week 3 response

I Am Curios (Yellow)

The scene change from a series of interviews regarding the class system in Sweden to another interview on the same topic starts to unravel the reflective qualities of the film inside of the film-taking place. In this scene the director is doing the interviewing and there are shots of Lena relaxing with another member of the film crew, cameramen taking photographs, the interviewees wifes quietly interjecting, and also of the camera that is filming the interview. The sequence of variety of shots covering the one scene seems to be a strategy employed by the director to further the audiences understanding of the complexity of the film being created in the film. A jolting sound breaks up the scene and we see the director editing what the audience is viewing; he pauses and the tension in his face and body explores that possibly the shot of Lena and the gentleman weren’t part of the film he was editing but perhaps a memory he is recalling while the interview was being shot. He continues the editing process and Lena interrupts him and they begin to bicker about their relationship, what is useful out of this scene is that Lena explains she doesn’t understand the whole topic of a class system. This is helpful to construct moments of “real” Lena and “acting” Lena, even though “real” Lena is still a fictional character. I find this conclusion not very fitting because so much of the film is Lena as a strong social activist, maybe this was the filmmaker’s intention to have a character with such strong ideologies to coerce others to be more socially attuned and liberal like Lena. After all Lena Nyman is played by Lena Nyman the choice made by the director to keep her same name promotes trust in the validity of the character of Lena and the film as a whole. 

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm:

Interconnectedness is explored by Graves in this film by using footage of the cast and crew contemplating the film consciously and also subconsciously. Everyone who participated in the creation of the film is connected to it, for example if someone is filming the angle and close ups of shots was a conscious choice by the person filming. In a scene where Graves is directing the two actors the cameraman chooses to zoom in on Graves hand motions, by making this choice Graves hand becomes a bit of a character. Even though Graves is the director he relies on everyone involved to create dynamic interchange. There are scenes where members of the cast and crew are being filmed out of scene, such as the male actor calling a crew member a “dirty rat” for recording him talking not so brightly about the female actress brings forth this actors true personality and also those of the crew as the laugh a little to themselves; all of this interplay creates symbiotaxiplasm.  The harsh dialogue between the actors is the only seemingly scripted aspect of this film, and Graves decision to include such dialogue pushes everyone, even the audience, out of their comfort zone but while all of this is taking place Graves grazes through the film cool as a cucumber. Is he preforming as a director or is he actually a director? He is the director of this film and I think it was highly intentional that he crafted this persona to both aggravate and smooth the filming process to reflect on how interconnectedness is part of every moment whether we realize it or not.