The Hard Stuff Flashcards
In Roger Ebert’s review of Wings of Desire, he says that the angels are more than just guardians. What is their purpose? What do the angels do? What is it they can’t do? (answer each part)`
Roger Ebert says angels are witnesses, watching from the beginning of time. A ‘reflection of the solitude of God,’ the angels role is to see. They move invisibly through the city of Berlin, occasionally stopping to comfort humans, but they cannot directly change events.
In a key turn in the film Wings of Desire, the character of Damiel decides to “take the plunge.” To what is he referring? Why does he make this decision?
Daniel is referring to descending to Earth to be amongst humans, to experience touch and smell and be a part of the world, because as an angel he has seen it all, and now wants to feel.
What is absent or lacking from Tarkovsky’s Mirror that we normally expect from a film? What does Tarkovsky use in Mirror to express emotions?
Mirror has no conventional plot; it is rather a series of images strung together. Therefore, the film allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions form what they have seen. Tarkovsky believed ‘words cannot express a person’s emotions,’ and effectively used imagery to do so instead.
In The Crying Game, a British soldier held captive by a team of IRA soldiers, and suspecting he is to be executed, asks one of the IRA soldiers, Fergus, to do something for him. What is it?
Jody asks Fergus to look up his old girlfriend, Dil, after showing him a snap shot of her, because he presumes he will be dead soon.
In “The Transgender Look”, how does Halberstam explain the symbolic context behind Fergus cutting Dil’s hair toward the end of The Crying Game.
After Fergus finds himself in a gay bar and the audience is led through a ‘detour around the transgender gaze,’ he cuts Dil’s hair in what is said to disguise Dil, but really symbolizes Dil’s castration and Fergus protecting his own desires.
After a series of idyllic images of suburban America to open Blue Velvet, the camera quickly descends into the hidden microcosm of the manicured green lawn. What might this symbolize?
This could represent the individualizing of a believed-innocent character in an overall ‘perfect’ world. It could symbolize the hidden scandals that lie under the rug of a seemingly ideal society.
Summarize the nature of the controversy surrounding the release of Boy’z in the Hood in the early 1990s.
Boyz N the Hood was released during a time in which the media was supporting the stereotype of “black films equal violence,” and the opening was actually a week after the Rodney King beating, so tensions in the black community were high. Black filmmakers argued that the press was anticipating violence at movie openings, setting up cameras, and therefore instigating the violence amongst young black moviegoers. But some exhibitors claimed the violent incidents resulting in injury and death were not few and far between, but actually occurred at every theatre during Boyz N the Hood’s opening. The trailers for the movie also advertised violence, which was the choice of the director because he wanted to appeal to the ‘action’ crowd.
In The Piano, who reunites Ada with her most valued possession? What does she do that so charms her guide and ignites his desires?
Baines reunites Ada with her piano after her and her daughter go to his shack to ask him to take them back to the beach to the piano. At first, he said no, but her and her daughter sit there and stare at him, making the same head gesture, so he obliges. When she gets to the beach, she plays and her daughter dances.
During her piano lessons, the new owner of Ada’s most treasured possession offers her a bargain so that she can buy it back. What is the “currency” she and the owner agree on?
Sexual favors.
Identify one of the powerful themes that resonates in Jane Campion’s film The Piano?
The release of repressed passion.
Typical Tarvosky Themes
nostalgia, lost innocence, regret, childhood, metaphysical fascinations
Tarvosky’s Theory of Cinema
the unique characteristic of cinema as a medium was to take the experience of time and alter it;
long takes/few cuts;
sense of time, passing time lost;
The dominant, all-powerful factor of the film image is rhythm, expressing…”
The Mirror
Tarvosky;
Loosely autobiographical, mostly personal;
no discernable plot; dream-like, memories of Alexei, who may be having fever dreams of his boyhood;
Features poems composed and read by Tarkovsky’s father; “Words cannot express emotion.”
Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders, 1987;
Note with Henri Alekan cinematography: the use of color for human perspective, monochrome for the angels;
flowing, flying camera moves;
Closer to poetry and music than narrative storytelling
The Crying Game
Neil Jordan, 1992;
a complex tale of the intricate effects of sex, gender, race, and politics on our identities and interactions;
budget of about $4-5 million, grossed about $62 million;
Oscar for best original screenplay;
Box office flop in Britain because of IRA `
