The Road Home

Love is unshakable, and it can also make you do anything,and this film " The Road Home" portrays this. The story opens in the present, shot in gritty black and white, as businessman Luo returns to his rural hometown to attend the funeral of his father. When he suggests that the coffin should be brought home from the hospital on a tractor, his aging mother rebuffs him, insisting that they conform to custom and have it carried home by local men. Later, as Luo recalls his parent's courtship, the film switches to color and travels back in time about 40 years.

The transition from the gritty black and white to color was a perfect representation for emotions especially for love. There were also several shot or scenes in this film that i thought was brilliant and well executed. Like the scene where Zhao Di starts sewing the banner for the school and lighting behind her came through in the shot, and extenuated the character's skin tone and the color of the banner (red). Another would be when Zhao ran into the house after seeing the love of her life, she came home to change her coat. The scene was gray wash and the colors that stood out in that scene was the red yarn in the mother's hand, and the bright green yarn in Zhao's hair.

But my favorite scene and probably the longest shot in this film would be when Zhao places her plate of food on the table, then something unusual starts to happen, the foreground stands still and Zhao's plate stands out from the rest, as this was happening the background was still moving, the background emphasize the pass of time, and i don't think i have seen any shot or scene like that before. Scenes or shots in this film had symmetry, linear thought, composition, and rule of thirds, there were several shots in film that actually proves this. There was this one shot were there was a tree trunk at the center of the shot, the other was in black & white when Zhao was at the school yard crying, and there was like a repetition/linear thought of logs or sticks in rows behind her.

I thought making this film two colored was great, well executed, and cleverly thought out, because it made the viewers understand the two side or views of emotions. The grim and gritty black & white made the viewers understood it stood for sadness, and of course color for happy emotion that mostly emphasized on love. My favorite had to be color, because the color in this film popped out, it was gorgeous, and brilliantly used.The scene that i loved the black & white picture would be when the men carried the casket along the road, it represented sadness, loneliness, and thing you would normally feel at a funeral, i liked this scene especially when it was shot from a high angle.

I absolutely loved the end of the movie when Zhao runs on the road, and the camera direction just goes into an high angle shot. Then i understood what the road and the title of the film meant, the road represent the thing that stood in between or separated the love of Zhoa's life, but it also the road that makes Zhoa happy when she sees the love of her life coming down that road. I would totally give "The Road Home" a 10.

Laughing Club of India

Laughing Club of India is a funny, serious, yet entertaining documentary that takes place in India. This documentary is about a laughing club in India, where people come to laugh their sorrows away instead of crying, they share their problems and emotions. Some of them said the laughing club helped them in several ways like, a cure from a disease, makes them happy, makes them feel better about themselves, and laughter makes them think of the positives and not the negatives.

The people in this documentary had different situations or problems, but the same things they had in common, and in the sense of solution was the laughing club. Some of the situations was a woman who her husband died in the war, now she lives with 25 members of her extended family in one house. Another situation would be about a young man who has brain damage from an industrial accident, so the founder of the laughing club, a medical doctor, Madran Kataria tries to help this young man to get back to his old self again.

The shots this documentary varied, there were mostly wide shots, because frequently in every scene there was always a wide range of people, group, crowd, or population. When it came to some of the the characters' personal stories there were some medium shots, and close-ups. The scenes that i thought had the most beautiful shots, would be the scenes, where this particular lady does her laughing routine on her roof, because there were high angle shots that showed the sky,and from the shots as a viewer it showed you the city of Bombay.

I think i heard music about twice in this film, there is a lady from the laughing club that usually sings in her native language. The other time i heard music would be, when the documentary had a transition of a scene showing the city of Bombay, the people, streets, and billboards, when this was happening a fast paced music was playing in the background. I don't think lighting was used a lot in this documentary, because each scene was usually in the daytime, except if there were close-ups or medium shots then you would see the use of lighting. Costumes in this documentary wasn't really a problem for me, because i love Indian clothes, so i didn't have a problem seeing those colorful, gorgeous pieces of clothing over and over again.

The Laughing Club of India, is co directed by Adam Bartos, it's a happily lightweight saga about an unusual movement sweeping Bombay. It's mainly about informal laughing clubs, where adults gather together in the streets, or children at primary school, to act purposefully infantile: sticking out tongues, making faces like monkeys, and then laughing and laughing.

Path of Glory

I think Paths Of Glory is among the most powerful antiwar films i have ever seen, it's a gut-wrenching, unforgettable drama. Every scene is awash in grays, and covered in doom. I feel like the movie was great as a black and white film, every shot moved the story along, because every shot brought to the table a clue, inference, or glimpse, on what might happen in the next shot or scene . The cinematographer or director marvelously contrasts the ornate palace where the generals sip their cognac with the grim trenches where injured men stumble about, demoralized and shell shocked.

The costumes in this film represent the whole theme of the film, because the soldiers had the same uniforms and weapons. There is one place in this film where i loved the lighting, it would be the scene when the prisoners were in the dungeon, and all the brightness was on one side of the wall in the dungeon, but on the other side where the prisoners were, it was dark, so it was like they were isolated, and it showed an example of contrast between lights and darks, and i thought lightning was well executed in this scene.

Music was usually played during battle(fast paced/ doom), at the generals' ball(jolly/happy/fast). The main character Douglas gives a tough, gritty performance, with his tense sparring with the high command features, and sharp biting dialogue, basically the entire cast was outstanding, because they added the intensity,emotions, and drama to the film.

Path of Glory is basically about the things that goes on during a war, and how it affects the country, economy, and especially the solider. These soldiers go through a long emotional state, some get shell shocked, some are very saddened from being away from their family for a long time, or a death of a friend, watching so many men die for no reason was maddening. Paths Of Glory is a crowning achievement when it comes to depicting the devastation, both physical and psychological, that war wreaks on the individual, as well as the state.

REAR WINDOW

Rear Window is a mysterious, comic, thriller,about a photographer and the crime he thinks took place across the courtyard of his apartment. The main character begins to watch his neighbors, and he becomes an interrogator. The cinematographer or director, limits the audiences' view to what the main character sees, because they wanted the audience to feel like they were in the movie, or spying on their neighbors through binoculars .

Music or sounds are very important in a movie or film, because it gives the audience a tip on what's going to happen next, whether an emotional state, a tragedy, a fight scene, or a mysterious action. In Rear Window music was used and executed very well, because the music always built you up on what was going to happen. I thought the lighting in this film was great, especially in a specific scene when the murder came over to the main character's apartment.

There was a trick that the main character did that i thought was well thought out, he took his camera added a bulb, and made the most blinding flash to distract or confuse the murder. Lighting and color were used perfectly in that scene, the darks and the lights were placed exactly where they needed to be, to eccentuate the main point.

Even though the camera was based in the main character's apartment, the camera angles and shots were great, the shots of the neighbors' rooms across the main character's apartment were direct, angular,and proportionally shot . Rear Window is weirdly entertaining as well as skillfully executed and thematically complex.

VERTIGO

Vertigo is a 1958 classic Hollywood movie. The movie was a very creative idea, especially the twist of making it a mystery. Vertigo is an interesting movie to watch, it kept me entertained and focused, it was also very emotional, funny, surprising, shocking,and mind blowing. The music matched every moment in the film, when an action is about to take place, a racy or fast paced sound starts to play, but when its a romantic moment a slow paced tune is played, that sounds like the piano or the violin. The lighting was perfect, when a scene needed to be dark it was, when the scene needed to be bright, dimmed, or shallow it was.

Camera direction is very important in a movie or film, and the camera direction in this film was on point because every scene and shot were a prefect picture, and i think the stage direction, camera direction, lighting, and the cinematographer made that possible. The shots came in different varieties, there were extreme close-ups, medium close-ups, close-up, medium shot, wide shot, long shot, background, foreground, and there were definitely high and low angle shots.

The cinematographer also made sure that the emotions of the each character were made known through close-up shots , camera angle, and music. What i also loved so much about this film were the characters' costumes, i thought they were gorgeous, i loved the whole look, and i thought each costumes fit the each character really well, i feel like their outfits complimented their personality. Personally i loved Vertigo because it was funny, mysterious, thrilling , nail biting, and unexpected, you never knew what was gonna happen next.

Lawrence Of Arabia

Lawrence Of Arabia is an old movie but it has a modern twist to it, even though it was made in 1962 it has great picture. The moments in the movies are always mysterious because of the rhythmic music that leads up to the action. The shots in this film were breathtaking because the lighting was on spot, especially when they were in the desert, the height of the mountains were represented well, every shot was a beautiful picture. The Cinematographer(s) of this film did a marvelous job, because the camera directions were on point, the camera moved when the characters moved or when an action took place.

The costumes in the film were gorgeous, the colors were sharp, and with the help of the lighting they were bright and striking, every costume matched each character perfectly well. The character development in this film was noticeable because the main character Lawrence changed from the beginning of the film to the end of it, so that was great. This film was so direct, that as a viewer you did know the conflict, resolution, and the climax. Lawrence Of Arabia is a good movie, and if i had to rate it on a scale from 1 to 10, i would give it a 7.