Filmography 2010

I was just surfing the internet like a good little teenager when I stumbled upon this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4dEWOB6THE          Im not supporting this youtube account or anything i just thought it was a very cool video.  Its a "trailer" that is made up of every movie from the past year its pretty interesting. Thought you guys might like it. Enjoy =)

Merry Christmas =)

I know its Christmas and to do anything relating to school would be considered nerdy.  But I watched a great movie today so what better place to talk about it...
    So the movie I watched today was "The Prestige" by Christopher Nolan who seems to produce every thriller I enjoy.  And this one was certainly no exception.  But I wouldn't say the movie was just a thriller, it was really a combination of many things including sci-fi, romance, and some kind of magical theme.  I know that sounds like an odd combination but its a tough movie to classify under only one genre.  I know these sort of movies appeal to you Mr Bennett  Example A: The Dark City.
   Anyway back to the movie.  The cast in my opinion is an amazing one including the likes of Mr Hugh Jackman (A legend), Christian Bale (also one of my favorite actors), David Bowie, Michael Caine (have to love the British accent, he is also the butler in Batman for those of you unfamiliar with the name), Scarlett Johansson  ;)  , and many others.  I cant really do justice to the plot by describing it on a blog.  Even when you watch the movie several times its a very complex plot to follow because they dont always tell you exactly what happened.  Thats really the reason I think I liked it so much.  It makes you think.   Its one of those movies where its completely open to what you think happens (like the ending of Inception).  Basically, the plot follows the lives of two partner musicians who are starting off their young and promising careers together. Their show is quite successful, and they both happened to be engaged to two beautiful young ladies.  But tragedy strikes, and its unclear who is at fault.  They blame each other naturally.  The magicians turn on each other, and spend their lives trying to out due their rival's show no matter the consequences. Now that may not sound like the most captivating plot ever but its much more complex than I could possibly hope to describe here.  I didnt focus on the symbolism or camera work of the movie as I was simply trying to entertain myself on a late Christmas night and this movie certainly served that purpose.  Perhaps I shall do that the second time around as this movie certainly warrants another viewing.  So in conclusion, I would definitely recommend it if your willing to pay attention and enjoy the movie, I think it will be well worth your time.  Anyway Merry Christmas everyone hope you had a great day =)

A Mement In Time...

The suspense of Memento continues to grow as the movie moves forward (or backward).  The plot of the movie is quite complex, but the real beauty of the movie is the perspective from which the plot is told.  The camera is of course our portal into Leonard's world.  We see what Christopher Nolan intends for us to see and in the order he intends for us to see it .  It is really questionable thought as to whether this adds or takes away from the film.  The black and white shots that cut the "action" of the movie into pieces are a nice touch.  I also like how each scene "starts" with the "end" of the scene.  This keeps you interested because you are asking what events led Leonard to his current predicament.  For instance, when he is sitting on the bathroom toilet with a bottle of wine in his hands, the viewer is curious and thinks, "  Is he a drinker? He says he doesn't feel drunk.  But why else would he have a bottle of wine? And why in the bathroom of all places?  Who's house is this anyway?"  And that of course brings us to the other interesting observation that Lenny doesn't really care where he is when he wakes up.  He follows his instincts.  He wants to shower. He showers.  Doesn't seem to give it a second thought.  He doesn't even bother to look outside of the bathroom.  Both Lenny and the audience are kept in the dark most of the time.  Lenny doesn't seem to always be doing so much exploring of his own so we  have no choice but to go with it.  So in that respect I like the chronology of the film.
      But I am still not sure if I like the entire film being shown out of order.  It makes the viewer feel confused and ignorant like the main character and this may have been Nolan's goal.  But this confusion can become a bit much.  It really is very hard to remember what happened when.  Even in class yesterday we were having trouble reconstructing the order of events.  But perhaps that is exactly what Nolan was trying to accomplish.
     Apart from camera work, the plot of the movie continues to develop and give us some explanation.  There are still many questions left on answered though.  Why is there a pick up truck with bullets in it?  Was there really a second guy in the bathroom the night  that Lenny's wife was murdered?  Who is trying to use Lenny and who is trying to help him? Who is Lenny always talking to on the phone? etc etc....            Also Mr Bennett I dont think you gave the class enough credit for pinning Natalie as someone who is using Lenny.  We all thought she was rather suspicious and I personally stated that she was behind this whole mess. Now I understand I have not yet seen the ending and dont know many key things, but thus far it certainly appears that Natalie is really at the root of all of Lenny's problems.  But i guess that's the point.  You can't trust your senses.  And the suspense keeps building....

Coming Attractions, Cold Cities, and Koreans

      Today's movie showing was certainly the oddest one we have seen so far.  Although The Dark City certainly contains all the aspects of Film Noir and is filled with symbolism, it goes a bit further in terms of violence, comedy, and sexual scenes.  This of course, is mostly because the movie was not produced under the Hayes Codes and is relatively new in comparison to The Asphalt Jungle.  The plot also seems to be a bit more complex and mysterious which  helps to build up suspense (something I felt the Asphalt Jungle was laking apart from the heist scene).
     Also, I had a question for you Mr. Bennett.  I was looking through some footage from old film noir movies and I noticed that many of the coming attractions for films during the 30's 40's and 50's are produced in a similar fashion.  The coming attractions often open with the producer describing the film's setting, main character, and sometimes a significant amount of the plot.  This particular one caught my attention : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE2e6FYjCQg      .  This technique doesn't just relate to film noir though, because if I recall Citizen Kane's coming attraction was the same.   So my question is why was this such a common technique.  Maybe its just because of the generation of films I grew up with, but I feel that there are certainly better ways to introduce your movie to the public.  I know its bad to give away to much of the plot in a coming attraction, but it certainly is more effective for building up interest in a movie.
     Lastly I wanted to challenge you on a comment you made in class not relating to film.  You were talking about the tensions in North and South Korea for a few minutes and you asked how the South Koreans responded to North Korean gunfire.  I believed that the South had responded with gunfire of their own on several occasions and said so, but you were sure this was not the case.  I wasn't ready to challenge you without any articles to back me up so I came home and did some research.  Many of the articles online confirm that the South did indeed fire back.  http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/korea.border.incident/index.html  < this article from CNN states that the south responded with three "warning" shots of their own.  Im not sure if this is the exact incident you were referring to though because there has been several recently. While I understand that these shots weren't the complete military retaliation you wanted to see, any open fire on another nation is always significant, and even more so when those countries have such extremely high tensions towards one another.

Better than the Noirm

   Three days ago, I couldn't have told you whether Noir was a film genre or a city in Sweden, but I'm already starting to appreciate this style of film.  Of course, it is not as flashy and "entertaining" as modern movies but the Asphalt Jungle has a certain level of sophistication because of its focus on plot and storytelling.  One could criticize that the plot is a little cliche and makes the movie fairly predictable but I don't think that this takes away from the film's entertainment.    
     At first, I spent alot of time simply paying attention to the visuals of the film because it was a new style for me, but once you shift your focus to the plot you realize it is not a hard one to follow.  We are quickly presented with numerous men who each have their own vice ( women, money, alcohol and the other usual suspects).  Because of the time era of the film, many of these flawed characters must have some sort of downfall before the end of the movie.  The Asphalt Jungle was considered rather racy for its time which is ironic considering it's one of the more tame films we have viewed this term.  The Hays Codes of 1930 were meant to keep racy movies like the Asphalt Jungle from hitting the big screen but somehow this one seemed to slip through.  And so far, I'm happy it did.