Author: sgo

This film was pretty heavy for me to watch although I enjoyed the story very much. As I was watching it in class it reminded me of two of my favourite films Amores Perros and Babel. Both these films along with Three Burials connect all the characters stories although they all come very different worlds. I later came to find out that the writer of all these three films is Guillermo Arriaga and it’s no wonder I enjoyed this film. Arriaga also uses the flashback technique a lot with his stories, which can cause confusion when watching at first but as the story progresses it is as if you are adding pieces to a puzzle all together. As a viewer it really makes you take a step back and think that we really don’t know someone’s story and that in some way we all share many similarities despite our differences, be it, our cultural background or spiritual beliefs.

The film introduces Mike Norton and his wife Lou Ann who have moved to Texas because Mike has a job as a border patrol officer. Norton’s character comes off as very self-absorbed, he doesn’t seem to have very much emotion or care towards what seems like anyone, including his wife and I think even for himself. We see that his relationship with his wife is very distant during the sex scene in the kitchen. It’s very unromantic, with no stimulation what so ever for Lou Ann, it seems as if it has become a normality for her because she just stands there watching her soap opera waiting for him to finish. This soap opera which Arriaga brings back towards the end of the film.

When Pete and Norton are near the end of their journey they meet a group of Mexican men watching the same soap opera. Up to this point, Norton has been through a lot. Pete ridiculed his character in many different ways (having him unbury Melquiades, ordering him to sit in his chair and drink from his cup in his home). Norton had been bitten by a snake, was cured and punished by Marianna (the same woman who he had violently punched at the beginning of the film) and much more. The scene where Norton is watching this soap opera clip, however, I think is a turning point for his character. In my opinion, it serves as an awakening for Norton and for the audience it makes us sympathize with him a bit because we finally see some emotion out of him. I think this is where Norton realizes his wrongs, not only his wrongs in his treatment towards Mexican immigrants and his wrong in killing Melquiades but, also, his wrongs in his relationship with Lou Ann. I think he begins to remember her and realizes that he doesn’t have much or in this case doesn’t have anyone left by his side. Earlier in the film when Lou Ann leaves Texas to go back to Cincinnati we hear her tell Rachel that she has nothing left in Texas. When Rachel questions her about her husband she says that he is “beyond redemption”. As Norton watches the soap opera he laughs and says “I’ve seen this one” then later breaks into tears which starts his self realization for redemption that is finally seen at the end of the film when Pete tells him to ask for forgiveness.

Bananas opens with a very satirical tone. The first scene gives a perfect example of satire with the American reporter who introduces the movie by reporting from San Marco’s, “a Latin American country” as he says. He is reporting a political broadcast for “wide public sports” which I thought to be rather comical. His descriptions of the occurring assassination and coup d’etat that is about to occur in this mythical Latin American country sound exciting, the reporter really does sound like he is sports anchor (which we also see at the end of the film). Bananas, to me, was a satire towards politics but also Mellish’s sex life.

Allen’s character, Fielding Mellish works as a product tester. We are introduced to him in the second scene where he is testing out the executizer, a machine that helps executive Americans get their daily exercise because there simply isn’t enough hours in the day. While he is testing out this product we can see that he is having a difficult time. Once he is in a change room with his co-workers he vents out to them that he is unhappy and that isn’t the job for him. His co-workers seem to not care or perhaps be irritated with him telling him that they have to hear this every day.

In the next scene, Mellish is in a magazine store. The camera focuses on sex magazines and Mellish is looking at them but he tried to be discreet because there is a lot of people around. An older woman seems to be staring at him and he becomes embarrassed and pretends to buy other magazines listing the names. When he reaches for one of the sex magazines he says “I’ll put this in there too”, believing that no one knows until the cashier yells out “How much is this ORGASM?!”. Mellish (or Allen) tries to find a reasonable explanation as to why he is purchasing this magazine by telling the people in the store that he is “doing a sociological study on perversion about advanced child molesting”. I found this to be quite interesting for the fact that the very little I know about Woody Allen is that there has been controversy about him having sexually abused his ex-wife’s daughter in the past.

Later on in the film, we meet Nancy, a philosophy student who knocks on Mellish’s door asking him to sign a petition to stop the US government in helping the San Marcos dictatorship but instead help fund the rebels. Nancy becomes Mellish’s love interest very quickly which eventually ends even faster. Before the break-up scene we see Mellish in a therapy session where he is explaining his sexual frustrations as a boy and problems he had with his parents. I’m not entirely sure why this was added into the film but it continues with a reoccuring theme of Mellish (or Allen’s) issues with his sex life. When Nancy breaks up with Mellish she tells him that she thinks it’s best that they no longer see each other because she feels that “something is missing”. Mellish doesn’t understand why she would do such a thing and starts listing attributes that perhaps might make her feel the need to end things. Although everything he is saying isn’t the reason Nancy ends up telling him that he is immature emotionally, sexually, and intellectually. For this reason Mellish leaves the US and goes to San Marco’s, where he ends up becoming the president of the country. Now, as a disguised president he meets Nancy again where she falls for him. They both sleep together and he afterwards reveals his true self where Nancy says yet again “I knew something was missing”.

The last scene where Mellish and Nancy get married is rather strange. Their marriage is consummated by having intercourse infront of an audience and is covered by the news reporters at the beginning of the film. Again, the reporter is announcing as if it were a sports broadcast. He later interviews the couple and asks how things went. Nancy replies with saying it was quick and that Mellish was out of shape and that it could have been better. This shows the reoccuring theme of Mellish’s sexual incompetence or frustrations. Which I think could be actual perceptions that Allen has with himself. Overall, I thought that Bananas was very rare but I also enjoyed it for that fact. Another reason that one of my favorite films is a Woody Allen film so I just enjoy seeing his work.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the film Fun in Acapulco, moments of the film definitely had me laughing while watching it due to the ridiculousness of it. In the end I was just left confused as to what the whole purpose of the film was. The film opens with credits and we are introduced to Mike, (Elvis) a young handsome American working on a boat. The daughter of the boat owner he is working for flirts with Mike in the very first scene which right away makes him the so called “hunk” or “eye candy” of the film. However, Mike pays no mind to her and she seems to be upset that she threatens to have her dad fire him. Later on in the bar El Torito’s we come to see that this young girl does in fact use Mike when her dad sees her there and she blames Mike for bringing her and her underage friends there. In this same scene we meet Dolores Gomez a mexican bull fighter (and one of Mike’s love interests) who also seems drawn to Mike’s attractiveness after having watched him sing a song that says “Every day siesta, every day fiesta, I think I’m gonna like it here, your troubles are gonna disappear”.

The lines of the first song we hear remined me very much of the theme song in Down Argentine Way giving it a feel as if it were a commercial ad. I actually felt this way throughout most of the film due to the songs and the fact that Mike was working at what seemed to be an all inclusive resort making me think of a Sandals commercial. This first song though made me think of some approaches I have heard about Mexicans and latinos in general. Being half Mexican and half Salvadorean when I tell people my background I usually get the typical, “Oh, so you’re basically just full Mexican” which eventually leads to inappropiate “jokes” or the notion that latinos’s are lazy but they do know how to have a good party, eat tacos, and drink tequila. It’s honestly just the worst when I find myself in a converstion like this and the line of the song “Every day siesta, every day fiesta” although to some may be a fun jingle it can set up an inaccrutate represenation of a group of people. At least this is how I viewed it having that there seems to be a huge repetiton of the siesta idea in the film.

The relationship that Mike forms with the little boy Raoul brought me back to think of the films Flying Down to Rio and Down Argentine Way. Mike seems to push him away at first but then sympathizes with him when he comes to find out he has no mother or father. Raoul acts as Mike’s manager helping him find a job they call each other partners but in the end of the film they become true “amigos”, reminding me of the Good Neighbour Policy idea that was portrayed in the previous films. The one thing I found funny about Raoul is that his charcter brings the idea of latin american’s having big families with all the cousins he has. All his connections in getting Mike a job are done so because he has a cousin that can help or he has a cousin that heard this and that.

Mike is caught in this unusual love triangle with Dolores and Marguerita. Both woman become jealous of one another’s relationship with Mike creating tension between both. Although, Mike seems to want to pursue Marguerita more because she seems to be more of a chase whereas Dolores basically throws herself onto Mike telling him that next time she sees him she’ll bring her station wagon. We don’t know exactly where Marguertia is from but we do come to find out that her father would like her to marry him to gain U.S. citizenship. The end of the film is very ambiguous, we don’t know much of what will happen next or which woman Mike decides to choose. After his great dive we see that Dolores kisses him as Marguerita is right beside them but he later turns to Marguerita and says that is was just a reward from her and she in Mike’s arms. Overall, I am still unsure what purpose this film serves and am very interested in what others have to say.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre like the films we have previously watched in class set in a latin american country, specifically, in the City of Mexico. The camera makes it very clear in presenting this with a zommed in shot at the beggining of the film that focuses on what looks like a newspaper clipping that reads “México, DF”. The main characters in the film however are Americans. The first character we meet is Dobbs who seems to be roaming around Mexico alone with no money, literally walking around begging for money. Although he is selective in who he asks for help, we never see him ask any locals. There’s a part in the film where Dobbs goes up to a man and says “…help a fellow American…”, the man seems angry telling him that he has asked him before and that this will be the last time he helps him.

Dobbs ends up getting a job but himself and Curtin never actually get paid. They keep asking their boss when they will recieve their work’s pay but they never get a definite answer. Instead they are told, “What can you do with money out here anyways? Except gamble and loose it”. Up to this point in the film I questioned why Dobbs was even in Mexico, why not go back home to America and find a stable job to support his life financially since his only desire and struggle so far seemed to be money.

Indeed, money was the central theme of this film that established the conflict between Dobbs and the other characters and also between Hobbs himself. We can see that money is the build up for the conflict early on in the film when Dobbs, Curtin, and Howard are in El Dormitorio Negro. Howard specifically says, “…I know what gold does to men’s souls…when the piles of gold start to grow that’s when the trouble starts…” This conversation to me serves as a warning for the downfall that is about to happen, the downfall is then established within the shake of hands between Dobbs and Curtin when they agree that they are going to join Howard to search for gold. In this scene the camera makes sure to show the gesture of both men establishing their agreement by the shaking hands, however, the camera seems to focus more on Howard’s facial reaction. He seems to have somewhat of a sly look on his face as if he knows that somethng bad is about to happen. Dobbs has a paranoia throughout the film that he believes that Curtin and Howard are plotting against him to take his share of the gold. It seems to frustrate him so much that he gets into arguements with both throughout the film. At one point Curtin gives him a portion of his gold to prove that he isn’t trying to take anything from him but it seems to just add wood to the fire because Dobbs throws the gold into the fire and responds with “I just don’t like being called a hog”. Dobbs’ paranoia progresses near the end of the film when he and Curtin are on their way to Tampico. His paranoia builds up so much that he ends up shoting Curtin believing that he his left dead. After he shoots him however he’s talking to himself and we see that through all his selfishness he does seem to have a conscious for what he has done.

Something interesting that stuck with me (but perhaps isn’t signifcant) is when Howard tells both the men, “Water is precious, sometimes more precious than gold” as they are starting their journey. I found this interesting because when Hobbs is alone before he gets surrounded by the banditos we see him tired, out of breath almost as if he is about to faint but he sees a lake and falls head first right into it. To me it showed that he somewhat killed himself for gold when it wouldn’t be able to buy him life but that the water that he was so desperate for at this very moment was his saving grace, at least momentarily.

The first character we see as an audience in the film Down Argentine Way, is a singer who I believe is singing in Portuguese. The only thing I can make up from what she is singing is when she says, “In South American way” which still would be rather hard for someone to understand if they only speak English because her accent is very thick. Her look right off the bat is represented as very Latina to me, she is dressed in what looks like a brazilian samba dance outfit. My first thought was that she actaully looked like the cartoon on the Chiquita brand bananas. I found it interesting that she her outfit was red and that she was also wearing red lipstick. The color red is usually represented with something sexual or dangerous. In film today I find that the color red is used repeatedly to over sexualize women, espeically latina women in film, a perfect example being Sofia Vergara’s character Gloria in Modern Family. However, we can also see the color red used to represent latino dangers in film when it comes to gang violence and how the colors define which group gangs belong too.

As I contiued watching the film I noticed that the main latino characters (Ricardo Quintana and Don Diego Quintana) had terrible accents. When I read Phillip Swanson’s study I learned that neither one of these actor’s is latino and it made a little bit more sense as to why their accents were so terrible. Although I then wondered if their accents were a part of their act? I asked myself if their broken speech was suppose to represent a “realness” in their characters or was it used more to emphasize that they were the “other”.

The song that Ricardo and Glenda sing when they meet at The Westchester Hotel caught my attention very much. First, we hear Ricardo singing the song in Spanish as everyone is gathered around him while he plays the panio. It doesn’t seem like much of a big deal when is singing it’s just a nice song. When Glenda begins to sing the same song in English however, there seems to be a drift. The lyrics are what caught my attention the most, I had to stop mid film and google the lyrics. The lines that made me laugh are when the song says, “Kiss your cares goodbye / You’ll find your life will begin the very moment you’re in Argentina … You’ll be as gay as can be / If you will learn to ‘Si Si’ like a Latin”. In my opion the song is like a jingle that you hear in a commerical. It’s catchy, it defintely draws your attention, and it makes you want to go to Argentina and see if these words that are being sung are in fact true (at least it did this for me). After I looked up the lyrics to the song I rewatched this scence again and looked more at the shift that happens when Glenda starts signing. When Glenda starts sininging the opening line “moonlight” begins off slow that brings in a mystery. The song later transition into a more upbeat tune which makes Glenda dance around the crowd. The crown which mostly seemly to be from the United States seem very drawn into what she is saying. It’s as if this song for the crowd in the movie and also for the audience watching is an ad, sending out the message that Argentina (and other latin american countries) is place where you’ll find love and happiness. The song is sang again in the film several times demonstrating that my idea of it being a sort of ad holds truth. They also make sure to play the song during the end credits because they want the audience to leave with this idea that in latin american countries “you’ll find your way”.

The 1920 film The Mark of Zorro is actually the first silent film and also beleive it or not the first Zorro film out of the many I have ever watched. In all honesty this film was super hard for me to watch due the fact that it was a black and white silent film. Not knowing what I was coming into was a new experience and when I saw the first couple of words pop up on The screen I actually just thought it was going to be a little introduction to open up the movie. Little did I know that I would be reading throughout the whole movie. This was probably the hardest part for me due to the fact that my attention span when it comes to reading on any type of elecetronical device is just very limited.

My first reaction to this film is that it remined me of Le Magnifique in the sense that both protagonists have these somewhat alter egos. The only difference for myself personally was that I actually enjoyed the alter ego of Bob Saint-Clair because I thoguht of the over exaggeration in the character as a form of hilarity. Whereas, Zorro I just saw him as somewhat of a loser. However, now that I am typing this out I don’t know if it’s truly Zorro who I find to be the loser or Don Diego. When you have the girl right in front of you just go for it buddy! This could be debated about both Merlin and Diego though but I think I just grew founder to Merlin because I saw his character develop more simply because there was audio in the film (perhaps I would dislike him just as much if it were a silent film too).

What did catch my attention while watching The Mark of Zorro was the way Zorro moved with such skillfull quickness. I couldn’t help but think “PARKOUR!” which then made me lose my complete attention and led me to think of The Office episode where the charactes “perform” parkour (please watch the link provided, it’s a good laugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kvw2BPKjz0). The whole parkour takes of the movie left me wondering if this could be said to be the first parkour to ever be seen on screen. It also left me curious as to how exactly it was filmed, asking myself how many shots did it to take? How was this whole thing edited, was it even edited? How exactly did the process of cinematography work in the past during an era with such limited technology as today?

As I read through Kevin Starr’s chapters in his novel Inventing the Dream I found myself turning away from completely disliking the silent film of Zorro to being more appreciative of it. Ever since I was a kid I’ve always been captivied by the city of Hollywood due to the fact of my interest in film. I’m no movie critic but I’ve always enjoyed the whole movie theatre experience. As I read through Kevin’s Starr’s chapters I found myself laughing in amusement as to how Hollywood came to be. What made me laugh first was that the founders of the city of Hollywood, hoped for the city to be a Christian community, a place with no saloons or liqour, offering freeland to Protestant churches. Now, I’ve walked along Hollywood Boulevard and it’s no Vegas strip but it also isn’t a wholesome church community. In fact, I think one of the largest “churches” you see in Hollywood is the Church of Scientology. Another thing I found interesting was that the first ever motion picture was of a man named Fred Ott sneezing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaJ1r0udvQ). It’s funny to read these things and imagine that something that seems so small to us in present day was looked at in the past as entertainment. The reading’s for this week definitely made me appreciate the process that Hollywood and cinematography has gone through.

While watching the film The Man from Acapulco (or Le Magnifique) directed by Philippe de Broca my first impression was that it was very comical. I found Bob Saint-Clar’s character hilarious with a very goofy childish personality. I was confused while watching the film when it transitioned from Bob Saint-Clair’s character to the real François Merlin. It actually took me a minute to realize that the storyline introduced throughout the film is being told through François Merlin’s imagination as he writes his latest novel. As soon I was able to piece this together I found the film even more interesting because it gives a perfect example of the unconscious versus the conscious mind which we briefly discussed in class.

In class, we discussed how Latin America is represented as the unconscious and what the U.S. desires. In Freudian psychology the unconscious is a displacement of the conscious mind, that affects the unconscious mind which helps to reveal actual thoughts and desires. This is what I believe that this film is trying to communicate to the audience. We are able to see examples of this in the film through the character of Christine (also Tatianna). I think that Christine’s role in the film is to have the voice of reason. She becomes somewhat obsessed with Merlin’s work and in doing so she is able to help Merlin recognize his unconscious mind. Two quotes that made me come to this conclusion are, “This dream was created by you…because you are a magician” along with, “I just had to go down one floor and found myself in Mexico”, both of these are said by Christine to Merlin. These quotes to me show how Christine was already living in the conscious mind but yet, she still had desires of her unconscious mind which maybe unintentionally or intentionally helped François discover the same for himself.

My assumption is that the title of the film The Man from Acapulco (or Le Magnifique) is the title of the novel that we are watching Merlin write, both titles describe the character of Bob Saint-Clar revealing the unconscious mind. However, at the same time, the titles both also portray the conscious mind (represented as François) as we continue to watch the film and see the changes within Merlin as his character develops. As I discussed previously, we are able to see Merlin’s character develop throughout the film in his relationship with Christine (Tatiana). The biggest change we see in Merlin’s character is at the end of the movie when he throws the pages of his typed up drafted novel off of his porch. To me, this act of liberation shows the process of creating the real because throughout the film his reality has been his life lived through his novels. It is as if he is in a constant battle with being his true self versus being his fictitious character of Bob Saint-Clar.