Film History II

—   I am a sucker for really sweet romantic tension, so I enjoyed watching  Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The film is full of scenes where the facial expressions, body language, and camera work builds tension around looking and creating different threads of unsaid connections between people.   One of my favorite   scenes is where Rahul and Anjali see each other again after many years. This clip narrows down to just the two of them so fast and I love it. It's like they are in their own world. All other sounds fade and the camera dollys into Anjali's face as they make eye contact. They are so caught up in the moment that after Rahul yells "Anjali", no says anything for about 24 more seconds--whereupon Rahul says "uh hi" with a look of wonder. The backgrounds behind each of them are unfocused which furthers that sense of being in their own world of romantic tension even more. When they walk up to each other their body movements are kind of awkward, but also really sweet ...

  The Hollywood musical attempts to create a bridge between live performance and the industrial film productions of Hollywood. The sense of engineering in film is masked with bricolage and crafted communities within productions. The churning out of films is made to look more human and folk rather than products removed from the audience.  With these points in mind, I want to look at one particular scene in Singing in The Rain. The  "Make 'Em Laugh" number features Cosmo goofily (and incredibly athletically) dancing through a set that is in the middle of being put together. The scene is sparked by a somewhat gloomy Don Lockwood getting cheered up by Cosmo. It is a friend who sees Lockwood and in turn acts to change that--showing human connection. I think that in a way, this gets at that sense of crafted community that the Hollywood musical aimed to create. The fact that Lockwood is an actor is highlighted in this moment but he still shows that he encountered trouble in lif...

After watching Kung Fu Hustle , there was one type of scenario that really stuck with me. When one person (or few--like when the three kung fu masters go up against the axe gang) successfully battles a mass of opposing fighters. The odds of the lone fighter (or small group) winning the battle often seems so improbable. But contrary to the looming doom presented by being completely surrounded and outnumbered, there seems to often be hope in these scenes. The fighter(s) moves with the fluid movement of a Hong Kong cinema fight scene and staves away their potential downfall. The experienced fighter skirts just on the edge of potential failure, but in the end is able to surmount their problems with the human body alone. I think that this in a way speaks to people's emotions of fear, hope, and despair. It would be so easy to feel despair when completely surrounded--and in a way, this sort of despair is not too distanced from the everyday. In these fights, the individual must face up aga...