A Movie Quiz.

I was at a pub quiz last year. For one of the rounds we were given a piece of paper with alternative movie title on it. For example celeirty hostilitys = Star Wars. 

So I thought I would would post them up here and see if anybody could work them all out. We did get a few but some of them were quite hard. So here they are.

The Resonance Of Melody =

Unmitigated Reminiscence =

The Environment  =

Straightforward Stipulation = 

Souvenir =

The Sovereign of Jesting =

Succinct incisions = 

Accident =

Daylight Maintenance =

Fasten =

If you think you know any of them then comment below. :-)

I miss Civello, Bickle, Vronsky, LaMotta, Cady and Noodles.

Where is Travis Bickle? What  I mean is when did the leading actor in Hollywood become the leading actor in Hollywood because of his looks. When Robert De Diro was at the top of his game he was there because he blow away the audience in every film he made. For instance if you look at Mean Streets.


As soon as he walks into a scene you know it is going to change. Your enjoyment of it doubles. Now that is partly because of the way Harvey Keitel and De Niro bounce off of each other but it is mostly to do with De Niro. He was able to bring something so special to the screen. He was able to steal every scene but still be able to be true to his character who is a bit of a bumbling idot. 

One of my favorite things about Taxi Driver is the way it tells the story thorough De Niro's warped eyes. Most actors want to stay likable by the audience so hold back a bit. They do not want to cross the line and become something that the audience can not sympathies with and follow. De Niro pushed the boat out in this film. He was able to go all the way and completely cross the line but keep the audience engaged with him. This worked because he did not care that he was crossing the line. He played true to his character and just wanted to be this best he could be. When you are watching this you end up thinking things you would not usually think. You find yourself hating certain types of people just because Travis Bickle despises them. This is another good thing about the film. At the end of it your are shocked at yourself for thinking those things.


So where did this all go. Why did De Niro fall off his pedestal and not care about the films he makes. In the 70s everyone wanted to work with him. He worked with the leading people in the film industry. The people who were at the forefront of the making films but then he started to make sometimes three films a year. There are rumors that he wanted an influx of cash to pay for a number of things and this is a shame. It is a shame because we will never get another great De Niro film. At least nothing compared to what he his capable of. I don't know if this is because he can't or won't. Maybe he has not had the right film to push him to his limits because the only people who can afford him are the big multi million dollar films. You could say that he would not try and go back to what he is great at because there could be too much of a fall if he gets it wrong but he all ready has fallen so low. All he can do is climb right back to the top and nock Mr RP back down. So lets hope someone does right a truly great script with a wonderful character and maybe De Niro will decide to do it. So here is hoping.


However at first I did think it was a shame that we I never see him again as on from as he used to be but if I do want to see that all I have to do is stick one of his dvds on. Whilst writing this blog and thinking about all the wonderful moments that he has brought to our screens I really want to watch films such as Mean Streets, The Dear Hunter, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver or Once Upon A Time In America again. Or maybe there is an old De Niro film out there that I have still not seen.


I want to leave you with a scene from one of his films. I took me ages to finally pick a clip to put in here. I didn't think it would be so hard to pick a moment but I decided to go with a scene from Cape Fear. In this he is playing a slightly different role than he usually does and it just backs up what I am trying to say bout him being a wonderfully talented actor

A step on from Kuleshov.

I was having a thin about the kuloshov experement. As we know it is the same image of a man cut two diffrent images. 

So this proved that the audience could understand that by putting two images together they where linked. This all seemed so obvious when we were told this. I was thinking of how silly of the people back then to not get this right away and have to take a few years to adjust to the idea of film editing. So then I stared to think about music and how music is used in sort of the same way. If you see a man walking with 'scary' music playing you know that something bad is going to happen. In the same way if 'happy' music is playing you know that everything is fine. You are able to get a feel for the tone of the scene and it can change you whole perspective of a scene. You could have the same image with different music over it and get something completely different. 

It feels quite weird almost taking a step back and looking at how films trick us in to believing the world they have tried to create for us. I suppose I was always aware that by cutting music to an image it was influencing me just like an image cut to another image influences me I just have never really thought about it. 

What is the point in complaining of being offended?

A while back we where talking in class about being offended by TV. A few people said what did offend them but I said that I have never seen anything on TV that has offended me. I saw this comedian that summed up what I was trying to say that day. What does it it mean to be offended. Nothing happens. When people say that they where outraged by a TV program it annoys me. So what if you were, why do do you feel the need to complain. Just don't watch the show that you don't like. There are loads of people who do like the show that you are complaining about so let them watch their show and you can watch the show that are aimed for you. There is something for everyone on TV so people should watch what they like and if you start to watch a show and you are offended just turn over the channel. For example the whole Saxgate saga really annoyed me. There was just no need whatsoever for anyone to complain. What it the point of it. All you are doing is ruining something that loads of people do enjoy. When I say you I don't mean anyone in the class I mean the general public. So anyway rant over and  here is this comedian who I completly agree with and says what I am trying to say.

Who gives a crap about continuity?

I would just like to talk a bit about what we were talking about today in regard to continuity. In some case's it is so obvious and it does take you right out of the movie. You suddenly become aware that you are watching a film and it then takes a while to get back into. I know that you did agree with Andy, it was you after all who raised that point today. I did agree with you but after going home and trying to find the scene in the godfather with the mistake I came across a video which showed about twenty different continuity errors and they are all quite big. So it got me thinking that maybe a mistake can bring you out of the film but if the film is good enough and truly does have you griped then a mistake will not bring you out of the film. I loved the godfather and was engrossed from start to finish without being aware that I was watching a film.

So I would still say that a mistake can bring you out of a film but if it can that must mean that the film does not have you as griped as it should be. So even though the godfather has so many of them it does not matter. If anything it shows how good a film it is if these glaring errors do not distract you.