Film/Plum Noir

With such a beautiful flowing name (Film Noir) I expected the genre to be just as beautiful as my new nail color (Plum Noir). However, as the color Plum Noir is hypnotizingly gorgeous in its depth and richness, I felt that the Film Noir, Out of the Past, just couldn't surpass that standard.

I thought that the movie was 'good', but I think I wasn't expecting all the bluntness and hostility. I don't think it's a genre for me. Yes, the suspense and mood was fun to get into, but I did not like starting off my day in shock that all the characters died leaving me in a somewhat heavy mood. So really, the film was just lacking that plum richness- the color/mood of a little bit of hope and dreaminess- because it was a very brutal ending.

Eternal Sunshine

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com wrote this review of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind which I found a little bit interesting. I'll highlight the main point she tried to get across, which was basically that she didn't like the movie, but I personally think that she loved it and she was just sad that it ended.

It's as if young filmmakers fear that their audiences will become bored with a
movie if they don't have a clever mind-boggler to wrestle with along the way. In grappling with these perplexing riddles, we're supposedly exercising our intellect. But isn't it also possible that we're using them as a handy diversion, a way of
distancing ourselves from emotions that might be too strong for us to deal with
easily? Labyrinthine plots are supposed to stimulate us. But are they really
just distracting us from the work at hand -- the work of feeling?

I think she's onto something there- in the way that this film could have moved away from the psychological aspects and literal mind erasing, and moved more towards the feelings and emotions Clementine and Joel. However, I think that the movie is very 'feeling' related, and I don't know how you could watch the movie without being very involved in the feelings between the Joel and Clem.

But just as there's a difference between knowing things and being informed,
there's a difference between going all the way with a movie and going only as
far as is convenient or comfortable.That said, I suspect that whether they recognize it or not, audiences yearn for movies that can make them think and feel.

Although she has a point with the whole 'going halfway' film-making , I think she pinned the wrong movie. I think that Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind has plenty of feeling and thinking and does it very well. You'd have to be a buckthorn tree to not be able to see the emotion behind all the 'thinking' scenes and the feelings that come along with them. I think maybe people are just too wrapped up in knowing exactly what is going on and when everything is happening, that they miss the underlying themes and moods of the film.

So in your opinion, do you think that movies these days are trying to nix out the 'feeling' parts, and that audiences need to be entertained in an intriguing mind-boggler way?

Chalk

Ok, so I watched this movie a few nights ago, and I would just like to applaud it for the following reasons:

1) It was funny, but not too funny. The humor level was at the point where I'd chuckle to myself a little bit and every once in awhile pull a Mr. Roddy and burst out with one laughter note.

2) The characters were easy to follow, with their problems/goals very reasonable and easy to understand. It wasn't a big 'figure it out' movie, it just happened, without questions.

3) The length was BEAUTIFUL. 84 minutes. Solid. I love a movie that starts, gets its point across, and ends. I don't need a trick ending, and I don't need anything to drag on. It was just enough of suspense to keep me enjoying it and it was just enough wrap up to not make me wonder too much.

All in all, well done.

His Girl Friday

While drawing a blank on what to write about for His Girl Friday, because I feel like my opinion is getting a little bit boring, I decided to explore why it fits so well as a screwball comedy instead of a romantic comedy (I know, really thrilling, right?).

First of all, the characters are ridiculous. Take Earl Williams for example. Looking back on the film, he killed someone after sitting in a park for awhile and losing a job and shot someone maybe to escape something? Whatever his true story is, it's very wacky and no one ever challenges the validity of what he says or does.

Also, the romantic aspect is not played up at all. There is one kiss (I think) in the whole film, which is literally just a goodbye peck. This adds to the screwball-ness of the film because the focus isn't on the lovey dovey relationships, it's on the fact that Walter and Hildy have a career together and nothing - not even Bruce - can keep her away from it.

Lastly, there is only one main time when the audience ever "agonizes" over whether Hildy and Walter will get together, and it only lasts for maybe a minute before they've made up their minds.

unfor-who cares.

I did not enjoy the movie unforgiven. I don't like movies with a lot of violence in them, and this movie was too painful to watch. However, I do not think that there would have been any other way to get the message of the movie across without the brutal killing scenes. To get into the head of Will Munny and to get into the emotions of the Schofield Kid would not have been possible without seeing them actually kill innocent people. I also think that Ned almost gave the audience an 'out' (before he was killed) to rest assured that at least someone was being a good honest person. The fact that the movie didn't just end with the two men dead made it a whole lot more of an emotional wreck for the audience. They couldn't just end it with getting money and meeting up with Ned; they had to bring a whole new aspect to the film, killing Ned unjustly and making Will need the revenge aspect. I think that there wasn't really another way to get the audience that involved in their lives, but personally I do not support it.

this has nothing to do with film; it is sweet, learn about it.

Finding out a lot more about Nemo

So initially when starting this film assignment, not going to lie, I was a bit of a downer thinking "oh shoot, I forgot to rent a really 'intriguing or thoughtful' movie of my choice so I'm stuck with my own movie collection which doesn't consist of many 'quality' movies." However, after watching Finding Nemo (one of three movies I own on the list of top 100) and viewing the special features I realized how crazy tough and really intense animation is!

Finding Nemo, written and directed by Andrew Stanton, is a Pixar/Disney film about a clown fish (Nemo) who gets taken away by a SCUBA diver from his overprotective father (Marlin). The story follows Marlin's journey to find Nemo and Nemo's attempts at escaping aquarium life.

The whole inspiration came from writer and director Andrew Stanton, who wrote the story based on his experiences living near the ocean and looking at the aquarium in his dentist's office. He completely wrote the story (which was eventually tweaked and whatnot by everyone working on it) with many challenges facing him and his team.

Their first struggle was getting the look of the ocean. I know, it seems general, but there was actually a LOT of trouble getting the water to look just right. The animation artists had to understand the physics behind water, and how that would play a role in the look they were going for. The light sources, the density of the water, the swells and currents of the water, and the visibility within the ocean all played huge roles in how the film would end up looking. With the ocean looking just right they then had another rather important task. Fish.

All members of the film making team were SCUBA certified and went on dives in the coral reefs around Australia to observe fish in their natural habitats. They also used dead fish from aquariums in the local area to observe exactly how their bodies look and how the appendages move and are shaped. There was a sculptor on the animation team that would literally sculpt every character that was developed by the artists; the sculptures were then used by the animators to get a full sense of how the character could be digitally produced. There were several scientists that helped the crew make sure all the fish in the movie were accurately (minus the talking and emotions) depicted and very realistic.

The lighting was one of the most difficult aspects of the film that they had to face. Dory, one of the main characters, is a blue fish... swimming in a blue ocean. Having Dory and contrastingly orange Marlin swimming in the same frame together for the majority of the movie was a struggle for the animators in regards to being able to see everything clear enough continuing to have a blue ocean as the setting. Also, the light reflections and refrations through and about the water were very difficult to show realistically, but amazingly, they did it!

Through a long (3.5 year) process, the team of writers, producers, art directors, animators, and computer specialists, all produced an awe-strikingly spectacular animated film.

Interesting Interview
Pixar Site w/ behind the scenes info
ocean website