7. Cinema

Backpacks Aren't Chic Watching François Truffaut’s film, “Les Quatre Cents Coups” from 1959 I was taken back to Paris. The most nostalgic moment of the whole film for me was the opening clips while the credits were rolling. It was as if someone was gazing up at the sky while being driven through the city on the back of a Vespa. The camera lens, or the eye, follows the unmoving tip of the Eiffel tower as the scooter winds through the streets getting closer to the actual architectural marvel. This moment is perhaps the only point in the film where the director has deliberately played into the “eroticized gaze of the traveler,” as Tara Kolton puts it. Truffaut uses the excitement and romance evoked in tourists, or foreigners, to give the film an appealing jump start. It worked.

No matter how hard I try, the Eiffel Tower pops into mind when I think of Paris. However, for the most part, this is not what Parisians would like me to think of. I’m very aware of the fact that most Parisians detest the Eiffel Tower, think that is a phallic symbol of modernity, see it as defacing the beautiful city, and view the light shows as obnoxious and an annoyance. I first learned of this view point when I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time with a French boyfriend of mine. He totally popped my bubble and I ended up not even wanting to get off of the Vespa, much less climb it as I had planned.

Scene from Cama AdentroThis movie was so good. No really, it was so so good. Cama adentro (Live-in Maid) is the story of two women with ultimately nothing in common whose relationship shifts from one that’s bonded by pride to one that’s bonded by humility. Set in Buenos Aires in 2001, a time of an economic recession for the entire nation of Argentina, the film focuses on an affluent woman (Señora Beba) and her live-in maid (Dora). The woman, unable to pay her maid, must some how come to terms with what she’s been running from the entire movie. The maid, suffering from economic problems herself, can’t afford to work for a woman who hasn’t paid her; and any attempts in discussing payment is met with hostility. The movie follows the two women on their own paths in attempting to gain economic stability, and in the end of the movie they meet at a crossroad. The movie brings up a lot of different issues in Argentine society that may mirror society in the U.S.: class, race, sexuality and though that’s not the major focus, you can’t help but over look the obvious disparity between the way the indigenous people live in Buenos Aires from the Euro-descended people or the look on Señoa Beba’s face when her ex-husband alludes to the fact that their daughter is a lesbian. One thing I noticed is the scenery in the film. When I think about Buenos Aires, or Argentina in general, I’ve always thought of color and vibrancy (as noted in my previous posts). However in this film there was no color; there were few smiling faces; and no music except for towards the end. The political and economic climate in the film depicts a time period of uncertainty and instability in Buenos Aires, and by choosing to not show BA as we have imagined it, the viewers can see Buenos Aires through a Porteleño.

So, admittedly, when I read the assignment for today’s blog that involved watching a movie set in Prague, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. When one starts to think of movies that are filmed in European locales, one always seems to think of London, Paris, several places in Italy, perhaps Germany, but never really Prague, and even less the rest of the Czech Republic. So, I was rather at a loss as to where to begin in my search for movies filmed at my new temporary place of residence next semester. The only movie I had seen that I could honestly remember being filmed in Prague was a Mandy Moore movie I had seen with my ex-girlfriend a couple of years back about her being the President of the United States’ daughter, and of course, I wasn’t going to analyze that as my movie choice (though, for whatever reason, I still decided to open my big mouth and mention it here). Anyway, thanks to the extremely helpful list of movies featured on the Place Studies website, I found my movie of choice, 007’s Casino Royale, the first Bond film that showcased Daniel Craig as the new incarnation of Ian Fleming’s infamous secret agent.

Woyzeck I am fascinated with German cinema. I feel that German cinema has historically been a very artistic, abstract expression. In the United States, I feel that we all too often try to analyze or rate film through a lens of realism. For example, one might say, “I hated that movie; the ending would’ve never happened like that in real life.” However, I believe that Germany has always allowed for a level of surrealism in their films. Werner Herzog, a renowned German director, has made many films that invite the audience to contemplate meanings and expressions. He is not as concerned with depicting narratives of the everyday life. Rather, he searches margins for stories of exceptionality to bring to light. Exceptionality does not necessarily, however, indicate success or happiness for Herzog. Rather, Herzog seeks to bring life to those who have been trampled on. He allows subjecthood and personhood to some of the most desperate characters ever imagined. While his films Nosferatu and Aguirre are arguably his best known pieces in his series that features Klaus Kinski, I chose to write about Woyzeck because (1) I had never seen it before and (2) it takes place in Germany.

I picked a random Brazilian movie, and it turned out to be perfect for this particular assignment. I watched “Cinema, Aspirins, and Vultures,” a movie made in 2005 about a German man traveling through the barren desert of Northeast Brazil in 1942. He left Germany because he did not want to participate in the war there, and he landed a job selling aspirin to the poor townsfolk of the nordeste, which is experiencing a drought. The film uses strange camera technique – it almost looks like the movie was shot in 1942. It focuses the camera on the people in the film, and so there are not many (if any) landscape shots, despite the open space to shoot film. Surely a high definition camera would capture all sorts of colors, but this movie was about the characters’ relationship with each other. That said, the main character, Johann represents a true traveler, as our class has defined it. Johann claims that he left Germany with no particular destination. He came to Brazil and liked it, so he stayed. He seems to do everything without reflecting on how this journey is changing him. He found work that allowed him to continue seeing new places, and he does this work efficiently. There is no sign from him that he does not belong in Brazil selling aspirin. One would think that this was his destined place in the world from the beginning. Tara Kolton wrote in her essay, “It is in this light that the Western world (particularly America here) views the less developed world as a place that can teach the traveler something about himself.”(21) Johann, a Western traveler of the 20th century, seems to have known everything about himself before he even started his journey.

Hugh Grant in (")Notting Hill(")
For my British film I decided to watch Notting Hill, one of those quintessential romantic comedies from the 90s that had been recommended to me multiple times. The movie is a love story between Anna (Julia Roberts), a famous American actress, and William (Hugh Grant), an unknown British bookstore owner. I thought it might be interesting to see if the film would focus on the cultural differences between the two characters (especially since I’m soon going to be in Anna’s place), but unfortunately most of the differences seemed glossed over or excluded altogether.
In light of the film’s genre, I wasn’t at all surprised to see London (specifically the area of Notting Hill) as portrayed as particularly quaint, not really focusing on the typical fast-paced city life that I’m sure is present in much of London. The character William lives in this quiet area that has a very small-town feel to it, and the movie starts with him narrating about Notting Hill and how everyone there knows each other (William even works at a small travel bookstore!). The fact that the movie is a love story and that many of the scenes are set in parks, charming flats, and fancy hotels like the Ritz definitely fit with my romanticized image of London (and England in general).
On an interesting side note, I found earlier on New York Magazine’s travel section that Notting Hill in London is equivalent to the West Village and Fort Greene in New York City. This description helped give me a better idea (through a more personal reference) to what the area is truly like, and it seems fitting now that part of the West Village is seen as Little Britain. The movie also frequently featured the food market that runs down one of Notting Hill’s main roads, which looked a lot like a more varied version of the Union Square Greenmarket.

Images from Soy Cuba

I watched I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba, in Spanish) directed by Russian filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov. The film was made in 1964, during the zenith of Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba. The movie is beautifully shot in black and white, and is definitely the most artful piece of propaganda that I’ve ever seen. The film consisted of four vignettes set in pre-Castro Cuba. The opening shot of the movie pans across the ocean to the island, finally settling on a cross, shot from below so that its upward thrust matches that of the palm trees behind it. The sparse, mysterious music is interrupted with a woman’s voice, slowly and deeply saying “soy Cuba.” This phrase is repeated at the end of each vignette, and each time the woman expounds on what it means to “be Cuba.” Initially, the narrator speaks of the country’s beauty as articulated by Columbus. But the theme quickly turns to exploitation and invasion of Cuba by Christopher Columbus (taking their sugar), then by the tourists (taking their pride) and finally by Batista (taking their freedom).

Paris, Je T'aime: The Actress and the Blind Student
I decided to go Tisch and check out Paris, Je T’aime. I chose this film because it has some of favorite actors like Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, as well as my favorite French actor, Gérard Depardieu. The film is actually twenty short films that take each take place in one of Paris’ twenty arrondissements. The central theme is Paris as the City of Love. Everyone in Paris looking for love whether it be romantic, a one-night stand, lost loved ones, for oneself or one‘s children, or simply the love of the city. For some reason, all this made think of is New York City and Sex and the City. How this is biggest city in the world and how interesting it is that there are so many people here, but so many are lonely and looking for someone.
There was a particular scene with a woman from Denver who came to the 14 arrondissement. She wanted a genuine experience in Paris, so she decided not to travel with a tour group. She constantly walked around with a travel book and as she narrated her story you could hear her strong American accent through her French. She also reflected on a past love and how she wished that she had someone special to share her experience with. One day while sitting in the park, she experiences that “it” that tourists look for that feeling of being alive, although she was alone. She said at that moment she fell in love with Paris and Paris fell in love with her. It makes me think of Carrie, who personified the city as her boyfriend.

Sugar Factory in PragueIn Universal Studios 2008 production of Wanted, Wesley Gibson (James Mcavoy) is just a normal guy who discovers he has a new destiny set in place for him. Forced into the Brotherhood of Assassins by Sloan (Morgan Freeman) and Fox (Angelina Jolie), Gibson struggles to commit to this new found destiny, ultimately discovering the truth of his father’s murder as well as the deceit within the Brotherhood (it’s also referred to as the Fraternity of Assins).
The film, which was mainly shot in Prague, highlights one of Prague’s most famous sites and also the interior of an old factory. Charles Bridge (the famous site) is a Gothic stone bridge that connects Mala Strana and Old Town together. It has a dirty, rustic feel and at first glance, does not seem aesthetically appealing, however, up a closer look, the bridge seems to almost reveal its history to us, that warn-in yet timeless feel.
Much of the movie was shot in an old sugar factory in Prague that was built in 1914. All the ‘Fraternity’ and ‘loom factory’ scenes took place in this plant. I was fascinated mostly by this factory because this is not a place I was expecting to see in a place like Prague. In a way, these scenes in the factory made me think, as Kolton notes that, “…contemporary films which deal with the Westerner traveling to the less developed world project a fantasy of self-discovery and “authentic” experience for the traveler, as well as an inevitable confrontation with extreme danger upon seeking this unconventional encounter.” There is something very both unconventional and authentic within the depiction of this sugar factory (post industrial, steel beams, rivets, etc).

Y Tu Mama Tambien I have wanted to watch Y Tu Mamá También for a long time now but never find time to sit down and watch an entire movie. When this assignment came along I realized how perfect of an excuse it would be, even though the movie takes place in Mexico, not Argentina. But still, there are many cultural and physical similarities between the various Latin American countries. The most obvious similarity is the use of the Spanish language even though accents and slang vary amongst countries. It was exciting for me to listen to the language that I hope to become fluent in and catch on to what I could with the help of the subtitles. I think Spanish is a beautiful language and every time I hear it I become more attracted and intrigued.