video clips

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IDENTITY

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ivwl_ddlj-part1_fun

Bollywood Influences apparent in Chadha’s EuroCinema

Bollywood. Hollywood. Eurowood? Gurinder Chadha acclaimed director found a way to insert herself into all three major industries. While understated, it is evident that in every project she does, her Indian roots are visible.
Even though she was born in Nairobi, Kenya, her family emigrated to Southall, England when she was two years old. Southhall, primarily a South Asian residential district, and is colloquially known as "Little India.” By growing up in Little India, where the population is over 60% Indian or Pakistani, and home to over 10 Gurduwaras, Sikh places of worship, it is truly the cross-cultural home of Indian and European relations.
Chadha has had several forays into the European cinema and Hollywood, yet she always picks British cinema over American when she has the choice.
With the newest fusion of Hollywood, EuroCinema and Bollywood, this trend will continue until it will difficult to tell which production continent a film came from.
Derek Bose, author of Brand Bollywood: A new global entertainment order, “Giant Hollywood production houses and studios like Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fox and Universal Pictures are setting up shop in Mumbai. Already, India has become an international hub for animation and special effects. Much as the Gurinder Chadha’s (Bride and Prejudice) and the Deepa Mehta’s (Water) make films ‘with an Indian soul in a foreign body,’ the anxiety to reach out to a global audience at all levels cannot be overlooked. “
An Indian soul in a foreign body is the best way to describe the work that Chadha does. Her tribute to Bollywood in the short Quais de Seine in Paris Je T’aime, is wonderfully done yet before we can discuss her tribute, I have to outline a few of the genre conventions of Bollywood.
Bollywood films are mostly musicals, and are expected to contain catchy music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers.
Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, (literally, "money's worth"). Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are all mixed up in a three-hour-long extravaganza with an intermission.
Bollywood plots tend to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
Several of these conventions can be seen in Quais de Seine. The scene starts out with what appears to be a gang of hooligans hitting on women. They are immediately denoted the “bad boys.” True to Indian cinema, one of them turns out to be good, and was just hanging out with the wrong crowd. We then see a young Muslim girl, quietly laughing at the boys.
When she falls, the wind is blowing, which is huge in Bollywood cinema. Whenever wind blows, it is an indication of love or the heart changing on a major topic. In Mohobbatein, the 2001 film, directed by powerhouse director, Aditya Chopra, wind is used as a symbol for romance. Whenever any character is falling in love, there is a huge gust of wind.
After she falls, the young Frenchman is helping her out, and asks her why she wears a hijab, the traditional hairpiece for Muslim women, she responds by saying, “When I wear the hijab, I feel like I have a faith, an identity. “
This quest for identity, is something that Chadha explores in all her movies. Bend it like Beckham has a traditional Punjabi family living in London, always trying to find their identity. It is similar to Salut Cousin! When Alilo visits Mok’s family. They have a vision of an idealized version of Algeria.
This is what Jigna Desai, author of Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film, calls “Homesickness and Motion Sickness: Embodied Migratory Subjectivities. ’
She notes that Chadha has taken several cues from Bollywood in all of her movies. One of the most popular films of the nineties Bollywood cinema was the 1995 film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, also directed by Aditya Chopra. In this movie, a first generation Indian moves to London to seek a better life for his family, but he always envisions India, specifically his home state of Punjab to be something incredible, something better.
Desai writes, “Although nostalgia is pondered as a universal experience, that is, a structured feeling that is naturalized so that any subject’s experience of displacement from a past time and place is categorized as the condition of nostalgia, we may seek to differentiate between different productions of nostalgia, such as the patriarchal deterritorialized nation nostalgia of DDLJ.”
The young woman does that in Quais de Seine, she is seeking her identity in a foreign land.
After she gets up and walks away, all he has left is a picture of her, so he goes on a quest looking for her. This journey of a boy looking for a girl that he knows very little about is typical bollywood. While in Bollywood it is overstated and turned into a large musical production, the concept is still the same. This can be seen in Aziz Mirza’s 2003 film, Chalte Chalte. In this movie, the protagonist, Raj spots Priya and they have a brief meeting, from then on he is smitten and must find her immediately.
Finally, he goes to the mosque and waits for her there. In Bollywood, many romances have their turning point at places of worship. In the 2008 blockbuster, Rab ne Bana di Jodi, directed by Aditya Chopra as well, the main character realizes that she is in love while she is at the Gurudwara, a sikh place of worship.
The whole scene is very Bollywood until the very end when the grandfather invites Francois to walk with him and Zarka. In traditional Bollywood cinema, Francois would get harsh looks and cold stares for even touching Zarka but Chadha focuses on the humanity, which is a nice departure from traditionalism.
Overall, Chadha uses all sorts of elements from Bollywood, but they are simply muted and subtle. Through this connection between EuroCinema and Bollywood she is able to make a product that really does feature the best qualities from both worlds.

Bend it like Beckham clip for final

· plane leaving shows departure from english culture, flying away from the house

· from the bottom showing that we have no control over what happens

· all diagetic sounds

· when praying for the results, being filmed from above. from god's perspective, shows religiousness of family

· colors are significant

· dad- black and white- cannot see past wrong and right

· mother- english style robe over traditional indian clothes, shows her english exterior but is indian on the inside

· jess: wearing purple, ambigious color, not sure where she lies yet between english and indian

· placement of the family, centered- awkward for the viewer because people are usually placed on the corners of the screen

· everything is very gaudy and printed so the solid characters really stand out

· the shot is also very angular, showing us the stress of the situation

· when the mother hands jess the envelope, chaddha the director is acknowldging that the result of her exam scores is in jess's power not gods, because we see a point of view shot on the regular level

· you can still see guru nanak overseeing all of it, and it shows that religion plays a huge role int he family

· they value it more than anything else

· all internal diagetic sounds until

· angle returns to up when the results are good

· song begins. dream the dream.

· punjabi blended with english music

· while she is hanging colors, shows all the options in her future that her parents have offered, but they are all different versions of the same thing, everything is so bright and colorful, and when she sees the soccer bal it is the only thing that makes sense

· the way the camera is shot makes it look like purgatory, seeing heaven and hell

· the two empty chairs are symbolic of her mother and father who are still watching her so she is hesitant to make the shot

· her dark solid colors are in complete contrast to the setting and match the soccer ball

· the whole time she is toying around with the ball, "the chairs are watching her" the music is also loudly remixed between the english and the punjabi

· where there are no clothes represents the only part of her future that his uncertain and through that hole she kicks the soccer ball away, and picks up the clothes basket therefore signifying she has chosen the family, the indianness, to give up soccer

· from now on jess only wears color, true turning point

The Girl in the Cafe

The Girl in the Café, the 2005 HBO film, was not at all conventional to its movie genre. What began as a May-December romantic comedy quickly evolved into a social change film with a much bigger message than age difference is allowed in romance. Through strong characterization, director David Yates, paints vivid pictures of Lawrence, a lonely civil servant who falls for a mysterious young woman in a London coffee shop near his office. The film tries to humanize a vast, complex problem, not through the African victims, but through pampered Western protagonists who lack the courage of their convictions. That approach is not consistent with the structure of the film. Nighy was perfect as the suit-donning Lawrence. His awesome conviction of character is what made the viewer okay with the unexpected turn from romance to the demand for social change. While this is unconventional for it’s genre, as IMDB.com dubs it romance, it is in no way a social chage film like Do the Right Thing, by Spike Lee, but still does not fail to inspire. Everything in the film, was well done save music and camera angles. The music was uncomfortable and too stereotypical. The loud rock was inappropriate while Lawrence was boarding the plane and the awkward country bluegrass was out of place at the Swedish hotel. Also during the conversation with the chancellor and Gina during cocktail hour at the G8 summit, the camera kept circling, similar to the pot-smoking circle made famous by that 70’s show. It was nauseating and it made the viewer dizzy. Besides that, the movie was sweet and enjoyable but if Bill Nighy that were not in the movie it would not be anything special.

Journal- May 27th

Irony in Salut Cousin! is very apparent. Mok ends up getting deported and Alilo stays in France. The irony of immigration: difficulty to assimilate, idealize homeland (like Mok's family watched only Algerian television) What does it mean to be an immigrant? Mok has constructed an identity for his family, but in the end he decieved us with the sterotypes. By telling the audience about his "hard-knock" life, he hopes to gain street cred for his rap career but really he is caught up in this cross-cultural exchange.
It was unexpected to see a Maghrebi and African cross-cultural exchange, when we were expecting the connection to be between French and Maghrebi. Everyone in the class agreed that it was messy, but that the point of the movie was respectable. Immigration is a serious topic but the film did not really properly address the harsh realities. By mixing genres, it failed to answer any questions and provided very few laughs.

Salut Cousin!

Salut Cousin, directed by Merzac Allouache, was not at all "delightfully zany" as Stephen Holden suggested to us in his 1995 New York Times Review. The movie was excruciating to get through and almost painful to watch as nothing happened. If a mood had to be assigned it would have to be something like stereotypical Parisian pop culture of the mid-90's, nothing else. The storyline was scattered and underdeveloped. What Holden describes as " the City of Light as an invitingly giddy multicultural swirl," is what he perceives the unfocused goal of the director. The one promising storyline, the romance between Alilo and the Fatoumata, a young black woman from Mok's neighborhood, is disappointing. The relationship which began of longing glances exchanged from apartment windows failed to develop into a more substantial relationship. This outdated film lacks charm and substance. The combination of whimsical plus reality did not work, as proven by the flying motorcycle scene, which made absolutely no sense at all. The sex cafe, was supposed to be a comic relief, but instead was awkward and unnecessary. There was no back story as to why he was there, because the audience was not given any context as to why he was actually there. When he began to imagine Fatoumata, it gave us the viewer very little insight to his character. All the characters were underdeveloped, and no emotional connection was established. The audience was familiar with Mok and Alilo's personality, yet could feel no empathy for them. Overall this movie was sloppy, unfocused, and slow, and definitely not a must-see.

Journal- May 26th

There is no concrete definition or one paragon European identity, but through the films this session, certain qualities of the identity can be established. They are impossible to pinpoint as one. An awareness of cultural history or one's "Europeanness" is the first commonality that is apparent in most of the protagonists. European Identity is also based off of a community rather than developed individually. Groups grow and regress together, like in Goodbye Lenin!, Alex was unable to grow with the group and it caused his own personal regression.
Yet film is an appropriate method to deliver this anomaly. Film is able to show the viewer the conflict between history and one's self. In Amelie, by using a combination of still photographs, motion picture in the present, flashbacks, and music, a certain mood and tone is conveyed. Furthermore, the European background is enhanced through film, one can see the architecture and weather and helps develop the mood. In the lives of others, the whole movie was dark with mostly gray and blue, it helped develop the somber seriousness of the film.

Les Poupee Russes

Russian Dolls, Cedric Klapisch’s 2005 follow up to L’Auberge Espagnole is enjoyable to watch but does not necessarily hit home as hard as the original. While seeing L’Auberge was not a required pre-requisite to Russian Dolls, it was certainly helpful. “If "L'Auberge Espagnole" was an idealized version of a universal experience (college, finding oneself, etc.) that almost anyone can relate to, "Russian Dolls" captures the equally recognizable wall you hit later. When we left off “Xavier was a shy French economics major pining for his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) back home, but excited about his new life and friends. By the end, he was a young man who knew what he wanted — to be a writer.” In the Russian Dolls, we meet Xavier who is now in his early 30’s, and is back in Paris, writing pointless articles, bad TV movies and memoirs for illiterate celebrities. His love life is floundering too. While the experiences are recognizable the movie lacks the focus of the original. St. Petersburg wasn’t nearly as enticing as Barcelona and Xavier’s indecisiveness became frustrating rather than endearing. As in "L'Auberge Espagnole," Klapisch gets his money's worth from his editing software, using split screens and other effects to conjure the stop, start, rewind feeling of writing. Xavier begins the story at the end. The movie was far too self-involved to convey any sort of grandiose message or relay any themes. As L’auberge espagnole was almost a public service announcement for globalization, Les Poupee Russes, or the Russian Dolls almost picked cities at random that provided very little help to the film. Rather than acting as characters that propelled the story forward, the cities almost worked against the film making it more boring than it needed to be. Overall the movie was decent, yet not better than its original version.

Amelie

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain better known as Amelie is a wonderful whimsical tale. Roger Ebert nailed it when he said, “You see it, and later when you think about it, you smile.” Watching Amelie can be compared to spending the day at your favorite most wonderful park, things that you’ve seen before but learning something new while doing it. “There was a scandale when "Amelie" was not chosen for the Official Selection. "Not serious," sniffed the Very Serious authorities who decide these matters,” at Cannes but in its non seriousness, a very serious message is sent: Make people happy, and you will find happiness for yourself. This movie, provides an immediate satisfaction with a film that is all goodness and cheer--sassy, bright and whimsical, filmed with dazzling virtuosity, and set in Paris, the city we love when it sizzles and when it drizzles” Paris itself is a crucial character, helping Amelie locate the man who lost his childhood dreams. Audrey Tatou is stunning as the protagonist and title character of the film, it is often difficult to find a character who can truly deliver a whimsical and comedic role without impersonating it but Jean- Pierre Jeunet mastered the art of the feel-good film, it fulfilled all movie expectations and it is always a pleasure to watch. What the film lacks in “seriousness” it makes up for in charm, mood, and an overall magical quality that is not quite tangible but very noticeable. By watching this film, the viewer remembers what is good, and what is happy, and to me that is a wonderful thing.

Hable con ella

Speak to her, hable con ella, directed by Pedro Almodovar, is stuck somewhere between a classic and an alternative form of cinema. The narrative in Talk to Her was built around characters with definite traits who wanted to achieve specific goals: Benigno wanted to be with Alicia, Marco wanted Lydia to get better, and each character wanted something. By altering Benigno’s mental state, Almodovar strays from the traditional form of cinema where each character usually acts in a logical way. The clash of these characters contrasting traits and conflicting goals propel the story forward, as was the case with Benigno and Marco. But there was not always a step-by-step process of cause and effect. We learned of Alicia’s pregnancy before the cause was determined, yet the plot was still propelled forward. The scenes hooked into each other fairly well minus excluding the flashbacks between Marco and Lydia and also the back story between Benigno and Alicia. They all made sense, even the silent film, even though it wasn’t an obvious part of the featured story, it played a crucial role in understanding Benigno’s complexity. In classical film, the sounds contribute the tempo and the mood of a scene. By using the Portuguese song, Por toda a minha vida, which translates into by all into my life, the message is sent that life is transitive. Also by using a Portuguese song, Almodovar sends the message that one needs to be on the outside to know what is actually happening, it’s evident that Almodovar took a page from Hitchcock in believing that mystery can serve as merely a pretext for intriguing audience. The mystery of Alicia’s pregnancy was only the surface layer of the outcome of Benigno’s fate. The film followed a fairly conventional pattern: an untraditional search, unfulfilled romances, and followed by a journey resulting from awkward romances. While Almodovar uses all the aspects that compose a classical film, they are intermixed in a way that the classical form is unrecognizable. The strict time scheme is also toyed with by using the flashbacks. There was a strong emotional feel because of the several point of view shots that showed subjectivity and were also continuous with sounds and images to get the viewer more invested. Although technically Hable Con Ella qualifies as a classical film, it in no way was traditional.

Nine Eleven Film: preservation of memory

Alain Brigand's 11'09''01 is a melange of 11 short films connected by a single event: the attacks on the twin towers on September 11th. By inviting directors from around the world, Brigand shows the global filmic response to the tragedy. The only artistic restriction was that each individual film must last precisely 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame. The resulting collaboration offers some diverse geographical, cultural, and artistic perspectives on those tragic events. But it benefits from prior knowledge, on the part of the viewer, towards the previous work of the various contributors.
The major factor of connectivity is the media, through different forms (tv, radio) each protagonist reacts to the terrorist act differently. For example, in the Persian segment, the children were not able to understand the gravity of the situation because they had not seen it happen. But it is also important to note that through the dominance of media, 9/11 became a "monologue instead of a dialogue" as filmmaker Samira Makhmalba noted. She also said that the image of 9/11 would not have been as real if listened to on the radio. Yet in the Bosnian segment by directorDanis Tanoic, the radio is used to notify people.
Each film has a specific message. While Tanoic focuses on the "forgetfulness of people," Samira Makhmalba chose to target the vast difference between those in poverty and those who are affluent.
While the film was composed of eleven separate shorts, there was one consistency: the whole world responded to the events on September 11th. Whether it was someone hunting for Osama bin Laden or someone finally coping with the loss of their wife, everyone was affected.
The film intended to be watched in one block of time can be better appreciates in segments. Watching eleven clips, eleven minutes long all about September 11h is emotionally draining. Ny watching each short individually, one can take the time to process feelings before moving on to the next short.

L'auberge espagnole

L'auberge espagnole, the 2002 film directed by Cedric Klapisch, fulfilled all implications of its genre: comedy and romance. New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott described it best, as he coined the film as a " a season of ''The Real World Catalonia'' telescoped into two hours." While I agree with Scott that at times the film "is a bit shapeless," I hardly believe that it is "sloppy" and as for the "extraneous fantasy sequences and voice-overs," I think they are not extraneous and are part of the essence of the films identity.

When Scott deemed the film as an MTV series, he didn't mention the depth that Klapisch was able to deliver. The characterization is strong and is the most inviting aspect of the whole film. While the protagonist is not entirely likable, he is someone that everyone can relate to in some way. The plot was not only logistical but it was enjoyable. It was a well-done comedy , light yet more substantial then it appeared at first sight.