Dog Days (2001)

Gorin was talking about how this film depicted not just overlapping lifelines, but hell.

This is the hell we will inevitably encounter. As a commentary on modern lifestyle, this is the hell that we will all have to face with and the director depicted it in such a hard, raw way that brought direct attention to whatever social truth it was heading towards.

We see overlaps of lives, from physical pleasures, to emotional defeats, we experience a wide range of negative lapses that occur daily. This is just the content of the film, but what this film really is is a portal into what happens everyday, in the private lives of just another person. Sure, these are actors, this is just a film, but it mirrors what remains hidden to us, rather, it unveils what we do not see.

Point Blank (1967)

The movie seemed very sporadic to me. JP was saying to forget the plot and to focus on the elements that were used to portray the narrative.

For example, when we see Chris in a similar position as her sister before her suicide. Her position mirrors the dead sister, perhaps giving the audience a sort of foreboding aspect to this character.

Another interesting thing was the use of color. To me, it was most notable with Chris, who would dress in different yellow outfits that would match her surroundings. It seemed carefully composed to give the eye the illusion of a painterly image.

The end of the film reveals that Walker never does leave the island, but he just dies, and all that we watched was his last thoughts, of what might've been his final mission of revenge.

This 'dream-like' aspect of the movie can be seen through it's structure. As stated before, the film becomes more and more fragmented, as does the narrative. Scenes from earlier in the movie flash up again. For example, when he is about to kill someone, the fight with the two thugs in the nightclub plays again.

Muriel (1963)

The jumpcuts in the movie relate to the director's stylistic approach in depicting memory, while the music creates a strange, foreboding tone.

For me, the music would completely change the tone of the movie; a scene normally experienced in a calm manner could be transformed by the violin tremelo, indicating suspense or tension, while the operatic female voice dramatized sequences. The sound in this movie seemed sporadic and did not really fit well for me, perhaps because what was being shown on screen and what I heard did not seem cohesive.

Bernard talks about the torture of a young woman, Muriel. According to wikipedia:

"Although the use of torture quickly became well-known and was opposed by the left-wing opposition, the French state repeatedly denied its employment, censoring more than 250 books, newspapers and films (in metropolitan France alone) which dealt with the subject (and 586 in Algeria)."

The torture during the war was "massively employed, but also ordered by the French government, was confirmed by General Aussaresses in 2001."

Le Trou (1960)

Analysis:

1.) Parts of the system: gold lighter

2.) The gold lighter is indication of class. The people normally, rather, expected to be found in jail are those of the lower class. The main character is found with a gold lighter, which is then confiscated by the warden in an unexpected, cordial manner. The establishing fact that he is of a higher class than the others in the cell gives him more reason for his actions in the end when he betrays them.

3.) The four in the cell are wary of him at first, but decide to accept him. But, it is obvious through the group's action, that he never really becomes fully accepted. The warden seem especially nice to him. He gets nice gifts from the outside.

4.) The unintended result of the class difference being established in the film is that the guy with the lighter does not explicably act on his class. To me, he seemed just like all the other, save the fact that he was the youngest and naive. The fact that he most likely originated from a higher class isn't brought by his character alone, but what is given to him: food, possibly some favoritism from the warden, etc.