In tandem with my SDFTV class, History of Film and Television, I decided to create a new blog and blog my thoughts on the movies I've watched.

Cinema Paradiso
Its been a week since watching this. I still think its a ncie movie and its left its mark on me for sure. In short, its a movie about how film and film making has evolved and progressed and to a certain extent, censorship too.

But its not a documentary, its a narrative movie. And it has a hell lotta good quotes too. Symbolism plays a role in this film too.

First impressions? It was my first foreign country film, in a foreign language. It beat my stereotype of foreign films being boring. And I found the film engaging and not draggy. It was rather well paced.

Favourite quote is the same as Arisya's:
"Living here you think its the centre of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone."

It speaks a lot and you can relate that to a lot of stuff happening in life. Powerful.

Citizen Kane
A classic film made in 1941 about a self possessed man and his power hungry drive. His need for love and never finding it. In his late years, he dies a recluse having no friends and no family.

Watching it, I felt bored. Black and white. Slow moving. Draggy. Repetitive. And not to mention, watching it in a busy household...

Nevertheless, after watching the movie, I did read up a bit on Citizen Kane via Wikipedia and Google search. One thing to note, being an early film created in the 1940's... I think the story line, the way the story moved was kind of new. The story involved a journalist trying to find out what Charles Foster Kane's last word, "Rosebud", meant. He went around interviewing different people, his second wife, trusted friends, butler... And each gave their side of the story, shown through flashbacks. The movie was in a way, rather like a detective one. You fitted into the role of the journalist and it was as though YOU were on a quest to find out what Rosebud meant.

Apart from that, cinematic break throughs as well. The film was the pioneer of the "Deep focus" technique. Usually, when a camera moves back, what used to be in focus no longer is. But with deep focuus, even with the camera moving, the background which was previously the centre focus still is focused although not the main subject of the shot.

For example, when Susan Alexander was attempting suicide, the medicine bottle, her and the bed were the supposed main focus while the door was the secondary focus. In a normal shot, we would've seen the door less focused. When Charles broke the door down and entered the room, by right the focus should've shifted to him instead of remaining on Susan. BUT, the whole shot had both the foreground and background focused upon. This was done by taking the scene in two different takes. First the foreground and later the background.

The bed, Susan and the bottle were shot together, with the background blacked out. Later, the foreground was blacked out and Charles broke down the door. The shots were combined together to give the deep focus effect.

The ending was pretty open-ended to me. The butler threw away a sled from Charles' childhood. The shot turned to when it was in the furnace, burning. The word "Rosebud" was printed on it. Did the butler know? Or did he attempt to hide the word? That's what struck me when I first watched it. Thinking it over though, he most likely didn't know the word was printed there.

Psycho
Moving on to Classic Hollywood...

Clips of the movie were shown during class, so I didn't get to watch the movie in its entirety. The opening credits were interesting. The way it was done up was unusual, weird maybe. It was quite disturbing, bone chilling even. You had the sense that something was going to happen, the music made the atmosphere even more suspenseful.

Next, the shot of the character, Mary (not sure if that's the name in the movie but lets call her that anyway). Driving down the road, in the rain, alone on a dark landscape. Its blurry, not much you can see out of the windsheild in the rain at night. I really expected something to jump out at her.

Fast forward to the shower scene. Ms Kwa said that this was a first as well. The first movie to ever show a toilet and a bathroom. The shower scene is pretty famous, the one with a lady showering, a knife moving in and a stabbing and that piercing, high pitched music repeating over and over again. The scene was suspenseful. At the beginning, it led you to think... Why are they showing a woman shower? What's its purpose? As it progresses, it shows the inside of the bath. Someone opens the door silently. At that point of time, you know something's wrong... The build up was good though.

Next, Mary's friends learn about her death and come looking around for clues. The search her room and go to the motel owner's house on the hill. Lila that is, while her male friend occupies him. Search the house high and low. Lila pulls out a book. Its interesting. On the spine, there are no words. She opens it, the shot cuts to her face and then to another scene. What's in the book? Audience never finds out, but it does stir a sense of curiousity in the viewer.

Go to the basement. See a woman in the chair. It must be Mrs. Bates! The crazy, sick woman. Turn the chair Mrs. Bates is in around, oh shucks! Its a skeleton with the skull starring back! Scream!!! But the shot did show something interesting for the viewer to perceive. It looked like Lila had found the mad woman, only to be shocked by the skull. Suspense. I guess its key in a horror film eh?

3 films done, next up: Run Lola Run! And we're running to find the DVD since the one at the Esplanade library is loaned and another has not been returned since September 2005.