What we've been watching lately

I've been neglecting the blog in an attempt to stay a step ahead on my homework. Today is the first day that I don't feel behind since classes started. You tend to start out a little behind just because everyone wants the readings done on the day they're listed on the syllabus and everyone had reading listed on the first day of class. I still have stuff to do, but I finally don't feel like I'm playing catch up.

My treatment got approved for my first film for Production 1 so on our walk this afternoon I was taking pictures of park benches trying to pick which one to use. It would probably be more realistic if I used one of the metro stations near the Commons and then used a bench there for the in the park scenes. I'm trying to avoid dragging everyone downtown. And if I shoot it right only people who live in Boston will notice that I've cheated.

And for those following along on the "important movies" list, I've watched 6 more since the last time I updated.

Last week in class we watched Within Our Gates (1920) and Hallelujah! (1929). They were both reactions to Birth of a Nation in one way or another. Within Our Gates was made by an African-American filmmaker with an entirely African-American cast. In class we discussed it as being one of the first examples of independent movies. It seems like our professor gets annoyed with people who say independent cinema doesn't start until Cassavetes because by definition as soon as you have an inside (Hollywood) you have an outside (everybody who wasn't a white man). It seemed to me like the point Within Our Gates was trying to make was we're just regular people like everyone else. There were good guys and bad guys, people making smart decisions and people making dumb ones. They didn't really get into race as an issue until well into the film, and even then it wasn't all white people are evil. I thought it was pretty good until it got preachy and heavy handed at the end. And it wasn't even 'racism is evil' kind of preachy, it was 'America is wonderful' kind of preachy. I would have liked the sentiment better if they hadn't used a sledgehammer to get it across. 

Hallelujah! on the other hand was made by a white director in Hollywood but did at least have an African-American cast. (Birth of a Nation was a bunch of white guys in black face.) It was an early sound film and like many early sound films there was a lot of random breaking into song for a movie that wasn't actually a musical. It was certainly an improvement in how African Americans were represented in early films, but if you really stop and look at it only sort of. They were showcasing African-American talent with some very good singing and dancing. But with how much they messed up the rest of their lives singing and dancing was the only thing they were good at. 

This week we're into the 30s. Several big things have happened or are happening in Hollywood that affect how and what kind of movies are being made. Sound, of course was huge and obvious. Now they can talk so the plots can become subtler and/or more complicated. We can also use non-dialogue sound to advance the story: from inside the dining room we hear the drums of the army and know that the soldier has returned home. Now we don't even really think about that, but to them the ability to do that was huge. They liked to have big noisy scenes - wars of course but also marketplaces or theaters or factories - I think to prove they could. And there was a lot more random singing than happens in real life. There was the Depression of course and a lot of things shaking out on the business side of things. When it all settled it left a handful of men very very powerful. And in the 30s the Production Code really started being followed. I had never heard of the Production Code, but then I had never studied film history, only broadcast history so at this point we were still talking about radio and the networks trying to get off the ground. Of course there were attempts at censorship as soon as there were films. I find it kind of funny almost. There was a concerted effort when Nanny was a child. All the fine upstanding citizens (read: middle class WASPs) were worried the cinema was going to corrupt the youth and the uneducated working classes. And then the Production Code hit it's stride around about the time Mom was born. And I have definitely heard Mom worry about the things you see in films these days. Just like every generation thinks that they invented sex, every generation's parents are worried that they're going to invent sex.

So in class today we watched Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich and then Baby Face (1933) with Barbara Stanwyck. I thought Dietrich owned Morocco. She ate up every scene. It was kind of interesting. It was this love triangle where everybody knows exactly what's going on. The men were both remarkably polite with each other and doing the whole "I love you enough to let you be with the other guy" thing, which strikes me as a bit preposterous but then I am a cynical gen X'er. And I found the ending kind of predictable and unsatisfying. As she followed after the guy who she really loved she walked off into the desert with absolutely nothing. She kicked off her very impractical shoes and all I could think was, you're going to burn your feet. 

Baby Face was not so much a love triangle as a love ladder. She starts as a file clerk in the bank and sleeps her way up until she's married to the bank president. There's a little bit more going on than that but not much. And it was definitely presented as she's the bad guy and the men are all victims of her manipulative ways. There was little to no overt acknowledgement of the fact that they were all using her when they should have been going home to their wives. But here's what I found particularly interesting. At the end of the film the bank is collapsing and the president, and therefore Lilly as well since she's decided she's actually in love finally and will stay with him, looses everything. The film started with Lilly working in her father's speakeasy in a Pennsylvania mining town and it ends with them returning so that her third generation playboy banker husband can "make an honest living" in a mine. It reminded me of Hallelujah! where the guy was a cotton picker, tried to better himself, failed spectacularly and was only really happy when he returned to be a cotton picker again. And then here's Lilly who was a miner's daughter, tried to better herself, reached the heights, plummeted, and only found real happiness as a miner's wife. I don't think the filmmakers were really setting out to send a message of all you peasants should stay where you are and learn to be happy with your lot in life. However when you start looking at the collected works of Hollywood rather than individual films or filmmakers patterns start to emerge. 

I've gone on too long already so I'm going to save the last two films of the week for Thursday since we'll be talking about them in class that day so I might have more to say.