X-Men: Bryan Singer

I decided to watch X-Men this week because it is one of the few superhero franchises that I have never seen any of the films of (now it's only Batman left) and I very much enjoy Marvel's plots, characters and films from previous experience. Despite the genre being one of my favourites, I have not yet analysed one in detail, and so I took the opportunity when it was on Film 4.

The settings and the use of colour were the prominent stand-out features of this film to me. For example, in the opening scene, which I am going to look at in detail in a minute, the colour palette is composed of only blacks, greys and dark blues to reflect the despondence in the scene. Also, when Logan (Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman) wakes up in the X-Mansion and begins to desperately try to work out where he is, the decor changes drastically as he travels from the lower floors to the ground level, showing how he is discovering the facade around this place and the X-Men, and lifting it.

The scene that I chose as my focus scene is the opening one - you can watch it here. This scene takes place a lot earlier than the rest of the film's action - in Poland in 1944. The initial impression of this place given is that it is sad and desperate, shown by the blue/grey colour palette, the rain and the close up of the trudging steps in the mud. This is all also seen through a wire fence, implicating imprisonment. As the shot then moves up so that the soldier is the central focus, the fact that this is occurring during a war is made evident. The year and place then fade up onto the screen - "Poland 1944" - and this immediately makes us think of one thing: the Holocaust. The shot then cuts to the crowd of Jews shuffling along after focusing briefly on one man. The Stars of David pinned to their chests are the only things that contain any bright colour in this scene, immediately drawing attention to them. The shot then shifts back to the man, and then pans to a boy beside him, and then a woman beside the boy. The focus on the boy from that moment establishes him as a major character, and from then onwards the scene is composed of shot-reverse shots showing his realisation of the horrors of this place - the tattoos on the arms of the Jews already working, their gaunt faces - until he looks forward again, implying that key action is about to occur. The boy is then separated from the man and woman - seemingly his parents - by force as the crowd is sorted by the angry sounding German guards. The non-digetic music then swells, demonstrating the fact that the end of this specific event has not yet been reached. The tension builds as the mothers screams are heard as she attempts to push back through the crowd to get to her son, interspersed with shots of the boy running unhindered through and past the guards. He is finally stopped as the gates are closed, and the shots of him with his hand outstretched followed by the gate implicates, especially given the theme of the film - that he is about to do something to the gates. The pace of the shots increases as the shot length decreases, showing mainly close ups - the boy's hand, the metal gates bending, the soldiers' boots slipping in the mud as they try to pull him back - all draw attention to this power that he has. Once he is finally stopped by receiving a hit with a gun over his head, the close up of one of the soldiers shows his fear looking at the gates, at the evidence of this boy's power. The shot then pans up to focus on one of the chimneys of the camp, reinforcing who the enemy was in this situation.

I thought this scene was particularly interesting as Magneto - the main villain, played by Sir Ian McKellen - was the boy, and so this scene seems to be attempting to justify his actions. Other origin stories of villains usually depict them as power hungry or already inherently evil in some way, but this scene was different - although it still doesn't seem to entirely justify Magneto's later actions and ambitions.

Chaplin: Richard Attenborough

The film that I watched this week was the 1992 film, directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, Chaplin. It is a biopic of Charlie Chaplin's life, right from his childhood to his appearance in 1972 Academy Awards, where he accepted his Honorary Award.

I watched this film because, after doing a presentation on the Silent Era, I was interested in Chaplin's rise to fame and life afterwards. Charlie Chaplin is someone that I had heard of, knew was a movie star in the Silent Era and knew very little else about. It struck me that I had no idea what had happened to him - for someone who is so iconic and so widely known today, surely he must not have just faded into obscurity? As the film was based on his autobiography, My Autobiography, and Chaplin: His Life and Art by David Robinson, I felt that this would probably be a fairly accurate source of information.

The film uses mise en scène, along with the actual action, a lot to convey an implicit meaning. Throughout the entire of the opening scene, Charlie Chaplin (played excellently by Robert Downey Jr.) is slowly removing his make-up in a black and white close up shot. The camera slowly zooms out, and the colour fades in, as Charlie continues to remove his make-up. All the while, there is a voice-over interview with Charlie Chaplin. This cumulatively gives the implication of Chaplin's true self and story being revealed through this film, delving deeper into his story than the picture that the media presented him as. The setting of Chaplin's childhood is littered with images showing how run down and grimy the area he lives in his: horse poo frequently found along the cobbled road, a mangy dog eating food that has been spilled on the street, and vendors dressed in grubby clothes wheeling their carts of goods attempting to sell their wares, amongst other things. There is then a later part, in which Charlie Chaplin in a young teenager, and he has to admit his mother (played by Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter) to the asylum. He is devastated, but continues to entertain her wishes in not stepping on the middle of the floor because she believes it to be a river. As his mother is taken up the stairs by the asylum staff, the door closes between them, reflecting the barrier that Charlie's mother's mental illness puts between them. After this, a lot of bright colours, reds and greens, are used to show the happy possibilities that his life now holds without the burden of being responsible for his mother. 

There are several shots throughout the film that emphasise the distance that Charlie Chaplin has come from his humble beginnings once he reaches his fame. One of the first ones is when he walks into his first studio, and the aerial shot, white walls and the white canvas roof that is billowing in the wind, and his positioning - tiny at the door of this massive space - contrasts heavily with the cramped flat that he started in. The white colouring suggests that it is his ultimate dream, and he has finally achieved what he has dreamt of for his life thus far. Another shot that emphasises the contrast is the shot in which Charlie Chaplin leaves the bar by a door that leads into an alley. There is one long shot that continuously follows him as he walks, beginning in an alley where a homeless man sits at the side, bedding down for the night, and following him as he walks on to the main high street, the surroundings becoming gradually higher quality, until he reaches a huge poster, outlined by flashing light bulbs, advertising his most recent film.

There is a very cleverly positioned shot as Charlie Chaplin meets his first love interest, Hetty. She is rather embarrassed and angry at him being in the dressing room, not knowing that he usually helps the girls get ready as she is new. As she is trying to do her lipstick, Charlie holds up the mirror, resulting in this rather interesting shot:

My focus scene for this film is when Chaplin is returning to England for the first time since emigrating to the USA. He is still very much in love with Hetty, one of the show-dancers from when he used to perform in the theatre, even though she is married to someone else. As he says about looking forward to seeing her, one of the men that he is travelling with says, "Has no-one told you?" and proceeds to inform him that *SPOILERS* Hetty died of the flu right after the war. The shot switches to a medium close up of him as the train flies into a tunnel, the whole scene out of the window disappearing and switching to solid black, making an exaggerated sound as it does so. His expression turns blank and he stops shuffling the deck of cards in his hands. As the scene then progresses, he is handed his coat and hat and wipes his tears before going out to face the adoring crowds of fans waiting at the station, as "Smile" by Charlie Chaplin plays over it, the words of hiding your true feelings and putting on a smile, even as the world around you is disintegrating, showing his true feelings. He signs a few autographs and then walks away through the crowd, still smiling and waving.

Anastasia: Don Bluth & Gary Goldman

My film this week was Anastasia, the 1997 film about the urban legend, claiming that one of Tsar Nicholas' daughters, Anastasia, survived the execution of her family. Historically and politically, this is an interesting film to look at because of the way that the American production company - Fox Animation Studios - portray communist Russia compared to Imperial Russia. Obviously the USA are very anti-communist, and this is shown clearly in the film in the portrayal of Rasputin as a distinctly evil character, despite the doubts about his level of influence on the Romanovs and his level of involvement with the overthrowing of the monarchy (although he was definitely somewhat involved).

In this version of events, Anastasia failed to get onto the train that her grandmother escaped on, and ever since her grandmother, who moved to Paris, has been offering a great reward for the safe return of her daughter. However, Anastasia slipped and hit her head that day, and so she lost her memory, and has grown up in an orphanage. The only clue that she has to her heritage is a necklace, that we see she was given at the start by her grandmother, that is also a key to the music box that her grandmother gave her. Anastasia sets out from the orphanage to find her family, and encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who aim to train a young girl to act so much like Anastasia that they fool her grandmother and take the reward money for themselves.

One of the very interesting aspects of the film was the use of lighting. The film begins with a ballroom in which the Romanovs are holding a dance. It is full of golden, warm and light colours, to represent the positive view of the characters in it and the situation. Then Rasputin enters, and his skin is grey, his hair is long, straggly and black, he is wearing dark brown monk's robes, has very bony fingers and talons in the place of fingernails. This all shows him to be a evil character, immediately setting him up as the antagonist as soon as he walks in. Any magic he performs (as he is a sorcerer in this film) is a green colour, which is used excessively within cartoons to demonstrate evil-doing.

Some examples of green representing evil in cartoons, L to R: The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid

Rasputin in Anastasia

Another interesting aspect I noticed was when Anastasia first sees St Petersburg. She's very excited to be there, having just reached the end of a song about going on a Journey to the Past to discover her history and hit a very long note as the brass builds in the background, but her excitement contrasts greatly to what we see. Anastasia, or Anja as we know her at the moment, (presumably the name she was given at the orphanage, it's never actually explained) reaches the top of the hill, and there's a wide shot showing the skyline of St Petersburg. The only impressive thing is the tower of the now derelict palace, and other than that all we see are industrial buildings, all with large chimneys belching out a dirty yellow fog that takes over the sky. This again reflects the American view of the new communist Russia compared to the Russia of the Imperial Rule.

Anja's view of the beautiful St Petersburg - the tower of the old palace is central and the tallest thing in the shot, showing it's power and importance.

For my focus scene I chose the scene in which Anastasia first goes back into the palace, and sings Once Upon a December (watch here). The palace to begin with is gloomy, dusty and generally looks uncared for. Anastasia picks up a plate and polishes it, and it immediately returns to pristine condition, showing that she is the saviour for this situation, and can restore the prestige and grandeur to the palace. It also reflects her being able to become and Imperial Princess again, as she is currently dressed in an oversized coat, flat cap and fingerless gloves - not exactly the attire of choice of many members of any royal court. As she sings, the room lightens, until dream-like figures, similar to the ones shown at the beginning of the film, burst out of the painting in couples, a golden aura around each of them, and dance on the ballroom floor, interacting with Anastasia as she dances between them. As the song builds to the instrumental, the Tsar and the members of his family that died due to the revolution walk through the couples as they part, and Anastasia's clothes change to a dress with it's own golden aura, and a tiara (SPOILER ALERT: very similar to her attire at the end of the film when her grandmother holds a party for her, that then gets ripped and destroyed, representing her new dream of being with Dimitri) representing her subconscious dream of finding her family. She dances with the Tsar as she did as a young girl at the start, mirroring the words of this all being a memory that she cannot access, and as the song fades out instrument by instrument, until only her voice is left, the couples and her family gradually fade out too, to be interrupted by Dimitri running in and asking her what she is doing there, ending her dreaming and thus my focus scene.

Hairspray: Adam Shankman

I chose this film this week because we were having a movie marathon at my friend's over the weekend, and as Hairspray is one of my favourite films, I thought that it would be interesting to look at analytically.

Hairspray is the film of the West End/Broadway musical, which was based on a film itself. It revolves around telling the story of Tracy Turnblad, an overweight high school student with dreams of dancing on the town-famous Corny Collins Show, and how she achieves that dream at a time when segregation was widely accepted and even encouraged by some in Baltimore.

Mise-en-scène was a major part of this film. The settings and the lighting were used to show the differences in conditions for the people we see in the film. We only really see five major places throughout the film:

• Tracy's house
• Penny's house
• Motormouth Maybelle's record shop/home
• The School

There's a great difference in the locations to show the audience the level of difficulty that each character faces. Penny is in the best social situation of them all, as she is thin, blonde and pretty, and she has a Christian mother who hates integration, and this is reflected in her room. It is light, well furnished, well decorated and cleaned. Interestingly, she also seems to have several sets of curtains. This could reflect how her mother is trying to shield Penny from any world that she does not approve of.

The next place on the scale is the school, with a diverse range of rooms - the classroom in which Tracy has history is white and clean, as that is the class that the kids from the TV show - Link and Amber included - are in, and they are the most privileged teens that we meet. The detention room, however, is dirtier, busier and generally less well kept, because it is frequented by the black youth due to the teachers' racism. Tracy's house is just below the school, with dark green paint on the walls and a rather cramped layout, leaving little room for the larger ladies of the house to move around it. This reflects problems created not only due to Tracy's size, but also her full support of integration.

This leaves the residence of Motormouth Maybelle. Dimly lit, dusty and dirty, it reflects the situation of its inhabitants, who are all black. When Tracy, Penny and Link are there, they are lit normally, clearly showing that the low-lighting is relevant to the struggles that the black people have.

I noticed that with the majority of the songs, the track came in, growing in number of instruments, complexity and volume as the characters were still speaking. This made the songs seem a more natural progression of the narrative, rather than just beginning somewhat randomly.

My focus scene would have to be the first time we see the Corny Collins show (Youtube link here). As the backing track begins, the camera alternates between short shots of Tracy's foot tapping and the clock ticking, all of this in time with the music we hear beginning in the background. The bell rings, and the shot switches from one of the school to one in the studio, where a similar sound is heard as the people on the show prepare to begin. We then alternate between short shots of Tracy and Penny trying to get home to watch the show and the show's cast preparing for it, all as the music grows, building tension. As Tracy and Penny get into the living room of Tracy's house, the show begins, and at first we hear it as if it is coming through the TV set. Then the camera zooms in on the black and white image on the screen, and when we zoom out again, we are in the studio, looking at the black and white screen of one of their cameras, providing a great transition into the show. The camera zooms out further to a wide shot, showing all of the dancers of the Corny Collins show. As the song progresses, we get close-ups of Amber, who we had not properly met before, but is established through these close up and long shots, emphasising her pushing and mistreatment of the other dancers (and in turn their negative view of her) as a bad character. The camera switches between shots of the studio and shots in Tracy's living room. Interestingly, when we go back to Tracy's living room, the sound quality continues to be that of the studio, rather than reverting back to that of the TV set, giving the impression that Tracy feels very much part of the show standing in her living room. Tracy is shown to be the same as the people on the set, but in harder conditions through the colours of the rooms. The set is a bright green colour, showing how the people on the show are in a much better position that Tracy is attempting to implicate, but not to the same effect.

The interior of Tracy's house during the Nicest Kids in Town Scene

The set of the Corny Collins show, with it's much brighter walls

At the end of the scene, Edna (Tracy's mother, played by John Travolta) is introduced. An upwards panning shot is used for maximum impact, as most people knew that John Travolta was playing Edna, but would not have seen him in the full drag costume until this point. This shot also adds importance to her character that her words do not, as simply asking that the girls turn down the TV so that she can iron is not the first thing that an audience expects to hear from a major character.

If I Stay: R J Cutler

I watched this film because it is an adaptation of a book that I love of the same name, and also for the fact that it stars Chloë Grace Moretz, who I love as an actress.

Although I appreciate that books and films are entirely different media, and therefore should be considered separately, I felt that so much potential for an amazing film was lost due to what they chose to take from the book and what they added in to make up for the missing story. The story, which is a beautiful story that explores the protagonist's (Mia) struggle to decide whether to live or die after she's put into a coma from a car accident that kills the rest of her family, was made into a simple love story, ignoring all other relationships that could affect Mia's choice. Despite this story fault, the film was otherwise technically very good. Lighting was an important element in the film that was used very effectively, as out-of-body ghost Mia was lit, and dressed, so that she appeared ethereal, which contrasted with the normally lit hospital. Her costume also never changed, despite the people around her visiting in various different outfits as the time was passing. Separating Mia from the physical world in such a visual way made it very easy to immediately understand what was happening as soon as she appeared, despite not making it explicitly obvious until she sees her own unconscious body.

One scene that stood out for me was when Mia finds out that her brother is dead. He was her main reason for survival, as she felt that with her parents gone it was her responsibility to take care of him, and so this moment reflected a major loss of hope for future happiness and will to survive. This is shown very effectively without words. Mia is shown running through one of the hospital corridors, utterly alone save for two, perhaps three blurred hospital staff, showing how isolated she feels. She runs in slow motion, looking incredibly vulnerable through her facial expression, childlike in its despair, and her lack of shoes or other appropriate attire. As she collapses onto the ground and puts her head in her hands, she screams, and this is the first sound we hear since discovering that Teddy is dead apart from her amplified and echoed footsteps. This is followed immediately by a muffling of all sounds, and a high-pitched ringing piercing the scene. As 'the light', representing Mia accepting death, gets closer and closer to Mia, and bigger and bigger, the ringing gets louder and louder. Suddenly, those noises stop, and the shot returns to the very real hospital bed, containing a comatose Mia, the sounds replaced by the heart monitor flat-lining and the sound of panicked nurses and doctors rushing to save her. This demonstrates Mia's conflict between staying or dying, reminding the viewer of the reasons that she might chose either, as she has ties to both sides whilst in this state.

Films and Me

Up until this year, I haven't watched films for anything more than the story line and possibly the soundtrack. Although I adore films, and it fascinates me how all of the elements come together to make the finished article (script, music, costumes, acting, sound effects put in afterwards), I haven't been very aware of these factors when watching a film, as I didn't know much about them. This is a further appreciation I hope to gain from studying film.

I try to watch different types of films, especially on recommendation of anyone, but I generally lean towards three main types of films: adaptations of books that I like (mainly young adult fiction), rom-coms, and superhero films. Firstly I love adaptations of books, because it's interesting to see one person's interpretation of a story, and seeing how the one type of media is transformed into another. Rom-coms I love because I generally like a story to have a romantic element, and I love any film that can make me laugh. I love the plot of superhero films, and how they appeal on multiple levels depending on your age/maturity/understanding. For a young child going to see the film, it's a simple fight of good against evil affair, but watching it at a slightly older age means that you see the problems that the heroes often face, and their struggles with their own morality.

As films go (and stories in general), I only enjoy a film if it has a satisfying ending. What is, you ask, a satisfying ending? In my opinion, a satisfying ending reaches a natural conclusion and leaves everything either all wrapped up, possibly with loose ends open to interpretation, or leaves the story on a suspenseful cliffhanger if there is already a confirmed sequel. And example of an unsatisfying ending in my mind is Atonement, which ends with (in my opinion) one of the secondary characters wishing that it could have ended differently, but not focusing a lot on the main characters' actual ending.

I'm going to be utterly honest and say that I'm not aware of many directors, other than the really famous ones (eg. Steven Spielberg, Richard Attenborough, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese etc.) Looking at some of the films I appreciate cinematically, I do like David Heyman and Joss Whedon. My favourite actor is probably Logan Lerman, and my favourite actresses (I cannot choose one) are Emma Thompson, Emma Stone, Emma Watson and (to break the pattern), Lily Collins, as I appreciate all of their versatility through all of the utterly different characters that they have portrayed in their films.

So that is all for now, thank you for reading!