Short Films

I thought the short films that Mr. Mayo posted on his blog were very interesting. They showed a variety of methods and plot types, and the quality varied. "Black Hole" was, I think, clearly the best that was posted. It quickly developed an exciting plot with no dialogue and only one character. I thought the cinematography was good and the effect used for the black hole was very cool. "The Man at the Counter" was filmed well, and I thought the narration added a nostalgic feeling, but the end didn't make sense to me, and I think overall it was too sappy. "Hunting" had a good balance of emotional weight, and I liked the story, but I think the overall feel of it was a little amateur. However, I think that "Hunting" is the film that the best of our films will resemble. The cut between the boys and the deer in that film was smooth and looked fine, but it was clear from the lighting that they were filmed in different locations. Because of time and logistics, I think that many of our films will require cutaways like that. This is not to say that "Hunting" wasn't good or that our short films won't be good, but I think no one will be able to make one resembling "Black Hole"

Venezuela's Loss

Hugo Chavez

Last week, on March 5th, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez died of an unspecified cancer. He had been president since 1998. Chavez was a very controversial figure in the U.S. One might even go as far as to say he was hated and feared. It was always unclear to me why Chavez had such a bad reputation here. Ever since he became president Venezuela has been slowly recovering from crippling poverty that had been present for decades. Venezuela is an oil rich country, but until Chavez became president all the profits from this industry went to the wealthy elite of the country. Furthermore, the Venezuelan government had been constantly fighting wars with obscure leftist guerilla groups as well as taking advantage of many native tribes in the country.
Chavez was an army officer as a young man, and while he was stationed at posts in trival territories he became aware of the natives' plight. He was also influenced politically by revolutionaries such as Che Guevara. In the mid-nineties Chavez attempted a coup against the corrupt govenrment. It failed and Chavez was briefly imprisoned. Despite being almost unknown to the Venezuelan public in 1998, Chavez managed to win the presidential election, defeating the dominant party's candidate. In office, Chavez pursued policies such as legislation to protect indigenous tribes and a national health care system. These don't sound like things a ruthless dictator would do, but still he was portrayed that way in the U.S. This might be because Chavez was vocally opposed to American influence, and many times publicly embarassed U.S. A more likely reason, however, is that Chavez nationalized the Venezuelan oil fields. This meant that the price of oil imported from Venezuela rose. Meanwhile, Chavez was selling oil at lower prices to the Cuban government in exchange for educated doctors and teachers. Doing this was good for his country no matter how much we hated it because it put money in the pockets of his people who had lived in poverty their whole lives. I beleive that Hugo Chavez was not some kind of demon, but that he was an admirable leader and a hero to the poor and working classes.

Henry V

Earlier tonight I went to see Henry V at the Folger theater in D.C. It's probably the best of Shakespeare's histories, and if you want to know why you should watch Kenneth Brannagh's film version. The play is about King Henry V of England and his attempt to seize the Fench crown through force of arms. This production stars Zach Appleman as Henry. Appleman is magnetic in the role, and portrays Henry as a introverted young man who is swept into war against his own will. This angle is difficult to reconsile with Henry's warlike speeches throughout the play, but Appleman pulls it off. He is restrained and dutifull, but still his soldiers are still inspired by his words. The best part of his performance, though, are the moments when he is alone onstage and grappling with the price of war and lamenting his part in it, which as king he must follow till the end. The play is heavy from the beginning and shows severe emotional pain suffered by many characters, but it is not without its uplifting moments. There is a scene making fun of a scotsman's incomprehensible accent, and another involving a hilariously crude mistranslation from french to english (read the play if you want specifics). In the end, Henry has come to a peace agreement with the French, and as part of it he is given the king's daughter's hand in marriage. Henry and the princess Kate are left alone, and he tries to express his (dubious) love to her, but his blunt military attitude and self-consciousness result in a touchingly awkward scene which portrays the enigmatic king as simply human.



Appleman as Henry

Argo

I finally saw Argo this weekend at the AFI. It's about the Iranian hostage crisis in the late seventies, Ben Affleck directed and starred. It's a very well made movie accurately that recreates the street protests and violence in Iran at the time. The movie focuses on six foreign service employees that escaped the U.S. embassy when it was attacked by protesters. The six hide out in the Canadian Ambassador's house where C.I.A operative Tony Mendez finds them in order to get them out of the contry. There is incredible tension created in scenes at the Tehran airport where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard interrogates Mendez and the six americans. Mendez plans to get the americans out by giving them fake identities as Canadian film scouts for a movie called Argo. I won't reveal anything else, but suffice it to say the movie is very good and I reccomend it.

I was very impressed when in the narration at the beginning, it was admitted that the violent and chaotic situation in Iran was due to a coup funded by the U.S. in the fifties which deposed a democratically elected leader in favor of a repressive monarchy all in the interest of cheap oil. However, throughout the movie, more mainstream views about Iran developed. By the end of the movie, the Revolutionary Guard are villians and nothing more. Because of this it is important to remember that the culpability of the hostage crisis, and even the entire violent ismlamist uprising sits squarely in the hands of the United States.

                                                                        
Ben Affleck as Mendez

The Fiscal Cliff

For a long time I really did not understand what was going on with the fiscal cliff that was all over the news recently. I think that now that it has passed I have some limited understanding, here's what I have learned:
This supposed crisis centered around three things that were scheduled to happen on the new year. First, the Bush tax cuts were going to end, this would raise taxes on all americans and significantly shrink the amount of spending money in the pockets of middle class people. This would have been a bad thing, however what the President wanted to do was to extend the tax cuts for people of all incomes but the top one or two percent. This would keep most people from being affected by the change and would increase revenue for the government. Second, a sequester was planned to take place, this meant that $1.2 trillon would be cut from the federal budget. This was agreed on as a cocession to republicans during the debt ceiling negotiations last year and would have damaged losts of government programs like Medicare and Social Security. Finally, the estate tax was set to expire. This is a tax on large inheritances. There were other things that were also being negotiated such as unemployment benefits and the capital gains tax, but these three were the most important. If left unchecked, it was pretty clear that these deadlines would shrink the economy significantly.
After lots and lots of negotiating, dealing, and backstabbing an agreement was reached, but not till after the new year. This means we did actually go over the fiscal cliff, but nothing really happened. A few days after the new year congress passed a deal agreed upon by Mitch McConnel and Joe Biden. This deal continued the tax cuts for everyone making less than $450,000, continued the estate tax at 40% for inheritances over $5 million, and delayed the sequester for two months. This deal was generally liked by all involved and so there wasn't much trouble putting it through Congress even though Eric Cantor and other conservative republicans threatened to block it. It does, however mean that there will be more negotiations in two months over the sequester, so it's not over yet.



John Boehner

Documentary Review

I watched Rattle and Hum, a documentary about U2's American tour in 1987.

This documentary centers around the members of the band, Bono (vocals), The Edge (guitar), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums), and Adam Clayton (bass). It also includes the legendary B.B. King, one of the greatest blues guitarists alive today. It is an obserbvational documentary because the filmmaker has no prescence and is simply filming the band. There is also very little persuasion involved.
Because it is documenting a tour, the film is dominated by concert footage. It begins with a cover of the Beatles song Helter Skelter and continues to include many songs which the band played at stops during the tour as well as a few recorded in studios along the way.
The songs are, of course, punctuated by interviews, some b-roll, and backstage footage of the band interacting. The script very consciously has some faults, most notably when the band is asked a question near the beginning and no one answers. Instead they just look at each other and quietly laugh. This is a device that does not seem very necessary, but it is forgivable as the interviews are not the most important part of the documentary, taking the back seat to other a-roll such as concert footage and also one scene where the band rehearses with a church choir.
The dramatic aspects of the film are very minimal , but they are captured in footage of the band rehearsing a song with B.B. King as well as a few more interspersed scenes in which show the band interacting offstage. As one would expect Bono is a very powerful prescence, being the lead singer, but B.B. King is the one who really dominates these scenes by telling jokes and describing his experience being in music for over four decades.
The documentary is very interesting cinematographically. The lighting of the concerts is captured very beautifully on film with angles that use backlight to outline band members as they play or sing. The lighting is mainly low-key especially during concert scenes. This projects the excitment from the actual concert onto the screen. The film is shot almost entirely in black and white, presumably for artistic reasons, but it means that when it transitions into color briefly the audience is taken by surprise. The first color shot is an empty stage with a bright red background projected on a screen behind the set. This creates a very desert-like feel that is appropriate for this film and certain songs such as "In God's Country" and "Red Hill Mining Town.
There is no narrator, and the sound is almost all diegetic. This means that the documentary is free-standing and is without any explanation, this lets the music and the atmosphere of the concerts speak for itself.


  B.B. King performing "When Love Comes to Town"

Two Unrelated Topics

I really like what I've read of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the stream of consciousness style is really interesting and it keeps me paying attention to what Oskar is talking about. I don't know if Safran-Foer is accurately representing the mind of an autistic kid seeing as neither he nor I have been diagnosed with the disorder, but it certainly seems pretty realistic and gives me a really new viewpoint on the topic. Sometimes I get the feeling that Safran-Foer is being a little pretentious in his attempt to be profound and that he's exploring his own thoughts and not necessarily the character's thoughts, but that's not often and his ideas in the book are pretty cool anyway.

Recently there has been a lot relating to Egypt in the news. This is because they are beginning the process of drafting a Constitution, the first in the coutry's history. This is very exciting because it means that ideas which began back in 2011 during the Arab Spring are being acted on. There is less sensationalism surrounding these recent events, but I think they will turn out to be more important because this is really what will finalize democracy in Egypt.