Run Lola Run and Class Summary MEGA Blog

The opening quotes to the 1998 German film, Run Lola Run, were “ We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time” and “After the game is before the game.” (T.S. Eliot and S. Herberger). This film had such a powerful intro message that emphasized on humanity being stuck on the unknown and needing to see that all is not what it seems. There were small clips throughout the film of pictures taken of the characters’ lives showing where they’d end up if it were up to the reality set from Lola’s thought perspective.

 Run Lola Run I believe was an experience, not just a film. From the very beginning of this film, I was completely engaged and couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. The whole film was mainly in Lola’s thought perspective of which route would be successful to go to help her boyfriend, Manni, get €100,000 in 20 minutes in order to save his life. With Run Lola Run being influenced from the Postwar German Cinema, I can see Wim Wenders’ effect on the film as he, “introduces his characters in a surreal but sterile landscape to demonstrate metaphorically what happens to any person living in a subconscious dream state. His films explore how these characters begin to deny reality and continue to search for an identity that is out of their reach. This quest for a conscious sense of personhood, for an answer to who I am, or who anyone else is, creates a restlessness with life and endless anxiety that ultimately provokes a person’s self destruction” (Gazetas, 271). 

Although there were no war aspects in this movie, there was gun violence, theft and gang related actions going on throughout the scenes. Lola went through her subconscious dream state for the majority of the film until she completed her thought process to help out Manni. The first scenario was robbing a grocery store with Manni only to end up getting shot by the police. The second was robbing the bank where her father worked by herself all while having her father at gunpoint. Each scenario the father was shown cheating on his wife and essentially children because he was planning to start a new household with his mistress. So, honestly when I saw that she was able to not be seen as a suspect by the police who had their guns aimed at the bank door, I was ecstatic for her. But that was short lived because once Manni saw Lola he kept his eyes hooked on her and not the street and in that moment of walking he got hit by a big red ambulance. 

The last scenario was her actual decision to go forth on to make a reality. This time she wasn’t able to ask her father for money at the bank and she had to find another way. She talked to herself into continuing to run with the intent of her mind helping her find a way to get the money in time. Lola ran into a Casino and was able to superpower scream to make her money bet a success and was able to gather the €100,000. All in all this film proved to me that with a precise thought process anyone can do anything they put their minds to, especially if they run while doing so.

This semester we went back into the past of the cinema world and I enjoyed watching and learning from the classic films of the early 20th century to the end of the 20th century. Silent films were the first films we started analyzing and I must say that Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans had me emotionally involved without a single word being uttered from the characters, but the music told the story along with the actions of the characters. This movie showcased a man cheating on his wife with his mistress and the mistress suggested for him to take his wife far into the river and drown her. I would definitely recommend this film to other people who have not seen any silent films. And knowing that I usually don’t go through emotional roller coasters during films, I know other people may enjoy the concept of the 1927 film and relate the resemblance of today’s reality of “romance”. 

Another favorite film from this semester would have to be the 1957 film Wild Strawberries because of it’s message of the acceptance of life and death and the wrongs and rights of life. In order to live your life with positivity you must let go of the hold of your negative past events that are on loop mentally, that alone can lead to a miserable life internally and possibly externally. Isak had a cousin fiancée who left him to marry his brother and have six children with. Sara, his ex fiancée, said that Isak was so good, innocent and smart for his age, but he was forced to mature due to heartbreak. All in all just because your career is going phenomenally well, doesn’t mean you neglect your self love and shut down love from anyone in your life outside of work. 

However, the 1967 film that I wasn’t a big fan for had to be surprisingly Bonnie and Clyde. This movie didn’t do much emotionally or mentally for me. The concept of ride or die comes from this film and it is a horrible representation of what love should actually look like. Being that there are a lot of people who look up to the characters Bonnie and Clyde just goes to show where the standards are for relationships.

Collectively, the birth of digital cinema revolutionized what’s possible in cinema. Digital photography is now the standard for the majority of films on mainstream and off mainstream. Cinema is an ever evolving aspect of the media that started the broadcast of sound, color, acting, theaters, censorship of government, the rise of television and now streaming platforms. I personally can’t wait to see what’s the next big change in cinema and I hope to be a part of it in some fashion.

The Violent Effect of Bonnie and Clyde

The film of this week was Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and I enjoyed the videography production of the film. The intro zooming in on Bonnie nude and miserable in her room showed that the camera angles were going to be set to bring the viewer’s emotions to the forefront. However, the storyline, plot and moral of Bonnie and Clyde was pretty disappointing for me because it was overrated and praised for it being mainly violence led as the heroes of the film and the cops as the bad guys. This was my first time seeing this film, but I’ve always heard about Bonnie and Clyde being the perfect ride or die duo as role models. The normalization of violence in films is scary due to people turning movie scenes into reality all around the world from being influenced from movies like this one. Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first movies to be so graphic with blood and guns and received some backlash from the viewers for it. But now there are advanced special effects used in films to make a violent scene look frightfully real and it’s normal for movies to broadcast those scenes.

Bonnie and Clyde used psychological realism which is how “the central character is affected and misled by the social context, displaying how society itself is the cause of human evil and suffering” and poetic realism “dealt with love, destiny, and  the confrontation of good and evil” (Gazetas, 204).  The concept of love and suffering were fatalistic because Bonnie thought going on the run with Clyde would solve her miserable life of being a small town waitress, but their weird love and attraction to one another led to their demise. Bonnie would try to show affection toward Clyde by kissing him, but Clyde couldn’t return the same because he claimed he wasn’t a lover boy, but acknowledged that she was the best girl in all of Texas. Bonnie ends up saying to Clyde that, “You’re just like your brother. Ignorant, uneducated hillbilly, except the only special thing about you is your peculiar ideas about love-making, which is no love-making at all”. These two barely knew one another, but had expectations of treating one another like husband and wife. Clyde would manipulate his way to keeping Bonnie by his side for the unsuccessful bank robbing and Bonnie would listen to everything Clyde would say as if he were the smartest convict and man in the world. This film was pretty chaotic and absurd. 

And speaking of absurdity, this film also reflected the Theatre of Absurd from the work of Albert Camus and he “recognized the dominant characteristics of the human condition… He conceived the universe as being alien to human beings, possessing no inherent value or meaning. Human beings thus are cast into a life of uncertainty and insecurity and forced to seek a balance between the forces of life and death, love and hate, justice and mercy. His novels suggest the frightening premise that each human being can only liberate himself or herself from the tyranny of existence through acceptance of the idea that life is without meaning of any kind” (Gazetas, 205). Bonnie and Clyde exuded in the life of absurdity. Bonnie was trying to balance and process what she got herself into especially when her mother told her they better keep running and don’t live 3 miles away from her or else they’d eventually get caught. She knew it was wrong what they were doing and in Clyde’s mind he didn’t have a balance between life and death because he swore he’d never get caught up. All Clyde thought about was his next moves to robbing and getting money, he couldn’t fathom a life without stealing. Clyde was even freshly out of jail for good behavior and clearly he didn’t learn good enough behavior to stop his sticky fingers.

This film is used heavily in pop culture for decades through music, movies and shows. The idolization of Bonnie and Clyde being the ideal “couple’s goals” is confirmation for me where the film industry took a turn unknowingly to affect the collective and current films that came after it. Are we too far in to make violence abnormal for the media or do you think there’s a chance for substantial change for the film industry and collective as a whole?

Those Bittersweet Wild Strawberries

Norman Cousins once stated that, “The tragedy of life is not death.. But what we let die inside of us while we live”. This quote resembles the film Wild Strawberries as it represents life, death and dreams very well and those three all have one thing in common and that is they are all simply inevitable to come to pass. 

When watching this film it reminded me of two films: The Twilight Zone and A Christmas Carol. The film showed the main character’s, Dr. Isak Borg, present, past and imaginary future which is similar to Charles Dickens film A Christmas Carol. In addition to Isak’s opening dream where he was lost in a town with a clock that had no hands along with a pair of eyes beneath it, the streets were empty and he shortly saw himself in a casket where ‘dead’ Isak tried to pull him in. This scene definitely embodied The Twilight Zone vibes. This dream started the epiphany of Isak’s self awareness and how he comes off to those around him. We have the chance to be reincarnated in the same body every day, when we open our eyes from slumber, our decisions are the reason why our life is made up the way it is.

Isak was affected by Sara, his cousin fiancée, when she chose his brother, Sigfrid, over him which left him to be selfish and lonely. Even marrying someone else ends up being a disastrous marriage due to his disposition. After Sara fully realized her feelings towards Sigfrid overpowered Isak’s, she confesses that, “Isak is so fine and good, so moral and sensitive. He wants us to read poetry and talk about the next life and play four handed piano. And he only wants to kiss in the dark, and he talks about sin. He’s on such a terribly high level, and I feel so worthless”. Sara soon after marries Sigfrid instead and has six children with him; talk about incest!

His ideology was impacted negatively because his views of people were reconstructed from there on out. Isak opens the film narrating that, “In our relations with other people, we mainly discuss and evaluate their character and behavior. That is why I have withdrawn from nearly all so called relations. This has made my old age rather lonely”. Isak used to be so good, innocent and smart for his age, but he was forced to mature due to heartbreak.

Sara showed up reincarnated as a young girl in his present time representing a second chance in life. He saw his ex fiancée Sara in the present young Sara and seemed at ease around her. It was hard to distinguish if Isak was imagining the events of the day, but as everyone knows everything happens for a reason. She can represent an angel in disguise guiding him towards showing more affection and appreciation to those around him instead of only focusing on himself and his science practices.

Death, life and dreams will all happen to each of us, but we must continue to strive for a better tomorrow, no matter what existence may throw our way. It is simply just the circle of life.

Reality TV of the 1940s

 For this week’s main screening, Out of the Past, a 1947 film about a ex detective’s past coming back to haunt him and eventually take his life. This film had me super intrigued from the beginning to the end. From the deaf kid defending Jeff Bailey to Jeff Bailey and his love triangle between Ann Miller and Kathie Moffat to Kathie killing off the majority of the male cast; this was a crazy roller coaster ride of events. This film broadcasted that there were a lot of Shady people in the world and you may never know who you can trust fully. it even showed the viewers that it can relate to the environment of which they were living in such as wars which involve high violence. Gazetas states that, “During the war years, Hollywood directors produced different genre films to support the war effort for the government. The major studios also changed Hollywood into a powerful propaganda agency that made new combat films to wage a psychological war against the known enemies of the United States… These socially conscious films critically examined American beliefs surrounding racism, political corruption, and power, yet the postwar years for the American film industry were plagued by the fear and paranoia embedded in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union” (151). People we’re able to experience ocularly what gun violence was if they haven’t experienced it in person. This essentially was a war on the mind of the society because subconsciously the mind is  internalizing what it is seeing.

Although, like today, the war on the mind is similar but different, due to the increase in technology, video games, headphones and handheld devices, the options are vast to choosing what and how you want to watch something. There are options such as social media posts, YouTube channels, live streaming apps and television streaming apps. A film script was being based on real events which can make a viewer tune into the screening even closer and possibly connect to it. Gazetas also states that, “Each genre film turned some known historical event into a fictional melodrama in which certain outlaws were perceived as a threat to the social and political order of the community.  These social historical conflicts are externalized in the film narrative through the visual imagery or iconography that invests the genre film with historical or cultural resonances” (125). The increase of violence in screenings have led people to relate to certain characters, seeing them as a role model and even take steps to becoming as close to the character as possible.

For example America has a lot of films that include violence towards one another and this country has had over 277 active mass shooting incidents occur. The amount of mass shootings in America is larger than any country in the world and that is a scary amount. This can be influenced by how the media portrays humans to be or simply due to America always having a violent history towards beings for power reasons. Moral of the story, the more violence has increased in media outlets in America, the more normalized violent actions became. Our visions are super important and changing the visual imagery to more positive media can definitely change our outlook as a collective. 

Ruggs to Riches

Class has always been very important in the Society of the world. Especially in America, usually when one hears that someone is from the UK and has a British accent they are deemed as  unique. When an American journalist heard that Ruggles was called Colonel Ruggles , he created a narrative and got Ruggles into the newspaper. Although Ruggles was Egbert and Effie Floud’s servant and acting out of the servant role took time and alcohol to break out of. As Woody Guthrie sang in 1944, “This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me”. This film was created in 1935 and just 10 years later a song about equality of the American land shows that This goes to show that no matter your background, the United States of America has a place for you to explore and adventure your dreams may have given foreigners the idea that America does actually have a place for them.

During an exchange of conversation with the Floud’s about Egbert’s plaid suit attire, Effie starts with “Take off those clothes”

Egbert states, “No, sir, I won’t do it! Effie, we might just as well have a showdown right here and now. What did Lincoln say at Gettysburg? Yeah, you don’t know – well, I’ll tell you. He said that all men are created equal. He didn’t just mean a few men – he meant ALL men. And that includes me: I’m created equal”.

Effie responses, “ Equal to what?”

Egbert states, “Equal… equal to WHAT? Well, equal to… uh … She changed the subject on me. Men are created equal to women! That’s why you have no right to order me around the way you do. Abe Lincoln said so.

Finally Effie finished off, “He also said, “You can fool some of the people some of the time and All of the people some of the time.” But you can’t fool me, Egbert Floud, ANY of the time… you striped bass!”.

The high class white privilege of this film is super astonishing. Although Egbert didn’t mind calling Ruggles Colonel, he also got him to sit around people who were “higher” class than he was. Ruggles’ family life had him brought up to be a servant, but little did he know the move to Red Gap America would grant him freedom of his servant role and into a restaurant owner and a potential wife even. Ruggles even gained the confidence to kick out Charles who had been distasteful at his restaurant, Anglo American Restaurant, opening night. Moral of this story is you can be living the American Dream within days of moving to America with little to no problems. Ruggles definitely was a movie role model to rags to riches.

The Rise of Vocal Sound in Cinema

Unlike documentary style films that were created from 1895 to 1905, the film Bride of Frankenstein created diverse editing, makeup, scenery and vocal and musical sound. When Hermit, the lone blind man, realized that he had someone to keep him company he stated with pleasure,“Come in, my poor friend. No one will hurt you here. If you’re in trouble, perhaps I can help you. But you need not tell me about it if you don’t want to. What’s the matter? You’re hurt, my poor friend… I have prayed many times for God to send me a friend. It’s very lonely here. And it’s been a long time since any human being came into this hut.” The correlation of Jesus Christ and Frankenstein was prominent in the treatment of the monster being an outcast to the society although he was created for the betterment of humankind. From the lighting to the angles to the repetition of phrases made this film extremely monumental and various scenes and quotes are used in current media projects. 

Tom Gunning talks of the film creation ability to allure the audience, “To summarize, the cinema of attractions directly solicits spectator attention, inciting visual curiosity, and supplying pleasure through an exciting spectacle–a unique event, whether fictional or documentary, that is of interest in itself. The attraction to be displayed may also be of a cinematic nature, such as the early close ups just described, or trick films in which a cinematic manipulation (slow motion, reverse motion, substitution, multiple exposure) provides the film’s novelty” (384).  Bride of Frankenstein implemented the majority of these cinematic features to engage with the viewers’ attention span.

A personal favorite scene with the perfect use of lighting, sound and imagery for the creation of Bride of Frankenstein

The use of the lights, kites, mirrors, lightning, fire, music and ‘advanced’ technology in the scene above of the actual creation of the bride of Frankenstein had me entranced by how trendsetting the set was for it to be made in 1935. The loud slamming and the light and shadow contrasts on the faces of  Dr. Pretorius and Victor Frankenstein gave a more thriller theme to let the viewers see that the process of creating such a creature takes a lot of hard work and may have even had people on the edges of their seats in anticipation of if the creation was going to be a success.

When I heard the phrase “It’s Alive!”, a childhood memory immediately linked the phrase to one of my favorite television shows at the time called Robot Chicken. The opening theme concept of Robot Chicken was a doctor creating a literal robot chicken in symbolism with the creation of Frankenstein although the show related nothing toward the opening theme.There are most definitely more classic films from the 20th century that are used in pop culture that I may not know of yet. I am excited to delve deeper into more classic films to find more references. Were you able to catch any other references that are heavily used in pop culture today as well, if so what was it?

The Disturbing Reality of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

This film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, was quite disturbingly real and uncomfortable for me. What this film showed me is that the media can program people into believing that this toxic relationship was a romantic one. After the husband tried to drown his wife for his mistress, he felt bad and was trying to console her and follow her as she tried to run away from him. The more he made his move closer to her, the more she cowered into herself; this scene made me tear up. Although this was just a fiction film, I couldn’t help but to relate to the woman’s trauma of having a lover almost kill her, but immediately run after her. As soon as the husband gave his wife flowers, I immediately thought that it was symbolism toward being his bride again and when the camera turned to an actual wedding occurring it alluded the characters to a “new beginning” as if they were the bride and groom. 

This silent film opened up with these title card quotes, “This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time… For wherever the sun rises and sets, in the city’s turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet”. This film programmed that it was acceptable to receive materialistic items in hopes to sweep under a traumatic happening. There was a scene that showed this hypnotic wheel, as seen in the GIF below, which then went into a happy amusement park and club scene.

This hypnotic wheel can symbolize that this couple was hypnotized by the day’s occurrences. For the majority of this scene, the husband was chasing a pig, while his wife I was trying to get him to dance with her. Eventually they danced and they got drunk afterwards. The husband couldn’t even pay the full amount, but his wife was happily willing to pitch in. When they went to leave the husband went to grab the wine, but the wife immediately took it out of his hands and pointed for him to give her the table flowers and he did. She was ecstatic that he gave her the flowers although it was her suggestion.

The wife was programmed, or more so hypnotized, that it was her wedding day and she wanted to continue to feel “loved” by her husband. If it takes almost purposely drowning your wife to show emotion towards her, that is blatantly abusive behavior. The wife hadn’t gotten any love in so long that receiving the love and seeing her husband clean up blinded her from the facts at hand. The man was a cheating psychopath who quite frankly did not deserve such an understanding and loving wife. I personally had to deal with an ex partner putting his hands on me and when I tried to run away, he ran after me. Soon days later, I was the one begging to keep the relationship. It’s pretty insane how people run to the abuser for help, guidance and love and how hard it is to see the facts at hand when it comes to love.

So I’ll end with this question: Do you think that these kinds of films are unintentionally or intentionally created to plant seeds in our minds so that we are programmed to manifest them into existence?