The Holy Girl

                This movie had very minimalistic camera movement. About halfway through this movie I noticed that I could count the times the camera moved from its initial shot angle or direction on one hand. This allows the viewer to feel almost as if they are watching through a security camera of sorts. This makes the story feel more real to the audience. This movie addresses the side of a story that is rarely seen or talked about. Here we have a young girl who is approached and inappropriately touched by an older man. The girl, instead of seeing this as a scarring moment in her life, sees it as an opportunity to save this man. The girl is currently in catholic lessons in which they are addressing the topic of vocations and how and when someone is called to their vocation. This girl sees the man who molested her as someone who is broken and needs fixing. Also, being a young teenager she is just learning about her own sexuality which makes her curious. But her idea of saving him is not right. She attempts to make more advances on this man, encouraging him to take further steps with her. She is curious about sexuality and thinks it is her calling to become involved with this man. Fortunately, Dr. Jano sees his wrong doing and does not give into her advances towards him. He removes himself from temptation. Amelia goes from being the victim, to being the victimizer. This is a story that is rarely seen in film. Young Amelia takes pity upon the man who attempted to molest her. She confides in her friend, but assures her that she does not want Dr. Jano to get in trouble. She must take it upon herself to save him from himself. In most stories and even in life, the molested wants to seek revenge upon their molester so that they can know the pain they were put through. Instead Amelia wants to help the very man who victimized her.

Babadook

I felt like there was definitely a strong correlation between horror and gender in the first half of this movie. I felt that once the mother became possessed by Babadook the movie lost the correlation between gender and horror and became almost funny to me at times. But I felt the beginning of the movie was very effective for multiple reasons. Because the mother is a single mother of a young boy there is a feeling of helplessness that makes the future terrors in the movie seem inevitable. When a father passes away, the role of "man of the family" usually falls to the eldest son. This person takes on the responsibility of provider and protector of the family. Unfortunately for the mother, her eldest and only son is a young helpless boy. Instead of providing comfort and safety, the boy seems as more of a burden for the mother. Also, women are stereotypically seen as the weaker sex, and therefore in need of protection from the stronger sex, males. So here is this single mother, defenseless, unable to protect herself. This provides the viewer with a feeling off helplessness and an inability to control and or change the undesirable path that you are headed down. The young boy attempts to help protect the mother through his own inventions, a crossbow that shoots a dart, firecrackers (not his own invention), and a catapult that launches a softball. All these "weapons" prove to merely be a hindrance to the danger he is faced with later in the film, once again proving that a young little boy is unable to protect his mother or even himself for that matter. The mother is essentially presented as a "damsel in distress" who has no prince charming coming to save her on his big white horse in his shiny silver armor. She is up shit creek without a paddle.

Dogtooth

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Proof

     This movie takes a visual approach to building each of its characters. Information about each character is given through visual cues rather than being stated outright. For example, when we first see Martin he is walking down the street wearing sunglasses and has a walking stick designed for blind people. This tells us that Martin is either actually blind, or for some reason is pretending to be blind. As the movie progresses, you find that he isn't pretending and that he has in fact been blind his entire life. Another thing that is focused on when we first see Martin is that he is carrying a camera. Why would someone who is blind need a Camera? Actually this has been bothering me. Why did he start taking pictures? Before Andy showed up he didn't have a damn person to describe the pictures to him. I guess he had Celia, but as you see the throughout the movie, Martin never wants Celia to see, touch, or even pick up his pictures. So before Andy, he was just a blind man taking a bunch of pictures that he wouldn't let anyone he currently knew see. What the actual fuck. But i digress. This movie challenges the viewer to watch the movie as Martin sees the world. become more observant about everything that is going on. After Andy and Martin take the cat named Ugly to the vet, Martin tells Andy about all the things he noticed in the room without actually seeing. Martin notices all the subtle details. When we first meet Celia we see a slight smirk cross he face as she witnesses Martin bump into the coffee table. Why did she smile? Does she enjoy tormenting the blind? What's wrong with this person?  Clearly something is not 100% right with this woman but we don't know why yet. The third character introduced in this movie is the guy who would be come to known as the worst part of Les Miserables. When Andy is first introduced he is seen carrying trash bags out of building. He is clearly low on the totem pole wherever he works to be getting yelled out to do something like this. But even in those circumstances, he takes the time to feed the cat that lives in the alley that he so lovingly calls "ugly". I smell foreshadowing. Here is a cat that nobody wants and Andy is seen taking care of it. Then when Martin shows up in the restaurant and everyone ignores him who comes to the rescue? Javert... I mean Andy. Martin, Celia, and Andy are all introduced in the beginning of the film and throughout the film the audience fills in there back stories through visual cues and the storyline. Some of the cues are obvious, while others are more subtle. But in the end I truly feel that Celia is definitely a creepy stalker who is fucked up in the head, Andy is a dick for lying to Martin, and Martin is really just an asshole.

When Harry Met Sally

          In order to write this blog I realized that I was first going to have to watch a romantic comedy seeing as I can't remember the last time I actually watched one. So we turned to trusty old Netflix and searched for some romantic comedies. I ended up picking one at random. So i watched "the switch" and it's a boring piece of crap in my opinion, especially compared to "When Harry Met Sally". But i digress.
           I noticed some similarities  in two scenes in these movies. For one, they both had a scene where the two main characters meet back up after not seeing each other for a certain extended number of years. The particular scene from When Harry Met Sally is the one where they meet up for the last time before becoming friends. And the scene from "the Switch" is when the female lead character moves back to where the lead male lives. Both of the relationships of these two couples in the scenes at the current time is that of people who see each other as friends and are not involved romantically with each other. Both couples are also seen sharing a meal together and enjoying casual conversation. The difference comes in the interactions between the two couples. In When Harry Met Sally, the couple seem to be two people who are genuinely enjoying each others' company for the first time ever and starting a new bond. In "the switch" the couple has been friends for a while and so that connection has already been made between the two of them.
        The other scenes I want to talk about are both scenes where one or more of the main characters sees the other in a relationship with someone else other than each other. In "When Harry Met Sally" both Harry and Sally are with different people and in the scene both are shown longingly looking at the other at some point. Both Harry and Sally have a hint of jealousy see the other with someone else. This can also be seen when both Harry and Sally starts separate conversations talking about the others' date for the evening and how they seem odd or out of place. In "the Switch" only the female is depicted as being in a relationship in the particular scene. The lead male has the same jealous look seeing the female and her boyfriend together. but the female does not look jealous. Instead it is her boyfriend that is jealous of the relationship that the male has with not only the female, but also with the female's son. There's a whole plot about the son being the lead male's son and some stupid bullshit like that.
       While being two completely different movies, that vary greatly in plot and overall shittyness or not shittyness, both of these movies still have scenes that share similar themes.

Annie Hall

       This movie is unique compared to a lot of movies because throughout the movie the "fourth wall" is broken when the main character addresses the audience directly. This is done through both narration and when Alvy directly addresses the camera. For instance when he is in line for the movies  and the guy behind him won't stop sharing his opinions rather loudly. Personally, I felt that whenever Alvy directly addressed the camera it brought me into the movie more and made the situation funnier. I tend to enjoy movies that are like this because it makes the characters feel more realistic to me. I feel that when a character addresses the audience directly it allows the viewer to more easily relate to whatever the situation being portrayed on screen may be. When done well, it can bring characters to life, but if done poorly it can make character seem cheesy or like someone playing a stereotype.
       I also liked the use of narration throughout the movie. This narration added almost a "hindsight 20/20" view upon what was going on on the screen. I liked this because I know that, personally, if were having a movie made of my life I would want to be able to narrate the situations of my life as they are replayed on screen. Narration allows an insight into the thoughts and opinions of the characters on screen. This can make situational humor more amusing. For instance when the comedian is droning on and on about how he goes about his routines and Alvy addresses the audience commenting on how little he cares about this man's arrogant attitude.
    Overall, I felt that the comedy style used throughout the film was effective. Nothing was too over the top, and the narrations, and direct addresses from Alvy helped to give his character a more realistic feel.

Night of the Living Dead

     As I watched this film I found that tension was built up through a couple different ways. The first way thing I noticed, like in many movies, way that tension was built up through the music that was used throughout the movie. A lot of tense moments were accompanied by short repetitive themes that looped and grew with intensity after each repeat.
     The other more interesting tool, in my opinion, that I noticed was used to build tension was different types of camera angles and focal views. Many of the tense scenes had the camera at either an oblique angle, a low angle, or sometimes the shot was focused on some other stationary objects rather than the main characters in the scene. These camera angles gave a few different feels. I personally felt that any time the camera was at an oblique angle, it made it feel more like you as the viewer were a part of what was happening on screen. On the other hand I felt that the off centered shots, and low angle shots gave the feel of either someone who was spying on the scene or as a security camera observing the scene.
     Personally I felt that the low angled shots, and off centered shots were the most effective at building suspense. At times, I almost found scenes comical when the camera was up close because it was easier to see stunts that weren't performed well. Like when Ben was supposed to be punching someone in the face and you clearly saw him swing at the guy's chest and miss by a good 3 inches if not more.