Le Grand Soir

"The Big night" We have all had one, maybe it was when you drank to much, or when you graduated, or maybe you had the opening night of a performance. Whatever the circumstantial a big night is a big night you either feel like shit before hand of you feel like shit after. The point is this film is all about making your own decisions, weather they be the right ones or otherwise. If you had the ability to go back and have another go you might want to do things different but it would still be your choice not someone else's and that is the key to living, letting the world know "we are Not Dead."

 A clever and invigorating outlook on life. Comical and intellectual without going over the top even though that is what the characters were all about.

Policeman

Hard to follow in sections. The way it was told made me awkward, i am not sure if this was intended by the film maker. Conflicting stories and scenes that threw you from the main story. Left me thinking what i had just seen, maybe it was about his decision to start a family, a commentary on his thoughts and feelings about his position and how it would change when he had a daughter... i don't know for sure?

Simple Life

A touching story that was, for me, a interesting insight into Chinese culture.

The Imposter

What would you do to "live"? This boy wanted to have a "life" he didn't just want to survive and was willing to go to extremes to make it happen. Well shot, well told interesting story.

Samsara

Wow! 102 minutes with no dialogue, i drove home without talking to anyone in an attempt not to break the spell that this film put on me. WOW! The musical score composed with amazing and confronting photography. What a spectacle.

Dead Europe

The first thing to note was the fantastic use of cinema-photography. The story relayed a constant dread, something not right, an awkwardness. Looking back on it the way that the story was told must have worked wonders because it did make you uncomfortable and uneasy. An undertone, subtle reference to trauma, delusion, disbelief and even possibly the holocaust.

Barbara

A film that ended with one's sacrifice for another. A common theme throughout the film which allowed for characters to have real depth. The interaction between characters also reflected this depth.

Vally Of the Saints

Interesting story, personally i found that it was a bit slow and dragged on. The ending was well thought out; His world is the lake, our world is like the lake it can only reflect what is there. A subtle metaphor for what you put in you get out, if we treat the world badly it will end up that way itself, just as on the lake people treat it was a dumping ground and that is what it will become.

Anna Karenina

11/3-Week2 Life is a performance; Society forces people, women in particular, to focus so much on how that look and act in public. This film draws the connection between life and the stage by staging most of the film in a theatre, on the stage as if it where being performed for theatre. The music and choreography that underpin some scenes add another layer to this performance that is life. When Anna Karenina ruins here façade (performance) she finds that she is no longer accepted as everyone can see a glimpse of her private life.

Birth of a Nation

12/3-Week 2 The scale of this production was unseen at the time. Both in the size of the budget and the shots themselves, it contained many great sprawling scenes. The majesty that GW Grithif achieved with the film and its monumental shots is somewhat lost in the 3hr screening time.

Visions of light & Side by Side

5/3-Week 1; The most interesting thing i got from these to documentaries was the insight into cinema-photography. Although both contained more than just a peak into that world, it was that that interested me most.

Definition

This blog will serve as the Journal for Assessment item 3 in COM123. The posts to follow will each contain one review looking at only one film/episode/movie etc.