"Duck Soup," by The Marx Brothers

          

         Given the fact that Duck Soup was one of the first ‘talky’ films, we can see an incredible step back in terms of camera, acting, and story telling. First of all, the camera is extremely static: most shots are long and wide. Acting, on the other hand, is extremely expository and extravagant. The actors and screenwriters felt the need to talk through and explain every bit of emotion instead of showing it. Nevertheless, it was interesting that, in the beginning of the film, the main character talks directly into the camera. Not only he brakes the forth wall by talking directly to the audience, but he also makes the camera visible. We are suddenly aware that there is a recording instrument in the living room.

In terms of sound, the Four Marx Brothers, like Chaplin, played with the use of accents and modes of speech to differentiate society’s stratus and ridicule the upper classes. The rich people are the only ones who burst into absurd sequences of musicals when needing to express a sentiment. It seems like the Four Marx Brothers tried to use every single excuse to integrate unnecessary sounds to the film. For example, there are trumpets that follow the main character which are unmotivated. This film is a great example to showcase the beauty behind controlling and restricting the instruments our disposal. The fact that they created scenes and characters only because of their sonic qualities, do not have a rooted enough motivation. Therefore, these scenes become extremely annoying and unwatchable. 

"The Great Train Robbery," by Edwin S. Porter

In the case of The Great Train Robbery, Edwin S. Porter makes a commentary about society with a  serious and paternalistic approach. By precluding the audiences from a heroic figure, Porter creates in the audience a starving desire for an authoritarian figure. Another interesting aspect about The Great Train Robbery is that this film was a pioneer in many aspects: camera movement, editing, acting, and story. In terms of camera movements and editing, Porter used continuity editing, parallel editing, and camera movements such as panning. In terms of acting and story telling, there is no introduction or exposition of the facts. The audience is taken right away in the middle of the action. In addition, not only this was the first film in which a man looks right into the camera and shoots ‘at the audience,’ but it was also the first film in which people die in front of the camera. I would be very interested to know how the audiences reacted to such a film. 

'The Immigrant,' and 'The Pawnshop,' by Charlie Chaplin

In the films The Immigrant and The Pawnshop, Chaplin works in the other end of the spectrum by interpreting the role of a man who is part of the lower classes. In both of these movies, the camera is truthful to Chaplin’s point of view, creating a disputable empathy with the main character. The audience cheers for him to find the way of paying the bill, getting the girl, and saving the day. In addition, these stories create kinetic satisfaction for the audiences. Finally, the low stratus of society is the smartest one: they are the ones fooling authority and saving the day.   

"ONE AM," by Charlie Chaplin

 Charlie Chaplin is known for using slapstick comedy to comment on society and ridicule bourgeoisie. For instance, in One AM, Chaplin embodies an intoxicated wealthy man who is completely ridiculed by his fancy and expensive furniture. Apart from the obvious fact that the man is drunk and can barely walk straight, Chaplin uses mise-en-scene to dig deeper in social commentaries. The whole film revolves around the fact that the objects filling his house plot against him. He is ridiculed by his own wealth. In addition, his house looks like a theater stage. Even though the stage might have been conceived for practical purposes, the fact that Chaplin decided to show it instead of creating the illusion of a real house expresses a deeper meaning and subtext to the film. It comments on the fact that this stratus of society is always acting on a stage, they are not real and do not have real feelings and problems. This might also have been the reason why Chaplin decided to strip his character from human relationships. Although he is wealthy, he does not have a family and lives alone in such a big house. Another interesting aspect developed by Chaplin in this film though the camera work, is the fact that he creates distance between the audience and the main character. The audience is not drowned into the life of the character and therefore there is no empathy towards him. 

"127 Hours," by Danny Boyle

            

                              127 Hours explores and portraits our generation’s habitual ritual to embalm and encapsulate our lives in photographs and videos. There is a shared frantic need to record every important moment we experience as to avoid loosing them in the abysms of memory. In 127 Hours, the characters’ first reaction to exciting and memorable experiences is to take their cameras out. “I can’t believe we just did that… a camera, a camera,” Aron, Kristi, and Megan euphorically yield after jumping in the secret pool. In addition, it is goes unsaid that such videos and pictures will end up on facebook in the matter of hours. If these pictures are not shared with a broad online community, it is as if they had never happened. Along the same lines, such concept supports the making of this semi-documentary film. It reenacts a crucial moment in the life of Aron which, to be truly relevant, had to be shared in a big screen with audiences around the world. No wonder he thinks this is the “best film ever made” (Barkham).  

            Cameras take another important role in this film. They embody a silent psychologist seating across the room, thus becoming the vehicle for self-reflection and auto-analysis. “Is it true that despite, or maybe because you’re a big fucking heart hero, you didn’t tell anyone where you were going? Oh, yeah, that’s absolutely correct.” Aron arrives to the core of his actions driven by his subconscious, which is something that in therapy usually takes a long time to decipher. In addition, talking to the camera helped him reflect about the state and meaning of his relationships with family, friends, girlfriends, and coworkers.

            Finally, the scene that everyone talks about is the gory sequence when he finally chops off his arm. Let’s first point out that such a scene would not have been so effective if he had taken his Swiss knife with him. “Lesson: Don't buy the cheap, made-in-China multi-tool.” This sharp observation or lesson plays out the common stereotypes of the low quality associated with every ‘made-in-China’ object. Nevertheless, this low-quality knife was ideal for Boyle to create a long and tiring sequence full of blood. I had heard the urban legends around 127 Hours about people in the audience fainting and vomiting by watching this part of the film. It seemed completely absurd, specially because audiences have been accustomed to lots of gory in the screen for example, with the chopping of a leg in Saw, or the continuous splashes of blood in Tarantino’s movies. The truth is that Boyle used the sound to create physical pain in the audience, thus making the gory of the scene much more acute than it would otherwise be. A very high pitch is synchronized with the cutting of a nerve, thus making the audience squirm in their seats. I would be curious to see this scene in mute, I am sure it would not be near as bad as it is with the music. 

N & F - Vintage Window Painting

My boyfriend and I have been working on this new project for a while. We've rescued vintage windows and painted them in order to transform them into artwork.

We showcased our work at the Second Annual Graduate Arts Soiree at MIT.

Hope you like them!

"Hugo," by Martin Scorsese

Beautiful cinematography and camera work. The camera floats effortlessly through smoke, people, pipes, and trains, and it is coordinated to perfection with the tempo of the music. However, eventhough the acting was overdone, we cannot forget that this is a movie meant for kids.

New generations, who have been borned in a highly technologized world, and thus are extremely used to things such as 3D films, live in a distant reality from Melie's audiences. In fact, an eight year old boy probably have no conception of a world without films. It is thus refreshing to see a filmmaker using this medium to teach non-filmmakers and young generations about the silver screen's history. That is why this film is a great example of filmmakers' power to educate the masses. Scorsese gave a fast overview of film history, alawing those who haven't studied film to learn about Méliès, the great train rubbery, and the Lumière Brothers, to mention a few.