But I'm A Cheerleader Movie Review

    

                        But I'm a Cheerleader is an American satirical romantic comedy film starred by Natasha Lyonne as Megan Bloomfield in this film. This film was published in 1999, directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. The queer cinema theory had used in this film. It has been in existence for decades but without a name and identified with avant-garde cinema or can be defined as an experimental film.

                             The queer cinema was introduced at the Toronto Film Festival in 1991 as a concept. People always discriminate LGBT which is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, however, queer cinema had used to reexamined and reviewed the image of homosexuality. It gives an idea that no matter what we know previously can be restarted. Queer cinema became more visible with the global traumatizing effects of AIDS when it had spread out. Queer cinema films will re-evaluate subjectivities and they negotiate how men look at each other. It incorporating the question of pleasure in screen and the celebration of excess lead to a result in a subversion of previously considered mainstreams genres. Besides, Queer cinema also known as New Queer Cinema, the films that linked to it had become such a marketable commodity and an identifiable movement. It was a term that used to describe the renaissance of gay and lesbian filmmaking by the Americans lead by Gus Van Sant. 

                              Then, Queer cinema is probably around due to the growing trends in critical theory in the 1980s named Queer Theory. Queer Theory is a theory that came from multiple critical and cultural contexts, including feminism, post-structuralist theory, radical movements of people of color, the gay and lesbian movements, AIDS activism, many sexual subcultural practices such as sadomasochism, and postcolonialism. There are four approaches in Queer Theory. The first approach would be audience reception. It assesses popular cultural texts that overly address non-straight audiences, such as homosexual characters in a narrative film. As an example, it makes a film about gay for gay audiences to enjoy or the other hand we can say that they make romance films for straight people. Secondly, the texts that address straight audiences but have gotten appreciation from non-straight audiences. The works that have made it are targeted at the straight audience but for gay audiences they also like it. This approach does not purposely make films for gay people. According to Doty (1998), the third approach is describing the straight producers are concerned with non-normative straightness. It shows us different perspectives of the stereotype of the masculine and this approach need to learn how to deal with the producer. The last approach, also the most complicated among these four approaches, which had related to the system of Queer Cinema. This approach makes us questioned everything that we know. It makes gay people rethink what they think and makes straight people rethink what they think. According to Ibid, this theory included films and popular culture texts, spectator positions, pleasures, and readings that articulate spaces outside gender binaries and sexuality categories, whether these are outside the normative straight understanding of gender and sexuality or outside orthodox lesbian and gay understanding. 


                                   This movie is talking about a seventeen high school girl, Megan, who had participated in cheerleader in her school team. She has a football player's boyfriend, Jared but she totally does not have the interest to kiss him. Her friends accidentally found out that Megan collects some women poster then she showed it to Megan's parents. Thus, they started to guess whether Megan is a lesbian or not. Megan has been sent to a therapy center named "True Directions". She was very nervous and anxious because she believed she was not a homosexual. When she reached there, She met a few gays and lesbians. The principal of True Directions, Mary Brown told her she has to fulfill 5 steps in order to graduate this LGBT session. Megan passed the first 4 steps but she had been kicked out in the last step. In that period, she falls in love with one of the lesbian, Graham. Graham runs away on her graduation day and elopes with Megan at last. 

                                     For the analysis part, this film has shown many types of representation in different characters. We can see how they perform the social norms by girls and boys and this we could observe from the gays and lesbian actions in True Direction. The production and costume design of the movie was meant to reflect the idea of gender roles. There is a progression from the organic world of Megan’s hometown, where the main colors are orange and brown, to the fake world of True Directions, dominated by intense blues and pinks, which show the artificiality of gender roles. In the camp, the male campers wear only dark blue shorts, shirts, and ties, whereas the female campers wear only bright pink skirts and blouses. By having the campers wear clothes that are typically associated with the standard male outfit and the standard female outfit, it tries to show the campers how normal straight people dress.

                                    Besides making the campers wear gender-specific clothes, they make the campers perform a series of tasks associated with each gender. For example, girls are taught how to clean a house, how to sew, specifically a wedding dress, how to wear make-up and look like a “pretty young woman”. Guys are taught how to change a tire and fix a car’s engine, how to play football, and how to chop wood and spit. The idea is if the campers realize and practice their intended role in society then their homosexuality will be cured.

                                    The concept that is being taught at the camp is that homosexuality is caused by not conforming to socially constructed gender roles. In order to cure this homosexuality, you have to act and dress like an ideal man or woman performing the gender roles given to you by society. The idea that performing gender-specific tasks and wearing gender-specific clothes will change who someone loves is just ridiculous and ignorant. The movie showcases this in a funny light-hearted way but still gets the message across love is love, and it cannot be cured.

                                     Indeed, it seems a well-produced textual analysis will look at other readings of the text to better substantiate the viewer’s arguments or interpretations. On the surface, one may view this film as anti-gay propaganda – because of the True Directions program in combination with the numerous stereotypical gay characters within the film. However, due to the film’s ultimately satirical nature, it becomes clear that the film functions in quite the opposite way. But I’m a Cheerleader advocate for gay rights, equality, and acceptance in a humorous way that forces – or encourages – the viewer to view homosexual individuals with a new, positive understanding. Everyone has the right to love, relationships, and happiness regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

REFERENCE : 

Illinois Library. (Aug 26, 2019). Queer Theory: Background | A Rough Introduction

Retrieved from https://guides.library.illinois.edu/queertheory/background

Sullivan, Nikki (2003) A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Hayward, Susan (2006) Cinema Studies The Key Concepts, 3rd ed., USA: Routledge, pp. 329 – 333.

genderandsexualityinsocialstudies. (2019). BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER.
Retrieved from https://genderandsexualityinsocialstudies.wordpress.com/film-reviews/but-im-a-cheerleader/

Clueless Movie Review

                                 Clueless is an American coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling in 1995. The theory I would like to discuss in this film is the Feminist film theory matured in the late 1960s. 

                                 Before we talk about feminist film theory, we must understand feminism. Feminism is a set of political practices seen through the analyses of the social position of women. As stated by Mulvey in 1975, it stated that Feminist Film Theory talks about men and women are differently positioned by the cinema,  “men as subjects identifying with agents who drive the film’s narrative forward, women as objects for masculine desire and fetishistic gazing” (Freeland, 1996).  ‘The Male Gaze’ only focused on the males’ point of view, everything including the camera movements, characters development, is directed by the male in order to satisfy the male audiences. In this theory, women often being objectified to visually please males. In early Hollywood movies, women often get stereotyped through the cinema and it caused negative impacts onto female viewers. It does have an improvement in decreasing the stereotyping of women representatives however the subtle one still remains in the contemporary film industry. Males often being portrayed as strong, powerful, and masculine; while the females are the weak and powerless one. Superheroes or the protagonists of films in the past only featured males, and it only started improved since 1940 when the first female superhero debuted, Fatimah who is an ageless Egyptian woman to fight evils.

                                         Clueless is a film talking about a high school student in Beverly Hills, Cher, must survive the ups and downs of adolescent life. She is a rich, pretty, blonde, popular girl and knows how to talk anyone into doing just about anything. When she can't get a teacher to give her a better grade, she and her friend Dion match him up with another teacher to make him happier... and maybe a bit laxer on his expectations. When a girl named Tai transfers to Cher's school, she and Dion give her a makeover and attempt to find her a boyfriend. Cher soon realizes that she wants a boyfriend herself, but no one seems right. She goes through a spiritual makeover and realizes that there's more to life than clothes and popularity before she finds the boy of her dreams. Her external demeanor at first seems superficial, but rather it hides her wit, charm, and intelligence which help her to deal with relationships, friends, family, school, and the all-important teenage social life.

                                         For the analysis part, we can find some various representations and compare them. The first female representation is Cher. She is a rich girl with blond hair. She is a caring and optimistic person but being judgemental and immature. As an example, she keeps arguing with her teacher to get a better grade for her results because she knew that if she show the results to her father she will be scolded. In fact, she did bad in her exam. She had turned over a new leaf in the end and become a mature teenager. The second female representation is Tai, Cher's friend. She is a brunette with a pretty look. Everyone thought she is a smart person but actually, she is dumb even a narcissism.  Her actions were quite funny and she keeps asking silly questions. She had disputes with Cher but they reconciled in the end. 

                                       

Cher

Tai

                                    Overall, clueless is one of the movies that I have been watched in film studies I like the most because there are no involved in any horror scenes. We can see different types of female representations in this film. I will recommend this film to my female friends as it has well described the Feminist film theory. 

REFERENCE : 

Hayward, Susan (2013) Cinema Studies The Key Concepts, 4th ed., USA: Routledge, pp. 137 – 148.

Notes by lecturer

1MDb. (2019). Clueless | Plot

Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/plotsummary

As Above So Below Movie Review

                                As above, so below is an American horror documentary film directed by  John Erick Dowdle in 2014. It actually was a mockumentary, a friction film pretending to be a documentary. It includes mixing genres such as horror, thriller, and mystery. This film has shown the real crew's experience which they are exploring the Catacombs of Paris.  Today, we are going to discuss a documentary and the six modes of representation by Bill Nichols. It is about real issues. 

                                  There are 3 assumptions of a documentary. Firstly, filmed events are not staged, hence providing an authentic look. Documentaries are non-fiction films, they depict on imaginary but based on the true story. The last assumption is documentaries filmmakers are assumed to observe the events and make an objective record of the events. As an example, the news is a kind of documentary. The difference between action films and documentary are action films manipulate events such as color, lighting, angles while documentary can depict a version of the truth, it is shaping the film techniques. The six modes of representations are poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative. Poetic mode is a way of representing reality via a series of fragmented visuals and subjective impressions, incoherent acts and loose associations. It will not show you the environment directly and blurriness is one of the elements of poetry. For example, a crazy camera movement was pixelated is due to the fragmentation of the visual. Secondly, expository mode is a disembodied and authoritative voiceover that being descriptive and informative. It provides visible information in the imagery and unseen information in the voiceover. The overall effect of this mode is subjectivity, a direct and transparent representation. The third representation mode is observational. It allows filmmakers to record unobtrusively what people did when they were not explicitly addressing the camera. There is no interaction involved between the filmmakers and the characters. Interactive mode appeared from the desire to make the filmmaker's perspective more evident and allow the filmmaker to participate more actively in present events. This mode tells us what may happen for the true story. It shapes the truth to make interviewers say what we want them to say. Besides, the reflexive mode showing us we are using cameras. It was similar to interactive mode where it will reveal the truth. It makes the conventions of representations themselves more apparent and to challenge the impression of reality. The last mode is the performative mode which stresses subjective aspects of a classically objective discourse. It recreates the footage to let audiences experience what happens to the person.

                            As above, so below is a film talking about an Archaeologist Scarlett Marlowe named Perdita Weeks has devoted her whole life to finding one of history's greatest treasures: Flamel's Philosopher's Stone. According to legend, the artifact can grant eternal life and turn any metal into gold. When she learns that the stone is hidden underground in the Catacombs of Paris, she assembles a crew to guide and document her historic mission. As they begin their descent, the team members have no way of knowing that they are entering their own personal hell.

                          This film has used four types of modes of representation which are poetic, interactive, reflexive and performative. For poetic mode, ‘As Above, So below’ has a few scenes is blurred and unclear. For example, the scenes are blur when they were running, when they climb and fell, the camera dropped off their head or hand. Therefore, the scenes are very unclear, and it definitely showed the audience that it is filmed real, and it is a documentary. For example, The scene of Scarlett ran back to put back the stone and renew it to rescue George. The scene was very blur because she was running and rushing in time to rescue her loved one. Next, for the interactive mode, the actors in the movie have been talking together with the cameraman, Benji. For example, Scarlette always ask him is he okay when he screamed or hurt himself. Besides, the others also talked to him when he was stucked halfway climbing in the narrow pathways which full of bones. Furthermore, for reflexive mode, we can know that this movie that we are watching is a documentary. For instance, Benji check the cameras by saying “Camera A checked”, and placed it on the crews’ head carefully. They had also said about the journey and the purpose, which were going under the Catacombs of Paris to find the philosopher’s stone. In this movie, the actors told us that everything is real, but we as an audience, have to decide whether to trust or not. Furthermore, for the performative mode, this movie has pretended to be a documentary. This movie is actually a mockumentary, which means using documentary style to film a horror film.

                                    In conclusion, this film is a documentary film which contains horror elements. It let us know the truth and makes us feel like we are experiencing it. For me, this is a meaningful film although is has a lot of horror scenes. The characters have shown us a great attitude that should not give up easily and they finally successfully escape from the cave. It also delivers a message to us no matter what happens or we encounter any difficulties, we must be persistence till the end.  

REFERENCE : 

Bill Nichols. Introduction to Documentaries.

Notes given by lecturer 

FANDOM. (2019). As Above, So Below | Horror Film Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Retrieved from https://horror.fandom.com/wiki/As_Above,_So_Below

Breathless Movie Review

                                        This week we learned about the French New Wave the last film movement that we going to discuss. To understand more about French New Wave, Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard 1959 was been played in the classroom.

                                         French New Wave started in 1959 with Breathless by Jean-Luc-Godard and ended in 1969 possibly with Weekend by Jean-Lun-Godard also. French New Wave is one of the film movement that enrolls a group of film directors or we call trailblazers of the French New wave. French New Wave introduced a group of directors that they cannot manage to enroll in the French commercial cinema and turned out to revolutionizing with mixing the rapid cut of Hollywood and the philosophical trend. (Parnell, 2016)

                                         The French film was the main literary adaptation which means that the story from a book, becomes the movie after the books. For example, fictional tales published in books and adapted to cinema.  These films were actually filmed without a studio system or on big-budget spectacles and international co-production. They only use a camera or recorder and actors for their film production because an actor is the main ingredient to them.

                                       Besides, French New Wave films challenge the traditions of films. They reject the heavy emphasis on plot & dialogue, and more concern on visual aesthetics and mise-en-scene. They try to make the video more elliptical, that is why when we watched the films, they are using jump cut for the editing style.

                                        Furthermore, The New Wave directors had admired the Neorealists and in opposition to studio shooting, they choose to shoot on location. For example, Bicycle Thieves 1948 by Vittorio De Sica, all on the scene are shot on location. They replace the glossy studio light by using the available light source such as daylight. They also use direct sound, which means, they did recording when shooting on location and do not do any corrections.

                                       French New Wave directors using a unique way for shooting, they didn’t emphasize on the traditions film style, they using handheld cameras for shooting, that is the reason why some of the scenes are shaking and there is a lot of long shot.

                                       Moreover, we can always feel that we are actually being brought into the scene and interact with the characters. The film often calls the attention of the audiences, not only through their cinematography but also the behavior of the actors. Even we see that the character is alone in a particular scene but this doesn’t really make us feel that way because the actors may communicate or talking to the camera and had created an interaction with the audiences.

                                      Regarding the acting, we can see that the actor always improvised their dialogue that could reflect the real-life situation due to the filmmaker does not provide any script. The actor has the freedom to how to act their character and they can create the line spontaneously. 

Film discussion: Breathless (1959)

                                     In term of the theory application in the film, the most identifiable is the natural resources that use in the video. For example, the natural daylight and the real environment sound design are appealed in the film. Most of the scene is shaky because the filmmaker is using a hand-held camera most of the time. Next, we also found that there is a lot of long-shot scene in the movie. For example, there is a scene of Michel and Patricia walk along on the street for a long take without any close-up shot or over the shoulder shot. This explains that the whole conversation on that scene only has one take.

                                   Besides, there is a lot of jumpcut in the films. For example, when Patricia was investigated by a police officer, she did not wear sunglasses, but when going to the scene after it, she wears sunglasses in the same place. This also explains that personal authorship is being applied in the film. There is another jumpcut that really easy to be seen. Patricia and Michel were staring at each other at the first, then the scene jumps to they are kissing without any scene that they approach each other. Sometime jumpcuts will be surprising the audience but it breaks the continuity of the storyline.

                                   In the film, there have a self-reflexivity. When Michel driving along to Paris, he keeps talking to the camera, just like have a conversation with the audience. This allows the audience to feel and engage with the character in the film better.

                                   French new wave only longs for 10 years at the pass from 1959 until 1969. Start by Jean-Luc-Godard and also ended by him. French New Wave is one of the film movement. As we can see, most of the film produced by New Wave directors, are all taken by using the hand-held camera so we can see there are some of the scenes are very shaky. This may make the audience feel boring with the long take and shaky scene. But what I like in the French New Wave films is they using all the natural resources for filmmaking. This may spend more time but can get the best visual by using daylight and the environment of the surrounding. I hope that the directors can try to use the French new wave to make a film for once in the 21st century.

REFERENCE : 

Parnell,L.(2016). The French New Wave : Revolutionizing Cinema. 

Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/

Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves) Movie Review

                                Bicycle Thieves is a 1948 film directed by Vittorio De Sica. We had learned Italian Neorealism theory in this film.

                               Italian Neorealism was found out by Cesare Zavattini in 1942. He suggested a new form of Italian Cinema that abolishes contrived and planned plots, use real people and locations so that direct contact is established with contemporary social reality. The plot used by Zavattini is they looked at plots as a fake structure of “everyday life”. Next, the actors are all professional and they will complement the falsehood. Besides that, Italian Neo-realism also stick to contemporary social realism. Neo-realism unconditional emphasis on the ordinaries of Today, Today, Today or we can say that this neorealism emphasis the commonplace of current.

                               Rome, Open City was the first city that considered the first Neorealism film although Ossessione (1943) (Directed by Luchino Visconti) had vast the element of neo-realism, it wasn’t shown to the world until 1976 due to the similarities to The Postman Always Ring Twice 1981 (Directed by Bob Rafelson). Neorealism has few characters that are first, the shot was mostly using shot-on location which means that all the scenes are the reality, all the passengers are really the citizens, not actors. Second, neorealism used the grainy film stocks, this can give it a newsreel look. Besides, all the soundtracks were all recorded and added after the shoots. Furthermore, neorealism using the mixture of professional actor and non-actors. In the films, there may be one professional actor and all are non-actors. The films are referred to as the contemporary national experience. Next, neorealism has the point of view of socially-conscious and humanistic. The film possesses the melodramatic aspects, such as the music that makes people feel sad and the acting can persuade the feeling of people, etc. Then, the neo-realism give the motivated to rebuilt national reputation.

                                Neorealism was known as a cinema of poverty and pessimism which is giving the negative thought to the audience. Its decline began in the fifties(1950s) when the times were changing for the better. This neorealism is a new revolution of the film but it happened during a time of non-revolutionary transition towards prosperity and affluence. Italian Neorealism is not economically profitable because it was unpopular in Italy and dependent on foreign appreciation. Furthermore, the Italian government does not favor neorealism and they bring imports of American films.

                                 This film is talking about a man who finds a job but needs a bicycle. His wife took the quilts from the house for a pawn, just to redeem his bicycle. Unfortunately, he lost his bicycle on the first day of work. To find back his bicycle, he brings along his son together and goes around Italy. He found a man who looks likes the thief, but he just misunderstood the man. At the last, he got no idea to find back his bicycle, and he tried to steal one bicycle but been caught by the people around. The bicycle owner forgives him and warns him never to do this again next time.

                                 This film applying the theory in neorealism which is used the mixture of professional actors and non-actors. In the film, there is only one actor who is a professional actor who is at the starting of the scene, there are one people who were distributing the job to Ricci. Only him is a real actor, and the others in the film all are non-actor, especially the main character, Ricci (cast by Lamberto Maggiorani), he is a real working man in real life due to the feeling of his working gesture is nature and not like an actor.

                                 In the film, we can see there have a lot of passengers inside. This is because most of the scene is shot on-location, and all the scenes are in the ruins of the post-war era. The director straight shooting on the street with the passenger. This can show how their life going on after world war 2. For example, when Ricci and his wife go to pawn the quilts, all the people behind is really go to the pawnshop to pawn stuff to go to buy the daily stuff, because, after WWII, there was economic inflation.

                                   Next, in the film, it possesses melodramatic aspects. Melodramatic means that all the music, acting, showing the sadness of the character in a particular situation. For example, after the thief stole Ricci's bicycle and Ricci can't chaise it, there is sad music that comes out to the scene, this makes the audience feel that Ricci is really helpless. Besides that, there still have some music that made people nervous, which is at the most last scene, Ricci plan to steal the bicycle and ask Bruno to go to the bus station, the music makes audiences feel nervous that whether he can steal the bicycle or not.

                                    As a conclusion, Bicycle Thieves had completely explained what is Italian Neorealism. Although Italian Neorealism only stands for the short term, the theory show two faces of people which is kind and one is an eyewitness but never helps others. Last but not least, people in 21st century should be more kindly and friendly although the people who need help is not your friend for the family, just give them a hand, and you won't lose anything.

REFERENCE : 

Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/

Edinburgh(2013) The Bicycle Thieves and Italian Neorealism  

Retrieved from https://filmandphilosophy.com/2013/03/08/the-bicycle-thieves-and-italian-neorealism/

 Notes from weekly lecture - Italian Neorealism (Lectured by Joe Yan)