BABEL : MOVIE CRITIQUE

Babel is a movie focusing on the lives of four different individuals from different places whose lives are actually connected.

The film was shot in different places such as Japan, Morocco, and Mexico and U.S.A.

At first, I did not really get the story because the stories are presented by random, or it was not continually showed. Its like I'm seeing the story of two children in Morocco then the story was cut and the story of this Japanese girl is played so it confused me.

But as the story goes, I am starting to see the beauty of how it was done. By cutting the scenes, it made me feel excited of  what would happen to that story then to the other stories which is why I was so hooked in watching it.

The twist is also amazing, how it was slowly revealed that the characters are actually connected with each other. The shots were done excellently, everything was perfect.

The Representation behind "Minsan lang sila bata"

 Minsan lang sila bata is a documentary by Ditsi Carolino on 1996.

The Documentary is a representation of how the children were use to gain money

or to help out with the finances of the family because of poverty. It

also shows how as young as they are, they are already into doing things

that are supposed to be done by adults most especially their parents, instead

of enjoying their childhood life and studying.

The documentary focuses on the children that works on a slaughter house, 

removing excess hair on pigs. With lives at risk because of the slippery floor due to the

blood of the slaughtered animals and the sharp knives that they use. They also work all night only to get 

paid with the fats on the pigs skin.

Some of the children that was on the documentary are "mga batang taga tabas ng damo

and taga pulot ng mga natabas na damo." While some are working

on a pier as "taga hakot ng simento" .

All the children that were featured does those things to help their parents, 

to have food on their tummy and for the hope of someday be able to go back to school.

These children, on their young age, are already thinking like adults.

Some of them are only dreaming of small jobs because 

of loosing the chance to go to school. 

But they are left with no choice because as it is clearly

represented on the documentary, these children are living

a very cruel life because of poverty.

Little Ms. Sunshine : the Plot

Little Ms. Sunshine is a story of a little girl named Olive hoover, played by Abigail Breslin, who wants to enter in a pageant called Little Ms. Sunshine and how his "far from normal" family accompanied her through the way to California, where the pageant was held.

Their journey started on an awkward family dinner where they received a call form olives aunt, that little olive is qualified to join Little Ms. Sunshine, after the winner of the previous pageant she joined in was disqualified. Then after some arguments, the family then decides to go on a roadtrip to California on their Volkswagen microbus.



Along the way, the family was able to know more of each other, just like how Edwin Hoover, played by Alan Arkin got kicked out of the  retirement home for selling and using heroin which he still enjoys.


 Aside from knowing each other deeply, the family also encountered a lot of obstacles, like when they decided to drop by  a rest stop, then the clutch on the micro bus breaks, forcing the family to push-start the bus whenever it is not parked on an incline road, and when , Richard (Olive's father played by Greg Kinnear) receives news that his book deal has fallen through and when  Frank (Olive's uncle played by Steve Carrel) is humiliated after running into his ex-lover in a convenience store.


So then the family went on their road trip with bad tempers, and later that they realize that they have to return to the gas station for Olive, who they have forgotten because of their bad moods.

 Then, the family rented rooms in a motel for the night only to wake up of the news that Olive's grandpa is dead due to an apparent heroin overdose. 

A heartwarming conversation of Olive and Grandpa Edwin before he died.

Because of the paperworks instructed to them at the hospital, which could ruin their chance to making it into the pageant, the family decides to sneak out Edwin's body into their van and went on to their way.

Then, the family encountered another obstacle. While Olive is giving Dwayne, Olive's brother played by  Paul Dano an eye test that she got from the hospital, his uncle realizes that Dwayne is colorblind and would no longer be able to fulfill his dream of  being a part of the Air Force because he is colorblind.

As Dwayne knew about it he hated everyone and started to speak again after 9 months of silence but only to express how furious he was, but he was calmed down because of his sister's hug and continued to their roadtrip.

Olive comforts Dwayne after an emotional breakdown

     

 Then the family made it to the sign up of Little Ms. Sunshine,thanks to the kind employees who helped them and then Richard finally bids farewell to his father Edwin while Frank and Dwayne went out and had some sincere talk.

At first, Richard was hesitant for Olive to join the pageant especially after seeing how the other contestants prepared for the event.But, Olive's mother stood her ground and so as Olive who is indeed very willing to join the pageant.

On the talent show, Olive did a strip-burlesque dance choreographed by his beloved grandpa. Everyone was against what Olive was doing and tried to stop her, but the Hoovers showed support to little Olive and joined her on stage. Though, Olive did not win, and they had to have a quick visit at the police station, the family still went home to Albuquerque happy.
 

The hilarious yet amazing dance participation of the Hoover's

 

Now, what is a plot?

• Plot is the "meat and bones of the story". It tells us how and what happened to the story, or the flow. Its difference when ask, "what is the story?" is that it merely tells us what is the theme of the story, like for the Little Ms. Sunshine, the story is about how the Hoovers went on a road trip to California and how they were renewed as family and as individuals along the way.

MIse-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a film production. It practically means "visual theme" or "telling a story" in both visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design and storytelling in poetically artful ways through direction. 

Now talking about the mise-en-scene, all of its aspects (that I will discuss later) should coincide with each other. Why? so the film would be consistent in terms of what era or time it is set.

Lets take for example the movie "Pride and Prejudice" a film adaptation from a novel written by Jane Austen. The movie is set during the 19th century of the British Regency. Now lets review the different aspects of Mise-en-scene and find out if the movie consistently did it...

First aspect is SET DESIGN : set design is everything we see in the movie, from the furnitures used to the place where it was shot.

Here are some of the set design of the movie  Pride and Prejudice:

The Bennet's house

Interior of the Burghley house, 
the house of Lady Catherine De Bourg, 
aunt of Mr. Darcy

The pictures are the different houses of two different families, the Bennet's who are not really rich, the interior of their house is a bit boring, dark brown furniture's and an elegant looking yet simple couch with a large mat which I think is a custom from the era that they are trying to set.

While for lady Catherine's house, it is so elegant, which is fitting because the family is rich and powerful. Both the houses represents the era very well.

Next aspect is the COSTUME, HAIR and MAKE UP:

The costumes of the characters most especially the ladies are characterize by long dresses with ribbons on their waste. No heavy make up and hair are tied into buns and decorated with ribbons or other hair accessories. As for the men, they wear long and dark colored clothes and black shoes.

Next aspect is the BLOCKING of the Characters: 

 

Mr. Darcy finally confesses his feelings to Lizzie.

in my opinion, among the other aspects, this was done excellently. Perfect casting, the characters gave justice to their roles that its as if they were not acting. The picture above shows the emotions that Mr. Darcy projected through his eyes,indeed it looks so real. The accent and the script was also good, though I was not able to understand half of what they are saying.  So bottom line is, it was really good. 

Now lets move on to LIGHTING: 

Their confessions of love made more romantic and dramatic with the sunrise.

aside from the lighting equipment used during the shoot, the very obvious source of light  is the chandeliers, the candles and natural light.

Diegesis

DIEGESIS is a technique use in films in which a part of the story is no longer showed or acted because it is already understood.

In the movie "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros: The blossoming of Maximo Oliveros"

some of its scenes were presented with the use of Diegesis. But before we jump off to the examples,  let's know first the story of the film.

So the story is about a boy named MAXIMO or " Maxie". He grew up on a family whose source of living is doing illegal things such as snatching, but despite of it, his father Paco, played by Soliman Cruz, and two elder brothers, Boy and Bogs Oliveros, accepted him as a homosexual.

Paco Oliveros: Maxie's father

Maxie is living a normal life until the "love of his life" came into the picture. While he is harrassed
by two of his neighboors, then a policeman by the name of Victor Perez played by JR Valentin saved him, and since then Maxie had a huge crush on him.

Then the conflicts came when Maxie's crush,  Victor, is investigating his family about their illegal activities and also about a murder case.

Now moving on to DIEGESIS technique.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, which I suggets that you should because the storyline is really interesting and the film itself is good, one very noticeable Diegesis is when Maxie's brother,  Boy, killed
someone.

It is not really shown in the movie how or who Bogs killed, what was shown is that Boy went home looking nervous with
blood stains on his shirt.

By that scene alone, the viewers would automatically understand that the character of Boy committed something bad or perhaps killed someone.

Scene from the movie when the whole Oliveros Family knew 

about the crime committed by Boy.

Moving on, another example is when Maxie got back to school, the scene was established when Maxie's kuya Bogs, helped him out in putting on his school uniform. It was not shown that Maxie was in school but it would already be understood that he did came back to school.

So that is what Diegesis is, now try to watch the movie and look for another examples of Diegesis.