Rashomon

Rashomon, a Japanese crime-drama directed by Akira Kurosawa, was released in 1950. The story unfolds as four witnesses to a rape and murder tell what happened from their point of view. However, as each tells the story, it becomes clear that nothing is clear. All the stories are not only different, they are incompatible.

People always believe what they see on the movie screen. Rachomon, however, gave us the same scene from four different people’s perspectives, and the result was a vastly different scene. Each character was portrayed differently. The husband was sometimes seen as noble, other times as cowardly. The woman was different in every version: being a victim, a manipulator, an innocent girl, and a vixin. She was also described at different times "like a child trying to be serious" and then as “fierce”. The bandit had some of the same characteristics, but was also done differently with each perspective.

It was very confusing to determine what was true and what was not. This movie was the first of its kind to harshly judge the nature of truth, and the end doesn’t offer any explanations to what was really true, other than the fact that the husband died and that the woman had sex (consensual or not) with the bandit. Everything else is hazy.

I know that this movie is one of the "greats". However, personal opinion and bias got in the way, and I did not care for this film. I thought the concept was excellent; telling a the same story from different perspectives and getting something vastly different from each person. I did not like the lack of a soundtrack. I think a soundtrack during the long, drawn out scenes would have kept more people's attention. I also thought there was a lot of overacting, and the woman just got on my nerves.

Release Date: 1950 (Japan); 1951(USA)

Studio: Daiei Motion Picture Company
Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast:

Takashi Shimura: Woodcutter
Minoru Chiaki: Priest
Toshiro Mifune: Tajomaru—The Bandit
Kichijiro Ueda: Commoner

Machiko Kyo: Masako Kanazawa (Samurai’s wife)

Masayuki Mori: Takehiro Kanazawa (Samurai)

Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso is a 1988 film directed by Guiseppe Tornatore, his second film that won Best Foreign Film at the 1990 Oscars. The movie begins in present day (or at least present day when this movie was filmed). It starts out with a mother calling her son, Salvatore (Jacques Perrin), who hasn’t been home in 30 years for reasons yet unknown, to tell him that Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) has died. So, even though he hasn’t been home for decades, those seem to be the magic words, because he decides to come home for the funeral. But because he is leaving the next morning, that gives Salvatore an entire night to have his childhood memories come flooding back within a matter of hours, memories he has been working hard to suppress for years.

He remembers being a small boy and being entranced with the movie theater, Cinema Paradiso, in his hometown of Giancardo, Italy, run by a crusty but warmhearted projectionist named Alfredo. Since Salvatore (affectionately called “Toto” by everyone in his hometown, presumably a reference to the dog from Wizard of Oz) doesn’t have a father, Alfredo becomes a sort of surrogate father for the boy, teaching him about life, love, and how to run the projection device at the Cinema Paradiso. After Alfredo loses his sight, Salvatore takes over as projectionist for their little town. Over the years, Salvatore grows up and finds love with a beautiful girl named Elena. After he joins the army, he loses contact with her and never sees her again. Salvatore leaves Giancardo and doesn’t look back, following the advice of Alfredo.

My favorite scene was the part where Salvatore is looking through the projectionist eyehole with a happy look on his face. That is what the movies is all about, pure emotions being brought to the big screen.

The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by Francois Truffaut, his first of many. It is the story of young Antoine Doinel (left, Jean-Pierre Leaud), a teenager in Paris, who is constantly getting in trouble. At first, Antoine is only getting into minor bits of trouble, such as getting caught with a pin-up in class. But it seems like the boy is sprinting towards a life of crime, as his transgressions escalate and become more and more serious. His mother and stepfather don't help matters: his mother is a selfish sexpot who finds Antoine to be a bother who "annoys" her. Antoine's stepfather, while friendly to the boy, is not especially loving to him. Both adults are quite absent from the young boy's life. And Antoine's teachers are indisputibly less than nurturing and caring, although when a teacher is under a (false) impression that Antoine's mother has died, he begins to treat the boy with more tenderness.

Although this is a mostly sad and serious movie that explores hard topics to approach, there are some happier, redeeming moments. The one that pops out in my head is after Antoine has accidentally set fire to his shrine to one of his favorite author's. His stepfather and mother are yelling and then they suddenly decide to go out to the movies. It was a slightly redeeming point of the movie, and nice to see that his parents weren't completely oblivious to their son. Some of the lines were hilarious, too.

I didn't like any adults in this movie, but I suppose that was the point. The adults are "evil", turning Antoine into a juvenile delinquent by treating him like one before he reached that turning point. I really felt for the boy the whole time. The actor really broke out of the typical "rebel without a cause" stereotype, while still making him a believable juvenile delinquent. Antoine was quiet and obedient, but he also wasn't afraid to act up once in a while, making the character truly complicated, something that I really respect the young actor who portrayed him for. The scene where he is being carted away in a jail car with the usual criminals and crying was particularly moving.

I enjoyed this movie far more than the one we watched before this. I don't know how much more I would watch this film, once seems enough because of it's serious tone, but I would definitely recommend it to others.

On a last note, I was mentally preparing myself for the final scene, but it still freaked me out because his face came at me really fast.

Metropolis

Even though this was a silent film, I couldn't believe that this movie was made in 1927. For one, the plot is very evolved. Directed by Fritz Lang, it is set in the futuristic world of 2026 in a city called Metropolis, where the people are divided into two different castes: Thinkers and Workers. The Thinkers design all the buildings and machinery and the Workers carry out the plans. There is a severe chasm between the two groups, because the Thinkers don't know how to build their creations, and the Workers don't understand why they are building it. Enter Freder (Gustav Frohlech), the son of Joh Frederson, the head Thinker of the city. We first see Freder frolicking with other Thinkers, living a life of luxury. But after a Worker named Maria (Brigitte Helm) brings up some children from the underground working area and proclaims, "These are your brothers!", Freder starts to pay attention. He goes to where the Workers are to find Maria and witnesses an accident that claims several lives. He vows to help the Workers, to be a sort of "mediator" between the hands (Workers) and the head (Thinkers). Some other characters include Josaphat and The Thin Man. There is also a mad scientist named Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) who was in love with the mayor's wife, Hel, who died in childbirth with Freder. The complicated relationships between the characters impressed me. I was disappointed that some of the scenes that were lost sounded like the most intriguing. There was a fight scene that was only narrated, with no visuals.

Despite being a silent film, Metropolis kept my attention, for the most part. I can see how this movie was visionary. Even now, I was impressed with the scope of the set and the attention to detail. And the idea and script actually hold up, despite the strangeness and unpredictability.

One of the best scenes of the movie was when Rotwang turns the Machine Man (or should I say, woman) into the likeness of Maria. It was visually amazing and the robot looked appropriately creepy. Another scene that was memorable was the "erotic dancer" scene. I didn't stop laughing the whole time. The faces the men were making when they saw Robot Maria were so over the top and the dancing was very spastic. That was by far my favorite scene in the movie.

I liked this movie. There were a lot of visual references, like the fact that the workers were doing seemingly meaningless repetitive motions to reference how this is what they did all day, every day. I also thought the ending line couldn't have been any better: There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.