Cinema Lessons - Recently Updated Pages

The day earth stood still - 9/11

joaoluis28 — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:50:48 CDT

Many people believed, when they were watching on the television the planes crashing on the World Trade Center, that they were in front of a tragical movie. They could not believe that all of that was truly happening; that the major and most powerful country in the world was being challenged by islamic terrorists; neither that comercial planes were to be used as missiles to destroy important symbols of the north american culture… I looked up on the dictionary for the meaning of the word "Tragedy". I have found explanations that certainly are apropriate to describe what happened on that September 2001. Even though, the meaning of the word was related to Ancient Greece's theather, it is still, a good way to refer to what happened in New York and Washington. Why? Because everything seemed huge, dramatic and sad on that day. It was just like a tragical scene, capable of causing terror and mercy, in which "anonimous" and famous people were acting in a heroic way to fight against "fatal happenings". "Misfortune" doesn't seem to me as the right word to talk about the collapse of the twin towers. The buildings don't represent the whole tragedy, just a part of it. The dramas lived by the families are the major loss, the deepest sorrow. The death in heroic conditions of more than three hundred firefighters is more meaningful than any material icon of a culture or a country. I was giving classes when the hijackings of the airplanes occurred. A little later, the attacks to the towers and to the Pentagon. In the break time, through their "walkmans", students heard the news from radio stations. In the teacher's room, the school principals told us that an "accident" or even an attempt had happened. What scared me the most was the attack to the Pentagon, basis of the military command of the United States. It was a daring action from my point of view. We couldn't even suspect that everything that was happening was a result of plans made by Ossama Bin Laden and realized by the Al Qaeda followers. After some time, there is still the suffering, the pain and the apprehension in the United States (and in his allies). The rule stablished by Hamurabi on his Code (made before the Christian period) was recovered to sustain the military actions of the Americans and English armies against Afeghanistan and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Other countries such as Libia and North Korea were distinguished as enemies of democracy and are a part of the "Evil Axis".

Where else can we get?

The Pianist - War x Art

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:13:33 CDT

Since 1933, when Hitler became the most powerful man in Germany (he was chosen to be prime-minister and president at the same time), the fate of the jews seemed to be defined. Their perspectives were the worst. Anyone that have read the book written by the german “fuhrer” (“Mein Kampf”) would foresee the persecutions and humiliations that would be applied to the jewish community, at least inside Germany. Aware that the nazi's objectives included territorial expansion and the quest for the “vital space” (ways of obtaining low cost labor, supplies such as minerals and food, new areas for investment and major consuming markets), actions that were being done since Germany invested against Austria and Tchecoslovakia, the situation of the jews that lived in the neighbour countries was also turning out to be delicate. A german anexation or invasion would represent, on a practical basis, the submission to violences and the worst living conditions. The invasion of Poland in September of 1939 confirmed the worst prognosis. The Polish and specially the Jews were locked in ghettos and later on transferred to concentration or extermination camps. On a practical basis it meant that these people lost their properties and their money; they were installed in places that had the worst conditions (no heating system, no current water, dirt all over…); Jews and other prisoners were used as slave labor; everyone separated from their families (most of them would never see their relatives again); and many violent acts were commited against all of them (from beating up a person for small mistakes to brutal murders in front of the other prisoners to establish fear among them). How can someone survive to these losses and agressions? In what way the prisoners could resist without the support of their families being exhausted by the slave labor and being fed with quantities of food lower than human beings needs? What hope could they have if they didn't know what was going on outside in the warfront? The movie “The Pianist”, from director Roman Polanski, put us in a very unusual situation regarding the history of the Second World War. A very particular story, from a known artist, that shows the enormous difficulties of war and how someone can turn out to be a mad man or use the art to survive, to resist. Wladyslaw Szpilman, a famous pianist in Poland at that time suffered the worst happenings that were possible, saw his relatives being sent to places that he knew meant death, was beaten and threatened of death, realized slave labor and had to hid himself from the racial hate of the nazis in his own country. It could only become a great and awarded movie…

The Age of Innocence - Dreams and frustrations of the burgeoisie

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 11:41:31 CDT

Martin Scorsese is one of the best American directors ever existed. Very few people would disagree. Many would even sign a statement like this one with no doubts. His major virtue? He is a daring movie-maker. When he is making a movie he searches for perfection as well as for strong and stimulating stories. Even in his movies that didn’t achieve success within the spectators or the critics we can find these characteristics. This is the case of “The Age of Innocence”, Scorsese’s movie based on Edith Wharthon classical book. The book and the movie criticize the bourgeoisie of New York City in the nineteenth century. The worst critics are the ones related to the highest society, the richest people of this city. The major problem is that this social class, responsible for the destitution of the nobility from the political power and social status in Europe, the bourgeoisie was kept as a hostage of the barons, counts, viscounts and duchess because they maintained the typical behavior and most of the habits of the nobles. In ocassions such as banquets and parties, whenever there was a new play in the theather or an opera, in their luxurious mansions decorated according to the patterns used by the European nobility in their chateaus and palaces, the north-american burgeoisie tried to show to everyone their wealth and power. If the clothing did not follow the same style of the eighteenth century (when the nobility ruled over Europe), it was still used to demonstrate autorithy and class, because of that, it was very usual to use silk and velvet, fur coats, top hats and classy coats. If the burgeoisie were not found to laziness, so often among the European nobility, the north-americans gave at least the opportunity for relaxation in their private gardens, countryside houses, clubs (used as a chance to show to everyone else that they were phisically in good shape, as well as financially), or travelling through the world, specially in Europe. Besides that, the burgeoisie showed up to everyone else as a social class in which happiness was a constant part or their familiar and professional behavior when, most of the time, this was not what was really happening. It seemed necessary to illude other components of this high society that there were no failures or losses in their private affairs. Pure hipocrisy…

The Lion King and the cycle of life

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 11:36:06 CDT

Disney DVD of one of his major classics, “The Lion King” deserve a close catch from spectators. The specialists consider that this animation is very important because it allowed Disney to conquer a new public after some years in which the company was not producing new cartoons. It is true that it only happened because they were successful a few years before with “The Little Mermaid”. The profile of the new productions were, however, quite different from what Disney had produced until the 1970’s. It kept some of the good qualities of the old times such as the high level on the drawings and edition as well as the stories that had lessons to the young audience and a lot of emotion. To all of these standarts the new cartoons added important elements such as agility in its stories (action and adventure), famous actors as the voices of the main characters, music created by known composers and aggressive marketing campaigns. It is very important to say that, despite all publicity, animations such as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King” only became big hits because of the qualities they had as cinema productions, particularly its stories that touched people’s hearts and the meaningful ideas that were divided with children, teenagers and also adults. “The Lion King” is an example of what I just wrote because it conquers the spectator as it works in its story the close relationship between father and son, owner and inheriter of the throne of the lions. The birth of the inheriter is presented to the community in a cerimony and the circunstance is really important to everyone. Simba represents the son that every parent has, the realization of a dream. The baptism of Simba is the public recognition of the inheriter, the sacralization of the birth. The existence of vilains, among which we find Scar, uncle of Simba, that intended to inherit the throne from his brother Mufasa and that, with the birth of his nephew loses this condition, gives to the story the necessary dramaticity to make the spectators get involved with the movie and cheer for a happy ending. The comicity comes with the couple Timon and Pumbaa. Animals that turn out to be Simba’s best friends in his voluntary exile. They create a sincere and fraternal friendship. In a time that everyone talks about ecology and defending life, “The Lion King” turns out to be very useful for the community to give information to children about these subjects and, in addition, allows reflections about justice, friendship, family,...

The Insider - Legalized and lethal drugs

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 11:05:49 CDT

Wild horses are moving throughout an enormous free land area, brave cowboys are after them, trying to capture the animals and take them back to their ranches as major prizes to their efforts and courage. The cowboys are the closest picture to the idea of freedom, strenght and health that we can have. They are tall, strong and demonstrate by their actions the idea of success. Besides all of this characteristics that are equal in all of them, the other point that seems to unite them is the fact that they smoke... Young people test and explore racing cars, boats and other vehicles. Besides that they risk their lives on parachute jumping, water ski, horse riding and many other radical sports. In the end, victorious, all of them flavour their success smoking a cigarette. They are all very beautiful, on their 20 to 30 years of age, very healthy and, even though they smoke, their teeth is white and bright, proper to toothpaste merchandising... If we think about it we can certainly remember a lot of television advertisements that promoted the smoking habit. The powerful industry that makes cigarettes had extremely competent marketing teams that chose the youngsters as their target (and as a consequence teenagers also started smoking). To achieve their goals they made announcements in newspapers, magazines, television, outdoors,... These advertisements always used wonderful looking places as their background, gorgeous people, a lot of action, many victories,... A few years ago, as effect of a law, cigarette advertisement was prohibited in Brazil. Besides that, the cigarette industry had the obligation to write messages in their products package allerting people to the damages caused to health by smoking. Pictures with sick people whose illness was caused by the continuous and long use of cigarettes were also strategically inserted in the packages to alert consumers. All of these changes contributed to avoid that many other people started smoking but, even though the victories achieved, this industry continued to be powerful and prosperous. However, some time ago, because of the report made by a prestigious tv program, important information about the cigarette industry became public. A high executive that was fired by one of these companies alerted the population that cigarettes sold in the United States were being made with some products that accelerated the dependence to nicotine. What people really found out is that the companies that produced tabacco products not only estimulated its consuming by millionaire campaigns in television and other midias but also inserted products in its cigarettes to, literally, addicte rapidly its consumers. “The Insider”, movie made by experienced director Michael Mann, starred by Al Pacino and Russell Crowe tell us this remarkable story of vengeance, cheat and this major news report made by television program “60 minutes”. Irresistible!

Desmundo - When no one was innocent

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 11:05:04 CDT

A world of brave men. People with great courage and spirit of adventure that left their countries and travelled to land owned by hostile indians and filled with wild animals. Their contribution, which vallue we can’t even calculate, allowed Brazil and the other American countries to be integrated in the civilized world represented by the Europe of the Modern Age. When we have an initial look at the first century of colonization in Brazil and in the rest of the countries of America everything seems a bit boring, with just a few realizations and facts. There are, for example, the failure on the division of the land, the instalations of the sugar cane production, the arrival of the African slaves, the French attempts to invade Brazil. Things seems to be tasteless, dull and uninteresting. We forget that there was no trace of the Brazil we know nowadays in the sixteenth century. We can consider that Brazil was virgin land, used by just a few tribes of indians that planted manioc, hunted, fished and lived alike the paradise image described by the bible, with no shame and no sin. When the Europeans arrived here, diferently that we thought they were not bringing the best of their civilization on the deck of their ships. Their men were castaways, traffickers and people that was expelled from Europe as Eduardo Bueno explained in one of his bestselling books about brazilian colonial history. Rude men, as wild as the most feared indian tribes from Brazil. Outlaws very violent that came to America to survive and try to get some money. “Desmundo”, a movie made by director Alain Fresnot, put us in touch with the reality of this sixteenth century Brazil, unknown by many of us. A country literally “rough”, somehow barbaric. So virile and brute that the movie, even though really beautifully made, with a meticulous reproduction of that time and a very talented group of actors, was not well accepted by the spectators. I use to say to my students that cinema glorifies and makes history much better looking than it really was. Princess and kings were not so beautiful and healthy as american and european productions want us to think they were. They had many diseases, didn’t bath everyday, were not prepared to deal with many illness, didn’t brush their teeth very often, had a strong smell coming from their bodies and didn’t live more than 30 years average. Fresnot had enough courage to show the sixteenth century as a period of rustic and coarse people. He took off the maquiage of the movies and created an authentic pearl, a movie that people should watch many times. Another golden goal from brazilian cinema.

Home

joaoluis28 — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:07:40 CDT

Cinema is and old passion. This art became a part of my life when I was just a little boy and never left my personal history. The possibilities of the movies were soon understood by myself and later on my life turned out to be not only entertainment but also a tool for learning. Actually, as an adult, working in education as a teacher and a researcher, I created many texts and essays about the use of films in school. This lines are written in my native language (portuguese) and through this wiki called Cinema Lessons, I will try to bring to english language the ideas and proposals I made in Brazil (and that are available on the website Planeta Educação - www.planetaeducacao.com.br) and spread all around the country (and out of it - reaching countries all over the globe). I certainly hope that with the help of this technology the proposals help many teachers, students and cinema fans to learn with movies at the same time that they entertain themselves...