(Robert) Masseo Davis
Breathless/ A Bout De Souffle Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Rating: 4.4/5
The eye is a muscle and as a muscle it can develop a sense of muscle memory and instinctively learn, and/ or be trained to familiarize itself with certain sights. Hollywood produced films and even television can be put at the forefront of what we understand as narrative cinema.
As the primary distributor of films and visual information the normative state of moviemaking is largely in part to the rules and regulations distinguished by the Hollywood movie making industry.
Over the years of visual media and the institutionalization of the moviemaking dynasty Hollywood has illustrated to their viewers a way in which movies have been made. This influence has essentially been the driving force that has trained the masses eyes and minds to understand their style of visual storytelling.
Jean-Luc Godard a French cinema critic and acclaimed director did not always abide by theses standards established by the normative Hollywood code. In 1960, Godard composed the film “A Bout De Souffle, Breathless”. Though Breathless is considered a visual masterpiece, and a classic French cinematic work of art the film found alternative routes in it’s storytelling and made use of many aspects even outside of the films diagetic space.
A Bout De Souffle, did not rely on the cinematic groundwork instilled by the Hollywood industry, which at the time was already thriving for Breathless was released some thirty years following the Hollywood Golden Age in the 1930s.
Ultimately, Godards classic film Breathless, was at the very least a pioneer for it was one of the first films to utilize narrative aspects in a meaningful and impact full manner, without relying on the general tendencies established, executed and enforced by the Hollywood industry.
Normative Hollywood moviemaking is based on the notion that the audience must maintain a high level of spatial, temporal, and even emotional awareness of the films narrative. Theses films are generally produced for the masses and are used, and pride themselves in pulling their viewers into the film.
“They are “illusionistic” that is, they are designed to create as
perfect an illusion of “reality” as possible.”
- Don Levine
Hollywood filmmakers over time have created and developed sets of rules that have been used and repeated to illustrate to the viewers of their movies the “natural” progression of the plot and the films narrative. Such Hollywood developed norms include but are not limited to, continuity editing, films that paint pictures and imitations of what is reality, or they create atmospheres of a heightened sense of reality, (such as Horror, Action, Spy movies etc). These films create worlds and allow for their viewers to observe the happenings of those worlds while putting the audience into a state where though they are outsiders they become unaware of the fact that they are watching a movie.
These effects of the normative Hollywood filmmaking style is do to techniques such as continuity editing. Continuity editing is as specific kind of editing that effects the way the cinematography of the film is composed and arranged, it is used to keep the viewers both spatially and, temporally aware of the happenings in the depicted filmic world.
When Jean-Luc Godard made his film A Bout De Souffle, being the film critic he was made him very aware of these social norms established by continuity editing and the Hollywood empire, however it took his knowledge and elaborated on the technique. Godard did not disregard the path that was already so firmly placed before him by Hollywood, however he did allow himself to be curious and wonder of the road.
The Film Breathless, strictly in terms of filmic technique introduces the “the jump cut”. Godards film can also be noted as a movie that imitates other movies versus the Hollywood norm to imitate reality, and A Bout De Souffle, does not allow it’s viewers to become unaware of the fact that they are watching a movie.
These are all things that would not be commonplace in a normative Hollywood picture to be released to the general public.
To begin with the “jump cut”, at the time was a new style of filmic editing, it essentially was an exaggerated version of time lapses that occur other the course of a movie, usually during traveling sequences, for it would be both boring and impossible to film a story in “real time”.
However even in Godards Breathless, the jump cuts seem to be slightly jarring, they merely just decide to remove the middle section certain sequences of action.
Example, when Michel Poiccard played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, shots the cop in the earlier stages of the film, the actual sequences is cut in such a way that it removes almost in whole the actual act of Michel’s crime. We the viewers se the cop approach, hear a Michel grab the gun; hear a shot coupled with a shot of Michel dumping the officers body into a patch of shrubbery.
While this seems and truthfully is the bare minimum of sensorial information the body really needs to understand the sequence of action, at the time this was new. During that time the “jump cut”, was a new technique. To the modern film viewer the jump cut is not as difficult to visually understand for it has been mastered, developed, and adopted over the years by the normative filmmaking style.
Godards, masterpiece titled A Bout De Souffle, is also notable for the fact that it unlike Hollywood pictures does not allow for the viewers to become sucked into the films narrative. This is due to the fact that it doesn’t utilize dialogue based on the storyline, and doesn’t give the viewers as much character development, and history, The truth is the film really is about noting but acts on a certain goal that gives it a timeline. The film uses realistic aspects of everyday life that are not usually depicted in Hollywood pictures.
At the time viewers needed those filmic aspects to be able to follow major parts of the plot, and still Godard decided to leave them out. This ultimately forces the audience to analyze the filmic reality and narrative meaning/ purpose, keeping them a step away from the film, allowing for the viewer to always be clear of the fact that they are watching a movie, and not apart of the filmic reality.
As a result of this artistic choice it implies that each character is on their own path of realty and is separate even from the viewers, who in turn reciprocate their actions by comparing the morals/ actions to our own lives, and us in what is truly reality.
Godard still utilizes character driven plots and morals however in not allowing for his viewers to “escape” from their world they take on the films morals and aesthetics upon themselves. (Class discussion)
Breathless, was made as an imitation of movies. Godard was a film critic and had seen lots of films, prior to orchestrating A Bout De Souffle. As a result this film has been transformed into a film that takes from many of the great film genres that Godard is already so familiar with, notably film Noir. Breathless, even directly references Humphrey Bogart, by having Michel’s character walk past and stare at a photo of him.
Ultimately, making Breathless, an imitation of movies, that imitate reality, yet in doing so the film has managed to appear more realistic and true to reality than the movies that they are imitating.
This fact is also a major part in keeping the audience separate from the movies filmic world, because they can recognize the references to the other movies and situations depicted in Breathless.
The result of the viewers being clear that they are watching a movie makes the plot and morals of the film relatable, which I think was Godards goal, to make A Bout De Souffle, personal.
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Cameraman: directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
(Robert) Masseo Davis
The Cameraman
The Cameraman: directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
Rating: 4/5
“The main point about comedy… is that it provides the site for an allowable disruption of the fictional ‘rules’, allowable because the particularity of the disruption forms a crucial part of the audience’s expectations of the comedy- film and because the ‘comic effect’ itself relies not upon disruption alone but upon the interrelationship between disruption and (re) ordering.”
The Cameraman, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton is a classic example of slapstick comedy. The film illustrates the ironic nature of comedy through sets of disrupted normality. The film The Cameraman takes the natural and utilizes it in uncanny fashions exposing an ironic function. The film is a successful comedy because it not only illustrates ironic scenarios, but also after each punch line the film brings the viewer back to its filmic reality. This film interprets literally the notion that people love nothing more than to see their hero fall.
The film The Cameraman, Sedgwick utilizes objects, people, and even space to depict obscure realities. The reason the comedy is successful is because the narrative seesaws between the disrupted functions of the natural and, reality as depicted in the film. The disruption would not be as funny if the natural order of the film was not restored. The film then would become a whimsical fantasy where anything could happen.
The Cameraman is a film about a man (Keaton) who becomes infatuated with a woman named Sally, played by Marceline Day, who works at MGM newsreels. The narrative of the film follows Keaton, who through a series of uncanny events attempts to win her heart. He trades his “tin types” camera for a “motion picture” camera, and continually tries to get a job at MGM so to be closer to Sally. In his attempts to get a job at MGM Keaton breaks the newsroom door window with his tripod on multiple occasions. The action of Keaton breaking the glass window is the filmic punch line to the larger joke involving the disruption of order. The use of the tripod as a device to break windows with, or at least this particular window, demonstrates a secondary function of the tripod that was not initially considered by the viewers. The film takes objects that the audience perceives as having a particular function, and illustrates a secular function, which disrupts the filmic order.
The film also uses Keaton and its other actors as devices that disrupt the natural order of things, and illustrates actions as comedic punch lines. Keaton and Sedgwick know that their audience has a certain understanding of the worlds ‘rules’ and in breaking them they expresses a punch line, because it goes against the natural/ normal.
In slapstick comedy where the narrative is expressed primarily through body language the directors would be forced to use their actors to depict alternative scenarios, which disrupt the filmic reality of things while maintaining narrative progression. The film depicts sequences where the actors are the primary source of comedic disarray, with Keaton alone playing imaginary baseball to crowds of people, thus interrupting the narrative progression.
Crowds are a very prominent in the film. There are occasions where crowds of people break up situations and disturb Keaton’s narrative flow. There are also scenarios where Keaton disrupts the order maintained by a closed social group.
The film starts with Keaton standing alone still working with his “tin type” camera, when suddenly crowds of people rush into the scene to participate in welcoming an important figure who is never distinguished. Though the scenario is not of unusual nature: the crowds interrupt Keaton while he was trying to photograph a person with his camera. The crowds of people push him around mercilessly giving the audience reason to believe that the film shall depict many more scenarios where Keaton’s self shall be discarded like a rag doll.
The disruption of order in “The Cameraman” is not only to illustrate the comedic qualities of the film but is a narrative tool used to progress the story forward. The specific situations in the films narrative “..forms a crucial part of the audience’s expectations of the comedy- film…”. The opening crowd scene, while it does disrupts the flow of Keaton characters work, that scene introduces both the audience and Keaton;s character to the girl who works at MGM, and implies to the audience the plot of the film, which is Keaton’s pursuit of the girl’s affection.
Near the end of the film there is a scene that depicts a gang war in Chinatown.
Keaton’s character films the whole thing. The sequence includes many people in an elaborate fight scene with machine guns, bullets flying everywhere and Keaton in the middle filming the action. The war is resolved at the last minute with the police storming into the sequence to stop the carnage. This sequence demonstrates a scene that is full of ironic, unrealistic ideas. It would have been impossible for Keaton to have survived the massive gunfight just standing around filming the action. Yet it would not have been funny if the gunfight had killed him for it would have eliminated the possibility for the return to the narrative normality it never would have left actual reality, which is established when the police come and break up the fighting. Considering the idea that Keaton died in the gang fight means understand a new story ending. The fact that Keaton did not die in the fight presupposes the notion that Keatons character’s story still isn’t finished. The reality of the situation depicted in the film would require for Keaton’s character to have died in the scene, however keeping him alive illustrates to the audience a secular plot outside of the realistic.
Salvador Dali, an influential surrealist believed that the unpredictable reality of the world could potentially be organized.
“I believe the moment is at hand when, by a paranoiac and active process of the mind (simultaneously with automatism and other passive states), it will be possible to systemize confusion and to help discredit completely the world of reality.”
-Salvador Dali, The Rotting Ass
“The Cameraman”, being a slapstick comedy, illustrates a form of a reality where the actions appear to be of systematic degrees. Slapstick comedy as a medium is a precision art form. Timing and staging is everything. This dance like staging illustrates a filmic world with limitless possibilities. This notion is comprised from the understanding that comedy rests between both the realistic and the disrupted reality. The two filmic realities collide to create a third alternative reality where the disrupted reality isn’t necessarily a disruption but more of an expectation. The fact that Keaton’s character breaks the newsroom office window with his tripod on multiple occasions makes that action an expectation not a disruption. The narratives filmic world then becomes, not a realm of confusion, but a systematically organized series of coincidence and chances.
This would go well in explaining why Surrealists such as Salvador Dali, would admire films like The Cameraman, because through slapstick comedy they illustrate the world with “systematic confusion”.
Ultimately, Keaton and Sedgwick’s film “The Cameraman” illustrates the notion that comedy is successful when it coexists between the disruption of a narratives reality and its reorganization. The film then creates an alternate reality where through slapstick comedy a realm of staged confusion is systematically organized to create expectations that move the narrative forward.
…..Plus it’s Hysterical
The Cameraman
The Cameraman: directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
Rating: 4/5
“The main point about comedy… is that it provides the site for an allowable disruption of the fictional ‘rules’, allowable because the particularity of the disruption forms a crucial part of the audience’s expectations of the comedy- film and because the ‘comic effect’ itself relies not upon disruption alone but upon the interrelationship between disruption and (re) ordering.”
The Cameraman, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton is a classic example of slapstick comedy. The film illustrates the ironic nature of comedy through sets of disrupted normality. The film The Cameraman takes the natural and utilizes it in uncanny fashions exposing an ironic function. The film is a successful comedy because it not only illustrates ironic scenarios, but also after each punch line the film brings the viewer back to its filmic reality. This film interprets literally the notion that people love nothing more than to see their hero fall.
The film The Cameraman, Sedgwick utilizes objects, people, and even space to depict obscure realities. The reason the comedy is successful is because the narrative seesaws between the disrupted functions of the natural and, reality as depicted in the film. The disruption would not be as funny if the natural order of the film was not restored. The film then would become a whimsical fantasy where anything could happen.
The Cameraman is a film about a man (Keaton) who becomes infatuated with a woman named Sally, played by Marceline Day, who works at MGM newsreels. The narrative of the film follows Keaton, who through a series of uncanny events attempts to win her heart. He trades his “tin types” camera for a “motion picture” camera, and continually tries to get a job at MGM so to be closer to Sally. In his attempts to get a job at MGM Keaton breaks the newsroom door window with his tripod on multiple occasions. The action of Keaton breaking the glass window is the filmic punch line to the larger joke involving the disruption of order. The use of the tripod as a device to break windows with, or at least this particular window, demonstrates a secondary function of the tripod that was not initially considered by the viewers. The film takes objects that the audience perceives as having a particular function, and illustrates a secular function, which disrupts the filmic order.
The film also uses Keaton and its other actors as devices that disrupt the natural order of things, and illustrates actions as comedic punch lines. Keaton and Sedgwick know that their audience has a certain understanding of the worlds ‘rules’ and in breaking them they expresses a punch line, because it goes against the natural/ normal.
In slapstick comedy where the narrative is expressed primarily through body language the directors would be forced to use their actors to depict alternative scenarios, which disrupt the filmic reality of things while maintaining narrative progression. The film depicts sequences where the actors are the primary source of comedic disarray, with Keaton alone playing imaginary baseball to crowds of people, thus interrupting the narrative progression.
Crowds are a very prominent in the film. There are occasions where crowds of people break up situations and disturb Keaton’s narrative flow. There are also scenarios where Keaton disrupts the order maintained by a closed social group.
The film starts with Keaton standing alone still working with his “tin type” camera, when suddenly crowds of people rush into the scene to participate in welcoming an important figure who is never distinguished. Though the scenario is not of unusual nature: the crowds interrupt Keaton while he was trying to photograph a person with his camera. The crowds of people push him around mercilessly giving the audience reason to believe that the film shall depict many more scenarios where Keaton’s self shall be discarded like a rag doll.
The disruption of order in “The Cameraman” is not only to illustrate the comedic qualities of the film but is a narrative tool used to progress the story forward. The specific situations in the films narrative “..forms a crucial part of the audience’s expectations of the comedy- film…”. The opening crowd scene, while it does disrupts the flow of Keaton characters work, that scene introduces both the audience and Keaton;s character to the girl who works at MGM, and implies to the audience the plot of the film, which is Keaton’s pursuit of the girl’s affection.
Near the end of the film there is a scene that depicts a gang war in Chinatown.
Keaton’s character films the whole thing. The sequence includes many people in an elaborate fight scene with machine guns, bullets flying everywhere and Keaton in the middle filming the action. The war is resolved at the last minute with the police storming into the sequence to stop the carnage. This sequence demonstrates a scene that is full of ironic, unrealistic ideas. It would have been impossible for Keaton to have survived the massive gunfight just standing around filming the action. Yet it would not have been funny if the gunfight had killed him for it would have eliminated the possibility for the return to the narrative normality it never would have left actual reality, which is established when the police come and break up the fighting. Considering the idea that Keaton died in the gang fight means understand a new story ending. The fact that Keaton did not die in the fight presupposes the notion that Keatons character’s story still isn’t finished. The reality of the situation depicted in the film would require for Keaton’s character to have died in the scene, however keeping him alive illustrates to the audience a secular plot outside of the realistic.
Salvador Dali, an influential surrealist believed that the unpredictable reality of the world could potentially be organized.
“I believe the moment is at hand when, by a paranoiac and active process of the mind (simultaneously with automatism and other passive states), it will be possible to systemize confusion and to help discredit completely the world of reality.”
-Salvador Dali, The Rotting Ass
“The Cameraman”, being a slapstick comedy, illustrates a form of a reality where the actions appear to be of systematic degrees. Slapstick comedy as a medium is a precision art form. Timing and staging is everything. This dance like staging illustrates a filmic world with limitless possibilities. This notion is comprised from the understanding that comedy rests between both the realistic and the disrupted reality. The two filmic realities collide to create a third alternative reality where the disrupted reality isn’t necessarily a disruption but more of an expectation. The fact that Keaton’s character breaks the newsroom office window with his tripod on multiple occasions makes that action an expectation not a disruption. The narratives filmic world then becomes, not a realm of confusion, but a systematically organized series of coincidence and chances.
This would go well in explaining why Surrealists such as Salvador Dali, would admire films like The Cameraman, because through slapstick comedy they illustrate the world with “systematic confusion”.
Ultimately, Keaton and Sedgwick’s film “The Cameraman” illustrates the notion that comedy is successful when it coexists between the disruption of a narratives reality and its reorganization. The film then creates an alternate reality where through slapstick comedy a realm of staged confusion is systematically organized to create expectations that move the narrative forward.
…..Plus it’s Hysterical
“Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt” Directed by Tom Tykwer.
(Robert) Masseo Davis
Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt”
“Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt” Directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rating: 4.5/5
This film is one of those movies that takes the normative and throws it into a pool of chaos, resulting in a fast paced story in the life of a simple girl on a mission. It is also a film that demonstrates one of the many misconceptions in the film world which is that a movies content and the films form are separate qualities of the movies overall effect. This misconception is usually due to the fact that films are spoken of either in regards to the technical aspects of the films production or the films narrative. The reality is that the two go hand in hand, the way in which the film is portrayed narratively is ultimately the commingling of both the films story and it’s from, making for a breathtaking experience.
Film is a media that has a great many disputes attached to its title. One of these many arguments is in regards to its true purpose, as an art form. Some believe that the one true purpose of film is that it is to be used as a way to recreate reality, and to use that reality to educate, or at least demonstrate, in pursuit of some higher purpose. These types of people fall under the category of realist and have a strong realist belief in the notion of content over form. This notion makes the assumption that film form and content are separate entities, when the truth is the terms coexist and no one term could exist without the other. The Film “Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt” Directed by Tom Tykwer is a film that is very fast paced, and allows the film with a generally simple story to be told with an increased intensity thus heightening the story’s suspense. It demonstrates skillful storytelling of very realistic human values in a style that is very much one onto itself.
“Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt”, shows us that content and form need each other, by having a story that is seemingly normal and contains “real” life qualities while telling it in a unique form separating the film from others that many have similar or relating content.
“…form is the total system which the viewer attributes to the film.”
(Film Art, Bordwell & Thompson, pg50)
The point of content and form is to lead the movie spectators in a general direction, allowing them to feel the tone of the film and ultimately hint at the films meaning and purpose. This being the case If “form is the total system the viewer attributes to the film”, then the films mode of storytelling is the primary source that combines the terms of form and content, making the film both realistic and formal.
There are many films that have relating concepts and storylines, there are even many movies which are the same story that have been remade over and over again, “Romeo & Juliet”, has been made by many directors Baz Luhrmann, Franco Zeffirelli, and many more, there’s “West Side Story”, directed by Jerome Robbins which is an adaptation of the famous story outline of the “Two star crossed lovers”. The films while having related themes express the same story and similar content but when expressed in different ways it makes the film unique.
The storytelling style is the aspect that both combines the terms content and from while making them different individual pieces of art.
“Run Lola Run” is a film that has a very unique style of storytelling. The movie expresses it’s plot three times, like three attempts. The film tells it’s own story three times. This style gives it the room to incorporate many different storytelling techniques. It shows itself with many variations that still heighten the films intensity. “Run Lola Run”, is a film which allows itself to have realistic true to the human experience, content that is expressed in a way that does not take but adds to the films tone.
Questioning love is a very real part of the human experience. There are many times in many places where many people don’t believe in the concept of love. They in turn have a hard time forming relationships because they question their feelings. In “Run Lola Run” There are two scenes that in actuality are presented as the same moment in real time, they just appear in different parts of the films timeline (reel time). The main character Lola (Franka Potente) discusses with her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) their doubts about there feelings for one another. This sequence is one which demonstrates genuine doubts that real couples have “Your gonna forget me” –Manni, “Why do you love me?... You don’t really know.”- Lola.
There are many movies with gambling scenes, this is a very common activity that has made an abundant appearance on the big screen, and however in the film “Run Lola Run” this sequence was one, which is a metaphor for how her situation is really a high stakes game of chance.
In “Run Lola Run” there were sporadic instance where photographic still frames were taken expressing one of the movie extras life history, or future as a kind of life premonition. These almost random sequences added to the films overall mood and relate to the notion that content and form are in a sense one in the same because they were realistic. The brief photo histories were believable sequences, some funny but “realistic” nonetheless. They in turn were able to attribute to the films quick snappy tempo but themselves being brief, quick snappy.
“Run Lola Run”, is a simple story that can be seen as a film with an extensive amount of meaning. For many people a films meaning is the factor that distinguishes the difference between content and form, when it truth it’s the combining of the two terms which really makes the film meaningful. It is said that in film there are four different types of meaning, not that any one film can only have one of these types they can act on a single film simultaneously, referential meaning, explicit meaning, implicit meaning, and symptomatic meaning.
Referential meaning in short is what the movie is tangibly about.
“A Young women is Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket.”
(www.imbd.com)
The films explicit meaning and implicit meaning are the major points that the filmmakers purposely put into the film. The explicit is the point of the movie as a whole and the implicit point could be defined as the meaning behind the meaning.
In the Film “Run Lola Run” it could be said that the explicit meaning of this film is a girl would go to great lengths to help the man she loves, no matter how many tries it takes.
This would a typical assessment of an explicit purpose of the film. The implicit meaning could be along the lines of; though a girl would go beyond many lengths to save the man she loves it many not be her help he needs, things may find a way to work themselves out.
In the end of the film there is implications to what I find to be the films symptomatic meaning, the meaning that the filmmakers do not need to have an awareness of. The film implies that that life is a game of chance, that all things are merely a series of lucky situations and coincidences. The realistic content of “Run Lola Run” is a function of the movie therefore apart of the films form, making content and form one in the same.
Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt”
“Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt” Directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rating: 4.5/5
This film is one of those movies that takes the normative and throws it into a pool of chaos, resulting in a fast paced story in the life of a simple girl on a mission. It is also a film that demonstrates one of the many misconceptions in the film world which is that a movies content and the films form are separate qualities of the movies overall effect. This misconception is usually due to the fact that films are spoken of either in regards to the technical aspects of the films production or the films narrative. The reality is that the two go hand in hand, the way in which the film is portrayed narratively is ultimately the commingling of both the films story and it’s from, making for a breathtaking experience.
Film is a media that has a great many disputes attached to its title. One of these many arguments is in regards to its true purpose, as an art form. Some believe that the one true purpose of film is that it is to be used as a way to recreate reality, and to use that reality to educate, or at least demonstrate, in pursuit of some higher purpose. These types of people fall under the category of realist and have a strong realist belief in the notion of content over form. This notion makes the assumption that film form and content are separate entities, when the truth is the terms coexist and no one term could exist without the other. The Film “Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt” Directed by Tom Tykwer is a film that is very fast paced, and allows the film with a generally simple story to be told with an increased intensity thus heightening the story’s suspense. It demonstrates skillful storytelling of very realistic human values in a style that is very much one onto itself.
“Run Lola Run/ Lola rennt”, shows us that content and form need each other, by having a story that is seemingly normal and contains “real” life qualities while telling it in a unique form separating the film from others that many have similar or relating content.
“…form is the total system which the viewer attributes to the film.”
(Film Art, Bordwell & Thompson, pg50)
The point of content and form is to lead the movie spectators in a general direction, allowing them to feel the tone of the film and ultimately hint at the films meaning and purpose. This being the case If “form is the total system the viewer attributes to the film”, then the films mode of storytelling is the primary source that combines the terms of form and content, making the film both realistic and formal.
There are many films that have relating concepts and storylines, there are even many movies which are the same story that have been remade over and over again, “Romeo & Juliet”, has been made by many directors Baz Luhrmann, Franco Zeffirelli, and many more, there’s “West Side Story”, directed by Jerome Robbins which is an adaptation of the famous story outline of the “Two star crossed lovers”. The films while having related themes express the same story and similar content but when expressed in different ways it makes the film unique.
The storytelling style is the aspect that both combines the terms content and from while making them different individual pieces of art.
“Run Lola Run” is a film that has a very unique style of storytelling. The movie expresses it’s plot three times, like three attempts. The film tells it’s own story three times. This style gives it the room to incorporate many different storytelling techniques. It shows itself with many variations that still heighten the films intensity. “Run Lola Run”, is a film which allows itself to have realistic true to the human experience, content that is expressed in a way that does not take but adds to the films tone.
Questioning love is a very real part of the human experience. There are many times in many places where many people don’t believe in the concept of love. They in turn have a hard time forming relationships because they question their feelings. In “Run Lola Run” There are two scenes that in actuality are presented as the same moment in real time, they just appear in different parts of the films timeline (reel time). The main character Lola (Franka Potente) discusses with her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) their doubts about there feelings for one another. This sequence is one which demonstrates genuine doubts that real couples have “Your gonna forget me” –Manni, “Why do you love me?... You don’t really know.”- Lola.
There are many movies with gambling scenes, this is a very common activity that has made an abundant appearance on the big screen, and however in the film “Run Lola Run” this sequence was one, which is a metaphor for how her situation is really a high stakes game of chance.
In “Run Lola Run” there were sporadic instance where photographic still frames were taken expressing one of the movie extras life history, or future as a kind of life premonition. These almost random sequences added to the films overall mood and relate to the notion that content and form are in a sense one in the same because they were realistic. The brief photo histories were believable sequences, some funny but “realistic” nonetheless. They in turn were able to attribute to the films quick snappy tempo but themselves being brief, quick snappy.
“Run Lola Run”, is a simple story that can be seen as a film with an extensive amount of meaning. For many people a films meaning is the factor that distinguishes the difference between content and form, when it truth it’s the combining of the two terms which really makes the film meaningful. It is said that in film there are four different types of meaning, not that any one film can only have one of these types they can act on a single film simultaneously, referential meaning, explicit meaning, implicit meaning, and symptomatic meaning.
Referential meaning in short is what the movie is tangibly about.
“A Young women is Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket.”
(www.imbd.com)
The films explicit meaning and implicit meaning are the major points that the filmmakers purposely put into the film. The explicit is the point of the movie as a whole and the implicit point could be defined as the meaning behind the meaning.
In the Film “Run Lola Run” it could be said that the explicit meaning of this film is a girl would go to great lengths to help the man she loves, no matter how many tries it takes.
This would a typical assessment of an explicit purpose of the film. The implicit meaning could be along the lines of; though a girl would go beyond many lengths to save the man she loves it many not be her help he needs, things may find a way to work themselves out.
In the end of the film there is implications to what I find to be the films symptomatic meaning, the meaning that the filmmakers do not need to have an awareness of. The film implies that that life is a game of chance, that all things are merely a series of lucky situations and coincidences. The realistic content of “Run Lola Run” is a function of the movie therefore apart of the films form, making content and form one in the same.
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