European Film

Minutes from class meeting May 28, 2002

Note: The class began with an announcement that the scheduled topic of discussion for the day, The Other Hollywood in the Silent Era, would be postponed until later in the class so that the previous day’s topic could be finished.

Film Clips and Analysis

Film #1

The Matrix:  Directed by two Chicago Polish-Americans  men (brothers) who intended to make an action film that would appeal to a broad audience and would be a treatment of the themes of Intellectual Awakening and a journey (perhaps psychological and/or substance-induced.)

The clip viewed was the first minute of the second sequence of the film.  The scene contains several references to the themes mentioned and alludes to texts that treat the same.

1.      At scene opening, Neo is sleeping and wakes to a message on his computer screen that reads, “Wake up!”

2.      A white rabbit is an allusion to the fantastic story, Alice in Wonderland.

3.      Text on the computer screen reads, “The matrix has you!” Implying that Neo is not merely sleeping.

4.      Neo hides his contraband in a book with no pages but bearing the title Simulacra and Simulacrum by Jean Baudrillard.

5.      “Neo” is from the Latin for “New, implying Neo is the new man .”  The new man was a concept used by German theater and film in the teens and twenties of the previous century.

6.      That same theatrical movement dealt with the philosophies that contended obedience to an ideology can prevent one from recognizing the pathos of the ideology and thus lead to self-imprisonment.

Film #2

Winter Sleepers by Tom Tykwer:  Clip of German film is the length of the credits.  The scenes, ongoing while the credits played, are used to introduce the characters and set up the situation that will bring them together in the situations of the plot.  The use of the opening credits sequence to introduce the plot and characters has come into its own in the last 30 years.

1.      The characters, although not shown together are connected by several symbolic references to their common fates.  The symbolism is overt and to some “artsy.”

A.     Each character wears a color that has an attraction for another: red and blue; green and brown (earth tones).

B.     Each character shown in relation to some aspect of sleep: one has cut her finger (like sleeping beauty); another enters into a bar called Sleepers.

C.     All of the main characters are asked the same question, “Are you leaving today?”  To which they all respond, “Yes.”

2.      Hypnotic piano plays.

3.      The sequence of arbitrary events set into motion during the opening scenes culminate in death.

Film #3

La Femme Nikita

The scene viewed was the assassination that took place at a restaurant.  The culture that produced the film is reflected therein if it is “realistic.”

1.      The original (French) version portrays Nikita as vulnerable, feminine and a resourceful assassin.

A.     She does not have an opportunity to refuse.  She is seated next to the table of the target. 

B.     She is dressed very seductively.

C.     She fires on-camera but the bullets hit off-camera.  Then, angles show her fleeing away.

D.     Ensuing scene in kitchen: all camera shots show her confined and blocked in.  She reacts on instinct- she does not see the weapon loaded.

2.      The state has forced her to kill for it, despite that she was condemned for   killing.  A transgression has occurred against her and the audience’s emotions have been “fooled” by showing her socialization and femminenisation all for the ends of being an effective assassin.

3.      Cultural (French) ideas about violence against women are treated in this film.

Film #4

Point of No Return: The clip viewed was assassination at restaurant.

1.       This Hollywood remake of La Femme Nikita is a film which does not portray the woman as vulnerable.

A.     The director places the assassination upstairs from where the woman was seated.  Slow-motion shot up the stairs to assassinate the target and leap over railing show her as tough.

B.     Direction does not show her trapped or vulnerable.

1.      She sees the weapon loaded.

2.      She dives through obstacles in the kitchen.

2.       Violence against women is a relative non-issue in this film.

A.     Scene in the restroom: the gunman hesitates to shoot the woman and is then shot himself.  She is unhesitating and therefore in “control.”

Film #5  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , a Silent film from 1920 Germany.  The doctor’s monster kills those who slighted him.

1.      Horror of post- World War One time period in Germany reflected in this film.

Social pathology that could kill people in their sleep reflects state of general social dis-ease; pandemic; disfigurement; economic poverty; destroyed lives

2.      The director’s internal angst is expressed in the set design.  This is an example of expressionism.

A.     Obscure and hard lines in the set.

B.  Monster enters through narrow, darkened doorway.