Pretty In Pink

If you are looking for a straight forward high school comedy/ drama, most John Hughes movies would be perfect, and Pretty in Pink (1986) is no exception. Starring Molly Ringwald, an original brat pack member, we see the love story between rich and poor unfold. I don't even have to explain anything else and you can probably guess what happens and a few of the jokes along the way. But despite the predictable plot lines I still love watching the common themes in John Hughes movies.

One of the most memorable scenes in Pretty in Pink is towards the end. Andie (poor girl played by Molly Ringwald), has been asked to the prom by Blane (rich and popular douche bag played by Andrew McCarthy) but right before the dance he ditches her because his friends have a problem with her lack of money and style. To get back at Blane, Andie decides to show up to the dance anyway in her own creation of a prom dress. Right after walking in the door she almost loses her courage, but just then, her old and adorable friend Duckie steps in to rescue her. We see a lot of slow camera movement and a few close-ups in this scene. It helps you feel close to the character of Andie so that you are almost cheering for her when she sees Duckie. The music in this scene also helps out a bit by aiding in the mood of the situation and comes to a climax just as the "happy-ever-after" comes up to match it.

Apparently, our high school years are either our best or our worst. I predict that John Hughes either had a wonderful high school life and wants to relive it, or he had a terrible high school life and wants to try to imagine what it could have been. Either way, he sticks to what he's good at, and he's good at high school comedy/drama's.

Chinatown

Chinatown has easily been my favorite movie that we have watched this year. It kept my attention they entire way through and I was really interested in the story. I loved the character of JJ Gittes and I really liked the way that Jack Nicholson portrayed him. I really want to watch it again so I can catch more of what I may have missed. I thought that the film did a lot for film noir. It wasn't the typical film noir setting with the typical lighting and venetian blind effect, but it has the same sort of story (mystery) and the big rememberable ending. I thought that it was really interesting the way that the plot had so many twists and turns, and everytime that I thought I knew the answer to the question of who killed Hollis, I was suprised again by another key piece of evidence.
Overall this was an excelent film and again, I plan on renting it so I can review it at least once more.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I loved the movie Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. I had seen the movie before seeing it in class but I had never analyzed it as closely. I really love the cinematography and editing that it has. Michel Gondre is easily one of my favorite directors and I cannot wait to see more of his films. If you liked Eternal Sunshine, I recommend The Science of Sleep which has a lot of the same elements, but is still a completely different movie.
I thought the acting in Eternal Sunshine was great too! I really liked seeing Jim Carrey in a film that asked him for a little more dramatic role rather than just the physical comedy of Liar Liar and Dumb and Dumber (even though those films will also always have a place in my heart).

His Girl Friday

I liked His Girl Friday a lot. It kept my attention and I was excited to go back to class the next day to continue it. The two main characters were both equally funny and entertaining, and given the limited amount of camera tricks in the 40's, I thought it was pretty good cinimatically as well. A lot of the camera shots were long and steady, but that just showed the audience how great the actors were. At parts, it became a little frantic and frusterating because of all the confusion dealing with Hildy's new husband and the entire Earl Williams case, but that added to the comedy. It was probably my favorite movie that we have watched this year, but I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind might pass it by. I guess we'll have to see though!

Unforgiven

Unforgiven was the second western that we watched in my art of film class. I liked the movie for some reasons, and strongly disliked it for others. It was more entertaining to me than stagtecoach, but still not the kind of movie that I would pick off of the shelf. There were a lot of cinimatic elements to Unforgiven that made it interesting to watch such as the lighting that casted a lot of shadows, and the character development (which I felt was absent in stagecoach), but I also wasn't very interested by the plot and the somewhat predictable ending. I don't think that the unneccesary killing of people is that entertaining, but then again im not much of a hardcore action fan. I like action that shows some skill within the fighting like martial arts. Shooting ten people in a row with a gun is just not that interesting to me.
Overall, Unforgiven was alright. I liked it better than stagecoach (since more that half of the characters actually seemed to have a purpose), and the camera shots and lighting were interesting, but as far as plot and entertainment go, it wasn't for me.

Pan's Labyrinth

For my journal 3 assignment, I knew that I either had to watch a film that was foreign or made before 1960. So I chose to watch Pan's Labyrinth, created by writer and director Guillermo Del Toro. I loved this movie. It was much better than I expected and I'm very happy that I watched such an impressive film.
The number one thing that stuck out to me while watching Pan's Labyrinth was the beautiful cinematography, which the film won an academy award for. I could not stop thinking about the excellent effects and undeniably amazing camera shots. The lead cinematographer was Guillermo Navarro. Navarro won 9 out of 11 nominations for this film, including an Oscar. According to Cameraguild.com, Navarro began taking still pictures as a hobby during his teen years and later got a job as a still photographer on movie sets and then moved on to make his own documentaries and discover his cinematographic talent. Pan's Labyrinth showed his true gift for the art of film making, but he also worked on movies like Stuart Little, Hellboy, and Night at the Museum.
In an interview I found on moviemaker.com, Navarro was asked how the different environments and looks were created, and Navarro responded saying, "It was a total collaboration. We had wonderful costumes by Lala Huete and settings created by production designer Eugenio Cabellero. There is a strong influence of Goya's paintings in our use of light and darkness-there are dark interior scenes with single sources of light modeling faces. As the story progressed, we created bridges between the worlds of fantasy and reality. The different colors and camera movement in the real and fantasy worlds begin to blend."

Another thing that I loved about Pan's Labyrinth was the soundtrack. With original music by Javier Navarrete, I felt like I was being led through this fairy tale like film by the beautiful sounds. From lullabies to frantic and heart-pumping scores, you couldn't help but notice. During certain scenes where the main character, Ofelia, is discovering an entire underworld below the home that she has been forced to come to due to her mothers new husband, we are given a beautiful violin accompanied by a smooth piano and a voice of Ofelia reading us the story's from the book she has been given by the imaginative creatures that dwell within the labyrinth. Without the music leading us through the seemingly untouched forests and dark questionable temples, I don't think the film would have been such a hit.

I am so happy that I chose this film to watch, I had no idea that this film had so much beauty to it and could keep me so glued to the screen. I wasn't even botherd by the subtitles or the parts of the movie about war (which I don't normally like). It was a imaginative piece of art and I wish more film crews would put as much work into their films as the makers of Pan's Labyrinth obviously did.