Wednesday 4th January 2016 Moving Narratives 2 Kaz Rahman
Screening: Rebel Without a Cause
Todays lesson was based around 1950's american cinema, known as the hollywood golden age, a time when Alfred Hitchcock thrived as a filmmaker for recreating The 39 steps and Strangers on a Train. film that we watched dating back too this time period "Rebel Without a Cause" which casted James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo.
Around this time the films consisted of a lot of similar elements which made them unique to other periods/movements i.e. the films would be positive, upbeat, have star power as well as having a big budget and featuring a younger generation of actors. I feel like this film in particular was tied between adulthood/kidulthood i.e. through the use of language for the context. I particularly liked the seen when the three leads are inside an abandoned mansion, they start to talk about renting out a house and the possibility of children, it completely changed the mood of the film for myself as it was almost like the children had matured into independent adults, the fact that they would always be out late getting up to mischief and creating trouble.
Performance
The performance through the film I thought was well acted, even disturbing at times, the director really did well to created what I'd call middle class, misunderstood, alienated teenagers.
Subject Matter/Story
I feel like this film had a use of melodrama, the idea behind good vs evil, situations that are going on within the family's homes create problems for the actors, we can follow this through the films narrative through the action sequences that take place i.e. when the kids are at the back of the high school, the bullies start to pick on Jim (acted by James Dean) and they start to stab him up, in the end the ring leader of the pack and jim shake hands.
The main scene that stuck out too me for Good vs Evil involved Jim chatting to his family, he has just killed someone but he wants to hand himself in, which even though hes trying to do the right thing, the gang aren't far away and they see it as Jim confessing himself and the gang, they fight back leading to drastic actions back at the mansion.
Lastly I feel like the characters all had a sense of belonging, Jim and Judy were meant for each other, they fall deeply in love towards the end, but the character Plato is interesting because we become aware that he has never had real friends, so once he meets Jim he can't stay away, this was key to the film towards the end where Jim tells Plato too come out, who then listens but sadly gets shot, giving the film a disturbing tone which I think was a dark ending.
Key to note that throughout the film, we see Jim offering Plato his jacket as he thinks he's cold but at the start of the movie we see that Plato doesn't take it, however towards the end when they all get trapped, he does take the jacket, I saw the coat as an element of belonging, friendship.
USP
Throughout the film I felt as if money was not an issue for either of the families, there family's were well off, always something flashy on screen whether it was cars, motorbikes, jackets, houses, watches, even the school that they all went too i.e. we see on Jim's first day that he gets pushed aside for standing on the high schools logo on the ground, apparently no one is allowed to step on it.
Camera Angles
Variety of shots to set the scenes, it gradually reduces when the actors are with there families inside the house, I noticed that there was a clever use of dutch tilts, low/high angles, alot of close ups, mid shots, wide angles to set the scene and tracking shots to follow the action that takes place.
References
Rebel Without A Cause. California: Nicholas Ray, 1955. film.
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