Last Thursday, we discussed Japanese films and saw previews of Gojira and Godzilla, the short film Bambi vs. Godzilla, and a clip from Yasuhiro Ozu’s Late Spring.
Tuesday’s class focuses on Soviet cinema: social realism, and the directors Mikhail Kalatov and Andrei Tarkovsky.
The Tuesday night film is the Swedish film Persona directed by Ingmar Bergman.
Write about any of the films seen and ideas discussed that interest you.
Deadline: Wednesday, February 15, 12:00 Midnight
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El filme “Personas” de Ingmar Bergaman fue uno muy confuso. Bergman usa mucho los “close-ups” para presentar el aspecto psicológico de los personajes. Así no usando los movimientos de cámara, para obligar al espectador estudiar los rostros de los personajes.
Lo interesante de esta película, es que tiene como título la palabra persona y no se trata sobre un individuo o de como son los personajes, sino, de las diferentes identidades, o aspectos que la persona proyecta.
Los temas que se presentan en el filme toman diferentes significados para Alma, como para Elisabet también. Estos temas son de experiencias de la vida, sobre niños y sobre relaciones de amor.
Básicamente esta película es un monólogo de Alma, ya que ella cuenta su vida, por la ausencia de habla de Elisabet. En algunos casos, este monólogo incesante es interrumpido por una que otra palabra de Elisabet. En una escena, cuando presentan el discurso repetido, primero muestran un “close-up” de Alma y luego otro de Elisabet, así juntando ambos rostros. Mostrando así, las diferencias y similitudes de ambas mujeres.
En cuanto el corto de Bambi vs. Godzilla fue uno muy extraño e inesperado.
Persona is an excellent movie which incorporates a very good script, combining the shots and the scenography to increase the psychoanalytical environment. This movie maintains uncertainty during the entire movie, leaving the viewer with a free opinion about what happened. Different opinions were redacted about the plot. A New York Times article suggest a question:” Was this something that happened, or a dream?”, positing that maybe was a dream. For sure, in my opinion, there was a psychological problem involved, such as a post-traumatic problem in Elisabeth Vogler due to undesired events which involves her in the acting of what have happened if those undesired events actually have happened, in where the main character was Elisabeth’s Persona, Alma.
In addition to the plot, some scenes give the idea that the actors were in a theater, as is the scene when Alma wakes up in the lonely room, which incorporates a different kind of perspective. There was interesting changes of light intensity, probably incorporated to create a dramatic/suspense sense.
Mikhail Kalatozov left me dumbfounded. I only wish we could have watched the whole movie in class, instead of only 10 or 15 minutes. In the little bit we saw, the camera movement really impressed me. Especially after having talked about Russian cinema beforehand, because it was mentioned that they were always trying to seem strong and heroic. The people in the films were presented as symbols of “Mother Russia”, not as flawed and human characters. The first excerpt we saw in class was from a film that was just like that. It had a lot of nationalism and the face of Stalin was seen everywhere; the soldiers and politicians (I assume) looked so proud and stoic. However, Kalatozov’s film “The Cranes are Flying” revolved around the humanity of a family, especially the son and his lovely girlfriend. The proud father even made fun of the whole patriotic thing when two girls came to their doorstep on behalf of the government. He sat them down and as a proud father and proud Russian drank to his son, who funnily enough went to his room afterward and discarded the gifts the girls had brought him with no interest at all.
Still, what really amused me about this film was the camera work! Especially the hand-held shot that begins inside the bus and follows the girlfriend through a crowd only to end up in what seems to be a crane shot when she passes through the army tanks. It was awesome! Better than some camera work done nowadays. Another great take was when Boris is walking through the crowd looking for his girl. Here the camera moves as if it was a ghost, through the scene as if it was nothing at all, and at the same time capturing all the different reactions and emotions that surrounded a moment like that in real life. The reality of the film and the cleverness of the camera movement has really compelled me to look up more information about this movie and to search for other similar. Perhaps more from the Russian cinema.
In addition to, I would like to mention that the director Ingmar Bergman has a good sense about how to combine what is a classical theater with the cinema and photography.
La pelicula “Persona” considero que es una pelicula con una tematica muy compleja e interesante. Por lo que vi de élla el director trabaja con unos angulos de camara impresionantes, en donde se puedo apreciar de una manera explicita las expreciones de los actores al frente de la camara. La utilizacion de tener a un personaje en el primer plano y otro en el segundo plano es reveladora al espectador. Por que en élla se puede ver el sentimiento y la expresión de los personajes sin perder en lujo de detalles lo que se presenta en la pantalla. El dialogo en esta pelicula lo vi como algo de suma importacia para entender la historia. Algo que es un poco difícil de enteder dado a la complejidad que le da el Director a sus peliculas. El final fue algo estraño dado que te hace pensar que todo fue la escena de una pelicula, que todo estaba friamente calculado, o que solamente el director queria dejar ese sabor “amargo”a los espectadores de la pelicula.