1. Gitai’s position on objectivity is Gitai does not believe in objectivity, and does not make objective images. Camper finds interesting in how Gitai transitions from and “objective” to “subjective” viewpoint in Kippur, by making the soldiers subjective, like the news, they have perceptions of vividness, a presence, that encourages the viewer to accept them as the truth.
2. Examples Camper uses to support his claim are: a scene at the base while men are talking, in a long take; conversation between pilot and doctor when the viewer finds out the war is happening, shot in a distant shot; and when the viewer finds out about Klauzner’s mom, that is also shot in a long take.
3. The opening scene (and matching closing scene) divided critics by: some feel that the scene does not establish anything-making it not worthwhile to use in the film, others feel that the mix of colors and chaotic reappears throughout the film and pulls it all together by mixing colors of both flags (Israeli & Arab national) makes implied argument for peace.
4. Significant changes that took place in Israel after the War of Independence was the productive focus towards rapid industrialization, which in return changed the Israel sociopolitical structure. The consequences of the “statist policy” was it led to the political oppression of opposing factions, it changed to a quasi-socialist formation. ( I am not sure what this means). Foreign relations were changed with Egypt, they were now enemies. Hegemony means leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others(from Webster dictionary).
5. Zionism- was a movement to protect the Jewish nation-Israel. Sabra is Israeli soldier fighting for the states independence, a native through ethnically mixed ‘Jew divorced’. The Sabra woman “metonymically represent the future of the state” when the couple kisses, because the woman falls in love with someone she should not fall in love with, the enemy, and she is a solider, but she puts all of that aside for love, meaning people should put aside their feelings of hatred, and look forward to the future.
6. I think the significance of having a Sabra and diasporic characters defending Hill 24, is the viewer gets to see each side defend the Hill, taping into the characters shoes, having passion for both sides, can open up the issue in war, to what side is in the right, despite what they had thought before, when a filmmaker can make war human, by showing both sides, that is when people think about what happened there, and is war worth it for the outcome.
7. The period following the Six-Day-War was different from War of Independence because there was no true set in the stone cease fire, this in turn led to guerrilla and terrorist attacks for years to follow.
8. I am not sure of the answer, but I think it may be in Siege the beginning of the film opened with a documentary and what followed it was fiction, making; I have no clue.
9. It is true dealing with the Yom Kippur War, because it shows heavy causalities on Israel side, the price paid in human lives was unprecedented for Israelis.
10. Double binded notion of persecution, directors lives are used in films themselves, using recurring shots, like battlefields shots, etc.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Reading Response 8
I can't find Bordwells reading on the reserve cite
1. ?
2. ?
Valentina Vitali
1. Vitali answers her own question, “if the reviews of Hou’s film didn’t sell Hou’s films, what” actually sold his films were the production, distribution, and exhibition of his films, due to what was available locally.
2. Three broad trends identified by Vitali in how Hou’s films were discussed in reviews and articles are: all-pervading focus on the character; contemporary political context as the key to the films; and rare historical conditions shaping the films; and the use of his long shots.
3. The point Vitali makes by using Oliva Assayas article is that Hou’s films are seen to be a part of Taiwanese ‘Nouvelle Vague’ just as in Oliva’s article, which describes the effects of American pressure on Taiwanese society.
Paul Willemen
1. Willemen does not love Hou’s film for their complexity because he feels there is no connection between complexity and quality; he has learned this from teaching filmmakers and photographers.
2. Willemen does not love the films of Hou because of their Taiwanness, he doesn’t appreciate the films telling him or showing Taiwanese identity and feels this pushes you into a box, and that is very restrictive.
3. Willemen does not love the films of Hou, because Hou is a world cinema auteur, he feels the notion of autorship is supposed to make him pay attention to Hou’s films rather than someone else’s who is not an auteur.
4. The idea of complexity, the general question Willemen believes that Hou’s film try to answer is how do we, can we, live with the wirght of history here, on the particular patch of geo-temporal space that we inhabit.
5. Willemen’s critique of critical approaches that emphasize Chineseness in Hou’s work is Hou deals with direct aspects of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and deals with the importance of Chinese philosophy and pictorial traditions.
1. ?
2. ?
Valentina Vitali
1. Vitali answers her own question, “if the reviews of Hou’s film didn’t sell Hou’s films, what” actually sold his films were the production, distribution, and exhibition of his films, due to what was available locally.
2. Three broad trends identified by Vitali in how Hou’s films were discussed in reviews and articles are: all-pervading focus on the character; contemporary political context as the key to the films; and rare historical conditions shaping the films; and the use of his long shots.
3. The point Vitali makes by using Oliva Assayas article is that Hou’s films are seen to be a part of Taiwanese ‘Nouvelle Vague’ just as in Oliva’s article, which describes the effects of American pressure on Taiwanese society.
Paul Willemen
1. Willemen does not love Hou’s film for their complexity because he feels there is no connection between complexity and quality; he has learned this from teaching filmmakers and photographers.
2. Willemen does not love the films of Hou because of their Taiwanness, he doesn’t appreciate the films telling him or showing Taiwanese identity and feels this pushes you into a box, and that is very restrictive.
3. Willemen does not love the films of Hou, because Hou is a world cinema auteur, he feels the notion of autorship is supposed to make him pay attention to Hou’s films rather than someone else’s who is not an auteur.
4. The idea of complexity, the general question Willemen believes that Hou’s film try to answer is how do we, can we, live with the wirght of history here, on the particular patch of geo-temporal space that we inhabit.
5. Willemen’s critique of critical approaches that emphasize Chineseness in Hou’s work is Hou deals with direct aspects of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and deals with the importance of Chinese philosophy and pictorial traditions.
Reading Response 7
Reading response 7
Questions for Monday, October 19
1. Avoiding cut and paste, briefly describe in your own words what the February 28 Incident was.
The Feb incident was a reaction from people when the police beat a woman up the day before for selling smuggled cigarettes. February 28, martial law was declared in the street of Taipei, troops shot out the crowd, some people were executed and others were missing.
2. Again, avoiding cut and paste, briefly explain in your own words the controversy around the treatment of the February 28 Incident in City of Sadness.
The controversy around the treatment of the February 28 incident was the rewriting of what happened that day. The government backed their actions of the riot claiming it was the fight against communism. There were many contradictions depending on who wrote the report on what happened that day.
3. Consider the following quote from p. 218: “By denying us a link to the previous scene through either character-based causality (goals, appointments, deadlines) or voice-over explanation, he lets the new locale register initially as a space, not a container or background for well defined narrative action. We simply watch what’s happening (or not happening) within the frame, taking in the vastness of a landscape or the details of an interior without yet knowing how it links to a larger story rhythm. Only at length—sometimes quite late in the scene—when characters broach their projects or the voice-over explains what has occurred since the last scene do we understand what is transpiring here. In the meantime we have been obliged to study the shot itself.” How does this description of Hou’s narration relate to your experience watching A Time to Live and a Time to Die?
This description relates to my own, I agree with you don’t really understand what is going on until the next scene, or it is explained to you. Sometimes you are watching, and just wondering what is actually happening then it is explained to you, you just have to sit and enjoy the ride.
Questions for Monday, October 19
1. Avoiding cut and paste, briefly describe in your own words what the February 28 Incident was.
The Feb incident was a reaction from people when the police beat a woman up the day before for selling smuggled cigarettes. February 28, martial law was declared in the street of Taipei, troops shot out the crowd, some people were executed and others were missing.
2. Again, avoiding cut and paste, briefly explain in your own words the controversy around the treatment of the February 28 Incident in City of Sadness.
The controversy around the treatment of the February 28 incident was the rewriting of what happened that day. The government backed their actions of the riot claiming it was the fight against communism. There were many contradictions depending on who wrote the report on what happened that day.
3. Consider the following quote from p. 218: “By denying us a link to the previous scene through either character-based causality (goals, appointments, deadlines) or voice-over explanation, he lets the new locale register initially as a space, not a container or background for well defined narrative action. We simply watch what’s happening (or not happening) within the frame, taking in the vastness of a landscape or the details of an interior without yet knowing how it links to a larger story rhythm. Only at length—sometimes quite late in the scene—when characters broach their projects or the voice-over explains what has occurred since the last scene do we understand what is transpiring here. In the meantime we have been obliged to study the shot itself.” How does this description of Hou’s narration relate to your experience watching A Time to Live and a Time to Die?
This description relates to my own, I agree with you don’t really understand what is going on until the next scene, or it is explained to you. Sometimes you are watching, and just wondering what is actually happening then it is explained to you, you just have to sit and enjoy the ride.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Reading Response 6
1. The two dimensions of symbolic violence discussed by Teo in relation to the Election films; first dimension is symbolic violence that contains symbols, according to the ritual and the law of the triads, the second dimension is the symbolic violence of male domination, which is the invisible repressive violence.
2. It is the first time he wholly deals with the inner political mechanism of the triads. It is distinct localized version of the genre because it deals with Wo Sing Society, which is specific self-governing city within the Chinese state. The parallels, Wo Sing Society do follow their own rules of behavior and govern their own territory. The depiction of elections is the contrast, since Hong Kong has no elections. General elections have worked in Hong Kong since the 1997 transition by not being democratic.
3. Teo argues that Election 2 is more political of the two films because of its conclusion that reveals China’s hand in the lawmaking agency of violence perpetrated in that film. Chinese government is against democracy in Hong Kong. The figure Shi reflects the collusion between the Chinese government and the Hong Kong triads in protecting their respective vested interests in Hong Kong. I am still a little confused on the Chinese government, with them having Hong Kong as a province but Hong Kong governs itself, but doesn’t have elections? I have to do some more research.
4. Violence in its mythical manifestations throws a problematic light on lawmaking violence: it illuminates fate. Fate is the law and the rituals of the triads and inasmuch as the triads are institution, it manifests as the density machine.
5. Yin violence is a feminized kind and yang violence is gunfire, violence in male dominated films. Election films stray from genre conventions because there are no guns used in the Election films.
2. It is the first time he wholly deals with the inner political mechanism of the triads. It is distinct localized version of the genre because it deals with Wo Sing Society, which is specific self-governing city within the Chinese state. The parallels, Wo Sing Society do follow their own rules of behavior and govern their own territory. The depiction of elections is the contrast, since Hong Kong has no elections. General elections have worked in Hong Kong since the 1997 transition by not being democratic.
3. Teo argues that Election 2 is more political of the two films because of its conclusion that reveals China’s hand in the lawmaking agency of violence perpetrated in that film. Chinese government is against democracy in Hong Kong. The figure Shi reflects the collusion between the Chinese government and the Hong Kong triads in protecting their respective vested interests in Hong Kong. I am still a little confused on the Chinese government, with them having Hong Kong as a province but Hong Kong governs itself, but doesn’t have elections? I have to do some more research.
4. Violence in its mythical manifestations throws a problematic light on lawmaking violence: it illuminates fate. Fate is the law and the rituals of the triads and inasmuch as the triads are institution, it manifests as the density machine.
5. Yin violence is a feminized kind and yang violence is gunfire, violence in male dominated films. Election films stray from genre conventions because there are no guns used in the Election films.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Reading Response
3. I think some of the factors that contributed to the unevenness films of this chapter is, I am not sure maybe what was going on in Hong Kong at the time, I need to re-read.
4.If we look at To's career as a system of correlated elements we can begin to consider inconsistency as one element in his authrorial system; To's career can be looked at as his films do not all fall into one certain genre, the common factor in his film genre is that they are all different.
5.
a. Teo says about generic plurality that there is no essentialist text and at the same time, there are many essentialist text. Meaning that a text can have a certain set of characteristics and at the same time there is no certain set of characteristics. An example comedies can be separated into pastiches, slapstick, romances, and phantasy. One film can combine one generic form or many.
b. the answer can be related to the “uneven market capitalist conditions” and the history of Hong Kong in the 1990s: the ending of the boom of the 1980s, the bursting the bubble in the property market, the unstable geopolitical environment, and the anxiety of great political changes. Postmodernism allows To to focus on one genre and dominate that genre, and in alternating time period it disrupts To concentration to make commercial entertainments in other genres. (not really understanding this whole part)
c. I am not sure how it is related
d. Hong Kong produced such a “broad church” film industry and audience because it accepts all forms of films, art and culture on both ends, in the Hong Kong film industry and the audience. This is related to Teo’s claims about unevenness in the films in this chapter because he made films about everything from morality to religion, marriage and commitment, life and death, his unevenness is he did not just do one certain genre, he did them all.
4.If we look at To's career as a system of correlated elements we can begin to consider inconsistency as one element in his authrorial system; To's career can be looked at as his films do not all fall into one certain genre, the common factor in his film genre is that they are all different.
5.
a. Teo says about generic plurality that there is no essentialist text and at the same time, there are many essentialist text. Meaning that a text can have a certain set of characteristics and at the same time there is no certain set of characteristics. An example comedies can be separated into pastiches, slapstick, romances, and phantasy. One film can combine one generic form or many.
b. the answer can be related to the “uneven market capitalist conditions” and the history of Hong Kong in the 1990s: the ending of the boom of the 1980s, the bursting the bubble in the property market, the unstable geopolitical environment, and the anxiety of great political changes. Postmodernism allows To to focus on one genre and dominate that genre, and in alternating time period it disrupts To concentration to make commercial entertainments in other genres. (not really understanding this whole part)
c. I am not sure how it is related
d. Hong Kong produced such a “broad church” film industry and audience because it accepts all forms of films, art and culture on both ends, in the Hong Kong film industry and the audience. This is related to Teo’s claims about unevenness in the films in this chapter because he made films about everything from morality to religion, marriage and commitment, life and death, his unevenness is he did not just do one certain genre, he did them all.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Reading Response 4
2.Some broad characteristics of jianghu are it refers to action films, it could have mythic space, the sense of righteousness, loyalty, bonding, swordplay, and could have kung fu action format. Some genres associated with this concept could be the action film, and marital arts film.
3. Some of the key elements of the so-called “infrastructure of violence” associated with Westerns as well as Urban Westerns is space and guns.
4.Mythical violence meaning the space of the jianghu-, which has people like gangsters, hired killers, or police detectives that operate on a code and rituals with in this space, and where the violence actually occurs (space) is the mythical violence. (I think) The function it serves in Johnny To films is I think the main component of most of his films.
5. Some of the key characteristics of Kowloon Noir, dark side of masculine values, dark elements, adventure, male characters are brought down by their weakness, characters exist in network of shifting alliances, cross-alliances, misalliance, and coincidences. The term “destiny machine” refers to the female fatale in film noir but is used here to determine the idea of fate.
6. Teo’s argument is that the relationship between genre conventions and auteur function is genre is specific type of film, and the auteur function is that specific type of film that its author (director) makes it fit in the a genre. Neale argues that it is inappropriate to equate genre with auterurism due to constraints are put on the production conditions because of economic conditions and commercial cinema has to abide by these constraints in order for the film to succeed making genre itself a constraint against genre theory.
7.Heroic fatalism is determined by human behavior-treachery, betrayal, loyalty and faithfulness, it’s a belief of deliverance through rightful violence. I am not sure of mechanical fatalism.
8.Some strategies and techniques To uses to make the gunplay “as aesthetically abstract as possible” are, utilizing the tenet of inaction within action as the substance of To formalism, visual device of wipes are used, music, sound effects, and montage.
3. Some of the key elements of the so-called “infrastructure of violence” associated with Westerns as well as Urban Westerns is space and guns.
4.Mythical violence meaning the space of the jianghu-, which has people like gangsters, hired killers, or police detectives that operate on a code and rituals with in this space, and where the violence actually occurs (space) is the mythical violence. (I think) The function it serves in Johnny To films is I think the main component of most of his films.
5. Some of the key characteristics of Kowloon Noir, dark side of masculine values, dark elements, adventure, male characters are brought down by their weakness, characters exist in network of shifting alliances, cross-alliances, misalliance, and coincidences. The term “destiny machine” refers to the female fatale in film noir but is used here to determine the idea of fate.
6. Teo’s argument is that the relationship between genre conventions and auteur function is genre is specific type of film, and the auteur function is that specific type of film that its author (director) makes it fit in the a genre. Neale argues that it is inappropriate to equate genre with auterurism due to constraints are put on the production conditions because of economic conditions and commercial cinema has to abide by these constraints in order for the film to succeed making genre itself a constraint against genre theory.
7.Heroic fatalism is determined by human behavior-treachery, betrayal, loyalty and faithfulness, it’s a belief of deliverance through rightful violence. I am not sure of mechanical fatalism.
8.Some strategies and techniques To uses to make the gunplay “as aesthetically abstract as possible” are, utilizing the tenet of inaction within action as the substance of To formalism, visual device of wipes are used, music, sound effects, and montage.
Reading Response 3
1. I have not seen the film yet, but once netflix sends it I will post a comment about the film.
2. The general restrictions of rule of modesty were the women had to be covered at all times and no relationships were allowed on screen. The problem with domestic interior scenes was the woman still had to have their veil on, and be covered which is unrealistic since in reality they only had to be covered while outside. When watching the films people probably found it to be somewhat awkward because they know in “real life” this was not the true way women had to dress.
3. I think he is saying when it comes to using a metaphor and montage the audience can follow along, but when it comes to using different lights, a way you frame something, etc the audience doesn’t follow along, they are not used to these cinematic ques, that’s why they just don’t get it when it is used in Iranian cinema. Mottahedeh solution is to have the audience educated in western “language of film” when they would be educated, then the audience would be able to pick up what is going on, and not have a problem following and understanding ques when they watch a film.
4. The feminist key objection to the representation of women under the rule of modesty in Iranian cinema is the women in one example were shown on film as “unchaste dolls” always doing some kind of household chores. I think the realism that they are trying to show get complicated when woman in the film industry do not like the way woman are being portrayed in Iranian film, always covered up indoors as well as working in the house, some feel this is not a positive way to show the Iranian woman, they do more than this. But the majority it seems is that Iranian woman are covered up in veils for long portions of the day, and tending to the home, maybe it is more realistic to show these woman working in the home opposed to in the “work force” keeping it as realistic their so called duties, but unrealistic in terms of how they are dressed, and don’t have any contact with men.
5. The debate is different on the national and international contexts maybe because nationally, the women feel they are not portrayed in a nice way, and internationally maybe woman feel this is the true life of Iranian women.
6. The function of color serves as a narrative in Makhmalbaf’s Gabbeh, it relates to codes of realism because it disrupts it. “the films use of colour disrupts temporal and spatial continuities upon which conventions of narrative realisms rely.” I have no clue to the answer of the first part of the question. The second part, I think linear narrative and the use of colour of the film leds the audience to see what is going on between the characters that cannot be shown with the characters action, the colour used takes the place of this narrative.
2. The general restrictions of rule of modesty were the women had to be covered at all times and no relationships were allowed on screen. The problem with domestic interior scenes was the woman still had to have their veil on, and be covered which is unrealistic since in reality they only had to be covered while outside. When watching the films people probably found it to be somewhat awkward because they know in “real life” this was not the true way women had to dress.
3. I think he is saying when it comes to using a metaphor and montage the audience can follow along, but when it comes to using different lights, a way you frame something, etc the audience doesn’t follow along, they are not used to these cinematic ques, that’s why they just don’t get it when it is used in Iranian cinema. Mottahedeh solution is to have the audience educated in western “language of film” when they would be educated, then the audience would be able to pick up what is going on, and not have a problem following and understanding ques when they watch a film.
4. The feminist key objection to the representation of women under the rule of modesty in Iranian cinema is the women in one example were shown on film as “unchaste dolls” always doing some kind of household chores. I think the realism that they are trying to show get complicated when woman in the film industry do not like the way woman are being portrayed in Iranian film, always covered up indoors as well as working in the house, some feel this is not a positive way to show the Iranian woman, they do more than this. But the majority it seems is that Iranian woman are covered up in veils for long portions of the day, and tending to the home, maybe it is more realistic to show these woman working in the home opposed to in the “work force” keeping it as realistic their so called duties, but unrealistic in terms of how they are dressed, and don’t have any contact with men.
5. The debate is different on the national and international contexts maybe because nationally, the women feel they are not portrayed in a nice way, and internationally maybe woman feel this is the true life of Iranian women.
6. The function of color serves as a narrative in Makhmalbaf’s Gabbeh, it relates to codes of realism because it disrupts it. “the films use of colour disrupts temporal and spatial continuities upon which conventions of narrative realisms rely.” I have no clue to the answer of the first part of the question. The second part, I think linear narrative and the use of colour of the film leds the audience to see what is going on between the characters that cannot be shown with the characters action, the colour used takes the place of this narrative.
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