Homework Movies - Sophie's Choice

Strange twists of fate bring these three under the same roof in Sophie's Choice. Meryl Streep plays Sophie, a Polish survivor of Nazi Prison Camp . Her youthful, innocent friendship with Stingo, an aspiring writer, played by Peter MacNicol is challenges Kevin Kline's character, Nathan's affection for Sophie. Nathan's overbearing control of Sophie is balanced out by Stingo's openness to listening. With Stingo, Sophie gets the opportunity to bear her sole and story of how she came to America.

Written for the screen and directed by Alan J. Pakula in 1982, this heart-wrenching drama shows how Sophie gets out of one controlling situation to another. Pakula started his career as a producer in the late 50's, branching out to directing in 1969's The Sterile Cuckoo. It wasn't until 1982 that Pakula would work with Nestor Almendros on Sophie's Choice. Nestor has worked with some world class directors including François Truffaut, Robert Benton, and Mike Nichols. In Sophie's Choice, these two artists painted a very colorful pallet when in the present, highlighting the actors with a soft glow, except for Kline's Nathan. At times he would be lit from behind only showing his hair and covering his face in shadows because he was being terrifying towards Sophie. And when Sophie began telling her story, she had a glow around her hair seeming as a halo around her.

Film Review - Repo Men

Repo Men is a stylized futuristic tale of how credit is ruining society. It's gotten so bad in THIS future, that organs are being bought from a corporation that charges up the nose for a heart not even expecting most to be able to pay the monthly planned payments. When the "patient" doesn't, the corporation sends in the Repo Men. Guys that are not doctors that take the company's "products" out of the body with or without consent. The Company's two best Repos are played by Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. The problem arises when Jude's character Remy does a bad job and ends up in the hospital with an implant of his own.

The movie was a darkly lit film mostly because the Repos come in when the "patient" least expects them to. And the majority of the movie is done during the night or in dark places. There is excellent shadow work on both the main characters. There's a change of lighting on Jude once he's outfitted with his piece. This shows that he's had (forgive the pun) a change of heart for the people he's hurt in the past and wants to redeem himself in the future for. Forest's character comes into shadows still throughout the film up to the very end, without giving it away, he's a company man thru and thru.

The movie was directed by a newcomer director, Miguel Sapochnik, having only two other movies made. His director of Photography, Enrique Chediak has been working for fifteen years with a wide range of films to his credit. Most of Chediak's films have dark themes, with only a handful outside this norm.

Homework Movies - Frances (1982)

This willful defiance of power is directed by Graeme Clifford and the director of Photography was László Kovács. Jessica Lange portrays a young woman from the country destined for the big troubles of Hollywood and how quickly her life was turned upside down when she rose to the top only to fall fast.

The lighting set up was really well done. Most of the time, she was on a set where they could use the "stage" lights as practical lighting. One of the night set-ups that I thought was incredible was when she was driving away from a party drunk. The lighting was shadowing her left side in a weird way. There was a line on the side of her face and it stayed there for a while even though she was moving in the car. I also noticed that when her mother was in the scene the light was a yellow tone more so than when it was Frances and her gentleman friend Harry York, played by Sam Shepard.

Homework movies - Cop Out (2010)

Directed and edited by Kevin Smith, Cop Out pays tribute to all things cop movie. Including the gritty look of the film. Cinematography done by long time Smith collaborator, David A. Klein, this looks like it was taken out of the footage from the Lethal Weapon series, or any other buddy cop film in the last three decades. The story was written by Robb & Mark Cullen, who have written mostly for Television's Las Vegas until 2007.

The story puts Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan together as the "Riggs and Murtaugh" with the roles reversed. Willis plays it straight while Morgan gets to be the outlandish character portraying any and every cop cliche out on his witnesses, co-workers, and ultimately the sports obsessed gangster that sends these two on a mission to retrieve a stolen car. It's a very funny movie with plenty of Smith trademarks thrown in. Other notable actors in this cop comedy are Kevin Pollak, Adam Brody, and Sean William Scott playing a parkour moving thief that gets caught up in the mix.

Homework movies - Breakfast Club (1985)

The Breakfast Club is a dramatic look into the lives of several different classes of students written, directed, and produced by John Hughes (1950-2009) in the mid 80's. Cinematographer on this film was Thomas Del Ruth, who has worked on both television and movies since the mid 60's. His Cinematographer credits began in the late 70's with the TV series Mrs. Columbo and the movie Motel Hell. Thomas' most notable movies besides Breakfast Club are Stand By Me, Kuffs and he's currently working with Rob Reiner on a movie called Flipped.

For the movie The Breakfast Club, I noticed that the lighting was mostly natural lighting inside the hallowed halls of Sherman High School. The feel of the lighting looked very institutional, giving the feeling of being trapped. Which are the feelings the students had because it was supposed to be punishment. It was a very cool glow from the halogen lights normally used in a high school with little adjustments.

Homework movies - Goonies (1985)

Goonies is an action adventure written by Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus in 1985 and directed by Richard Donner for Amblin Entertainment. Cinematographer on this film was Nick McLean, who has worked as various titles in the industry since the early 70's.

I would watch this movie before I started my day of my third grade summer. The great cast, which includes the very young Josh Brolin, Sean Austin, and Corey Feldman in a Haim-free roll of the 80's.

The film was mostly shot with an orange glow creating a warm mood. But when the bad guys, the Fratelis, were on screen there was a crisp blue tone. The warm tones were in a soft focus suggesting an ethereal feeling of hope and dreams. The Goonies were on a mission to save their parents homes due to foreclosure. Hope was all these kids had, and that was enough for them to go to such depths, to follow a legend and a map.

Homework Movie - Blade Runner - In Theater Screening

I've watched Blade Runner now a few times to prepare for this evenings live screening in my local theater. I've rented out the room and posted an event for my friends and The Vine Cinema has put the listing on their website. I chose to screen the 1997 Director's cut of the movie based on the few audience members that I spoke with before the screening took place. That was the fan favorite despite the absence of the monologue during the opening.

Watching Harrison Ford in this role was amazing. Being someone who grew up on Indiana Jones and Han Solo, Blade Runner wasn't something I was allowed to watch because I was too young at the time. I did get to see the 1997 version when I worked at the now closed Tower Records. It was in our "cult" movie section and that was a favorite area for my rentals when I worked there.

This movie was the most expensive movie I watched for class the whole semester, but it was worth every penny. I rented out a theater, printed flyers to get an audience, and lost so much sleep that it will take the entire winter break to catch up. If I could make a movie like this of my own to bring an audience together would be such a great moment for me. I've always enjoyed movies and to see others who like them as much as I do was great.