Short Films

The Forgotten Hit

 I enjoyed watching this short film as it had a very clever, unexpected plot. The restricted narrative ensured that I had no idea what was happening, and I only knew as much as the main character which made it interesting to watch and made it fit with the film's genre conventions. I felt the director had used their resources well, making it a lot more convincing than some of the A Level short films we watched. For instance, the scenery and props used, like the hotel and the guns, gave it a much more realistic feel and I didn't feel like I was watching something someone had created for fun with their old camcorder.

Indecision

Indecision was my favourite of the three films, and I really liked the simplicity of it. It felt similar in style to the brilliant short films Picture House cinemas play before films. It was subtly humorous in the parts where the man is stuck between the two scenes, and the creaking noise when the set is tipping. The camera movements made a very interesting metaphor of 'turning it all over in his head' and 'indecision' and made me feel quite dizzy, which relates to the emotions and confusion of the man with his indecision.

Farewell Charlie Power

I actually found this short film quite shocking with the sudden, unexpected death of Charlie Power at the beginning and the part where the son digs him up, but it was done very well. I liked the fact that the music was continuously by the band Belle & Sebastian as it remained constant and there were no disruptions which shows the flow of life for that particular set of people, but the style of the music changed over the course of the film to reflect the moods and the situations.

Chalet Girl (2011)

Chalet Girl... if I had to sum the film up in one word I'd say 'predictable'. It was one of those films where you could predict every single thing that was going to happen and it was packed to the brim with cliches. I find Hollywood films are usually just one massive cliche, and I wasn't quite expecting the same from a British film, which can often have quite clever plots.
I say this, but it was still enjoyable to watch as a feel-good rom-com. I watched it with my mum, who would turn to me, disapprovingly, every five minutes and either predict a key moment of the film, or say 'I knew that was going to happen'. But I don't think that's the point of films like Chalet Girl - I think a lot of the entertainment comes from knowing that it follows such a typical plot line. With films like this, you just have to sit back, relax and appreciate how awful it is - and that's what makes it so good.

Felicity Jones plays that role of an tom-boy that falls into an unlikely situation and finds love. I think her role, and even the look about her, could easily be mistaken for Ellen Page's role in the film Juno (which, on a sidenote, I happen to think is a great film).

However, Felicity Jones played the role very well and I didn't feel like I would have preferred someone like Ellen Page - if Ellen Page had been in the film, I think it would have just been too obvious. The good thing about it being a British film is that the cast is original (apart from Bill Nighy - I think he's in just about every film I've ever seen) which gives it a fresh feel.

So, despite being incredibly predictable, I'd recommend watching Chalet Girl if you're in the mood for a light-hearted British rom-com and you don't want to think too much. I rate it 7/10 snowboards.  

Nosferatu (1922)

For Halloween, the Harbour Lights Picturehouse cinema was showing the 1922 original version of the film 'Nosferatu'.
The film itself is silent, with an orchestral accompaniment to help express the emotions and actions that occur during the film. For instance, the string section would play a high-pitched held note during tense scenes (of which there were many) and, in one scene, trumpets were used to mimic the sound of a cockerel crowing. Music served as a very good replacement for the speech.

The film is narrated through German script which is translated into English through subtitles. The German script is carefully written out in old-style calligraphy which provides the film with the authentic, foreign horror story feel. This is also provided by the use of spelling within the English subtitles when the protagonist reads the small book he finds, containing words like 'vampyre' and 'ghastlie' instead of the modern English spellings.

One scene which has stayed in my mind since seeing the film is where Hutter, the protagonist, is walking towards Count Orlok's home after crossing the bridge which the carriage-drivers refused to go over. They would go no further than the bridge, and it soon turns out that Hutter suffers from visions after this point.
To portray the visions without speech or colour, part of the scene is done in negative film which strongly provides a sense of hallucination and it makes the viewer feel uneasy, despite the modern viewers being used to seeing much more developed hallucination scenes from modern cinema.

The use of shadows in the film is very interesting and they are mostly used during scenes with Count Orlok. In the sequence where Count Orlok is sneaking up to Hutter's wife, Ellen, his long, thin shadow is cast on the wall as you see him creeping up the stairs, and there is particular emphasis on his spindly fingers. When he enters the bedroom, his shadow almost consumes her and the shadow of his hand can be seen squeezing her heart, which shocks the viewers without straying from the PG rating of the film.

Although I grew tired by the 5th and final act of the film, it was very interesting to watch, and quite captivating during the first half, as well as being very well done for such and old film. I felt I had a lot to talk about the moment it ended.