Kung Fu Hustle

As a movie lover I tend to stray away from almost all kung fu movies because I feel as though they are the same moves with just another slick title. I am proud to say that I am wrong. This movie was unlike any of the two kung fu movies I have ever seen. Kung Fu Hustle was hilarious, used amazing special effects, had a plot unique to its own, and contained many enjoyable references/spoofs to other cinema classics.

I loved watching Sing, a wannabe gangster attempting to join the famous and notorious Axe Gang, a legion of black tuxedoed mobsters responsible for a series of gruesome murders and complete dominance over a 1940s Hong Kong. At first, I was unsure on why Sing would even want to be a part of such a gruesome gang but as the movie unfolded I realized it was for the simple fact that they were viewed as the cool yet feared bad asses that provided a sense of strength and unity. The way in which Sing (a complete loser who cannot stand on his own two feet) went about making himself known was a hilarious disaster. His arrogance of trying to extort money from the locals in a poor apartment complex, which is territory of the Axe Gang, results in a battle between the housing complex ( containing numerous master of disguises) and the murderous axe gang. His recognition to the Gang was not so smoothly done.

Aside from the engaging plot, I loved the action pact martial arts as well as the showdown dance sequences and visual eye candy. I thought this movie was beautifully done and had just the right amount of laughable moments. I also enjoyed how the director used elements, styles, and overall references to other classic movies such as Westside Story, Gangs of New York, The Matrix, Broadway, Roger Rabbit, Road Runner and so much more. This movie could have been like all the other Kung Fu films I have seen but it wasn’t! While the martial arts style was similar, the plot and references were fresh. In typical Kung Fu movies we are told who the master or hero is in the very beginning. However, this film kept us on the edge of our seats searching, awaiting to see who would prevail as our hero.

I loved how everyone (in class discussion) was really excited about this movie. Someone made a good point about the unrealistic full recoveries we as the audience kept witnessing with Sing. He is stabbed by three misaimed flying knives and later bitten in the face by two snakes causing his lips to flare up like Roger Rabbit. Hours or maybe even a day later he returns all fine and dandy ready to make his kill.

Mulholland Drive

I found the movie Mulholland Drive to be quite interesting. Throughout class discussion we were told to not over think the films elements because in a way the movie did not have a solid meaning that could easily be summed up. There simply existed too many elements to piece together as a whole. I guess my question is why and how did the director David Lynch formulate this style of film with so much happening that its hard to even comprehend; how does his mind fathom all of these elements?

As the viewer we are constantly watching Lynch manipulate time and space as well as the characters identity. Through watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think of the film Last Year in Marienbad. Like the main male character in that film, I felt as though we as the audience were being transcended between Betty’s reality and her dream world; in which she is desperately trying to rationalize how it could have been for her making it in Hollywood. As the reading states “Betty is dreaming a bright Hollywood wish-fulfillment fantasy that is dispersed by a terrible Hollywood reality of failure.” We are constantly being sucked into Betty’s dream world were she is trying to fit the pieces together on why she didn’t get the part in a movie.

I loved how in class discussion someone mentioned that the roles the characters played switched in real life. We watched sweet bubbly blonde Betty turn into a seductive train wreck as she pleaded for Camilla aka Rita to stay (as she is straddling her on the couch). This personality switch was a complete opposite to who Betty is in her dream world and we only catch a glimpse of her (in this way) while she is auditioning her a role. Another character that does a complete 180 is the director Adam. In Betty’s dream world, we see Adam’s choice and creativity as a director in wanting to choose the leading lady in his film be stripped away from him from a higher, mysterious power in Hollywood. In reality Adam is just our typical director with really no sense of creativity and he had the chance in choosing the leading lady, Camilla Rhodes. In the dream world he hated the thought of Camilla Rhodes but in reality he was sexually wrapped up in her femme fatale image.

Shaft

I really liked the movie Shaft and found it very interesting compared to present day action movies. I found Shaft to be a very independent, intelligent, and yet a cool cat character; who knew how to get the job done by keeping everyone in their place without using violence all the time. Although Shaft was not a real aggressive or violent man,instead, he uses his posture to challenge his oppressors rather than force; which is seen in so many movies like "Training Day" starring Denzel Washington. Comparing these two movies, I really enjoyed not hearing all of the harsh language. Not to sound like a little girl, it really is annoying to here every other word be the f-word. Not only that, in present day action films, they wouldn't use posture as a sense of I'm "The Man" instead they would just knock you out. On another note in regards to the reading, the main character Shaft compared to present day action hero's are physically portrayed so much differently. Today, to be a masculine manly man we are pushed with the image that they have a hard, muscular body. In the 1970's audiences were marked with the image of these leading man to have lean and toned bodies, a body not all juiced up on steroids and ready to rumble.

After viewing the movie and having a class discussion about it,I have found this movie's underlying theme to be more about being a man than about racial stereotypes. Shaft was more about Shafts interactions with other men and proving to be "The Man" rather than fighting against a wall of stereotypes. While he and his other leading characters (Ben) did embody certain aspects of the black stereotype such as being a pimp, a ghetto street walker, drug dealing, and crime; I felt as though it was more about who was the bigger man to get the job done...SHAFT!

Vanishing Point

I really enjoyed analyzing this movie more than I did watching it. I love the simplicity of it all. Kowalski is simply motivated to drive fast for the love of speed, freedom, and a little bit on the basis that he made a bet (which enables he to have a motive). I loved how once he popped a pill (ironically "speed") the camera focused on his shifting into gears, making him accelerate the speed of his car. To me, this seemed like a camera trick the movie "Requiem for a Dream" later accomplished. The mother would pop her diet pills, the room would spin, the TV played on erratically. When the pills were consumed, the camera captured the immediate hype they were experiencing.

Kowalski is a simple man whose real motivation to drive recklessly fast is the pure joy of the speed and freedom it brings (and the little bit about the bet he had made, which gave him an end to his mean). I personally feel as though the crash justified his life. Nothing else he ever did really mattered. Certainly not to the amount of his high speed chase he led on state to state. People will remember him not for his achievements in the war (which earned him a medal) but for the high speed chase that resulted in his suicidal death. Like a true exploitation film, he literally went out with a bang, which shocked the audience. I noticed from class discussion that not every one found the ending fitting to the film. But in reality it was. I honestly saw this coming because I couldn’t imagine him going out any other way. Being caught and arrested was not an option for Kowalski.

I loved from class discussion that we all agreed that Kowalski is a blue-collared man who never really committed any real or serious crime to result in his man hunt by the state police. Why then were they all so apt to bring him down? Easy, Kowalski made the police force look like incompetent fools. He embarrassed them because they did not have control of the situation. It soon became a rat race on who could bring him down. Which state could get the job done and done right this time?

I loved how the reading put everything into political perspective. The roads were built by the government for the purpose of quickly and quietly transporting our troops as means for the war. Today, the roads are still controlled by the government which is evident whenever we are out driving…the speed limits. We view the roads as being free but are they really free? We buy our cars that can move 120-200 mph, yet we cannot even test them out to their fullest capability. Ugh, the temptation to rebel! So in the end, the message we are left with is this, you can have your freedom, but you cannot break the speed limit. Short and sweet :)

Dr. Strangelove

So far, this movie is really one of my favorites. I really loved how the director, Stanley Kubrick, used nightmare comedy and the ideology of the liberal consensus to present in a satirized format: the the atomic bomb scare, the paranoia, and anti-communist feelings (which were present in the 1960's).

Before I read the article, I couldn't understand why Kubrick made the President sound like such a little girl yet the most sensible out of all the other characters. As the article states, Kubrick was "suggesting that man's warlike tendencies and his sexual urges stem from similar aggressive instincts." I could see where his was getting at with the characters names being sexual, the penis-like refueling plane (which made me feel like a pervert), and the low camera angle shots rooting from Rippers pants. I'm not sure however, if Kubrick was suggesting that all men or just men in the military are sexually and aggressively charged human beings. Personally, I feel that it is all men but on different testosterone levels.

I also liked that Kubrick did not make all of the male characters trigger happy, especially Turgidson who couldn't wait for the annihilation to begin in Russia. I liked how a peer said, in class discussion, that the President appeared to have "no balls" at times, especially in his ridiculous telephone conversations. While I agree, I do feel however, that he did have some balls when deciding not to intensify the attack on Russia. When everyone else around him was suggesting to blow them up before they could retaliate against the U.S, the President was not willing to be known as a mass murderer. While the President tried to avoid being compared to Hitler, it was funny how Dr. Strangelove was such an ex-supporter always having outbursts. I felt that Dr. Strangelove's presence and his craziness symbolized how the U.S was soon to follow in the footsteps of Hitler. While Hitler annihilated almost the whole Jewish population, the President of the United States would be known for annihilating the whole human race. Not intentionally like Hitler, but it would go down in his name as the initiator of the nuclear war that ended all life.

I have been thinking about what Professor McRae asked us to think about and try to blog about:"Satire of the Iraq War." I just can't wrap my head around it. Probably because I feel as though I do not possess all the information necessary to begin to satire it's situation. I am however, extremely curious on what other peers might formulate.

Silent Magic

At first, I hated watching Maya Deren's silent short films. I felt as though I was watching something that is intended to never be understood, or connected to any real form of narrative plot. Rather, to be experienced as a visual enjoyment and highlighting the art of cinematography and the magic it can produce by manipulating time and space. I loved how in the third short film we watched we were able to view a party in a different context. Maya captured the actual reality of a party but enabled us to see it in a different light. Through the use of cinematography, Maya was able to produce magic, something we as humans cannot achieve without technology, the ability of freezing time and slowing it down. It was beautiful to see a party of people intermingling and rushing around anxious to converse with the another, become a ballroom dance. Maya was able to portray casual interaction into emotional touching that embodied such grace like a ballroom dance.

When watching Brakhage, I thought his images were beautiful even when they were a bit graphic. I felt that Brakhage achieved what he believed, "that there is a pursuit of knowledge foreign to language and founded upon visual communication, demanding a development of the optical mind." He enabled us as the audience to view a perception differently, without language, by using a different light and beautifual images to communicate. The birth of his daughter felt so...awakening. We all have our ideas of child birth but did we really know all that he showed us, the reality. He showed us their emotional bliss through images of his wife smiling and rubbing her pregnant belly in the bath tub. The light reflecting off the water and highlighting her belly seemed so peaceful. His use of snappy transitioning showed us the beautiful and the pain. I can honestly say I understand birth so much more than from any other film, I have seen in some health class. I did not feel as though this movie was a violation of women because of the emotional background we experienced. I felt it celebrated what we as women can physically do. I really respected this video for what it was.

In class discussion, I loved how someone in class discussion found meaning behind understanding to Maya Deren's second short film, At Land. I noticed that this film dealt a lot with pieces. Pieces of stones and chess playing pieces. The only real understanding I could formulate was that she was tyring to pick up the pieces from her life. I loved how a peer stated that she was always losing a pawn in the game of chess, that this is symbolic to her not wanting to be a pawn with no end. I would love to hear more discussion on this topic of her being a pawn to life. Through watching the silent film you could tell from her facial expression that she was lost, but in search of something. With the world constantly changing on her it kept tearing her further apart from her search. I know this pawn piece held more significance but I cannnot quite put my finger on it.

La Dolce Vita

I actually really liked this movie and found it to be a visual enjoyment. I thought it had a lot to work with through its complex characters. At first, I found the characters exciting but the plot a bit confusing in grasping the time frame of the events surrounding Marcello. La Dolce Vita means the good life, full of pleasure and indulgence. As the viewer, you are watching the protagonist, Marcello, slowly being consumed by the high life of wealth, frame, and self-indulgence (la dolce vita). His career as a reporter reveals this life-style as lavish and that people want you and want to be around you. The closer he gets to these upper class people, the quicker he comes to realize either just how depressed, crazy, unstable, or soulless they all are. The more Marcello surrounds himself with them, the faster we watch Marcello fall into their holes of life without meaning. We watch him lose himself in his hunger for promiscuous sex. I couldn't stand the fact that he sweet talked his way into the almost every girl's pants. He told them exactly what they wanted to hear and they bought every word. It annoyed me how he didn't ever care to know them, it only mattered on what they could give him...sex! Sadly we watch as his search for both happiness and love never come because he never really appreciates people for who they are. As we learn from Marcello, his father was never really around much, that he left him just as he leaves his possessive girlfriend Emma.

In the reading, Pasolini states that the ideology of Fellini is identifiable a Catholic kind of ideology, the non-dialectical relationship between sin and innocence. I feel this movie was based on portraying a world of sin and loneliness in contrast to innocence. We watch as innocence becomes trampled by sin as Steiner murders his children and himself. Throughout the film you feel as though you are in a kind of hell in which people don't care to know you as a person, a friend, you are only a mean to an end. In this world of sin you only get glimpses of innocence, the kitten, the children, and the young girl seen both at the end and in the cafe. I felt that the final scene in which she is waving to him and shouting something Marcello can not hear, represented their final separation between worlds.

It took me awhile to formulate an interpretation on the statue of Jesus Christ, flying suspended in the skies of Rome from a helicopter, on its way to Vatican. I understood the meaning of this as a degrading change in times/morals. Jesus is flying with his arms open as if reaching out to bless Rome and its people. This camera shot quickly changes from Jesus to girls in bikinis with men googling them. I feel this is showing the shocking change in modern day, as if we need a blessing to save us. People used to be and dress in a more conservative fashion however this modern lifestyle seems improper and offensive to the Catholic religion/church. I feel like there is a deeper meaning to this image but I can't fully reach it. I feel it but I can't find the words to express it. On another note, the monstrous fish at the end left me thoughtless and confused. The line quoted in the movie kept playing through my head "Poor thing and it insists on looking." Poor us! We are watching these people drive themselves into the ground with late night orgies and drinking trying to fill their voids. In the second to last scene, the late night party at a man's house, made me feel uncomfortable yet I couldn't look away. The image of Jesus at the beginning and a monstrous fish at the end symbolizes that evil keeps washing up on our shores, our streets, our homes, and our society. As a society we have lost meaning and morals.

Wishful Thinking

Watching the film "Last Year at Marienbad" truly made my brain hurt! In watching any film, I try to connect to the characters or submerse myself into the plot; which in this film was impossible. The "plot" consisted of various locations with no real sequence to time filmed in the manner of jump cuts. The characters had no names or personality traits to connect to. It took me until the following day (after I viewed the film) to compose a thought process about this movie and what was going on between protagonist "X" and his lady obsession "A". In watching the movie, I felt as though I was imposing on "X's" dream-like thoughts. In the film, X is constantly trying to convince A of their love affair which presumably occur ed at the Marienbad last year. Even though she tells him to leave her alone and go away, he keeps persisting. For the viewer of this film, he or she is left wondering whether this is reality, a dream, or X's internal thoughts. I felt this film was the wishful thinking played in X's head and viewed by us as an audience. I feel as though he did encounter her at the Marienbad last year but he never approached her and hence wish he did. As the audience, I feel as though we are watching X's wishful thinking play out in his mind of how it could have been if he saw her again. I got this impression because of the garden maze (which is constantly being referred to in almost every other shot) as being the inner workings of the human brain.....in this case X's.
In class discussion, I loved how one peer made the connection between this film and the 1976 song Hotel California by The Eagles. What an awesome comparison because I feel as though this song explains almost what is going on in this movie. A quoted lyric :"Mirrors on the ceiling,the pink champagne on ice And she said, "We are all just prisoners here of our own device." Mirrors are so critical in this movie, they are in every shot giving the viewer multiple perspectives as well exposing surreal art forms. I believe the mirrors are mentioned and seen both in the song and in the movie because they represent the confusion in dephiring what is real from what is not. It can be seen as two sepreate worlds. Both the song and the movie deal with surreal art images and both talk about the hotel corridors. Throughout the movie we hear: "I walk on, once again, down these corridors, through these halls, these galleries, in this structure of another century, this enormous, luxurious, baroque, lugubrious hotel, where corridors succeed endless corridors--silent deserted corridors overloaded with a dim, cold ornamentation of woodwork, stucco, moldings, marble, black mirrors, dark paintings, columns, heavy hangings, sculptured door frames, series of doorways, galleries, transverse corridors that open in turn on empty salons, rooms overloaded with an ornamentation from another century, silent halls ... " This film and this song both make the listener feel as though they are watching/listening to someone elses dream: "Last thing I remember, I was running for the door I had to find the passage back to the place I was before"Relax," said the night man"We are programmed to receive you can check out any time you like but you can never leave!" This quoted lyric explains trying to escape/wake up from the dream but you cannot. It is almost a sick cycle. In the film, "X" is trying to find a passage back to a time in making "A" remember their supposed love affair. Even the title Hotel California deals a lot with the movie since it is filmed at the Hotel Marienbad in a dream like trans. However, I personally, I feel that we are not watching "X's" dream but rather his wishful dream-like thinking about what might have been. I do not feel as though he wants to wake up until he has created the perfect ending (he gets A) in his head. In this case he is a prisoner of his own device.
I found the reading every interesting and helpful in understanding exactly what is going on in this film.I have always loved Rene Descartes's quote "I think therefore I am." In the movie, the viewer is never sure what is real or a dream. Are some scenes "X's" dream and others his reality? We never know. All we know is that we are watching "X's" thoughts/his dreams, therefore we can assume he is real. He exists because he has the mental thought process of thinking/dreaming. We can assume that we are merely, watching a dream and their is no reality but then again who is doing the dreaming/thinking? That is where I say "X" is and therefore he exists.

Orpheus

I found the movie Orpheus very hard to follow because of all the symbolize and images that created a much deeper meaning to the film's significance. Overall, I felt that Cocteau did an amazing job with his artistic use of visual elements. He really showed the viewer life as it really is perceived and easily transitioned us into the underworld involving myth by creating the camera shots to be fuzzy...almost dreamlike. He also portrayed the underworld in contrast with the world of the living in a way that enabled the viewer to easily decipher between the two worlds (living and dead). The world of the living was shot in daylight in clean/ordered surroundings. The underworld reflected the devastation left from WWII. There was rubble, disorientation, and broken down buildings in every camera shot. It truly reflected the chaos of the situation. I also loved Cocteau's use of the mirror being a portal to the underworld, it was really a neat cinematic technique. To me, it showed us that death is almost within reach and not so final with Orpheus stepping in and out of the worlds of the living and the dead.

On a different note, I found Orpheus to not be charming at all! Yes, he had a great look but he was such a rude, depressed, and self-centered man. I found it hard to believe, as other characters were talking, that his marriage to Eurydice was anything amazing. All her friends kept reassuring her (when he went missing for a night) just how much he is completely in love with her yet all we see is him rudely brushing her off and ignoring her. I also couldn't understand why they slept in separate beds!It was sad to watch him unravel so quickly. First, he lost his touch in writing profound poetry, he has to deal with a younger boy stealing his light, and than he totally disregards his wife and instead falls in love with his death (whom I found spider like). A peer in the class made a great analysis in stating that by Orpheus falling in love with his death he is almost giving up in a form of suicide, for they can only be together in the underworld. This comment really shed more light on helping me understand the movie. Orpheus falling in love with death floored me!!Throughout the movie, you believe he is going to the underworld to save his wife yet it's really to see his death...twisted. I never saw this coming however I did see his death falling for him. I really liked how Cocteau had death dressed all in black but changed her clothing to white when she was being confronted by her watcher/driver about her love for Orpheus. To me, this symbolized that even though she is dead and meant to feel nothing, she has life in feeling love for him.

I found the reading difficult to understand but by having discussed it in class I believe I am getting it. Greene states that Orpheus could not be separated from his power to enchant, to seduce. This is true yet he is evenly seduced by his own death, whom is an ice cold woman of cruelty. I do not completely understand masochism....but I feel like Orpheus undergoes this pain and pleasure by wanting his death. She causes pain yet he seeks her pleasure. This pleasure brings him to his best work and closer to his own death.

Vertigo

I really enjoyed watching the 1944 film Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock much more than Laura. I found it to be a great murder mystery with a twist I never saw coming. However, certain aspects of the movie was much like a reworking of the film Laura.
For example, Scottie was defined by two things: his acrophobia and his obsession with Madeline. Madeline's character had some depth but was merely an object in the movie to define the male protagonist, Scottie. Just like in the movie Laura, where she was only seen as an object of lust men obsessed over. Scottie did not love Madeline for her personality but her image. How could he love such a twisted woman? Part of me feels as though he loved her because he wanted to be the one to save her. He couldn't save his partner from falling off the roof top. This guilt consumes him in now wanting to be the one who saves Madeline from her possessed like state.
While I felt Madeline to be a bit dry, Midge was the complete opposite. Midge shocked me! I couldn't believe how she went from a motherly friend to a jealous one. I thought she would be the only stable character in the film. She had me floored the minute she pulled that psycho move of painting her face onto the body portrait of Carlotta. In the beginning of the film she was very upfront with Scottie about everything. Why she took the route of not doing this when wanting to tell him of her feelings is beyond me. I guess it is harder to tell than to show someone how you feel about certain things, especially love. I just feel like she pulled the typical move most my friends make. The minute Scottie was taken by another woman, it was a race to get him back.
In class discussion, I found it very interesting how one peer pointed out that it wasn't just her painting that freaked most of us out but the fact that she included her glasses. This was very much a true thing for me! In our society, glasses such as Midge's, are not found to be an object of glamour. The way she included them confuses me. Perhaps she cannot see herself without them. I really don't know.
Another aspect that bothered me was how Judy just let Scottie transform her into Madeline. I couldn't believe Scottie had become crazy enough to fixate Judy as Madeline. He really went overboard in his breakdown attempt to restore Madeline's image and their love by transforming Judy. I felt as though Judy allowed him to make these changes because of the guilt she felt. She wanted him to love her again no matter who she was or who she even looked like. They were both just two desperate people trying to regain the love they once had.
On a cinematic note, the trombone effect (so often done with the camera) was truly clever of Hitchcock. It really brought the viewers into Scottie's mental state of acrophobia and at times his overwhelming confusion, allowing us to feel a bit of what he was experiencing. In the last scene when Scottie was confronting Judy about her part in the murder plot, the lighting casted a shadow over half his face. I felt that this effect symbolized Scottie's two mental states, one being sane and the other insane. It was showing us Scottie coming back to reality after being away on his long mental breakdown.

Laura

I found the 1944 noir film "Laura" by Otto Preminger to be a strange movie with a surprising twist. I found it both irritating and impossible to relate to the main character Laura due to her being unstable and indecisive as a character. To begin with, the only way you truly know of her is by what other characters (mainly her love interests) say about her. Half way through the movie she makes her introduction which truly doesn't change the scene. Laura is rather an object of lust than a real character in this movie. I feel as though she was created this way and not as a relate able character to play up her love interests personalities and rather how different they are from one another. The only true thing that connects them is their infatuation with Laura which in turn defines them. This love triangle alone makes the movie hard to follow. Laura is also hard to understand because she doesn't even have a male type to define her as a person. She attracts Lydecker, whom is a possessive and intelligent older man, Carpenter, a young charming dead beat womanizer, and Detective McPherson, a handsome man whom embodies the heroic manly man that needs saving. I feel as though this movie was filmed to expose the three different types of men in which woman fall for; and not to purely expose social satire of upper class human beings, as Nick Schager writes in his film review. With Laura not having one love type, you can assume she has multiple personalities since she cannot make up her mind and instead let's others do her deciding for her.
I see Laura as an object also because of the way she lives more in her centerpiece portrait (which consumes every camera angle when in her home) than as a person. This portrait plays a bigger part in affecting her love interests than she does in person. Her portrait is the living room centerpiece, that reveals Laura in a seductive yet beautiful pose. The painting produces a luminous glow that surrounds her body's outline and contrasts it with a dark background; making her lure in those like Detective McPherson by making her seem irresistible and goddess like. Laura is truly filmed to reflect man's desires and the female product of mans imagination. It is not Laura's personality that men love but her image.
In class discussion, we discussed the purpose of the broken clock as being the final ending scene. I feel as though no one could produce a satisfying answer to why this was chosen to end the film. My only thought would be that it symbolized the end of Lydeckers life. Throughout the movie the clock is filmed as being a "hey look at me" clue to solve the mystery. I never realized it until a student peer pointed out that in certain scenes the clock actually divides Lydecker and McPherson when they are discussing Laura's death. I feel as though the director chose to film the clock in this way to provide the viewer with little hints of who the killer is. To tell us it is right under our noses. The clock continues ticking until Lydeckers death symbolizing the mystery solved.
In reading the articles, I feel as though Laura does not fully capture the description of "The Femme Fatale." Yes, she is the object of obsession for men, however, I feel she does not defy the control of men nor the refute on traditional womanhood. In this particular film, Laura is presented as a sweet, innocent, and helpless schoolgirl with a soft spoken voice. I do not see her as being romantically unhappy but rather indecisive on what to do or who to chose in love. I view Laura not as a seductive woman but as a weak little girl needing direction. I feel as though her remaining to be an independent woman is not a choice but instead a result of her indecisiveness.

The Third Man

I found the movie The Third Man to be very interesting and enjoyable. I loved the suspense and twist in characters, however I felt as though I saw certain plot aspects coming. Maybe I watch too many movies, but I noticed a lot of foreshadowing that gave certain aspects away from the characters role as well as what Holly was in for. First off, When Holly walked under the ladder in the opening scene upon arriving in Vienna, I felt as though he walked into a trap that awaited him. He quickly looked up after walking under the ladder as if sensing it himself. Secondly, when Holly met that strange feminine man at the cafe to inquire about the death of his dear friend Harry Lime, I noticed he wore a glove on this right hand. I perceive the right hand as truthful, honest. I suppose I perceive this because we pledge with our right hand. By wearing a single black glove on his right hand, to me, foreshadowed a switch in character to more of darker involved man with a motive of his own.

As far as the way in which the movie was filmed, I found it rather interesting. I noticed that the camera angles always went slanted during secretive conversions involving Lime's death, which at times threw me out of my focus. I felt that the zither music did not truly fit the style of this film until we discussed it in class. It annoyed me that the movie dealt a lot with confusing circus like features but then I realized these elements captured the chaotic sense of the movie. The strange little boy, the ball, the balloons, the farris wheel, along with the larger then life shadows reflected the craze Holly was consumed in. It seemed unreal as well as chaotic, much like a circus. I also loved how one student pointed out that the shadows represented another world that was occurring along side reality. I noticed the heavy use of shadows but had a hard time understanding its meaning/symbolism. I guess I feel as though the use of shadows was used to capture a deeper darker meaning. The shadow world is a world that captured the characters grim emotions that was reflected upon the walls.

The article " The Revenant of Vienna: A Critical Comparison of Carol Reed's Film The Third Man and Bram Stoker's Novel Dracula," was really interesting. The purpose alone, Lime compared to Dracula, had me make some comparisons on my own before reading the article. I noticed a lot of similar things but I also learned a lot too. What I did notice was how Lime only really revealed himself at night, he wore dark clothing, vanished without a trace at times and had a dark/twisted respect for the life of humanity. I learned from this article, that like Dracula, Lime is hardly ever present throughout the film. You truly learn of him from what other characters say about him. I found it also very interesting how both Dracula and Lime first appear standing in doorways. Really cool stuff. I wonder if director Carol Reed meant to portray Lime as being quite similar to Dracula on purpose.....

Overall, awesome movie and very interesting article.