Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith - 1915

Essential early cinema -





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Three by Chaplin - Gold Rush, Modern Times, City Lights

The Gold Rush:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNv6zDYu0wo

Modern Times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xmx6F4NeoY

City Lights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXQuiGVqAo

Rope - Alfred Hitchcock - 1948

This film was an adaptation of a play based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder of the 1920s.

Leopold and Loeb were very wealthy and academically successful young men who were influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche. Indeed, they believed that they were Nietzchean 'supermen' who could rise above the law and accountability to others.

To demonstrate this to themselves they decided to kidnap and murder a 12 year old boy for no reason and to collect a ransom for this kidnapping that they did not need even though the boy was dead.

Once inside the apartment where the story of this film takes place, Hitchcock only uses one camera. When you see him do a close up into the back of a guy's jacket, he is basically changing the film in the camera.

In the play there are many differences to the story, but there is a murder committed purely so that young men can relish what they feel is their superiority to others. They want to feel as if they can rise above what restricts others from engaging in the 'taboo'.

Here is a documentary on Leopold and Loeb:

Tokyo Story - Yasujirō Ozu - 1953

In his films, Ozu seemed interested in the sense of duty felt between family members in Japan and to what extent this might be due to social pressure and to what extent it might be due to human emotion. He also seemed interested in looking at how social change affects change within the family in Japan. In addition to this, he examines the compassion of strangers vis a vis family relationships and duties.

In this film, a young woman who has no real connection to an elderly Japanese couple shows the most concern for this couple, even beyond the concern shown by the couples' own family.

This is regularly voted as one of the best films ever made.

Madame Butterfly (film version) - 1995 - Frédéric Mitterrand

Madame Butterfly is one of the most powerful works of art ever created.

Usually folks focus on the injustice against Cio-Cio San by B.F. Pinkerton in this opera, yet, I feel compelled to play devil's advocate. Pinkerton expresses extreme remorse at the end of the opera and one could argue that Cio-Cio San is using Pinkerton to a significant degree, as he is surely using her. Neither person enters this bizarre marriage completely innocently. Cio-Cio San is only 15, however, and in a desperate situation.

So Cio-Cio San is a 15 year-old geisha singer. She comes from an aristocratic family, but they have lost their wealth during Japan's rush to modernization and now Cio-Cio San sings for her very survival.

She agrees to marry an American naval officer - B.F. Pinkerton - through an oily marriage broker named Goro. Basically, the life of a geisha singer is hell and Pinkerton seems to be Cio-Cio San's ticket out of that hell. For his part, Pinkerton feels that he is 'renting' a wife along with a beautiful huge house he is able to get in Nagasaki. Cio-Cio San throws herself completely into this marriage, with deep seriousness, to the point where she is cursed and abandoned by her own family. It is basically Pinkerton or nothing at this point.

So the big question in the film is whether Cio-Cio San is as deeply in love with Pinkerton as most have believed her to be. I question this. Pinkerton serves a function for her. She serves a function for Pinkerton. At one point when she is asked what she will do if Pinkerton never comes back to her, she says she has two choices - going back to singing as a geisha or killing herself. She then states that killing herself would be preferable to singing as a geisha again.

To what extent does she need Pinkerton and to what extent does she love him? To what extent is Pinkerton playing a horrific game and to what extent does he love and care for her?

This opera packs a big emotional wallop and this film version does an excellent job of delivering this wallop. Mitterand chose new and young performers who are incredible actors as well as singers. One of the best operas on film ever.

Late Autumn by Yasujiro Ozu - 1960

The plot of this movie is almost like a Mozart Opera - so much romantic scheming.

Akiko, who is now middle aged, was once a beautiful young woman pursued by four suitors who were all best friends. Miwa won her hand. After about 20 years, however, Miwa died leaving Akiko a widow with a daughter Ayako.

At the 7th year memorial service for Miwa his three friends decide to find a good man for his daughter to marry. Each friend is a high-ranking businessman who supervises many high quality young men and each of the three friends chooses a possible suitor for Ayako. She likes Mr. Goto.

There's one problem: Ayako does not want to get married because she fears she will have to leave her mother all alone. So, the three men decide they have to find a husband for Akiko too! Since one of the three friends is a widower, they believe he will work out fine.

What happens? Please watch the film.

It's a typical Ozu film - a 'domestic' drama involving real types of people with no violence, no pettiness, and a lot of self-restraint, serenity and humanity.

In his films Ozu seemed interested in the sense of duty felt between family members in Japan - how strong this sense could be, when it might weaken, how it might guide or limit behavior and lives. He also seems to enjoy investigating the compassion of strangers as it can be compared and contrasted with familial duty.

Pagliacci - ópera de Ruggero Leoncavallo - Film by Franco Zeffirelli - 1982

Zeffirelli's 1982 film version of the Leoncavallo opera.

"Laugh, Pagliaccio, at your shattered love..."

A troupe of clowns regularly presents a comic version of a man being betrayed
by his wife - to a happy ending as the betrayed man is able to laugh the betrayal
off. Yet, when this happens within the troupe there is a tragic ending.

Please watch the film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYgVjDZCkT4