Final Post

I have enjoyed learning the bits and pieces of film hat has shaped what film is today. From camera movement to genres and miser-en-scene, I have taken back so much. I still believe 1946 was the best year in file however, I have concluded that the best movement was German Expressionism. This may be because of my new-found love for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or just my love for the bold and unusual. 1946 overall brought out so many classic movies that I can’t say I know a better year to glorify. Of course, glorification of movements and new genres is a different story. Learning about German Expressionism makes me want to continue to find and watch great films of that era and continue to feed my artistic and intellectual mind on the greatness of film. On a final note, thank you everyone for making this class so enjoyable!

Favorite Film Year Revisited

After spending the entire semester in this class, I can say with up most confidence that this class really expanded my knowledge and rive to learn more about film. I looked back at what I wrote about my favorite era of film and still to this day I would consider it my favorite because of all he history I shared with it in my childhood. However after learning all the material in this class i have found a new appreciation for the films of this era since I have a better understanding of what went into them, what styles they use or are based off of, and  the overall themes of the films. It was a real pleasure to be in this class because this class gave me something my other film class couldn’t give, and it was a new found appreciation for film in all generations.

Week 16 Discussion Post

I must say that this calls completely expanded my knowledge on film, sometimes in unexpected and interesting ways. Even though I still think 1999 was the best year in film. this is mostly because I actually lived during this time period, therefor I relate movies that came out in this year to personal experiences making them extremely powerful in a deep personal level. Still, this class completely redefined what I thought were my likes and dislikes in terms of genre and re-shaped my views on a lot of issues that cinema deals with. The silent era of film, for example, which I always thought to be extremely boring was presented to me in a new light. Now I see this particular period as one filled with ingenuity and creativity. To see how close the bond with film is to political and social events, like that of Soviet montage or Italian Realism really blew my mind. This really proved to me the film is beyond a means for entertainment and it is actually one of the most powerful tools we have as society to make a difference and to fight for what we wholeheartedly believe is right. Overall this class was a very pleasant and enriching experience for which I feel very lucky to have participated in.

Week 16 Discussion Post

First Off, I fell that I learned a lot about movies that I never would have learned had I not taken this class. I enjoyed studying not only various genres of films but also learning where the modern day movie evolved from. After reviewing my post from the first week I still stand by my decision that 1999 was the best year in film was 1999. Some of my favorite movies of all time were released that year. All of the films that I had chosen in the beginning of the semester are all of various genres that mirror some great genres of the past. To me, Fight Club seems a lot like an expressionist film. There is low lighting throughout the whole film as well as interesting camera cuts and angles. Before taking this class I never would have never Fight Club as anything other then an amazing movie. Now, I can see all the different aspects of the movie that classify it as a specific genre. There were also great films that can be simply classified as Hollywood blockbusters, such as The Green Mile. It is one of those movies that portrays basic Hollywood film attributes. It was big budget and contained some acting greats. Then there are films like The Boondock Saints that are a form of cult drama film. I know that this is technically not a genre but it definitely fits into that category. To me, 1999 was not only a great year in film because of the movies that were released but because of the large spectrum of genres that the films of this year fit into. I will now pay a different type of attention to these films when watching them in the future. I want to challenge myself to look for different signs of genres in these films when I watch them. I will have now have a different outlook on movies when I watch them after taking this class.

Post 16

I would just like to say that I have enjoyed this class so much throughout the year and am very glad that I took it.
Personally, I feel like 1979 is still one of the greatest years in film, though my knowledge and understanding of the medium has grown so much since the time that I chose it. The films that I chose for that year each hit me in a profound way.
Apocalypse Now was the first film I had ever seen that left me with a sense of awe. The graphic, horrible beauty of it left me speechless and introduced me to the power of film.
Stalker is one of my all-time favorite films by one of my favorite directors. You can feel the world of the film, and it sucks you into it.
Mad Max showed me that it was possible to make a commercially successful sci-fi film for the cost of an expensive house. Its $400,000 budget is trivial when compared to many inferior Hollywood blockbusters.
I did however love many of the films that we watched in class. Bonnie and Clyde blew me away. It was so surprising to me that I had never seen such an amazing and important piece of American cinema.
John Cocteau’s Orpheus was wonderful. There is just no other way I can describe it. I plan on watching his other films soon.
Overall, this class has just been a great experience this semester. It is one of my favorite courses that I have taken. Thank you for that!

Final Post

For my very first discussion I chose to talk about the year 1999 in film. Although there were a heck of a whole lot of other tremendously great and influential years of film, I would still like to stand by my decision because it was based on personal experience. Because I’ve learned so much from this class, my decision could always change in the future once I start watching more films from the eras we’ve discussed. What I like about 1999 are the directors that it attributes such as Stanley Kubrick, Spike Jonze, David Lynch (love him for Twin Peaks), and John Lasseter.

Overall, I’m really glad I took this course because of the amount of knowledge I was able to attain in such a short period.

Week 16 Discussion Post

While revisiting my first discussion post I though back on all the wonderful films that I watched and how many groundbreaking years of film there has been. Perhaps it’s just nostalgia, but for me, the best year for films is still 1985. Of course there are years of film release that have better productions and more social conscientiousness, but there’s something about this time that fascinates me. There’s no others era where films like these were being made, which I believe is the consequence of the unique period of time that the United States was going through. The country was on the brink of a technological revolution, but still wasn’t quite there yet. In many ways, old social structures were still in existence but crumbling in order to make way for a level playing field. I have grown an appreciation for older years in film when experimentation was the norm and new ways of making films was expected. They not only advanced in the technology being used, but also, the writing, acting, and directing that we are now familiar with today. I feel as though 1985 endeavored on a bit of experimentation as well. Though cinematographic aspects remained relatively the same, story writing in these films was really starting to take off. These films aimed to tell stories that enriched the audiences perspective on social issues, particularly those dealing with adolescence. My thoughts on this question will most likely change over the coming years when I broaden my film experience, however, for the time being the best year is still 1985.

Fifty Four Year Old Magic

Even the most amateur sleuth could see that I did not do my first blog post or even figure out WordPress until the second week of class, but that did not keep me from pondering its topic for the entirety of the class. I eventually came to a conclusion that I still feel comfortable with, and that is that they best year for cinema was 1960.

There are five main films made in 1960 that justify this position: À bout de souffle by Jean-Luc Godard, Tirez sur le pianiste by François Truffaut, Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick, La Dolce Vita by Frederico Fellini, and Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. With the exception of Psycho, none of these films represent my favorite work of their respective director, but all are terribly important films and show clear signs of the talent we will see in their later works.

À bout de souffle was not the first French New Wave film, but certainly one of the earlier and more definitive films of the movement. Together with Truffaut’s second film, Tirez sur le pianiste, the two auteurs built upon Truffaut’s previous movement-defining film Les 400 coups to relate the genre more to its sense of free experimental nature we know if for today.

Spartacus is my least favorite Kubrick film, but that is hardly an insult to the man. It was the film Kubrick had the least control over but it’s commercial success made him a household name, free to take command over his films and release more experimental masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey seven years later.

La Dolce Vita similarly paved the way for future masterpieces. By winning the Palm d’Or, La Dolce Vita made Fellini a recognizable name within the community of film critics and aided in his ability to make 8½ in 1963.

Psycho is the big winner here, being a permanent placeholder in my top horror films of all time. This film did so much for the horror genre and film as a medium (and I’m not just talking about showing toilets on screen). It is a movie filled with sex and violence, with mental disease and mistrust. It revolutionized narrative structure by killing off protagonist Marion Crane before the halfway point in the film. Essentially, Psycho took audiences and asked them “do you know what a movie is?” then challenged them on every level to compare it to a traditional film.

So is 1960 my favorite year in film? I’m comfortable saying it is, but I am more comfortable calling it the most important year. While not my favorite films, they certainly deserve merit and appreciation and laid the groundwork for some of the greatest films ever made.

The Best Year in Film: Revisited

For the best year in film history, I chose 1999– and what a God awful choice.

I have learned so much in this class. I wasn’t very knowledgeable of the genres we learned and the techniques we learned. I think I chose 1999 because I liked the majority of the movies in the bunch and all of the movies are good, but I can see a better year in film. And that year in film is 1941.

1941 was such a great year for film and the start of a new decade. The 1940s have so much to offer in film history. There was Post-War Japanese film, Film Noir, French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, etc. The 1940s featured all of these great genres. I picked 1941 specifically because of Film Noir, however. Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane came out that year and I think that year defines Film Noir well above all. Other films came out, too, like Dumbo, Meet John Doe, Suspicion, and The Wolf Man. 1941 has so much to offer when it comes to film.

Week 16 Discussion

It has been a pretty great semester. I am really glad I took this class, I feel like I will appreciate films in many different ways now.

After looking back at our first week of discussion posts, I remembered I chose 1994 as my favorite year of film. It has a lot of my favorite movies contained in that year such as: Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Leon: The Professional and Clerks. Looking at it now from the end of the semester, I still stand by that year.

I think that 1994 was very special in what it gave to the world of cinema. Those films that I mentioned went on to define an entire generation of modern cinema, and still does to this day.

The world was transitioning through the end of the Gulf War. A lot of these films dealt with violence, but in an almost humorous approach. Pulp Fiction was had morally corrupt characters abound, but it also explored the lighter, quieter sides, of them as well. Forrest Gump had actual war as part of its narrative and has some of the most iconic scenes of military life as part of that.

Clerks dealt with the monotony of everyday life, not being content with what you have and always struggling for more. I feel that the 90’s was a decade of a lot of those types of feelings and Clerks really personified that.

Leon: The Professional was a foreign film, but used a young Natalie Portman to portray its message of loss of innocence.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!