Sunset Boulevard ... with Photo's

Prof. Larry Ling-hsuan Tung                                                                                       Tim Philbin

Film Blog entry # 4                                                                                                     Com 104

 

“Sunset Boulevard”

By: Billy Wilder

            Sunset Boulevard is the story of an aging silent movie star who cannot let go of her past life.  She lives in a large home on Sunset Boulevard by herself with only her servant Max and the occasional visit by some other silent film stars.  Gloria Swanson stars as Norma Desmond who was a huge star in the silent movie era.  She longs to once again be a big star in Hollywood and dreams of making a comeback in a film she has written.  One day a chance encounter with a down on his luck screenwriter named Joe Gillis played by William Holden, Norma sees a chance to live out her dream.  She convinces Joe to help her finish and revise her script to launch her comeback.  Joe reluctantly agrees to help Norma because she pays off all of his debts along with his back rent.  Joe begins to be seduced by Norma’s money as he lives in her house and she buys him clothes along with other items.  Joe comes to the realization that Norma has begun to lose some of her faculties.  At about the same time Joe also meets Betty Shaffer who works at Paramount.  She and Joe had met earlier through Joe’s agent and again from one of Joe’s friends.  They begin working on a script together from one of Joe’s old scripts that Betty had read previously.  After working together for a while, Betty begins to fall in love with Joe.  Joe decides to push Betty away because she is engaged to one of his friends and he realizes that he would lose the money from Norma.  During this time we realize that Norma has fallen for Joe and gets jealous about all the time that he is spending at Paramount with Betty.  This eventually leads Norma to shoot and kill Joe in the backyard of her home. 

                   

            The main theme of this film is a look at people and their mental state of mind.  We have Norma who is lonely and longs for her youth, success and popularity again.  We also have Joe Gillis whose luck has about run out until he finds Norma.  He uses her to regain his financial footing in life while acting as her friend.  In the end, they both use each other, one for emotional support and the other for financial.  This film shows us some of the dark sides of human nature. 

            I totally enjoyed this classic film of Billy Wilders.  It was one well written and well-acted movie.  The storyline was terrific and so were the actors and actresses.  Since I had never seen this movie before I am now very glad to say I have.  This was truly one of Hollywood’s great movies at a time when they were producing many great ones. 

Born into Brothels with photos

Prof. Larry Ling-hsuan Tung                                                                                       Tim Philbin

Film Blog entry # 5                                                                                                     Com 104

 

“Born into Brothels”

By: Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman

            This film is a documentary about the life of children whose mothers are prostitutes in the red light district of Callcuta India.  The director takes us into the children’s difficult lives as they grow up.  Many of the children have to work so that they can survive and to also provide for other siblings.  Some of the children attend school, but many of them do not go at all.  This leads to many of the children following their mothers into the same type of work.  Zana Briski, the woman who wrote the film, begins to work with some of the children by teaching them some photography skills.  Her intention is to try and see how they view their own lives through the lens of a camera.  Zana has the children venture out into the neighborhood and begin to photograph whatever they wanted.  After a short period of time she is amazed at what the children have photographed.  Many of the children were silly and made mistakes while using the cameras, but others demonstrated a real good eye for photographs.  They shot people and landscapes along with the events of their everyday life.  Zana was so truly impressed by their work that she showed the photos to her friends and colleagues.  She then decided to display their work at a gallery so that many other people in the city could also enjoy their work.  The gallery showing was successful and some of the photos were chosen to be entered in a photo contest, which would be judged in Germany.  Zana then traveled to Germany with one young boy whose pictures were picked for the finals of the contest.  The trip was a success and they all enjoyed themselves immensely especially the young boy whom had never been out of the city, no less to Germany.  Now towards the end of the film, Zana attempts to have the children enrolled in some private schools to help them further their education and to provide an escape from the life they are in now.  Some of the children go away to school, some of them are not allowed to go by parents and some in the end drop out of school and return to the slums.   

            This documentary is about an American woman, Zana Briski, working in India on a film about children of prostitutes.  She goes to India to make this film but, ends up attempting to change some of the children’s lives she works with.  She ends up helping some of them succeed and go on to schools and universities but most return to the slums.  In the end, Zana made an Oscar winning film and also changed the lives of a few children whom otherwise would not have had a chance to succeed.  The makers of this film should be congratulated for their efforts on behalf of the children that they helped.

            I very much enjoyed this film.  I had no idea what to expect when we were shown this film.  It was well written and directed and it gave the viewer insight about the lives of these children that otherwise we would never have known.  The only downside to this film was that it showed the poverty and squalor that these people endure.