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Aguirre, the Wrath of God

  Dominic Mayhall Aguirre, the Wrath of God      When you originally mentioned that this movie was about German actors playing Spaniards, I thought that was a brilliant idea. I know that because the director was German, he'd use German actors, but the concept of a movie about conquistadors speaking German sounds like comedy gold. Though, I was able to watch the movie in dubbed English, so I did that. The dub was pretty good for one dubbed in the 70s where some dubbers drank on the job.     That opening scene and that shot by the mountain side with the misty atmosphere was beautiful. All while a hymn is played lavishly in the background. This type of scenery in movies always impresses me whether it was filmed past or present. Even more so if it was filmed in the past, because to this day I don't know how some of these frames were done using video wizardry. Using that large river must've been hard to navigate around, but I'm glad they used it. It adds a form ...
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2001: A Space Odyssey's Epicness

  Dominic Mayhall 2001: A Space Odyssey's Epicness          I have always heard about this movie, and I always thought it came out in 2001. I also know that David Bowie has a song called "Space Oddity" that he wrote six months after seeing this film. I was very clueless knowing what A Space Odyssey was really about. I'm glad I finally got around to watching it I was really impressed.          There have been a couple space movies that I've seen that have probably taken inspiration from this movie. One that I just watched recently and that I love was "Interstellar". Both movies rely heavily on visuals more than actual dialogues. And as a viewer I prefer that more than having to pay attention to what the different characters are saying. The beginning of the movie has that iconic song with the timpani called "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. I've heard that song so many times in other forms of media and I read somewhere els...
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Details in Breathless

Dominic Mayhall Details in Breathless          There have been many directors to come and go throughout the history of film making. Some to leave an impression and others to take it with them.  Each of these directors from all over the world used a certain style or a mix of styles to create the movies they wanted to make. The style that Jean-Luc Godard is a unique one that is deserving of the title "New Wave".          My first thoughts on the movie "Breathless" by Jean-Luc Godard is that it has some realism to it. A film I can compare it to is one you already mentioned in the film lesson, and that's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Breathless's use of comedic timing and randomness every so often remind me of that same cadence in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". For example, even though he doesn't look at the audience directly like Ferris would, he speaks his mind out loud to tell us what he's thinking. In the first 10 minutes you u...
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Is Citizen Kane the G.O.A.T?

  Dominic Mayhall Is Citizen Kane the G.O.A.T?          The G.O.A.T debate is a strong opinion held by people who think they're right. People have every right to think they're correct, but everyone thinks differently on different subjects. For me, my favorite movie and what movie I think is the greatest of all time is "Ghostbusters". And not everyone would think it is the greatest film of all time. Now, you can call Citizen Kane ONE of the greatest films of all time and most people would respect that opinion. But if you say it IS the greatest movie of all time, that could cause controversy.           One thing about this movie that I liked just in the first 10 minutes was the realism that it brought to the table. Some things where over exaggerated for the big screen, but it mostly felt like the plot could be real. Almost like a documentary type the way they talk about Charles Foster Kane and what his ideals where and who he ass...
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The Colors of Gone with the Wind

Dominic Mayhall The Colors of Gone with the Wind          The use of color in film didn't start looking realistic until movies like "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind" came out. Both films have a bright and wide range of natural looking color never before seen in theaters. Though, I'd say The Wizard of Oz has a brighter scheme of colors. But each different color fits its respective film. I chose to view "Gone with the Wind" as my movie of choice this week.          I have never seen "Gone with the Wind" before, but I know the famous line at the end of the movie it's famous for. When Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, says his final lines to his love interest Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh, saying "Frequently my dear, I don't give a damn." The only reason I know that line is from a trivia question. I now know this is technically the first curse word to be used in a movie. Anyway, I really appreciate...
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Gold Diggers and M

Dominic Mayhall Gold Diggers and M          This week we were shown a glimpse of the golden age of Hollywood and the overwhelming number of movies that were produced in just a couple of decades.  Movies seemed to grow at a rapid rate and in a short amount of time. In that short slide of all those movie titles passing by, it looked like more than a couple hundred movies were made in just one to three years. And I see a production difference in two movies that came out only two years a part.           Comparing these two films, Gold Diggers and M, is like water and oil. These movies are acted and written polar opposite to one another. One is German and the other is an American film. Both have different feels for their own genres, and you can see the differences that are portrayed in Germany and America. The movie M had pretty much no music in it, you could just hear the static or the wind in the backgrounds of every shot. The thi...
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German Expressionism

 Dominic Mayhall German Expressionism          Film without expression would be a pretty bland form of art. People like to see the reactions and gestures of other people, it's what makes us human. And like all things, film has evolved to show us different emotions through close ups. Which is what I think German Expressionism does well.           I watched two movies, the one you requested to watch, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and one of the suggestions, Nosferatu. I know of Nosferatu through pop culture, specifically a SpongeBob episode. On season 2, episode 16, they had an episode called "Graveyard Shift" and at the very end there's a shot of Count Orlok standing in the doorway flipping the light switch to scare them. I didn't know it was from a film the first time I watched it. Being a kid and all, I just thought they threw him in there to be scary. I find out a couple years later when I was rewatching the episode with my pa...
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