The King's Speech, by Tom Hooper

Trailer

I thought I would not be able to catch The King’s Speech on theaters because the release of non-mainstream films in Boston is rare and scarce. In fact, I was planning a trip to New York City to watch it at MoMA, they were screening it as one of the greatest films of 2010. They categorized the film as “a contender for lasting historical significance—and any true cinephile will want to catch them on the big screen.” So you can imagine how excited I was to find out that they were showing it at Kendal and I could avoid another eventful ride on the Chinese bus.

I thought that the story was captivating and very easy to relate to given that one of the most common fears is public speaking. As a college student, I am constantly required to do presentation, and I have hated the idea of standing in front of a quiet classroom each and every time, Thus, I felt completely related to the main character. Instead of a speech disorder, I have a strong accent that comes out even stronger when I am nervous and in front of people. However, such close identification with the character could only occur because the acting was exceptional. Colin Firth truly transmits the frustration of not been able to let his words flow out of his throat. Such frustration was intensified by the camera work.

The viewer is made aware of the device used. The camera moves freely, following the king closely. It shows his point of view, which at times is terrifying. We are constantly glad we are not actually on his shoes, for example, when he is giving his most important speech.

The mise en scene was thought to its smallest details. However, the greatest attention was given to the walls. They express the feelings and progress of the King. As he begins his therapy, the walls at the Doctor’s office are made of multiple layers of paint and colors which are falling apart and cracking down. However, as he becomes more confidence not only on his own capabilities, but also on his Doctor, the therapy takes place at the Doctor’s house where the walls’ patterns are uniform and well kept. Walls become extremely important when the King is about to give his last speech. Here, the Doctor made the room “more cozy” by putting patterned cloths that made the room similar to his house, giving the illusion of a tight and safe nest. MoMA was completely right. This is definitely a film worth watching in the big screen; a TV set or a computer monitor would tune down such stunning aesthetics.

The Silence of the Lambs, by Jonathan Demme

Trailer

The Silence of the Lambs continues to be one of the most influential and startling horror films ever made twenty years after its release. Even if the continuous exposure to violence in culture has created high degrees of callousness in society, this film has tapped into raw and instinctual human fears. Jonathan Demme explores in the film the land of psychology and its terrifying effects, attaining a strong primal bond between the audience and the characters.

The cinematographic choices made in The Silence of the Lambs allow the audience to connect on an instinctual level with the protagonist of the film, Clarice. It is shot from her point of view in such a deliberate way that this connection becomes unavoidable from the opening scenes. The camera follows her closely, revealing no more than what Clarice’s eyes reach and touch. Therefore, we take on the protagonist role, and Clarice becomes only a shell that embodies our actions. The technique used to make such an effective bond between protagonist and audience is the use of shot-reverse-shots from Clarice’s point of view. It is startling when characters talk directly into the camera. Their steady stare is uncomfortable to maintain not only because of the rareness of this kind of shot in mainstream films, but also because they are combined with extreme close-ups, tight framing, and steady eye-level camera angle, making the dialogue even more intruding and direct.

It was clever of Demme to use these techniques to intensify the horror emanated by The Silence of the Lambs. The forth wall is completely removed, and the mortifying story, that is supposed to take place only within the movie screen, trespasses into the real life of the dim theaters. Once Dr. Hannibal Lecter is introduced, the audience realizes that their sheltered role as spectators is completely disrupted. At that point, it becomes evident that the continuous and repetitive warnings of “do not touch the glass, do not approach the glass” were directed not only to Clarice but also to the audience. The glass symbolizes the theater’s screen, a theoretically isolating and safeguarding entity meant to maintain Dr. Lecter at a safe distance from them. Therefore, it is especially gripping and petrifying when Dr. Lecter first talks to Clarice, who is able to identify the lotion she was wearing by simply smelling the air that leaked through the glass. “You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L’Air du Temps, but not today.” Not only is such an action conceived as almost impossible, but it also demands a certain proximity and contact that have not taken place between them. Could he also be able to discern the lotion that the viewer is wearing? This scene becomes the first sign of Dr. Lecter’s ability to reach out from his dividing wall. Combined with such an unsettling banter, Dr. Lecter looks directly into Clarice’s eyes, and in concordance into the our eyes while stepping closer to the camera as he talks, making the comforting space between him and the audience thinner with every minor movement.

It is interesting to notice that the only occasion in which Dr. Lecter does not stare into the camera is when giving away valuable information about the killer, Buffalo Bill. The dividing glass rematerializes as thick as ever, and we are only able to see his ghost-like blurry reflection on it. This sequence might be the only one in which the viewer whishes to have Dr. Lecter’s penetrating stare focused on them. However, we are completely alienated and reminded of our impotence as spectators, preventing us from actively scrutinize Dr. Lecter’s facial expression to determine, along with Clarice, the truthfulness behind his words. Dr. Lecter explains that the moth found in the last victim’s throat signifies change: “caterpillar into cocoon into beauty.” Such clue signals not only the nature of the killer as a transsexual, but it also indicates the change in the relationship between Dr. Lecter and us, the audience. He has metamorphosed from a frightening figure to a trustworthy one, and therefore, the previously longed dividing glass has gowned to be an obstacle.

Because Clarice feels lost without the guidance of Dr. Lecter, we are lead to place complete trust in him, which is fortified by the editing technique. For the most part of the film, questions posed in one scene are immediately answered by the following one. Such cause-effect editing style is mostly evident when Dr. Lecter adverts Clarice that the killer “must already be looking for his next special lady.” This scene cuts to a close up of a young lady driving back home. Even though there has been no prior indication of her role, there is no doubt that she is the next victim and that the killer will soon be introduced. Thus, the editing transforms distant realities into reactionary events. It embodies a tacit understanding that Dr. Lecter is the narrator of the story; the only one with the abilities to find and show the correct relationship between the scattered clues that Clarice has collected.

The editing style is enhanced by the extensive use of bridges of sound. Dialogues trespass their original scenes to become non-diagetic sounds that fuse two different shots. In addition, the mise en scène is organized with the underlying purpose of promoting the association of apparently scattered and arbitrary elements. Written signs are used extensively as both establishing and foreshadowing elements. For instance, during the opening sequence, the camera pans down from the sky to a wooden sign attached to a tree that reads the words “Hurt, Agony, Pain, Love-it.” This sign sets the tone for the entire film. It could not spell out more clearly the nature of the case that is about to be unwrapped; a case involving serial killers and psychopaths who enjoy and love inflicting pain and agony unto others.

Demme is particularly sharp at teasing the audience after he meticulously creates an environment in which they completely trust on the cause-effect editing and mise en scène. Such implicit understanding of the sequence of effects is used to destabilize the audience and create a significant climax towards the end of the film. As the police prepare to break into the killer’s house, the rapid editing between the killer and the police creates the illusion that they are in the same place. Such illusion is maximized by the use of the house bell as a sound bridge. As the audience believes that the police have finally gotten the killer, they are completely shocked to realize that the person knocking Buffalo Bill’s door is Clarice instead of the S.W.A.P. team. In addition to this startling scene, the use of off-screen space is crucial to intensify the thrilling sensation that has built up to this moment. As Clarice realizes that the man in front of her is Buffalo Bill, she stumbles around the house, trying to catch him. The camera follows her closely through the hallways of the confusing maze that is the house, disorienting the viewers who were already somewhat familiar with this space. Such chase is claustrophobic and frightening because neither the audience nor Clarice get a glance of the killer’s location. However, such feeling is maximized when, after having found a bathtub filled with decomposed body parts, the lights go off and a few seconds of complete darkness invade the theater. At such point, it is obvious that the killer knows where Clarice is, making the dark off-screen space become even more absolute and terrifying.

It is precisely these kind of cinematic elements that make The Silence of the Lambs penetrating and frightening. Jonathan Demme demonstrated that seconds of darkness can create a much petrifying effect than explicit violence. In addition, the perpetual use of point of view shots causes the story and their characters to slowly but steadily enter into the psyche of the audiences. In fact, they are not able to follow Crawford’s initial advice: “you're to tell him nothing personal. Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.” Precisely the opposite takes place. Dr. Lecter infiltrates into the audience’s heads in such a way that an inevitable smirk of complicity crosses their faces as he points out that he is “having an old friend for dinner.”

The Last Laugh, by F.W. Murnau

Because The Last Laugh only uses one caption through the entire film, it relies heavily on images and the way the camera is able to portrait feelings and messages. Thus, it is not surprising that The Last Laugh has been “considered the source of cinematic innovations” (Kracauer, 102). For instance, in the scene in which the porter wakes up with a hangover after a wedding party, F.W. Murnau uses handhold camera to signify his point of view. This camera movement is combined with a rotating shot of the room in which the walls seam to spin as they do after significant alcohol intoxication. The scene becomes nauseating for the audience, thus completely associating it with the porter. Murmau also uses close ups and zooms in order to direct the attention of the audience toward important details for the narrative. For instance, when a hotel employee is stripping the porter off his uniform, there is a zoom of his shoes as he looks down after a button of his jacket broke. This man’s life is his job, without the uniform that corroborates his position, he feels like he was reduced to the lowest social level parallel to the floor. Later, in a medium shot, the camera pans up and down as he looks at himself feeling naked without the uniform. Another devise used by Murmau throughout the film is the thoughtful arrangement of the image in the frame. During the scenes that show the porter’s neighborhood, there is a recurrent use of long shots in which the people fill only the bottom of the frame. This framing places the neighborhood as a medium to low social class; they are at the bottom of the society as they are in the frame.

It was very original and thought provoking the fact that The Last Laugh’s only caption is to acknowledge the unrealistic ending of the film. I had never seen such an ending before. It is a way to bring the attention to the differences between reality and fiction, and the God-like authority that authors have over the character’s lives. It is also an effective transition to demonstrate the need that audiences have for nonsensical happy endings. It gives the audience a way to walk out of the theater feeling uplifted, yet with a predominantly bitter after taste. Thus, the problems in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari's ending, which “glorified authority and convicted its antagonist of madness,” are confronted and criticized.

The Kite Runner, by Marc Forster

Trailer

As renown German film critic Kracauer, I will reconstruct through memory the story, motives, and techniques used in The Kite Runner in order to attempt their interpretation under a sociological and psychological light. The Kite Runner relates the story of an Afghan man who, after having immigrated to the United States, is pulled back to his old country to rescue the son of his childhood best friend. The book, and in concordance the film, were meant to reveal, through a fictional story, the reality of the Afghan society. It opens the doors to a world that most westerns are completely foreign to, making critical objections to the political, social, and economical structures of the country. However, after revealing shocking realities such as despotic governments that do not obey any law, and the normality of child trafficking, the story concludes with a happy ending that would be highly unlikely in real life. It is obvious that the film was catered to an American audience which, in the middle of the burst of the Iraq war, needed some kind of assurance that, by invading another country, they had once again done the right thing. This is a classical example of a film that is trying to secure the moral of its audience: “saving individual people is a convenient way to prevent the rescue of the entire class.” Only one kid is rescued out of millions who are left to sex trade, slavery, and famine in the country. However, we can feel good that the main character, the one we were able to connect emotionally through the film, will live a different type of future. The Afghan boy, after having been abused in every possible way by his society, is rescued by the good Americans. He now has a bright future ahead of him full of opportunities. It is disappointing, to say the least, that after so much criticism made to the formal political system in Afghanistan, little or nothing is mention about possible solutions apart from emigration and needing a foreign force to rescue the society.

Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau

F.W. Murnau used a number of techniques to emphasized oddity and horror in his film Nosferatu. Such techniques include editing, shadows, chiaroscuro, close-ups, negatives, superposed images, and mises en scène that emphasize symbolic gestures and objects. A scene in which the editing technique creates a horrifying effect is the night when as Nosferatu is chasing Hutter, who had just found out that he is a vampire. As Nosferatu approaches Hutter, Murnau cuts the scene to a high angle shot of a forest and river, which are shaped as a distorted image of the vampire. When the shot returns to Hutter’s bedroom, there is coat hanging on the wall that is also extremely similar to the vampire’s body. The interposition of these images in the editing of the scene creates the feeling that there is no escape from Nosferatu. The use of symbolic cues can also be identified in the beginning of the film when Hutter first steps into his hotel room. As Hutter enters into the room, the first thing he does is placing his hat on the bed. In some places of Europe such as Italy, popular folklore sustains that placing a hat on the bed is a sing of death. Therefore, this early shot is an establishing shot or premonition to what is to come in the film.

In addition to symbolic cues and editing techniques, Murnau masters the use of chiaroscuro and shadows. For example, the scene in which Nosferatu is silently watching his pray is especially spooky because, within the complete darkness of the room, we partially see his face in the light. The use of shadows aggravates his awkward features, making him even more scary.

According to Ashbury, there are numerous possible interpretations for the film. I believe that the most accurate would be interpreting the film as “a complex meditation on the dynamics of human desire” (59). According to this point of view, the film is exploring the human psyche and its retrieving desires as we enter into adulthood and thus into the norms of society. Nosferatu is constantly paralleled with other animals that are killing their preys. Therefore, this editing places him in the same sphere of animals, taking him out of the human society and bringing him back to his instinctive nature. Nosferatu thus represents the human desires and instincts that are suppressed once humans abide to the norms of society.

The Docks of New York, by Josef von Sternberg

The Docks of New York is an unusual love story. During his one and only night at shore, Bill, a sailor, rescues a woman from drowning after she had attempted suicide. With the help of some locals, the lady regains consciousness and joins Bill at the local bar. After a couple of drinks, and a conversation about the reasons why neither of them is married, they come to the conclusion that they should get married that same night. Odds are that a priest was around the bar, and he agrees to marry them. However, after dawn, duty calls Bill and he leaves the lady to embark on his ship. As Bill is working, he realizes that he had fallen in love with his wife and wanted to stay at shore. He jumps in the water and swims back to town. Searching for his wife, Bill eventually finds out that she is in jail. Confused, Bill goes to court and learns that the lady was charged for possessing stolen clothes, which Bill had given to her the night they met. Once again, he rescues the lady by taking the blame for the robbery and being condemned for six months in jail. Free of charges and with love in her eyes, the lady reassures Bill that she would wait for him her whole life.

In the beginning of the film, there is an extreme high angle shot of an anchor being released into the water. The anchor falls into the water with such a pressure and weight, that it gives the impression of been a dead body. This early shot is a give away of what will happen throughout the film. The extreme high angle of the water is repeated when the lady is attempting suicide. She wants her body to stay in the depths of the see like the anchor. This shot can also be seen as foreseen Bill’s future in the film. At this port, he will be anchored like the ship, without been able to leave when he wishes.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Julian Schnabel and Francois-Xavier Decraene

Trailer

Nowadays, societies are dominated and led by deadlines and work. People live in a frenetic pace which inhibits them from enjoying their lives. Yet ironically, they have lost the concept of time, believing their youth and golden years will last forever, and thus, forgetting that the fragility and volatility of the balance and harmony of their bodies can be damaged and reduced to ashes in an instance. They neither take care nor enjoy the healthy functions of their bodies while they can. This chronic condition of living without being in the moment is the main criticism made to our society by the French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, directed by Julian Schnabel and Francois-Xavier Decraene.

The film is based on the novel Le Scáphandre et Le Papillon by Jean-Dominique Bauby, which relates the author’s story shortly before dying. This motion picture is heart breaking and eye opening since it effectively drives the spectator into the insights of being a living vegetable. It is filmed from the prospective of the patient, making the audience live his life for two hours, which afterward, hopefully puts under prospective their own way of facing life.

Baudy was a successful Parisian men. He was the editor of Elle magazine, and was enjoying his single life after having got divorced from his wife and three children. He, as many, thought that he had all the time in the world to fix his mistakes. However, at age 42, he had a massive stroke which led him first into a three-weeks coma, and then into a “looked-in” syndrome, which means that the only functional parts of his body were his brain and his left eye. “My whole body is encased in a kind of diving suit.” Now, the once forgotten biological instinct of blink has become Baudy’s only connection with the outside world. With the assistance of a speech therapist, Baudy learned to communicate his approval or disapproval with a single or double blink, and after a while, he would dictate his thoughts by blinking at the speech therapist’s recital of the alphabet.

Given his condition, his life was a reason of pity because of the insignificance that it was reduced to. However, he defied this share notion by writing a book since, as he said, “other than my eyes two things aren’t paralyzed, my imagination and my memory.” He literally wrote his book in a blink of an eye, he would memorize what he wanted to write, and then blink it to an assistant who would write his thoughts. “My task consists to write the motionless travel notes from a castaway on the shores of loneliness.” His willingness to live was equivalent to Virginia Woolf’s moth, which never gave up its life, it fought for it and got it back for a final goodbye flight that revealed the importance of appreciating our own life, even if it might be insignificant for the rest of the world.

Baudy’s life, after having had the stoke, was an early representation of elderly people’s reality. He did not have the autonomy of deciding things by himself, most of the time he was alone at the hospital, he would feel guilty by seen his family suffering because of his condition and, if his loved ones came to visit him, he would feel ashamed of his appearance.

This movie is a wake up call that helps understand the importance of living the moment instead of the dream of a better future since the only things that are certain in our lives are the past, that we cannot go back to, and the present that we are living today. Moreover, no matter the old age or critical condition we have, the present should never be wasted to wait for death. It should be seen as a gift that has to be enjoyed at its full extension.