Film Matters Magazine

Identifying (with) a Murderer: Six Steps Towards Sympathy from Ciara Wardlow on Vimeo.

Identifying (with) a Murderer: Six Steps Towards Sympathy
Ciara Wardlow, Wellesley College

Making video essays, I usually follow a certain methodology. I select a film, usually having a vague idea or perhaps several half-formed ones, and then do exhaustive amounts of research. I keep reading until I feel I have a good idea of what has been written thus far about the film in question—the major themes and arguments, the most influential writings, things of that nature—because only then do I know what has not been written yet. From there, I build my final argument and then start working on the actual making of the video. If there is one thing linking all my video essays, it is the desire to make an argument that is new; to truly challenge myself and my ability to analyze a film. Continue reading →

Reversing the Gaze: Empowering the “Other” in Wes Anderson Films from Shannon Shikles on Vimeo.

Reversing the Gaze: Empowering the Other in Wes Anderson Films
Shannon Shikles, Eckerd College

This video essay argues for a reevaluation of Wes Anderson’s films in relation to issues of race and gender. As I discuss, Anderson’s films, including The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), have been criticized for their reinforcement of white masculinity as a source of power, often expressed through access to the male gaze as defined by Laura Mulvey and Jane Gaines. However, I would argue instead that Anderson’s films present a comic world where the white male is not dominant or composed, but rather a struggling and emotionally bottled individual. As parodies of hegemonic representations of race and power, Anderson’s films highlight often-unconscious ideologies so that the spectator disidentifies with the film’s traditional male protagonists and so questions their empowered position. The audience is then aligned with the “other” in the film, taking an oppositional view of the white male protagonist. Continue reading →

The Eye is the Heart: Metropolis and the Kino-Eye from Sophia Kornitsky on Vimeo.

The Eye Is the Heart: Metropolis and the Kino-Eye
Sophia Kornitsky, Wellesley College

In my audiovisual essay, I want to highlight the often-neglected theoretical significance Metropolis (Lang, 1927) has to offer. Many scholars view screenwriter Thea von Harbou’s message— “The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart!”—as overly sentimental. After watching the film, particularly the somewhat modernist sequence of the Android’s dance, I feel this cannot be the case. By applying Dziga Vertov’s notion of the kino-eye to an analysis of the film, some rather intriguing questions are raised and answered. Continue reading →