Was Teddy telling the truth?

Memento has been the best movie we have seen so far this year in Art of Film (In my opinion). I enjoyed Groundhog Day a lot, however I had already seen that multiple times. Memento is a one of a kind movie, mixed with its reverse chronological order and Leonard's condition, it was so much more than I expected. The whole movie led up to the final scene, which in the black and white scenes case was the ending and the color scenes case, was the beginning. Here we learn how Teddy may not have been lying to Leonard the whole time, he may in fact have been a cop and tried to just help Leonard. We learn how Teddy had Leonard kill a guy to try and get the money out of the trunk and in doing so explained how there was no Sammy Jenkis and Leonard was really the one who couldn't condition his memory to save his wife. These ideas are very interesting, definitely make you think and question your entire viewpoint of the film thus far. My conclusion was the same one that Leonard drew, he burned the pictures of himself after he supposedly killed "John G" and the picture of the man who was supposedly "John G". I think Teddy had been lying the whole time to try and make off with the money and not get caught by Leonard for who he really was, John G. who raped and murdered his wife.

Double Indemnity

We recently just finished viewing our first of 3 films in the film noir category, Double Indemnity. I was very pessimistic going into this film, I had never seen a film noir and had only heard of Sin City as being somewhat good. This film blew all my expectations away, i loved it. Just the way everything flowed, with so much suspense built by walter's voice over to keys and keys figuring out the plan but not who that other somebody is, this movie was absolutely fantastic. I must say it completely opened the doors for me to go out and see more film noir now, i look forward to seeing Sin City, which i hear is just like this kind of a theme, but newer and a little more updated. Our next film is Kiss Me Deadly, which im sure will be just as outstanding a film as Double Indemnity. Thanks to this film I now am eager to learn more about Film Noir and definitely eager to watch more from this epic genre of films.

Groundhog Day

In our fourth hour Art of Film class we recently finished the film "Groundhog Day", directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray. I had previously seen this film a good two or three times, however, I still enjoyed being able to re-live each comedic moment as Bill Murray so expertly acted them out. I love watching this movie, I don't think it could ever really get old for me just because each time different aspects of the movie catch you off guard. The first time watching it I remember being touched on how he cared for the older man who died that day. The second time I remember laughing long and hard over his "suicide montage" that I didn't find as appealing the first time. This time watching it, it was the little details. Details such as Ned Rierson's reactions that so fine-tuned the production of the movie it added the last detail to make it so great. The words to the song as well, as pointed out by Mr. K., definitely added more to the immense detail and planning put into this film, let alone all the different camera angles, shots, and filming detail we have learned so much about in class. Overall I really enjoyed viewing Groundhog Day and would recommend it to anybody who enjoys a exuberant comedy.

Bringing up Baby

We just finished another film in our 4th period art of film class, Bringing up Baby. Its a ridiculous screwball comedy the deals with a woman falling in love with a man and in an attempt to keep him for herself she sets of a series of comedic events that eventually short change the man quite severely. I found this movie almost annoying in some cases, especially when Susan would try to coax David into another laughable scheme or scenario where hes completley clueless and shes making up stories as to get by. She foolishly follows David around hopelessly in love with him throughout the story. I did like some of the slapstick humor that was produced such as the falling down the hill, both David and Susan walking into the stream, and the crashing of the brontosaur skeleton at the end. It definitely leads me to not be opposed to viewing films from the same genre of screwball comedy's, however, it doesn't necessarily make me race out the door to go rent them.

The Western Genre

This ones a little overdue for those of you who check my blog. I was sick from school for 3 days last week so I am finally posting my post-film blog on the 2 westerns we watched in 4th hour, My Darling Clementine (John Ford) and Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone). Previous to this unit, I had only viewed one western before. This was of Tombstone which included the legends of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Seeing these characters that I adored in that film brought into even older retrospect to My Darling Clementine really made it stand out for me. I extremely enjoyed the sense of measure that characters have in westerns, they all fit there prospective "roles" as oppose to such versatile acting so commonly seen in todays media. Secondly we viewed Once Upon A Time in the West, which was another fantastic film. I loved the way the director employed suspense to such extreme measures to draw out every seconds worth of drama available throughout the film. Although I extremely enjoyed both films, I favored My Darling Clementine due to my past dealings with the characters of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. These films have completely opened the doors for me into the Western genre, I now appreciate these films more and will no longer "avoid" renting them from a movie store.