Annie Hall was full of unique aspects throughout the film. Many times Alvy Singer would talk directly to the camera, as if he was filming a documentary. Alvy and Annie look in on their childhood memories together which was pretty funny. When Alvy meets Annie's family he shows his family and hers and the different conversations they are having. Annie's soul also leaves her body and sits on the chair when she is having sex with Alvy. There is a cartoon of Snow White which is amusing. There is also subtitles of what Alvy and Annie are thinking about inside their head while they are talking about something else. Woody Allen is definetly a unique director.
Allen inserts many Jewish and Nazis references in this film, similar to Manhattan. When Annie and Alvy meet for the first time, Annie says "You're what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew". When Alvy meets Grammy Hall, the audience sees that Grammy Hall pictures him as a stereotyped Jewish man wearing a prayer shawl. When Alvy is in California, he says "What's with all these awards? They're always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler". Alvy and his friend are talking and Alvy is narrating a story about someone who whispered "Jew" when he began speaking and asked, "Did Jew eat?" instead of "Did you eat?"Alvy and Annie watch a four hour documentary about the Nazis during Annie Hall. Also, when Alvy and Annie are having a conversation, Alvy says, "If the Gestapo would take away your Bloomingdale's charge card, you'd tell' em everything".
This film is structured differently than many films. It opens with Allen talking directly to the camera, as if he is reciting a monologue in a play. We are notified that he and Annie have broken up. Then, the audience sees him as a young boy in school and where he grew up. The movie shows Alvy and Annie living together before the audience sees how they first met at a tennis game. Alvy and Annie break up twice in the film. They do not end up together at the end of the movie, but they get lunch somewhere and catch up. It is not the traditional movie structure, but I think it works for this film and makes everything more interesting.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Manhattan
Throughout this movie, I was thinking about how many relationships that were talked about or were forming in the movie. There seemed to be a lot more relationships in this movie than in the earlier comedy of remarriage films. Isaac talks about his first wife, who is currently a kindergarten teacher, and his second wife, Jill. He also mentions Jill's relationship with another woman and we see her later in the film. Yale and his wife are obviously in a relationship, but Yale also has another relationship with Mary and he mentions several other times that he cheated on his wife before Yale. Isaac is in a relationship with Tracy at the beginning of the film, and later in the film he is in a relationship with Mary. Tracy says that she has been in other affairs, even though she is only seventeen. Mary talks about Jeremiah, her first husband, and he has a small appearance in the film, who is none other than the man in The Princess Bride who is famously known for saying "Inconceivable!" It seems like so many relationships for one film.
I loved the music throughout the film. I thought Woody Allen carefully placed each George Gershwin song appropriately and they seem to connect with the scene and what actions the characters were doing at the time of the song. "Someone to Watch Over Me" is played as Isaac and Mary are walking through New York. "He Loves and She Loves" comes on when Isaac and Tracy are taking a carriage ride around the city. "Swonderful" and "Embraceable You" are also inserted in romantic scenes throughout the movie. "He Loves and She Loves" and "Rhapsody in Blue"are played twice in the film. I love when directors play a song in a movie more than once.
I found Isaac's morality fascinating. He says, "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons and Catholics". He could not understand why Yale had another relationship with Mary when he has a beautiful wife that he loves. I found his attitude refreshing because in many films today, people do not question others when they are cheating on their spouses or significant others. Yale even tells Isaac, "You think you're God". Isaac also says that the people laughing at the television show were raised on television and they automatically laugh at something that he did not consider funny. This statement reminded me of Benjamin. Isaac tells Tracy that her generation grew up on drugs and the Pill, and that his childhood was not like that. He seems to have a fascination with cancer also. At the beginning of the movie, he is smoking, even though Tracy informs the audience that he does not smoke, but he says he does not inhale because that causes cancer. He tells Willie that Frankfurter's causes cancer and he informs Mary that taking half of a valium will cause cancer, although he admits he has no research that proves that, it is just his opinion.
The child was also present in this film which was unique to the others we had been watching. Isaac tries to make his son more "masculine" or what our society tells us is masculine, by playing football with him and talking about women and that a woman was checking him out. Later in the film, Julie's girlfriend said that Willie is in a dance lesson and I can imagine that Isaac was not too thrilled about that.
Isaac says that "I can't express anger. That's one of the problems I have. I grow a tumor instead". The most angry viewers see him in this film is when he visits Yale when he is teaching and they argue around the dead skeletons about how they are both in love with Mary. And yet, Julie and her partner seem to think that he tried to run Julie's partner over and Isaac tells Julie, "I came here to strangle you". I think it is funny that he said and did these things but he says he cannot express anger.
I loved the line from Casablanca that Isaac tells Tracy, "You know we'll always have Paris". I think these characters will always have moments from all of the relationships they were in and that they will not be able to let them go.
I loved the music throughout the film. I thought Woody Allen carefully placed each George Gershwin song appropriately and they seem to connect with the scene and what actions the characters were doing at the time of the song. "Someone to Watch Over Me" is played as Isaac and Mary are walking through New York. "He Loves and She Loves" comes on when Isaac and Tracy are taking a carriage ride around the city. "Swonderful" and "Embraceable You" are also inserted in romantic scenes throughout the movie. "He Loves and She Loves" and "Rhapsody in Blue"are played twice in the film. I love when directors play a song in a movie more than once.
I found Isaac's morality fascinating. He says, "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons and Catholics". He could not understand why Yale had another relationship with Mary when he has a beautiful wife that he loves. I found his attitude refreshing because in many films today, people do not question others when they are cheating on their spouses or significant others. Yale even tells Isaac, "You think you're God". Isaac also says that the people laughing at the television show were raised on television and they automatically laugh at something that he did not consider funny. This statement reminded me of Benjamin. Isaac tells Tracy that her generation grew up on drugs and the Pill, and that his childhood was not like that. He seems to have a fascination with cancer also. At the beginning of the movie, he is smoking, even though Tracy informs the audience that he does not smoke, but he says he does not inhale because that causes cancer. He tells Willie that Frankfurter's causes cancer and he informs Mary that taking half of a valium will cause cancer, although he admits he has no research that proves that, it is just his opinion.
The child was also present in this film which was unique to the others we had been watching. Isaac tries to make his son more "masculine" or what our society tells us is masculine, by playing football with him and talking about women and that a woman was checking him out. Later in the film, Julie's girlfriend said that Willie is in a dance lesson and I can imagine that Isaac was not too thrilled about that.
Isaac says that "I can't express anger. That's one of the problems I have. I grow a tumor instead". The most angry viewers see him in this film is when he visits Yale when he is teaching and they argue around the dead skeletons about how they are both in love with Mary. And yet, Julie and her partner seem to think that he tried to run Julie's partner over and Isaac tells Julie, "I came here to strangle you". I think it is funny that he said and did these things but he says he cannot express anger.
I loved the line from Casablanca that Isaac tells Tracy, "You know we'll always have Paris". I think these characters will always have moments from all of the relationships they were in and that they will not be able to let them go.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Awful Truth
At the beginning of The Awful Truth, I was convinced that when Jerry was not in Florida, he was cheating on his wife, Lucy. Throughout the movie, I was furious that Jerry was upset with Lucy, even though she did not do what he thought she did, but he did in fact with another woman. I was surprised that Lucy never asked Jerry where he truly had been because she knew that he was not in Florida. When Jerry tells his masseuse that "What wives don't know, won't hurt them" and then he tells the man what he doesn't know won't hurt him either. I thought the line was supposed to be directed at the audience. So because we do not know what Jerry was doing for two weeks was vital for the audience otherwise we would not like his character as much as we do. Cavell states that, "Jerry is less interested in the fact of philandering than in the possibility of it...What is so awful about the truth that nothing happened? And why would a married man find it more important to seem unfaithful than to be so?" (Pursuits of Happiness, 244). I also wondered this question. I think Cavell makes a good point that Jerry is testing Lucy's faith, but he fails his own test because he doubts Lucy. Whatever Jerry did in those two weeks, the audience knows he was not in Florida, he is hiding where he was, and he accusses Lucy for something she did not do. I still am curious why Lucy never asks him where and what he was doing in those two weeks.
One of my favorite scenes of the movie was when Lucy was dancing with Dan Leeson. I had never seen such a genuine and large smile as the one Cary Grant showed in front of the camera when he was watching the two of them in any other movie. He did not just grin once, but throughout that scene. He makes the audience believe his facial expressions, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I can understand why Cavell chose to have that image on the first page of this book. I'm surprised it's not more famous!
I was surprised at the end of the movie that Jerry went into Lucy's room right at midnight. I thought he would have gone in sooner, when they were "legally married". I am sure it was very risque to sleep with someone you were not technically married to, even though they had already been married before.
This movie was not my favorite of the comedy of remarriage, but I do think it was the most applicable to the comedy of remarriage. Throughout the movie, Jerry and Lucy question their trust for one another and what it means to be married. Both of them dabble in different relationships, but they realize that they were meant to stay married in the end.
One of my favorite scenes of the movie was when Lucy was dancing with Dan Leeson. I had never seen such a genuine and large smile as the one Cary Grant showed in front of the camera when he was watching the two of them in any other movie. He did not just grin once, but throughout that scene. He makes the audience believe his facial expressions, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I can understand why Cavell chose to have that image on the first page of this book. I'm surprised it's not more famous!
I was surprised at the end of the movie that Jerry went into Lucy's room right at midnight. I thought he would have gone in sooner, when they were "legally married". I am sure it was very risque to sleep with someone you were not technically married to, even though they had already been married before.
This movie was not my favorite of the comedy of remarriage, but I do think it was the most applicable to the comedy of remarriage. Throughout the movie, Jerry and Lucy question their trust for one another and what it means to be married. Both of them dabble in different relationships, but they realize that they were meant to stay married in the end.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Benjamin
1. "Theses defining the developmental tendecies of art can therefore contribute to the political struggle in ways that it would be a mistake to underestimate. They neutralize a number of traditional concepts- such as creativity and genius...which allow factual material to be manipulated in the interests of fascism" (Benjamin, 19-20).
2. "In principle, the work of art has always been reproducible...But the technological reproduction of artworks is something new" (Benjamin, 20). Everything is even more easier to reproduce now than it was in Benjamin's time. We can practically find anything on the Internet. Books was a big change for reproduction, and now some books can be read online.
3. "It might be stated as a general formula that the technology of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the sphere of tradition. By replicating the work many times over, it substitutes a mass existence for a unique existence" (Benjamin, 22). Now, most art forms can be easily mass produced, therefore is there such a thing as a unique song, painting, movie, etc.?
4. "The stripping of the veil from the object, the destruction of the aura, is the signature of a perception whose 'sense for all that is the same in the world' has so increased that, by means of reproduction, it extracts sameness even from what is unique" (Benjamin, 24). Our perception of an object has changed over time, especially with the use of technology.
5. "But as soon as the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production, the whole social function of art is revolutionized. Instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on a different practice: politics" (Benjamin, 25). I think there are many forms of artwork today that Benjamin would say that they are founded on politics. Political artwork has some form of agenda or message to convey to the audience also. It's never solely about the art.
6. "The function of film is to train human beings in the apperceptions and reactions needed to deal with a vast apparatus whose role in their lives is expanding almost daily" (Benjamin, 26). Is Benjamin's function of film still applicable today?
7. "The directives given by captions to those looking at images in illustrated magazines soon become even more precise and commanding in films, where the way each single image is understood seems prescribed by the sequence of all the preceding images" (Benjamin, 27). Many images are difficult to understand if we do not see the images that precede it.
8. "The film is therefore the artwork most capable of improvement. And this capability is linked to its radical renunciation of eternal value" (Benjamin, 28). I really agree with this statement. I think films have so many different possibilities that there can always be something new and something to work on in films. I don't think films will ever die.
9. "Insofar as the age of technological reproducibility separated art from its basis in cult, all semblance of art's autonomy disappeared forever" (Benjamin, 28). I think this is a depressing statement. Sometimes I wish that we did not have as much technology as we do today, but then I remember all of the positive things it provides too, so I am torn.
10. "Film makes test performances capable of being exhibited, by turning that ability itself into a test. The film actor performs not in front of an audience but in front of an apparatus" (Benjamin, 30). I had not thought about this before, but it is true.
11. "The stage actor identifies himself with a role. The film actor very often is denied this opportunity" (Benjamin, 32). I have often thought about this statement myself because I have been in several plays. Whenever I am in a show, I do find something in the character I can relate to, but I think it would be difficult for film actors to do this because they shoot clips of scenes and jump around throughout the movie, not filming in chronological order.
12. "While he stands before the apparatus, he knows that in the end he is confronting the masses. It is they who will control him" (Benjamin, 33). I feel as though the audience has so much power over the actor and the film itself in this statement.
13. "Any person today can lay claim to being filmed" (Benjamin, 33). Many people make videos of themselves now and post them on You Tube where millions of viewers can watch them. Technology has really changed the number of viewers a home video can be witnessed by.
14. "The illusory nature of film is of the second degree; it is the result of editing" (Benjamin, 35). I don't think that editors get enough credit for what they do. Something should be changed about that.
15. "The technological reproducibility of the artwork changes the relation of the masses to art. The extremely backward attitude toward a Picasso painting changes into a highly progressive reaction to a Chaplin film" (Benjamin, 36). I wonder how different our perception of a Picasso painting is today, compared to what Benjamin would have thought in his time.
16. "Collective laughter is one such preemptive and healing outbreak of mass psychosis" (Benjamin, 38). This explains why Americans love the slapstick comedies and the comedic movies now that don't have a story plot, but they make people laugh.
17. "Dadaism attempted to produce with the means of painting (or literature) the effects which the public today seeks in film" (Benjamin, 38). I wonder what is equivalent to Dadaism today.
18. "Quantity has been transformed into quality: the greatly increased mass of participants has produced a different kind of participation" (Benjamin, 39). I bet the quality of film would be better if they didn't have deadlines to keep the public happy.
19. "All efforts to aestheticize politics culminate in one point. That one point is war. War, and only war, makes it possible to set a goal for mass movements on the grandest scale while preserving traditional property relations" (Benjamin, 41). I wonder what a world would look like if we didn't have war. How would art be different?
2. "In principle, the work of art has always been reproducible...But the technological reproduction of artworks is something new" (Benjamin, 20). Everything is even more easier to reproduce now than it was in Benjamin's time. We can practically find anything on the Internet. Books was a big change for reproduction, and now some books can be read online.
3. "It might be stated as a general formula that the technology of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the sphere of tradition. By replicating the work many times over, it substitutes a mass existence for a unique existence" (Benjamin, 22). Now, most art forms can be easily mass produced, therefore is there such a thing as a unique song, painting, movie, etc.?
4. "The stripping of the veil from the object, the destruction of the aura, is the signature of a perception whose 'sense for all that is the same in the world' has so increased that, by means of reproduction, it extracts sameness even from what is unique" (Benjamin, 24). Our perception of an object has changed over time, especially with the use of technology.
5. "But as soon as the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production, the whole social function of art is revolutionized. Instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on a different practice: politics" (Benjamin, 25). I think there are many forms of artwork today that Benjamin would say that they are founded on politics. Political artwork has some form of agenda or message to convey to the audience also. It's never solely about the art.
6. "The function of film is to train human beings in the apperceptions and reactions needed to deal with a vast apparatus whose role in their lives is expanding almost daily" (Benjamin, 26). Is Benjamin's function of film still applicable today?
7. "The directives given by captions to those looking at images in illustrated magazines soon become even more precise and commanding in films, where the way each single image is understood seems prescribed by the sequence of all the preceding images" (Benjamin, 27). Many images are difficult to understand if we do not see the images that precede it.
8. "The film is therefore the artwork most capable of improvement. And this capability is linked to its radical renunciation of eternal value" (Benjamin, 28). I really agree with this statement. I think films have so many different possibilities that there can always be something new and something to work on in films. I don't think films will ever die.
9. "Insofar as the age of technological reproducibility separated art from its basis in cult, all semblance of art's autonomy disappeared forever" (Benjamin, 28). I think this is a depressing statement. Sometimes I wish that we did not have as much technology as we do today, but then I remember all of the positive things it provides too, so I am torn.
10. "Film makes test performances capable of being exhibited, by turning that ability itself into a test. The film actor performs not in front of an audience but in front of an apparatus" (Benjamin, 30). I had not thought about this before, but it is true.
11. "The stage actor identifies himself with a role. The film actor very often is denied this opportunity" (Benjamin, 32). I have often thought about this statement myself because I have been in several plays. Whenever I am in a show, I do find something in the character I can relate to, but I think it would be difficult for film actors to do this because they shoot clips of scenes and jump around throughout the movie, not filming in chronological order.
12. "While he stands before the apparatus, he knows that in the end he is confronting the masses. It is they who will control him" (Benjamin, 33). I feel as though the audience has so much power over the actor and the film itself in this statement.
13. "Any person today can lay claim to being filmed" (Benjamin, 33). Many people make videos of themselves now and post them on You Tube where millions of viewers can watch them. Technology has really changed the number of viewers a home video can be witnessed by.
14. "The illusory nature of film is of the second degree; it is the result of editing" (Benjamin, 35). I don't think that editors get enough credit for what they do. Something should be changed about that.
15. "The technological reproducibility of the artwork changes the relation of the masses to art. The extremely backward attitude toward a Picasso painting changes into a highly progressive reaction to a Chaplin film" (Benjamin, 36). I wonder how different our perception of a Picasso painting is today, compared to what Benjamin would have thought in his time.
16. "Collective laughter is one such preemptive and healing outbreak of mass psychosis" (Benjamin, 38). This explains why Americans love the slapstick comedies and the comedic movies now that don't have a story plot, but they make people laugh.
17. "Dadaism attempted to produce with the means of painting (or literature) the effects which the public today seeks in film" (Benjamin, 38). I wonder what is equivalent to Dadaism today.
18. "Quantity has been transformed into quality: the greatly increased mass of participants has produced a different kind of participation" (Benjamin, 39). I bet the quality of film would be better if they didn't have deadlines to keep the public happy.
19. "All efforts to aestheticize politics culminate in one point. That one point is war. War, and only war, makes it possible to set a goal for mass movements on the grandest scale while preserving traditional property relations" (Benjamin, 41). I wonder what a world would look like if we didn't have war. How would art be different?
Adam's Rib
Just once, I would like to witness a movie where the woman who speaks up for her rights and her equalility to men, leaves the man who is pulling her into societies roles, permanently. Every movie I have ever seen that has a strong, independent woman character, ends up with a man. Some will say, what is wrong with this? Why is it wrong that Amanda Bonner runs off with her ex-husband, Adam Bonner to their cabin? The point I would like to bring up is that the woman did not feel equal in her relationship. Adam says that he likes the old fashioned roles of two genders: men and women. He even calls Amanda a "big he-woman". Adam goes further saying that Amanda will "split us down the middle". Why does the man always assume that it is the woman's fault for their marriage problems? Do they realize that they are apart of the marriage so they are equally at fault with the problems that are occurring? Warren says that his wife shot at him because "she's crazy". He doesn't even think for a second what he has done to warrant such a reaction from her. He is sleeping with another woman and doesn't come home at night. Warren calls his wife fat and physically abuses her, and yet, he still thinks that he is a good husband. How can he say a statement like that?
I would like to see a movie where the woman becomes completely independent. I believe that Amanda Bonner will continue her independence even when she is re-married, but how can you be married to someone who insults you, calling you a "he-woman"? Another thing that infuriates me is that Adam never apologizes for any of the comments he made or for slapping her on the butt. Amanda apologizes even though she did nothing wrong, but Adam, the person who should have apologized, didn't. And yet, Amanda still forgives him and the movie ends "happily ever after".
Cavell talks a lot about Mortgage the Merrier, the film that the characters Amanda and Adam made. I would also like to point out that Adam looked distraught and upset at the beginning of that film, just as Adam sulked throughout parts of Adam's Rib. He was not happy at their dinner party after Amanda said she was going to represent Doris. He also was furious with Amanda when a witness lifted him up in the courtroom. He wouldn't even talk to Amanda then. He just said that she should save her eloquence for the courtroom.
I thought this film really conveyed the lives of Amanda and Adam well. I felt as if I was in the same room as them when they were in their house. The audience got to see their lives in the courtroom and their lives at their own home extremely well which contributes to George Cukor's genius. This movie also made me greatful for the time period we are living in now. We have come a long ways since 1949 in terms of women's rights, but there is still more that needs to be done.
I would like to see a movie where the woman becomes completely independent. I believe that Amanda Bonner will continue her independence even when she is re-married, but how can you be married to someone who insults you, calling you a "he-woman"? Another thing that infuriates me is that Adam never apologizes for any of the comments he made or for slapping her on the butt. Amanda apologizes even though she did nothing wrong, but Adam, the person who should have apologized, didn't. And yet, Amanda still forgives him and the movie ends "happily ever after".
Cavell talks a lot about Mortgage the Merrier, the film that the characters Amanda and Adam made. I would also like to point out that Adam looked distraught and upset at the beginning of that film, just as Adam sulked throughout parts of Adam's Rib. He was not happy at their dinner party after Amanda said she was going to represent Doris. He also was furious with Amanda when a witness lifted him up in the courtroom. He wouldn't even talk to Amanda then. He just said that she should save her eloquence for the courtroom.
I thought this film really conveyed the lives of Amanda and Adam well. I felt as if I was in the same room as them when they were in their house. The audience got to see their lives in the courtroom and their lives at their own home extremely well which contributes to George Cukor's genius. This movie also made me greatful for the time period we are living in now. We have come a long ways since 1949 in terms of women's rights, but there is still more that needs to be done.
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