Directors Documentary

[David]

Which director will you choose and why? Post and respond to others here.

[Eugene]

David Fincher
Se7en, Fight Club, The Game

Style:

In almost all of Fincher's movies, including Benjamin B, his film stock is "bleached," creating a grainy, muted effect on the colors. The setting of all his movies, except for BB, is unknown but grim, polluted, and chaotic. The characters are often depressed, nihilistic, and psychotic who find an escape from their lives.

David Fincher is a devotee of darkness. Scene after scene in his films takes place in cramped, sparsely lit rooms where malignancy seems to hang in the air like ineradicable damp. For the shadows that pervade his films are moral and psychological no less than physical.

(http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Du-Fr/Fincher-David.html#ixz...)

Taking place in gritty urban settings awash in rain-soaked pavements dimly lit by sputtering neon lights, his films are known for their frenetic violence, desolation, decay, and bloodshed, sometimes even death.

(http://www.bookrags.com/biography/david-fincher-aya/)

Themes:

Fincher's movies are forms of social commentaries in which he criticizes or explore the grim nature of our society. Se7en, for example, criticizes human nature using the seven sins to murder each victim; Fight Club explores the grim lifestyle of average white collar Americans.

[David]

Good start, Eugene! I'd like you to be sure to include The Game in your final project- its my favorite of his films, and I think you'll enjoy it as well.

[Joe Hultquist]

1. Alfred Hitchcock because i have already seen some of his films and find them very intriguing.
2. Psycho, Notorious, North by Northwest
3. The MacGuffin:
> A MacGuffin is "the device, the gimmick, if you will, or the papers the spies are after... The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatsoever." (Duguid)

Hitchcock did not invent the MacGuffin but created his own version and by using it in almost every film of his, made it his own.

> According to Mark Duguid, "Hitchcock understood, in a way that few other filmmakers have, that the attraction of cinema is the way it allows us to look without being seen, to satisfy our curiosity about other people's lives." Hitchcock often presented this ability of cinema in his films. Especially in his earlier work, where sound was absent in films, the camera's movement was essential to effectively tell the story. This made his later works' cinematography very effective. I wish to especially wish to explore this theme because it seems to be quite vaguely discussed in the research I have done.

> Apparently "There is no single stylistic flourish that defines his work, no one technique that instantly says Hitchcock. His style is something rather more complicated: the fullest culmination of Hollywood classicism." (culturevulture.net) So instead i will present some recurring motifs:
-The ordinary person
-Stairways
-Mothers
-Sexuality
-Crime
-Blonde women
-Numbers
(Kuslap)
4. Suspense:
Alfred Hitchcock was also known as the Master of Suspense. I hope to explore his methods of creating the well known suspense present in all of his work.

Women:
Hitchcock was also known to be uncomfortable with or even hostile to women. In many of his films, actresses often play victims and/or heroines. His presentation of women is very perplexing to me and i would like to explore that further.

Bibliography:
Duguid, Mark. "BFI Screenonline: Hitchcock's Style: The MacGuffin." BFI Screenonline. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

Kuslap, Anna. "Alfred Hitchcock." Upload & Share PowerPoint presentations and documents . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009. .

"culturevulture.net and AMC salute Alfred Hitchcock." Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

[David]

Great! Well done Joe! I want to suggest you think about watching "Strangers on a Train" rather than "Notorious". I'm sure there are those that would disagree, but I think its a better film. You could watch both if you prefer! ;)

[Marco Vitali]

1. Who is your director?
Pedro Almodovar

2. Which 3 films will you watch?
Broken Embraces, Volver, All about my Mother

3. List three stylistic choices that your director is known for.

His films are mostly complex narratives that employ melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular songs, irreverent humor, strong colors and glossy décor.

“Almodóvar is openly gay,and he has incorporated elements of underground and gay culture into mainstream forms with wide crossover appeal, thus redefining perceptions of Spanish cinema and Spain.” Because of this hid films are considered sensible.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Almodóvar#Filmography)


4. List one or two major themes that your director explores.

The majority of his films have strong feminist themes. He often tends to be rather sympathetic to females and male characters struggling with their sexuality.
(http://almodovar.tribe.net/thread/7ed91d95-0ad0-470b-8c21-216ab192d6a0)

The “Movida Generation”

[Marco Vitali]

Do we have to post our analysis here?is our analysis suppsed to be of the whole film or just one scene?

[David]

Post your analysis as a blog post. you can do that from the main page or your own page.