Showing posts with label film studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film studies. Show all posts

Friday, 12 August 2016

Film Critiques: Star Trek: Beyond

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster
(Byzantine Fire, 2016)
  • Director: Justin Lin 
  • Native Title: Star Trek: Beyond
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2016
  • Budget: $1850,000,000
  • Film Length: 122 minutes
  • Production Company: Paramount Pictures, Alibaba Pictures, Bad Robot

  Released in the midsummer of 2016, Star Trek: Beyond is the third installment of J.J. Abrams' rebooted Star Trek universe. Unlike previous instalments however, the film was directed by The Fast and The Furious director Justin Lin. In Beyond, the crew of the Enterprise are stranded on a strange planet by the alien warlord Krall (Idris Elba), who holds an intense grudge against the Federation and it's ideas. And plans to destroy it with an ancient weapon.

  They say that 'the third time is the charm'. This may be the right thing to say about Beyond as out of all three new-generation films it feels the most like classic Star Trek. It feels the most like the film is trying to emulate what made Star Trek famous. One of the shining examples being the characterization between Spock (Zachery Quinto and "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban). In this film, McCoy and Spock are stranded together "here, he [McCoy]’s given so much more to do, as Bones and an injured Spock become a virtual double act, a space-age Abbott and Costello, bantering and bickering with each other as they face what seems to be near-certain death." (Hewitt, 2016). Here the classic double act of logic vs passion that characterised their dynamic in the original series is in full bloom, as McCoy makes it clear time and again that the last thing he ever hoped for was to be trapped on an unknown planet with "the green-blooded hobgoblin" as his only companion. But we also get to see Spock's more human side as he comes to terms with his place in the universe, and generally gets philosophical over the prospect of filling the shoes of Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

Figure 2: Never mind the debate over Sulu now preferring men, here's a bro-pairing that's been simmering since 1967.
  Krall and his forces are perhaps the strongest villain of the series so far. "Attention was paid to the villain, and even under makeup and effects, Idris Elba registers." (Movie Nation, 2016) Krall is professional, sly, but overall it turns out that he's a representation of a fundamental problem with the Federation. He talks about the Federation pushing back the frontier, that it is something that is not logical, That it is a place where you have everyone holding hands. Krall claims he was born into a world of strife and struggle, so we assume that he's talking about some kratocratic death-world where the strong rule over the weak. But near the end of the film, after an impressive climax we learn that Krall is in fact a former soldier, who found himself abandoned because the Federation is something alien to him. A video diary reveals that far from being some tin-pot alien dictator, Krall's beef with the Federation is very personal, and Idris Elba plays well that it is the Federation that is a difficult thing to accept and not Krall's aggressive ideals, and that he didn't just leap off the insanity deep end to get there.

Figure 3: Krall (Idris Elba) is no pushover. But he's no "just because I can" tyrant either.
  The fundamental issue Krall presents is that no matter how utopian a society may be, there are always going to be people who don't fit in. The Federation has long been portrayed as this progressive, co-habitational utopia where everyone cooperates and there is total equality. "Krall would be the first villain of the new Star Trek series to go against the Federation itself, and its ideals that may not be so easy to impose on another foreign culture -- a situation more than relevant to today's times. " (Dougherty, 2015) Krall is, essentially, a representation of any culture that is stubbornly resistant to adopting Western values as American and European media try to impose their values on the world. The list of countries is long, but the climate is there. There is a a strong opposition to "westernisation" but the common rebuttal by Westerners is that these people would be much better off with democracy and individualist thinking. As Krall finds the idea of relying on the strength of others to be a weakness, so do the Chinese question how much better their lives would actually be if the government had to put more focus on keeping its politicians elected in order to get things done when they can effectively build cities over the course of a few months under the current system while it takes a western government the same amount of time to build a single housing project under it's  own supposedly-superior system.

  This cultural questioning could be in how the planetbound adventures kick off. While there was a lot of death in Into Darkness, this film is one of the bloodier incarnations as "[the] Enterprise is destroyed with sadistic thoroughness, taken apart by scores of little ships that swarm and strike like bees." (Edelstein, 2016). Any crew that is not unhesitantly gunned down (one moment having five redshirts quite literally fall like dominos) are captured in the escape and the Enterprise itself is shattered into ribbons. At once showing how ruthless and well-prepared the enemy is (who go around in in full suits of sci-fi armour and armed with arm-mounted disruptor guns), and how ineffective the Federation is against an actual army (boarding-response teams are little more than random crewmen wielding phaser rifles). Possibly suggesting that Admiral Marcus may have had a point back in Into Darkness. The changes in uniform and the disappearance of all the militarasation suggesting that his point was ignored because he was trying to turn Starfleet into something it is not.

Figure 4: No matter who they are, the bad guys always seem to have the cooler toys.
  Star Trek is historically a franchise that is political but it is also a franchise that likes to be spectacular. "Not only have Lin and company |...| created more than 50 alien races, they’ve come up with some nifty alien worlds, especially the enormous spaceport of Yorktown, whose streets were shot in futuristic Dubai." (Turan, 2016) the Yorktown Starbase is a designer's fantasy that takes full advantage of building in an environment with no natural gravity and the climax of the film (something that has to be seen that while not quite old Trek, and quite over-the-top, will certainly entertain viewers of the current generation) does not disappoint, and the film has plenty of visual spectacle that is certainly memorable. The film indeed goes a long way towards looking good, with a visual quality that stays strongly in your mind.

Figure 5: Such a beautiful project that for some reason is built a five-minute hop from a region of space no one knows anything about.
  After the copycat attempt at the franchise's strongest film that was Star Trek: Into Darkness; Beyond feels like a return to what made Star Trek the talk of prime time entertainment and one of the most recognisable, beloved and long-running sci-fi franchises to date. While also updating itself to chime with modern audiences in a way that feels like it knows what it is talking about rather than some shallow attempt at looking trendy. It's funny, philosophical, and a treat with something for audiences as varied as the hundred types of latex head that wander around Yorktown station.

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Sunday, 10 July 2016

Film Review: Warcraft: The Beginning

Theatrical Poster (perculia, 2016)
  • Director: Duncan Jones 
  • Native Title: Warcraft: The Beginning
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2016
  • Budget: $160,000,000
  • Film Length: 123 minutes
  • Production Company: Blizzard Entertainment, Legendary Pictures
  Based on the highly successful Warcraft franchise by Blizzard Entertainment and directed by Duncan Jones, Warcraft: The Beginning is a fantasy movie that recounts the invasion of the human kingdom of Stormwind by a faction calling itself the Orcish Horde. The orchish chieftain Durotan however has doubts over this invasion and sought to work with some humans to thwart the scheme of Gul'dan, fearing that the destruction of his homeworld would happen to Azeroth.

  Movies adapted from video games have always had a curse: Next to never approved by critics, often doing things to upset fans of the franchise they portray and often coming out as messy or unfocused as they try their best to compress a story of twenty hours into two. A common issue is that movies trade interactivity and action for story "most game adaptations – it is a smallish field with a poor reputation – attempt to cash in on popular properties by simply trading off the lure of interactivity for the delights of big action on a big screen. Jones’s much more intelligent and aesthetic approach to the problem is not entirely new |...| but it does make Warcraft visually interesting throughout." (Taylor, 2016) Duncan Jones understands his setting better than most directors do in projects like this, and focuses on Warcraft's comic aesthetic and grand narrative translate onto the silver screen better than most. But the attempt is not free of flaws.

The locations have been lovingly crafted for fans and lore-buffs alike. Such as a city gate design the sole purpose of which was to hide a game engine limitation from 2004. (
  While this was quite a high-quality production, the opening summary of this analysis highlights one of the most noticeable issues with the film: As a franchise over 20 years old, Warcraft is a massive sprawling setting and the film suffers from a lumbering amount of exposition. For an expert of Warcraft lore, this might not be too big an issue but for someone unfamiliar with the franchise they will likely feel bombarded by names, places and characters. some of which they may miss. This barrage of names and places can make things confusing to one not too well versed in the lore. "Thanks to a go-between lady orc (Paula Patton) who has dainty she-fangs instead of tusks and hangs out with the humans, there could be peace between the two races, but only if the most hostile orcs and their snarly trouble-making wizard can be made to see reason. That’s my best guess for what’s going on, anyway" (Smith, 2016) It can be confusing to tell what's going on as we bounce from location to location introducing names left-right-and-centre like "Gul'dan", "Anduin Lothar" "Goldshire", "Dalaran", "Kharazan" "The Guardian" etc. it can be a struggle to keep up, fortunately a number of characters stand out visually so if "Khadgar" slips your memory "sexy young wizard" will help as an identifier, for instance.

"Onwards to--! Wait which location is this again? Did we miss somewhere?" is a potential hazard watching Warcraft. (Vincent, 2016)
  What we are shown however, is consistently stunning. "The Azerothians, |...| strut around in silly but not-wholly unattractive medieval-faire garb, while the heavily CGI-enhanced Orcs |...| are bulked-up in a repulsively fascinating way. They stomp around on their heavy, beefy feet, looking perpetually a bit forlorn and perplexed, thanks to the specific dental characteristic they all share: underbite fangs." (Zacharek, 2016) The Warcraft franchise could be described as "Lord of the Rings meets The Princess Bride": You have a story of humans vs monsters, good verses evil, mixed in with more pop culture references than what is thought humanely possible. The movie doesn't give us endless references to Spamalot or Star Wars, it may be rather serious for a fair bit of its running time but it does retain that tongue in cheek vibe. Late in the film for instance there is a fight between two primary characters. When one plays unfairly, it is met with the rest of the fight being perforated with random orcs shouting "He cheated!", "He's a cheater!" much in the same way the old lady from The Princess Bride jeered at a passing princess Buttercup (chants and phrases were in fact provided by attendees of Blizzcon 2014). The tongue-in-cheek nature of Warcraft is there, but it shares screentime with a lot of serious imagery such as the rather ghastly effects of the series' form of evil magic energy known as "the Fel."

Infodumping aside, it certainly looks like we're in a world where the Men of the West fight the orcs of the East and dread pirate kings are inconceivably polite. (Chaud, 2016)
All things considered Warcraft: The Beginning is not a bad film. While it's not a summer mastercraft to draw the millions (although it did gain a strong popularity in China), as far as video game adaptations it is a vast improvement from bombs like Hitman (2007), Tomb Raider (2001) and Max Payne (2008), it learned a lot from the failings of other adaptations and is something of a diamond in the rough. Compared to other 2016 it's mediocre, compared to other video game adaptations however and it might just be a curse-breaker. It doesn't try to bog itself down with translating game play into story and focuses primarily on the narrative. As this is adapting a strategy game with a lot of lore behind it and not an RPG or shooter, Warcraft: The Beginning's success might be a fair mix of choosing the right setting and the right genre to translate onto other silver screen. It's not perfect but then again neither was 2002's Spider-Man. And look at the success of comic book adaptation at the time of this review.

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Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Film Review: When The Wind Blows

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Covey, 2015)
  • Director: Jimmy Murakami
  • Native Title: When The Wind Blows
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 1986
  • Budget: Unknown
  • Film Length: 80 minutes
  • Production Company: Meltdown Productions, British Screen Productions, Film Four International
  Named after the David Bowie track presented at the start, When the Wind Blows is an animated British production set at the height of the Thatcher/Reagan era of the Cold War, the film examines the paranoia of Mutually Assured Destruction and became famous for displaying the rather disastrous effects of nuclear fallout on the human body. And looks at how well-prepared the British public truly was for an actual nuclear attack, interspersed with recollections of life during the Second World War.

  For American cinema, 1986 was the age of the macho one-man army, the post-apocalyptic survivor and the plucky agent averting World War III. But what makes Where The Wind Blows stand out is it takes an alternative view of this genre. "Possibly most important is the screenplay by Raymond Briggs, who adapted his own novel and who has a wonderfully comic way of turning a cliche inside out." (Canby, 1988). Instead of communists and a small armoury, we see a quaint middle-class couple as they come to terms with how a single bomb has turned the Sussex contryside into a scene from Fallout or Mad Max. But worse, much of the film watches them as they progressively become sicker and sicker from an illness they don't even realise they have.

Figure 2: How the film tackles nuclear war: Two middle-class retirees slowly dying of rad poisoning. (Roberts, 2011)
  There is a degree of quintessential British charm underlying the film, a sense of "Keep calm and carry on" that the two protagonists James/Jim (John Mills) and Hilda Bloggs (Peggy Ashcroft) maintain, and to the film's credit. "Though the subject matter of this film is dark, there is a fair amount of low-key comedic moments in the dialogue." (Burbank, 2015) The two discuss what James would wear when the bomb drops, while Hilda's first priority after emerging from the shelter is to clean up. And when the two discuss what should happen should a big scary Russian soldier burst though the door (complete with a visualisation of a hairy red-eyed giant doing just that), Hilda's reasoning is to offer the invader a cup of tea because she heard Russians like tea.

Figure 3: Imagine spots like this are scattered throughout the film, often in discussions on what
their lives in WW2 were like. (Remer, 2014)
  Sometimes however the comedy hits a sad note, this becomes particularly the case when it progressively sets in that the couple are dying and unlikely to be rescued. "It’s thoroughly dark and sinister throughout to watch as this lovable, if dim-witted couple ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ blissfully unaware that radiation poisoning is slowly affecting them." (Patrick, unknown). Initially this begins with James/Jim reading a book mentioning the various lines of defense such as NORAD as if he were reading a bedtime story, or pretending to be fighting the Russians only for his memory to slip into calling them Jerry (WW2 Germans). This optimism however becomes somewhat hindering as it evolves into mistaking the blood from Hilda's bleeding gums for lipstick or chalking up the symptoms of radiation sickness - weakness, hair loss and blotches on the skin - to something people their age develop even as the two become physically unable to lift themselves out of bed.

Figure 4: Jim's theories for Hilda's deteriorating condition hilight how little he knows of what's going on.
(Smith, 2014)
   Raymond Briggs captures both the harsh reality of the effects of nuclear war, and the charm of British attitudes at the time in his humerously written yet incredibly dark animation. It may seem peculiar for the two main characters to act with such mild reactions to what has happened, but this only plays into the dread and sets this film firmly into an era where animation was considerably dark. The quintessence of the film can be seen in our two leads, both of whom remember the Second World War fondly. For them the new ways war could be waged at this time were scary and alien, completely lacking in the romanticism they experienced in their prime. And the film does an impressive job of cementing that the late cold war was an alien time for the veterans of the last great war of the twentieth century.

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Thursday, 31 March 2016

Film Review: Belleville Rendezvous

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (MoviePosters)
  • Director: Sylvain Chomet
  • Native Title: Les Triplettes de Belleveille
  • Primary Language: French
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2003
  • Budget: est. $8,000,000
  • Film Length: 80 minutes
  • Production Company: Les Armateurs, Vivi Film, Production Champion
  The Triplets of Belleville, also known as Belleville Rendezvous is a 2003 French animated film that follows the elderly Madame Souza (not named except in the credits) as she pursues to save her grandson Champion, who is kidnapped from a run of the Tour de France and taken by shady characters to the city of Belleville. There she comes across three elderly women, who were once renowned Broadway singers the Bellevilel Triplets, and together they work to rescue Champion as he is forced to ride in a mock Tour De France by French gangsters.

  Perhaps the first initially striking thing is how the characters in the film are portrayed. "Chomet relishes caricaturing the body shapes of his characters - whether it's the overly muscular thighs and protuberant nose of Champion, or the grotesquely obese residents of Belleville." (Dawson, 2003). The cariacatures we see are so illustrative of the characters they portray that it is easy to see the comic-book past of the director. It could be argued that these cariacatures easily appear lifted out of a political cartoon, for a few characters in particular - aside from Champion's oversized legs and the ball-shaped Bellevillians - are the two other horse-faced cyclists (one of which, after falling over lets out an very horse-like whinny as they are executed for collapsing, not unlike stories of injured racehorses) while the stunted mechanic who takes care of the cycling machine posesses a tiny frame, enormous ears, tiny buck teeth and a twitching nose, squeaking uncontrollably as if he were a rat posing as a man. This serves to make the film's impression stick, perhaps lightening the mood to a rather serious situation.

Figure 2: Despite all these features and holiday snaps form Disneyland, we saw no cheese. (unknown)
  There is more to the expression than cariacatures however. There is very little dialogue but this is not to the film's detriment. Instead it might be to its merit. "Dialogue is left aside as a tool to impart meaning; the film prefers to use clever sound design and dynamically drawn characterisation, explored through expression, physicality and movement along with the occasional musical rendition, as the major device to drive the plot." (Huggins, 2003). Without using dialogue to explain everything, what's going on is conveyed using visual or audial metaphors such as the aforementioned racehorse-like qualities of Tour De France cyclists. The French mafia consists of armies of identical, square-shoulderd hunchback goons that through the power of dark colours and uniform clothing can meld with each other to form a gestalt entity, or act as carry support for their gnomish bosses who wear suits with similar qualities to be carried around like babies. The visual metaphors could be listed endlessly, thus the short of it is that like Paprika, The Triplets of Belleville sets aside realism to fill the screen with metaphor in the form of some visual aid, a trait often shared with political cartoons that attempt to convey a message using every line and shape even if it means the portrayal is completely off-the-wall.

Figure 3: Are their suits that inky, ir is their boss wearing a concealed baby-carrier? (Beenjammin, 2011)
  Like all political cartoons, there is a level of social commentary written within the visual gag. And the film relishes in the suggestion. "From the opening musical number, Chomet throws in terrific set-pieces (Mme. Souza chasing an ocean liner on a pedalo, a last reel getaway that would put Hollywood to shame), subtle cultural commentary (Belleville is a thinly-disguised America)" (Thomas, 2003). The final scene could very well be, as Thomas suggests, a jab at American spectacle cinema; the cycling machine, chased by a dozen Mafia cars with sun-roofs used as shooting ports, that tip over easily, catch fire with the slightest imbalance and grip to the road like the city is paved with banana peels. One gangster goes as far as to draw out a rocket launcher, only for the rear-heavy car to tip backwards the moment he fires it. The body count for this one scene alone is also astonishing, as we quite clearly see gangsters crushed and thrown about by the chaos. As enjoyable as this scene is, it can be seen to satirise many common tropes found in American car chase sequences. Combine this with the rather unpleasant portrayal of Americans as spherical and obsessed with food, the film is perhaps a critique of American sensibilities when it comes to entertainment or drama.

Figure 4: Just one of the many over-the-top ways that Mafia cars are disabled in the final chase. (Fabic, 2015)
  On the surface, The Triplets of Belleville is an entertaining satirical comedy. Beneath the surface, the film uses this comedy and the appearance of a political cartoon given life to make a point about the growing predominance of American culture, particularly with visual media. Despite this critique, it is a deeply enjoyable movie that feels as though the director took a political comic and with immense love gave it life for the big screen with all the crude humour and reality-bending flair that comes with that sort of medium.

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Saturday, 12 March 2016

Film Review: Persepolis

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Lavoignat, 2008)
  • Director: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
  • Native Title: Persepolis
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2007
  • Budget: est. $7,300,000
  • Film Length: 96 minutes
  • Production Company: 2.4.7 Films, France 3 CinĂ©ma
''Persepolis''' is a 2007 French film composed by French-Iranian graphic novelist and illustrator Marjane-Satrapi. The film - adapted from a comic series of the same name, and named after a major city within Iran - documents the writer's life, particularly as she lived though Iranian Revolution of the 1980s. As she grows up, she comes to terms with politics and her faith, her place in society as a woman both in the Islamic and secular world, as well as coming to understand how the world sees her home country of Iran. All this told with a bold monochrome style, an elastic sense of exaggeration and a tone of reflection as Marjane tells her story to those who would listen. A story that ,as it turns out, could definitely be felt by anyone and not just someone having to live under an unfair government.

Figure 2: As dissatisfied with her government as Marjane was, I don't think anything could have prepared her for the level of non-conformism her friends in Vienna advocated. (Lavoignat, 2008)
  What surprised me most was that despite what sounds like a French accent, Marjene came to feel like an outsider in Vienna "where she experiences the finest condescension and misogyny that the west has to offer: in fact, something of the exploitation inherent in sexual-liberalism that the mullahs warned her about" (Bradshaw, 2008). While in Vienna she was ashamed of her Iranian heritage. She claimed herself French, yet eavesdropped gossip shows though: The people around her saw her as a "savage", a woman from a backwards nation with primitive ideals. She came to associate herself with her school's outcasts; anarchists and non-conformists, one of which regularly talked in condescension of the establishment. They were drawn to Marjane, as she had lived through a war in their eyes. But unlike the Marxist intellectuals that were her family's friends, these outcasts chimed more of the infamous Hipster movement. While Marjene's parents spoke of collective opinion as something suppressed by the elite until boiling point, Marjene's Viennan however friends spoke constantly as if living anything but their outcast lifestyle is a willful form of delusionary bliss.

Figure 3: Throughout the film, Marjane is forced to choose between fitting in and being herself. But being made uncomfortable with either. (Panic Manual, 2009)
On reflection, much of the film argues between fitting in and standing out. "Ultimately, Persepolis is concerned with the state of exile, a condition that, as evidenced by Marjane’s teenage stabs at trying to ingratiate herself into various social scenes (nihilistic punk, groovy disco, anarchic hippie), hopelessly frustrates identity formation." (Schager, 2007) Thoughout the film Marjane does not feel connected, whenever she tries to integrate, she's something that makes her fundamentally different, be it as innocuous as being a Bee-Gees fan when her friends like ABBA, to more crucial traits such as her political mindfulness keeping her from forever enjoying her time among Nihilists. Marjene is someone who doesn't fit in anywhere, travelling a rocky road of self-discovery where she has ups and downs (such as breaking out of a drugged-up depressive phase by literally and figuratively waking up and restoring herself to tune of Eye of the Tiger). She becomes more of a distinct woman embracing what makes her different than she does trying to pretend she's something she's not. Whether she's happy about it however is the difficulty, and what she struggles with for much of the film.

Figure 4: Marjane's visit to a Viennan supermarket is but the first step as she learns how thematically different Vienna is to Tehran. (Soares, 2007)
  The conflict between standing out and fitting in "It is in Vienna that the full pathos of her situation becomes clear, a dilemma that is hardly hers alone. Either she can be more or less free and give up her home, or she can return home at the cost of her freedom and individuality." (Scott, 2007) The two cities represent the two sides of freedom against belonging. Vienna, offers personal freedom, as Marjane has access to parties, men, drugs and a philosophical yearning. Yet she feels alone, unable to find people to talk to. Her outcast friends mature or move on, leaving her to find another network. While she lives with an eccentric lady with a nice apartment, but is forced to move on after lashing out using the bottled-up feelings still fresh from an unfaithful lover.

  Persepolis is a deeply insightful film, one that deals quite solidly with the challenges of fitting in and being yourself, how the search to find who you are can be at odds with what society wants or expects you to be. Even in Europe, where you might think she is free to be herself, she has problems as she is judged by where she comes from. The film thus could be considered a thought-provoking metaphor that the struggle for individuality can happen even where one might think they are free from the idea that some greater entity - be it a diety, the government or a large network of strangers - expects you to act or be a certain thing.

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Monday, 7 March 2016

Film Review: Waltz With Bashir

Figure 1: Theatrical poster (Ebert, 2009)
  • Director: Ari Folman
  • Native Title: Vals Im Bashir
  • Primary Language: Hebrew
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2008
  • Budget: est. $1,500,000
  • Film Length: 90 minutes
  • Production Company: Bridgit Folman Film Gang
  Waltz With Bashir (Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli animated film that investigates key events of the 1982 Israeli-Lebanon war. Ari Folman, the director, interviews former friends of his in the Israeli Defense Force, trying to piece together and understand a recurring dream that appeared soon after talking to a friend with a similar issue tied to his experiences in the war. Over the course of the film, Ari remensices with friends and comes to understand their experiences of life in the war and in the Israeli Army. Through the recollections he recalls the horrors of the war and learns of the desperate things some of his comrades did to survive.

Figure 2: The thick, heavy graphic style allows the film to explore the surreal that's as real and vivid as the characters experiencing them. (MovieMano, 2010) 
  The film is visually presented much like a graphic novel, with thick bold lines and colourful illustration of the events going on. Could this have been achieved with live-action footage? "Folman is an Israeli documentarian who has not worked in animation. Now he uses it as the best way to reconstruct memories, fantasies, hallucinations, possibilities, past and present. This film would be nearly impossible to make any other way." (Ebert, 2009). There is a particular scene for instance, where one of Folman's comrades hallucinates being carried in the arms of a gigantic blue woman. This might have been difficult to pull off believably with practical effects or even a live-action/CGI combination but it's not the only example. As discussed with Paprika, animation can lend a narrative quality that is much more difficult to suspend disbelief with using real footage. "The whole movie seems like an acid trip - an Alice in Wonderlandish dream for a post-9/11 world where war is a constant - and that's the beauty of "Waltz With Bashir." Folman's work allows the audience to enter a kind of forbidden zone where the characters' fantasies seem as realistic as the deadly bullets they faced. " (Curiel, 2009). In effect the storybook feel doesn't detract from the events being told. One soldier late in the film talks about deciding to exchange his LMG for an assault rifle, only to find it just doesn't feel right when he uses it. The way the film portrays this discomfort is by portraying him trying to handle a tiny assault rifle, a toy compared both to what he's used to, and everyone else's weapons.

Figure 3: Dancing under Bashir. Did this soldier go nuts, or was this a subjective exaggeration to highlight his skill? (filmWalrus, 2014)
  Thus, one of the key elements of the story is the use of metaphor, which might udnermine the idea this is a documentary. "Objective truth, while the overt impetus of documentary, proves not only fallacious but less interesting than the subjective, visceral truths elicited from an imaginative retelling. Reality, we find, is only intelligible through imagination." (Adams, 2009). Ari's recurring dream has his comrades emerge from the Black Sea outside Beirut, march to the shore under a sky lit with flares, dress in IDF fatigues, pick up guns and pass a street filled with hundreds of weeping women. Like many a dream interpretation, this is filled with meaning that becomes apparent later on. When one interviewee talks about how he saw the popularity of Lebanese president  Bashir Geyamel, we see streets filled with people wearing crosses, Bashir t-shirts, vans adorned with posters of Bashir, the imagery is highly reminsicent of periods such as Beatlemania which manages to reinforce in the space of 20 seconds just how passionate the peopel were. It may be an exaggeration, but it fits the tone of the film, which is driven by perspective. Immediately after the prior-mentioned scene where a soldier laments unfamiliarity with something smaller than an LMG, he takes one a companion is using and proceeds to dance in the middle of the street, firing the weapon off. In a real situation, he could have easily died, but this waltz under a poster of president Bashir (the film's namesake) could be a metaphor for how fluidly the soldier moved his aim between targets as he fired the machine-gun at entrenched Lebanese soldiers.

Figure 4: At the end the graphic style mixes with what becomes real, documented footage. (Rigmored, 2010)
  What is haunting is that not all of the film is animated. ""Waltz With Bashir” has attracted a lot of attention and a measure of controversy, some of it surrounding the very last moments of the film, in which the animation stops and the audience is confronted with graphic, horrifying images of real dead bodies." (Scott, 2008). Was this a bad decision? Controversial? Or perhaps it hammered home just how true these events were. It nailed to viewers unaware of the 1982 Lebanon war that this atrocity actually happened. But there might be a deeper message - the lack of landmarks in this final footage of women weeping among mountains of rubble suggest that this could have happened almost anywhere, especially poignant in a time where the Middle-East is garnering a reputation as a part of the world that knows only war; where innocent deaths, young men called to war and ruined cities are a fact of life.

  Waltz With Bashir is an artistically brilliant, hard hitting animated documentary that opens eyes and tugs at hearts. It conveys well that the soldiers on the have a different understanding of war than generals and historians, a reconstruction peppered with surreal imagery and all taking full advantage of animation's ability to tell a story figuratively while not cheapening the real-world events it might be describing with imagery so outrageous you forget its about a real tragedy. In this repsect, Waltz with Bashir does well in telling a tale its own way but keeping interest, while exploring both inner  thoughts and outer experiences.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Review: Sita Sings the Blues

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Ebert, 2009)
  • Director: Nina Paley
  • Native Title: Sita Sings the Blues
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2008
  • Budget: est. $250,000
  • Film Length: 82 minutes
  • Production Company: Independent
  Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 postmodern animation that attempts to distill the Indian epic of the Ramayana, a legendary story that revolves around the trials of Prince Rama of Aodyhya and his relationship with the Indian dame Sita. Nina Paley's interpretation of the Ramayana focuses more on Sita, Rama's beloved who is taken to Lanka. Each chapter of the film is told by a series of four narrative devices. The first is a contemporary parable from the director's life, the second is a discussion by three Indian shadow puppets, the third is an animation of the discussed chapter designed to look like a painting, and the third is a vector graphic musical piece of what happens next, where Sita sings a number by early 20th century american singer Annette Hanshaw.

Figure 2: Throughout the film, director Nina Paley parallels the story of the Ramayana with the events of her own life. (Mediadiary, 2010)
  The film attempts to capture a sense of timelessnss to the themes of the story by relating them to a sequence of events from the director's life. "The story has parallels to Paley's relationship to her lover and their relationship is similarly tested when from San Francisco he gets a six-month job in India." (Leeper, 2009) And each stage of the story begins with a moment from Nina's love story. The way her experiences almost sync up with what Sita is experiencing in the legend drive home that the fundamentals of this tale are not bound to the ancient past. Perhaps this is what is implied when the first words of the film are a song by Annette Hanshaw played on a gramophone, where it starts skipping at the line "there ain't no woman like me." A jab by Nina that Sita's situation isn't unique, perhaps? 

Figure 3: After Nina's side is told, three shadow puppets discuss the elements and conventions of the story (Kshetra, 2010)  
  The film itself takes quite a postmodern approach towards the telling of the Ramayana. In particular the use of three shadow puppets that comment on the elements of the story as they play out. "the brief conversations between the shadow puppets that provided a postmodern commentary, taking apart aspects of the myth they took issue with like Sita's damsel-in-distress desire to have Rama save her from her captor, or the fact that, because of her unconditional love she refused to move on even when it was clear that Rama wasn't worth her time" (Vakulchik, 2014) These shadow puppets are a contemporary look on an ancient tale, and their conversations are varied such as over Rama's behavior, his coincidental meeting with Hanuman the monkey king and they even wonder if Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka was actually as horrid as the Ramayana wants him to seem. These sections are a modern analysis, deconstructing the narrative conventions of the legend, providing backstory and in some cases discussing how different society was back then. This is particularly the case when  they talk about the implied horribleness of the villain or how Sita was able to provide a breadcrumb trail for prince Rama with her jewelry despite committing to a life of asceticism in the woods. For the latter, the response from another puppet was along the lines of "don't question the details just enjoy the story".

Figure 4: The flash-animated musical numbers are overwhelmingly colourful, giving a smoothness to the rich, vibrant imagery that traditional Indian art is known for. (Fredrik, 2013)
  The stage that sticks out the most is perhaps the musical numbers. While the other sequences use more traditional-looking animation, the musical numbers are rendered digitally, yet are as stylistic and colourful as any lighthearted stage performance.  "One remarkable thing about "Sita Sings the Blues" is how versatile the animation is. Consider Sita's curvaceous Southern hemisphere. When she sings an upbeat or sexy song, it rotates like a seductive pendulum. Look at those synchronized birds overhead. When they return they have a surprise, and they get a surprise." (Ebert, 2009). It might be due to the buildup presented that these numbers often feel like a climax. Every number ends with Annette announcing "that's all", an announcement perhaps that not only is the song finished, but also that chapter in the story. Like any strong, stylistic animation, your focus is drawn to Sita as she sings, but your eyes also cannot help but observe what is going on around her. Along with the events Ebert mentioned, you have things like blue animals surrounding a depressed Sita, who were either left, or rather cruelly (but somehow humorously) kicked away by their lovers. While Sita sings about her love for Rama, he chases a golden deer while the evil king looks at her leeringly though her window.

  Sita Sings the Blues is an interesting presentation and comparative look at the story of The Ramayana that weaves the timeless tale together combines contemporary parallels, contemporary perspectives and stunning visuals both traditional and modern to tell a story that comes together rather enjoyably. Perhaps an example of how as a story progresses though the generations of oral tradition, the narrative is woven to fit the time in which it is told, but unlike other examples it still respects the old narrative. Making this a charming blend of the old and the new.

References

Image References




http://myth-alyssa.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/sita-sings-blues.html http://www.oocities.org/markleeper/sita.htm


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Monday, 8 February 2016

Review: Mary and Max

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Luker, 2014)
  • Director: Adam Elliot
  • Native Title: Mary and Max
  • Primary Language: English
  • Format: Colour
  • Year of Release: 2009
  • Budget: est. AU$8,000,000
  • Film Length: 90 minutes
  • Production Company: Melodrama Pictures
  An independent stop-motion animation released in 2009, Mary and Max is an Austrailian story about two long term pen-pals that looks heavily into long-distance friendship, loneliness, and mental conditions, primarily Asperger's Syndrome but also touches on others. Mary and Max mixes drama and dark humor to create a story about friendship between two lonely people on opposite sides of the world and a strong example that animation is not necessarily a medium suitable for children though the use of a mature subject matter and a peculiar, sometimes rather disturbing sense of humour.

  The film tells the story of Mary Daisy Dinkle, a sweet, lonely innocent child of the Melbourne suburbs and Max Jerry Horowitz, an equally lonely Jewish man living in New York City. While separated by the Pacific Ocean and most of the American continent, the two become firm pen-pals on a journey to learn friendship from each other.

Figure 2: Max's world is very dull. So when Mary sends him gifts the colour difference is suitably alien. (Pond, 2019)
  One of the first things that stood out with Mary and Max was its animation style. The film's visual style is highly reminiscent of the works of Aardman (Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts). The film mixes between two distinct palettes; sepia for Mary's world and grey monochrome for Max's "All of this is rendered in almost completely monochromatic claymation – only occasional colours stand out, such as the red pompom Mary sends to Max at one point." (Pulver, 2010). This is more than separating the tone to show the locations: Mary frequently sends care packages to Max, and those objects retain their colour in his world. When she sends him a bright red pom-pom. In a way, this works to the advantage of the story ad to explain how Max lives and understands the world.

  We learn halfay though the film that Max suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological condition that can emerge as a developmental disorder. "Clues and contexts are explored (his behaviours and even the use of black and white footage used during scenes with Max; underlining his perspective of life)" (Newbutt). With Asperger's Syndrome, Max prefers a quiet, plain and organised life, and the use of a monochrome colour palette for Max's world rather beautifully highlights when strange or alien things to him emerge in his life, such as the aforementioned pom-pom, or more crucially the bright red lipstick worn by an attendee of "Over-eaters Anonymous" who happens to like him in a romantic sense - something Max does not quite understand.

Figure 3: Max demonstrating his ability to solve complex tasks, much to the delight of his observers. (Newbutt 2014)
  But it is not just in colour; "The way that the animation (and type of animation; Claymation) deals with and picks these themes up is expressive and at times emotive. The use of exaggeration and other animation principles is well thought-out and utilized.." (Newbutt, 2014). For someone like Max, the exaggeration could be a way to portray how the world of a normal person seems to him, again a reflection on how the mind of someone with the condition may prefer quieter or more subtle experiences, and serves to highlight how chaotic New York City must seem to a man like Max.

Figure 4: Where babies come from according to Max's mother. A milder example of the kind of comedy that fills the film. (Azevedo, 2013))
 Somewhat fitting for the rather tense themes, the sense of humour the film has is definitely something to be acquired, as they can straddle into dark places but is occasionalyl sprinkeld with endearing moments. "The subject matter and tone of the film is often dark, sad and upsetting but Elliot skilfully balances such moments with dark humour and carefully timed endearing moments." (Caldwell, 2009) The story and animation skilfully weave both sweetness and dark comedy, and there are a number of cases where a viewer might end up simultaneously smiling at something lovely, reeling at the dark content that accompanies it but still laughing at the absurdity of it all. Three of the more notable examples include Mary's efforts to produce tears for Max by way of imagining Ethel getting run over by a lawnmower, a montage of ways in which Max's goldfish die - such as flying into a toaster - while under the care of the (almost) blind old lady who lives next door to him (who replaces each one she seems to kill), and Max's old imaginary friend Mr. Ravioli "leaving" him by rather cheerily saying bye jumping out of his apartment window to cause a car crash below.

  Despite the sometimes childish comedy, exaggerated animation and endearing story, Mary and Max is a very mature tale, a story for adults that enlightens on the effects of social isolation, the cruelty of the world and the effects of an oft-misunderstood condition. For this, it is a very worthwhile watch, and once you look past the charming animations, you are met with something that can easily be enjoyed by adults. Making this a fine example of how animation can be immensely entertaining and endearing for adults.

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Monday, 25 January 2016

Review: Paprika

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Gateway, 2015)
  • Director: Satoshi Kon
  • Native Title: ăƒ‘ăƒ—ăƒȘă‚« (Papurika)
  • Primary Language: Japanese
  • Format: Animated, Colour
  • Year of Release: 2006
  • Budget: Unknown
  • Film Length: 90 minutes
  • Production Company: Madhouse, Sony Pictures Entertainment

  Released in 2006, Paprika is a Japanese animated feature film that explores the nature of dreaming, desire and unconscious fantasy. The story revolves around the efforts of Dr. Atsuko Chiba, a psychiatric scientist and her subconscious alter-ego Paprika as they and their colleagues at the Institute for Psychiatric Research investigate the theft of the DC Mini, a prototype device designed to read and codify dreams into a watchable format. However as a prototype, the DC Mini becomes a tool of sabotage as it is used to drive its users into an impulsive delirium, with more and more people join a strange supernatural parade that wanders though the dreamworld.

  The film juxtaposes the real world and the dream world with colour, detail and imagery. Much of the action in the real world takes place in the laboratories of the Institute, its offices, even the places Konakawa resides in such as his hotel room and his office are relatively plain. The film visits relatively few more colourful places and those that it does are connected to the dreamworld. But the dreamworld itself is vibrant, detailed, warm and full of things in the background. "The world of art and film, in comparison to the real world, is much more colorful and full of detail – according to the way dreams are portrayed in Paprika. It is full of inanimate objects and random – but dazzling – scenery. It is, perhaps, meant to express the pursuit many artists make for appreciating things otherwise unappreciated." (Mailloux, 2014). The parade is the best expression of this - it is loud, colourful, alive, full of nonsense, but yet it is not random. Depsite the sheer mass of detail, all of it tends to relate to what is happening or has some connection to a real-world detail. The room where Paprika is pinned to a table by giant pins holding down butterfly wings has every squire inch of the walls covered in framed butterfly collections. The luxurious dreamworld greenhouse the institute's Chairman is met in serves as a visual foreshadowing as he emerges from behind a bush with a tree trunk for legs. But this greenhouse wasn't random either; an earlier scene showed his office filled with plant life. The parade of objects that takes centre stage is a visual link to the institute assistant Himuro, the first suspected thief who had filled his flat from floor to ceiling with dolls.

Figure 2: Positively surrounded by metaphor. (Wagner, 2012)
  While the plot revolves hugely around the power of the dreamworld, there is a side element explored by the troubled recurring dream of local detective Toshimi Konakawa that plays out like a selection of greatest hits in cinema, with an ultimate agenda in mind. "Konakawa swings through a jungle on a vine like Tarzan, loincloth and all, only to end up tussling with a man in a genre thriller, inspiring one of the film’s most poignant philosophical riddles: Where do the movies end and our dreams begin?" (Dargis, 2007) as explored in the 2010 film Inception, dreams and movies often condense the entire event, skip the dull in-between parts of a story such as bathroom breaks, the journey to the event and often play out events that may challenge the realism of what is unfolding. In both film and dream, how realistically something plays out is often set aside for the sake of a message or the action.

Figure 3: Konakawa explaining the Line of Action within a cinema within a dream. (Tunbull, 2007)
  The setting aside of realism for the story to progress is a popular element of a number of Japanese animated productions. Paprika demonstrates the use of animation to convey a deeper metaphor. and there is plenty of metaphor present. While the exploration of Konakawa dreaming a series of films is one, a further example of this could be the film's investigation of the similarities in dreams and the internet. "Many references are made to dreams being similar to the internet in that it allows individuals to find dark corners of themselves that they did not think existed, particularly those parts that could drive them to become manically obsessed with certain things." (Wagner, 2012) This was an emerging concern back in 2006, but with the explosion of internet culture, the online gaming scene and the widespread adoption of internet personalities that have come in the decade since. The parade that wanders endlessly though the dreamworld, absorbing innocent people and turning them into walking speakers of a single message uncharacteristic of their real selves could reflect the spread of internet meme culture while the depiction of people being "lost" in the dreamspace (represented by way of the DC Minis displaying only static) could be reflective of the vegetative appearance people take on when completely immersed for several hours in media such as World of Warcraft or League of Legends. The transformations of citizens into objects during the finale could also reflect the brain's ability to (when no other evidence is present) assume the various forum trolls or abrasive gamers it witnesses behave in real life as they do in the game, requiring conscious input to conclude whether their mannerisms are a byproduct of the empowering effect of anonymity.

Figure 4: This film predates Android by two years and here we have schoolgirls and businessmen who have become their phones. (One Movie Each Day, 2012).
  A cautionary tale steeped in metaphor using visually stunning and highly meaningful imagery, Paprika is a dream exploration story that also examines the possible dangers that could come from running away with fantasy. It also explores unconscious desires or the possible vibrancy of a world that might exist hidden behind the mask of someone plain and a thematic connection to the similar natures of movies and dreaming.

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