Meghan’s Blog

Us (2019)

Directed by Jordan Peele

The film Us, directed by Jordan Peele, explores Adelaide Wilson’s past traumas that come back to haunt her and her family’s life. What I loved about this film was the plot twist. The whole time, we’re following along Adeline’s journey with PTSD from being tormented by something evil when she was young. Then we come to realize she had switched lives with this underground doppelgänger, the little girl in the mirror. This film had a lot of twists and turns; I’m excited to discuss it further.

Peele used horror to depict the grievances other communities have faced. Throughout the whole film I was thinking of different reasons why these doppelgängers were attacking everyone in sight. I began to piece together that this was a deflected community that had an uprising. Everyone underground was forgotten, suppressed from society. Throughout the whole film, Adelaide had her hands cuffed. This symbol can mean many things, from references of slavery to the “tether” holding them all together. I took this as a reference of slavery and captivity. After Adelaide came from the underground to try and experience a real life above ground, the symbol of handcuffs displayed the suppression she once faced. The “underground tunnels” were also a reference to the underground railroads slaves used to escape their owners. The symbol of white rabbits, and how they are not only easy reproduce but they all look a like, showed how we’re all the same. That “Us”, meaning all people, are trying to live in this world. There were many symbols and metaphors within this film, when all tied together they made so much more sense.

After writing this I could also see this film relating to incarceration rates in the United States. When the doppelgänger family comes and attacks, they could be like the police. Taking people in or killing those who do not corporate. The forgotten people underground are the prisoners in America. Their red suites all represented prison-like uniform in relation in mis-en-scene. Adelaide was taken captive forcefully by this underground world; maybe she was the symbol for a wrongfully accused victim. This film can take many different avenues which is the reason why I believe Peele created it.

The end was another ambiguous one, something we’ve seen many times this semester! My take on this, which many would agree, that the son switched roles with his own doppelgänger like his mother once did. She realizes this at the end when they are driving in the car together. She gives her son a smile and the audience is left guessing. This left me wanting more which is what Peele wants to evoke out of his audience.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Directed by David Lynch

The film, Mulholland Drive, directed by David Lynch invites the audience into a thriller mystery uncovering who “Rita” is after she escapes a car accident. This film draws many parallels to Sunset Blvd., which we watch earlier in the semester. Both of the films open with winding roads, the name of the film on a street sign and with a crime investigation. Although they are two very different storylines, they are similar in numerous ways.

Personally, I didn’t love this film. I was confused a majority of the time on what was going on and the emotion behind each of the characters. It almost felt like more of a drama. Rita, as a character, was hard to unravel. She became a sexual attraction for Betty and I couldn’t understand why. My reasoning was that Betty was in love with the thrill of Rita and how she provided something interesting in her life. She took on all of Rita’s issues which is another reason why she possibly fell in love or felt a lust for her. This story took a lot of turns and it was simply very hard to follow for the most part.

I thought it was interesting how the director provided clues and foreshadowing within the film. For example, the opera house scene where the song was a metaphor for the death at the end. The clues of the key for the blue box was cool too and how that was referenced multiple times throughout the whole film. I think the director did a great job at displaying suspense through the score and the lighting in the scenes. For example, when Rita walked in to the room and saw the dead woman, we couldn’t see the face or the whole body until the lighting adjusted to do so. Overall, this film had a lot of cool aspects but I get confused between what’s real and what’s fake. I am excited to explore the discussion involving this film!

Shutter Island (2010)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

The film, Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, tells the story of US Marshall, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his journey solving a missing person case in an Insane Asylum Hospital. This film utilized many flashback moments. These were crucial to understanding Teddy as a character and his narrative better. These flashbacks varied between his experiences during World War II and his family. Like Tarantino, Scorsese does an excellence job inviting the audience to understand these characters through their past experiences.

Teddy’s time in WWII seemed extremely traumatic, as he was in charge of liberating the Dachau death camp in Germany. These vivid memories he has, involved many dead bodies, corpses and his own part in assassinating the Nazis. This is extremely crucial to the story because, in the beginning of the movie, the audience sees this hospital as a dark place with a sketchy record. We’re on Teddy’s side of the film because his questions about the hospital made sense. The disappearance of Rachel Solando, thinking the whole time they either killed her or she was subject to lobotomy surgeries, was an accurate concern. The hospital resembles a death camp in many ways and Teddy associates a lot of the characters as victims of potential abuse. When he interviewed a few patients, one of them said “they should all be gassed” which is what happened in the death camps in the Holocaust.

The audience was seeing Teddy’s point of view the entire film until the end where we get the psychiatrist’s POV and the Teddy’s “partner” Aule. When they told him that he dreamt all of these hallucinations up, he went into a psychotic break. The end of the film, I kind of saw coming after the first hour into the plot. The reason when I started to tell he was going mad, was when his uniform changed to the white outfit and Rachel Solando was found. Why was he still there when Rachel had already bee found? It all makes sense in the end, but a lot of the film I kept getting confused between distortion and reality. I really enjoyed this film because it also showed a lot of societal issues too. In the old days psychiatric institutions were not always controlled the most ethically, and this has a perfect correlation to how victims were handled during the Holocaust.

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

The film, Inglorious Basterds, by Quentin Tarantino, tells multiple stories that come together in the end to defeat the Nazi regime. This film was interesting because it was historical fiction mixed with a comedic and violent twist. The story is set back in 1941, and opens “Chapter 1” with one of the main characters the “Jew Hunter”, Hans Landa (an SS soldier). Landa is accompanied by his soliders and raids a dairy farmer’s home who was hiding a Jewish family. There are two key parts to this first scene. One of them being the girl, Shosanna, who fled the shoot out. The second is that Hans Landa drank the farmer’s milk when he entered. Unexpectedly, Landa meets Shosanna later in the film. When the two sit down to have a private conversation, he orders a glass of milk relating back to the dairy farm she used to live on, proving he remembered who she was. There are many aspects of this film that are provoking. The keys to the story are the hidden clues tossed in that resurface as the plot goes on. I enjoyed this because the audience becomes an investigator and an accomplice in the plan.

The audience gets the point of view from each mini story involved. We see the Nazi’s (Hitler/Gobbels), the Basterds, Bridget von Hammersmark, Shosanna and Fredrick Zoller’s perspectives. All of these stories eventually line up and sometimes conflict with one another. A notable scene that had three stories conflict was the bar shoot-out scene. Von Hammersmark invited a few of the Basterd’s to an underground tavern to consult their plan to kill off the Nazis. Unfortunately, there were other Nazi soliders in the bar drinking and picking up on the notion that these weren’t European citizens. There was a shoot out and almost everyone died except one lone Nazi solider and Von Hammersmark. Aldo Raine (lead Basterd) saved her from the scene but she left too many clues (her shoe and autograph) to be identified by Hans Landa. This then leads to Hammersmark’s demise at the end of the film along with everyone’s except Landa, Aldo and Utivich’s.

Personally, I enjoyed the end of this film. I can see why many would not, due to a lot of the lead characters dying and it ending in the demise of everyone, but I thought it was creative. Aldo remained undefeated and Landa wasn’t able to get away with his lie. I liked how the Nazi soliders knew their actions were wrong and did not want to be correlated with the regime even after the war was to be over. The Basterd’s made them pay for that by engraving them with a swastika on their foreheads which felt like sweet revenge for not just the characters but also the audience. I really enjoyed this film, it might have been the best we have watched all semester.

Caché (2005)

Directed by Michael Haneke

The film, Caché, by Michael Haneke tells the story of a man and his family being stalked and haunted by a person from childhood. There a lot of aspects of this film that show us a new edge we have not seen throughout the course thus far. This is a psychological thriller film, which was both interesting and creepy. The cinematography evoked throughout the story helped with tone shifts of suspense, fear and anxiety. With the tone shifts in mind, the audience becomes more involved in the story. The audience views a lot of the film through a “voyeur lens”. The director uses point of view editing where the audience shares the same view as the character (or in this case, a camcorder) in the film. We watch the tapes of the family as though we are the camcorder recording them. I thought this was a very effective technique and made each scene way more intense.

In the first scene of the movie, we are looking at the family’s apartment. We see a rewind occur and the main characters appear through tapes. Georges, Anne, and their son Pierrot are the main focus of this storyline. Georges is being haunted by his past acquaintance, Mijid; a boy who was apart of his family space at one point, but then given up for adoption. We see these clues through Georges dreams of his childhood. Georges did not seem to like Mijid when they were young. In many of the flashbacks we see Mijid being violent and gruesome (chicken’s neck cut off/coughing up blood). Mijid appears to be resentful towards Georges and how his life turned out because he is still upset that the family gave him away.

This film, at times, felt very slow and not exciting. I was picturing there to be more action and thrill involved. But, I was intrigued by the ambiguity of the final couple of scenes. Although we said Mijid kill himself, his son was still trying to get answers from Georges. At some moments the audience questions why the son would even like to speak to Georges after his father just took his own life. In the very last scene before the credits roll, we see Mijid’s son find Pierrot at school and talk to him. We are not given any context other than the son’s body language; seemingly stressed out. This leaves the audience questioning: what’s next? I enjoyed this aspect and am excited to discuss further.

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Directed by Spike Lee

The film, Do The Right Thing, by Spike Lee portrays a small Brooklyn neighborhood struggling to come together due to racial divide. Throughout the film, the audience notices that the racial division goes beyond black and white but also asian, jewish and hispanic ethnicities as well. The influence of the American New Wave was very prominent throughout the course of the film. The cinematography aspects showed the power dynamic between characters and their groups. For example, when the black male with the radio walked into the pizza shop with Buggin’ Out, the scene shot them at a low angle. The effect of the low angle provides a power difference. The black male with the radio is seen as more dominant as he starts to argue with Sal. Sal, behind the counter, was positioned as the powerless figure. The use of shot reverse shot during their argument was impactful because it revealed how much tension was going on in the room at the time. There was also funky music being played by the radio. This displayed how the diegetic sound was important to the scene, as Sal breaks the radio out of anger.

This film focussed heavily on violence and police brutality. The racial divide between the groups was the sole reason for the outbreaks of violence. This film shows many stereotypes of each of these ethnic groups described in the film. This helps the audience understand the time period, how Americans still act toward each other and how ugly and inhumane these violent acts are. What I thought was extremely important in this film was the ending. More particularly, the credits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s statements. King’s speech described how violence is not the answer, and that it only prolongs the divide rather than forging community. Malcolm X’s speech was the direct opposite, as he believed that responding with violence acts as a measure of “self-defense” when your people are suffering. These two perspectives were obviously monumental for the Civil Rights Movement at the time, and still are today. I agree with King’s perspective, although I understand the response of a violent attack when one of your friends gets killed for no reason. There is a lot of emotion built up within these communities from the prejudices they all face. This film brought up a lot of issues socially and politically. America still faces some of these problems even today.

Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

Directed by Arthur Penn

The film, Bonnie & Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn portrays the erratic relationship between two criminals who travel cross country together robbing banks and killing civilians. This film captures a lot of new material we haven’t studied previously. For example, the director uses many techniques from the French New Wave era of film. Specifically, natural lighting, shooting on location, and discontinuity editing techniques. Throughout the entire film we follow Bonnie and Clyde all through the south. Arthur Penn displays many tracking shots, following the main characters through their adventures. There are real life corn fields, lots of deserted land and glimpses of forests and lakes to create the realism effect. The choppiness between scenes is effective, especially when theres a shoot out or robbery in place.

Another newer aspect we haven’t seen or studied yet is action and crime. To me this seems like an early action film, due to the portrayal of violence, action, blood and killings. There are also a lot of sound effects used to emphasize a gun going off or the car speeding away. Sometimes the sound effects were too cheesy, but then again this is from 1967. Lastly, a new technique displayed was a green screen. When Bonnie and Clyde were escaping their robberies they would hop in a car, and the green screen would display a long road ahead, noticeably shaken and unrealistic to viewers. This might have been the dawn of using green screens for special effects purposes.

Transitioning to the characters, I want to focus on Bonnie. Before she becomes Clyde’s sidekick, Bonnie is a small town waitress who seems bored and stuck in her traditional ways. Clyde is thrilling, fun and exciting to her; immediately attracting her to him. In the beginning of their journey together, Clyde acts as though Bonnie isn’t strong enough to defend or be apart of their team. This can relate back to her being a woman and the stereotypes associated with females. Not many criminals are female and back then, women would be caught dead breaking the harsh gender roles implemented in the south. Bonnie becomes more confident throughout the film in regards to her approach within crime. Her relationship with Clyde is consistently rocky and she questions that, but when it came to her criminal activity, she learned to flourish.

The 400 Blows

Directed by Francois Truffaut

The French film, The 400 Blows, directed by Francois Truffaut displays the complex childhood of Antoine. Antoine lives in the city with his parents and goes to an all boys school where he is the “class clown”, naive, and struggles with disciplinary rules. Throughout the film, Antoine is constantly running away from his problems, sometimes created by him, other times they are influenced by his peers. But, overall the reason why Antoine has these problems is because he is neglected at home.

This film was new to me because I have never watched a foreign film and new to our class because we haven’t seen much when it comes to children as main characters. In the classic Hollywood era we saw adult couples or specific focus on adult characters. There was never much emphasis on adolescence. This film focuses solely on the issues Antoine faces throughout his childhood which was different and nice to see.

This film was centered around a dysfunctional family. The mother cheats on the husband and does not have a good relationship with her son or husband. The son is neglected; he barely has a safe space to sleep at night. When Antoine gets slapped across the face in one scene, it seemed so normalized at the time. The reason why he is troubled socially is due to his lack of parenting and the concept that the parents couldn’t raise their own child. He was always a hassle in their eyes, when he was just a kid wanting to experience life. I felt bad for Antoine in many instances, he just needed better guidance in his life. Antoine learned to be very independent at a young age which is scary for most kids; this was an interesting aspect of the film as well.

Rear Window (1954)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The film, Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock displays the lives of L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies neighbors. Jeff views these peoples lives through his rear window and people-watches every single day due to his leg injury. Hitchcock does an incredible job showing suspense within the plot through his work in mise-en-scene (MES).

Jeff and his girlfriend Lisa become fascinated by the neighbors’ livelihood, but in particular the life of Thorwald and his wife. Jeff explained to Lisa and his nurse that Thorwald murdered his wife after watching his actions throughout the week the potential incident occurred. In one scene specifically, Hitchcock provides a tremendous amount of suspense when Lisa is trying to find evidence in Thorwald’s apartment. As Lisa is rummaging through Thorwald’s belongings, he is seen walking back into his apartment. The camera shows the whole scene so the audience knows Thorwald is coming but Lisa has no idea. Another scene where suspense occurred was when Thorwald was walking up into Jeff’s apartment to seek him out. The noise of steps marching slowly up the stairs and Jeff’s vulnerability being handicapped showed to be a hopeless situation for Jeff to be in.

Along with the scene where Thorwald creeps into Jeff’s apartment, lighting is a key role in providing fear. The shading on Thorwald as he enters Jeff’s room is dark, you can hardly see him. Jeff is covered in dark lighting too, almost as though they appear to be invisible to each other, like they were the whole film. Jeff’s use of the flashing bulbs provided the thrill of not knowing when Thorwald would regain eyesight to attack him. The bulbs created more time for the police to come and also saved Jeff’s life in the end. The use of MES to create suspense was so creative and intricate. I’m so intrigued by Hitchcock’s artistic direction throughout the making of this film, and how he brought it to life.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Directed by Billy Wilder

The film, Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, displays the unconventional relationship between Norma (Gloria Swanson) and Joe Gillis (William Holden). Norma is a forgotten silent-film star, who is painted as unstable, controlling and a little bit crazy. Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, meets Norma and they decide to work on the screenplay together (in hopes for a reboot of Norma’s career). Although this film was made in 1950, it discusses a lot of social issues like sexism and mental health. All of these issues correlate to Norma specifically which shows how big of an impact misogyny is in this story.

The 50s were the golden age of traditionalism in relation to the patriarchal values males held. This film blatantly exposes the prejudices women face in regards to society. As discussed before, Norma is seen as very unstable and longing for more fame. When Norma found herself in love with Joe, he did not reciprocate his feelings due to the fact that he was potentially in love with someone else, Betty. Women in society are condemned for being “too emotional” or the “crazy girlfriend”. When it comes to men, there is rarely any negative attributes to their character because they have to uphold this standard of dominance or to be seen as “untouchable”. This film shows Joe as the strong, rational character in comparison to the irrational Norma. It makes Norma seem like she needs the attention of a male in her life to remain stable. More importantly, that when Joe is around, she acts sane.

The discussion of mental health is also surprisingly alarming when it comes to Norma and her actions of self harm. I was surprised to see the graphics of her condition and the discussion of attempted suicide due to the era of when this film came out. Although Norma has a lot of issues, mentally and emotionally, it portrays her as helpless. In comparison, Betty is the perfect girl as she’s young, put together and calm, everything Norma is not. These are traits that women are supposed to reflect in their lives. The two female characters could not be more different. They are shown in two very stereotypical lights, which is characteristic of the decade.