In A Bubble by Jane Maberry




    
    One of the things that most intrigues me about this movie is the setting. While we get a mixture of both focused shots that have the characters fill up the whole screen, and others that let us get more of the background, I feel like we never get a true sense of how these characters are oriented within their town. We see the individual parts of the town, but we never get to look down any roads besides the main one. Most backgrounds have trees, a train, or buildings that limit the viewers line of sight. The vanishing point is always off the the left or right of the frame, which helps it feel more compressed. You can tell that they live in a very wide open space, as they are supposed to be in the suburbs, but when the characters are always walking across the screen and rarely directly towards or away from the camera (during shot when they're walking down the street) it makes the space seem smaller. With the prevalence of the moving train, which shows up in almost every scene the characters are outside, it's almost as if every outdoor scene is taking place along the same road, at different locations along it. Whenever you see the train in the background, it's impossible to tell. 
    
    What I also find unique about the set is that while it feels so isolated, you can't help but notice just how many outside influences are present in their machines and architecture. Many of the buildings are in a western style, and the white picket fence and doghouse of the boys' yard could have come from Anywhere, America. The trains themselves are trolleys and steam engines imported from Britain. If this story took place in America, it would have felt the most isolated because we wouldn't have stopped to question how western influenced the town looks. So the feeling is isolation is tarnished somewhat because of the constant reminders of an outside world. 

    So I suppose I've backed myself into a kind of contradiction, where I can't decide just how or where to place this community. It feels so isolated, but in the way a town with nothing around it for miles feels. And yet there's so much going on within it set-wise that fills it up and makes the area seem so much larger and populated. They have their own isolated existence out in the suburbs, but you know that they have to remain connected to a larger world. 

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshNovember 26, 2021 at 8:57 PM

    This is really observant and perceptive. Do you think that it might be trying to render a child's experience of place/space? -- which is not as a map, as a topographically unified backdrop, but as a bunch of "spots," just as time is a bunch of events? I think back to he places of my childhood and how hard it is to locate anything; when I think I remember where things are, I consult Google Maps and discover that I'm wrong.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Noriko and Neglect by Sylas Davidson

Image
     Noriko is highlighted throughout the film and by its viewers for her kindness, her compassion.  She is the only person to take a genuine interest in Tomi and Shūkichi, seemingly outside  of obligation and without patronization.  However, she also seems to rely on tradition to guide her behaviour, taking guidelines as strict rules, to the point of possibly sacrificing her personal happiness. This is most obvious with her continued devotion to her husband, Shōji, and his photo. It’s a little hard to see, but Shōji’s photo appears to be on the top of a simple cabinet or wardrobe with a candle to one side. There doesn’t seem to be anything else, at least not anything easily identifiable, that would  make this a family altar. This appears to be a shrine to Shōji, instead of an altar for worship. Noriko  might not be particularly religious, but she still appears to havecreated an altar, and instead of it being  a place for ...
Read more

The editing skills in Chungking Express

 Editing Tempo: The editing of the film is strange. Wang’s camera looks like time-lapse photography, which creates a weird tempo of the film. The camera moves really fast when the blonde woman and the first cop are running. The fast running, neon light, and time-lapse effect create a dizzy feeling. The opening shot closely follows the blonde woman. After the fast shot, it is a still shot of some chimneys. Only clouds are moving. Then, we have a fast shot of the first cop, 233 runs. He bumped into a man that carries a fake blonde woman. 233 starts to pay attention to the blond fake man. Suddenly, he starts to chase a man whose head is covered by a paper bag. The camera moves to the opposite street and the audience can only see 233 running but the side walkers are all blended into a time-lapsed blurry background. When the camera follows the running 233, it moves very quickly; when the shot is taken across the street, it moves very slowly. These two points of view are alternating...
Read more

Why Watch Movies Anyway? An illustrated double feature. Lozuaway McComsey

Image
Why do we even watch movies? Shouldn’t we be reading, or making something, making love, eating or, best of all, sleeping? What is it about movies that keeps me awake? Literally, why do I lose sleep to watch them (and also, to be fair, the occasional novel)? There is something magical, and more encompassing, than say, looking at a painting or photograph or, yes, reading. And which is the nearest thing to a movie? Pictures, paintings or photos, as a movie is made of a bunch of them (and yes, there is a movie that is entirely painted frames—it’s about van Gogh.) Or novels with their stories? Or is it a soundtrack?  Because the first thing is, movies have audio, which of course, music also has. But I’m not one for listening to music. It’s background noise. I'd rather nap or let my mind wander for 90 seconds before starting something. Ozu, generally, uses music like the 90s food pyramid said to use fats and sugar: sparingly. It’s awesome. Sometimes it adds to the...
Read more