Day 13: Simply Good Storytelling

Saturday, April 30, 2011

DAY 13, MOVIE 1:

Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This is one of the five greatest films ever made. This movie is proof that Alfred Hitchcock is the director who wrote the rulebook on filmmaking. In every scene there are numerous shots and lines of dialogue that have layers and layers of subtext. Most notable in my opinion is Marion Crane’s conversation with Norman Bates, as the two of them eat at the motel. Norman starts by talking the meal he made, and that he made it all for Marion, since he’s not hungry. Once she begins eating, he makes the famous remark “You eat like a bird.” This brings the conversation to the subject of birds, when Marion says “You would know,” referring to all the stuffed birds in the room. Norman then says he doesn’t know much about birds, but what he does know about is stuffing things, or taxidermy. After talking about taxidermy for a minute, Marion says “A man should have a hobby.” To which Norman responds by talking about what the purpose of hobby should be, “A hobby should pass the time, not fill it.” And Marion asks him “Is your time really that empty.” This now brings Norman to talk about all the errands he has to run during the day. And finally when Marion asks Norman if he has any friends, Norman starts talking about his relationship with his mother. The topics the two talk about are the meal, ornithology (study of birds), taxidermy, hobbies, errands, and relationships. And if you take the first letter of each of those topics, it spells M-O-T-H-E-R. If you’ve seen this film, then you know the significance that word holds.

DAY 13, MOVIE 2:

Toy Story (1995), directed by John Lasseter. After a long day at work, I just needed something light and short to watch. And the original Toy Story jumped right out at me from my shelf. As everyone knows, this is the movie that changed animation forever, being the first ever fully computer generated animation film. Even though this is the movie where 3D animation made its mark, looking back 16 years later, it’s amazing to see how far the technology has come. These older 3D animated movies always look better in your head than they actually are, when you haven’t seen them in a long time. The animation still looks as smooth as the day it was first shown, and the little details in the textures are still there (the work done on Mr. Potato Head impresses me the most. At first glance his surface looks completely smooth, but when you look closely you can see all the little engravings in him). But everything has this look to it as if Vaseline has been smeared all over everything. However, after the initial shock of seeing the animation from its early days, it doesn’t even matter. The story is so well told, that you completely forget that this was made in the mid-1990s. Toy Story is a timeless story with characters that have lived on for years after they were first introduced, and have even returned in two excellent sequels. Pixar really aimed to tell a story with state-of-the-art animation, instead of only showing off what they can do. The effort in the writing shows. This family film will live on for generations, and will never be outgrown.