Film Persona

  Roberto Rossellini's "Europa '51" When Roberto Rossellini's " Europa '51 " was released in 1952, there were many divisive reactions to the film from critics. Many critics felt the film was too 'on the nose' and 'superficial' with its thematic concepts. However, there are some critics, like France's Andre Bazin, who understood the film in a way that it was meant to be understood: through the exacting realm of realism.  The film stars Ingrid Bergman as the wealthy wife of an industrialist. After the death of her son, she starts dedicating her life to selfless acts of charity. She helps people acquire medicine for their sick child, she helps a woman get a job at a factory, and even goes to work at the factory on her behalf. However, this new devotion to charity is labeled as insanity, to which she is placed in a mental facility to live out the rest of her life. I think I would agree with the more critical critics if I were to view ...

  Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen's "Singin' in the Rain" The first time I ever saw Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's 1952 iconic musical " Singin' in the Rain ," I was completely blown away. The second time I watched it was nothing different. In fact, the film only blew me away even more. " Singin' in the Rain " revels in its own lightheartedness. It dances effortlessly through the halls of history with a smile on its face. I love this film. It is perhaps one of the most iconic films ever made. And I will go on record saying it is the greatest musical ever put to screen. The film centers on the transitional period in Hollywood when the industry shifted from silent films to 'talkies.' A group of actors, centering on Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood, all attempt to make a 'talkie' and decide the their leading lady's voice does not suit the new medium, instead opting to make a musical and have Debbie Reynold's Kathy Sheld...

  Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" Famed French film critic Andre Bazin once called Robert Bresson's 1951 film " Diary of a Country Priest " a masterpiece. His reason for calling it a masterpiece was "because of its power to stir the emotions, rather than the intelligence." To intellectually analyze the film wouldn't be completely uncalled for. However, the true might of the film's resonance lies in the confusing mess of spirituality and emotionality, not in the breaking down of intellectual concepts. It was a revolutionary film in this way, and in another: it was a film that stripped away any 'genre' elements that had become popular in post-war French cinema. In doing so, it paved the way for the more existential films to come in the 1950s and 1960s (Bergman coming first to my mind). These types of films demonstrated that, despite the horrors of the war being behind them, the resulting Nietzschean collapse of spirituali...

  Jacques Becker's "Casque d'Or" Jacques Becker's 1952 film " Casque d'Or " didn't really provide me with any sort of thematic through-line to grab on to. Not that there wasn't one. I just simply lost track of any sort of digging for anything deeper and simply enjoyed the drama of the film's love triangle. Greater men than I could probably dissect the film in a more meaningful way. However, I won't be providing any great revelations about the film. I will simply be adorning the simplest of adorations.  The film's setting is Paris during the Belle Époque. Marie, a prostitute, is caught in a love triangle between Roland, a brutish criminal, Felix, Roland's boss and the head of a crime syndicate, and Georges, a handsome, lowly carpenter. When Georges actively pursues Marie, the gang leader Felix orchestrates the arrest of Georges and his eventual tragic end.  I very much enjoyed the film and was transfixed by the drama that unfol...

  Jean Renoir's "The Golden Coach" While the 1940s were not as creatively successful for iconic French filmmaker Jean Renoir, the 1950s provided him a second wind. In fact, the addition of technicolor seemed to bring him even closer to the visual prowess of his father, Auguste. The immensity and breadth of his visual creativity would reach its zenith in his 1951 work, " The River ." A year later, his production in Italy of the film " The Golden Coach " would continue this streak of impressive technicolor films that would come to mark his late period. The film stars Anna Magnani, an Italian actress, who arrives with her theater troop to a remote Peruvian town in the 18th century. Her immense beauty causes her to be courted by three men of varying social and economic status: a viceroy, a bullfighter, and a solider.  As previously stated, the late period of Renoir seems to ensure a sense of visual vitality. To aid in this, his thematic point of interest s...

  Roberto Rossellini's "The Machine That Kills Bad People" While watching Roberto Rossellini's 1952 film " The Machine That Kills Bad People ," I thought to myself, "We al know where this is going." In fact, I believe Rossellini knew the audience suspected exactly the point Rossellini was driving at long before the film's conclusion. The film, which seemed to veer in a different direction that Rossellini's standard adherence to neo-realism, goes into territories of fantasy and surrealism (although not fully).  The film centers on Celestino, who is visited by a homeless man one night claiming to be Saint Andrew. This Saint Andrew fellow gifts him a special camera that, if you take a picture of someone in a picture, they die. Celestino decides that he must take divine justice into his own hands and rid the world of its evil and vile. What he doesn't realize is just how many people that would constitute.  In 1952, the devastations of the w...

  John Huston's "Moulin Rouge" Before I watched John Huston's 1952 biographical drama " Moulin Rouge ," I felt I never quite engaged with Huston's work as much as others seem to. Even his major works like 1941's " The Maltese Falcon " and 1948's " Treasures of the Sierra Madre " weren't as well regarded by me as much as they are regarded so highly in the collective retrospective outlooks. All of the films of his that I have watched thus far seem to not connect with me and I end up finding them boring. So, when I sat down to watch " Moulin Rouge ," I was even more hesitant, especially since it is one of the more lowly regarded works in his heralded collection. However, I seem to have gone against collective consensus once again, as I was very surprised with how much I enjoyed it.  The film centers on the real life French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Navigating the bohemian subculture of Paris in the late 19t...