Hero is one of those movies that gives the fine hairs on the surfaces of your body a lift when the deeper meaning of it all seems to click into place.Jet Li is the Nameless Servant, one who has tirelessly worked at a chance to assassinate the Qin Emperor for ten years and has perfected a move that can kill at ten paces. All he needs to do is find a way to get within ten paces of the most important man of his time. In exchange for proof of the deaths of other notorious warriors, Nameless is awarded distances increasingly closer to the Emperor until he finds himself within lethal range. With a bound, his plan falls into place, and we are left with a deeper understanding of what it means to be a warrior and to hold the balance of life and death.
To watch the movie is a pleasure. The liberal use of vibrant hues and symbolic mise-en-scene makes Hero an engaging, exciting movie. The colors will change as Nameless’s plan unfolds for the Emperor in order to embody the spirit and emotion of each stage. Vibrant red woods accompany the defeat of Master Broken Sword’s vengeful servant, green accompanies the series of events that conclude with Broken Sword’s epiphany, and white drives the true events of the plan along as a distinction from what was previously just an elaborate lie. Paying attention to the mise-en-scene shows us the heartless politician’s breath condensing on an otherwise warm day as they chant for the execution of the Hero.We notice the honor among the assassins as they show their weapons before battle and the lack of it among the soldiers of the Qin as they annihilate a Zhao village without a warning.
In terms of globalization, Hero takes place in times long past; there is not much room for global themes to show within the actual storyline and plot. However, the movie concludes with the etymology of “Our Land,” as a connection between the China we know today and the China that held with such honor and respect for life long ago. This closing remark suggests that China has not changed from such ideals, although we know from our imported children toys and volatile Chinese drywall that something went wrong somewhere between then and now. Harsh opinions aside, Hero will still go down as a personal favorite and an excellent movie to ponder on those days when you just want to sit down to a calming, thoughtful movie of life, death, and duty.
Amelie is a girl who has been isolated during childhood with her rather eccentric parents. Te death of her mother in a freak accident and the reclusion of her father force her to amuse herself by retreating to her own imagination. She grows and becomes a waitress. She leads a simple and single life. While she has not found satisfaction in a romantic relationship herself, she imagines things like counting how many people are having orgasms in a given moment. Soon, however, Amelie discovers a mission to pursue, namely returning a box of childhood nick-knacks that she found in her apartment to its rightful owner and enjoy his sentiments as he receives it. In the process she gets involved in multiple people's lives and seeks to improve their situation. The didacticism plays in, however, when the "Glass Man" calls her to question as to why she helps others but cannot come to help herself.
Amelie is a masterpiece at the combination of cinematic elements. The pacing is quick and light, and the camera (if fixed on anything for a long period of time) is always on some path of smooth motion changing the frames and manipulating meaning and rhythm. The colors throughout the film are bright and semi-saturated. Amelie can often be seen in red, a color that draws her to the forefront of every scene despite her unsociable personality. Each character is dressed rather ornately in the same color scheme and sometimes even pattern as the place they reside in or or often seen. The fantasy of the story is mostly due to the eccentricity of the characters and the juxtaposition of situations that seem especially strange to us as Americans. Amelie also utilizes the cinematographic effects of sound masterfully. The entire credits scene centers around fun sounds that Amelie makes in an enjoyably childish manner complemented by vibrant reds and greens. Throughout the film we hear what her acute ear does as well, that is predictive and detailed observations. Her silence and smiles contribute to the idea of us appreciating this view of Paris through Amelie's lens.
As a very imaginative cinematographic tale, Amelie portraying what Brigette Roullet calls a "fantasized and phantasmagoric Paris". The film has won praise from crowd and critic alike from around the world as a cinematic masterpiece. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's approach to and execution of the film are indicative of contemporary French cinema. While some directors continue to "re-articulate the the cinematic heritage of the New Wave and Poetic Realism", Jeunet has shown us the result of a new generation of French cinema that finds its roots in the formative influences from Hollywood on these directors infused with French culture and narrative tradition.
Swades is the story of an Indian man, Mohan Bhargava, who works as a project manager for NASA. Upon reaching a major stepping stone in his current project he decides to find his childhood nanny in India. While in India, he relearns many things about his old country and the problems facing it.
Swades used a lot of techniques made famous through Bollywood films, but in contrast has a strong political and social commentary. The use of music video-esque scenes created transitions and provided good entertainment like most Bollywood films, but the scenes actually provided story line. The coloring of the film is bright and colorful, but not quite as much as most Bollywood films. Overall Swades makes its self more appealing to international audiences by toning down the bollywood stereotypes. Although Swades departs from many of the stereotypes it does not completely abandon them making it able to be successful locally as well.
Poverty, castediscrimination, child marriage, illiteracy, a general disregard for education and apathy to change are all addressed in this film. Cinematography in this film exemplifies the problems that the poor of India deal with. One example is with the man who is leasing from Gita, in which the lighting is really dark.
Here we've got the five shots we produced, posted on youtube. A brief description of each can be found under (more info) on youtube, but for your viewing pleasure we will be explaining these live and in person. Damn we're good!
Amores Perros is a film from Mexican Cinema that incorporates all different levels of Mexican Society in a single movie. The three stories that are interconnected are the stories of: a young man trying to raise money by dog fighting so that he may run away with his brother’s wife, a magazine editor who leaves his wife to live with a model and a homeless man with a strange past who cares for dogs and makes money by murdering by money. The central character of the three stories is this homeless man who is trying to come to grips with the fact that he abandoned his young daughter and wife in order to lead a failed revolution in Mexico. All three of these stories are somewhat connected stories that are all resolved with a fatal car accident. Furthermore, in this Best Feature Film winner at the American Film Institute Film Festival, the three stories are also connected by the central theme of the love for pet dogs who are own by the main characters. The director cleverly shot the scenes with the dogs so that in each story there is a dog that resembles its master. Octavio owns a quiet dog that can fight, the model owns a small prissy dog and the homeless man takes care of a herd of homeless dogs. The film features many quite graphic scenes by the clever use of sound and changing the focus of the camera so that the focus is on something other than the very graphic dog fights makes the film bearable. By diverting the focus to something else and merely relying on sound to help the viewer experience things such as the dog fights, the viewer can experience the yelping of the dogs without suffering by seeing them suffer. The use of many close ups, natural lighting, and a hand held camera makes the viewer feel almost a part of these three interconnected stories. Another element of the film that makes it feel especially real is the choice of using an ensemble cast that is relatively unknown outside of Mexico. Though the actors may be famous to a native audience, for an international viewer, this makes for a film that is all the more realistic. Amores Perros is a very gritty, realistic film that comments extensively on the class issues of Mexico without every being hyper critical. It is a very good film that makes extensive use of camera angles and light to make the viewer feel as though they are experiencing rather than watching a film.
When first handling the DVDs, one can see little difference between Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amèlie) and The Pianist. Their surfaces both shimmer; then we press play. A world of differences unveils. Suddenly we are compelled to fear or the odd wonder of a fairytale. How can this be? Amèlie and The Pianist, influenced by several European countries, utilize the cinematographic techniques of pace, color scheme, and sounds so as to create different meanings on the same screens.
Amèlie is an imaginative “fable filled with longing (and) a heroine who constantly flirts with failure.”1 Entertaining and lighthearted, the film is reminiscent of a fairytale. The Pianist, on the other hand, chronicles the frantic attempts of Wladyslw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist, to survive in Poland during the rule of the Nazis in World War II. It is seen as a “tour de force of claustrophobia and surreal desperation, and Mr. Polanski (the director) ruthlessly strips his Szpilman down to the bare human minimum. He is neither an especially heroic nor an entirely sympathetic fellow, and by the end he has been reduced to a nearly animal condition -- sick, haggard and terrified.” The two stories develop such vastly different tones from a variety of international influences.
The Pianist shares its French influence with Amèlie, but is also associated with Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Critics praise Amèlie for its “French heart” and ability to “get the smile”3. Most of the praise for The Pianist, on the other hand, is for Adrien Brody’s wonderful acting.2, 4 Having a compilation of national influences seems to impact on the presentation of the film. To start, The Pianist as a story involves many more cultures than Amèlie simply because it is set during World War II when the European countries were trespassing borders. Each country that contributed to the film was somehow involved in the War and was able to represent their own perspective on the ordeal and show a good face. The innocent slaughter of the Polish beckons the audience’s sympathy, and we internally celebrate their fated rebellion against the Germans. The UK and France are praised by the Szpilman family for the decision to enter the war on the side of the Poles. Even the Germans were redeemed when one of their officers helped the pianist, a Jew, to live the last days of the war in hiding that he might see freedom. Such a hybrid of viewpoints may be responsible for the accusation of the The Pianist “occasionally hackneyed,”4 rather than exuding the idiosyncrasy of Amèlie. In The Pianist, one’s national identity became a matter of life or Holocaust death, a theme that The Pianist reveals as unnecessary and absurd namely through the atrocities of “random violence”2 directed at the Jews. The involvement of multiple countries in The Pianist also makes it more universally applicable than Amèlie. Narrated entirely in French, Amèlie and has a storyline that quickly shifts between locales more unique to French culture like cafès, a sizeable adult store, and metros. The Pianist, in contrast, is spoken in English with some interjections of German. While the setting of The Pianist is Poland, we can be more culturally familiar here since any place in desolation may be like what Glasgow slowly morphed into. The striking contrast in pace between Amèlie and The Pianist is strikingly apparent from the very beginning of each film. Critic Elvis Mitcell says the film “has the reflexes of a predatory animal” and “atheletic”1 pacing while critic A.O. Scott feels that The Pianist was “(approached) with a calm, fierce authority.”2 The director of Amèlie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, intentionally tells the story at a rapid pace, moving quickly between events and maintaining an ever-moving rhythm. The pace is sustained well by camera angles that are constantly moving around and highlighting certain elements of scenes such as words on posters and exaggerated facial expressions with varied paces of zooms. The Pianist, however, has a calmer pace from the very beginning that director Roman Polanski adeptly quickens it at opportune intervals to induce tension. For example, Wladyslw Szpilman is introduced to the story playing a mellow, gorgeous piano piece. Within moments, bombs explode around the city while he is playing his piece. He refuses to stop playing, characterizing how he and his family do not wish to change their own pace at the will of the Germans. A bomb breaches the window, however, and urges him to flee into the dusty streets. The choices of the color palates represented in Amèlie and The Pianist are purposefully distinct. The colors in Amèlie are obtrusively bright, saturated, and warm. Mitchell notes that, “Mr. Jeunet soaks each frame with sepia and greens.” He then draws the conclusion that “the sepia indicates that Amèlie takes place in a dreamscape Paris,” and that “the green gives the picture a trippy atmosphere, as if it had been dunked in absinthe.” The scenes are so highly refined that the presentation of the film may be seen as “sterile”1. Amèlie is almost always clothed in red and in focus, making her the distinct focus of every scene in which all else subconsciously falls the peripheral despite her quiet personality. All of the characters have distinctive color themes that match their demeanor. Their clothing matches the interior of their apartments frightfully well, and the colors chosen for them are appropriate for enhancing their eccentric personalities.
The colors that we find in The Pianist are very earthy and muted, “reconstruct(ing) the look and rhythm of life in the ghetto with care and sobriety.”2 The distinctive colors in Amèlie accent the ideas of the characters having very eccentric personalities that their lifestyles are built around. The muted colors of The Pianist, however, seem to function more as a camoflauge for the people with the scene. This reinforces the audience’s understanding that Szpilman is on the run hiding from the Germans. There are no flamboyant colors. Even the blood of those killed is not of the sanguine that so often enhances the gore of war films. In the scene where the Jews are herded away like cattle in the railroad cars, we see Szpilman walking through disregarded bodies and strewn luggage. There are pillows littered throughout the scene which all happen to be of a red and pink motif. The muted color scheme, however, causes all of these pillows not stand out in this scene, but the objects with the totality of the situation. Likewise, red portions of the German uniform and red dresses are faded in the same manner. Individualism is lost as everything blends together in a mass of chaos and murder. The Germans, Jews, Polish, and Russians are all trapped in the same plight, gunfire and hatred all around.
The sounds presented in both films also play a large role in our interpretation of them. Amèlie features a variety of exotic sounds that we perceive through the attentive and imaginative ears of the character Amèlie. Fantastical sounds draw attention to interesting discoveries. We are introduced to Amèlie’s fascination with sound from the opening credits of the film in which she is doing many childish things, most of which produce an interesting sound that is layered over the music of an accordion. She plays with a glass harmonica, spins a coin on a table, and blows away a ring of red paper. The Pianist features a wide spectrum of sounds. There are lots of gritty noises of feet shuffling over gravel that contribute to tensions in the situations coupled with the melodies of a piano that can be both mournful and uplifting depending on the point at which it is being played in the story. The directors of Amèlie and The Pianist develop very different tones by utilizing different cinematic effects in ways that enhance the story and manipulate the mood of the viewers. The bright colors, fast pace, and exotic sounds of Amèlie contribute to the notion that this story is like a fairy tale. The muted colors, usually slower pace, and variety of sounds in the Pianist contribute to the solemn mood portrayed in the film. So, through different influences and by utilizing cinematic effects differently, the directors were able to enhance the experiences of the stories and lead us into very different mental states. Films are a great deal more than the story. So, we handle the DVD once more and look beyond the shimmering surface to the essence of the art. Many countries have poured their resources into the disk and used the art of cinematography to tell their story. How the techniques are used affect our psychological understanding of the story so then we may fully feel the fear or find a fairytale.
Works Cited
Mitchel, Elvis. New York Times. 12 March, 2009. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B03EEDD1130F931A35752C1A9679C8B63&scp=1&sq=Amelie%20Review&st=cse
Scott, A.O.. New York Times. 12 March, 2009. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9E0DE1DA113CF934A15751C1A9649C8B63&scp=2&sq=The%20Pianist%20Review&st=cse
Higgins, Bill. ‘Amelie Smiles on L.A.. 12 March, 2009. http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117854096.html?categoryid=38&cs=1&query=Amelie&query=Amelie
Allen, Keith. The Pianist(2002). 12 March, 2009 http://www.movierapture.com/pianist.htm
