“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” - Ingmar Bergman
Last Friday we were able to visit the Mowelfund Film Institute for our cinema class.
The Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, also known also Mowelfund, is a non-profit educational and social industry development foundation in the Philippines that was established by Joseph Estrada in 1974. It was created to help and support the welfare of movie industry workers. It raises fundraising programs to be able to help those employees in need.
Our batch was lucky enough to be welcomed by Mowelfund current president, Mrs. Boots Anson-Roa.
Mrs. Boots Anson-Roa, the president of Mowelfund, welcomed us and gave an introduction about the organozation and the Philippine movie industry. She's also an actress who supports film. She also gave us advices as we enter the world of Mass Communication.
We were able to visit the Mowelfund Plaza, their musem, the Pambansang Museo ng Pelikula, and the Mowelfund Garden, where the 'Paradise of Stars' is located.
First, we wander around the museum. It contains different artifacts, pictures and things that reflects the history and developments of Philippine movie industry in the last hundred years of Philippines cinema.
Here are some of the photos I got from the museum :)
One of the Big 3 studios, LVN Pictures with some of their works.
Stars of the early Philippine cinema
Tiyanak!
Dila ng Aswang
The Mighty Machete
Captain Barbell's costume
The FPJ Hall
With our cinema professor, Sir Ashley Jamal Abbas
Paradise of Stars
Sir Abbas with his girls :)
Beautiful creatures :)
A fight with Zorro
Sorry ka na lang Marian! He's mine. Haha!
We really had a great time at Mowelfund Museum. We saw how rich our film industry was in the early years. How I wish the Philippine film industry would also be like how it was before. Let us all support Filipino films!
This
movie was indeed one of the most mind-blowing film I've ever watched!
Our professor warned us at first that the movie that we'll
be watching will somehow be difficult to understand. That's why we must really
concentrate on the movie. At first we knew that we're on the right track; Even
though there are a lot of things and scenes on the movie that symbolizes
something, we can still understand what was happening. But later on, a number
of characters were introduced, with different story lines. These characters
were all connected to each other. As the story goes, the identities shift and
merge and we became more confused of what really is happening. Its like a
roller coaster ride of scattered puzzle pieces.
After we watched the movie, a lot of things and questions
are bugging my mind. Like what's the role of the old couple in the movie? The
creepy monster? The blue box? What is the connection of the club Silencio to
them? Are Betty and Diane connected? Who is that cowboy? Why do they want
Camilla Rhodes to be the lead girl? Is the end the beginning of the story? Why
is the movie entitled Mullholland Drive? I didn't have a good sleep because of
these questions. I can't move on from the movie without looking for
answers.
As I've researched about the movie, I've found out that
Mullholland Drive is a surrealist neo-noir film; That explains why the movie is
very confusing. David Lynch is also known for making surrealist films with his
own unique style. According to the book review of Allen Ruch, Mullholland Drive is a puzzle-box of a movie, one that presents
hallucination and reality as equal and indistinguishable partners.
As I read some articles, I finally understood that the
movie is about Diane's dream and reality of her life. There are a lot of
interpretations about the movie, but as I understand the story, the first part
is Diane's dream, where she plays the character of Betty. After the box was
opened, we are now introduced to the reality. Diane and Betty are the same
person. In her dream, she sees herself as an aspiring actress who's succeeding
in Hollywood and succeeding the woman she loves, which is Camilla. Her dream
represents the opposite of the reality of her dwindling career and love life.
"The
movie is hypnotic; we're drawn along as if one thing leads to another but
nothing leads anywhere, and that's even before the characters start to fracture
and recombine like flesh caught in a kaleidoscope. Mulholland Drive isn't like
Memento, where if you watch closely enough you can hope to explain the mystery.
There is no explanation. There may not even be a mystery." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
David Lynch was successful in making us think about what
really happened in the movie. After researching about explanations, I somehow
understand more the real meaning of the movie. But there are still a lot of
questions left unanswered. I somehow believe that Lynch just re-arranged the
parts of the movie to make us think. Maybe there is really no explanation,
maybe we are just lead to a direction that leads to nowhere. This is one of the
strengths of Mullholland Drive. This is the power of Surrealist films.
Yes, you're right. Another documentary has been shown to us by our professor. This time, its about how independent filmmakers who are on the edge of Hollywood dominate the big screen.
As the studio system were producing a number of blockbuster films, independent filmmakers started to make films that made Hollywood rise. But of course, going to Hollywood has its price. They need to exert big efforts and budget for their films to make their way on the big screen.
Independent films are important in the film industry in America. According to Sam Raimi, they are the lifeblood of the filmmaking industry; they set new standards and trends, they have the wildest ideas and interesting stories. I think this is why independent films became a hit in Hollywood; They have interesting stories that people wanted to see, because the audience can relate to these films.
It is said in the documentary that filmmakers in the edge of Hollywood all have one desire; to make their films on their own terms. That is why in order to produce these films, they asked for help financially. The limited budget they had on independent filmmaking made them expand their styles and made ways to produce their films.
Most independent films succeed on the big screen because their stories present the filmmaker's view of life and point of view. Mostly, their stories have big impact to the audience because they can relate to them. That is why a lot of independent film makers reach their success in Hollywood.
These films are often screened at various local and international film festivals. One of the largest independent film festival in America is the Sundance Film Festival. They showcase American and international independent films and comprises different genres of films.
As we've also learned on our past lessons, Independent Filmmakers somehow managed to enter the world of mainstream films. That’s why the New Hollywood managed to have directors from independent films. They contributed into getting back the success of film industry.
Last Wednesday, we have discussed about the era of French New Wave. One of the known directors of this movement was Jean-Luc Godard. To fully understand this topic, we watched a film by Godard entitled "Le Mépris" or Contempt.
At first we were confused about the movie because of its multiple languages. Some characters talked in English, French. Italian, and German. But thanks to the subtitles, they made things easier for us to understand. At the start of the film, we noticed that instead of putting the credits into words, the credits were included through voice over. I think that is one of the styles of its director.
To be honest, I really didn't understand much about what was happening at first. But as I watched further I realized the flow of the story. Camille is married with his husband Paul Javal, a novelist and playwright, who was hired by Jeremy Prokosch to rewrite the script for a new movie about Ulysses. It was to be directed by the famous director Fritz Lang (played by himself). As the story progresses, Camille became aloof with her husband. The reason of their estrangement was not really specified, but it started after Camille was being left alone with Prokosch. She thought that her husband uses her as a present for Paul to have a better payment for the script.
The rest of the story goes with their dialogues and scenes about their conflict questioning their love for each other. Camille starts to drift away from her husband, making their relationship become strained. I really don't understand Camille, because she changes her mind at times. She loves Paul, but then she says she don't love him anymore. I think Paul was having a hard time on their relationship because I can feel that he really loves his wife. Their situation became worse when they came to Capri. As they work for the movie, Camille suddenly flirted with Prokosch, making it hard for Paul to win her back. I felt sorry for Paul, because he's trying so hard to make things work. Not knowing that its too late.
The movie ended tragically. Camille left Paul a note saying her last goodbye, it was sad really. As Camille and Prokosch were on their way to Rome, they died on an accident.
The film was great, the director had a great job on the whole production of the film. The actors also portrayed their roles well, especially Brigitte Bardot who played Camille. Aside from the story, I was also impressed on how the film was made. It conveys a masterpice of French New Wave cinema. Even though there were times where I got confused on the story, at the end I realized what really happened and I learned that making a marriage work is hard especially when conflict comes on your way.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was said that in the postwar era of reconstruction and rising prosperity, many countries had their new young waves of young cinema groups mostly in revolt against their elders in the industry. A new artistic movement arose in France that had a profound effect on the film industry. They called it the French New Wave.
The New Wave films have its unique characteristics that made them different from other styles.
Jump cuts are applied.
Cameras in New Wave moves a lot of panning and tracking.
Handheld cameras are used to shoot realistically and cheaply.
Causal connections are loose
Films in New Wave often lack goal-oriented protagonist
Casual humor
Films end ambiguously.
Cahiers du Cinema
In the mid 1950s, a group of French film critics founded an influential French film magazine entitled Cahiers du Cinema that made a habit of attacking respected French filmmakers in that time.
Claude Chabrol
Jean-Luc Godard
Francois Truffaut
“Your camera movements are ugly because your
subjects are bad, your casts act badly because your dialogue is worthless: in a
word, you don’t know how to create cinema because you no longer even know what
it is.” – Jean-Luc Goddard
Auteur Theory
“There
are no works, there are only auteurs.” – Jean Luc Godard
Directors are called auteurs when their own strong personality are used as control over their works. There are many auteurs not only in France but also on other countries, Some of the "auteurs" in America are Nicholas Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Aldritch,
Fritz Lang, etc.
The French New wave, just like the other movements contributed a lot in making the film industry of the world better. This allows creativity in filmmaking. They have their own techniques of fiiming, editing and sound. Making their movies have greater sense of flexibility.
We learned that by 1964, New Wave
directors were absorbed by mainstream studios. Nevertheless, their styles were
imitated by a lot of filmmakers, making this style useful and memorable in a
lot of films.
Reference:
Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. (1979). Film Art: An Introduction (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill
This is a summary of The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking from the book "Film Art: An Introduction" by Bordwell and Thompson.
The Hollywood industry was very healthy because of
the blockbuster films that became famous during the 1960s such as The Sound of
Music (1965) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). But despite of this success, problems
arose the Hollywood film industry. Imagine losing over $200 annually. A shock,
isn’t it?
But they didn’t give up. They produced a lot of
films that were aimed for youth. The directors that produced new flavored films
were what they called movie brats. Most of these movie brats went to film
school to learn and master the techniques and history of films. That’s why they
were able to apply their own techniques with a touch of narrative Hollywood cinema
on their works. Some of the movie brats are Francis
Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma and Steven Spielberg.
The Godfather (1972)
American Grafitti (1973)
Jaws (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
A lot of films of the New Hollywood were influenced
by the Old Hollywood and traditional techniques such as European cinema. They
continued the tradition of classical Hollywood cinema and continued to use the
continuity and its traditional storytelling strategies with ofcourse their own
style. Some movie brats remained successful and produced more films that moved
the public.
Independent Filmmakers somehow
managed to enter the world of mainstream films. That’s why the New Hollywood
managed to have directors from independent films. They contributed into getting
back the success of film industry.
Independent directors in the
1980s and 1990s have experimented with narrative construction of films and
adapted classical conventions with modern touch. They started pushing their
guts. That’s why they were able to win large audiences.
The New Hollywood created most of
the great and thrilling Hollywood films. The directors involved, the movie
brats, tried to reshape the stylistic conventions while making innovations to
win more audiences.
Reference: Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. (1979). Film Art: An Introduction (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill
I would like to share my thoughts about the movie Anger Management which we have watched and tackled during our Communication subject last semester. We enjoyed watching this film because of its humor and the lessons that got from this movie.
Plot:
A
business man named Dave Buznik experienced a lot of misunderstandings that led
him to undergo Anger Management therapy under the specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell
who was also his seatmate on the plane where he first got a misunderstanding
with the flight attendant. After being misjudge for his aggressive behavior, he
was sentenced to go on an anger management session that was filled with a bizarre mix of angry people. The class actually escalates Dave's anger, rather than managing it.Dave
Buznik is a hardworking, mild-mannered person who holds his anger all the time.
While his therapist, Buddy, has a psychopathic, unpredictable personality.
Their relationship became tenser as Buddy completely takes control of his
personal life. As they go on over every aspect of Dave’s life, he was forced to
confront and deal with issues he didn’t know he had.
After
they underwent so many circumstances of the whole anger management thing, and
after Dave had proposed to Linda, she then explains how she first
approached Buddy after reading his book and that everything that has happened
was a setup for Dave's therapy; the judge, the female flight attendant and the
man who stole his seat were all friends of Buddy's and were part of the setup.
Individualistic
and Collectivistic Culture
For
me, I think the one who practice the individualistic culture is Dr. Buddy
Rydell. As we all know, individualistic culture emphasize the individual, and members, who feel the need
to make others lose face in order to save their own, often believe that
avoiding conflict leads to losing face. In these cultures, the face of the
group may be a secondary consideration, or may not be a consideration at all.
Dr. Rydell, as a therapist, seems to be working on his patient’s individual
self. He has indeed creativity and style in treating his patients. For me, his
technique is more of the client centered approach because he focused on Dave in
treating his anger. He promotes individual goals and achievement. And he
applied this in his Anger Management treatments. And because of this, I
consider him with the individualistic culture. In the movie, he appears to be
an odd and crazy doctor but despite of this, he is still a professional and
ethical therapist. In the end, Dr. Rydell is still an effective therapist
because he was able to fix the behavioral problem of Dave.
On the other hand, the character who practices the
collectivistic culture is Dr. Buddy Rydell. Collectivistic culture is one in which people
tend to view themselves as members of groups, and usually consider the needs of
the group to be more important than the needs of individuals. For me, I
consider Dave as collectivistic because he let other people go on his way. And
he doesn’t fight back when others are stepping on him, although he knows that
he’s right. When he’s angry, he doesn’t show it and he rather keep it to
himself. He has a behavioral problem that why his girlfriend, Linda contacted
Dr. Buddy Rydell to treat him. I think his behavior was affected by the
humiliation he experienced during his childhood, that’s why he grew up wanting
to please other people. He thinks of what other people thinks of him that’s why
he is afraid of fighting back. That’s why he thinks of others first before
himself. And that makes him an collectivistic person.
There are many
conflicts that happened in the movie. The characters responded to these
conflicts differently. And because they are in Anger Management Program, their
behavior has something to do with anger. Anger is a most misunderstood emotion.
People with aggressive personality are frequently operating in an aggressive
mode long before they ever become angry. But Dave Buznik is the opposite. He
represses his emotions especially his anger, which made him hard to deal with
conflicting situations. When he’s under Dr. Buddy’s program, they experienced a
lot of conflicts dealing with each other, especially with Buddy’s techniques in
controlling anger. But Dave managed to follow Buddy’s instructions, and he was
able to face those outrageous situations which made him learn to gain control
over his anger. On the other hand, Dr. Buddy Rydell is also one aggressive
person but he still managed to control it, making him easy to deal with
conflicts. He must have applied his techniques to himself since he is an anger
management therapist. When he feels angry, he let it out and after some time,
his anger was already gone. This personality makes him a good therapist to his
patients. These characters show how destructive anger can be and that we must
have the right handling and control over it.
