Homework Movie - John Waters Movie - Pink Flamingos

When I was given a free pass to leave class for the screening of Female Troubles, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to live that one down. Instead of watching that, I wanted to watch another of John Waters movies. So I rented Pink Flamingos because that was the most outrageous of Waters' pictures from what I've been told. People eating shit, having sex with chickens, Mothers in playpens, that's only the tip of the iceberg for this slice of Americana. There are no punches pulled in this movie what so ever. I had to watch this with my eyes covered several time because I knew that what they were about to do on screen wasn't faked or edited out. Usually I'm pretty good with movies because I know that there is someone behind the scenes making up what goes on screen, but not here. It's the real deal!

Waters love his hometown of Baltimore and does his best to showcase the place as much as he can in every movie. He's worked with the same crew for most of his career. Mink Stole has also been in almost every Waters movie made.

Homework Movie - In the Mood for Love

I was taken aback when I watched In the Mood for Love for my first time having ideas that the movie was simply an affair movie. What I turned out to be watching is two people the were suspecting their significant others of having the affair instead. Wong Kar Wai has beautifully crafted this movie over a lengthy period of 15 months and finished editing it within a week of it's debut in Cannes.

I was impressed that the scenes inside the house took place in what looks like such a small place. The intentions of the director must have been to put his characters in such tight quarters that they almost had to become intertwined. There wasn't anything else showing time passing but the differences in wardrobe for Maggie Cheung's character. And to do all of this with out a script must have been something of a miracle for the director and his actors. Cheung has been in at least 5 of the directors films since As Tears go By in 1988, so she knows his directing style.

Homework Movie - Bullitt

I’ve watched Bullitt a few times now for several different reasons for different classes. This movie is by far one of my favorite chase movies of all time, so it’s my pleasure to watch such fine driving sequences over again. I do find that it’s interesting that there isn’t any dialogue during the chase scene, even thought there are two men in one of the cars. It seems to me that they would have a great deal to talk about.

Also, I noticed that there are a lot of movies that were made in the 90’s that have directly taken from this movie scenes that work in their own movies. For instance, the airport scene in Bullitt reminds me of Chris Tucker in the first Rush Hour when he refused the FBI job because he’s LAPD. That scene is shades of Steve McQueen telling the other agent that he doesn’t want to hear what he’s selling and that he should leave the airport now. Almost immediately following that the bad guy chase scene on the airport tarmac is similar to Robert DeNiro and Al Pachino chasing each other in the climactic ending to LA Crime story Heat.

Homework Movie - Annie Hall

I have known couples that are exactly like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's characters in this wonderfully funny movie. Directed and written by Allen and his sometimes collaborator Marshall Brickman in the late 70's, this movie takes me on a journey with some familiar subjects: preoccupied women, lustful men, and changes of scenery. More often than not, in relationships, people tend to think that a "change of scenery" will change how they feel for one another. It doesn't work out that way in real life, just as it doesn't work out in this movie. More often, the change of scenery worsens the need to change something about the person, not the place.

Extra Credit - Triple feature - Love in the 90's (True Romance, Natural Born Killers, & Doom Generation)

When I saw the first two movies on our syllabus this semester, I had to go to my bosses and no matter what I wanted this day off! I hadn't seen these movie on the big screen when they came out and really wanted to see them as they were and are intended. On the big screen! Love in the 90's was an amazing trio of one liners and action sequences that was tough to compare to when they were made. As far as I'm concerned, True Romance (written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott) and Natural Born Killers (again written by QT but directed by Oliver Stone) were a constant in my VHS player in my room. I would have the door shut and the volume way up, pissing off my mom to no end watching these movies after work at the video store where I was turned onto these films in the first place.



Flash forward 15 years, I was standing outside after the last of these killer 90's movies played (which was Doom Generation before I forget). There were so many different discussions going on about the outcome of the finale film, which sounded like most of the audience hadn't seen before that night. Nobody seemed to have seen the ending coming and were totally shocked, many with jaws still to the floor after ten or so minutes outside. I love going to the movies where I've seen them before JUST to see the people's reactions to something shocking or out of place in todays film going experiences. Sure, there's a time and place for the truly shocking like some of the stuff in Doom Gen., but that was what the director was feeling at the time, as was most of the youth of the 90's. Gregg Araki wore many hats working on this film, as he has done on all of his films, writing, producing, and directing every single one he's worked on.

Homework Movie - Chinatown

Chinatown has too many elements to watch it in one setting. There were some interesting uses of mirrors and camera angles to show thing in the mirrors in the beginning. Later on that theme came around to me when Gittes broke the rearview mirror on Mrs. Mulwray’s car.

I noticed some minor technical errors in the movie’s climax. When the camera panned to see the policemen and Gittes, the camera bounced a bit like someone knocked into it. After the grandfather/father gets shot he holds his chest but there isn’t any blood and it takes him a long time to even bring his hand up to his chest to hold the “wound”. Also, when Mrs. Mulwray gets shot in the very end the delayed reaction almost seems forced to me. The Horn was sounding way before the girl screamed.

Roman Polanski has made some really interesting movie choices throughout his film career. Not to mention some horrible personal choices. I've had arguments with people about his personal life recently, but that doesn't mean that his movies are bad.

Homework Movie - Midnight Cowboy

“Hey, I’m walkin’ here!”

I never knew what movie it really came from until I watched Midnight Cowboy. This was by far the most difficult movie for me to watch this semester. I had to try watching it several times throughout the week. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman play the worst best friends in this “Buddy” picture I’ve ever seen. It took them two thirds of the way through the movie to even become somewhat nice to each other. Even when they were nice to each other, Joe Buck still had to jab at “Ratso” Rizzo about his name. As the saying goes, “With friends like that, who need enemies.”

The realness of Dustin’s character trying to keep hustling even the hustler, shows that his character would do anything to survive. The reluctant hero then becomes Joe Buck after he finally makes his hustling career true and then he has to go even further down the path into dangerous territory where he doesn’t want to by stealing to help his friend get to Florida. They never faltered from their characters ideas about who they were. I’m sure over time had the movie not ended the way it did, would the two guys be friends because of all the things they had done for each other. I’ve had some friends that, even though I don’t see them as often anymore, I would still do whatever it takes to help them out of a bind like Joe’s character does.

Some of the interesting scenes were the flashback scenes of Joe’s mother and girlfriend towards the middle of the movie. They showed what Joe wanted to believe and then what actually happened. And the final “dream” sequence in the party was a real well put together “drug trip” scene for the time when the movie was made. Several of today’s directors take example from this scene or have incorporated parts from this into their own, like Terry Gilliam in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

And come to find out, on of my favorite bands of the 90's Faith No More covered the song on their third album, Angel Dust.

Homework Movie - A Woman is a Woman

This story has been done in various forms over and over throughout the years in different cultures. What I enjoyed about A Woman Is a Woman was the use of different camera edits like in the opening few minutes when the other "dancer" was showing her costume change. Going from one side of the screen, crossing the 180 line in the new outfit was genius. Long time collaborators Jean-Luc Godard and Raoul Coutard, the cinematographer, have worked together on almost a dozen films (most with Anna also) in the 60's through the 80's.

The sudden starts and stops of the sound to match or not match the scene was a bit alarming at first. Something like that takes me out of the movie experience. Perhaps it was intentional, but that didn't come across to me.

Also, what I found fun was to see that the main characters were really playing to the camera in some scenes. Anna Karina and her boyfriend in the movie Jean-Claude Brialy, were really funny when they were fighting in the apartment scene and they stopped in the middle of it to talk to us. However, in the similar scene when the titling came across telling the story before it unfolded, it was unnerving to me.