My First Day

Monday, April 18, 2011

Hello, and welcome to “The Neverending Journey: One Man’s Life Through Film.” My name is Brandon, and I’m glad you’ve decided to join me in my constant appreciation of film. Every day I try to watch at least three movies, whether I’ve seen them before or not, and I’ve always wanted to share my thoughts of each movie I see with the world. With this blog I will be keeping track of every movie I watch from now on. With each movie I watch I will also report my opinion of it, as well as some thoughts that passed through my mind while watching. I don’t want to go into what the movie is about, you can go anywhere on the internet to find a plot synopsis of the movies I talk about. But this blog is the only place where you can find my opinions of these films, so that is what I would rather focus on. I try not to be heavy on spoilers, but that all depends on the movie I’m talking about, and which aspects of it I am covering. I don’t know what else to say here; as I am sure you will witness my personal tastes in film slowly be revealed to you throughout the course of this blog. So why don’t I get started with what I watched on my first day of The Neverending Journey!

DAY 1, MOVIE 1:

Badlands (1973), directed by Terrence Malick. This is my second time watching this movie. It’s interesting to see how Malick’s first movie is so much different from his later work (specifically Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, I still haven’t seen The New World). His other movies have such a peaceful and soothing tone to them, while Badlands is very harsh and brutal. This could be from the fact that the cinematography of Badlands is completely different from Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line. While those two films have look like beautiful works of art that just pop off the screen, Badlands looks gritty and dirty, just like the two lead characters. This is definitely a movie where Malick focused more on the characters than the technique he used to tell the story. Badlands is very different from the rest of his work, but that’s why I like it. My favorite scene would have to be the climatic chase at the end in which Martin Sheen’s character seemingly gives up only because he felt like it. But my favorite thing from the whole movie is definitely the music. The score is oddly calming, something you would never hear in a movie like this these days. The only other movie I think of that has a score like Badlands is Tony Scott’s True Romance. It’s such a unique score, that I am actually glad that not very many movies use the same style of music as Badlands.

DAY 1, MOVIE 2:

Delicatessen (1991), directed by Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Lately I’ve had a craving to watch French films, so I thought I’d give this one a try. This was my first time watching Delicatessen; I knew almost nothing about it before today. All I knew prior to watching it is that it was co-directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also directed Alien: Resurrection and Amélie. So knowing this, naturally the first thing I looked at for Delicatessen was its visual style. The greens and yellows stay true to the style of Amélie, but the tone was much more surreal. The movie reminded me of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, another movie set in a sort of post-apocalyptic world. But when it was over, I thought Delicatessen was only an above average movie. It sure was interesting and entertaining, but none of the characters really grabbed my attention, or resonated with me. When Delicatessen ended, all that stayed with me was the first five minutes. The wordless opening scene in which a man tries to escape a building by disguising himself as garbage was extremely captivating. The images used, coupled with the sounds of knives traveling through air vents created a suspenseful scene with characters I didn’t even know yet. The opening credits where the names of the filmmakers appeared on pieces of garbage was equally fascinating. Although I liked the movie, it is a shame that the rest of it couldn’t live up to those opening minutes.

DAY 1, MOVIE 3:

The Remains of the Day (1993), directed by James Ivory. This is another movie that I’m watching for the first time, and also my second movie by James Ivory. The first of his I saw was Howards End, which I thought looked absolutely beautiful, but the story rarely engaged me. The Remains of the Day did even less for me. In this movie Anthony Hopkins plays an overly loyal butler, and the movie as a whole is as emotionless as Hopkins’ character. You can definitely find finer performances by Anthony Hopkins elsewhere. The film lacks passion, and feels like the director was only churning this out to capitalize on the awards success of Howards End, resulting in a very slow moving and uninvolving experience. Even the set design and cinematography were nowhere near as stunning as the technical aspects of Howards End. I thought The Remains of the Day was dull Oscar bait, and nothing more. I don’t think I’ll be revisiting this film any time soon, and I doubt I’ll even remember any of it in the morning.

So I think that about wraps it up for my first day. Film is my passion all my life, and becoming a director has been a dream of mine ever since I was about twelve years old. I believe the best way to learn how to make a great film is to immerse yourself in the greatest films ever made. I am always trying to find new and different movies to watch. I don’t care about the genre, I only care if the movie is good. And creativity is definitely a plus in my book. I am open to any suggestions, so feel free to recommend some movies you would like me to check out.