Wes Anderson? BRING IT!

http://www.leisuresuit.net/Webzine/articles/rushmore_rev.shtml

That review by Jordan Hoffman holds a certain amount of relevance to me because of how I do agree with most of what he says. Throughout his reviews he talks about several of Wes Anderson's movies, more detailed on Rushmore however, and how Wes Anderson has that touch of optimism in each of his films. To me, it's very much evident that you can see it in the movies he makes. Especially the two we've seen and the third that we've started to watch, of which is what I have made as my sole movie to compare with Wes Anderson. In Jordan's review, he talks of how in each movie there is optimism in at least one aspect or character of the film itself. For Bottle Rocket, it was most significant in Dignan’s character. Always being so optimistic in anything that can happen such as when Bob decided to ditch the two in order to help his brother, Bob being robbed in the end by a man he had a lot of trust in, and even when he’s committing a rather unsuccessful robbery. Being so energetic and nearly ‘cloud-9’ like, it’s pretty clear that the movie overall is influenced on how it’s viewed. Instead of another slow-moving dark-humor movie, it actually had that type of flow that kept the movie atop the boring point. This is also shown in Rushmore with how Max Fischer always does what he does but no matter what it is, it’s always got the somewhat optimistic/cynical/mastermind feel to it. Whether it be his plays, his payback schemes, or simply doing whatever it takes to get with his first love, he does each action to the fullest extent with nothing held back This is something that Wes Anderson has always managed to insert into his movies whether it be flawlessly, incidental, or even purposely.
Now further onto Wes Anderson and his movies, more specifically on The Royal Tenenbaums, he once again manages to employ the same characteristics even though it’s not completely obvious. The movie itself is practically the optimism in itself except it’s hidden under something like an invisible coated shell of … well, something. Anyways each character in this movie has that feeling where although they may be serious, you always have some kind of doubt and think it might just be a joke or completely fake altogether. The father, Royal, a once successful business man but now a conniving rascal, Margot the previous master play writer whom has a mysterious dark side to her, Etheline with his snappy comebacks and one liners, and every single other cast of character that isn’t mentioned, each hold a unique trait that really felt like Wes Anderson’s touch, hidden bliss. Each character in the film is in a way as happy as they can be even though despite their odds and success, each have had their misfortunes along the way. They are truly happy in how each have their own talents and skills in them selves but refuse to truly acknowledge it. Watching The Royal Tenenbaums gave me the feeling as though these guys do have a nice life but only because of previous titles and reputations are they unable to grasp at their own well being.




Although it's the trailer, here's a clip that gives a really good example of not only Dignan's hidden optimism, but also some of the other characters' unique level of humor that Wes Anderson employs along with some crazy shinanigans.




Here's a clip that I think really exemplifies the qualities of Wes Anderson and how he uses cynical/mastermind like thinking to show humor and optimism in an ever-so somewhat like reality situation(s) in Rushmore with Fischer and Blume.





Finally here's a great clip of The Royal Tenenbaums, the intro. Both the narration and the scenes are accompanied by Anderson's brilliant use of hidden optimism even though it's somewhat of a dark overwhelming aura. Once again this is very much showing the crazy things that Anderson tends to think of. First it was people that wanted to do crime and be the 'bad boys' of society, then came Rushmore with the over achieving socialite whom although is involved in many activites failes to see through to his own success and now with The Royal Tenenbaums, the hilarity of what children can accomplish in an already messed up family.

Coen Brothers

Boy what a pair of directors. Much better than any other directors we've watched in class by far. Although I have never heard of these guys before as either directors or just people at all, they made a pretty nice first impression on me. The movies were awesome. Beginning with Raising Arizona, began with a good amount of comedy and kept it throughout was a nice tactic. Kept me laughing from start to end with its hillbilly/roughneck comedy style. Then with Fargo, it had some dark humor in it that made the movie less unbearable with the accent that was overbearingly obvious. Then finally came No Country For Old Men that was awesome. The super shotgun? Who'd have thought of that! A shotgun with a silencer, it really doesn't get any better than that. Better than the petty theft and baby napping and the human body in the wood chipper. Anyways, the Coen Bros. use some pretty interesting aspects into their films. Especially of how they use sound in their movies. For example in Raising Arizona, the type of music and sounds they used were constant and in some ways a lil cartoonish. The music was the hillbilly'ish type and the sounds they used were constant. Then in Fargo and No Country For Old Men, the sounds used were insane. It generated so much suspense that it was almost unbearable. Almost made you just want to scream what the hell is going to happen? Using sound like so brilliantly draws the audience into the action and really gets them involved is why I think the Coen Bros. is the best director that we've seen thus far.

Altman

Altman is one interesting director but to some it feels as though his directing style is quite annoying. Me included. The reason why I think this is because of aspects he has within each movie. Especially the way he has large casts and many characters that always talk over each other. Generally when I'm watching a movie, I try to hear the conversations and understand what's going on but in the movies such as Nashville or The Player, the amount of noise and commotion that goes on it makes it very difficult to get the content. To me that can be very aggravating because it gets crazy when you can't understand certain parts int he movie that could potentially be very important to the storyline/plot and/or conflict. However annoying it may be though, it's still a directing style that's very unique compared to the hundreds of directors that have existed or still exist today.
Another part of Altman that is quite interesting is his use of random ideas or thoughts. I noticed this especially with his use of nudity and some weird parts during some of the scenes. Namely the one scene in The Player when characters and most objects move out of the scene and suddenly you see these 2 dogs getting busy. Just so weird and random at the same time. Back to the nudity part though, Altman's use of nudity felt as though he did it because of well, not reason at all. The nudity in all 3 movies that we saw did nothing to further the plot, provide anything to the story, or even generate any conflict. It did something more to the extent of distracting or even just act simply as filler. In The Player, there was a whole group of girls or ladies as Marlowe had called them, did nothing but yoga and what seemed like hallucinogens which did nothing to the story except simply be there for the fact that they are there. In The Player with the jacuzzi scene and the getaway griffen did with that one 'iceland' woman, once again served no purpose whatsoever. The only time when nudity looked to play the slightest role was in Nashville with Sueleen Gay and her stripping only to have the privilege of singing at the political rally. Using nudity for that part of Nashville was the only time that I saw the usage of nudity that accomplished something instead of nothing.

Akira Kurosawa

Kurosawa is a very revered director amazingly he even lived until he was 89! Anywho, about Kurosawa as a director and his films. The films we watched in class all had one dominant aspect to them that really caught my attention. What that aspect was, was Kurosawa's use of weather specifically as wind. In each movie, Stray Dog, Yojimbo, and Ran, each movie had their fair share or even maybe over the top of Kurosawa's wind. The wind in each movie that we saw seemed to get more intense as if a hurricane or tornado was near the vicinity of the movie sets. This element of nature that Kurosawa seemed to be so fond of gave the movies a different feel to it. It may have been more predominant in his other movies but the ones most notable with his wind feature that we saw were Yojimbo and Ran. For example, in Yojimbo throughout the entire movie every outside town scene in the morning seemed to have wind blowing here or a tumbleweed rolling around over there. Even more so in Ran once again in the outdoor scenes. Such as when the father character was running from the Jester, even though it was a very long shot you could easily see the effects of the wind blowing on the sand, dirt, and the plants. Even more noticable when there are medium or close up shots with characters outside when the wind was used so intensely that it was audible and sometimes even overlapping what the characters were saying.
By using this wind effect, Kurosawa gave the films a more realistic feel to them. It made viewers feel as though they could almost feel the wind themselves along with the feeling of actually being there and experiencing the action. In addition to the wind usage, what also complemented his wind use was the cinematography. The camera angles used in his many films really allowed for us to look from a third person point of view and this enabled viewers to get the sensation as though they were watching it in real time. However personally I saw his wind usage to be sometimes over the top, a drawback to its possible intended effect. Sometimes while watching the movie, I felt as though the wind really deviated my attention and oftentimes was too loud to hear what the characters were saying which to me gives a film most of the time its authenticity and originality. Overall though the use of wind was a good choice and when used in moderation does wonders which Kurosawa explored completely it seems.

Spirited Away

Spirited away was quite the interesting movie having being the first movie of Miyazaki that I had ever seen. Although I had seen it before, it was many a years ago so watching it again was almost a completely different view for me. A movie about nightmares and the dreams where we get taken so far away. Having the feeling as though we're all alone with no guidance or supervision, pretty freaky. The movie is based on a 10 yr old girl that is immersed into a completely new environment with unfamiliar sights, people, and surroundings. Eventually the story moves on to how the family go into a tunnel and find a ghost town and this is where the main story begins. Miyazaki once again demonstrates his creativity in this movie by the weird things he comes up with. Parents that become pigs, working in a bath house with a spider like boss, and the importance of memory. In addition to that, Miyazaki's typical character change is once again present in this film. Like in Princess Mononoke how Mononoke changes from having a complete hatred towards humans, by the end of the film she is although not completely changed, but at least her hatred is lessened and she's more accepting of humans and their existence. In this movie, Chihiru or Sen once she begins to work as the bathhouse, we see her change from the negative, spoiled, bratty attitude change into a courageous, honest, and very brave person. She works in the bath place slaving for a stink god and for a 10 year old, that's quite the feat. She has to take care of the son of Yubaba which owns the bathhouse she's working at even though the kid is a greedy obnoxious baby. All these changes are something that Miyazaki tends to put into his films. A change of character creating a change of feel for that character. We see something different in the character(s) instead of their first impression on us and we come not to judge them right away anymore and look for what they're going towards or running after.

Along with the type of character development that Miyazaki employs in his films, there's also once again his imagination that we can see is very apparant in the movie. In Spirited Away, there are these interestingly strange, supernatural, and even bizzare things that Chihiru encounters and deals with. The interesting thing about this is that some of them actually look like old japanese relics of mythology that I have seen in videos, documentaries, and things of that sort. Even then, the creatures in this movie are pretty unique. Like the floating mask faced (pretty big face) ghost that becomes friends with Chihiru, the river god dragon, rolling heads that the baby turned into. It seems as though even in the movie, Miyazaki has really brought about transformation of characters to be a fairly predominant level. Chihiru experiencing the life of Sen, which was to her a nightmare she never would have though to go through. For being only a 10 year old girl, she goes through what seems like hell but comes back to tell about it but changes in this process.

Hitchock blog

Alfred Hitchcock, what an amazing director. Having never heard of him before or even any knowledge of his works and now being introduced to it, it's different from the movies I'm used to. Hitchcock's movies that were viewed in class were all different but in each movie it had some of the same aspects. Especially with how Hitchcock uses montages in all 3 movies not in the typical sense but in the way that brings out different qualities of the movie. As well as how some of his personal opinions were also portrayed in the movie. For example, in the 39 Steps, Hitchcock's fear or dislike of police and authority is easily shown by character of Hannay and how he avoids the police with everything he has. Another similarity of his films relating to something that Hitchcock tends to do in his movies is the 'wrong man' theme. The theme entitles that there's an ordinary person but an extraordinary thing happens to them or the completely innocent is then framed and so must prove their innocence. Each film exemplifies Hitchcock's quality at film making. Hitchcock using his own feelings and continuous themes throughout his movies, the way he uses editing and camera work to display different feelings as well as how they affect what the viewers think of the scenes. Not only that but Hitchcock tends to be very unique on the sound side. In all 3 of the movies that were watched in class, each movie didn't have much sound for transition or many of the scenes but he used a different tactic. What I thought about his sound usage was brilliant how he would leave scenes silent for a certain duration and out of no where the music just builds up and it generates suspense and surprise. Not only that but sometimes with his use of sound, in a way it enhances the action that is happening on scene. For example in Rear Window, near the end when Thorwald is in Jeff's apartment, you don't really hear much but the moment the two start physically conflicting, all the noises start to make the scene more energetic and intense.
Furthering with Hitchcock's style is how he magnificently uses camerawork. For example the shower scene in Psycho where the lady is stabbed to death, although we were somewhat expecting to just simply see a few stabs and her going down, we actually find out that the way Hitchcock uses camera angles it changes the actions completely. By using multiple upon multiple shots and angles, it looks much more violent and thrilling. We find this out by how Hitchcock himself tells us that he used over 70 cameras just for that single scene and how he manipulated the shots to make it look as though she was stabbed even without any actual shots with the knife puncturing the victim. Hitchcock's camerawork is very artistic and is another part of his directing style that has led him to be very revered in the world of directors.

もののけ姫 (Princess Mononoke)

Amazing is all I have to really say about this movie. For the first time seeing this movie it's actually a pretty damn good one. Princess Mononoke is about animal gods such as the deer god, boar god, a wolf god as well as some other monkeys and gorillas and so forth. A very nature based as well as influences to modern warfare that's being protrayed as iron workings. The movie's theme is the ever lasting nature vs human conflict and this movie really emphasizes it. This is shown as to how one of the main characters is running her village but are advancing and destroying the forest and how the animals in the forests fight back. I believe this movie is very consistent of Miyazaki's directing style. The characters were all well developed and the story was very easy to follow along if you actually pay attention to the movie. Each character's motives are easily seen and there's no confusion as to what their role in the movie is. Additionally this movie is consistent with Miyazaki's 'mystical' style as well. What that means is how the things that he thinks of, is something very fake or unreal in anyway except in imagination. Just like in Totoro, almost everything he put in this movie was something created and couldn't possibly exist in our world. However something was very different in this movie, it was the violence/gore that was present. This was something that was very surprising and something I had never expected. There were some pretty graphic violence that was evident. Especially during the scene when one of the main characters, Ashitaka, was coming towards the village with samurai and as he's coming in riding his elk animal thing, he was shooting arrows that would decapitate people as well as completely (and very cleanly) slice off people's arms (is that even possible? I don't think so). Very different from all of the movies that I have seen by Miyazaki. However with the change in how much violence and how graphic it was, Miyazaki still used beautiful artwork and computer animated graphics to complement with his style. This detailed level of artwork could be clearly scene throughout the movie especially in the open scenes containing beautiful scenery as well as in close surroundings when details are more easily noticed (not to mention some pretty good music throughout the movie).

Here's a video to illustrate what I'm talking about (warning, contains animated blood O.o):


This video contains music and many of the scenes that take place throughout the movie. Although it may be a youtube video (which generally entails lower quality than normal) you can still see the intricate workings of what Miyazaki perfectly brings to the table in each of his movies and using only as much as needed to display the wonderful colors and animation to its fullest extent.