Sweekriti's Silver Screen Review

This is a movie about two girls who are living life according to their own rules and accords. There is very minimal dialogue in this film and most of the plot is shared through the two main character’s actions and facial expressions. The girls live a life of no expectations and repercussions as they go on dates with older men just to have them spend their money on them. The girls do foolish things like cut up magazines and escape from the old men by jumping off trains. Towards the end of the movie the two girls are in a room where there is incredible amount of food. They act in a very un-lady like manner and start stuffing their mouths with all the food and throw around the food and utensils.  Then they suddenly get thrown into a body of water and start drowning. This makes them realize that they have to clean up their mess and become a more typical representation of women in society. This movie had a strong feminist theme as there were many phallic imagery and objects throughout the movie and the scene that stuck out the most for me that went along with this theme was a scene where the girls are playing with phallic objects such as sausages and bananas.

A question I would like to ask the class about this movie is what do you think the director’s main message was through this movie?

Kiki’s delivery service is an animated movie about a witch girl who turns thirteen and has to leave home in order to figure out her talent and mission in life. She flies to a new city in her broomstick and meets a pregnant woman named Osono. Osono is very kind towards Kiki when Kiki helps her and, therefore Osono offers Kiki a place to stay if she can continue helping her. In this new city Kiki meets a boy named Tombo who becomes interested in her because she is able to fly. Kiki decides to start a delivery service as she can make quick deliveries by flying. Her first delivery service goes bad but she ends up meeting a painter Ursula through it. One day Tombo invites Kiki to a party but Kiki is unable to make it because she is tired and becomes sick after a delivery run. Osono then makes Kiki make a delivery to Tombo where Kiki and Tombo get a chance to meet each other and Tombo shows her the flying bicycle machine that he is working on. They are able to bond with each other through this experience but Kiki becomes sad and leaves after Tombo’s friends come because she feels like she doesn’t belong. After this emotional experience Kiki realizes that she can no longer understand her cat Jiji and cannot fly either. This meant that she could no longer continue her delivery service and she is left with nothing to do. While she is sad about this she meets her friend Ursula again who helps Kiki realize that Kiki is just going through a phase and once she understands her purpose she would gain her abilities back. Kiki then gets her ability to fly again when she has to save Tombo who is about to fall off of the airship due to an accident. Her ability to fly again allows her to continue her delivery service and she is very happy at the end of the movie.

A question I have for the class is if you think Kiki is too young to go off on a journey alone to discover her talent and if so what does this say about society’s expectations from women?

This movie starts off with by showing the life of the protagonist Arash who has a difficult personal life due to his dad’s addiction. He has to work hard to provide a life for himself and his father and therefore ends up stealing expensive earrings from the girl he works for. One day he ends up losing his car to the drug dealer, Saeed, that his father owns heroine money to. In order to pay the debt off he takes the earrings to the drug dealer only to find him dead. We learn that a mysterious girl who is a vampire had lured Saeed into his apartment and killed him for not paying a prostitute. Seeing Saeed dead, Arash takes his car keys back and steals Saeed’s drugs and money as well. Later in the movie Arash goes to a party where he takes ecstasy. This drug makes him feel alone and vulnerable and he ends up stumbling upon the vampire girl. The vampire girl spares his life and instead becomes curious by him as he shows kindness towards her. She takes him to her house and they end up listening to music together and they end up meeting the next day too. The vampire girl goes to give Atti the prostitute her money back and they have a chance to talk. When Arash’s father has a withdrawal episode, he takes Arash’s cat and goes to the prostitute and makes her be with him and do drugs with him. The girl finds them in this state at the prostitute’s house and kills the father and throws his body out. She takes the cat with her and Arash sees his cat with the girl when he goes to her the next day after finding out his father is dead. This allows him to know that the girl had something to do with his father’s death but comes to the conclusion that he still wants to run away with her. This decision on his part was really surprising to me and made me realize that he is such a lonely person and has not had anyone to rely on in his entire life that he is willing to leave and start a new life with a girl that certainly had something to do with his father’s death.

The scene that best exemplifies the main point of this movie is when the girl meets Arash for the first time on the street. This scene shows that the girl cherishes people that show affection and vulnerability and points out the purpose of her life which is it hurt men that don’t show compassion or fairness such as the drug dealer.

A question I have for the class is what was the deciding factor/ reason for Arash to get back inside the car and continue his journey with the girl.

The movie Persepolis like Blue is the Warmest Color is also a coming of age film about a girl named Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis deals with the life of Marjane as she grows up during the Islamic revolution in Iran. Due to this oppression, Marjane, who is a very outspoken child, has to learn how to comply with the society she lives in. The core film technique used in this movie is animation, which was a fitting technique to use since the movie discusses dense topics such as politics, war and death. The usage of animation creates the perfect balance to represent these strong themes and makes them easier to understand and visualize, especially the grueling scenes where one of Marjane’s friends falls from a building and dies. The decision to create a black-and-white animation is extremely appealing as this makes it relatable to people everywhere and makes the story have a dream-like feel to it. Therefore, this was the best technical choice for this film as we can view Marjane’s real life story and how it shapes her throughout her life in an objective manner. Due to the animation, it is easy for a viewer to forget that the film is an autobiography and the abstract black-and-white scenes allow for the viewer to put themselves into Marjane’s shoes and think of their own actions and reactions to the unfair circumstances surrounding Marjane. Marjane trying and learning how to accept her origins and voicing her thoughts are concepts that many people have been through themselves, and watching an animated film that touches on this theme certainly helps the audience relate and insert themselves into the movie more easily.

A question I would like to ask the class is if you were in the same position as Marjane and you were sent to a foreign country would you try your hardest to fit in and be successful to make your family proud or come back home to your family?

The documentary Born into Brothels displays the lives of the kids of prostitutes in the Red Light District of Calcutta. The cinematographer’s initial intention on going to the red light district was to take photographs of the place and while she is there, she also begins to become invested in the lives of some of the children that live in the area. The photographer, Zana Briski, makes this documentary come to life by using a camera that she chooses to carry around her to record her daily life. By carrying the camera around and holding it herself, she creates a more personable approach to the whole film as she allows for a first person narrative to occur easily, especially when she interviews the children. The movie proceeds with Briski teaching the children how to take a photograph and sparking an interest in them for it. She then uses the pictures each child took and displays the child’s current living situation and life through their pictures. She asks each child questions about their life and presents their life through a series of interviews which makes the audience feel as though they are there listening to these answers and seeing their habitat.

Due to most of the movie being in an interview format, it was not extremely necessary to edit the movie, which also helped create a very realistic portrayal of the documentary. Everything that happens in the red light district is out in the open for the audience to view and analyze. Briski makes it of extreme importance to show the place for exactly what it is and therefore, the images and videos shown of the place are laid out bare, honest, harsh, and vulgar such as when a mother is cursing at her young child and forcing her to clean the dishes and clothes. Since these children are stuck in the brothel, Briski starts teaching the children photography so that they can escape their brutal reality and focus on something lighter and happier and also have an opportunity to show their creativity.

A question I would like to present to the class is if you think there is anything else people that live in the red district can do to help children that are born there?

Reality television is not something I watch daily. The only one I watch is Keeping Up with the Kardashians mostly due to clips of the show being easily available and posted on Instagram. Reality television’s purpose is to show an everyday real life of people but the life that the Kardashians live is anything but normal and the endeavors they choose are not even a possibility for a regular person. Reality television is presented as a source of entertainment and allows us average people to vicariously live through these characters in the show and in their world where you can think about what decisions you would make in a situation that would never occur in your own life. I also feel like “reality television” is also a misrepresented title as most of these shows are extremely scripted. I am going to continue watching more reality television and understand the culture that so many people are obsessed with.

A question I want to ask thus far is how much of reality television do you think is actually real?

Lemonade is a musical film directed by Beyoncé. It portrays her emotions through many stages of her life. The whole film revolves around the cheating of her husband Jay Z and how that affected her life and relationship. The film starts with the doubts she felt towards her husband and her growing suspicion that he is cheating on her. The film then shows the anger she felt when her suspicion was confirmed. She uses the settings and imagery to share her grief and an eventual acceptance of the betrayal. The film ends with home videos of her, her husband and their baby.

Beyoncé strongly uses her childhood and the culture she grew up in to share the values and ideas she grew up with. Gender and sexuality play a big role in the film as well because we see that Beyoncé grew up in a patriarchal society and therefore ends up blaming herself in some way for getting cheated on and also says that she tried to change herself from her looks to her behavior in order get the love she lost. The whole movie mostly only consists of women of various ages and shows woman empowerment.

This Mexican film is set in the 1900s and begins with the birth of the main character Tita. Tita’s father has a heart attack and dies the same day the protagonist is born and therefore Tita is left as the youngest child in the family. She comes from a family that upholds the tradition that the youngest daughter cannot marry and has to take care of her mother until she dies. Tita grows up around the cook and is almost always in the kitchen watching her cook and learning how to cook. The kitchen becomes her comfort zone and she becomes one with food. When Tita is a teenager, she falls in love with her neighbor’s son Pedro and he has mutual feelings for her as well. This leads Pedro to ask for Tita’s hand in marriage but Tita’s mother does not allow for this marriage to take place due to the traditional rules. Her mother offers Tita’s oldest sister Rosaura for marriage with Pedro instead and Pedro takes up her offer as this allows him to live in the same house as Tita and be able to be close to her. Pedro and Rosaura have a sickly baby that Tita ends up taking care of and nurturing the baby to good health. During this time period Tita’s mother sends Pedro and Rosaura to Texas because she believes that Pedro and Tita are having an affair. The baby dies after they move because Tita is no longer there to care for him. This news devastates Tita and she tells her mother it is her fault the baby died which causes her mother to hit her in the face. As Tita is in the verge of going crazy, a family doctor, Dr. John Brown takes her to his house and nurses her and takes care of her since he has fallen for her. Eventually he proposes to Tita and Tita says yes. During this time, bandits invade Tita’s mother’s house and murder her. Tita finally goes back to her home for her mother’s funeral where she sees Pedro and Rosaura again. Rosaura is pregnant and gives birth to a baby, Esperanza, while Pedro becomes very jealous of Tita and Dr. Brown’s relationship causing him to sneak into Tita’s room at night where they end up having sex. This makes Tita feel very guilty and she tells Dr. Brown about having sex with Pedro. Dr. Brown responds by saying he still would want to be with her if she wants to be with him as well. The movie fast-forwards to many years later to Esperanza’s wedding to Dr. Brown’s son. We learn that Tita never married and instead took care of Esperanza after Rosaura dies while she is was still a baby. After Esperanza’s wedding Tita and Pedro decide to go back to her family home and finally get married since they are no longer bound by anything or anyone. They have sex and during this moment Pedro dies of a heart attack. This shakes Tita and she commits suicide in the bed by swallowing a lot of matches, which causes the room to catch on fire. When Espernaza comes back from her honeymoon she sees the house burned down and finds Tita’s cookbook among the ashes.

A scene that best exemplifies the main point of the film is the scene where Tita finally breaks down and tells her mother that she will no longer be taking her orders and blames her mother for the death of baby Roberto. This is a crucial point of the film as it switches the story in the hands of the protagonist as she finally starts making decisions of her own and expressing how she truly feels. She is no longer bound by her mother and the traditions that she has been forced to uphold. This scene is the reason the film moves on to show Tita’s life beyond the house and the viewers are able to watch her make many decisions on her own and be happy.

A question I want to propose to the class is if you think Tita would have ever spoken up for what she thinks and wants if the baby Roberto would have never died since the death of the baby seems to have been her breaking point.

Adèle, the main character of this film is a 15-year-old high school student. The film starts off with her having a love interest with a teenage boy. One day she is walking around and comes across a girl with blue hair who catches her attention immediately. She however becomes uninterested in the guy, as she is not able to stop thinking about the girl with the blue hair and questioning her sexual identity. While she is at a gay bar with her friend she spots the girl with the blue hair walking outside with a group of people. Her curiosity leads her to leave the bar and follow the girl into a lesbian bar. This is where she finally meets and talks to the other main character of the film, Emma. Emma is a graduate student studying art who is openly lesbian. Adèle and Emma start becoming friends and spending a lot of time together after this point as Emma comes to visit Adèle in school. Eventually Adèle acts on her sexual confusion by kissing Emma and they start a sexually intense and passionate relationship. Emma introduces Adèle to her family as her girlfriend as they are an open-minded family while Adèle has to introduce Emma as her philosophy tutor because she comes from a conservative family. Their relationship is healthy and happy and they move in together and start living together. Adèle also meets and hangs out with Emma friends such as Samir when Emma hosts’ parties to socialize and further help her painting career.

Over time Adèle graduates from high school and starts working for an elementary school while Emma works on her painting career. Throughout the years living together we get to see how Emma and Adèle’s relationship is working mostly due to their sexual passion and less because they have similar things in common. This causes Adèle to feel lonely and insecure which leads her to cheat on Emma with one of her co-workers. When Emma finds out about the cheating she kicks Adèle out of her house as Adèle desperately tries to explain herself.

            Years later, Adèle is invited to Emma’s painting exhibit where Emma is in a happy relationship with Lisa. Seeing Emma moved on with her life makes Adèle realize that their relationship is done for good, and that she needs to move on as well. This causes her to leave the exhibit, not knowing that Samir who is interested in Adèle came looking for her.

The scene that best exemplifies the main point of this movie is the scene where Emma and Adèle meet up years after their break up. Adèle tries to win Emma back and tells her that she is still in love with her but Emma is unable to reciprocate her love for Adèle because she is now in a stable and comfortable relationship with Lisa. Watching Emma choose stability over love is the main point of this movie as it shows how as you get older you have to make really tough decisions that may not bring you the most happiness but will make your life and future secure.

Samir chasing after Adèle and looking for her in the opposite direction creates a frustrating and saddening ending to the movie. What do you believe is the reason for the director’s choice to leave Adèle’s story as a sad ending, do you think she deserved an unhappy ending for the choices she made in her life such as by cheating on Emma?