What Dreams May Come/ Thelma and Louise

'Thelma and Louise'

I watched Ridley Scott's 'Thelma and Louise' this week as Richard had requested for our screenwriting class. I hadn't actually seen this particular Ridley Scott film -which is surprising as I've seen almost all his other features.
I had previously been told that the ending of the film had been recycled in t.v shows and films. Unfortunately, I had also been told that both Thelma and Louise die in the end -so, regretably, that lessened its impact and effect for me. Still, I don't think this ruined my enjoyment of it and it was very surprising to discover on what terms the protagonists died.
Having the two female protagonists essentially commit suicide was, in my opinion, a well chosen (potentially risky) story option. Rather than have them escape into a future of imprisonment or further crime the two women exit the stage happy and on their own terms. So, although one would asume the main characters ultimately dying would be a sad ending, it did quite the oposite. To me, I came away from the film with the impression that both Thelma and Louise won in the end.

'What Dreams May Come'

I had also watched the film 'What Dreams May Come' , directed by Vincent Ward and starring Robin Williams. This film, I had b
never seen or heard of before and I bought it soley on having looked at the box -that and it was cheap! It just looked like an good (if not interesting) film and didn't seem to be Robin Williams' usuall Genre. The story was one in which I am really interested in, that of life after death. Wheather it be a film that avoids comfronting the subject (like 'The Fountain') or a film that does (like 'Constantine') -the subject and theme I find really fanscinating. Also, I admire how the makers of this film were brave enough to try and depict something as mind-boggling as Heaven and Hell.
The speciall effects in this movie really complimented the moving storyline. They create a beautiful image of Heaven whilst at the same time creating a fairly terrifying image of Hell -which all achieve a sense believability.
The story kept me fascinated and emotionally envolved. The idea that a man has to travell into Hell to rescue his wife just kept me entertained all the way. Robin Williams too, surprised me in his performance in a seriouse role. But after seeing him in this film I believe him to be vastly underrated as a seriouse actor -although, I could see that they let him have a few jokes to keep him happy. (But I'm not complaining)
Ultimately, I believe 'What Dreams May Come' to be a very fine film -Visually, character-wise and story. Even if it did have a slightly 'cheesy' ending.

First bloody blog!

Well It's probably about time I started this blog thing -on a personal note, I hate blogs. Seeing as this is my first blog and its around the fifth week, I'm just going to give a brief summary of the last few weeks.
Creative Beginings. Well I would be lying if I said I thought it was a useful way in which to be introduced to the Academy. However, there were a select few activities that held some enjoyment and worth -but in the main, I still believe there are far better ways to encourage socializing and the likes.

Since I had originally written all this on paper here it is in 'blog' now.
We were shown the film 'Inside Man' a couple of weeks back so here is what I'd written on that.

Inside Man:

We were shown Inside man in class this week. Although it was certainly a film I had studied in my spare time before, I admittidly had never considered what Andy had asked us to do though.
In the past I had viewed it with the objective of defining and pinpointing camera movements, composition, lighting and sound. All of these things I realise are obviously important aspects of film production but I had never considered 'what the film was about'. This being most probably more important than the former qualities.
Andy had previously told us what a plausible interpretation for the movie 'The Poseidon Adventure'. After which I was rather surprised to learn that it carried a religious reference. Because of this, I had expected to discover a similar abstract, far out meaning to Inside man.
However, I was wrong. When watching the film that the film seemed to be promoting a a very multicultural, multiracial message of respect.
I imagine the primary example of this is Clive Owen's character's principles of respect. Along with the idea of 'respect' the idea of deception was also present. For instance, Christopher Plummer's character is considered to be on the side of 'good' at the beginign of the film. Yet, at the end he is revealed to be quite the opposite. The reverse is true of the character of Dalton Russel. This way of flipping the audiences pressumptions was quite immpressive.
Although this form of film annalysis is not entirely new to me, it was not something that I did with all films I watched.
Trying to decypher the true (or applicable) meaning of a film is what I now find myself doing with most films I watch. Some, I 've found to be easier than others to interprate. Yet, it still remains an insightful challenge.