my_name_is_colin Reviews

8½ (1963)

Fellin's magnum opus of self-departure

[10/10 · 6 June 2006]

It has been said that Fellini made 81/2, because he ran out of ideas. Because of course that is the film's initial plot; a director runs out of ideas. Within 81/2 minutes of the flick, (no cheesy pun intended,) I find these assumptions invalid. I was on the verge of going into convulsions in some parts of the movie for its embellished rapid fire ideas.

Those ideas of course, come from dreams and fantasies the protagonist Guido has. I stated above I found the remarks invalid about why the film was made. That Fellini ran out of creative spark. Well, although I still find that wrong it is obvious that Guido is Fellini. He is a playboy Italian movie director who has misconceptions built around himself by other people. He is in the very early stages of production of a movie and runs out ideas. So he retreats to a spa to clear his mind while everyone he knows heckles him about something. The film is Fellini-esquire at its full flavor. It goes in and out of Guido's mind and reality with memories of childhood, woman he had, women he didn't have but wanted and things he wanted to do. I found this all very interesting, not because of the images Fellini puts on film, but isn't that what we all do whenever our lives becomes a wreck? We do our best to isolate ourselves and daydream to cope with some things.

The flashbacks are what make the film famous. To me, the one that I appreciate the most is the first scene. It shows Guido stuck in a Rome traffic jam with other cars juxtaposed on all sides of him, when suddenly he realizes everyone is watching him and his car is being filled with a formidable gas. This can be described as Guido's life, everyone's life in general and how it is constantly pressured by oppressions. Even whenever we escape from own prison we created and are so happy that we fly around, only to be yanked back down by reality. All we can do is sing and dance and try to make the best out of life with those oppressions.

Shoot the Piano Player (1960)

Another personal film by Truffaut

[10/10 · 12 May 2006]

Francois Truffaut was known for his shyness; he was crippled by it. Journalists have expressed that in commentaries on interviews they have had with him. The main character of the film can be described the same way. Charlie or Edouared both are shy and sometimes say the wrong thing, like maybe Truffuat; but whats really autobiographical about the film are the characters occupation. A piano player. Truffaut may have played piano, but not professionally, but still he is an artist and so in a way the film can be described as an essay on art. I kinda feel like Charlie writing this. A man who is troubled and has many faults, but can forget about that once he gets behind a piano; or express something artistically. But sometimes the characters get bottled up inside a piano because there faults and troubles become worsened and their personal life falters completely. Truffaut try's to make this obvious when the first shot is the innards of a piano this is Charlie bottled up and the only way he can express himself is through a carnival piano. And Charlie is rescued from there by Thérèse Saroyan. Thérèse takes him on adventures where he can't play the piano when ecstasy approaches. It's no coincidence that in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets the main character Charlie is caught up in alcohol and the characters around him that he is supposed to be like and then is saved by a girl named Thérèse. Although it was a very famous story even before the film was released.

So I'm not going to go into detail with the story, except say most of the film is an homage to American cinema and is very French new wave. I will say this, the closing shot is again a close-up shot of a piano but it fades out to another close-up of Charlies face this shows him breaking away from the piano. Thérèse has saved him. The soundtrack is probably one of my favorites; it is low-key a piano, but very angelic much like Charlie, much like Truffaut.

The Searchers (1956)

Too few people understand it

[11 May 2006]

The Searchers starts with a frontier cabin door opening to the barren, open land of Texas, which can be more easily described as wilderness, this presents a threshold between different worlds. The interior or cabin represents civilized value and a settled family, when the outside represents a Cowboy's world. In a matter of seconds, Ford hasn't so much described the Western genre of film, but the whole Western period itself. Few films have achieved this; summed up something so massive so easily, seamlessly, and simple. Another example of this is the opening to GoodFellas, Scorsese has learned from Ford gravely.

Sometimes when my dad presents a film to me; one with a cynical, complicated villain, he asks me as soon as that character appears on screen if he is a villain. For example he did this the first time I saw Darth Vader on screen in A New Hope. I called him a villain instantly, but once I saw Darth Vader redeem himself in Return of the Jedi I realized he wasn't. He hasn't seen this film, but one day I wish to present it to him and ask him if he thinks Ethan Edwards is a good guy.

The story mainly consists of Ethan and Martin Paw pursuing Scar an Indian war leader that kidnapped Debbie Edwards Martin's sister and Ethan's nephew. They barley seem to rest in the pursue of her, but in a film like this things like that don't matter all that much, but what really matters, is character development. Ethen is a former Confederate solider, who still parades his ideas around bluntly and even claims he didn't surrender to the Union. He doesn't even seem to care about his medal in the war and gives them away. All he cares about with the war is that he fought out of racism. But in the film he is extremely rasicts towards Native Americans, obviously because one of them captured Debbie, if a Asian man kidnapped her he would be rasitcs towards them; in fact thats why he fought in the war because he was being robbed of slavery. And because his partner Edward is half Native American he discriminates towards him every chance he has.

Something I found ironic is that he is so rasiscts towards Martin yet he is after the same thing, Debbie. I think he realizes that when he finally gets Debbie back, he intended to scalp her because she is pretty much now and Indian but instead he holds her close.

He is unmasked like how I described the similarities between this and Star Wars above, Darth Vader reveals himself in Jedi and realizes that Luke is the same as himself and was searching for a reason to cease fire all along and be at peace and stop chasing him. Darth Vader and Ethan Edwards weren't searching for Luke or Debbie but were searching for equality. Darth Vader had a mask on that distorted everything just as Ethan did. They got it because they felt betrayed; Ethan felt his country betrayed him in the Civil War and Vader felt betrayed when Obi-Wan didn't save him. But really Obi-Wan and the Union were doing the right thing and it took them all that time to realize that.

That brings us to the title, "The Searchers," we are all searchers for epaulets, we are not all rasisct but maybe a little oblivious to the subject.

Now when I think of Crash, I laugh that film dosen't know what equality is, they just exploit characters that are discriminated and make the audience feel guilty. Whenever I saw The Searchers didn't think it had much to do with racism, it slips it in there with a western storyline just as Star Wars did with a sci-fi. How am I supposed to think The Searchers has something to do with racism when John Wayne plays the lead or take Star Wars that seriously when there is a walking fur-ball in it. Crash takes takes a racist storyline and it just falls apart, I feel that I am being persecuted when I watch it. I thought about The Searchers hard the day I saw it and eventually wrote this.

Clerks (1994)

More than Meets the Eye.

[10/10 · 12 January 2006]

There's much more than meets the eye in 'Clerks,' on the surface this film looks as if it's another teen movie romp. That's just where it begins.

Clerks is a movie about two slackers (Dante & Randal.) Dante works at an ill-maintains convenience (the kind you dread to enter on a road trip to avoid kooky clerks and a grungy bathroom) but instead the clerk is a slacker (Dante) and the bathroom has no lights after 5:00 P.M. (you'll understand.) Dante is a college dropout he's caught up in an unhealthy relationship with his girlfriend (Veronica) mostly because she's ambitious and he's well a college dropout. Randal is Dante's counter-part and works at a lousy video-store next to Dante's place-of-business. Randal is worst off career-wise on account of he's not even a college drop-out. Reason I only mentioned career-wise is Randal isn't caught up in an unhealthy cycle with a significant-other and isn't physcologically self-destructive.

The movie isn't a satire of work but a parody of 'The Divine Comedy,' which is a poem that is credited as one of the first depictions of hell. The reason it's a parody and not a satire is that it shows that not work can be hell but life can be if you make it hard on yourself. Dante makes live a living hell with the words 'I'm not even supposed to be here today!' While Randal makes the best of life and work by renting hermaphrodite porn, or living on his own terms. Another reason it's a satire on Divine Comedy is the main characters have the same name and the story is split into nine chapters. Smith try's to make it clear with Dante's realization that he needs to live life do the fullest with the speech by Jay and Bob. Another hint is much more subtle like the song at the credits with the chorus is 'I may never get what I wanted' artist unknown to my knowledge but is another clear identifier to the film.