The Passion of Joan of Arc

I found this film quite boring. In general, before watching these films, I’ve read a bit about why they are considered great. I didn’t with the Passion of Joan of Arc. Doing so afterwards hasn’t really elucidated much for me. I don’t agree that the acting and visuals were of high quality.

It seemed mostly to be close-ups of the faces of Joan and the priests talking. Presumably this was meant to draw the viewer into the film, and engage them emotionally. The problem is that a film consisting mostly of conversations is ill-suited to the medium of silent cinema. Intertitles were used sparingly in this film, which meant that most of the dialogue which was obviously happening wasn’t relayed to the viewer.

I think my main problem with the film was that I never managed to make an emotional connection to the film. The subject matter was in theory interesting to me, but I just couldn’t engage. Part of the problem may be the assumption on the part of the film that the viewer is Catholic; there are a lot of scenes of Joan choosing between her belief that she is called by God, and rituals of her faith, such as going to Mass. On the other hand, it could just be the monotony of the visuals that meant I was falling asleep towards the end.

My views are perhaps best summarised by how long I spent trying to work out what language the intertitles were in.

Man with a Movie Camera

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a silent, experimental, plotless Soviet documentary made in the 20s, but it turns out what I should have expected was a really awesome film. I think if it had gone on much longer than it did, I may have started to get bored, but as it was, I really enjoyed it. There is not particular narrative to the film, just short sections showing the daily work, life, and play of people in the Soviet Union. What makes it interesting beyond that is how it plays with the medium of film. There are a number of shots of a cameraman lugging a large, 1920s camera to the oddest locations - up a chimney, down a mine, under a train. There is also a sort of framing device of a crowd watching the film in the cinema - the film shows the set up of the cinema at the beginning, and the arrival of the audience, and at the end shows them watching the film. In the middle of the film, we see it being edited together by a young woman, interspersed with shots of other people doing their work, for example in clothing factories.

The editing of the film also seems very modern, such as very fast cuts, and occasional stop-motion animation. The soundtrack I watched with (Alloy Orchestra) was very evocative, though I wonder what difference another would make. I intend to listen to the In The Nursery version, which my DVD copy has.

The Searchers

So. The Searchers. I think the main thing I took from watching this is that I don’t actually like westerns all that much. To a certain extent I feel like they are something I would like - a lot of the themes that are common in westerns are thing that I find interesting, for example, but yet, I just don’t. The main problem with this movie wasn’t that I thought it was badly made - in fact, I would probably have thought it very well made if it had been able to keep my attention for more than about five minutes at a time. The main problem was that I just didn’t care about any of the characters, nor what happened to them. None of them were particularly interesting, or relatable, and other than suffering a tragedy at the beginning of the film, I wasn’t really sure why I was supposed to care about them.

One of the main things that seems to be mentioned about this film in the small amount of writing about it that I’ve read is its attitude towards race relations. While it may have been forward thinking for the time in which it was made (and for a western) I can’t say I found it particularly nuanced.

I also found the pacing extremely strange, which is an issue I’ve had with other films on the list. This may be a problem with me, but I do think that skipping ahead years at times was an odd choice.

2001: A Space Odyssey

250 words just fundamentally isn’t enough for this film,so I will keep each of my remarks brief.

I was looking forward to this film the most out of the top ten, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it is a film that I have been meaning to watch for a long time in a way that, say, Sunrise wasn’t. Secondly, I really love science fiction, and this is the classic science fiction film. I was aware before watching that it was extremely influential, and know of certain scenes, but actually watching it, it is hard to overstate just how much of the film has been referenced and recreated in other pop culture. Oddly, however, the surrealist turn that the film takes towards the end seems to be referenced less explicitly than other parts, such as the bone thrown up into the air at the beginning, or HAL-9000.

One thing that struck me that I wasn’t expecting was the use of sound in this film. In many ways, it’s a film that is very associated with certain pieces of music, in particular Thus Spake Zarathustra, and The Blue Danube. However, the way that film uses silence, the sound of breathing, and mechanical noises to create tension and atmosphere is truly remarkable. The visual effects, though dated, are still affecting, as well.

This is my favourite of the films I have watched from the list thus far, and I imagine it will become one of my favourite films, period.

Sunrise

I think in some ways silent films can be considered a completely separate medium to film with sound, and I quite like watching silent films, to see how they play with the limitations not having sound places on them. So, I was quite looking forward to watching Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans, which is the first silent film on the list. It’s a fairly enjoyable film, and some of the visual effects it uses were surprising to me to be used in a film so early. Particularly the way that different images fade into each other, such as where the Man is day-dreaming about the Woman from the City being with him.

However, the plot of this film is very slight, and weirdly paced. In particular, the plot between the Man and the Woman from the City to kill the Wife appears to be resolved early the film. It does come back again at the end, but the middle sections is long, and while containing some scenes, such as the wedding and the dancing, that have lovely imagery and symbolism, there are other which seem fairly useless, such as when the pig gets loose at the fun fair, or when the couple break a statue at the photographer’s house. The film would end up being very short without these sections, but I think the parts of the plot that they convey - the renewed connection between the Man and the Wife - would be obvious without the point being belaboured.

La Regle de Jeu

The first time I started watching this film, I gave up halfway through. It was over a year ago now, so I’m not sure whether it was because I was bored, or whether I was just not in the mood for a film about rich French people having affairs. I’m generally not in that mood. I made myself watch it last night though, and I did find it got more interesting after the part where I had previously stopped.

The affairs become steadily more ridiculous as the film goes on - by the end it appears that everyone is in love with everyone else - Christine plans to run away with at least three men who aren’t her husband. The chase scene towards the end also highlights the ridiculousness of the society they live in, when many of the guests think it’s part of the entertainment rather than a genuine conflict. From the start of that scene it was obvious that someone would end up being hurt eventually, and the way it happens does underscore the convoluted nature of the infidelity that is going on.

I suppose I enjoyed this film more than I expected I was going to after watching the first half. It is well made, and entertaining. The hunting scene in the middle of the film was a difficult watch for me, even if it does serve an important purpose in foreshadowing terms. I won’t be in a hurry to watch it again, but I’m glad I did once.

Tokyo Story

Before watching this film, I was somewhat reluctant - it is a long slow film about a Japanese family, and I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy it. It’s often the way with things, that those you are looking forward to disappoint you, and those you are dreading turn out not to be so bad after all. And, this film is in fact brilliant. Slow it may be, but that can hardly be said to be a bad thing here. It allows the natures of the characters and their lives to be shown in depth. The film is about an elderly Japanese couple going to visit their adult children in Tokyo, and finding that the children have less time for them than they would perhaps wish.

The film feels, in many ways, very minimalist. Almost every shot is static, and by and large, they are at the eye level of a person sat on the floor in the traditional Japanese manner. The scenes are, in general, not overly emotional in the way that I would expect of a film with these films. Everything is understated - the interactions between the characters are not necessarily out of the ordinary, but the generational rift in the family is apparent anyway. Between the scenes of family life, there are beautiful shots of Japan - city scenes, trains, and countryside.

All in all, this is a film that can only be described as beautiful. It is heart warming and heart breaking in equal measure in its quietness.