The Piano

After reading the prompts for this particular blog, I was actually relieved that the topic of rape was brought up.  While watching the film, I felt so uncomfortable during the sex scenes (which honestly doesn’t really happen to me in most movies), because I felt like Ada never was actually fully consenting to what was going on.  Every time Baines would make a move she looked concerned about what was to come.  She always appeared apprehensive, and not simply because the act was adulterous, but because she really wasn’t that attracted to Baines.  Even when she would eventually give in, it was never really of her own accord, and always took a good amount of persuasion on his part.  Baines was just trying to control her life just as everyone else in the film was trying to create an emotional prison for her.  The only reason that Stewart was mostly unsuccessful in his attempt to control Ada was because of how obvious his attempts were.  Simply being her betrothed was enough to convince Ada (and originally Flora as well) that she wanted nothing to do with him.  With Baines, Ada felt as though she had some kind of control over the events that transpired because Baines only used his words to convince her to sleep with him instead of using his marital standing with her as Stewart did.

The Vanishing / Spoorloos

Spoorloos (The Vanishing) originally was a Dutch film in 1988, but then was remade into an American movie in 1993 starring actors such as Jeff Bridges, Keifer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.  Other than the obvious star power in the remake of the film, these two movies are in some ways exactly the same and in others vastly different.

The largest difference that occurred to me after watching both of these films was that in the 1993 version, the story was very obviously linear.  Just by looking at the contrasting arrangement of the scenes in the very beginning of the two movies proves this.  In the 1988 version, the film starts out with Rex and Saskia driving through France and arguing.  When they get to the gas station, Saskia's disappearance was definitely not forseen in any way other than the title of the film.  While in the 1993 version, the movie starts out with the scene of Barney (the equivalent of the Raymond character) testing the length of time a certain amount of chloroform would knock a person out for.  Although this exact scene also happens in the 1988 film, the placement in the storyline creates a much more mysterious and thrilling effect.  When this scene is first, as it was in 1993, it's very obvious from the get-go that the Barney/Raymond character is the reason for whatever may happen in the film.  In 1988, Raymond was initally introduced as some sort of con man as we see when he is putting on the fake cast at the gas station, but the audience doesn't really have any idea of his full intention with the ruse.  Maybe it was just because I watched the 1988 film before the 1993 film, but I felt as though in the 1988 version, there's much more of a (pardon my language) "Holy shit! What the hell is this guy doing!?" kind of moment. While in the 1993 version, there was a very logical sequence to the story where the viewers are basically looking at a story board saying, "Oh, so this guy is definitely going to drug somebody. Oh, those must be the people that get drugged," kind of thing.

Since I've compared the beginning of the films with each other, it's only appropriate that I now compare the endings.  In the 1988 version of the film, the end was much more of an ending to a horror film.  There is no resolve, the good guys do not prevail, and Raymond does not get his just desserts for killing Saskia three years before.  Rex wakes up having been buried alive and that's the end of it.  The film ends with his picture right next to Saskia's in the paper, as a newspaper declares his disappearance as mysterious and possibly linked to that of his wife's three years prior.  In the 1993 adaptation however, we see what can only be classified as a Hollywood ending.  Obviously there is a lot of action and strife to achieve this ending, but who really minds when a life is on the line?  In the adaptation, the Jeff/Rex character also awakens to find himself buried alive just like in the original.  Only this time, the film doesn't end when he runs out of breath screaming for Diane/Saskia.  This time we see a large turnaround when Jeff/Rex's secondary love interest Rita (Lieneke in the 1988 film) is able to find her way to the cabin that Barney/Raymond owns by way of his daughter who believes that she is the mistress her father is cheating with (which appeals to her because Wuthering Heights describes this as a romantic situation).  In this adaptation, we see resolve, we see justice, and we see Hollywood projected in yet another happy ending.

Annie Hall Scene Analysis

The purpose of the audio/subtitle disconnect displayed in scene analysis 3 was to connect the audience with the literal subtext of Alvy and Annie's conversation.  Although they were talking about the photographs that she had taken, the subtitles were relating the audience to what it really feels like to have what was is basically their first conversation with each other.

In the fourth scene analysis video, Woody Allen is mocking the social filmmakers of the 60s such as Jean Rouch.  Allen is using this mockery as a way for his character to cope with he and Annie breaking up for the first time.  This mockery serves as a device to include an objective view into other working relationships and also gives Allen the chance to poke fun which is a large component of his own comedy.

Annie Hall

Starting off, I'm going to say that I am fairly ambivalent about this film.  I enjoy the plot and I like a lot of what was said and it's definitely a very quotable movie.  But I hate Alvy so much.  All he does is whine and about halfway through the movie I just wanted it to be over because I was so tired of listening to him complain about absolutely everything. But that aside, I still think that Woody Allen's use of comedy is pretty successful.  If we completely ignore how I feel about this movie and even what I thought was funny we see that Allen's humor definitely has a place in this world.  A show like Family Guy which pulls from any and all media forms to create sketches that people will either recognize or not but still find funny.  An example of this is when Arty and Annie are in the park and they are criticizing everyone that passes them and they make up little back stories for them.  Stewie and Olivia do the same thing in an episode of Family Guy.








Regardless of how anyone feels about this film, just the fact that Family Guy pulls from it is cold hard proof that Allen's humor is successful and has impacted somebody (at least Seth MacFarlane, maker of Family Guy) in some way.

Daisies

Daisies was easily the strangest movie I have ever watched in my entire life.  I'm not sure how I really feel about avant-garde film now that I've seen it but maybe I just need to give it a second shot with a movie that doesn't churn my stomach like this one.  For me personally, the only redeeming factor of this film was the humor.  Comparing it visually to Looney-tunes (minus the odd coloring effects and strange montage shots) would be a fairly accurate parallel.  The way that Chytilova used sound to emphasize the girls' movements adds an element of humor to the film unlike any I've seen in something that wasn't animated. One example of this is when the lighter haired Marie tied her knees together and started --for lack of a better term-- waddling around the girls' room.  They amplified the sound her feet were making in order to really draw it to your attention and make the whole gimmick a little bit more comical. I don't really think that you can accurately analyze the visual strategy of this film --not the humorous aspect at least-- without also including something about the sounds that are going on during the scenes.  Another example of this is the very first scene when the girls seemed to creak like rusty metal whenever they would move around.







Without the visual humor working along with the sounds the way clearly illustrated in the clip above, this film wouldn't have been as strange or as politically devious as it was.  I have the feeling that Chytilova wanted to make this movie as odd and as abrasive as she possibly could, both visually and by sound.