Tuesday, April 10, 2018
What's New About the New Wave
French New wave auteurs like Demy envisioned their films as a radical re-visoning of the static filmmaking of the French studio system. What experimental ideas or techniques did you notice in Umbrellas of Cherbourg (could you explain in some detail)? How do these experiments change the way we enjoy a film? Are they engaging or annoying? Do they bring meaning to the film? Do they make fun of the whole idea of bringing meaning to film?
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The New Wave was all about trying a different approach to telling a story in film. In the musical movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the story follows the tale of two young teens who are in love but lose each other’s love to the realities of life. The story is told in a different type of way that we haven’t experienced before in our class. Unlike other musicals, this film incorporates the singing in every piece of dialogue. No matter if they are talking about fixing cars or how they feel at a certain moment, the movie does a remarkable job of moving the dialogue with the tone and music of the movie. This allow the characters to show their full range of emotions, whether beaming with excitement or frowning in disappointment. The different super high or low angles are not exactly necessary in the film but they play into the aspect of being different than other movies, finding a new way to bring audiences to enjoy the film. In addition to this, the film also brightens up the scenes. By using vibrant colors in the clothing and the scenery, it allows the story to connect more with the romantic dialogue. With techniques such as these, the film forces the audience to be more incorporated in all aspects of the movie. These engaging scenes allow us to connect more with the characters and get more involved with their rocky relationship. This new type of telling a story really encapsulates the “New Wave” criteria, delivering a fresher and more vibrant tale.
ReplyDeleteThe French New wave was an attempt to show and give the viewer a different view on movies then they previously had. In the movie, there were many different things that the director was trying to do. A few of those things were singing the whole time and making a musical love movie that ends with the guy and the girl happy with different people than originally thought. Singing all throughout the movie had to have been the biggest thing that the movie was trying to do. They somehow managed to keep singing the whole time even syncing up the music to the singing. Something that has never been tried. The next thing that the movie tried to do was have a loving musical that had a twist that the viewer might not be able to see. Guy was sent to the military and when he comes back he finds that the girl that he loved has married another man and moved away with him and is seemingly happy. Then Guy ends up finding someone that he loves. This is different than Top Hat because the main boy and girl end up getting together while in Umbrellas the man and women end up finding their own people to be happy with. Both of these things have had many effects on the way that movies are seen today. One way is that people might not have to sing but the music will still reflect the people that are in the films current emotions. The other way that this has changed movies is that the idea that you never know what is going to happen. The singing the whole times at first seemed like it might get very annoying but as the movie progressed it seemed to get less and less annoying also helping me to stay engaged.
ReplyDeleteThe film Umbrellas of Cherbourg did break through the “normal” ways of making musicals in the western world. The major techniques I noticed were how the story unfolded and the setting of the film. The way the story unfolded completely turned the normal musical storyline on its head. Usually the average romantic musical has a couple fall in love, have fun, and then marry each other and live happily ever after. In Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Guy and Genevieve’s love is flawed. At first it their love is pure and happy as young lovers but once Guy leaves for the military their love falls apart. Genevieve is pregnant and is worried about who will care for her and her baby. She questions if she should wait for Guy to return in a couple of years, or get married now. As time moves on her love fades and she thinks of Guy less and less. Ultimately she marries another man before Guy returns and starts a new family. This part of the storyline rejects the themes usually seen in musicals. Overall, it leaves the viewer saddened because they wish Genevieve and Guy could stay together, but it makes the viewer think as well. The end of the story is more realistic and true in regard to actual love, which is unsettling but true. Additionally, Umbrellas of Cherbourg is filmed on scene in a real city. It is not staged with a fake set which speaks to the movies purpose, to tell a real story about real people. Finally, I believe Umbrellas of Cherbourg abandoned the normal constraints of a western musical in order to tell a true story of love.
ReplyDeleteThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg is an interesting take on film-making that bends the rules set by the films that came before it. One of the ways that it does this is by having every spoken line sung by the characters. However, the singing is not part of any planned out song, nor is there any dancing to accompany it. Rather, the characters sing normal lines of dialogue about mundane things like what kind of gasoline to put in a car or plans for the afternoon. In fact, Guy sings an argument with his boss and quits his job with singing. In this way the film deviates from the norm, and to great effect. When the movie started and I realized that the characters were not going to stop singing, I thought that it was quickly going to become boring or annoying. However, I quickly noticed the opposite instead. The singing, I found, is able to interact beautifully with the music and brings powerful meaning to certain scenes, like the scene where Guy leaves to go to war or when Aunt Elise dies. At the same time, it enhances those mundane moments like the ones mentioned earlier. The singing throughout the movie is able to bring meaning in many different ways, some in ways that spoken words cannot, and so I believe that it is a beneficial addition to this rule-breaking movie.
ReplyDeleteDemy took a bold risk with the radical style used in the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The dialogue is sung throughout the whole movie. Every single line communicated in the movie, is by the way song. Personally, after the first ten minutes I did not realize they were still singing. This was probably due to the fact that I cannot understand French and had to read the subtitles the whole time so the singing was just extra noise that I did not have to pay attention to for me to understand the plot. As for the effects of this change, it dulls some of the scenes. In popular musicals, the singing has the ability to create powerful scenes that leave the viewers speechless in their seats. This was not the case Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This is because there was singing all the time, not just during important scenes. The singing during insignificant dialogue was pointless and overall took away from other scenes. Even though, I disagree with the use of music all the time, the movie was still very enjoyable. The risk that Demy took definitely payed off and left its mark in the film industry. When you look up top French musicals, Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the first thing that appears. Along with always singing, the film’s ending is different from the typical Hollywood ending. Guy and Genevieve do not end up together. When Guy returns from the army, he finds Genevieve has married and moved away. He continues with his life by finding a wife and having a kid. It is not until years later that the two lovers at the beginning of the movie see each other again. The usual ending would be that the two main characters at the beginning, who seemed to be destined for each other and overcame many obstacles to be together, end up being together. This is not the case in Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Guy and Genevieve see each other again, talk, and then move on with their lives. This leaves the viewers feeling incomplete and wondering about what would happen if they stayed together. The ending is not traditional and a risk that the viewers could react poorly towards it and leave the theater disappointed. Overall, these risks payed off in the end and now the movie is remembered as a milestone for the film and music industry.
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