Analysis of the Documentary Films - Movie Review Example

Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras ETRE ET AVOIR Etre et Avoir is a French documentary film made in 2002 and directed by Nicolas Philibert. The title of the film literally translated means to ‘To be and to have’. The film won Sacramento French Film Festival Audience Prize in the year 2003. the film is a fly on the wall documentary. The main plot of the film is how we learn to live with others and their wishes. The film is based in a single small class room in a village small French village in Auvergne, which had a population of just over 200. The teacher is George Lopez including the basics of the mathematics, reading and writing. There are quite a few fun activities also at the school such as baking pancakes, picnicking in the sun, etc. Lopez concentrates on preparing the children for the world outside his small classroom. They are encouraged to express their feelings and to settle disputes with reasoning. Back at home the children help the parents in small chores and also do their homework. The children at the end of the year look forward to the next year, visiting the middle school and meeting children coming in the fall. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras KOYAANISQATSI Koyaanisqatsi is a film directed by Godfrey Reggio and was released in 1982. It is also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance which is the literal translation of the word, Koyaanisqatsi in Hopi language. The movie is the first of the Qatsi trilogy of films and is considered to be the best. The film centers around the different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is mainly filmed using slow motion and time lapse photography of various locations of cities and of natural beauty in United States. The film has no dialogues or voice over narration but is main tone is set by the music and the visual images. The main theme of the film is humans and environment but as such there is no plot in the film. The meaning of the movie has can be interpreted by different viewers in their own sense. The film can be appreciated by different people in many different ways. The progress of the movie is from the purely natural environment, to nature which is affected by man and then to purely man made surroundings. It draws parallels between the patterns of flow between purely natural surrounding and man made environment which are still in the natural flow though equally chaotic and in confusion. The film took almost six years to be completed, initial three years in shooting the film and the next three years for composition of background score by Philip Glass in collaboration with the director Godfrey Reggio. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras MARCH OF THE PENGUINS March of the Penguins or as it was originally produced in French as La Marche de l’empereur, won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary. This French nature documentary which when literally translated means ‘The Emperor’s March’ was successful both critically as well as commercially. The movie subject is based upon Emperor Penguin’s yearly trip from the breeding grounds to the open water. Every year breeding age penguins (five years and above) leave the ocean to walk up till there breeding grounds. In the beginning of summer the breeding ground is only a few hundred meters away, but as the summer ends the distances increase up to above 100 kilometers. The female lays a single egg, and transfers it to the male penguin that has to tend to it. The female penguin now has to travel a great distance in order to feed herself as well as get food for the chick when she returns. Then it’s the father penguin’s turn to make a trip to the ocean after almost 2 months of starvation after the chick is born. This unique fight against starvation is a recurring theme through out the film. The original movie in French language was a dubbed as though the penguins themselves were speaking while the English version has a voice over narration. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras OLYMPIA Olympia is a documentary film directed by Leni Riefenstahl in the year 1938. She was one of the most preferred film makers by Adolf Hitler and was chosen specially by him to make a documentary film on the Summer Olympics held at Berlin in 1936. The subject of the movie is Olympic Games and it was the first film ever made to document Olympic Games. The film is remarkable as it showcases the human body in the heat of competition at different angles which were unusual for that time. The film used very advanced techniques of slow motion and close-ups etc. It has documented the lighting up of the Olympic torch at the stadium. It also includes competitions such as marathon, men’s diving and American track star Jesse Owens sprint races. The film tends to glorify the young male body. Jesse Owens won an unmatched four gold medals in the games, with a stunned Hitler looking on. The film showcases the best athletes of the time. Overall, the film has superb camera angles, and has recorded the Olympic Games very well. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras ROGER AND ME Roger and Me is a documentary film directed by Micheal Moore in 1989. The main subject of the film is the negative economic impact of the late General Motors CEO Roger Smith’s decision to close several auto plants in Flint, Michigan which cost 30,000 people their jobs and devastated the city. The documentary begins by Moore introducing himself and his family. He describes how he had tried to stay away from factory life but had to finally join it as he had failed at his venture of working for a magazine. But, when he comes back to Flint he finds that GM motors is in the process of laying off workers. He interviews workers who are strongly against General Motors chairman Roger B. Smith. He tries to interview Roger B. Smith but fails quite a few times. Moore then captures the efforts to get employment back to Flint in many different ways, all of which fail. He then interviews celebrities such as Ronal Regan, Pat Boone, Anita Bryant, etc who come back to Flint to show their support to the locals. Meanwhile, crime rate and poverty increases in Flint so much so that the magazine Money, names it the worst place to live in America. Angry residents burn the copies of the magazine. The film has in the background continuous eviction of people who are unable to pay their rent. The ending of the movie is when Moore finally gets to interview Roger B. Smith who refuses to come to Flint. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras SHERMAN’S MARCH Sherman’s March is a documentary film directed by Ross McElwee and was released in 1986. The subject of the movie is the effects of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas during the American Civil War. Although the subject was the Sherman’s March during the American Civil War, but due to a personal breakup in the directors life he was unable to concentrate on the subject and the film focused more on Ross McElwee’s personal life, the women in his life and love, romance and religion. Other subject of the movie also includes presence of nuclear holocaust in the context of the Cold War. The film is full of odd and bizarre moments of Ross McElwee and is very disconnected and doesn’t have one particular subject matter. It doesn’t concentrate only on the effects of Sherman’s March but then includes a lot of other things such as the director’s personal life while he was shooting the film. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras THE FOG OF WAR The Fog of War: Eleven lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara is an American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the central theme of the movie is about life of the former US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. He later on became the president of the World Bank. The movie plot is the life of Robert S. McNamara with archival footages, White House conversation recordings and an interview of now eighty five year individual himself. The movie centers on Robert S. McNamara’s life, from his glorious days as a successful military officer in World War II, to becoming president of the Ford Company, and as presidents Kennedy and Johnson’s defense secretary. The movie points out the futility and ferociousness of war and how he was employed despite very little military experience by the presidents as the defense secretary. He also talks about his experience as the bombing statistician during World War II. The film’s main plot is the “eleven lessons” that Robert S. McNamara learnt during his war in Vietnam and his failures in the same. Daichi Ito CTVA 416 – The Documentary Tradition Spring 2008 Prof. María Elena de las Carreras UNKNOWN CHAPLIN Unknown Chaplin is a 1983 British television documentary capturing the career and methods of the famous film personality Charles Chaplin. The film uses previously unseen film for illustration. The film was directed and written by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. The main subject matter of the film is the previously unseen material from Charles Chaplin’s private films. It shows the working methods and film making techniques of Charles Chaplin and also the painstaking efforts made by him to make comedy films. The film shows for the first time completed scenes from Chaplin’s films The Circus, City Lights, and Modern Times which were cut. It also shows rare home movies of Chaplin, including behind the scenes private film of him at work on City Lights. Besides this the documentary also includes interviews with Chaplin’s second wife Lita Grey, his son Sydney Chaplin and costars Jackie Coogan, Dean Reisner, Georgia Hale and Virginia Cherrill. The documentary also shows quite a few bloopers that happened including Chaplin laughing and getting angry when a film is not shot properly and also features Edna Purviance’s laughing and playing pranks on other costars. Also, The Immigrant’s development of story line by Chaplin and the first attempt at filming which was aborted with a completely different story line is also included. Read More