Uncategorized – For The Love of Películas

The Godfather Part II

The Godfather sequel was originally released December 20th, 1974. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. This film has won about 12 awards. The most recent one being of 2008 for the Satellite Award for Best Classic DVD. The film stars Robert De Niro who plays Vito Corleone and Al Pacino who played Micheal Corleone. The film is 3 hours and 22 minutes, a long film but worth the story.

This film tells the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) taking place in late 1950’s and contrasts it with the young immigrant Vito Corleone in about 1917. The film uses great editing when moving from present and past. One of the scenes I vividly recall a nice fade in while Michael remembers being alone while his family sings happy birthday to Vito and then the fade in of an earlier time when Michael was saying goodbye on a moving train.

Many of the editing is creatively done so to express the difference between the past and the present. Thus demonstrating the differences between the father and the son. Vito did some criminal acts to get his family where they needed to be. However the difference between Michael and Vito is the fact that, Michael surpassed the limits of respect that Vito held for his family.

Michael was known to isolate himself from the rest of his family, he doesn’t care for forgiveness. As for his father, who did everything to build a life for his family. The father tried to do all he could to keep his family out of harm’s way, he wouldn’t harm his own. That’s the major difference between the father and the son.

I really enjoyed the way the film was edited to represent the past and the present. It encouraged me to watch the other films. I also noticed a new film that was recently released on netflix called the The Irishmen that also stars Robert De Niro and Al pacino. The film seems similar to the style of the Godfather films.

Love is a Story

Love Is a Story, A film released in November of 2015 directed by Christina Jacob is a romantic comedy based in Romania. The romanian film is about an actress who is dating a powerful director that can easily make or break an actresses role of success. The director lives an unhappy life and fakes this successful relationship with the actress to impress his judgemental mother. One day the actress goes through the city on her way to a rehearsal around Christmas time when she is lured towards some street performers playing beautiful christmas music with their violins. The male protagonist male Sebastian immediately lays eyes on the beautiful girl, which represents his love at first sight. The rest of the film revolves around the hardships of their relationship, the director ruined Aprilla’s, the actress’ chance of being casted in any film in her city out of hatred. Sebastian was a semi successful violinist who was playing in concertos when his world was eventually turned upside down when he stepped away from his music building his relationship with Aprilla and trying to support her to get back on her feet.

Since the film revolves around music and acting there are some very beautiful ways that rhythm are incorporated in the film. They create a rhythm of the couples relationship, their failures and successes, and coordinate music that represents important scenes in the film. I believe that the film uses a lot of

Fidelity is strong in this film, it weaves in flashbacks of Sebastian’s concertos during times of success. You hear the soft start of the music, but then you see the violin being played passionately, thus making the sound true to the source. I’ve never seen a film that uses such an interesting mixture of diegetic or nondiegetic sound within the film. Sometimes you believe it’s a coming of a memory of the violinist or it’s other music to enhance certain scenes.

Since this film has a musical aspect, the off screen score also helps build a dynamic relationship for the couple, along with intensifying the climax of the film. The magical thing about this film’s music is that it also manipulates the audience’s feelings at certain scenes. It promotes a light heartedness, or sorrow feelings as the couple goes through it’s ups and downs.

If you’re a fan of romantic films, I would definitely recommend this film for the simple fact that it really shows a lot of selflessness within their relationship. With this film being a romanian film it brought a unique perspective into my idea of relationships. It showed a selfish relationship, in which Aprilla and her director tried to impress the powerful man’s mother, and then love at first sight, where the couple was constantly doing selfless things for one another, no matter if it burdened them in some way. Financial struggles, or simply helping one out of depression.

I would also recommend this film to an individual who has taste for violin pieces, because there are many within the film. Though the film really focuses on the couples struggles to make it through hard times together, there are actually some small parts that are pretty funny and kind of unexpected in a sense. I definitely enjoyed this film, and watched it twice. I watched it once by myself, and realized it had a really good love story in which I invited my fiance to watch the film with me.

Labyrinth

Labyrinth is a unique film that was released in 1986, starting David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, a fantasy that meets adventure. This film was written by Dennis Lee and also written and directed by Jim Henson. A man known for his puppeteer work. The mise-en-scene had a powerful impact on the films success. From the goblin king’s unique, along with his hair and makeup.

There were many scenes in which the staging is so magical. Though today, the scenes may seem dramatic and even be considered gaudy. However in the late 80’s I would bet that the puppeteer work was ahead of its time. The goblins providing so much life in musical scenes. There are scenes with deserts, caves, mazes, of course the labyrinth, and the BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH

Image result for picture of the bog of eternal stench

Labyrinth is one of my all time favorite films. I could probably recite the movie word for word! There are so many scenes that grasp the viewer’s attention. One of the most memorable lighting scenes consist of the “helping hands”.

Without the amazing makeup of this film, it wouldn’t be nearly as magical to the viewer. I remember watching this film in my early years, singing along to the catch tunes that Bowie sings. The film score does an amazing job building up anticipation, through the adventure. The makeup and costume of each character seriously differ to exaggerate the innocence and the dark and mysterious life of Gereth, the goblin king. Sarah, the protagonist, loses her brother accidentally by praying for the goblin king and his goblins to take the babe far away from her during a rough babysitting session. Sarah goes through great lengths to get back the baby brother from the labyrinth. Along the way, the girl meets several sidekicks that help her overcome the dangerous and challenging paths of the king’s labyrinth.

The film uses props strongly, Jereth uses his crystal; balls to watch over the young girl whos trying to find her way to the castle in the time limit she’s facing. Those crystals also have other uses throughout the movie, not only to the crystals provide the goblin king with an eye, but they also create images, and can become food.

Another important prop within the movie is the book that Sarah is reading in a courtyard, foreshadowing the very line that helps the girl defeat the goblin king. Other props have a special meaning within the movie, Sarah’s sidekicks that support her through the difficult journey seemed familiar because they were literally a part of the girls bedroom. Stuffed animals that become magical beings that arrive at a time of need.

Sarah’s room props reflect a majority of the movie, she has a posters, a game called labyrinth, and also a musical figurine that reflects a masquerade scene in the film. The director put much thought into the details of the film. Some of the most important characters were previewed as little as a paper weight. All in all I believe that Jim Henson puts much thought into his film and makes a great example of what mise-en-scene is from a creative fantasy standpoint.

Memento

This movie starts interestingly with the key object that helps the main Character through his daily struggles of short-term memory loss. The victim’s memory only lasts about 15 minutes before he loses track and refocuses on his motives.

This movie is like a mixture of Peter Segal’s 50 First dates and Showtime’s television series Dexter in one film. It’s got the love story in which people wish that Leonard finds what he is looking for completing the world of loops of 15 minute memory sequences. The protagonist is determined to get revenge on the person that did a terrible act of raping and killing his wife, a similarity to the series Dexter, a good man gone bad for the lust of revenge. Different backgrounds, but both get the sense that their killing is somehow “justified”.

Flash-backs happen, I’m starting to get on the fence. Is Leonard being helped or is he really being set up?

The editing within the movie represents the bits and pieces of memories that Jimmy the protagonist desperately wants to remember. The film is written in a sequence in which it’s creative and holds your attention. For example if the Film was represented in numbers I would almost say that it was written in a 4-3-4-2-1 representing the loops of memory loss that Leonard constantly deals with.

Shots that were filmed and edited to represent how Leonard is reminded of his experiences. Some shots introducing to a scene shows the protagonist flipping through the candid and still picture shots to help recall events. Tattoos seemed to be a representation of Leonard deep down knowing the truth about the tragedy of his wife’s death, the placement of the tattoos was a key to my understanding.

As the movie progressed you could begin to understand that the story is told backwards in a sense. Scenarios are playing out, you can see that the opening credits and opening scene create a plant and payoff moment. If somebody isn’t watching the film close enough, they might be a little confused. This type of introduction to a movies was different to me, I had to rewatch the first 5 minutes again just to better my understanding of the film.

At first, and then I made the connection throughout the rest of the movie. After watching the film, I feel like I would see characters intentions and acts so differently.

Overall to summarize this all up, I would definitely watch this movie again with confidence that I would see something or look at a scenario a different way that It would probably make the movie just as interesting as the first time I viewed it. It’s kind of like inception being interesting how this is a Director’s representation of what short term memory loss could be like, and represent what it might feel like in some instances. For example, habit works well with humans, but thinking back to the film 50 First Dates when Henry comes into the picture, there were several attempts at wooing Lucy and eventually the dating began, there were moments in which Lucy would become aggravated with her accident and long-term effects and with her memory loss. Mistrust occurs out of the frustration of lack of memory and building a new life that changes habit, the question occurs to the victim is this my doing or is somebody else building this life for me which also occurred in Memento.

My First Blog Post!

Who and What

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
p.s this fits, so I’m just going to keep it.

Kyla’s the name and fun is my game. I tend to take everything seriously, but when I find things I love I prefer to enjoy them and discuss why I love them or what made them so impactful to me. I also like to discuss why things can be so impactful for other people. Life’s too short, being a student and a mom can add additional stressors to those working hard for their free time. The secret to not feeling so busy? Schedule time for yourself!

Hey there,

My name is Kyla!

Here’s a little more about me:

I’m a Student of St. Ambrose University, have a love for movies along with many other things such as books, music, and education. I want to discuss the note worthy points to me, and want to hear other interesting points that I may have not considered.

For the Love of Películas ‘movies’ is my blog that discusses my thoughts, interpretations and also questions of movies that I watch.

I am working on my BSW at St. Ambrose. I have passion for being a mother, a student and watching film.

I love a variety of different movies. Some of my favorites would be Freedom Writers, The Notebook, and la Misma Luna/ Under the Same Moon
I have also taken 4 years of Spanish, along with continuing my own studies in Spanish as a hobby. I have developed a deep appreciation of foreign films, they help me better my skills in learning another language and also provides me a pleasure of watching beautiful stories be told.