Rec 1 is what you see here. Rec 2 is a pickup from 1. Rec 3 is a prequel, and Rec 4 picks up from 2.
In film school, we studied “lazy” ways to set up horror films and one of them was isolation, meaning isolating the characters to a confined space and not leaving them much choice. It makes sense that it’s considered “lazy” but I think this is an exception to that theory. There is nothing lazy about the character development and the series of events in the movie at all.
Posted at 6:02 pm by Gelene Celis, on September 8, 2014
Lars Von Trier is a filmmaker from Kongens, Lyngby, Denmark.
He was one of the founders of Dogme 95 during the 90’s, which was a rebellion movement against ubiquitous use of special effects and frou-frou that doesn’t carry much substance, which abided by this manifesto – The Vow of Chastity:
1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.)
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.
Many years later, when I heard he’s coming out with a feature, free of the manifesto, I was like, “Wuuut!?!”
Then I found out that it’s about a couple who lost their child where the wife/mother is intensely grieving. The husband is a therapist who decides to treat her, himself, by taking her out in the middle of nowhere.
Two things you must never do as a therapist: treat someone close to you and isolate them.
It did not disappoint.
=================
Don’t me wrong, I like my big-budget, substance-less blockbuster films on occasion ’cause it’s fun but these things, to me, are so much more interesting to study.
Montage editing was “radical” or just too “out there” back in the 60s or 70s even though a lot of avant-garde filmmakers were already using it at the time.
Mainstream caught on eventually.
Granted, they didn’t use it quite as much as the avant-garde, or even fairly popular filmmakers. with tendencies towards experimentation, do (ex. Darren Aronofsky or Sofia Coppola). Mainstream media gauges it with the market vs the avant-garde, which has a very no-fucks-given sensibility.
Anyway back to Von Trier: he didn’t use special effects in all the conventional ways at all but IMO it’s really compelling because he used it, strategically, to emphasize human emotion in moments where it’s at its peak. As I’m sure you know, what goes on the inside can be very different, sometimes it looks almost like nothing, on the outside, so what he’s done really puts the audience in a subjective, immersive headspace.
“A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.”
– IMDB
======================
“We were in the jungle. We had too much money. We had too much equipment. And little by little, we went insane.” – Francis Ford Coppola
We thoroughly studied the filmmaking components along with the psychology of the characters and the filmmakers in film school; rightfully so.
Apparently, everybody just went batshit (the opening scene with Sheen going nuts and punching the mirror, making his hands bleed was real. It wasn’t fake blood and he was actually pretty fucked up).
From what we’ve studied, I think it’s safe to say that they probably ended up making an epic because the people behind the camera delved into their darkness just as the characters in the movie did.
Posted at 2:58 pm by Gelene Celis, on April 4, 2014
… by Paulo Coelho (from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, currently based in Switzerland)
“This is the magical story of Santiago, a shepherd boy who dreams of traveling the world to seek the most wonderful treasures known to man. From his home in Spain, he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and, from there, into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the Alchemist awaits him.”
=================
Still one of my favourites.
Read about it here… like, if you just want a summary… but, no, seriously, read it.
“Las Bolas de Fuego or “Balls of Fire” is a traditional event held every 31st of August in small town of Nejapa, El Salvador. The event was organized for the first time on the 15th of September 1922. Two groups of young people are throwing flaming balls at each other. These balls are made of old cloth and wire. They are soaked in petrol. Persons participating in the event are well protected. Nobody really gets hurt. Everything is one big party.”
– Traditions, Customs
Gelene 