Sarah L's Film Studies Blog 2020

https://youtu.be/8XJBpqUI2tY

Jojo Rabbit  A Taika Waititi film This is the story of a little German Nazi boy who, without a father, creates a sort of imaginary friend/father-figure: Adolf Hitler. Not a run-to-the-theater-immediately! logline, if you ask me. In a TheEllenShow interview with Scarlett Johansson (the Nazi boy's mother), she bluntly told the audience that "the logline is not good and [she] can't pitch it. It sounds bad" -- Ellen sympathetically agreed. Johansson asked Ellen if she'd like to try, but received an immediate "no." Then, Ellen gave it her best shot: "it's a take on a bad situation." If Nazi Germany is only a "bad situation," then the state of the US right now is nothing more than a gentle sneeze. But I digress. I'll be honest, immediately upon hearing of this movie, I was irritated. Irritated that anyone would feel they had the domain to joke lightly about this. Irritated that there's enough people thinking there's e...

1. How did you see Citizen Kane differently as a “film studies” student? What did you notice that was meaningful to you beyond the basic entertainment/themes of the movie? What do you think you paid more attention to because you’ve spent some time in this class? In any other setting, I think I would have been very bored and, quite honestly, annoyed by Citizen Kane. The slow pace and arrogant, controlling main character would have made the movie drag on and on for me. But, since I focused most of my attention on the creative composition, editing, camera angles, lighting, and moving camera features, I was impressed. There's one moment that I've brought up in class a few times because it has stuck with me most from the movie in terms of enjoyment and, quite frankly, awe at the time of watching it. Susan is sitting on the floor in Xanadu screaming at Kane that he never gives her anything she wants and that she wants to quit opera after Leland's scathing review of her perform...