Montage: Oldies, Research, and Bill Viola

So I finally did it. I watched Chinatown. Surprisingly, the story line did have several parallels to the animation Rango. Although, I must say that I enjoyed Rango slightly more. 








Now, I love the old shows and movies. I grew up watching shows like Get Smart, I Dream of Genie, MacGyver, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, and the list goes on. For some reason though, I wasn't sure if I would like Chinatown. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the mystery behind the story and how the characters had both good and not so good characteristics. It made them feel very human.

The cinematography was great. Somehow they were able to create that feeling of suspense in some parts of the film just using slow pans or zooms. The lighting was great in every shot, definitely leading the viewer towards that more detective or mysterious feel. Overall it was a really great movie that I won't forget.

After watching Chinatown, I was inspired to find other older films to watch. So, I scoured Netflix and came across Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing released in 1995 and directed by Henry King. As I sat and watched this film, I couldn't help but chuckle. The acting was sometimes so over the top that to just imagine real people speaking and acting like that would just seem odd. The story plot was about a female doctor who meets a man (no surprise there) in Hong Kong. She is eurasian, her father being Chinese and her mother being English. She meets a traveling journalist, and their hushed relationship grows throughout the middle of the film leading to a tragic climax.

Both of these seem unrelated, and they are, but they both got me to thinking. If someone really wanted to re-produce these movies, there would be a lot of research involved. I started to think of all the things that would have to be looked up: period clothing, the politics of the time, the way people spoke...etc. Research is such a huge part of filmmaking that I never really considered before Professor Sinclair brought it up. This is such an intriguing idea to me because history and learning about different time periods is something that I LOVE to do. It is like learning about another culture. I'm so glad we have the resources here at Ithaca College to be able to do that kind of research.

Lastly, I would like to mention that I really enjoyed watching the video on Bill Viola and his work. The pieces that we saw in the documentary were just so moving. I think what really drew me in, from an actor's perspective, was that the slow motion allowed me to study the facial expressions of the actors in such detail. Their joy, or horror, or frustration, or despair was so intense and felt so real. Right down to their eyes you could just take one glance and understand the emotion they were feeling. It was just beautiful to see. I would love to go to an exhibition of his work someday.
~Amber Capogrossi