dir, Kathryn Bigelow.

This scene is one of the few whereby i really felt a sense of suspense and admiration for the real men at war. It suddenly made the film seem all the more relevant when you realise that events like this are happening everyday, despite the fact that i am comfortably watching this safe in a lecture theatre. After seeing Sergeant William James stop one bomb, the last thing you are expecting is for him to find a further 6. The fact that he is literally on top of the bombs also creates a sense of fear and shows how courageous real-life bomb specialists must be and how coming into a life-threatening situation is part of daily life.

Specialist Owen Eldridge

Out of all three main characters, I found most recognition with Specialist Owen Eldridge. Despite him being slightly in the background and the most emotional of the group, he is the on ly character that i felt gve the film a sense of realism, and made it more powerful and different to macho, typically American war films with tough, brutal main characters.

CHRIS MARKER

The use of time in this film is done very clevely and i thought quite ahead of its time. Despite being still pictures, time is represent very realisticly yet spookily. I found the short film quite an impact and thought the dieas behind it are very surreal and intriging.

I found a link on googlevideos where the film has been dubbed in english which gave much better viewing than the clips on youtube with blurred english subtitles and enjoyed it much more for 2nd time.

Music – the music in the film gave me a nostalgic feeling, a feeling of deja-vu which is bit scary at best of times but with content of film, makes the idea of crossing through time seem even more plausable. ALso, i thought music was played to represent time progressing or to generate a particular feeling in viewer, eg sadness.

When the man was being experimented on, a few times there was sounds of distant whispering not clear enough to distinguish what they were saying. As well as this, came the sound of a heartbeat, that seemed to be beating particulary fast which made time lifelike and gave an element as suspense and made me feel nervous.

The narrator, like Agnes Vardas Les Gleneurs et La Gleneuse, was soft and monotone, a normal mans voice, not over the top or a specific accent, just a normal voice. For me, this made film better as it was there as background noise and although i could hear it, was subconciously listening to it. This in turn made watching the film make me loose a certain sense of time. At moments it felt like a few minutes had past when only a few seconds had gone by and vice-versa. I can compare to when you are that stage where your not quite awake nor asleep and drifting inbetween the two, murging dreams with background noises. This in turn goes with the idea of the film, can dreams be made into reality?

Another way the film progresses time is the way the narrator will say “On the 10th day, on the 30th day…” the formation of the sentence and the voice of the narrator had a biblical feel to it, ie “On the 7th day God created rest”. What the scientists are attempting to do, create mankind, animals etc is similar to this. There is even a particular day (the 10th day) whereby the man sees children and animals.

Towards the end of the film ,there is a scene where the girl is sleeping and i thought time was potrayed really well here. The image changes slightly to her in a different position, for example her mouth or hand has moved but ever so slightly. Such subtle changes to the image gave the impression she was asleep for a long time and a large amount of time had passed.

I found a simlarity and relation between the idea of the scientists controlling mans body and dreams to todays society where people are becoming increasingly controlled by government and their information less and less private. For example, the idea of the government controlling sites such as facebook (see article) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/5046447/Facebook-could-be-monitored-by-the-government.html as well as this the idea of more CCTV, increased information on microchips in your passport to the more absurd, and i think little sick like microchiping your children.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3307471.stm . In theory, yes there could be positives if your child gets kidnapped or gangs plan attacks via facebook, but i feel it is too much an intrusion on peoples privacy and in a sense is reverting back and similar to Nazi and Fascism whereby the government was obsessed with control.

Sans toit ni loit

‘Sans toit ni loit’ which translates literally to without roof or rule. The idea of becoming a free spirit and having house but setting up home in numerous places. I really liked this idea and felt i could relate to it quite a lot, i thought this film was really well done, and heartfelt but not over-the-top and melodramatic. I also felt quite at home watching the film as am half french and although not bilingual, could understand most of it, which was better than just reading the subtitles as felt i was really involved in dialogue of film.

‘Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse’ (2000) is another film of Vardas, which is filmed in a documentary film. Varda places herself within the film, narrating it with a calm voice. By doing this,the film seems stronger and more personal to her, and therefore makes a better watch as it is obvioulsy something close to her heart and she has put a lot of effort into it. Another aspect of the film that reveals it is also about Varda, herself as a Gleaner, is given away in the title which as i was speaking about earlier, may not of noticed had i not been half french. Les Gleaneurs et LA Gleaneuse, ‘la’ being feminine meaning the singular gleaner must be female.

The film focuses on the age gap between generations that no longer understand gleaning.  There is a part near the the beginning of the film whereby elderly people are shown gleaning on the streets, playing over this is rap music . The dynamics between the two i think is really powerful and well put together.

(around the 3minute mark)

Both films have underlying themes of FEMININITY and AGE.

Sans toit ni loit follows a young girl, who becomes homeless and relies more and more on the generosity of other people. I felt, that in a sense, it is potraying the crossover from girl – teenage – woman and the feelings that may come with it. For example the idea of loneliness and solidarity, but also the idea of wanting to rebel and be independant. In Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse where Varda at some points focuses of her age and the idea of getting old, for example comparing herself to decaying vegetables, but then at other points the films have a child-like, silly sense of humour.

John HAYNES.

Focuses on the search for identity. Looks at life of Karen Carpenter, illustrating the search for identity, the idea of control, societies perception and boundaries of normality.

Represents Karen Carpenter, as well as her family as Plastic Dolls, Barbie.

Barbie has been under attack for her unrealistic potrayal of women and gives the wrong impression and idea to young girls of what a womens body should look like. In theme with Karen’s struggle with anorexia, striving for perfection.

If Barbie was human sized, she would stand 5 foot 6 inches tall, weigh 110 pounds, and have a 39 inch bust, 18 inch waist and 33 inch hips – impossible and abnormal for a women to have these body measurements. Haynes attacks this by using Barbies, to represent Karen, and also to attacks the ideology of Barbie by making the faces in his films dark and indented. He also represents distortions of body image by distorting voices in the film ,especially early on in film, before Karen has fully developed anorexia. As well as this he distorts the first scene, discovering Karen has died, by making the camera move very slowly.

Using Karen Carpenter as his character for this film makes the film all the more real in a sense as it shows another side to the constant show of pictures of celebrities and celebrity culture where famous people are almost captured as if something wild and wxotic when in fact they are just normal human beings.

Thoughout the film, the Carpenters music is played over the image, creating a strange effect. The happy-go-lucky sound of the music against the horrible images seems wrong and weird. In this sense, the film is similar to La Jetee using images to tell the film and move through time.

Jim Jarmusch

I quite liked this film as if was something different and found it really interesting watching different types of people interact with each other. It gave you a very small yet quite strong perception of their lives, mood, personatlity etc. After a while i did find myself getting a little bored of the repetition, although i knew each scene would be different, i still found it a little repetetive towards the end. It was interesting seeing quite famous people acting in this film, yet playing themselves in situations that most probably do happen, for example Cate Blanchett with her cousin.