Mullholland Drive

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.

The Edge of Hollywood

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.

Le Mépris

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. 

French New Wave

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 (8^th ed.).  McGraw-Hill

The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking

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 (8^th ed.).  McGraw-Hill