Mixtape Marauders (2018)

Day 38: 09/01/2020

Mixtape Marauders, Peter Edlund

One particular scene struck me about this short film is where there are three people in the car, and the two dudes who are sitting at the front are talking to a girl on the back. There is the car’s rear view mirror, and when they speak they speak to “us” breaking the fourth wall. Maybe too much art and cinema education, maybe living in Spain for a long time but this particular image reminded me of Velasquez’s Las Meninas portrait and I just loved this connection.

In Las Meninas we see several subjects. The royal kids, people from the household, Velazquez himself painting, the king and the queen seen from a mirror which should make us question whether Velazquez is looking at them while he is breaking the fourth wall or at us. 

Same goes for this scene. When these guys are talking to the camera, supposedly it is at the girl sitting on the back, you can see her from the rear mirror occasionally but at the same time you feel that they are explaining the concept to you, breaking the fourth wall.

Loved the beginning of the movie where he is making us parts of the mixtape while washing the dishes along with cuts from his life (transitions here could connect a bit more though, there could be witty passes). Other than that loved the transitions with music. Like in this scene (great angle) she is talking about her memories but then we start hearing some hip hop beats, boys are dancing to it and we swing from one mood to another without even realizing.

You can watch the full thing on Short of The Week: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/04/19/mixtape-marauders/

 

Arizona Dream (1993)

Day 36: 11/12/19

Arizona Dream, Emir Kusturica

Really wanted to watch this movie for a very long time because of its soundtrack and also because my parents watched it together when my mom was pregnant with me.

Movie with its own world, its own rules and faces. Shows you you can be so flexible and fantastic within a regular story. No structures, forget about solid matters and flow with your story. The beginning scene was so affecting. That’s the style of Emir Kusturica, he can make a scene very intense – especially the death scenes. He goes all the way, like in life you could have wanted to avoid that intensity and he doesn’t let you, he makes you live and understand every second of that death scene (so he mostly uses current timing with no cuts).

I laughed hard at the mocking North by Northwest scenes and the ending. Also like to assume that Axel’s older lover being called Elaine is a reference to The Graduate(1967) by Mike Nichols.

Was cool to see some similarities between the Time of the Gypsies and Arizona Dream such as the subtle soundtrack that came at certain points which almost connected to the famous Ederlezi but it didn’t. Also the scene where Grace gets dressed all in white, starts walking and her hat flies away with wind – the exact same scene with Azra in time of the Gypsies, you anticipate what’s gonna happen next.

Also I like to realize some symbols and motifs (recurring elements) from Kusturica.

1. The main character has an animal they are attached to: the turtles, the turkey…
2. Flying (mostly for death associations)
3. Intense death scenes
4. Balkan music as soundtrack

Joker (2019)

Day 35: 03/11/2019

Joker, Todd Phillips

Color palette enhances the claustrophobic atmosphere, the feeling that you can’t get out of a place. The whole movie is in the tones of Joker’s mask and clothes (green, yellow and red), so it is as we are looking at the world through that mask too. As the audience, the green hue is just so strong on us.

Love the part where he is unsure if his mother is lying to him, or if she is being denied by Thomas Wayne as she claims he is the father of Joker. However, in the mental hospital, Joker finds documents that prove her mother abused her as a child and gave him his condition – and it is almost a tangible breaking point in the movie.

Also love how we always see the Wayne family killing as the Batman story usually,  and here it is the final scene for the Joker movie.

Cinematography breakdown by Lawrence Sher:

https://variety.com/2019/artisans/features/joker-stairs-subway-scene-cinematographer-lawrence-sher-1203396242/

Finding Vivian Maier

 

Day 15: 11/10/2017

Finding Vivian Maier, John Maloof, Charlie Siskel

Oh, this was EPIC. You know how it is said that some things “find you in life”, this could be no coincidence that this man bought Vivian Maier’s sealed box of photographs – he has the power to give her what she deserves: he could make a documentary about someone who he doesn’t know at all, have never met and who he never will. He goes after her premise and learns that she used to be a nanny. So he interviews all the kids she looked after. She chose to be a nanny so she could be outside taking pictures. For a regular person from our century, it is insane that she has been that good and never achieved fame. Could she not approach anyone? Is it because she was SO weird that she had no one close to her? How come thousands of insanely good pictures kept hiding in boxes? This documentary was one of the most touching I have seen about photography or life – and the fact that she has been doing these just because she loved it, she found life in it is just mesmerizing. Also, the fact that she collected so many newspapers because it can be seen that she was interested in humans in their purest sense, that crazy animalistic being with a brain that is not behind any other wilder creature is just so plain and authentic.