Wednesday, October 2nd, Critical Thinking Question

How do the 2 films differ in their use of Style to express the culture's ideas, myths and history?

The two films express the aspects of their culture very differently through their use of style. I feel that they differ as one uses style to create an accurate representation of the country whilst the other does its best to romanticise its country and present it in a positive somewhat untruthful way. Pans Labrinth gives a gritty, truthful representation of 1940s Spain through the dark lighting and sombre themes of death and facism within the film. The film follows Spanish beliefs closely as through Ofelias sacrifice led to her being reunited with her father once she was dead, therefore strongly reinforcing the countries catholic and christian beliefs. 3,3Amelie however does not give such an accurate representation of its country, all areas shot in the film are clean and look as if they would be pleasant to visit. This as well as the happy almost cartoon colour grading gives a surreal and overly positive feel to the film. (2)This follows with what the condition of france actually was in the time surrounding the films production as Paris had recently had many issues such as the riots and frequent problems with racism. None of these issues are addressed in the film especially the racial aspect as not a single black character is included within the film. This shows that one of the films uses style to try and get across a truthful dark view of the country at the time and accurately represent its history and struggles whilst one uses it simply as an "auteurs touch" or to market Paris as an attractive, clean and friendly place.
Martin Stewart

The setting in Amelie is not portrayed in a truthful way, which adds to the message that the country didn't feel comfortable with their true identity and wanted people to believe it was a positive place to visit in order to gain a good reputation. The film director of Amelie is misleading the viewers into believing an untrue representation of France. On the other hand, in Pans Labyrinth the audience is seeing a young child being psychologically beaten by the Spanish Civil war, which is truthfully sticking to the history of Spain, reinforcing the idea that war shouldn't exist.

New Points
Myths - City of Love (Paris)
Pans Labrinth relies heavily on narrative rather than simply style to present ideas, myths and history
Pans Labrinth shows war ruins lives, war is bad, consequences of facism
Amelie shows the importance of helping each other, the joys of innocence, the importance of love and not being alone/isolated

Synthesised Answer
The two films express the aspects of their culture very differently through their use of style. I feel that they differ as one uses style to create an accurate representation of the country whilst the other does its best to romanticise its country and present it in a positive somewhat untruthful way. Pans Labrinth gives a gritty, truthful representation of 1940s Spain through the dark lighting and sombre themes of death and facism within the film. The film follows Spanish beliefs closely as Ofelias sacrifice led to her being reunited with her father once she was dead, therefore strongly reinforcing the countries catholic and christian beliefs. the film also shows the impact of war on young children, and reinforces the idea that children cannot deal with adult themes. Amelie however does not give such an accurate representation of its country, all areas shot in the film are clean and look as if they would be pleasant to visit. This as well as the happy almost cartoon colour grading gives a surreal and overly positive feel to the film. This overly happy representation of france ties in perfectly with the idea that Paris is the city of love, this is reinforced also through the narrative as the film has Amelie playing cupid. Through this an untrue representation of France is given to the audience of the film.  During the time surrounding the films production Paris had recently had many issues such as the riots and frequent problems with racism. None of these issues are addressed in the film especially the racial aspect as not a single black character is included within the film. I feel that this unrealistic view is given as the country didn't feel comfortable with their true identity and therefore didn't want the whole world to see the true issues that they face. This shows that one of the films uses style to try and get across a truthful dark view of the country at the time and accurately represent its history and struggles whilst one uses it simply as an "auteurs touch" or to market Paris as an attractive, clean and friendly place to the rest of the world.

Pans Labrinth Swede

Pans Labrinth Therapy

Ofelia meets the Faun

Enters portal

Searching

Faun shows himself

Introductions, speech driven scene

Faun tells Ofelia who he believes her to be

Tells her of tests she must face

Questioning her mortality, speech driven still

Book given to Ofelia, making her independent

Confusion as the book is empty

Faun disappears Ofelia left alone in the cave/portal

New Spanish Cinema

• New Spanish CInema
• Art House Cinema                                                                                  Viewed as though it felt it was above popular cinema, was more of an art-form like “painting”
• Auteur Cinema, muh the same as french new wave cinema in the ways that the directors gave their own personal stamp and ownership to the films
• International or foreign inclinations
• Conflictive relationship with the Spanish government, the films were very anti-facist
• Hauntology, contained many popular ideas and motifs that 'haunted' spanish culture, myths, events from the past
• The cinema made use of non conventional non-diegetic sound, Shock cuts and violent scenes, realist strategies
• The films aimed to be politically engaging and deeply troubling for the audience viewing the film

French New Wave Research

French New Wave
- An artistic movement
- Birth of the 'auteur theory'
- It was seen as a cultural revolution
- Many of its characteristics were present in Andre Bazin's journal of filmmaking 'Cahiers du Cinema'
- Was the first main step towards when artistic expression and personal authorship were born in film
- The filmakers aimed to be unique and distinctive rather than aiming for mainstream success
- French new wave cinema rarely followed a pre-determined shooting script
- The directors opted for direct sound and natural lighting rather than foley and false lighting
- Famous actors had no power over the directors
- Low budget films were created
- Erased the boundaries between professional and amateur cinema
- Was seen from a foreign perspective as a very young singularly French idea

- Le Boucher, is a key example of a French New Wave text

- Cinematography Techniques
  Alternative framing, natural lighting, mistakes often left in
- Editing Techniques 
  Flash pans, long takes, discontinuity of shots, rapid reframing
- Sound Techniques
  Direct sound, modern soundtracks, random comments

75 Hidden Gems of Cinema Presentation