Bridget Thrift

European Cinema Minutes

19 Jan. 2005                                                                                                   

            As class began Dr. Reimer passed out the sign in sheet as well as list for the seating chart. He explained that the list was so he could begin to learn names. Dr. Reimer also discussed how to access the Film Studies website and where to find previous examples of minutes. It was also mentioned that power point lectures would be included into the current class minutes on the website so that the class does not have to use so much time writing down notes.

            First, Dr. Reimer discussed the importance of mise en scène. In films, the mise en scène is always changing. Some important factors in mise en scène include: dominant, lighting key, shot and camera proxemics, angle, color value, etc. Then, Dr. Reimer explained into a little greater detail what some of these ideas were. He gave the example of the movie Tootsie for dominant and The Truman Show for talking about open/closed form.

            After discussing several of the ideas that are involved in mise en scène, Dr. Reimer wanted to show a few clips of movies such as La Strada, L’eclise, and  Breathless.

            Dr. Reimer began by giving a small summary from the movie La Strada. We were informed that the female character tells the husband she can’t put up with the abuse anymore and that she is leaving. La Strada can be translated to mean “the road”. The road describes the main characters jounney through life and to self. The scene shows the woman at a roadside. Shortly, men pass by her playing some instruments and immediately grab her attention. She follows them into the town. Once in the town, the woman is in the middle of some sort of religious procession. Dr Reimer wanted us to focus on the composure of the scenes once in the town and contrast them with the naturalness of the scene that preceded them.

            The next clip that we watched was from Christinane F: the children of the stop at the Zoo. It was a drug movie that dealt with heroin addicts who were young kids really trying to quit their addiction cold turkey. We watched the two suffering from withdrawal of the drugs. The girl was ripping away the wallpaper, revealing her past wallpaper. The toy motif in the wallpaper  emphasizes the fact that the girl was still only a child. This film was a German film that Dr. Reimer emphasized as havinga  depressing ending, as many German films do.

            After watching these clips we returned to the power point presentation. We began to discuss the section of movement. Dr. Reimer stated that the word cinema has Greek origins. We then learned of types of movement such as pan, tilts, crane shorts, camera movement, people movement, etc. Promptly, Dr. Reimer followed up a generalized meaning of the terms with more specific details. For his examples he used Gone with the Wind to describe the usage of a crane, The Blair Witch Project for a hand-held portable camera.

            At the end of the class Dr. Reimer was discussing the movement of characters and how whether coming towards or going away from the camera creates different meanings. For example, coming towards the camera is seen as a sign of aggression or to introduce a character. Going away from the camera implies that we are saying goodbye. Dr. Reimer used Trainspotting as an example of the character coming towards the camera. We are led to believe he has given up drugs and will start his life anew but the way the scene blurs as he approaches suggests that perhaps he is lying.

            The class came to an end and we all dispersed until the next meeting.