Alice in Wonderland - Tim Powitz

I feel that this was a good movie to see for this course. As all the other bloggers have proven, it has a lot within its content that can be applied to course material. What I primarily saw was a parallel to "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" and thus the gospel of Jesus.

The creatures of Underland live by this prophecy that Alice will return to save them from the rule of the evil red queen. This links to Narnia's belief in the prophecy that 2 sons of Adam and 2 daughters of Eve will lead them to battle and dethrone the evil white witch. These both relating of course to the belief of a coming savior. The next parallel is that of the concept of acceptance. Just as Alice had to accept that she was the "real Alice" and slay the Jabberwocky, Aslan and Jesus both willing walked into their sacrificial executions.

I very much enjoyed Elizabeth Henderson's comparison of the White and Red as heaven and hell. To go in a different direction with this, you can see more symbolism when looking at the castles. The land surrounding the red castle is very dry and barren and the land and grounds of the white castle is in full bloom. We see this similarity with Narnia's rule under the White Witch that has the whole nation covered in barren, lifeless snow while rule under Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy is abundant in life. To continue on Elizabeth's symbolism of heaven and hell, Alice willing sneaks into the red castle (hell) in order to find the sword and free her friends. I do not remember where I was taught this, but some scholars (it may even be in the Bible but do NOT take my word for it) say that Jesus went into hell upon his death and thus defeating eternal suffering when he rose from the dead. If this is not true, then at the very least we can compare this to Jesus' temptations in contact to the devil. Finally, in an Old Testament view, the White Queen (being the God figure) only banishes the red queen and knight from Underland as opposed to killing them, which is not in her nature. God, not having murder in his nature, only banish Adam and Eve from the garden after their sin.

Alice in Wonderland - Elizabeth Roy

Alice in Wonderland presented many different themes that relate to religious concepts we have studied. Perhaps my main disappointment with the movie is that it touched on numerous concepts, but deeply explored none.

Like in Otto's description, Alice is faced with something that is 'wholly other.' Nothing in this world is anything like what she has experienced. She chooses to first deal with it by fitting it into her everyday schema as merely a dream. When that approach fails, she still distances herself from the world she finds herself in. By refusing to recognize it as wholly other, Alice cripples herself. Had she recognized it as wholly other immediately, she would have become 'the real Alice' much sooner and much more easily. Similarly, Alice has been rejecting instead of embracing her memories of Wonderland.

The dichotomy of profane versus sacred time is similar to what we discussed in Groundhog Day. Alice's time in the real world has been profane, whereas her time in Wonderland is sacred. Only in Wonderland can she begin to change her character and realize that it is important to take personal control over her life.

The idea of divine madness also runs throughout the film. Alice and other characters keep saying that it is important and good to be a little mad. In this sense they generally mean believing the impossible and breaking boundaries. Again, I felt like there was something lacking here. the movie could have taken this concept one step further by showing more clearly what happens to people who aren't a little mad. This was almost there, but not quite.

This movie also played with the ideas of chaos versus order. What seemed at first to be chaos in the form of Wonderland turned out to be an entirely different kind of order, one that followed different but quite sound rules. It was simply that what matters in Wonderland are not the same things as matter in the 'real world.'

Alice in Wonderland: Mary Kate Curry

What does it take for us to realize our true identity? What forces us to confront the real world? In Tim Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's classic, it takes falling into an entirely different world. The people and creatures that Alice encounters in Underland are exaggerations of human characteristics; anger, madness, intolerance, and the like. Alice must navigate a realm that is hurtling towards chaos, in an attempt to save what is good and right. In determining what she must do in Underland, Alice builds for herself the courage to face the chaos that waits for her upon the return to her real world, where she is faced with an unappetizing marriage and future. Alice has to prove to herself that she does possess power to change her world; that she alone can say yes, or no.

Personal responsibility is an intriguing theme in this film. Why have the residents of Underland bowed to a prophecy, and waited for a savior, instead of taking it upon themselves to do what is right? They are faced with the same conundrum that Alice is in her own world.

I staunchly believe that indifference (or waiting for someone else to do the right thing), is a grave ill. I despise people who wait to follow the first person to say no; and I loathe those who would rather swallow their tongue then stick their neck out for the moral good.

Daniel Gordon - Alice in Wonderland

The strongest concept or message that one will find in Tim Burton’s film “Alice in Wonderland,” based on Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass is the idea of knowing yourself and the value of being confident in the person that you are. At the start of the film, Alice is very unconfident. She doesn’t stand up for herself; she merely accepts what people tell her she is and how people tell her she ought to behave. She is, however, very curious about the world outside the one she has been raised in, which is how she ends up following the white rabbit in the first place.
As she travels through Wonderland, or Underland as the characters there inform her is the correct name, the characters and places Alice encounters become metaphors for the struggles of her life. Alice following the rabbit resembles more than the drug trip it is so often accused of representing. As she follows the rabbit instead of responding in the expected affirmative to Hamish’s proposal of marriage, she is, for the first time in a long time, following her own will rather than what is required or expected of her. Characters in Underland try to tell her who she is or is not, and what she can or cannot, must or must not do, and she refuses to satisfy them. Though she eventually does do the things that she must, she does them for her own reasons, not others’ and she does disobey many commands/requests. She feels that she can do this because she is in a dream, but as the “dream” progresses, she begins to see it as more real, and begins to realize that she can assert herself in life. When she emerges from the rabbit hole she tells Hamish that she won’t marry him, tells everyone that she will not conform to their expectations and takes her father’s place as Mr. Ascot’s business partner.

Lindsay Conrad - Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland was a great different video from what we have been watching in class. I loved the relationship between the Mad Hatter and Alice, and the parallel to her father. The Mad Hatter was the crazy man that her father told her it was ok to be. The HAtter also had little pieces of wisdom as her father did. For example "There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter." This is suggesting a world outside of what is. The transcendent and even mysterium are apparent in the words of the Mad Hatter.
There was also a sense of mysterium and wonder with the cat. Cheshire was speaking in riddles and rhymes and tended to appear when he was needed. He has God-like qualities. The riddles reminded me of the parables of Jesus and the smile turning into the moon and tendency to show up to amaze the crowds reminded me of a Holy Spirit type of figure. He is transparent and available, of the world and not of the world. Cheshire is mostly difficult to completely grasp which is a common difficulty in any faith, grasping the truth and other things that are transcendent.
Alice also seems to have a knack for that which is other-worldly. Like The Chronicles or Narnia, the other world is something that Alice does not know when she is to enter, but the twist is that she didn't know that she had been before. She also had a gift of making her dreams an reality for her. The rabbit hole was real, but there is no way that she can get it to come back on command. That would be like people requesting answers for prayers getting to decide when they are going to come true. Isn't it interesting that we can make things in our dreams come true, but more often than not people leave their prayers for the Almighty to swoop down and answer whenever.

Kim Robinson - Decalogue

Decaologue is a set of10 short films which were made in representation to the 10 commandments. The director used the interpretation of midrash in order to make the commandments pertinent to his viewers current status in life. In class we watched 2 of the 10 films including that of "thou shalt not kill". In this film we see a taxi driver preform rude deeds throughout the day and eventually when he picks up one passenger, the passenger turns out to be a murderer. The passenger is found guilty of the crime and is sentenced to death. This scene from the movie where he is about to be put to death is one of the most poignant of the film. As a viewer I felt more sorrow for the murderer as he was killed for his actions compared the sorrow I felt when the taxi driver was killed. I think the director had purposely made the film this way so that the viewer could see both sides of death. The taxi driver had been one of those rude people we see everyday while the murderer was the quiet lonely one with no family to lean on. Also, the director did a good job of portraying this commandment in his modern time. Using the setting and the life conditions he did would make the average viewer see how the commandment still applies to them. Also, it makes a good argument how we put to death someone who had just killed another. What makes our murder anymore righteous than that of the random murderer. It'd be interesting to see the other films to see how he portrayed the 10 commandments. Just by watching the film you cannot immediately figure out which commandment it is, but after looking at the deeper meaning you are able to see how the film was really about that from the beginning.

Kim Robinson - Northfolk

Northfolk to me was one of those films that I didn't quite get. I understood the basic plot line of a new lake developing and that these people in this small town must leave in order for the lake to be created. Also, there were the men who were going around to each person making sure they moved. Then there is the boy Irwin and the group of ecentric people he meets. I've never figured out whether those people are real or not. However, Irwin is very sick and unable to travel far but in the movie he is trying to escape with this group of people and believing he is an angel. I think I'd have to watch the film again to figure out exactly what was happening in that half of the movie. The other half was based around these men that are trying to get the people out of town. They are promised that if they remove 65 people from the town they will receive 1.5 acres on this new lake. Also, they are given these new black cars for their services. I thought it was interesting that each of them kept these car scratch free and completely clean while living and driving in this rocky, dusty town. As we said in class it plays along with especially the American mind frame of trying to keep the new material things in our life perfect as long as possible. The other very memorable scene from the film was when the wife was re-buried on top of the hill with the mountains in the background. We've discussed it many of times already but if I was to choose one visual image from the film it would be that still moment. Like I've said before in another blog, the scene gives the feeling of how impermanent our life is compared to so many other things in this world, so we shouldn't worry about the little things (like scratches in our car).

Kim Robinson - Alice in Wonderland

I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled about seeing this movie. After seeing the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory directed by the same man, Tim Burton, and having Johnny Depp take on another whimsical (also really creepy) character, Alice in Wonderland wasn't on my list of movies to see. Prior to going my friend kept telling me about how he got a headache watching in it 3D and that someone couldn't pay him to see it again. Although, after seeing the movie, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Depp was crazy, but not totally creepy like in Charlie. Also, I liked how it wasn't a remake of the original movie but rather a sequal or progression in Alice's life. She's grown up in this and is facing the challenges of adult life, like getting married and becoming a respectable woman in those times. When she's taken down the rabbit hole again she realizes that she's still there for a purpose and has responsibilities but of a different sort. When she gets back to her normal life she decides not to go through with the marriage and instead helps her dead father's dream of his trade company expand. I guess if I had to find a common thread throughout this movie that gives it some moral advice, it'd be that as long as you take responisbilities for your own actions, you don't have to take the actions that others want, we get to choose our own life.
While I was watching it I didn't know if anyone else got this feeling, but the people in her normal life had parallel characters in her time down the rabbit hole. The Red Queen and Hamish's mother, Alice's sister and the White Queen, even the blue caterpillar and Hamish's father. I felt like the Red Queen and Mrs. Kinsleigh were trying to push Alice into a life she didn't want, Alice's sister and the White Queen just seemed like pure genuinely nice people, and Mr. Kinsleigh and the blue caterpilalr were trying to get her to move forward in her life, in whichever direction she wanted to take it... I just thought it was interesting similarities. (P.S. glad she didn't accept Hamish's proposal. He was weird.)

Alice in Wonderland- Sean Burns

Though I was unable to see this movie with the class due to financial reasons, I had already seen it a few weeks ago. Alice is looking for purpose and finds it in Wonderland. She doesn't respond the boys proposal and runs after the white rabbit. Once in Wonderland she still is seeking her true place and doesn't believe what everyone says. She soon figures out that she needs to do something in order to bring down the Red Queen and that so many people are depending on her. She becomes the White Queens champion and slays the Jabberwocky. She finds her place in Wonderland and learns what she wants in her own world based of what she has encountered in this one. Sometimes we need to venture into a world that we know nothing about in order to fully understand our own world. Once she returns to her own world she says that she will not marry the boy, that her sisters husband should take care of her because he is lucky to have her. She finds courage and character in Wonderland and defines herself to be what she wants and not what is expected of her by her family and friends.

The characters in the film aided her in finding her purpose. Everyone doubted her in the beginning except for the Mad Hatter who would sacrifice himself in order to keep her safe. He would then go on to fight along Alice's side in the final battle showing his own depth despite his insanity.

I enjoyed this movie and was quite entertained prior to looking into it for the class but looking at this movie through a different scope gave even more meaning to the experience I had watching it.

Short Clips- Sean Burns

The clip Bunny depicts dying in a way that children can watch without fully understanding what is going on. The bunny dies as she crawls into the oven after killing the bug and putting it in the cake. It also shows that death is unavoidable and no one can escape it. The fly represented death, always nagging the bunny and as bunny got older she was unable to keep her house clean (shown by the damage that the fly makes). The oven turns into a gateway to the next world and as she travels through the oven the bunny sees a light and is finally reunited with her husband.

North Fork also depicts a passage from one place to the next but in the natural world. The boy sprinting shows and urge to move on while the buffalo in the background are slow and hesitant to move. Also in these clips were mountain ranges, depicting freedom from everyday life and when the people are added to this it seems as though they don't belong or that they should be somewhere else. This shows that in life, one must move on or be lost in the same routine every day. This also shows how while some are willing to move on, others fear change and new things.

Paris Texas shows a man lost in the wilderness at the beginning but as the scenes progress he slowly returns to society. It shows the development of man over time and what mans interaction with nature has led to. He is looking for his wife as the movie progresses. One could say that his search to reconnect with the world progresses as he moves from the wild to civilization. His brother finds him and helps him to get back, he gains the love of his son and eventually he finds his wife and they are reunited. Sometimes we need to get lost to find out who we truly are and what we need. The man in this movie realized that his son and wife were what mattered most to him and that's where he needed to be. We so often forget what is right in front of us until it is too late and we are alone.

Pink Floyd's the Wall was so confusing. I think that this was intended for an audience that was on some sort of drug. Either that or people with a very broad imagination. The wall made up of cars, stereos and other human accessories shows that in the end, our own possessions are the things that trap us and lead to our demise.

Cabeza de Baca shows the difference between cultures. For me, this reminded me of how closed off and sectionalized our society is. Laws have been passed for equal rights and yet we still segregate ourselves from those different from us. Life is not what it seems and people are still afraid to accept things that are different from what we believe or what we know.

Elissa Wilcox- Alice in Wonderland

The visuals in this film were crazy! I feel like it would have been really awesome to see it in 3D because of all of the falling scenes and all the of the motion throughout the film in general. I liked how when the mad hatter would get really upset or confused his eyes turned from green to hazel. His eyes were to big to begin with it was really interesting how the director used them as a way for him to show how he was feeling visually. There was also no way for Alice to not complete her destiny of killing the jabberwocky. Although she fought it throughout the film, in the end it was the path that was chosen for her and therefore she had no choice but to follow it.

Elizabeth Henderson- Alice In Wonderland

While watching this movie I thought it was kind of creepy just looking at some of the visuals like Johnny Depp his face in general was kind of creepy. However, I do feel like the movie showed red and white as heaven and hell. In once scene in particular, when the red queen invaded the festivities of the white queen, and burned up here festival. This particular point made me think of heaven as white and hell as red and on fire which is the typical way many people think of hell. Also similar ways that this movie was broken up was that everybody was unhappy when they had to deal with the red queen and everything was great and happy when they were with the white queen. Also in the end like most hero movies the good guy always has to win. A more symbolic way of looking at white and red is that white is associated with innocence and red is associated with sin and fire.

Spencer Beeson - Short Film Clips

Bunny

This was an interesting short film that captured the stages one goes through before death. Psychologists often break the process of dying into a few stages; mainly, anger, confusion/hopelessness, and acceptance. At the beginning of the film the bunny was clearly angry with the moth who was symbolically heading toward the light. Much like finding out one is about to die, the bunny is initially frustrated because the moth interrupts the bunny’s everyday life and leaves the bunny wondering, why me? As the annoying moth does not leave the bunny’s home she begins to become tired, confused, and even hopeless until she finally believes she had defeated the moth. The bunny is still confused when the oven bursts open and she goes over to check it out. In the end, similar to what one might experience in the few days or moments before death, is a peacefulness/calmness that accompanies an acceptance of passage into the afterlife. This is when the bunny willingly climbs in the oven and when she stands up there is a vast starry sky behind her and then she flies towards the light.

Northfork

The short clips from this film had some powerful religious symbolism that centered on the relationship between man vs. nature. First was the buffalo who were stuck in one place while the boy was running free in the background. The tendency for man to take buffalo from their natural habit and place trap them in one area shows how humans tend exert their dominance over nature and view it as separate from man and thus, capable of being controlled. The other part of the clips seems to provide different insight on the man vs. nature relationship. The two men in the black car are trying to decide what to do about the dead mother, and eventually decide to bury her on top of the mountain looking over what will soon be a man-made lake. The vast landscapes with mountains in the distance and the dead mother represent how temporary human life is and how long-lasting nature is compared to man.

Paris, Texas

The clips from this film revolved around a central theme of re-connecting with people who haven’t been in our life for a while. Each scene where the brother is walking west he is either following a road, railroad tracks, or power lines which all represent him trying to re-connect with his family from which he has been absent. The director used the mountains in one scene to represent the personality of each brother, with the “normal” brother having a regular looking mountain behind him and the brother who has been disconnected with a rugged and mysterious mountain behind him. The connection theme continues as he begins to reconnect with his son under a bunch of overpasses and with his wife who works in a club where she talks to men over a phone and behind a one-way mirror. During this scene they both come close to the mirror and their faces overlap for a second visually showing their reconnection. The one-way mirror made it appear as if the wife was there and not there at the same time and I found this to parallel a connection we sometimes have with God. We are always drifting away and reconnecting with God, and God is always here and not here at the same time.

Pink Floyd’s: The Wall

This film was loaded with powerful visual imagery that suggested a decline, and almost an apocalyptic attitude, towards the world. The first scene shed negative light on the war and showed the negative consequences of the world wars. We then moved on to “Another Brick in the Wall” in which the education system was turning children into mass produced robots who were then ground up into meat which suggested that our culture allows little room for creativity. This made me wonder how will one find God if he/she is just a mindless clone with no longing for creative and abstract thought? The last scene we watched was the focused on the wall that has been built up around Pink blocking him from the rest of the world and driving him crazy. I think this film had excellent visual imagery and placed importance on the individuals creative capacity and why we should suppress it.

Cabesa de Vaca

This film was important because it showed the differences between two opposing cultures and that we can learn from other cultures. When Alavar tries to escape from the shaman’s camp he puts a spell on him using a baby alligator tied by a string to a stick. Every time he would do something to the alligator Alavar would trip up or something as he was trying to run away until eventually he ended up right back a camp. To a westerner this makes no sense at all, we would just chase after Alavar until we caught him. As Alavar began to trust/interact with the shaman’s culture more he was able to adopt some of their rituals and even perform some healings of his own. The most powerful scene is at the end when Alavar reunites with the Spaniards and there is a ditch between him and his captain, with fire and slaves on the captain’s side and a beautiful nature landscape on Alavar’s side. When the captain asks him which God he is talking about (ours or theirs?) Alava realizes that all this conflict between cultures is unnecessary and that there is only one God.

Eric Saxon -Aesthetics

BUNNY

My first impression of the clip was one of a magical atmosphere. Being that there was a bunny actually assuming human characteristics brought me to assume that magical assumption. When the bunny looked at the picture, my first thought was that the picture was of her and her late husband, and she was longing to be with him. I believe that the moth was her late husband attempting to take the bunny to the afterlife. The fact that the moth does not go away, no matter what the bunny tried to do shows that death is always there no matter what. The clip also had a light tone to it with the music in the background and the bunny showing annoyance to the moth. The clip was actually funny to me at first. When the oven opened and the bunny crawled in, I was amazed by the coloring. The oven acted as a passageway to the afterlife. I was also impressed by the coloring and aesthetics of the film when the group of moths were flying towards the light at the end of the clip. The clip started out humorous, but then quickly changed to a mood of awe and magic. The bunny finally was able to reunite with her husband through death.

NORTHFORK

My first impression of the clip was the isolation around the boy running. The only things near him were the buffalo grazing in the wilderness. While the boy was willing to run and find his goal, the buffalo were content with staying stationary. The bison were put in the clip to show that the town was about to become extinct. Just like humans caused the town to become extinct, year ago humans almost caused the extinction of the buffalo as well. The buffalo also symbolize the wildness and freedom of nature, while at the same time humans are about to alter nature. In the second clip, the men are at a crossroads, trying to figure out what to do with their mother. The car in the clip seems to be out of place, with mountains and natural scenery all around it. The boy and the men's dead mother as the question, "are we trapped after death, or free?" The boy seems to be free after death, running wildly through the field to meet his final destination with the angels. The mother, on the other hand, is trapped in a wooden box.

PARIS TEXAS

In the first scene, the man is walking through a desert. The first thing I noticed was that there was no life around the man except for a hawk that landed nearby. The next scene where the man met his brother took place in a greener landscape, but it was still very isolated. There were many references to communication in the clips. Railroads, roads, power poles, and phones all connect people. One thing I noticed in the second clip where the man tries to pick up his brother was the mountains in the background. Each man had a mountain behind him, but the mountains differed. This could have represented the brother's personalities. When the brother is walking along the freeway, he meets up with a man preaching the apocalypse. The audience may have thought that the brother was crazy, but when the brother meets the preacher, the brother thinks that the preacher is crazy. I noticed a sense of irony during this scene because of this. Also in the scene, we see the freeway. The freeway is extremely large and chaotic. I believe this references the chaos that mass communication causes. The movie tends to support the peacefulness of the wilderness more than the chaos of the city. When the brother meets his former wife in a Brouffel, they are only able to communicate through the phone, which is also another form of communication. The brother can be with her, but not be with her at the same time. This may have symbolized what their marriage was like. One part of the scene that I found fascinating was when their faces overlapped. This may have shown them that they had the chance to be connected as one, but were unable to accomplish this.

PINK FLOYD THE WALL

This was by far the most chaotic of the clips we watched aesthetics wise. The animated characters in the film are all distorted. In my view, the movie was about how everyone is forced to fit into the mold of society. Pink used this movie as a sort of rebellion from this mold. He made fun of many authority figures such as teachers and judges. Everyone seems to judge each other and think their views are better than everyone elses. Pink shows that he does not agree with this in his film. However, in the school scene when the kids rebel, Pink shows that combating authority with chaos only causes more chaos. Material things are also a target in Pink's movie. The film was also very anti-artistic, distorting the characters in the film severely. Overall, I believe that the film had a dark and gloomy atmosphere, with pink attempting to expose everything he thinks is wrong with the world.

CABASA DE PACA

This was also a very chaotic film. The clips start of with a scene from a chaotic battle where a priest gets killed by arrows. However, even with arrows in his back, the priest continued to walk until he couldn't anymore. This shows that faith can give people extraordinary will-power and desire. This film also reminded me of the movie Apocalypse Now. Like Apocalypse Now, the clips took place in a wilderness setting that was consumed by violence and war. The sacred order of the wilderness was disrupted by the profane actions of humans. One part of the clip that jumped out at me was when Cabeza escaped from the Shaman. He ran for seemingly hours, attempting to get as far away from the shaman as he could. However, the shaman performed a spell that caused Cabeza to run around in a complete circle, eventually ending up in the same place he started. This caused Cabeza to sort of "give up," as he collapsed on the ground with a look of despair in his eyes. The clips brought a feeling of the beauty of wilderness and also added a violent and magical touch with the conflict with the natives.

Aesthetics - Tim Powitz

1. Bunny
The short film begins with this bright image of a silhouette floating through light, then we soon discover the obnoxiousness that is the moth. The whole film is shown in close of bunny, the bowls, ingredients, the oven, etc. We feel very cramped and almost annoyed by this claustrophobia, just like the annoyance of the moth. The chaotic moments are emphasized by the short, choppy, angled shots that cause the viewers visual distress. We reach the height of our cramped feeling in the oven, and then we are relieved from all of the chaos, distress, and close-ups as the short film completes with one long shot of bunny flying into the light with the moths.

2. Northfork
The first clip shows us the boy, dressed in black, running against the backdrop of white fields and the black and white mountains towering above him. The second clip is that of the black car with the black coffin on top against the same mountainous background. These 2 clips show great juxtaposition of white vs. black/ life vs. death. With the background of the towering mountains over head of the characters, we see the death in the film. Erwin's death and the coffin. The mountains overhead symbolize burial. These characters are under the earth.

3. Paris Texas
The film begins with Travis wandering through the barren land with a barren gaze to match. He keeps this barren stare throughout this film which shows how he truly feels. He is dressed in a suit as if to suggest he escaped from civilization and yet his brother keeps pulling him in. The mountains in the background match each brother's image. Travis's mountain is jagged, rugged, harmful looking, and rocky with little greenery and life growing on it. The brother's mountain is neat, lively, smooth, and harmonious. The movie also follows the theme of communication. We see the evolution of communication through Travis. He first starts off walking over barren land. He follows power lines and phone lines, a rather simple technology of communication. He then graduates to trains and cars, as he sits under the overpasses, not knowing where to go. Finally back home is when he is watching the planes. But in the end, he falls back on the phone talking to his wife "face to face" as his face covers hers in the reflection of the glass making them one again.

4. The Wall
There was so much to take in with The Wall that I felt way in over my head on trying to get down everything. I did notice the excessive use of hammers, especially in the shadows of the factory during the education song, especially in context to the gears that looked like sickles, thus symbolizing communism and the origin of the Berlin wall. The symbolism of the hammer is good because it both builds and tears down walls, and either way you view the hammer, it still oppresses Pink.

5. Cabeza de Vaca
This is another powerful film that show importance to the "nonverbal" attributes of film. One of my favorite scenes was his speech after running full circle back into captivity. I especially liked the camera action at the end of the speech. The whole time during the speech and for most of the film, we see these wide shots that encompass a lot into view. But at the end of his speech as he lies in the fetal position, the camera zooms in on Alvar and finally rests on his chest/heart. I think this is very important because until this point, the Shaman and the helper have only viewed Alvar as another man who can be used for labor and be pushed around, but now I think it is this point that they see Alvar as more than a prisoner, but an actual suffering soul.

Daniel Gordon - Aesthetics in Film

Bunny

The short animated film Bunny evoked some very interesting images. The seamless transition from the speckled walls of the oven to the starry sky was one of the most prominent. The juxtaposition of the moths against the celestial light and the starry sky was also stirring. Moths are a creature that is always thought of in a negative light from what I’ve seen. They undergo transformations very similar to those of butterflies, yet moths are thought of as ugly and annoying. We have gardens specifically designed to attract butterflies, while we have scented balls of chemical specifically designed to keep moths away. Perhaps “Bunny” is challenging us to take a deeper look at our first impressions and learn to appreciate the beauty in more than just that which meets our harsh aesthetic standards. The moths are beautiful as they lead the bunny to her afterlife, where she will be reunited with her husband. The very opening shot appeared to be a dove against the sun, a very beautiful image, and pulled back to reveal that it was a moth against a light bulb. My perceptions of aesthetic beauty were challenged as I watched Bunny and saw that the moth was not there to annoy the bunny, but to lead her to rest in the afterlife.
The bunny’s choppy twitchy movements before moving on from life mirror the moth’s. Both are attempting to accomplish a goal and being thwarted. The moth is trying to draw the bunny’s attention to the fact that it is time to move on and the bunny is trying to prepare her meal and keep the moth out of her house. There is a shift however, once the bunny has peacefully entered the afterlife, the moth’s wings and the bunny’s eyes no longer flutter, they float. The wings of the moth function like those of a graceful bird, flapping slowly and rhythmically, while the bunny’s eyes wander, examining her new environment, but the rapid movements and nervous urgency are gone. Once the bunny has surrendered to death, the transition between life and afterlife is peaceful and easy.

Northfork

In these clips from Northfork, there is a clear distinction between man and nature. In the first clip, we see a herd of bison slowly moving from right to left with a boy on the road running from left to right. In the second clip we see a man and his son driving with a coffin on top of their car, but they are an insignificant speck against the mountain ridge that fills three quarters of the frame. What I took from these clips was an idea that nature is enduring. The imagery of the strong mountains that have been there for thousands of years, and the bison, which were almost extinct at one point but have made a comeback gives me the sense of this endurance, while the boy running and the coffin remind me of the fleeting temporality of human life. In these images humanity seems so finite in contrast to nature, which seems infinite in the herd of bison and the powerful mountain ridge.

Paris, Texas

Throughout the clips of Paris, Texas we were presented with all these images of connections and things that connect people, whether communication or travel. Travis always follows a communication path, with his mind stuck on the breakdown in communication that happened between he and his ex-wife. He follows phone lines, train tracks and freeways. When he finally finds her, they are still surrounded by this imagery of communication and communication breakdown. He finds her is a brothel where men use a phone to talk to a woman behind a two-way mirror, so they can hear each other, but she cannot see him until he tells her to turn out her light. And then they can’t even look at each other. The two way mirror was an especially powerful image of communication breakdown as one side receives a clear vision of the other, which receives only its own reflection.

The Wall – Pink Floyd

In The Wall we are confronted with all these images of, quite literally, a wall, and walls. In the school scene we see this labyrinth of walls and students in such straight and perfect lines that they themselves might as well be walls. This corresponds perfectly with the music of course, which states that “all in all you’re just another brick in the wall.” This is how the main character feels at the time, but we come to see that all the experiences he has are really another brick in the wall he builds around himself, which we see destroying anyone in it’s path, locking him up where he feels safe, but will be exposed. We see powerful cartoon shots of different experiences adding to his wall, and his final judgment threatening to tear it down and expose him to all he shut out.

Cabeza de Vaca

The most powerful image I noticed in Cabeza de Vaca was the image of the divide between Alvar and the military captain in the end of the film. This was a great example of the clear benefits of aesthetically strong choices. Alvar has learned to respect and love these people and their culture, while the military captain has his mind set only on conquest and enslaving/converting the native people. Alvar has taken the time to consider these people and what they have to offer as opposed to imposing his own will on them as the military captain is keen on doing. Alvar points across the divide to where natives are bound by the Spanish men and asks the captain if that is the path he wishes Alvar to take, if that is what he considers righteous. The physical separation adds a very real and aesthetic layer to the ideological separation between the two men in this scene.

Joshua Booth - Paris Texas Clip

In the film Paris Texas by Vin Venders there are signs of hopelessness and emptiness which is what the desert is basically all about. The brother keeps looking like is he looking at something in the far off distance? There are patterns of power poles and while he is walking he is following the straight path of lines. These are signs of communication and connecting people. The mountains that are behind the brothers fit their personality. One has an odd shaped irregular mountain that is uncertain and seems as though it was shaped by some type of volcanic activity in the past and the other has a basic looking mountain. There are also light transitions and another connector when the brother is walking on the bridge that overlooks the major freeway. He is also walking the opposite of the way the cars are moving. When he is walking on the bridge he is only half way done when he reaches the man that is preaching something.
When he goes to the room where his former wife is the room behind her is complete but in front of her is incomplete and you can easily see the insulation. The images are used to overlap his face on her body. The idea of the mirror is that you can be there but not there. The color scheme also changed from yellow to black. It is said that, “It was easier talking to you when I was imaging you.” She said that she would listen to him. Later on in the conversation he sits down the phone and turns away. This is symbolic in that they have not been able to connect. Sometimes in marriage the other person is taken for granite and that is what happened to this couple. It is awkward that now since he is a paying customer she is willing to sit down and listen to him but that was probably not the case when they were previously together.

Joshua Booth- Cabeza De Vaca Clip

In the film Cabeza De Vaca the characters are on an expedition in the 1530’s. It is a historical account of an expedition that gets shipwrecked. By this time Spain has conquered Mexico. There are a total of four people left from the expedition that make it back eight years later. The man in this film has a power to heal people. There are a few survivors that are captured and that are going to be sold. The man being captured and detained is just like the lizard that is tied to the pole, they can only go but so far. The man that does escape runs into a full circle and is right back where he started. During the film the music heightens the tension and its fast pace. This man’s name is Alvar. They end up treating him better once they realize he does have these healing powers. The man in the fetal position is the last scene shown.

Joshua Booth- The Wall

In the short film by Pink Floyd, “The Wall” there was kids breaking everything they could get their hands on. The song lyrics were saying, “We don’t need no education.” Since he was of the artistic type he was probably not accepted as a normal kid in his school and he thought he would just sing and write about his problems at school. There was a symbolic moment when the kids were put into a meat grinder and some did not fit the grinder so their life was spared. He was stereotyped as a child and did not fit it with the others.
The second short animated film was of two flowers. It began out nice and sweet but then the flowers mated and chaos began to happen. I think one flower was him and the other was his girlfriend or significant other. Once the rage begins to show that’s more than likely symbolic of her leaving him for another person.
The third film was of lots of walls being torn down. The women in his life were evil as displayed in this film. The judge was literally an asshole and the legs could have been symbolic of his mother. The WWII and communist were symbolized in this film as it relates to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The opposing sides were smashing each other and fighting for different ideologies.

Joshua Booth- Northfolk

In the clip of the film Northfolk that was showed there was a young boy running in the field with a trunk and there was a piano playing in the background. There were signs of eagerness and resistless all shot in one single frame. The suitcase signified that the boy was going on a journey. In this film they could have picked cattle for the background but they chose the Bison. This is symbolic because Bison are rare and almost extinct just like the town in which they live, Northfork. The town is almost cleared of all families and soon no one will be living there because of the dam.
The second clip shown was of the father and son on the road by themselves. They were at a crossroads in the film and also they were at a crossroads in their life. The father was deciding on what to do with his deceased wife’s body since it was in the graveyard that needed to be excavated. The car had a coffin on top of it while they drove down the dirt road. Everything in the current town was temporary with nothing having a foundation for the future. Compared to the mountains and lakes everything else was temporary.

Joshua Booth - Bunny Clip

In the short amount of film that we watched on Ice Age the Bunny was being annoyed by the moth. The moth is the escort for the Bunny into the afterlife. The camera has lots of fluttering and the music changed midway through as well. In this there was mischief with a little bit of play mixed in with it. The moths at the end were flying toward the light with the Bunny right beside them with wings, like an angel or something. The oven was symbolic for a passage way between the two different realms. The moth was symbolic for death. The bunny can not escape it and it’s always going to be there to annoy you regardless of what you try to do to deter it.

Film Clips -Elizabeth Roy

Film Techniques Used to Evoke Emotions

1. Bunny
My distaste and discomfort was caused primarily by the strange, dim lighting, which invoked a feeling of dirtiness and disuse. The feeling of annoyance was emphasized by the constant uncontrollable movements – those of the lamp, moth, ingredient shaker, cupboards, etc. Also, the bizarre viewpoints emphasized the straggly fur of the rabbit, which I found distasteful. The bright flashes of light from the oven were a color of an entirely different spectrum from the rest of the house, which is what made it feel particularly weird and creepy.

2. Northfork
The snowy white image combined with the wide shot makes it feel desolate, the combination of the bison and the snow gives a hint of strangeness or otherworldliness. The juxtaposition of the bison’s stillness made the boy’s movement seem more intense. The wide shot showing the mountains and fields would normally be a ‘nature’ shot, but the car intrudes. The car –perhaps representing humanity in general – seems out of place, unwanted, and insignificant.

3. Paris, Texas
The music invokes loneliness, as does picture of one person and hawk. The first shot is beautiful, with multiple colors and a lovely landscape, but when the man enters it seems dirty because you can see the dust all over his suit. The man and hawk are compared and contrasted – they are both alone in the desert, but the hawk is content and is master of the desert, while the man is strangely driven and is slave to the desert. The mountain behind Walt is ‘normal’ – shaped nicely, green, and fertile, rather like what one would expect. The one behind Travis is rocky, not as pretty but far more interesting, mysterious, and uncertain. The setting where Walt is seems cluttered, hectic, and rather ugly. The setting where we see Travis is wide, open, free, and beautiful. There were many straight lines (such as the road, power lines, and train tracks) that connect people, and Travis is following the communication route of the power lines. The line of shoes is representative also of transportation, as is the highway that Travis is watching. The huge freeway represents how huge of an expanse there can be between two people when they try to communicate. It takes Travis a long time to traverse the freeway, and he encounters something unexpected on the way that could have blocked his path (the crazy man). Travis and his son, Hunter, communicate and connect in the midst of highways and cars. In the scene where Travis has found his wife, she is in a setting of warm colors and bright light, whereas he is in a place with harsh colors and darkness. When his wife finally realizes who he is, she must turn the light off – come down to his level of darkness – in order to see him. The whole aspect of the mirror plays with the idea of whether or not the two people are truly present. Travis hasn’t really been there the past several years (perhaps more than that) and Jane says it was easier for her to talk to him when he wasn’t actually there. The view of the insulation also plays with the idea of incompleteness and illusion.

4. The Wall
The colors of the animation – black, brown, and red – convey a feeling of horror and despair. The dull colors of the scenes where the children are in school make you feel horror and despair also, but in a more hopeless sort of way. The stark lines, distasteful order, and factory setting heighten this feeling. The factory is taking normal children and churning out mindless, identical pieces of meat. At first it is not apparent that the children have melted, horrific faces, but it eventually becomes more clear – just like the effects of the real-life school system. When the children finally revolt, the colors of passion appear in the fire and in the machetes. The flower animation uses vaguely humanoid melting figures to invoke disgust and revulsion. All of the ‘human’ figures in the film, are, in fact, very misshapen and horrific. The symbolism of the judgment scene shows the protagonist as a helpless, limp doll, the judge as an anus, and the schoolteacher as an evil marionette.

5. Cabeza de Vaca
The chaos, disorder, and fear of the attack scene is caused by the jumble of confused images and blurry colors. During this scene, the silver cross that Alvar wears is focused on - because of its size, clarity, and central placement in the shots where Alvar is captured, it is clear that the cross is powerful and important. In the scene where Alvar is trying to escape, his movements are compared to that of the tied lizard in the shaman's ritual - just as the lizard cannot escape its circle, Alvar cannot escape his captors, and when the shaman spits on the lizard, Alvar trips in the water. During this, the fast-tempo music heightens the anxiety and suspense. When Alvar is coming into his power by healing the man with the damaged eye, the audience sees two kinds of camera angle: the wide angles showing the hut and spectators is from Alvar's eyes, and we see how confused and dazed he is at the moment. The closer angles where we see Alvar's face and the Shaman's expression helps us realize the import of the event as the Shaman watches Alvar's actions closely.

Daniel Gordon - Northfork

One of the most interesting elements of Northfork was the side story that the new dam would flood he graveyard in the name of recreation. The dam is to create a lake for recreation and lakefront property, and to do this those in power are willing to flood a sizeable graveyard, violating to sacred ritual of burial. It seems likely that many of the graves have been there for decades or even centuries, as is often the case with graveyards, and many of the people buried there would have no kin remaining in the area to exhume them and rebury them somewhere else. What bothered me is not so much that the location of one’s body would make much difference to a person if he or she was dead, but rather that burial is so often a sacred act in most societies and the willingness to violate so many burials for profit and recreation seems unusual at best, and, at the worst, downright sociopathic. For most, even many for whom religion bears little or no significance in their lives, burial is a sacred and religious act. Most people who choose to be buried chose to have some kind of funeral or memorial service during which a religious leader speaks and usually prays. Burial has always been a sacred ritual and the mayor and those responsible for the dam in Northfork are willing to violate it without any regard, except to tell people to move their loved ones themselves if they don’t wish them to be buried under the lake. Interestingly the one religious leader in the movie, Father Harlan, has no part in the removal or reburial of any of the bodies. The families are left on their own to decide how to violate the sacred resting places of their family members in the most respectful manner they can think of.

Daniel Gordon - Dekalog 6

My stomach turned several times as we watched Dekalog 6; “Thou shalt not murder.” I could see the twisted actions of the main character in my own life, not necessarily physically manifest, but in thought life at least. The Bible makes the point that all sin separates us from God equally; no one is worse than another. The film demonstrates this clearly, as the taxi driver who gets killed is just as guilty as the boy who kills him. All characters had their downfalls, such as murder, or perversion, and all had their redeeming points, such as the murderer’s affection for children and the cab driver’s feeding of the stray dog. Kieslowski does an excellent job of providing the viewer with a text to question in Dekalog 6. He challenges perceptions of sin, and our notion that we are somehow better than others, because our sin is less. He shows in a very graphic sense that all sin is equal and deserves equal punishment. The boy who is a murder dies by strangulation with a rope around his neck. The cab driver who is, at the worst we see, a pervert is killed in the exact same way by that very boy.
This can’t be ignored when watching the film. Each death presents the audience with too powerful an image to be ignored or forgotten. The man at the urinals and the friendly road worker appear in situations that attempt to shed light into the boy’s life and give him time to change his mind before the murder is completed. Both times, however, he ignores the character intended to represent Christ’s influence; throwing him into the urinal and urging the cab driver past him. We so often do this. God sets in our path opportunities to examine our actions and stop ourselves before we do something irreversible, and so often we tragically ignore them, brushing God aside, and heading toward the death we have chosen instead of the salvation He has offered.

Sarah Levow, Film Clips

Film Clips

1. Bunny Short

Burst thoughts: bright, heaven, moth, high contrast lighting, extreme closeups, ingredients, high shot, lost, darkness, into light, message not seen, mission, anger, transformation/metamorphosis, guardian: coming to take her “home”, amazing grace

Reflection: The clip seems to be about “bunny's” husband, who is implied to be dead, coming to escort her to the afterlife. This reminds me of my mom telling me stories about people she knows who, on their death bed, have suggested that they are seeing people that have been dead for years. My mom always told me that she believes that the dead people are those that are coming to escort the person away to the afterlife, because not long after the person reports seeing the dead person, that person dies. It is interesting that bunny gets so mad that she smashes the moth and then throws it into her recipe to make sure it is dead. This anger at such a small nuisance seems too much, but the moth/her husband overcomes these obstacles since it is bunny's time.

2. Northfork

Burst thoughts: barren, movement, running, snow, music box, nature, solemn, grey skies, mountains

Reflection: I have yet to watch this film and it was a bit confusing for me. I was nit really sure how to interpret it. I noticed the movement which seemed like a migration to me. The boy seemed like he was in a hurry and he seemed small in comparison to what he was carrying: a burden maybe? Something seemed to have happened in the second clip: a death? The men are all in black with a black car and they look sad. One ma has his head down and distracted.

3. Paris, Texas

   Burst thoughts: dry, empty/barren, scanning landscape, hawk, man covered in dust, confused?, gallon of water, finishes water, close up of lid before dumping it on ground, mission/grass, still empty, nature, cows, walking rather than other form of transportation, one car, travis seems empty, mountain behind each brother (green/fertile behind walt & rocky, mossy behind travis), skeptical of car (gets in back instead of front)/travis missing in civilization, back on mission, nothing is somewhere to travis, sepia tone, light rain/wandering in desert, in town he follows straight paths, looking for something in civilization, high shot of travis, low shot of boy, sitting in tall grass/green, carnival music, man shouting, overpass, crazy, pats crazy man on back, looks back

   Reflection: The dust seems to play a major role in the first scene. It is everywhere and the camera pans to show that the landscape is barren; even the man is covered in the dust. What caught my eye was that the man put the lid back on the empty gallon of water container before dumping it on the ground. In the second clip, Travis seems to be on a mission. He stops and goes with his brother, but he is very skeptical of it. His mind seems as empty as the landscape, yet there is still something there. He never stops himself from going with his brother. In the final clip, I wasn't really sure what to think, but I agree with the comment in class that it is a crazy guy meeting another crazy guy; one just seems crazier.

4. The Wall

   Burst thoughts: grey sky , animation, black bird like airplane, music in minor, creatures in sewers (faces are gas masks), airplanes turn to crosses, blood running into drains, “good bye blue sky”/”we don't need no education”, words contradict education through grammar, single file lines (like zombies/walking in unison), no windows, factory, labyrinth, masks, meat grinder, rioting, destruction, fire, artist as failure/”backs against the wall”, animation, red flower penetrating white/pink flower, dragons, praying mantis, cars/car parts as wall, flower to barbed wire, wall breaks through church, child to teenager who gets head bashed in by policeman, constant transformation, puppet schoolmaster, judge as asshole, lone leaf transforming into falling man, mother's arms as wall, eye as portal, women as evil

   Reflection: I feel that Pink Floyd is trying to say that any sort of institution (school, work, religion) is negative and shields people from themselves and knowledge. Those who escape the “wall,” such as the children fighting the education system, are able to attack the system and do thIngs the way they want to, otherwise they are destined to die, such as the youth who gets his head bashed in by the police baton. I was not really sure what to make of the transformations. I think that they could represent different meanings, but also represent the common theme of change. Everything is always changing and moving and nothing is as it seems. Only when people escape the confines of the “wall” can they transform.

5. Cabeza de Baca

   Burst thoughts/discussion: chaos, arrows, priest holding cross with multiple arrows in back, running, lizard teased to become angry, running through water, no language, escape, circular path, music heightens tension, fetal position, lizard's entrapment: picture of world (circle with axis in center), poem: conquest of peninsula by moors (moors and spaniards living together), zoom (trapped in small portion of the world), cleans shaman's helper, ritual and eye, shaman recognizes Cabeza's power, resurrection, playing God?, merging of shamanism and christianity

   Reflection: I thought it was interesting how, towards the end of the film, there was a merging of the religions. One could see the transformation happening slowly, and it is especially apparent when Cabeza helps to clean the shaman's helper. At his weakest point, when he runs away and finds that he ran in a circle, he resorts to the fetal position: going back to stage one of being human. He has to start over, and that is when his transformation begins. He realizes that he is only in a small portion of the world, and his part of the world is somewhere else. He goes from fighting the Shaman to joining him and aiding him. “If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.” However, I wondered that since Cabeza is a Christian, once he turns Shaman, is he playing god? Or is has he become a representative of God?

Vincent Farino

Bunny

I felt that the moth was the wife trying to be with her husband and she kept flying in the room and he swatted her away and she hit the picture of them and she reflected a sense of remorse and missed her husband. She then killed the moth, put it in her meal and, put the meal in the oven. Then she (the bunny) died from being so worked up and went in to the oven where she saw another moth. I believe the other moth was her husband reincarnated to bring her to Heaven. She then became a moth too. By the end of the movie when you realize what has happened it is a very moving film that demonstrates love and longing. There was also a great deal of symbolism in the film such as during the time she was annoyed there was fast, chaotic Jewish music being played to add to the annoyance of the Bunny. The oven was a passageway of transformation and the white dots on it became stars when she went through it. The story as a whole could represent death as it is always knocking at the door.

Northfork

The first scene eagerness and resistance in the same picture. They go to crossroads which represent the crossroads of their life.

The second scene the car drives through an open field as a man looks at another man and grins. Personally the grin that the older man gave the younger brought fourth an emotion of acceptance.

Paris Texas

This scene showed a man in a desert and he had a look of hopelessness. Then he follows the power poles and roads which are similar because they connect to communication. The next scene had symbolism within the imagery as the mountains behind Walt was normal looking, and the mountain behind Travis is rocky mysterious and uncertain representing his personality or voyage.

When he meets his brother he has a determined look on his face like he is looking at something. He walks again down a railroad track and still has that look on his face.

In the next scene he has binoculars now he can focus on things that are far off in the distance. It shows the shoes in the first part and that also plays on communication. The bridge in the next scene was another connector. He shot with his son seems like they are connecting in speech which is another connecting scene. The scene when he is talking to the girl who was his wife seems like she is scared at first, but then she is drawn to him. The next time he talks to her she knows his voice. She says it was easier when she just imagined him and says they would have conversations and it was almost like he was there. This scene reveals a sense of longing for him. The room behind her is complete but what she is looking at is a wall that isn’t completed which is similar to her own life and that of Travis. They talk on the phone which completed the symbolism of the phone lines which led to this point. As they talk more it seems like they had bad communication when they were together which also adds to the symbolism of the themes of communication and connecting that were present throughout the films.

Pink Floyd the Wall

The war just showed death and people dieing. This could represent how the band felt about war. That it only brought death and was wrong.

In the second song the kids look like robots with the education song. This could represent that they felt that the stereotype of people going to school to learn whatever they are programmed to learn was wrong.

The third song seems like they are sick of the material things of this world and that we try to fill ourselves with anything and everything to satisfy our desires.

In the next song the judge was a but-hole literally. Everyone is judging him for something in his life that was the key theme in this song. The song seemed to reveal that they were against authority.

Cabasa de Paca

The first scene shows the man running while a lizard is tied to a pole. Alvar tries to run away but he just comes back like the lizard who is tied to the pole. Everytime the lizard would turn over the man would fall cuz the Shaman used his evil power over the man with Voodoo.

The next scene zooms in on Alvar. This was a symbolism of being trapped and alone. He then reads a poem and the poem is a symbol of what is happening to him. He then goes into a fetal position as to relate to birth. By the end of the next scene it seems that Alvar is possessed, but really he is praying to his God the Creator of the Heavens. He then heals a man. There is a close up taken then of the Shaman and he looks at Alvar with a look of respect and honor for the power that he possesses.

The next scene had several Biblical undertones. The scene showed a dead woman that Alvar prays for and he tells the people to untie the woman. The woman is then raised from the dead just like Lazarus in the Bible who had to be unclothed to be healed. After the woman was risen he was in a crucifix position in the tomb, incorporating Christianity and the Indians way of life. The last scene was of the white men coming from Spain. They tried to destroy the village and take the Indians as slaves. Alvar who once was a Spaniard now sees that true Christianity is helping those that do not understand the truth of Jesus. Alvar had to experience what he went through to soften his heart to what true Christianity was. The destruction of this whole place is against the Chrisitian faith along with the slavery that is what he says to the captain. This reveals the transformation that he had with Chrisitanity that killing people and dominating people who are not of your faith is not true Christianity, and that there can peace with sharing the faith of Christ instead of forcing it.

Sarah Levow, Decalogue

Decalogue

I believe that translating anything into film can open up a whole new dimension of analysis, and for Kieslowski to put the Commandments into a visual medium definitely helps to try to interpret them. As I understand it, Misrash is not an interpretation, but it is a way of investigating a subject. I think that to see the Commandments through the ten short films is a great was of investigating their meaning to see what they are all about. Many people find it difficult to interpret words, but nearly everyone deals with the visual on a daily basis, so it would make sense to test Midrash in a visual medium.

The first film that we watched in class, “Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me,” was difficult to understand. I felt that it could have applied to many other Commandments, but Kieslowski wanted viewers to focus on that particular one. Looking at the film in that sense, in application to Midrash, it was a bit easier to focus. I think that Kieslowski was very creative in how he made the film, making it so that the theme was not so obvious, and to apply it in a modern sense. Through the death of the man's son, viewers can see how the man put other things, such as work, and his computer first. False gods today can be anything that we find distracting; things that take away from what we should really enjoy in life, such as our children. The fact that Kieslowski was trying to film on things that apply to everyone is also important. Anyone could relate to the feeling of loss, and regret for having lost something that we took for granted.

I believe that, yes, the decalogue series works to integrate the Commandments into an individual's life. Kieslowski put the films into a form where, as mentioned before, the themes can apply to all. Everyone can relate to loss. In the second film, “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” it is a bit harder to relate to the character who kills, but as a viewer, one can certainly question who the bad guy is in the end, and question the purpose of capital punishment. With death coming up in both films, Decalogue certainly bridges a specific moment with eternity. In each film, the characters' question where they went wrong in their lives to cause such horrible things to happen to them, and those horrible things, in turn, effect the outcome of their lives.

Sarah Levow, Misc #1

Book of Eli

The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic film about mankind trying to restart. Many people have resorted to foraging and cannibalism to survive. Carnegie is a man who is trying to control a community and become a powerful figure in what is left of the world. He has gained power and fear from his people, but he still needs “the book,” which viewers discover to be the Bible. He sends out men to look for copies that are left, but most were destroyed. There is only rumor that one copy still exists. That one copy is in the hands of Eli, a blind nomad who is destined to protect the copy in his possession. He claims that God came to him and led him to the final copy, which lay amongst the rubble of a post-apocalyptic town. He makes it his mission to make sure the book is safe, and martyrs himself for its protection.

Before I saw the film, I wondered if the name “Eli” had any significance in this film, so I did some research. I learned that Eli, in Hebrew, translates to “My God,” and in the Bible he was a priest who trained the prophet Samuel in his youth. Eli, in the film, is certainly not God, and he is not a priest either, so I wondered if his name could be related to Elijah, the prophet. Elijah translated to “Yahweh is God” and he was a prophet. Elijah was known as a prophet and for raising the dead and bringing fire from the sky. The connection here is that Eli does act as a sort of prophet, carrying the only known copy of the Bible and trying to spread the word of God through a doomed land. He also does seem to dodge death's grasp multiple times and dies only after he has completed his mission, despite multiple wounds.

In relation to class, I feel that The Book of Eli applies well to our conversations at the beginning of the year on the sacred and the profane. The post-apocalyptic world that the film is set in is the profane world. People live in a constant cycle of sin: selling their bodies, feeding off of their own species, killing without thought or guilt. Eli holds the one text that, if used properly, can restore order and turn the setting into a sacred world. The film also alludes to mysterium as Solara, a young woman who was under the control of Carnegie, but escapes to follow Eli, constantly asks Eli about the text, but is only given obscure answers, such as quotes. She knows that the text is powerful, but she does not ever understand why. She can only see glimpses as she ocassionally sees Eli put the text to work.

Kim Robinson - Misc # 1

As the end of the semester comes everyone starts to feel the stress of the semester. student's have final papers to work on or start thinking about their finals coming up in a few short weeks. Well I'm nodifferent and for the semester here I have final papers due in each of my classes. I'm definitely feeling the stress of trying to do five 10 page research papers in the next few weeks. Also, like any college student I'm feeling the stress of drama which comes from any social life. Well last night I was at the culmination of my stress and didn't know how I would get through the rest of the semester until today and I went at ran the noland and sat for about 30 minutes at the Lion's Gate Bridge on this gorgeous day. As I was sitting there I was feeling better and remembered last summer when I took the AT class and learned about Spirituality in Nature and on the trail. I have to admit I didn't see it then but being physically in nature can really good for the body and soul. Just being out there and letting everything escape but the path that was in front of meand the nature that was around me. It really was a spiritual cleansing for me and it was healing to my mind. I wouldn't go as far as saying I found God on our little Noland Trail but there was definitely something there and it reminded me you can find redemption and in healing in all sorts of places, not just in churches. Church was never something we were forced to do by my parents because they weren't that religious so I haven't grown up feeling a strong connection to God. I believe that something is out there, I just don't know what and today helps remind me that there is something out there looking over us.

Joe Pascale - Aesthetics in Film

-Bunny
The short film of the Bunny comes across as somewhat humorous, childish cartoon. Yet, it is much deeper than that. In the beginning the filming is hectic and a little chaotic. This chaos is provided by the moth that is drawn to the light in the grumpy old rabbit's kitchen. The moth itself is symbolic. People who have near-death or out-of-body experiences claim to see a bright light that they were drawn to, much like the moth to a light. The moth is relentless, after being chased outside it returns through a window. In a fit of anger the rabbit swats at the moth and hits it. Unfortunately for the rabbit it falls in the cake, with even more anger the old rabbit bakes the cake with the moth anyway. A short while later the oven begins to shake and it looks as if lightening is striking inside of it. The intensity of this scene not only terrifies the rabbit, but draws the audience in. Up until now there did not seem to be much of a point to the story, but now we wonder what is going on inside the oven. The oven is a passageway to heaven, much like the proverbial ladder or staircase to heaven. No longer angry, the terrified and trembling rabbit (symbolic of being afraid of death) is drawn into the oven by a light. As the rabbit moves further and further in the speckles of paint on the oven wall become stars and the rabbit floats on towards the light, no longer afraid, but in awe.

- Northfork scene 1
The opening of the first scene is a powerful and informative one. The car with Walter and Willis drives the a crossroads. This is symbolic of the crossroad they must face in life, with determining what to do about moving the casket of Walter's wife, Willis' mother. Next the scene cuts to a boy running across an open meadow with a suitcase, while a herd of bison mingle in the foreground. The bison are unphased by the boy, continuing in their daily lives. But in the background looms the mountains of Northfork, always witnesses.
-Northfork scene 2
This scene is in some ways an extension of the crossroads scene. At the crossroads Walter and Willis knew they had a cross to bear, but could not bring themselves to do what they needed to do. Finally they did, the casket on top of the car as they drove down the curving road was their cross, their burden. While the sad music is played and Willis looked dismayed, Walter smiled a small grin, because despite this burden that was placed upon him weighs so heavy on their hearts, taking care of his wife brings a bit of closure and peace to him. The cross he no longer has to bear.

-Paris, Texas
The first few scenes are of a man drifting over the landscape. He is in the desert, with no maked route or trail but in his searching eyes you can tell he has a destination. The close up of his searching eyes and wary face are very powerful. Next scene we find that he has found a bit more order in his life, his search is more organized than an open desert. The landscape is green and he is following roads and telephone lines. Early in the shot he crosses from one side of the road to the other, symbolic that he is at a crossroads in his life and something is on his mind. His brother catches up to him on the road and tries to persuade him into the car. He does not speak of react. As they stand there, a mountain with gentle green slopes rises in the distance behind him. Behind the drifter rises a rugged mountain much closer. I think this is not only symbolic of thier physical apperance at the time (the drifter looking much rougher than the brother) but also of obstacles they must overcome. The drifter's obstacle, as symbolized in his mountain, is much more complex and difficult and it is looming large in his life.

The scenes continue, always focused on cars, airplanes, freeways, back roads, telephone lines, railroad tracks and bridges. All are forms of communication and transportation. They connect people is some way or another. The scenes and the man are lonesome. The rail lines and the lonesome roads are symbolic of this. Eventually we find out that the man is searching for his wife. When he finds her their conversation makes sense out of all the scenes before. The scenes were symbolic of communication and connecting two people, communication was the problem between the wife and drifter. The conversation reveals that they never communicated in marriage. Then when the wife left she found herself talking to her husband though no one was there. Even after he found her communication was difficult. They were forced to talk to each other over a phone, separated by class in a Texas style brothel. The man could not look at her while she spoke, it was not until she sat and faced the other way that he could turn and face forward. The notion that they had to talk over a phone line while separated by glass shows they are attempting to communicate yet still find themselves distant from each other.

-Pink Floyd's The Wall
This was probably the best documentation of the descent into insanity as portrayed in art. The scenes were dark and full of doom (animation of war). While the education scene was full of disturbing images. The kids looked like they had melted faces. I think this was meant to show the lack of individuality allowed in the schools, they wanted to make robots. They were faceless in a school that looked like a prison. They they rioted and burned the school. Fire was used as a force of chaos and destruction. The backs against the wall scene was very phallic and sexual in nature. A loving flower morphs into a vagina that again morphs into a bat. You can imagine Pink has woman issues. The judgment scene seems to have a bit of all the scenes before. Sexual and phallic symbols, destructions and chaos, demons and devils and even scenes of his mother coddling him, which is symbolic of his over-protective mother.

-Cabeza de Vaca
What this film lacks in dialogue it makes up for in imagery and symbolism. In the opening scene as the spanish expidetion is being attacked, the priest staggers through the battle zone riddled with arrows and holding a cross. He is shown in the mist walking into the light (like the Bunny short film) and he just disappears. It reminds me of the scene at the end of "High Plains Drifter." Through out the movie there are small and subtle hints that Clint Eastwood is a ghost or the reincarnation of a man that was murdered in this small western town. After killing the men that murdered the man that he is believed to be the reincarnation of, he rides off into the desert and disappears, furthering the belief that he is either ghost or some divine entity. It is very similar to the priest as he vanishes, presumably ascending to heaven. The most powerful scene is that when Cabeza de Vaca (Alvar) tries to escape his imprisonment by a shaman. When the escape fails, he is angry and rants and raves. The camera movement is hectic as it follows him around while he stomps in the sand. As his anger turns to sadness, the camera slowly pans in for a close up and becomes less chaotic. In the close up Alvar is curled up in the fetal position. This is symbolic of birth or rebirth. Fittingly, it is at this time that Alvar goes through a transformation of his own. In the following scenes Alvar reveals himself to be a shaman, or healer. This is a huge shock to the shaman that kept him in bondage. His surprise is revealed in a close up of his face. Close up are used often in this film. The shaman returns Alvar's cross and sends him on his way. In the end Alvar and three other Spanish make it back to the Spanish fort. As Alvar moves across the desert towards the Spanish the scenery is symbolic of the changing of worlds that Alvar is experiencing. In the scene of escape Alvar describes the world and says that he is of another world than that of the shaman. Now at the end he meets the boundary of the two worlds. The native american world that he has come to know is shown as the mountains and deserts of the background. Then Alvar enters the world of the Spanish, marked by a mysterious trench in the ground. The background of the Spanish is chaotic, full of destruction as a fire burns a structure to the ground.

Joe Pascale - Northfork

Witness. The idea of being a witness was the strongest point in this film. While doing a little research on the film I found information about the closing quote spoken by Nick Nolte's character Father Harlan. While filming the short scene of the small church with no back wall in the beginning of the film, the director instructed Nolte to ad-lib some as a warm up and make it a sad topic. What Nolte came up with and spoke during that scene was to be used as the final quote of the film, the voice over about being a witness. Father Harlan concludes in the movie that being a witness in death is whats most important. I think the idea of being a witness is very powerful, yet subtle in the film. Father Harlan was Irwin's witness in death, his "helper" in a sense that he helped him into the afterlife. Besides doing this in a physical way by caring for him, but also by praying for him. It was Father Harlan's prayers that convinced the angels that Irwin actually was an angel. Even before that, it was Father Harlan that led Irwin to the angels. The dog-like wooden creature was modeled after Harlan's cane, it was the dog-like creature that led Irwin to the house of the angels. The film was rich in symbolism and imagery. The film and its characters had a very bleek and desolate feel, much like the countryside that surrounded them. Beyond the country side rose the majestic mountains that were also witnesses. They towered over the land long before the town of Northfork was there and they would still be witnesses after it was gone, flooded by the new dam. In the end, Walter and his son had to move his wife from the graveyard that would be flooded. They moved her to higher ground, symbolic in itself of being closer to heaven, but also made witnesses of all them. Walter and Willis were witnesses of the woman's journey. She may have died, but her remains still meant a lot to Walter. He witnessed another chapter in her death, her new resting place. Her new resting place also made a witness of her, in an abstract since. She was now on the high ground and would witness the transformation of the valley, like the mountains had been doing for years and years.

Elissa Wilcox- Movie Clips

1. Bunny- Watching this film made me annoyed. I was annoyed that the moth wouldn't stop getting in the bunny's way, annoyed that everything was shaking, that the bunny's eye was twitching and that the cake batter was splashing over the side of the bowl. As the clip progressed the moth became the bunny's escort to the afterlife. The moth represented death and the fact that it was knocking at the bunny's door, and although she tried everything to rid herself of it, even baking it into a cake, it prevailed in the end.

2. Northfork- The scene depicted the young angel boy running free and carrying a suitcase which would imply that he was going on a journey. The stark contrast of the overlay of the shot of the bison that are pinned in was used to show that the boy was free while the bison were still unmoving. This was significant because it showed the difference between the boy's desire to go anywhere other than the place he was and the bison's inability to move because of the fence that caged them in. The boy was carrying the suitcase which was a burden, just as the father and son were carrying the burden of their dead wife/mother in the next scene. This was a powerful scene because they were finally able to be released from the burden of having to move the mother to higher ground as they headed toward the majestic mountains.

3. Paris, Tx- This was a very intriguing clip, and although I have not had the time to watch the full film yet, I plan to. The whole purpose of the film is to show the importance of communication. Travis is a troubled man who has lost his wife and seems to have no meaning to his life. As he walks through the opening scene he is following different lines of communication. For example, he follows the telephone lines, then the road, then the train tracks and finally he talks to his wife over a phone and through a mirror so that she can not actually see him. One of the most significant scenes was when he and his son are pulled off to the side of the road, eating some sandwiches and they are completely surrounded by traffic. This is significant because it is one of the first times they start to communicate and connect to one another.

4. Pink Floyd's The Wall- The part of the film that had the most impact was the clip of the children on the conveyor belt. In the clip Pink was communicating the hold that society has on people. Through his song and the clip he was stating the importance of individuality and not being part of the system. In the clip the children are on a conveyor belt that takes them through different parts of education and life and as they progress through they are given masks. This was symbolic of the way that society can mask the individual in order to make everyone be the same and act the same way. I think that it is a very valid point because so often we are sucked into believing that the only way to be successful is to make a lot of money, get married, have a family and retire. There has to be more and the conveyor belt is not the place to figure out what it is.

5. Cabeza de Vaca- This clip was interesting because it showed a very dramatic change in the life of Alvar. When he was first captured by the Shaman he did tried to escape and did not relate to them at all. When he tried to escape the shaman did a spell in order to bring him back and make him fall along the way. The significant change happened when Alvar was reciting a poem about how the Moores and Christians began living together in harmony and at the end of the poem he realized that he could do this with the shaman and from then on the shaman treated him better and he began to learn from the shaman. Later in the film he combines the practices that he learned from the shaman with Christian beliefs and raises a girl from the dead. I think that this clip showed the importance of trying to understand other people's cultures and not just tossing them aside because they are different.

kara walling-movie clip #2

2) Northfork
In both clips I personally found the mountains to hold the most importance. You can always rely on the mountains to be vast, solid, and concrete. There is no temporary home or threat of extinction, like the buffalo in the clip. There is also no rush or anxious movements, such as the little boy. The fact that the mountains always remain the same, no matter what circumstances around them change, represents how powerful nature truly is.

kara walling-movie clip #1

1) Bunny
Although the Bunny clip was relatively short and shot in a playful manor, I thought it conveyed a serious message underneath. The bunny in the clip could be viewed as a representation of the human race, while the moth represents the angel of death. This seems to be a common theme in many of the films we’ve watched in class. We can be in a battle with death everyday trying to manipulate or avoid death as long as possible, or we may not even know the relationship exists, but inevitably we are forced to accept it. I feel like it’s important to bring up the determination of both the bunny and the moth. The vivid movements in the clip give depth to their emotions and determination to “win” the battle. I feel like this is what allows us to make the connection between the characters, the bunny and the moth, to ourselves. We too have battles on a regular basis and feel the same types of emotion or act in the same manor as the bunny, and whether we know we are being faced with death or not, death will still prevail, if not then, then at another time in our lives. Also, when the bunny is being lured into the light through the oven, I thought it was a symbolization of the passageway between the two realms of heaven and earth. During this instance of the clip, I thought about the rays of light that beam down between the clouds towards the late afternoon. When I was a child I used to think the rays of sunlight represented an opening into the heavens for someone who had passed away on earth. I just thought it was interesting how the light in the oven, where the bunny is finally taken in by death, made me reflect back on that childhood memory.