Modes of Screen Reality

( That will be the title for this week's FS entry, since there was more than one movie.)

Compilation of Lumiere Films.
So, these little clipits of movies I found pretty interesting (and quite humorous) to watch. I made note of how all the scenes always contained some type of tremendous action/ noticable movement. This was especially noticable in one of the factory clips where, I'd guess the camera started filming too early and therefore there was almost no noticable motion whatsoever until the bunch of workers walked on screen. Another thing i noticed was how all the characters on screen seemed to be moving at a faster/ sped-up pace. The narrator said something about sporadic movement as possibly being the camera's fault and the actor's fault. I guess this would be true considering that the director was trying to capture 'everybody trying to do soemthing' in less than 50seconds. I thought it was pretty interesting to note that there was still the possibilty of people 'over-acting' even though they probably didn't know that existed at the time. So that probably tied in with the theme of reality for this first movie. The Lumiere Brothers were obviously filming clips of everyday life and therefore producing realistic clips. Certain clips even felt documentary like. Overall I thought these little 50second clips were pretty interesting to watch considering that they were produced very early in movie producing history and it was interesting to see early experimentations that have continued on to the present day.

Trip to the Moon
Of the 3 movies that we watched today, I probably disliked this one the most. Not saying that I hated it, but it just wasn't my favorite. It says that this film was produced in 1902 and I'm sure special effects technology was still pretty new at the time, but I felt that everything was perhaps a bit over done. This movie would probably be called sci-fi, and I agree with that. There's also a comedy factor in this movie, and I agree that it was funny at certain parts but still kind of cheezy. I was discussing w/ some friends after the screening was over about how it was probably aiming to show off some of the new fancy special effects at the time. (ie. the poof/disappearance of the aliens after they were hit) The movie made use of costumes and props (ie. magicians robe, telescopes, spaceships and aliens) that fit with the theme of the movie and also the backdrops used were also fitting and pretty complex, I thought. But for some reason I wasn't too fond of this movie. Perhaps because the acting might have been a bit cliche, and also maybe I felt special effects were used too much causing the movie to seem much more unrealistic than it was aiming for.

The Bicycle Thief
In terms of reality, this movie probably depicted it best. I was also actually quite surprised at the depth of the story line. Again while discussing this movie with friends after the screening, one of them mentioned the depiction of class and class distinction. I was surprised that I never caught that even though there was evidence of it throughout the movie. Mainly the difference between how the two different bicyle thiefs were treated. When Antonio's bike was stolen no one tried to help the lower class man catch his bike. But on the otherhand, when Antonio tried to steal the wealthier suit wearing man, practically the whole street started chasing after him, and eventually caught him. The depiction of class distinction was pretty good and once again I was quite surprised at the complexity of this movie. To Antonio that bike was everything to him and his family. They had to sell their bedsheets (part of Maria's dowry) to get enough money for that bike. And when Antonio was finally in his work uniform his family looked on at him so proudly because with that bike he would finally be able to start making good money. After the bike is stolen I felt the audience could really sense his despair and frustration. That bike literally was everything, to him, and he was desperate and willing to do anything to get it back. Juxtapose this with what happens when the wealthy man gets his bicyle back after Antonio tries to steal it. 3/4 of the movie was used to show Antonio searching for his bike, and 3 mintues was probably use to show the wealthy man and his search. Even though the man decided not to press charges against Antonio, it also goes to show that the bicycle probably didn't mean quite that much to him, as Antonio's bike meant to him. I was expecting a happy ending to this movie for some reason, and when the words FINE appeared I was pretty sad. All I could think about was what Antonio and Bruno were thinking as they walked home. Antonio would probably be pretty disgusted with himself knowing that he stooped to stealing all for a simple bike, the fact that his son witnessed him do it, and also that he'll have to live with this consequence for the rest of his life. It was also pretty ironic I though how one of the officers said to Antonio "...you can thank God, that he's not pressing charges." Because if God was really the one to have helped Antonio, you figure he would have done it a long time ago rather than making him go through this big ordeal and having the outcome turn out the way it did. (As a side note, I really did like the character/actor Bruno though. He was really adorable and I think he did an excellent job)