Week6 – Bicycle Thieves directed by Vittorio De Sica 1948. This neorealist drama film goes on a journey of unemployed Antonio Ricci played by Lamberto Maggiorani , is a hard working and relentless man living in Italy trying to support his family. Antonio is living in post war Italy trying this best to live and keep himself a float during these hard times. Poor Ricci hunts each day for a job , which is why epathize with him so much. Ricci is then called for this well paying job in the city. Ricci and his wife decide to sell the sheets from their bed to buy a bicycle for this good paying job. The first day on the job Ricci is attending his poster when a young man steals his bike in front of his face. I was so angry for Ricci and I was thinking to myself, this bum stole from a hard working man who need to feed his family. When Ricci is chasing the theif I literally wanted to throw my sandal at the television. The son was just so loving and hard working for his father trying to help get the person who stole his bike. Then I realized that is what Sica was trying to do evoke emotion for this man. What is even more impressive is that Lamberto was a non professional actor and he pulled off a beautiful role. Sica did the opposite of Mussolini and that is paint the real Italy. I watched this one alone and cried at the end because he never got he needed for provide for his family. I actually wish there was a sequel to this film. Sica did an amazing with this classic Italian film and I recommend this to anybody. 10/10

Week-12 The crimes of Padre Amaro was directed by Carlos Carrera. Carrera is an Mexican film maker and screen writer and he also won an Palme d’Or Ariel Award for his short film. The Crimes of Padre Amaro was right up my alley with all the love and romance. I can admit I’am sucker for love but in the good way. Father Amaro is a young priest in a small Mexcian town. Father Amaro was sent there to help Father Benito and carry on his rightful duty as a new priest should be. While I personally find it rather strange in certain religions that room for a pesonal life is forbidden or not allowed under any circunstances I feel like Father Amaro was skating on thin ice doing so. During parts of the film I could not help but chuckle because I was thinking to myself she must really be worth it. However, that is what love does to the soul. Father Benito is playing a risky games as well,with accepting help the local drug cartel. Father Benito decides to build new hospital , and all I could think to myself was ” It’s dirty money do not take it ” but when you are in a bind anything goes. I actually watchted this film with my roomates and they loved it alot. Carrera did an amazing job I think this might be my third favortite film out of this list for class. I recentky researched some work of his and he has a few animated pieces I would love to check out and his short films as well. I highly recommend this film.

Week- 8 Panther Panchali was directed by Satyajit Ray in 1955. This film was very beautiful the Character Apu was truly beautiful and I truly empathize with him through everything he has encountered in the film and through the Apu collection. I assumption I made was waiting for a dance number or some type of sing-a-long and it did not happen at all. This was actually the opposite and it really caught me off guard but I am not complaining this was beautiful. While reading the chapter I came across some information and how he uses real naturalistic chracaters that do not showcase Bollywood life. Instead his charcters face birth or death situations and good luck or bad luck. They are caught in the flow of life and whatever happens to them they take it , much like we do. Things come and go without understanding for his characters this makes for an existernial element in Ray’s films. Ray shows that there is no guiding or spiritual deity around to save them from real life. I loved how he found beauty in an woman who looked as if she were 100 years old. No teeth, can barley see but somehow she represented something so real and complex. Ray showed his audience pure , raw, and unfiltered beauty. He showed such love between family and the heatrwarming relationship between brother and sister. I loved the film, I got a reality check when there was not musical number but I am glad actually because I would have not grown as I have by educating myself with these really unique films . This film was nominated for an Palme d’Or and won at the Cannes Film Festival. I would love the explore the rest of the trilogy.

Week 13. The Close- Up directed by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf in 1990 , it released in the United States in 1999. This film has a very unuqiue foudation to say the least. I have been very interested in Middle Eastern film , to me it seems the most sincere in sending out political movements and or their way of life. This film was a true story and I loved it even more. Ali Sabzian was on the bus reading a book by Makhmalbaf and a young lady is in admiration of this director and al of his work. Ali the decides to pretend to be Makhmalbaf to impress her but it was not the best idea. I fel like they could have connected over both of their intrest in the filmmaker. He becomes overly friendly with her and her family that he tells her that he is making another film. Soon after the family discovers he is a liar and then is arrested for fraud. The thing I find so beautiful about this film is that it took a different approach. During the time of the film there had just been a war in Iraq. Most times I have offtend associated Middle Eastern films with war or some type of combat film. They really walked away with So seeing this I was kinda glued to the television and I was unsure of what was happening at first. It seemed like some early version of a reenactement by the actual people mixed with documentary but whatever this is classified as I loved it. I showed this to my aunt and she thought it was rather good that the director pulled away from the ordinary and gave us a materpiece.

Week7- Seven Samurai was directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954. This film for me was a little on the harder side to watch simply because of how long it was. To be quite honest prior to taking this class I have never had much expeirence with quality Japanese Cinema. So this was a first for me. I can start by saying the story line was pretty easy to follow. The story takes place during 16th century in a little village during the Sengoku Japanese period. In part one the bandits dicusss raiding another viliage but decided not to because they just recently robbed another village. Gisaku is the eldest person in the village and they go to him for advice. He then decides to hire a hungry saumurai. However, they can not pay but offer three meals a day and lodging. So they have sucess finding the right samurai for the job. Kambei Shimada advises the villiage to hire six more samurai’s to protect the villiage. Kambei gathers his samurai and teach the farmers how to use weapons and protect their land from the bandits. According to the readings about the Sengoku period and this embodied everything from it all the drama and bloody warfare. I can respect the art of the type of film however, its not for me. I will give it another shot because it is considered the one of the best films of all time and one does not gain that title for nothing.

Week5- Metroplolis was released in 1927 by German Expressionist Fritz Lang. This film was also considered science fiction clearly did a great dipiction of that which you can see in the first couple of minutes in the film. First off I can just say how creative the vision was is simply amazing and I enjoyed so much of what this film had to offer. I can say this reminded me of utopian society in the Hunger Games at the capital. Much like the people in the capital are not worried with the rest of society and confined to their bubble of the perfect life. The film is silent and took 17 months to make. The lenghth of the film had been controversal since its release in 1927. The original was 153 minsutes long with damaged and loosing some parts of the film over the years. In 2010 the film was found in a museum in Argentina and carefully restored and was viewed at the Berlin Film Festival in 2010. Personally I watched this film with my father and his perception of this film is it seems silly but he understands and respects the overall message. For me the film was great, I thought Lang was ahead of his time and maybe not being full appreciated during the time of release. The artistic side this film is to die for , specifically the costumes, they were amazing and very much focused on that utopian / futuristic aspect of the film. This film gave such a powerful message of social classes and how they intersect. The film is really a piece of art and the dance scene and the camera with the montages with all the eyes are examples 0f what makes this silent film a work of art. I highly recommend this film over Thanksgiving brake to my stoner friends and I am excited to see their reaction of a film that is alost 100 years old.

Week8- The Miky way was written by Luis Brunel who was a French Director and a surrealist. The Milky way was an dark comedy of two hitchhikers that take a pilgrimage from France to Spain and through the way they incounter strange events such as a prostitute who wants to bare children with them. They also bum food and alcohol from different places. The adventures from this movie seems kinds cool and something i would be into Certain scenes sort of went over my head and to be honest I had to watch it a couple of times. I will say I loved the religion aspect of the film. Now I do not know if Brunel was mocking his religious backgroud but it was different. I can say i assumed there was two different story lines going on. Some of the scenes look obviously around medieval times and some looked a bit more modern. This film reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It seemed like a spoof or considererd a dark comedy since the use of religious play is there. This story is non linear and functions as a highly symbolic across time and space. The story is set over 2000 years ago during the time of Christ and encompasses a story while using and satire to do so. The pilgramage also stood for searching for meaning and and spiritual quest. Personaly for me its not a movie I would reccomend to my friends or family to watch not really my favorite film.

Week 3- 400 Blows is an French film by Francois Truffaut in 1959 In Paris and was apart of the French New Wave. The film has won numerus awards at the French Film Festival in Cannes.Truffaut tells a story of a young boy named Antoine Doinel was having growing pains literally. I think this story hit home for me because I personally felt as if I was a rebel and I received black lash from my family and friends and all i wanted to be loved. Antoine strucked me in a way, all i wanted for him was hope and I felt like he never got a brake in life and that is a sad reality when dealing with rejection from every corner of his environment. So with rejection comes more insane behavior . When Antoine quit school I did not know where Truffaut was going with the rest of the film because I thought to myself how much worst can it truly get for him because he basically lost everything. During the end of the film when he escaped I felt as if I could breathe again for him. Antoine received some room to breathe and finally feel just a little bit of happiness. The freeze frames with Antoine on the Beach was blissful to me. Trauffaut did a wonderful job telling his story through Antoine.

Week 11: This week’s film is In The Mood for Love is a beautiful film is filled with so much color and closeness almost like a claustrophobic affect. This beautiful film is was directed by Wong Kar-Wai in 2000. The film for me was pure imagery at it’s best as well as how close and on top everything is. Wai really used his creativity to make the viewers think about what is really going on especially during the repeating scenes. For the first few minutes I could not comprehend what was happening. I felt as if I were in a loop then I realized that Su and Mrs. Chow were reenacting what could of happen and how possibly their spouses fell in love with one another. The Beautiful wardrobe for Mrs.Chow was a representation ,to me, of how much she wanted to keep a clean crisp apparence while on the inside burning with fire and passion to be loved and to be wanted. The incognito effect of the spouses was great it kept me wondering if they would reveal themselves. Wong-Kar Wai did an impressive job making the audience feel immense empathy for both Su and Mrs. Chow. The hotel scene is very important when Mrs. chow is leaving and you see Su close the door and the hotel room Number is 2046, I loved the play hinting to the next film. I found this film to be so beautifully close and colorful and ultimately moody. Having seen this film I instantly became a fan of Wong Kar-wai ‘s work it is a certain feeling that fits the needs of me, the viewer , and accomplishes his points in very subtle ways. last but not lease the repeating music sequence was perfect and truly sets you in the mood for love with all the red hues close and intimate shots.