Film Persona

  Gregory La Cava's "My Man Godfrey" It goes without saying that I am not a big fan of screwball comedies. However, I think if done well, like with the cases of " It Happened One Night " or " Bringing Up Baby ," they could make for a very entertaining affair, as well as demonstrate a touch of social critique. I feel as though this case could be made for the entertaining 1936 film " My Man Godfrey ."  The film stars William Powell as Godfrey, a homeless man living in a Hooverville by the East River during the Great Depression. A young socialite played by Carole Lombard offers Godfrey a job as a butler in their home. He accepts. However, what the family does not realize is that Godfrey himself comes from a wealthy family and has since been changed by the experience slumming it with the homeless community. Through his time butler, Godfrey both helps the family with their finances as well as making enough of the family's shares to start a nig...

  Sacha Guitry's "The Story of a Cheat" Before he became a filmmaker in 1935, Sacha Guitry was an experienced stage performer and playwright. In the days of silent cinema, he avoided film due to its lack of dialogue. He felt that the lack of dialogue undermined drama. However, when sound entered film, he fully embraced it, even making as many as five films a year. His crowning achievement, however, was his 1936 film " The Story of a Cheat ." Guitry's " The Story of a Cheat " is an adaptation of the only novel he ever wrote, published in a year prior. It centers on an unnamed 'cheat' who recounts to the audience, through writing his memoirs, his life story. After caught stealing from his family's grocery shop at the age of 12, he is punished by not being allowed to eat mushrooms for dinner with the rest of his family. After the mushrooms turn out to be poisonous, all 11 members of his family die. He is then taken in by his mother's c...

  Jean Renoir's "A Day in the Country" In 1936, Jean Renoir shot " A Day in the Country ," an adaptation from an 1881 short story by Guy de Maupassant. Renoir could not finish production, however, as there were significant weather problems. Instead, Renoir scrapped the project despite having almost an hour of good material. Ten years later, however, Marguerite Renoir (a film editor and Renoir's partner at the time of filming), along with her sister Marinette Cadix, edited the material that was shot and had this version released in 1946.  The film centers on a family from Paris who take a day of relaxation on the French countryside. Two young men take interest in the wife and daughter and spend the day courting them while the husband and his assistant fish. One of the men, Henri, takes the daughter, Henriette, to the shore and she loses her virginity. Years later, she comes back to the same spot with her now husband, the former assistant to her father. "...

  William Wyler's "Dodsworth" William Wyler had been making films for Universal studios as early as 1925. By 1935 when he finished his contract with them, had already made 40 motion pictures. However, he didn't quite make his first real breakthrough until 1936 with his adaptation of the 1929 Sinclair Lewis novel " Dodsworth ."  Also a 1934 stage play, " Dodsworth " recounts a marriage in peril between a retired president of a motor company and his spoiled, narcissistic wife. While vacationing in Europe, their hopes of finally getting to spend time together sours, after Mrs. Dodsworth finds a lover. As they drift further and further apart, Mr. Dodsworth finally grants her request for a divorce. However, when he finally finds happiness once again, he must reject her insistence they reunite. Although the plot of the film seems like a mundane melodrama, it actually has great intrigue. Walter Huston, who plays Mr. Dodsworth, stands out to me as the prem...

  Yasujiro Ozu's "The Only Son" Every time I sit down to watch a Yasujiro Ozu film, I feel apprehensions. This is not due to any sort of dislike for Ozu. On the contrary, I have liked every film he's done. Rather, I always get antsy about the style of film I will be sitting through. The slow pace, the moments of quiet, the unassuming dialogue. I'm not sure why I feel this way, because I normally don't feel that way with those kinds of films. However, while watching one of this films, Ozu somehow manages to make me feel emotional and choked up. It really sneaks up on you, too. When I sat down to watch his 1936 film " The Only Son ," I went in with an incorrect attitude of "let's get this over with" and left the viewing feeling....well, that only feeling you get when you feel somehow both utter love and complete emptiness at the same time. " The Only Son " is Ozu's first ever sound production and centers on a single mother i...

  Rene Clement's "Forbidden Games" Rene Clement's 1952 war film is completely unlike any war film that had come before. More specifically, it was a war film that didn't center on the war and instead focuses its story of a 5 year-old-girl. The film, " Forbidden Games " is based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Francois Boyer.  In June 1940, five-year-old Paulette's parents and pet dog die tragically in a German air attack on refugees fleeing Paris. Paulette takes her dead dog and flees, eventually meeting ten-year-old Michel. Michel's parents are peasant farmers and take her in. Paulette and Michel bury her dog in the old abandoned mill and Paulette requests Michel to steal local crosses so that they can make a cemetery for more dead animals so her deceased dog would not be alone. Michel's stealing of the crosses causes trouble and even starts a family feud between neighbors. Eventually, the police arrive to take Paulette to an orphanage....

  Vera Chytilova's "Daisies" Vera Chytilova's " Daisies " is a relatively short and simple film. It portrays two young girls who decide to be 'spoiled' and do nothing but act irreverently and consume as much as they possibly can. However, the construction of these events and the satirical viewpoint of Chytilova's vision has elevated this avant-garde Czechoslovakian film to the status of cult classic.  The two girls in the film are meant to illustrate ludicrous feminine stereotypes, as they are stretched to their maximum capacity. The two woman start out as literal dolls in the opening sequence, with added creaking sounds every time they move their limbs as if to imply some unoiled hinge. On top of this, the women behave like small children, which demonstrates the absurd infantilization of women through a patriarchal male lens. Through this lens, the two women are also metaphorically depicted as shallow and empty of human emotion.  These stereotyp...