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Review 3: Come and See

Come and See (1985), directed by Elem Klimov, is a Soviet anti-war film portraying the loss of innocence through a child's viewpoint. The film's sound design and cinematography show this through subjective sound and filming methods to eternalise the trauma of the individual survivor and the anonymous victims.

 The film begins in 1943, with 14-year-old Fliora searching for weapons among the wreckage of a previous battle while German planes loom threateningly overhead. Fliora finds a rifle and joins the partisan soldiers protecting their homeland.

 Come and See portrays the historical truth of Nazi and Soviet partisan activity in Belarus over 48 hours in 1943. The film's narrative revolves around a cruel war initiation. Fliora is initially seen as a boy whose early engagement with the resistance looks to be nothing more than a continuation of the war games he plays in the opening scene. However, he learns the true horrors of war, developing wrinkles and grey hair as he gains years in two days.

 The soundtrack achieves spine-chilling realism throughout the film by combining a chaotic mix of droning whirs, animal noises, pieces of classical music, and the anticipated war sounds. German planes bomb the forest, temporarily deafening Fliora. Klimov alters the audio for the rest of the scene, suppressed and warped by a high-pitched ringing, to experience the scene from Fliora's viewpoint.

 The film's cinematography includes close-ups, characters staring directly into the camera and smooth long shots. The recurrent close-ups serve as personal losses of war against the broad historical tragedy. Fliora accidentally steps on a bird's nest, smashing the unhatched eggs. The close-up of the destroyed nest and single hatchling demonstrates that even the smallest and most innocent of nature's creatures are victims of war. Fliora repeatedly stares directly into the camera; as the film progresses, his glances lose their humanity and innocence and take on primitive, even deranged emotion. The film contains gliding tracking shots that show the individuals struggling to survive or the tragedies as they occur, remaining connected with Fliora's perspective.

 The coherence of the sound design and cinematography of the film emphasises the devastating effects of war. Klimov provides viewers with the perspective of a soldier through a child's eyes and ears by limiting the action to Fliora's point of view. The film's overwhelming and disturbing intensity of effect emotionally engages viewers. They will feel the complete hatred of this crime against humanity and the loss of innocence, not only from children but also from nature itself. Thus, the most crucial reason I highly recommend watching Come and See is not just its masterpiece quality, but the history it tells and the message it conveys; war destroys the innocents along with the soldiers.

[chellyb01]

Review 2: Tokyo Story

Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 film, Tokyo Story, follows three generations as they go through life yet focuses on the generation soon to leave it, taking the viewers along for this external and internal journey. This review will focus on the parents' journey, the film's slow pacing and Ozu's distinctive cinematography style to give viewers an original yet complex experience.

The film is about an elderly couple, Shukichi and Tomi, visiting their grown children in Tokyo. They stay for a few days but quickly discover that their children have grown apart from them and appear to be bothered by their parents' presence.

The film is less about Shukichi and Tomi's literal journey from their hometown Onomichi towards Tokyo and more about the figurative journey of how relationships between parents and children change over time, how it affects parents, and how one must come to accept these changes. Children will ultimately grow apart from their parents and have less time to spend with them. Koichi and Shige are oblivious that the true purpose of their parents' visit is to spend time together and improve family relationships. Shige welcomes her parents with cheap crackers and less food than her brother had planned. The film also addresses the parents' dissatisfaction with their children. They gradually reveal that they recall their children being kinder. An intoxicated Shukichi complains with two old friends that Tokyo is overcrowded and does not provide enough opportunities for its citizens. In this way, he looks for justifications for his children's lack of affection. As a result, their internal journey throughout the film changes their perspectives of their children from disappointment to understanding.

The pacing of Tokyo Story is slow, which draws the viewer's attention away from the outcomes of the narrative and toward the journey of reaching those outcomes. The incidents are slight, and there is no apparent change in characterisation or mood. Important events are often not shown on screen but revealed through dialogue, as the train journeys to and from Tokyo are not depicted but discussed upon arrival. As a result, the film is intensely engaging. Ozu's steady, clear-eyed gaze heightens the viewer's attention to detail. At bedtime, the mother's gradual lowering of herself onto her tatami mat expresses her dissatisfaction with her children.

Ozu's distinctive cinematography style includes low camera angles, primarily static shots, and deviations from Hollywood filmmaking principles such as master shots and the 180-degree rule. The low camera angles suggest that viewers watch the scenes while sitting on a traditional Japanese tatami mat, focusing only on what is directly before them. Ozu seldom used master shots and often deviated from the 180-degree rule. Characters that frequently sit next to each other appear to be facing the same direction while speaking, like in the opening scene with Shkichi and Tomi. At first, they face right; however, they face left when the sequence ends.  

The internal journey the parents go on with the help of the film's slow pacing adds to the film's complexity. The slow pacing engages viewers' interests by emphasising the parents' journey of understanding that their children have their own lives to focus on. Consequently, the journey is further emphasised by the originality of Ozu's cinematography style, which deviates from the familiar conventions used in film. As a result, Tokyo Story is highly recommended for viewers' who want to experience the final journey each parent must take while seeing the beauty of Ozu's work.

[chellyb01]

Review 1: Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou (1929), directed by Luis Buñuel, is a seventeen-minute short film that destabilises the viewer through a disjointed narrative, inconsistent editing techniques, and an independent soundtrack. The film encourages various interpretations yet resists a particular meaning, resulting in a subjective viewing experience.

 There is no apparent connection throughout the narrative of the film. The film starts with a male sharpening his knife under a full moon; the male cuts into a female’s eye as the clouds passing over the moon. The eye-slitting scene follows a cyclist falling onto the curb, with the same female as in the previous scene, with both eyes unharmed, staring down at him from the window. The connection between the scenes is unclear, much like the rest of the film. The disjointed narrative makes the sequences self-dependent, which expands the interpretation possibilities.

 Buñuel uses continuity editing to distort continuity in space and time, subverting traditional editing conventions. When the male protagonist is confronted by his doppelganger, the books in his hands transform into guns. His doppelganger falls in the room, then through an editing dissolve, continues his fall in a park. Minor editing inconsistencies in the film gradually disrupt the montage process, which adds to the destabilisation of the viewer.

 The soundtrack has its own dynamics that are independent of the narrative. The non-diegetic music alternatively accompanies and opposes the action. Suspenseful, dramatic music emphasises the moments of death, love, and the death of love, heightening the narrative’s emotional impact, whereas other scenes, such as the eye-slitting sequence, the seduction sequence, and the finale, oppose these violent scenes with an uplifting score.

 The disunity between the narrative, sound, and editing, forms a new type of coherence in which the viewer is free to interpret the film through their own subjective viewing. This coherence adds to a complex viewing experience, where endless meanings can be interpreted or, in some cases, none at all. It all depends on the viewer and their engagement with the film. As a result, Un Chien Andalou (1929) is highly recommended for viewers with or without creative imaginations and interpretation abilities.