American Queer Cinema Movie, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)

     After experiencing something horrible movie, the next film called Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss was chose to watch. This movie was directed by Tommy O'Haver and released in 1998. What am I going to discuss about this film is Queer Cinema.

Synopsis
     The story began with one man who was gay called Billy as a professional photographer got his friend Perry's support to run his Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss Project. So, he was excited and asked the man who worked as coffee man, Gabriel whether he wants to join his project or not. After promising each other, they both started to share their own life and Billy disappointed that Gabriel had girlfriend (Natelie) before they know each other. However, there was a time when Gabriel quarreling with Natelie and their relationship was over. So, Billy took the chance to imply that he was fall in love with Gabriel. Although Gabriel tried to accept something new like Billy's characteristic, he told Billy that he cannot do that because he was just broke up with her girlfriend and his mind was very complicated during that time. What will happen to them? Do they love each other or not? These need to be confirm.

Theory Discussion

Queer Cinema
     This term was introduced in 1991 at Toronto Film Festivals. It was a idea that re-examined and reviewed the image of gays which also called as homosexuality. Furthermore, it was overturning gender and sexual binaries to show its limitation in question since many people have question in their mind. The objective of this is want to motivate audiences to see the same thing in real life through the movie. 



     From the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept written by Susan with page 306 and line 24-25, she pointed out that these kind of films proposed renegotiated subjectivities where the gaze had changed from male looking at female to male looking at male. For example, Billy looked at Gabriel just like previous blog how Spade looked at Wonderly and it just the gender was different.



       There are some approaches in Queer Theory which can use to conduct queer reading of texts. Firstly, whether a queer theory can accept or not needs to see in audience reception. For example, there was a scene that Billy started to kiss and touch body of Gabriel and I think it was okay for me if the scene not tried to show something private body parts. 

     Next, non-straight audience started to accept the theory of queer because it changed their closed-mind to think that homosexual is not a bad thing for us. As human, we have our right to choose what we want to be and what we want to do so there is no point for us to judge the homosexual society because most of us do not know what we want to do and be. It was admired to them because they showed what they want with their braveness.

     Thirdly, (Doty 1998, 150) described that queer theory was a straight-identifying film and popular culture theorist, critics or producers that concerns with non-normative straightness. To further explain this, the purpose of this approaches is want to improve the awareness of queer theory in cinema to the society so that people will know the term and not feel that the term is always a new thing for them. 

     Lastly, the last approach will be the films and well-known culture texts, audience positions, pleasures and reading that vocalize spaces outside gender binaries and sexuality categories whether these are outside normative straight understanding of gender and sexuality or outside orthodox, lesbian and gay understanding had stated by (Ibid., 150). To explain this, it wants to show the society know more on the term of gender and sexuality through releasing the queer movie. 


Conclusion
     Finally, this movie had taught me a lot in how the LGBT society was and what were the stresses they struggled all the time. They might be different compared to a normal but we cannot judge them as freaks because these are their true identity. This is the end of my blog, thanks for coming here to see my opinion for movies. I hope you like it. Bye! 

References

S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York

   

The Horror Documentary Film: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

So, I am going to watch one of the documentary film after Easy A. The movie called The Blair Witch Project (1999) directed by 2 persons which they were Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Before watching this, I knew that documentary film is the movie made with based on true story. 






Synopsis
     The movie started with 3 film makers Heather, Mike and Josh who planned to shoot a documentary related to 'Blair Witch'. After packing their belongings, they started to go to Burkittsville, Maryland because they heard from news said that was the place which can find blair witch. In the middle of interviewing, they get warned by other people not to look for it or else they would get something bad. Then, they stopped their car in the jungle and started to go for the place where other people said. Because of lost their way back to their car, they forced to stay in the jungle and they heard something weird near their camping zone. They found wooden stick and rock beside their zone and recalled that that was a sign for blair witch to hunt something. Do they find their back or they will stay in fear in the jungle forever? Who knows?

Theory Discussion

Documentary
     This term was believed to start in 1900 which early of 20 century. From the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept with page 112 and line 5-7, she referred Grierson's view who said the documentary should be an instrument of information, education and propaganda as well as a creative treatment of reality. To simplify this, it means we can learn something from the information given by documentary.

     Furthermore, Susan also stated documentary focuses on two major axes which one of them is the truth and the other one will be who is the speaking subject in page 111 and line 14-17. Just like in The Blair Witch Project, 3 of them tried to find some experienced people to interview because this can help to increase the level of trust by the audience to the film itself. 

      Since the documentary film is the movie that looking for truth, it cannot leave the term which called surrealism which I mentioned in In The Mood For Love. Based on previous blog, surrealism is the term to explain something super real which means the superior reality of certain forms of association. For example, they experienced disturbance from the blair witch which was so real based on their expression. 

     Not only that but also the term of surrealism can also been looked from the shaking camera they were holding. For instance, they ran away from the blair witch; the camera was tried to show how real during that time when running from dangerous. Besides this, props used in the movie were real such as the wooden stick and the rock to show the sign from blair witch like what people told them before. 

The Climax Scene

     This is the scene which people talked about. The rock means someone was going into trouble. 

     This the part when they lost for 1 day in the jungle and it looked a human hanging himself or herself. There were some of sharp wooden stick around this thing. 

     This scene showed Josh's clothes and his bloody tongue and teeth after he separated from his team.

     This is the ending part of the film when Heather found out something weird to Mike and she knocked by something behind. 





Conclusion
     In short, this movie was great because it got my attention to expect what will happen to them and it made me felt panic when some weird incident around them is like someone is hunting or looking for them. I watched some of documentaries film before and I think that this movie was attracted and impressed me a lot because I never know that was blair witch in this world which let me knows one new thing in my life. Thanks for spending time with me.  

References
S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York

Feminist American Teen Comedy Film: Easy A (2010)

     Aha! The movie for this week back to our 21st century which the film called Easy A directed by Will Gluck in 2010. When watching this movie, I found out that the main actress was actually the actress (Wichita) from Zombieland. She impressed me by her acting in Zombieland. The purpose of this movie wants to strengthen the idea of feminist.






Synopsis
     They story began with a young girl, Olivia's university life. In the beginning, rumor spread throughout the university quickly once a person did something bad. So, it happened to Olivia which said that she had a sex with Bryant because Bryant laughed by other people that he had no dare to have sex with girl. Due to this incident, many people started to ask Olivia for helping them to solve problem like Bryant's problem and for girls were like asking her to take the responsible that they should take but all pushed towards Olivia. After that, people started to think of how bad was the Olivia did because of the rumor. Olivia started to feel stress that she took from these rumor and she considered as scapegoat to the people. What will happen to Olivia? How does she overcomes these problems? Does she gives up or not? 

Theory Discussion

Feminist
     For the whole movie, there is a only thing which touched about was feminist. Feminist itself was defined as the right of a female. From the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept by Susan with page 137 and line 34-38, she stated that feminist started in the 1920s by looking at women's expression of her own subjectivity and matured in 1960s. The term get matured because of quick evolution of feminist movement. 

     There are several themes which reflected the term of feminist which they are discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression and patriarchy. For the first two themes, they are similar with each other but the only difference is one of them is more serious whereas the other one will be normal. 

     For the term of discrimination, it is something that judged people then used action to do it. For example, a Chinese and a English man tried to apply job in a company. Although company listened for what strength were they both, company straight away rejected Chinese man because they think that the ability for both of them were different and English man will have more creativity than the Chinese man. In Easy A, Olivia got humiliation from other people by throwing things to her.  

     However, stereotyping also judged people but it did not used any action. For this, it only stick to the mind most of time. For instance, people in Malaysia will think of Chinese as selfish person, Indian as a drunker and Malay as a lazy person. This theme should be taken away in our mindset because not every person just like the example I mentioned before. This theme can be seen when how Marriane used word to describe how bad was Olivia was. 

     Next, the theme in feminist also included objectification which means people considered female as an sexual object. In the movie itself, Olivia was told by other people to say that how dirty she was after agreeing fake sex with other boys. She lost her own image by helping other people. After that, she felt oppression or we called it tension under her as well because the rumor around her was getting bigger and bigger. Also, the rumor had became terrible and terrible after she helped people. 

     Moving to next point, most of the society lived in patriarchy style which male played important role than the female. Just like most the movies, the main focus to most of the scenes were male during early generation. After the term of feminist pointed out, the position of the female would slightly increased nowadays when compared to old time.    


The Gaze
     Nevertheless, the position of female became stable after introducing the term which is called 'the gaze'. For what I knew about the gaze, it means the view from someone to another one. There are 3 perspectives of looking which they divided into male character looking at the female character in the film, audience in the cinema looking at the female character in the film and audience in the cinema looking through the eyes of the male character who is looking at the female character. 

  

     In Easy A, the first perspective can be seen when Todd was seeing Olivia to experience the terrible situation after the rumor spread throughout the university she studied. 

     Secondly, this can be seen when the scene only showed different Olivia which audience was looking and focusing at Olivia.


     

Lastly, Easy A did not included this perspective but it was a extreme close-up for just eye only like the photo shown on the right hand side. 




Representation
     For representation, we can look at 3 type of components which they are gender, sexuality and subjectivity. How do they link with each other? To explain this, gender divided into two different sexuality and they are male and female. As in the Easy A, there are 2 different gender and how they wore were different with one another. For example, female's long hair versus male's short hair, female's make up, female's fashion and etc. Feminist for female was subjectivity just like I mentioned before which also call as objectification. This is because of the old time stereotyping when people started to judge female as sex object but it became better after introducing theory of feminist.   

Character

Olivia
     She was a kind character in Easy A because she sympathised other people in order to step on the way which fulled with humiliation. Not only that but also she was smart in solving problem like she chose to step out to point out what other people did to her and she knew what is the thing that needs to do and who does she wants to be.   


Marriane

     Since his father was Godfather, it made her became a close-minded person like anything must follow the rule set by God. She was also a person who loved to jealous that what people had then she must had it with same quality, value, perfect and etc.  


Rhiannon
     This was Olivia's best friend who loved to get attention from boys. From what she wore, it showed the sexy female characteristic which most of male loved to see and pay more attention to it. Unfortunately, she lied to Olivia said that she dated Todd before. At the end, she sent a text for apologize to Olivia.

    

Mr & Mrs Penderghast  
     They were parents for Olivia and both of them were open-minded which allows what Olivia chose to do and support her all the time even the rumor spread throughout the university. This kind of parents usually needed for society nowadays because children will know the way they be so they can perform well in everything.


Conclusion
     After watching this movie, I felt that the movie was really awesome and got the point that support the term of feminist. As a boy, I don't think I able to know feminist well because what a female experienced was totally different from me. Through the movie, I learnt a lot of lesson in feminist. Thanks for reading my blog and have a nice day! 

Reference
S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York

          

Old French Film: Breathless (1959)

Like previous films, this week movie still remained black and white. Breathless, an old French Film which released in 1959 and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. What surprising me was the director of this movie was actually the main actor for this film. After watching two black and white film, I learnt a lot and I am excited to see what is going to learn in Breathless.

Synopsis
     In the beginning of the story, there was a young man, Michel who was youthful criminal. He stole a car in Marseille and two policemen were following him since they suspected the stolen was drove by Michel. So, Michel tried to find place to hide from policemen but one of them found him near roadside. Then, he tried to escape from the police by killing him and ran away from the crime scene. In order to making the scene clear, he tried to push the police down to downhill so nobody would found the dead body. After that, he got helped from Patrica who worked as selling newspaper on the street in Paris. Patrica found that Michel was someone who cannot trusted due to he left her behind when questioned by police. At the end, she betrayed him and what will happened to Michel? Will he survived from police and escape to Italy? 

Theory Discussion

Frech New Wave (FNW)
     For FNW, it is started from 1959 until 1969 and the founder was the director and actor of this movie. Before 1950s and 1960s, most of the films were in high cost pay and big budget. From the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept by Susan with page 166 and line 23-25, she mentioned that this term refers to films made by new generation of French filmmakers which were low-budget and every scene looked simple. Therefore, people started to use FNW to save budget in order to produce a movie.

     For example, there was a scene covered most of the length of the scene which was Michel and Patrica in the apartment. Although this scene was boring, the purpose of making this scene was not only save the budget but also tried to let the audience to enjoy the love moment between Michel and Patrica which was romance in single word. 


     Furthermore, FNW opposed the traditions of films which means they tried something new rather than keep on using the old style in making film. For an old film, the characters usually waited each other finished their dialogue then only continue the next script that they are going to say. However, FNW rejected using this because they felt that this kind of performance was not so real compared acting with improvise dialogues and talk over each other's line to reflect real-life conversation. 


     Nevertheless, self-reflexivity can also be called meta-cinema. It is very important for FNW because it constantly reminds audiences that they are watching a film but not think of they are the character inside the movie. To make this out, jumpcuts and actor's monologues were used to get attention from the audience. 



     Besides this, the characters in FNW are often marginalized who behaved immorally because they want to be different from other tradition of films so that their movie get more attention compare to old films. For example, women in FNW were given strong characteristics instead of weak side in the film like what Breathless did where Patrica betrayed Michel. In Algeria or Indo-China, there is a ideology of caring politics and it stressed out as disillusionment with oversea policy.      



Reason for hating FNW
     There are some reason which made me hated the FNW. First of all, most of the scenes were took in same place like what I mentioned before such as the apartment. I was okay at the beginning of 5 minutes but I felt sleepy after 5 minutes passed. This is because I think that love scene should not be more than 5 minutes unless they are going to change place.

     However, it still can be remained the apartment scene if they try to add something like someone knock the door and maybe they enjoy the meal together. These are the scenes that can add for this movie to improve the level of romance. 

     Next, I hated FNW is because of the scenes are usually considered as long takes which means if something wrong such as noise and unexpected incident like technical problem; the scenes need to retake again and it was not low budget if need to retake the scene by using the new tape to shoot the scenes. 

Conclusion

     Finally, I loved the movie how simple content it was. Although it was boring when it comes to apartment scene, I think that that is the part which save a lot of cost for the movie. I am very happy to see the evolution of the old film like Breathless did which showed creativity and new of making the film.



References
S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York

Old United States Movie: The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The following movie is also a black and white film and it called The Maltese Falcon (1941) directed by John Huston. As what I search from internet, there was a novel in 1929 before this movie releases its product. The quality of this film is better than Bicycle Thieves where we can see from the clarity of every scene. 

Synopsis
    This film started with an inspector, Samuel Spade received a called from police said that his friend, Archer get murdered after meeting with Wonderly on the morning. So, he went to crime scene to see what actually happened. Then, a man ,Thursby was killed and believed as the same time when Archer been murdered. After, that, two friends of Spade who suspected the killer might be Spade himself. Next, a man Cairo who worked with Gutman (The Fat Man that called by Wonderly) offered high price to buy the Falcon but Spade did not know what was the thing they mentioned. In the middle of quarreling, they found out the killer was bodyguard of Gutman. Why he wanted to kill Archer and Thursby? Why the Falcon looked very important to them? Who knows?

Theory Discussion

Film Noir
     For this term, its can say to be crime film and it was started from 1941-1959. In 1940s, film noir was an expression of male concern at women's growing economic and sexual independence that threatens masculinity. However, it reinforces family values to overcome the femme fatale is intricate to the reassertion to (male) representation in 1950s. 

     The characters considered as equal in the movie. For example, all characters in Maltese Falcon had the evil side if we used different view to look into it. Spade helped Wonderly to figure out her missing sister but in other view would be he used to help because of money and female characteristic of Wonderly. 

     Everyone in the film lived in paranoia and fear society. They chose to kill people in order to take something valuable and the world is filled with dangerous which might harm him or her if he or she put down the alert. For example, Cairo threatened Wonderly not to say out who was 'The Fat Man' by using his gun to point toward her. This also showed how darkness at that society.


     From the books Cinema Studies: The Key Concept written by Susan in page 150 and line 21-30, she mentioned that film noir has 3 characteristics which they are principle of contrastive lighting, highly stylised visual style and the specific location or setting. Firstly, the light used in The Maltese Falcon was low-key with high contrast value. This is because it wanted to show the mystery of the movie since it was a crime film which always putting a question to the audience.


      Secondly, visual style like oblique angle and distortion were used in the film to enhance the German expressionistic. For example, the ceiling was very low in height and it gave a feeling like why don't the filmmaker finds high ceiling instead of low; it was very annoyed when looking that scene. Next, the setting is set to be city bound which the location was located in San Francisco and this will let the audience recalled what actually the same thing in German expressionism. For instance, the lighting used in the film, the visual distortion and also the rain-washed street.   


Character

(1) Samuel Spade
     He was an antihero character in the movie. For a normal person, the missing Falcon should be return to the police station but he thought differently which was why don't he used this falcon to sell high price. Moreover, he was inspector that played the buried morals in the film which means he kept any secret for his customers so that he knows the way to help them. Spade also a greedy and lecherous person who usually can see in bad character.

(2) Wonderly
     From her body, it produced femme fatale which means female characteristic. She tried to use her female side to confuse Spade so that Spade can continue for helping her to do something. She lied to Spade at the beginning and leaded him to go for Mr Gutman because she knew that she cannot confront Mr Gutman by herself.

(3) Iva Archer
     Her husband was the working partner with Spade. She thought that Spade killed her husband because of he wanted to be with her but the truth was not right. 

(4) Joel Cairo
     Cairo worked under Mr Gutman who was 'The Fat Man'. He was a cleanliness person as he always wearing a glove and he cannot stand of any dirty of his things like suit, hat and etc. He was also a person who get panic easily when the secret said out from Wonderly.

(5) Lt. of Detective Dundy & Tom
     These two people were straight in the movie which reposible for what they actually did. As a detective, they worked as professional and did not get influence even the person they suspected was their friend.

(6) Effie Perie
     She worked as a secretary in the same office with Spade. She represented good women because she planned anything for and followed everything from Spade to ensure everything was under control. Not only that but also she tried to help Spade to hide Iva (Archer's wife) with her because Spade thought that Iva was under dangerous since there was a man followed him whole day. 

(7) Mr Gutman
     He was 'The Fat Man' in the film who was very rich and targeted on one thing which was The Falcon. He hired a young man to keep the eye to Spade because he knew that Spade was going to know his secret after meeting with Wonderly. He was the person who not keeps his promise. For example, when he knew the Falcon located in Spade's house; he don't keep his promise to give the money to Spade but to hit him down and rushed to his house to get the Falcon without paying the money.

Conclusion
     It is not easy to know film noir because everything needs to think carefully. I liked this kind of movie because it brain storm my mind that how actually a crime scene should be make so you will understand the content of the movie. It is very challenge for me because it is the first time for me to watch this kind of film. Thanks for reading my blog.

References
S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York      

           

Old Italian Film, Bicycle Thieves (1948)

For this week movie, it is a film that people watch rarely because the colour of the movie was just black and white. So, the film is called Bicycle Thieves directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1948 and it released after one year in U.S.A. This is my first time to watch an old Italian movie.

Synopsis

     The story began with a father, Ricci came from poor family who lived with his wife, Maria and son, Bruno. Then, he got a job which was posting advertising bills but a bicycle was needed for this job. So, Ricci and his wife tried their best to get a bicycle and it worked. Unfortunately, Ricci lost his bicycle in his first working day. He did not know what do and worried his bicycle instead of takes action to find it out. In order to not losing his job, his mind struggle with should he steal a bicycle so that everything will be okay? What happened to him? He did or died?

Theory Discussion

(1) Classical Hollywood Cinema (CHC)

     This term had discussed in Requiem for a Dream and now we will go for further look on this. CHC also called classic narrative cinema (CNC). By the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept written by Susan with page 80 and line 19-21, she mentioned that David Bordwell introduced CNC is an 'exccesively obvious cinema' in which cinematic style serves to explain the narrative. Due to people don't understand the content, some of elements were used to help the narrative and they are 4 of them.

     Firstly, element of cause and effects logic was added to most of cinema and for Bicycle Thieves as well. The effects mean something what you did then you will encounter what at the end. For example, Ricci got caught by other people due to he tried to steal bicycle which not belong to him. Therefore, as an audience; I knew why Ricci got caught because of his action.

    Secondly, plots and story also one of the element to strengthen the narrative. For plots, it can be explained like what is the characteristic of the character what is the thing that they are going to use in the movie and etc. For instance, Ricci played his role as poor person and irrational when stealing the bicycle. Yet, story defined as the story line of the whole film. For Bicycle Thieves, the story is considered normal because the story was out of my expectation. I was wondering whether he got back his bicycle but ended up with just got no news from his bicycle.

     Next, character motivation also chosen as very dominant element which it may be the way to motivating the film's cause-effect relationship and pushing the film's events follow by desires. For example, the way how the characters spoke in Bicycle Thieves were good because it not just a monotone which reminded me focused on what the film tried to deliver their messages.

     Lastly, just like mentioned before in Requiem for a Dream; a movie must include closure and resolution which are the beginning, climax and also ending. In Bicycle Thieves, the story began with Ricci got his job, his bicycle was stolen and he tried to steal bicycle at the climax and the ending would be how he got caught by other people and how sad he was going to lose his job. 

(2) Italian Neo-realism

     Italian Neo-realism started after the World War II and it lasted from 1942-1952 which only 10 years. The founder for this ideologic was called Cesare Zavattini and he looked plots as a fake structure of everyday life. From the book Cinema Studies: The Key Concept by Susan with page 219 and line 22-24, she figured out that Rossellini called neo-realism as a moral and an aesthetic cinema which means a film is made with meaning and most of them are moral value. So, audience had to get the meaning from the movie through watching every scene of the film. 

     The movie itself used professional actors to complimented the falsehood in order to get support from the audiences. For example, the person who gave Ricci the job at the beginning of the scene is one of the professional actor. After that, contemporary social experience (CSE) discussed about what kind of situation people encountered like people lost their home after World War II, level of poverty increased and so on. In Malaysia, people are now facing the problem of GST as the CSE. 

     Not only that but also most of the scene were shot on location which means something that were unexpected like people came out from a football match and people shouted their slogan when passing by Ricci and his son. This is wants to make the film looked more realistic. Grainy film stock also been used in Bicycle Thieves is because it wants to let the audiences feel that the story of the movie was based on true story which the places they lived and the problems they faced. 

     

     

     Due to the poverty during that time, some of socially conscious and humanistic point of view (P.O.V) to mock the society. For example, people surrounded at the employment booth to make sure they got the job, policeman was not helpful at all because the missing bicycle incident to them was only a small case and people used to get food from church instead of making money for themselves because the level of poverty was very high. Besides this, melodramatic which means mixing of sound track and people talking. This movie used this in order to highlight the humanistic P.O.V.  

Conclusion

     Last but not least, I think the ending of this movie is okay because it lets me think of what will happen at the end. Shall he lost his job or he may meet his friend who is rich and wants to help him? Everything is a question in my mind after watching this film. Also, I liked the movie that tried to link what situation during that time and it brought to that hardship situation. 

Reference 

S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York