SCENE

1

TAKE

1

DATE

13/03/2013

DIRECTOR HUỲNH PHƯƠNG THẢO

PRODUCTION POPULAR MOVIES

FILM & AMERICAN CULTURE

THE WAY WE ARESYDNEY POLLACK

• Changes in the moral fabric of our society are responsible for the kinds of movies we see today, not vice versa.

• Society’s values have changed and it is reflected in the movies.

• People are nostalgic for the “old values” => Encourage the return of these values.

• Screenwriter & Directors: moral content =><= Economics of the industry: entertainment and profits.

=> A filmmaker’s prime goal should be to entertain an audience & Movies simply reflect the surrounding society.

Art

Commerce

To teach

To entert

ain

To Corru

pt

To Elevat

e

ENTERTAIN PEOPLE AND BE REASONABLY INTELLIGENT ABOUT IT

CREATE GOOD MOVIES AND MAKE IT REACH THE MORE PEOPLE THE BETTER

THE POLITICS OF MOVIEMAKINGSAUL AUSTERLITZ

• Art is at its most successful when politics is at its most reactionary.

• The rebirth of documentaries, which are unashamed to take a political slant.

• Network news programs have proved so derelict in their duty and presented a highly distorted vision of contemporary reality.

=> Filmgoers are choosing to go to the movies to be faced with a clearer version of reality than what they get from the local news.

=> Entertainment is used as a platform for advocacy.

• Two primary tacks: straight-on tackles or allegory and metaphor.

Political events

Vietnam War

September 11th 2001

Sept 11 vs Arab - Americans

Presidency elections

The Bush administration

Holocaust/Bombing/Shootings

World War II

POLITICS HAVE MOVED SIGNIFICANTLY CLOSER TO HOME

FILMS HAVE LONG SERVED AS A BAROMETER OF AMERICAN LIFE, REFLECTING THE COMPLEX, TANGLED

WEB OF FEARS AND DESIRES ANGLING FOR SUPERIORITY.

RAISING THE DEAD: UNEARTHING THE

NONLITERARY ORIGINS OF ZOMBIE CINEMAKYLE BISHOP

• The rise of zombie is seen as an archetypal figure in contemporary culture.

• Zombie is “the only creature to pass directly from folklore to the screen, without first having an established literary tradition => The zombie remains a primarily nonliterary phenomenon.

• The zombie film retains its ability to make audience think while they shriek.

RAISING THE DEAD: UNEARTHING THE

NONLITERARY ORIGINS OF ZOMBIE CINEMAKYLE BISHOP

• A zombie does not think or act on reasonable motives – it is purely a creature of blind instinct.

• Zombies are not uncanny because of their humanistic qualities; they are uncanny because they are, in essence, a grotesque metaphor for humanity itself.

• The physical form of the zombie is its most striking and frightening aspect: It was once – quite recently - a living person.

• Because anyone can potentially become a zombie, these films deal unabashedly with human taboos, murder, and cannibalism.

THE HORROR OF THE ZOMBIE MOVIE COMES FROM REGCONIZING THE HUMAN IN THE MONSTER

THE TERROR OF THE ZOMBIE MOVIE COMES FROM KNOWING THERE IS NOTHING TO DO ABOUT IT BUT DESTROY WHAT IS

LEFT

THE FUN COMES FROM WATCHING THE GENRE CONTINUE TO DEVELOP.

APATOW AND TARANTINO: TWO CONTEMPORARY

FILMAKERS

A FINE ROMANCEDAVID DENBY

• Slacker – Striver romance.

• Screwball comedy.

• Male infantilism vs Female ambition.

• Grow up vs Loosen up.

• Opposites attract with mysterious force.

• Many people can relate themselves to the movies.

Slacker – Striver romance• Establish the self-dramatizing underachiever as hero.

• A slovenly hipster and the female straight arrow.

• Usually meet by accidents.

• She breaks up with him => he talks with his pals and receives bits of misogynist advice => the end of youth for him, crisis for her => both undertake drastic alteration => he has to shape up and she has to loosen up.

Screwball comedy• The fight was waged between equals.

• The man and woman may not enjoy parity of social standing or money, but they are equals spirit, will and body.

• The characters have to dive below their social roles for their true selves to come out.

• First confused and then enlightened, discover whom they should love/marry.

• Less about possessions than about a certain style of freedom in love.

.

THE KEY TO MAKING A GREAT ROMANTIC COMEDY IS TO CREATE HEROINES EQUAL IN WIT TO MEN.

FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE

ALEX WAINER

• A mensch: A man who does good deeds, and/or is an upright or rigorously decent human being.

• A male protagonist who undergoes a change from a shlub to a mensch.

• The Apatow comedies ultimately deliver a message that support traditional family values.

• Praise conformist capitulation to bourgeois middle-class expectations and their moral implications.

• Searching for their escape out of a boy’s life and into manhood => challenge his characters to act their age.

FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE

ALEX WAINER

R-rated morality tales

• Vulgarity and profanity.

• Characters talk the way people in this subculture speak – except probably wittier.

• The F-word and other such language flow freely because that is the social world of these nerds and geeks.

• However, they all confront their problems and the need to put away childish things and belatedly face responsibilities set these films apart from other R-rated comedies.

FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE

ALEX WAINER

Boys to men [The 40-year-old virgin]

• Lack of romance and sexual activity.

• Young males who are mostly still little boys on the inside.

• True love waits

FREAKS, GEEKS, AND MENSCHES: JUDD APATOW’S COMEDIES OF THE MATURE

ALEX WAINER

A second take [KNOCKED UP]

• Does not know how to be an adult at first.

• Look for advice => abandon previous lifestyle => make an effort to take responsibilities and grow up => demeanor has changed from that of a man-child to someone who acts like a husband.

• The wildly different couple has been transformed by the process into good parents for their baby daughter.

• Holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby.

CRITICS WERE STRUCK AT FINDING SUCH TRADITIONAL VALUES IN AN R-RATED SEX COMEDY

APATOW CLEARLY BELIEVES IN MARRIAGE, FAMILY, BOURGEOIS DUTIFULNESS.

PULP FICTIONALAN A. STONE

The controversy surrounding Tarantino’s moviemaking aesthetic.

Pulp Fiction put an emphasis not just on depicting the gore of violent acts, but also on suggesting the pervasiveness of violence in modern society.

Violence is included as an essential element of the visual experience. Tarantino’s depiction of violence is described as “stylized” and the film is both a celebration and a satire of popular culture.

Tarantino blurs the line between appeasing a societal depiction of violence and mocking it at the same time.

There is much more to value beneath the visual surface of blood and gore.

PULP FICTIONALAN A. STONE

• Violence in American film is pornography that appeals to the lowest common denominator.

• Like American fast food, it is destroying the taste for better things.

• Psychologists believe that film and TV violence teach American’s young people to be violent, or at the very least, inure them to real-life violence.

• Many people are refusing to see this film.

•However, the film is politically correct for there is no nudity and no violence directed against women.

TARANTINO DIVES INTO A NIGHTMARE AND COMES UP WITH SOMETHING FUNNY, TAKING HIS

AUDIENCE UP AND DOWN WITH HIM.

BEAUTY IS FOUND WHEN IT IS LESS EXPECTED

IMDb 8.5

Directed by Sam Mendes

Produced by Bruce CohenDan Jinks

Written by Alan Ball

Starring Kevin SpaceyAnnette Bening

Awards 72nd Academy Awards Best PictureBest DirectorBest Actor (for Kevin Spacey)Best Original Screenplay Best Cinematography.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey)

Carolyn (Annette Bening)

Jane (Thora Birch)

Angela Hayes(Mena Suvari

Frank Fitts(Chris Cooper)

Ricky(Wes Bentley)

Buddy Kane(Peter Gallagher)

THEMESTHE MEANING OF LIFE

THE HOLLOW EXISTENCE OF THE AMERICAN SUBURBS

IMPRISONMENT AND REDEMPTION

CONFORMITY AND BEAUTY

SEXUALITY AND REPRESSION

TEMPORALITY AND MUSIC

“Because everything that was meant to happen, does…eventually.”

- Angela Hayes -

“Everything is just for show, a commercial for how normal we are

when we are anything but.”

- Lester Burnham -

DISCUSSION

1. Sydney Pollack suggests that “Changes in the moral fabric of our society are responsible for the kinds of movies we see today, not vice versa.” Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Why?

2. Give examples of 2 popular movies, one of which represents some form of art and the other is a product of sheer commerce. Identify at least 2 significances of each movie. Which one do you prefer? Why?