Marie Antoinette

 

Marie Antoinette is the story of the Austrian Princess going on to marry the Prince of France, Louis the sixteenth. The two were arranged to marry each other to try and prevent a war between France and Austria, the goal was for the two to have a child together(specifically a male to take the throne after Louis the sixteenth). She struggles at first to get Louis to try and make a child with her, after letting loose and living life carelessly the two finally conceive a child. After this happens Antoinette begins to act however she feels, constant parties, drinking, and gambling consume her life. When this is all going down, France is crumbling as they are in heavy debt. This is due to France helping the American colonies fight against England for their freedom. The film then ends with both the king and queen leaving the palace for safety, we know that this is at the start of the French revolution. Which ends with both Marie Antoinette and Louis the sixteenth being killed by guillotine. 

In regards to Cinematography, Coppola’s mise-en-scene is shown very strongly throughout the film. The part that really stood out to me was the clothing, and who was wearing it. When we wanted the main attention on Antoinette she always was in the main frame shot, and wearing something extravagant. She had dresses on her that were always full of color and practically jumping out of the screen. When she was at her summer house, bright full colors were shown. This was her happiness and joy in her life, she was able to escape the uptight life in royal France. Another thing relating to color that really stood out to me was the candy/sweets used when gambling. Whenever she was gambling or hosting a party, bright and voluptuous candy/sweets were shown on the screen. It seemed to show enjoyment, whenever she was having fun she was having candy/sweets as well. My favorite part of her style was her use of visuals instead of telling us what has happened in the film. One strong example of this is when one of the children passed away, the painting was changed on the wall. The new painting is with one less child in it, this is telling us that one of them passed away without straight up telling us a child died. I thought this was a unique thing for her to do, and I honestly liked it a lot, it is something I really haven’t seen or noticed before. 

Cultural awareness in this film is heavily shown towards the end of the film. When the mob is coming to the palace there is a realization for both the King and the Queen that this may be the end of the line. Antoinette is beginning to realize that she may die, but she is willing to do it by the side of her husband. When she notices her sister in law gives birth before her and Louis the sixteenth she knows they need to “conceive a child, she expresses in private away from the prying eyes of the court.” This helps us see into “her gut-wrenching isolation.”(BFI) We also see historic inaccuracy during one of the party scenes, we see a pair of converse on the floor next to other heels. (Film and Media studies)This is to help us see that she is still a teenager, she is still a kid. This is why she is always having fun and throwing parties, she is still young which we tend to forget when watching. Overall, the film helps us look into the life of Marie Antoinette and her struggles as the queen of France during a bad time for their country. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0YzRAGUFk 

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/portrait-of-a-lady-sofia-coppola-marie-antoinette

Cinematic shots in Rear Window

             

            Rear Window uses many cinematic shots and angles to help tell the story. The major thing in the film is how it starts, it starts with the prolonged pan at the beginning of the film. For the first minute and thirty seconds there are no cuts at all, just one long pan showing the entire set. This technique is used to show us what is going on with the character and the setting they are in. This is important because it introduces us to the neighborhood, the setting as a whole, and the point of view we will have the entire film. When we begin we don’t know this is the only spot we will be viewing from, but after watching the whole thing, we see that the first pan was crucial to setting up the scene for the viewer. Along with that there are a lot of long shots when Jeff is looking out the window, Hitchcock is known to do this in other films like his 1948 film Rope. Now they are not as long as the shots in Rope but we can see a similar style here in his work. 

That helps transition to the main angle we see throughout the film, the angle through the window of Jeff’s apartment. The angle from his window makes the entire film, it makes us feel as stuck and trapped as our main character Jeff. By doing this Hitchcock makes the broken leg affect us as well, it traps us from seeing the complete scenes. It also makes us have to make a lot of assumptions about what is happening, this is so the film doesn’t just tell us everything. It helps keep the suspense and the mystery alive throughout, without actually giving us the thrill of being up close to the actions. This helps us get close with our main characters as well, we are always hearing Jeff speaking or people in the apartment interacting. Thus making us feel like we are a part of the film, stuck in the apartment with Jeff.

Finally the specific shot I want to focus on is the shots of the people in the windows. When one specific window is shown, it is telling its own story. Each person has their own life and struggles, so looking into what others have to go through helps us see the struggles of our neighbors. You have the life of the young ballet dancer all happy and full of energy. Then you have the sad life of the musician and Miss Lonely heart, failed love and work going bad. We also see the main life we look in on, Thorwald's home and the terror that ensues in it. We see this effect Jeff when we look into the windows of the couples. When looking in we hear sirens, making it seem like a bad thing to be married. This helps us see Jeff's reasoning on why he doesn't want to be married, it seems like a bad scary thing to do. Constant arguing and feeling like they are always being nagged. Hitchcock uses a wide variety of shots and angles to help us as viewers be engaged and feel what the characters are feeling. 

Rear Window

 

Rear Window was released in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock, the film is a thriller/murder mystery. In the film we see a husband and wife (Mr. and Mrs. Thorwald) continuously argue. This is all seen from Jeff’s (our main characters) point of view. We notice that Mrs. Thorwald disappears, and Mr. Thorwald starts to act peculiar. Mr. Thorwald proceeds to pack up, getting ready to leave, Jeff then takes notice and raises awareness to this. Lisa(the woman who wants to marry Jeff) proceeds to help Jeff catch Mr. Thorwald, because Jeff is in a full leg cast and can't stand up. Lisa puts herself in danger, almost gets killed by Mr. Thorwald but he is eventually caught trying to kill Jeff. It's a big thriller with a huge ending that makes us sit on the edge of our seats. 

One thing that really stood out to me in this film is the cultural significance it had. It takes a girl like Lisa, who is a very proper woman, and likes to dress all fancy, and makes her a thrill seeker. She is the one who runs over and tries to dig up the flowers to find a dead body, she is putting herself in danger. This breaks down the stereotypes we see in this time period, she is doing dangerous acts on her own accord. She also does this when she sneaks into Thorwald's apartment when he is gone. She knows there is a possibility of him coming back, and her being stuck in the apartment. She does it with no hesitation and puts herself right in the danger, making her seem fearless. Along with the stereotypes being broken by Lisa, we also see other negative cultural ideologies as well. Doyle makes some very sexist remarks about females and women as a whole when he talks with Jeff. Along with that, we see when we are looking out the window in a scene, that a man was forcing himself onto Miss Lonelyheart. This was “common” back then for a man to do something so heinous, so it wasn’t focused on much in the film after it was shown. 

Moving on, the most interesting thing for me about this film was the cinematic aspect of it. Hitchcock used a few special techniques to show different emotions and feelings for the audience. The first technique I wanted to point out was the prolonged pan at the beginning of the film. For the first minute and thirty seconds there are no cuts at all, just one long pan showing the entire set. Now this is important because it introduces us to the neighborhood, the setting as a whole, and the point of view we will have the entire film. Along with that, the point of view makes us feel hopeless in certain situations. We are seeing everything from Jeff's point of view when we look out the window. We can't leave similarly to how he cant leave, it makes us feel like we are as hopeless and stuck as he is. Now when looking into different windows the sound is a big part, especially with couples. When looking into couples windows we hear sirens, making it seem like a bad thing to be married. This helps us see Jeff's reasoning on why he doesn't want to be married, it seems like a bad scary thing to do. Finally the most important thing I noticed is that each window is a different life. You have the life of the young ballet dancer all happy and full of energy. Then you have the sad life of the musician and Miss Lonely heart, failed love and work going bad. We also see the main life we look in on, Thorwald's home and the terror that ensues in it. Each window is a look into everyone's struggles and lives they live everyday in the neighborhood. All and all, Hitchcock uses many techniques to make the film thrilling and intense, making it a great watch. 

The language of Film

  

Lynne Ramsay - The Poetry of Details from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

      Film has a completely different language and way of conveying ideas then other art forms. Cinematic language is needed for you to understand how to watch a movie. Shots are the way the camera captures the images. Shots can be used in multiple different ways to make the viewer feel something. Quick shots can make the scene feel urgent, while longer shots may be used to slow down the film. There are also different compositions of shots, these include tight, medium and wide shots. The tight shots can be used to show a lot of details and close ups of actions or parts of the set. Medium shots help us see interactions between characters and show us some of the background. The wide shots help set the scene up and show us where we are and who is there. Low angle shots are also used to make the character seem more dominant or powerful. We are looking up to the character and they seem to have more respect from this angle. The other shot would be the opposite, this shot is a high angle shot, where we are the powerful ones. We look down on the character or situation and see it from that point of view. The shots help us feel what we need to be feeling when watching the film, and it's a major part of us understanding how to watch a movie. 

Another part of cinematic language is editing, which is the way the story is told. You can have all these amazing shots, but if it is not edited properly it will look awful. Editing arranges the shots to tell the story we as viewers are watching. Editing can contain different types of transitions between shots. There are the typical fade ins and fade outs, along with dissolves but there is more to transitions. The slowly fading out of shots, the slow drifts into black can set up certain actions. If someone is falling asleep in the film, the screen will fade into black making it seem like we are closing our eyes. This is made to be seen as invisible to the viewer because of how well it fits in the scene. This is the main part of editing, to try and tell the story as smoothly as possible, making the viewer feel more into the film. J cuts or hard cuts are the least noticed cuts, these occur in most action scenes. They can also occur in typical shots, say someone is walking and they grab a door handle. The shot will go from a medium shot of the person to a tight shot of the person's hand on the handle, to another medium shot of them walking through the door. Throughout this there are all hard cuts, they go unnoticed that's the point of them. When it comes to understanding the language of film editing is a huge part. 

Finally after watching the video on The Poetry of Details by Lynne Ramsay we look at the framing of shots and the story telling in them. Framing can affect how the viewer feels about the importance of the shot. Some shots where the character's face is hidden makes you assume what the character is feeling. But you are not told specifically how the character is feeling, so the director wants the viewer to think about what's happening, and connect the dots on their own. Another way the film can make people think/connect the dots is by repetition of details. Repetition of details can help deepen the stories and connect plot holes together. This can be as simple as posture or certain actions the characters do. Either way we can see connections between details, which makes us go into deeper thought on the film. They can use this along with film composition to make us feel certain ways about certain scenes in movies. The way they use the lighting and or music can also affect how we feel. These are all things we need to look out for when we try to understand a film. So using these tools, film makes us think and we now know that we have to understand the language of film to truly get films.