Critique of the Film Carmen - Movie Review Example

CARMEN Sound As I have observed from the short film clip, the sounds are convincingly diegetic. From the sound of the Carmen's knock on her Uncle Jean's hospital room door, the sound of his Uncle's voice that is penetrating the walls of his room, Carmen's voice sounding realistically exactly the way it should be when she was asking for permission to enter, coming from outside the door, the sound is naturally rhyming with the actions of the characters and the interaction of things on the set, again from the flicking of Uncle Jean's lighter to light up Carmen's cigarette and their greeting kisses to the clanging of the dishes in their neighboring rooms. All-natural, superbly diegetic sound. In the early part of the film clip, in the part where they are supposedly having small talk over cigarettes, there is this lonely background sound of violins harmoniously rhyming with cellos but only for about ten seconds, making the perfect melody in sync with the mood of the scene, which is quite sad, as Uncle Jean and her niece Carmen hadn't seen each other for quite some time. In the latter part of the clip, the sounds from the set gets more and more clearer. Noises from the outside of Uncle Jean's room can be deciphered by anyone. The sound of the voices in the other rooms, the noise of dishes clanging to the unexplainable sounds emerging from Uncle Jean's radio. The makers of this film wanted it to be more realistic, so they opted to choose the natural sounds coming from the set itself instead of using sound effects and dubbing the characters' voices. None, absolutely none of the sounds in the whole of the film was altered, omitted nor edited. The director captured the heart of the film by doing so. Employing sound effects would make an impression of the film as unrealistic, commercial or will make it seem as if it was overdone. If the viewer listens very thoroughly to all of the film's sounds, even the slightest and the most unimportant of those, he will get a feel of what it is like to be in that hospital room with the beautiful Carmen and her eccentric Uncle Jean. Style / Mis-en-scene/Editing/Plot The 5-minute French film clip, when initially judged by a viewer, looks like a film made in the late 1980's or the early 1990's, the hairstyle of one of the two characters. The quality of the picture states out the hint that the film was probably shot in the 1970's. Other than that, one can not interpret when the movie was made. The style of the scene location is undeniably bleak, it was obviously shot wholly in the hospital room of Carmen's Uncle Jean. The color of the hospital room even adds to the gloom of the purely conversational and poignant film. It looks like a working class hospital in France because of the way his room looks, it doesn't look dirty and shabby, and neither does it look clean and hygienic. Well, it is not that important to dwell on those aspects of the film. Humans express themselves and their emotions in a variety of modes. Whether it be actions, words, pictures, speeches and the like. Each and every one of these modes may be branded as a "language" (mode of expression and communication). In the film, the characters expressed themselves very clearly, from their gestures to their facial expressions. Uncle John is obviously depressed and bored with his situation, so the visit of his niece Carmen felt like utter relief from him, a refuge from his boredom. In his dialogue, he is confusingly reluctant to grant his niece's request to borrow his apartment unit in Trouville. On the set, the lighting did an almost perfect job in blending with the overall ambience of the hospital room, there was barely any light other than sunlight outside the room. Most probably, the scene was morning, so the overall appearance of the room contrasted with the lightness, eagerness and the joyful atmosphere of the morning. The conversation between the two is not movie-like. It was realistically executed and delivered by the characters as if they were really their characters, as if they weren't acting. The filmmaker did a terrific job in adapting to the mood of the scenes. As aforementioned earlier, the violin music in the early part helped tremendously in setting to the mood of the scene. Undoubtedly lonely, lonely music, bleak setting, sad and purely casual interaction between the characters. The voices and the shrieks in the neighboring room and outside the window somewhat gave some life to the scene The set, although bleak, bland and lonely, is not in disarray, it is organized as though to show the viewers that Uncle Jean is an organized person, despite his sickness and frailty. The acting, very real, the actor played his role very satisfactorily. The viewer can't help but notice all throughout the short film clip that Uncle Jean has some kind of lusting for his niece Carmen. The way he played his fingers around her mouth, his stares, his touches, they are all very obvious through the course of the clip. On the other hand, her niece, Carmen, just seemed to ignore his advances, always intent on fulfilling her "mission", the permission from his uncle to use his apartment unit to shoot a film, Carmen is a filmmaker, an aspiring one. Upon hearing their conversation in the latter part of the clip, Uncle Jean too, was a filmmaker. Carmen urges his uncle to go back to making films, but apparently did so just for the sake of having something to say, just to fill the void of silence between them, just to make Uncle Jean feel some importance, some kind of respect. The film genre, needless to say, is drama. From Carmen's knock to her goodbye kiss, it was drama. Too bad it was just a 5-minute movie, but one can extract many elements from it. Why was her uncle treating her as if he was seducing her Well, he obviously is, Uncle Jean is obviously seducing her niece. And from that standpoint, no one would dispute whether the film's genre is otherwise. Drama, this film clip belongs to the drama genre. Dramas are not intent on having futuristic special effects. They are always plot-driven presentations with realistic settings and varying characters. In the film Carmen, there are only two characters, Carmen and her Uncle Jean. But one might ask why is it that the short clip answers so much questions The answer is this: throughout the course of the "short" film, there is this rollercoaster of emotion that the two characters rode. Upon learning that his visitor was his niece, Uncle Jean was not that excited, yet neither was he disappointed, he just greeted his niece with a kiss and jokingly asked who she was. On the other hand, Carmen did not visit his Uncle because he was sick or simply just for the sake of visiting him, seeing him or hearing news from him, how he was, what was keeping him busy. None of those. After the usual pleasantries, she had gone straight to the point, she wanted to borrow her uncle's flat. After asking this, she did not get an immediate reply from him. He returned to his quite "humorous" self, asking Carmen why the young fellows are like that, asking her about her relationship with her mother, his sister Elizabeth. He did that apparently because of the fact that he was bored. He just wanted someone with whom he could exchange a few nice words and some thoughts with. Despite the sheer shortness of the film, it was shot perfectly, defining the moods, the emotions of the characters perfectly and without flaw. The director captured all the necessary elements to make it attract a viewer, to entice him to watch it, to be precise. Too bad it was only a clip. Yes a viewer can categorize the film clip as drama. And one can determine the sounds, whether it was diegetic or otherwise. But one can not conclude what was the "real" beginning nor the end of the film clip. Throughout the course of the film, bleak emotions are exploited, no sheer happiness, no bitter sadness. In other words, the emotion in this film can be branded as "neutral". The mere conversation between uncle and niece did not tell what kind of personalities they both possess, nor history of both characters. In the span of five minutes, their interaction within that span of time, that was what only mattered. The viewers' perception of the two characters was to be extracted within that very short amount of time. But no one could have told the story more clearly than its director. All necessary ingredients in setting the atmosphere of the story, the chemistry between plot and setting, sound and acting, lighting and delivery of dialogue. All packed in this one great miniature film, without beginning, without ending, just purely, but perfectly situational. Superb. WORKS CITED "Observations on film art and FILM ART." cor Youve come to the right place. 3 Apr. 2007 . Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 2006. 3 Apr. 2007 . Read More