Thursday 31 March 2011

Burlesque Review

Unoriginal, cheesy, with a couple of pop stars.






This film was most definitely a film created to boast Christina's singing abilities- ‘ Christina Does Burlesque’ would have been a more appropriate title. The general plot lacking originality, the characters lacking any sort of personality, Cher (Tess) lacking anything near a facial expression, are just some of the contributing aspects to this anti climax of a musical.


After the unforgettable, yet highly regrettable one hundred and eighteen minutes, sitting dazed at the screening of NINE, somehow, it was to be expected that could be quite as mind numbing. Maybe the lesson should have been learned then and there, that, just because a modern day, respected, (in some cases) singer is in a musical, does not for an instant make it a movie worthwhile seeing. Although given the choice, Christina Aguilera’s film is more tolerable than the movie starring the now puffy cheeked ‘Fergie’.



The film is everything you would expect from a Hollywood musical- full of cringe worthy stereotypes. Without the popstar names, it would most definitely be a flopp- Although cheesiness seems to be the new black these days with the likes of High School Musical, which seems to have vomited out the likes of Glee on to our poor television sets.



As for the general plot of the film all you need to do is take Chicago ( Rob Marshall’s 2002 production), add some Moulin Rouge, ( Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 production) stir them together and your Burlesque is complete. Oh dear, what's that?...the venue is being bought over? There's a love story?... and of course a young girl that would do anything to fulfil her dream. It is to be expected that such a film would comply to the stereotypes of a Hollywood musical, however, it would also be expected not to just take the narratives of two fairly recent musicals, join them together and then through in some already famous stars to give it some credibility.


The unfortunate aspect of this is that although using very similar storylines and camera work, the anticipation of some dark, emotion grabbing scene- which Moulin Rouge, and Chicago achieve, was again an anti climax. There were no surprises, the disequilibrium was so predictable that the film was not only just a copy of any other musical but ridiculously boring.




The story begins of a lost young girl who has just moved to the city to make it big. Her dream is to become a star-to be on stage and show off her talent- somehow ironic really. The Ewan McGreggor of the film- or should it be said, the hero of the film, is Cam Gigandet, who plays Jack. Jack is a barman with a hidden musical talent. Poor Ali, has nowhere to go and Jack ( although married) invites her to live at her house as a friend. But what kind of Hollywood film would it be if the two most aesthetically pleasing people in the film did not get together?



Jack gets her a job behind the bar at a Burlesque dancing venue. Each day young Ali, ( looking remarkably fresh faced for the likes of Christina Aguilera) watches the dancers and miraculously manages to remember all the moves-so when she does get her big audition- she knows every move of every dance.



The stubborn runner of the club ( Tess ) has been won over by Ali’s voice the most- and Ali replaces the main singer. This is when the main singer becomes jealous of Ali. At this point there is a threat that Tess will lose the club if she does not begin making more profit.



That is about as dramatic as the storyline gets. All ends well, everyone is friends; the club remains open and is not bought over, and of course Ali and Jack end up together.




Tess’ assistant, played by Stanley Tucci( Maranda’s assistant in Devil wears Parada)- plays pretty much the same character in both films.



There is a general lack of character development throughout the film, or maybe it’s just so clichéd that the audience already know the characters and the outcome of the storyline in the first five minutes, that there is no need for character development.


On the plus side it is cheaper to buy a ticket for the cinema than to buy a ticket to Christina Aguilera’s concert.

Friday 4 March 2011

Counter Cinema


Counter Cinema refers to film makers and institutions refusing to comply to the ideologies of Hollywood cinema. It breaks away from the conventions of Hollywood cinema. Some standard conventions of Hollywood cinema may include, cohesive and linear narrative structure.  It can be argued that counter cinema should not be produced by a corporate company- however against this, is the theory that although a corporate company produced it, the film could still question today's society, make the reader question ones self or make a political statement- which could be considered as counter cinema.


One film that fails to comply with the standard conventions of a Hollywood film in terms of linear scale is The Butterfly Effect, released in 2004. Directed by Eric Bess and J. Mackyre Gruber, The Butterfly Effect complies to some aspects of Hollywood film conventions, by using already well known actors. For instance, the main character in this film is Evan- who is played by the extremely famous Ashton Kutcher. Although it follows hollywood structure in the sense of equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution. The begining is the equilibrium - where Ashton Kutcher is the popular, good looking student with the girlfriend. However, the disequilibrium comes when Ashton begins reading diaries and has black outs and the whole stereotypical hollywood linear storyline is disrupted. Each time the character has a black out a new storyline is introduced and the character does not have the life that we have previously witnessed him having. The resolultion in this film is not so much the hollywood happy ending as the main character decides that the only way that he can survive is by killing himself. This is very similar to Brechts theory that people should be aware of the effect of the characters actions, which made lead to the evaluation of their actions in society today. It may encourage self reflection as the viewer themselves may be asking " What would I do in that situation?" It teaches us that all decisions have consequences.








Another film that defies the Hollywood linear structure is Inception. Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan released July 2010(also a high budgeted, recent film)applies to most Hollywood film conventions, in the sense of stereotypes and the casting of already famous actors. However Christopher Nolan has edited this film incredibly, in order for a complex story line to be understood by most ( not all) viewers. There are four different timelines, running in-sync with each other, with the same characters in each timeline- involved in the same storyline. Generating questions about today's society, it asks the reader if society is so unbearable that we use sleep as an escapism?  Although it does not show what, at this time, may be classed as realistic, it highlights the danger or power of the increasing advance of  technology. If technology advances to this stage, we could live in an ideological world but the question is- would we want that?Emphasizing the power of ones mind, it focuses on the importance of forming an idea and how easily one can be influenced by another. It's about manipulation of the mind.






References






Film Theory and Criticism, Mast Cohen Braudy, Oxford University,1992



Thursday 3 March 2011

What is an Auteur?

Auteurism was first recognized in the 1950s- however the general idea of Auteurism was already planted years before hand. Directors had already gained the same respect as writers and artists when cinema was deemed as a 'seventh art' however the title Auteur had not been suggested yet.

The Auteur Theory suggests that the director is solely the author of the film. There are many theories on auteurship and what makes an author of a film.

Andre Bazin stated in his article 'La Politique des auteurs' that auteurism was 'choosing in the artistic creation the personal factor of reference , and then postulating its permanence and even its progress from one work to the next.'

Barthes suggests that having an author of a film creates limitations on the film and believes that the meaning of the film lies with the reader, which entitles them to percieve the film the way in which they want to.

Franqois Trauffaut implies that films should not just be shot on the filmable aspects of novels.
He also suggests that a directors ability can be measured on their style which may include visual aspects, reaccuring motifs and reaccruing themes.
Similarly Peter Wollen’s theories are very much based on the focus on thematic motifs and style.
However Pauline Kael fails to agree, and suggests that reaccuring themes does not make someone an author. She states “ Their ideal auteur is the man who sings a long term contract, directs any script that’s handed to him, and expresses himself by shoving bits of style up the crevasses of the plots.”

 

Using the theories of Peter Wollen and Franqois Trauffaut, an example of and auteur would be Tim Burton. Born August 1958, Burton has had many film successes such as The Corpse's Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sweeney Todd. He distinguishes himself from other film makers by using recurring themes and styles.  His most evident theme in his films- is the theme of his main character being an outcast. In the likes of Sweeny Todd, Edward Scissor Hands and BeetleJuice, the main character can definitely be identified as an outcsast.

 It is highly evident when watching a film of Tim Burton’s that it is his film. This is seen as the director implementing his thoughts, his ideas and part of his personality into the film. His films always have a reoccurring gothic theme to them. The characters tend to be eccentric. Tim Burton manages to convey a sense of individuality to his characters by the choice of makeup used. It is felt that the main similarities are the style of the hair and the pale make up.

Below we witness the similarities:











The imagery of character and the narrative allow us to sympathise with the troubled,complex character in someway regardless of whether they are regarded as a villain in society or not.

However, it does leave the imagination to wonder if it is Tim Burton's personality showing- or whether it is a style he has just adopted. 
The question is, is he actually like any of his characters?

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Pre 1930's Most Influential Films

1925- The Phantom of the Opera- Rupert Julian



The above clip from the film adaption to Gaston Lerox 'The Phantom of the Opera" is one of the most popular clips from the film. It is the unmasking of the phantom. Although there is no dialog- a defining moment in cinema pre 1930s was when we witness Lon Chaney's self applied make up. This was applied to create a horrific look in order to shock the audience. It can be suggested that this has influenced Hollywood horror movies today and the likes of Tim Burton seem to have diluted the whole "horror" appeal in order to create a less intimidating look yet still allowing the characters to remain dark and mysterious.
The clip we see here, is very similar to the film as a whole as far as lighting is concerned. Lighting wasn't very advanced and as we can see from this clip its almost done in black and white the lighting is so dull. However this adds to the enigma of the film as a whole.



Birth of a Nation- D.W Griffiths



This, now highly controversial film, released in 1915, is notorious for it's racial storyline and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. This film, based on the the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixson, was classed as the first Hollywood ' blockbuster.'
It was highly appreciated as it, according to Roger Ebert, 'defined the film language, that taught audiences and filmmakers all over the world the emerging grammar of the shot, the montage and the camera.'  This film lasted a total of 159 minutes which is long in comparison to ' The Lights of New York'  which lasted just 57 minutes long.

The Battleship Potemkin 1925- Sergei Eisenstein



 The Battleship Potemkin- A film released in 1925, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, was deemed so dangerous that it remained banned many years later in some countries. It focused on the usage of certain editing skills, in order to convey some meaning. This idea can sometimes be referred to propaganda- and was adopted by the Nazis later on. Although it inspired negative actions it was a highly successful way of manipulating an audience. This was classed as the 'montage' theory. Propaganda still exists today in order to manipulate the reader of the text therefor this film proves to be a highly influential film of the pre 1930s.

Don Juan 1926- Alan Crosland



Don Juan, released in August 1926 by Warner Brothers was the first feature length film to use Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack. Vitaphone is when the sound of the film is not printed on the film itself but instead created into a record which would be played in-sync to the showing of the film. Warner Brothers tended to use this in a lot of their short films prior to the premier of Don Juan. It is also suggested that the number of kisses in this film was a set record for its time. It has inspired many theatre productions of the film.

The Lights of New York 1928-Bryan Foy


The Lights of New York was released in 1928 by Warner Brothers. This was the first feature length film that contained dialog. There had been films prior to this that were partially dialog ( also released by Warner Brothers.) The success of this film then encouraged more filmmakers to produce all dialog films which were referred to as talkies.It is strange that dialog films are automatically expected in todays society, as it has now become the norm for Hollywood films.  It was produced by Bryan Foy. It was also the film that created the crime genre. The running time was 57 minutes ( which is classed as a short time in today's films.)


References:

The Internet Movie Database- Lights of NewYork

The Internet Movie Database- Phantom of the Opera

Battleship Potemkin Archive