Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves

Ladri di biciclette also known as Bicycle Thieves was an Italian film produced in 1948 which was directed by Vittorio De Sica. Starring Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci; and Enzo Staiola as Bruno Ricci whom both of them are social actors. Bicycle Thieves used Italian Neorealism as a style to present the film which first introduced in the 1944 and also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema.  

Cesare Zavattini was the theoretical founder of neo-realism in 1942, suggested that new form of Italian Cinema that abolishes contrived and planned plots, use real people and locations so that direct contact is established with the social reality. Zavattini looked at plots as a fake structure of “everyday life” and professional actors are less likely been hire as it complimented the falsehood. Contemporary Social Realism, unconditional emphasis on the ordinariness of Today, Today, Today. There are several characteristics in Italian Neorealism films. Neorealism was known as a cinema of poverty and pessimism. Its decline began in the 50’s when the times were changing for the better because of society prefer watch happy films than sad films. It is revolutionary and happened during a time of non-revolutionary transition towards prosperity and affluence. Which was not economically profitable. Unpopular in Italy, dependent of foreign appreciation. The Italian government does not favor neorealism, bringing about imports of American films. The film is mostly sad, emotional, and involves crimes due to the poverty, injustice and desperation during that period. In fact, Italian Neorealism shot on-location in order to present the realistic of the environment during the post-war era.

The film focus on a man call Ricci, who is an unemployed man in the depressed post-WWII economy of Italy, he found a good job but require him to own a bicycle for hanging up posters. But soon his bicycle is stolen. He and his son walk the streets of Rome, looking for the bicycle. Ricci finally manages to locate the thief but with no proof, he has to abandon his cause. But he and his son know perfectly well that without a bike, Ricci won't be able to keep his job.

                                                                                                                                                        

Italian Neorealism was known as a film of poverty and pessimism we can easily found the element in the starting of the film with a group of unemployed men gathered around, trying to look for jobs from a job distributor. The job distributor stated that all of them are bricklayers and do not worth to take the job. Because of post war, old building and new building are been show in the film. New building shows that the building reconstruction after war and old building shows that the things that left over or being destroyed after war. Besides these, the scene when Antonio help his wife carry the bucket of water to their apartment. The road that they walk to their apartment is unpaved, which also shows that the construction of rebuilding the city. This has showed that the fact that poverty is really happening at that period of time and people who are working as bricklayers are helpless and starving as they couldn’t get a job to survive.

In conclusion, it shows the real human nature even though it’s not real, showing how people’s moral can be twisted when they are over desperate and despair. To be honest, I will not watch this style of film because I wouldn’t enjoy watching that will make me sad.

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. Huston's screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.  Starring Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three eccentric criminals, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.

Film Noir is a type of film which often contains of private detectives, criminals, and femme fatale characters. It features a world of criminals, of darkness and violence with characters’ central motives are usually greed, lust and ambition, drench in fear which shows that there is no pure good people in the world. This type of film approach was from a period of political instability which was 1941 – 1958, the time of WWII and the Cold War in United States. This was a time of women joined the workforce during the war while men fought in the war. Women expanded their knowledge beyond domestic spheres while the men returned from war suspicious and paranoid of the women’s roles in the work force.

The Mise-en-shot of Film Noir features oblique vertical and horizontal lines, dark visual with lots of shadows and high-contrast lighting (low key) which was influenced and inspired by the German Expressionism. The Mise-en-scene of the style of the film usually have locations such as alleyways, cramped corridors and often show the scene was at night. Setting is city-bound, comprising of rain washed roads and dimly-lit interiors.

The character of Film Noir features the man are usually well-dressed in suits and ties who are Detectives, polices, criminal, government agents etc. The woman who is central to the intrigue, making her the object of the male’s investigation. Ultimately, it is her sexuality that is under investigation which threatens the male quest to resolve mystery. By being a strong, active, sexually expressive female, film noir tends to keep the woman contained. Through the film, there’s always a struggle of voices controlling the narrative digenesis, where ultimately, the control of the storytelling ends up controlling the image of the woman. But the closure of the film usually ends at a price for any of the characters and guilt is not so easily ascribed to just one character.

Sam Spade a private detective gets more than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman Miss Wonderly. As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam's partner(Miles Archer) is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want the bejeweled Maltese falcon.

The Maltese Falcon is a Noir Film as it featuring Sam Spade, a private detective which is an intelligent and cunning man. Example, the scene where Cairo threatening Sam by pointing gun toward him but Sam fight back to Cairo, Cairo fainted by Sam’s punch. This has showed us that Sam was tough enough to fight back even though he is being threatened by gun. After that when Cairo was fainted, Spade took the money from Cairos’ wallet, this has represent the element of film noir which is nobody is pure good, even though outside he looks like a good guy but there is still contains of evil within everyone even the good guy.

In this film we can also easily identify the elements of Femme fatale in it. In this case which was Miss Wonderly.  Example, Miss Wonderly had betrayed Sam by not telling the truth. In order to accomplish her goal, she always acted like a weak women and seeking for help saying that she was dizzy to gain trust from others by the seductive body and actions. Besides, Miss Wonderly we also can see that Sam’s secretary Effie Perine is a very obedient and hard work lady who always follow Sam’s order even though it is wrong. Lastly, the elements can be identified throughout the film is the visuals. The film shows mostly high contrast and low key light, showing that the characters that may look good on the outside has a very evil side as well. The film also uses the effect of lines that causes distortion to the scene to make it seems like everything is distorted and out of place. This makes the audience feel like there is always something not right as if it is a warning that something bad is going to happen. Besides that, low angle shots are used to show the characters. Example the scene, where Sam Spade finds the criminal known as Humphrey Bogart. The low angle shot gives the impression that Humphrey is a very rich and powerful or very evil powerful man.

In conclusion, Film Noir is all about blurred morals, this is why they are categorized under Dark Films. There are not one good character in the film, even the detective is bad. The detective, Sam Spade is the main character with flaws, he is the protagonist and an anti-hero of the film. 

In the Mood for Love

In the Mood for Love

In the Mood for Love is a 2000 Hong Kong film which was directed by Wong Kar-wai. Starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung who acting as two different pairs of spouses who are getting cheated on by each other’s partner. And this essay is to talk about the French impressionist approach toward the film.

French impressionist is a film movement which was developed after the World War I. Although France had been one of the centers of film in the medium's formative years, the trauma of World War I reduced the country to a struggling footnote in film history after 1918. Which creates new techniques in non-linear editing, point-of-view storytelling and camera work abounded. The movement is popular during the year of 1919 to 1928. 

The film movement focus on discovering psychological causes and also gives narration considerable psychological depth by revealing play of the character’s consciousness, concerns mental states, dreams or fantasies. French impressionism often manipulates plot time and subjectivity by showing flashbacks or memories. This film movement uses a lot of different camera movement and shots to show visual depiction of mental states through cinematography and editing. By using of irises, superimpositions, masks to show the audience characters’ thoughts and feelings. Visuals are distorted, filtered or vertiginous camera movement to show dizziness or drunkenness of the character. Using POV (Point of View) editing, rhythmic editing to show character’s experience of particular situations. The French impressionism often contains of smooth camera movement which are camera tied to cars, wheels, bobsleds, cables, etc. 

The film focus on the two different spouses which are Mr. Chow a newspaper editor move into an apartment with his wife and Mrs. Chan move in next door with her husband. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs. 

The pace of the film overall are slow, to show the mental state of the characters, which is the lonely and repetitive life style even though they are both married. One of the element can be found in this film is the mental state to show the character’s experience of lonely. For example, when Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan went for dinner alone in the noodle store, another scene is after the rain it shows the slow motion water flowing across the street to show the time passes and another scene is showing Mr. Chow was smoking in his office and all smokes are on top him which shows that the relationship between Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are not clear which bring us to the next element of French impressionism. The scene where the smokes is above Mr. Chow is also related to the Mise-en-scene, which is background behind Mr. Chow is dark and the only light source is on top of him to show the loneliness. 

The second element of French impressionism is camerawork, there are some sub elements that is under camerawork which are camera distance, camera angle and camera movement. Example of close up shot used in the film is the scene where, the two protagonist are in a restaurant eating together, the close up shot shows the emotion and mood of the protagonist to the audience. This film also uses some interesting peeping shot and low angle to enhance the mood. The peeping shot in the film kind of show the audience that how other people think of Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow because of the shot. There is also some low angle shot that showing the slim and fit body of Mrs. Chan in cheongsam to show that she was a sexualize woman. The reason why Mrs. Chan dress up so well even she just going out for a dinner, its shows that she was lonely and wanted attention so that she will feel less lonely. There is also fast cut in this film. Which is the part when Mrs. Chan is going to meet Mr. Chow in hotel room after she received the call from Mr. Chow. The fast cut apply when Mrs. Chan struggling and hesitating whether she want to meet Mr. Chow or not, she climb up stairs and walking down the stairs. The whole film did not focus on the cheated spouses face and just showing up some others characters, because it’s mainly about Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s relationship.  

In conclusion, this film involved a lot of element of mental state to show the mood of the character. Also the smooth and slow camera movement also create the mood and relationship between the characters when they fall in love and they hesitate and struggle about their relationships. Overall the film is very interesting, because it was a new approach for me.