70's Films

I like to make lists.

Lists of songs, lists of books, and, especially, lists of films. My 'favorite films of all time' list is constantly in flux and I'm constantly watching amazing movies. What I want to do now though is create an 'essential' films list. Movies that have contributed so significantly to the development of film that had they not existed film would be in a very different place today.

The choices for this list will be more 'obvious' than some other lists because the films that contributed the most to cinema are generally the more well known films. I will present here just an off the top of my head list, and then expand and develop it in the days and weeks to come.

Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein

For the Russian Formalist ideas about edited, of which Eisenstein created his five types of montage. In his later films he would move away from these intellectual formalized technique, but in his early work and most famously in this film, you have a very intellectualized editing and montage technique that was highly influential on filmmakers in the early 20th century, and continues to have an impact today.

Broken Blossoms by D.W. Griffith

Often credited with the first use of the closeup. More than other directors Griffith took advantage of the ability to show the viewer details through close up and with his use of motion to create excitement and climax.

Napoleon by Abel Gance

More so than Griffith, Gance pushes the envelope so hard as to be almost experimental to tell the epic story of the childhood and first campaign of Napoleon. One of the greatest films of all time.

Sunrise by F.W. Murnau

Murnau's amazing American film where he was given the full resources of Fox studios. Does for the tracking shot what Napoleon does for montage, pushes it to the limit in an extremely poetic way to tell the story of city vs. country, of good vs. evil, and above all about the greatness of humanity.

M by Fritz Lang

At the height of his powers and with the tremendous resources and the German Film Institute and the ominous rise to power of the Nazi's all around him, Lang's first sound film is a dark film about the police investigation into a serial killer who murders little girls. In it's pacing and presentation of information it is remarkably ahead of it's time, one of the first modern crime films. The culmination of Lang's earlier crime films 'Spies', and the 'Dr. Mabuse' movies.

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some other films that definatley need inclusion:

Citizen Kane by Orson Welles
The Lady Eve by Preston Sturges
Red River by Howard Hawks

Song

Song

Affirmation

I'm reaffirming my goal of watching every Korean film released in 2007. So far I'm off to a bad start and am about 30 movies behind. But I can definatley do it and I'm pretty excited. 화이팅!

A New Hope

I think perhaps there is some point in blogging after all. This mostly has to do with what I perceive as the vast amount of idiot foreigners that are residing here in Seoul. While there are certainly some very cool, interesting people here, the majority are quite simply idiots. Which is a shame because their recycled opinions and negative attitudes are what shape outside perceptions of Korea.

I also recently watched two Korean romantic comedies, the first Korean films I've watched since the first few months I got here, and to me they are fascinated in the way they relate to Korean society and culture. I haven't formalized anything, but there is definitely a very different relationship between Koreans and Korean films than from American and American films. Because Korea is so small and insular it is much easier to see in the films a kind of national identification process. How the Koreans see themselves and how they would like to be perceived are both very evident in these movies.

Korean television (the variety shows that is, I don't watch any of the dramas as it's too hard to figure out what time they're on) are very 'safe'. The popular comedy shows humor is almost always focused on misunderstandings, wordplay, embarrassing people (breaking them), or bodily functions. As far as I can tell there is no social satire, sarcasm exists in a very infantile form, and public institutions and corporations are never questioned.

There is a sort of blind faith in the corporations and government here and the sense that everyone is working together. The corporations and the government are so intertwined that there is little distinction between them anyway. They are both equal authorities and neither is more important than the other. So, for example, when I tell someone I don't like Oprah they are very suprised. "Is it because she's black?". Or if I say that I hated the Transformers movie they look astonished, "But it was #1 at the box office".

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Rant to continue later. So long for now.

Back in the Game

For some reason Blogger started displaying in English again instead of Korean. So I thought I'd write a post. My six months here is almost up. Latez.

Internet Blues

So the only reliable wireless I can connect to now is only available when the guys computer is on, and he doesn't get home till after 10pm, right when I'm going to bed. It's terrible timing. Before that I have to use the extremely fickle wireless networks that constantly disconnect me. I'm about to go to bed, but the guy finally came online so I can finally do stuff. Tonight I'm just going to go to bed though. Maybe tomorrow night I'll do more online.

I Made It

I made it to Seoul! I've been teaching for a week and have gotten acclimated enough to start writing again. I also found out the secret to leech off my neighbors unsecured Wifi now so I can get online regularly. It's all about laptop placement.



Somehow Blogger thinks I'm Korean right now, so all the menu options are in Hangul. I basically know where all the buttons are so that's no big problem, but it sure would be nice to have English to use the advanced features. That picture is from Hyehwa where I had dinner last night. Later today I'm going to head down to Insadong for the first time. It should be fun, though it might be dark by the time I get there.