Wild Tales
Wild Tales (Damián Szifron, 2014) is a film made up of six standalone short films all written and directed by Damián Szifron, whilst the stories do not interlink they are boned together by the themes they seem to explore. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won a BAFTA in the U.K for Best Film Not In The English Language.
The first of the six tales, “Pasternak“, is set on an airplane; a woman and a man begin talking and discover they both know a man named Pasternak, the woman is a former girlfriend of his whilst the man is a music critic who gave him a bad report on a piece he submitted. One by one several other passengers join the two stranger’s conversation each explaining that they also know Pasternak, soon they realise that everyone on the plane knows and has had a negative encounter with Pasternak. They’re all in shock when the flight attendant tells them that Pasternak is in fact on the plane and has locked himself in the cockpit; in the end, as the panic of the passengers escalates, Pasternak crashes the plane into his parents home where they were previously sitting in the garden. I thought his was a brilliant introduction to the film as the transaction from complete coincidence to impossible coincidence immediately hooked me in whilst also being quite humorous.
“Las Ratas” is the second tale told, Szifron has previously said that this short was based on a situation he had experienced. The story followed a lone man stops at a highway restaurant, the waitress working there automatically recognises the man and tells the cook that he molestered her mother and rove her farther to suicide. Straightaway we are made to feel a disliking towards him as he is extremely rude to the waitress. The cook suggests putting rat poison in his food the waitress dismisses the idea but the cook adds the poison anyway. The waitress finds out but hesitates to take the food away, the son of the man arrives and eat the food, feeling guilty she tries to take the food away from the pair. The man becomes infuriated and tries to attack her but then the cook kills him with a knife, she is the arrested. I found this tale to be one of the most intense the different and distinguishable personalities of the three characters allowed each to react in a different way in the situation making the short a lot more thrilling.
The third tale to be told (another that was based on a real-life situation Sziforn had been through) was “El más fuerte“, whilst driving through the desert a man named Diego is blocked by another driver (Mario) as he attempts to overtake him, when he eventually does pass he yells insults at Mario. Later in Diego’s journey he gets a flat tire, Mario catches us parks in front of him and begins to smash his windshield before urinating and defecating on it. Diego pushes Mario and his car into the river in front of them and then drives off; Mario survives and Diego returns to finish the fight however, his car spins out of control and crashes into the river. The two end up in Diego’s car fighting, Mario hangs Diego with his seatbelt as he sets the car on fire but then Diego grabs him dragging him into the car. A tow truck arrives and the car containing the two men explodes. Sziforn originally had 12 shorts but is said to have gotten rid of the “wilder ones” so you only have to wonder: if this was one of the more low-key shorts what level of wild were the other abandoned ones. Out of all of the short films this was definitely the most gore filled and violent but luckily it was done really well. The thing I loved most about this one in particular was how it just seemed to keep going with each outbreak getting more and more violent than the last, I particularly liked the ending in which the police arrived and decided the bodies were probably those of two lovers who had died tragically in the accident, it was the perfect comic relief at the end of an intense tale of two men driven by hate.
“Bombita“, the fourth, told the story of a man named Simón who’s car got towed as he picked up a cake for his daughters birthday; he goes to the towed-car lot and begins arguing with an employee over the unfairness of the tow and the fine he is being charged despite his argument he is still made to pay the fine and then turns up late to his daughters birthday party. The next day he is once again refused a refund, he smashes the glass between him and the unfortunate employee delivering the news and is arrested. Once bailed out, he is fired by his company and his wife files for a divorce seeking full custody of their daughter and then to op it all off his car is towed again. After retrieving it he fills it with explosives and deliberately leaves it to be towed, he then let off the explosives in the car that is parked in the towed-car lot. The explosion destroys the towing office but leaves not casualties, Simón is arrested but becomes a town hero; at the end we see his wife and daughter visit him in prison carrying him a birthday cake with a tow truck made out off icing on top (a detail I found particularly amusing). Whilst this short did drag on for a while I still enjoyed it and was impressed by the directors ability to make us fully understand Simón’s lack of satisfaction with society and therefore his motives for his actions.
The second to last tale, “Las Propuesta“, was of teenager who committed a hit-and-run in his dad’s car killing a woman and her unborn child. He returns home and tells his parents who automatically, alongside their lawyer, arrange a deal with their groundskeeper Jose stating that he will take the blame and in return be given half a million dollars. The local prosecutor sees through their scheme and is included in the negotiation; the groundsman asked for an apartment as well as his money and the prosecutor asks for an addition payment to pay off the police. The farther becomes increasingly frustrated and calls the deal off, he tells his son to confess to the angry mob of reporters and the public who have gathered outside the house. After renegotiating, the three make a deal with lower prices and Jose is taken away by police, as he is escorted out of the house the victim’s husband attacks him with a hammer. Out of all of the tales I have to say this was my least favourite, whilst the storyline was interesting it went on for too long and in my opinion couldn’t compete with the intense, action-filled and dramatic tone of the other shorts.
“Hasta que la muerte nos separe” was the final short of the anthology. We joined the story midway through a Jewish wedding party as the bride and groom danced energetically with their guests. The wife discovers her new husband has been cheating on her with one of their guests, emotionally distraught after comfroting him she runs out onto the roof and meets a comforting kitchen worker. Ariel (the groom) goes to the roof to find the two having sex; Romina (the bride) threatens her husband stating that she will sleep with any man and expose his secrets and if he tries to divorce her she will take all he has or wait until he dies and it is all left to her. They return to their party and whilst dancing, Romina spins around with the woman Ariel slept with before throwing her into a glass mirror on the wall. A series of crazy events happen next including Ariel breaking down emotionally, his mother attacking Romina and Romina collapsing. The party is in shambles when Ariel suddenly approaches Romina, takes her hand and they begin dancing and kissing, it escalates further as they begin to get a bit too intimate and all the guests leave uncomfortably. I think that this short was my favourite out of all of them, I loved how completely nuts the whole thing was and appreciated the many layers to the story. The beginning had upbeat music, flashy lights and loads of energy making it the perfect opening; the entire short was beautifully filmed with some obscure but great camerawork which made it even more enjoyable.
Overall I was beyond impressed with this film as a whole. At first, going into it I was hesitant because I don’t tend to watch foreign films however, I was surprised and how quickly I almost forgot I was watching a foreign film and reading the subtitles felt normal and natural. Each of the individual short films had its own style with the varying set designs and tones however, despite having their own identity they were all tied together through the themes they explored. Whilst all 6 of the shorts explore the themes of violence and vengeance, I think there are more important themes evident in the film such as the struggle to suppress animalistic nature/ tendencies as well as the desire to loose control and release your inner psycho and perhaps alongside that the various levels of self-control different members society have.
Knock-knock
Following our recent research into the filming techniques shot/reverse shot, the 180º rule and match on action, we were given a practical task. Our brief was to plan, film, edit and upload a sequence showing two characters coming together, telling a knock-knock joke and departing; the video had to include the three techniques we had previously researched.
Planning
We had 50 minutes to plan, we decided on our joke and what we wanted the aesthetic of the video to be and then began writing an outline ready for filming.
Once we decided on our joke, we assigned roles to each member of our team, Evie was the camera operator, Sam was in charge of audio and Holly and I were the two characters on screen. For our location we chose to film in a corridor in our school as it is a very open space allowing us to put the camera in different positions for various shots.
Filming
Filming gave us the chance to get used to the equipment so that in future projects we can improve on our techniques, we hadn’t used the cameras, boom pole, microphone and audio recorder so it took us a while to figure out how to get them working. During filming we encountered a few issues; the main one being the lighting in the corridor, when working in the future, lighting is definitely something I will take into account before filming takes place. We used various shots including close ups and wide shots and also made sure we filmed content that could be used to create a shot reverse shot and match on action whilst adhering to the 180º rule. For each scene we did a few takes so that we had options during editing.
Editing
We edited our project using Final Cut Pro X. The biggest issue we faced during editing was synching the audio and camera from this I know that when we do more projects like these I’ll make sure to make a clap and state what scene/take each recording is before the scene is carried out in order to make the editing process quicker and more efficient. We decided to add the drone sound in the beginning in order to create a facade that it was going to be an intense meeting therefore making the knock knock joke seem even more out of place.
Overall
If we had more time I think our project would’ve been a lot better as we could have fixed some of the mistakes we made such as the slanted camera frame, the crossover of speech, jumpiness between shots and the abruptness of the drone sound ending, among others. However, all of these things can now be considered when I do other projects as I will be more familiar with the equipment and editing software enabling me to improve and perfect making short videos similar to these.
IT Movie: My Thoughts
Red balloons and circuses will never be the same.
IT (Andres Muschietti, 2017) has been one of the most highly anticipated horror films of 2017 since the release of the trailer in March which now has over 35 million views. The story follows a group of bullied kids who band together when a shapeshifting demon, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting children. I went to see IT the night it came out in cinemas and I absolutely loved every bit of it. From a media student perspective I was thoroughly pleased with the technical aspects, the shots were well thought out, the settings were eye-catching and the editing built the perfect amount of tension needed in each scene. Admittedly I’m not usually a big fan of horror films, the storylines bore me, the characters are rarely interesting and I try to avoid situations involving fear as much as possible but, about 30 minutes into IT I realised that this wasn’t just a horror film.
Now before I go any further let me give you a brief history of IT:
IT was a novel written by Stephen King in 1987 –> in 1990 a miniseries, based on the novel, came out directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (and starring Tim Curry as the iconic IT clown Pennywise) –> and now IT has been reborn once again this time in the form of a feature film.
The “Losers’ Club” is the nickname given to the seven kids that the film follows, one of the main things I loved about this film was the attention given to all of the individual kids in this group dynamic. The casting was spot on and every member of the diverse mix of pre-teens was given an edge, for example Richie’s humour or Eddie’s obsession with germs, and most of them are given backstories or separate storylines such as Beverly (the only female member of the group)’s abusive father. These extra details and quirks given to the members of the “Losers Club” allows the film to be extremely character driven therefore intensifying empathy for the characters and building relationships between them and the audience.
One of my favourite things about this film was the unexpected level of humour. I was sat in a fully packed cinema and there were numerous moments were every single person in the room was laughing. The majority of the comedy came from the group of kids and the way they spoke/joked around with each other, the best thing about the comedy in this movie was how true and realistic it was to the language used by young teenagers in the 1980s (the time era IT is set in) and nowadays, they didn’t shy away from allowing the young characters to use foul language or reference typically “adult” things.
In all honesty I was expecting a little more horror than was present in the movie, it was actually the right level for me but I can see why some people were disappointed. The majority of the frights came from the frequent jump scares following the suspenseful and intense build up of every scene, all of which were executed very well. If you have coulrophobia (a fear of clowns) I can imagine the experience being a lot more mentally and emotionally scarring for you but for people who don’t there is still no denying the uncanny and creepy essence of Pennywise the clown. The two scariest moments that stuck in my mind were 1. when Pennywise appears after (spoiler alert) Beverly kills her dad and 2. the projector scene when Pennywise comes out of the screen and starts attacking the kids.
The two main themes of IT were, and have been in the previous versions of the story: fear and friendship. However, there were numerous underlining themes that gave extra meaning to the film including bullying, racism, abuse and ‘slut shaming’ which are real issues faced every day in our society. It was the exploration of these themes alongside the emotions displayed by the characters that allowed me to connect with the film in a way I never would’ve imagined stepping into the cinema. The film is very reminiscent of films such as Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, 1986) and The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985). IT is probably one the best films I have seen so far this year, it completely redefines the horror genre and highlights exactly what so many horrow films are missing nowadays, I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Match on action
The filming technique ‘match on action’ is used to show two different views of the same action. The movement is matched across the separately filmed shots so that the motion seems to be carried out with no interruption. For example one shot could show a person walking up to a door and reaching out their hand to the handle, the next shot could be a close up of the hand twisting the handle causing the door to open which would then be followed by a shot of the person walking through the door into another room. All the shots are cut together to make it appear as one swift movement.
180-degree rule
The 180-degree rule is a basic guideline used in film. An imaginary line called an “axis” connects the characters on screen, the camera is kept on one side of the line and the characters are kept on the other. The camera can be placed in different positions and at different angles as long as it doesn’t cross the line. Breaking this rule is known as shooting in the round which can make it seem as though the characters have moved and can confuse the viewer.
Shot/reverse shot
Shot reverse shot is used as a continuity editing feature very often in movies and shows. It involves two or more people and is usually used to show them having a conversation; the first person is shown on screen looking at a second character or group of characters that are off screen and then the other character(s) is shown looking back at the first character. The two characters are filmed looking in different directions so that we, as viewers, understand they are looking at each other. This technique allows us to see two points of view whilst engaging us in the conversation/ reactions of the characters.
Is Terry Gilliam an Auteur?
Auteur – a director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author
Terry Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, animator, comedian, actor and film director however, he originally started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. After being welcomed into the Monty Python comedy troupe (becoming the only member not born in Britain) he started animating and was also eventually given small acting roles. He was voted “most likely to succeed in high school” which was Proventil be true in the 1970s when he became a director going on to do 12 feature films including Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), 12 Monkeys (1985), The Fisher King (1991), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) and The Zero Theorem (2013) among others.
After over 40 years in the directing business, Gilliam has become well known for having characters face dark and paranoid situations, his work also includes black comedy and tragicomedy elements with surprise endings, features that have grown to define his work. Many of his films express his opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarianism usually represented through a fight or struggle against a great power and most explore the theme of imagination; his co-writer Charles Mckeown once said “the theme of imagination, and the importance of imagination, to how you live and how you think and so on… that’s very much a Terry theme.”
So is Terry Gilliam an Auteur? The answer is yes. Even in the beginning when he was starting his career as a co-animator for Monty Python his animation was mixed with his own art allowing him to express his thoughts and opinions through his work. He has often fought with studio executives to maintain his creative principles and incorporates a lot of recurring themes into his films. One of these themes, as I previously mentioned, is Imagination. He referres to his three films Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as “The Triology of Inagination”; all 3 movies focus on the struggles faced in our society and attempts to escape those struggles through imagination, Time Bandits is told in the point of view of a child, Brazil in the point of view of a middle aged man and Muchausen, an elderly man. For these reason among others it is more than fair to say the ‘auteur’ label is applicable for Terry Gilliam.
Reel Life!
Here are some films that hold significance to me:
The first film I ever saw in cinema was The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004) on Christmas Eve in 2004. The director, who also directed Forest Gump, and follows the story of a young boy who takes an unexpected magical train ride to the North Pole. I was 3 years old at the time so I understandably cannot remember a single thing about the experience but I do know that now it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me until I’ve watched The Polar Express.
Whilst I’m guilty of crying at A LOT of films I think the film that has had the most profound emotional impact on me is Everest (Baltasar Kormákur, 2015). Everest recalls the true events of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster in which 8 climbers from two commercial expeditions died when a fierce storm hit whilst they were trying to reach the top of Mount Everest. From the determined characters driven by different motives to the family members at home receiving the worst news any family could imagine, Everest is jam packed with hard hitting raw emotional moments. However, the moment that really got me was at the end of the film when they included a tribute to all of the people (whom the characters were based on) who sadly lost their lives during the disaster in 1996, at that point I’m pretty sure I’d gotten through every tissue in my house.
The most obscure but wonderful film I’ve ever seen is definitely In Your Eyes (Brin Hill, 2014). Whilst I’m not entirely sure if it classifies as “obscure” I’ve never come across anyone who has seen it which is a shame because I really enjoyed it. The story follows Rebecca (played by Zoe Kazan) a neglected housewife and Dylan (played by Michael Stahl-David) an ex-con artist; 2 people who have a metaphysical connection that allows them to see the world through each other’s eyes. It’s a typical love story complete with a ‘hero trying to rescue the damsel in distress’ dynamic however, the concept gives it an interesting twist and the film in my opinion was wonderfully heart warming.
Hello World!
Hello, my name is Bethany Lee and welcome to my blog!
I’m starting A level Film Studies and this blog is to help me along the way. The theme of this blog is, of course, films and it will contain all of my work towards the A level.
Bethany Lee's Film Studies Blog 