CMPL 143 FINAL
Thomas Elesser on Music in Melodrama
"In its dictionary sense, melodrama is a dramatic narrative in which musical accompaniment marks the emotional effects. This is still perhaps the most useful definition, because it allows melodramatic elements to be seen as constituents of a system of punctuation, giving expressive colour and chromatic contrast to the story-line, by orchestrating the emotional ups and downs of the intrigue." "In other words, this type of cinema depends on the ways 'melos' is given to 'drama' by means of lighting, montage, visual rhythm, décor, style of acting, music - that is, on the ways the mise-en-scène translates character into action [...] and action into gesture and dynamic space [...]."
Black Girl
-Set in the immediate postcolonial period, right after Senegalese independence (1960) -First black African film, Sembène's first feature length film -Won the Prix Jean Vigo for Best Feature Film in 1966 Financed by French Ministry of Cooperation
Cesare Zavittini "Some Ideas on the Cinema"
A radical reconsideration of possible subject matter for a dramatic film "Social attention," sustained and acute emphasis on "things as they are," preserved in their actual duration - neorealism as "minute, unrelenting and patient search" (53) Focus on contemporary happenings, "today, today, today" (57) Humanist observation informed by a (Christ-like) moral consciousness (56) A cinema of ordinary people and ordinary, day-to-day events rather than traditional heroes. "Every moment is infinitely rich ... Excavate, and every little fact is revealed as a mine" (58). A cinema in diametric opposition to Hollywood spectacle and the capitalist ideology that imbues it (51-2) Zavattini offers a prescriptive theory of neorealism as a mode of observation in which moral responsibility and aesthetic innovation go hand in hand.
The Passenger (1975)
Antonioni- Italian 2nd Cinema
Mise-en-scene
Basic Definition: Everything that has been put into place before the camera turns on. • Includes: setting (including colors), props, lighting, costumes, makeup, figure behavior (movement and performance), placement of figures (blocking)
Glauber Rocha "The Aesthetics of Hunger"
Begins by taking issue with European (mis)understandings of Latin American and more specifically Brazilian culture, predicated as they are on exoticism and a colonialist opposition of "civilized" vs. "uncivilized" (related terms here would be "primitive" and "underdeveloped"): Thus, while Latin America laments its general misery, the foreign observer cultivates the taste for that misery, not as a tragic symptom, but merely as a formal element in his field of interest. The Latin American neither communicates his real misery to the "civilized" man, nor does the "civilized" man truly comprehend the misery of the Latin American (p. 13). Argues that colonial domination is just as entrenched as it was previously - it has merely taken on subtler and more deceptive forms; even where no military action is involved, a colonialist agenda still imbues cultural and economic affairs: Undeniably, Latin America remains a colony. What distinguishes yesterday's colonialism from today's is merely the more refined forms employed by the contemporary colonizer. Meanwhile, those who are preparing future domination try to replace these with even more subtle forms. The problem facing Latin America in international terms is still that of merely exchanging colonizers. Thus, our possible liberation is always a function of a new dependency (13). "Aesthetics of Hunger" - this does not simply mean a film style that, perhaps like some examples of Italian neorealism, works with limited financial and technical resources; Rocha does advocate a rougher, less polished film aesthetic, but "hunger" is a very real, fundamental trait of Brazilian daily life that he thinks must be acknowledged and properly understood, in terms of form and content: This economic and political conditioning has led us to philosophical weakness and impotence that engenders sterility when conscious and hysteria when unconscious. It is for this reason that the hunger of Latin America is not simply an alarming symptom: it is the essence of our society. There resides the tragic originality of Cinema Novo in relation to world cinema. Our originality is our hunger and our greatest misery is that this hunger is felt but not intellectually understood (13) Cinema Nôvo is a phenomenon of new peoples everywhere and not a privilege of Brazil. Wherever one finds filmmakers prepared to film the truth and oppose the hypocrisy and repression of intellectual censorship there is the living spirit of Cinema Nôvo; wherever filmmakers, of whatever age or background, place their cameras and their profession in the service of the great causes of our time there is the spirit of Cinema Novo. This is the definition of the movement and through this definition Cinema Novo sets itself apart from the commercial industry because the commitment of Industrial Cinema is to untruth and exploitation (13-14). Rocha embraces violence as an instrument necessary to bring about a social and political revolution: Therefore, only a culture of hunger, weakening its own structures, can surpass itself qualitatively; the most noble cultural manifestation of hunger is violence. Cinema shows that the normal behavior of the starving is violence; and the violence of the starving is not primitive. Is Fabiano [in Barren Lives] primitive? Is Antâo [in Ganga Zumba] primitive? Is Corisco [in Black God, White Devil] primitive? Is the woman in Porto das Caixas primitive? From Cinema Nôvo it should be learned that an aesthetic of violence, before being primitive, is revolutionary. It is the initial moment when the colonizer becomes aware of the colonized. Only when confronted with violence does the colonizer understand, through horror, the strength of the culture he exploits. As long as they do not take up arms, the colonized remain slaves; a first policeman had to die for the French to become aware of the Algerians. From a moral position this violence is not filled with hatred just as it is not linked to the old colonizing humanism. The love that this violence encompasses is as brutal as the violence itself because it is not a love of complacency or contemplation but rather of action and transformation (13).
All That Heaven Allows
Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is an affluent widow in suburban New England, whose social life involves her country club peers, college-age children, and a few men vying for her affection. She becomes interested in Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), her gardener, an intelligent, down-to-earth and respectful yet passionate younger man. Ron is content with his simple life outside the materialistic society and the two fall in love. Ron introduces her to people who seem to have no need for wealth and status and she responds positively. Cary accepts his proposal of marriage, but becomes distressed when her friends and college-age children are angry. They look down upon Ron and his friends and reject their mother for this socially unacceptable arrangement. Eventually, bowing to this pressure, she breaks off the engagement. Cary and Ron continue their separate lives, both with many regrets, but Cary's children soon announce they are moving out. Having destroyed her chance at happiness, her son buys her a television set to keep her company. Before doing so, however, her daughter apologizes to her mother for her prior impulsive and foolish reaction to Ron, saying that there is still time if she really does love Ron. Cary's doctor points out that Cary is now lonelier than she was before meeting Ron. When Ron has a life-threatening accident, Cary realizes how wrong she had been to allow other people's opinions and superficial social conventions to dictate her life choices and decides to accept the life Ron offers her. As he recovers, Cary is by his bedside telling him that she has come home.
Editing Styles
Continuity editing - seamless, invisible, doesn't call attention to itself - associated with Hollywood and similar modes of filmmaking - primary goal: to provide a vehicle for the film's narrative • Montage - calls attention to the artifices of the cinema - attempts to produce a higher level of meaning - associated with propaganda/ideological film, often 3rd cinema - primary goal: aesthetic or meaning - based Various editing terminology: long takes, intercutting, analytical editing, contiguity editing (eyeline match, shot/reverse shot, 180 degree rule), jump cuts
The Passenger
David Locke (Jack Nicholson) is a television journalist making a documentary film on post-colonial Africa. To finish the film, he is in the Sahara desert seeking to meet with and interview rebel fighters involved in Chadian Civil War. Struggling to find rebels to interview, he is frustrated when his Land Rover gets hopelessly stuck on a sand dune. After a long walk through the desert back to his hotel, a thoroughly glum Locke discovers that an Englishman, Robertson (Charles Mulvehill), who has also been staying there and with whom he had struck up a friendship, has died overnight at the hotel. Locke decides to switch identities with Robertson; he is tired of his work, his marriage and his life, and sees an opportunity for a fresh start. Posing as Robertson, Locke reports his own death at the front desk, where the hotel manager mistakes Locke for Robertson, and the plan goes off without a hitch. In London, Locke's wife Rachel (Jenny Runacre) has been having an affair. She feels guilt-ridden and torn when she is informed of her husband's death. She approaches Locke's friend, Martin (Ian Hendry), a producer at the BBC, in an attempt to get in touch with Robertson so that she may learn more about her husband's last days. Meanwhile, "Robertson" (Locke) has flown off to Europe with the dead man's belongings, including his appointment book. Locke soon learns that Robertson was gunrunning for the rebels whom, as a reporter, Locke had been trying to contact in the desert. When he goes to check out an airport locker listed in Robertson's diary, Locke is tracked down by the rebels' point man in Europe. He is there to complete the weapons sale. Since neither man has ever seen the other before, Locke's false identity is not revealed, and he hands the men the documents from Robertson's locker, and receives the first down-payment for the set up arms deal with Robertson before his death. Later Locke accidentally spots Martin on a street in Barcelona, as the latter tries to track Robertson down on behalf of Rachel. Locke backtracks and at this point bumps into an architecture student (Maria Schneider) while trying to hide nearby. He asks her to fetch his belongings from the hotel, so he won't be seen there by Martin who camped out to catch up with "Robertson". Martin overhears that she is collecting Locke's baggage, and requests him to take her to meet "Robertson". She manages to evade him, and join with Locke who leaves off Barcelona. They become lovers, and later, while trying to explain his rather odd behaviour, Locke confesses that he has stolen a dead man's identity. Locke is flush with cash from the down payment on the arms he cannot deliver, yet he is drawn to keep the meetings listed in Robertson's note book. In the meantime, Rachel has received his left behind belongings, which were returned from Africa. Having heard from Martin of his unsuccessful chase of the elusive "Robertson", Rachel is shocked as she opens Locke's passport, to see Robertson's photo pasted inside. Having realised why "Robertson" was so elusive, Rachel now heads off to Spain to track down Locke, who is in flight from the Spanish police, brought in by Rachel to track Robertson. The student girl is however loyal to Locke and helps him to evade, providing rational advice, but Locke sends her away, intending to reunite later in Tangiers. Reaching the Gloria hotel in the Spanish town of Osuna, province of Seville, Locke finds out that the girl has already booked them a double room, but then again he persuades her that she better leave. Taking her time, she wanders the dusty parking out, while the rebel agents in pursuit of Robertson arrive at the hotel. There Locke's assassination takes place, mostly off screen, in long take, ending with a single heard gun shot. The rebels leave the scene minutes before the police arrive with Rachel, to find Locke motionless in bed. There his wife says to the police agents, she "never knew" the dead man, while the student girl identifies him as Robertson.
Vengence Is Mine
Example of late Japanese New Wave, Post-WWII art/auteur cinema (2nd Cinema) Themes of sex, violence, gambling, debauchery Problematization of agency: who is responsible? accountable? guilty? innocent? in charge? oppressed? "Two Japans"(cf: Richie): I want to make "messy, really human, Japanese, unsettling films" (Imamura) "the 'official' version, the aesthetically pleasing world of the tea ceremony, of subservient and kimono-clad women, and of such approved values as fidelity and loyalty." "the 'real' version, which does not behave like "Japanese" because none of the official rules of order and decorum apply. These folks do not know the meaning of fidelity or loyalty: they are natural and are, to that extent, uncivilized if civilization means a departure from the natural. They are selfish, amoral, pragmatic, and all the vitality of Japan comes from their numbers."
Biutiful
Family constellation - Uxbal, Marambra, Ana, Mateo, Tito (brother), dead father, Lili with Li, Ekweme and Ige with Samuel Work constellation - Chinese illegal immigrants, African illegal immigrants, black market, bribed police, drug trade New Mexican Cinema of the 1970s: state subvention, against Hollywood ("cinema del papa") "New new" Mexican Cinema of the 2000s: Hollywood financing, concerned with identity in a global age
Pierrot Le Fou
Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is unhappily married and has been recently fired from his job at a TV broadcasting company. After attending a mindless party full of shallow discussions in Paris, he feels a need to escape and decides to run away with an ex-girlfriend, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), leaving his wife and children and bourgeois lifestyle. Following Marianne into her apartment and finding a corpse, Ferdinand soon discovers that Marianne is being chased by OAS gangsters, two of whom they barely escape. Marianne and "Pierrot" - the unwelcome nickname meaning "sad clown," which Marianne gives to Ferdinand during their time together - go on a traveling crime spree from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea in the dead man's car. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run. Settling down in the French Riviera after having burnt the dead man's car (full of money) and sunk a second car into the Mediterranean Sea, their relationship becomes strained. Griffon ends up reading books, philosophizing and writing in his diary. Marianne becomes bored by their living situation and insists they return to town, where in a night club they meet one of their pursuers. The gangsters waterboard Pierrot and depart. In the confusion, Marianne and Ferdinand are separated, with her traveling in search of Pierrot and him settling in Toulon. After their eventual reunion, Renoir uses Griffon to get a suitcase full of money before running away with her real boyfriend, Fred (Dirk Sanders), to whom she had previously referred to as her brother. Pierrot shoots Marianne and her boyfriend, and then paints his face blue and decides to blow himself up by tying sticks of red and yellow dynamite to his head. Regretting his decision at the last second, he tries to extinguish the fuse, but fails and is blown up.
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Godard- French New Wave
Aventurera (1950)
Gout- Mexican Melodrama
Three Times (2005)
Hou- Taiwanese Slow Cinema
Vengence is Mine (1979)
Inamaru- Japanese Drama
Biutiful (2010)
Iñaritu (Spanish/Mexican Drama)
Aventurera (Mexican Melodrama)
Melodrama- originated in 19th century stage melodrama: a new type of action-packed, sensational drama EXCESS, hyperbole (exaggeration) in plot, gestures, words: expression that is "too much," characterized by "pressuring the surface of reality" "open up the world of the spirit" "desire to express all, utter the unspeakable" Melodramatic mode reveals the manichaeistic conflict between good and evil, light and darkness, salvation and damnation under the surface - the "moral occult" presentation of virtue and innocence: the female heroine threat to virtue, a menace or obstacle (casting its survival in question, obscuring its identity): introduction of villain(s) evil appears to reign triumphant, dictating the moral coordinates of reality: the villains rule and determine how/what everybody thinks is the truth virtue, expulsed, eclipsed, apparently fallen, cannot effectively articulate the cause of the right (often impeded by familial relationships, vows): heroine is unable to set things right in the eye of the public and defend herself virtue tries to resist (without active struggle): heroine's defense is always passive, for example by refusing something public recognition of where virtue and evil reside, triumph of virtue: heroine's honor is reestablished, the villain is punished
Panther Panchali (1955)
Ray- Indian Neorealism
Night and Fog (1955)
Renais
Andre Bazin
Rossellini's neorealism as a "way of seeing"; De Sica's, by contrast, as a "way of feeling" (62) The originality of neorealism owes to its "never making reality the servant of some a priori point of view" (64) An anti-spectacular cinema comprised of natural settings, untrained actors, and respect for events in their real-time unfolding (65) An ontological position that does not reduce to a "recipe" of certain technical characteristics (66) Self-effacement: the mise en scène "aims at negating itself," at making itself transparent to "the reality it reveals" (68) "Ontological ambiguity of reality" - nothing is accorded meaning in advance by the filmmaker (68) Things are there, why manipulate them? - things of the world allowed to exist for their own sakes (69) All characters are, at some level, "sympathetic" - no absolute separation of heroes and villains (69) Love and affection toward characters but devoid of pity, which would rob them of their dignity (70) Love that "scales the walls and penetrates the stronghold of ideologies and social theory" (71)
Black Girl (1966)
Sembene- African 3rd Cinema
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Sirk- Hollywood Melodrama
Panther Panchali (Indian Neorealism)
Stylistic elements (narrative, mise-en-scène, camera, montage) Narrative focus on children's life everyday life (seeing, playing, eating, cooking, getting dressed, school, walking); birth, death, family relations, survival string of contingent episodes improvised play, non-professional actors, "existing" rather than playacting in front of camera natural light, landscape, scenery, elements of landscape gain expressive quality careful framing, both naturalistic and expressive long shots (duration) panning and occasional tracking shots alternation of long shots that embed characters in landscape and close shots that focus on hands and faces
Vengence is Mine
The film's story is told in a series of flashbacks. In the opening scenes, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata), is a prisoner of the police. A huge crowd of journalists and an angry mob greets him as he enters a cell. The police quiz him but he refuses to answer. The story goes back to the initial murders. Enokizu tricks and then kills two men and steals a large sum of money. He puts on a suit and disappears. Enokizu travels to another city. At the train station, he asks a taxi driver to take him to an inn where he can get a prostitute. Enokizu is sexually insatiable. He tells the innkeeper, a woman called Haru (Mayumi Ogawa), that he is a professor at Kyoto University. The police, searching for Enokizu, put out bulletins with his face on television. The prostitute thinks the professor is Enokizu, but she is told not to go to the police because of her job. Enokizu's background is the son of a Catholic father (Rentaro Mikuni) who lost his fishing boats to the Japanese navy in the 1930s. Enokizu is a rebellious, violent child. As a young man, he is convicted and imprisoned. His mother is ill. His wife (Mitsuko Baisho) is attracted to his father. She divorces Enokizu, but then is persuaded by Enokizu's father to remarry him, due to the father's Catholic beliefs. After the remarriage, she tries to seduce the father, but fails. Enokizu accuses her of sleeping with his father when he was in prison. Enokizu travels to Tokyo. He tricks the mother of a young defendant into giving him the bail money for her son. Escaping, he befriends a lawyer who lives alone. He kills the lawyer and uses his apartment. He sends some money to Haru, and travels back to her place. Haru's mother is a convicted murderer who has recently been released from prison. Haru had lost her job, and had to run the seedy inn because she could not find other work. Haru and her mother realise that "the Professor" is the wanted man. Enokizu kills both Haru and her mother and pawns their goods. The prostitute (Toshie Negishi) sees the pawnbroker going to the inn and decides to go to the police. Five years later, Enokizu has been executed. His father and wife go to the top of a mountain to scatter his ashes. They throw the bones into the air but the bones remain hanging in the air.
Black Girl
The plot continually shifts back and forth between Diouana's present life in France where she works a domestic servant, and flashbacks of her previous life in Senegal. During flashbacks of Diouana's life in Senegal, the viewer learns that she comes from a very poor village outside of Dakar. Most people in the village cannot read or write. Every day Diouana would roam around the city in the hopes of finding a job. One day, Madame came to the square, looking for a servant. She selected Diouana from the crowd of unemployed women because she was submissive, and did not crowd forward eagerly demanding a job. She hired Diouana to care for her three children in Dakar. As a gift, Diouana gave her new employers a traditional mask that she had bought from a small boy for 50 guineas. The employers display it in their home. When Dionana is not working for Monsieur and Madame she spends time with her boyfriend, going for walks. It isn't long before Monsieur and Madame offer Diouana a job working for them in France. Diouana is thrilled, and immediately begins dreaming of her new life in France. But in France Diouana is overworked, cooking and cleaning for the rich French couple and their friends. The couple treats her harshly and doesn't allow her to rest. Diouana is confused as to her role in their household. She thought that she would be caring for children, as she did in Senegal. She thought that she would be able to go outside and see something of France. But she is always inside, cooking and cleaning the house. When she works she wears a fancy dress and heels. The mistress of the house tells her to remove them, telling her "don't forget that you are a maid." One night at a dinner party, one of Madame and Monsieur's friends kisses Diouana without her consent, explaining "I've never kissed a negress before!" Diouana receives a letter from her mother in the mail, which Monsieur reads to her. In the letter, Diouana's mother asks why she hasn't heard from her daughter, and pleads for some money. Diouana rips the letter up. Madame refuses to let Diouana sleep, and yells at her to get to work. Diouana attempts to take back the mask she gave to Madame, and a struggle ensues. Madame tells Diouana that if she does not work, she cannot eat. Diouana refuses to work. Then, in an unexpected plot twist that is the climax of the film, Diouana commits suicide by slitting her wrists in the bathtub of the family's home. The film ends with Monsieur journeying to Senegal to return Diouana's suitcase and mask to her family. He offers Diouana's mother money, but she is insulted and refuses to take it. As Monsieur leaves the village, the little boy with the mask runs along behind him, symbolizing how Monsieur is haunted by his own memories.
Aventurera
The quiet life of the young Elena (Ninón Sevilla), changes dramatically when her mother runs off with her lover, causing the suicide of her father. Alone and without resources, she immigrates to Ciudad Juárez, where she unsuccessfully looks for work. On the verge of starvation, Elena agrees to work with Lucio (Tito Junco), suspecting that his offer is a trap for prostitution. She ends up dancing in the cabaret of Rosaura (Andrea Palma), a woman who leads a double life: six months a year she oversees her brothel in Juarez, and the other six months she is a respectable society lady of Guadalajara. Rosaura abused and deeply humiliated Elena, who ends up running away from her with the help of Lucio, only to have to flee the city when Lucio gets involved in an assault and ends up in prison. Elena decides to start a new life working as a showgirl in Guadalajara. There she meets Mario (Ruben Rojo), a handsome young man who falls for her. Elena accepts his marriage proposal, only to discover, through a bitter twist of fate, that Rosaura is the mother of Mario. Elena decides to continue with her plans as a way of torturing Rosaura and avenge all the evil that caused her. But Lucio escape from prison, complicating the Elena riot situation.
Solanas and Gotina "Toward a Third Cinema"
Three-part typology: First Cinema: Hollywood and its international emulators/dependents (not just a style of filmmaking; cinema as a key instrument of ideological control, in the service of monopoly capital Second Cinema: the auteur-driven art cinema of Europe Third Cinema: collective, guerilla filmmaking in a struggle against neocolonialism, independent in production, militant in politics, and experimental in its "language" Note that these terms are not meant to correspond to the Cold War designations; "Third Cinema" is a deliberately playful and ambiguous expression that does not confine itself to the Third World and its "underdeveloped" nations National/International movement: call for Third Cinema grows out of what the authors take to be a new historical situation, the rise of an anti-colonial struggle that has the support of the masses on a national level and a broader coalition on an international level (p. 17) The critique of First Cinema is against not just its socially insufficient spectacle but the condition of passivity it produces in the audience (to be a spectator is a bad thing, one must become an actor, an agent of history and political change, hence the military metaphor of "arming" the people with the instruments of the film medium, training them in this use of this weaponry) (20). Solanas and Getino are keenly aware of the ways in which the ruling class co-opts and absorbs radical political strategies, in effect allowing for bogus forms of dissent that achieve nothing (19, 20) The Che-inspired guerilla metaphor is a bit romantic, but Solanas and Getino are highly attentive to technical and practical necessities including financing and training people in the use of film technology - the goal isn't to make one or two subversive films but to put into place an entire system, or counter-system, of Third Cinema that can sustain itself both culturally and economically (this calls to mind Godard's notion of not making "political films" but rather "making films politically") Film (e.g., Hour of the Furnaces, 1968) is conceptualized as a militant event that activates the audience and provokes debate: what counts more than the film itself is the event of its showing and the participation involved. The film should not be a show but "a film act, a film action" (26, 27)
Japanese Cinema
Unlike in the West, where early films were exhibited in nickelodeons and fairgrounds for the masses, early cinema in Japan was also largely marketed as entertainment for the upper classes. Thus, early Japanese cinema is divided into two trends: Recorded theatre plays drawing from the traditional theatrical styles (the dominant form until the 1920s) -- shot with a stationary camera from a fixed position as a series of long takes (often compared to the films of the Lumières/Edison/Porter) Japanese narrative cinema, especially turn-of-the-century ghost stories (often compared to the films of Méliès) that were considered forms of mass entertainment Legacies of each of these traditions still exist today: Historical/period pieces with theatrical costumes mostly set in the Edo period (1603-1868), known as jidai-geki ("period-drama") Films set in contemporary world, known as gendai-geki ("contemporary drama") With the success of television, Japanese cinema had to reinvent itself in the 1970s Total audience in cinemas had declined from 1.2 billion in 1960 to 0.2 billion in 1980 The cinema fights back: with a return to big budget films, drawing in audiences for the attraction by showing content that could not be shown on TV due to censorship -- sex, violence, glorification of subcultures with a return to the Star System (idol eiga, "film idol culture") with greater experimentation (retention of many features of New Wave) avant-garde film scores & sound editing non-linear chronology open-ended narratives experimental cinematography and/or mise-en-scène return to dramatic plots but told in new and innovative ways depiction of traditionally non-sanctioned images of Japan, esp. through themes of sexuality & violence
Biutiful
Uxbal lives in a shabby apartment in Barcelona with his two young children, Ana and Mateo. He is separated from their mother Marambra, a woman suffering from alcoholism and bipolar disorder. Having grown up an orphan, Uxbal has no family other than his brother Tito, who works in the construction business. Uxbal earns a living by procuring work for illegal immigrants and managing a group of Chinese women producing forged designer goods along with the African street vendors who are selling them. He is able to talk to the dead and is sometimes paid to pass on messages from the recently deceased at wakes and funerals. When he is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer leaving him with only a few months to live, his world progressively falls apart. Uxbal initially begins chemotherapy, but he later ends the treatment at the advice of his friend and traditional healer Bea. She also gives him two black stones which she asks him to give his children before he dies. The group of Africans are brutally arrested by the police despite Uxbal's regular bribes because of their involvement with drugs. When his friend Ekweme faces deportation to Senegal, Uxbal offers Ekweme's wife Ige and their baby son a room in his apartment. Meanwhile, an attempt at reconciliation with Marambra fails when Uxbal realizes she cannot be trusted to raise his children. Tito brokers a deal to put the Chinese to work at a construction site. However, almost all of them die while asleep in the basement of their sweatshop due to malfunctioning gas heaters installed by Uxbal. An attempt by a human trafficker to dump the bodies into the sea fails when they are washed up on the shore shortly after. As Uxbal's health continues to deteriorate, he is plagued with guilt that he is responsible for the death of the immigrants. As his death draws nearer, he realizes that there will be nobody to take care of Ana and Mateo once he is gone. He entrusts the remainder of his savings to Ige, asking her to stay with the children after his death. She accepts his request but later decides to use the money to pay for her return to Africa. She changes her mind at the last minute, however, and returns to the apartment. Knowing that Ige will take care of his children, Uxbal lies down next to Ana and dies after having passed on to her a diamond ring which his father had once given to his mother. He is then reunited in a snowy winter landscape with his father, who had died before Uxbal's birth shortly after having fled Spain for Mexico during the Franco regime.
Cinematography
aesthetic decisions using camera and camera lenses, film stocks, etc. - camera movement: height, distance, angle - panning and tracking, tilt - framing - lenses, depth of field, depth of focus - film stocks, tints, dyes, colorization, etc.
The Passenger
everyday life, insignificant events, episodic, elliptical, non-dramatic narrative a new attention to bodies, environments, "situations" a "new realism" that is not just the realism of what is shown, but a realism of cinematic form—artificial, not natural example: The maid in Umberto D. focus on children and animals: distance, helplessness, inactivity vis-à-vis the adult world perspective from outside emphasis on seeing and hearing example: Apu in Pather Panchali, Edmund in Germania Year Zero, Bruno in Bicycle Thieves, the dog in Umberto D.
Panther Panchali
n Nischindipur, rural Bengal, in the 1910s, Harihar Roy (Kanu Banerjee) earns a meagre living as a pujari (priest), but dreams of a better career as a poet and playwright. His wife Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee) takes care of their children, Durga (Uma Dasgupta) and Apu (Subir Banerjee), and Harihar's elderly cousin, Indir Thakrun (Chunibala Devi). Because of their limited resources, Sarbajaya resents having to share her home with the old and helpless cripple Indir. At times, Sarbajaya's taunts become offensive, forcing Indir to take temporary refuge in the home of another relative. Durga is fond of Indir and often gives her fruit she has stolen from a wealthy neighbour's orchard. One day, the neighbour's wife accuses Durga of stealing a bead necklace (which Durga denies) and blames Sarbajaya for encouraging her tendency to steal. As the elder sibling, Durga cares for Apu with motherly affection, but spares no opportunity to tease him. Together, they share the simple joys of life: sitting quietly under a tree, viewing pictures in a travelling vendor's bioscope, running after the candy man who passes through the village, and watching a jatra (folk theatre) performed by a troupe of actors. Every evening they are delighted by the sound of a distant train's whistle. One day, they run away from home to catch a glimpse of the train, only to discover Indir lying dead on their return. Unable to earn a good living in the village, Harihar travels to the city to seek a better job. He promises Sarbajaya that he will return with money to repair their dilapidated house. During his absence, the family sinks deeper into poverty. Sarbajaya grows increasingly lonely and bitter. One day during the monsoon season, Durga plays in the downpour for too long, catches a cold and develops a high fever. Adequate medical care being unavailable, the fever becomes worse, and on a night of incessant rain and gusty winds, she dies. Harihar returns home and starts to show Sarbajaya the merchandise he has brought from the city. Sarbajaya, who remains silent, breaks down at the feet of her husband, and Harihar cries out in grief as he discovers that he has lost his daughter. The family decide to leave their ancestral home. As they start packing, Apu finds the necklace that Durga had earlier denied having stolen; he throws it into a pond. Apu and his parents leave the village on an ox-cart.
Sound and Lighting
neither sound nor lighting is necessarily proper to just camerawork, mise-en-scène, or editing alone Both analyzed in terms of: diegetic or non-diegetic intradiagetic source (onscreen or offscreen) for sound: synchronous or non-synchronous, simultaneous or non-simultaneous, sound bridge
Aventurera (Caberetera Films)
picked up on prostitute films from the 1930s, especially The Woman of the Port "If the comedia ranchera stood for traditional values, the cabaretera dramatized the breakdown of those values" highly erotic musical influence from Cuba and other Latin American countries (danzon, rhumba, mambo, cha-cha) most famous cabaretera star was Ninón Sevilla NATIONAL-CULTURAL CONTEXT: exposes middle-class morality as a sham presents corruptness of Mexican society connects Juárez's underworld with Guadalajara's old aristocracy reflection of the problematic aspects of Aléman's reign: corruption, demographic explosion in urban areas, rise in unemployment, prostitution, and violence
Biutiful
● Production: Televisió de Catalunya (Spain), Televisión Española (Spain), Cha Cha Cha Films (Mexico), Focus Features International (USA) ● González Iñárritu: Mexican director who has made films with increasingly transnational financing and production (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Birdman, The Revenant) ● Javier Bardem: famous Spanish actor ● Setting: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain ● Title: phonetic writing of an English word ● Plot: Migrant workers, transnational networks, global capitalism Biutiful (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2010)
