Featured Blogger for the Whale Rider

The movie Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro, shows the conflict that arises between traditions versus modernism, young versus old and men versus women.  The historical attributes of the Maori culture contributes greatly to these conflicts.   You have two main characters in this film; Paikea, also known as Pia, who is a young Maori girl and Koro, Maori tribe leader and Pia’s grandfather.

According to this tribes legend their existence can be traced back a thousand years to a single ancestor named Paikea.  It is believed that he was able to escape death by riding on the back of a whale.  It was also believed that the first born males of the tribe chiefs were a direct descendant of the original Paikea.  This would also mean that this first born male would become the new leader of the tribe.  Since it was Koro’s oldest son, Porourangi whose wife and son died, there was no longer a line of leadership.  Koro wants his son to toughen up and get over it, find a new wife and have a son.  Instead, Porourangi leaves for Germany, leaving Pia with her grandparents.

At first, Koro was angry that his grandson had died and didn’t even acknowledge his granddaughter.  However, as timed passed, you do see that love has bloomed between Koro and his granddaughter.  This love does get challenged when Pia expresses an interest in learning more about the culture, traditions and indicates that she believes she can be the next leader.  Koro can not accept this since she is a girl.  Tradition does not allow females to take on the leadership role for the tribe therefore he gets upset at his granddaughter for even thinking this.

Koro decides to recruit the young boys in the village and train them in the old ways in hopes of finding a new leader.  It all comes down to a boat ride in which Koro throws out his whale bone into the ocean and which ever of the boys returns with it will prove that he is the new leader.  When none of them come back with it Koro feels as if he is a failure in finding a new leader for his people.  He also starts to place blame on Pia for this.

***SPOILER ALERT***TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET***

One evening there is a special program in place that deals a lot with the music and history of the people of the village.  Pia asks her grandfather to come.  As a surprise to everyone, Pia wins an award for a speech about her grandfather and they love and challenges they have.  In this speech she talks about how it might be better to share the traditions with all regardless of their gender so all can carry the burdens and triumphs.  Koro misses this because as he was leaving, he noticed that there was a large whale beached on the shore near his house.  He goes out to investigate only to see more.

Eventually the whole village learns of what happens.  They all end up on at the beach trying to help get the whales back into the ocean.  Koro is working with the biggest whale on the beach.  Pia comes over to try to help but he yells at her not to touch.  He blames her for this happening.  Soon everyone leaves the big whale but Pia stays behind.  She climbs on the whale and is able to get it to move back out into the ocean.  Just than, her grandmother sees this.  She starts to call out for her.  The grandmother than takes the whale bone that Pia retrieved and gives it back to Koro advising him that Pia is the one who got it.  He now realizes that Pia is the intended leader and her gender does not matter.

 

What I loved about this movie is that the traditions and the importance of the men is expressed in a very typical way; men are strong, born leaders – no way a women could do what they do.  In reality, it is Pia who shows she has so much more strength then any of the men in her village.  Koro’s love was something Pia had to fight so hard to get starting from when she was a baby.  By challenging her grandfather, she jeopardized all that time spent building that loving relationship.

I also love how all the older women, especially Pia’s grandmother were essentially rebels.  They allowed the men think that they were in charge but in all reality, the women were the ones in charge.  They were the backbones of the families and the village.  They allowed the men to be in charge of the traditions but the women were the ones teaching life lessons that allowed the tribe to survive.  With out them it is possible that the tribe would have vanished.  And make no mistake of it, when Pia’s grandmother spoke, Koro and Pia listened.  She could be very hard and strict but also be the warm, nurturing figure everyone needs to have in their life to survive.  To me, she was the best of both worlds.  She was bold, she was honest, she was gentle and full of wisdom and she could put grandpa in his place whenever it was called for.

I pose these few questions to you all; do you think Pia’s grandmother was always strong?  Or was it the birth of Pia and the constant struggle she witnessed her go through to gain the love and acceptance from her grandfather that made grandma feel more confident and empowered to stand up to Koro and the traditions of the Maori?  Do you think Koro actually saw the leadership skills in Pia but was too consumed with tradition to allow her to prove herself?  Since Koro was the tribe leader, do you think he could have just appointed Pia as the new leader if she did prove herself or was there something more holding him back?  I know there is much discussion at the end of the movie whether Pia and Koro die or not.  If they did not, and Koro discovered that his sons pregnant girlfriend was carrying a boy, do you think he would have continued to acknowledge and train Pia as the new leader or would he post pone or cancel it all together since there was a boy now entering the family?  Do you think Koro was convinced gender did not really matter for the traditions of the Maori?

 

This scene is one of the first scenes in the movie "Citizen Kane" by Orson Wells.  Just prior to this scene Wells character Charles Kane has just died.  In this scene, his ex-wife Susan, a failed opera singer is confronted by some journalist.  Their goal is to try and figure out what Kane's last word, "Rosebud" meant.  Susan wants nothing to do with them and she refuses to talk to them about anything. 

 

I decided to pick this scene because I thought the transition in the beginning was amazing.  The use if the lighting to move through the outdoor scene of the club where Susan was gives the audience a sense of the raw Susan is feeling upon the death of her ex spouse.  The allows the viewers to experience her raw emotion through this visual transition. 

 

I also thought the use of showing the rain on the sky light and how it blurred the window was an interesting dissolve edit technique to transition to the interior shot of the club where we see the ex Mrs. Kane hunched over a table crying.  We all have cried at some point so think about how it is to try to look through tear filled eyes; it is very much the same sensation we get in this transition.  The rain is like Susan's tears falling and she has cried so many tears, her vision is blurred from them. 

 

Citizen Kane was never one of my favorite movies.  It actually took me a few showings of the movie to really understand it.  What I do like is the whole film is shot in flashbacks upon the death of Mr. Kane.  All through out the movie there are very visually appealing and unique scene transitions.  This just was one that really stuck out in my head when thinking about this movie in general. 

Symbolism in the movie, “The Road Home"

The movie “The Road Home” directed by Yimou Zhang starts out with the son of Ziyi Zhang and Hao Zheng returning home after the death of his father.  His mother wants a very traditional burial service for her husband.  This tradition involves many individuals walking a long distance while carrying the casket back home to the village.  This tradition is rarely celebrated anymore and the son, Honglei Sun is struggling to figure out a way to make it happen.  While planning the arrangements for his father’s funeral, he recalls the story of how his parents met and the movie takes us back through time in a flashback.

Ziyi is a young woman who falls in love with the new village teacher, Hao.  There is a scene when the teacher first arrives in which he and Ziyi lock gazes with each other.  It is at that moment that the viewer gets a sense that this is a love story that is sparked at the first sight of one another. 

One must understand that in the culture and time that this story takes place there is a big separation between men and women.  When the men are working on the school, the women have to stay back by the well where they observe the men and the work they are doing.  The women cook the food for lunch for the men, place it on a table and walk away while they come and get what they want and eat.  Also during this time marriages were more or less arranged.  Women certainly did not get to pick who they fell in love with.  This was all a barrier, a fence if you will, for Ziyi and Hao’s love.

This brings me to the symbol of fences in the movie.  One of the most prominent fences in the movie is the fence around the school.  Men and children were mostly seen with in the confines of this fence while the women were outside it.  Often times Ziyi would make extra trips to the well near the school in hopes of seeing the teacher and maybe even interacting with him.  In contrast, Ziyi would often times follow Hao from a far of distance as he walked some of the school children home.  There was no fence to separate them.  As time went by, she got more nerve to get closer and eventually enough to actually interact with him. 

Another scene where the fence is very symbolic is the fence around Ziyi’s home.  One afternoon it was her and her mother’s turn to host the teacher at their home for lunch.  Ziyi was very excited and made sure to prepare everything just perfect.  After lunch she offered to make some mushroom dumplings for dinner.  Hao had to leave unexpectedly with the mayor of the town.  He stopped by Ziyi’s home to let her know he would not be able to make it for dinner.  She insisted that he stop by before he leaves to take some food on the road for him and they mayor.  All while they are talking this fence separates the two of them.  It is as if no matter how hard they try to acknowledge their love there is some barrier in the way.  It was at this time that Hao gives Ziyi a beautiful barrette. 

This brings us to the second symbol I wanted to discuss; the barrette.  As a child growing up I always had barrettes in my hair.  Usually they were the plastic ones that were in the shape of animals or hearts or something along those lines.  They were always in bright colors.  When I got to about the fourth grade I had given up on those barrettes.  I had grown up and those were too childish for me.  A funny thing ended up happening when I was a junior in high school.  I started to wear those same barrettes again.  It was as if I was on the brink if becoming an adult and I really didn’t want too so I resorted back to something familiar from my childhood. 

The barrette Hao presented to Ziyi was a bit more sophisticated than the plastic ones I used to wear but they represented this transition between being a child to becoming an adult.  She still wore her hair in the braided pigtails just like a young child but by lacing the gift of the barrette in her hair it signified this transition from child to adult.

I have to say this movie and the use of the fence and barrette as symbols kind of hit home.  It got me thinking about how many times I fenced myself in to certain situations in life.  The main one has always been my job.  I hated it but I did it for over ten years.  To be honest, I often thought about what I would do once I graduated and even though I had some ideas I honestly saw myself fenced in to this job because I had seniority or built up vacation time.  After all, it is all I have known for over ten years and I had grown comfortable with it.  I started to think about how many times does being comfortable fence us into situations in our lives that do not make us happy.

Needless to say on September 12 I got notice that my job was being eliminated and November 10^th would be my last day at my job.  Initially I freaked out.  My husband is not working and now I won’t be so there was the whole financial stress that really freaked me out.  But after the dust settled I really thought about it even more.  I graduate this December.  My ten years of service will allow me almost 6 months of my salary starting on November 10^th.  It’s as if the universe aligned up and proceeded to open this gate I never saw and allowed me to see the freedom that laid before me.  I can honestly say I do  not know if I would have left fairly soon after graduation since I was comfortable where I was.  I also know that I would have continued to be miserable and with each passing month it would be harder and harder to open that gate myself. 

 

The Long Shot

 

 

 

This shot has to be one of my favorite stills from this movie.  This is a long shot of Antoine and his friend are running along the street with the typewriter that they stole.  I find some humor in this shot because these kids seem so out of place, running down the street with a typewriter and you can sense this because the shot includes the bystanders in the background.  You can see their face and the fact that they are finding the while situation odd as well.  I also like the movement that is caused by the birds.  As the children are running with this stolen item, you would think they would want to maintain a low profile.  Instead, they are running and causing this huge disruption for the birds.  As they run through the center of their gathering, all the birds take off, causing a huge commotion which does nothing but draw attention to them.  This shot gives the viewer a sense of chaos, confusion, and urgency by allowing the viewer to take in the whole surroundings of the character including the bystanders, the buildings and the birds.  There is not one specific item in this shot that is more important then another item.  Together, as a whole they form the important picture. 

 

The High Angle Shot

 

 

 

I think in general, the high angle shot is one of my favorite film techniques.  It is like the viewer is a peeping tom; sitting in a tree looking down and spying on the happenings below.  In this specific shot, the kids are trying to unload the typewriting on an individual who will pawn it for them for the cash. They are trying to act inconspicuous because this is obviously against the law.  This shot allows the viewer to be a vouyerer into the underground world of black market typewriters.  As a viewer, it seems like you are getting away with something taboo and this is a perfect sentiment to depict in this exact moment in the film. 

 

 

Some Side Notes 

 

The next set of stills are just something I came across that I felt visually explained the constant struggle for Antoine in being the adult versus the child.

 

 

In this shot, Antoine is trying to return the typewriter he stole form his father's office.  He is caught by the night watchman.  What I find really striking is that Antoine looks like the typical "tough guy" you see adult actors playing.  I immediately thought of Humphrey Bogart in all his tough guy roles.  Compared to most male leads, Bogart was on the shorter end on the height spectrum.  He entered the Navy in 1918 at the age of 18 and was listed as 5'7 & 1/2. 

 

 (Humphrey Bogart - 1942)

 

Edward G Robinson was constantly casted as the though gangster guy and he measured in at 5'5.

 

 (Edward G Robinson - Mid-Late 1930's)

 

 

 James Cagney is another cinematic tough guy who was also only 5'5.

 

 (James Cagney - 1931)

 

 Take a close look at these "tough guys" and a close look at Antoine.  This image of Antoine in the fedora is in my opinion, the directors attempt to show Antoine as the "tough guy, gangster, bad guy" adult that people were so used to seeing in American movies.  The way Antoine's hat is tilted is very similar to how all the "tough guys" wore their hats in the American films.  The look in Antoine's eye is also similar.  He is very much being depicted as the adult in this still. 

 

Now take a look at this picture.

 

 

 This is still our same Antoine who just above was looking like the tough guy adult.  here we see him not too long afterwards and even in the same hat and clothes he looks completely different.  He looks young, innocent, vulnerable and looking as if he just wants direction and love and affection.  It is as if Truffaut was explaining that in his own childhood, no matter the image he was portraying he was just a young kid, looking for love and affection. This for me was truly the point were Truffaut used the camera to express a very personal and vulnerable side of himself and his own childhood. 

 

I just loved this movie.  It was visually stunning and a bit heartbreaking. 



 



400 Blows - Art Imitates Life

Antoine is the main character in the film.  He is a young man boy roughly the age of 13.  Hus reality is that the people who should be caring for him, his mother and step-father (the only real father he has ever known), are more childish then responsible parents.  For example, we see Antoine come home from school.  He is a latchkey kid so he gets things ready for when his parents come home from their jobs.  He puts coal in the heater and sets the table for dinner.  Then he sits down to start on his homework.  Only a few minutes after starting his homework his mother comes home.  She shows no affection towards her son, but insteads ask him if he picked up the flour she asked him to get.  When Antoine says no, the mother is annoyed and asks why and where was the list she gave him.  He gives a rather typical kid response saying he lost it.  So she sends him on his way to the store to get some.  On his way back, he meets up with his father.  He is carrying a spot light.  he picked it up second hand and is going to use it for the auto club he belongs too.  It is as if the parents are the children.  They care more about their extracurricular activities like the dads auto club and the mothers affair then the child.  The mother "works late" instead of being home to help her child with his homework or have dinner ready and the father is out spending money if frivolous things like spot lights.  The money could be used to afford a bigger place so Antoine didn't have to sleep in the hall way. 

I am a stickler for black and white films.  For me, the use of contrast, highlights, lowlights, and shadow evokes feelings in a way that is very rarely achieved in color films. This was evident all through out Francois Truffaut's movie, 400 blows. 

The contrast between black and white can almost be exclusively related to the contrast of good and evil.  This is evident in both balk and white films and color.  The bad guy in the western movies always wore the black hat, the good guy wore white.  In Star Wars both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine wore black while Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker wore white.   

There are scenes in the movie that are specific to this contrast.  One example is that there is a shift between Antoine wearing a black sweater versus a white one.  In the beginning Antoine is wearing a black sweater and we see him get caught in class passing around a pin up.  The teacher punishes him by standing in the corner and when all the other kids go out to recess, he has to stay back.  During this time he partakes in some deviant behavior and writes some nonsensical verse on the wall.  This upsets the teacher even more so he gives Antoine even more homework. 

Antoine never gets around to finishing his homework.  The next day he and his friend skip school.  He needs an excuse in order to be allowed back in to class the following day.  When the teacher confronts him about why he was not in school Antoine states his mother died.  The teacher is shocked and gives him a pass. A classmates rats Antoine out to his parents and they show up in class to see if he is still there.  His father slaps him in front of his classmates.  After class Antoine tells his friend that he no longer feels he can live at home.  He decides to run away.  His friend sets him up in his uncles printing press and gives him some clothes.  This is where we see Antoine for the first time put on a white sweater.  It is as if he has a guilty conscience for what he has done and the white represents that innocence and guilt. 

Antoine jacket is a mix of dark gray and lighter gray.  This seems to represent the struggle that Antoine faces; he can be good and lack any attention or affection from his parents, or, he can be bad and at least get some sort off acknowledgement, even if it is negative like a beating it is something.

Another point in the movie where the contrast of light and dark happens not short after this shot.  People arrive at the printing press so Antoine leaves out in the night out of fear of being caught.  He is walking around trying to keep warm.  He comes across the milk delivery guy.  he delivers three cases of milk to a business.  Antoine steals a bottle.  He runs into a dark alley and hides out in a corner.  He pulls the milk out of his jacket.  The milk is extremely white against his jacket.  For me, milk is the first thing we get from out mothers.  When a mother feeds her baby, be it from the breast or the bottle, it is supposed to be a very intense bonding moment between mother and child.  This bond appears to be missing for Antoine.  The only time you really see his mother take interest is when he catches her kissing another man while he was skipping school.  This is the happiest you see Antoine.  When his mother talks to him and opens up a little bit about herself, and later, when they all go to the movie as a family. 

The theme of innocence was very prevalent for me all through out the movie.  This is largely due to the fact that there is a theme of lost innocence with the role reversal that takes place between Antoine's parents and himself.  It kind of made me sad to think that at such a young age that his one true time of feeling free, alive, with a world of possibilities laid before him was when he escaped the juvenile home and ended up at the ocean.  Only then did it seem that he was free to be who he wanted to be.  Sad to realize it took him being completely alone and vulnerable at such a young age to come to an understanding that this could be a fresh starting point for him to re-establish himself. 

My First Foreign Film

I met my husband in 1998.  We were both art students are UW Milwaukee.  His interest was film.  For me, my interest was photography. 

When it came to movies we had similar likes and dislikes.  He developed his love for the classic films by watching them with his mother.  For me, I watched classic movies out of boredom and necessity.  We did not have cable so often times I would be stuck watching PBS and on the weekends they played a lot of classic movies.  My dad would be grilling outside and ask me to cook some stuff in the kitchen.  While doing this I would have the TV on and these old time movies would play.  My dad would come in and take a peek and start telling me about his memories about seeing whatever movie was playing.  My love for the classics didn't really come to fruition until I met my husband. 

About three months into our relationship the movie Run Lola Run came out.  It was a foreign film and it was playing at the Oriental.  I was not really a fan of foreign films and I did not dislike them.  I just was not a fan of going to movie theaters so I was not enthusiastic about going to one to see this film.  We went.  I fell in love. 

I feel this is the perfect film to introduce people to foreign films.  I hear a lot about how people do not like to have to read the subtitles because they fear they are missing out of the visual aspect of the film.  I was kind of the same way.  The great thing about this film, is as the title suggest, Lola is running.  She is doing a lot of it.  I mean A LOT!  So there is not a whole lot of dialogue happening.  There are sections, but it is broken up nicely so one does not feel like they are constantly reading and not watching. 

The plot for the movie is that Lola gets a call from her boyfriend Manni.    He lost $100,000 Deutschmarks, which in 1999, came out to be around 50K in US money on a subway.  The money belongs to a very mean, very bad, criminal.  He is set to meet this guy in 20 minutes to give him his money.  If he doesn’t have it, very bad things will happen to him.  Manni has reached out to his girlfriend to help.  If together they can not figure out a way to get the money, Manni will rob a store.  There are three very different ways this situation can turn out and it all depends on some minor event that takes place while Lola is running to figure something out. 

I really do love this movie.  If you are someone who has not really watched many foreign films because you are not a fan of subtitles, I highly suggest giving this movie a chance.  It is a good warm up to getting used to subtitles.  Be warned, you might become addicted to foreign films.