The Wicker Man Review

The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man was directed by Robin Hardy in 1973. An alternative thriller, It is terrifying in its quintessential britishness. Based upon and forever changing our opinions of small British Villages – Try watching this and driving through one without a slight shiver down your spine. The fear factor of the film comes from the unforgivingness of the characters; their refusal to accept their way of life is anything from the norm. They are brainwashed in a Paganistic society, and as the film goes on, you start to be to.

 Music plays a big part in the film. Although bizarre, the scenery, characters and props are realistic, juxtaposed with the intensely joyous musical-esque soundtrack. The music manages to brainwash you into an intense forced happiness, much like the villagers themselves in the film. You are not sure whether or not you are supposed to be enjoying the experience. The music itself is based on old Celtic music, the musical director said, “We were interested in this semi-mystical occult shit and played music that touched on real traditions – Celtic music, Irish folk.”  (Carpenter, 2013). Even the light-hearted manner in which Carpenter talks about the music shows the lax attitude towards it. It seems like it does not want to be taken seriously, with the director being the first to admit they all decided to smoke dope to help the musical process. This satirical view towards these ‘ancient Celtic and Pagan traditions” sums up the film pretty well.

The feelings you experience towards the music begin to seep into your opinions of the whole film. The audience themselves begin to live in this “ignorance is bliss” mind set. The calming and seemingly good willed nature of the villagers starts to make you question your moral opinions towards sacrifice, and other questionable practices depicted in the film.

Throughout this moral journey, one scene from early on in the film ruminates. The townsfolk and dancing and singing merrily in their local bar. As the music escalated, the camera angles become more and more grotesque, and the characters are viewed in a more raw and vulgar manner (fig 1).

(Fig 1) Dancing in the Bar

The film ends unapologetically with the sacrifice the villagers were aware of the entire way through the film. There is something sinister in the contrast between the content swaying townsfolk, and the police officer crying out for mercy from the lord. Taking out of context the normality of the religion he is promoting, His screaming and shouting to a lord above and the rant previous to it, seems just as crazy as that of the deluded townsfolk (fig 2). He is the one who has been tricked here, so convinced he could exploit their way of life, when all along he was part of their sinister plan. “The Wicker Man is a film based on irony: Sergeant Howie may be the fool, but far from underestimating him and treating him as such, the islanders rely on him to work out Rowan's fate in order to seal his own.” (Macintyre, 2013). It begs the question, which is really the mad one here.

(Fig 2) Delirious Sergeant Howie

Illustration List

(fig 1) Still from The Wicker Man (1973) at http://www.ellangowan.co.uk/the_wicker_man.htm

(fig 2) Still from The Wicker Man (1973) at http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/essays/russell_tribble/

Bibliography

Carpenter. G (2013), How we made the Wicker Man for The Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/24/how-we-made-wicker-man

Macintyre. E (2013), The Wicker Man Review at http://www.elainemacintyre.net/film_reviews/wicker_man.php

Memento Film Review

Memento

If you’ve ever found yourself addicted to any of those shoddily made but highly infatuating room escape games, you’ll probably enjoy the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan in 2000.  The premise of the story is a man with short time memory loss constantly trying to piece together this immediate past to figure out who killed his wife. To accentuate the backwardness of the protagonists life, the whole film is shown backwards – that is to say the scenes are in complete none chronological order. Certain scenes repeat and overlap allowing you to share in the non-conventionality of his life.  A good way to put it is to say “Memento'' is like an existential crossword puzzle” (Scott 2001)

 A consistently pale colour scheme, in a consistently mundane American small town (fig 1) , A plain wife and a rather satisfying collection of funny looking friends are the building blocks to Leonard’s life. A sleepy town that’s been partially woken up by Leonard’s condition goes to show the madness of the inner worlds that those of none sound mind create.

(Fig 1) Inside the diner

 Phrases, clips, scenes and locations repeat, (fig 2) a never-ending cycle. We only see a small snippet of Leonard’s life, but we have no idea how long he’s been living like this. The repetition us in the audience see is similar to the conditioning he talks of throughout the film. We, the audience, are being conditioned to get used to Leonard’s life, just as he has. Each mini daylong episode resolves itself, but still begs more and more questions – “Nolan lets us bask in this revelation for all of a minute before unleashing another cosmic joke”(Klein, 2001). We feel happy to realise what is going on once more, but at the same time feel the same frustration Leonard must feel knowing it would be unnecessary if everything were just the right way round.

(Fig 2) Leonard's Polaroids

 Memento is a great example of a film showing great complexities without trying to hard. Nolan gradually got more and more widely appreciated after this film, and rightfully so.

Illustrations List

(Fig 1) Still from Memento at http://www.fact.co.uk/whats-on/neuro-cinema-presents-memento

(Fig 2) Collection of Polaroids from Memento at http://imgarcade.com/1/memento-polaroid/

Bibliography

A.O. Scott, (2001), Film Review; Backward Reel the Grisly Memories for The Guardian at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E06E5DC173DF935A25750C0A9679C8B63

A. Klein (2001), Everything you ever wanted to know about “Memento” at http://www.salon.com/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/

The Blair Witch Project Review

The Blair Witch Project

 

The Blair Witch project, Directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick in 1999, rose to fame, as it is one of the first “Found Footage” films of its kind. The movie was marketed as a true story, resulting in one of the most successful viral film campaigns of all time. It is filmed as a mocumentary about three filmmakers who get lost in the woods while themselves trying to make a documentary about the urban legend of “The Blair Witch”. All of the footage, filmed on handheld cameras, was supposed to have been “found by the police”. Prior to the films, mock “Missing Person” posters were released (Fig 1) and a website was set up about the urban legend- “In a joint decision, Haxan and Artisan, decided to use the website as the focus of their publicity campaign. For the next six months, they added to it, and used a number of other low-budget tactics to promote the film. Prior to the film’s release in July 1999, they had spent approximately $1million on promotion.” (Davidson, 2013). Only between $20,000 - $25,000 was spent on the actual filming, the handheld cameras were even returned after use to keep costs down. All these factors together make “The Blair Witch Project” not only a movie, but an experience.

 

(Fig 1) Mock missing person poster

Every element of the film works together to make you believe it’s real. All of the cast are unknowns, having not acted in any well-publicised films before. A lot of the script is improvised, the directors having flung the actors into these environments and asking them to act as if they were really in the situation. The actors themselves filmed most of the movie, just like you see, in a short period of time. The tiredness and fatigue was real, this being reflected in the quality of how the footage is shot. On top of this the actor’s names were used for their characters, blurring reality with fiction further.

 

What makes the film work so well as a horror is the not seeing. At no point do you ever see “The Blair Witch”, and nothing ever jumps out unexpectedly but you still feel on edge constantly, you get involved in their frantic panic as the camera shakes around. At night the shots are dark and difficult to distinguish (Fig 2), causing you to think you are seeing things that are never there. This is helped by the fact you don’t actually know what “The Blair Witch” looks like. Over at Pan & Scan Reviews they point out; “We see nothing, either because the characters just woke up and didn't turn on their light or because the camera is pointing in the wrong direction. All we have is our imagination” (Brady, 2005).

(Fig 2) Film still running through the forrest 

Illustration List

(Fig 1) Promotional Poster (1999) at http://whatculture.com/film/10-best-movie-marketing-campaigns-ever.php

(Fig 2) Still from The Blair Witch Project at http://lifeinaphotograph.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/my-blair-witch-project/

Bibliography

Davidson N (2013), The Blair Witch Project: The best viral marketing campaign of all time at http://mwpdigitalmedia.com/blog/the-blair-witch-project-the-best-viral-marketing-campaign-of-all-time/

Brady TJ (2005) The Blair Witch Project at http://www.teako170.com/ps7.html

The Birds Review

The Birds, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1963 is widely appreciated in the thriller world. Hitchcock’s genius allows for a topic such as everyday birds to become a new found fear among the public of the 60s and beyond. Every element of the film pushes the idea of fearing the unexpected. Although plentiful, the film to the untrained eye would not appear to have any tactics to create suspense, making the audience feel as if they are creating the fear themselves- by extension taking it away into their everyday lives.

 The acting is naturalistic. It is naturalistic to the extent that it reflects the awkwardness of real life conversations. Characters talk over and interrupt each other almost as if the film were not scripted at all. Beyond this you also witness characters having awkward silences allowing you to reflect on how the characters interact, and the rivalry between the women. This is summed up nicely by Philly Brophy;- “The soundtrack of THE BIRDS is literally that: voices, sounds, atmospheres. No violins. It rejects all musical coding traditionally employed to inform us of how we should care/think/feel/project at any point in the film. The absence of music is a specific 'sound of silence' which greatly enhances the THE BIRDS' peculiarly perverse dramatic tone.” (Brophy, 1999)

  The film has no un naturalistic sound effects, again reflecting real life. The sound is not what brings the suspense in The Birds; it’s the not knowing when the birds are going to attack again. There are many scenes where pure silence is used to build suspense. Hitchcock is king of making his audiences wait.

 Beyond a warning about birds, the film seems to serve as a message of the power of mass and unity. The more women in a scene at one time, the more trouble seems to ensue. When working together, the women in the film, as well as the small town community, manage to convince themselves that Melanie (an outsider) is responsible for the possession of the birds. The Guardian notes “The entire bird world, chagrined to be the pawn in a devious woman's game, gets its revenge. Thereafter, it's women on the verge of a feathery freak-out, all the way” (Bidisha, 2010).  The two lovebirds seem to serve as a metaphor for Melanie and Mitch. Two people happily trying to live their life while all around them is madness. This is easy to see when you compare the scene in which all the women are stood in the diner. Standing, waiting, not too dissimilar to the famous school frame scene with the birds flocking onto the climbing frame. (fig 1) (fig 2)

(fig 1)

(fig 2)

Bibliography

Brophy, P, 1999, The Birds: The Triumph of Sound at http://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/sncnm/Birds.html

Bidisha, 2010, What’s wrong with Hitchcock’s woman (The Guardian) at http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/alfred-hitchcock-women-psycho-the-birds-bidisha

Psycho Film Review

Pyscho, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, is a film that pushed all boundaries, especially in its repressive era of the 1960s.  Every aspect of the film is well thought out by Hitchcock, which eventually led the film to be the highest- grossing of Hitchcock’s career.

The film was shot purposefully in black and white, despite colour film being readily available. Partly for atmosphere and partly for financial reasons- the decision of black and white was not the only well planned corner cut. Hitchcock wanted to shoot the film for less than $1m. All the clothes worn by Janet Leigh were purposefully store bought as apposed to custom made. Hitchcock wanted his audience to relate to her, wearing typical clothes that a secretary would wear.

The score by Bernard Hermann, again created on budget, is now recognised worldwide. Created using a smaller, string orchestra, as apposed to a full symphonic, gives the events in which the music reaches it’s climax a rawer more bludgeoned feel.  Hitchcock worked with Hermann for many of his films “Hermann, like Hitchcock, could be a bristly perfectionist, contentious, and pedant. Although Hermann was clearly not the sort who easily took direction” (Wiess, 2000). It’s this attitude from Hermann which brought the famous sound sequence into existence, originally Hitchcock wanted silence throughout the motel scenes.

Fitting in with Hitchcock’s want for shifting sympathy, he uses a wide variety of shots. Through this he allows us to experience the film from many different angles, leaving us unsure where our alliances lay once the credits roll. Hitchcock gives us wide shots, giving us a feel for every environment we are entering. He also gives us extreme close ups, when the characters are feeling under pressure or intimidated. This creates a claustrophobic feeling, especially with such a large face on large cinematic screen (Fig 1). In a few scenes, we get a hectic sense of what is going through the characters mind. For example in the scene where Marion is packing, we see shots constantly going back to the pile of money, as she decides whether or not to steal it. We see the same thing happen again when Marian enters Norman’s office and sees stuffed birds.

 

(Fig 1) Claustrophobic close up of the prying policeman

Hitchcock’s shower scene is famed and has been parodied worldwide since the film’s release. “Hitchcock’s masterful filming of this scene cannot be overstated. Using two cameras, multiple close-ups, over 50 cuts and a good deal of chocolate syrup, he crafted in just three minutes one of the most terrifyingly realistic murder scenes ever shot on film” (Dwyer, 2007) The close ups again give a sense of hecticism. Censor laws called for Marion’s naked body to be covered by strategic shots, but this works as it allows you to focus on the murder.

Bibliography

Wiess, E, (2000) Sound in Psycho at http://filmsound.org/articles/hitchcock/makingpsycho.htm

Dwyer S (2007) Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho at http://classicfilm.about.com/od/mysteryandsuspense/fr/Alfred-Hitchcock-S-Pyscho.htm

Image List

Still from Psycho (1960) at http://www.visualsoc.net/page/17