Wednesday, April 20, 2011
feeling kinda Moody
There are numerous directions one could take in discussing this film, the least of which seems to be the story. Thus, narrative...The almost invisible shifts (particularly in the filmic tradition) in time often confuses the story in some manner. We cannot always tell when time has changed or when the characters change (as when they are "playing" the roles of their spouses). The camera (and costumes) provide only discrete clues to such shifts. How do these affect the story and the viewer's relationship with such?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
the invisible shifts make the characters feel even more lonely. without rising and falling action and without much dialogue at all, the invisible shifts elaborate on the feeling the characters emulate.
ReplyDeleteThese invisible shifts seem to further distance the viewer from relating to the characters. The ability to connect with a character often relies on understanding the context in which the character operates. In The Ice Storm, the lack of temporal context and the ambiguity of character motivations (and roles) further alienates the characters from the viewer. The characters’ inability to articulate themselves combined with the ambiguity of context (resulting from invisible shifts) embodies each character’s isolation from both the viewer and other characters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of the above comments about the relationship between invisible shifts and characters in The Ice Storm. To expand from Sarah's comment, the "characters' inability to articulate themselves" reminds me of the discussion that we had of Flavor Flav at the beginning of the semester. With that said, the characters in both the novel and film version of The Ice Storm become caricatures of themselves. Furthermore, the more the characters try to assert their own existence in the world, the act of doing so becomes pointless. The characters are so dissatisfied with the negativity that goes along with the sexual revolution that they live in that it becomes almost pathetic when they react to society. Ultimately, it is because of this notion of the characters' unsuccessful actions and thoughts to interpolate themselves in the world that we are unable to sympathize with them.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative is not conventional due to the ambiguousness of time and the films dependence of music as a medium to exemplify emotion. The technical elements of the film are used in a manner that makes itself apparent to the viewer. The systems in which Kar-Wai uses are not in 1-2-3 cinematic form, editing & mis-en-scene are made visible to establish the passage of time(You have to really be paying attention, such as the numerous close-ups on the clock, or costume changes). Like in The Ice Storm, the audience feels little for the characters & are emotionally detached from them.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Bryans comment, there is an ambiguity in the style of naration that takes place in the film In the Mood for Love. This ambiguity creates the distance to character and it often appears as if the viewer is looking through a glass wall and has no connection to the characters. Yet I feel that it only appears this way, with the use of different cinematic element such as mis-en-scene and the use of music, the viewer can began to make their own analysis and connections to the characters. Some viewers may feel distant and detached, while others my feel closer to the irony that these two neighbors both have cheating spouses and the spouses are cheating with one another.
ReplyDeleteI thought the invisible shifts were very interesting. However, being classical Hollywood narrative-minded, I always look for a plot or a timeline in every film I see. In the case of In the Mood for Love, I still felt that it was a continuous timeline, just with all the boring shots of them being lonely taken out. I felt as if each scene was a new episode in their slowly progressing relationship. Each scene still added to and related to the previous.
ReplyDeleteI don't think audiences care about this invisible shift like film scholars do. Audiences just care about being entertained and if the invisible shift is one of entertaining them, then they probably might notice it, but I don't think they really do.
ReplyDeleteI thought they way certain things were shot, like through a doorway or through a fence or whatnot, was really interesting. The couple was all about other people's perceptions and how their relationship must appear to others, so it was a very nice touch to the paranoia they must have felt. Every intimate moment we saw were as if we were outsiders looking in, especially the way we didn't get all of the information we needed to piece together what their relationship really was. Did she go up to that room with the sexy red hallway and have sex with him? The world may never know.
ReplyDelete