Jules et Jim - Film Review

Directed by Francois Truffaut in 1962, this film explores the relationship between two best friends Jules and Jim, and their love and obsession with the leading woman Catherine. With this black and white film set in Paris, there is a very avant garde tone to it. This, was about the only aspect I enjoyed about the film. The fact that it was very well shot gave the film some credit and distracted from the poor storyline, as I found this to be a bit too unrealistic and in some way made it quite laughable. The main character, Catherine, is again too unrealistic. She is unpredictable, attention-seeking and could be seen as a little childish when she switches between who out of the two best friends she wants to be with numerous times.

This film, however, was very useful in terms of costume and scenery.

All Quiet on The Western Front - Film Review

This film, directed by Lewis Milestone in the 1930’s, is possibly one of the more accurate depictions of World War 1. I found that I made a lot more notes relating to props and costume than I did in other previous films as I felt that this was tightly directed towards our brief. More so than the other films.

This film shows the journey through a group of young men joining the army when they are persuaded by their teachers. It follows them through their laughs and games and shows how a War can slowly but surely change a man and break him after witnessing the horrors of death.

There are two main memorable scenes for me. The first one is when a soldier is lying in a hospital bed after his leg has been amputated. His companions come and visit him, it appears, to offer support and be there for him but it is made clear that the war has turned these soldiers against each other as one soldier asks him if he can have his boots as he wouldn’t be using them anymore. This gives the impression that they only look out for themselves and have become selfish as the war has gone on.

Another scene that has stuck in my mind is towards the end when a soldier spots a butterfly that is slightly out of reach. He goes out of his way to reach for it, dropping his defense and gets shot. It is as though people would risk everything for a bit of beauty.

Although I found that the storyline wasn’t the most interesting, it is very good for an accurate recall of the types of military uniform and weapons. This is very helpful for the Props project and the Costume project.

Oh! What a Lovely War - Film Review

This film, directed by Richard Attenborough, is derived from a stage musical under the same name. My initial attitude towards this film is that it makes light of the war. It almost mocks the war in a few ways.

The opening scene is a very theatrical point of view of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There are no walls to the scenery but a white background with white railings, balconies and staircases and chandeliers hanging. This is a very abstract way to open a film, but it gives an insight into the general overview of their perception of the war and how this will be portrayed further in the film.

It moves onto a scene at the beach in which families are enjoying the scenery and the funfair, oblivious to the outbreak of war. It implies a level of ignorance as there are reminders of the war all around and people are carrying on their lives as normal.  This is symbolized in a section where it focuses on a newspaper announcing the war outbreak. This newspaper is then used to wrap up fish and chips at the funfair, showing that they are carrying on with their normal lives as if nothing has changed.

One of the most interesting and impressive aspects to this film is the way that they switch and alternate scenes from the war zone back to the funfair. For example, there is a musical piece that takes place on a carousel, there to symbolize men going to war on horseback, and at the end of this song gun shots are heard and the people fall off dead. This then moves into a war scene and then shows the serious side of the war. This happens through other scenes throughout the film and I find it is a very clever way of changing scenes.

The songs that are played throughout also add to the film’s mockery of the war as they are all very upbeat songs.  The music is also used as a transition between scenes.

Despite this, there is a very moving scene with the Christmas day truce in which Richard Attenborough takes it in all seriousness. Possibly because it is such a symbolic part of the war where two rivals countries call a truce for one day.

Overall I found it a very interesting take on the war as showing it to be an upbeat and easy affair.

The White Ribbon - Film Review

Tension is created through Hanake’s 2009 film ‘The White Ribbon’ in a very subtle way. To start with, the contrast plays a very important part of the film as it is a black and white film and so rooms inside seem very dark, but outside, especially when snow is on the ground, it is very light. This almost symbolizes that dark and mysterious happenings are taking place behind closed doors. This is taken further in a scene in which one of the main boys is taken into a room with the camera shot focused on the closed door. Although you do not see what happens, it is implied by the sounds and the lead-up that the boy is being whipped. Deliberately not showing this happen allows the audience to imagine how horrible the scene may have been.

The film begins from fading in from black and ends in the same way, by fading to black. To me this intensifies the opening and ending and acts as though the whole film is someones’ viewpoint and almost as though it is the opening and closing of their eyes. It gives it a sense of realism as if it was an account, which adds to the intensity of the film.

The only piece of music that is played throughout the film is towards the beginning, when there is no dialogue there is some fairy up-beat instrumental music being played. This creates a very abstract intensity and is one of the most surreal aspects of the film. Throughout the rest of the feature there is no music at all and this adds to the reality of the piece as it shows scenes how they would appear in real life. The quiet moments, especially when there is no dialogue, create an added suspense. The situation itself creates the suspense, not any added music that you would find in most other films.

The speed in which the characters move and talk appears fairly slow. This may be due to the fact that there is no background music or sounds and so time appears a lot slower because less is happening in that time. This also allows more time to build suspense.

The general theme of the film I feel is to do with right and wrong. There is a very strong religious moral to the story and it is all related to the way in which the children are portrayed and treated. To start with, the children all seem very mature for their age. This is shown when one child confronts his sister about death and he realizes that his mother didn’t move away years ago and that she is actually dead. He handles this information fairly well, which is very different to how some children nowadays would react to bad news.

I found in this film that I was more intrigued in the way in which it was filmed rather than the actual plot and narrative of the film. In general, I felt that Haneke was very capable of catching and holding the audiences attention and draw you further into the story and the mysteriousness of the storyline.