Post Two

“It is the writer’s screenplay, but the director’s film – get used to it,” William Goldman, screenwriter/author.

One director whose work in whatever genre he may delve into, whether the work is an adaptation or original, has consistently retained his mark as an auteur is Martin Scorsese. Primarily known for crime and gangster films in his early years, he has been able to branch out into tales of sporting redemption (Raging Bull, 1980) and music documentaries (Shine A Light, 2008) while maintaining his own Scorsese-isms regardless.

Film-makers starting out in the business are encourage to write or draw upon things that they are familiar with for inspiration, and certainly Scorsese has carried this maxim with him throughout his career as the recurring themes of violence, redemption, Christian imagery and identity all make regular appearances in his work.

All 4 of these themes appear in Taxi Driver (1976) as De Niro’s Travis Bickle tries to do something with his life upon returning from Vietnam. His frustration at himself and his detachment from people regularly emerges, as there are several voice-over monologues airing his insecurity; (contains swearing from the start)

  

Despite his anger, there is also a hope in some sense of salvation when he says,

“Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” which reflects the cleansing power of water due to the connotations with baptism.

From an anti-hero searching for identity, to an anti-hero losing his identity, it can only be Goodfellas (1990), in which Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a man who grew up with the mob as his family (another recurring theme) and pays for the consequences of his violent actions by having to betray the mob which leads to him becoming,“...an average nobody, I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook.”

A film marked with truly violent scenes, Scorsese manages to give meaning to the violence so it is never just violence for the sake of it, but often to set-up either an atonement or as punishment, a strong reminder of his Catholic faith. As James Senft notes,

“Though the imagery is usually not obvious, religion and Catholicism do play important roles in many of Scorsese's films.”

http://www.millersville.edu/~wstudent/old/RESTORE_FILM/classes/samples/scorsese_sample_paper.php

As already noted, identity is a consistent theme in Scorsese’s work, and he was able to further push himself in exploring this theme in 2010’s Shutter Island, in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character tries to locate a missing prisoner, only for it to be revealed that he in fact is the subject of a huge role-playing exercise to make him come to terms with the fact he killed his wife in a fit of rage. The notion that he has gone through this several times before can be seen to represent a stay in limbo as he refuses to atone for his past sin, tying in again to the religious theme.

However often these themes appear in Scorsese’s work, his skill as a film-maker ensures that they can be presented in a myriad of different ways.

Post One

Through the manipulation of music and lighting, this classic scene from Friedrich Wilhem Murnau’s 1922 film ‘Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror’, still has a haunting effect even today. The menace of Orlok’s shadow plays upon the notion of not being able to see an assailant but being aware of a presence. At 00.59, there is a neat jump cut from the woman in her bed suddenly being gripped and falling asleep to a doctor being grabbed and shook awake. At 1.43, as Orlok turns after hearing a cock crow, the ambient noise of birds chirping breaks the domination of the musical score and juxtaposes the natural with the unnatural.

Paid homage to in “The Untouchables”, the iconic image of a pram tumbling down the steps in a city by itself from “Battleship Potemkin” (1925, Sergei Eisenstein) is still an enduring image to this day. Watched in the context of the scene, the heart-breaking notion of a mother being unable to hold on to her baby and not being able to prevent it hurtling down stairs into “death” is still poignant today. The quick cuts from 1.43 – 1.50 starkly contrast the innocence babies signify with the brutality adults are capable of, with the message of the scene being to care for the future and not let it descend into chaos.

A completely silent clip from “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925, Rupert Julian), but one in which the tension and then the reveal of the Phantom’s true face is executed to near perfection. The actresses’ facial expressions and general composure tell the audience how she is feeling at the start; calm and composed to then intrigued yet cautionary, before the mask is removed and the Phantom is seen in his true state. We as the audience are the first to see the Phantom’s face at 0.44 thus the audience takes the brunt of the shock before the character of ‘Christine Daae’ reacts.

Only 6 seconds long, the final shot from “The Great Train Robbery” (1903, Edwin S Porter) has stood the test of time for well over a century. The film itself is just over ten minutes in length, but the iconic image of the robber firing his gun straight at the camera, and in effect, at the audience is the most memorable part. It was one of, if not the first example of an actor breaking the ‘fourth-wall’ between the audience and what was happening on the screen, with the shock of it allegedly causing some cinema patrons to pass out in shock.

 

George Méliès’ 1902 film “La Voyage Dans La Lune” is still a remarkably unique film, which can also boast to be the first ever science-fiction film. Shot when film-making was in its infancy, it still managed to combine both live-action with partial animation; the rocket falling into the sea at 11.18 – 11.22. It also made use of characteristically theatrical sets by being able to move them in real time when the travelers see the Earth rise up once they have landed on the moon; 06.40 – 06.53. Despite only appearing for several seconds, the image of the Moon with a rocket in its eye is well recognised to this day.