By doing this, the director strongly emphasizes the shock and feelings of betrayal apparent on his face. Over this, a calm-toned voice-over narration also adds to the heavy mood.

b. Look for a pattern of compositional distances in the film or sequence. Do there seem to be large number of long shots? Close-up? Some other pattern? Describe one such pattern, and explain how it reinforces one or more themes of the film.

One of the camera actions that appear quite often throughout the film stops in the middle of a character’s speech particularly when he/she  has a distorted face that is unavoidable when speaking with a narration from another character describing him/her (often pretty negative). By capturing those distorted facial expression (and what may be extremely natural) of a split second and super-emphasizing it by zooming into it, the director intends to convey that making mistakes like McAllister (and his friend) commits in the movie is as natural as making those distorted faces while talking in our everyday lives.

3. Voice, Music and Sound effects
To what extent do sound effects add to the films sense of realism? Can you locate an example in which sound effects are primarily responsible for creating a particular impression of location, action, or mood?

The sound effects add to the films by strengthening particular moods and feelings that certain scenes are meant to convey to the viewers. In the case of Election, the tribal screaming/music always supports the  crazy/angry feelings Tracy Flick is supposed to have whenever she is unable to attain what she wants.

Black

Black is an Indian movie directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The movie portrays the story of a girl very much like Helen Keller, blind and deaf. But despite her physical disorders, Michelle McNally, lead by her teacher Mr. Sahai and his enthusiasm, succeeds to understand sign languages and read braille. Then she moves onto an even bigger goal, to study in college and graduate. The film showed me what the words ‘Hope’ and ‘Dream’ really means. Towards the end of the movie, Michelle recalls that ‘The only word Mr. Sahai did not teach me was ‘Impossible’.

The Dark Knight

Considers as one of the best films of 2008, The Dark Knight depicts the story of Batman, a ‘somewhat’ hero of Gotham City, struggling to stop the Joker, a new villain of the city, from killing innocent citizens instead of Batman’s own. Throughout the film, Christopher Nolan tries to convey the means of ‘Chaos’ through lines of the Joker played by Heath Ledger and of ‘Fairness’ through the story of Gotham’s District Attorny Harvy Dent played by Aaron Eckhart. Batman himself stands in the middle of his ‘Justice’ and ‘Illegality’ that follows his heroic practices and questions the black-and-white theory that most other Hero movies present, as the Joker asks: ‘So, you think Batman’s made Gotham a better place?’.

Spirited Away

One of the few movies that I really liked was Spirited Awy (2002). The Japanese Animation, directed by Miyazaki Hayao  is about a small girl who accidentally enters the hotel of mystical creatures because of her parents who turn into pigs after going under evil spells. After volunteering to work for the hotel’s manager, ‘Chihiro’ changes her name to ‘Sen’ and ventures in the middle of Japan’s 2 million gods in order to turn her parents back into humans.

Throughout the movie, Hayao focuses to deliver the messege of growth as Sen/Chihiro deals with countless troubles but gradually learns to deal with them and finally succeeds in escaping from the mystic world she steps into. Hayao also tries to convey the importance of one’s identity, as towards the end of the movie Sen remembers her forgotten name and delightly shouts to Haku, ‘Chihiro, my real name was Chihiro!’

Scene 1

Eye-level camera pans to the right from the wall and stops in front of the film class window. Hyunseung is having a conversation with Mr. Biggar about his failing grade in class, but no sound is heard from inside. The viewers will only know from Mr. Biggar’s attitude of talking. After about 5 seconds of talking, he walks out of the room looking down to the floor and goes home. During the whole time he is holding to his trumpet in his hands.

Scene 2

Hyunseung walks into his house. As he passes by a room downstairs before climbing upstairs to his own room, he stops for a while to listen to arguing noises coming from the inside of the room and stares at the door. Then he climbs up the stairs. And the scene fades out into black.

Scene 3

Hyunseung fades in walking down the school hallway (slow-mo-ed). He looks extremely tired and exhausted. Crows feet are evident under his eyes. Without energy he notices a signup sheet for the school band audition and looks down at his trumpet. He stares at the sheet for a while and writes his name down on the last column.

Scene 4

The screen cuts to him running with his trumpet in his hands. He walks into one of the practice rooms and the door closes behind him. Than music starts playing and people passing by stops and looks into the window.

Scene 5

Hyunseung walks down the hall way with sunglasses (slow-mo-ed). In the background plays ‘Eye of the tiger.’ He takes them off and his crows feet are gone. Camera follows him as he walks into the audition room and door closes. Then cuts into him walking out of the band room. He smiles and shouts ‘Yes!’ and raises his hands to the sky.

Scene 6

The results are out after one week. Hyunseung cheerfully walks towards the result sheet and stares at it. But as he looks for his name, he sees that it has been crossed with a red pen. He breathes out a big sigh and walks back. But before going very far, he notices a signup sheet for the school play. He hesitates and puts his name down. The film closes with his name written on the paper.

and an exerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Film editing is an art of storytelling practised by connecting two or more shots together to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. Film editing is the only art that is unique to cinema and which separates filmmaking from all other art forms that preceded it (such as photography, theater, dance, writing, and directing). However there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry or novel writing. It is often referred to as the “invisible art”, since when it is well-practiced, the viewer becomes so engaged that he or she is not even aware of the work of the editor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing

The poster of the movie (http://www.canmag.com/images/front/movies20073/sickoposter2.jpg)

The United States of America in considered as one of the most democratic country in the world. However, as can be from many cases in films and literature, brighter light casts darker shadow. Sicko (2007), directed and narrated by Michael Moore reveals such shadow upon countless problems of USA’s healthcare system. Throughout the 127 minutes of the runtime, Moore interviews some of the 250 million Americans who have/had health insurance but despite ended up with devastated lives.
As the film is a documentary film, all actors played themselves in interviews or narration. Most of the shots were taken with hand-held cameras, such as when Moore narrates over his car-ride to his next interviewee. Some of the interesting editing included bits of cut-out clips from George’s public speeches and members of his congress promoting baby toys. Lots of close-up shots were used when interviewing, especially when the interviewees start crying or grew passionate in sharing their ideas which helped to emphasize the misery and emotional hardships they faced. The lightings used were mostly natural and soft lighting, except for some scenes that were shot inside buildings. The most memorable scene from the movie for me was where Moore was shot from behind climbing up the stairs to the White House carrying a bucket of laundry, narrating “In the mean time, I’m going to get the government to do my laundry,” after he flies over to France and realizes that the French government not only supplies absolutely free healthcare to its citizens but even supports free household maids for new mothers among them.
Watching this film gave me a lot of thoughts. What frustrated me throughout the film was that no system, whether it be democracy or socialism, could be perfect. Numerous doctors in the United States who gave honest and realistic prescription to their patients were looked down upon by the whole HMO system, when those who rejected their patients on the behalf of their company’s financial savings were in safe rankings of the society, bragging their million-dollar yearly incomes. I mean, is it really fair that you have to be rich yourself in order to live in a wealthy society? Michael Moore just assigned me another homework to solve.