reflective diary
tips for diary:
give yourself time to leave, return and polish it
get the character’s name right, write the actor’s name in paranthesis
italicize movie and book titles
take an angle on the topic → look at it on your perspective
it can be good to discuss a singluar scene
if something comes in mind about its influences on other movies, do write about it → doesn’t need to be time specific
notice and discuss details → be specific about what you write → color, script, camera, etc (do write about it to strengthen something)
if you’re working on a specific film, use the knowledge of specific reading → makes the essay look more academic
any material used should be in the biblig.
check that the 3 diary entries are in a similar style → makes it more readable
singin’ in the rain paragraph:
Singin’ in the Rain is probably one of the best ‘old’ movie I’ve seen. I really enjoyed several different things throughout watching the movie, such as the way characters interacted with one another, and also the set.
Before watching the movie, I knew that it has influenced many modern movies, such as La La Land in a few of the tap dancing sequences, and also the recent make of Mary Poppins. I also knew how this movie has impacted pop culture moments such as Tom Holland’s rendition of ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and Rhianna’s ‘Umbrella’ in the 2017 Lip Sync battle, but now having had watched the movie, I now reflect back on the battle and I can spot the similarities between both dances.
After some research, I learnt that Mary Poppins Returns was not inspired by Singin’ in the Rain, even though I noticed a handfull of similarities between the two, specifically in the dance scene titled: ‘Gotta Dance’ in Singin’ in the Rain, and ‘The Royal Doulton Music Hall’ and ‘A Cover Is Not a Book’ in Mary Poppins Returns, where I see lots of similarities in the cartoonish look of the backdrops and the color pallet. I think that this might just be stylistic choices from Rob Marshall.
One thing in particular that I enjoyed while watching the movie was how the singing numbers were executed. In several movies today, I always notice that the sequence looks heavily rehearsed, like the background characters suddenly join in song and dance, without having any correlation to the main characters. In this movie, it was the total opposite. I noticed that the background characters usually kept to themselves and didn’t interact with the main characters. Also, in today’s musicals, there are a lot of 4th wall breaks, which kind of detaches the viewers from the story, since it’s a sudden change between direct dialogue to the audience and not interacting with viewers. In Singin’ in the Rain, I noticed that there was no need for this 4th wall break, making it - in my opinion - more natural.
Despite this movie taking place 100 years ago, I see several similarities between the way celebrities are treated by fans and news outlets, though a noticeable difference is the actual use of bodyguards, since the 20’s didn’t have them, fans just typically jumped on the stars, and compared to today, that is something that is very much frowned upon and highly discouraged. A somewhat recent example that I can think of was when a man, Johnson Wen (a serial barricade jumper) jumps over the barricade and jumped on the cast of Wicked, which led him to be arrested in Singapore for a short period of time.
I really enjoyed this movie, I think it was generally very playful, and a very heart-felt movie. I kind of wish that movies go back to this style and humor, I think people today need this kind of vibe again — bring vibrant life back in people.
babyface:
In my opinion, I think that Babyface was somewhat ahead of its time. The themes of this movie for the time was seen as very taboo, as it’s a movie that shows a woman who uses sex to get what she wants.
I can definitley see and understand why this movie was so frowned upon in terms of breaking the Hays Code. One of these laws in the Hays code indicates that “the sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.” This movie clearly broke the Hays laws because in the movie, Lily (Barbara Stanwyck) uses sex to work her way up the bank status, and in a way, uses sex as a way to get sympathy from her co-workers.
There were several movies and real-life events that triggered the start of the Hays code, which include the murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Essentially, the government wanted to limit the showing of glorified criminals, and intimate relationships that happen outside of marriage, since the country was very conservative at the time. In Babyface, Lily starts an affair with Ned Stevens (Donald Cook), who is engaged with Ann (Margaret Lindsay). This was seen as taboo, especially since Lily took advantage of the relationship for personal benefits and quickly discarded Ned when she no longer needed him, which led to his murder-suicide for both himself and James McCoy (John Wayne), kind of giving that ‘if I can’t have her, no one can’ type of idea.
During a few scenes, I thought the way Lily’s character was written was really good; she is very quick-witted and thinks a lot on her feet. Since the movie was released in 1933, Lily’s character development as an independent young woman was generally really well written; however, I do think that the ending was ruined, since she had spent the whole movie wanting independence away from her father, just to end up getting married, I think it ruined her character development.
To compare with recent projects and folklore, I can see some resemblance between Lily and German folklore of the Rheine Gorge, Loreley. The folklore is essentially about a siren who lures men in ships to their deaths. A character in the tv show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D also has a villain who is called Lorelei (Elena Satine), whom possesses the same powers as the German folklore. Lily’s character is also very similar to this, since she seduces men to get what she wants and then later discards them, which in the case of three of the men, resulted in them losing their lives. After doing a bit of research, I couldn’t find any evidence that linked Lily’s character to the folklore, but I personally do think that there is somewhat of a connection.
gentlemen prefer blondes paragraph:
I had always wanted to watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, I had started watching it a few years ago, but never actually got around to finishing it. I really enjoyed the journey of Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy (Jane Russell) take on the ship, with all the twists and turns that the characters take.
Marilyn Monroe’s portrayal of Lorelei leans into the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype. After doing a bit of research, I found out that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a massive influence in popularizing the stereotype. I realized this mainly through the difference between Lorelei and Dorothy’s speaking habits: Lorelei’s speaking voice is very soft and fragile, whereas Dorothy’s voice is harsher and generally more sarcastic. Additionally, I also noticed that both Dorothy and Lorelei’s singing voice is more seductive, adding more to the theory of the dumb blonde. Moreover, the stereotype also emphasises that women — more specifically, blondes — are gold diggers. I did notice that the opening song of the movie, Lorelei and Dorothy both say “as long as a guy is a millionare”, which adds to the theory. Although both characters are depicted as somewhat of a “gold digger”, Lorelei is depicted more of a gold digger compared to Dorothy.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes have also heavily inspired modern pop culture references such as the 2000’s TV show, Gilmore Girls, where both of the main characters are named Lorelai. Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) full name is Lorelai ‘Rory’ Leigh Gilmore, which is a nod to Marilyn Monroe’s character, Lorelei Lee. Although I haven’t found any concret evidence and confirmation that Amy Sherman Palladino was directly inspired by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, by having watched both the movie and the TV show, I believe I can make that connection. With the release of the movie and the TV show, they have both impacted aspects of pop culture, several new mothers wanted to name their child Lorelai in the 2000’s, with me being one of them.
Something that I personally enjoyed about the movie was the 1950’s humor. Dorothy has very dry humor, which juxtaposes Lorelei’s personality. In one of scenes where the two are trying to retain Mr. Malone’s camera after he had taken pictures of Lorelei with Piggy in his room, they lace his drink with sleeping pills and convince him to drink, Lorelei gives a toast, which leaves Mr. Malone confused, and Dorothy says “I know another toast, bottoms up!” This line in particular is a great example among many of Dorothy’s dry humor, since she devlivers a lot of her lines very sarcastically and dryly. Having had watched several movies and TV shows from the 1950’s and 60’s, I noticed that a lot of the main characters have Lorelei’s personality and humor, while the side characters often have Dorothy’s humor. An example of this is in the 60’s show Bewitched, where I can see some similarities between Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Lorelei, and Endora (Agnes Morehead) and Dorothy’s humor.
A few years ago, prior to watching the movie, I saw someone make a comparison between Lorelei and the original Tinkerbell, where they both measure their hips with their hands. Both Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Peter Pan were released in 1953 and only a few months apart, so I doubt that the action was intentional, since Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had wrapped filming in January 1953, but it’s interesting to notice these similarities in movies released in the same year.