Directed by Noah Baumbach The Squid and the Whale is a film about a family who is going through some tough times due to a recent divorce. The father Bernard Berkman is a novelist who has been on a dry spell between his published books and is going through some tough times. His wide Joan has cheated on him before and has recently decided that they should get a divorce. This was a long time coming because Joan has been unhappy for a long time and finally decided it was time to part ways. Their two sons Walt and Frank are sat down and told the horrific news, they can’t even imagine what is going to happen to their lives. The parents setup days where they will spend the days with each other but one thing seems to be clear, neither of the kids like what is going on which is understandable. Soon Bernard is all moved out and has joint custody of the kids and things start to get a little more serious. Its clear to see that Walt is taking sides with his dad and Frank seems to like staying with his mother more. But both the parents are very stringent with their days with the kids and don’t want to compromise. Soon the kids start to act up and start losing focus in school and start to act out. Frank starts to drink beer and picks up some sexual habits as well as generates a very colorful vocabulary for a child of his age. Walt on the other had meets a girl and they are getting along easily in the beginning but things start to get a little hairy. He goes to party and almost has sex with this girl but they cat it short and decide to wait for a little while. Prior to this one of Bernard’s students moves in with him and they start to develop a sexual relationship. Things start to get a little confusing when we realize that Walt also has an attraction to this girl that lives with his dad. But things progress and Walt is playing a song that he supposably wrote in the talent show, which he wins $100 dollars for. But Things start to catch up with him and the school realizes the song is actually by Pink Floyd. On the other hand Frank is caught masturbating in the school and rubbing semen on another child’s locker. Tension is also building between Bernard and Joan as they try and figure out what is going on with their children. One thing is for sure though, things are not looking to good for this once seemingly sound family. Walts want to cut things off with him and Sophie, the girl he almost lost his virginity to must has some from Bernard because convinced him to try things with other girls. This came as a surprise to me because Bernard does not seem like the type of man to give that kind of advice. “There are a number of reasons Walt breaks up with Sophie—mostly obviously to live up to Bernard’s self-serving ideal of youthful sexual prowess, but also, perhaps, because he can’t stand Sophie knowing that he’s a work in progress” (Asch). This must have come from the fact that Bernard stayed faithful to a woman that betrayed him for another man. And the fact that he had the chance to be with other allegedly beautiful woman when his last book was released. But Walt starts seeing that his father was not in a good place to give advice about women when he sees a school shrink because he was suggested to by the school. Wants brother Frank is also going through a deeper character change, he starts out as a innocent little boy and picks up some strange habits. He starts drinking beer probably as a method of dealing with what is going on just as many adults resort to when they are faced with difficult problem. His interest in sexual activities perplexed me at first but then I started to believe that he was getting it from seeing his mother and his new lover. Both of these brothers turned into completely different people by the end of the film. Throughout the film I began to notice that the camera always stayed close to the people of interest. Whenever there was a scene that was important the camera would stay close to the faces of the person at bay. I think this was done to really get into the actors role and feel what they were feeling because this film involves a lot of emotion and character difficulties as well as character progression. “Cinematographer Robert Yeoman stays close to the characters—a necessary visual strategy for a relatively shoestring 80s-set period piece that couldn’t clear Park Slope’s streets of contemporary cars (there are no establishing shots in The Squid at the Whale, as there would be none in Margot at the Wedding)” (Asch). This was really important to do because you feel entrapped in the film, as if you’re apart of the film. Almost as if you’re in the room with the actors, which was a great feat to achieve. I think this film was a good way to achieve and show off what can be done with good actors and great talent. All the small details begin to add up to a bigger picture which is obviously a great deal. The way that the scenes and difficulties were presented within were extremely relatable to many viewers that actually have had to deal with a separation of parents, and I think that is what brings together a great film. Nearly, all of the characters that started in this film went through some sort of change that affected them on an emotional level.
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Carol by Todd Hayness is a movie that was based on a romance novel from the 1950's. This film is is about two women, Carol Aird and Therese Belivet. These two women meet in a department store in New York where Therese works. They meet because Carol is looking for a christmas present for her young daughter and Carol asks her what she would want if she were a little girl. Carol is shopping for a doll but Therese tells her she she would never want a doll if she were a little girl, Therese recommends a train set and Carol takes it. She has it delivered to her house but Carol leaves her gloves at the counter that she checked out at. I think Carol did this on purpose so she would have a reason to see therese again. At the time this seemed like no big deal but later it seems like this was where the spark between the two happened. Therese, being a good person mails the gloves back to Carol using the paperwork Carol filled out in order to get the train set delivered. Carol is going through a difficult divorce at this time and she seemed to be attracted to the opposite sex as we find out later in the film. Carol receives the gloves in the mail and call the store that Therese works and requests to talk to Therese. She calls stating she "just wanted to say thank you for returning her gloves", but we know that was not the only reason. Carol offers to take Therese out for lunch without giving Therese a moment to decline. The two go out to lunch and learn a little more about each other, and it's clear that Therese is not in her place of comfort because she is a very closed person. Carol invites Therese to her home in New Jersey and they stop and get a christmas tree and therese takes pictures of Carol and they go about their way. Once they get the the house Carols husband arrives and starts to get suspicious of the two because Carol had an affair once before. They meet next at Therese's apartment and Carol surprises her with photographer gifts that include a new camera. But Carol has a larger problem on her hands, she discovers that her husband is requesting full custody of their daughter though a "morality clause" and she may lose her daughter completely. The support for this is that Harge, Carols husband is threatening to expose her homosexuality. Carol decides to take some time away from everything and go on a road trip, she asks Therese to go with her. The two head out on this trip and things start to get even more serious between the two. On New Years Eve is when things get really serious. The two get physical for the first time and discover the the traveling salesman that the two met was actually a private investigator Harge hired to expose the truth between the two. Carol has to much to lose and goes to her suitcase and pulls out a gun. She threatens the Tucker to give her the tapes, but Tucker had already sent them off to their rightful place. Carol fires the gun at the tape recorder but draws a blank. The two go to Chicago and try to figure out what has just happened. Therese wakes up the next day and discovers Carol has flown home to fight for the custody of her daughter and things get dicey. Compared to The Children's hour this film is far ahead of its time based on the time period during the film. "But Haynes’s genius is in the ways he taps into universal anxieties about love and relationships without ever letting go of the sense of imprisonment that came with being gay in the 1950s" (Sims). This was a huge part of the film because I was not expecting such actions from a film that was based in an older time. If this was a film in today's time this would still cause controversy but still be alright to put on the big screen, just as this film did. The consequences of their actions and what the two had to lose was never forgotten throughout the film because even though the two were doing their own thing, they never relieved themselves of what they left behind. This was a key feature of the film because this was a huge deal in the 40's and 50's and Haynes never let you forget what was at stake and what could happen if the world found out. “He’s known for shooting through windows, for using reflection. His work is impressionistic: these exquisite frames, and then that blown colour palette, muted overall with flashes of colour" (Leszkiewicz). The camera work and color of this film reflected exactly what was going on throughout. during the beginning of the film when Carol and Therese are in the department store I immediately knew that this film was not going to end well for anyone because of the color choices in the film. Every all the colors in the film reflected the mood, seriousness, and feel that Haynes was trying to get across. "The film’s cinematographer, Ed Lachman, was awarded the Golden Frog, the top award at Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival, which is devoted to the art of cinematography. The jury declared it a film of “aristocratic grace and elegance,” noting its “delicate and precise exploration of emotion through color and light” (Leszkiewicz). I think this award was rightfully deserved because I don't notice much during a film but even I noticed how much work must have been put into this piece of the puzzle. In all honesty, I think this film was extremely well executed. The way that you know exactly what these two ladies are up to based purely off the lighting was enough for me to like this film. And add in the fact that the film never lets you forget what they are doing and what the consequences would be is crazy. I honestly have never experienced a film that does these two aspects so well.
The Children's Hour by William Wyler must have been what I can only assume as extremely controversial of its time. Even in today's time this is a very touchy subject and people have very hard feelings for the topic. But nonetheless, the film starts out with two women by the name of Martha and Karen. The two were college classmates and now they both run a all girls school. Towards the beginning of the film they both seem to be doing well with their school and all is well. But one courageous child is about to have a monstrous impact on their lives. Mary is a young girl who has proven to be very problematic and cannot seem to stay out of trouble. Mary loves to bully her classmates, one in specific. But that is not the extent of her shenanigans, she loves to eavesdrop and that was one of her biggest problems during this film. One night while Mary was supposed to be asleep she heard and saw Martha and Karen in Martha's room discussing Karens new planned wedding date, which was fast approaching. But Mary witnessed something completely different, she thought nothing of it at the time. The next day when she was punished for lying, she took a taxi to her grandmother's house and told them that she was essentially being singled out. Mary's grandmother did not approve of her choices and took her back to the school. But Mary did not want to go back so she told her grandmother what she had witnessed the night prior to this ordeal. She told her grandmother that she essentially witnessed Martha and Karen doing things to each other that women should not be doing. This sparked an outrage with Mary's grandmother and she immediately disapproved of her granddaughter going back to this school ran by two very inappropriate women, or so she thought. Over the following days the school in which Martha and Karen had high hopes for emptied itself out completely. All the children had left because of what little Mary had told her grandmother. Mary's grandmother called the parents of each child that went to the school and told them what was going on. This sparked an outrage with all the other parents as well and they all sent for their kids to be picked up. Martha, Karen and Joe (Karens soon to be husband) all tried to tell Mary's grandmother that this was all a misunderstanding and that Mary had not understood what they were talking about. But she was not buying any of it, she even had Mary come and confirm what she had heard but Mary was cornered into the lie. Mary mentioned that one of the girls at the school had told her what she saw and that she herself had never actually seen or heard anything. And that girl was Rosalie Wells, who happened to be staying with Mary and her grandmother until her mother was able to pick her up. She they questioned Rosalie and she told the truth at first but Mary blackmailed Rosalie into lying and the truth was never revealed. Much time went on and Karen and Martha took Mary's grandmother to court and tried to sue her for ruining their lives, but the one person they needed to win the case never showed up. That person was Martha's aunt, and she was one of the reasons Mary heard what she thought was inappropriate behavior for women. Nearly a full summer went by and Karen and Martha couldn't even leave their house because everyone knew what they had did or thought they did. Even Karens fiance questioned if this whole situation was real and that's when Karen said they needed time apart. But the truth was revealed when Rosalie told her mother what really happened and Mary's grandmother confronted Mary about everything. The grandmother went to Karen and Martha's house to apologize and make everything right again but the two ladies turned everything down. Nothing would ever be the same for them again and both of them knew it especially Martha. We find out that she really did have inappropriate feelings for Karen and she did not know what to do about it. But that was one of the last things we hear from Martha because she decides to end her own life. Back when this movie was released it was still very controversial but things were starting to become a little more acceptable and this was the first time as far as I know that someone had came out on the big screen. "First, you have someone actually coming out in the screen; admitting that she is a lesbian, that she deeply feels the love that dare not speak its name" (Bratchwaite). This actually surprised me during the film because even though I know nothing about films I knew this whole movie must have caused quite the stir because of its topic. Then add in a scene where someone is literally coming out on the big screen, this must have been a big moment in Hollywood. This film seems to have broken many rules of its time because more than one outstanding thing happened during the course of this film. On one had a women admitted her love for her female best friend and on the other she then decided to kill herself because that was not an accepted norm of their time. "In The Children's Hour, the realization of lesbian desire leads one character to suicide this appearing to equate homosexuality with pathology" (Glass). Comparing the desire of the same sex to a mental problem was and still is a big ordeal because this movie tries to show that it is a mental problem while at the same time bringing this topic to the big screen. We never see anything happen but from the beginning of the film you can tell this is an issue that cannot be fixed and somehow this is going to end badly for one of the two or both. I think that this movie was a movie that needed to be made because it brought to attention many things. Firstly, it brought to attention the issue of homosexuality during that time. Secondly, it brought to attention that homosexuality may be a mental problem. This was big because a topic like this was a very large problem during that time and this film handled the topic very well. I really think that if a film comparable to this one was produced today that it would be a huge hit because this a topic that still is in the works today.
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AuthorI normally only watch comedies and action movies so this should be an interesting change. Archives
May 2017
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