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Director Rachel Feldman argues that "female filmmakers’ careers have been thwarted by a system that blocks our progress and has colluded to keep us out."

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Talks about how women are underrepresented in filmmaking

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Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves (1948) is an interesting movie about the struggle of a man and his family. The movie deals with most issues that would come up in a post-war society. Topics such as morality, poverty, and the struggle to succeed and to support your family. In this week’s readings, Baron and Carnicke quoted Filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. One quote that stood out for me was Baron and Carnicke explains Kulshov’s opinion of acting with him saying “his detailed commentary on "the training of the actor" illustrates his respect for the craft of film acting, which requires "the most exact calculation and regard of the entire action. "27 He argues that screen performancerequires "precision" and "the necessary conviction of the actor's work."”

Based on this one paragraph taken out of Baron and Carnicke’s essay, one can analyze the acting in Bicycle Thieves. While the acting isn't the best, one has to admire the acting capabilities of two amateur actors. One can even say that this movie works around the amateur acting and makes it work in an authentic manner. Antonio and Bruno, the two main characters of the movie, show a sort of realism to their characters by being so authentic to the situation. The facial expressions and interactions between the two and with other characters make the audience feel more captivated with the actors. One scene that can support this claim is the last scene of the movie. Antonio, not speaking, starts to grab his hair and starts making facial expressions that can make the audience infer that he is debating a difficult choice. He is clearly debating about making a moral choice between what is right and what needs to be done and as a viewer, one can feel and see his thoughts without him having to say it. Bruno also shows a great performance by the reaction that he has when he sees what his father has done. Both of these performances support the claim of what Kulshov was saying.

sabrinalocht1-blog

Laura (1944)

André Bazin emphasized in his writing, “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema,” that the depth of focus during a scene brings the audience into a perception of the mood of the shot. These images assist the audience in understanding the feelings and situation that the characters are facing in that moment in time. During Laura, a scene that stood out in reference to Bazin’s writing was when Waldo Lydecker was apologizing to Laura at her work for his rude behavior during their first encounter. During this segment, Laura and Lydecker were the focus with a simple background. Lydecker’s face was soft in manner, truly showing his remorse for his behavior, allowing Laura, and the audience, to capture his sincerity. This close up was instrumental in giving the elusion that his apology and invitation to dinner were a private and intimate manner allowing for the development of the new relationship to begin.

nickwibert

I think lighting plays an important role in the concept you’ve described as well. In addition to the depth of focus, in the still above, the soft lighting illuminates all of Lydecker’s face, allowing the viewer to clearly observe his facial expression and recognize his sincerity, as you said. This is especially apparent when comparing the lighting of the scene you’ve chosen with scenes in the third act of the film, after Lydecker’s secret is revealed. What particularly stands out to me is the moment in which he looks back towards Laura’s apartment with reluctant fear; much of his face is shrouded in darkness, and his silhouette is ominously cast upon the wall beside him. Furthermore, while Lydecker loads his shotgun as he prepares to kill Laura, his face is once again partially hidden by darkness. These lighting choices could be interpreted in a multitude of ways, but in the context you and I have discussed here, we could say that the lighting of Lydecker’s face represents his mood and/or state of mind in that moment.

andreas-pov

This is an excellent point and is shown clearly in the scene. The scene tries to be intimate even though everyone is watching. It accomplishes this intimacy by going closer to both Waldo and Laura. It is also in these scene that we see Waldo at his most intimate state. Throughout the movie, Waldo is cold and stubborn and egotistical. He believes he is the smartest person in the room always. In this one scene though, he is a completely different person. He gives the audience a glimpse into who he really is/can be. This is the one scene where Waldo lets go of his pride and apologizes to Laura and shows her that he is not that rude of a guy. Once again, this is all emphasized by the closeness of the scene. Even though it is in a public setting and has people looking over, wondering what is happening, it still shows the scene as something intimate and personal between Waldo and Laura.

abigailcherubin

Viewing Response 1: Mise-en-Scène I

It’s not until much later in the film, ‘Laura”, when viewers first get a glimpse of the titular character when she is not a part of some else’s reminiscence. When the scene commences, Mark is in Laura’s apartment and falls asleep underneath her towering portrait. Haunting music lingers in the background as Laura’s picture commands the scene. Director Otto Preminger was able to emphasize this impression with the usage of a low-angle shot. The camera is still-focused on Mark until we hear the doors open and the scene then cuts to Laura entering her apartment. She questions him as to why he’s there in the first place. In one of the most memorable moments of the scene, Preminger used connotation to convey Laura’s complexity. Initially, Laura turns on the light and challenges what could be a violent intruder. This displays her great strength. Moments later when Mark shows her the newspaper headline, she quickly drops to her sofa clearly disturbed. Her strength was juxtaposed with vulnerability. Preminger used high and low angle shots to emphasize Laura’s duality of strength and weakness. In “The Evolution of Language of Cinema,” Bazin wrote that editing’s evolution has reintroduced ambiguity which allows the viewer to bring their intellectual/emotional interpretation to the film. The editing techniques used in this scene (sound, camera direction, lighting, etc) encompasses that ambiguity. Preminger uses these techniques to paint a complete picture of Laura. Viewers finally have a chance to know Laura on their terms, not from the one-dimensional lens of other characters.

jordynwiener-blog1

I really like your take on the evolution of Laura and how we, as spectators, are able to view her on our own terms by the end of the film after hearing and seeing all of the other characters’ views on her. At the beginning of the film, the audience most likely felt sympathy for her after they had learned of her murder. When they find out that she not only is alive but could have been part of the actual murder, a different perspective may arise.

carguellom

Another aspect on how editing can introduce ambiguity in that scene is the close-up made to the McPherson’s face while he was falling asleep followed by a new angle where we can see Laura entering the house; this might create the idea that McPherson is so obsessed with Laura that his mind was able to create a perfect image of her in the real world. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that McPherson was not dreaming; this is a clear example of how editing can make the audience interact with the film in a cognitive process- just as Bazin expressed in his essay.

andreas-pov

This is an excellent point and just how Jordyn pointed out, it allows us to meet Laura for the first time. Throughout half of the movie, we have learned about her through the perspective of other characters. We feel sympathy and compassion for a character that the audience yearns to know. One that we don’t think we ever will. But when she walks into her apartment, strong and fierce, ready to challenge a man twice her size, we get to know the real Laura. This completely shifts the audiences view of the character. So your point brings an excellent light into how the movie allowed us to think and behave this way. It also helps that the audience at first believes her to be a dream. Even the lighting on her face when we first see her is glow like. Like she is an angel and nothing more than a dream. This allows the audience to be fooled and it provides a great emphasis on the character we all thought Laura to be. Angelic. But as we watch the movie even more, we realize she too has her faults.

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