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Entry 1: In Paris, early-teen Antoine Doinel always seems to be in trouble. He has a short attention span and is easily distracted, which leads to him doing poorly in school. Some of his problems stem from his home life with his mother, Gilberte Doinel, and his stepfather, Julien Doinel, who is the only father he has ever known as Gilberte and Julien married when Antoine was an infant. When Julien and Gilberte aren’t working, they leave Antoine alone to fend for himself. And even when they are home, they are often arguing and their parenting is inconsistent, leading to Antoine having no clear boundaries. On the most part, Antoine truly believes that his mother does not love him. Those issues for which he is blamed are not always his fault, and many of his contemporaries just don’t get caught as often as Antoine seems to get caught. Even when Antoine tries to do the right thing, he often is not given credit for his efforts, or his efforts lead to a bad result. The former issue is especially prevalent at school, where his teachers just believe that his school work will not be worth a passing grade. In general, punishments have been ineffective in curbing his behavior as he just rebels more against them. Antoine is often supported and/or egged on in his activities by his best friend René, who often skips school with him. Unless something drastic changes in Antoine’s life, he is destined down a path that will lead to nothing good, which is more problematic as he gets older. The New wave is a french film movement which emerged in the 1950’sand 1960’s and it is referred to commonly as the most influential movement in the history of cinema. The mark of the new wave is the rejection of the traditional film convention and the dominance  of the spirit of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm is the social belief of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments. Most frequently for religious or political reasons. The mark is also editing, visual style and narrative. This is extremely apparent in 400 Blows as it is a different type of narrative than most stories of French culture.

Man with a Movie Camera , directed by Dziga Vertov in 1929, is a film with the essence of getting the perfect shot. It doesn’t have a conventional plot, story line, or real actors. AMWAMC uses the tempo of the film itself to tell its story albeit if there is one. The narrative shows the progress of one day in the city of Moscow, Russia. The idea of the camera and what the camera can achieve is tested throughout the film. The camera is both machine and a body part. There abundant amount of scenes in which involved challenging and risky shots and techniques Vertov & brother used to get. The film defied all aspects of what films were during that time, introducing numerous new methods of filming in the art form. This film really embodied the Kulshov effect. The Kuleshov effect is a film editing effect demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation Many films at that time were story based and had a conventional plot. Vertov felt film was stuck in this cycle of making something so formulaic that it was limiting the art form itself. Vertov filmed numerous  hours of film not intentionally thinking to use it for a project. He experimented with different type of cinematic shots which were his purely avant-garde. 

German silent film, released in 1927, featuring director Fritz Lang’s  vision of a grim futuristic society and containing some of the most impressive images in film history. The great future city of Metropolis in the film is inhabited by two distinct classes: the industrialists live off the fat of the land, supported by the workers who live under the city and endure a bare-bones existence of backbreaking work. The story concerns a forbidden love between Freder  a young man from the industrialist class, and Maria, an activist who preaches against the divide between the two classes. The subterfuge and deceit involving a robot duplicate of Maria culminate in a revolution that quickly spells disaster for all involved. At this time German Expressionism was rising. German expressionist filmmakers used visual distortion and hyper-expressive performance to show inner turmoils, fears and desires of that era. German Expressionism reflects the inner conflicts of its 1920s German audience by giving their woes an inescapably external presence. By rejecting cinematic realism, expressionist films showcase dramatic, revolutionary interpretations of the human condition. Lang was one of the founders of this movement. 

Antonio Ricci is only one of several men who regularly stand outside his local municipal employment office in Rome every morning hoping that there is work available, it doled out on a qualification basis. This morning, he is told there is a job for him starting tomorrow hanging posters around the city. In getting the job, he tells a white lie in that he has a bicycle, a bicycle which is a requirement for the work. In actuality, he pawned his bicycle to put food on the table for himself, his wife Maria, and their two young children. At some sacrifice, he and Maria sell some of their possessions so that Antonio can get his bicycle out of hawk. They believe it is worth it as the return in employment salary and overtime far exceeds the initial capital outlay in getting the bicycle back. On Antonio’s first working day, his bicycle is stolen as he is on his ladder hanging a poster. With little help from the police who tell him all they can do is keep the bicycle’s serial number on file in case it does show up, Antonio, with his friends and his older son, adolescent Bruno, by his side, go on what seems like a futile mission to locate the bicycle, which could now be anywhere in Rome. But as Antonio views the bicycle as his and his family’s means of survival, he will grasp at any straw to locate the bicycle and/or the thief, who he did see, and perhaps take desperate measures in these desperate times. At this time Italian neorealism took it’s course. It is known as the Golden age and it is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class filmed on location. With this story of this man in and out of unemployment, it fits perfectly in this niche of Italian neorealism. 

In the Sixteenth Century, in Japan, a poor village is frequently looted by armed bandits losing their crop of rice. Their patriarch Grandpa advises the villagers to hire a Ronin to defend their village. Four farmers head to town to seek out their possible protectors, but they just can offer three meals of rice per day and lodging for the samurai. They succeed in hiring the warming-hearted veteran Kambei Shimada that advises that they need six other samurai to protect their lands. Kambei recruits the necessary five samurai and the brave jester Kikuchiyo and move to the village. After a feared reception, Kambei plots a defense strategy and the samurai start training the farmers how to defend their lands and families for the battle that approaches.On first view, Seven Samurai is simply a great action film. But with subsequent viewings, the finer points of characterization come through, subliminally and purposefully seeping into the viewer’s mind. The story, at nearly three and a half hours in length (including a five-minute intermission), is never weighted down with fat, as all of the many subplots bear fruit – so unlike most Hollywood films made today. True, the film displays remnants of the stale samurai genre, such as the wise man Kambei Shimada, the “boy on the verge of manhood” Katsushiro Okamoto, and Katsushiro’s romance with a farmer’s daughter. But it is the central human dilemma of the sixteenth-century farmers, helpless against the depredations of the bandits who abound during the civil wars of the era, that raises Kurosawa’s film above mere clichés.

 Pather Panchali The story of a young boy, Apu, and life in his small Indian village. His parents are quite poor – his father Harihar, a writer and poet, gave away the family’s fruit orchard to settle his brother’s debts. His sister Durga and an old aunt also still lives with them. His mother Sarbojaya bears the brunt of the family’s situation. She scrapes by and sells her personal possessions to put food on the table and has to bear the taunts of her neighbors as Durga is always stealing fruit from their orchard. Things get worse when Harihar disappears for five months and Durga falls ill. Even after Harihar returns, the family is left with few alternatives. This speaks to parallel Cinema directors as they don’t adhere to any one particular style, instead the used everything from neorealism to avant garde to tell their stories 

In The Milky Way, Two vagabonds Jean (Laurent Terzieff) and Pierre (Paul Frankeur) are hitching a ride from Paris to Spain as a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to pray over the remains of Saint James. As the two travel by whatever methods they can get and depending on the locals for food, they seem to shift their existence in time, flashing back to biblical times, medieval times, and renaissance times to scenes confronting and examining theological texts and arguments surrounding heresy. Along the way Jean and Pierre meet up with Jesus (Bernard Verley) showing off his abilities, and the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli) begins a new relationship with a young girl in chains, and also Satan (Pierre Clementi) who appears during a car crash to establish some interesting points about religion. In the end our two beggars realize some interesting new ideas about the world they inhabit. This movie perfectly embodies the idea of Surrealism.  Surealism Revolutionized the art of cinema with new techniques and approaches that freed it from traditional story-telling, transforming the medium into one that could explore, reveal, and possibly even replicate the inner-workings of the subconscious mind. Surrealist films often leave us with shocking images that lodge themselves into our psyche and deprive us of easily legible narratives, while at the same time prove compelling in their deep, ultimately neo-romantic expressions of desire. The movie screen becomes a portal through which the viewer can journey where the traditional common constructs can no longer be reliable guides. 

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, “The Perfect Human,” starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake the film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier’s strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates ever more elaborate rules for the contest.on Trier and Vinterberg started Dogme 95 in 1995 with this idea in mind: to return to “traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology.” At that time, big budget Hollywood films were reigning supreme, and von Trier and Vinterberg wanted to show that budgets don’t define quality. Similar to Dogme 95, movements such as Italian Neorealism and French New Wave had certain political implications, but where post-WWII Italian filmmakers, as well as post-Trente Glorieuses French filmmakers zigged, Dogme 95 filmmakers zagged. While Italian and French filmmakers embraced creative freedom, Dogme 95 wrote their manifesto and imposed a set of ten rules known as the “vow of chastity”: This movies follows all of the Dogme rules. 

In the Mood for Love is set in 1962 in Hong Kong. On the exact same two days, Mr. and Mrs. Chow and Mr. and Mrs. Chan, who don’t know each other, rent a room in adjacent flats from the resident owner, Mr. and Mrs. Koo and Mrs. Suen respectively, and move into their room. They join the friendly relationship that exists between their landlords and the other residents of the building, although the Chows and Chans’ entry into the relationships are more cordial than friendly. With Mrs. Chow and Mr. Chan often out of town either on business or personal matters, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan lead a somewhat emotionally lonely existence. The cordiality and emotional isolation extend to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s working lives. Mr. Chan, a newspaper journalist who would rather be writing martial arts serials, has as his closest work colleague Ping, a gambler who often takes advantage of that friendship. And Mrs. Chan’s job as a secretary to married Mr. Ho largely entails her handling his personal affairs, including managing and facilitating his affair with Miss Yu, something she cannot talk about to anyone. Eventually, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan individually come to the realization that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other, mostly taking place when they are out of town together. In dealing with this joint betrayal of their respective marriages, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan begin spending time together. Despite they not doing anything untoward with each other, they do not tell anyone of their time together in the inappropriateness of two married people of the opposite sex being alone with each other. As they try to figure out what to do about their respective marriages, the situation becomes more complicated when they admit that they are falling in love with each other, something that neither intended when they began their friendship.

The Crime of Padre Amaro is a story about a Recently ordained a priest, 24-year-old Father Amaro is sent to a small parish church in Los Reyes, Mexico to assist the aging Father Benito in his daily work. Benito–for years a fixture in the church as well as the community–welcomes Father Amaro into a new life of unseen challenges. Upon arriving in Los Reyes, the ambitious Father Amaro meets Amelia, a beautiful 16-year-old girl whose religious devotion soon becomes helplessly entangles in a growing attraction to the new priest. Amelia is quickly following into the footsteps of her mother, Sanjuanera, who has been engaged in a long-time affair with Father Benito. Amaro soon discovers that corruption and the Church are old acquaintances in Los Reyes. Father Benito has been receiving financial help from the region’s drug lord for the construction of a new health clinic. As well, another priest in the diocese, Father Natalio, is suspected of assisting guerilla troops in the highlands. Meanwhile, Amelia and Father Amaro have fallen in love and have begun a passionate sexual relationship. As things become increasingly more complicated in the small community, the walls around Father Amaro begin to crumble. Torn between the divine and the carnal, the righteous and the unjust, Father Amaro must summon his strength to choose which life he will lead.

The story is about a shiftless printer’s assistant, Hossain Sabzian, who is also a film lover and huge fan of popular Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (director of Gabbeh and The Cyclist). Sabzian is riding the bus one day reading a copy of the novel The Cyclist when he meets Mrs. Ahankhah, a fan of the film. Sabzian tells her that he is Makhmalbaf, the author of the book and film. She’s a bit surprised that a famous director is riding public transportation, but Sabzian explains that this is how he finds his subjects for film and that art must spring from life. Posing as Makhmalbaf, Sabzian visits the Ahankhah family several times over the next couple of weeks. He flatters them by saying he wants to use their house for his next film and their sons as his actors. He even obtains a substantial amount of money from them, ostensibly to prepare for the film. Mr. Ahankhah has his suspicions though, especially when a magazine photo shows a younger darker-haired Makhmalbaf. He invites an ambitious journalist friend (Hossain Farazmand) over, who confirms that Sabzian is indeed an impostor. The police come to arrest Sabzian, while Farazmand takes several pictures for his upcoming article: “Bogus Makhmalbaf Arrested.” Kiarostami intersperses these scenes throughout the film, which does not progress chronologically. They are re-enactments, and they are the only re-enactments in the film. 

The rest of the film is documentary (or what passes for documentary when the subjects know a camera is on them). Kiarostami obtains permission from the court to film the trial (Sabzian is being tried for fraud) and records the testimony of the Ahankhah’s yougest son Merhdad and Hossain Sabzian. Occasionally, Kiarostami interrupts to ask a few questions himself (apparently in Iran this is quite legal). One of the fascinating aspects of this movie is the glimpse of the Iranian legal system. There is a judge but no lawyers, and both sides tell their stories themselves. Over the course of the trial, Sabzian is questioned persistently about his reasons for impersonating Makhmalbaf. Sabzian says he has always felt like a nobody, someone you wouldn’t think twice about after meeting him, much less approach on the street. He feels empowered when he’s Makhmalbaf–people respect him, they listen to his every word as if genius flows from his lips. Not only is it an ego trip, but it’s a way of making his obsession a reality. Sabzian loves cinema. He watches films over and over again, but he doesn’t experience film until he pretends he is a filmmaker. Ironically, with this movie Sabzian has finally become the subject of a film. His reality has transmuted into celluloid for the whole world to see. 

Close-Up is densely packed with ideas and themes, so much so that repeat viewings are probably necessary to appreciate the depth of Kiarostami’s gaze. What impresses throughout the film is Kiarostami’s evident humanism. Sabzian is ultimately a sympathetic character because he loves movies for their ability to speak to him, the average Mo(hammed) on the street. Sabzian’s employment problems and poverty even provide a subtle social critique. The ending of the film, when Sabzian at last meets the real Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a highly emotional experience because his shame is so authentic and Makhmalbaf is kind and not too reproachful. Sound fades out intermittently in these final scenes, when Makhmalbaf’s microphone goes on the blink. Kiarostami didn’t have the ability to reshoot the scenes because Sabzian could only meet his idol for the first time once. Kiarostami also chose not to redub the sound which reminds us that we are not only watching a film, but watching life happen as well.