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

Citizen Kane

I thought that the most interesting aspects of Citizen Kane was the use of isolation. It seems as though even in childhood, Charles is always isolated from everyone else in the film. For example we saw Charles playing alone in the snow and then when he is being taken away he is isolated once again. I think that this adds to the anti-american dream message that Citizen Kane tries to convey. This is one of the only movies where you see a rags to riches go wrong. All of this comes from the central theme of the difficulty predicting life. This movie shows the viewers that it is not always how it seems no matter how wealthy you are. I thought that the imagery of the snow globe really contributed to all of the messages above. The globe was never really what it seemed (switching from outdoor to indoor, to switching scenes). In the end it also breaks signifying his death, but more importantly the death of the last time he was truly happy.    

Citizen Kane

After hearing Citizen Kane be hyped up as the greatest movie of all time, I was expecting a bit of a let down; however, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the movie. From a technical standpoint, this movie is as close to perfection as any movie I think will ever come close to. The camera angles, the camera moves, and the cinematography is all spectacular, everything seems to have been done with great care and meticulously planned out. That being said, the story while interesting and told in a very innovative way, in using flashbacks and others' opinions of Kane, is probably considered boring to a lot of today's audiences who love movies by Michael Bay that consist mostly of explosions and giant robots (which I actually enjoy). However for me, one of the most interesting points of the film was the subtle technique of never showing the reporter's face. by either shrouding him in darkness or using camera angles behind the actor. This for some reason stood out a lot to me and seems to have metaphorical implications. It seems that in doing this, the view of the reporter is obstructed much like his view of Kane and his quest for the meaning of Rosebud. Also, because the reporter is in the dark on Kane, consequently so is everyone else because they are unable to get the information to truly understand the man. To me, this seems to be the whole point of the movie, that Kane, while prolific and influential was truly misunderstood. Kane just wanted be to loved by others and have a positive effect on people but in the end ended up alone and disappointed. All in all, Citizen Kane is truly a great movie and enjoyable. I feel that anyone who is a fan of movies should see it at least once because of how influential it is on almost every movie that we watch.

Modern Times

Having watched only one other Charlie Chaplin film, Gold Rush, I went into this movie with some knowledge of Chaplin's style and familiarity with his famous character the tramp. I have to say that I was very pleased with the movie, it kept with the silent film style and I loved Charlie's performance. Every little nuance he puts in the performance has meaning and seems very deliberate, it adds to his acting and improves it overall. Also in watching Charlie in this movie, many people would characterize his character as off-kilter  and clumsy. That being said, while the character is clumsy, I realized that Charlie is in fact extremely graceful and in control of all his motions. I find it impressive, as well as one of my favorite parts of the movie, that Charlie can make the audience perceive him as spastic and out of control when in fact he is in complete and total control and creating a facade of clumsiness without it seeming artificial. Another aspect of the movie that I liked was the fact the movie wasn't played at 24 fps and at 18, giving it the very sped up and comical feel. The higher rate of speed just seems to make everyone's actions more chaotic and funny. As for the themes of the movie that I felt were most prominent, I found recurring examples of people being self-involved and people being on their own; as well as a backlash against the steps toward becoming industrialized and reliant on technology. Chaplin's character as well as the gamin, for the most part seem to be on their own and trying to survive by their own means, be it being overworked in a factory, or stealing bananas and bread to feed yourself. They are alone until they have an encounter with one another, and at that point it seems they are the exception to the idea of being alone and they become exemplars of what the audience should want to be. They begin to try to work together and strive towards the American dream, often with some success coupled with defeat immediately after. In the end, the gamin says that trying is useless but Charlie's character says to buck up and never give up because there will always be something ahead of them. As for the technology aspect of the movie, I feel that Charlie's personal views on technology had a huge influence on its depiction in the movie. Charlie was trying to hold off on converting to sound in movies and used it very strategically in the movie. He mostly used it for little background noises to accent actions as well as the musical score. All of the actual talking in the movie is shown in a negative light, but in a subtle way. Almost all scenes with speech, the dialogue is being spoken through some technological means, the screen that the boss talks to his workers out of, the record player for the sales pitch, and the radio in the tea scene; the one exception being Charlie's song which he does in gibberish. Having all the dialogue be done in this manner shows Charlie's idea that we need to be weary of technology because if we just accept and embrace technology in all facets of our lives, things will become very inhuman and sometimes less efficient, defeating the initial purpose. And also him singing the song in gibberish only further proves his point, his expressions and motions tell the story just as well, if not better than if he were to directly tell it to the audience. In summation, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, Charlie's acting style and choice to keep this movie mostly silent makes for a better movie and also proves the point that the film is trying to convey about becoming reliant on technology.  

Second Blog Post: Battleship Potemkin

1. I thought that Battleship Potemkin most interesting aspect were the emotions shown throughout the film. Although today we watch this movie and think of the facial expressions as “cheesy”, I think it adds an interesting element to the film. They try different editing techniques to show this emotion and feeling. It adds to the movie as a whole and gives it life with a realistic feel.

Here is a link to a close up on one of the actors faces: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FP3hkeCOqn47NcVx0G9mCvsAhlwkzpjJjKIGyBGpVQTu9kIVt_d62OrN_D_cwfOHU7YG1v2EW3x6mU4SuNlXpJAebHpo2Lii0r4H2_OjI4zcjKw1N7tNTRwXBI8xK_hZA7lgCkZ-XIs/s400/battleship-potemkin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://metroclassics.blogspot.com/2010/09/links-battleship-potemkin.html&h=291&w=400&sz=24&tbnid=t_p36KiB7HyF7M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbattleship%2Bpotemkin&zoom=1&q=battleship+potemkin&usg=__Am2RhwiWZ0T6YgCKzNrXROUw8Sk=&sa=X&ei=4Ds-TfGQNIrSsAOpoPmiAg&ved=0CEwQ9QEwBQ

2. I thought that it was very challenging to stay with the plot line of the movie. It seemed a little confusing at times with no dialogue. This might be just my intolerance of old movies, but the reading in between each scene seemed very strenuous.

3. The fight scene was not disturbing for viewers today, but I think that back when this movie was made the audience probably had a strong reaction. The fight scene showed a lot of gruesome and frightened people, along with the murder of civilians. This has all of the basic elements to set up a disturbing scene.

The scene I would like to analyze is the massacre of the civilians on the Odessa steps. The Tsar’s Cossacks march down the steps in white clothing towards the civilians. They then open fire and different people are shown dieing. One of the people drop a baby carriage that dramatically rolls down the steps. There are a few wide shots of the steps that show people laying dead, or fighting.

I feel that camera angles and close ups added a lot of emotion to this film. Showing regular people being killed allows the audience to emphasize with the common man. It is interesting the characters the director shown that are seen being killed. Most are women and children, which sends the message of a brutal massacre because women and children are supposed to be let go. The two men that were shown being killed also had underlying implications. One had glasses which may symbolize the killing of education and the other was an ex-Tsarist officer. This implies that anyone who defies the Tsar will be killed.

                     This scene and the movie in general seem to show a lot of revolutionary war propaganda. The audience obviously is made to sympathize with the common man, the civilians. While the officers are shown as corrupt and mean. In conclusion this film in general pins their own country as an enemy. It encourages revolution and could influence any non-political person to join the directors thought of politics. All of these aspects the director put in the scene create a gruesome scene that sends a message

Battleship Potemkin

Jordan's response
After viewing the film Battleship Potemkin, I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. The pacing of the film seemed to be a little much because it was only a little over an hour and yet there was a feeling where I thought the movie was over three or four times before it actually was. That being said, the movie was made in a very interesting manner. It is deliberately different in style and shot set up. A lot of the shots seemed to be set up in a way much different than the handful of movies of that era that I've seen. Many of them were almost awkward in their framing of the characters, there was often very little distance between the camera and actors and also it was often at weird angles that aren't normal. Also, the editing gives a kind of amateur feel; however, it seems almost like the filmmakers deliberately made some of the transitions harsh and awkward. To me the theme seemed to be very deliberate and in your face, the whole idea of overthrowing an oppressive authority and working towards the "greater good" of mankind. And of course there is the whole red flag image in the film. It looks as if someone went in and colored each individual frame of the flag red, but for the time this must have been very "innovative" and new, as well as possibly promoting some communist ideas of the country. Overall, I had a somewhat decent experience with this movie and it is definitely worth looking at in film studies.

Second Post

The difference between watching and analyzing film has a lot to do with attention.

A normal movie watcher would just absorb the movie for the plot line. They would follow the

story to the finish, but not pat attention to the details. Colors, motifs, setting and expressions

all have underlying meanings in films. It is these subtle nuances that make all the difference in these 

films.  These elements of movies help make movies different and unique. When watching a movie one 

must look for these details, rather than follow the story line.

First Blog

The purpose of this blog is to be able and reflect on what we have discussed or

watched in class. This allows us to think critically and also reflect on how others have

perceived materials. This is only an opinion of the writers and their colleagues. My

name is Matt Mohr I am a senior at the University of Redlands. The class that these

blogs correspond to is an English 111 film class. I hope to accomplish a lot in these blogs.

First, I hope to give an interesting and new perspective on material that has already been

reviewed. If it is not a new perspective, then I at least hope to analyze correctly. I also

want to have a mastery of film language and techniques. In order to correctly analyze a

film I feel that one must be able to watch a movie correctly and that is what I would like

to be taught properly.


The purpose of this blog, other than the requirements for my film class, is to help force myself to explain to 

others my viewpoints on film and help make it easier for me to explain things i derive from the films that I 

watch. My name is Jordan Condrey and I'm a freshman at UoR, I'm undecided on a major because I have a 

hard time making decisions, as well as being uncertain of what I want to do in life. This blog is for my English 

111 film class and its to accustom myself to blogging my analysis and feelings about movies. I hope that my 

blog will better improve my understanding of films and giving me a much richer and deeper understanding of 

films and their subtleties.

The purpose of my blog is to post my thoughts and others’ along with opinions and facts pertaining to the

analyzation of film. My name is Gregory Bozoian. I am originally from Minnesota. I am a freshman with an

emphasis in business and music. The class title is English 111, a film class.  I think the blogs are a great way

to access each other’s information and work at anytime. I hope that my blog will effectively and efficiently

reflect my knowledge and ability to analyze films in an educated manor.