The WHF Film Club

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

It has a very unorthodox and shocking start!

A primary school teacher is found hanged by a 10 years old boy in the class room!

What were the intetions of the teachers act...? Why there and not at home?

Didn't the boy believe that the teacher hung herself in the classroom, knowing he would discover the hanging body, as he was on milk collection duty that morning?

If I remember correctly, some effort was made to ease the guilt that the boy felt, though the possibility that this was indeed the case remained possible, if not quite likely.

I didn't quite get why in the class room...

in fact not much is said about the reasons of the teachers hanging.

taking the chance by offerng him self to a job that he din't have qualifications.

Because the teacher knew that on that day the boy would be collecting the milk for his classmates, and therefore would be in class first.

Not much is said, but what is said is very important. The other kids blame the boy because he has accused that teacher of inappropriate behaviour, and this is possibly/probably the reason for the teacher hanging herself.

I think he wanted to teach as a tribute to his teacher wife, he wanted to continue her work.

If the reason is that simple I think it applies what i've said about the individual tolerance for emotional distress... The hanged teacher had to little...

And there we have Mounsieur Lazhar after passing thrugh the murdering of the family and political persecution and having overcome all that!

What i'm trying to say is that life is becaming to easy for some generations, and at the first bump on the road they are get off it! Education and the value of material goods are overlooked!

I wasn't raise like that, all that my parents give me i had to work hard to get by studing and have good grades!

...and i never had times to get depressed... :silenced: :shifty:

 

[strapped for cash]

What i'm trying to say is that life is becaming to easy for some generations, and at the first bump on the road they are get off it! Education and the value of material goods are overlooked!

I'm not sure these observations hold true.

Young people are financially better off in most Western nations than, say, African nations; but the future looks bleak for young people in the UK, who face greater obstacles than their parents in terms of establishing a worthwhile career, finding affordable and stable accommodation, or reaching young adulthood without crippling debt. (Higher education has also tripled in cost in recent years.)

In other words, life has become tougher (rather than easier) for young people in the UK, and in many Western "democracies."

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

What i'm trying to say is that life is becaming to easy for some generations, and at the first bump on the road they are get off it! Education and the value of material goods are overlooked!

I'm not sure these observations hold true.

Young people are financially better off in most Western nations than, say, African nations; but the future looks bleak for young people in the UK, who face greater obstacles than their parents in terms of establishing a worthwhile career, finding affordable and stable accommodation, or reaching young adulthood without crippling debt. (Higher education has also tripled in cost in recent years.)

In other words, life has become tougher (rather than easier) for young people in the UK, and in many Western "democracies."

sorry but I don't see it that way! I left my parent home with the minimum wage and rent a room at some old simple folk, and i've study at night and worked at day!

I see 12 years old with iphones or 400/€ 500€ gadgets in their hands, parent just don't care, they prefer to give that to educate...

Why do you even consither living your parent home if you have all you need right their at your finger tips...?

I was just making a point about the movie, and comparing the problem that the teacher face compared to Lazhar problems in live, and he didn't take is live! He took the punch in the stomach and moove on!

The way he change all the class room, giving some "good old fasion education" giving liberty to expression but with boundaries!

Kids are growing in front of computers, parents spend to little time with them, the girl in the class room that the mother was a airline pilot, just wanted to spend some time with her mother and talk about what had happen is the class room. And that need was directed to Lazhar.

 

[BenLaw]

Sorry to break the train and please feel free to continue, just wanted to report that the Nosferatu blu ray arrived with me today. I'd forgotten I'd ordered it, so it was a nice surprise! I want to commit some time to it so may not get to watch it for a while but will report back when I do.

Also, I watched Breathless today. I don't really know what to make of it, maybe at some stage strapped could give me a crash course in Nouvelle Vague. (Aware many italics are missing....)

 

[BenLaw]

Well I've just been reading up on jump cuts and the New Wave more generally (a bit, my head's a bit baffled). Will need to delve further into this movement. Interesting to contrast with Monsieur Lazhar, which in its construction, if not its central premise, is a very conventional film.

 

[strapped for cash]

the Nosferatu blu ray arrived with me today.

Ditto.

I watched Breathless today.

Surely you mean A bout de souffle. (I've no idea how to place an accent over the A.)

 

[BenLaw]

I guess I do, it's just my French isn't good enough to understand what soufflés have to do with a shortness of breath.

 

[BenLaw]

Have you watched any of Nosferatu yet? Mine's still in its cellophane!

 

[iamthegruffalo]

I'm guessing he's being a little impolite.

Shewl Tunc

I had two entirely different forums open, typed "Tenby" into this one, not the one I intended.

Why would Tenby be rude anyway?

Apologies for real confusion there, lack of concentration

 

[BenLaw]

No worries

 

[strapped for cash]

Have you watched any of Nosferatu yet? Mine's still in its cellophane!

Likewise, though I watched the Eureka DVD release several times. (That went on eBay a few weeks back.)

I'm intrigued by the film's speed. In principle it should be shown at 18 frames-per-second. I think the 24 frames-per-second Blu-ray slows the film down. (Eureka could have duplicated every third frame, as I recall the BFI did with their Battleship Potemkin Blu-ray release.) Rather than PAL speed-up, the Nosferatu Blu-ray might be an example of 24 frames-per-second slow-down.

In any case, early twentieth century audiences would have watched both films at variable speed.

 

[strapped for cash]

my French isn't good enough to understand what soufflés have to do with a shortness of breath.

You've clearly never eaten a breathtaking soufflé.

 

[BenLaw]

Have you watched any of Nosferatu yet? Mine's still in its cellophane!

Likewise, though I watched the Eureka DVD release several times. (That went on eBay a few weeks back.)

I'm intrigued by the film's speed. In principle it should be shown at 18 frames-per-second. I think the 24 frames-per-second Blu-ray slows the film down. (Eureka could have duplicated every third frame, as I recall the BFI did with their Battleship Potemkin Blu-ray release.) Rather than PAL speed-up, the Nosferatu Blu-ray might be an example of 24 frames-per-second slow-down.

In any case, early twentieth century audiences would have watched both films at variable speed.

Interesting. I only have the DVD of Battleship Potemkin. However, I still have my DVD version of Nosferatu; do you know what the frame speed on that edition is, as I could compare?

 

[BenLaw]

my French isn't good enough to understand what soufflés have to do with a shortness of breath.

You've clearly never eaten a breathtaking soufflé.

No. My knowledge of soufflés generally is pretty limited save that I do know that it is one of two dishes, the other being chocolate fondant, that one should never attempt to cook on masterchef unless one is insane.

 

[John Duncan]

Back on track, I can't help thinking that we are being quite mean to the teacher and the kids, suggesting they should dust themselves off and get on with it.

There was a hint that the teacher had...'anxiety'. And the kids are more astute than the parents. The fact that Lazhar empathises with them more (perhaps because of his own trauma) seems to me to be the central theme.

 

[strapped for cash]

I still have my DVD version of Nosferatu; do you know what the frame speed on that edition is, as I could compare?

I'm not sure how the Eureka team negotiated the original 18 frames-per-second rate with the Nosferatu DVD or Blu-ray.

The DVD feature is 93 minutes long, while the Blu-ray runs at 97 minutes. This is of course in line with the normal distinction between PAL 50Hz DVDs and 24p Blu-rays discs (i.e. the former runs four percent faster than the latter).

Obviously most PAL DVDs play at the wrong speed (assuming the film was originally shot at 24 frames-per-second), while 24p Blu-ray releases correct this problem. For me, this is reason enough to replace DVDs with Blu-ray releases, even when the upgrade in sound and picture quality is less than stellar.

Perhaps both the Eureka Nosferatu DVD and Blu-ray each run at the wrong speed, unless Eureka followed the BFI's approach with Battleship Potemkin.

Technically, duplication of every third frame, with the film running at 24 frames-per-second, means an 18 frames-per-second film will run at its original speed.

Sorry, that's not much help.

 

[strapped for cash]

maybe at some stage strapped could give me a crash course in Nouvelle Vague.

Regarding the Nouvelle Vague, Chapter One of Richard Neupert's book offers a decent overview:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OIp7bDHNDs8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

When I've taught on the subject, I try to rid students of certain preconceptions, notably:

1. That the Nouvelle Vague was in any way a stylistically or thematically coherent "movement." (Perhaps not even a movement at all.) If we consider what are arguably the two most famous French New Wave films, namely A bout de souffle and Les quattre cent coups, they have little in common, beyond organisation around a few loose ideals. (Broad notions of an auteurist cinema, and the idea of rebellion against a "tradition of quality" in French cinema.)

2. On the last point, it's a common assumption that the Nouvelle Vague was in some way opposed to Hollywood cinema. In reality, the French film critics that went on to direct "New Wave" films were fans of certain American movies and sought to position selected Hollywood filmmakers as auteurs. See the following essay by Les quattre cent coups director Francois Truffaut:

https://soma.sbcc.edu/users/DaVega/FILMST_101/FILMST_101_FILM_MOVEMENTS/FrenchNewWave/A_certain_tendency_traffaut1954_cashiers.pdf

Having watched A bout de souffle, you'll note that Godard and co. borrow from American crime film tropes, post-war Italian "realist" conventions, while introducing new techniques (notably the jump-cuts you mention).

Following on from this, it's useful to recognise that certain "New Wave" techniques appeared in so-called "Hollywood Renaissance" films. (The vaguely mainstream American art cinema that emerged in the late 1960s and ended with Jaws, Star Wars, and the birth of the modern blockbuster.) The famous seduction scene in The Graduate, for example, uses jump-cuts to suggest Benjamin's disorientation and unease.

To bring these points together, we shouldn't think of cinema in terms of art-entertainment or mainstream-underground distinctions. Rather, different forms and nationalities of cinema are constantly in dialogue, while stylistic and thematic conventions mix, or cross-pollinate.

I'm not sure this functions as a crash-course in the Nouvelle Vague, and its relationships with other films and film movements, but it'll have to do for now.

Sorry JD. Disgression over.

 

[John Duncan]

I thought Nouvelle Vague were a band...

 

[strapped for cash]

I thought Nouvelle Vague were a band...

Very consciously referencing late-1950s and 1960s French cinema. (Indeed, Nouvelle Vague's album "Bande a part" references Godard's 1964 film. The same is true of Tarantino and Lawrence Bender's production company.)

 

[BenLaw]

Regarding the Nouvelle Vague, Chapter One of Richard Neupert's book offers a decent overview:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OIp7bDHNDs8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

I now have quite a reading list from you! I will try to find the time to read it all; I still have the horror film chapter loaded on my iphone.

When I've taught on the subject, I try to rid students of certain preconceptions, notably:

1. That the Nouvelle Vague was in any way a stylistically or thematically coherent "movement." (Perhaps not even a movement at all.) If we consider what are arguably the two most famous French New Wave films, namely A bout de souffle and Les quattre cent coups, they have little in common, beyond organisation around a few loose ideals. (Broad notions of an auteurist cinema, and the idea of rebellion against a "tradition of quality" in French cinema.)

I watched Les quattre cent coups not so long ago and thought it was fantastic. It hadn't occurred to me at the time I was watching anything particularly unusual and therefore hadn't looked into it. I can see some of the sytlistic similarities now that you mention it.

Having watched A bout de souffle, you'll note that Godard and co. borrow from American crime film tropes, post-war Italian "realist" conventions, while introducing new techniques (notably the jump-cuts you mention).

Absolutely. I suppose there's an interesting variant on the Italian realist techniques in that the jump-cuts take you out (and are designed to) of the narrative of the film. I also thought the opening car scene was interesting where the protagonist actually talks to camera, so it has a documentary feel to it but it also takes you out of the 'reality'.

In many ways it's very much like a US noir / crime film but that was kind of the source of my problem with it. From my brief reading on the Nouvelle Vague it's acceptable (or more than that?) to have no traditional narrative structure. I could quite happily watch a film with super-charismatic Belmondo and Seberg wandering around aimlessly, but the film essentially retained a chronological narrative structure, just rather a meandering one. It ended up neither one thing nor the other for me, not an interesting enough narrtive nor sufficiently divorced from narrative for me to ignore it.

Following on from this, it's useful to recognise that certain "New Wave" techniques appeared in so-called "Hollywood Renaissance" films. (The vaguely mainstream American art cinema that emerged in the late 1960s and ended with Jaws, Star Wars, and the birth of the modern blockbuster.) The famous seduction scene in The Graduate, for example, uses jump-cuts to suggest Benjamin's disorientation and unease.

One of my favourite films. Any other less mainstream examples I should look out for?

To bring these points together, we shouldn't think of cinema in terms of art-entertainment or mainstream-underground distinctions. Rather, different forms and nationalities of cinema are constantly in dialogue, while stylistic and thematic conventions mix, or cross-pollinate.

Did you watch Mark Cousins' recent-ish series on the history of cinema?

 

[strapped for cash]

I suppose there's an interesting variant on the Italian realist techniques in that the jump-cuts take you out (and are designed to) of the narrative of the film. I also thought the opening car scene was interesting where the protagonist actually talks to camera, so it has a documentary feel to it but it also takes you out of the 'reality'.

Commonly known as "breaking the fourth wall;" and often understood as an "anti-realist" technique. (Think Brechtian distanciation, or a desire to force the spectator to reflect on their position and the medium's construction as artifice.)

Recent scholarship complicates this "realist/anti-realist" dichotomy by suggesting that fourth wall breaches can invite more affective modes of spectatorship and empathy with protagonists. (Recent scholarship on 3D offers an interesting variation on this).

Any other less mainstream examples I should look out for?

Can you be more specific? I'm not sure whether you mean jump-cuts, films associated with the Nouvelle Vague, or American films that borrow from other cinemas. (Perhaps none, or all, of the above.)

Did you watch Mark Cousins' recent-ish series on the history of cinema?

I saw a few episodes and recorded others. I'm struggling to remember much about the episodes I watched. Did Cousins offer a similar thesis on a mixing (or cross-pollination) of themes and styles across film history?

 

[strapped for cash]

I watched Les quattre cent coups not so long ago and thought it was fantastic.

I've no argument there.

I'd rather sit down and watch Les quatre cent coups than A bout de souffle; though A bout de souffle is more typically screened on film studies courses discussing the Nouvelle Vague, in my experience.

I remain annoyed that Les quatre cent coups only has a Criterion Blu-ray release. I'm itching to retire the DVD. (We both managed to misspell the title in previous posts. )

 

[chebby]

I remain annoyed that Les quatre cent coups only has a Criterion Blu-ray release.

Just for interest, what is wrong with the Criterion Blu-ray? (Is it a general problem with Criterion Blu-rays, or just specific to this one?)

 

[BenLaw]

I remain annoyed that Les quatre cent coups only has a Criterion Blu-ray release.

Just for interest, what is wrong with the Criterion Blu-ray? (Is it a general problem with Criterion Blu-rays, or just specific to this one?)

They're US locked so only any good with a multi region player.

 

[strapped for cash]

Just for interest, what is wrong with the Criterion Blu-ray? (Is it a general problem with Criterion Blu-rays, or just specific to this one?)

It's the definitive home video release of the film; but, as with all Criterion Blu-ray releases, Region A locked.

There's currently no Region B release; and I don't own a multi-region Blu-ray player.

EDIT: Ben beat me to it.