Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

first post - reaction to movies.

So the first movie was a 14 minute piece titled "Meshes of the Afternoon". One of the main themes I noticed throughout the film was the recurrence of the knife. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to reference an underlying theme of violence, but in the end the woman ends up dead (or at least it looked that way to me). Also, the movie comments Deren makes on this movie were more concrete and specific. Comparing the two, I didn't like the periodic noise that occured in "Meshes of the Afternoon", although it added a sense of suspense and kept me somewhat on the edge of my seat. Also, the individual she follows whose face we never seem to catch a glimpse of intrigued me throughout the entire movie.
The second movie (of course the title escapes me) appealed to me more. I LOVED how it looked like she was climbing from up driftwood, but then it seemed as those she was climbing onto a table during a dinner party. In the movie comments, Deren touches on how she wanted it to look as though she was swimming, like in the "sea" of leaves she is in at one point. I think she was completely successful in this. Although she is in three different environments in the beginning, I think they all flow together perfectly. The one thing that I was trying to do was read the lips of the characters as they were talking to each other. I failed in doing so, but I would've liked to know what the dialogue was. In general the cinematography is exceptional and altogether intriguing. I feel like it's all open to interpretation, but I think her point of view is clearly conveyed.

So there's the first post! Say what you need to say.