Rush 8: Homecoming

For Empire of the Sun I chose the gram of the dead tree in the background.  Thinking over this gram, it actually is a really good gram in the context of epic cinema.  From the first part of it, Empire of the Sun is in a way a "coming of age" film.  The tree in this context could be seen as a sign of growth of the character.  So far the tree was only seen once in the film and it was in the very beginning before Christian Bale got thrown into the flame.  But this concept of growth and the tree really can be seen in all epic cinema. 

Traditionally in epic cinema one of the rules we see is that the hero starts a journey at one place and in the ends returns to that place (whether it be home, or someplace else).  Before he/she returns to that place they go through a process of growth and come back to their home point a changed person.  We see this process of growth in a lot of the movies we watched this semester (Wizard of Oz,  The Searchers, Ben Hur, etc.) and is a tradition of epic cinema. 

Rush 7: Dil Se

The gram I chose for Dil Se was a tile.  Common associations with tile include: decor, interior, exterior, ground, and floor.  When one thinks of the word ground, various meanings and associations come to mind such as: dirt, cold, wet, solid, deep, grave, gravel, etc.  If we look at grave in Dil Se, even though this word is far removed from the original gram, we can see it relate a lot to the movies themes and structure.

If we take a step back and look at the traditional Bollywood movie, we see the characters put in a lot of life or death situations (situations that could possibly put them in a grave?)  throughout the film, and the musical numbers or dance breaks, are a way to lighten the heaviness of the situation.  For example in Dil Se, the very beginning there's a raging storm at the train station that we meet our protagonist, Amar, at.  It's here he runs into Meghna for the first time.  Throughout this scene as audience members we are lead to believe something bad could happen due to the super heavy downpour of rain, the darkness of the setting, and the fact that he's all alone at this train station.  It looks like a scene that could be seen in a horror movie with a haunted house on a hill.  Soon after this scene we are taken to a light hearted dance break before the movie continues.  Amar could have been just as easily sent to his grave at the train station if he was struck by lightning, get hit by a train he couldn't see, or the cloaked figure (who turns out to be Meghna) could have murdered him.  But instead the life or death situation is reversed with the light hearted dance break.

Also the word grave, can relate to movies themes.  One of the main themes is terrorism/war.  Meghna is part of a resistance group which kills people, therefore sending them to their graves.  Towards the latter half of the movie there is a constant feeling of war and terrorism going on which could result in death, again relating to the word grave.  Also the theme of love in this movie has a sick relation to grave.  We hear the saying "all is fair in love and war," and literally this movie a great example of that saying.  The love of Amar and Meghna, two lovers on two different sides of the train track (Romeo & Juliet-esque), meets its bitter fate in the end when both of them are sent to their graves when Amar hugs Meghna resulting in the bomb that is attached to her to go off and kills them both. 

This look at the word grave originating for my gram of tile goes to show that the camera catches a lot more than we think.  We can relate all these extra rinds to a deeper meaning and understanding of the movie.

Rush 2: Home Is Where The Hearth Is

For The Searchers the rind I chose was the kerosene lamp that appears in the home.  This lamp made a lot of thoughts come up for me during the movie.  First of all, we first see the lamp when Martin comes in to have dinner with the family.  The flame in the lamp is really somber and looks as though its underscoring the scene.  We soon find out Uncle Ethan's animosity towards Martin because of him being part Cherokee.  Uncle Ethan's hate for Martin underscores the environment in the room much like the flame.  Like the flame, Uncle Ethan's hate is under control, but is still there flickering.  In the next scene, we see the lamp (and the flame in the lamp) make another appearance.  This time we see a flickering animosity between Uncle Ethan and Aaron, his brother.  They fight on why Ethan didn't come back sooner and what he's doing here now.  While this fight doesn't break their relationship, it flickers and underscores their relationship with one another. 

Another thought I that popped into my head about the lamp and the flame in it is Hestia, the greek goddess of the hearth & home.  Traditionally, Hestia was represented by a living flame (sometimes in a lamp or a bowl), architecture, and the home.  In The Searchers the kerosene lamp flame makes an appearance, it's within the home.  With this occurring, this also for me reinforced the strength and closeness of the family and the intimacy of their home. Also, it re illiterates the theme of The Odyssey which we find in all epic cinema movies we've seen thus far. 

Rush 5: Final Project

For my final project I'm going to do a completely different analytical paper on the film Inception.  Previously looking at Inception in the film genres class, I looked at the use of glass as a foreshadowing of events and/or insight to the characters inner life.  This time i want to look at Inception thru the lens of epic cinema.  The aspect of epic cinema that fascinates me is how you can find similarities in all the epic cinema genre films (ex. Aspects of The Odyssey show up in all epic cinema, its a circular journey that begins and ends in the same place, the hero goes through a change, etc.)  Where do these concepts lie in Inception?  Also what can the uncanny (and the other things we've been looking at this semester) tell us about the movie,  and can these things help us dive deeper into this psychological thriller. 

EPIC CINEMA RUSH 4: WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD

 

Looking back on my rush post for Ben-Hur my husk I chose was Fire. In Ben-Hur fire is used in a religious context as Juda searches for his faith throughout his journey. When looking at the Wizard of Oz, the first time we see fire is near the end of Dorthy's journey when she has her audience with the Wizard. While Wizard of Oz doesn't really have a religious context, looking at fire and Dorthy's journey, we can see an underlying religious context. Fire in biblical times has an important meaning. Moses comes across the burning bush in the dessert and then changes his life to lead his people out of Egypt. If we look at fire in Wizard of Oz, Dorthy takes a journey (o pilgrimage) in order to find a higher being (The Wizard). When she finds the Wizard there is a spectacle involving fire. Her life from that point on her life is changed from her journey and she learns something about herself in order to find her way home (making her journey go in full circle, like The Hero of A Thousand Faces. So I ask myself, is Dorthy in a way a female Jesus character? Looking at the movie we see some references that could lead to this conclusion. When she lands in Oz, she kills the Wicked Witch of the East, and the entire munchkin village comes out and sees Dorthy as their savior. She is then lead on a journey a higher power (Glinda the Good Witch). Throughout her journey she helps others and as a result she gains followers (apostles). Dorthy and her apostles make their way towards The Emerald City, which could be seen as an indirect reference to The Garden of Eden (Green = Garden), or even Rome (Since the Emerald City is highly civilized). And in the end after everything is done she is told my Glinda (god?) that she had the power to return home (heaven) the entire time. In the end she returns back home to where she started with Uncle Henry and Aunty Em (who could possibly seen as Joseph and Mary). Looking at the Hero of 1000 faces and my post on fire, I was able to unearth something in this classic American Movie that I've never thought of before.

RUSH 3 - BEN-HUR

For my object this week I chose fire (or more specifically the fire that lit the torches). Immediately when we think fire we think of words like: hot, burning, forest fire, etc. When looking at it in the context of Ben-Hur I feel like burning is the most suitable choice to describe it. We first see the fire in the scene when Juda and Messala reunite. The fire is seen here lighting the torches. In this scene its used as a foreshadowing. As the scene progresses we can see that the bridges between these two friends have burned as their fiery argument progresses. The passion that these two hold for their own ideals is also ignited in this scene. The next time we see fire is when the ship Juda is captured on is attacked. He sits with the boat's commander on a raft and watches as the ship burns in the distance. It's almost as if he's watching his old life and what he knew burn away before him. We see the fire used as a metaphor, the ship representing his old life, and the fire burning it to ashes. This ship attacks marks a pivotal turning point in the movie as Juda begins to assimilate into the Roman culture. The uses of fire in this movie to me were selective. To me I thought fire would be used more to light torches or a stove in the background (since fire was used quite often in biblical days). But seeing as Ben-Hur is a biblical story, it makes sense that the use of fire was controlled. Fire Biblical is really important. The burning bush that Moses sees in the desert is a very well known biblical symbol and story. Fire is an important thing to consider when looking at Ben Hur and any biblical story.

Epic Cinema Rush 1

1. What are you up to at Cornish?

• At Cornish I am currently a senior Acting major (Graduating in May ahh! o.0)  I just finished up my senior thesis project this weekend.  I performed in Yellow Face, a play by David Henry Hwang.  My friend Sara directed me in it.  It went really well and I was really proud with the work I did.

2. What's going on outside Cornish?

• Outside of Cornish I am currently trying to establish myself.  I'm planning to audition for the TPS unifieds coming up this February.  Also I plan to try and do as much film work as I can get in Seattle.  I plan to move to LA in June. Recently I also appeared as an extra in an XBOX commercial (posted below) , can you find me? :)
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3. What's your relation to film?

• Film is something I have a very close relationship to.  As an actor I want to do more film in the future.  The main reason people see live theatre is so they can feel something.  I feel film used to do this but has lost it in recent years.  I want to work on films so I can bring that feeling back and create something that transcends the screen.  We need more art and craft back in our films.  In the future I would also like to do television, preferably a series on HBO or Showtime, two channels I feel take what they're putting out very seriously and put a lot of detail and craft in their product.

4. Do you have any hopes and/or expectations for this course?

• This being my second film course, I hope to just expand my knowledge and gain a deeper understanding for film.  I also hope to use this film knowledge in my career path. 

5.  What would you be doing five years from now if you could script your own dream job (within the realm of possibility)?

• Five years from now I would hope to be established in the LA area at the very least.  I plan to move to LA in June and work on establishing myself.  I would also hope in the future, I can work on my play/screen writing a bit and further that.