Mayorca Cinematheque

Sofia Coppola and Mike Nichols explore the daunting limbo in between routine life and major life decisions in Lost in Translation (2003) and The Graduate (1967). Throughout Lost in Translation there are many instances where we can see direct influence from The Graduate. The most obvious instance occurs when Sofia Coppola includes Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel in the soundtrack. A very iconic song played throughout The Graduate. Both films use water as symbolism; water emphasizing wandering and disorientation. Ben Braddock and Charlotte find themselves in similar situations involving love, depression, appreciation, and neglect. Both explore new love with an older counter part in their quest for direction in life. The differences in these films lie with what is actually shown on screen and what is implied. Ben Braddock and Mrs. Robinson are constantly shown having sex on screen while Bob and Charlottes interpreted love scenes are cut short before anything ever happens. Charlotte puts her head on Bob’s shoulder, cut to the next day. Bob and Charlotte are laying down beside each other; Bob touches Charlotte’s foot, cut to the next day. We never really know what happens after these minor acts of affection and by the end of Lost in Translation I am still left in wonder. An emotion I also felt at the end of The Graduate. Could these films be encouraging the viewer to experience a similar situation in order to truly understand? I guess I’ll pick up a Souls Purpose audio book at my local Barnes & Noble to begin my own journey. Comparing these two films is only fitting as this will be my last article as a UCF film student. As I venture out on my own search for purpose, I will always find comfort in the world of cinema.

The French New Wave and American Cinema traded techniques, narrative structure, and narrative content during the late 1950’s and 1960’s. François Truffaut took the American action genre and added comedic elements along with flashes of noticeable French influence and gave us Shoot the Piano Player (1960). Arthur Penn almost immediately took notice and directed one of the most influential film in American history, Bonnie and Clyde. Both films play very close attention to the relationships of brothers and how they influence one another, good or bad. Both films balance violence and comedy in a mix that the silver screen had never been exposed to. These action films have a certain way of entertaining viewers, not through explosions and crazy effects, but with witty dialogue and and outlandish acts and decisions made by each character. Bonnie: “you’re good aren’t you?” Clyde: “No, I’m the best.” Bonnie: “and modest too.” These short and comedic lines can sometimes be lost in time in a timeless piece like Bonnie and Clyde, but its those small lines that will keep classics like these in my film collection for many years.

The obvious similarities between these two films lies within the content of each film. Both stories follow two males to one female on a road trip. Although their destinations are different their stories of love and transitioning into adulthood remain constant. At the very beginning of Y tu mamá también we are shown a sex scene which sets the sexual tension from the beginning and is apparent throughout its entirety. The beginning of On the Road also does this by presenting nudity eight minutes into the film. This technique prepares the viewer for more sex in future scenes which tend to escalate in the erotic. Love is represented in both of these films with a specific focus on sex. Not just the act of sex but also conversations about sex. Y tu mamá también contains two male leads, Tenoch and Julio, along with one female Luisa. On the Road contains two male leads, Sal and Dean, along with one female Marylou. Marylou has sex with Dean then Sal. Luisa has sex with Tenoch then Julio then Tenoch and Julio. These films aren’t afraid to exploit sex, drugs and alcohol in a non-conservative way. The freedom to express these topics also limits them to a mature and artistic demographic. Instead of playing in a 250 person capacity movie theater these films are more likely to be shown in art houses or festival screenings for a very limited time. Tenoch and Julio call themselves Charos which they describe is a Mexican cowboy of sorts. They create a manifesto outlining rules to being a Charo which mostly has to do with how they treat women. By the end of the film we find out that both Tenoch and Julio break their own rules contradicting their guidelines and friendship. The same can be said about Sal and Dean. By the end of On the Road we see the breaking of their friendship when Dean leaves while Sal contracts a deathly illness in Mexico. The relationships between these characters start off on a high note and end in a way that could never get their relationships back to where they were before. 

Although On the Road was produced and shot in America, director Walter Salles is from Brazil. Salles drew inspiration to make On the Road after reading the book On the Road at the age of 18. Salles recalls how the book represented everything they couldn’t do in Brazil at that time because they were under a dictatorship. Y tu mamá también was produced and shot in Mexico under Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón. Cuarón was inspired to make Y tu mamá también after watching the making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid directed by George Roy Hill. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a well known adventure film in America while On the road is a widely well known adventure book in America. These South American directors drew inspiration from American works and used them to excel the Mexican film industry. Even though Y tu mamá también was a world wide success, Cuarón recalls how he burned his bridges with the Mexican film industry after its release due to its content. Cuarón gained a reputation for revolting against traditional Mexican filmmaking after he was expelled from the film school he attended in Mexico City because he was working on a project that used the English language instead of Spanish. Walter Salles took his knowledge of Cinema Nôvo to the University of Southern California where he began producing documentaries and commercials. These directors have crossed paths on multiple occasions on different levels throughout their careers. Cuarón and Salles would soon meet and contribute as directors in a 2006 icosagonic film titled Paris, je t’aime. The actor that played Julio in Y tu mamá también by Alfonso Cuarón, Gael García Bernal, went on to play a lead role in a film titled The Motorcycle Diaries directed by On the Road director Walter Salles. Bernal has been nominated for four awards and has won four awards under the direction of both Cuarón and Salles. 

On the Road and Y tu mamá también are beautifully shot road trip films that have their own style and delivery of life into the unknown. Y tu mamá también gives us Mexico from a locals perspective with political and comedic undertones. On the Road gives us most all of America from a writers perspective while undermining law enforcement and unspoken rules. Will both of these films forever be considered by future filmmakers of road trip films? We should definitely hope so.

Bong Joon-ho is a vital contributor in a long line of influential Filmmakers that have given South Koreans an identity in the world of cinema.

Although this film is directed by a South Korean, It is very much considered a Japanese film due to its content. Shaking Tokyo follows an unnamed protagonist that is labeled as a Hikikomori, a Japanese term used when describing a person that avoids social contact. The story line in itself tells us a great deal about Japanese Hikikomori culture, a culture unknown to most westerners. Even though Shaking Tokyo has just under an hour of runtime, it contains an abundance of technique when noting content and form. The film picks up ten years since the protagonist last made eye contact with another human being. Six minutes into the film the protagonist finally makes eye contact with a pizza delivery girl which sparks an earthquake. At this point in the film it seems as if Joon-ho draws inspiration from innovative Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu by having his characters stare directly into the camera, a technique used heavily by Ozu. The protagonist falls in love with the pizza delivery girl which poses as a problem seeing as he doesn’t leave his house. Chaos surrounding women is an ongoing theme throughout South Korean cinema detectable in works by Kim Ki-young. The protagonist eventually leaves his home in search of the girl which sparks another earthquake once they make eye contact for the second time. Joon-ho uses earthquakes as a way to visually show the unsettled feelings of the protagonist which are tattooed on his female counterparts body which include hysteria and sadness. Time plays a major role in this film and is used as a motif throughout the entire story. Beautiful imagery of clocks and circles can be seen throughout the film obscuring our perception of time even though the story is linear. At the beginning of the film the protagonist leaves an impression of a circle on his left hand which he still has by the end of the film, an impression that would usually disappear in a matter of minutes lasts around thirty minutes of screen time. We could conclude that the protagonist has fallen asleep on the toilet, which he often does, and that his story of finding love is merely a dream. 

Following the release of Tokyo! came many J Hikikomori films including: Fireworks from the Heart (2010) by Masahiro Kunimoto, Left Handed (2010) by Laurence Thrush, Mameshiba Cubbish Puppy (2009) by Toru Kamei, and Now, I… (2008) by Yasutomo Chikuma, all of which are credited to Japanese directors. It could be said that Bong Joon-ho inspired a new wave of Japanese cinema but seeing as melodrama has existed throughout Japanese film history, it seems as if Bong Joon-ho selected an appropriate topic to expand on due to its proceeding popularity. Just one month before Tokyo! was released in August 2008 North Japan suffered a destructive earthquake that had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and injured close to 100 Japanese citizens. Japan is known for being one of the worlds most seismically active countries and the fact that Bong Joon-ho incorporated that into Shaking Tokyo shows a certain respect for Japanese culture. A respect that would soon turn tragic just three years later. In March 2011 Japan suffered their largest earthquake ever recorded which carried a catastrophic magnitude of 9.0. Better known as the Tohoku earthquake killed an estimated 29,000 people and caused about 25 trillion yen ($300 Billion) in damage. Shaking Tokyo shows tragedy leading to love in a time when love ends in tragedy. 

When motion pictures were first being released to the public, the public was first interested in seeing other people on screen. Not soon after, people were interested in seeing naked people on screen. Sexploitation really found its place in film during the 1960’s. Audiences found that sexploitation films gave them something that mainstream film would never be able to give them which is an abundance of murder, blood, and sex. Shocking audiences became an art as well as a competition to create the most horrific and sexually gruesome film without debunking form and content. Bad Girls Go to Hell is a product of this era that stands out via Doris Wishman’s decision making while writing and directing this film. 

Bad Girls Go to Hell is about a girl that goes by the name of Ellen Green. Eight minutes into the film, Ellen is raped by her buildings janitor whom she kills by hitting him over the head with a porcelain bowl. Ellen then flees Boston to New York City where she is beaten, raped, and sexually involved with a woman. By the end of the film we find out that Ellen has been dreaming this entire time. Ellen then goes through her normal morning routine only to be raped by her buildings janitor yet again. Every incident on screen gives us the terrible and shocking content we desire. Along with the macabre narrative is an abundance of pop music, jazz and quick cuts to close-ups on underwear. Every circumstance bringing us further and further away from the rules and restrictions of Hollywood. 

Sexploitation films were not being made in large high budget studios with TV advertisements in-between each episode of the Brady Bunch. They were made far from the umbrella of the Hays code. The Hays Code contained rules that restricted major American studios from making movies that displayed murder, sex, vulgarity, obscenities, profanity, and many other controversial variables. Many films assisted in the demise of the Hays code by bending its restrictions and proving that audiences were drawn to more mature content. The Hays code was dissolved in 1968, just three years after the release of Bad Girls Go to Hell. Hollywood filmmakers Stanley Kubrick and Michael Winner took full advantage of the post-Hays era by making classics such as A Clockwork Orange and Death Wish which contained profanity, vulgarity, and rape. Sexploitation content was being used by the mainstream in new and exciting ways but also in smaller proportion. Bad Girls Go to Hell focuses on rape as a topic without vengeance while Hollywood uses rape as a plot point in order to justify killing or prosecution. 

From the beginning of film to the release of Bad Girls Go to Hell to end of The Hays Code to now, we have seen things beyond our wildest dreams on a screen. Sexploitation content and form has been watered down, extracted from and placed into the most interesting and riveting films in the Millennial era. We catch glimpses of exploitation in films directed by Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese who are arguably the most successful directors of the Millennial era. Bad Girls Go to Hell and sexploitation films alike created a genre that will forever change the way we watch a film. Will there be a time where we are no longer shocked by the shocking? No longer disturbed by the disturbing? Or offended by the offensive? As long as these lowbrow low budget sexploitation films exist, we have nothing to worry about.

Throughout Thieves Like Us there were many times where the gangster antiheroes were undermined. The one scene that really stuck out to me which really showcased this message happens forty minutes into the film. Our antiheroes:Bowie, Chicamaw, and T-Dub sit down to dinner with Mattie, Lula, Noel Joy, and James Mattingly. James brings in the newspaper and Lula starts to read aloud an article about the bank robbery our antiheroes committed the day before. T-Dub takes the paper from Lula and continues to read aloud. While T-Dub is reading all of the details of the bank robbery, Mattie is constantly nagging Noel Joy and James to eat properly. T-Dub reads, “One of the boldest bank hold ups in Mississippi history” while Mattie is confronting Noel Joy and James, “Noel joy don’t shovel your food, Eats your carrots and peas even, come on Noel eat up, your meats all cut up get started”. The entire time T-Dub is reading the news article, Mattie is constantly exchanging in a dinner manners conversation with her children. Its not until T-Dub reads “$100 reward for the capture of any member of the gang dead or alive” that Mattie ceases to nag her kids. This scene is particularly interesting to me because it tells me that the importance of bank robbers is very minimal to the modern family. The fact that Mattie wasn’t interested in anything T-Dub had to say about their bank robbery supports theundermined gangster theme. Other examples that I thought played into this theme was the selected times that James lit firecrackers and the robbery reenactment in the house.

Thieves Like Us had a constant radio theme throughout the entire film. It became apparent very quickly. In the opening scene where the gangsters robbed the marijuana dealer, the car that the dealer was driving didn’t have a radio and they made him sing a song. The dealer sang a song he knew from high school that I believe was his alma mater. That opening scene already gives us a sense of importance these gangsters have towards the radio. The next time I noticed the radio come into play was after their first robbery. When they’re getting away from their first bank robbery, the radio is playing a special called “Gang Busters”. I figured for this to be some sort of foreshadowing towards their demise. Another scene where the radio plays a role is when Keechie and Bowie are together alone in the house. In this scene, the radio starts to play after Bowie gives Keechie a beautiful watch. The radio program that comes on is Romeo and Juliet. The scene is when Bowie and Keechie have sex for the first time and the radio plays “Thus did Romeo and Juliet consummate their first interview by falling madly in love”.Then there are a notable number of scenes in sequence with the same repeating line from the Romeo and Juliet radio program. Altman kind of tells you what exactly you’re seeing in the scene by adding in audio from a parallel radio program. This told me to really take things at face value in this film.

Coca-Cola isn’t in every single scene of Thieves Like Us but when I watched this film it sure felt like it was. Some scenes I noted when Coke was being drank was when the boys were playing catch, when Keechie doesn’t feel good, the train station scene where every person was holding a Coke, when Bowie and Keechie are talking on the porch, and many more that adds to the significance of Coke. The constant drinking of Coca-Cola throughout this film made me wonder what message Altman was trying to get across. I noted many instances where Coca-Cola was being consumed but there were only a couple scenes that really made sure you noticed Coca-Cola. The first scene that stood out to me was when the kids in the street were chasing after the Coca-Cola truck. The Coke workers were giving children Coke and telling them “it’s good for you, tell your parents”. This scene alone was placed in the film just to make sure you saw Coca-Cola. Another scene where Coke was obvious was the shot of the Mississippi Penitentiary sign. On both sides of the sign were Coca-Cola advertisements. I believe that Coke kind of acted as an object that associated the actors in the film with the viewers in the theater. Coke acted as an object of interest to everyone at that point in time so I aided this film to be more directed toward everyone. I also believe that Altman used coke tell us that we could have easily been “thieves like them” and that you didn’t have to be very smart or sly to rob banks.

Jim Jarmusch’s Permanent Vacation is a comprehensive piece of art that properly represents American Underground filmmaking. 

Jim Jarmusch uses his surroundings like most underground filmmakers due to low budget and writing style. A section of Permanent Vacation is shot in fellow filmmaker John Lurie’s apartment. While filming, Jean Michel Basquiat, one of their friends, is asleep on the floor and has to be drug around in order to stay out of the shots. This shows how improvised setting was at times. Jarmusch specifically wrote Permanent Vacation for Chris Parker who plays Allie. It is common for actors and directors of American Underground to know who each other are prior to filming. The no-wave filmmakers are a tight knit group of artists that go out at night to a select group of clubs where they talk about upcoming projects and often form collaborations. This gives directors a wide pool of talent to divulge into at a low cost. After sending Permanent Vacation to a German film festival, Jarmusch was awarded a prize and was able to pay off his bills and landlord. A German filmmaker by the name of Wim Wenders saw Permanent Vacation and gave Jarmusch film stock in order to shoot his next film. Jarmusch’s second film is titled Stranger than Paradise. Although he was given film stock to shoot, he had only enough film to shoot on average one and a half takes per scene leaving small room for error. In most cases the film would end when the filmmaker ran out of film stock or money. Other filmmakers took to more extreme measures in order to fund their films. John Lurie and Eric Mitchell staged a robbery at their own apartment in order to claim insurance money so they could fund Men in Orbit. Producing a film under these circumstances is seen as outlandish but makes for a more interesting and innovative film. 

The cultural context of Permanent Vacation is hard to talk about without first establishing that the era in which this film was made is a modernism in and of itself. Although underground filmmaking emerged long before Jim Jarmusch, the punk no-wave movement deserves proper recognition. This is a time of crime and poverty in a city that holds an artistic reputation. The underground film industry thrived during this time engaging in unorthodox productions. While the economy of the city went down, the amount of artistic inspiration increased. Artists were merging into different realms. Musicians became actors and actors became musicians. Actor John Lurie plays the saxophone in Permanent Vacation but rarely shared his talent because “no one was doing what they knew how to do.” Well known underground actress Lydia Lunch became a musician and began releasing LPs in order to explore other outlets. Punk no-wave was at the peak of its cycle when Jim Jarmusch released Permanent Vacation. There is a scene thirty three minutes into the film where Allie walks down a side walk. The scene consists of one long dolly shot following Allie, revealing different buildings as he passes them. This shot alone gives us a sense of what their part of New York looked like at the time while also revealing the social economical status these filmmakers were working and living in. Permanent Vacation is by no means a documentary film but it is shot in a way that exposes us to their world. The cultural context of Permanent Vacation consists of contemporary filmmaking along with 1950’s and 1960’s American Underground Film. 

Underground filmmaking in post WWII America created an era of influential productions. Many of these films would never see a second of mainstream exposure due to their violent and sexual nature. The post WWII underground films did reach an audience of artists that went on to create such works as Permanent Vacation. Jim Jarmusch was influenced by a number of artists including Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and the Kuchar brothers. Jarmusch’s use of pop music throughout Permanent Vacation is an indication of Kenneth Anger influence. The title Permanent Vacation actually comes from a lyric in a song by The Angels. Jarmusch also sought influence from Jack Smith who is often called the father of American performance art. Smith analyzed and grasped “the most instinctual nature of being” throughout his works as does Jarmusch in Permanent Vacation. Allie wanders the streets of New York interacting with multiple characters while also exposing us to the economical and psychological status of New York at the same time. George and Mike Kuchar expanded on Jack Smith’s interpretation of the nature of being and began works of more formal investigation and high concept. Like the Kuchar brothers, Jim Jarmusch focuses heavily on the fragile charisma of humanistic qualities riddled in Permanent Vacation. The fact that post WWII film technique lives through Jarmusch’s work suggests that the techniques will act as an advocate for American Underground nomadology for future generations.

Future generations will always glorify this time of artistic ambition and strive to create works of art as influential as the era before it. At the end of the day American Underground filmmaking will always be about the expression of ideas. As this nation grows, will we be able to witness a new type of revolt in film? With new ideas comes new forms of expression. Film will always be moving pictures on a screen. Its what we put on the screen in the frame that matters. Since this era of filmmaking has been broken down into a vocabulary, is this genre no longer underground? Are the circumstances and ideas these films were based upon relaying a message that is opposed to exactly what we are doing in academia, hypothetically speaking, uprooting them from the underground?

Cassavetes takes a unique route in the production process of Shadows. This film is experimental when it comes to shot type and construction of shots. The making of Shadows is less about the narrative and more about film as an art form. Cassavetes attempt to create innovative shots and cuts became apparent while viewing this film. The fact that Shadows is improvised creates more natural movements between characters which creates a production unlike any classical cinema. Along with the characters, the cameramen also improvised when shooting forging natural lighting in shots and setting. While the character Hugh runs through a train station the camera follows him for a long duration without a cut as if the camera is the eye of the viewer documenting his movements in open composition. Shadows as a finished product is unique because it is shot like a documentary but it is not considered documentary. Cassavetes does not pick and choose what he shows you on screen which gives us a glimpse of humanity within a narrative in the 1950’s.  

The characters and content within the narrative is a representation of real life. The story line follows two brothers Ben and Hugh along with their sister Lelia. The narrative mainly follows Lelia in her quest to find true love. As the story progresses complications arise including sexuality and race. In classical cinema the dialogue is written well before the cameras start rolling and can come across contrived. The narrative content of Shadows is put solely on the characters because the dialogue is improvised. Each character comes to life through the creative imagination of each actor making the dialogue further realistic. 

The 1950’s is bountiful with cultural icons and films. McDonalds, Coca-Cola and drive-in movie theaters are building the post war economy while Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Billy Wilder are building Hollywood. John Cassavetes does not showcase the era in which he belongs. Cassavetes intentionally strays away from his Hollywood colleagues in able to satisfy his yearning for artistic freedom. He believes this new era of filmmakers is diminishing the ideals of mankind instead of embracing aspects of mankind itself. Thus brings us to a film without a script. Actors and cameras roam around freely within the setting breaking most all conventions of 1950’s filmmaking.

Friedrich Christian Lang was born December 5th, 1890 in Vienna, Austria and died in Hollywood, California on August 2nd, 1976. Better known as Fritz Lang, attended art school prior to World War I in which he later joined the Austrian Army during the war. After Lang served his time in the Austrian Army he entered the fast growing German film industry where by the end of his first year he wrote seven screenplays and directed two feature films. One of Lang's first features Die Spinnen (The Spiders, 1919) was an action-adventure film that first brought him attention in the German film industry. Lang went on to direct Die Mude Toa (Destiny, 1921) and Doktor Mabuse, Der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1922) which shocked audiences and acted as a foundation for Lang's successful film career. 

Fritz Lang bankrupted Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa) in 1927 when his film Metropolis flopped in theaters. The scope of Metropolis was way over budget which was estimated at DRM 1,300,000. Metropolis went on to have great long-term success by inspiring other film makers with its unique cinematography. After Metropolis flopped in the theaters Lang went on to direct multiple films including M  (1931)which is said to be the creator of the psycho-killer genre. Fritz Lang went on to direct a total of nineteen films in Germany, one film in France, and twenty three films in Hollywood, California. 

Triumph of the Will is a documentary style propaganda film created by the Nazis and directed by Leni Riefenstahl. The film documented the 1934 Nuremberg Rally in which Hitler influenced and distilled the Nazi belief into the German populous. Hitler Personally requested that Leni Riefenstahl direct the film in which she used thirty cameras and over one hundred technicians in the production process. This film is not only known because of its powerful message but also for it's stylistic camera angles and dramatic lighting. Triumph of the Will went on to win multiple awards including a Cultural Achievement award from Goebbels Propaganda Ministry and a gold metal of  artistry in Paris at the 1937 World Exhibition.

I found myself trying to put myself in the shoes of a German in 1935 that was watching this for the first time. The message was so powerful and the film was executed and manipulated so well that I could feel myself getting drawn in to this idealism. The shots of the Nazi men of power giving their speeches and the shot of the massive crowd of agriculture workers and the shot of the Hitler Youth camp gave me a sense of safety and I could see how people of that generation could be sucked in to such a large and influential following.

Daughters of the Dust contained multiple technologies that were not necessarily about gender. The first technology that caught my attention was how clothing expressed social status in terms of class. The first scene when Viola, Yellow Mary and Mr. Snead are on the boat heading towards the island we can clearly tell that they are of higher social class because they are wearing very modern stylish clothing. When we arrive at the island, the Gullah people are wearing clothes relevant to the Gullah culture which in our eyes is of lower class in comparison to the prior. Another technology I noticed was that of traditions and myths we come to believe as children and how they grow to become a part of our personalities. There is a very powerful scene between Nana Peazant and Eli where Eli expresses this very technology. The Gullah people are very in touch with spirits and traditions which have been passed down from generations. As we grow older we find that these things we believed in are just myths, that can be very hard to cope with. By the end of their conversation Nana Peazant tells Eli that it is important for him to continue these traditions even after they move from the island from which they came and have been for hundreds of years.

I consider Nola Carveth to be an archaic mother. Women in classical cinema are usually seen as the victim trying to flee the horrifying male monster. In this case the monster is this woman Nola Carveth. Throughout mythology there are multiple sightings of female monsters which makes this case not seem so farfetched. Its the roots of mythology that give us these "fantasies" of how reproduction can be skewed which makes this film interesting. Nola produces monster kids of her own to do the terrorizing for her. Making her the source of all problems. Her "virgin birth" abilities authorize her as a femme castratrice. The fact that she is the mother of the "power" enables her to kill people and disrupt the lives of the men around her. 

The femme castratrice Nola brings up many controversial ideals when applying it to the male gaze. The fact that this woman is the abject changes the way we view her as a woman. She no longer possesses authorial power due to the fact that she is a social pariah. In mythology, Medusa was an extremely attractive girl until the goddess Athena turned her into the monster she is known for being. The same case applies to Nola but we only see her as this monster producing killer. The implication of vagina dentata renders the male gaze stationary. If Nola were to be the "final girl" this would be a different story. Nola does not possess the charm of a female vampire but rather the fear of a Gorgon.

Horror films function as purifiers of the abject in our society. The abject in a horror film is meant to scare us and makes us question its motive. The abject acts as a boundary in which we as humans do not enter. It's actions cross the line of what we believe is "civilized" or normal. These "boundaries" that we as humans set to be "civilized" or "un-civilized", "human" or "non-human" are being broken by the abject which gives us the feeling of terror. Horror films become purifiers because we view these "inappropriate" behaviors bi-curiously through our abject until it is stopped of its wrong doing. The abject is appealing to us because its behavior is so unordinary. We also find the abject to be terrifying because of its behaviors. Although we are frightened to view these images, they act as a dividing line between what is acceptable or unacceptable in our society.

In Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have it I believe that the scriptwriter was the enunciator. The way the audience experienced the film was effected by the dialogue used by the characters within their individual narration of the story. The screenwriter was the God-like voice which guided us through the film reality. Each character was given dialogue which had them speaking to the audience about their own personal experience with Nola which I believe acts as a suture. This kept me engaged with the story and gave me a different perspective of how she treats men. 

Nola Darling is the main character that supplies us with the female voice in this film. The literal voice of Nola is depicted as naive and selfish; which has been an ongoing theme with the other females we have seen in other films. During the sex scenes, most of the non-diegetic sound is of Nola moaning and breathing. I interpreted this as her gaining all of the pleasure from the entire situation. The audience views Nola as a greedy person who enjoys playing with men's emotions. Nola's authorial power is vast. Everything in this film begins and ends with Nola Darling. Each man she is with gives commentary on their experiences with Nola and we have to learn who that character is by how he reacts to Nola's behavior. This female voice is relatively traditional in cinema.

Robert Altman's film Gosford Park is categorized in the murder mystery genre while the film itself plays with the idea of the genre. 

Altman's approach to the murder mystery genre is different when it comes to what the viewer expects to see in a film such as this. Typically a crime is committed, usually a murder, and it happens fairly early in the film. In Gosford Park the murder takes place in the middle of the story which makes for a quicker conclusion to the mystery. Instead of there being one protagonist, usually being the detective, there are multiple protagonists that uniquely form a full body story from many prospectives. In opposition to the norm there is not just one person with the intent to kill. Both Robert Parks and Mrs. Wilson played a role in the murder of Sir William. At the end of the film we are left with no conclusion to whether the murderer is identified and prosecuted. Even though all elements of a murder mystery film are present, we still have questions to ask which isn't likely in a film in this genre. 

Robert Altman included cliche' moments that are likely seen in a murder mystery, but not the way that we are used to. After the murder occurs we are introduced to Inspector Thompson who takes on the task of solving this crime. Inspector Thompson is dressed as if he had been taken directly out of a Sherlock Holmes movie given the pipe in his mouth and long coat. Inspector Thompson undermines the role of the typical detective by being very passive on important clues and his habit of being extremely forgetful at times. Gosford Park is full of dark imagery and rainy weather as a typical murder mystery should. The dark tone builds anticipation for over an hour towards the moment when the murder actually happens.  The hidden door in the bookshelf and the knife in Sir William's chest are apparent cliche' murder mystery objects that lead us to suspects which turn out to be dead ends. These cliche's play a very non-conventional role in a not so cliche' murder mystery. 

Though being thousands of miles away, Altman's undermining of Hollywood still makes an appearance throughout this film. One of the guests in the house is Morris Weissman, a Hollywood director. Weissman is in England to gather information on country living for an upcoming murder mystery film he is making called Charlie Chan in London. After the murder there is a scene where Mr. Weissman is on the phone with Hollywood discussing the murder of Sir William. He carries on a conversation explaining the difference between a butler and a valet and how he thinks the valet is the most probable suspect. Mr. Weissman acts as a voice for Hollywood. The fact that he thinks the valet murdered Sir William suggests theories for his upcoming murder mystery film. His story will end with the valet being the criminal which would be a typical ending for a typical Hollywood film. Altman continues to throw jabs at Hollywood when Robert Parks explains to Mary that Mr. Weissman's valet has been faking his scottish accent. One of the house maids asks " do you think he's the murderer?" Parks replies " He's worse than that. He's an actor ". Altman puts a major spin on the conventions of a murder mystery by having a character play a role such as Mr. Weissman. He plays a signature Altman role as the outsider as we've seen with Opal in Nashville and Alex Tanner in Tanner on Tanner.

The plot and charter structure of Robert Altman's Nashville is similar to an earlier film of his called Health. Both films use a multi-protagonist story structure that gives the viewer multiple points of view into one situation and/or lifestyle. In Nashville there are multiple characters that give us an outlet into the world of country music in the city of Nashville. In Health there are also multiple characters that give us sight into a health convention in Florida. The fact that there are multiple protagonists in both of these films is impressive but the way that they interact with each other and tie into the plot is absorbing. Both films end in an awkward abrupt ending that is drawn together by multiple stories being presented in an awkward fashion. Nashville contains a character named Tom Frank that treats women as objects and uses them for his own pleasure. The same movie has a character named Delbert Reese that has a family of his own and provides for them. These two characters provide opposite possessions that can be summed into one conflict. Nashville contains many conflicts between people and each person is related to another in some way. Health provides us with a character named Colonel Cody who pretends to be a very important man that controls the outcome of the entire convention. Health also has a character named Isabella Garnell that is a candidate in the running for President of H.E.A.L.T.H. These two characters interact with each other in a controversial manner which provides yet another conflict. These films have so many conflicts happening at one time and all of them are intertwined to create a film that gives the viewer a skewed understanding of what these lifestyles are all about. 

Throughout Nashville a character named Opal appears and acts as a structural function to the story. Opal is a BBC reporter that is doing a documentary on the country music business in the city Nashville. She interviews nearly every character and works as a tool to introduce the viewer to all of the characters. One instance that caught my attention was when she was in Tommy Brown's van trying to get an interview with him. She had no idea what he looked like because the entire time she was asking questions about him to the people in the van she had no idea that he was sitting right next to her. This gave me the sense that she represented the viewer as an outsider giving us more information about the characters. Opal kind of guided us through the film by bringing us into the world that these characters were living. Her documentary style questions and attitude layered the depth of the characters.

Hide and Seek contains an on going story of a fictitious young girl named Lou. Lou is a lesbian who is having a hard time coping with that fact. These segments of Lou's story give us a sense of how the characters within the interviewee's stories view each other. The relationships that Lou builds with her friends are relatable until Lou starts to have feelings for her friend Betsy. The camera focuses a lot on how Lou observes Betsy. At their sleep overs Betsy would be across the room doing something else and Lou can't help but look at her in a romantic kind of way. The story of Lou and Betsy's relationship puts all of the interviewee's stories into one unified narrative. Lou takes place as our surrogate in this story, a position usually reserved for a male.

Throughout Hide and Seek we are shown clips of found footage that is predominantly about typical peoples love lives. As viewers we are forced to see how atypical the interviewee's childhoods were when they're presented in comparison to these clips. One of the found footage clips begins with an older male stating "The purpose of this film is to give you an opportunity to judge the emotional behavior of others". This clip encourages us to directly judge each lesbian as a social pariah while the clips of the interviews gives us a direct insight to what they went through in opposition to the norm. This helps us as outsiders understand the story. The male gaze in terms of seeing this film as a whole is centered around this concept which can be confusing because it is an apprehension males aren't familiar with. 

Hide and Seek is a film about women where none of the women are perceived "as a passive erotic object for the gaze of male spectators" (Mulvey). The story progresses through the experiences of women. The story of Lou is driven by these struggles. The found footage verifies the abnormality of these conflicts. The following statements completely obscure the way the male gaze is present while viewing Hide and Seek.

There were many scenes in this film that really stuck out to me but there are two that visually compelled me. The first scene that stuck with me was when Anita G was sitting in a field with her luggage and the camera was shooting from a car that was circling the field from the road. The car circled the field twice with the camera focused on Anita and then wandered off and cut to the next scene. The aspect of this sequence of shots that stuck with me was when the camera cuts to the next scene and a car is in the shot. It was as if that was the car that was circling the field watching Anita. It really connected with the audience and it made me feel like I was a part of her story. The next shot that connected with me was when Anita was walking on the overpass. The shot is an extremely long panning shot of Anita walking while keeping her in the right center of the frame. It really gave me a sense of how long her journey on foot was. It also gave me so much empathy towards her based on the fact that she is so alone.

Yesterday Girl was released in 1966 which makes it the most recent film that I have watched from this era. This film is a part of the New German Cinema era which ranged from 1960-1980. What makes this era so special in Germany is that these film makers grew up around the time of WWII and were raised in a divided Germany. The New German Cinema film are known for there use of experimentation with cinematography and production. 1962 marked the Oberhausen Manifesto witch banned together young German film makers to create a "New German Cinema".