Film Theory: Musical Films

Musical Films were and has always been a huge success in the film business. After all, the first sound movie, The Jazz Singer, was a musical. But, what is really a Musical Film?

A Musical Film is a category of film in which some of the dialogues the characters made with each other or to themselfs, are told by singing and dancing (as a broadway show) Sometimes they tend to mix the two of them, singing and talking in the same musical number. During the 1930's many actors rose to fame by doing this types of film (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and many others that actually won oscars by their performances. In the 1960's and 70's they appeared again in many classic films that we have heard. What is funny, is that most of this movies came from plays of Broadway (the film companies buying the rights and producing them in a higher scale) this is the case of many famous films of this time. My Fair Lady, the Broadway one was starred by Julie Andrews but the Hollywood one was starred by Audrey Hepburn. The Sound of Music was first seen in a stage and later they bought the rights to produce the film, Julie Andrews took the lead role.

Below I will list many films of this category that I have watched and recommend you.

1. My Fair Lady

2. Singing in the Rain

3. Swing Time

4. Mary Poppins

5. The Sound of Music

6. The Wizard of Oz

7. Grease

8. Cabaret

9. Swenney Todd

10. Rent

11. Nine

12. The Phantom of the Opera

13. Hello Dolly

14. Funny Girl

15. Mamma Mia

Movie Review: Forrest Gump

Today I'm gonna make a review of a movie that we saw in film class called Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis and with Tom Hanks, Robin Wrigt and Sally Field in the main roles. Because we all know what the movie is about, I will only comment on the editorial point of view. What I mean with this is that I will talk about the effects, shots, angles and innovations they used and created during the film.

We can all say that in the use of effects, this movie did an amazing job. The slow motion sound effects, the ones with the ping pong ball, the storm and feather were all perfectly done. The one I like dthe most was the one in which they used historical archives of ancient presidents and in them they installed Forrest Gump (in my opinion an amazing and very difficult effect)

In the shots we could see that they used the wide shot to make us know were the character was, the medium shot in moments in which they characters were seen, the over the shoulder shot to show that two people were talking. Extreme Close up's to show the feelings that the eyes of the characters showed and Close up's to focus on their faces.

Angles they used the bird eyes view in location scenes, the high shot in the scene where Lt. Dan was challenging God to sink the boat and to see the bullies that attacked Forrest.

The innovations we could see that was they made perfect use of the make-up. Especially to show age improvement in the characters and the passing of time.

After all of this we can agree that Forrest Gump is a film that was beyond its time and that no matter when we watch it, we will still be amazed by it.

Film Theory: The Legend Behind the Poltergeist Film

In the year 1982, the film Poltergeist was released and had a huge sucess ever since. If you want to see a horror film classic, then this is the movie. But I'm not going to talk about the film, instead, I'm going to talk about what happened inside the filming production and the strange and scary things that happened to some of its stars.
To do this, I do have to explain a little of what the film is about. In a very short summary, Poltergeist is a about a family that lived in a house that was hunted by ghosts and spirits, this was because the house was built under a graveyard. In a scene of the film, we can see the mother who was trying to save her sons, being in a pool full of mud and skeletons. What they told her after the shot was that, those skeletons were real and that they were dug out from a cementery nearby, because of this happening all the strange things.
On another scene, we can see the son being attacked by a clown, during the one shot, the director saw that the boy was turning blue and that the machine didnt let go of his neck. With a group of people, they released him just in time.
The oldest daughter of them, actress Dominique Dunne, was with a friend of her rehearsing for a new role and, her ex boyfriend entered in her house and choke her to death, killing her in front of her actor friend. The ex-boyfriend was sent to prison.
But what was most strange was the death of the little daughter, who was the reason in the movie why the ghosts hunted the house. Heather O'Rourke died of an illness that claimed her life just months after finishing the film Poltergeist III. The cause is said to be a strange disease that affected her during filming.
Along this and another small facts, people from the world of ghosts and paranormal things have said that Poltergeist is a bewitched film and that the death of the actors in it are no coincidence. But, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?

Film Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a film directed by David Fincher. Its main stars are Brad Pitt, who plays Benjamin and Cate Blanchett who plays Daisy. This movie is based on how people live and see life. Benjamin Button was a man like any other, because he was born as an old man, and instead of ageing like everyone else, he became younger. Because he looked on the outside like he was 70 years old, while really being 7, he lived in a house for old people and on one ocassion, he met Daisy, who was the grandaughter of a lady who lived there. After that they re close and Benjamin started to see more of the outside world. He fell in love with Daisy and both had a children, but because he was everyday looking younger, he left them and traveled around the world. Finally, we see that when he was a child, Daisy who was old now, took care of him until he died as a baby and, at the same time, told her daughter, who knew nothing about Benjamin the truth of all, along that he left for them a diary to read all his life.
Finally, for me this movie was created to show that people live life in different ways and that, no matter how or what you are what matters the most is how you live it.

Movie Review: Cleopatra

I saw this movie last year and, to me it was an amazing film. Elizabeth Taylor stars as the enigmatic Queen Cleopatra. The film shows the story of how she came to power, her romance with Julius Caesar (portrayed by Rex Harrison) and how she became one of the most powerful women in the ancient world. After Julius Caesar was killed by Octavious and the Roman Parliament, the film shows how Marc Anthonious (portrayed by Richard Burton) went to Egypt and fell in love with Cleopatra. The romans hated Cleopatra and Octavious took the chance to attack Egypt, and after that winning that land and ruling it, along dying Marc Anthonious and Cleopatra.

This film was one of the most expensive ones in film history, exactly in the year 1963. Elizabeth Taylor was paid 100.000 to portray the famous Queen, being in that time the best paid actress. The film alone cost a lot of money, and the romance between its costars (Taylor and Burton) gave it a lot of talk-about. In my opinion, this movie did a great job in recreating the ancient Egypt, along with Rome. The costumes were amazing, and the makeup of Cleopatra was incredibly done. Althought the film is very long (even after they took away a lot of material) if you enjoy ancient history, and Egypt culture, then you will love this story, along with the fact that Elizabeth Taylor's and Richard Burton's romance make it even more interesting (because you can see the "special connection" between them)

Film Theory: Biography of Audrey Hepburn

If I had to choose one actress, I would choose Audrey Hepburn. Every movie I have seen of her is amazing and, a guilty pleasure. I remember that one of the first movies in black and white that I saw was the Roman Holiday, in which Hepburn starred and won an oscar. This movie is one in which Hepburns portrays an inocent and kind princess who goes to rome and finds love. As you can imagine, after that, and after seeing the obvious talent that she had, I started to see more movies in which she was the main character. Breakfast at Tiffany's, which was adapted from the book by Truman Cappote, left me speechless, her interpretation and performace was an absolute success. Another movie which she did was My Fair Lady, with Rex Harrison, in which sehe portrayed a poor girl who recieved classes so she could pretend to be rich. Another one was the Childrens Hour, movie that I commented last week. She also starred with Cary Grant in Charade, a criminal movie which is based in lies and conmans that try to obtain a money that her husband stole. One of my biggest favorites ones was Funny Face, in which she acted along Fred Astaire, and as you can imagine, there was dancing involved.
As you can see, what I like about Hepburn is that she portrayed different types of characters and that means to me that she was a really good actress.

Movie Review: The Childrens Hour

Last week I saw a great movie in which Audrey Hepburn and Shirley Mcclaine portrayed the main characters. This movie is from the year 1961. This movie created controversy when it came out, but still got nominated for 5 oscars, winnin none. The movie is about two friends (Hepburn and Mcclaine) who own a boarding school of young girls. One of them is a very naughty and evil, which hated the 2 teachers. She listened to Mcclaine discussing with her aunt (which saud that her relationship with Hepburn was unnatural), and because the girl wanted to go out of school she told her grandma lies which led her to believe that they were romantically involved. All of the parents noticed and started to take their daughters out and after they found out who invented the rumor they went to demand the grandma to rectify what she said, but, the girl with the help of a friend of her (who was blackmailed by the little girl) lied too and ended with the hopes of the teachers. Hepburn was going to be married and because of all the rumors, they cancelled the marriage. Both deciding to leave, the grandma found out about the lie and wet to apologize to them, but it was too late. Mcclaine character was so confused about her feelings that she didnt know anymore if she really loved Hepburn and because of this she killed herself. Hepburn gave a funeral and all the people that they knew and formed part of the rumor where there, Hepburn turning their back on them and going away.
After I saw this movie, I was in shocked but still no surprised that it didnt win any awards. Well the reason was because of the subject the movie portraid. During that time people and audiences were very conservative and this film was quite the opposite. All the actors in the movie were amazing, the black and white effect made it more scary and phycologycal like and the topic, which was ignored by most, was well written and developed. This movie is definitley a most see.

Film Theory: Biography of Katharine Hepburn

She was the daughter of a doctor and a suffragette, both of whom encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully and exercise. She had a brother named Tom, who she loved very much and after his accidental death she started to use his birthday as her own. She was mostly home-schooled but she did attend Bryn Mawr College, where she realized that she wanted to be an actress. After having roles in Broadway, movie offers started to appear. She became famous after a contract with RKO but, after a few months, people started to know about her hard attitude towards filmmakers and directors, earning her the nickname of box-office poison, because during that time she didnt make any movie role or broadway film that was a hit. Wanting to make things right, she strangely went back to Broadway to start in the play "The Philadelphia Story" which turned to be a huge success. Buying the play rights, she convinced a producer friend of her to produce the movie, but with her choosing of actors, directors, etc. The film was a box hit and earned her the respect of a acclaimed movie star.
She married and divorced, but started to have a relationship with Spencer Tracy, one that lasted until his death.
Katharine was known for her attitude and way of thinking. She was one of the few actresses who opposed to the fashion during that time, wearing pants and slacks only with no makeup.
She was nomintated 12 times for the Academy Award and won it 4 times (all for the lead role), being that a record on film history that no one has beated yet.
Katharine died in 2003 and she will always be known to be the best actress of the Golden Film Era. Some of the films she made were: The Philadelphia Story, Adams Rib, Bringing Up Baby, Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner (last film with and of Spencer Tracy), On Golden Pond, Woman oif the Year, The Lion in Winter, Suddenly, Last Summer, The African Queen, Little Women, etc.