Over the last seven weeks we have watched different and varying films. Having said that, there were films that, in my eyes, were just bearable none of them really grabbed and haled my attention for longer than 10 minutes before my mind would start to wonder off. I would be asking myself, what made the tutors choose that film and why. Never really finding an answer, I would go away from the films feeling like “what the hell did I just watch?” and all around just being really confused. Once I have accepted the fact that these films were not going to leave me satisfied as a film that I happily chose, I allowed my mind to just sit and watch and no longer tried to figure out why they chose those particular films.
The first film I watched at the Odeon Theater was a film called Slacker. Produced in 1991, by Richard Linklater, and was budgeted on a $23,000. Slacker, shows life in Austin, Texas and its social outcasts or misfits, mainly the twenty-something year olds, using a series of linear vignettes. The characters, who in some way just do not seem to fit into society’s norms, move seamlessly from one scene to the next, randomly coming and going into one another's lives. Some focal points of the film would include a UFO buff who adamantly insists that the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s and woman who produces a glass slide purportedly of Madonna's pap-smear. The way the producer shot the film by introducing the different actors into the ending of the first actors’ scene was interesting, but as it kept going for a little over an hour and a half and then it just ending, left me a little frustrated because this film never built up to the plot and on top of that, it never gave me an conclusion. I think my generation is used to seeing films that have a storyline and a conclusion, whereas the film Slacker had none of that. So, on that note, I did not enjoy the film Slacker for the mere reason that there was no plot and no conclusion…
Out of the all the films there were two that I semi-enjoyed. Une Femme Est Une Femme (A Woman Is A Women) a French film made in 1961, and Rashomon a Japanese film made in 1950. Une Femme Est Une Femme was probably the most interesting film I watched throughout the film series. It was about a free-spirited young woman who wants more than anything to have a baby. She tries to persuade her boyfriend Emile to go for the idea, but he is agents it, so she goes after Emile’s friend Alfred. I think I was able to connect with this movie more because being a woman I can relate to her wants and needs. This is an unexpected romantic comedy, the thing that sets the film apart from others is Godard's unique style: the use of on-screen graphics to give insights into the character's motives, the speaking directly to the camera, the stop-start of the film's scoring and the emphasis of moments and dialogue by music is all well-done.
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