Rear Window Screening Notes
Rear Window is a reflection on movie going in an obvious sense, as well as the human experience in general. I don’t think Hitchcock could have known exactly how much we as a society would take the ideas presented in his movie and run with them. Inventions like Facebook and reality television have escalated the ideas presented in Rear Window exponentially. As humans we always see but never can hear. We have one side of the story, but not the other, so being the creative inquisitive creatures we are, we make it up. Jeffereys was the average person, someone who would have never wished to be questioned about the goings on in his house, about what other people could see through his rear window, but he is more than happy to partake by himself. Just as bad is when Stella and Lisa join in on the fun.
What I think is most interesting is that the movie decides to indulge us and Jefferys by having our wacky conspiracy turn out to be true. But on the contrary, the woman we all know as Miss LonleyHearts turns out to have the opposite effect, based on the evidence we as an audience think that she’s going to kill herself, but in the end she winds up with the piano player. I suppose this movie was as self reflective on itself as it made us on ourselves. By having the conspiracy prove to be true I think the movie gets across the point that it is just a movie, but that our lives are not. I think maybe the movie was trying to get across the point that it’s one thing to watch these things on T.V or even go on Facebook, but when we create these alternate realities in our own world, there can be dangerous consequences.
Atonement Screening Notes
Sound
The sound in this movie is used powerfully as both a tool for the film and as an artistic device. Sound is used constantly to jump between scenes, the most notable being the one where Cecelia jumps into the pool and the scene changes to Robbie coming up in the bath tub, with the sound of water continuous between the two. Another notable aspect of the sound in this movie is the ticking of the typewriter. The typewriter sound usually starts off the scene where Briony is up to some sort of story creation or mischief, then as the scene progresses the clicks the typewriter matches with the background music and slowly dissipates. This effect is again used with Robbie’s mother as she bangs on the police car as it takes her son away. While adding a cool effect this also draws your attention the fact that the movie is a story and once the movie jumps forward to Briony as an adult it really solidifies this point. The absence of sound is also important, Briony’s lack of information on certain aspects is illustrated through the little sound that there is available for her to hear, leaving her to make it up on her own.
Costume
The costumes in Atonement are very important to the atmosphere that the film tries to create. Beginning with Briony, she is always in white in the beginning of the film, adding to the pure image that she is trying to make for herself. It also makes her look rather bland and blend in with the woodwork, which might be why she tries to make all of these stories in her head, from her jealousy and lack of personal experience. It also may be a comment on story writing in general, how a person who writes stories needs to remove themselves from the world to create. The rest of the costumes are incredibly dramatic and colorful, almost to a fanciful point, and once we find out that this is all written in a book it really drives it all home.
Breathless Screening Notes
- Begins on main character reading a newspaper and randomly cuts to people who are walking around the docks and roads
- Many shots taken in and out of the car while he is driving, talks directly to the camera
- Cops being chasing him, jumps to him getting away, cop pulls up, he shoots him, cuts to running away
- Jumps to him in the city
- Ends up in a girls room after raiding another one
- Michel meets up with Patricia for a very long shot
- Completely cuts out the shot of the guy getting run over
- Policemen enter the subway one entrance, camera pans to l’arc de triumphe and stops then pans to Michel leaving another bus subway station
- Blinks in and out for no real reason
- Jumps to Michel and Patricia talking to her looking in the mirror to them talking again
- Multiple cuts on the man talking while he is speaking, breaking the rule of 30
- Cuts to view of the Eiffel Tower then to Patricia skipping
- Lots of checking oneself out in the mirror
- Smile before I’ll count to 8 or I’ll strangle you
- Cuts to them kissing and then to more kissing
- VERRRRRRY long scene in Patricia’s apartment
- Sirens keep interrupting conversation
- “And now it’s time for music while you work”, shuts it off, stands next to a picture of herself
- Them kissing to aerial view of Paris to them sitting outside
- The worst flaw is cowardice
- Eroticism is the same thing as love
- Complete chauvinism, women are in the wrong
- Cuts between Michel’s complaints to the taxi driver
- Cuts to the two kissing in the theater
- She gets excited about which car she wants to steal
- Camera follows her around the room as she explains herself
- Long shot on him running after he gets shot
- He dies saying that it makes him want to puke, she wipes her lips
I was not a huge fan of the film. I believe that the style of the film matched the existentialist theme that the director was trying to portray, but I don’t think that the film really cared to much if the audience liked it or not. In this, I believe that this film was much more concerned with style than the manner. The characters were both just sort of annoying and the cutting style matched this attitude, these two thing s together contributed to my distaste for this film. The storytelling was there and the editing choices matched, but I was not a huge fan of the story or the characters within.
I believe that a key point in the scene was the incredibly long scene that took place in Patricia’s room. It seemed to show a contrast between the fairly on-the-go and crazy lifestyles that the two held separately and what things were like when they were together. Tie definitely slowed down when the two were together, whether this was because they were trying to understand each other or if they were in love, the scene did a good job of portraying the tension and affection between them.
Capturing the Freidmans Screening Notes
- Began with interview of Dad mixed with discussion over it of “I don’t really know my father.”
- Then went on to home movies with country music in the background
- David stammers over his words, father doesn’t really enjoy spending time with his wife Elaine
- Father died of a surprise heart attack, wasn’t together with mother at the end, divorced a few years before the death
- Sitting on straight white steps with brick in the background
- Goes to piano music with pan from trees to the sky
- Private video journal, “Cops can go f*** yourselves”
- Arnold Freidman ordered child pornography from the Netherlands
- Good marriage was so disturbed
- Wife showed up while the cops were searching the house for child pornography
- A lot of pictures are cut together with actual evidence in the film
- Pan through the city with troubling music in the background
- Arnold is charged with sodomizing children, people all over the house, cuts to news programs of them convicting him
- David is part of some clown show or act for kids
- David puts briefs over his face and started to shout at the cops as they took his father and brother away
- Jesse was also involved in the child abuse, Jesse had slapped the boys around while they were at the place
- A claim is made about a person and then someone from the other side defends them
- Time lapse of Great Neck clock, slowmo of the train, slowmo of the kids jumping in and out the pool
- Close up on magazine of unclothed boy
- “We had a good home right?” Jumps to Thanksgiving saying what they’re thankful for, wife says for the husband
- Howard visits Arne, they’re gonna kill me, cuts to the court tape
- All white screen of David in clown outfit doing tricks
- Birds eye shot of Great Neck, shows the structure and order of Great Neck, wouldn’t expect a pedophile
- Everybody’s kid’s a genius, everybody is the best at something
- Snuck out with a program from the class and was raped as punishment, interviewee is lying down with hand near his crotch, acting odd
- Some of the kids had a good experience with the class and some claim rape
- The reporter woman believed that the children had been brainwashed
- There was a dearth of physical evidence
- Foot high piles of porn all over the house were not in any of the photos that the cops took at the house
- “My child had been sodomized more times.”
- Us vs. Them, you’re in denial something happened to your son
- “We were family” cuts to home movies with happy piano
- Mommy believes them, David started recording them
- Family began falling apart, mom said that she didn’t know what happened, said that she wanted to tell the truth
- David said that the mother abandoned them
- If he goes to a state institution on state charges he’s not coming back
- “Trouble is all I get from you” then cuts to more home movies
- Mom admits to not being the most balanced person, “good things never happen to me, only bad”
- Arnold’s sister died of blood poisoning, tore apart the family, their mom would bring home men and have sex with them in the same house as them
- Elaine said Arnold had sex with Harold
- Arnold fell in love with children he had relations with as a kid, feared that he would fall in love with his kids
- Mother felt like she was out of the gang
- Arnold’s brother seems oddly mellow dramatic
- Arnold and Jesse plead guilty
- Jesse claims he was abused by father says Peter, Jesse says that’s Peter’s story
A Single Man Screening Notes
- Man drowning, car accident, two dudes in suits, live one lies next to the dead one and kisses him on lips
- Ink stain on white bed, waking up hurts
- Papers all lined up on his table
- Today is only a cold reminder of the past
- White and black them, he is just an expression of his predicament
- Constant flashbacks
- Lives in a glass house, very subtle
- Very long time spent sitting quietly in the chair as he realizes that Jim is dead, an uncomfortably long time
- Goes to charlottes house crying with only rain noise in the background
- Spies on family across the street, all the children are in color as is the mom, dad in black and white business suit doesn’t care for wife’s goodbyes
- Doesn’t answer the phone much
- Puts unloaded 6-shooter in his bag
- Time slows as he drives past the children, little girl framed by the car window as he passes
- He’s living during the cold war, there’s an older filter thing
- Smile on the girl saturates as he compliments it
- Slowmo on dudes playing tennis together
- Colors saturate when they were talked about
- Cuts to close-ups on eyes and students and cigarettes and stuff in class
- Growing old, then he hears the loud tick of the clock
- Kenny pink, George in black and white
- Kenny’s color saturates as he makes a point to George
- Takes pain pills and rum, we are in a voyeur position, call charlotte
- Charlotte is always in between two posts of things
- Black and white paintings in Georges office
- His color saturates at the mention of friend
- Black and white flashback
- Diagonal mountains across background
- Little girl in blue super saturated mother in red also very saturated
- Buys bullets for gun in super unsaturated store
- Pulls right up to blue face
- Smells fox terrier saturates the scene
- Smokes with Spanish boy scene saturates as well
- Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty
- Live in the moment
- Tries to shoot himself, goes in shower, goes in sleeping bag
- Pees on boy’s face
- Charlotte also in black and white
- I only have you now because you lost Jim
- Loud clock ticks when he tries to kill himself
- Goes to a very saturated flashback where he first meets Jim in a very blue sailor bar
- Cuts back to him trying to shoot himself
- Experience is what a man does with what he’s given
- Swimming scene experiencing present
- We’re invisible
- His watch stops
- Kenny blurs out, light orange water this time
- Breaks the surface of the water, Kenny is sleeping
- Puts gun back in his desk, moon is orange
- Everything is saturated since he sees Kenny again
- He burns suicide note to charlotte
- Has a heart attack gets kissed by Jim
- He dies color saturates
Gosford Park Screening Notes
- Beginning shot starts in puddle pans with car
- Car leaves scene and the camera continues to pan
- Another car enters the scene from the background and Middi is helping get the cap off in the foreground
- Horse also enters scene from the background as cars continue to enter the scene from the background
- Camera pans around and then focuses on the poison
- Couple walks down stairs, guy sees girl camera pans to the two of them as the other girl continues to walk off
- Refers to the help as nobody
- One character pans with servant to another character
- Bright lighting on all of the characters
- Everyone smokes
- Servants quarters are very plain while all the more lavish areas are completely covered in random objects
- Tries to feed dog in the background of conversation
- One woman sadly eating in the background
- Nothing more exhausting than breaking in a new maid
- Uses a tool to see if everything is set perfectly at the table
- Lavish but seemingly desaturated colors in all of the more expensive areas
- One servant committed to slacking off
- Shows strong hierarchy and order even amongst the staff
- Most of the scenes so far have been of the servants as opposed the wealthier ones
- Pretends not to notice the older rich woman
- Rich people sit farther apart at the dinner table than do the servants
- Older dude checking out the servant woman
- See Scottish servant looking around in the background
- All of the rich people complain about the pleasantries and small talk that they have to endure, but that’s all they are
- Henrey attacks Middi and isn’t from Scotland
- Middi turns lights on chubby maid doing it, focuses on poison again, suspect old guy of having relations with staff
- Puts poison on the back of the watch
- Very well composed shots when it is of the wealthy guests, everything is everywhere with the servants
- Lots of mirrors in a lot of the indoor shots
- “Not lucky with cards” Knows about the card cutting for her marriage
- Elsey defends the old rich guys at dinner, is in love with him
- Card cutting woman looks over her shoulder and watches the bridge game
- Servants enjoy the music while rich people get annoyed
- Someone puts on muddy shoes, stabs him
- Calls police in background while all the servants look on
- Talking on the phone, a valet could have done it
- Camera tends to pan with information as it is spread even though they are almost all secrets
- Don’t see actor confess to being an actor
- Sir William was orphan’s father, croft is sister with other old servant woman
- Main servant woman was the poisoner and got pregnant with orphan and sir William was the father
Shark in the Head Screening Notes
- Begins with camera creeping around outside an apartment
- One girl is wearing red, everything else is gray
- Everything is brown and dry during the day
- Girl wearing red again, main character gives he black jacket
- Tries to give away yellow rubber duck from trash can
- Construction outside clanking of pipes turns into a beat and gets music behind the beat
- All the construction men are wearing red, makes friends with them, buys them all beer
- Never see him leave his room
- Lotsss of shadows
- Lights from outside his house form inside
- Stop motion imagination scene, turns them into a water machine, “are you taking a bath”
- It looks like a rain forest here, now with the rain it is one, we’ll make it through
- Watching TV, will the Eves of the world be able to provide for the Adams
- Red bead scene being the cause of lots of destruction and adult problems, then pans to roofs lined in red
- Wheelchair spokes and ice cream
- Looking at the old black and white pictures he finds and then tries to return them to the woman she lets him keep them.
- Trashcans are Mcguffin
- Joke imagination of the news, very simplified news and single words that evoke the news, shark
- Sees animals in the clouds
- Seems like a child trapped in an adults body
- Cuts up the black and white photos, sets them up and the scene transforms to the people on the street standing still, who then move
- Brings red light into his house
- Sees silhouettes together across the street
- Red laser from gun on TV leaves the screen and turns into a red bead in his hand, puts it in a vial
- Bunch of Santa Claus come to the window
- Takes Christmas tree out of the garbage and fixes it up
- Rainbow socks on girl with dog
- Lights all around his building, partiers outside
- Waves washing over his sight
- Wears colorful beanie (Maybe to symbolize colorful imagination/mind)
- His mother transforms to the friendly woman
- Punches holes in his curtain
- Little girl wearing red draws with chalk on the ground, she gets taken away by her mother
- Gives him chalk, things grow/ draw themselves on the ground
- Same guitar sounds for all of the moments where he seems to not be in his own imagination
- House is completely white, his clothes are white paints in orange and yellow
- Scene of hot air balloon turns into a picture
- He really likes chickens
- Bunch of cock-a-doodles and then red beads
- White room, white laundry machine
- Scared to go to a retirement home
- Hand silhouettes, child on window, water noise
- Lets rain fall on him, breathes heavily
- Creepy faces on windows and on the ground
- Leaves champagne on the windowsill
- Close up into his head, friendly woman dancing and wearing blue
- Wears a suit with a ripped out corded phone and talks on it
- Woman tries to walk away from him
- Gets a note in the mail
- Says he’s schizophrenic
- Finally see him enter through the door
- If you start to believe in yourself then you must be god
- Frayed beanie may also mean he's a little crazy
- Frayed beanie may also mean he's a little crazy
- Red beads, pills?
Memento Screening Notes
- Starts by looking at the picture of the dead guy
- Narrator wakes up in a black and white room
- Goes to an abandoned building, finds truck with bullets in the seat.
- Attacks the guy he’s with who is Teddy, Leonard is looking for the guy who killed his wife
- Lenny kills Teddy
- Learn that he has short term memory loss
- Explains how he keeps track of all of the information that he needs, notes and tattoos
- Jumps from one scene to black and white room to beginning of previous scene, going backwards in time in color
- Apparently going forward in black and white, but it is in the past from color
- Goes back to his room to find the map with all the pictures
- Teddy’s name isn’t Teddy and we see all the tattoos on Lenny’s body
- “John G raped and murdered his wife” tattooed on his chest backwards so he can read it in the mirror
- Meets Natalie at the diner, she has also lost someone and will help out of sympathy
- Scars on the faces of Lenny and Natalie
- Has lunch with Teddy, Teddy asks if John G. is still and town and brings up the possibility that someone could be setting Lenny up to murder the wrong person
- Doesn’t trust memory and thinks that it easily falsifiable, memory can change the color of a car and the size of a room
- Sees memory as an illusion to the facts
- Describes his wife to Natalie
- Tells the story of Sammy and how he met him through work and how he has the same memory problem
- Runs into door
- He is living only for revenge (turns out to not be his own revenge)
- He sees some strange recognition in Sammy (Lenny could also be acting)
- Crossed out words on Natalie’s picture
- Test Sammy’s conditioning, but it doesn’t work
- “The present is trivia”
- Natalie sees tattoos for the first time
- Natalie’s boyfriend went to meet a guy named Teddy
- Lenny doesn’t how long his wife has been gone, how can he heal if he doesn’t feel time, he wakes up every morning thinking she’s next to him
- Wakes up in a motel room with a gun and a dude in his closet, Teddy sees the guy
- Sammy’s problem was psychological
- Burns his wife’s things
- Held up Natalie’s picture to Lenny’s and scribbled out “do not trust her” when he saw do not trust Teddy’s lies, written on his
- Dodd thinks Jimmy has money, Teddy took Jimmy’s money
- Jimmy knew Lenny
- Sammy’s wife kills herself with insulin
- Shot of Lenny switched with shot of Sammy, recognition could be faked
- Memory and scene switches triggered by loud bangs
- Gamel is undercover goes by Teddy, Lenny killed real John G. a long time ago thanks to Teddy, but now Teddy has been using Lenny to kill rich drug dealers and take profit, last hit was Jimmy, boyfriend of Natalie who in turn used Lenny to kill Teddy/ exact revenge for using him
- And Lenny is Sammy, he made up the memory and erased the files that would make him remember it in the police report
Lack of clarity- Obvious between the black and white story heading forward and the color story heading backwards, as well as the mini narratives heading backwards.
Lack of unity- Almost always given an effect before we are give the cause, The entire story we are almost looking for the ultimate cause of the whole fiasco and murder of Teddy.
Unconventional Characterization- Narrator doesn’t remember events that are actually going on around him so he is unreliable.
Intrusion- Blatant cuts to show story heading backwards. Also black and white in the past.
Psycho Screening Notes
- Starts with pan over the city, includes date and time
- Rendezvous between Sam and Marion, two want to be together and get married
- Rich guy “buys” off happiness
- Ominous music before she decides to take the money, open suitcase
- White undergarments with Sam, black when she decides to take the money
- Use of music to create overwhelming amounts of tension
- Wide eyed when talking to the cop, no change in expression
- Car dealership foreshadowing, first customer of the day is always trouble, Are you being followed
- Bites lip after leaving the car lot, hears voices that were spoken, but also ones that she imagined would be spoken
- Never blinks
- She uses a fake name, he hesitates when presenting her the key
- He’s a taxidermist who lives with his mom (Come on)
- She says she’s running away to a private island
- Norman likens Marion to one of the stuffed birds
- We’re all in our private traps whether we deliberately step into them or are born into them
- Norman seems well informed on madhouses, insists mother isn’t dangerous
- Marion says that she’s gonna go back to Phoenix
- He sees fake name
- Peeping Tom scene
- Shower scene REE REE REE\
- Asks his mother about the blood, freaks out
- Cleans and disposes of the body
- Smiles as car sinks underwater
- Lila finds Sam and Arbaghast introduces himself
- Nervous interrogation of Bates
- Hides his mother in the basement
- Scene with the cop, Is norman married?
- Sam and Lila go to Bates’
- Mother is dead and Bates attacks, dressed as mother
- Norman murdered the mom and lover
- Mother side is jealous of the Norman side
- Mother’s skull overlays Norman’s face
Full Metal Jacket Screening
Syuzhet
- Started with head shaving
- Exposition on setting of Parris Island
- Jumped right into PT
- First time there’s no screaming, Joker teaching Pyle
- See scenes where rest of the group is punished but you don’t see Pyle mess up
- Beat up scene
- List of murderers affects Pyle
- Called born again hard
- Shooting scene
- Jumps to Vietnam, boots are made for walking, love you long time
- Reporting scene, Joker hasn’t called a confirmed kill, mickey mouse in background
- Base attacked, move to a new location
- Camera crew opinions scene
- Cuts from prostitute scene to scouting
- Big face of Vietnamese leader on building they are heading towards
- Every commanding officer dies, Sniper
- Mickey mouse club song while marching
Diegesis
- In movie chanting and singing
- Speech while watching larger graduation
- Film crew
- Sirens and radio music in the background
Non-diegesis
- Music at the beginning of each movie section
- Joker narration
- Clink in the back of beat up scene and suicide scene
Structure
- Drawn out awkwardness
- Pyle does not fit into the very structured scene
- Two plots
- Line between human/killing machine
Visual Effects
- Same noise at night in beat up and suicide scene
- Filming camera crew scene
- Looking down barrel of gun when it shoots 8-ball
- Cuts when people get shot
