This is an example of Amelie enjoying the small things. (See previous blog post for further explanation)

"All The Small Things"

After watching Amelie, I felt that it was quite similar to The 400 Blows in regards to French New Wave cinema. In French New Wave films, the director uses many long shots. To Americans who are used to Hollywood action films, these shots may seem boring. However, to the French, these shots emphasize the importance of the small things in life. This type of long shot is seen all throughout The 400 Blows. One example occurs when the two boys are at the carnival. Here, the director spends several minutes shooting Antoine on a ride. This may seem small and unimportant to some, but the director uses it as a way to remind the audience how precious life is. If we don’t stop and enjoy it now and then, it will pass us by. Another example occurs at the end of the film when Antoine is running towards the ocean. This shot seems extremely long, but the director is again trying to emphasize the joy Antoine gets from something as trivial as running through the sand. In Amelie, the small things in life are emphasized as well. Here, however, the shots are not as long. For example, when introducing the characters, the director starts by describing their likes and dislikes. The likes are often very simple and include things like skipping stones or eating meat from a carcass; however, they give the characters great joy.

Altering the Audience

Amelie

This week I watched the French film, Amelie. It was a very different movie. I personally didn't like it. It is about a little girl named Amelie who grew up home-schooled with no friends. She had to use her imagination to entertain herself. This causes her to be a girl with no lover in her life who hates facing reality. The style seemed to be scattered along with Amelie's ideas and actions. She attempts to make other people's lives better while ruining one man's life who is mean to his worker. Amelie and the Glass Man share a common bond through his paintings and each others company. There is a girl in the picture he just quite can't get right... Amelie. The movie was very creative however it is not a movie I would choose to watch again.

Love Stories

Schindler's List and Parallel Editing

The 400 Blows’ Presence in the French New Wave

Originating in the late 1950s, The French New Wave was an era of film that broke away from the perfect shots that were used in Classical Hollywood Cinema and German Cinema. Some aspects of film during this new era include a documentary look, scenes that aren’t necessary to the plot, a natural feeling while not following a script, a cheap production budget, and extremely long takes coupled with scenes with numerous cuts.
In The 400 Blows, we see long takes in the scenes where Antoine is setting the dinner table, and when he is running to the ocean, although I don’t remember any scenes with a lot of cuts. The director, Francois Truffaut, a pioneer of the French New Wave, probably used the long takes to give the movie the natural feeling, so the viewer forgets they are watching a movie and feels as if they are watching something unfold in real life. One could tell of the movie’s cheap budget just because a good portion of the film was shot on location, and there were no explosions or crazy stunts that could raise the budget.
It is rather subjective to say whether a scene is necessary to a plot or not, because meanings can probably be constructed for any scene in a movie. Most scenes in The 400 Blows seemed to have meaning which tied into the central idea that Antoine lacked love in his life. If he was given love and guidance by his parents, he probably wouldn’t have been such a troublemaker, because he didn’t seem like a bad kid.

Auteur Theory

Simply put, auteur theory is the idea that a film reflects its director's intentions and ideas. After several films directors generally develop some distinctive style that reflects their technical skills as a director and their personal preferences for film genres, actors, special effects, and virtually all aspects of film. If a director, or auteur, produces many good films one would expect the director to continue producing good films. Conversely, an auteur that has made several bad films will be expected to continue producing bad films. Through auteur theory, a director is defined not by a single film, but by his or work body of works. A director could change how he or she is viewed by the public by changing the style of films produced. Because of this, the definition of a director's abilities and style is constantly changing as more films are produced.
Over time, many directors have developed very unique styles of directing. Alfred Hitchcock, who directed many films in the 50s and 60s, is very well known for his "psychological thriller" movies. Through the use of repeated themes and ideas such as characters who frequently change sides and the accusation of innocents, Hitchcock's style became so well received that many now use the term "Hitchcockian" to describe films similar to his style. In more recent times, Tim Burton has created his own dark and somewhat eccentric style to his films. Many of his films, such as Sweeney Todd, use dark and pale colors contrasted with reds. He also seems to have a set of favored actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. While the auteur theory may not be known by name to many, both critics and average film goers apply the ideas frequently when discussing movies and their directors.

Genre Reading

In regards to the reading, I had a few thoughts on the definition of "genre." First of all, I found it interesting that genres began as a result of economic responsibility. Hollywood chose to make multiple movies in the same "category" so that they could save money on the sets. This is why the sets in early Western and Gangster films look quite similar. Believe it or not, this is still done today. For example, the University of Southern California has acted as a different college for multiple movies. It is Yale in the popular show Gilmore Girls. It acts as Brown in The OC. Also, it is the sight of Harvard in Legally Blonde. Especially during these hard economic times, we may begin to see more and more repeat sets.

Also, I was in agreement with the need for change in the genre. Differences in movies are needed to keep the audience's interest. Right now, we are currently just "repeating the differences." This is why we end up getting so many of the same movies. For example, the film Ants came out right after a similar film made by a different production company, A Bug's Life. Both of these films centered around an insect hero that saved the colony and won the girl. This type of repetition occurs all the time. I agree with the reading that it is time for a "difference in repetition." People are sick of seeing the same stories over and over again.

Finally, in regards to the Western genre, I thought that The Searchers was a good example. It has some basic elements of the Western movie, such as savage Indians and large frontiers. However, it also had a few different elements that made it different from every other Western. For example, the Indians in this film were able to speak with the white men. They also had guns. This showed that they possessed a certain level of sophistication that other Indians lacked in previous Westerns. This type of change is needed to keep the interest of the audience. Now if other movies would try this type of creativity, Hollywood would be set.

John Ford's The Searchers contains virtually all elements one would expect from the setting to the plot line. The main conflict in the film focuses on the search for a specific group from a tribe of Comanche Indians that attacked and kidnapped the nieces of Ethan, played by John Wayne. As most cowboys in western films, Ethan believes all Indians to be uncivilized and sub-human. After he discovers that Lucy had been raised by the Comanche, he initially decides she is not worth saving because she has been “converted” to the savages. The theme of revenge against the Indians is the main element which connects The Searchers to the western genre.

Despite the almost immediate association with the western, The Searchers also features many characteristics of a love story. Martin, who leaves for several years in an attempt to save his sister, is in love with Laurie although he never verbally confesses it to her till near the end of the film as he felt his love was evident. Laurie feels distraught that he has never directly said, “I love you,” and even almost marries another man in Martin’s absence. Martin returns just in time for Laurie’s wedding and a fight ensues over Laurie. Eventually, Laurie and Martin sort out their feelings for each other and the wedding is canceled. The idea of a man interrupting a wedding because he is truly in love with the bride-to-be is almost clichéd in romance films today. While The Searchers is categorized as a western film, it could be more accurately be described as a hybrid genre of western and romance.

Crash & Asian Stereotypes

Crash has been criticized for its treatment of Asian stereotypes. The claim is that, while other racial stereotypes in the movie are redeemed, the stereotyping of the minor characters of the Asian couple remains uncontested.

After this was mentioned in class, I went back to the movie to verify the claim. Two secondary Asian characters are given screen time- a middle-aged couple, which we'll call the husband and wife- along with a quick shot of a “business partner”- the man seen incidentally dealing with the husband at the beginning of the film. Toward the end of the film, a number of Asians are seen in the back of a stolen van, presumed either refugees or slaves. By my count, these characters showed up in six distinct scenes. None of the scenes definitively determine the origins or race of the characters, and leave the interested viewer scant clues without a deeper knowledge of the east.

In the first scene, Asian stereotypes are relied upon heavily. A car crash was caused by an Asian woman, the wife, playing into the stereotypes that Asians and women are bad drivers. She is severe and is very angry with the occupants of the car she hit, though they are not at fault- and her attitude fills another common stereotype of Asian women often exploited by the media. Her accent mars her pronunciation of words containing an 'r' in English, due to the rhotacization found in Mandarin and other eastern languages- and while this mispronunciation is based on truth over simple stereotype, the woman with whom she is arguing is quick to seize on it for the purpose of ridicule.

In the second scene, two Asian men are seen dealing outside an insurance office, and seem to come to an agreement. The scene is meant to seem incidental, though we later realize the meeting has something to do with the transport of human cargo. No stereotypes are particularly evident.
In the third scene, the husband is hit by the story's stolen Navigator, and is dragged a block under the vehicle. The occupants get out of the car, realize that a “Chinaman” is trapped under the vehicle, and after some hesitation, decide they would rather help the man out than face murder charges. The man's only action is to ask for help. It is not apparent whether the hesitation of the driver and passenger was based on racial or ethnic difference, or the stated motivations; earlier in the film, the viewer is led to believe that if the driver found a black man in a similar situation, he would help out, because he felt it his duty. Regardless, the actions of the husband are fairly straight-forward- he was hit by a car and seriously injured, and then left on the side of the road to fend found. Little can be chalked up to an Asian stereotype.

The next scene features the wife running. At this point, the viewer doesn't know that the couple are married, or even that they know one another. As she runs, she continues to fulfill her rude and severe stereotype- pushing past people- and the viewer realizes she's running down the hall of a hospital, and that her attitude is due to worry. She finds her husband, badly scraped and otherwise injured, in his hospital room, and professes her love and worry, breaking the earlier appearance of severity. She explains that she's spent the night trying to find him and that in her haste to get to the hospital, she got in an accident and abused the other driver and passenger- explaining her poor driving and nastiness, and further defying the stereotype earlier demonstrated.

The last two scenes focus on the cargo in the back of the husband's van. In the chop shop, the immigrants are found; the owner of the shop contradicts Ludacris when he calls them “Chinamen”, pointing out that they are more likely “Thai- or Cambodian...”. They are dirty and destitute, but none of their actions seem unlikely within the situation. Perhaps they are shown to be a bit more “foreign” or “exotic” and less sympathetically treated than is appropriate. The lack of communication and screen time ensures that they'll be undeveloped, but it seems that the caricature is mostly of fear, and not race. In the last seen- when Ludacris frees them- the immigrants are afraid of the land to which they've been delivered, and amazed at what they see. The awe is perhaps a stretch, but I don't think it's uncalled for, especially given the ambiguity of the entire situation.

In summary, I don't feel that Asian stereotypes held through the movie. Maybe I don't know the full reach of the stereotypes, but the most obvious aspects were cast aside in the hospital scene. And though critics might argue that the husband was selling immigrants as slave labor- the issue of whether he means to sell them into servitude or help them into the country is unresolved- a morally bankrupt character isn't necessarily reinforcing a stereotype.

The Reading & The Movie Crash

The reading this week discussed race, ethnicity, etc. One specific topic in the reading was stereotypes, and how certain races are displayed in movies. The movie from this week, Crash, went right along with this topic. Throughout the movie, which was present then flashbacks, had many stereotypes portrayed in the movie such as the "black thug" teenagers, the Mexican, the Persian-store owner (who ironically was talked about when trying to buy a gun), and the racist whites. They all take their anger out on eachother, and are consequently all end up in a crash.. this movie was very interesting and I really liked it. It represented the fact that many believe stereotypes will never go away. It also goes prefectly along with what we read this week.