Eastern Promises by David Cronenberg

When I first saw the title of the film, I thought… “Naaah. Another cheesy love story.” But I proved myself wrong. Its way beyond a simple love story. Yeah, its basically all about love. Love of a father to his son no matter how miserable his child is, love of a mother to her child that she still carried it for 9 months though she knew she’ll die afterwards, love of a kind woman to a newborn child who lost her mother since birth and the unexpected love between two totally different people.

 

The movie has a very sensitive topic. Its about a Russian Mafia family headed by Semyon. In the film, Semyon showed great disappointment in his son, Kirill. The latter was very lousy, irresponsible and out-of-control, which Semyon finds inappropriate for a son of a mafia leader. So he hired Nikolai, he was supposedly a family driver but turned out to be a cleaner later on. Cleaner, meaning the one who disposes murdered bodies by the mafia family to the river.

 

I was really convinced that Nikolai was a connivance of Semyon and Kirill because of many times he roved his loyalty to the family. He protects them especially Kirill to be caught by the authority, he does whatever Kirill orders, evenSemyons orders are always granted by Nikolai. But at the end, Nikolai revealed himself as a secret agent of the Russian government. He was just spying the family, gathered enough information and used them against the mafia family.

 

Naomi Watts played the role of the mid-wife named Anna. Tatiana, the mother of the child was so attached to her that she even risked her life just to protect the child from the mafia. Because of the diary written by Tatiana, Anna learned about how Semyon raped the Tatiana and abused her emotionally and mentally. She also knew that Semyon was the real father of the child Tatiana carried.

 

The film felt really tragic, but then lots of twists happened. At the the end, Nikolai revealed himself as a secret agent of the British Government and was really plotting a plan against the mafia family. He was able to read the diary of Tatiana when Semyon ordered him to get it from Anna. He was also able to prove that Semyon was the father of the child because of a paternity test.

 

There was also a scene where Anna’s uncle, named Stephan, was very mad to Nikolai thinking that the latter was a part of the mafia. Stephan spitted on Nikolai’s face and Nikolai got very pissed. After that, a scene where Nikolai went to Stephan’s apartment made me think that Nikolai will be avenging because of what Stephan did to him. But in the end, it was revealed that Stephan was taken for protection and was safe staying in a hotel.

 

The twist was really unexpected. I was personally amazed on how the story built up and turned out. I was also fascinated in the fact that the film was about mafia yet I haven’tsaw any gun used, which is very unlikely. There was an emphasis to knives especially to the scene of Nikolai having a fight with two guys with curve knives, which I believe are linoleum knives. That scene was quite impressive but at first it was a bit off to me because it is too bloody for a female like me. But the artistic concept of it was very powerful, showing the bare skin being cut off and fresh blood coming out has somehow greater impact to the audience and creates more attachment to the Nikolai’s character.

 

The Stars and The Studios: Then and Now

In the Classic Hollywood time, Studio Companies controls the game. They own productions and even the distribution. They thousands of theater around the state and promote their own films as well.

They don’t shoot on outside locations because their studios are big enough to cater the shoot inside. Since they also own sounds and light equipments, they find it a waste of time to travel to different locations just to shoot few scenes. They find it convinient to do it inside the studio lots.

 

Back then, Studio Corporations releases contracts for their personnel. All the employees, from the director, actors and even the staffs have to sign first a contract before they could work for a production. In this case, employees that have signed contract becomes the property of the company and would never be allowed to do other jobs outside their company unless the contract has ended.

Nowadays, studios just do the production of the films and some other entity would be in charge of the promotion and distribution. They also don’t issue contracts to artists, directors and staffs. They would be hire once a production will needing staffs. In these way, jobs are most flexible because they could do different production under different companies.

As for the stars, they also have their exclusive contracts with the company. Aside from that, they are oblique to undergo training for them to ready enough to go for a production. It may take up a couple of year but the sacrifice would definitely worth it because when they become stars already, they earn millions of dollars and of course the fame.

Unlike the stars of today, the reputation of the stars of the classical Hollywood are more taken care of. They block news about the actor or actresses’ drug addiction, family problems and other negative things that may affect their names. Today, stars are more vulgar and open to the public. When they get married, the public know. When they are having a baby, the public know. And even when the are about to divorce, the public should also know. Its like their lives are open books anyone could read. 

Before, if stars get to be involve in a controversy, like a sex video scandal, their career will surely be in jeopardy. But today, it doesn’t really matter if a star get involve in sex video, drug addiction, got into jail or whatever. The audience nowadays are more open ti the idea that these are just like them, human. They fall in love, gets broken, fall down and makes mistakes. 

An Adventure by a balloon: Pixar’s UP!

One of the movies that I love is Up by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture. It was directed by Pete Docter. The main characters were Carl Fredricksen, Charles Munts and Russell.

 

One of the parts I liked the most is how Ellie and Carl met each other when they were still kids. They both clicked because they both love Charles Munts, an explorer. Eventually, wedding bells rang for the two of them. Their love story was very touching. From childhood sweethearts to soul mates. But unfortunately they never had a child.

 

I was pretty much amazed on how the writers made the audience understand the purity and the charm of Carl and Ellie’s tale of love. It was short, simple yet very emotional.

 

Ellie had a childhood dream of getting into Paradise Falls where Child Munts had an expedition. She dreamt of having their house parked right after the falls. But before Carl’s surprise for Ellie of them going to South America to visit the Paradise Falls, Ellie got sick and eventually past away.

 

Since then, Carl became so sad that his life became dull and miserable. Until the he decided to go on an adventure and tied hundreds of balloons to their house and made it fly. He wanted to make Ellie’s dream come true to have their house beside the Paradise Falls.

 

Along with Russell, Kevin and Dug, Mr. Fredricksen had one heck of adventure. They got off the house and ended up pulling the house while they travel by foot and fought with Charles Munts himself together with his battalion of talking dogs.

 

The movie is animated which makes it appealing to young audiences. But the story and the content itself are more understandable to teenagers and adults — the endless love story of Ellie and Carl, the bravery of Russell as a wilderness explorer and Carl’s courage to accept Ellie’s death and finally letting go of the grief — are more matured issues tackled by the movie. All of these serious topics combined with the cuteness of Russell and the very charming yet pure love of Carl to Ellie made the movie very special.

 

Classical Hollywood started roughly between the 1910’s and 1960’s. This perios was also called as the “Golden Age of Hollywood”. And apparently, this era developed it’s own style.

A very important part of the Golden Age of Hollywood is the so-called “invisible art” or “the art of editing”. Editing should not be noticed by the audience. Each frame should flow smoothly. The viewers should be directed to the story itself and not the way frames change to another. And there, the principle of “continuity editing” or “invisible style” was born.

Another key point in the Classical Hollywood style was that most of the produced films were shot entirely on Hollywood studios. There were no outdoor shoots. And of the story requires a scene outside the studio, these were just edited to have a new background. The Hollywood studio system was dominated by the so-called “Big Five” namely: MGM, Warner Brothers, 20^th Century Fox, Paramount and RKO.

On the phenomenal movie, Casablanca, flashbacks were also used in some scenes. This styles of manipulating time in films was also used in the Classical Hollywood style. It is mostly used to introduce a memory sequence of a particular character.

There was also a style in how the shots were taken and how they are arranged in the editing. On the film Casablanca, the usual patterns of the shots were like: first, medium shot of the two main characters, followed by close shots of the two characters from both of their shoulders and then a wide shot of the two to show the settings as a whole.

The narrative of a classical Hollywood film has a distinct beginning, middle and an ending. Wherein the end definitely has a resolution.

The idea of the tragic love stories from the renaissance era also has a great influence in the classical Hollywood films. Like the phenomenal play of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet which is a tragic love story, the film Casablanca was somehow patterned to it.

Stories wherein the two main characters in a love story never had a happy ending, makes the viewers have that emotional attachment to the story. The audience sticks to the idea that the two main characters should have been together and/or one of them doesn’t have to die. And this kind of narration is still being adapted by the modern writers and film makers like of those in the sensational film, Titanic, wherein Jack dies and Rose have to continue living until she dies of old age.

The American New Wave: The Advent of the New Hollywood

The post-classical Hollywood or the so-called New Hollywood started in the late – 1960’s up to early 1980’s. From the traditional way of filmmaking from the Classical Hollywood, the new breed of young filmmakers changed the paced of the film industry.

 

 

This group of young filmmakers is not considered independent filmmakers. They were actually started working with big studio companies and later on given big budgeted projects. But what sets them apart is the innovative and fresh ideas they introduced and broaden the style of the new generation of films.

 

Because of the changing demographics of the audience in the mid-1960’s, the Old Hollywood loss a lot of money and started to decline. With their attempt to revive their game, they released movies with big budgets yet it all ended up as flop. So they had no choice but the let these young filmmakers to take over since the trend they have set has a great impact to the then changed audience.

 

The best thing about this new generation of filmmakers is that they received proper education from the early film schools in America. And of course, they are young so they could reach the young audiences, which the Old Hollywood is then loosing.

 

Because of the advent of Jaws by Steven Spielberg and Star Wars of George Lucas ended the New Hollywood era. They started the “B” movies or the blockbusters. They discovered new ways of having millions of profit to just through the ticket sales of the movie but also to venture on other media like soundtracks, merchandise such as toys, and the use of sequels.

From the Classical Hollywood, Film-School Generation and to the New Hollywood era, film industry had gone too many changes. Whether these filmmakers make films for personal, commercial or political interests, we should admit that their love for their craft influence, inspire and touched us in one way or another. Films will always be a part of our history, present and our future.

The Legend of Film-School Generation: George Lucas

The great creator of the Space-themed franchise Star Wars was an American film producer, screenwriter, director and entrepreneur.

 

Lucas attended in one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Here, he developed his passion in writing and production, which later will be his forte. Amongst his great films were TH 1138, American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and of course, The Star Wars.

 

Star Wars was a huge hit that it became the highest-grossing film of all-time, putting aside Steven Spielberg’s E.T the Extra-Terrestrial.

 

The animation studio Pixar was a part of Lucas Film which he founded. This gave way to Lucas’ passion for special effects, like what he had in Star Wars series. Through the advent of Pixar’s early computer graphics, groundbreaking effects in films like in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes was pioneered.

 

Lucas really devoted his career in innovating graphics, sounds and lighting in films through his ventures like THX Ltd (sound-equipped system), Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucas Films. And even had Lucas Arts which produces products for the gaming industry.

The Legend of the Film-School Generation: Steven Spielberg

This Academy Award Best Director first applied in University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television twice but was rejected. And ended up to California State University, Long Beach.

In his early days in the film industry, he started as an unpaid, seven-day-a-week intern and guest of the editing department, yet uncredited. When he had his first short film released for theater was seen by the vice-president of Universal Studios Television arm, he became the youngest director in Universal Studios in Hollywood where he began his career as a professional director. And the rest is history.

After working for television for a couple years, finally, he was offered to do Jaws. This film is thriller-horror film based on a novel about a huge and deadly shark. This film, even tough it was merely shut down due to budget delays, became a great hit and became one of the to grossing films of all time.

It seemed like Spielberg has this passion for aliens and UFO’s. In fact, in an AFI interview in August 2000, Spielberg told that his interest in the possibility of extra-terrestrial life and how it became his inspiration in some of his films. According to him, he felt like an alien or an outcast during childhood, and with the influence of his father, who is also a fan of Sci-Fi’s, he formulated his opinion that aliens would not travel light years just to rule the world and abduct all human kind, but because of eagerness of knowledge and of course, to make friendships.

With his passion for the aliens and stuffs, he rejected offers to do Jaws 2, King Kong and Superman, instead worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is, about UFO’s of course. Well I guess, he made the right the decision. Because of this film, he had his first nomination as the Best Director in the Academy Awards and also for his six other Academy Awards nominations. Aside from that, he also won Oscars for Cinematography and for the impeccable sounds effects editing).

He tried adventure films in his collaboration with George Lucas in the first films of Indiana Jones. But then went back to science fiction genre a year after. He created E.T the Extra-Terrestrial, a story of a young boy and his alien friend and their adventures. This award winning film became one of the top grossing of all time.

In 1994, he built his new studio DreamWorks and made a sequel of the hit film, Jurassic Park. He then went to another genre when he made a film about World War II, Saving Private Ryan. Again, it was a huge box-office hit.

Other hit films by Spielberg is A.I Artificial Intellegence, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, the Adventures of Tintin and Schindler’s List.

French Impressionist Cinema: The Avant-Garde Films

In the 1920’s, a group of films are called narrative avant-garde, which is based from French Impressionism. Based on the nature of this movement, it became very difficult to be defined and even became the topic of the debate if it is really a movement.

Whether it is really a movement or not at all, it was still a great influence in the history of the whole film industry. In fact, it also has its own periods which evolved as years passed by.

 

1. Pictorialism (1918) these are films focused on the still images inside the film, the camera work and the mise-en-scene. This will help in generating the plot of the story.
2. Montage (1923) there are rhythmic, tonal, overtonal and intellectual montage. Here, fats paced editing was used very frequently.
3. Diffusion (1926) other used other innovative and formal techniques.

 There is no actual theory behind this movement in films. But has its unique element. Photogénie, which is the defamiliarization of the spector with what appears on screen. Like for example, in a scene where the main character’s face was over another image of what is supposed to be he is thinking. They also use “subliminal cuts” wherein some of the shots were showed in a flash, which depicts the characters idea. They also pioneered the Point Of View Shots. Like when a character is drunk or dizzy, the camera would be moving in zigzag motion and will be a bit blurred to show the perception of the character itself. It’s like putting the audience in the shoes of the character.

But since there is no theoretical and philosophical base for this technique, critics could hardly accept that these films are based a uniform genre.

Black Beauty: Film Noir Films

Film Noir literally means “Black Film”. From the word itself, it has the low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, wherein the audiences were not seeing a representation of reality. The film seems to be more like something they would see in a nightmare.

 The influence of expressionist art is also apparent in the film’s set design. Like on the movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is widely regarded as the most noteworthy film in the expressionist style. They flooded their set with flat light then painted shadows directly onto the walls and floor. The effect was to make the audience have the feel of fright and tension. The distortion of the characters and the set makes the scene surreal which makes the audience engaged more into the movie.

Film Noir have some elements in common, like the settings are always in the city, the primary moods of classic film noir were moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation, paranoia and other negative vibes. The main characters are always villains, detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These characters are morally-ambiguous low-lives and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive and sexual.

And speaking of sexual, another main point of film noir is the femme fatale. Who is a mysterious and seductive woman that is very sexual and charming and makes the protagonist fall in love with her and eventually persuades him to do crimes with her.  And in the end will bring them together to downfall.

This makes me think that film noir is a feminist type of film genre, because the main element of the film is the female power of the femme fatale. On the classic film of Orson Welles, Touch of Evil, there a lot of scenes that include low angle shot of the woman and high angle shot of the man which gives the audience the feel that the woman possesses more power than the man. The man looking up to the woman makes the woman have an authority over the man. Just like in the legendary film of Welles, Citizen Kane which pioneered the low and high angle shots that depicts power over someone less powerful. 

The Legend of Film-School Generation: Martin Scorsese

 

This seven-time Academy Awards Best Director Nominee was from an Italian American decent, which he incorporates in some of his films. He also has films that slaps Roman Catholic faith with its concept of violence, redemption, guilt and machismo. But nevertheless, he is still one of the most significant personalities of the whole film industry.

Aside from being a film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor, he is also a film historian. He is the founder of The Film Foundation in 1990 and World Cinema Foundation in 2007.

Way back in 1964 he attended New York University where he did his first short films. And the rest is history. From the Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Goodfellas. Scorsese has made it all through the years with his great believe to his own craft.

In his almost 40 years in the film industry, he already made his own style in making films. Like his frequent use of slow motion and freeze frames such in his films The King of Comedy in its opening credits and most of the scenes in Goodfellas and The Departed. But he also has films with aggressive camera movements or rapid editing and long tracking shots such in Taxi Driver, Casino and Hugo.

And unlike De Palma, Scorsese has a sweet and angelic approach to women. His leading ladies, are usually perceived by the protagonist as angelic and delicate. Most of the time, they wear white dress or bikini. And what I find very interesting in him is he often has a quick cameo in his own films such in his films, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, After Hours and Hugo). Kind of like reminds of the famous Renaissance painter, Michelangelo Buonarroti paints himself together with the other characters in some of his paintings. He stands out with other characters because his portrait is always looking at the audience.

He also gives a sense of social awareness because he recently features corrupt officials in his films The Departed and politician in Gangs of New York.