Not Fade Away is a movie that I would not have heard about if it were not for the Chicago Tribune. I had been meaning to check it out since I saw the good review it gave on the front page of A&E, so I was glad to see it show up on Netflix. This indie movie (and directorial debut of The Sopranos creator David Chase) was released in 2012 but is set in the 1960s and features a cast in which I didn't recognize anyone other than the late James Gandolfini. What interested me the most about this film was the mix of history into the movie-often times early video or sound clips of The Rolling Stones or The Beatles would play along with narration of what was going on with big bands at the time. The inclusion of these clips made the movie a lot of fun to watch and imagine what it must have been like to hear and see bands like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles for the first time. The movie tells the story of a group of friends who form a band and have dreams of making it big in the '60s. They are inspired by artists such as Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles. Throughout the movie the band members face struggles as they realize that it takes more than just a love of music to be successful as a band. While trying to balance (at some points unsuccessfully) his band, school, and girlfriend Grace (Bella Heathcote), Douglas, played by John Magaro, takes over as lead singer for the band, which causes some tension. The movie follows the band through several trials and errors, including auditions and studio time, until the band ultimately begins to crumble after one member gets into a serious motorcycle accident. Doug is left contemplating what his future will hold for him. The intro to the movie was awesome and got me hooked right away. After a black and white clip, a television announcement leads straight into The Rolling Stones' hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." An important scene-and my favorite scene-came when the band was forming together while jamming to Bo Diddley. The camerawork in this scene featured many close-ups of the instruments while they were being played. I noticed that close-ups were also big throughout the rest of the movie. Something interesting that I noticed was that often times, including in this scene, there would be a close up of somebody's (usually Doug's) eye and then ear, which I didn't completely understand the point of. I liked how the camera worked in this scene because it created a kind of rhythm with the shots that went well with the music. I also noticed how vibrant colors were often used, which made me think maybe this was to try to emulate the color technology that was being used in the '60s-- like the vibrant colors in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The look of the movie, including the coloring and the costumes, made Not Fade Away more believable as a movie set in the '60s.
The movie was really cool but left me feeling like some of the issues were unresolved. After the halfway point we find out that Doug's dad, Pat (James Gandolfini), has cancer. Other than it being mentioned a few times, it isn't brought up for the rest of the movie. Also there isn't much of a conclusion with Grace, Doug's girlfriend. She kind of just disappears from the movie after the band falls apart. It also felt like the movie took an unexpected turn when the band faced an early demise. I was surprised to see the band dissolve so quickly when I was expecting something more to come of it. But the more I thought about it, the more I think I understand why that happened. A big theme of the movie was not knowing what was going to happen next and living in the present. By taking a completely different direction than the viewer was probably intending, the movie exemplifies the theme of not knowing any further into the future than what is happening at the moment. Because of its compelling story and rock 'n roll history infusion, I would give Not Fade Away 4/5 stars.
I have always enjoyed Christopher Nolan's films, so when I came across Following on Netflix, I decided it would be a good pick for my next MYST. Also, it is considered "neo-noir" so it fits well with what we are discussing in class. It was released in 1998 and features a cast of Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, and Lucy Russell among others, none of whom I had heard of before. While looking at other Nolan films I saw that he had casted Theobald in Doodlebug, a movie Nolan directed a year before Following. The movie features only four main characters, three or four of whom don't actually have names. They are simply referred to in the credits as "The Young Man," "The Blonde," "The Bald Guy," and Cobb. This movie was made on a very low-budget. Nolan used mostly available light instead of spending money on expensive lighting equipment. He also used as much available space as he could-- he actually used actor Jeremy Theobald's flat as his character's living space in the movie. He made sure his actors and actresses were well-prepared so they only needed one or two takes to get a scene so as not to waste the film stock the movie was shot on. Nolan also paid for the 16mm film stock out of his own salary. An interesting fact about the movie: besides being the director, Nolan served as writer, producer, editor, and photographer. The film takes place in London where an aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald) starts following people around on the streets. He sets rules for himself at first, but when he breaks one and begins to follow one man extensively, he gets involved in that is not so harmless. The man takes notice of his being followed and confronts the writer. The man, whose name is Cobb (Alex Haw), begins to tell the writer that he is a serial burglar and invites the writer to come with him on his criminal sprees. The writer tells Cobb his name is Bill and soon becomes enticed by Cobb's criminal lifestyle. He accompanies Cobb on various burglaries and starts dating a woman-referred to as "The Blonde", played by Lucy Russell- whose house he and Cobb broke into. The story gets pretty complex and confusing, but basically follows the young man's life while he becomes ever more deeply involved in burglary. It turns out that the whole thing was a set up created by Cobb and The Blonde in order to frame The Young Man for a crime he didn't commit. Then, it turns out that Cobb had been working for another man-known as The Bald Guy-and had set up both The Blonde and The Young Man. At a little more than halfway through, the movie became really hard to follow but it was still intensely interesting. While watching this movie, I was surprised to realize how many similarities it has with Memento, another Christopher Nolan directed film and one of my favorites. I had no idea that Following was released only 2 years before Memento, and it made me think that maybe Nolan was trying to expand on his idea from Following. Both movies use reverse chronological sequencing at times, have a gritty feeling to them, and contain film noir elements. Memento has scenes that are filmed in black and white, while the entirety of Following is black and white. Narration plays a big part in both movies. In Following, The Young Man narrates throughout his experience with Cobb in an interview with a policeman (played by Christopher Nolan's uncle, John Nolan) who we only see at the beginning and end of the movie. In Memento, Leonard narrates parts of the movie while he is talking on the phone throughout. The narration that is used helps to show the separation that the characters in both films are feeling. The theme of alienation is big in both movies as well, and also characteristic of the film noir genre. An interesting thing that I noticed was that there was hardly any music or background sound used in the film (once again similar to Memento) until the first time The Young Man accompanies Cobb when he is breaking into someone's house. The sounds that played in the background were very eerie and squeaky and made the scene more intense and suspenseful. Check it out in the clip below...
In this scene where Cobb and The Young Man break into someone's house, sound is first used significantly in the background. The sound, which is very squeaky and high-pitched, makes the scene disorienting and uncomfortable. It fits with The Young Man's mood in this scene. He is alarmed by Cobb's actions in the house, which include dumping the contents of a box onto the floor, to which Cobb explains by telling The Young Man that his purpose is to interrupt the lives of those who live there and to make them see what they had. When Cobb said this to the Young Man, it made me think of how The Young Man's purpose had always been to follow without interrupting. Cobb acts as a type of character foil for The Young Man, who seems more innocent after seeing what Cobb does.
The camera movements are shaky with most scenes being shot with a handheld camera throughout the movie, probably to serve Nolan's plan of reducing spending to a minimum. The look of this film fit that of a typical film noir. It was shot in black and white and had a certain grittiness to it. There were a lot of sharp cuts to black which reminded me again of Memento. I really enjoyed this movie although I will admit I got really confused a little after halfway into it. I would give this film 4/5 stars because it is creative and thought-provoking and has well-developed and interesting characters. The ideas that this film presented were also very interesting and got me thinking about how much you can actually find out about someone else's life before you are intruding on them-- and if you can ever really know everything about someone else's life. The themes of intrusion and the study of a person seem to fit in well with the neo-noir genre because they have dark and mysterious undertones, much like a neo-noir film itself. This movie will most likely be one that I will have to watch a few more times before I fully understand all of it (again, like Memento), but one that I would enjoy watching over again.
I'm happy to say that my days of never having seen a Martin Scorsese film are over. I wanted to focus this study on Scorsese, one, because I had never seen a full-length film directed by him, and two, because of how much I had heard about him. Since I wasn't familiar with the works of Scorsese at the start of this study, I wanted to pick movies that decently spanned his career. The three movies that I went with are Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), and Gangs of New York (2002). These movies are all set in New York and have some crime element to them. Scorsese himself was raised in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City, by Italian-American parents. It seems as if Scorsese's childhood has influenced his movies in a significant way. A few major things I noted about these movies was the use of sound, distinctive camera-work and cinematography, and the heavy use of narration. But back to these later. First, I'll start off with a little background from each of the movies.... Goodfellas was the first of the three movies that I watched. I had high expectations since I had heard a lot about it and since it was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in 1991. Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, who works with his gangster friends (including Robert De Niro as James
Conway and Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito) to move up in the Mob hierarchy in New York. This film is an adaptation of Wiseguys, a non-fiction book written in 1986. The thing that I noticed first about this movie was the use of narration. The first fifteen minutes after the opening scene were narrated by Henry Hill as the viewer watched him grow up and live his dream of being a gangster. Music is used in a big way throughout the film. More than 35 different songs were used throughout! This made the film more exciting to watch and gave more information about the time period in which it was set. The camera work was very distinctive and unlike anything I had seen before. Often times during this movie at the peak of intense moments a freeze frame would be used while narration was going on over it. I noticed that the camera does a lot of panning and weaving throughout the movie, which I came to realize-after watching the other two movies-that this type of camera-work is typical of Scorsese films. Gangs of New York, the second movie I watched, surprised me a little because it was very different from the rawness of Goodfellas and wasn't what I was expecting at all. It was quirkier and altogether a pretty weird movie and I was surprised to read that it was one that Scorsese had been working on for a while-it was somewhat of a passion project for him. This movie
centers around Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) who seeks revenge against the man who killed his father many years ago in a gang fight in the Five Points district of New York. Once again, music was a big part of this movie, however, the type of music differed from what was played in Goodfellas. In Gangs of New York most of the music that was used was instrumental, such as beating drums or bagpipes. One scene that was made even more weird by the music was the huge gang fight near the beginning of the movie in which Vallon's dad was killed. The music didn't sound like it should have been playing during a fight scene, which made for a weird juxtaposition. Another scene in which music is used in an interesting way is also near the beginning when a character in Vallon's gang kicks down a door revealing a snowy New York and the beating drums in the background abruptly stop. This created a disorienting scene that made it feel like something else unexpected was going to happen. Also like Goodfellas, narration plays a part in this movie. A lot of it is narrated by the main character, Amsterdam Vallon. The use of narration in this movie is interesting because most of the time Vallon is a pretty quiet character, so the narration lets the viewer get into his head a little more. Taxi Driver was the last in this series of movies that I watched, and probably my favorite of the three. It is about a former Marine, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, who works as a late-night taxi driver in the streets of New York City. His becomes more violent throughout the movie and becomes more fed up with the dirtiness of the streets and people who occupy them. Along the way he attempts to change the lifestyle of a young prostitute, played by Jodie Foster. Music in this movie served to highlight the isolation felt by Travis. (Interestingly there is a lot of beating drums in the music--like in Gangs of New York).The music used was mostly sad-sounding and instrumental. Travis often remains silent in the company of others and only expresses his main feelings through writing in a journal. Also serving to demonstrate Travis's feelings of loneliness was the heavy use of narration. Since Travis hardly talks when around others, his narration shows what he is thinking.
The main theme that I wanted to explore in depth for this study is Scorsese's camera work. The cinematography is very distinctive and makes these movies so much more interesting and exciting to watch. In each movie I noticed that Scorsese favors tracking shots in which he follows (usually from behind) his subject for a significant length of time. A great example of this shot is in Goodfellas, when Henry Hill and his date are being followed through a nightclub scene to a dining table (see video below for the infamous Copacabana nightclub tracking shot).
Another tracking shot scene in this movie is one in a bar where the viewer is introduced to a multitude of gangsters, who all look directly into the camera to introduce themselves. In Gangs of New York, the camera pans and weaves throughout underground caves as it keeps up with a young Amsterdam Vallon and his dad as they make their way outside to the big gang fight. I found these scenes with a tracking shot incredibly fun to watch because it felt like I was a part of the movie. Also, rarely does the viewer see actors looking directly into the camera (like in the bar scene in Goodfellas). Another interesting technique of Scorsese's was using slow camera movements, slow-motion, and freeze frames. In Taxi Driver, slow camera movements help to demonstrate Travis's loneliness. In Gangs of New York, slow motion is used in the beginning when Vallon and his gang are walking through the underground tunnels. Goodfellas makes use of the freeze-frame. I noted that many scenes would freeze at moments of peak intensity.
Another very important theme that connected these three movies was the use of music and sound. In all of these movies there was hardly a time where there was no music or sounds playing in the background. In Goodfellas, this music served to set the stage and make the movie more exciting to watch. As for Taxi Driver, the more instrumental music exemplified Travis's loneliness in the busy cities of New York. The music of Gangs of New York intensified battle scenes and created for interesting juxtapositions in some scenes. Narration was also an important aspect in each of these movies. It served to let the viewer into the character's head when there was no other way in. How else would we witness any better the descent into violent madness that De Niro's character experiences in Taxi Driver? Henry Hill narrating his own childhood made for an interesting introduction to Goodfellas. And in Gangs of New York, narration added yet another layer to the complexity of everything that was going on throughout the movie. According to Box Office Mojo, Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York, and Goodfellas are the seventh, eighth, and ninth top earners of (adjusted) gross income for Scorsese's films, respectively (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/ view=Director&id=martinscorsese.htm&sort=opengross&order=DESC&p=.htm). It's interesting that these three are all right next to each other in the chart, considering Scorsese has directed over twenty films. Seeing these movies has given me a good idea of what a Scorsese film is like, and left me wanting to see more of his work. This study has allowed me to see how much influence a director has on a movie. There are obvious parallels between the three movies I watched, such as cinematography and sound, which label them as Scorsese movies. I now better understand how a director's style can impact a movie. In terms of style, Martin Scorsese's distinct cinematography and use of sound have left me loving what I have seen from him and wanting to see more.
This movie starts with an immigrant woman traveling over on boat to the United States. Unknown to her, she is possessed by a demon. When she reaches the US she falls ill and dies in company of a nurse, Marian, who is now possessed by the demon. She is taken inby a priest's adopted son, who just happens to practice exorcisms. He and his father work together to try to rid Marian of the demon that is possessing her.
This movie has a pro-American and anti-immigrant message because it depicts an immigrant who comes over and is possessed by an evil spirit. Some Americans at the time believed that immigrants were the cause of many problems in the United States. Since this is a horror movie, it will be filmed in black and white like most other horror movies of its time. It will be fairly low-budget because that is usually how horror films are made. We chose Universal Studios for this movie because it is a studio that was well-known for horror movies in the 1930's. Universal made some of the best known horror movies such as Dracula, The Mummy, and Frankenstein. By using Universal Studios, we have access to Boris Karloff, who will play the priest, and Helen Visto, who will play Marianne. These actors fit well with our movie because they are well known for horror films of their time-Karloff starred in Frankenstein and The Mummy. Alfred Edeson will be our cinematographer because he filmed Frankenstein and is linked with James Whale, our director and longtime Universal filmmaker.
Boris Karloff
Thanks to the Hays Code, we wouldn't be able to show graphic scenes from the immigrant woman's death, or we would just have to suggest it instead of showing anything. Also, we would have to be careful about how we portray Father Alfred, the priest, because we would want to be careful that we aren't offending people or their religion.
If I had worked alone, I might have added in a few lighter, more comedic scenes so maybe it would appeal to more people. Although this might change the genre significantly, it might have been more enjoyable to watch since a lot of people are going through tough times.
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