Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull and dancing the running man. You’re now getting close to the adrenaline rush of Run Lola Run.
Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull and dancing the running man. You’re now getting close to the adrenaline rush of Run Lola Run.
Buy by clicking on the poster or find it elsewhere!
Watch The Colors of the Mountain to see the beauty and ugliness of Colombia side by side. See beauty in the lush vegetation, innocent school children, and peaceful life in the countryside. And see ugliness in the spreading war between the local guerillas and paramilitaries. Luckily for tourists, the ugliness of the war has subsided. And luckily for film viewers, Colombia is still producing great films, just go and watch Embrace of the Serpent after this one.
See the beautiful Colombian countryside and the people that live in it
Witness how the war between the guerillas and the paramilitary groups affected life in Colombia (for something similar, see Silvered Waterwhich follows a young kid living in the Syrian war zone)
See how arepas are made!
The Breakdown
The Colors of the Mountain starts with a shot of a small house in the lush Colombian countryside. A boy with a football in his arms runs down the drive and into the rolling fields across from his house. The countryside is full of sounds of insects, birds, and frogs, and you can almost feel the heat. The boy runs to his friend’s house and persuades him to come and play football.
This is their simple, peaceful life. They wake up, eat, and either go to school or play football. 9-year old Manuel’s parents are always around the house, tending to their two cows, fixing the house, or cooking. Life is good.
However, the signs of trouble become more and more obvious. The first sign of danger is the graffitti written across the wall of the school in red: ‘el pueblo con las armas, vencer o morir’. This roughly translates to ‘the town with weapons, conquer or die’. Secondly, the potential danger is confirmed in Manuel’s Dad. When Manuel and his Dad are milking their cow, his Dad spots four men in ponchos walking up to their house. You can just make out the butt of a machine gun on one of them, protruding from their clothes. Manuel’s Dad urgently grabs Manuel and runs him into their house to hide. His reaction confirms the threat of the men in ponchos, and the danger they live with which is largely unnoticed by Manuel and his friends.
Conclusion
The Colors of the Mountain shows us the danger posed by both the Guerillas and the Paramilitaries in rural Colombia. It also shows us how normal life can temporarily appear in a war zone. For those that want to see Colombia in all it’s beauty and ugliness, this one is for you.
Whilst in Kosovo, I asked a Kosovan what Kosovan film I should watch. He told me to watch Shok. If you don’t know much about the Kosovan War, or anything at all, go spend 21 minutes watching this film. You’ll learn a lot.
Why Watch Shok?
To learn about the war crimes committed in the Kosovo War (contentiously not termed a genocide because the aim was forced migration rather than destruction of ethnic Albanians).
It’s a film from Kosovo – so you’ll be able to tick off Kosovo from your film checklist
Shok is only 21 minutes long – shorter than your favorite TV shows
If you love all coming-of-age films
The Breakdown
Shok starts with a shot of the Kosovan hills in autumn. A Mercedes drives towards the camera and stops in front of a bike lying on the ground. Two guys hop out the vehicle. The driver tells the other to move the bike and get back in the car, however the passenger tells him to drive on without him.
As the passenger picks up the bike and cycles down the road, the film flashes back to the 1990s during the Kosovo War. You see the war through two boy’s friendship. Firstly, they are told off for being out after curfew. Secondly, when Oki stays over you can see images of Serbian tanks on the TV – the news reader tells us that many have been massacred. These are the signs that life is not normal for these two boys despite their joyous friendship.
However, the filmmaker leaves plenty of clues that things are not going to end well. Firstly there’s the first scene – why does this man get out of the car to ride a bike along an empty road? Secondly the director sews together a few scenes with apocalyptic images in monochrome. One of them is of a bike laying on the road, wheels spinning. The other shows a swing swinging on it’s own. Both are ominous signs that signify the ultimate forced migration of Albanians out of their land.
Conclusion
Shok is a powerful short film that will show you the war crimes that took place in the Kosovo War. It packs as much into 21 minutes as a feature film would in 100, without feeling rushed. Shok was the first Oscar nomination from Kosovo and is well worth 21 minutes of your time. Go find it on iTunes or online now!
As for more films which explore life living in a conflict and under occupation, I’d check out Omarand Ajamiwhich both explore the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Want to watch a slow 3 hour documentary starring a group of Austrian factory workers? Probably doesn’t sound too enticing right?
Well you shouldn’t be put off. During these three hours you will gain a greater appreciation of life and death.
Why Watch Over the Years?
You want to watch a long documentary that explores the meaning of life
To understand what it is like living from week to week in Europe
See an example of the industries that have been left behind by modernization (this one is a good companion to Factory)
Get to know a group of Austrian’s intimately over a 10 year period
The Breakdown
The Anderl factory near Schrems (in Austria) once employed 250 people to produce textiles. In 2004 only a handful are still working at the factory.
This is the story of the handful still working at the factory in 2004. The film visits the group every few years over a ten year period to see how their lives are changing.
Ultimately, their lives are not changing. Even though the factory closes down, they end up in similar jobs after periods of unemployment. Some of them prefer their new jobs, some of them retire and pick up some hobbies. It is all pretty mundane – none of them leave town or try anything different to what is expected of them.
It is as if they are just living out their allotted time like the decline of the factory they worked at. The factory faded away with the tide of modernization and globalization. Similarly, over the ten years of filming, the characters slowly age, hinting that they (like us) will fade away too.
Conclusion
So what is great about this film then if it’s just a portrait of the mundane? Well, for me, it’s the incredible portrait of time passing. You get to witness this group of people experience ups and downs. You get to live their lives for 3 hours. And what does that give you? A much greater understanding of the meaning of life. It made me appreciate my mortality and the limited time I have on this earth. DEEP!
If you talk about Japanese film it is impossible to avoid talking about Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has been one of the most influential film-makers in the history of film. He inspired Star Wars (Hidden Fortress), made the original Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), and influenced many American westerns, therefore it was no surprise that he was given a the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990.
More reasons why you should pay attention to Kurosawa!
He’s an artist first and foremost! He was infamous for waiting weeks for the right cloud formations!
His Samurai epics are, well, EPIC!
His admirers include Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Spike Lee… (probably easier to mention the non-admirers if there actually are any).
If you want to get into Japanese film you must have seen at least one Kurosawa film!
what’s great about Ran?
Ran is the film that Kurosawa always wanted to make. He even said that the character Hidetora was himself, a director nearing the end of his career trying to end it well. The film translates roughly as Chaos or Turmoil which reflects Kurosawa’s life preceding it’s release in 1985. He had faced loads of trouble trying to get financial backing for his ‘perfectionist’ films and many of his younger rivals boasted that he was finished. A suicide attempt was evidence of Kurosawa’s fall from grace. Ran and the massive $12 million budget granted by French producer Silberman (biggest in Japan) became Kurosawa’s curtain call.
Tribute to Shakespeare?
As many viewers have commented, Ran is the Japanese version of Shakespeare’s King Lear. However, Kurosawa only noticed the similarities between his story and Shakespeare’s when he realised the similarities between King Lear and the story of Mori Motonari (the Japanese warlord that originally inspired Ran). After noticing the similarities, there can be no doubt that Shakespeare influenced Kurosawa – the evidence is permeated in many of the characters. However, Kurosawa definitely adds a lot of grit to Shakespeare’s version.
Firstly the addition of new characters bring new dimensions to the story. Taro’s wife Lady Kaede for example is one of the most interesting characters in the story, playing a revenge crazed wife to both Taro and Jiro. She can whip out some knife skills just as well as she can manipulate those she draws close to her. There is also the religious Lady Sue (wife of Jiro) and her brother Tsurumaru, who was blinded by Hidetora years ago in war. Lady Sue, Tsurumaru, and Lady Kaede are symbols of the world that Hidetora has created through violence. A world that is slowly returning his evil deeds.
The backstory of Hidetora is also much more complex than King Lear. Hidetora won his fortune and fame in violent conquest, whereas King Lear’s background is undisclosed. Therefore whilst King Lear has done no evil, Hidetora is a monster. We witness his destruction through Lady Kaede and Tsurumaru, through his forces, and later through his regret at what he has done. This extra dimension to the lead character makes Kurosawa’s version even more epic. We witness the downfall of the once feared Japanese Warlord into a insane peasant.
Lastly, Hidetora’s Kyoami is an interesting addition. Whilst King Lear does have the company of a fool in King Lear, Kyoami is different. As written on Jim’s Reviews, Kurosawa ‘made a fascinating decision to make Kyoami sexually ambiguous. The character is played by transgender Japanese pop star Peter and becomes the healing opposite of the chaos of the film by balancing both masculine and feminine energy, great courage as well as flexibility and tenderness. As we see, those qualities are especially important in a rigidly hierarchical society, founded on machoism, like the one disastrously promoted by Hidetora.’
2. Landscape is Divine
The Landscape in Ran plays a central role in the film right from the start. The landscape is the television for the Gods above, they watch everything that happens from the sky.
Starting on the plains of Japan’s wild Southern Island Kyushu, Kurosawa cuts between still horseman surveying the vast landscape. The deep green grass of the plains contrasts with the light blue sky, marking the divide between the earth and the heavenly realms. The use of a telephoto lens (zoomed in from a point far away) also emphasises the division between the horsemen on the earth, and the gods watching in the sky. The telephoto lens therefore offers the same point of view as the gods in the sky. The clouds gathering indicate that the Gods are getting restless, an ominous sign for those horsemen, lit up by sunlight, that something may happen to them.
As in the opening scene, there are many scenes filmed from far away. We are given the viewpoint of a fly on the wall. We don’t sympathise with the characters as they always appear distant. Even Saburo (the only son that loves his father) is deliberately made to appear like a spoiled child so we do not sympathise with him. Our role is to view this film as if we are Gods. Only then can we see the selfishness, greed, and violence of humanity as if we are looking in the mirror.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is the first battle. The entire battle is filmed without diegetic sound (sound where the source is visible on screen). Instead the entire battle is accompanied by Toru Takemitsu’s haunting score. In the same way the telephoto lens detaches us from the characters giving us a God-like perspective, the lack of diegetic sound detaches us from the battle on screen. The violence appears both shocking and inevitable, we cannot hear it, but we can see it and feel it’s devastation in the orchestral score. The view point again emphasises human violence and destruction.
Kurosawa’s use of long camera lenses (to zoom in from afar), division of the sky and earth, and silence in the battle puts the audience in a god-like perspective. We see humanity how the Gods would, without sympathy and attachment, showing humanity as greedy, selfish, and violent.
3. Kurosawa’s use of BIG casts
Obvious in Ran as much as any other of Kurosawa’s films, Kurosawa has become a master at exploiting movement in film. Just think back to the battle scenes in Ran and think of how the impact of the battle might have changed if there had only been 20 extras on each side.
As a break from reading, I encourage you to watch this excellent video from Every Frame a Painting showing you how Kurosawa exploits movement in his films.
What’s Next for Week 3?
Next week we will delve into another Japanese master, Hayao Miyazaki. This master of animation has won global acclaim for his highly imaginative films which have stretched the boundaries of animation and storytelling. Whilst his most famous animation may be the incredible Spirited Away, I’m excited to share with you my favorite next week. It’s beautiful, emotional, and must have helped inspire Avatar, bring on Princess Mononoke!
See you next week for more analysis and our next assignment!
If you talk about Japanese film it is impossible to avoid talking about Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has been one of the most influential film-makers in the history of film. He inspired Star Wars (Hidden Fortress), made the original Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), and influenced many American westerns, therefore it was no surprise that he was given a the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990.
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