This should be easy. Choose a scene in the film (any scene!) and analyze it in depth. Be sure to discuss its sociocultural influences, why you chose the scene, and how the scene relates to the film as a whole. Your response should be thoughtful and along the lines of what you'll do next month. Be thorough--at least 3 paragraphs.
Due: Monday, November 19.
I have chosen the scene where the townspeople view the SS Rex coming into the harbor.
ReplyDeleteThe scene focuses on the SS Rex, which was a real Italian ocean liner from the 1930s. The ship was viewed as one of Italy's proudest technological achievements at the time. As such, the characters in the scene display a great amount of nationalistic pride that would have been very prevalent at the time.
I chose the scene because it is my favorite in the film. The scene is simultaneously joyous and rather elegiac, creating the feeling of a treasured but distant memory. This feeling sums up the film as a whole for me. The distant feeling is created through the cinematography. All of the colors seemed to be somewhat dulled and faded. As well, a light layer of mist covers all of the people, and the camera is shaky to replicate the feeling of being on a boat.
The scene relates to the film as a whole because, as I mentioned before, I feel like it sums up the film as a whole. As well, it further details the feelings of nationalism of the characters. This was previously witnessed in the scene where Fascist soldiers march into town. It is most obvious in the part of the scene where Ciccio imagines marrying a woman with a giant image of Mussolini looking onto him.
James--I like all of your reasons for choosing this scene, but you don't describe it cinematically. HOW does Fellini make it joyous and elegiac?
DeleteThe scene I chose is the one in which Titta (the main boy) goes to confession.
ReplyDeleteThe scene is one of the most iconic of the film. Titta, when questioned by his priest about "touching himself," reminisces on his many deviant behaviors - including sneaking peeks at bicyclists' behinds with his friends, fantasizing about his math teacher, and masturbating in a car with his friends. The scene is meant to be satirical and humorous, favoring Titta's boyishness over the priest's stuffy fear-mongering. The editing of the scene conveys this - when the priest warns Titta that St. Louis "cries" when boys touch themselves, the shot immediately cuts to a shot of a St. Louis statue hovering over Titta's head as he smiles coyly. The shot parodies the concept of prescient saints judging boys' behaviors; St. Louis is nothing more than an inanimate object in Titta's world. While Titta is scolded, the shots cut between his many sexual fantasies. The priest himself is portrayed as dumb, with a short attention span and humorous-looking glasses.
I chose this scene because it represents the irreverent humor of the film, as well as the fear-mongering inherent in religion at the time. Fellini parodies religion and celebrates (however ironically) boyish deviancy in the scene, depicting the church as deluded and wrongheaded. Fellini grew up in a time when Catholic moralizing was intended to be taken very seriously; the characters of the film, however, cannot follow suit, instead wallowing in foolishness and folly. Fellini skewers the moralizing inherent in religion in this scene, and depicts the failure of "Catholic guilt" to stop natural boyish behaviors.
This scene relates to the film as a whole because the entire film is made to represent Fellini's experiences growing up, and adolescent sexual exploration is unavoidable in any coming-of-age. This scene mocks the Catholic church's attempts at moralizing through confession, and portrays sexual deviance as in inherent part of the boyhood experience. The humor and satire of the scene places it firmly within the film's tone, which celebrates all things anti-establishment, adolescent, and irreverent.
I chose the scene when everyone is waiting for the Rex. I am starting when Gradisca is saying how she wants someone to give her affection to. Focusing on the costumes and props, the lighting, and the set design, this scene reveals a very different side of everyone. Gradisca is wearing a white outfit with red stripes (looking very fashionable). Her friend and the man she is talking to are also wearing fashionable outfits. The people are wearing the same things they wear in their everyday lives, some looking raggedy than others. They are still being themselves. They look the same, as everyone perceived them previously.
ReplyDeleteThe lighting is very dark, but there is a lot of light reflected by the water. The dark lighting gives the scene a very serious mood. The light coming off the water gives a very angelic look to the characters. This represents how everyone is being himself or herself. By that I mean that they are behaving different than how behave in public. For example, Gradisca is very vulnerable; unlike this strong and independent woman she portrays herself as in public.
The setting, the sea, is very important. The sea is very unstable and everyone is rocking back and forth. This shows how people are in an unstable position. They are being themselves, exposing themselves. They are vulnerable as themselves. Also, the Rex is giant. It is so big that it barely fits on the screen. This represents how all of these people are waiting for something big to happen to them, so they can feel the excitement that they feel at this moment all of the time. They are waiting for change. For example, Gradisca is waiting for the one.
This scene as a whole represents how people are waiting for something big to change their lives forever. It shows how significant lives happen in our lives, but then you go back to your routine and begin the cycle all over again.
Amarcord has a folkloric quality in that it follows the lives of average people in a town-like setting. It has a “surreal” quality which comes from a primitive fascination with the inexplicable and the supernatural and it explores all of the primordial themes of love, life, and death. Its dream-like nature is also due to the fact that this story is essentially a series of memories. Memories rarely occur linearly and past events become distorted over time.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the transatlantico rex scene is humans’ primitive fascination with something larger than themselves. This “something larger,” something immense and mysterious, is often the ocean, particularly for island nations like The Odyssey of the Greeks or Latin American magic realism. The people have gone out in small wooden boats to brave the ocean which is especially significant to their lives since Italy is peninsular. The fog surrounds the boats, enhancing the dreamy atmosphere and the camera travels from one group to another. It’s an eclectic mix, from women in dresses, to men in suits, to a sailor in a sleeveless shirt, to a blind beggar with an accordion, to a boy in shorts. They are united in their fascination with this thing that’s bigger than they are.
When the boat appears the people stand up and cheer. They are shown in a high angle and the boat in a low angle, emphasizing its immensity. The people have come here just for this opportunity. The mis-en-scene looks very artificial: the “water” is clearly just a tarp of some sort and the boat looks like a giant wooden cutout. This gives the scene an otherworldly quality and perhaps is intended to refer to the artificiality of memory.