Creative response – Short Film :
PLOT: Zen and Harry are partners who burglar for a living. They are skillful and extremely successful at what they do, but believing that this way of life could not go on harmlessly for much longer, they both long for an escape and a new life. Harry decides to quit for good, and refuses Zen’s request for a final job. Zen breaks into a house one day, alone, and is struck on the temple of his head with a hammer by a resident of the house, who had stealthily snuck up on Zen. Harry avenges Zen by killing Zen’s murderer, the resident of the house, in the woods beside a main road. As he sings in his room at night, he remembers his time with Zen and Sofie, a girl Zen had met, who was soon going back to Malaysia, which is Zen’s and her home country.
CHAPTER 2 of Essay
Chapter 2
My first example of a creative project that responds to the functions of cinema is The Last Emperor(1987) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, which won 9 Oscar awards for among others, best picture, best cinematography and best costume design. “Remember puyi? Probably not. So let The Last Emperor illuminate and enchant you with an unforgettable history lesson” states noted film critic Bruce Williamson in his review of the Chinese biographical epic that tells the story of Pu Yi, the final emperor of China, who became a god at the age of three, and a simple gardener in his final years. The makers of the film deserve to be applauded and admired for bringing from an Eastern culture, the tale of Pu yi – a largely unknown historical figure – into the attention of the Western audience( Lu, 1994 ). This and film critic and historian Roger Ebert’s comment noting the awe-inspiring presence of the Forbidden City, authentic wardrobe and thousands of extras to recreate the everyday reality of the wistful little boy, makes for a vivid and highly informative journey to another world of a subject as “remote and untouchable”( Mcarthy, 1987 ) as the last imperial ruler of China.
One of the most poignant and cathartic scenes in the motion picture, when a bicycle is gifted to the teenage emperor who immediately pedals it around the Forbidden City enthusiastically until he comes to its gates to the outside world, and is barred by his own guards – He is an emperor who cannot do the one thing any other boy in China could do, which is to go out of his own house -. (Ebert, 1987).
2001: Space Odyssey
Created before the first image of Earth from space was available, 2001: A Space Odyssey took us on a cosmic voyage – beginning in the African deserts on Earth millions of years ago, then out into the galaxy, to the moon and Jupiter with one of the most sublime, inventive and awe-inspiring artistic works of the 20th century. The film was deemed “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress in 1991 for its undisputed and far-reaching influence. Upon release, the film polarized critical and public opinion – some critics called it “too boring”(Alder, 1968), or that it “lacks dramatic appeal”(Robe, 1968), “too abstract”(Sarris, 1968) or “a film out of control”(Schlesinger, 1968), while others considered it “a milestone, a landmark for a spacemark, in the art of film”(Champlin, 1968) or that it “succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale”(Ebert, 1968). But unchallenged is the acclaim and admiration for 2001’s scientific realism, visual inventiveness and accurate futurism. Labelled as “perhaps the most thoroughly and accurately researched film in screen history with respect to aerospace engineering” by four NASA scientists who based their nuclear-propulsion design partially on the movie’s “Discovery One” spacecraft, the 1968 film set a “hugely inspirational”(Lucas****) and truly impressive example that was way ahead of its time. Director Ridley Scott stated he believed 2001 was the unbeatable film that in a sense killed the science fiction genre. Steven Spielberg claimed it was his film generation’s “Big Bang”.
Perhaps the most profound moment in the film, and in my opinion one of the most poignant moments of all cinema, came with the two words – “I’m afraid”. When HAL, the artificial intelligence of the spacecraft’s onboard computer, the brain of the ship, turns against the humans of the mission and kills all but one of them, the surviving member Dave Bowman manages to manually re-enter the spacecraft after being locked out by HAL, and goes to deactivate HAL. Keeping in mind that earlier in the film, the humans admits that they “don’t think anyone can truthfully answer” whether or not HAL can have genuine emotions, as Bowman proceeds to HAL’s processor core, HAL attempts to console Bowman with “I know everything hasn’t been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it’s going to be alright again.”, and when ignored, he pleads “Dave, stop. Will you?”.Still disregarded, and as Bowman begins to gradually disconnect the circuits of HAL’s core, we hear “I’m afraid”, “Dave, my mind is going, I can feel it”, and finally spending the last moments of his “life” singing “Daisy”. Ironically, HAL is the character that expresses the most feeling in the entire film, and his unexpected “artificial” appreciation of “life” makes his death one of the saddest deaths of all time.
zenkhyeooi 