JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH student comments Scheduled film for home viewing

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Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:20 AM
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2010/6/24

Violet, Vivian Yang, Minnie, Candy Jiang, David, Vicky Lin, Cherry, Joseph, Max, Karen, Tiffany, Christine, Abby, Jeanette, Juliet, Mamie, April, Alice Wang, Tina, Hansel, Holly, Chin, Charlene, Katherine, Ivana, Alice Huang, Christopher, Vivian Lin, 

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Violet

The music of this film was very suitable for creating adventurous atmosphere. Its music sometimes expresses the excitement of journey and sometimes reveals majestic human secret also make me tense too.

 The light was interesting too. Most of the scene was in the cave but film not so dark. Because of this movie was so cheerful and humorous, the scene can't be dark.

 When Professor Oliver and his student Alec were imprisoned in the storage, they try to talk with duck. We can see in these scenes how this film's character is; it's so funny and interesting.

Even though the special effects were not so good, but it was kind of evolutionary in that age. Also when Mr. Paisley and her company were attacked from monsters, I was so far as to watch in breathless suspense. And in these scenes DP use short take make me trilling. Even though the special effects were unpleasant to my eye but I think the acting was quit excellent. Maybe they hard to act like that, because it' hard pretending to see monsters and auroras.

 Moreover, carelessly pulling out the stone became pouring over water all over the cave and there are some splendid jewel or dreamlike scenery scenes here and there throughout that movie. This development is second to none in the adventure film. 

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Vivian Yang

Journey to the center of the earth, filmed in 1959, arouse my memory of National Treasure starred Nicolas Cage in 2004. Although the technology of movie industry had rapidly progressed, there are still some similarity between the two cinema. First, the star image used in creating a heroic images of the big cast. The protagonists, professor Oliver as well as Nicolas Cage, appear to be upright and courageous, which win the heart of female characters in both films. 
  Secondly, the underscore applied in both movies are recognizable, i.e., the audience can easily be concious of what the director tries to emphasize by hearing. Thus in both movies, stingers, which often occurs to frighten the audiences, becomes a distinguishing feature.
  In a sense, I love Journey to the center of the earth more because it somehow shows the originality of an adventurous movie wherea National Treasure conveys nothing but great special effect and Hollywood filming style.

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Minnie

Comedy and Romance was properly combined in this movie, I think. At first I thought it's a kind of just advantage movies. From when the woman slide down at the ladder, I sensed what's going on. And I think mushrooms and caves in the movie were inspired to the other recent-released movies. It was familiar scenes to me. SF effects were little unreality but when the woman screamed after she saw red colored monster, I also surprised.

Music was great. Especially, Broone's voice was sounded like a voice actor's who just pop out from the radio.

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Candy Jiang

 In "Journey to the Center of the Earth," music cues are very important—the cue for expedition and the cue for love.

        After Alec gives the volcanic rock to the Lindenbrook, Alec leaves the room and Lindenbrook turns to check the stone. At this moment, the expedition cue is first heard. This cue makes a feeling that this mystery stone is definitely not just a stone but something extraordinary. Moreover, the same cue can be heard after the explosion in the laboratory. It is easy to understand the occurrence of the cue because it is this explosion that opens the door to the long journey to the center of the earth.

        As for the love cue, it represents the love between Alec and Jenny. It is heard for the first time in the dinner sequence, when Jenny and the other woman are preparing for the dinner. During the preparation, the love cue lingers. That's why when the doorbell rings and Jenny finds out that it is Alec instead of Lindenbrook, it is not surprising at all because the melody implies the love bound between the two. Additionally, in the piano room when the couple is discovered by the other two guests, the cue breaks our anticipation. Mostly, an interruption to a love couple is accompanied by a sudden silence. However, in this sequence, the love cue continues and slowly fades out.

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David

Without professor's reminding, I will never pay attention to the music in films, not to mention the significance of underscore. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a film without much music, but once I hear the music, it had some meaning. In the scene which Count Saknussem first appears, the underscore points out that he is not a good man, although his facial performance is evil enough that everyone understand the fact. Since underscore is used to indicate what is happening at that moment, it changes very soon. In the scene that they find the entrance, the score indicates their happiness. But right before that, at the very beginning of this sequence, with an extreme long shot, the score sounds like that it is showing their ambition and that it is the symbol of this adventurous journey.

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Vicky Lin

In this movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth, I am so impressive one part of it. When professor Oliver tries to find the murder who killed professor Göteborg, his student, Alec asks him "who"? Then, the scene becomes dark and the music score becomes suspenseful. I think through this music score, the audiences and infer that the guy shows up in the dark scene must be the killer—Count Saknussem, namely the protagonist in this movie. When the main characters find a cave filled with mushrooms, the music score is so joyful. But the joyful music gradually fades out and another suspenseful music score appears to emphasize the potential dangerous, the hiding monster. I think this kind of changing of the style of music score also happen in the later parts of the film, particularly when they encounter the different kinds of monsters. 

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Cherry

The color "red" strings all the film from the very beginning (the title). Besides, the following danger the expedition they make (Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, Carla Goteborg Aleck and Hans) are also colored red. Like the red reptile (which pretends to be rock) they eventually meet within a forsaken place and the outburst of the volcano.

      The music plays an important role in this film as we can hear from the start (which gives us a scaring feeling). Especially, when the scene first changes to Oliver and Alec's destination, the music is in a really high and unpleasant pitch. It is the same as Oliver sees the mountain, which seems to be what he is finding. And we can hear the joyful (from the group of Oliver) and gloomy (two people, including the villain, count Sakussem) melodies merge into one when they are walking in the cave.

    I found there is a quick change between every two scenes, what I mean is that there are no useless shots. One followed by the next right to the point. The director also show us first if there exists danger. For instance, he shots from high angle and shows us a big rock that may fall down at any time before linking the alert eye line of Carla with the falling rock. Next, when Aleck finds the mushrooms, as the camera moves to the high mushroom we find the first still reptile high up there and the scene merges with the fire people make, which I think indicates the danger of the reptile.

    The director uses the long shot to indicate their (those who participate in the expedition) small, compared to the nature. We can see the deep slope which the director shots when they get there and are climbing. Besides, when Aleck is lost in the cave, we also see the long shot, which shows his tiny and helplessness. When it comes to almost end, we also see the peaceful ocean scene changes to Jenny at home and later backs to the storm in the ocean with Jenny woke up as if it is her nightmare. Finally, I cannot tell why but when Oliver and Aleck are at the top mountain (when they first come); I feel the mountain in the back look unreal.

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Joseph

 This is truly a good film for me to realize the importance of the score in a film. In the past, I did not give myself enough chance to analyze the function of scores and I used to regard scores as just background music, which may call my attention to some dramatic or romantic points. Thus, I was accustomed to the usual or general timing of the appearance of music. For example, the scene that the character discovers something horrible will accompany a dramatic score in order to raise the effect. However, the usage of score in this film is different from what I had experienced. First of all, there are some scenes which I was expecting to hear music, but Bernard Herrmann chooses to leave them silent, that is unscored. I feel this is quite interesting because there is not a fixed rule of when should the music start and also stop. It depends on editors' decision and feeling. How to choose and arrange them then becomes an art. In addition, another interesting usage of scores is that Bernard Herrmann usually comments the scenes by music which occurs before actions. Just like what I have mentioned, the scene and the music will be shown simultaneously in most movies. But Herrmann prefer presenting music before or after the actions. For instance, before another person falls into the canyon again, the score, which has been used before while other people descended, appeared in advance, indirectly linking the sound and the plot. In this way, scoring is not only function as background music, but as the bridge between scenes. Of course there are still many dimensions of using music underscores in this film, which are worthy for people to think about. By this film, I understand that the skillful arrangement of music underscores can add flavor to a film. Also, it should be considered as powerful as what shooting or editing can reach.

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Max

Because of the limitation of the technology at that time, the props and scenes in this film does not seem to be real at all. The magma, for instance, is just like red glue, and the monsters do not look dangerous at all. What's more, the plots are not logical. It is impossible for human being to stand the heat when they are near magma. However, the director is indeed imaginative to arrange the scenes under the earth in that way. Finally, the duck is a great "character" (or prob) in this film, for it has different important functions—saving the two man and finding a new road.

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Karen

  In Journey to the Center of the Earth, the music scores is mostly used at the key points and mainly for the motifs, so every score has its importance and gives commentary on scenes, actions, or characters. For example, the song "The Faithful Heart" can serve as a sound bridge and also establishes the love scene of Jenny and Alac, the low brass suggests that Count Saknussem is the villain, and sound of The Serpent identifies the image of the prehistoric beasts. Strangely, the use of The Serpent is one of my favorite scores in this movie, probably because of its strange groaning sound really sounds like the monsters and fits in with the creatures' image. Furthermore, the harp glissando is always used whenever the expeditionists discover something marvelous and magical, and thus the score suggests miraculous motif. However, in some scenes, such as the moment when Goteborg's dead body is found or the falling rock sequence, we expect to hear an underscore, but there are no music cues for the scenes. To me, the underscores in this film is not as impressive as the scores in Psycho, though the music arrangement has its style in this movie. 

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Tiffany

After the explosion in lab, the two-note motif, the sound same as when Lindenbrook getting the rock first time, appears when professor gets the little bottle and pitch of score varies which increases the depth and mystery of the rock (little bottle). And in study room, Alec talks to Jenny with underscore "The Faithful Heart" which becomes louder when they are kissing. Furthermore, when the villain first shows, I turned off the sound and was confused by the villain coming but when I turned on the sound I soon understood the guy is villain with the low brass. In addition, in the journey to the earth center, villain lets the team go wrong way which causes Alec almost falls into another cave. The scene's underscore is nervous and fast with the low brass sound I think implies they get trouble into the villain's cunning. Moreover, I also note that glissando uses both at the descend of team in beginning journey and Alec's missing. 

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Christine

 At the beginning of the credit, music sostenuto with suspense and the visual of earth implied that the "journey to the center of the earth" is dangerous. Other things that has to do with the valcano pieces or later down to the center or when secrets were unveiled, the music cue sequence implied the danger in the strange place.

    The joyful music played by the honor guard persist as the underscore when the shot was cutaway to where the professor standing at a paperstand showed the jolly emotion of the professor and then back to the shot of the honor guard.The film features some music song or played by the role in the shots was interesting that the music is not only a undersore but a piece of narrative in the story espesially the scene where the professor walked into the classroomand a group of students sang for him and Alec sang his love song with playing piano.

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Abby

At the beginning of "Journey to the Center of the Earth", the music sounds mysterious and horror, with the scene of the magma and the volcanoes, it creates a more terrifying feeling. The Scottish traditional music plays an important role at the first scene. It even has the interaction with Professor Lindenbrook. When the scenes change to the love scenes, the music would change into the orchestration. And on hearing that Pat Bonne is going to the journey with her uncle, the girl cries and falls from the stair, at the same time, the music accompanies her actions. When Alec sees the deep and adventurous terrain, he almost falls and the shot takes to the terrain with the "unlucky" music. The mysterious music goes on when the professor and Alec try to look around the terrain. And when the driver of the carriage whips on the horse while the professor is sleeping, it follows by the drum sounds and the more nervous music.

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Jeanette

Since Journey to the Center of the Earth can be considered as an adventure movie, I think it is reasonable to use some underscore representing suspense. However, the suspense atmosphere is repeated too much. For example, when seeing a dinosaur, shouldn't the music add some elements like tension, fear, excitement…etc.? Or when the characters are about to escape from the center of the Earth but a big red lizard (or dinosaur) appear suddenly, the underscore should show some surprise instead of simply woman's screaming. Moreover, the lava is too fake (like smashed tomatoes)!

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Juliet

 First, I enjoy the romance scene which Alec McEwen (Pat Boone) plays the piano and sings Jenny (Diane Baker) a love song—"My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose". Particularly, sounds in this scene—combined of piano and Boone's singing—is diegetic and onscreen. In my opinion, through Bonne's singing and piano playing, this lovely song indeed enhances the romantic atmosphere and successfully attracts audiences' attention. In addition, I like the interesting editing in the scene which Alec tells Sir Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason) that he decides to join his journey to the center of the earth. In that scene, after noticing Alec's decision, Jenny falls from the ladder. Simultaneously, a comical nondigetic music accompanies Jenny's comical falling. For me, the editing and the use of music in this scene help a lot in building the comical atmosphere. Moreover, the editor cuts it into the shot of the high mountain in Iceland with an acute sound. In my opinion, this sound represents a change which unveils the beginning of their unknown adventure. Finally, I praise the use of special effects in this film. Undoubtedly, the center of the earth is an unknown space for people. It is hard to present the whole view of this fantastic place. Nevertheless, in this film, the special effects help a lot in creating the landscape and unknown creatures in the center of the earth. What's more, it successfully convinces audiences of this imaginary place.    

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Mamie

 Music plays an important role in Journey to the Center of the Earth .In the beginning of the film; the Scottish orchestra creates a cheerful and harmonious atmosphere. And then the scene goes to the college, accompanied by the students' song. Here I want to put emphasis on the romantic scene when Alec sings to Jenny. Although the whole film doesn't focus on romantic theme, it still impresses me a lot. Herrmann uses "The Faithful Heart "as a underscore linking to the love theme. The soft and elegant melody makes me immediately associate this scene with a romantic love affair. Later Alec (Pat Boone) plays the piano and sings songs to Jenny to show his affection toward her. The previous music continues when Alec and Jenny get close, which means their love for each other.

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April

The music in the crediting sequence sets the mood of suspense and uncertainty; therefore, it provides the audience with the demanded emotion for the film. Afterwards, in the beginning of film, the marching band plays the delightful notes which are like celebrating the success of the professor, Oliver Lindenbrook. However, in the film, there isn't a clear cause for the appearance of the band; consequently, it can be seen as a subtext for the glorious moment for the successful professor. Later, when introducing the female character, the daughter of Oliver, the music scores turn into the one comprising mostly by string instruments. The soft and soothing melody is in line with the presence of a female character and also the evening time. In addition, the scene with the set table, the crackling fire in the fireplace and the company of the music, complete the atmosphere. Furthermore, when the imposing rocky volcano comes into sight, the background music will include the bright and harsh sound of the trumpet. With the aid from the music score, the man conquering the mountain gives out the paramount and unapproachable feeling. What's more, when the group of people looking down to the valley, the music score involves the accordion, which is flexible in changing the volume with every compressing and expanding. It offers the hue of repetition and uncertainty, making the audience curious of the following plots.

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Alice Wang

The underscore in the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth plays a rather important part in the film, and it even has far more essential effects to the movie than any other elements. The underscore was mostly composed and arranged by the famous composer Bernard Hermann. Though during the time, the phenomenon of having a theme song in the movies was beginning to become gradually popular, and it was rather normal that most films' success depend on the theme song. Most movie makers then are convinced that if a repeated piece of theme music in a movie is quite easy for the audience to relate to or can be easily memorized by them even after they walk out from the theater, it is more likely that the film would receive better box office and achieve success. Nevertheless, although most of the underscores Hermann made have nothing to do with repeated themes, but rather simply add to the effect of the scenes; to me, it seems that this kind of underscores are in fact much more effective and has much greater influences on the way a film is presented. Take the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth for example, it is hard for us to imagine what would the movie become without Hermann's well-arranged underscore, which adds much interests to the development of the plot. In my opinion, the movie may still be good without the arranged theme songs; however, it would be spiritless and monotonous without the underscore.

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Tina

 It is really a difficult task to comment on the music of a film. In order to do that, I pay all my attention on the music scores when watching the film that I do not have time to focus on other parts of the film, such as the acting, the plot, the editing, or the cinematography. The score of the opening sequence is simple but effective, with only a simple melody that repeats continuously. As the images of the sequence becomes more violent, from the earth to its lava filled center, the pitch of the repeating melody becomes lower and lower. Thus it gives out a suspense and dangerous feeling.

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Hansel

  I think the movie is very intriguing. The story is interesting and appeals to the audience from the beginning, making people eager to watch what would happen next. The music score makes the movie less dull in some parts. The love theme is especially clear, and it soothes the tension of the film. While the team are on their way to the next spot, the music adds some suspense and makes people nervous about what's waiting for them. When danger or monsters appear, the music also helps increase the audience's anxiety. The props and the décor of the film are good too; they look real enough to allow people enjoy participating in the adventure of the characters

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Holly

Music plays an important role in the film. The love song, though simply written to have the famous singer sing, its tone is so tender and smooth, making the shot look quite comfortable and attractive. Also, the song compensates the young actors' immature acting and completes the sequence. Of course the silence sometimes will emphasize the essential shots. However, I wonder that lack of music sequence will make the scenes losing of emphasis and colors. It is not necessary to score every shot, but adding the music to the shot making images vivid and energetic. In my viewpoint, scoring is art. Correctly scoring one shots will benefit the image of the movie, and help to bring out the main idea of certain sequences or point out the key moment for the audience. Still, many scores impress me in the film. In the beginning, the open chord simply makes the shot full of vigor, bustling and excitement. The marching music is serious but point out the character's personality and add some active movements into the shot. The slow sequence of music scored in the shot when the group of people climbing the mountains presents the climbers' tired and weary circumstance. Music is not only the entertainment in the film. What's more, it's like a connection between the shot and the audience, not only giving us fantastic and wonderful feelings but also taking us to the whole new story presented in the film.

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Chin

We have been taking this course for 2 semester, and I think the sound part of a film is the most difficult to study. Since we are neither familiar with the music or songs which played in the movie, nor the lyrics, it is hard for us to define songs' meaning within the movie. Singings were onscreen many times, for example, students were singing in the lab when the professor got in the lab, at the very beginning of the movie; a girl was singing in her house to a young man. Well, the conclusion is, I should work more harder to get the feeling and the meaning of songs of a movie.

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Charlene

 The adventure of journeying to the center of the earth is very intriguing. With such limited special effects in the 1950s, I think the director had a certain degree of ambition. And for me, I think this adaptation of Jules Verne's 1864 French novel is quite a success because it was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Effects, Special Effects and Best Sound.

 

        I believe it is the sound that we want to put emphasis on. But at the same time, it is the most difficult part to analyze. The music in a film is not just music. Instead, it has the feature of composing, changing the pitch of an underscore or even changing the melody of an underscore can mean different between the context. I like the funny way presented by Bernard Herrmann in the scene that Lindenbrook and his follows are captured by the villains. The jumping tone of the underscore matches the story unbelievably, which makes me very impressive.

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Katherine

This movie is in fact quite an old movie. From the music and the scene we can see that it is really different from the movies nowadays. I thinks the background music is quite strong and is has many low pitches. To enforce the audience's emotion, the music did do a good job. But to me, I'll think that in the movie, the music might be to creepy. I prefer the lates one whose main acter is Brendan Fraser. When former one played the music, we can know that something is going show up. And pepople's emotion did go with the music.

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Ivana

Music cue serves an important role in the film, since the acting here is not so attractive to me. The source music in the beginning of the film is special, making the plain movement of the characters not so boring. At first, there are guards playing music. Then, a chorus sings. And next, a main character plays the piano and sings with a beautiful love songs, which can also be heard without lyrics later in the film. In the following scenes, music is also a key factor to create the climax of the movie. For instance, when the characters are in danger with the falling rock and the rising water average, the temple of the music becomes strong and fast. If music were not so powerful here, the film may fall into boredom.

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Alice Huang

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a science fiction movie in the earlier history of movies. Though some of the special effects are not elaborate enough, I still admire the hard work on those designs of the cave.

    As for the sound track part, I myself will see the song sung by a group of people, which is used to praise professor Lindenbrook, as one of the "themes" of this movie. Besides, I think it can be viewed it in another way; that is, it can also serve as an echoic function. As for other sounds occurring in this movie, I think most of them fit with the scenes or plots well. However, it's really hard to distinguish whether there is a significant cue of those sound tracks. Personally, I find that there is always a cue before the appearance of those gigantic monsters, or just big lizards. It's a low and slow sound which provides the audience with the feelings of uncertainty and danger.

    Other uses of sound track are appropriate in this film: the match of the Scotland music with people living in that area, the roaring of an even larger lizard, and the eruption of the volcano. Sound tracks used in this film is really arousing the audience's curiosity and a sense of nervousness when expecting what will happen next.

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Christopher

I think the music scores in the movie The Journey to the Center of the Earth are not outstanding from those typical Hollywood adventure movies. In other words, they are doing well in expressing the theme, the emotion, and connecting different scenes, make the movie going smoother and completely. But sometimes we cannot make out the difference of same kind of music scores, for example, it is hard to distinguish the small different between two romance cue, one may express more desire than the other ones, while our more than half attention divided into watching and thinking.  

But I like the music cue at the beginning part, they are so light and soft, remain a lot of space for our imagination, and also, I would never think that the higher frequency of music cue is a good thing, because it will turn to destruction to the audience.

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Vivian Lin

Journey to the Center of the Earth is exciting. I consider the film's special effect as the fatastic element that attracts me. The film's story is changeable that strongs the excitement of the film. The score that composed by Bernard Herrmann also is the outstanding point in the film. The scene that all the lizards leave their nests for attacking the people is the most exciting scene and the score matchs the horrible situation. I think the film is better than the other adaption of 2008. In that age, Journey to the Center of the Earth applies the special effects and the impressie score tomake such a fantastic movie. I think it is not easy and worth watching the film.   

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MY FAIR LADY student comments Scheduled film for 4 June 2010

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Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: Scheduled film for 4 June 2010
To: rdca25@gmail.com

於 2010年6月22日下午12:28 寫道：

Carolina, Mamie, Candy Jiang, Tiffany, Ivana, Juliet, Alice Huang, Christine, April, Cherry, Katherine, David, Joseph, Hazel, Alice Wang, Vicky Lin, Karen, Abby, Charlene, Emily, Tina, Vicky Shih, Chin, Hilary, Sophia, Eileen, Minnie, Max, Violet, Hansel, Vivian Yang, Jeanette, Christopher, Ida, Holly, Anne, Vincent, Vivian Lin, John, 

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Carolina

Audrey Hepburn is a gorgeous and radiant actress as Eliza Doolittle, the poor flower seller who later became the fair lady. Her acting as an uneducated girl is remarkable; however, maybe due to the length of the movie, the transformation to a fair lady is too fast. Some habits cannot be changed from one day to another, such as her accent or vowel pronunciation. I wonder if she really does the singing part as the singing voice seems not be hers, yet it is a beautiful voice.

Nearly at the end, the movie gets unendurable as Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle cannot admit their love and reconcile with each other. It would be better if Eliza has a monologue to explain her thoughts to the audience as I was a little bit confused when she gets upset with Higgins after the party. Doesn't she already know that she is just a tester of Higgins' experiment?

The ending was not satisfactory at all as Higgins asks Eliza about his slippers. I would prefer a more romantic closing or Higgins begging for Eliza's pardon. It seems to be that Eliza is always in the inferior position in their relationship – as an obedient student and later, as a submissive lover.

I really enjoyed the movie as it is an old romantic comedy with interesting songs. The character of Eliza is very charming, attractive and comic. And one more point, the wardrobe is outstanding. It really allures my eye!!

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Mamie
The opening sequence of this film is various kinds of flowers. Accompanied with the cheerful music, the film is obvious a comedy. The flower motif in the beginning corresponds to the title of this movie. My Fair Lady shows Eliza's change from a rude woman into an elegant fair lady. There are two scenes that I want to mention. First scene is that when Eliza starts to have a day-dream of being a duchess, the director uses soft iris effect to show that it is unreal. This scene is very interesting because she even imagined the image of king. Second, I notice that when the noble are watching the horse's races, they all stand still and hold same position. They just act like robots. In my opinion, this is sarcastic because they are so well-behaved to such an incredible extent. On the contrary, Eliza's natural behavior (yelling out in public) seems more straightforward.

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Candy Jiang

Actually, I was quite disappointed at this well-known blockbuster, My Fair Lady. Most sequences are too long and thus become boring and annoying. Some lines occur too often and thus become irritating. Some parts that are used to create a sense of humor are not funny at all. Some movements of the characters are just meaningless. Moreover, for the first half of the story, it's really lengthy and the quarrels between Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins make me impatient. If I'm not forced to sit till the end, if I'm just looking for entertainment, I would leave.

        One example for lengthy, boring and annoying sequence is when Eliza comes to Higgins and asks him to teach her how to speak correctly. That sequence contains Eliza's begging, Higgins and Pickering's bet, Eliza and Higgins' quarrel, etc. The quarrel irritates me. That bet sequence lasts much longer than I imagine. And Eliza's high-pitch yelling and screaming make me uncomfortable.

        As professor mentioned in class, the line said by Eliza, "I'm a good girl, I am," occurs too many times and makes it annoying. I totally agree with him. Moreover, I don't think it is humorous at all at the very first time it was said. This line is kind of making me dislike the character Eliza, thinking her as someone disgraceful and shameful. Although my feeling fits the characteristic, the social status, and the background of Eliza well, I still don't think that it is a good strategy to make audience hate the leading female character at the beginning of the film.

        The sequence that contains too many unnecessary movements is that of Higgins singing a song, telling that he'll never let woman in his life. He keeps moving, upstairs, downstairs, sitting girl-like in the sofa, and walking around. Those movements are so meaningless. One particularly movement that irritates me is when Higgins runs upstairs, the next second he runs downstairs. Then, what's the point of running upstairs?

        Additionally, I don't appreciate the editing skills of the editor. The linking of some sequences is too jumpy and loses its continuity. Every time when the editor tries to cut from one sequence which ends with a song to another, the editor cuts when the music is still not finished. That means one sequence is not totally ended, it is stopped and cut to another. This cutting ruins my interest and anticipation to the ending of the beautiful melody and singing.

        I also find it meaningless to the use of freeze image. People move and suddenly they are all freeze without any reason; shortly after, they suddenly move again. Again, what's the point of using this technique?

        Last, no more criticizing. I observe there's a sequence using iris, but it's not black. Instead, it blurs the image to create the effect of iris, building a sense of dreaming. That sequence is when Eliza is daydreaming about she successfully becomes a lady and persuades king to kill Higgins at her will. The whole process of daydreaming has the effect of iris with blurring images. At this part, I appreciate the use of this technique.

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Tiffany
The fair lady is kind of interesting film which composed of lots of songs. Director uses these songs to express characters' inner thought and feeling. The opening sequence implies the change of Elisa from a flower girl to fair lady. I note that there is an obvious cutting with the sound bridge to show the pass of six weeks which at first let me feel strange to connect plot. And the other part which attracts me most is when Elisa sings "Just You Wait" and imagines the funny penalty of Higgins. When the song comes to the end, the impact cut shows viewers an entertaining effect. I think that the whole film is too long to watch for people because they might get tired of looking actors' performance or listening to the songs.  

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Ivana

 I love this film, an interesting musical with good actors and songs. Audrey Hepburn is amazing. In the film, she acts as two opposite characteristics—a girl from slum who is rude and always talks in loud and penetrating volume with the "terrible" accent of English yet she later becomes a lady who seems to be well-educated, moving with grace and speaking in "standard" accent. Despite the great change, she handles it very well. The only song she sings in fantasy also impressed me. The scenes are shot in special effects, making it more unreal. When the cloudlike effect fades away, the appearance of Henry Higgins upstairs and Eliza's expression make the scene extremely comical.

    The only thing I want to criticize is the "standard" idea that dominates the whole film such as the chauvinistic songs, the efforts to become aristocrat, and the efforts to a standard accent.

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Juliet

In My Fair Lady, the editing and the music usually create distinct rhythm in different scenes. For instance, in the beginning, the editor, William H. Ziegler, cut crowded people inside and outside to illustrate the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. Moreover, connecting slow movement of those people with the relaxing music enhances the crowded situation. After a while, it is started to rain, and the rhythm is changed from a relaxing tone to brisk one. Simultaneously, people move much more quickly than before. In my opinion, utilizing and combining music, action, and editing to create distinct rhythm in the film can enhance different atmosphere and even present the main themes.

        Furthermore, I think that the mise-en-scène in the horse racing scene really illustrates the style of high-class people. First, the use of high-key lighting makes this scene seems bright and elegant. Second, most properties in this scene are white and black. For me, white and black are simple but elegant. Finally, those characters' graceful action and slow movement also show the manners of the aristocracy. According to these techniques, I think that this scene successfully portrays the aristocratic style.       

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Alice Huang

 I think this movie is not hard to study since the structure and the organization are clear and easy to understand. For me, though the title sequence contains not so many cinematic techniques, I enjoy the series of pan shots filmed from different directions very much. I think those flowers just stand for Eliza, who is originally a flower girl. I don't know all the names of those flowers, but I can tell that most of them present feelings of "elegance" and "nobility." It maybe symbolizes that Eliza's has these two essences, elegance and nobility, as those flowers; it's just that she need help to change herself from a humble flower girl to a graceful lady.

In this film, I am curious about one kind of shot which seems similar to a "freeze frame" mentioned in the textbook. The most effective one occurs at the plaza in front of the concert hall when everyone is on his or her duty. The director assembles the whole scene with three steps, each of which displays the more and more prosperous London city. This is the first time I see this kind of "special effect," which turns out to be very interesting.

    The other scene showing the "freeze frame" takes place in the race course when people are changing their positions while dancing. Though it's quite interesting, what catches my attention is that the gowns those ladies wear are either black or white, and that the suit those gentlemen wear are almost grey. I don't really understand the art design in this plot. What I can come up with is that maybe the director or art designer wants to underscore the main characters whose dress is in different color compared with others.  
    Besides, match cuts are used well in this film. I think there are two of them: one is a match-on-action cut in which the previous shot shows Colonel Pickering suggests Professor Higgins to give up and then followed by another shot shows they are already on the day of "testing;" the other is also a match-on-action in which the former shot shows that Professor Higgins is laughing loudly in the party and the following shot displays that he is already at home.

    I like this film very much because the director usually makes one scene intriguing by applying special cinematic techniques. It's a pity that I can't finish the whole movie, but I'll try to return to the library to finish it.

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Christine

 My Fair Lady is a Broadway show production that contained amuzement and beautifully sung underscores in a 3-hour-long film. I think it was the underscores that enhanced each characters' personalities. And due to the lines and rhythm they sang, emotion and inner thoghts were revealed to the audience. We also noticed that the vocabuary and accent Doolittle sang have gradually changed during the time in the film.

    Concerned with sympathy towards women, Ms. Doolittle was not only under the power of men but of social classes though at the end Ms. Doolittle and her heavy-drinking father lived a wealthy life and wrapped up with a happy ending. Although her father was looked upon as a joke in the film. Ms. Doolittle as her name, implied that she did nothing big in her own life, and will live her life as a flower-selling girl. She was in the labored social class that no one was well-educated and some of them idoled lives by drinking as Doolittle's father. Herself was like a property belonged to her father who later sold Ms. Doolittle to Professor Higgins. Higgins as a phonoligist was at first treated Doolittle as a experiment to win a bet and despise her behavior and ridiculous accent. However, the film at the very end broke the power of gender and class, Doolittle sought her own happiness and became a fair lady.

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April

 The director does a perfect job on mise-en-scene and the music score. Since this is a musical film, crowd movement is one of the essential components. The director needs to not only coordinate the crowd movement with the rhythm of the song, but also makes the movement among actors goes smoothly without obstacles. In addition, the exaggerate-oversized hats and those splendid costumes which get in the way, challenging the director. Take the hose-racing scene for example: the interweaving routes and overlapping gestures or even some action happen simultaneously. Therefore, the perfect match of time makes the scene impressive.

    The film seems like a stage drama in its stage setting: the symmetric props in the background and the balancing number of the actors of both sexes in each scene.

     

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Cherry

First in the begging of the film I found the flowers are most white; however, in the middle, most of them change to red. I think that indicates the change of the female character named Eliza Doolittle since she has the unexpected opportunity to make a difference in her life (not just stays at low social position). And the opening is also unique by showing the emergence of crowd step by step. What's more, between each step we also have stop though I am not sure of its function. Quite the same as shot from high angle to look down at the busy street, I think it shows much more when director shows the busy scene from very low angle (ex. From the ground. I think we have viewed a lot like in The Man with a Movie Camera.)

    In this film, I noticed since Henry Higgins is a highly self-esteem phonetics professor, who we can see that characteristic when director shot the professor is having half singing and half conversion with Colonel Hugh Pickering in Higgins' house. Most of the time Higgins is standing high in the second floor facing down to Pickering, which I think shows his arrogance and sense of higher status than others. However how proud Higgins is, there is also scene that shows kind of contempt to him by his servants. This happens when Higgins is kvetching Eliza to speak correctly up to late three A.M., this time the servants stand high above singing helplessly at his torturing teaching to Eliza. In this scene, I think they all consider the professor is about to going crazy.

    It is also special to see iris when Eliza is dreaming of her revenge to Higgins, though I think it is too obvious to show her fantasy in this way. I also noticed the quick change back to Higgins house when he is laughing happily for their success in the party. Finally, I still have the question. When people are watching horse racing (use telescope), I expected the distance between them and horse should be very far (if it is not true the use of telescope is meaningless). However, as the film continued, I saw horses are just in front of them, which I think is very unreasonable. I do not know why that scene is shown in that way.

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Katherine

It's interesting to see Audrey Hepburn play such a lovely role. The people in the film all dressed very luxurious. On seeing their wearing, I associate Lady Gaga with them. The plot is so attractive that I almost forgot to pay attention to the filming skills. There's a quite special shot at the last part of the movie. When the they come back from the prom, they just keep talking about their success and neglect Eliza's feeling. And though the camera we can see that Eliza slowly merges into the shade, I think it means that Eliza seems to be invisible and it shows her sad mood. And very end of the movie we see that Eliza still goes back to professor's house, it stop at that moment, so we can know that in the end they will be together, without  words to illustrate.

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David
Taking London in beginning of the 20^th century as the background, My fair Lady describes a story in which a vulgar girl, with the help of a phonetics professor, changes her accents and then becomes a lady. The conflict between Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins is the most attracting part of this film. Besides, Mr. Doolittle is the most impressive character. The song "With a Little Bit of Luck" somehow fits in with my opinion. It also clearly points out the personality of Mr. Doolittle. The scene of Eliza's fantasy song has a soft focus effect, which tells audience that the scene is not real.

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Joseph

 During the past few weeks, I had finished reading the part "editing" in the textbook. As students, we are constantly told that editing is really essential for a good movie. From this film, I truly learn how important the editing can be. If the film is lack of skillful editing, it may most importantly bring negative effect on viewers' emotion, including breaking their attention and interest towards the movie. However, if the editing is elaborately performed, there is no doubt the film will become charming.

    One of the obvious disadvantages of this film lies in that the film itself is too long for viewers to keep paying attention to each scene. Also, some parts in this film are not that important, and those parts should be deleted during the editing process or the editors should make other choices between different shots.

    However, a wide range of cuts, which function as different purpose, is used during this film. For example, there are crosscutting, intercutting, cut on action, cut on scale, and different match cuts. Each of them has their own function. For example, eyeline matches are mainly used during the party scene in this film. And I especially like this scene because, through editing, editor brings our focus on specific characters that the editor wants us to pay attention to, and at the same time, by cutting back to long shot, the editor immediately brings us to the atmosphere of the crowded party. That is why the order of shots must be strictly chosen, or the well-shot scenes are finally in vain.

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Hazel

When Eliza walks into the embassy ball, both Henry Higgins and Colonel Hugh Pickering pull her elbows. Mr. Higgins, all of a sudden, stops her and taps her arm.

I was curious about this unexpected movement and wondering what is the purpose of Mr. Higgins. Actually I do not really understand what it means, I guess maybe he want to do something to make her feel better, anyway, it seems not like that. All in all, the description of the lady's inner voice is gradually decreased and almost disappeared. In the ball, Eliza is like the goddess, but after that, she's nothing anymore. Other people are so proud of "they did it!" there's no one care about her. She's like a pretty toll that the only use of her is to be showed to others. The scene in the study room, there's no light on her, and she is separated. She's not the spot light anymore. It is conceivable that how lonely she feels at the time.

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Alice Wang

The movie My Fair Lady is mainly based on the world-famous Broadway musical with the same title. Because of this fact, it is not hard for the audience to find that the compositions of the characters in most scenes of the film are quite stagy. Also, the underscore and songs play quite an important part in the movie, since it was originally a musical itself. The way the characters express themselves in a musical is often through singing a song or dancing, which is also one of the most impressive features of a musical. Although most audience would look down on the movie due to the fact that they think it is too stagy and not impressive enough as a movie instead of being seen as a good musical; however, there are indeed some editing techniques that add interest to the film and make it a good one. For example, one of the special techniques that impress me most may be the match cut. The most distinct example of an elliptical match cut can be seen at the end of the first part of the movie when Pickering is talking to Higgins about the doubts he has about whether Eliza can success, trying to talk Higgins into giving up on the plan. Nevertheless, the scene changes all of a sudden to six months later when they actually are going to attend the ball with Pickering remaining the same pose, creating a rather interesting effect. Editing techniques like this in the movie truly add to the entertainment and interest of the viewers as they see the movie, creating an extraordinary feeling that can be very different from seeing the musical version of it. 

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Vicky Lin
The movie, My Fair Lady is one of my favorite movies that I have seen in this semester. Although the main idea of the film is not so interesting, the whole movie still can catch audiences' attentions. I think the most crucial reason is the good editing. Just like the professor mentioned in the class, the editing in this film is not so obvious to most of audiences. So I have the chance to analyze the movie and try to seek out where is editing. I notice there are a lot of long shot in the film especially when there are a group of people are singing or when the director wants to emphasize one of the characters. In these two different situations, the director will use long shot in the former one and use close-up in the later one. I am so impressive the long shot near the end of the movie when Eliza, Higgins and Pickering go back to Higgins' home. Higgins and Pickering are talking gladly about their success of teaching Elisa in the front part of the scene; however, I can see the sad and unhappy Elisa in the back of the scene. These two makes a strong contrast. If the director just takes the conversation between Higgins and Pickering, then I won't know Elisa's emotion.

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Karen

The editing in My Fair Lady is less obvious than the previous movies that we have seen. I seldom notice the editing when watching this movie because shots between shots flow very smoothly. From the textbook, I find out that this is called continuity editing, which is commonly used in mainstream filmmaking. Probably the moment I will notice editing more is when song sequences moves to the next shot. Nevertheless, some times I feel that the song sequence is too long for the viewers, especially Alfred Doolittle's song "Get Me to the Church on Time." Every time when I think the song is about to end, they begin singing the song again. But indeed, all of the songs perfectly rhymes and add the rhythm to the film. Furthermore, the costume design is very resplendent throughout the movie. I particularly appreciate the costumes in the horse racing sequence. The ladies in the high society are all gorgeously dressed in fancy hats and gowns with only black and white. Also, there are no duplicate dresses among them, so I can admire more for the designs of the costume. Even in the end, Eliza is attired in a beautiful pink dress and looks indeed like a duchess. Therefore, the closure of the film realizes Higgins' prophecy and blends Eliza's past and present.

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Abby

"My Fair Lady" begins in an unusual way. There are kinds of beautiful flowers blooming. I guess maybe it is associated with the title of the movie, "My Fair Lady". There are stop motions in the film. I think it is a quite special method and makes a interesting effect. In the movie, we can see the progress and hardness of Eliza, but I think her achievement and development is too sudden. How can she is just like the talented and can suddenly learn to speak that beautifully. The party among the noble appears twice in the movie, which makes it also a familiar scene. And I like the depression scene after Eliza. It is like a turning point. The light or the position indicates her feeling and the atmosphere. And the most impressive scene to me is the horse racing part. The color of the scene is bright because most people wear the color black or white. And the arrangement of the scene is quite amusing too.

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Charlene

 This is indeed a fair movie for me even though this film lasts about three hours. I like the settings very much, with a wide screen format filled with lots of dukes and duchesses wearing exaggerated clothes, competing with each other for beauty of looks. I think it is very difficult to edit in such a big location. The editor needs to provide the establish shots, some specific shots for plotting and also some reminder of shots to remind the audience the situation. I like the Ascot sequence the most. It is very interesting and novel for me to see such an editing like this, with people moving and pausing, pausing and moving. That's very cool and it indeed provides a feeling of upper class meeting. Another thing I want to talk about is the musical parts. Usually it is the main character that sings the song alone rather than sings the song with the people around him or her. I think it is a little bit weird for the people who stand beside the singer when the character is singing and sometimes they seem to be embarrassed about not knowing what they should do now. For example, when Eliza's father is singing "With a Little Bit of Luck", I found that the two friends besides him seem little unnecessary. Or maybe it would be better if they sing with him.

 

        I think the conflict between the two main characters is those one of the most impressive plots. Henry Higgins, the phonetic professor, is the typical model of traditional male—self-esteemed, superior, and confident. He has a stereotype of women. Women are sentimental and changeable for him. May be that is one of the reasons that he refuses to get married. He is kind of confused about why women cannot be just like the men, just as the song he sings, "I'm An Ordinary Man". On the other hand, Eliza is tough at the very beginning of the movie. She is not like the original women. She has thoughts and she has a job to support her life. She wants to have changes and eager for a better situation and that is why she comes to Higgins for help. She is the symbol of a new woman.

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Emily
 I think the plot in this film is very interesting, this film talks about how a linguistician changes a woman from a slum to the lady of high society by improving her accent. This film is presented like a musical film, because the characters sing and dance through the film. We can discover some editing methods in My Fair Lady. The editor chooses the shots very well. There are many invisible cuts that the viewers follow the actions of the character, or the scale change. Cross-cutting is repeated in this film. Besides, many shots are taken by high angle. There is an elliptical cut that the editor uses the music bridge to make up the six weeks of training Eliza.

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Tina

 I like this movie very much. Although it is a bit too long (I could not finish it since I have following classes), the mise en scene is so beautiful and artistic that enables the film to attract my attention continuously. I particularly enjoy the scenes when Professor Higgins takes Eliza to the horse race. Obviously the costumes, decors, and props were carefully chosen not only for avoiding anachronism but also for an aesthetic view. The place is built with elegant all white fences, and the characters' costumes are fantastic, especially those of the female characters. All of their clothes share something in common; for instance, there are only black and white for the clothes. But everyone's garment is different as well, with all kinds of cuts, drapes, embellishments, and so on. If a fashion designer is searching for inspiration for his/her next season, this movie is definitely a good resource because it contains so many scenes like the one of the horse race.

        The movie gives out a lovely and elegant sense, partly because of its mise en scene, and partly because of Audrey Hepburn, in my opinion. She herself is the embodiment of loveliness and elegance! It is a pity that there are not many close-ups of her face in the film.

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Vicky Shih
After watching this movie, I like it very much! One of the important reasons is that Audrey Hepburn being the heroine who is my favorite actress. She is so beautiful and not artificial, making people being attracted in natural. In the beginning, Eliza Doolittle acts a flower girl meeting a gentleman. Her irregular accent makes her getting into trouble. Later, she followed the linguistics professor Henry Higgins to learn language. Henry Higgins transformed Eliza Doolittle into a fair lady successfully. They conceal the public in a dance! But after they return home, the conflict emerged. Eliza Doolittle feels that Henry Higgins only think about himself, not caring about her. So she leaves the professor's home without leaving any word. The next day, when Henry Higgins found that Eliza Doolittle has gone away, he was very anxious. Finally, he found Eliza Doolittle and understood that she has become independent and stands the important role in his mind. He couldn't live without her. They choose to be with each other again!

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Chin

Comparing all the movies we had gone through this semester, I like this movie the most. No matter the shots, the characters, the scenes, or the background music, I totally fall in love with this movie. First, the characters in this movie have clear, intense, and manifest characteristic, respectively. I like especially Professor Higgins and Eliza. I like the changed of Eliza from a vagrant to an elegant woman. I also like those singing scenes, which I think they are cute and interesting. Scenes like when they are in the Ascot. People there stop and stare as mentioned in the study picture add more fun to the movie. I like the relationship between Eliza and professor Higgins.

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Hilary
Because I have a class at 3:00 in Fri, I haven't finishing watching this film yet. Compared with previous movie, I like this one very much. Beautiful actress, exquisite clothing, and funny music cues are so charming. I love its music cues. There are some frames that people moved according to the underscore music. People moved and stopped and then kept moving as normal. And I like its underscore music. It had a big influence on the rhythm of this film. When people walked quickly, the music became faster and faster. This film looks likes a musical play. Sometimes they would sing and dance together and then go back to work just like there was nothing happened. I like lots of parts of this film. I'll finishing watching it recently. Audrey Hepburn did a good job at playing this role. She had to change her accent while she was a lady or a flower seller. And she also had to vary her bearing. First of all I just cannot believe that flower seller would become the graceful lady. After lots of training, she finally did it. It means that nothing is impossible. I like this movie so much and I just can't wait to see the left part.

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Sophia

"The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain" is the most impressive line in My Fair Lady. The original accent of Eliza makes the front part of the film interesting. Audrey Hepburn did very well on vivid facial expression and exaggerating movement before Eliza was taught by Professor Higgins. Also, the theme of the film is clear. It focuses on how Standard English affects people and how powerful language is. The film also shows the powerful masculinity of Professor Higgins and the arising femininity of Eliza. Apparently, the costume that Eliza wore was contracted to her former appearance. Her hair style and dress was too over in the ball. However, Eliza acted like a fair and elegant lady successfully. As for cutting, the film starts with low-angle shots as an opening. Most shots focus on conversations between two to four people, including the conversation between professor and the scholar and the scene when Eliza visited Higgins at the first time. These shots are processed from different angles. In addition, the stair could be the familiar image in the film. Eliza and the housekeeper had conversation there. The scene which Eliza was well-prepared to attend the ball happen on the stair as well. The stair could be a good place to show how surprising Eliza had been changed. Thus, the stair was used in an efficient way.

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Eileen
This film reminds me of the film which named "The Sound of Music". The actors in film sometime transfer the lines into the song. It makes the lines more animated. The lines not just the lines, it can be a beautiful song. The plot in this film is interesting. It about the professor of phonetics teaches the flower girl phonetics to become the elegant girl. It's amazing that one's pronunciation can influence one's life. It's also astonishing that One's pronunciation can deceive one's thought about you. The beginning of the film with tons of the flowers impressed me. Is it represent of the main actress that she is a fair lady and also a girl that sells the flowers. In one scene there is a sound that makes people stop and they divide into three parts to come out. I think it means time goes on. Different time has different people's activity.

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Minnie

Before I watched the movie, I really expected it how much would it be boring. However, I really enjoyed 'My fair lady.' Especially, I can't forget 'Just you wait' Hapburn was really cute and her acts really funny. It made me guess how much that study was stressful to her. And through that scene, I could learn how 'Impact cut' is used effectively. 

I could see many long shots in this movie. So I could feel as I sat in a theatre to see the play. Long shot helps to make this movie lively, positively and funny. Although it can't catch people's move from A to Z, it shows the mood. For example, it let me show could see how the upper class people are different from the lower class by showing their slow walking and motion.

Music implied audiences that what kind of person Doolittle is. From the song, 'Wouldn't it be lovely.' I could guess how would be she changed. Although she was very rough and shallow, I could feel she will be a lovely girl at last. 

Costumes, stages and lightings were impressive too. Due to there were existed 2 classes of the movie, I could easily find differences. For instance, open-market was something fast and disorder because of moving people and coach. On the contrary, in the upper class' party, white dresses gave a luxurious impression. Their hats made me felt kind of pressure.  

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Max
This film, My Fair Lady, is a musical. There are a great number of singing scenes. However, the time of singing seems to be too long and they are actually a little bit time-consuming. A special way of people's showing up in this movie is that the public go out in turn and stand at one spot standing still. No one moves until every one is ready, and the empty street suddenly becomes prosperous with a lot of people strolling around. The stillness, on the other hand, refers to the passing of time though we viewers are unable to know how long it is. Furthermore, the lines are writen well. The sentences which the lady learns during the practice of articulation, for example, are cleverly used to be the ones she reponds to the aristocrats watching the horse race.

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Violet

 I think that in this movie the main character's acting showed by close up something like that is important as other movies does. But because of this movie is kind of musical movie, so it's more important that songs and setting of stages than acting. So the camera follows character's movements using dolly in and out, but we can't see often close up shot for explain actor's feeling. Instead of close up shots, we often see full shots or middle shots for showing overall stream of the story and majestic stages with songs and performance. When Professor Higgins gave a wipe over the knuckles on Eliza's loutish and vulgar English, we can clearly catch dynamic movements following his performance.

 Extra actor's Singing reminds me to thinking about chorus in Oedipus the King. It is sort of important for developing stream of plot. For example, when the peak of the training the servants who work in Professor Higgins's house, sang together about how was the training going. It was of help to understand the story of film as chorus in Oedipus the King does.

 I think that DP get inspiration from freeze frame. When people walk into square gradually, first crowd walk into square and freeze fame for just one or two second, it was interesting. When Eliza imagines she kicked Higgins in the teeth, except the center of frame was indistinct, it was also interesting too.

The thing what I like the most in this film is the songs. Sweet melody and lyrics was good enough to express sensibility of young girl, such as 'Wouldn't It Be Lovely'.

 And I found some contrast between animated flowers and derelict flowers, also between the songs does. Eliza sang 'I'm a good girl.', and Higgins sang 'I just an ordinary man'. Maybe it for explain differences between woman and man, as original novel does.

 Lastly, when Fred who gets into Eliza waits for her in front of Professor Higgins's house, the camera angle was awesome. In the middle of the frame, there was a young man in gay suit between two colorful flowers; also there were white house and black railings. The camera was deep focused on young man; Fred, later on one man showed up and turned the light up and left. These are mixed and I confused that this is a black and white film and focus on flowers, light and young guy artificially. Even though this is not the fancy party scene, but I love this scene the most.

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Hansel
At first I thought of My Fair Lady as a romantic comedy, but later I found it isn't. Romance is not the theme of this film, of course. It is only one of the little branches of the plot. I think this film is a satire. It is actually sarcastic in many ways. In the film, women are portrayed as those of lower status compared to men. Professor Higgins even openly criticizes women, expressing his strong hate and bias against females. He is totally a believer of male chauvinism. He is snobbish and haughty. He believes that he could live a very comfortable life staying single; however, he seems to have overestimated himself. At last he still has to yield to love, and he could bear being apart from the woman he is fond of. But even so, he is stubborn and does not want to reveal his real emotions, which he probably considers to be his weakness. On the other hand, Eliza plays the role of a weak woman in traditional times. She has no power and no position. She has to rely on a well-educated gentleman to grab at a slight chance to get into the upper class. Eliza finally achieves the decent way of speaking and has the chance to be with upper class people. However, the very thing that bothers her is Prof. Higgins' indifference to her. In the end she still submits to Higgins because of her affection for him. The songs in this film are not all very attractive. There are also too many scenes that are way too long and redundant; the director should have been more selective. It makes people feel like they are so eager to put everything in this film and it makes the audience feel bored listening to the same lines and melody over and over.

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Vivian Yang

 My fair lady is quite an intriguing work as far as the melody and mise-en-scene are concerned. It is not difficult to tell that the editor puts so much emphasis on the harmony of each scene that there seems to be no painstakingly editing at all. For instance, the song "wouldn't it be lovely" sung by Eliza is natural though it is full of complex dance movement. 
  As for the mise-en-scene, I found this film had combined the elements of broadway musicals into the setting. Take the horse-racing scene for examlple, the chorus as well as the dress color (black and white) suggest the strong contrast between the methodical upper-class and absurd Eliza. Moreover, the way the upper-class people show excitement in horse-racing creates a surrealistic and somehow ridiculous atmosphere. And all these arrangements successfully impress the audiences.
  To have a short conclusion, I think that it tooks great filmmakers and great artists (composers, choreographers, lyricists, etc.) to create a wonderful movie like this.

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Jeanette

I think the editing in this film flows quite naturally. Scenes are displayed logically. However, due to the fact that the first half of the film is too amusing, the other half, relatively speaking, seems plain even boring sometimes. And it's too long! Some scenes can definitely be deleted so the pace can be faster. Maybe the plot can be improved to somehow balance the amusing and romantic elements. Frankly speaking, the transition when Eliza realizes how to pronounce English properly is badly filmed. The performance is not convincing enough, since Eliza's facial expressions change in a sudden, as if she is impatiently waiting to get rid of the strange accent. Since the transition is a turning point in plot, the cut seems not appropriate.

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Christopher

We have so many aspects to comment on this perfect musical, e.g. Music, gender issue, cinematography, lyrics and so on. I would like to put especial emphasis on it┤s gender issue, through the analysis from the plot details. 

we can rarely heard others called Eliza Doolittle's name, or any title before her name, but we heard lots of somebody called for a professor Higgins or Colonel Pickering. It is obviously that these two gentelmen owned the higher social status, but more important for us to concentrate is : when they called a man, it is always adding a title before, like professor, colonel, showing what is he contributing in. When it is a woman, 'Lady' is the always only way to call.  

In the begining, there existed a big disctintion between professor Higgins and the *HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney"*Cockney* flower girl, one is rich, one is poor, one is learned, one is ignorant, it must  have a common ground for two to get love with each other. Firstly, Eliza is beautiful, it is a premise of the magic, secondly, Higgins is one who hating fetter by unnecessary and overelaborate formalities. Finally, they can complete each other. 

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Ida
 Although My Fair Lady is a three-hour long movie, I do not find it boring for the following reasons: First, the plot is outstanding. It is a rich and witty romantic comedy, I could hardly believe that a linguistic trainer will fall in love with his trainer in this way! Second, the music is great though it is a petty that Audrey Hepburn only sings one song in this film. Third, the editing and mise-en-scene are great, especially the horse race scene while all the people except the professor are dressed in white and black. By the way, the horse race scene is really funny as Eliza suddenly exposure her real personality and it shocks all the others. Fourth, Audrey Hepburn is extremely beautiful, her transformation between a cockney girl and a fair lady is admirable. It is really funny to see her practicing the same sentence 'the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain'. When I see her getting progress in pronouncing this sentence and sounds like a fair
 lady, I somehow feel a kind of satisfaction. Lastly, the editing is credited though it may be something that really hard to distinguish. (However, after reading the assigned pix, I learn that some editing can isolate or evoke the scene.) To sum up, My Fair Lady is so great that we do not want to leave the library and go to have the other class, it includes a lot of happy laughable moments, but at the same time it also includes many humanly touching moments.

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Holly

This movie is a musical. I enjoy the songs of the film when watching it. The fair lady, Eliza, is quite rude and discourteous. But then, the professor applies his specialty to turn Eliza into a well-bred lady. In the movie, Eliza wears the snow-white formal dress most of the time. In my viewpoint, the color white symbolizes purity, flawlessness and naturalness. The choice of Eliza's costumes reflects her pure mind and unadulterated character. What's more, the white is the symbol of women's strength and inner power. Eliza dressed in white usually stands out, not only showing her inside beauty and intelligence, but also reflecting her role as the pioneer in patriarchy. Although Eliza choose to go back the professor's house in the end, the rising of feminism does appear in this movie. As the professors entering his mother's house, he is totally restricted, behaving like a teenager instead of a mature and professional education or phonetician.

    Eliza's words in certain scenes impress me. She says since she becomes a lady, she cannot lead a life as she did before. It's interesting that men in the movie change the girl completely. But in the end, the girl is unsatisfied for behaving like a lady is not her original style of living. And we can see that parts of Eliza struggle with the new values given by the men. Even the social status is another issue in the film. The poor is connected with the incorrect pronunciation or strange accent, which leads to poverty according to the professor. Eliza's dad is an example of altering his social status. However, he falls into the dilemma of being nobody or somebody.

    The horse racing shot is impressive. The contrast between black and white adds color to the scene. Also, the racing game shows the emotional suppression in the upper class. Even in the exciting game, everyone still remain calm deliberately. The only one making noise is Eliza, forgetting about those matters and truly following her will, showing the vigor and energy in the silent moment. I really love the arrangement of this sequence. The colors and costume are well organized. And the actors' body movements make the sequence presented vividly.

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Anne
This movie is so much easy and relax to watch , after seeing many Bergman's movie. This movie talked about a woman who pronounced English, her mother tongue language, very bad. Then a man claimed that he can bring the woman to high-class society ,as long as she can afforded the teaching fee and living in his house. After seeing this movie, I got a strong feeling about the unfair of woman . Especially , the scene, when people waving for the taxi and also the place where the guy and the woman met at first time , the different way between two man to treat the woman .One is kind and tender , but the other is a bit rude and aggressive. Why woman at that time always being treated depend on the mood of men .Besides , I loved the soundtrack and the clothing, both of them are delicate and luxury. On the other hand , the director added lots of musical which made the movie much more happy not instead of serious. I think this movie is interesting , though the director didn't using any experiment shot ,the topic and the way the interpreat attract me very much .  

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Vincent

My Fair Lady is a famous film, and I've heard of it many times before.  And Until this class, I finally get the chance to enjoy this movie.  Even though that the film is too long (last over 3 hours), I can't watch it until the end, the music and dancing within it and the beauty of Audrey Hepburn still fascinate me!    

    After the studies and research about the film, I found that the story was from the irish musical drama.  I think that's why My Fair Lady is full of songs! What's more? I think all these songs and rhythms has great benefit to English learning.  Children, or even adults those who are not good at English can repeat the lyrics and the lines again and again, because the music is the best way of language learning, and the barrier between two cultures can't stop the audience from enjoying the beautiful songs. And I have to say, All these song need a perfect singer. Audrey Hepburn is just the one to make all the melodies become soulful!

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Vivian Lin
   The film is impressive and lovely. Especially, it seems that its original musical has a big influence on the film. Although, it is a encouraging story that mention about how a lower class become an lady who seem like a princess, the film reflects a conflict between women and men in that generation. The song is song by Audrey Hepbum at the beginning called " Wouldn't it be lovely?" is really lovely. I like the film's music which make the film full of happiness and joy.  
 

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John

  The story of this film is really like the current film "The Princess Diaries". Both of them talk about an ordinary woman set foot in the high society. But the different way is that My Fair Lady talk extra about the feminism. I really like the characters of Eliza. She is very independent and has lots of self thinking. She will express what she thinks in direct way not hide in mind. And I think that is the main reason touch Higgins's mind. 

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THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) student comments

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: Scheduled Home Viewing: THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc)
To: rdca25@gmail.com

2010/6/8

Sophia, Eileen, Mamie, Candy Jiang, Abby, Vivian Lin, Christine, Alice Wang, Charlene, Juliet, Joseph, Katherine, David, Tiffany, Karen, Max, Hazel, Holly, Tina, Violet, Chin, Vivian Yang, Ivana, Alice Huang, Hansel, Finna, Hilary, Christopher, Emily, Ida, Jeanette, 

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Sophia

The Passion of Joan of Arc is impressive in focuses on faces, especially on Joan's face. This film is about historical religion event. Apparently, Carl Theodor Dreyer made it as a silent film so that there won't be too much argument about religious issue. The camera focuses mainly on Joan's face from low angle. Low angles shots show how strong Joan's belief is and her respect and appreciation of God. Also, it could be interpreted as the horror Joan had towards those clergies. When she was questioned, her eyes looked helpless and innocent. It seemed her eyes can talk or even tell story. In particular, when her tears came out from her eyes, Maria Falconetti expressed her emotion so naturally. She acted perfect because her subtle changes of facial expression can be seen obviously. As for the close-ups, viewers can easily see Joan's eyes, eyebrows and even wrinkles on her forehead. This was how close-ups were used effectively. 

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Eileen

This is the silent film. When seeing this film, it seems I were the deaf that can't heard anything about their conversation but still can see their mouse movement. If you only listen to the film it just like listen to the classical music. It's very enjoyable though the music is a little sorrow. The story is about a girl Joan and a group of the judgments. Most of shots in this film use the close-ups. That I can see clearly about their facial expression. Through their facial expression I can know how their feel. In the film I am a little curious that when the judgment ask Joan some questions, sometimes she looks at a man seems like to ask the answer. It seems like the man is on her side but in the end Joan's death is inevitable. It's a sad story but Joan's soul will live forever.

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Mamie

This film is a religious film, focusing on the female character Joan. The director uses an angle of elevation to show Joan's faithfulness. When she is interrogated, her eyes are firm; she never blinks before the clergies. The character puts much emphasis on Joan's emotion. She doesn't change her attitude just like the director doesn't change his camera shot toward Joan. Compared to Joan, the director uses several shots to describe the corrupted clergies. For example, he uses high angle shot to show clergies 'strong power. It creates a strong contrast between Joan and clergies. There is a flock of bird flies before Joan's martyrdom. The bird motif symbolizes freedom which means Joan's soul will follow the birds to the sky. Although this is a silent movie, with the hymns' accompany, I can feel the sorrow and agony that Joan has suffered.  

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Candy Jiang

Carl Th. Dreyer made this film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, a silent movie so that we audience can focus more on the actors' and actresses' facial expressions. Together with the use of close-ups, our reactions toward actors and actresses are stronger. The director used a lot of pan shots to pan through every face of those judges, sometimes with sudden close-ups to their lips. This technique strengthens the feeling of judges' overbearing attitude. Moreover, every take to judges' faces are either eye-level or low angle shots, which showed that they are powerful, even arrogant, aggressive and oppressive. Compared with those powerful judges, most shots of Joan are either eye-level or high angle shots since she was the victim whom committed no crime but was punished to death as the opening intertitles expressed. However, there are some low-angle shots to Joan. The first time of the use of low-angle shot is when Joan was in the torture chamber. In the chamber, although frightened, Joan did not give in but stick firmly to her faith. Here the low-angle shot made her powerful in her faith although she seemed to be the weak one. The other use of low-angle shot to Joan is when she was burned alive to death. The low-angle shot made her a saint instead of a person sent by Satan as the church accused.

        Some lines contradict to the images. For example, after a man said to Joan that the church always welcome the misguided lambs, Joan reached out her hand to touch that of the man's; however, that man refused, which means that he can just say beautiful words. Or, the church, which that man represents, can just say beautiful words. The other example is the line, "Joan, we have great sympathy for you." This sequence was shot with low-angle shot, which make these words not sympathetic at all.

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Abby

The movie begins with a pan shot. Compared to the movies nowadays, the setting seems so unreal and fake. And in silent movies, when there are the scenes of people talking, they are usually in the fast motion. There are two opposite parties in the film, the judges and Joan of Arc. As for the judges, they sneer at Joan of Arc and since there is the slightly low-angle shot. As for Joan of Arc, she seems to be the victim and on the weak side, so there is the high-angle shot. There are a lot of switches between the scenes and the subtitle. Although I think it is pretty annoying, but it is necessary in this film because there is the scene of the sentence, the dialogue is the must-know message for the audiences. And Joan of Arc's wide-open eye appears a lot during the sentence and becomes a motif in the movie.

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Vivian Lin

The director Carl Theodor Dreyer uses a lot of close-ups to make audience to feel the miseries from Joan of Arc. In the beginning of the film, the Fathers force her to repent that she is not the daughter of the God but of the devil. She insists that the God is always in her way. The montage is changed quickly between those Fathers and Joan of Arc. Those Fathers are the symbols of the Catholic church which corrupt severely at the time. It is an ironical comparison between the sufferings and torture face of Joan of Arc and the clerg with evil smiles. When she stands on the stake and forced to sign her name on the paper, the high-angle shots and low-angle shots highlight the different position of Father and Joan of Arc. I notice in the film, the director use high-angle shots to describe that Joan of Arc always believes the God and looks at him. People's rebellion to the church with the passion of Joan of Arc make the whole film fall into the sufferings. 

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Christine

The director of The Passion of Joan of Arc intened to use a black and white film stock to built up a realistic scene the time when Joan was questioned at a trial, meanwhile the masking framing created a view of a camera also enhanced reality. And as a silent movie, it concentrated more on the facial expression and body gestures rather than sound to emphasized the emotoin of characters. Take Joan for example, the close up shots consistently focused on her face and others while seldom long shots were taken. To say editing, the cross editing is used frequently to move from Joan to the priests. The shocked and glommy face of Joan is contrasted to the clown-like faces of the quedtioners. The lighting , on the other hand, high-key lighting and white mise en scene clearly expose the evil behavior of the Church. Harsh light curved on the tired face of Joan.

    The film showed the discrimanation of women at the time. The Church viewed Joan as Satan's creature only because she wore man's clothes and that she wouldn't attended the Church but actually was sincerely believed in God and claimed herself as daughter of god. She was treated like a prison and claimed to be a witch or psychic as other women regardless of the fact that she was the hero of France.

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Alice Wang

The Passion of Joan of Arc is one of the few movies that describe the well-known story of the great Joan of Arc. It is a French silent movie directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The main plot of the movie is about what happened to Joan of Arc when she was accidentally captured by the English enemies to England. The film depicts the detail of the process of the trail, the torture and even the execution of Joan of Arc. One of the most special features of the movie is that throughout the movie most scenes are composed of nothing but close-ups of the characters. The expressions of the actors are so emotional and convincing that even though there are only plain close-ups during most of the movie, in the end it still becomes a rather strong and impressive piece. Also, through the movie we can observe some of the characteristics of Joan of Arc, especially how wise and brave a woman she was. The way she wisely responded to judges truly shows her wisdom and her firm faith in God. Undoubtedly, the film truly does a good job in showing the world how great and exceptional a person Joan of Arc was.

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Charlene

The passion of Joan of arc is another silent black and white movie which I think there are much to compliment on. Being a film made approximately eighty two years ago, it still not fails to have its careful compositions. I think the movie is a work in simplicity. There are many close-ups on Jeanne d'Arc and also other judges, presenting a lot of subtle and facial emotions. A tilt of her head or just single glance can impress me a lot. I can see her anguish with her eyes always open widely. And that is a most process because that agony is the thing that those saint must have to endure. Silent movies force us to read the languages between the body and the face. With the company of music, the space of the silent movie is filled and the vision seems to be enhanced at the same time. 

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Juliet

I like the oratorio named "Voices of Light" in this film. For me, this song is awesome, presenting a feeling of solemnity and torture. I think that it successfully enhances the grave and sorrowful atmosphere in The Passion of Joan of Arc. Moreover, I praise Maria Falconetti's acting as Jeanne d'Arc. Due to the fact that this is a silent film, characters' expressions and acting must play an important role in expressing characters' state of mind and even the main ideas of the film. In my opinion, Falconetti indeed acts well as a lonely and helpless nineteen-year-old girl who is judged by clerics. Also, I praise those actors' acting as clerics. In fact, I can strongly feel those clerics' distain and mockery towards Jeanne d'Arc from their facial expressions. Take one scene which clerics question Jeanne d'Arc's belief for example. While one cleric doubts Jeanne d'Arc about her claim that she is sent by God, we can see the cleric's scornful attitude toward her clearly. Also, we can see Jeanne d'Arc's helpless but firm facial expression. In fact, because of these actors' superb acting, I can easily involve in the atmosphere. Based on this film, I really feel sorrow for Jeanne d'Arc, and hate those clerics' attitude. To sum up, I like this film, and commend their acting because I am really touched and impressed. 

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Joseph

To begin with, the director makes good use of close-ups in this silent film. It is clear that the aim is to show the facial expression of a character, and to make audience involve with the plot. Besides the close-ups on face, some detailed parts are emphasis through the use of close-ups as well. For example, in one scene, there are close-ups on the mouth of the judge, in order to focus on the harsh scolding on Joan. In addition to the use of close-ups, another technique being often taken is subtle adoption of high- and low-angle. Confronted with the judgment, Joan is shot by high-angle shots. Yet the judges are shot by low-angle shots. But there still are some exceptions. For instance, during the judgment, Joan is shot by low-angle shots sometimes. In my opinion here, I think the director wants to take another way to show her fear, weakness, and anger, which are the emotions different from her subjection to others. Also, the director likes to use pan shots in this film to include the judges into a scene, and sometimes also to include those crowds.

    The image of crucifix seems to appear everywhere during this film, especially as Joan decides to accept the stake, and it is always the power which can support Joan. One example lies in that when she stays in the prison, she sees the shade like a crucifix. After a kindhearted priest steps in, and his body is almost about to cover the shade, the shade disappears. Following is the line spoken by the priest, "I have great sympathy for you!" I feel this scene is quite skillful. Another one is that when a man is going to sweep the "crown" away, Joan suddenly realizes that the process of signature is wrong. Then, she confesses that she was lying. Instead, she insists her way and claims that she is the child of Christ. In my point of view, these two examples are both the way that suggests the relationship between Joan and God. Because of God, whose image is constantly shown to remind Joan, Joan is not afraid the trial on earth and thus dare to resists the English judges.

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Katherine

In the beginning of the movie, there are many kinds of shots. First, there is a pan shot. And the boy's face seems very sentimental. As if he can see every thing through. In the film, it only shows their ignorance by asking some superficial questions such as "Is God a he or she?" or "How did St. Michael dress?" they are all very arrogant, so that they don't believe there is a woman who is closer to God. Even worse, they afraid that the girl may threaten their high positions. The background music is very sacred but solemn. With such a music, the movie become more powerful.

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David

The Passion of Joan of Arc is a typical film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. In order to introduce the scene, it starts with a pan shot, which gives audience a brief scan of the place. The facial performances, gestures, or actions of the actors make the scene look just like a classical painting. The process of judgment is shot by long shots, which gives audience a space so that they would not feel that they are oppressed by the serious air of court. The blockhouse is colored with white. It can help put emphasis on the existence of actors.

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Tiffany

Whole film focus on characters' facial expression so that plenty of close up are used, especially on Joan. People can easily follow how Joan feels with close up shots, such as horror, sadness, or gladness. I also note that eye movement among most characters is significance in this film because viewers can read the inner though and feeling of actors by watching their eyes and I think their performance on eyes' movement is most attractive and interesting part of this movie. Furthermore, usage of intercutting between Joan and other actors shows clear contrast of sincere and dishonest Christians. And I personally believe that the low-angle shots on Joan presents her honest faith in Jesus as well as a satire on the other false faith which is greedy and prideful.    

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Karen

In The Passion of Joan of Arc, the director mainly uses close-ups to capture the facial expressions of Joan of Arc, the judges, and the theologians, especially during the trial of Joan. On the trial in the beginning, Joan of Arc is mostly shot by low angle shots, which maybe symbolize the firm belief that she is sent by God to save France. On the contrary, the judges and priests are shot by pan shots, showing them whispering to each other, and reveals their distain, anger, or suspicion toward Joan of Arc. In another scene when Joan of Arc is crying and sees the projected shadow of a crisscross that is formed by the window of the prison, she smiles soothingly. An imprisoned mark converts into the console of her faith, also displays the holiness and pureness of her belief. Furthermore, Joan of Arc's innocent and unswerving conviction is strongly contrasted by the hypocrisy and corruption of the Church and authority. Lastly, while Joan of Arc sacrifices and is burnt to death, the flying birds in the sky may indicate that her soul is finally freed to heaven, flying toward the sky.

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Max

This film is very special because the plots are connected through cuts of people's expressions, music and some lines between cuts. Most of the cuts are close-ups and medium close-ups that clearly shows characters' expressions from one to the other. Although throughout the movie we do not hear the characters speaking, their expressions and non-verbal communication excellently express their words, and the musics well explain their emotions. In addition, with the help of the interlines, views are able to catch the ideas even though not every single sentence is shown.

    The angles are greatly used in this work, especially the use of high angle and low angle shots. When a person in a higher position talks to one in a lower status, the scence is shot from a low angle shot to indicate the power of the former to a high angle shot to imply the inferiority of the latter. Another good example is one man's spitting out spittle on Joan's face. We can see the violence of the man through a low angle shot, and then the next scene shows the close-ups of the man's lips foreshadowing his following action. Finally, a high angle shot shows the poor situation of Joan.

    Because we see this film whose screen is not full, it seems like we viewers are peeking at the past of the characters. Also, the cuts from one to another as well as the black and whitle color actually reinforce this feeling. In the meanwhile the two elements underscore the pain of Joan 

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Hazel

In the first beginning, the movie is presented by the pan shot, which makes the frames like a scroll.
Of all the facial expressions, postions, body movements of the characters, they all appear to be part of  an ancient painting scoll.
The audiences open the scroll to know what's the movie and the story shows.
Later, the frame is shot in long take during the trial, so that the audiences can observe the figures' exprssions and interactions.
What's more, the movie uses lots of close-up to capture the screens and countenances, especially while Joan of Arc is be interrogated by those so-called orthodox theologians. The interactive use of close-up and frame, and through the montage cut, those make the audiences go deeper into the character's inner world. However, it's interesting that while it take to Joan of Arc, the frame is almost composed by low angle shot, which may indicate her firm faith. 

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Holly

In the beginning of the film, a piece of Catholic chain song gives sense of solemnity and serenity. Then the polyphony turns to be polyphony, adding variety to the music. The pitch rises with multiple sounds, increasing the emotion of anger, sorrow and indignity. The opening music paragraph simply brings out the topic—personal belief, religious conflict, war cruelty, and short history background as the brief introduction. From the judge scene, the height of angles and the change of lighting have different interpretations. Low angle shots with low key lighting make the clergymen looks evil and scheming; the same angle with the high key lighting offers Joan of Arc the character of honesty, dignity and purity. While being judged and questioned, the close-up exaggerates Joan of Arc's facial expression but also her sincerity especially when she counts her age by twisting fingers. Compared with close-ups, the medium shot for the minster ironically emphasizes the fraudulency and cunning, disbelief in, or joking Joan's statement. Contrasting the pastor's smile and Joan's eyes, we may explain the pastor' attitude toward this judge court differs from that of Joan. Joan is serious, intending to make herself clear in response. She pretends to be calm and rational; however, her eyes leak out affective aspect in her mind, the enormous pain and endless judge torturing her, tearing her apart. With eyes widely opened, Joan of Arc reveals her anxiety and worries, as the normal performance on a nineteen-year-old girl faced with a judge. The minster's broad grin, on the other hand, shows adult plots and slyness. The pastor, whose disdainful position upon the case discloses the injustice and the coming tragedy.

    Taken with the high angle shot, Joan of the Arc slightly lifts her head, looking at the sky as if God is right up there, transmitting orders. It's a beautiful scene representing Joan's holy and pure. Then she turns his head back, facing those judgers, looking forward directly, bravely, without hesitation. She is encouraged with gallantry. The sound breaks in certain parts are intelligent and impressive. In silent movies, correct application of musical pieces varies the arrangements of ideas in scenes or shots. The gradation of music also matures the development of story plots. Unlike those pastors, continuing to whisper each other, Joan of Arc is lonely and solitude, which serves as a symbol of belief with loneliness. Joan's body is sturdy, presenting her remarkably hardy character; but her face is a display of her feelings. Therefore, in the movie, the director uses lots of close-up putting the emphasis on Joan's delicate countenance. It's bright for this film is black and white. Colorizing a movie sometimes misleads the essence of one story. The plain background setting further accentuates on the main character, Joan of Arc, the key-point figure and the spiritual leader in this film.

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Tina

 It is very unusual that most of the scenes of this film are close-ups, since most directors mix different kinds of shots to feature their movies. Maybe the reason why there are mostly close-ups is its date or its goal to present Joan of Arc's passion/ emotion. It is not easy for actors to perform in this film, because the close-ups catch every detail of their facial expressions. The actress casting Joan of Arc had large eyes and subtle, various changes in her facial expressions. Most shots of Joan of Arc are shot in low-angle. This is special because usually the weak character, which in this film should be Joan, comparing with the judges, is presented through high-angle shots. But here the director uses low-angles to shoot Joan of Arc, with her head slightly lifted, to indicate that she is looking to God and with her faith she is in fact the strong one.

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Violet

This movie represents Joan's pain and tragedy. Joan's life looks like legend but historical real and it have hidden truth. History records let know her trial was organized conspiracy by judges. This movie's writer: Dreyer want to find true also. He exposes cynicism through close up judge's conspiracy. By contrast, judges, Joan's behavior looking for faith in god was spotlight.

 The scene driving to the witch was separated 2part, trial and fire punishment. People (bishop, British, judges and the crowd) plunge into the judge having each religious ideology and anger. She against their hypocrisy as firm religious beliefs and affluent knowledge but she have punishment as theirs intend.

 Hollow room behind Joan of Arc's painful face represents white image. It is express unvarnished beauty and spatial depth's absence. Plus Joan's closed up face show medieval religious spirit. Tears flowing over the face was magnify thousands time. It looks like huge flood sweeping after silence and emptiness. It is more strong effect than troop's conflict in War movies.

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Chin

This is another silent film. I like the way the film begins, and also the music. It shows something related to the religion and it seems like something big and serious going on. It is a high-angle shot when Joan first appears on the screen but later when she is questioned by those juries, it is a low angle shot. The changed of the shot seems like Joan is guilty. Pan shot is use to show the crowds and the juries. Close up is used for each actor when they speak. There is also some extreme close up to the mouth when the juries keep talking maybe to show emphasis. I think of Michelangelo's painting—The Creation of Adam, when the priest gives the ring back to Joan that is taken away by the guard. I think this scene shows that the priest is the one who is going to save Joan. Almost in the end of the film, Joan is burned alive. Here is cut between Joan and the Cross with Jesus on it, which I think it is the emphasize that Joan is guilty, too. Pan shot is used once again to show the folk acrobatics. This kind of comedy is contrast with the situation that Joan is facing. I think this is a nice black-and-white movie.

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Vivian Yang

Passion of Joan of Arc is probably the most powerful silent movie I have never seen. I think the main reason is that the director successfully utilizes close-ups to strenthen Joan's emotion. Joan's face occupies most of the scenes, which makes the audience fully concentrate on every detail expression. Apart from close-ups, intercutting cuts are wildly applied to conversations between Joan and the judges. It is interesting that we seldom see two people having real dialogue in the same shot; instead, we can only imagine the back-and-forth communication through their visual direction.
  By the end of the cinema, whether Joan is saint or devil is still controversial. Yet the actress' vivid acting leads the audiences into the deeper side of the plot; i.e., the spiritual satisfaction of human beings.

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Ivana

Personally, I like the film. Watching the movie, I must read the action of the actors first, and then the lines which explain the previous action and expressions. As a silent film, it is quite attractive, for the expressions are delicate and well-done. The film starts with an introduction, leading the audience to "witness" the whole judgment. To indicate the word "witness," the director use iris shots throughout the film. The low angle shots and the POV shots on the judges creates a sense of oppressing, while the high angle shots on Joan represents her weakness. As an audience, I think the cinematography is well arranged.

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Alice Huang

 I think most people will notice that this silent film is featured with those shots on people's facial expressions, especially the female protagonist, Joan. In most of the scenes, she is usually shot with a close-up or extremely close-up to convey the changes of here state of mind. One of the most successful functions made by this technique is the frightened face in the beginning of the film and the determined facial expression at the end. Other facial expressions are completed by the group of judges and priest. The sequence shots in which the judges show their indifferent attitude and their insult on her also emphasize the emotion that this film wants to convey.

    The director makes use of some symbolic shots as well—especially symbols of the Christian culture. For example, the first one occurs at the scene in which the cross formed by the shadow of the window is stepped over by the dominant priest. This part shows that the truth Joan holds is deserted and dishonored by those judges. The same idea is shown in the scene in which the crown is thrown on the ground by those stupid soldiers (or police).

Another ironic scene implying the lost of truth takes place when Joan is terribly sick, waiting for the blessing of the priest. In the beginning, the priest tells her, "the Church is merciful;" however, at the next moment he retracts his hand from which Joan hopes to find comfort. This plot runs well and is very powerful.

    Though this film is a silent movie, it really conveys Joan's insistence on her own belief. The power of emotions is well acted with the delicate facial expressions by those characters.

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Hansel

Face is the most intriguing element in cinema. In this film, the characters' facial expressions play the most crucial role, especially that of Joan. Her face contrasts with those of other people. Her face conveys a kind of innocence while others' are sophisticated and sarcastic. Her eyes disclose her fear and disappointment. She could not understand what is wrong with following her faith. She does not blame anyone but just takes on the consequences. The film focuses on Joan's inner struggle and emotions, and the hypocrisy of those who claim to be just and tolerant. The film tells us to stick to our belief while reminding us what the cost might be.

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Finna

It is not an easy movie to view, especially for those who are not interested in cinematography. I saw it many times, since all I saw are faces and then I would lose my patience. But the direction and photography are really incredible and this film was made about eighty years ago. The camera showed the faces with a clear picture and amazing detail, we can even see the facial lines of Joan. Through the characters' facial expressions, we can see their inner thoughts. While using high angle shots, the accusers are in superiority position and Joan is being judged and criticized. While using low angle shot, we seem to see a great and tragic soul, Joan, suffering. Despite cinematography, Maria Falconetti who played Joan, is a amazing actress. Her faces are memorable and her eyes are most stunning and amazing. Every deliberate move of her eyes conveys the strongest emotion. I think the birds in the end might represent the freedom of Joan's tortured soul.

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Hilary

I have to say that during this semester I see lots of different kinds of movie. There is no sound of conversation. There is only underscore in the film just like the men with a movie camera. Differently it use black background and white subtitles to emphasize what they said. The director use subtitles and clips to connect the whole movie. It is in a quite proper tempo.

During the whole film, the actress used plenty of facial expression to express her inner feeling, especially the variation of eye look. She did a great job at play the role of Joan. Her performance shows her lonely and helpless. To play this role is a tough work, because of that you have to change your facial expression quickly or to cry on the spot.

I don't know lots of the background of this story. it seems that there was a tough time during revolution time in every country. I have to appreciate that I was born in this generation.

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Christopher

From wiki I know that <the passion of Joan of Arc> is directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and based on the trial records of Joan of Arc. The movie is outstanding by the direction and Renée Jeanne Falconetti's performance. Dreyer use the close-up to catch the facial features, which reminds me a great impression.

Renée Jeanne Falconetti has a very beautiful face structure, audience will be strongly attracted by her every emotional expression, and it happened to me that I feeling warm and cozy through her performance.

I believe that there are different level of expression, some are superficial, some are interior, Falconetti regards to the later one, it has so much meanings within her one-second facial feature, we may call it "holy". 

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Emily

This film is a silent film. This film mainly focuses on the time after Joan of Arc was captured. This film expresses the imprisonment, torture and execution about her. The director uses many close-up shots of the expression of the character. Besides, we can notice that many scenes in this film are like the story of Jesus in Bible. The way the judge judges her and someone gives the water to Joan of Arc when she is under the cross. Through this film, we can know the attitude that the director has toward Joan of Arc- divinity. 

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Ida

Classified as a silent epic, The Passion of Joan of Arc compresses the whole process of the courageous and loyal Christian Joan's interrogation and execution. In order to strengthen its feelings, especially some inner spiritual feelings, the director uses close-up shots very frequently, also the actors do not wear make-up. Thus, we can easily get the idea from their facial expressions. One scene I remember the most is the soldiers cutting Joan's hair, the bursting tears are powerful. Also, when she is being tormented, mostly they are shot from low angles, it makes me think that the danger is coming nearer and nearer to me. Lastly, one thing ironic is that although close-up shots are used very frequently, I do think that this movie give us a feeling of isolation, it is because the actors looks a little bit boring, they seem to be blocked in the camera, they do not look lively and give us a sense of distance.

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Jeanette

I like the underscore very much. Since it is a silent movie, it will be great if the underscore match to the theme of the movie. The underscore help a lot in creating religious atmosphere and a sense of sacredness. In The Passion of Joan of Arc, close-ups are used throughout the film. And with a bit of low angle-shot sometimes (not sure if they are low-angle shots or not, all I notice is that the characters always look up a little in close-ups). But, instead of showing power (traditional low-angle effect) on the protagonist's face, I think I saw more vulnerable feelings. Also, due to the fact that there are always circle black showdown on the screen, I think the director want to show the film in someone's point of view (maybe the God).