Blancanieves - 22:00 - 24:10

The scene starts out at 22:00 into the movie where you see Carmenita under a table looking sad. Carmenita is in the immediate foreground of the scene, and in the background directly behind her is a bright, white table cloth draped down. The sides of this shot clearly show the legs of the table she is under. As she pets Pepe the chicken, she looks to her right and sees a vision of her mother, Carmen, dancing as one of Carmen's songs starts to play. As Carmen is dancing, Carmenita begins to smile. Something to notice here is that the vision of Carmen takes up the left side of the screen (dominant) and Carmenita takes of the right side of the screen. I think this is a way of showing that her mother is always with her and that she is strong because of who her mother was. This is evidenced by Carmenita's immediate mood change upon seeing her mother.

The table cloth is then lifted as (what appear to be) Carmenita's grandmother appears smiling and laughing while looking at Carmen. The grandmother takes the place of where the vision of Carmen was in the background.

The grandmother then takes Carmenita outside to what appears to be some sort of event with many people around here. Carmenita is standing with seemingly no mood on her face as the camera angle shifts to show the grandma dancing the exact way that Carmen was in the girl's vision. Carmenita gives in and begins trying the dance that her grandmother is showing her. As this happens, the camera is shifting between close-up shots on both Carmenita and her grandmother. Between all of the rapid close-up shots, we see many people in the background clapping as the two dance.

Next we see the camera capturing the record player that was a gift from Carmenita's father playing a record for just a few seconds. The camera cuts back to show only the grandmother dancing very quickly as everyone watches in excitement. Suddenly, a series of back and forth flash shots show the crowd of people clapping and Carmenita's grandma dancing even faster than she was. Her grandma then falls and (seemingly) has a heart attack. Here, the flashy shots are meant to show that something bad is going to happen, and very quick. The grandma does in fact have a heart attack quickly after that, and she is dying on the ground as the shot goes slowly back and forth from Carmenita, the audience, and her grandma. Just as the grandmother dies, the record stops playing. I believe that the camera showing the record still spinning in the last shot of the scene without music playing is there to show two things. First, that a big part of Carmenita's life has come to an end. Not only has she lost her mom but her dad left her and now her grandmother is dead. She now has nobody left, so he life is going to change. It's a new beginning. Second, I believe it shows the record still spinning to show that Carmenita's life/journey must continue despite tragic setbacks.

O Brother Where Art Thou Mise en Scene Analysis

The scene shown above is the scene where the three escaped prisoners pull over to find three beautiful women who appear to be washing clothes in a river bed. In the foreground, there is a basket holding the jug of "XXX" water that the women use to drug the men. Only the top of the jug can be seen, and the viewer does not yet know at this point that the jug is drugged. In the middle of the scene are the three women. who are all attractive and are all wearing wet, white clothes. The women are all singing the same song in sync and do not speak otherwise. The important part of this scene lies below the women and behind them. Below them, there is a river bed that they are washing their clothes in. This is significant because the women here are clearly meant to represent sirens, which are characters from greek mythology, specifically the Odyssey. In Odyssey and greek mythology, sirens are beautiful women who lure sailors into shallow/rocky waters (to their deaths) via beautiful singing. Here, we notice that the women are beautiful, sing beautifully, and are luring the men into shallow, rocky waters and could end their journey abruptly. The quite, beautiful, and peaceful background are in place here to suggest that everything that happens in this scene will be good and that nothing could be wrong with the situation at hand. However, the men are deceived by the scenery and the women here.

The vanishing, 1988 vs 1993

The two versions of "The Vanishing" are very similar, being the same plot, but they are also different in some ways. There are some underlying themes in both that change and are not necessarily very easy to see.

The original version of "The Vanishing" uses more imagery and foreshadowing of events than the later version. In particular, there is a scene where Rex and Saskia run out of gas in a very dark tunnel. Rex goes to fetch gas, while Saskia waits in the car. As Rex comes back, he notices that she is no longer in the car and is at the end of the tunnel where daylight can be seen. This is heavy foreshadowing of death because of the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" which is often used when people are on the brink of death and claim that as they slip away, they can see heaven or the after life. Later in the film we discover that Rex shares the same fate as his girlfriend in the end - death. This scene is not in the American remake at all because of the fact that the ending is completely different (the boyfriend and girlfriend do not die).

In addition to ending and the tunnel scene being big differences, another difference is the golden egg scene. While driving their car, Rex is listening to Saskia explain a dream she had recently in which both of them were trapped in seperate "golden eggs" floating on through eternity, never to meet one another again. The golden eggs seem to represent loss and also do a bit of foreshadowing. Saskia's death is foreshadowed in the tunnel, and Rex is trapped in a coffin, which may be what golden eggs were supposed to symbolize. The coins that the lovers bury in the dirt could also be what the golden eggs are supposed to symbolize because both coins are buried in the dirt, just as people are when they die, and the coins aren't buried directly next to each other. The golden egg scene is also not in the remake because of the fact that the two did not die.

Woody Allen's comedic style - succesful?

I personally believe that Woody Allen's style of comedy is succesful. I don't think that it is my favorite comedic style, but still very innovative and creative. There are a few techniques in particular that I believe really do a good job of making things funny.

The first technique that makes Allen's style succesful is the way that he sometimes addresses the audience directly during a scene. You don't see this often. If it is done right and the dialogue makes sense, it can be very funny. Two funny scenes come to mind with this technique; there is a scene where a man tells another man "how you got to teach anything at all is amazing" and Allen looks into the camera and says " Boy, if life were only like this". The other scene is when Annie mistakenly says the word "wife" instead of "life" and when Allen tries to correct her she swears up and down she said "life". Allen again looks at the audience for confirmation that he is not crazy.

The second technique is the side by side comparison of scenes. This scene is toward the end of the movie when Annie and Alvy are both at their analysts talking about their sex lives. They have similar stories, but different comments and feelings about them which seem to contradict what one another says. This is especially funny to me, and may be one of my favorite comedic techniques. This technique is widely used in comedy today.

Last, we have the technique where the actors can go back into their past memories with one another and seemingly interact with characters in the scenes.In this film, this technique was my least favorite but was still funny. I think that even though the scene in this film that contained this technique was not very funny (my personal opinion - everyone is different), I can see other directors taking it and making it hilarious. I think with a technique like this the possibilities are endless. It really is an innovative comedic style.

Daisies

In my opinion, this film was very confusing and hard to follow. I personally did not enjoy this film, but did enjoy the fact that I got exposure to it, because it was something new to me. There were some things in this film that were blatantly obvious to me like the cutting of sausages and abandoning men at the train station after they've been used. However, there were many ideas that I did not even think of until they were mentioned by the reading and the presentation. Even after hearing these ideas and words to back them up, I still find it hard to understand. The movie seemingly had no plot, characters who remained nameless, and various idea/setting changes instantaneously. I think that if I had more of an idea what the movie was supposed to be about, that I would have a different opinion.

Because of the fact that I admittedly don't understand very much of the movie, I've chosen to analyze the bombing/machinery scene in the beginning and end of the film. I believe that the bombing scenes were introduced into the movie to show how the world truly is. It shows people acting the very worst they can act by showing total war and chaos going on. When the film occasionally switches to the machinery shots, I think that this is showing the rest of the real world continuing on with their daily lives like clock work. 

Shortly after the opening credits, the girls are shown on screen and they say something that basically says that the rest of the world is spoiled and so they will be spoiled too. I think the word "spoiled" here has double meaning. It could mean that the rest of the world is getting things that they want, so they are going to go out and get what they want. What I really think this means is that these women know that the rest of the world (in their minds) is bad (like spoiled eggs are called "bad") and this causes them to act out as well. 

Once the girls are crushed by the falling chandelier, the chaos of the girls seems to be extended by the film itself. I believe that this is true of the film because of the way that it transitions back into the same imagery as it did in the beginning of the film. You might have thought that the death of the girls meant an end to the chaos, but then the film shows even more chaos at the end, and the rest of the real world continues on with their daily lives like clock work. This sort of imagery seems to even tell me that the world, in a way, feeds off chaos, and that it is the reason we are still running (like a machine).

Disturbing or not - transformation

Scottie's obsession with Madeleine is disturbing

In the vertigo analyisi #2, a scene is examined in which Scottie is trying to transform Esther into Madeleine. This can be seen by some to be romantic or by others to be disturbing. To me, this is disturbing for a few reasons.

First off, the setting in which this scene takes places is gloomy. It is night time, and the only thing that is illumunating the room is a small light next to scottie, and the jade light from the hotel sign outside the room window. Scottie is alone in his room with nobody but himself in the mirror. I think that this setting was meant to show a gloomy side to Esther's transformation. I think that if the transformation was truly meant to be a part of a love story, that this scene would have taken place in a well lit.

Second, as mentioned in the video, the hair is not correct and Scottie gets upset over it. He demands that she fix it for the transformation to be complete. I think this alone shows that he needs every detail to be perfect for his obsession over Madeleine. What really shows that this is a disturbing scenario is the fact that when she finally finishes the last part and the transformation is complete, she comes out of the door and jade light surrounds her. To me, this makes her appear as a ghost. Normally, when people see ghosts they are terribly frightened. However, in this case, Scottie seems to be in awe of what he sees, as if he likes it.

Detour - Hero or anti-hero

In the film "Detour", the protagonist is a middle aged male hitchhiking in order to make it from New York to LA to see his soon to be wife. Along the way, though, he encounters a few unfortunate situations that leave his standing up for debate; is this character a hero in the movie? Is he an anti-hero?

I believe that the film is portraying the character as an anti-hero. First, when Hesko dies in the car, the character sees an opportunity in the face of fear when he should have seen the event as something to be taken seriously and dealt with in a timely manner. The character decides not only to take Hesko's car, but also take his money, clothes, and driver's license to convince others that he is Hesko so that he may keep these items in his possession. The cinematography places further emphasis on the anti-hero status of the character because right when he finds out that Hesko is dead, the dreary rain turns from a drizzle to a downpour. 

The scene where Vera is strangled via the telephone in the hotel room also suggests that the character is an anti-hero rather than a hero. This is because of the fact that this time, the character actually did commit the murder. The film suggests that the character did not mean to commit the murder. However, the situation he was in (being kept "prisoner") suggests otherwise. It was a coincidence that this character accidentally killed the person keeping him prisoner by threatening to tell the police that he is a murderer. Once again, the cinematography here has some influence during the murder. Here, the character appears to be intoxicated as is suggested by the bottle of alcohol in the room, and the amount of force and anger the character put into pulling the cord of the telephone under the door seems like it shows the character desperate, and willing to do whatever it takes to prevent him from going to jail.