Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Olivia's Interview Update
Sunday, September 27, 2009
France et Film
Just as Pepe Le Moko, Francois Truffaut’s Jules et Jim is a story about those desperately in love (menage-a-trois style!) on the fractured state of Europe between the World Wars. Both show a hint of poetic realism, with beautiful scenery contradicting the actual events of the movie. Interestingly enough, Jules et Jim is set before, during and after the Great war and a product of the French New Wave. The style is unique in that the film uses many different tightly composed shots (panning, wipes, newsreel footage), including freeze frame (most notable for me) for a dramatic tone. What really struck me was the musical score, which summed up the lives/feelings of the three characters. Jeanne Moreau sings the doomed love song in a sweet and innocent matter. The irony is amazingly articulated within the theme of the film and reinforces the film’s poetic realism. Catherine, herself, portrays an ironic free-spirited character both beautiful and intelligent, but also in control and dominant (unlike the women characters in Pepe Le Moko).
WORD: Viability
Noun
S: (n) viability ((of living things) capable of normal growth and development)
S: (n) viability (capable of being done in a practical and useful way)
Top Five Filmmakers
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Poetic Realism vs Film Noir: Women
“Based on realist literature or original scripts and usually set in working-class milieux, Poetic Realist films featured pessimistic narratives and night-time settings, and a dark, contrasted, visual style prefiguring American film noir.”
I noticed the comparison to film noir in both story and in technical aspects. I also found it interesting that the genre depicts “mythical women characters.” As there is a stereotype to women’s roles in film noir as well. In Pepe Le Moko, the two traditional roles are represented. The madonna and the femme fatale. Seemingly women’s roles only extend to be either the loose and wicked female that goes well with the sinful way of life or the woman who represents the purity of an honest life. In Pepe, Ines represents the lustful woman as Pepe’s favorite lover, and Gaby represents the pure life he longs for in Paris. However, not all film noir films center around a love story, and as I’ve read, many poetic realism films do.
I suppose it’s only natural that a genre with the word “poetic” in its title would only depict the ache that real life brings, as life doesn’t end the way happy movies do.
I’ve seen others chose to look up the word Xenophobic, but I was also intrigued by this word.
Xenophobic
Noun
An intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
I suppose this word fits in suitably to a class entitled, International Cinema.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Pepe Le Moko and Poetic Realism
Pepe le Moko, (1937) is from the French movement known as poetic realism. Poetic realism developed in the 1930s and continued through times of war. These films were centered on marginalized characters who are let down at the last minute by love. It is clear in these films that war was a reality for people. For example scenes in which characters are shown shooting guns in the film suggests that they are learning as they go how to use them. The fact that they spend so much time hiding, and wondering in a maze which is their life all seems to also related. Pepe Le Moko was originally a crime novel written by detective Ashelbe, or otherwise known as Henri La Barthe and was filmed on a designed studio set.
Word Study:
Poetic Realism- a cinematic style that emerged in France during the 1930s that combined working-class milieus and downbeat story lines with moody, proto-noir art direction and lighting to stylishly represent contemporary social conditions. Considered by some critics as a precursor to film noir.
Poetic Realism in French Cinema
| an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009. |
The Poetic Gangster
Pepe le Moko is a classic gangster film and it embodies the concept of poetic realism to a T. The setting for this poetic story is poetry itself. The world comes together in one little area, everyone is different, but everyone is family, all watching out for le Moko.
Although most poetic realist films are supposed to be pessimistic, Pepe le Moko is optimistic. Le Moko wants to get out of the world he currently lives in. He wants to go back to his beloved Paris and be with the woman he loves. He sees a bright future, but like all in gangster films, he is doomed. The audience is pulled in to his optimistic view; hoping and wanting him to get out and be with the one he loves. Yet, we feel the pain he feels when he must leave. As much as he wants to get out and go to Paris, he is afraid of leaving the Casbah. He is afraid to leave the comfort that he feels there and the safe haven it has become.
The beauty lays in the poetry that is his life. He is a grown man who is like a child, afraid to leave home. In the end, he takes his life because he can’t have what he truly wanted. To her, he was already dead; there is no point for him to continue his life in jail. He set himself free. In this struggle, he gets what he wanted all along, freedom.
Word study: Poetry
–noun
1. the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
2. literary work in metrical form; verse.
3. prose with poetic qualities.
4. poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of simple acts and things.
5. poetic spirit or feeling: The pianist played the prelude with poetry.
6. something suggestive of or likened to poetry: the pure poetry of a beautiful view on a clear day.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poetry)
Pepe le Poetic Realist
Pepe le Moko was a piece of French cinema in the vein of poetic realism, orchestrated by Julien Duvivier. According to the article The Popular Art of French Cinema, “The doomed universe of Poetic Realist films was said to reflect the gloomy morale of the immediate pre-war years.” I believe that while not mired in an anticipation of war, Pepe le Moko was certainly a victim of the ‘gloomy morale’ of these Poetic Realist films. The ending alone reflects the pessimistic worldview at the time, while maintaining a lust for freedom in a Vichy government; Pepe would rather kill himself than be trapped by the overwhelming weight of authority, just as he was equally trapped in the Casbah. The entire film has a downtrodden view on life, Pepe’s friend dies, he betrays his woman for another, she betrays him, and there is no upside for anyone involved. This is also somewhat in keeping with the traditions passed on to America with the popularization of Film Noir, as these Poetic Realist films are said to be precursors to that genre. The dark outlook and shadowing, even somewhat of a deathly woman, a ‘femme fatale’ is present, in Ines, the woman who betrays him. Her actions may have been condemned at the time, but today we may see them differently. They could be seen as the actions of a poorly treated woman, but at the time, she was treated no differently than any other woman, and would therefore be seen as guilty.
Word Study: Vaudeville
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Poetic Realism: Finding Beauty Amoung Tragedy
Poetic Realism in France was the precursor to Film Noir in the United States, and therefore provided many of the building blocks for the genre. Poetic Realism contained "pessimistic narratives and nighttime settings, and a dark, contrasted visual style" (Nowell-Smith 345). Pepe Le Moko was a prime example for most of these conventions. It's plot follows the ideology that there is no happy ending, no matter how valiant the effort. As the main character's life snowballs out of controll, the audience slowly realizes he has no chance to save stop any of the tradgedies, because it is the cruel outside world that controls his fate.
The visual style of the film is much more real than many films being made at the time. There is one scene in particular that stands out as vividly real, it occurs as a voice describes the Casbah, when b-roll of the city that closely resembles that of documentary is played. The audience feels as if these shots are not staged, but instead are common in the everyday routine of the Casbah, which forces the story into a much more gritty and honest form.
Many conventions that would later be compiled for what is now known as the Film Noir movement in the United States are also present in Pepe Le Moko. The main character, Pepe, is the typical anti-hero persona portrayed in the dark American genre, known the pre-war france as simply the male-hero starring opposite "mythical women" (Nowell-Smith 345). Throughout the course of the film, Pepe proves to be his own worst enemy, and eventually becomes the cause of his own death. It is through his lusting for a rich and unobtainable woman that he is careless and drawn into the Paris, where he is arrested and forced to watch as his love interest symbolically sails away without even noticing him. In American cinema, this form of self-destructive behavior became common place, and the female roles were embellished into the Femme Fatales, the ultimate accessory for a self-destructive male anti-hero.
The city setting, and sharp black and white contrast are another convention shared by both Poetic Realism and Film Noir. Both genre's use the cities as a sort of boundary for their characters, trapping them in a world where they are forced to face evil and temptation. The black and white acts as more than just a technological limit, it becomes a statement on the harsh reality that the characters live in, with deep shadows and contrasting images.
Instead of seeking the comedic, escapist route, Pepe Le Moko is essentially an expression of anxiety felt in pre-war France that would later become part of the mold followed by American Film Noir attempting to do the same thing for it's audience in the next decade. Deviver was able to take a tragic story and tell it in a beautiful way, which is often times the best and most powerful choice for telling such a story.
1. Of or existing in myth: the mythical unicorn.
2. Imaginary; fictitious.
3. Often mythic Of, relating to, or having the nature of a myth: a novel of profound, almost mythic consequence.
Word Study: Vichy
A Look at Some Historical and Patriotic Symbolism in “Pepe le Moko”
Set in the Poetic Realist world of the labyrinth-like Casbah, Algiers, Julien Duvivier’s Pepe le Moko (1937) is rife with intrigue and romance, but perhaps most of all, symbolism. Because the film was released at the brink of a second world war, it is especially interesting to correlate the symbolisms in Pepe to France during that specific era.
The hero, criminal mastermind Pepe of Marseilles (Jean Gabin), is the first to observe in terms of metaphor and symbolism. He represents, through a sense of loyalty and heightened romance, the “spirit of France,” per se. He is an unlikely hero, but one with whom we can identify because of his compassion over those whom he loves, and his very human need to “be free.” After a two-year, self-imposed exile – brought on by the pursuit of police in his beloved Paris – Pepe’s appetite for freedom is whet by a beautiful Parisienne tourist (Mireille Balin). She is the forbidden ticket out of his prison – or his perceived prison, depending on how you look at it. (Pepe has made a good life for himself in Casbah, and is not without love and companionship, but as the representative “spirit of France,” he must always long for Paris.)
In a way, Pepe and Casbah are like France and the impending German occupation – an “imprisonment” of some kind is inevitable, although they did not know exactly what it would be until the Nazis attacked in 1940 and the French government signed an armistice with Germany, allowing the Nazis to invade the north part of the country (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Leading up to this point, the French people must have felt trapped in their own “Casbah,” and in a surge of resistance, a patriotic mood hung in the air. We have evidence of this in the film, when “Mama” (Renee Carl) sings along to a recording of a patriotic love song addressed to Paris. Nostalgia and entrapment are too much for Pepe to bear, and when the young policeman’s, Slimane’s (Lucas Gridoux), predictions about his doomed fate come true, the viewer can only shudder and think of how it must have been when, for instance, the Germans marched into the City of Lights.
One last observation should be noted, and this is the fact that Pepe’s betrayal before the ship departs Algiers is wrought by a woman who is not French, although Pepe dallies with her for some time. Through the Parisienne, Gaby, we see Pepe’s true love for and fascination not necessarily with the woman herself, but Paris. Their excited conversation about the various sights of the city intoxicates the romantic criminal, and he realizes, too late, that he is in love with Paris, and he can never return. Perhaps Duvivier’s film was prophetic, a dismal forewarning about the future state of France, as well as a gift of encouragement to his fellow citizens, showing them that whether they emigrated or not, to always remember where they are from, no matter where they are “imprisoned.”
In the beginning of class, Polina discussed the macro-environment of the film. During that time, France was in an intense situation, in between World War I and World War II before the Nazi occupation. In reflecting the film noir style to the complex situation, it was hard to not think of the time as during or after the Nazis, and saying that it foreshadowed what was to come. For instance, in the film, Pepé was the leader and hero of that area, he was the foundation of hope and justice to the people, yet by the end of the film, Pepé becomes a different person. He seems to be dealing with an internal fight rather than leading the people, and everything that once was, was changed in an instant because of their leader diverting his normal sense to one that is destructive for the people and himself. However, it does reveal that the upcoming war was something expected with the seemingly foreshadowing nature presented in the film.
So in concentrating on this film occurring after World War I, the notion of that war being monumental with the weapons used immediately became visible. In the first scenes of the film, there is a very interesting gun fight. The men seen shooting the guns (Pepé’s men) looked like they didn’t know how to use guns. They held them awkwardly and shot with barely any movement or aim. Now in observing this scene, two things could be surmised. Either one, the acting was very bad; or two, this was done in an effect to and caused by the first World War to portray a new and distant feeling toward the weapon. Either way, it is hard to not notice the poor gun techniques, and whether intentional or not, does make you think of why they are shooting like that, and what guns mean to them living in an area of poverty.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Homegrown French Gangster
2) The *real* gangsters are those behind organised crime; most notably the Mafia. Responsible for blackmarket trade, epsionage, organised beatings/assassinations, etc. "The Godfather" portrays the archtype of true gangsters, showing the brutality of mob beatings, shootings, running rackets and abusing woman, alcohol and everything in between. The real gansters are *not* to be confused with the aforementioned definition, commonly used as it might be.
2) "All right, you just shot 'em both. Now what do you do?"
"Sit down and finish my dinner."
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Poetic realism+ French Cinema
Poetic realism was a new movement in France. A loosely conceived feeling that lasted for merely a short time; sandwiched between the two great wars. The idea of a poetic realist was usually embodied by a male hero and the universe was called a doomed one as the heroes of poetic realism would often end up perishing. This loose feeling of poetics was never fully realized as an ideology or movement like the soviet montage or French impressionism. (Gillespie)
Relating this short French idea to the film, Pépé Le Moko is realatively easy. This style of Poetic realism is highly evident in this film. As we see the shots of the city, they are quite beautiful and to me quite poetic but yet a gritty realism touched the landscape. The Poetic realist was embodied by Pépé, the male hero of the story. He lives a glorified life as a thief, living among the squalor and crowded cobwebs of streets in the Kasbah of Tangiers. So we see a poetic sort of man who shouldn’t belong in the older quarter of the city almost in charge of the rogues of the city, defining the realism. Also at the end of the film the poetic realist’s life is extinguished for a romantic, poetic sort of reason, he ends his life because of love.
This whole concept of poetic realism and the tragic end the hero meets reflected the gloomy time before World War II and sets the mood for the years during the war.
Gillespie, John. "Poetic Realism: the Film Genre a Director Died to Make." n. pag. Web. 17 Sep 2009.
Paradigm – n. A pattern or archetype; A set of forms all of which contain a particular element, esp. the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme or an example serving as a model; pattern.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Poetic Realism in Pépé le Moko
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Revolutionary Wheel Between Camera and Man (by Alex)
Another fascinating shot is the monstrous camera in which appears every so often. This shot, for me, reinforces this underlying uncomfortable perception, which we as individuals do no speak of, but know to be true. Wherever, whenever, whoever someone is always watching. Knowing this, we still continue on a day-to-day basis just as we did the day before. Vertov brings this idea to the surface with his cinema verite’ approach to everyday ‘to-do’s. A camera can then go anywhere an eye can travel.
Word Choice:
Subvert \Sub*vert"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Subverted; p. pr. &
vb. n. Subverting.] [L. subvertere, subversum; sub under +
vertere to turn: cf. F. subvertir. See Verse.]
1. To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin
utterly.
These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength,
With which he yoketh your rebellious necks, Razeth
your cities, and subverts your towns. --Shak.
This would subvert the principles of all knowledge.
--Locke.
2. To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to
corrupt; to confound. --2 Tim. iii. 14.
Syn: To overturn; overthrow; destroy; invert; reverse;
extinguish.
- Alex Abrams
Monday, September 14, 2009
Avant-Garde as A Simple Form
I found this excerpt to challenge me to think more openly about why I have issues with non-narrative forms of cinema. I thought about dogme style film and how it’s lack of narrative is still artistic. Yet watching films like Man With a Movie Camera and Un Chien Adalou are difficult for me to view. The reading also discusses how editing played a major role with avante-garde. I understand that rhythmic editing transcended the style and that although I don’t appreciate the style as a whole, these small revolutionaries are contributers to cinema on a larger scale.
As an aspiring filmmaker, I try to look beyond my own predetermined viewpoints on the matter. I began thinking about how I feel about abstract art and other art-forms I find difficult to appreciate. It’s difficult for me to accept a piece of art that resembles something a child would scribble as a thoughtful masterpiece. I always feel that it’s a “flakey cop-out” that purposely avoids displaying any real talent. I realize this opinion may be offensive to some, and I understand that there are more ways to express an idea or feeling other than a linear explanation. However, I feel as a viewer, the artist is responsible for explaining what that feeling is, even if it’s open to interpretation. Surrealism is another form that comes to mind and is also mentioned in the reading. I expect surrealism without a narrative to be appealing to the eye, so that when it’s over I don’t need an explanation. I can accept the piece as a collection of artwork and not have to understand it. Perhaps that is why I found it difficult to stay focused on the two films, I didn’t find it quite visually appealing.
I suppose I can conclude that avant-garde isn’t for me, however there is no reason why we can’s coexist. I don’t have a hatred towards it, I just don’t feel any attraction to it, perhaps we can just be friends.
The word I decided to look up is avant-garde. I figured that if I was going to decide I didn’t care for it, I should know it’s full definition.
Avant-garde = advance guard or vanguard
Definition: Means pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and have continued to do so. Tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets in the 1980’s.
-Wikipedia
Vertov and the City
Dziga Vertov devoted his life to nonfiction film; he despised fiction film in all forms. One of his most famous films, The Man with the Movie Camera is a random sampling of city life in Russia. However, there is almost a fictional element to it, in that the city he portrays is a composite city made up of various Russian cities, but does not actually exist. There are also other fictionalized images throughout the film, in that they are things that cannot occur in real life, such as the cameraman popping out of objects he could not possibly have fit into. These elements are merely tricks of the editing, and the film itself is nonfiction due to its lack of scripted acting or likewise, but they give the film a somewhat fictional feel to it. They appeal to the psyche more than the rational brain. I think it is also part of what makes the film so interesting. The reading discussed a group that he was part of, the kinoki group, who relied on newsreel type footage to create their films. I think this film is in direct opposition to the kinoki type film philosophy. Though everything in the film was nonfiction, it was certainly not newsreel type, or even linear at all. I do believe that it was a city symphony piece, as described in the reading, but it tore down city life as much as it romanticized it. The homeless man sleeping on the street is a typical image of any big city, but opposes the utopian view of the imagined city within the film. In this way, Vertov undercuts his own work to prove that there is no perfect city.
Word Study: Ethnographic
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov was born, Denis Arkadievitch Kaufman in Byalistok, Poland January 2, 1896. He studied in Byalistok at the music academy from 1912-1915. While a student he set up a lab for the study of sound in 1915-1917 and adopted "Dziga Vertov" which means spinning top. His career includes editor and writer for a newsreel section of Moscow Cinema Committee in 1917, he directed his first personal film and published Kinoks-Revolution Manifesto in 1919 and organized film activities in 1921. He began developing the theory of "Kino-Glaz" or Kino-Eye in 1922 and then worked on a few more newsreels til he died in 1954. In 1929 he directed a film called "Man With A Movie Camera", it was silent and was accompanied in theaters with live music. Since then the "soundtrack" as been changed a lot. Many of the new music created for the film was based off of notes left by Vertov and used to represent a number of things in the film itself. Things like for instance sirens, babies crying, noise from crowds, they where mimicked.
Word Study: Manifesto
A public declaration of policy and aims, esp. one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.
http://en.allexperts.com/e/m/ma/man_with_a_movie_camera.htm
Today's word: Truth
truth
[trooth]
Show IPA ,
z, trooths] Show IPA .| 1. | the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth. |
| 2. | conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement. |
| 3. | a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths. |
| 4. | the state or character of being true. |
| 5. | actuality or actual existence. |
| 6. | an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude. |
| 7. | honesty; integrity; truthfulness. |
| 8. | (often initial capital letter) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life. |
| 9. | agreement with a standard or original. |
| 10. | accuracy, as of position or adjustment. |
| 11. | Archaic. fidelity or constancy. |
| 12. | in truth, in reality; in fact; actually: In truth, moral decay hastened the decline of the Roman Empire. |
Related forms:
1. fact. 2. veracity. 7. sincerity, candor, frankness. 10. precision, exactness.
1. falsehood. 2, 4, 7. falsity.