[Week 7] Forum-Film Analysis

Q: These films are both made during the silent film era but are almost 20 years apart and from very different cultural and historical contexts. How do these films use the tools of cinema specifically to tell their story? How do each of the films contribute to the development of narrative cinema?

Made in Movie Heaven: The Best Match Cuts in History

In week 8, both The Great Train Robbery (1903) film and I was Born But...(1932) film are extremely attractive to me. Even though the time of publishing these two films has a 30 years interval, both of them used their own methods to developed and explored the expression of cinema language. 

in The Great Train Robbery (1903), the main powerful tool that is being used is professional acting, which is the simple and distinguishable action and interaction between people on screen. Even without on screen dialogue or flash clip with words on, the film allows audience to understand and digest the story plot effortlessly regardless they are literate or not. With the prerequisite of clear body movement, the classic chasing action on screen is being shown and has the power to keep the audience follow up the time and space changing inside the story world. The neat location and sets, blocking and props make the focus point in a scene more noticeable for the audience to pay attention too. Not to mention there remain a early cinema trick using a composite editing, when the robberies are on the top of the train fighting with the train attendant (00:03:05), a cut appears before the robbery throws a "fainted person" out of the train. This "magic cut" is a simple but powerful move in the entire language of cinema through all the time, because this editing skill can only be achieve in the form of film editing. The way people act, the way space changes, the way to cut the film...The Great Train Robbery is also a great and clear film making example for people to study.

The Great Train Robbery (1903), train deck scene

On the other hand, 30 years later, Yasujiro Ozu released a silent film with a lovely but sad topic, I was Born But...(1932). With the developing of film making over more than 20 years, we can clearly see the more complexity that is being shown in Yasujiro's film when compare to The Great Train Robbery. Firstly, even it is still a silent film, on screen subtitle shot is applied in I was Born But...; Unlike The Great Train Robbery which all the scene are still long shot, close-up shot and reverse shot, tracking, dolly and zoom in/out shot are all used in this Yasujiro's early work in film. The dialogue in this film is significant, because the audience can compromise the action on screen, but the dialogue between the father and sons and between kids allow the audience to think deeper. In the shot which the father walking in his office suddenly transit into all the students practicing calligraphy uses the camera movement to accomplish a smooth transition cut (00:24:10). The cut using overlap illusion of imagery is always an unbelievable move for me. I think the reason why this matching cut is intriguing is because the transition is obviously noticeable but still smooth in its own way. Normally, for example, the shot and reverse shot, the cut between them is suppose to be invisible in order to keep the audience stay in the suture (haven't say this word in a while). On the contrary, the matching cut provide the audience a conflict feeling which is we realized we are out of suture, but still enjoy the form matching, and we are being directed into another location in the film in a sudden but still stay on track. Last but not least, the point of view changing(00:26:20) from the brothers hanging out on the ground to the older kid selling sake in the neighborhood riding a bike watching them is also new technique to use at that time period. All the smart exploration of camera using in this film are inspiring. Even it seems not a big deal when comparing to the film technique in this new era, because the old film has the simple and clear set-up for everything, it is easier to notice all the detail skills the filmmakers used.

I was Born But...(1932)

As for the discussion of narrative theme, the focus of these two films are aiming to provide the audience different feeling to take out at the first place. The former film developed the western genre of excited movement and action which is still a popular genre in these days cinema. The latter is more about using cinema language to pass the message about human relationship and position in the society. Thinking about the purpose and meaning of the films after watching them can help us form a better thought about how to create and tell our own story in the future as being a filmmaker.