Week 3 Response - CS

Symbiopsycotaxiplasm: Take One

This film, dir. by William ‘Bill’ Greaves, is about the control the filmmaker has on his film. Throughout the film we see the workings of a low-budget film shoot in a New York park. It is apparent from the beginning that this shoot is mismanaged. The actors seem lost on their direction as well as the crew. For example: there is a sequence where we can see the footage from all three cameras simultaneously and the crew is attempting to follow both actors as the woman attempts to flee from the man. At many points in this sequence we can see the crew in all three shots rendering them unusable for a conventional film. The crew later meets and records a ‘private’ discussion on how the film is progressing. They complain about the director’s mismanagement and the poor script. However others allude to the poor management as a choice by Greaves to yield the film he wants. In their final meeting shown, the man with the moustache says that their ‘secret’ meeting could all be a rouse to trick the audience. The director could be standing just outside the room giving directions and leading their conversation. This kind of unseen control is very similar to how the filmmaker controls the film in post production.  The choice of what to include, exclude, the duration, and shot sequence all effect how the film is perceived. Even when it appeared that Greaves did not have control over production, he, in fact, has the final say over the entire film.
It is also of note that the concept of the film in the film, although not explicitly stated, changed. It began as having a working title, “Over the Cliff”, to just being a screen test for the actors. Then the actors were replaced. However, these sequences may be chronologically out of order, further elaborating on the control the filmmaker has over the project.

I Am Curious- Yellow

In this film Vilgot Sjöman (the director) also plays himself as the director, but here he seems to have more control over the production and a similar control in post. The film begins with Sjöman and Lena having a love affair and they discuss making a film starring her. After that, Lena begins asking people on the street politically charged questions about the current state of Sweden and the world. This leads into the drama of Lena’s home life and her love story with Börje. The movie continues on this track for a while, without mention of Sjöman or his movie. But once it seems like the film is going to be just about Lena’s drama, the crew and director is shown calling the shots, reminding us that what seems like the movie, is only the movie in the movie. In a later scene in the country house, Lena and Börje get into a huge fight. It is, at first, assumed that this is just further drama of the film in the film, but the camera cuts outside to show the director and crew bewildered at the fighting. One of the crew members closes the door which symbolizes the filmmaker’s loss of control of the characters (actors) at that moment. An action like this makes the fight seem closer to “reality” because it is only one filmic level away from our “reality” rather than two levels away for the film in the film.
This film straddles the line of not knowing which events are happening in the film and which are happening in the film in the film. It is confusing to differentiate which level the film is currently on and how deeply metacinematic the film becomes.