Quick Update: Phenomenology

I'm still just trudging along through my paper. It's pretty slow going as of right now because it's actually a lot more work than I thought it would be. I have so much notes and it's hard to sift through all of them for quality material. When I went to Dr. Morris last Friday he told me about a certain approach to my paper that I think I'll definitely be using from here on out though. The strategy he recommended I look into was called a phenomenological analysis. Rather than writing a formulaic and basic essay where I touch on each director, with a phenomenological approach I'll be able to have my paper sound more like a casual conversation. And if I were someone reading something like my paper, I'd much rather have it sound like a casual conversation instead of a blasting of facts and theories to my brain. Below is a picture of Edmund Husserl, the founding father of phenomenology.

Phase 2

It's been a while since my last blog post but I've still been working on my project. I'm in the sortof, phase 2/ final phase of the project. I haven't watched every movie I wanted to take notes on but I feel like I've seen enough from each director to have a competent and educated idea on what each of their styles are. The last film I watched was Tarantino's Death Proof, and that was last weekend. I will still probably watch a few more movies before the whole thing is over, but for the most part, I'm completely done with that. I'm now in the creation phase of the project. I have all the information I need, in the form of unorganized notes, now it all just needs to be turned into something. I've been reading through the material that Dr. Morris gave me and it's giving me a good idea on how to structure my paper. This week I'm going to try and work out a sample page so that way I can see how I want to write my entire paper. I'm also going to be looking for people to give me feedback on the sample sheet so that I know if there's a better way to structure it. From here on out it's probably not going to be very exciting in terms of the progress that I make, but if anything does happen, I'll be sure to make a blog post about it.

Spring Break

Well Spring Break has been my most productive week by far since we started this project. Listing all the movies I watched would just be redundant, but off the top of my head I think it was around 10 movies. Some of the highlights were Vertigo, Psycho, Inglorious Basterds, The Prestige, and Nolan's Batman trilogy. In addition to those I also watched The Grand Budapest Hotel, Rushmore, and American Psycho. These 3 movies aren't necessarily useful for my project but I could probably refer to them if need be in my paper. I'm still on schedule to finish these movies by May 1st.

James Stewart-A-Thon

It was a genuine coincidence but the last four movies I've watched have all had James Stewart as the leading role in them. I'm on a sort of Hitchcock kick right now that started when I watched Rope last weekend. Stewart played the cynical and sarcastic professor, Rupert Cadell in the film, which before this weekend, was also the only role I've ever known him as.  Dr. Morris told me to watch Vertigo before we met up again and that just so happened to have James Stewart as the lead in it as well. I'm not sure if I like Vertigo as much as Rope but both are truly amazing films. Yesterday, I gave my Dad the option of choosing the next movie to watch, and he randomly chose The Man Who Knew Too Much which also happened to have good ole Jimmy Stewart as the leading man. By this point I was already amazed that the last 3 movies I watched all featured Stewart as the lead and then I popped in Rear Window, for no other reason than I couldn't sleep last night. And as soon as I heard that recognizable drawl, I was laughing to myself so hard that I had to pause the movie right there for like a solid 5 minutes. The entire film I couldn't take entirely serious because of just how many roles I'd seen the man in during the same day. Maybe I like subconsciously internalized that Stewart was in all of these movies but truly, I really had no clue. Stewart is to Hitchcock as Samuel L. Jackson is to Tarantino. This also displays an important aspect of Auteur Theory, director's reusing actors they enjoy. Tarantino with Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Tim Roth. Nolan with Christian Bale. To an extent Kubrick with Peter Sellers and now Hitchcock with James Stewart.

 I counted up the rest of the movies I need to watch and there's 19 left. My goal is to be finished with all of them by May 1st and I think it's definitely doable, I just have to stay on schedule.

Kill Bill and Rope

Over this weekend I watched Tarantino's bloody revenge flick Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Hitchcock's psychological crime thriller Rope. Both of these movies I had seen previously and they are personal favorites of mine as well. In a similar vein as Pulp Fiction and Memento, my notes for both of these movies were considerably better than movies that I had only seen once. It's easier to explore themes and write about the mise en scène  of a movie when you are already familiar with the film. 

My goal for this week is to watch 2 more movies. I'm planning on watching Vertigo and probably Kill Bill Vol. 2 but who knows, maybe I'll be in the mood for something else when I actually get around to watching something. I scheduled everything out and I should be finished with all the movies by May 1st. I just have to make sure I stay on schedule. 

The Product

I finally decided what my final product will be. Rather than writing a separate essay for each director I'm instead going to write one large paper that talks about each of the directors. Also instead of breaking up the paper by directors, I'll instead have chapters on certain techniques, themes, characters, etc., and then how each director uses all of these things in their films. I wish I could have decided on this sooner because I practically wasted all of last week writing a rough draft on Kubrick. I definitely have some catching up to do if I want to stay on schedule. Since the entire thing will be one large paper, I'm going to need to watch every film before I start to write it. My goal is to finish all the movies I need to watch by May 1st. I counted it up and I have 29 more essential films to watch.

Over the weekend, I was able to watch Quentin Tarantino's classic crime tale Pulp Fiction (which is my absolute favorite movie) and the Christopher Nolan psychological thriller Memento (another one of my favorites). Having already seen both of these movies multiple times, my notes for these films were much more in depth and just all around better compared to films that I took notes on for the first viewing. It makes me wish I had the time to watch each movie two or even three times, but that's not entirely doable, even if I was just studying two directors. I feel a lot of these movies (especially Pulp Fiction) I could base my entire project on. While watching I just kept thinking that I could write like an entire 20 page paper on just this film. While as a person himself, I think Tarantino is a (for lack of a better word) douchey, white trash, asshole; there's no denying he is a genius filmmaker. He catches a lot of flak from critics and moviegoers alike because of his supposed "film theft". Whereas, I don't think Tarantino steals shots and scenes from other films, he pays homage to them. He takes his favorite movies and incorporates the best parts of them into his movies. I would argue Tarantino is the epitome of a modern day auteur.

Dr.Morris' Gift

Today when I met with Dr.Morris he gave me a book called Film, Form, and Culture by Robert Kolker. I've been leafing through it and it contains practically everything about the technical aspects of film. I think it's gonna help me a ton for this project. Now, I have all the official terms for the tropes and techniques that I've been observing in all the movie's I've been watching! It even contains information on auteur theory which I definitely need to know more about.

I've decided that I'll write separate essays for each director now so I think I'll try to write a rough draft of a structural/technical analysis on Kubrick this weekend. Ill give it to Dr.Morris to look at probably so he can make any revisions.  If I find the time I'll also try to watch at least one of Tarantino's movies this weekend. Probably not Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction because I've seen them like 10 times each but, it definitely wouldn't be torture if I decided to watch either.

Stanley Kubrick: Sexual Maniac

Well, I took advantage of this two hour delay this morning and I watched a rather morally questionable film. This morning I had the pleasure of watching Lolita, Kubrick's infamous tale of pedophilia. You know, it's the classic love story. Man moves into house with woman and her 14 year old daughter, woman falls in love with man, man becomes obsessed with woman's daughter, man marries woman to get closer to the daughter, man's actions inadvertently cause woman's death, and man devotes the rest of his life to seducing the daughter. Just your average run of the mill love story. If I could sum this film up in one word it's uncomfortable. The entire time I just felt uneasy while watching. It was not a fun movie to watch and that's what makes it all the more powerful. I cringed too many times to count and even had to stop watching at some points because it was just too awkward for me. When I found out that the actress that played Lolita in the movie was actually 14 at the time of filming made the whole experience even more uncomfortable. But all in all, even though it wasn't necessarily a fun film to watch it was still a rewarding viewing. Peter Sellers performance was spectacular and Kubrick's attention to detail was just as present in this film as in his others. While this film's over the top sexual implications were a little too much for me, it could no nothing to prepare me for what I watched after school today.

I was told by Dr. Morris to save Eyes Wide Shut for the last. And now I'm kind of regretting it because it's left such a poor taste in my mouth for the director I've come to admire. This was actually the first film that I've just flat out disliked for this project. Personally my biggest gripe with the film was actually the writing. I don't know what happened to Kubrick but in the 12 years between this movie and Full Metal Jacket Kubrick seemed to have forgotten how to write natural and believable dialogue. Lines like "Once a doctor, always a doctor!" and "Hey I think I remember that guy from medical school" seemed forced and out of place. They didn't seem like natural things to say and there are far better ways to expose details about your characters. Also I didn't love any single performance in this film. Tom Cruise felt robotic and self aware. Nicole Kidman seemed like she didn't know her lines at certain points. And Sydney Pollack was alright but nothing noteworthy. Also the way over the top sexual innuendoes became just too much for me. It seemed like every single scene there was Tom Cruise staring at a pair of boobs. The characters didn't talk about anything but sex and at some points I thought I was actually watching a porno. To me, there's a point when theres just too much nudity and sex in a film and this movie hit that limit that at the 15 minute mark of it's 159 minutes. If there was one thing I enjoyed about this film, it was the camera work. Even at 70 years old Kubrick still knew how to work a camera majestically and theres no doubt about that. Each shot, especially in the secret sex society scenes, was like Kubrick trying to make a statement. Saying how, maybe he'd lost his touch when it came to writing but when it comes down to pure cinematography, there's no one better than the Kubrick.

This officially ends the list of Stanley Kubrick films I need to watch.  Now all that I need to do before I fully move onto Tarantino is organize all my notes and ramblings into something cohesive like an essay or something. I'll be looking for ideas this week on what I should I create to go along with my findings.

February Break

Well, this break was definitely much needed. Unfortunately however, I spent the majority of it getting sick and knocked unconscious. I started the break off strong by watching The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957). They were two of Kubrick's earlier attempts and they both are notable movies. They both struggled with creating memorable or lasting characters I felt. But I recommend them to any cinema buff or Kubrick fanatic. Their influence, especially The Killing's can definitely be seen in modern cinema today. I was picking out so many things in The Killing that clearly influenced Tarantino's earliest works (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown).  The use of a broken narrative was one that stood out the most, but I could even see similarities between some actual plot points from this film and Tarantino's early projects. I had the pleasure of watching Paths of Glory with Josh Wahl while he recorded me and Connor Tremblay watch the movie for his 20% Percent project.

But, for as strong I started the week off, I ended it just as poorly. I came down with a stomach bug late Tuesday night that put me out of commission for two more days, I was in no condition to actively watch a movie. Then when I was pretty much better on Saturday, I ended up getting a nasty head cold that I still have right now. Which is why I'm not in school. But anyways, yesterday while me and my Dad were both trying to rest off our sicknesses I watched two more movies. I watched Kubrick's legendary 18th century time piece Barry Lyndon (1975) and Quentin Tarantino's take on a blaxploitation film Jackie Brown (1997). While both tell the respective stories of their titular characters, that's where the similarities end. Barry Lyndon tells the story of Barry Redmond, a poor English farm boy, and how he rises to English nobility and then back into the life of a commoner. It's a moving and beautiful film and I recommend it to everyone. I can't decide if this or The Shining is my favorite Kubrick movie now. Jackie Brown is about a flight attendant that gets caught up in a drugs and weapons smuggling scheme that lands her in trouble with the law. It's a fun, exciting watch and Samuel L. Jackson's performance as Ordell Robbie is what makes the movie for me. I've already seen Jackie Brown, but actively watching it was an eye opening experience. I started to really pick up on Tarantino's directing and writing style in the movie and it's really cool to be able to make these connections that I would have never made without taking note of it.

There's no existing image of Samuel L. Jackson's Ordell Robbie and Ryan O'Neal's Barry Lyndon together on the internet so I whipped up a quick photoshop of them.

Scheduling Concerns

I've really been trying to grasp just how many directors I can realistically complete in the time that we have for this project. My original goal was 6 but I don't know if that is entirely plausible at this point. I estimated that if I spend around three weeks on each director then I'll probably only be able to complete five directors until the deadline. And that's if I rush the fifth director. However, I didn't account for all of our breaks and long weekends so there's still hope. Also, I am so familiar with Tarantino's filmography already; I might be able to blast through it faster than any of other the other directors. My goal this break is to finish the rest of Kubrick's movies. I have 6 more to watch and then I need to compile all of my findings into some essay type thingy. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to organize my notes in a cohesive manner, or what I'm really going to create but I'm sure it'll come to me soon.

A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey

This weekend I continued my studies on Stanley Kubrick by watching his two most famous movies: A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey. After watching these two, I can conclude that Kubrick is one strange dude. These two movies were two of the strangest I've ever seen in my life. Alex's transformation from sociopathic punk to brainwashed government servant back to menace of society again in A Clockwork Orange was easily one of the most radical character developments I've ever seen. And the pure scope of Kubrick's vision in 2001 was massive and epic, but not least bit underwhelming.

Kubrick did a fantastic job of portraying Alex as this extremely unlikeable character in the first half of  Clockwork, but by the halfway mark when the government was sticking things in his eyes and he got violently sick at the thought of sex you just couldn't help but feel bad for this guy.This movie has been ranked by many critics as the most controversial movie of all time and that's rightfully so. There's rape scenes, extremely violent action sequences, and it even spawned some copycat crimes in the UK. Its stated in the movie that Alex is a victim of his dystopic, modern, society and I wholeheartedly agree. But not in the sense that he was used as his government's guinea pig for an extremely controversial "cureall" for criminality, instead he is a victim of his society's sex and violence obsession.

The other Kubrick film I watched recently was 2001: A Space Odyssey and this was  a strange one as well. This was the first time I saw this movie and I can definitely see the impact it's had on the film industry. Its this film that pioneered the association of waltz-like classical music with the journey of a space ship. The music all throughout is so iconic, I feel I've seen it parodied and referenced by hundreds of other films. Even people who have never heard of 2001 know that recognizable theme. The overall plot of the movie is fairly convoluted and a bit confusing. After I watched the movie I did some research on the ending because I really had no clue what was going on, and after looking into it, I just got even more confused. I'm not going to pretend that I understood the plot of the film, but one things for sure, it was a damn pretty movie.

I'm going to continue powering through the rest Kubrick's filmography. I just bought Paths of Glory, Lolita, Barry Lyndon, Spartacus, and The Killing to finish out my collection of his films. For some reason they were not included in my Kubrick box collection that I bought a while back. My goal is to be finished with all of Kubrick's films by the end of February and I think I'll be able to achieve that because of this upcoming February break we have.

Auteur Theory

Recently during one our conversations, Dr. Morris brought up something called auteur theory. I can describe it best as the belief that the director is the author of his film, and they hold complete creative control over it. In auteur theory the director is the original copyright holder and receives almost all credit for the film. A film by an auteur director is easily distinguishable as the auteur's film. Films by the same auteurs usually have similar themes, scripts, camerawork, and characters. Some famous auteurs are Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson. I've decided that this will be the unifying factor for all of the directors that I'm studying. It feels good to have something as a sort of base, rather than just picking directors that I personally enjoyed.

Snowball, Superbowl, and Snowday

To say this was a busy weekend would be an understatement. Between the Snowball and Super Bowl, I didn't have much time to marathon through as many movies as I would have liked to. Luckily though, mother nature pulled through last night and we got a snow day! I took this as a sign to watch some more movies. Over the course of these three days off, I was able to watch and take notes on three movies. Saboteur (1942) by Alfred Hitchcock, Natural Born Killers (1994) by Oliver Stone, and The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick.

All three were great movies I thought, but my favorite of this bunch is Natural Born Killers. I didn't originally have Oliver Stone down as one the directors I wanted to study, but after watching this film I think I might need to make some room for him. Stone's extremely controversial film follows two star crossed lovers and their month long murder spree across the American southwest. The film is highly critical of the American media and how they tend to portray villainous criminals as "cult" heroes. The movie is a psychotic, bloody mess and is very reminiscent of a Tarantino flick. That's probably due to the fact that Tarantino is credited with writing the original script before selling it to Stone. The movie is edited schizophrenically, e.g. scenes switching from color to black and white randomly, shots transitioning from one to another through a short (1-10 second) animated action segment, and frequent frame long flashes to Satan and other demonic figures. The highly stylized action and strange editing techniques has landed this movie on my favorites list. 

The Shining was my second favorite in this trio of movies. This popular horror film has been called one of the greatest horror movies of all time by many critics. Unfortunately for me, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. Jack Nicholoson's performance as Jack Everett is what made this movie for me. He perfectly portrayed his character's transition from troubled family man to psychopathic madman. Jack's slow descent into madness is one of the best character evolutions I've seen in a movie. Paired with Kubrick's masterful camera work, this movie has quickly become my favorite horror movie to date.

That makes Saboteur by Hitchcock my least favorite of these movies. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. It was still a great film just not as powerful as these other two. This was one of Hitchcock's earliest American movies and it's definitely not his greatest. It follows the story of a airplane manufacturer that is wrongly accused of sabotage. The film contains many of Hitchcock's trademarks such as his classic "right under your nose" scheme and dark humor all around. The characters weren't the most memorable, but it was still an interesting take on a spy movie.

I think from here on out if I really want to succeed in my studies I need to pick a director and finish their filmography before I start a new one. I'm going to be continuing my study of Kubrick before I dig any further through Hitchcock's collection or any other director.

Kubrick and Hitchcock

To start off my project I've decided to watch the works of Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. The two have created some of the most revolutionary films to date and their influence can be seen in nearly every film made nowadays. Both of these filmmakers dared to create movies that challenged what people were willing to watch; with such masterpieces as Psycho and A Clockwork Orange. They pushed moviegoers to their limits with their thrilling and ultra violent films. So far I've watched Kubrick's Dr.Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Full Metal Jacket. For Hitchcock I've watched The Trouble with Harry. I plan to watch many more movies from these two over this weekend.