American Cinema VS Chinese Cinema

American and Chinese Cinema in my opinion are some of the least comparable film making styles. The cultures of the two countries are dramatically different, mainly because of the traditions of the two countries. American Cinema has gone through four distinct periods the Silent Film era, Classic Hollywood Cinema, New Hollywood, and the Contemporary Period. There has been six distinct periods of Chinese Cinema the Beginnings (1896-1945), the Second Golden Age (late 1940s), the Communist era (1950-1960), the Cultural Revolution (1960s-1980s), the Fifth Generation (1980s-1990s), and finally the Sixth Generation (1990s-present). These periods in both types of cinema have created classics in all aspects of the film world.

American Cinema because of the massive difference in the culture of the people in the country is all over the place. So many American films are seen all over the world that American Cinema touches almost all countries cinema (even Chinese). The silent era of American film was the first era which had films in which music was playing while the film was going on, and breaks that would show what the actors were saying. Classic Hollywood Cinema was when the rise of American Cinema started because of the great films, directors, and actors that were alive during the 1910s and 1920s. The New Hollywood era brought films like the Star Wars Trilogy, and Dawn of the Dead. Most films out of this time are considered classics of film. So many great films were made during this time in every genre, bring American Cinema into many other countries. In the post contemporary era of American Cinema (after 1980) is when most of the good films that were formal presented to American audience were forgot, and replaced with lots of for the lack of a better word, crap. There is the occasional great film but for the most part present day American films are just about the money involved. This is where Chinese and American cinemas are the most different.

Chinese Cinema is created to tell a story and convey it to the director’s best ability usually resulting in a great film. The best way I can describe my personal view on Chinese film is to describe the vast use of color which creates a beautiful image for the audience watching. Every time I sit down and watch a Chinese film I know that I am going to enjoy the color and the great story that is exhibited throughout the film. Chop Socky, shows how Chinese Cinema helped to inspire World Cinema by using color to tell the story. Along with chorography and inventive camera angles plenty of new ways to make movies have come from Chinese Cinema. I haven’t been exposed to many Chinese films which creates a void in this essay causing my argument to truly have only one side.

The main difference between American and Chinese Cinema's are how the stories are presented to the audience Chinese film describe all aspects of the story and bring the entire audience into the film. American films (of the post contemporary era) usually are one track telling the audience only one thing and creates a simple minded film. But like everything in the world there and plenty of exceptions to this, that make American Cinema worth what it is.

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth, this film is an eye opener. Never before has a documentary affected me the way this has. I begun watching this film thinking that it was just going to be Al Gore talking about how he should have became President and why George Bush was going to destroy the world. Instead I was pleasantly surprised by the content of it. Beside the quick introduction of “I’m Al Gore, I used to be the next President of the United States” there was absolutely no mention Presidential politics. Instead the film was purely about informing the masses about the big problem we will be having in the near future.

The way I write my critiques, writing about a documentary is a little strange because they are not really focused on lighting, costumes, sounds, direction, special effects, or colors. An Inconvenient Truth was just Al Gore speaking to a few groups of people and showing the natural beauty of our planet. It didn’t seem like anything special was done to the film. It was as if they set up a few extra lights on the stage Al Gore was open and film his entire speech. Then took the camera to a lot beautiful examples of what global warming will destroy if will continue to let is happen.

This film opened my eyes to what needs to change in our world. I believe that if someone watching this film doesn’t decide to change at least one thing that they know is bad for the planet its message didn’t get through to them. If everyone who saw this film would just change one thing that they do it could make a big difference on our planet.


p.s. - Does anyone think the blue letters in the white words at the end of the movie spell stuff out? We should watch that part again and figure it out!!

Family Values

Family Values a film about a lesbian couple who decided to lift the burden of cleaning up crime scenes in people’s homes. This film was very enjoyable. The director (Eva Saks) used one of my favorite techniques in film. Instead of showing the body parts and pieces that they are picking up it show where everything was and the fluids. That may seem just as gross to some people but, I feel that the things that aren’t shown in a film are truly the worse images. The reason being that the director can let the audience form their own visions of the object. So for the people like myself who have a good imagination we can create sometime in our head that fill in the void that is left by the director.

Other then that this film was not really to appealing, the film centered solely on what their business was. Which was a good idea but it could have been put together far better then it was. It was mentioned that they were lesbian a few times in the film but that had no real reason to be in the film, most viewers don’t care what a persons sexual orientation is.

The film being shot in black and white makes it all the better because (coming back to imagination again) I can picture the colors around the room from previous experiences with other film and tell exactly how gory the crime scene really is and appreciate these people a lot more because of their work environment.

Mid-Term Essay

Throne of Blood depicts two soldiers in Medieval Japan who are in the middle of a battle and get lost in a forest and stubble upon a evil spirit who that the two men (Washizu Taketori and Miki Yoshiteru) will become lord and commander. This may sound a little familiar to Shakespeare's Macbeth. These are similar in pretext but Akira Kurosawa changes many things to create his own story while still respecting Shakespeare's classic work. Throne of Blood also contains elements of Noh theatre, which Kurosawa was a fan of. He shaped Noh theatre, Macbeth, and his own visions for throne of Blood to create his masterpiece.

The cinematographer (Asaichi Nakai) made to film enjoyable to watch because he was able to create a similarity between every set and keep the audiences attention throughout the film. Whenever the evil spirit is on the screen i find it difficult to take my eyes off of her, because the way the cinematographer lights her lit her she screams for attention. The evil spirit could be used as an example of stylized elements because she is almost completely consumed in white creating a big mess of white which the cinematographer uses to make the viewer focus on her. The effects achieved is a trance that looking at this women creates. Realistic elements used in the film are everything from the visible detailed texture of the military personnels armor and weapons, to arrows. The realistic effects achieved is a feeling of realism that most directors and cinematographer never consider. That feeling is the touch factor whenever a viewer sees something and wonders what makes a certain texture look like it would feel very different from what they are used to.

Choreography in Throne of Blood is looks very simple but happens to be very complex. On several occasions Washizu is walking towards a large group of his military and as he walks towards them they all move to the side in sequence. This choreography seems like it would be very easy to do but having 100 people all walk backwards all at the same time could prove to be quite difficult. Then having the men all move back into the exact positions they were in before after Washizu walks by could also go wrong. But knowing Kurosawa he most likely made the extras redo those scenes over and over again until they got it done perfectly up to his standards. I would consider this example of choreography to be stylism because moving a gigantic mass of people like that creates a big movement on screen moving something so big so fast.

There are many elements of Noh Theatre that are used in this film. The shite (primary actor/protagonist) in Throne of Blood would be Washizu and his tsure (the shite's companion)would be Miki. The waki (antagonist)in Throne of Blood would be the evil spirit and her wakizure (companion of waki)could possibly be Asaji because she is always trying to make Washizu make sure the evil spirits predictions come true. Although not seen it is possible that the men singing at the beginning and end of the film are jiutai (chorus). Also like Noh theatre there are only about 4 character types in the film. The mood of Throne of Blood if you are looking at it from the Noh point of view would be Mugen Noh meaning the it deals with ghost. With all these elements of Noh Theatre it is obvious that Kurosawa enjoyed Noh very much and wanted to use it to its full ability in his films.

The Macbeth elements in Throne of Blood can be seen in the main parts of the film. The general story is Macbeth. A spirit comes and predicts that two men with gain great power and one becomes consumed by it and eventually both lose there lives because of it.

The two main influences of this film came together to create a masterpiece that remains well respected. The creation of this film in the mind of Akira Kurosawa keeps it from be place in the same boat as Macbeth and basically creates it own complete story making the viewer completely forget about Macbeth and only making Throne of Blood.

The Sunshine Hotel

When you think of a squatters hotel or a flophouse you may think of a big filthy building with homeless people everywhere. The Sunshine Hotel takes those thoughts and throws them out the window. This flophouse in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City shows people who have fallen upon hard times but continue on living with what they have and are content with that. An example of one of the stand out people from the film is the man who takes orders from people in the hotel and gets stuff for them. He believes that working in life is the only way to go and he loves does what he does, for the simple satisfaction of having work. Another example is a transvestite who lives in the hotel he feels objectified in the hotel as the only thing close to female there. The rest of the people interviewed are just like these to men they had know where else o go so they came to The Sunshine Hotel and are now living a hard but manageable life.

The main point to the film is that all the tourist who past by this place may see it a scum filled place but if they would take the time to talk and get to know some of the people there they would learn that they are the same.

Mojave Mirage

The Mojave Mirage is a short film about a simple phone booth that changed people’s lives. This little electronic device in the middle of nowhere created a feeling of togetherness for the viewer, because they realize that the phone is not what is important about the film. What is important about the film is what the phone does for the people who call it. It brings them together to talk about nothing for a few minutes, but they become apart of the legend of the Mojave phone booth which is what the film is truly about. Although the phone booth was removed, with this film and the memories that those who visited it have the Mojave phone booth will forever be known as a simple thing that brought so many people together to create a little piece of history.

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa, what else must I say? Although this is my first journey into a Kurosawa film, I have to say it was the best film I have seen in quite sometime. Throne of Blood (a.k.a. Kumonosu jô, and Spider Web Castle) is based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but set in medieval Japan. This film is perfect in everyway, even without color, because when color was introduced to film many filmmakers got lazy with some aspects of their movies.

Directing Throne of Blood seems like quite the task to take on, especially doing it in the style that Kurosawa directed. He would surround himself in his mind with every aspect of his current film, looking at it from every angle so that he could create the best film possibly every time. Throne of Blood being no exception. The acting in the film was very passionate especially from Toshirô Mifune (Washizu Taketori) every time he is on camera the audience can feel his passion for his craft. Another point of good direction and acting is the facial expressions exhibited by all characters in the film. Anyone who is on camera and the audience sees their face Kurosawa made sure their faces showed what they were saying.

Black and White films are one part of cinematography that I haven’t had to much experience with. I cannot judge the lighting of a black & white film very well because I do not know many of the techniques used when black & white films were common place. One thing that did stand out was the long lingering shadows that were in many shots. All the shots in the movie were covered in a light haze representing the fog that was all over the place. An example of this is when Washizu and Miki were lost in the fog the entire screen was consumed with fog. At one point I thought something was wrong with the movie because they were lost for so long. Another directing technique used by Kurosawa.

The sound in Throne of Blood was great from every footstep to every word out of someone mouth everything was easily detected by the audience. The very beginning of the film with the eye piercing music was especially pleasurable; when this music is played again later in the film it blends so well with the background music creating a well orchestrated piece of work. The man singing the same song at the beginning and end of the film link everything together and creates a feeling of completion in the viewer. The birds crying when Asaji (Washizu’s wife) and Washizu are speaking are quite haunting, and ghastly. She says that they are cries from heaven telling Washizu to kill the great lord and take his place. One of the best examples of sound in the film is the silence during the murder of the great lord scene. It is silence to create a powerful scene in with the audience sees the new great lord emerge. The sound of wind blowing is a focal of the movie, I think this was done to keep the audience focused on the screen and the only time it wasn’t blowing is when something very important was happening.

The costumes used in the film were traditional medieval Japanese military and traditional Japanese clothing. These costumes show that Kurosawa wanted everything right down to the last detail. All the costumes look as if they were taken straight from the time the movie is meant to depict.

No true special effects were used in this film the only part that may be mistaken for a special effect would be the infamous “Arrow Scene.” All the arrows used in this scene were real except the ones that hit Washizu which were bamboo fakes. They way this scene was done was professional marksmen were shooting the arrows and with his arms Washizu would tell them which way he was running. The final arrow through the neck, which kills Washizu, was actually a regular arrow that was rounded at the center so that it would fit around his neck looking as if it went through the neck.

Akira Kurosawa, a genius on all levels of filmmaking. His films inspired so many filmmakers and Throne of Blood is a film that is mentioned by some of today’s greatest directors when asked about some of the best films ever made. It is a perfect example of Kurosawa’s dedication to his craft.

Rear Window

Rear Window, another classic Hitchcock film. Based on “It had to be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich (screenplay written by John Michael Hayes), tells the story of L.B. Jefferies (Jeff). A photographer, who just recently became wheelchair bound, must stay in the confines of his home, and goes people watching on a daily basis. This seemingly harmless pastime soon leads Jeff into a big mystery that he feels he must solve.

Directing Rear Window seems like it must have been one of the easier of Hitchcock’s films to direct. Besides a few shots, the film was completely shot from the perspective of Jeff from the window. The entire film is basically 3 camera shots, because Hitchcock only lets the audience to see what he wants them to see. In order to catch everything in the film you must watch it a few times to see everything Hitchcock puts into every shot. If not you could miss some key details that help the story flow more. The main difficulties in directing this film I would imagine would only be set dimensions, and lighting.

The lighting in Rear Window is very key for the scenes that it is used in. The focal point that I saw with the lighting was that it created a lot of shadows. It was very realistic and created normal lighting effects that light directly from the sun would also make. During the day scenes Jeff’s apartment was very bright with light filling the entire room creating once again a very lifelike feel. The night scenes had the entire apartment overflowing with shadows. For example when Mr. Thorwald came to Jeff’s apartment to confront him he becomes engulfed in shadow to the point where the audience can only see his legs and lower torso creating a scary scene. Another part of that scene that becomes very creepy is when the only light is on Thorwald’s eyes creating an uncomfortable feeling in the viewers gut.

Sound in rear window was kept to mainly dialogue and music. No big flashy special effect sounds just the basics. The music was mostly lighthearted and happy, but also dramatic at times. This marks the importance and type of scene. While I was watching the film I found that the music would blend with the dialogue and almost get lost in it. Thus making the music sometimes nonexistent.

The colors used in the film where mainly cold with lots of grays, blues, and whites. At the very beginning of the movie when the blinds open and reveal the courtyard and the building on the opposite of Jeff’s building the screen is consumed by warm colors, yellows, browns, light reds, and golds. The costumes in rear window are very limited. Jeff wears his pajamas for the entire film and everyone else is either wearing suits, or dresses and in one case two other people are wearing pajamas.

The only example of special effects that I saw in this film was when Jeff was hanging out of the window. This for its time was a good effect and very believable. But now it just looks cheesy.

Once again Hitchcock delivers another masterpiece of film. Rear Window although it is shot in a very confined area the audience gets consumed in a big story and it feels like you want to help solve the mystery and that is exactly what Hitchcock wanted.

Vertigo

Vertigo, a story about a man with a crippling fear of heights, and love for a woman he cannot have. A very strange film in my opinion. Alfred Hitchcock brings the audience into Detective John Ferguson’s (James Stewart’s) world of paranoia. This creates a chilling, almost too realistic film.

From watching Vertigo I feel that Hitchcock’s directing technique is very simple. Bring everything to the center of the screen. I could probably count on one hand how many times a person who was talking was outside of the center of the screen. This forces the audience to focus on only what Hitchcock allows them to see. Hitchcock also doesn’t have many of his actors look directly into the camera. I can only remember once in this entire film in which this happens. They were always looking to the right or left of the camera. This helps the audience focus on dialogue and what Hitchcock is trying to convey in the shot.

Lighting in Vertigo was quite strange. Many of the outdoor scenes were lit as if they were indoor scenes. Creating a parallel between the actors and the background. The background looked like a picture while the actors looked normal. Causing me to zone out during some scenes from lack of clarity. A neon green type of light was used for many of the scenes at end of the movie. In Judy Barton’s (Kim Novak’s) apartment the use of this light is most apparent, because of the strange effects the light has on some shots. The two worse uses of the green lights were when Judy walks out of the bathroom, and from John’s point of view she seems to be a very blurry green mess. The second strange use of the green light was a split second when Judy gets something off the bed and her entire face becomes engulfed in green light. Hitchcock also used shadows to make some scenes become more intense with darkness surrounding the characters. For example the scene right before Judy commits suicide; they are so surrounded by darkness that she mistakes the nuns shadow for the ghost of the shipbuilder’s wife, Madeleine Elster.

The sounds used in the film become eerily familiar to a point were in the audiences mind the films main eerie/haunting score plays in their heads. The verbal usage of sound also becomes very familiar because of the limited number of characters, the audience can figure out exactly who is talking simply by the sound of their voice. This is mainly because all the main actors in the film have very distinct voices.

The costumes in Vertigo all seem to relate. They relate because of the similarity in color. The two main colors that come to mind when thinking about Vertigo are red and green. There was at least a little bit of red or green in every shot. Red can represent either bewilderment or mystery. This is because of the many times when John sees things in red. A few good examples of this fact are when John is following “Madeleine” and he is wearing a dark red suit and she is driving a green car. Another example is when John finally meets “Madeleine” and she is wearing a red robe, while he is wearing a green sweater. The color red usually represents someone who is confused about something, while green usually represents the object or person that is mysterious. Most of John’s costumes were dark colors like dark blue, red, and green suits. A color that is rarely seen but plays a significant role is blue. It represents impairment or a lack of control for ones fate. This is best represented when John is on trial for not trying to stop “Madeleine” from committing “suicide.” He is sitting quietly in his dark blue suit awaiting the decision not able to influence the jury any further.

Alfred Hitchcock didn’t become one of the best directors of all time by making bad films. All of his films have good aspects, along with bad aspects but being the genius he was the good would always overshadow the bad. Although it may not be my favorite Hitchcock film, Vertigo is still another masterpiece of cinema.