At
the beginning of class we finished our discussion of Life is Beautiful. We watched several different clips from the movie.
We did this so that we could watch clips during the next part of class
and understand where Beningi got the inspiration for many of his scenes in Life
is Beautiful.
We watch five clips in class that related to Life is Beautiful in
some way and were also about the holocaust.
They are discussed below:
1.
Opfer—This
film is a 1940’s Nazi propoganda film
>This
clip had a narrator speaking directly to the audience.
He was telling of how cripples, mentally ill, and handicap individuals
were using up all of the “superior” race’s resources.
It showed pictures of mentally ill while insulting them and calling them
unresponsive to their environment.
>We
watched this clip to remember how true Nazi policy really was.
>Dr.
Reimer told the class that he presented this clip to the class so that we could
understand where some of the Life is Beautiful critics were getting their
negative criticisms from. Many of
the critics who did not like Life is Beautiful said that the humor was
not appropriate for the subject matter. Opfer
reminds us of how serious and horrifying the subject matter really is.
2.
Europa
Europa—A
1990 film by Agnieszka Holland
Ø
This film
is based on a true story of a young Jewish boy who survives the holocaust in an
elite German school. The story
takes place between 1938 and 1945. It
has been criticized because of its sexual references and because, like Life
is Beautiful, of it’s use of humor to approach the subject of the
holocaust.
Ø
The clip
we saw showed a teacher telling the Jewish boy’s class what a Jewish person
physically looks like. The teacher
eventually stands up the Jewish boy and shows the class what a mixed, but still
superior race looks like.
Ø
This clip
was funny because of its irony. The
audience was aware that the boy was Jewish and not Aryan.
Ø
The clip,
like the school inspector clip from Life is Beautiful, makes fun of the
Nazi’s by putting the joke on them. Also
like Life is Beautiful, many critics found the humor of this film more
offensive than entertaining.
3.
Triumph
of the Will—A
1934/5 film by Leni Riefesntal
>This clip was a long clip of Hitler riding in a car waving his hand and hundreds of people saluting him with the Nazi salute.
>This
clip is one of the most quoted movies in post World War II movies. Movies such as Star Wars, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Jewel
of the Nile and Rocky Horror Picture Show have all quoted from Triumph
of the Will.
>The
clip we saw was imitated using humor in one of the opening scenes of Life is
Beautiful.
>The director Lien Riefestahl, was one of the
few Nazi directors that was not allowed back in the film industry due to the
content of her films.
4.
Heil
No More—a
1943 anti-nazi comedy by the Three Stooges
>This
is a clip where the Three Stooges made fun of the Nazi’s, especially Hitler.
>We
watched this clip simply to show that Benigni was not alone in using humor to
approach the holocaust, and that it had been done long before Life is
Beautiful.
5.
Love
and Anarchy—a
1973 film directed by Lena Wertmueller
>This is a film about a common Italian man who has become so aggravated with Mussolini that he takes it upon himself to assassinate Mussolini.
Ø This clip starts with Wertmueller explaining who Mussolini is and then skips to the main character in a brothel during dinner.
Ø
This clip was showing the evil’s in Italy, not just Germany
Music in Film
What does music do to a film?
>music can set the mood of a film (happy, sad, scared, ect.)
>music can foreshadow, create tension, and intensify a scene
>the
soundtrack of a movie, in present day, can
help sell the movie itself because the soundtrack comes out before the movie
does
>music
can pull the audience into a movie or push them out
>music
can help the audience let go of their disbelief that the movie is real
>music
can trick us
>music
can tell us where the geography of the movie is
>music
can make us relate a character to a certain music piece ex) Jaws uses the
same music every time the shark is going to appear
>in
silent films, music is used to make the world more 3D
>different
rhythms can cause different
emotions in a film
1.
Metropolis—a silent 1926 film directed by Fritz Lang
>this
clip is simply a woman being chased by a mad scientist
>we
watched this clip 5 times
a)
first we watched the film silently
b)
the 2nd time we saw music which was added later to the film
--the
music was more uplifting than scary and only changed pace two or three times
--the
movie clip seemed to go by faster because of the addition of the music
c)
the 3rd time we watched the clip we saw it with a 1984 track
by Giorgio Morodor
--the
music was obviously from the 80’s and sounded like the beginnings of techno music
--the
music was more synchronized than the 2nd time we watched the film,
however the music was too modern for the film
d)
the 4th time we watched the clip we saw orchestral music
played with the film.
--the
music fit much better than the previous soundtracks we saw
e)
the 5th time we watched the clip we saw orchestral music again
--this
music clip was synchronized very well with the actions of the movie.