Thursday, 9 February 2012
Leni Riefenstahl.
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German pronunciation: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendship with Adolf Hitler thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but released without any charges.
Bricolage: The 2 Bears - Church
The video for The 2 Bears track Church utilises clips from the Care Bears cartoons. The Care Bears were a 1980s phenomenon, particularly popular with young girls. The 2 Bears are a London-based musical duo formed in 2009 composed of Joe Goddard (of electronic band Hot Chip) and Raf Rundell. The duo produces original material amalgamating various styles including 2-step, house, hip-hop and soul and also host a radio show on Ministry of Sound Radio entitled "Follow the Bears".
The Bears – Raf Rundell and Joe Goddard – first began crossing paths in DJ Booths. Straight Outta Brompton (well, Putney) Joe spends his time away from The 2 Bears as a producer, remixer, solo-artist and one fifth of an obscure outfit called Hot Chip; fellow Sarf Londoner Raf divides his time between club promotion, DJ outings as Greco-Roman Soundsystem, radio show hosting and artiste management.The pairs DJ booth banter, soon led to a shared enthusiasm for house music and vague plans for a musical collaboration. Raf’s existence at the music industry coal face and first hand experience of the business’ financial travails, would make Sade’s When Am I Going To Make A Living a suitably irreverent subject for their first musical foray. So began several months of hanging out, making music ‘for the fun of it’ and ‘portamental’ arguments about obscure synths, that would wind up forming the 'Follow The Bears EP'.
Characterised by the hitherto untapped vocal stylings of Raf himself (Joe: ‘I didn’t know Raf could actually sing!’), the Bears have already received radio support from Annie Mac, Rob da Bank, Giles Peterson and Toddla T, drawn towards The 2 Bears 21st Century take on house, disco and everything in between.
Source: http://www.southernfriedrecords.com/artists/the-2-bears/
Postmodern theories and texts.
Notes
- Apply Genette to my Inglourious Basterds Essay.
- Then read pages 13-17 and apply Baudrillard and Lyotard to Inglourious Basterds. These theorists will be very helpful when answering my essay question.
Inglourious Basterds Essay Question Task.
- In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern? (2000 words)
- Refer to notes made in class and research you have conducted.
- Essay is due first lesson back after half term.
Postmodern Film Presentation Task.
The next task is to choose a film, watch it and then make a presentation on the postmodern aspects of the film. You need to focus on the postmodern elements in your film. Choose three or four scenes to illustrate your points. Find clips on Youtube if possible or just add the trailer so we can see what the film is like. Use the post immediately below this one to help with terminology. Apply theory as often as possible.
In order to complete this task, I have chosen Donnie Darko (2001).
Deadline: Second week back after half term.
Inglourious Basterds - Chapter 4 - Operation Kino.
Analysing 'Inglorious Basterds' tavern scene
For Lights, Camera . . . , we ask a craftsperson to talk about a specific scene in his or her latest film. This week, Sally Menke,Sally Menke, film editor on " Inglourious Basterds," talks about the shootout scene in the basement tavern.
Quentin Tarantino told the multiple stories of "Inglourious Basterds" in five distinct chapters, and we knew from the script stage the film would hinge around the set-piece in the tavern La Louisianne. The daunting task of putting a 25-page dialogue sequence, spoken almost entirely in German, in the middle of the film, weighed heavily on everyone's minds, and it all had to come together in the cutting room. Just mentioning the name La Louisianne created tension among the crew, but we needed that tension to transcend to the audienceIn La Louisianne, the Basterds meet their German movie star contact, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) for the first time, and they must all pretend to be old friends by posing as Nazi officers. Much to the Basterds' surprise, they not only find Bridget in the dangerously cramped tavern, they find the basement bar filled with drunken, celebrating Nazis, one of whom happens to be enamored with the German movie star and continually pesters their table. The tension in the group runs high as we watch the real Nazis begin to question the origin of the British Archie Hicox's (Michael Fassbender) strange accent, and we hold our breath.
La Louisianne required detailed attention to character development as well as numerous story points, all the while using the device of language to create tension. Quentin and I felt it was essential to have the characters not simply drive the scene toward a plot point, but to be fully nuanced characters, while continually building the tension that would culminate in an explosive gun battle that kills all but one. We knew the gunfight would work all the better if we could carefully manipulate and build the tension through a give and take of emotions, playing a cat-and-mouse game with our characters -- and our audience.
Our editorial intentions had to be completely clear in how we wanted the audience to feel at any specific moment in the scene -- the Basterds are screwed, wait, no, they're OK, oh, no they aren't, this Nazi knows, he's on to them, no, no, they are OK -- until Hicox makes the fatal error that unequivocally gives them all away as impostors. Every line had a layer of tension, and we needed to play their reactions to the lines as much as the lines themselves to build it properly. Every beat counted. Every second someone delayed their response gave the audience a chance to think, "Did they figure it out? Do they know?"
We obsessively controlled every moment so that in contrast, when the climactic gun battle finally does erupt, it explodes in the loudest, craziest and most shocking way possible. But again, while doing this, we always had to return to the human element -- our character development. Hicox gets a bit of a tear in his eye when he realizes he will live no longer, and if we have done our jobs correctly, so will our audience.
Another challenge was to seamlessly integrate a lot of key information for upcoming plot points without them feeling perfunctory, heavy-handed or pedantic. For example, we needed to show a close-up of Bridget's shoes so there was no doubt in the audience's mind who it belonged to later on when Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) discovers the shoe while inspecting the aftermath in the bar. We can't draw attention to the shoe in a way that says, "We're showing you a close-up of a foot," but we do need to make enough of a point of it so the audience knows it's Bridget's -- instantly. The solution was to use the shoe as character introduction, to show the style and glamour of this movie star/double agent whom we, the audience and our characters, meet for the first timeThe tavern music was another way we developed a character. The music at first works environmentally and emotionally in the scene but then functions to locate a yet-to-be-seen, off-screen character, the Gestapo Maj. Hellstrom, who, when revealed, we see has clearly been controlling the music selections. We also now know that without a doubt Hellstrom had been listening to the Basterds' conversation the entire time, and we now use the absence of that same music when Hellstrom purposefully removes the needle from the record player to show that he has taken control of the scene. The Basterds, and our audience, are now in Hellstrom's hands.
The last issue we had to contend with was the length. A nearly 25-minute dialogue scene that starts 69 minutes into the film can be a potential challenge for audiences, as most scenes by this point play considerably shorter. But it was our belief that if we could hold the scene's tension, we could not only develop character and attend to the story but actually stop the scene to allow Hellstrom to play his King Kong card game, a story in and of itself, which cinematically alludes to another oppressed group, the slaves in America. I could go on about many other layers that needed our attention, but, unfortunately, in this situation I am not the editor with final cut and must end the piece here.
For Lights, Camera . . . , we ask a craftsperson to talk about a specific scene in his or her latest film. This week, Sally Menke,Sally Menke, film editor on " Inglourious Basterds," talks about the shootout scene in the basement tavern.
Quentin Tarantino told the multiple stories of "Inglourious Basterds" in five distinct chapters, and we knew from the script stage the film would hinge around the set-piece in the tavern La Louisianne. The daunting task of putting a 25-page dialogue sequence, spoken almost entirely in German, in the middle of the film, weighed heavily on everyone's minds, and it all had to come together in the cutting room. Just mentioning the name La Louisianne created tension among the crew, but we needed that tension to transcend to the audienceIn La Louisianne, the Basterds meet their German movie star contact, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) for the first time, and they must all pretend to be old friends by posing as Nazi officers. Much to the Basterds' surprise, they not only find Bridget in the dangerously cramped tavern, they find the basement bar filled with drunken, celebrating Nazis, one of whom happens to be enamored with the German movie star and continually pesters their table. The tension in the group runs high as we watch the real Nazis begin to question the origin of the British Archie Hicox's (Michael Fassbender) strange accent, and we hold our breath.
La Louisianne required detailed attention to character development as well as numerous story points, all the while using the device of language to create tension. Quentin and I felt it was essential to have the characters not simply drive the scene toward a plot point, but to be fully nuanced characters, while continually building the tension that would culminate in an explosive gun battle that kills all but one. We knew the gunfight would work all the better if we could carefully manipulate and build the tension through a give and take of emotions, playing a cat-and-mouse game with our characters -- and our audience.
Our editorial intentions had to be completely clear in how we wanted the audience to feel at any specific moment in the scene -- the Basterds are screwed, wait, no, they're OK, oh, no they aren't, this Nazi knows, he's on to them, no, no, they are OK -- until Hicox makes the fatal error that unequivocally gives them all away as impostors. Every line had a layer of tension, and we needed to play their reactions to the lines as much as the lines themselves to build it properly. Every beat counted. Every second someone delayed their response gave the audience a chance to think, "Did they figure it out? Do they know?"
We obsessively controlled every moment so that in contrast, when the climactic gun battle finally does erupt, it explodes in the loudest, craziest and most shocking way possible. But again, while doing this, we always had to return to the human element -- our character development. Hicox gets a bit of a tear in his eye when he realizes he will live no longer, and if we have done our jobs correctly, so will our audience.
Another challenge was to seamlessly integrate a lot of key information for upcoming plot points without them feeling perfunctory, heavy-handed or pedantic. For example, we needed to show a close-up of Bridget's shoes so there was no doubt in the audience's mind who it belonged to later on when Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) discovers the shoe while inspecting the aftermath in the bar. We can't draw attention to the shoe in a way that says, "We're showing you a close-up of a foot," but we do need to make enough of a point of it so the audience knows it's Bridget's -- instantly. The solution was to use the shoe as character introduction, to show the style and glamour of this movie star/double agent whom we, the audience and our characters, meet for the first timeThe tavern music was another way we developed a character. The music at first works environmentally and emotionally in the scene but then functions to locate a yet-to-be-seen, off-screen character, the Gestapo Maj. Hellstrom, who, when revealed, we see has clearly been controlling the music selections. We also now know that without a doubt Hellstrom had been listening to the Basterds' conversation the entire time, and we now use the absence of that same music when Hellstrom purposefully removes the needle from the record player to show that he has taken control of the scene. The Basterds, and our audience, are now in Hellstrom's hands.
The last issue we had to contend with was the length. A nearly 25-minute dialogue scene that starts 69 minutes into the film can be a potential challenge for audiences, as most scenes by this point play considerably shorter. But it was our belief that if we could hold the scene's tension, we could not only develop character and attend to the story but actually stop the scene to allow Hellstrom to play his King Kong card game, a story in and of itself, which cinematically alludes to another oppressed group, the slaves in America. I could go on about many other layers that needed our attention, but, unfortunately, in this situation I am not the editor with final cut and must end the piece here.
Inglourious Basterds Soundtrack (2009)
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's motion picture Inglourious Basterds. It was originally released on August 18, 2009. The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including spaghetti western soundtrack excerpts, R&B and the David Bowie song "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)".[6] This is the first soundtrack for a Quentin Tarantino film not to feature dialogue excerpts. The french "The Man with the Big Sombrero" was recorded for the movie. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to Slumdog Millionaire (soundtrack).
- "The Green Leaves of Summer" - Nick Perito & His Orchestra
- "The Verdict (La Condanna)" - Ennio Morricone (mislabled "Dopo la condanna")
- "White Lightning (Main Title)" - Charles Bernstein (Originally in White Lightning)
- "Slaughter" - Billy Preston (Originally in Slaughter)
- "The Surrender (La resa)" - Ennio Morricone
- "One Silver Dollar (Un Dollaro Bucato)" - Gianni Ferrio
- "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" - Zarah Leander
- "The Man with the Big Sombrero" - Samantha Shelton & Michael Andrew
- "Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn" - Lilian Harvey & Willy Fritsch
- "Main Theme from Dark of the Sun" - Jacques Loussier
- "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" - David Bowie (Originally in Cat People)
- "Tiger Tank" - Lalo Schifrin (Originally in Kelly's Heroes)
- "Un Amico" - Ennio Morricone (Originally in Revolver)
- "Rabbia e Tarantella" - Ennio Morricone
- "L'incontro Con La Figlia" - Ennio Morricone
- "Il Mercenario (ripresa)" - Ennio Morricone
- "Algiers November 1, 1954" - Ennio Morricone & Gillo Pontecorvo / The Battle of Algiers
- "Hound Chase (intro)" - Charles Bernstein
- "The Saloon (from Al Di Là Della Legge)" - Riz Ortolani
- "Bath Attack" - Charles Bernstein
- "Claire's First Appearance" - Jacques Loussier
- "The Fight" - Jacques Loussier
- "Mystic and Severe" - Ennio Morricone
- "The Devil's Rumble" - Davie Allan & The Arrows
- "What'd I Say " - Rare Earth
- "Zulus" - Elmer Bernstein
- "Eastern Condors" - Ting Yat Chung
- "3 Thoughts" - Einstürzende Neubauten (In the beginning of the trailer)
- "Comin' Home" - Murder by Death (trailer)
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