Last time, I
talked about “paying homage to.” I showed the driving from A Clockwork Orange. I
said “paying homage to” is when a director deliberately copies a scene from a
famous movie to show respect to another director.
I think he
uses the upcoming dance scene to pay homage to the directors of John Travolta’s
1970s dance movies Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Travolta became famous for
dance movies
Remember he
bought the heroin called madman? She thinks it is cocaine.
I heard that
Tarantino when he wrote Pulp Fiction based the Eric Stoltz character on Kurt
Cobain, and Cobain was going to play him in the movie.
But Cobain
committed suicide.
Remember I
said the movie was not in chronological / sequential order. First, then, next,
after, finally. 1,2,3,4,5.
I want you
to put the scenes into order. This is the first scene. It is called a
“flashback.” Flashback is a memory in the movie. Something from a long time
ago. You can tell it is the early seventies. Vietnam War (ended 1975).
I think the
watch is important to Butch, the boxer, for two reasons.
1.It
is a family heirloom.
2.Notice
the movie is not in order. Why does the director do this? I think he trying to
say life is a mess. Not everything is in order. Life is sometimes chaotic.
A watch keeps time, which is in order. So it represents the opposite of
chaotic to the boxer / fighter.
3.He
never met his father. His father died in the war. The watch is his connection
to his father.
The watch is
on the kangaroo.
Tracking
shot is when the camera follows the actor.
This is an
old song about an old, children’s TV show called “Captain Kangaroo.”
We do not
have homework this week. We will have homework after we have finished watching a
movie.
Film Noir
Genre: kind of movie or book, for example, science fiction, comedy,
Documentary, romance, action, arthouse, cartoon/animation,
horror, etc.
For each movie we watch, we will try a different genre.
We will
start with comedy.
Here’s
for your grades:
Attendance=come to class (10%). For every hour you miss of
class,
I deduct (minus --) 1% from your final grade. If you miss a
whole day,
that is minus 2%.
Midterm Exam (30%)
Homework (20%)
Final Exam (40%)
The first
movie we will watch is Pulp Fiction. Genre=dark comedy (evil)
Film Noir:
1.Existentialism:
the meaning of life
2.Background
is empty: not a lot in the film
3.Flashback:
memory in the film
4.Crime:
murder; killing; robbery
Please look for these themes when we watch the movie
The movie’s plot (story) is NOT in sequential (chronological)
order.
First, then, after, next, finally: one, two, three, four,
five
Seven scenes: It starts scene six. Put the film back into
chronological order with seven sentences. One sentence to describe each scene.
The movie is directed and written by Tarantino. He wrote it
in the diner that is shown in the first scene. The diner closed during COVID.
The director also has a cameo in this movie. When a famous
person goes in a movie for a short time, maybe a few minutes.
What is in the briefcase? Hint number one: 666 is the symbol
of the Devil or Satan
Do you read the Bible?Religious ideas.
Marcellus is
paying Butch the fighter to lose the next fight. He does this because he wants
to gamble on the fight. This is called “throwing a fight.“The briefcase with the 666 belongs to
Marcellus.
Why is there
a bandage on the back of his neck? There is one idea from a long time ago. The
soul could be taken out of the body from the back of the neck. Superstitious.
“That is
pride f&^%ing with you. F&^& pride.” Don’t worry about or ignore
pride.
“Paying
homage to” is when a director copies a scene from a famous movie on purpose.
Everyone knows he/she is doing this. The director pays homage to because he/she
wants to show respect.
Tarantino is
paying homage to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
Don’t be a
square. A person who is NOT cool or stylish.
I am going
to go to the bathroom and powder my nose. Pun. When an expression has two
meanings.
1.Powder
my nose is a polite way to say “use the toilet.”
2.The
nickname for cocaine is powder. And cocaine is snorted up the nose.
I will be in the She-Wo Building 舍我 tomorrow (Thursday, June 13) from 1 to 3 in Room 304. I will be in the She-Wo Building 舍我 (Friday, June 14) from 8-12 in Room 201. That is the last chance you have to hand in homework: Bladerunner, The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction.
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This is what you need to study for the final exam. You also need to have watched Snatch, The Last Repair Shop, The Last of the Mohicans and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou:
Holocaust, snatch (steal), bury the hatchet, picaresque, caravan, revenge, soliloquy, paragraph, sentences, colony, Moby Dick, jinx me (say something to give me bad luck), documentary, unicorn, refugee, misanthrope, political, mythical, film clip, novel, adventure, camper, camp, gypsy, pikey, jaguar shark, musical instrument, stomach, aquatic, fix, obvious, audience, narrator, genre.
If you know the above and went to every class, you should be able to get a good grade.
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The documentary The Last Repair Shop is also on Disney +
Holocaust. For example, Nazi Germany killed 6,000,000 Jews
in WWII. This man is Armenian. There is a lot of prejudice against Armenian
people in Turkey. Before WWI, 1,000,000 Armenian people were killed in
holocaust.
Documentary.
The next genre is historical fiction. The history is true.
The protagonist is not true.
The Last of the Mohicans, directed by Michael Mann. Michael
Mann started out directing music videos on MTV. Then he did TV.
Colonies. Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945.
Canada is a colony of Britain.
The movie is based on an early book from American
literature. It was written in 1826. In the novel, the protagonist Hawkeye is
much older than the female protagonist and there is no romance.
History lesson. France and England got in a fight over land
in the US in 1756. They went to war for seven years in Europe and North
America. England won and Canada became their colonies. But in 1776, America
revolted against England and won. And France helped. But finally, France was
broke from helping America.
The director loves tracking shots with the camera. When the
camera follows the actor who is moving.
Scalping. They cut off the top of the head to prove they
killed English. The French will pay for the scalps of their enemies as will the
English.
The first white people to come to America were usually poor
in Europe. That is why they wanted to go to America. To get some free land. But
the cost of the ship tickets was expensive and they did not have money. So
farmers in America would pay for their tickets, but they had to work for the
farmers for a certain amount of time to pay the money back. They usually worked
for free. This is called indentured service. After they paid the money back,
they would go to Indian land because that was the free land.
**********************************
The Last of the Mohicans is considered one of first great
American novels.
Mohican is an Indian tribe. Aboriginal.
We are taught now not to say Indian tribe. We are supposed
to say first nation. This is a historical fiction, so we need to discuss
history to understand the context (background). Christopher Columbus
“discovered” America in 1492. He is not even the first white person to come
here. The Vikings came 400 years earlier.
One important theme here is revenge.
The French General Montcalm. He died in 1763 at the Battle
of Quebec. In that battle, the English General Wolfe also died.
Idiom “Bury the hatchet” means to forgive each other and not
fight anymore. Hatchet is an Indian weapon. Tomahawk.
Epic or picaresque: movie where the protagonist is forced to
travel, move
Protagonist: hero of the story, movie, etc.
If you want to negotiate, first you have “run the gauntlet.”
The irony or twist of fate is who the last Mohican is. We
assume throughout the movie it is the son. But the last Mohican is actually the
dad.
Bowdlerize: when you change a famous story (and usually make
it worse) for Hollywood.
In the book, Hawkeye is old and strange. He talks to his gun
like it is his wife.
*********************
Last week, we did The Last of the Mohicans (1826). Some say
it is the first great American novel. This week, we will do Life Aquatic, which
is a parody of Moby Dick. People say it is the greatest 19th Century
novel of America, maybe anywhere. Moby Dick is about revenge. A whale named
Moby Dick destroys a boat and kills most of the people on the boat. 1851. The
captain lived. It took him two years to return to Boston. He got a new boat.
The boats were for hunting whales. But he got the boat with a secret plan. To
find Moby Dick and kill it.
What does that whale really symbolize to people? What does
the whale represent? Why is chasing the whale or anything so important, to the
point it makes you crazy?
Parody: is a funny remake of a serious book or movie.
Herman Melville.
Misanthrope: it when people hate other people because they
think they are stupid
He just became a knight in Portugal
He is singing David Bowie in Portuguese
Wes Anderson is paying homage to Casablanca.
Shakespeare’s last play is called the Tempest. It about a
King who is in prison on an island. So he studies all the time. He wants to
find a way to get revenge on the people who put him on the island. Finally, he
becomes so smart that he knows magic and can control the wind. When his enemies
are in a boat, he makes them come to the island using his magic wand. He found
out he did not want to be controlled by his emotions or need revenge. People
also think that Prospero is Shakespeare.
The test is
out of 90. The midterm is 30%, so I just divide by three. I want to do a
gangster movie.
Snatch means
to steal or rob.
Gypsie,
pikey, Irish traveler. They are poor people that live in caravans and move
around a lot. The stereotype is that they steal and are good fighters. Gypsies
originally come from India about 1000 years ago.
The director
and writer, Guy Ritchie, was married to Madonna then. Let’s look for Madonna
hints.
Throw the
fight. Lose on purpose for gambling.
Antisemite:
someone who hates Jewish people
Pikey:
gypsy, Irish traveler
He is
hungover from the wake.
A wake is a
drinking party after a funeral. Remember his mother burned to death.
An extra:
someone who doesn’t talk or have a role in a movie
I think this
is paying homage to Trainspotting as well
I am no
longer constipated. It is the opposite of diarrhea.
Different
genres: documentary. It just won the Oscar for best documentary.
Don’t even
jinx me with that.
Coming out
is coming out of the closet: admitting or telling people you are gay and not
trying to hide it
Armenian
refugee
Soliloquy:
when the actor talks to the audience in theater
HOMEWORK:
Roy Batty, the lead android in Blade Runner, says this:
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
Write a few sentences to explain what Roy means. Also explain why he is in this situation.
1.Bladerunner was made in 1982 but set in 2019 Los
Angeles.
2.The scenario is Japan won WWII not the US. That
is why we see the Japanese images spread across LA.
3.I asked you look for Japanese images in the
film.
4.The movie is a science fiction dystopia. There
are film noir ideas, but we can think about that later.
5.What does the unicorn represent in mythology?
Purity, innocence and power. I was taught the unicorn represents uniqueness,
one of a kind ability, rare talent.
6.Why is the unicorn a Japanese image in
Bladerunner? How does the director twist it and why?
7.Notice the old pictures probably of old family
members on the piano. Decker is a cold man with not much emotion. Why does he
have them? Androids steal their memories from pictures. Remember they only live
four years.
8.Misogyny: hatred (violence) for women. That is
the third scene that is violent toward women.
9.
10.“The flame that burns
Twice as bright burns half as long.”
People that die young are often the
greatest. Old people just burn out.
11.Ray
Bradbury is a great science fiction writer. Paying homage to.
In Good Will Hunting, the shrink says “It’s not your fault.”
When an adult hits a child, the adult is always wrong. Adults should not hit
children for so many reasons. Yet, children think they deserve to be hit
because they were bad, naughty, lazy, got bad grades, etc.
Psychologist can’t prescribe medicine.
Psychiatrist can prescribe medicine.
Now we can use a narrator to do a voice over in the movie to
explain what is going on. Before we had movies and went to the theater, if we
needed a narrator, the actor would stop acting and start talking to the
audience to explain what was going on. This is called a soliloquy. In the
studio version, there is a narrator. Actually the director did not want a
narrator as he believes the film, if it is good, would explain itself. In the
director’s cut, the narrator is removed. But Ridley Scott used a soliloquy.
He has his own memories. He has experiences that humans
could not imagine. That makes him kind of human. I think the dove (metaphor) is
his soul. There are some cultures that believe birds take your soul up.
Two Biblical ideas here. The nail in the hand. Jesus also
died unfairly. But some movement came after Jesus died called Christianity. It
is raining the whole movie. The flood that came to end the world when Noah took
the animals on the ark.
How can the director make the unicorn, a very Western idea,
Japanese? Origami.
Movies are divided by scenes.
Play (performances) by acts. Shakespeare usually used five
acts in a play.
Books are separated by chapters. Some people say the Coen
Brothers wanted to show early Pulp Fiction with cowboys and the west of
America. They used stories by Jack London.
Genres
1.Horror
2.Comedy
3.Coming of age / drama
4.western and musical
5.Gangster
Western: Europe and America
western: cowboy
1.Misanthrope: someone (usually smart) who hates
most people
2.Shakespearean plot. The story is Shakespearean,
it means you can understand the conclusion in ten different ways.
Dead Man’s hand: two black aces and two black eights
Buster has a good hand, but he does not want to play it
because it is unlucky. He is superstitious. That is the hand that Wild Bill
Hickock had when someone shot him in the back of the head.
This is before there were trains in America. So people had
to use a chuckwagon. It is really dangerous because the Indians. They have to
go together for protection. It’s called a wagon train. They finished the train
east to west in the 1870s.
We want to do a different genre of movie each time. This is
science fiction. Sci-fi.
You are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and you’re too
much of a pussy to cash it in.
Figurative language:
1.Metaphor:
when something is something else
Will’s brain is a winning
lottery ticket (because he is so smart that he can make a lot of money).
2.Simile:
like or as, compare
Will’s brain is like a
winning lottery ticket.
Shakespeare Sonnet 18
Shall I compare you a
summer’s day
Thou are more lovely and
temperate.
3.Personification:
Give inanimate objects (is something not alive) human or living qualities
The wind was like an
angry cat, howling in my ear.
The earthquake was a
nightmare.
The Boston accent is
flat. Usually Americans curl the r and l.
Footage: film or part of
a movie
Dystopian: story about the future where the
future is terrible, maybe global warming or authoritarian / dictator government
Rogue: thief, robber,
criminal, not controlled person
Android: robot
Director’s cut: this is
how the director wanted the movie to be; the director did not want a narrator.
Many directors think the movie should tell the story be the visual and acting
Studio version: this is
how the movie company or studio changes the movie; the studio added a narrator
because they thought the viewers would not understand the plot or
Story
Voice over
1982 but imagining 2019
History. America beat
Japan in World War II. So you will see a lot of American influence in Japanese
culture now. America was in Japan after WWII to organize it, from 1945 to 1952
This movie however is if
Japan won World War II and America lost. Japan is running America. It is the
government in the USA. Let’s count the Japanese images.
Pulp: the
flesh of the orange or grapefruit; usually we throw it away when we make juice
Fiction:
story that is not true
We started
to have TV in the early 1950s. Most people watch TV to relax after school or
work. They don’t want to think because they are tired.
We had a
kind of writing that worked the same as TV before TV. This is called Pulp
Fiction. The director of pulp fiction is Quenton Tarantino. He wrote and
directed it. 1994. The genre is dark comedy.
It is set in
Los Angeles. The main actor is John Travolta. He made a comeback. Notice that
the plot (or the story) is not in order. It is not chronological or sequential.
It is not 1, 2, 3, 4…It is NOT first,
second, third, 4th, etc.
The movie
starts in a diner (hamburger restaurant). Tarantino used to go to the diner to
write. It closed down during Covid.
To be a good
actor, you need to change accents.
Tarantino is
famous for his opening credits. They tell the name of the actors and director.
They usually have music. They set the tone at the start of the movie.
The
combination lock on the briefcase is 666 or the sign of the devil or Satan. The
briefcase is glowing. We don’t see what is inside. What is inside. Now he
quotes The Bible.
When you
lose a fight on purpose for gambling, that is called “throwing the fight.”
There is
some foreshadowing in a minute. Foreshadow is give hints about what will happen
later in the story. Why the bandage on the back of his neck. Some people think
we can take the human soul out of the body through the back of the neck. He is
the boss gangster.
Paying
homage to: when a scene in the movie you are watching copies a scene from an
older, famous movie. The director is showing his or her respect. I think this
copies A Clockwork Orange. The close up, crazy expression
