Swades: We the People

Swades: We the People is a Bollywood film about a young Indian man named Mohan who lives and works for NASA in the United States. On the anniversary of the death of his parents, Mohan’s sadness invokes guilt for not taking care of the next closest person to him, his childhood caretaker Kaveriamma, who resides in India. Mohan decided to go to India and bring back Kaveriamma. His quest to bring back his other mother brought him to a village where the quality and ways of life changed the way he perceived his homeland and at the same time find love, which caused him to want to make a difference in the village.

Some of the cultures and customs in Swades are typical of not just India but many Asian countries. The young, independent minded Gita who Mohan fell in love with was being set up for marriage. Arrange marriage has been part of many Asian cultures such as China, and Swades shows that it still exists. Gita had turned down the marriage proposal, because her husband and his family expected her to stop teaching and be a house wife after marriage. Though many Asian cultures are starting to treat women as equal, it is still a common belief that the primary duties of women are in the home.

This film is not typical of Hollywood films. Besides the obvious that Swades has a lot of traditional music and musical, Swades’ theme is different. In many Hollywood films, the conflict is usually about a good guy who tries to stop the bad guys through physical might. In Swades, the hero was an educated man who engineered a small hydroelectric generator to bring power to the village. This shows that education in India is highly praised.

The film also has a subtle message that Indian living abroad should return to India and contribute to solve India’s social and economically problems. This is evident in the film ending as Mohan struggles to return to the US and stay in India. The final musical claims all who leave the motherland will eventually return.

Combination of an extreme close-up and panning shot to set up an intimate setting.
This was shot in a documentary type style.

In this shot, I experimented with using a dolly to move through a hallway up to a hat that has fallen on the floor. The dolly allows the camera to start at a position where the object is unidentifiable and move in until the hat is seen up close with focus on the cross icon. Also, a ghost trail effect was added to enhance the mystery and create the effect of mystery and suspense. Rollerblades were used as the dolly mechanism.

Over the Shoulder

Point of View

This clip creates a false point of view. The first shot is a close up of Hung's face. You can see that he is looking at something. Then the camera cuts to the window, and the audience assume Hung was looking out the window. Then the camera cuts back to Hung's stare but then tilt to the right, revealing that the whole time, Hung had his back to the window. (LAM DVD - Point of View, Ch. 4; Editing technique: Kuleshov Experiment, Ch. 6)

"Amores Perros" Review

"Amores Perros" is a Mexican film directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and set in Mexico City. Much like the British hit "Snatch" this film follows three seemingly unrelated plot lines that all intersect with an accident at the end of the film.
We first follow Octavio in his struggles to help support his brother’s wife. As he finds out that his dog has a talent for killing he decides to use him to win money dog fighting. We then switch to follow Valeria, a professional model. She falls on hard times when a sudden health problem causes her to leave modeling and stresses her relationship with her lover Daniel. Finally we also see the story of El Chivo. After he leaves his wife and daughter he is forced to live in a shack with his dogs. Like Octavio, El Chivo turns to vice in order to make his living, taking up a job as a hit man. These three stories are seemingly autonomous of each other until a car crash between them causes more problems for them all.
One commonality we see throughout the film however is the presence of dogs. Each character is very affectionate for their dogs, almost as if they were family. It seems as though Inarritu is trying to comment on society. As we see dogs compete in the dog fighting ring, fighting for their lives and honor it reminds us of humans in their constant class struggle to try and rise to the top. Feeling the loyalty to their masters the dogs in ring fight fiercely. Similarly we see humans as well struggling to support their loved ones, sometimes as seen in "Amores Perros" even in despicable ways such as robbing and killing.
"Amores Perros" is especially enjoyable because it contains many global themes. The mise en scene clearly helps describe both a poor, destitute Mexico as well as a decadent, luxurious one. This is a class struggle we are all familiar with in America. As mentioned before the savageness and violence of the dogs seems to comment on the reality of the cold world. Most important however is the theme of love and loss. We see Valeria's relationship disintegrate after a crash takes her leg and her career. Octavio participates in dog fighting to support eloping with his brother's wife but in the end is turned down. El Chico is probably the greatest story of woe. He is haunted because he had to abandon his daughter years earlier. He lives in a shack with a pack of stray dogs which he gives his love and affection to. After he saves Octavio's dog it kills El Chico's stray dog friends causing El Chico further loss. This theme can be traced back to Lord Tennyson who was quoted in the 19th Century saying "tis' better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Even if you agree or not you can certainly appreciate how important the theme of lost love was to people back then, today and will be in the future.

Unspoken Expression (Formalistic Analysis of The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

The Piano (1993), a co-production film from New Zealand, Australia, and France directed by Jane Campion and French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed by Julian Schnabel both take focus on the lives of the main character after an event that has left them unable to speak. However the main characters’ inabilities to speak are presented in a way that does not interfere with their strong ability to communicate. This essay will focus on a few tools the directors use to communicate to an audience the thoughts and feelings of the main characters who are unable to communicate through speech. The main ways the directors accomplish this feat are through the use of establishing a point of view through camera angles, changes in lighting and coloration that correspond to changes in mood, the use of narration to present unspoken thoughts. All of these aspects work in synthesis with one another to deliver a film that expressively communicates the thoughts and emotions of the main character to the audience. The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly may at first appear to have nothing in common; however after assessing how the directors implement filming techniques in both of the movies, similarities and differences emerge in how the directors present the communication boundary between the main character, other characters, and the audience.

Both The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly center on instances that occur in the main characters life and how the character’s inability to speak along with their unique ways of speaking effect the situations the character is facing. Because this is the focus of the films, both directors rely on some narration to present inner thoughts to the audience. This type of narration is evident in the beginning of The Piano as a gentle woman’s voice describes her story. The audience is introduced to Ada McGrath, a mute who has willed herself not to speak after the death of her husband after a lightning strike. Ada’s voice tells the audience, “The voice you hear is not my speaking voice, but my minds voice… The strange thing is, I don’t think of myself as silent. That is because of my piano.” This short narration clip familiarizes the audience with Ada and gives vital information to the viewer such as the relationship between Ada’s inability to speak and her communication through her beloved piano. Narration in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is quite different, however. Instead of being presented with the basis of the story directly through Ada speaking to the audience, the audience is brought into the film as Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French fashion magazine editor who suffers a stroke and suffers from a full body paralysis apart from his left-eyelid, questions where he is, unsure of what is happening and what has happened. Narration is used initially to acquaint the main character with the audience, but as the films progress, narration supplements the storyline by allowing the character to clarify parts of the story and aids in moving the film along. With the help of a speech therapist, Jean-Dominique learns to communicate through blinking his left eye to choose a letter from a list that is being read out, and eventually decides to write a book that he had a contract for before the accident. Jean Dominique voice reads to the viewer the first part of the book, saying, “Through the frayed curtains, a warm glow announces the presence of day…a sort of diving bell holds my body prisoner. My main task now is to compose this sort of bed ridden notes from a cast away on the shores of loneliness…” In both cases, narration is used to supplement the telling of the story, acquainting the audience with background information in the case of The Piano and helping to bring the audience into the shoes of Jean-Dominique in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The second way the films express the feelings of Ada and Jean-Dominique is by establishing a point of view through camera angles. The point of view in The Piano is as if the audience is next to the characters of the film. First we see the character looking through a hole, and next we find ourselves looking through the same hole and seeing what they have seen. Paul Brenner film reviewer of the NY times describes this technique, saying, “Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and spaces between a character’s fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in character’s gazes”. The camera seems to move around the action throughout the film. At one point the viewer is beneath the arriving canoe of Ada and Flora (her daughter who communicates with her mom through sign language) and next he or she is on the shore watching as they are carried by Maori tribes men from the canoe to the beach. The point of view in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is as if you are Jean-Dominique himself. Most of the film is shot in Dutch angles that correspond to Jean-Dominique’s viewpoint (whose head is slouched to one side due to his paralysis). Another NY Times film critique, A. O. Scott, describes the camera directing of Schnabel saying, “And yet he also shows astonishing formal control. The movie begins claustrophobically, as we see the blurry bustle of the hospital room from Jean-Dominique’s hazy, panicked perspective. Faces loom suddenly and awkwardly into view, while his captive consciousness writhes in its cage, trying to make contact with the world outside.” By successfully creating a point of view, the directors engage the audience with the character, helping them experience the troubles and relate themselves to Ada or Jean-Dominique.

Color and Lighting are used in both films to enhance the camera angles. Not only are we shown a scene in a particular viewpoint, but coloration and lighting techniques are employed to enhance our experience. In the Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly color and lighting are used to depict the moods of the main character. Upon arriving to the new land at which her arranged husband lives, Ada and her daughter Flora must spend the night on the beach with her daughter in a makeshift tent. The tent is lit with an orange glow implying warmth which corresponds to the joy Ada and her daughter share together. Later in the film, Ada is seduced and eventually falls in love with another man named Baines. In the scenes dealing with their adultery, backlit lighting penetrates the walls of Baines’ shack and catches the outline of Ada’s hair. Both of these warm environments are contrasted by a chilly blue tint present in the forest scenes (also the place where her husband chops one of her fingers when he finds out she is having relations with Baines). “Stuart Dryburgh’s fine camerawork”, says David Stratton, film critique working with Variety.com, “draws maximum pictorial splendor from the chilly, rain swept settlement in which the reluctant bride finds herself, as well as from bleakly beautiful beach sequences.” The same color patterns are present in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Jean-Dominique’s mood controls the lighting as the audience is presented with a warm orange screen that captures the curtains flowing in the wind, when Jean-Dominique reads the beginning of his book. Colors are natural and bright when he imagines traveling the world or when he relives situations in his past. And the lighting is dim with cold blue colors when he has a dream of a bloody hospital bed which makes him realize he is about to die.

The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly successfully use film techniques to communicate the thoughts and feelings of a mute main character to the audience. By incorporating narration to help tell the story and relay inner thought, using camera angles to establish a point of view, and manipulating lighting conditions to reflect mood, the audience is pulled into the story of Ada McGrath and Jean-Dominique Bauby as they deal with the struggles of life in respects to their struggle with communication.