Author: Yiming Kong

This is one of the best silent films I have seen ever before. The English subtitles and the silent dialogue between the characters all pave a good way for the whole story. First of all, this silent film enables me to experience how lust, love, fear, and loyalty are intersected together to shape the Man called George’s life. Director Murnau gives the man Gorge a complicated motivation and look. He is seduced by the woman from the city and gets into the murder plan to her wife. The twist of his expectations of the better city life conjured by the city woman and his series of redemption behaviors such as begging for his wife’s forgiveness and tie the bundles of reeds around his wife, the audience is forced to predicate what the man will do between his wife and the city woman. By constantly rekindling the love between the man and woman,  Murnau does not let down the audience because the man always could identify himself in the crossroads of city life and love.

One of the most striking elements of this film is the mise-en-scene because it always makes the plots and characters so predictable to the audience. Murnau gives a realistic setting to the story such as the farm and the busy city roads and the lake, all of which make the performance of the characters so believable and natural. when the settings of the couple transfer from the farmhouse to the hectic and eventful life of the city, the audience feel natural to juxtapose the life of woman, man, and the city woman who persuades the man to sell his farm and kill her wife. Of course, the use of tracking shot contributes a lot to the imagination of the audience about the relationships between the man and woman after their trust crisis.

One of the critics I have read about the film is from James Blake Ewing. He describes that Sunrise is not simply about the depravity of life but the joys of life. I do agree with that because Murnau offers a lot of visual clues to shift the story by slowly rekindling and reuniting the man and woman. This resonates with both me and the other audience’s expectations of the transition of the story.

What makes this film a great film is largely associated with the performance of the two leading characters, the universality the film achieves by its realistic portraits of the city life during the 1930s, and the incidental music that blends smoothly throughout the movie. The emotions of the characters, the context of each shot, and the direction of the storyline are mainly built upon the setting of the city, which also drive Murnau to seek a depth of the city’s look and chaos that shape the man and women’s life during the early era.

“My favorite film-Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” the guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/nov/16/my-favourite-film-sunrise

https://creativecriticism.net/?p=1612

The film I watched is one of the most representative works of Yasujiro Ozu, which is named Late Spring. One of Ozu’s writing features is telling a flat story but reflecting a profound truth. The story told in this film is happened between a single father and his sole daughter. After the early death of her mother, Ji Zi, the daughter in the story, stick together with her father and help each other in difficulties, and both of them are reluctant to marry firstly, but at the end of the film Ji Zi married someone because of her father’s white lie, leaving her father spend the left time of life alone. I am deeply moved by the great affection between the father and the daughter. Actually, we can say that the greatest affection among human beings is the love between parents and their children, so this film is of illuminating influence for me to handle my relations with my parents.

As for the impressive moments or scenes in the film, I was deeply moved by the moment that the father cheated Ji Zi that he decided to remarry someone and persuade Ji Zi to pursuit her own happiness, by which the daughter could begin a new life frankly. Actually, all of our audiences know that it is a white lie or just an excuse of her father, which aims to not to delay the future of Ji Zi. What’s more, the flat conversations occurred many times in the film between the father and daughter also enlighten me a lot. In the film, Ji Zi more than once expressed her determination to accompany her father all the time and never marry someone, but at the end of the film, with the persuasion from her father, she finally gave up her obsession. But indeed it was a kind of great love and responsibility as a child and the only partner of the old man in the world.

There are also some critical voices about the film. As audiences find, most of Ozu’s films are about the misfortunes in a family and some are about the topic that daughters refuse to get married and leave the family. Some may regard this is not a positive topic and the consistent techniques used in his film are dull frames, still scenes and inconspicuous sound effects, which are not encouraging and attractive for the audience. But my opinion is the opposite, it is the simpleness of the story and scenes that bring up a great and thought-provoking work. The common topics between parents and their children are also a light spot of his works, which is an everlasting issue in the world.

The excellence and success of the film Late Spring is definite. First, Ozu has a unique shooting character and a special way to tell a story to his audiences. Also, his success is due to the details of his emotional processing and hidden principles. What’s more, it is the emotional resonance with most audiences that make his works famous and valuable. So, we can find that most of the great films are successful for their unique detail processing techniques and the historical and practical significance for people’s life in modern society.

Sources

https://film.avclub.com/yasujiro-ozu-s-quietly-staggering-late-spring-returns-i-1798186831

I watched a classical Japanese movie Tokyo Story, which was directed by Yasujiro Ozu and released in 1953. The successful and great point of the film is that Ozu tells the audience the most common family story but reveals the deepest life principles with the simplest scenes and frames. The story describes a journey of an old couple to visit their sons and daughters who struggled for their life in Tokyo, but unexpectedly they received cold receptions and after their return to their hometown, the old mother died for illness. From the ordinary story and the simplest conversations among family members, I see the indifference of humanity; I understand the helplessness of human under the pressure of birth, death, illness, and death; I realize the loss of traditional values in the eastern world. In my opinion, this film worth watching over and over again for one can have fresh feelings every time you see it again.

There are many valuable scenes or moments in the film that should be studied and analyzed carefully. First, the obvious contrast between the indifferent attitude of the eldest son and daughter towards their old parents and the passionate welcome of their daughter-in-law whose husband had died for eight years shocks me a lot. In the homes of their natural son and daughter, the two old couple were treated as troubles and in order to avoid unnecessary issues, the two families together sent their parents to “enjoy” a sea journey, which left many uncomfortable feelings for the couple. However, Ji Zi, their daughter-in-law, acted very enthusiastic and filial and she actively chatted with them and never showed impatience. Second, the scene that Ji Zi chatted with the little daughter after the death of their mother is a very impressive and thought-provoking moment. In their conversations, the little daughter saw the attitudes of her old brothers and sisters towards their dead mother and her anger could not be hidden anymore, so she said that all of them were selfish. But Ji Zi answered surprisingly that one might become like that one day, and she would be also, because there were so many things in the world were unpleasant which may drive people to change to be someone they dislike or even hate. How helpless the words are. Undoubtedly all that she said were the truth and it is also the reason for the gradually bland world. What’s more, another scene stands out in the film is the final talk between Ji Zi and her father-in-law. Although her husband had gone for eight years, the idea of remarriage never occurred to her. She deeply kept in mind the status of a woman in a family and only when her father-in-law proposed her to remarry and forget her husband and begin a new life, did she feel relieved. The behavior of Ji Zi not only reflected her deep affection and faith, but indirectly showed her loss of individual identity under traditional ethics.

As for the critical conversations about this film, the prominent one is the controversy about the implications of the story. Lots of audience regard that the most important truth Ozu would like to tell is the indifference and unfilial actions of the sons and daughters, but some believe that there are more to find than that. Actually, people in different ages, with various experiences and from diverse places would have totally divergent thoughts every time they watch the movie. In my opinion, superficially, we can find that on the journey to their children’s home, the two old couple are treated perfunctorily and indifferently, but when we think of the deep reasons of this phenomenon maybe we can find the pressure from life and work, the elapse of time, and even the helplessness in one’s life are all causes of the tragedy. Just as Ji Zi said at the end of the film, everyone would become selfish and helpless as time went by, which is also the tragedy of the whole society.

What can be considered as a great film? What kind of great film is actually not good? Actually, in my view, there is more than one standard for us to evaluate whether a film is great or not. Take this film as an example, which I consider as a great one. All of the special effects, macro pictures, and even complicated plots are not found in the film, but the success of it relies on the profound truth the director tells the audiences with only a most common story, which contains unforgettable moments and scenes that can resonate with all audiences in different ages and backgrounds. So, we can conclude that not all great films are characterized by stunts, the most representative features of a great film are its connotations, everlasting taste for all audiences.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/20/tokyo-story-ozu-arthouse

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/08/04/national/directors-vote-yasujiro-ozus-1953-tokyo-story-greatest-film-ever-made/

Vertigo (1958) is Hitchcock’s another great film that is characteristic of tricks, suspense, and murder. Compared to Hitchcock’s horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), Hitchcock does not make this film a visual-based horror genre but a mixture of psycho, art, and technique. Honestly, this film has allowed me to experience both a bright and dark side of humanity in a mysterious atmosphere. We see Madeleine’s husband Gavin has made an elaborate murder plan to kill his wife to get his inheritance. Through making up a series of fake stories to prove Madeleine’s mental illness and hiring a woman looking like Madeleine, Gavin makes his intentions of killing Madeleine visible to the audience. However, when all things for the murder plan are well planed, Hitchcock seems to create some unexpected stories to add the sense of vertigo by featuring Scottie’s falling obsession with Madeleine. Not guided by the ideas about the so-called weird behaviors of Madeline, Scottie follows her and saves her. Hitchcock creates the plot of Scottie’s romanticism and passionate love with Madeline to feature the bizarre situation of their romanticism. That has made me think a lot of techniques used in other psychological thriller genre films.

One scene stood out of the who movie is when Scottie brings Judy to the Bell Tower where Madeleine died. In this scene, Scottie forces Judy to confess her crime behavior and tell whether Madeline is alive not not. It is set inside of the tower and Hitchcock gives a low-key lighting throughout the scene that makes the face and body of the characters not that clearly to be seen. This creates a sense of tension for the plot that hooks the audience to predicate what will happen between Scottie and Judy. In this scene, the shots are also frequently given to the staircase while Scottie is struggling to go to the top of the tower. This has well offered us a visual symbol of Scottie’s mental instability. But he made it, this made the audience to sense the narrowly escape of Scottie from the bad fortune while he has witnessed the death of Judy. Hitchcock has hidden a lot of invisible clues in this staircase scene to connect his lust and the shock of both Madeleine and Judy’s death at the same place.

As the title has implied, Hitchcock has employed a lot of shots that give the audience of a sense of vertigo. The effects of vertigo are not given as what most people have expected the rapid whirl, but rather through giving an intense focusing. This can be witnessed from the title sequence of this movie. Also, the beginning scene that Scottie is struck in the rooftop chase, the shots of Scottie’s facial expressions and the floor have paved a good way resonating with the title sequence as well as the title of the film “Vertigo”. Another key scene gives a sense of vertigo is when Judy emerges as Madeline in the house. The ghostly green miasma around the door makes her luminosity kind of blinding for the audience. This resonates with the title of the film implicitly.

Peter Bradshaw in a post from The Guardian has discussed, “Vertigo also combines in an almost unique balance Hitchcock’s brash flair for psychological shocks with his elegant genius for dapper stylishness.” This critic of this film makes the audience to reread the subtle relationships between the superficially luxurious look and guilty of an immoderate lust and sex in a psycho model. To a large extent, it helps me learn how Hitchcock makes a blonde’s appearance and psychological obsession is mutually connected.

What makes this film has much to do with the use of actors and actresses, the Hollywood classical zooming and 180-degree rule, and the mise-en-scene. Novak both play Madeleine and Judy throughout this Hitchcock film. Her look and costumes transfer over and over through the luxurious scarlet of Ernie’s Restaurant from the beginning to a jarring market with flowers, Hitchcock has crafted her perspectives on the direction of the storyline in a skillful way. Most interestingly, this film is more likely to psychologically thrill the audience by featuring the well-planned murder of Madeleine and Madeleine and Judy’s death at the tower. The themes of crime, sex, and lust are mixed together without blurring the boundaries between the characters. This is one of the best psychological thriller films Hitchcock has made that has heavily affected my ways of appreciating a psychological thriller film in American industry.

Bradshaw, Peter. “Vertigo Review-still spinning its dizzying magic.” theguardian. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/12/vertigo-review-alfred-hitchcock-james-stewart-kim-novak

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/vertigo-the-search-for-a-cure

The Searchers is a great Western film that follows a story of a Civil War veteran who struggled to save his niece from another tribe in West Texas. The story was happening during the early 1950s an 1960s. Honestly, this film allowed me to experience how one’s race and kinship shape one’s way to live in the world. In this film, the settings of the story are designed in the wilderness of West Texas where people are living with violence and wars. Nonetheless, it is in such a unique social background that director Ford wants its audience to see how people make their lives during that period.

In this story, Ethan is the only one who is highly expected to find his 8-year-old niece Debbie. In his process of finding Debbie, Ethan is accompanied by his nephew Martin who is Debbie adopted brother. However, Ethan treats Martin always in a harsh way because he does not really acknowledge Martin and Debbie as true relatives but rather two mixed-blood adopted children. When he and Martin find Debbie, Ethan does not want to rescue her but to kill her because of her assimilation with Indians. However, Martin has struggled to stop his uncle’s wrong ideas and protect his sister. Though Ethan did rescue Debbie from the chief Scar and return their home finally, the kinky depiction of his racism forces me to consider whether Debbie and Martin and even other indigenous Indians will struggle to survive with his or her race? Or birth? I feel a little confused about the answer.

One of the moments in this film stood out to me is when Ethan sweeps Debbie onto the saddle, saying “Let’s go home, Debbie.” The scene functions as a transition of the whole story for implying Ethan’s obsession of dignity, dominance, and redemption for his Indian slaughter. The middle shot of Debbie and Ethan allow the audience to see how the eye contact between the two characters goes. Also, the sound at background becomes softer at this scene that helps enhance the relationship between Debbie and Ethan and push forward the plots to the audience.  Most importantly, in the scene, the costume of Ethan and Debbie have separately enhanced their own identity. Ethan’s standard cowboy look and Debbie’s indigenous cloth and hairstyle have paved the way for their different fortune and life.

One of the critical conversations I read about the film is from film critic David Thomson. For this film, Thomson said that he has been compelled to watch The Searchers again and again and every time he’s not sure how it’s going to end…this resonates with me a lot because the mystery of Ethan’s morally ambiguous figure is a little hard to capture for me. Throughout the film, Ethan is portrayed with a kind of dual personalities, such as he both wants to return to Debbie’s home and leave that home, and he both wants to rescue Debbie and kill Debbie. These dual characteristics of Ethan make it a little hard to conclude where the story goes and what a person Ethan is.

In another way, the themes of this film are family, racial prejudice, and sexism are going to resonate with the society we are living in. Many scenes of the film are about the Edwards family members talking to each other in the small cabin or standing at the door to welcome the return of Ethan and Debbie separately. This is a big topic of the society where each one sees family as a big part of their lives. What’s more, women in this film are portrayed as sexless and inferior to men, which can be observed from the Comanche tribe where women and children imprisoned and white women are raped and become wives of Scar. This is depicted as an unspoken theme in this film but I feel that it has made a big difference to the society because it allows people to identify what kind of a relationship between women and men should be established in this society. Overall, from the filmmaking techniques such as the mise-en-scene, the themes of racism, family, and sexism, and the storyline, The Searchers allow the audience to experience what a Western film is like and what white settlers and Native Americans were living together with violence and tolerance. Most importantly, what makes it a great film is largely because what the characters are experiencing gives the audiences a deep thought about gender, family, and race we are experiencing in daily life.

 Frankel, Glenn. “‘The Searchers’ was influential film in its day and still resonates today.”washingtonpost. Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-searchers-was-influential-film-in-its-day-and-still-resonates-today/2013/07/04/8b6d5e48-dffb-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html?utm_term=.f05c213941a4