Chloé Kent - IN-CLASS MOVIES #2 – Film Clips

BUNNY

I was extremely touched by this film. This animated short depicted a very sad and depressed old lady bunny whose love has died. As she is cooking, this moth keeps bugging her and swarming around her, and she continuously shoos it away and eventually is able to kill it. Later that night, the moth reappeared, and lead her into the oven. The oven, as we discussed in class, could be considered a transformer, it transforms foods from one substance to another and in this short can be considered a transformation from life to death. As the film continues, the viewer begins to realize that the annoying moth wasn't just any bug, but was a representation of her late husband, and by following him into the oven accepted her death and was reunited with her love. I really appreciated the sentiment in this film, because I felt like often times God could be trying to get my attention, but all I see is a moth bugging me and in my way. The persistence of the fly reminded me of the persistence God has in chasing my heart and I felt like this piece was all around an uplifting look at a sad subject matter like death.

HAROLD AND MAUD

The scene we looked at went from a shot of greenhouse plants to wildflowers. From a distance, all the wildflowers looked alike, but as they zoomed in and she discusses, they are not alike at all. The problem the film chooses to point out is that we are all unique and we allow ourselves to be treated the same. I found this to be a powerful concept because God gives us all a unique relationship with him personalized to our needs. The scene then pans over to a wide-shot of a graveside and shows how in death all people are treated the same, same place, in a uniform fashion.

NORTHFORK

This film used an overlay of shots, combining the different elements of nature vs. machine to convey the transitions of life. It then transitions to a scene showing a car carrying a coffin driving up into the mountains. This is a clear symbol of death and transcending upwards towards the heavens. The mountains are a symbol of transcendence and steadiness amongst the darkness of death.

PARIS

We watched a scene from the film Paris that showed the landscape of Paris, Texas. This showed the grandeur of the landscape, by creating a shot where the figure in the film was so small and minute in comparison to the huge landscape behind him. Even in scenes where the did a closeup shot of the person, the background still seemed to engulf the figure. I thought this staging was really interesting because it really emphasized the idea that you shouldn't get so absorbed in yourself, because in the grand scheme of things you are in fact extremely small.

PINK FLOYD'S THE WALL

This film was pretty odd. They used extremely over saturated colors and overdramatized images to express the intensity of the emotional density of the music in this musical. I found the film all in all pretty disturbing but I feel like that was intentional because the filmmakers wanted to evoke that kind of feeling. They were hoping for the viewer to feel uncomfortable watching it so that they would not only see but feel the darkness in the world.