A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

A Streetcar named Desire (1951)

Elia Kazan

BRONZE

A minute after A Streetcar named Desire ended, I thought that it was an amazing movie with one of the best ensemble casts ever. A tour-de-force. But its strength and freshness also resides in the excellent work by Mr. Elia Kazan and cinematographer Harry Stradling. They move the camera around those disturbed characters, with their lonely lives and their hidden secrets and motifs, in a very seductive way, making them look mysterious, between the lights and the shadows, and emotional, with the multiple close-ups and sometimes poetical and metaphorical images.

 

 

SILVER

Intense, defiant, extraordinary piece of human examination, A Streetcar named Desire lives in an atmosphere that is untamed since the beginning, when Blanche arrives to that dirty, noisy, smokey New Orleans. The sense of nervous breakdown is vivid all the time due to the extreme uses that Kazan makes of the image: Witnessing or Judging. When presenting characters, it's outstanding, but the best shots of the movie are precisely those who don't involve first impressions, but definitional moments in the dramatic arcs of the characters.

GOLD

Bronze was the final scene involving Blanche and the Doctor. Silver was Mitch's meeting Blanche in the middle of the poker game. And gold has to be the showstopping moment, when Stella decides to go down the stairs and forgive Stanley. It's a fearful scene because we've seen so much violence, verbal and physical, that audience should gasp looking at it. Finally, we realize that it's a life of subservience and drudgery, a deep and true reflection on that time women roles. But, most important, the movie is a struggle between appearances and reality. The fantasy, embodied by Blanche, confronts the reality, we mean Stanley, and the result is tragic as it could only be. Put special attention to the cinematography when Blanche moves around the Kowalski house, trying to hide her real age. She hides herself in the shadows. And, sadly, she stays there.

Beau Travail (1999)

Beau Travail (1999)

Claire Denis

 

BRONZE

  I understand that Claire Denis' films are not for everyone. In fact, that's the best thing someone could say about any filmmaker in the world. Denis is very specific, she knows what she has to shoot, and she is not afraid. She often creates her visuals with brilliant metaphors, suggestive ideas and experimental non lineal narrative. Beau Travail is about repressed human feelings. You know, homosexuality.

 

SILVER

 

In the context of such a violent environment, the war is inside the characters. A defiant leader, a possible lover, and the enemy. All of them men. We are here to talk about the beautiful cinematography work by Agnes Godard, but Denis creates an atmosphere not only with images but also with sounds, specially silences. War receives a different treatment here, focusing more on internal troubles. The outside work, that Beau Travail of the title, is perfectly executed, but their insecurities are wild and about to collapse.

 

GOLD

In my opinion, the best shot of Beau Travail is a very hypnotic, strange, evocative one. I didn't expect such originality. There's a scene, at night, where the leader played by the great Denis Lavant, is observing the other men and, exactly, the one he has deep feelings for. With the sound of him smoking the cigarette, and the image of the fire and the smoke, you can not only feel the tension of the character, but getting inside his own skin. It's the perfect climax to a wonderful visual experience. Highly recommended.

Compliance (2012)

  Compliance (2012)

Craig Zobel

 BRONZE

  Here we have a little movie called Compliance, which came out last year and was screened in various film festivals, gaining buzz for Ann Dowd's performance as a fast food restaurant manager. Being what it is, a movie whose empathy and interest relies on the subject, it's perfectly understandable that controversy appeared near the reception. I would say that, yes, it was pretty unbelievable, but those characters were cunningly written and played by a nice group of actors with spontaneous passion.

SILVER

 

The plot is simple, is less important than the characters. We have to wait patiently for the information to come. But watching the film again today I paid attention to the visual storytelling and its strange calm. I say strange calm because there is so much tension in the story, focusing on one day of work, that a baroque composition of visual elements could have damaged the fresh spirit that director Craig Zobel and cinematographer Adam Stone deliver. It's funny how the audience can feel idiotic sometimes, but the characters themselves are idiotic no matter what.

GOLD

The camera walks, dances, moves around those poor teenagers, full of empty dreams and wrong ideas, whose leader is as ignorant as them. My choice for the best shot in Compliance is wild, but it shocked me and felt extreme. The suggestion of the thin body and the presence of the man make the white trash society a creepy place to live. Such minimalism is enough for the audience, because the image comes in a point of the story where you don't want the most frightening thing to happen. It's a moral movie with shots not so empty but hard to handle.