The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 5 (Home Viewings and Conclusions)

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Home Viewing of Blue and New Reception Possibilities. “Say you were struck down tomorrow, what would your monument be?” – Dr Mathew Herbert. “Oh nothing, because film disappears, thank God.” – Derek Jarman (1993, p.117) There is an unstated irony within this essay in the fact that this writer has never been able to experience Blue in … Continue reading The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 5 (Home Viewings and Conclusions)

Persona (1966) – Consequences of a Silent World (Ingmar Bergman)

This article contains spoilers. Though drenched in visual complexities and sharp, hap-hazard editing, Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) is film that is aurally interesting as it is exhilarating to view.  Its opening segment of film footage from all corners of cinematic life, spliced together to form a montage of passing thoughts and nightmares, is actually a beautifully put together piece of sound editing as well.  This … Continue reading Persona (1966) – Consequences of a Silent World (Ingmar Bergman)

Distant Voices, Still Lives – Nostalgia and Hardship Through Sound & Music (Part 1).

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Working Class Pasts – Nostalgia and Past Hardship Through Sound and Music. “Since the 1970s especially, the tendency has grown for directors to indulge their own musical tastes in scoring a film” (Gorbman, 2006, p.17). Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) – Differences in Time. Terence Davies’ autobiographical second feature is the last film to be examined.  Unlike … Continue reading Distant Voices, Still Lives – Nostalgia and Hardship Through Sound & Music (Part 1).

The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 4 (New Technological Contexts).

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The Reception of Blue in New Technological Forms and Contexts. “The degree to which the spectator identifies with the diegesis as his/her own hallucination fluctuates from spectator to spectator, from narrative moment to moment, from genre to genre.” (Gorbman, 1987, p.45). It is very hard to experience Blue today in the intended format that Jarman produced it in.  This … Continue reading The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 4 (New Technological Contexts).

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner – Use of Music and Sound In British Working Class Film (Part 4).

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. The Metaphorical Use of Diegetic Sound and Music. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner has several different uses of sound; two of which aren’t musical.  The title perhaps gives a hint that the sound of running feet on a hard ground will play a vital role in the film.  This rhythmic, … Continue reading The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner – Use of Music and Sound In British Working Class Film (Part 4).

The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 3 (Cinematic Screenings).

Part 1 Part 2 Blue’s cinematic screening – Readings, Reception and Contradictions. “Whilst homosexuals die, many heterosexuals reach for the remote control and simply turn up the volume.  Does it come in stereo?” (Jarman, 1993, p.138) The screening of Blue in cinemas during its 1993 release date is its most typical form though screenings were rare and often film festival based rather than through a … Continue reading The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 3 (Cinematic Screenings).

South Korean Film Scores and Ease of Distribution – Part 5 (Blades of Blood and Conclusions)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Blades of Blood (2010) – Joon-Ik Lee Joon-ik Lee’s 2010 film Blades of Blood shares a number of similarities with both the previously mentioned examples. The film is a modern, violent period picture based on a graphic novel. It is stylistically similar to Oldboy, especially within its colour palate though rarely recreates the standard set by Park. … Continue reading South Korean Film Scores and Ease of Distribution – Part 5 (Blades of Blood and Conclusions)

The Use of Sound & Music in British Working Class Film – Part 3 (British New Wave Cinema).

Part 1. Part 2. Metaphorical Music and British New Wave Film. “But who could describe the delicious sensation produced in me by the delicate harmony and angelic singing of that song which finally did! What an awakening, what bliss, what ecstasy when I opened my ears and my eyes together!” (Rousseau, 1781, p.294). British New Wave Film. The British New Wave movement, like so many … Continue reading The Use of Sound & Music in British Working Class Film – Part 3 (British New Wave Cinema).

Salò (1975) and the Potential for an Adornian Film (Pier Paolo Pasolini).

Reading through some of the writing of Frankfurt school philosopher, Theodor Adorno, it becomes extremely clear that mass culture is what he believes to be the fault of many of the world’s problems as well as symptom of them too; a false enlightenment perhaps, which is the product of simply being unable to accept a world after the end of the Second World War and, … Continue reading Salò (1975) and the Potential for an Adornian Film (Pier Paolo Pasolini).

The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 2 (Early Forms of Blue)

Part 1 The Reception of Blue in its Original Forms. Blue in Written Form and Early Performances. “The difference between formalist and realist philosophies is not in the possibility of affecting the spectator but in what the cinema ought to do, its prescriptive work.  Cinema either organizes the world or duplicates the experience of perceiving of it for the spectator.” (Staiger, 1992, p.51) Though Blue … Continue reading The Problematic Reception of Derek Jarman’s Blue – Part 2 (Early Forms of Blue)