Blost Post #2 Film Noir

In the Documentary of Film Noir, Director Kathryn Bigelow states "The more he tries to radicate the situation the worst it gets". The way that I believe that this quote applys to the movie "Double Idemnity", is that Walter who we know is the killer is trying to cover up his tracks for the murderer of his lovers husband. The more and more that Walter tries to cover up his tracks with himself and his love affair with Phyllis the more and more worst the situation gets. In saying this he and Phyllis can no longer take such stress from it all that Walter murders not only her husband but her as well. In doing all this he cant keep covering up his tracks and soon throughout the movie we find out he has been recording the truth all along. This quote goes so well in fitting this movie as the more and more Walter tries to make everything seem as though it will be okay in the end he gets caught and just made the situation worst in him getting shot and dieing to at the end of the film.


In the Film "Double Idemnity" Phyllis comes across at first as a sweet innocent yet seductive character. As we get through seeing her character we realize she isnt so sweet and see her "femme fatale" come across. What makes her a femme fatale is that she is determined to get her husband killed but she wont do it without anyones help. She wants someone to do it for her and she is a person who will get what she wants no matter how far she has to go. In watching we find out she had killed her husbands ex-wife just so she could be with him. She is a typical femme fatal as she is attractive and seductive and whichever man she is with he will ultimatley be in a huge disater because of her. In the documentary Director Errol Morris states "We dont know whats going on but we know its something bad". This clearly goes with this film as we dont exactly get what is happening and why she wants this to happen and for what reason but we know they both are up to no good.


The camera angles used in "Double Idemnity" to help create the world of film noir feel would be when they shot the clip of Walter speaking into the mic of the recording of the events going on. This gave the audience the feeling of realism as if they are there next to him listening to him record himself. You can see the sweat dripping from his face. The next scene where this feel was when Phyllis and Walter were together in realism that they cannot get awat from the cops. The form of how they both have a look of suspicion keeps the audience guessing what are they going to do next and when is she going to pull out the gun.


To me I actually now like the black and white colored films because they give the audience more thinking of what colors are being disguised. Black and white gives it more of a suspicious and mysterious look to the film that keeps it interesting. I really like it because its main focus too is on the characters and not on whats going on around them. As this main focus can keep the person on top of what is going to happen next and stay on track of the film. Film Noir style gives that of a scary style. It keeps you wanting to watch. Never would I see myself watching such a film as I thought they were boring but to be honest they actually are more interesting than the ones being made today. You can see the details being made and the realism in the shots are shown in the form of the camera being placed.

       

Blog Post#1 What Makes a Movie Compelling

To me what I feel makes a movies compelling would be, how the directors are able to grasp the attention of their audiences. Through not only their previews on the commercials but also on how their movies start and grasp the full on attention of the viewers that makes them not want to leave their chair. The movie needs to have an interesting story behind it to make it seem as though it were something that is really happening. To have the movie be noteworthy it would have to have well written scripts and story lines. The movie to me would need to be filled with mystery and have the audience try and figure out what will happen next. Suspense is what the movie needs for sure. In the case of the movie being deserving of an award it would to me have to contain well played actors. Actors who are somewhat more famous, but are actors who do the job well. It would need to be well directed and well made. The actors who can portray the script well are too ones who deserve an award. The last reason why I believe that a movie deserves an award is when after watching the movie; you want to watch it over and over and over again. That for me is a well written movie and a movie that in my view deserves and award.

 In watching Le Voyage dans la lune(A Trip to the Moon), and The Great Train Robbery, the movie that most caught my attention and kept me wanting to keep watching more for what will happen was The Great Train Robbery. In regards to both movies how they measure up to my criteria, they both actually did a well job on making the movies with interesting story lines. Both these movies have a story behind it. To be honest the silent films so to say without the music, actually kept my attention in trying to figure out what they were saying. Each time they made a movement and moved on to the next scene I then figured out what they said. I never found silent films to be interesting but after watching both the movies I now look at them in a different way. The Great Train Robbery was my favorite of the two as the way it starts off I'm already so interested in what they are going to do next with the man they are tieing up.

 My criteria in movies isn’t much of a big list to look up to but by watching both movies, they clearly met up to almost most if not all my opinions on what makes a movie to great. Two of my favorite films would have to be Mean Girls, and End of Watch. These are two of many great films that I like to see. Now the reason I choose to use these two was because they both are of different genres. One is drama and comedy, as for the other is drama, thriller, and somewhat of real life incidents that occur. In speaking about Mean Girls, directed by Mark Walters, this movie meets by criteria by first of all its a comedy that caught me there, two it was and is a movie that when I first saw it on the commercials it was a for sure movie I wanted to watch. In watching the film it kept me so into watching it to see what was going to happen next with the so called "mean girls". It was a movie that made me not want to leave my seat and was a movie that in some ways was real life because things like that do happen in high school. Why it meets my criteria well the explanation is there. This was a film that had two famous actors, Lindsey Lohan and Rachel McAdams. It had a story to tell and it was told well. In speaking about the film End of Watch, directed by David Ayer, this film meets all of my criteria that I look for in a movie. This movie had me literally at the edge of my seat. I did not want to move nor blinlk, as I did not want to miss one second of this film. This film not only had action, great story, great acting, but as well had some comedy entied to it and the scenes shown in the movie showed exactly what a cop may be witnessing on their day to day lives in pertaining their jobs. This movie met my criteria by keeping my attention the whole time the movie was playing, after watching the movie I went back and saw it 3 times in the theaters and now I am going to buy the dvd. This movie kept me wanting more. Even at the end of the movie I was so intersted in finding out what is going to happen to the cop that survived. It kept me wanting more.

I have placed photos of both movies the first two are the cover photos of the movies
The next two photos are just simply from the film
The films placed are the trailers for both movies
The last two photos are quotes from the movies
                          

                             

My Interest in Film

 My interest in Film isnt to much of me being an avid film buff as stated but I do enjoy watching movies here and there. I normally on watch movies when someone else wants me to go view the movie with them or when I am interested and eager to see the movie. I dont collect movies but rather perfer watching movies on netflix or ordering them from redbox. My father is a real movie lover and almost goes every once a week sometimes twice to the movies to see the new releases that just came out. I am however very interested in learning about the art of film and learning about how films developed from a simple silent movie, to a 3D effect movie. I love to watch all types of movies but my favortie ones too see are, true life stories, documentaries, love story movies, comdey. Im not a big action film fan but I do watch them. My favortie movie for comedy would be mean girls, and dumb and dumber. One movie I am however addicted to watching a lot is the "End of Watch". I dont know why I find that movie so thrilling but I just cant get tired of seeing it. Well thats a little something about my interest in Film. I am eager to learn more about how movies are transformed into what we see on screen, as from reading the book on chapter 1 of intro to film I already am amazed at how I was not even looking at the small details that the movie makers do to grasp our attention toward the movies.