My Life = School

I should be sleeping, but my brain won’t let me. It’s frustrating, because right now is when I need sleep the most.

So, I rode a bike again. It was AWESOME. It was only for about 10 minutes, in circles, in red square, really slowly, but I am still giddy about it, and am trying to build up my legs so I could potentially go on a real bike ride soon! I also have a killer cane now, and can walk quite a bit faster.

I recently applied for a second major in Art History. I don’t really know where I am going with it, but it seems like fun, will keep me in one place for another 6 months or so, and is doable. I actually got the okay from my adviser, when I was convinced she would tell me that it was a silly idea. I am hoping to really tie Film Studies and Art together, and I think with the help from an English Professor into art, and an Art History Professor into film, that it should work out pretty well.

I am currently writing a pretty big essay about Tim Burton and his relationship to German Expressionism. In the essay I end up talking about the Gothic and the sublime, as well as Goya… Which my Professor was actually into, he told me to add some images of paintings, and go a little more in depth. So it’s already working out really well. =D

I recently signed up for classes, and am incredibly excited. I am taking Trash Cinema, Culture and Politics of Desire, and Installation Art. Trash Cinema is about the aesthetics and appeal of cult films (among other things), Culture and Politics of Desire is about Cyber Culture and the visual culture associated with that, and then of course Installation Art is Installation art. I am hoping to do some video work for it. We shall see how that goes.

Anyway, while most of you readers already know all of this stuff, I just thought I would share my excitement, again. Because I am sleepy. And that is what I do.

Stop Motion: BEFORE it was cool

Norman McLaren, is a genius. I was introduced to him through this:

From what I have seen, most of his work is not live action. Many of his pieces are made up of, or include, images drawn directly onto the 35mm film. He uses computer-like sounds for music, which were actually created by being scratched or painted on to the soundtrack area of the film.

His body of work is so diverse, too. His student animations drawn onto film (Boogie Doodle, Fiddle Dee Dee, etc.), mixes of live action and stop-motion (Neighbors, A Chairy Tale), even lightboard displays in NYC, amoung many other things. He seems to draw a lot of inspiration from music and ballet (Pas de Deux Pt. I & Pt. II). There is far too many to choose from to share it all on here, so I will post one more, a surreal animation, and then you should go look him up on your own on YouTube.

Now, I really don’t know a whole lot about him, but I find him incredibly interesting, and I want to learn more about him. I really want to see more of his work, too. He has a couple collections of shorts on dvd, and a lot of his work is on YouTube. I’ll tell you more, when I know more.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

People frequently ask me what my favorite movie is, well, I think it’s actually just a pretty common question. I, like most other people, usually have a hard time with that, saying “I don’t know, there are so many.” Or, I would just give the names of some movies I like, such as “Children of Men,” or “Juno.”

I finally figured it out, though. I love movies by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Many people probably haven’t heard of him, but he directed and wrote “Amelie.” When I was much younger my dad introduced me to “Amelie” and “Delicatessen.” I always thought they were good, but hadn’t thought much more than that. When I got an assignment in my editing class to reverse engineer a scene, I chose “The City of Lost Children,” I became completely enthralled, and ended up reverse engineering half of the film.

The worlds he creates are so amazing, and beautiful. The set designs and colors he uses create an incredibly surreal feel. He uses wide angle lenses, which distort people. He even chooses actors which have strange faces, such as Dominique Pinon (who stars in most if not all Jeunet’s films), to create an even stranger world. His stories are also very peculiar, and the characters that he creates through image, sound, and writing are very unique.

“Delicatessen” is about a group of people living in a building together, that, due to hard times, have had to resort to cannibalism. The protagonist is a strange little fellow, who used to be in a circus, and misses his monkey. He comes to the community, looking for odd jobs. He is granted one, and stays there for quite a while, completely oblivious to what’s going on around him.

“The City of Lost Children” is even stranger. Involving dream theft, clones, and a talking brain. It all seems quite reasonable, given the context.

The relationships in his films are also very interesting, awkward, and usually incredibly cute. “The City of Lost Children” has a childish strong man and a very mature little girl that grow very close. The relationship in “Delicatessen” between the protagonist and the butcher’s daughter is very sad at first, but adorable as well. “Amelie” is all about an awkward girl, and how she falls in love. Jeunet really knows how to make the audience feel for a character, and be really interested and involved in what happens to them.

I am really excited to learn more about French New Wave Cinema in my Postwar Global Cinema class. Since I hear that a lot of Jeunet’s surrealist tendencies are derived from it. I am very happy that I finally get to take film theory classes. They are amazingly enjoyable.

So yeah, I’ve finally decided, my favorite movie is “Delicatessen.” If you haven’t seen it, you should. I’ll let you borrow it.