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beccaelizabethI have finally watched the last ten minutes of Vertigo, when he figures it out and reacts.
bit awesome, bit shiny, bit make you jump
:-D
I liked how there were a whole bunch of possible endings right up until the last second, and then once the ending happened, click, it was The ending, the only inevitable one.
I must watch again, maybe with a commentary on or something.
Now I am watching The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
It's for National Cinema, the one I missed a 90 minute lesson for. I haven't finished reading all the reading, but it is reading about the film, so I am watching the film. And not just because the reading is all about the oedipus complex. Although quite a lot that really.
The wonky expressionist sets remind me of lots of things. They're pretty cool.
The city in Labyrinth is a lot like that.
... somnabulist? He's keeping a sleepwalker in a box?
I like the ridiculous eye makeup making them all stare glare.
There's all the bit about the long night he's in and stuff, he's not a dude asleep, he's a spook thing.
The dude who just got told he'll live until dawn keeps reminding me of people. But only by blinks, and lots of different people. It's weird.
The acting is a bit hard to be gonig along with. It clearly matches the sets, and you have no trouble figuring what they're portraying, and you wouldn't even on a very much fuzzier screen, it's just they're doing the 3D version of :-( or something, so they are very funny looking.
also, it seems like I've been watching it forever but its only 26 minutes.
Slow film is slow.
I know, the past was, mostly.
*pauses to make toast*
*runs out of bread*
The more of this film I watch, the more I think that very very long thing that used all the long sentences and weird words and was mostly about oedipal was actually making the vast majority of it up. Was possibly even talking complete garbage. :eyeroll:
It had a lot to say about this being meta narrative about the cinema too.
Because... fascination and hypnotism and telling actors what to do? I can't remember so much while watching this cause it makes less sense. But that part will be why we're studying it.
I thought the long thing we were supposed to read talked about this abducting the girl bit as if that were the plan all along, but he was about to stab her and then he saw her and then he grabbed her. Did I miss something or did they?
Dude sees she's gone and faceplants in the bed. Way to be useful dude! :eyeroll: more.
So now Cesare's carrying her away and she's dead weight. Is she meant to be dead or does she just not get to struggle or be any use at all? And then he drops her and runs.
He's got the zombie arms on, big outstretched forward stumbling... and then it's daybreak and he collapses. If I'm reading the change in colors right AND the colors are part of the original and not just a way to be mildly less boring now.
Night is for spooks.
Girl is all fainted now... and now she wakes up with her eyes all rolled up. Staring eyes of scaaaaaaared next. Acting! No, wait AAAAACTIIIIING! This is capslock acting.
It's Cesare! It's not, he was watching! It is cause she makes thumpy hands!
Hmmm, wonder if the one on the web has different things written down. Urgh, now I gots to watch it twice? No, we'll watch it in class too.
The essay thing seems to find the lack of motives significant. Keeps trying to find ways it was secretly x or y. It isn't mysterious, it's just stuff happening.
There's a dummy in the somnambulist box! So, did Cesare secretly escape, or did he secretly be always a dummy? It's a weird spooky movie, you never know.
Caligari hides in the insane asylum?
Caligari is director! Bwah hah hah haaaaah!
You fail, detective guy. Caligari is the boss of you.
Oh and now he faints and starts calling the director a murderer. Rather than running to get someone who can substantiate his story.
They let him out anyway? Wow, it's like random pshrinks aren't evil.
And now they're poking around Caligari's office to find the big book of spooky excuses for the plot.
Somnambulism in a book. What's it meant to mean in this anyway? Not just people being asleep.
Caligari in a book! So is the director THAT Caligari, still going strong since 1703? Spooooook.
The book tells you the plot. So the story has the story in it.
And now his diary is doing explaining.
I like how he sits at his desk hugging two piles of books. My books! Miiiiine!
This dude that's always asleep, it sounds more like dude in a coma. Whatever, it's creepy using him to do stuff. Even without the murders part.
Now Caligari is doing Eeeeeeevil LOLs.
But all of that was through a little zoom in on the diary, so it's what they think of while they're reading.
The frame stories and layers was one of the points in the essay.
So no, the director now wants to figure out what Caligari knew and if his experiment can be repeated. Nice. Murder, for science!
Now Caligari appears to be humping his desk. Or possibly asleep on it face down. "In the grip of an obsession!" says the intertitle. Er, yeah...
"I must penetrate to the heart of his secret" the writing proclaims. Er, yeah, okay freud dude, not entirely making it up there.
Now he stumbles about while the world writes letters for him. You know I think the first episode of Alphas started roughly the same way. Or that X Files episode where there were secret messages in digital displays.
out of flashback, back to the director's office, that's some depressed looking pshrink dudes. The boss be crazy! That's like, total fail.
Now they've found the sleeper in the fields. That's nice. has he been there all day or hasn't it been that long? Well it's dark again, it was at least one day. Is he dead or just asleep? Well they bring him back to the insane asylum but with a blanket on. And it's over his face. Dead yet?
Confrontation! Detective vs pshrink director!
blanket pull reveal!
Caligari faints.
You know I used to faint quite often but I've got nothing on movie dudes.
Oh, wait, he's just collapsed over the proably dead guy. He gets up and tries to strangle someone instead.
Straitjacket tiem!
All tidy, The End. ... except it's not the end yet.
Caligari flaps around and makes BIG STARING EEEEEEYES. Dude, the hug yourself jacket is on, be zen about it now.
The End?
No, back to the framing narrative. He's sitting in the garden telling someone all this, and his fiancee walked past being all sleepwalkerish at the beginning.
He says the madman hasn't left his cell since he got caught.
But now he's done with telling the story they're back in the insane asylum and everyone is being nutters. The pretty girl in white is there in a princess sparkly hat and is that Cesare walking around? Yep, dude just jumped and hid behind someone. "Never ask him to tell your fortune or you're a dead one" Yeah, he's not looking so scary though, playing with flowers.
So then the detective dude sees the pretty princess girl and goes over to her but she's all checked out of this universe. He's all "I love you" and she's all "We queens... are not permitted to follow the dictates of our hearts." Oops, I'd demoted her, that's a pretty Queen hat then.
So basically we watched that whole film and then this framing story undermines the authority of the narrator, as previously stated by the long essay bit. So it might have just been shit he made up. Which would go with the very expressionist sets, the frame doesn't so much have, the middle bit that is maybe in his brain is all twisted.
"You all think I'm insane! It isn't true - it's the director who's insane!!"
Straitjacket tiem for detective dude! Hug yourself better!
He's locked in the same cell. And the director hasn't got his funny makeup on but he does have his glasses. And he does staring and makes him calm.
So, is it about how Caligari won, or about how the detective dude was never any such, and possibly was the killer instead, or possibly was making it all up.
Caligari shall Cure Him!
... iris down on Caligari's face aaaand... The End!
So it's like the 'it was all a dream' ending, but also not like it at all. Because either or both could be telling bits of truth. I mean, the dude was clearly not nailed on tight by the time he was in the straitjacket, but that don't mean he wasn't right about the murders part first. Just in spooooooooky world logic all the middle of the film could work, but in ordinary logic the whole thing could be told by a madman. And yet if he was telling it true then Caligari dude would be in the hug jacket and not Director any more. So maybe it was true up until he tried persuading everyone their boss was a mythical murderer? Possible, yet not indicated. It's all slidey about which bits actually happened.
Which is either clever or cheating, depending.
That was quite fun. Now we get to study it in class until it's not fun at all.
Today I did the laundry, did the dishwashering, hung up the laundry, let the cleaner in and out, remembered the bins, and ate soup for lunch.
I feel this makes up for yesterday, where I messed around on the internet, slept between 7am and 7pm, stayed awake until 0300 mixing a bit of the college reading with the internet some more, and then slept from 0300 to 0900.
Now I have to stay awake until 2100 because that's the last minute my food can arrive.
... am hoping it arrives at 1900 instead. Sleepy now.
I still have a bazillion pages of reading.
And all the lessons are on the same day so it's hard to prioritise.
There's a gap before the cinema lesson though. I should do short story first and risk last minute library use for the cinema stuff.
bit awesome, bit shiny, bit make you jump
:-D
I liked how there were a whole bunch of possible endings right up until the last second, and then once the ending happened, click, it was The ending, the only inevitable one.
I must watch again, maybe with a commentary on or something.
Now I am watching The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
It's for National Cinema, the one I missed a 90 minute lesson for. I haven't finished reading all the reading, but it is reading about the film, so I am watching the film. And not just because the reading is all about the oedipus complex. Although quite a lot that really.
The wonky expressionist sets remind me of lots of things. They're pretty cool.
The city in Labyrinth is a lot like that.
... somnabulist? He's keeping a sleepwalker in a box?
I like the ridiculous eye makeup making them all stare glare.
There's all the bit about the long night he's in and stuff, he's not a dude asleep, he's a spook thing.
The dude who just got told he'll live until dawn keeps reminding me of people. But only by blinks, and lots of different people. It's weird.
The acting is a bit hard to be gonig along with. It clearly matches the sets, and you have no trouble figuring what they're portraying, and you wouldn't even on a very much fuzzier screen, it's just they're doing the 3D version of :-( or something, so they are very funny looking.
also, it seems like I've been watching it forever but its only 26 minutes.
Slow film is slow.
I know, the past was, mostly.
*pauses to make toast*
*runs out of bread*
The more of this film I watch, the more I think that very very long thing that used all the long sentences and weird words and was mostly about oedipal was actually making the vast majority of it up. Was possibly even talking complete garbage. :eyeroll:
It had a lot to say about this being meta narrative about the cinema too.
Because... fascination and hypnotism and telling actors what to do? I can't remember so much while watching this cause it makes less sense. But that part will be why we're studying it.
I thought the long thing we were supposed to read talked about this abducting the girl bit as if that were the plan all along, but he was about to stab her and then he saw her and then he grabbed her. Did I miss something or did they?
Dude sees she's gone and faceplants in the bed. Way to be useful dude! :eyeroll: more.
So now Cesare's carrying her away and she's dead weight. Is she meant to be dead or does she just not get to struggle or be any use at all? And then he drops her and runs.
He's got the zombie arms on, big outstretched forward stumbling... and then it's daybreak and he collapses. If I'm reading the change in colors right AND the colors are part of the original and not just a way to be mildly less boring now.
Night is for spooks.
Girl is all fainted now... and now she wakes up with her eyes all rolled up. Staring eyes of scaaaaaaared next. Acting! No, wait AAAAACTIIIIING! This is capslock acting.
It's Cesare! It's not, he was watching! It is cause she makes thumpy hands!
Hmmm, wonder if the one on the web has different things written down. Urgh, now I gots to watch it twice? No, we'll watch it in class too.
The essay thing seems to find the lack of motives significant. Keeps trying to find ways it was secretly x or y. It isn't mysterious, it's just stuff happening.
There's a dummy in the somnambulist box! So, did Cesare secretly escape, or did he secretly be always a dummy? It's a weird spooky movie, you never know.
Caligari hides in the insane asylum?
Caligari is director! Bwah hah hah haaaaah!
You fail, detective guy. Caligari is the boss of you.
Oh and now he faints and starts calling the director a murderer. Rather than running to get someone who can substantiate his story.
They let him out anyway? Wow, it's like random pshrinks aren't evil.
And now they're poking around Caligari's office to find the big book of spooky excuses for the plot.
Somnambulism in a book. What's it meant to mean in this anyway? Not just people being asleep.
Caligari in a book! So is the director THAT Caligari, still going strong since 1703? Spooooook.
The book tells you the plot. So the story has the story in it.
And now his diary is doing explaining.
I like how he sits at his desk hugging two piles of books. My books! Miiiiine!
This dude that's always asleep, it sounds more like dude in a coma. Whatever, it's creepy using him to do stuff. Even without the murders part.
Now Caligari is doing Eeeeeeevil LOLs.
But all of that was through a little zoom in on the diary, so it's what they think of while they're reading.
The frame stories and layers was one of the points in the essay.
So no, the director now wants to figure out what Caligari knew and if his experiment can be repeated. Nice. Murder, for science!
Now Caligari appears to be humping his desk. Or possibly asleep on it face down. "In the grip of an obsession!" says the intertitle. Er, yeah...
"I must penetrate to the heart of his secret" the writing proclaims. Er, yeah, okay freud dude, not entirely making it up there.
Now he stumbles about while the world writes letters for him. You know I think the first episode of Alphas started roughly the same way. Or that X Files episode where there were secret messages in digital displays.
out of flashback, back to the director's office, that's some depressed looking pshrink dudes. The boss be crazy! That's like, total fail.
Now they've found the sleeper in the fields. That's nice. has he been there all day or hasn't it been that long? Well it's dark again, it was at least one day. Is he dead or just asleep? Well they bring him back to the insane asylum but with a blanket on. And it's over his face. Dead yet?
Confrontation! Detective vs pshrink director!
blanket pull reveal!
Caligari faints.
You know I used to faint quite often but I've got nothing on movie dudes.
Oh, wait, he's just collapsed over the proably dead guy. He gets up and tries to strangle someone instead.
Straitjacket tiem!
All tidy, The End. ... except it's not the end yet.
Caligari flaps around and makes BIG STARING EEEEEEYES. Dude, the hug yourself jacket is on, be zen about it now.
The End?
No, back to the framing narrative. He's sitting in the garden telling someone all this, and his fiancee walked past being all sleepwalkerish at the beginning.
He says the madman hasn't left his cell since he got caught.
But now he's done with telling the story they're back in the insane asylum and everyone is being nutters. The pretty girl in white is there in a princess sparkly hat and is that Cesare walking around? Yep, dude just jumped and hid behind someone. "Never ask him to tell your fortune or you're a dead one" Yeah, he's not looking so scary though, playing with flowers.
So then the detective dude sees the pretty princess girl and goes over to her but she's all checked out of this universe. He's all "I love you" and she's all "We queens... are not permitted to follow the dictates of our hearts." Oops, I'd demoted her, that's a pretty Queen hat then.
So basically we watched that whole film and then this framing story undermines the authority of the narrator, as previously stated by the long essay bit. So it might have just been shit he made up. Which would go with the very expressionist sets, the frame doesn't so much have, the middle bit that is maybe in his brain is all twisted.
"You all think I'm insane! It isn't true - it's the director who's insane!!"
Straitjacket tiem for detective dude! Hug yourself better!
He's locked in the same cell. And the director hasn't got his funny makeup on but he does have his glasses. And he does staring and makes him calm.
So, is it about how Caligari won, or about how the detective dude was never any such, and possibly was the killer instead, or possibly was making it all up.
Caligari shall Cure Him!
... iris down on Caligari's face aaaand... The End!
So it's like the 'it was all a dream' ending, but also not like it at all. Because either or both could be telling bits of truth. I mean, the dude was clearly not nailed on tight by the time he was in the straitjacket, but that don't mean he wasn't right about the murders part first. Just in spooooooooky world logic all the middle of the film could work, but in ordinary logic the whole thing could be told by a madman. And yet if he was telling it true then Caligari dude would be in the hug jacket and not Director any more. So maybe it was true up until he tried persuading everyone their boss was a mythical murderer? Possible, yet not indicated. It's all slidey about which bits actually happened.
Which is either clever or cheating, depending.
That was quite fun. Now we get to study it in class until it's not fun at all.
Today I did the laundry, did the dishwashering, hung up the laundry, let the cleaner in and out, remembered the bins, and ate soup for lunch.
I feel this makes up for yesterday, where I messed around on the internet, slept between 7am and 7pm, stayed awake until 0300 mixing a bit of the college reading with the internet some more, and then slept from 0300 to 0900.
Now I have to stay awake until 2100 because that's the last minute my food can arrive.
... am hoping it arrives at 1900 instead. Sleepy now.
I still have a bazillion pages of reading.
And all the lessons are on the same day so it's hard to prioritise.
There's a gap before the cinema lesson though. I should do short story first and risk last minute library use for the cinema stuff.
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-08 12:08 am (UTC)The creepy director playing puppetmaster was supposed to symbolize how a bunch of similarly creepy old dudes sent uncountable numbers of young men to their deaths in WWI. Madman running the asylum, playing God.
The meddling executives, whoever they were, decided that ending was too subversive, so they insisted a new ending be tacked on where the narrator is insane and OF COURSE the Authority Figure is good and trustworthy and will make it better. He's a good guy. Really. Tru-u-ust himmm... *spooky hypnotic voice*
Except that since we've been seeing him for so long as this scary puppetmaster, this ending is even worse. For all we know, the madman is still running the asylum and has bamboozled everybody into thinking the Only Sane Man is insane, so don't listen to him.
The executives must have been a bit thick.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-08 09:55 pm (UTC)