Three Colors Trilogy - Blue (1993, Kieslowski)
A fatal car accident changes a wife and mother's life forever as her husband and daughter are killed. In her depressive state, she sells her home, all of her valuables, leaves everyone she knows to abscond herself from society. Yet try as she might she's still tethered to her tragic past. She fights and fights to forget, to hole herself up in her own world but can't. The visuals communicate this very clearly. Nearly every shot has something blue in it. Many shots are taken of her alone, or to further emphasize her loneliness she's contrasted with something. Either by emphasizing her silhouette through shadow or with regular, every day people living their lives. One such example is after swimming, she's surrounded by excited school children exhibiting a full range of motion and animation in the scene next to her tense, lonely frame. Just by showing motion against her lack of it communicates her current mental health. The cinematography is so visual and personal that it often feels like you're in her head almost. Such is the power of film. It's hard for me to pick any one particular favorite shot. It could be that aforementioned pool shot. Or it could be the long take scene in the pool after a depressing, emotional scene where she jumps in the pool and the camera starts to pan, searching for her to finally come up for air that perfectly communicates the tension and her state of mind. I have a lot to love about this film. I feel it has much to say about the things we tie ourselves down to.
What a beautiful film. And the lead actress is hot.
4 starsThe Last Laugh (1924, Murnau)
A silent film with no title cards, Murnau shows even further promise as a director in this film made only two years after Nosferatu. Murnau plays with various storytelling elements that would later be embraced and improved upon in Sunrise. The Last Laugh is a powerful film that is an early example of the potential of the silver screen as an artistic medium. Being silent without title cards and yet still being an early 20's film, a lot of it still isn't entirely...polished. So you gets lots of dialogue without actually knowing what they're saying because there's no title cards. For a film that should rely entirely on the visuals it relies far too much on dialogue scenes rather than gesture. That said, it's a landmark film that full encapsulates the visual potential of the medium, eschewing the static German film making of its era. Cinematographer Karl Freund ups the standard for shots in this as they expand what's capable in film.
The first shot is in an elevator as it goes down in first person. Such a thing might seem basic but many German films before this were inspired by theater with static, boring shots that forgets that
movies are supposed to
move.
This inspired many film makers on the possibilities of the medium and helped put German film - particularly German expressionism - at the forefront of the silent era as an artistic movement.
And what a story. It takes about 10-20 minutes to get going but once it does it's golden. The only complaint is the ending which completely ruins it. Once that title card comes on just cut the movie off. It's over.
3 1/2 stars
