Choose 3 of the films we watched in class and answer the following questions. Answer all questions for each film to create at least 3 hearty paragraphs.
Le Retour a la Raison
Entr'acte
Le Ballet Mecanique
Un Chien Andalou
Meshes of the Afternoon (this is the one with the Maya Deren interview)
What do you notice about the film's presentation of cinematic space? What do you see on screen? For example, lots of landscapes or closeups? Moving or statics camera?
How does the director's use of lighting help to create meaning?
Do you identify with the camera's lens? What does the director compel you to see? What is left to your imagination? What does the director leave out altogether? Describe the mise-en-scene and how it helps to create meaning in the film.
What implicit meaning do you find in the film?
If you can't get enough of the avant garde cinema, check out this site: http://www.ubu.com/film/.
If you want to look more into Jonas Mekas, go here: http://jonasmekas.com/diary/
Only two of the links work:
ReplyDeleteUn Chien andalou - When the characters are in a troubled state of mind he uses mid length shot to show how trapped the characters feel as such when the man grabs the woman's breasts. There are as many close ups as landscape shots with a static camera. He uses landscape shots to show how small and feeble the woman feels when she is backed into a corner and she looks shorter than him. She also uses landscape shot to show how the women below is free because she has more space in the setting outside. The landscape shot in that aspect also shows how trapped she feels over the hand as she and the circle of man are in a such small part of that space surrounding them. The directors use of lighting in the closeup situations helps us identify with the drastic feeling of the situation, as in the man is shadowed to look almost black because of his evil act of feeling on the women in the close up representing their isolation, implicit meaning, with each other and the demeanor of the each other. Because of the bed between the two during their face off represented the sexual act and dominance the man had over her.
Ballet mécanique - There is no real use of cinematic space in the retrospect that it is always filled. The film is extremely experimental and was full of brief black and white cubist forms. It was full of extreme close ups with some peoples face and specifically an extreme close up of a woman’s blinking eye with a static camera but these shots were short and juxtaposed. The viewer does not identify with the lens because the director compels you to see everything at once bc of the fast, brief, pace, but it lacks a narrative. Although these shots are diverse and difficult to immediately understand with bottles, hats, triangles, a woman’s smile, gears, and numbers. The mise en scene helps create the implicit meaning and juxtaposition of man and machine.
DeleteLe Retour a la Raison - Another experimental film full of white specks and shapes constantly moving over a black background, and a light-striped torso. The viewer identifies with the camera as maybe a weird drug trip. Its full of static images. Many of the images in Le Retour are animated “photograms”, a technique in which opaque objects are directly directly on top of a sheet of photographic paper and exposed to light. That s how the images in this film were produced. I don’t really understand the implicit meaning of this one nor identified with it. It seemed extremely experimental.
In Ballet Mechanique, Fernand Leger uses many close ups. Whether these images are of a woman's face, lips, or eyes, a hat, a bird, shapes and numbers, machinery, or other objects that take up almost the entire screen, their proximity to the viewer has a disorienting effect, show casing the new and almost uncomfortable techniques employed during the avant garde period. The camera has moments of movement, when it follows someone from and upside-down point of view as they goes back and forth on a swing, but is mainly static: although the objects within the screen are constantly moving but the camera itself does not. Leger uses lighting to exaggerate the the types of objects being shown next to each other, comparing and contrasting their relevance to each other, making the viewer piece together the directors portrayal of a message through film. A lot of the material in this film was inspired by the machinery behind the guns and airplanes involved in World War I, in which Leger fought. Leger used the images of modern technology in his day alongside the image of a woman and mundane household objects (such as a whisk, pan, or eggbeater) to express his concern about the rise of society's reliance on machinery and its implications on daily life.
ReplyDeleteIn Un Chien Andelou, director Bunuel uses primarily medium shots to display a film that is more of a story lacking a plot, more like a dream. The shadows and over-exaggerated lighting in some close-ups makes the scenes look surreal and dreamlike.However, there were close ups of the hand that had bugs coming out of it. Bunuel's intentions were not to please the viewers, but to alienate them. Unlike other films in of this genre, the camera moves more and has collective ideas as opposed to the static, unrelated feeling of other avant garde films. The entirety of this film is left to the imagination of the viewer, seeing as it is merely a bunch of shots all strung together. Bunuel filmed each shot individually and left it to the viewers imagination to draw a connection between the individual shots. This is partially why I found it so hard to follow/ comprehend this film.
Le Reour a la Raison, directed by Man Ray, consists of many close ups, save for the medium shot of what appears to be a spinning carousel. The camera is static throughout the entire film yet, like Le Ballet Mechanique, there is constant motion within the frame. Objects are constantly turning so that the viewer experiences every angle possible of the nails, "#" symbols, shapes, etc, as they rotate. In many shots, the lighting is the object itself, whether its a pattern or the outline of a shape. It's as if Ray wanted the audience to view ordinary everyday things in a new light. Honestly, the rapid changing of images and constantly changing movement made me feel uneasy and almost nauseous while watching this film. I could not really identify with this film, like many other avant garde films, but I appreciate the pushing of boundaries and the experimenting used to expand the horizons of film.
Le Retour a la Raison by Man Ray is a very interesting film to analyze and decipher in regards to intended meaning. Overall I believe that his message and purpose for the film was to explore movement and its unique effects. In terms of cinematic space there were many close ups and lots of actions happening on the screen itself rather than camera movement. Nails, springs and organic shapes flashed across the frame provoking deep thought and analysis yet also discomfort in a way. The constant motion and often times repetition of shots made the audience slightly uncomfortable in their own skin. There were several medium shots of what is guessed to be a carousel, spinning around and around. The element of lighting also greatly contributed to the message of movement. What mostly gave away the fact that the spinning mechanism was a carousel was the lighting. Orbs of light penetrate the darkness as they spin around further highlighting the objects movement more than its shape or form. Another key technique used in lighting was the almost “venetian blind” style lighting. It was cast against the upper half of a woman’s body which helped outline her natural shape and movement (turning back and forth repeatedly). The film, at least in my eyes, does not really present a story rather an exploration of cinematic techniques and the viewers reactions to those stylistic choices. The relevance and meaning of every shot is left to the viewers imagination yet that is the beauty of Avant Garde.
ReplyDeleteEntr'Acte is another Avant Garde film that in my opinion strives to portray movement in abstract ways. The cinematic space was really experimented upon in this film especially with the use of upside down shots of roof tops and the long shots of city traffic. It constantly reminded one of the big ever changing, ever moving city and how no one can comprehend all the complexities of human life. One technique that caught my eye was the layering of frames to almost compare or parallel different movements and actions. One of my favorite being the boxing gloves layered with the busy traffic of a city. It can be interpreted many different ways but to me it highlighted the daily battle off starting a new day and how every day we encounter new challenges and essentially have to step up to the plate and fight for what we want. Another cool one was little match sized sticks being lit on fire layered with a man scratching his head. The visual layering of the two made me think of a headache or some type of internal distress the man was going through. I also enjoyed the parallel of the city as an rough wavy ocean that holds no order or pattern. A paper boat was layered over a city scape making it look as if it was sailing over buildings and landscapes. In terms of lighting, the most striking element was the ballerina. The full form was rarely visible as a single strong spotlight shined on one particular area of the body at a time in a pitch black environment. I thought filming from underneath was a unique angle to film a dancer from. It really highlighted the importance of movement instead of the dancers character which in the end is revealed to be a man, throwing the viewer off guard suggesting to expect the unexpected in life. There is no plot or story that is told however the innovative uses of layering and movement were simply brilliant. Once again everything is left to the imagination. There is so much more I could talk about, I could probably write an entire paper on this.
ReplyDeleteUn Chien Andalou is one of the Avant Gard films that I thought actually told a story of sorts or attempted to illustrate a theme. I think the films implicit meaning was centered around feminism and how this girl feels trapped in her life. Cinematic space was used in this context to show for example how she could not escape the room she was in. The man tries to take advantage of her and she just nearly gets away when the other man she saves wakes up. Cinematic space was also utilized in an interesting way when the severed hand was being poked at in the street. Suddenly the lens widens and we realize a commotion of people surround the hand. I also believe it highlights the fact that everyone has some kind of inner demons we must all face, realize and eventually understand and accept as a part of ourselves. This is shown with the close up of the mans hand crawling with ants inside of his skin. This is also shown with the two dear like creatures on the pianos that have blood running from their eyes. It is meant to provoke disgust and discomfort within the viewer. One shot that I thought solidified my inner demons theory is the skull that appeared on the moths back. It was a very provocative way implying eventual death and the evil we all have inside us.
ReplyDeleteIn Meshes Of The Afternoon, cinematic space is represented by a series of close ups and medium shots. The only times we ever see the full body of the antagonist, are when we are able to see it in her shadow. This is to, like The Passion of Joan of Arc, allow the viewer to identify with the feeling of being caged. In this instance, we are aware that something is continually restricting the antagonist. When we see the antagonist first enter the home, the camera moves left to right, moving over an empty room. The emptiness and darkness of the room create an eerie tone to the already unsettling film. The camera also moves suddenly to make the viewer believe that the world the woman resides in as legitimately flipping, ethereally. This endows a further comprehension that what is occurring in the film is complete and utter chaos.
ReplyDeleteLighting is manipulated, most commonly to cast genius shadows across the screen. In the opening sequence, we see the shadow of the antagonist more often than we see her. Before she bends down to pick up the flower, her shadow bends down to pick it up, seemingly. By this, we can deduce that her physicality in the world is meaningless, and this foreshadows what we will soon conclude about the implicit meaning of the film. Close to the five minute mark, Maya enters the room through window drapery-the area behind her, including the backside of herself, is lit strongly, and in its entirety. This light is coming from outside. Not only does the intense chiaroscuro parallel with the growing suspense of the film, but the light coming in from the outside implies that the inside is a dark place that she keeps returning to, and outside, there is light, both figuratively, and literally.
The camera allows us into the mindset of a troubled woman who is clearly being oppressed by the man, assumedly her husband, in the film. Though this abstract interpretation leaves little to the imagination in it’s blunt strangeness, there are symbols that the viewer is forced to interpret for themselves. For example, a key plays a large role in this film. In the opening sequence, the key falls down the stairs and the woman goes to grab it; in the closing sequence, the woman sees a knife at the bottom of the stairs where she had originally retrieved the fallen key. To me, this meant that the key to her way out, was the knife, i.e. death.
Implicitly, I felt this film dealt majorly with sexism and the male oppression of females. Where we endure the majority of the length of the film seeing the hooded figure’s face as but a mirror, her husband’s face soon lines up with it. Her husband is throwing her through this cyclic exhaustion, and causing her to strive for things he purposely makes unattainable. I believe this goes to show that the antagonist was unhappy in her marriage.
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ReplyDeleteMany close ups and medium shots are used in Un Chien Andalou to draw the viewer’s attention to the reaction of those on screen, in the instance that the film is silent. The camera is mainly static, so the movement is left up to what unfolds before the audience in the frame. By this I feel as if an air of contained chaos is emitted.
ReplyDeleteThe lighting of this was very Film Noir to me. There was an unbelievably high contrast between dark and light, which, like Meshes of the Afternoon, intensified the crazy antics already unfolding on the screen. The open light outside of the apartment gives a calmer feel than the concentrated light that exists within the cursed walls of the residence, allowing for the reader to subconsciously associate the outside with freedom, and the inside with being trapped.
The camera is the eye into the diegetic world in the film. It acts upon human nature, focusing on what we most likely would focus on in the scenarios presented before us on the screen. It is there to guide us to what needs to be accentuated, and allows for us to deduce vital implicit meanings.
Speaking of implicit meanings, I felt as if this film had strong feminist implications. I felt as if the man in the apartment was the physical manifestation of feminine oppression. For example, as he violated her body without her permission, and she proceeded to escape him toward the end, I felt as if this was a cry for the up-surgance of feminism during this time period.
ReplyDeleteTo me, Ballet Mecanique is the most experimental of all the films. The camera is always static, but the things within the frame are almost always moving. The frame is almost always filled, regardless of whether or not something recedes to the background and the returns to the foreground in order to fill it. So there seems to be little to no manipulation of that space in it of itself. The film is a sequence of shots, all seemingly unrelated to one another. It seems that whenever a feminine icon or individual is present, the contrast between light and dark, becomes greater, possibly implying that females are generally oppressed in society. Implicitly, I believe this film again has strong feminist implications and speaks to the rise in feminism during this time. As time goes on in this film, the pace quickens as well, and the light contrast becomes deeper.
Meshes of the Afternoon seems to me a very claustrophobic film – although there are some longer-range shots here and there, for the most part the film’s space is extremely cramped, especially during the second sort of “repeat”, as it were, in which we get many close-ups of Deren’s face/figure, which adds to the uneasy feeling we get while watching the movie. Lighting as well is used in such a way as to create a mysterious, anxious feeling – the lighting is very harsh, and we often do not see much of Deren’s actual body. Instead, the lighting is used to create sort of shadows of Deren that we see in place of her actual body. Much of the film – do its experimental structure and narrative – is left to our imagination, but the camera does make sure to linger on the important items; the knife, the loaf of bread, the black cloaked person. The camera creates this sort of uneasy, malicious mise-en-scene – throughout much of the film, I had the very strong impression that someone was going to die. As far as implicit meaning, I found the film to be sort of a feminist exploration of the way women contributed heavily to the WW2 effort – Deren seems to take over and become seemingly more masculine throughout the film, with the knife representing sort of a phallic symbol, I guess? A symbol of masculinity and the freedom/defiance that comes with it? I don’t know, it was a very odd and pretty creepy movie (although it was my favorite).
ReplyDeleteIn Un Chien Andalou, we see a bunch of varied presentations of Cinematic space, depending on the scene. For example, in the opening scene (with the eyeball splitting), we see a lot of close-ups and very “tight” presentation of space – the movie forces us to look at this eyeball being cut open, and nothing else is even presented on screen with it. In other scenes, however, such as when the girl is run over the car, we see the scene from the viewpoint of the young man, seemingly detached in a kind of sadistic way. The lighting, like Meshes of the Afternoon, is used often to create shadow, and helps to further the sort of dreamlike, surreal imagery in the film, where things and events move with no real sort of coherence, and instead operate pretty much strictly on dream-logic. Unlike most films, where we are meant to identify with the camera and the action, in Un Chien Andalou the camera seems to be used to alienate viewers – the directors compel us really to see, quite literally, their dreams (Dali and Bunuel based much of the work off of their dreams) and as a result, the film has almost no sense of plot and structure, and events flow seemingly through some sort of Freudian free-association. As for implicit meaning, I thought the whole point of the film is that there was none – everything happens for no real reason.
Le Retour a La Raison is perhaps the strangest of all the avant-garde films we watched, simply in that it has literally no plot – at least in most of the others, the events seem to be tied somewhat together, however loosely (see Un Chien Andalou for how loose the association can get). The film uses cinematic space through a series of close ups of images and objects such as nails, balls of light, etc. In fact, the film seems almost 2-dimensional in that there is very little background depth. To be honest, I have literally zero idea what is happening in this film. I agree with Julia’s idea that it seems to be exploring movement but other than that the film kind of just seems like an uneasy, uncomfortable dream sequence.
its Zach, btw
DeleteIn Le Retour a la Raison the cinematic spaced used focuses on the main subject of each shot using close-ups throughout the whole film. There is hardly anything else than close-ups in the entire film. The use of close-ups allows the viewer to focus on things like the movement of the grid spinning on a string or the stillness of the woman’s naked body. These close-ups also make the viewer uncomfortable by forcing the viewer to focus on imagery like nails and random shocking imagery. The camera is also kept static for most of the film not moving to take away from the center focus of the frame. The one part it might have moved was the nail entrance in the beginning of the film where either the nails moved quickly across the screen or the camera moved quickly across the laid out nails. The quick motion of the nails puts the viewer off balance and is used to initially detach the viewer from their comfortable reality. The lighting in Le Retour a la Raison is used to its full potential with every shot affected by its use. The grid spinning on a string is lit in a way that its twirling shadow is shown on the wall behind it. It shows how the same thing can be perceived in multiple different ways as the shape changes in the shadow as it twirls. Shadows are cast over the naked woman’s body to make the image more complex than if there were no shadows or if there was just darkness. Even the nails are lit in such a way that the viewer never actually sees a nail but just silhouettes of nails but it is used to such great power that the viewer thinks they have witnessed nails. The implicit meaning of the film is everything is more complex than it will seem at first and it is conveyed through the complex imagery used by Ray. Entr’acte unlike le Retour a la Raison uses many landscapes to cover wide areas where the film takes place. The rushing crowd used a landscape shot to convey the large group of people running down the streets. Some of the cannon scenes are landscape to initially create humor as the two men jump into frame, but then close-ups are used to focus on the cannon firing itself and shock the audience by filling the frame with the cannon-hole right as it is about to fire preventing the viewer from comfortably escaping the blast. The lighting used in Entr’acte is not as extreme as the use of lighting in Le Retour but it is still used to great effect. The dancer scene’s lighting is sharply contrasted with the high saturated light on the dancer and the pitch black background that surrounds him to confuse the viewer to ask what’s going on because of the randomness of the scene. This is where the brilliance of the editing comes in because of how the imagery is cut into itself. The overlapping of shots such as the eyes and the water are incredible because of the amazing editing. The editing also confuses the viewers even further by constantly changing their sense of stability while watching this film. The implicit meaning behind Entr’acte is very hard to find but it expresses that life is crazy, wild and impossible to predict no matter what you think is coming next. Le Ballet Mecanique uses close-ups of a woman’s face to fill the screen by splitting her face and placing it the full space. The shots of the face are very claustrophobic and absolutely force the viewer to see the emotions expressed by the woman’s face. The lighting throughout the film is entirely low-key with sharp contrasts between light and shadow. The low-key lighting is used to create an ominous tone in the film as strange shots shoot across the screen. The focus is brought to the center of the screen in most shots. This makes the film creepy and uncomfortable when the cubist drawing of the dancer appears and moves almost coming out of nowhere. The implicit meaning of Le Ballet Mecanique focuses on the different views an individual has on themselves.
ReplyDeleteUn Chien Andalou uses several close-ups and static camera shots to make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible. The film begins with one of the most shocking shots in film history and the impact would not have been as great without the close-up which disgusts the viewer. The eye slit is unexpected and is so unpredictable without seeing the film but the close-up forces the viewer to acknowledge what is going on at that moment. Close-ups of the hand, deer head and eye slit are all used to transcend the viewer into the confusing and random world of the avant-grade. There is no use of moving camera because it would take away from the still focus of the shot and take away the shock value. The lighting is low key much like other avant garde films. This contrasts the images presented from the ants and hand to the black and white keys on the dragging piano. The editing is eratic like the other films. It is hard to tell what the next shot will be and the further actions of the characters. The implicit meaning behind Un Chien Andalou is that people have to carry their guilt and its heavy and it hurts as represented by the piano and ants.
ReplyDeleteThe most prevalent feature of Meshes of the Afternoon is the lighting and sound. There are less close-ups and static cam than the other films but the medium shots are used to show the shadow cast over the background. Without the close-ups the full length of the shadows can be shown and the meaning of the scene is expressed to its fullest. The moving camera allows the viewer to follow the main actress as she makes her way through the set. The sound also creates discomfort as the low humming gets louder as the film drags on with an unnatural feel. The implicit meaning behind Meshes of the Afternoon has to do with woman finding their identity in a man ruled world because of the symbolism of her multiple bodies and the difference between the key and knife.
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ReplyDeleteMeshes of the Afternoon- The film has a very claustrophobic feeling to it because almost all of the shots in the short film are close-ups. It leaves the audience feeling uneasy the entire time because the only times it isn’t a close up is when the mysterious person appears, and the main character runs after them. The cramped camera space helps the audience experience what the main character is feeling, almost like she’s trapped. The camera is mostly moving the entirety of the film. I think the greatest use of the moving camera is when the main character is chasing after the mysterious person up the stairs, and while she’s swaying from wall to wall, the camera moves with her. The contrast between light and dark is used to create meaning. For example, in the film’s opening the main character’s shadow reaches towards the stark white flower and then the actual hand appears, picking up the flower. The shadow represents the oppression the main character has to deal with, with the flower representing her. Shadows are continued to be used, big, elongated shadows that take up a lot of space. The mise-en-scene of the film is very different from the other avant garde films we’ve watched. It wasn’t as abstract as some of the other films. The setting, characters, and other elements flowed very well together and created a believable film. The most implicit meaning in the film that I could find was that the main character is very unhappy with her marriage, and/or her husband is abusive in some way. In the film, the knife is in the place where the key fell at the beginning of the film, signifying that the knife(suicide) was the key to get out. This can also be supported by the fact that she ends up committing suicide at the end of the film, and is found by her husband.
ReplyDeleteLe retour à la raison- In this short film, the camera is very static, it doesn’t really move in any way. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any movement on the frame, because the subjects being filmed are very active, taking up the entire screen with movement. Almost all of the shots are close-ups, making the audience feel pretty uncomfortable and confused with what is being shown to them. The use of shadows is very prevalent in this film, especially in the scene with the carnival or fair. It creates a very confusing feeling for the audience, because a good amount of the images in the beginning are very hard to see, but light comes into play by the end of the film, making a very vivid image of what’s on the screen. None of the images being shown really relate to each other, at least, that’s what it seems. All of the images are seemingly random, in the beginning of the film the images were on the screen for a very brief moment, but by the end of the film, the images were on the screen for quite a while. There doesn’t really seem to be a mise-en-scene in this film, because all of the images are quite random, though I guess everything looks normal? The implicit meaning behind this film is how hard it is to return to a normal state of mind? In the beginning of the film all of the images pretty much just flew by, but by the end of the film, things had slowed down to the point where it wasn’t uncomfortable to watch.
DeleteUn Chien andalou- In this film, there is a mix of close-ups, medium and long shots, all creating different moods for the audience. There is also a mix of crane shots, high shots, medium shots and low shots. All create a certain mood for the audience to experience. For example, when the lady in the street is run over, the audience sees it from a crane shot, looking down at her as if they are in a building themselves. There is a great deal of shadow use in this short film. Like the scene where the girl is running away from the crazy man or something, and her back is against the door, and half of her face is covered in shadows as she leans against it. There is also the scene that’s a little bit farther along in the film, where the man is facing himself, and the version of himself that has the gun is covered in shadows as he shoots the other version of himself, perhaps “killing” off something inside of himself. A lot is left to the audience’s imagination because this film makes like, zero sense. While it didn’t make me feel as uncomfortable as the other film, it definitely was not an easy film to understand, and I still don’t.
DeleteIn Ballet mecanique there are a series of shots that are used to disorient the viewer. There is a shot of a woman swinging, however is turned upside-down and the camera swings toward and away from a person as if on a pendulum causing an uneasy feeling. The film is constructed of a series of clips recording objects rapidly spinning and moving back and forth, up and down, and side to side. This is again used to make the viewer feel uneasy, and unable to fully process each of the shorter shots. There wasn’t a full sense of cinematic space, being that the space on camera is always being used. It felt very crowded however. In implicit meaning, there is a juxtaposition of man and machine, changing between shots of people, a close up of a girl’s eye, shapes, and gears.
ReplyDeleteIn Le Retour A La Raison, there barely is any cinematic space. Almost all of the shots are very abstract, and it is difficult to distinguish time or place in them. The camera remains static throughout the film, but there is always movement on the screen. The viewer is not really supposed to identify with the lens here. The viewer is compelled to see abstract or dreamy imagery. The director leaves any explanation for the visuals. It’s an extremely experimental film, however I could not connect with implicit meaning in this film.
In Un Chien Andlou there are mainly medium shots which reveal a lot of the landscape and surroundings. There are also close ups and landscape shots that are used for implicit meaning. For instance, the landscapes are used to make the woman very small and vulnerable, while the close ups reveal a more intense tone. The camera is static most of the time, which reveals a calm and peaceful tone however. The camera becomes quite unstable when the man tries to have sex with the woman and she goes in a corner, and this represents his instability due to this sexual desire. The lighting creates meaning when the man appears to be brought back to life, his lighting is bright and this gives an angelic feeling and a feeling of innocence. His lighting becomes darker when he decides to kill the man who appeared to fire him and this represents his evil side. There is not much led to imagination, being that everything is directly on screen.
Adil Kadwa
ReplyDeleteUn Chien Andalou: While watching this film I could not help but think that it was simply someone’s dream that was turned into a film piece. The whole film is left to the imagination of the viewer. I could not necessarily derive an implicit meaning due to the films uselessness (in my opinion). To me, it served no purpose, but hey that’s the point. The other films I was at least able to derive meaning from. The mise-en-scene clearly had reasoning behind it but nothing concrete enough to make conclusions from in regards to meaning. Of course there is the constant occurrence of stripes. The use of stripes tortures the viewer with the possibility of having meaning but refusing to work as a direct link to the context of the film.
Meshes of the Afternoon: While watching this I felt somewhat uncomfortable. The film stresses uncomfortable emotions and distress not just because of the creepy mirror-faced demonic individual but also due to the constant occurrence of high angle shots, skewed (dutch angle) shots, and close ups. The film’s use of lighting is brilliant in the way that it uses lighting (or lack of lighting) to its advantage. For instance, the use of shadowing on the woman when the flower is placed on the ground in the beginning was amazing. The shadow of the woman seemingly grabbed the flower before she physically did it herself. All I could think of while watching this part was that the shadow was in a way “guiding” her. She couldn’t have stopped herself from grabbing the flower and starting the whole series of events because her shadow led her to grab it and start it all. The use of mise-en-scene makes the viewer feel trapped. Almost as if you are the woman and if you tried to escape it would be a futile attempt because of the narrow winding sidewalk and enclosed feeling the house gives off. The narrow sidewalk which appears to be endless represented to me a road that leads to nowhere due to the placement of the camera in almost all the shots that showed the sidewalk; not once do you see what is around the corner of the sidewalk, no escape is possible. The implicit meaning I found in the film is a story which tells of a female subdued to the patriarchal society.
Entr’Acte: is the Avant Garde film that was most interesting to me. I think it portrays the animosity of human beings at the most basic form. The entire film felt an extremely sped up film due to the wide range of subjects presented in the film, as well as the use of cutting on action and the use of jump cuts. The layering of frames of what looked to be buildings was, to me, an expression of social structure and order which only adds to the animosity talked about prior. The film does include some long shots but the most striking and prevalent shots are ones that are either medium shots, medium close ups, or close ups. One example of this being the part in which there is a man scratching his head but we also see a match being lit on fire. Due to the closeup and clever editing (layering of shots), all I could think of while watching this was the inner stress and hidden madness that lies within the mind; once again harking back to the “animosity” topic. The director obviously leaves almost everything to the imagination. With little to no explanation, visually, for any of the parts of the film the viewer is left to piece together a meaning for themselves. Mine being that human beings carry with them this weight on their shoulders that we are all part of a social order which is simply animalistic. With this social order comes stress and madness. The mise-en-scene is constantly changing whether it be men jumping in slow motion next to a cannon or a man scratching his head while being layered with a lit match. This constant change in mise-en-scene aids in the meaning because it aids the immense shifting of subjects/topics and stresses a sense of urgency/tension.