On Blog Banners

...

The 400 Blows (1959) Blog Banner
circa February 2009 - January 13, 2011

The 400 Blows (1959) Blog Banner [link to the movie] - I have been keeping this for almost two years. I have never attempted to change it because its mythic positioning of the Antoine Dionel's head from a focal center to the side. I imagined my blog that time to be a venue for art cinema, a boiling chamber of ideas for a more critical, more analytical venue to ponder issues on stylistics and narratology of films applying theories of David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. The film commands the entry of world cinema from the formulaic dominance of Classical Hollywood Cinema of the 1950s to the aesthetically diverse French New Wave of 1960s. This transition was aided by a group of revolutionary film critics who wanted to change the stagnant style of Hollywood. The banner pays tribute to that transition.

L'Avventura (1960) Blog Banner [link to movie] - I finally had a courage to change the banner from its previous look. The theme of this banner is a mix influence of Jacques Tati 's Playtime (1967) and Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura. I also increased the font size of the blog title three times to put emphasis. I also changed the tag line from 'Films, Art, Life and Nothing more...' to 'Exploring World Cinema frame-by-frame' to launch my dedication to the close analysis of world cinema for everyone's pleasure and understanding. One might notice that the banner is reminiscent of the CANNES IFF 2009 banner. I made it that way as a tribute to one of the most memorable Cannes season for Philippine Cinema with Brilante Mendoza winning the prestigious award Prix de la Mise-en-scene for Kinatay (2009), Raya Martin's film Independencia (2009) slated for Un Certain Regard category and Raya and Adolf Alix Jr.'s Manila (2009) screened for Out of Competition. 2009 was also the year when our dearest Alexis Tioseco died and somehow this banner is dedicated to his efforts of bringing Philippine Cinema to the World cinema stage even if its costs his whole life.


I don't know if I will change my blog banner next year or the following years. But surely, if ever I did change one, it will surely meant a lot.

Ciao!
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The White Ribbon (2009)

...a style in cutting


In a clammy scene from Haneke's The White Ribbon (2009)...

which starts off with a gravitating statement from Klara...

...and Martin, with eyes heavy as a bomb...

...I realize how Haneke's film style has drastically changed.

I came into a conclusion...
This is Haneke's compositional language at its best!

And perhaps, this is why I love The White Ribbon...

...not necessarily that it is a 'Haneke'...

...but because Haneke developed a style of fullness...

...of high maturity and seriousness...

...that it demands analysis.

Call it a type of restraint filmmaking, the way Ozu regulates his compositions (see Bordwell's book on Ozu's style), Haneke's version of composition is modestly poised in a sense that his frames not only adorned mostly by a focused image but also perplexed by a deep-focused mise-en-scene at the last shot.

A Uncommon Composition:
Violation of the 180 degree Rule

The best shot-by-shot exemplification of Haneke's compositional style is shown in the series of screen shots above arranged chronologically. The scene depicted above shows Klara and the rest of children being scolded by their father, the local pastor of their village, on their certain disappearance that afternoon when the doctor was tripped over. It was a strong scene composing of frontal shots on the face of each character.

At first we do not seem to know where they are, since the cut from the previous scene and the first frame was sharp. Establishing shots are not abound. We see an obvious difference in the background of the first two shots compared to the succeeding shots where the characters are obviously seated hinted by the blurred images of their seats. The camera is steady, focused and intense.

It almost pierces into the character like a knife. It has this leveling that conjures magnanimity of character, mysterious and guilt-stricken, perhaps this is what Haneke is trying to show us. It is a complex series of close-up shots functioning as a silent device to air the restraint voices of the characters, for in this scene, we only hear the father, the pastor in a dominant tone.

At one point, Haneke could have shown the whole scene in a series of establishing shot carefully situating the scene, with a few knock on a focused image. But he showed us this, a claustrophobic kind of shot, sharply centered and so direct it addresses the politics of the film.

At a perceptual level, this series of shots are adorned by a clear cinematography coupled with high contrast lighting to distinguished foreground from the background which inadvertently adds the austere and icy cold intensity of the image.

In this shot, the camera initially functions as an uncommon shot-reverse shot take between Martin (or Klara) and the pastor. Instead of cutting within the 180-rule, as dictated by continuity editing, the conversation between Martin and his father, Haneke poised the camera more than 180 degrees which, at first, appeared disorienting due the lack of establishing shots following the first violation.

180 degree rule

Many, of course, could find correlations with this style of cutting in film history which is very prominent in the works of Ozu. But Haneke has made one big modification: the removal of establishing shots, and this simple removal of the a establishing shot is part of the stylistic aspect he wants to portray in this film. I call it the Gasp style. If Ozu is famous for his ellipsis, in The White Ribbon (2009) Haneke is famous for his gasps: a style that delays gratification, resolution and absolution. The narrative tracks stays in suspension until the end of film. Each acclimating conversations are cut sharply out of scene as well as the pursuit of its characters. We immerse into their world but is cut out immediately and


Ciao!
*****

62nd CANNES FESTIVAL 2009 - Brillante Mendoza got Palme d'Or Nomination

a look at this year's Cannes

[main source - Variety fresh since April 23]
[images from ABC news]
[also from Cannes Website]

Chris Mingiu with Jane Fonda. His entry won Palme d'Or last year.

Cannes Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival where true and dedicated auteurs clash to win the greatest award a film can achieve, Palme d' Or, and i would certainly stress this, an award superior to OSCAR'S Best Picture, starts on May 13, 2009 and will end with a ceremony on May 24. Certainly, this years Cannes, celebrating its 62nd anniversary, is packed with roster of auteurs that would definitely rock the international film culture.

Pedro Almodovar. Jane Campion. Quentin Tarantino. Michael Haneke. Lars von Trier. Ken Loach.

All of them are undeniably cinema's greatest auteurs to compete at this year's Cannes. With the increasing public awareness of their significance the palm leaf shall be a witness for another golden year of cinema. One must be aware that during such events as Cannes Film Fest certain historical cinematic trends might come up. To award Palme d'Or to a film is to recognize its importance to film history and to the development of cinema.

CULTURALLY EVOLVED LIST

A significantly absorbing list of all films to be shown during the event was released last April 23, about a two weeks now, and i hope this blog post is not too late to give a comprehensive look at Cannes this year. With four days away from the closing this might not be the last one to peer into the list.

This years Cannes line-up has a characterized variety and has truly evolve culturally. There is a stronghold of Asian competitors, especially from the Philippines.

Three Filipino filmmakers with three films got into the event. The Filipino auteur, Brillante Mendoza, known for his mercurial neorealist style and his epidermal penetration to the Philippine society, got a nomination for Palme d'Or with his new film "Kinatay". Adolf Alix Jr. and Raya Martin's "Manila" is granted a special screening. Also a Raya Martin film, "Independencia", was nominated for Un Certain Regard.

INDEPENDENT CINEMA: A NEW WAVE?

This is, in a way, a confirmation of what Richard Bolisay said in his manifesto ([Gibbering] On the Importance of Establishing a Film Magazine), that, and i quote his bold words:

"This movement of independent cinema is an earthquake that needs to be recorded in every possible point by the very few serious seismographs we have (most of them online), like news reports sensationalizing a national disaster."

The independent film movement of the Philippines is indeed pushing a new grounds for a new Philippine cinema. This extensive publicity of Mendoza to Cannes Film Fest since last year, when his neorealist feauture, Serbis (2008) got nomination for Palme d'Or, is parallel to Lino Brocka's Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (1985) and possibly a new frontier for the Filipino independent cinema.

MY TAKE!

Mendoza splits Cannes critics and judges for the second year this year. I am particularly interested in Medoza's changing style in film making. Masahista (2005) wasn't much of blood and body part mutilation, but his exceedingly slow rhythmic style is a unique venture to a maturity in the field. His epidermal use of the body to exhibit intense multi-layered society started at last year's Cannes with his first Palme d'Or nominated film Serbis.

This is year follows this thematic focus. From an interview with Claire Rosenberg, i quote:

"Mendoza in "Kinatay" traces 24 hours in the day of a trainee policeman, happily beginning with his wedding in the morning to close with the young man's first outing at night with a band of corrupt colleagues.

To his surprise, fear and anguish, they pick up a prostitute accused of betrayal and wind up torturing, raping, killing and hacking her before disposing of the body parts across Manila.

"This is not just entertainment, these kinds of stories are real," Mendoza said at a news conference.

Asked about his novel style and the lack of action and slow rhythm of his films, Mendoza said "I want people to have a different kind of experience, to be with the character rather than just watching from outside." [link here]

With Isabelle Huppert as president, the Jury has a stronghold of female cinema giants which will favorably launch Jane Campion's Bright Star for her second Palme d'Or. Of course, Mendoza's Kinatay and Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds would not appeal much to the Jury if this is the case. Pedro Almodovar's Los Abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces) starring Penelope Cruz is definitely plump for the golder palm. Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock will take nods and also Tsai Ming-Liang's Face. I would certainly love Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon to win Palme d'Or and also Lars von Trier's Antichrist because it is shot using a Red One digital camera, a common tendency of von Trier's experiment on style. Alain Resnais, back from the dead, will surely rock Cinema Lumiere with his Les Herbes Folles. Resnais was a part of the historical French New Wave fifty years ago with his film Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959). This film is contains the most stylized flashbacks scenes i have ever witness, such a grandeur to find it so riveting.

In summary my top 5 films in no particular order to win the Palme d'Or:

1) Bright Star
2) The White Ribbon
3) Broken Embraces
4) Antichrist
5) Kinatay

I shall end here with this one :

VOLVER

***