Friday, January 27, 2023

Dr. Caligari

 



    The story begins with two men sitting on a bench as a girl who seems to be a ghost passes by them. It seems to me that the man is telling the other a story which I think is the entire film. Dr. Caligari applies for a permit to show off his spectacle at the fair, which seemed like the main attraction for everyone in the town. Caligari showed off Cesare the Somnambulist to everyone and I could tell by not knowing what Somnambulist meant that it was like ventriloquism in a way. Mysterious crimes began to occur in the town, murders, of choking and or strangling it seems like and then the victim gets stabbed. An important piece of information was that Cesare is 23 years old and has been sleeping for 23 years consecutively and Caligari awakens him. Cesare knows the past, present, and future, it kind of reminds me of scrooge a little bit, because of the different ghosts in that movie. He told Alan who later on dies, I believe that same night that Cesare tells him that they only have till dawn to live. The town Clerk was killed the same way Alan was, and another important part was that Alan and Franzis made kind of a pact that no matter what happened between them and the girl that they both liked they would be friends. Franzis keeps a close eye on Dr. Caligari and Cesare failed to kill the woman as he strangled her, but the woman fought him off and was dragged/carried as Cesare was chased, but then escaped as he dropped her. Franzis followed Dr. Caligari into the asylum to see what was really going on and he was right about Dr. Caligari that he was behind everything. 

    The film told its story through the scripture that we had to read as the movie played and through the nonverbal communication because there wasn't any dialogue during the film. The film also tells a story through the screen spanning out and closing into the frame and even close ups of faces expressing emotions that lead us onto the next scene. The plot twist was at the end of the movie taking us back to the two men sitting on the bench and then the woman walks past again. I think that the plot twists meaning was that this movie was meant to be imaginary, but really this happened as he told the story. They thought it was some beautiful girl going past them randomly, but they spoke her death into an actual existence. She is actually a ghost and what they saw the first time was no joke and actually was a real story that already happened. That is how I interpreted it. What the sets say about early film making tell me that they were like plays rather than actual real life places and kind of like cartoons with realistic people in them. They didn't have the technology that we have now obviously so they made what they had work for the time. There was different editing techniques back then too because we don't see the graphics in film like the ones here in films today or the types of scene changes. The set designs tell me that we are focused in on the characters and their emotions rather than what is happening away from the main scene, because from what I could tell there were stationary backgrounds, there wasn't much movement with the cameras, everything was moving within the frame. The cultural relevance for today is that emotions and nonverbal communication are still key in how a movie can be portrayed by the audience. Music is also very useful as well to tell us the scary parts or sad parts or action packed parts of the movie as well and this film did a great job of bringing all types of music to provide the audience with certain emotions as they watched the film. If I had to think of a movie to relate to this, it would be Psycho, I know that movie is from 1960, but there is a similar story of a mysterious killer in the Bates Motel because it was a shadowy figure during the classic shower scene we all may be familiar with, like the people didn't know who was behind all of the killings until the third time. There was a lot of close-ups in Psycho like there were in Dr. Caligari and the use of music played a key role in each scene. Also, the lighting in both movies told us where to pay our attention to most and the color schemes in each film were alike as well, telling us what was evil or good/safe. For the last question, I think having a narrator during this time period where film may not have much dialogue would be very helpful for the audience to understand what is happening during the film, because I know if there wasn't one, I would have been slightly lost. I think if there was dialogue there wouldn't be a need for a narrator, but for a film where there isn't dialogue it helps steer the story. I think the nature of this film was more for emotional connection and nonverbal communication because we can understand actions without words having to be said. Melodramas were also common during the 1920s and these kinds of films are narrated by music and Dr. Caligari was very reliant on music telling the story. I enjoyed the film, I didn't know what to expect, but I liked how the story was told, and some of the music was humorous.  

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Jaws

         





        Jaws was released on June 20th, 1975 and directed by Steven Spielberg. In the film Martin Brody was the  protagonist of the story along with his crew members Matt Hooper and Quint. They discovered a large shark roaming near the ocean shore of their city and wanted to make a change so the water was safer to swim in. This film is still a classic today and I personally love a good shark movie and the cinematography was very clear, realistic, and the frames used were perfect throughout the major action/horror points. After watching this video I didn't think of how the outside events from hunting the shark down really played a role in the film. I was always so focused on the hunting aspect, where this video points out how subplot points of Jaws really ties the story together. 

        One of my favorite scenes was actually in the short video we were able to watch and that scenes framework (correct me if I am wrong) was a "over the shoulder" frame. The scene was when the shark was swooping down into the water behind the kid playing in the sand. The clip also showed a lot of the key scenes where there are things popping out to scare us like a dead persons head in an abandoned ship, or when Martin is cutting fish guts up and throwing it behind him and the shark appears are classic ways to keep the audience awake and engaged. The movie also focuses on Martins home life with his wife and two sons, which gave us more background of the protagonists. I honestly prefer getting to know the characters as the movie goes on rather than no context of who the people are. 

        I think the timing of Jaws was perfect because June is when summer truly begins for most kids because they get let out of school in early June and all they think about is going to the beach. I think Jaws is made to remind people to be cautious when you are in the ocean, especially farther out. You never know what could happen. I am also surprised that this film is rated PG because as the narrator of the video said Jaws does have some graphic scenes in the movie where the film could be labeled as a PG-13 film, but I think it is okay as it is because the movie did not focus on being graphic and the messages Jaws gave are what really matters. PG-13 wasn't a thing back then, but I am glad the rating never changed. 


   

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Snowy

 


    The story about snowy affected me because I think as humans we sometimes forget about how important wildlife and plants are to the world and that their lives matter as much as ours. The most moving scene of the film was the Thanksgiving scene because I was like dang that is really depressing to just leave out the turtle. It also seemed like none of the guests even knew they had a pet turtle. You see the family having this amazing dinner and then the camera slowly pans down to the dark basement where the only light is in the turtles tank. That to me just shows life was great for the humans and the life of Snowy seemed meaningless because Larry was the only one taking some sort of time to take care of him, but Snowy wasn't mentioned upstairs or cared for as they had dinner. Like at least bring Snowy upstairs, you wouldn't leave your dog downstairs, because more than likely your dog will bark or cry because they feel left out. Snowy for sure felt left out, but obviously turtles don't make loud noises, but like I said I don't even think anyone truly cared for him to be introduced to the outside family members because even Larry didn't bring Snowy upstairs and Larry was the only one who really paid any attention to Snowy. The reason this scene moved me is because I think pets are a part of your family no matter what species they are. Also, the fact that they left out Snowy was telling me that they just felt embarrassed to have a turtle or didn't care enough to show Snowy off. The climax of Snowy to me was when Larry got Snowy checked out by a doctor because then I believe that is what made the wife start to care too. I liked the scene when they brought Snowy to an expert too, but I think that scene was too late in the film because at that point the wife was pretty much on board to help with Snowy and she started to care. The hero to me was Larry because he went out to get night crawlers, he cleaned his tank, he took Snowy out to the doctor, he brought Snowy to a specialist, and Larry actually somewhat cared about Snowy when he wasn't feeling good after trying to eat the worm. No one else truly showed that they cared for Snowy in the family, so I chose Larry because if Snowy didn't barf up the worm maybe he wouldn't have gotten the treatment he needed from a doctor and plus his beak was broken. That was really sad too, how do you not see that his beak was broken?

    I really enjoyed the last scenes camera work because it started at the window well and then the drone panned up to the sky and then showed there is a larger world outside of the basement for Snowy to see. It felt like I was being pulled up from the ground to be shown the rest of the town because I put myself in Snowy's shoes in being in a confined space to seeing the world as he went outside for the first time then the drone shot made me think that Snowy was flying in a helicopter or drone and free from his cage. I don't think there were any scenes of camera work that really impressed me because there wasn't a lot of movement while filming in the movie, I felt very stationary. Maybe the camera work was how Snowy was feeling as the film went on, because the camera work did improve as the movie went on in my opinion. I think the last scene was very important to show us that we should allow for our pets to see the outside world and it is also important for us as humans to leave our homes every once and a while too if we are so used to being home all the time. 

    We should care about the film snowy because if we don't have a good relationship with our pets at home then maybe this film could be a wake up call that this is how they may feel if they are neglected frequently. It tells us that if our lives are too busy to care about a pet then maybe we shouldn't have one. Plus having the habit of not caring about a turtles life or our pets life could translate to you not caring for things in your life because if you can't pay some attention to a turtle then how do you expect to keep doing the important little things in other areas of your life? 

    


Welcome to My Blog

 







  
     Hey everyone! My name is Joey, I am a senior here at North Central College studying Sociology. Some of the things I enjoy doing are going to the gym, watching hockey and football, cooking, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends. I have a younger brother, I have two dogs, the breed they are is Leonberger. The movie theatre I grew up going to was Regal Cantera, right next to Main Event. If I am going to be honest, I don't remember the last time I went to a movie theatre due to the pandemic and my busy schedule. I actually enjoy watching movies alone because I think movies can be personal, but there are times when I will watch one with my family and or friends, but it depends on the movie and occasion. I do enjoy watching a movie at the theatre at times because there is some sort of common interest within the audience, and the theatre has some great snacks too. Then again, kicking back and relaxing on your own couch with the people that you want to be with is never a bad idea either. I am not picky when it comes to movies, I will give pretty much any movie a chance. My favorite genre depends on the day, I don't have a go to genre because my mood really determines what I feel like watching. 

     Almost everyone likes a good comedy, personally comedies will always be my favorite. Most comedies have ongoing jokes throughout the movie, some sort of slapstick comedy (people getting hurt like in Home Alone), and even funny songs that go along with the hilarious occurrences that may happen during the film. There are also romantic comedies which I don't know much about, but my guess is this type of movie is a romantic movie that isn't as serious as something like "The Notebook" but still displays a message of love with humor tied to it. Some comedies are family friendly, and some are most definitely not, like you wouldn't show Ted or Step Brothers to kids, but maybe you would show them Happy Gilmore or The School of Rock. Comedies are good after scary movies too; I sometimes will watch a funny movie to not have the scary events from the horror movie on the top of my mind. I don't want to feel paranoid or have any wild dreams about what I just watched. My personal favorite of comedy is slapstick because of the various ways pranks are pulled, the crazy stunts, and things like that. Plus getting a few good laughs can improve your overall mood and watching a good comedy can be an escape from life. 

     I am taking this class because I wanted to expand my knowledge on how people look at movies from different points of view. It fascinates me that people can watch the same movie, but not everyone grasps the same message, which is completely fine, but I find that interesting. I know when I watch movies for the first time I don't see all of the messages right away, it may take a few times of watching it to learn more about the overall message from the movie. I also think as we age, we look for new types of messages to take away from movies. I also think if we are going through something hard in our lives we can see a movie differently from someone who is going through something completely different. How we interpret a movie can go in many different ways I think and I don't think there is a wrong way to take away a message. That is all that I have for now; I look forward to a great semester with you all!  



Swiss Army Man

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