Hero is a very deep and meaningful film.There are so many colors in this film and many of them correspond with the mood of the story that is being told at the time. There is a bit of confusion because it is hard to tell what is real and what is fake. However, Nameless tells a false story to the King of Qin and the King recognizes that it is not the truth. The King and Nameless bounce back and forth telling what they think, through this the viewer learns the truth.
This film has so many meanings and so many local, national, and global issues through out it. The main global issue is about war. There is use of very old war tactics however the war is for unity. The King of Qin wishes to unite all four kingdoms of China. My favorite part of the film was when King of Qin said that it was too confusing to have so many characters for one word; there is no way everyone can communicate like that. I thought this was very important and very relevant to today’s world. Are wars happening just because of miscommunication? I think that it was a great thing that King of Qin united the Middle Kingdom and helped to unify the Chinese language. Another local, national, and global issue is love. The love story in this particular film is sort of hidden until the end. There is a saying that goes something along the lines of, “you never know what you’re missing until its gone.” This must have been exactly the way Snow felt at the end of this film and helped to lead to her death.
All in all this turned out to be a very deep and interesting film that I really enjoyed. I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it after the first few scenes, but it definitely picked up and turned out to be very pleasurable.
Amélie begins with random scenes introducing the likes and dislikes of several of the main characters, setting up the background for Amélie's life in an attempt to explain why she behaves like she does. As a child her dad, a doctor, thought Amélie had heart issues because she would get excited every time her dad would touch her when giving her a checkup. As a result of this she lived a very sheltered life with no real friends as a child. The film then transitions to her quirky life as an adult where she works at a restaurant named "The Two Windmills". The story progresses as she finds a box full of children's toys. Her life changes as she searches for the boy, now an old man, so she can return his box to him. After seeing the satisfaction the man had from this nice act she attempts to bring happiness to other people's lives. The rest of the plot includes more romance and mischief as Amélie messes with a man she feels is rude. She also both sets up a short romance between a coworker and a customer and enters into her own relationship with a man she was trying to help.
Amélie is an excellent film with both an interesting storyline and beautiful scene designs. The film is worth watch just for the pretty backdrops created for each scene with bright, matching colors with intricate patterns. The scene design and narration style was also copied by Pushing Daisies, a popular TV show in the US on ABC. The rich colors give a sense of a larger than life world and the use of the narrator gives a nice alternative to the typical way films from Hollywood are made.
The story focuses on three main themes of romance, the freedom of women, and helpfulness. Overall, Amélie is a great film that has an interesting story and is a wonderful example of French cinematography.
Released in 2004, Swades captures the essence of Bollywood cinema with its happily nationalistic spirit and epic panoply of subgenres (romance, melodrama, comedy, etc.). In such a “masala”, or mixture of spices, the full meaning of dharma is explored, thereby raising the bar of character for spectators of any nationality. The story begins when protagonist and NRI(Non Resident Indian), Mohan – no other than Sharukh Khan – impulsively returns to his native soil in order to check up on his elder Godmother, Kaverri Amma, who now is in need of care. Although originally planning to take Kaverri back to America, Mohan is caught in the net of his homeland, instinctively unable to resist the draws of shared identity. While away from the USA for about a month, he somewhat fantastically develops a strong loving bond with Gita, the caretaker of Kaverri. In fact, he grows closer to everyone in the Indian community, that which is unfortunately become the victim of a caste system, poverty, illiteracy, overpopulation, corruption, and power outages. Pragmatically, these many issues are not insurmountable; and so pose as the proper challenges for the self-discovered hero, Mohan.
With love as his inspiration, and songs in the air, Mohan leads the village to prosperity. He and Gita work to dissolve the caste system in order that more people attend school. Mohan, with his technical NASA background, also taps the local hydropower to provide a network of electricity for the village. Although previously uncommon, it is not surprising that his suitor, Gita, has taken a similarly assertive role, not only in the schooling of her children, but also in the refusal of a husband who would not allow her to work. The year 2004 was a time of more rights for women in traditional film than ever before. Together, Mohan and Gita influence villagers, such as the lower caste cook, to stay in India and improve the nation in which they live rather than leave for the USA or depend on the government to take first steps.
With such big stars of Bollywood, it is not surprising that the mise-en-scene is elegantly up-beat. The costumes, with the exception of Mohan in the beginning, all seemed traditional or colorful; the set was generally illuminated with low contrast lighting. Such made Swades an optimistic, homogenized, nationalist film with a simple but powerful message about the triumph of good over evil.
The editing, on the other hand, is not at its prime. Incongruous rhythms occur every now and then; sometimes a song will arise unexpectedly, as in the case of Mohan and the homeless man singing and dancing together. Once too, a man in a ceremony produced a bow out of thin air. This jump cut was disorienting to say the least, but perhaps contributed to the syncopation of the sequence.
When isolated from form, the Bollywood content fits both national and global molds. Swades is about the struggles of a country in which technology advances grassroots movements that are truly essential for their use among the villagers. Globally, Swades sends the message that Western conveniences – cell phones, cigarettes, bathing without clothes – are vices for the Indian public. This is a common trend among Bollywood films in general; but really, the greatest meaning of this movie is much simpler – one person with a vision can make a huge impact, hopefully for the better.
Amores Perros is an intriguing film detailing the struggles and complications of love. The English title of the film is Love’s a Bitch, a rough translation and a fitting title for a film which details numerous relationships with both dogs and people. The film is set around the events leading up to and after a car crash that drastically affects the lives of three main sets of people.
It starts off focusing on Octavio and his friends as he wins money dog fighting to help his brother’s wife. The next part of the film focuses around Daniel and Valeria, a magazine publisher and a model. Their love is tested while Valeria suffers serious medical issues causing her to question whether she will ever model again. Their relationship is further tested after Valeria's dog gets into trouble. The third focus of the film is on a man named El Chivo. He left his family when his daughter was only two and was forced to live the lie that he was dead to his daughter. After getting out of jail he lived his life in a shack taking care of dogs. He is also becomes a hitman and his hired to kill someone's brother. When he finds out the relation between the man that hired him and the man he was supposed to murder, he decides to turn things around and test the two of them.
The film is written and edited in a style similar to the popular movie, Crash. While Crash's goal was to show the ugliness of racial stereotypes and and prejudices, Amores Perros focused mainly on the up and downsides of love. Both films, however, start near the beginning with a car crash and show several stories explaining what happened before the crash. Amores Perros goes farther than crash and spends almost half the time after the car crash and using the crash not as an ending, but as the cause for several of the main characters' problems.
Dogs are used throughout the film almost as substitutes for humans. Each main section of the movie has a character in love with their dog, loving it almost like they love the other humans in their lives. The dog fighting throughout the film, but particularly in Octavio's section, is used to show the violence between humans. The savage way in which the dogs are used to attack each other and the humans compete with their dogs is similar to how the movie is trying to display society as a whole. A disfunctional mess.
The film does an excellent job making the actions and storyline seem realistic. The mise-en-scène created by the film by the lighting, costumes, and sets allow the audience to understand more about the characters than what the narrative tells them. The mise-en-scène helps display the wealth and struggles the characters have to go through. The editing of the film weaving the main and side characters into each others subplot also made the film more interesting. The inclusion of El Chivo in the first two stories and the chance shot of El Chivo seeing Octavio's brother and his brother's wife helped further show how connected everyone in the film and in the real world are. Although the film is long, the three subplots and their interwoven stories with deep depictions of the many types of love make Amores Perros a great film.
A Comparative Analysis of Ratings, Classification and Censorship
Making a livelihood for oneself and a family may seem stressful at times; but compared to the first Homo sapiens, a civilian of a developed country in the 21st century has it pretty easy. With the luxuries of developed commerce, education, technology, and justice systems, however; the life a person seeks to preserve may feel dampened considerably. According to Freudian psychological theory, humans retain subconscious feelings of fear, guilt, desire, and aggression – feelings of all practicality in the world of a harder time – that need to be experienced in order to feel alive. In today’s society, people can experience and express these natural feelings through art. For example, in two graphic war films, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, actors become agents and objects of violence, fear, and horror. As members of the audience sympathize with the actors and their pitiable conditions, they achieve a mental balance, or catharsis. The Greek philosopher, Plato, would disagree with such a claim. According to his theory, people who are naturally inclined to imitate the baser nature of art, mimic evils portrayed through art, ultimately degrading civilization. There is some truth to Plato’s claim, especially when considering the young who may not have been socially conditioned to understand the acceptability of artistic material. Imitation is a mode by which the young learn; therefore, if exposed to vile action, speech, and thoughts, they legitimately might consider such to be acceptable in today’s culture. Censorship today does its best to keep art age-appropriate, but the balance between age and cognitive psychology varies from nation to nation.
As it happens, the two films mentioned previously, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, are rated “R” in the United States and “C” in Mexico. With a rating of “R”, both films may be screened to people 17 and up in the U.S. The movies are restricted to a greater degree in Mexico, the “C” rating only allowing people 19 and up to watch. There are many theories for the discrepancy in censorship. One might say that it is due in part to overarching social conventions of each national cinema. In this way, Mexico would restrict viewing privileges to an older age, preferring to condition its young more slowly. Then too, the government might simply want a higher level of control over its people, with the opposite said about the United States and its lower viewing age. On another front, the viewing age divergence could be related to the socio-political nature of the respective sponsoring agents. In this way, Mexico’s “Federal Cinematography Law” (Brand), a federally funded institution, would exert a tighter grip on the movie industry than the MPAA, a private censorship institute based in the United States. After all, socialization of the young is one internationally recognized function of government. All this said, a censorship gap of two years(19-17) is not enough to draw any major conclusions. Catharsis must be examined irrespective of particular age, but in terms of general maturity. Therefore, the true controversy of the above-mentioned-films is whether they should be shown at all.
Although Full Metal Jacket – a Vietnam war story – might’ve been too controversial in the United States close to the time of its release (1969); dirty language, sexual implications, and gore are filtered through the historical conditioning of Vietnam in American culture today. For example, when the protagonist takes a ride with a helicopter gunner who repeatedly shoots down what seem to be innocent Vietnamese citizens, “even women and children”, what reckless insensibilities and esteem for an American’s country might’ve been lost had he or she not firstly been conditioned by said country that killing was bad, and secondly had a chance to examine the context of such actions within the war. The lighting on the gunner is low key, producing a harsh lighting on the man’s arm – the one area illuminated in the entirety of the figuratively dark helicopter. When watching the beast, one feels pity not only for the military’s dehumanization of a person, but also for the people whom he destroys. Such is also the cause for another man to take his own life, after having been ridiculed constantly for likeable characteristics. The character is chubby with a weakness for doughnuts. He is not physically cut out for training, and the sense of humor he does exhibit as a coping mechanism eventually becomes warped. In this scene, one might imagine himself dying if placed under similar circumstances. It is difficult to live in a world of black and white, as evidenced by such the bathroom shot. With thirty years elapsed since such a time, Americans have been conditioned to objectify what was happening to their nation and people during the Vietnam War. With logic to shape emotion, Americans today can cope with the film without getting too emotional. This, of course, is not to imply that emotions are bad; rather, emotions are very beneficial when expressed in a tempered fashion, which comes through a higher degree of event understanding. Having been released internationally, Full Metal Jacket would have had dramatically less cathartic merit in Mexico. Although the country had little to nil involvement in the Vietnam War, it has been approaching a modernized state nonetheless. With a historical appreciation for the war, it has today what Atkins refers to as “shared vulnerability”, a main component of catharsis. This feeling relates an international past, and in turn strengthens the catharsis to a more globally appropriate level. In this way, time has helped to balance American and Mexican mimesis and catharsis. The irony, of course, is that the rating hasn’t changed.
Pan’s Labyrinth is rated “C” for violence and language. Unlike Full Metal Jacket,it has never threatened an inappropriate amount of catharsis. When it was released in 2006, Mexico’s federal censorship institution trusted that people 19 and up could sympathize with Ofelia, a girl who lived in the dark, magical reality of 1944 Spain during Franco’s dictatorship. That trust was well placed. Having conditioned its people for 60 years about the incongruities of fascism, Mexico successfully flourished its artistic masterpiece. Even with tragic foreshadowing, violent deaths of many characters, dark lighting, and frightening phantasmagorical creatures, this film was highly appreciated not only in Mexico, but in Spain, and America too, as manifested in the awards it received(IMDB) In one scene, a suspicious ‘faun’, that somewhat resembles a demon in costume and voice, comforts the protagonist as means of persuasion to do a mission for him. Here it becomes clear that no matter if Ofelia lives in real life or fiction, she will be confronted with characters of false identities, secrets, and hidden motives. With historical context concerning political and economic turmoil, the apprehensive nature of their encounter is more easily understood and expected. Therefore, one does not relate completely with a complete fear of all surroundings, but more so with the girl who finds the situation distressing. Between the movie’s release and the end of WWII, nations across the globe had allocated plenty of time to educate and condition their people about the dangers of fascism. The magical realism with which Pan’s Labyrinth was made, however, does inflate the menial catharsis of this horror-thriller when considering the era of its release. The movie was created in the age of technological progress (2006) – a time where anything, even something imaginary, might just come true. In this way, the catharsis stays at the appropriate level for its audience, so that it can be experienced positively.
Even as both films, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, are of cathartic merit
today, such merit has, is, and always will be changing. That of Full Metal Jacket started off with a higher degree of controversy nationally, and global cathartic indifference. That of Pan’s Labyrinth started with a similar low level energy similar to that of Full Metal Jacket in Mexico. Over time, the merits of both films have approached the level by which they shall be most enjoyed, and should continue to do so as long as history is taught and conditioned into the younger minds. Looking to the future, finally, it will be important to standardize means of censorship. Already the internet has breached national borders, and is not limited by censorship.
Bibliography/Works Cited
Atkins, Kim. “Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005)”. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/ricoeur.htm#H4
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. Second Edition. W. W.
Norton and Company. New York, NY. 2007.
“Biography for Guillermo del Toro”. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868219/bio.
Brand, Jeff. “A Comparative Analysis of Ratings, Classification and Censorship in Selected
Countries around the World”. Centre for New Media Research and Education.
The only constant in German history is change. German borders have continuously been reshaped over the past centuries. It is only since 1990 that Germany, as it exists today, has been a country, and the changing borders throughout the years have not come without a cost. Only through wars and struggles has the country taken on its current day shape. As one might guess, wars and struggle lead to pain. For a nation and its people to fully come to terms with the past, old atrocities must be made apparent, openly discussed, and forgiven. This awkward process of reconciliation is made difficult because of its first steps. What is the best way to begin the discussion about difficult topics? How do two sides peacefully come together and work towards a peaceful accord? Perhaps the most acceptable medium to answer the two questions is answered by art, or more specifically, film. After all, audiences approach film expecting to be engaged.
This paper will attempt to show that German films, especially those appealing to international audiences, chiefly address WWII themes. Der Untergang (The Downfall) is set in the 1940s, and carefully chronicles the fall of the Nazi party. The dialogue generated by this film is important to reconcile Germans to one another. In addition, this paper will argue that German film must begin to address new issues to remain a relevant force. For example, the 2006 film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), explores life in East Germany during the 1980s, a particularly oppressive time. In the 80s, the State turned neighbor against neighbor and created mass paranoia. One never knew if he was being watched or not. By tackling this topic, the film took a step in a new direction for German cinema, and was wildly successful. One reviewer comments, “it’s almost shocking to see a German filmmaker finally cut loose from the stock monsters of National Socialist and the Holocaust and get to the new ear of crimes against humanity during the Communist East German Chapter” (Jacobsen 71). By combining both of these perspectives into one essay, this paper will offer a brief cultural study.
It is particularly important to note that many German struggles of the past have pitted German against German. For example, WWII was a time where German troops executed many of their fellow countrymen that were deemed undesirable. Hitler pitted friend against friend, and fear drove people to commit unspeakable atrocities. At the end of the war and as a form of punishment, the country was divided into different occupation zones, again turning neighbors into enemies. By attempting to flee from the East to the West, many citizens lost their lives at the hands of national police. This inter-country violence has bred hatred in the hearts of citizens - a hate that is difficult and painful to address. Its power to generate dialogue on taboo topics makes the German film industry vitally important.
Discussing conflicts becomes easier as years pass, which helps to explain the vast popularity of movies set in Germany during or immediately following World War II. Non-Germans are interested in the personalities of the leaders and nations that could have committed such heinous acts. German nationals, on the other hand, appreciate the excuse to raise topics otherwise considered awkward. It has been found in a survey that, “41 percent of Germans believe that the country should continue to grapple with its eastern Communist past. (Boyes 33)”
One such example of a film that addresses difficult topics is Der Untergang (The Downfall). The two-and-a-half hour long flick follows Hitler through the 10 days leading up to his suicide. Interestingly, the notable aspects of this film do not stem from the movie’s actual plot. History is typically told as a sequence of specific actions carried out by specific people. This format is devoid of personalities. Der Untergang presents history in a much different light. By following Hitler through his final moments, moviegoers become intimately familiar with Hitler’s plight. In taking such a detailed glimpse, the cold, hard man becomes almost human; it is this approach to portraying German history that has sparked criticism and discussion. One author proposes (and hopes) that, “though [Hitler] and the Third Reich will not and cannot be forgotten in Germany, he is being starkly, realistically, and humanly, portrayed precisely in order to more fully and finally lay him to rest” (Bendix 72).
("Uncle Hitler" enjoying the singing of children.)
Another film that makes the same attempt to humanize the sterile events of the past is Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others). This film tells the story of a writer and his actress girl friend, who are under round-the-clock observation of the Stasi. (Stasi is an abbreviation for Stadt Sicherhiet, which translates into state security.) However, Georg Dreyman, the writer, loves his socialist state and gives the Stasi little reason to doubt his devotion. It is in the character of Gerd Wiesler, a Stasi captain following the pair, that a transformation occurs. He goes from a rigid, emotionless character filled with hatred for enemies of the state to a man that breaks laws to protect those he is monitoring.
Just as with Der Untergang, Das Leben der Anderen has, “stoked a debate about how the country should digest the Communist legacy of the East” (Boyes 33). What effect does the humanization of Stasi officers have on how moviegoers interpret the past? It may be that giving evil characters a personality incorrectly portrays the hate that was pervasive in the 80s in East Germany, and this angers critics. One critic offers that, in “The Lives of Others, there’s no Hitler, no Goebbels. […] Von Donnersmarck is dealing with entirely new generations, the children and grandchildren of the purification dreamers” (Jacobsen 71).
It cannot be underestimated how important it is to attach personalities to events in time. German history has left the country with multiple events that are difficult to handle, and dialogue between oppressors and the oppressed must occur before the country can move on to a happy future. Attaching personalities to events convinces the moviegoers that people can change and that they are good at heart. Captain Wiesler for example initially comes off as a man set in his ways. There does not appear any hope for his character to exhibit any emotion, but the audience witnesses his transformation. In one shocking scene, movie viewers see Wiesler shed tears for his enemy. As a Stasi officer who makes the decision to cover up the truth, his career path is forever altered; he is relegated to the perpetual task of opening and delivering mail.
(Tears roll down Wiesler's face as he sympathizes with the enemy.)
(Wiesler being told that his career is over.)
Through the lens of Das Leben der Anderen, the necessity for German cinema to move on from WWII is apparent. This step is needed, as the painful post war occupation period has been neglected. Opening new discussion may open old wounds, but the discussion leads to healing. The vitality of the German nation in the future depends on this healing. Jacobsen phrases is beautifully saying, “The proposition that The Lives of Others puts forth […] is both rehabilitative and romantic: that by shining light on the German people’s second go-round at “socialism” the reunified Germany can begin the new century at last” (72).
Works Cited
Bendix, John. "Facing Hitler." German Politics & Society 25.1 (Spring 2007): 70-89. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 11 Mar. 2009 .
Boyes, Roger. “Ostalgia Made History by Film Expose of the Stasis.” The Times (London) 15 May 2006: 33.
Jacobson, Harlan. "The Lives of Others.” Film Comment 43.1 (2007): 71-72. Research Library. ProQuest. 11 Mar. 2009 .
