Unit 1 Part C

ARTS REVIEW

Review of a live cinema/film event
Virus of Fear

The story is based on a children's swimming school. One of the swimming teachers, Jordi is accused of kissing a child. The parents do not react  well to this. Jordi insists it was a gesture to calm the child as he was scared. However the story escalates. The film is based on a Catalan theater production and discusses the difficult subject of the sexual abuse of children. Raising questions of modern day society and how we are quick to judge and don’t think what we may say or do on social media could impacts us which results in things quickly spinning out of control. The film frequently goes back and repeats the same scene showing the audience a slightly different view point or starting at an earlier point that we didn't see first. When this first happened, it was quite subtle as it started at a different point but then soon led into the scene we had just seen, I turned to my friend sitting next to me and we both exchanged a look of 'oh' as we realised we had already seen this, the 2nd time around the 'oh' turned it confusion, why was this happening? I and never seen a film that took on this method, however I started to quite like it as I soon realised it was showing us how one is quick to try understand the story and make assumptions without all the details, which was the case in this film and the situation Jordi was in. However after a few rounds of going back it did get a bit repetitive and I ended up getting a bit fed up as it meant saying the same scene again and again and by now I just wanted to know the ending. This method of that the director and editor chose to use in the film was interesting to me as an aspiring editor. The creative impact and the message they tried to achieve through this method came across, which was down to the editing of the film. As it maintained a good pace and started off quite subtle and gradually went into the repetitions being more obvious.

There was an interview with the actor who played Jordi, he acted in both the play and the film. I remember him saying how watching it again a few years after its first release and when he first saw it, he didn't like it as much as he did before. He also explained the reason for the film going back and showing the same scenes, he explained that as a theater performance they had the stage in the middle of the audience, therefore they would rotate so that both sides of the audience had the actors facing them at one point. I found this interesting, as I've always been in to plays and especially different styles.


As I Open My Eyes

I saw this film when it was screened at the 2016 Cambridge Film Festival .

Set in Tunisia as the revolution in 2010 was beginning. The film follows the life of Farah a girl who is approaching adulthood. She’s just done her a levels and her family want her to study medicine and become ha doctor, however she wants to study music and is a part of a band where she uses music to express herself and the situations in Tunisia. The film was a sort of musical as we followed Farah through her band practices to performing on stage, all leading to conflicting issues within her love life, family and politically.  Having once lived In Sri lanka, I noticed many connections with the rulers being tyrants and the expectations of womens behaviour. As even within the youth you see how Farah is expected to behave primarily because of being a woman. The cinematography was basic and nothing to be amazed by, however this highlighted the importance of the story as the beauty of the film was in the direction of the story, acting and music. Overall it was a very moving and a thought provoking film.

After the screening there was an interview with the Baya Medhaffer who played Farah. The interview was insightful as she mentioned what its like under the dictatorship of the president and how it’s still prevalent. She also mentioned how she was not a singer and all the scenes with singing was shot live. This was interesting as the singing scenes were filmed making the audience feel as if the were at the gig watching them perform which created the characters emotions within the audience.