The Five Obstructions

The Five Obstructions, by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, is a documentary that incorporates sections of films. The premise is that Trier has created a challenge for Leth. Leth has to remake, The Perfect Human, five times with different stipulations and rules for each separate recreation. These obstructions included: filming in Cuba, the worst place in the world, filming Brussels and a cartoon remake.

I thought that an interesting perspective about this movie was documenting the filmmaker at work. The audience is given a first hand account of the creative film thinking process. The obstructions that are given as well show the development of the creative process that any director must go through when making a movie.

The most interesting aspects about this movie I thought were the subtle underlying messages. The Perfect Human, I believe is a satire on mainstream Hollywood films. I believe that this movie criticizes that there is a formula to create “cookie-cutter” type of movies. These mass-produced movies take away meaning and excitement from cinema in general. The Five Obstructions wants to convey that by remaking a movie multiple times in different settings with different “obstructions” still in the end it is the same movie. A lot of Hollywood’s mass produced movies contain similar plot lines, but different settings, actors, ext. In the end, The Five Obstructions proves that these movies are just the same.   

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is a masterpiece of work for Guillermo del Toro. The movie is his most personal and best work to date, with The Devil's Backbone close behind it. The story is executed brilliantly and has the very personal visual style of del Toro all over it; likely due to his filling of multiple journals with drawings and ideas of his for the movie. The fantastical story of Ofelia seems over the top and like a fairy tale but it works very well and handles the subject matter in a more mature way than other movies with similar subject matter. However the things I found most interesting in the movie were Doug Jones' characters, the pale man and the faun, as well as the captain character. Doug Jones did a stunning job in selling his nuanced and very physical performances of the faun and the pale man. Jones has a unique way of being able to manipulate his body and sell a performance with subtle movements, as well as having to learn lines  in Spanish and having his lines dubbed over. And the other thing that I found very interesting was the captain. The captain is portrayed as a very cold and harsh man but was fleshed out and given the interesting back story of his war hero father smashing his pocket watch in order for his son to know the time that his father died. This detail seems to be an important part in understanding his character. The watch and the legacy of his father always seems to haunt the captain. This seems to cause him to feel increasingly dissatisfied with himself and not living up to his father's legacy, he always seems desperate to do something big to measure up to his father's legacy. However, the best part of this legacy haunting the captain is when he tries to do the same thing for his own son, he is shut down and told his son will never even know his name and is shot in the face. Overall, I found Pan's Labyrinth to be a wonderful movie and even better after watching it for the third time.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth, by Guillermo del Toro, is a movie about a young girl, Ofelia, who is moving with her mother to the Spanish countryside. Ofelia’s mother recently married Captain Vidal, an officer in the Spanish Civil War. The movie parallels Ofelia’s fairy tail, with a war story as well.

Ofelia’s fairy tale shows her destiny to save her brother and return to her mother and father. The fairy tale, however, has many twists and turns. Ofelia completes three tasks that all have biblical references. One of the main references is gluttony. Both times when Ofelia offers the rocks to the frog and decides to take grapes, adverse affects happen. The frog ends up dying and Ofelia narrowly escapes the Pale Man, while also putting her quest in jeopardy with the faun. The fruit also eludes to the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve took from the garden. In the last task, when the brother is supposed to be offered up, it seemed similar to when God told Abraham to kill his son. All of these biblical references I think help humanize different characters and add to a theme of redemption. Although Ofelia’s sometimes jeopardizes her story in the war (fights with her mother and the Captain) and the fairy tale (taking the grapes) she is always given a second chance and forgiven in the end. Although she has to experience death to reach her happiest moments, her sacrifice redeems all of her mistakes.

An interesting scene in the film is when Ofelia is in the Pale Man’s layer. When she gets to the hole in the wall she dismisses one of the fairies and goes for the other lock. She finds the sword anyways and continues to go over and eat the fruit. I always thought it was peculiar that she did this. Maybe it was to show her humanization of over riding external advice, but it seems unresolved.

I really enjoyed this movie and thought that the animation along with real scenery from the country side of Spain added a special touch to the overall movie. The intertwined stories that eventually collide with each other creates suspense as well as surprise. In order to add a deeper level to this film I feel that the adult aspects were necessary to convey a strong meaning.    

Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a very interesting movie to watch and analyze. On the surface this movie could be viewed as a frenetic action movie that plays in a very video game like manner. However upon closer inspection it can be said to have a deeper meaning than the plot would lead the viewer to believe. To me, the movie seemed to try and say that there is no one predestined fate and what happens to us next is determined by what we do and when we do it. For me this the idea is given credit by Lola's three runs and three unique outcomes based upon split second decisions that either save her or lose her time. Another aspect of the movie that I found interesting was the visual style of the film. The film had a bright and active look with a lot of high speed sequences and a lot of quick edits. Overall I was satisfied with this movie, it had a good pace, a unique gimmick of story telling, flashy editing and was well acted.

Run Lola Run

In the movie, Run Lola Run, the audience is shown three different outcomes based on different encounters with the main character Lola. Lola is trying to save her boyfriend Manni by trying to collect one-hundred marks by a certain time. When looking at the kinetic style that the film uses, Rodger Ebert makes an interesting observation that this movie is almost like a video game. Ebert points out that Lola and Manni both die once until they eventually figure out how to “beat the game”.  

            Another interesting aspect of this film are the still-frames that are used when showing the futures of people Lola runs into. These still-frames show a multitude of futures for these characters. For example the women with the baby she runs into first, is shown getting her baby taken away, then the second time she wins the lottery and the third time she becomes religious. The whole time I was watching the film I tried to determine what all of these still-frames mean. I believe that the director wanted to show us that every interaction that Lola has is almost a butterfly effect. Each path that Lola takes has consequences and rewards for the people that surround her.

            I thought that this was a great film. With most foreign films it becomes strenuous to read the subtitles. I felt as though a viewer could watch this without subtitles and still get the main point and plot of this film. By really showing the audience what is happening through body gestures and other subtle clues, I feel the director has created a film with no barriers. The director did an excellent job of creating intriguing characters and more importantly an intriguing story.     

Do The Right Thing

Do the Right Thing was an interesting work for Spike Lee. It focuses on inner city racial tensions, and the struggles people face every day. The most interesting part of this movie is the unique camera movement. The movie had a very dynamic camera that would have long shots with a lot of movement without cutting to another camera. It made the film almost interactive because at points characters would talk straight into the camera almost as if it were speaking to the audience as opposed to the other character in the scene. I feel that in using the camera in that way the filmmakers were trying to immerse the audience and put them in the situations emotionally and visually on the screen. Do the Right Thing has a grand impact on the viewer and forces them to witness discrimination and realize the harsh realities people face every day.

Do The Right Thing (For class after spring break)

Spike Lee’s, Do The Right Thing, is an interesting movie that examines not only the external social/racial problems, but internal problems as well. I thought that this film showed a lot of prejudices and stereotypes that people still use against each other are today. In the film we are shown different ethnic groups of New York and in one particular scene, each group uses common stereotypes to describe a certain race/ethnicity. I feel that this scene holds a lot of importance for the rest of the film. What Spike Lee tries to convey is that we all have these preconceived notions, but when we closely examine the lives of these people, they turn out to be no different from one another. With these external problems, then comes fighting within the communities. We see each group argue with each other internally. Specifically, each group judges on whether they are employed, or not. I feel Spike Lee was trying to show that racial stereotypes exist, but there is also an internal fight among communities that occurs.

The last scene of the movie when Mookie throws the trashcan into the window is another interesting scene. Spike Lee gives two perspectives. The first perspective is that this was a blatant act of violence. However, it does question that this act was to save Sal. By putting the emphasis on Sal’s store and not Sal, Mookie can be seen as a hero, who in the end saved Sal’s life.  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nicekicks.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2009/08/sneaker-shots-do-the-right-thing-3.png&imgrefurl=http://www.nicekicks.com/2009/08/sneaker-shots-do-the-right-thing/&usg=__3cGSMNcwTA9KtKYhQzfyE4n8ocs=&h=358&w=620&sz=261&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=uhGC6BRpIgQPlM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=174&ei=GTZrTZDcIpO4sAPhgd2oBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddo%2Bthe%2Bright%2Bthing%2Bsals%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D609%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=335&oei=GTZrTZDcIpO4sAPhgd2oBA&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=87&ty=97