Nothing for Orpheus

Though there was alot to Orpheus, I am not doing a blog for it. I was confused enough from the film that I don't feel like I could write anything substantial. So, come back next week.

Vertigo

In my mind, Vertigo certainly was a dizzying film. From the cop falling off the roof in the beginning, to Judy falling out of the window at the end, everything fell out of place from what I expected. I had a lot of difficulty trying to understand all of the characters and it contributed to the difficulty of understanding the movie as a whole.

The camera angles of the film played a huge role in how I saw things. I felt that they worked the main character's fear of heights into how they shot him. Any time John seemed to be unsure of himself, they would film him from a low angle making it seem like he is up high. It's almost as if his 'high' expectations are affecting his vertigo.

They also work the camera in with Madeline/Judy (not sure if it is ever actually Madeline we see). The first instance is in the restaurant when we first see her. The close up on her is almost too close up. Her head fills the entire screen and it seems like it's boxed in. From that point on, there is a similar effect but they zoom out more and more each time on the close up. I feel like they did this to show how much we understand her character and the more we learn about her, the less boxed in she is. However, once we think she's dead and we see the real Judy, the camera is boxed in on her head. Suddenly, we don't know who she is anymore so the effect using the camera comes back.

On a personal level, there were times when I just couldn't take the movie seriously. One such situation was when John was following "Madeline" around. It's so completely obvious that he's following her around that there would be no way she wouldn't notice. Obvious explanations would be that she was in her "possessed" trance or that Judy wanted him to be following her so she purposefully didn't notice. However, even with good explanations, it just seemed so fake to me that I couldn't believe the situation.

All in all, after all the confusion, I did enjoy the movie. It had it's moments where it got wierd and sometimes creepy (obsessive John), but it was those times that just grabbed at my attention. It was a worthwhile film to watch even with it being difficult to understand.

Laura

Goodbye, Laura. Goodbye, my love.

The film Laura, starts off as a "whodunit" murder case with Detective Mark McPherson investigating the murder of Laura Hunt. All the of the suspects in the case are shady in their own way, some of whom being affectionately involved with her. Everyone seems to love her and even McPherson starts to fall in love with her without ever having met her. However, the story takes a huge twist when Laura all of a sudden shows up alive. We find that it was a model who was actually murdered and then the search for the murderer continues with Laura being more heavily involved.

I felt it was this twist that changed the feeling of the movie. It went from being a murder movie to something more of a romance. The murder is still involved but seeing as it's now someone else's death rather than Laura's, the film turns away from it keeping more of the focus on Laura herself. Everyone is trying to win Laura over in their own way, some trying to "protect" her from the law, while others trying to place the blame on someone else. Even McPherson jumps in, seemingly trying to win her over while working on the case.

Moving from the murder to Laura's personal life, she always seems to just do what she wants. Waldo Lydacker, one of the men in love with her, always tells her what she should do. To some extent, she just seems to do the opposite out of spite. She does similar things every time someone tells her to do something, like when McPherson tells her to not call or leave. She wants to do what she wants and directly not what others want. It gets her into trouble sometimes but she continues throughout the entire film without fail.

Laura makes the perfect title for this film because that's exactly what it's about, Laura. At first glance, people might think it's about the murder, or McPherson, or any of the other characters but everything just comes down to Laura. It's her role that makes this movie into what it is and without her, it's just another generic title in this genre of movie.

The Third Man

As I watched the film, The Third Man, I found the entire film to be just one large contradiction. Everything within the film ranging from characters to music was backwards from what you would expect. It makes you have to go deeper to understand the inner workings of the piece or else you end up with just a shallow interpretation of what the film could be about.

The first thing to jump out from what you think to be the norm is the music. Right off the bat, the scene is depressing, showing a once beautiful city falling apart and in ruins while telling of the hard times that have come as a result of the war. However, the entire time the music that is playing is quirky and light compared to the usual quiet and depressing music that matches the scene. This music spans the entire film without ever changing to a different tone, leading you to feel less serious about the events that are being undergone. It also gives the film an uneasiness when the music stops playing because suddenly there is nothing to lighten the mood.

The film also finds a way to confuse you with how you feel about the characters. Later on in the film, we find that Harry Lime, the supposed friend of the main character, turns out to be a harmful criminal and the audience is led to turn against him. However, as events transpire, you can't help but cheer for his success and escape. We are led to believe he is a bad person, but seeing his actually character with his friendly, cheery persona causes the audience to question it. Each character has similar patterns making so each character is seemingly different than at first glance. Anna is found to be depressed and lonely and yet she works as an actress solely in comedies playing a role as someone who is constantly happy. We are lead to feel differently about the main character in a similar way. As he digs deeper into the events that are transpiring, he sometimes questions whether he is doing the right thing which starts to cause the audience to question his actions as well. Though each character is conflicted in a different fashion, they all have similar effects on how it changes the way they are viewed.

Overall, these complications provide the film with a more in-depth experience. It pulls at your attention, sometimes causing you to wonder if you missed something when it really just flipped sides on you. It is an interesting film that certainly deserves a good amount of thought for what it provides to the audience.