Raw by Julia Ducournau was a movie that made me go “what the hell is happening!” The film was filled with scenes of cannibalism. But there were three sins that really made me and actually ask myself “why?” the first scene was when the film showed the students how to sedate a horse in detail. I get that the setting of the story is in a veterinary school and so maybe they added it to the film to immerse the audience more into what veterinaries do. However it just seems so random as it had nothing to do for the rest of the movie. The next scene was when Justine ate her own sister’s finger. In my mind I was thinking “instead of panicking or looking for ways to help stop the bleeding of Alexia, she actually chose to eat her finger instead.” The film showed that they had a good relationship as sisters  so that added more confusion for me as they had no fights so there was no reason for Justine to disregard Alexia’s health. The last scene was when Alexia jumped in front of a moving car so that the car would crash into the trees so that they could have some corpses to eat. What would happen if instead of going left or write the car just went straight through? Would that just be unlucky for the sisters or was it all planned that all cars would turn instead of going straight. Maybe these scenes were a way to show how the characters grow and rebel. These scenes show how their human body slowly evolve into something else.

            The coming of age genre focuses on the growth of the protagonist as he or she slowly matures throughout the story. Raw can be seen as a coming of age film with a twist. In the usual coming of age films, the focus is on the dialogues and emotional responses of the protagonist so there is not a lot of action. In Raw however Ducournau used the visual horror of cannibalism to show as Justine slowly matures. We saw Justine from being a vegetarian who do not even want to have a taste of meat as shown in the starting scenes of the film, to Justine stealing hamburgers from the cafeteria and eating raw meat to satisfy her cravings. Then we see her embrace her cannibalism side as she slowly devours her own sister’s finger and continues to eat different kinds of human meat. The film was also able to show Justine’s pain and uncertainty during her transition period.  

Another way we can see Justine mature is that from being a timid shy girl who follows what her parents say and only has sweaters to wear, to someone who is able to practice their sexuality by wearing more different dresses, using makeup and lusting about the body of men and actually having sex. All of these changes in Justine’s character and habits show as Justine comes of age in the film “Raw.”

The Edukators are a group of people who break in the houses of rich people who has bad reputation or bad rumors around them. Instead of stealing items from inside the house, they “educate” the rich by moving the furniture and items inside the house and leaving cards that say, “the days of plenty are over” and “you have too much money” to scare them.  

The first theme that the movie has is the poor vs rich theme.  The edukators consists of Jule, Peter, and Jan who usually join rallies against capitalists. Jule also has to pay a €100,000 debt for crashing into a Mercedes-Benz S-Class that was owned by a wealthy businessman named Hardenberg. Jule works at a restaurant that targets the rich where she sees the rich’s habits and she usually gets looked down upon by the customers and even her manager. However even though the edukators do not like capitalists, they keep on buying their products whenever they need something. They buy their cigarettes, wine and food from them.

But I think the main concept of the film was about the love triangle between the three members of the edukators. It all started when Peter left for Barcelona and he asked Jan to help Jule while he was away. When Jule learned from Jan what they do at night, she wanted to give it a try and after insisting, Jule and Jan broke into Hardenberg’s house as revenge. After escaping quickly, Jule finds out that she left her phone in Hardenberg’s house so they had to come back and this time they asked Peter who just came back from Barcelona for some help. Things went wrong as Hardenberg saw them inside his home and so the edukators decided to abduct him while thinking of what their next step is. They decided to stay in a cabin near the mountains as they think. In here a lot of discussion about political ideology happened the relationships of the characters deepened. Peter slowly realized that Peter and Jule spends a lot of time together. Things develop and eventually Jule ended up with Jan while Peter was cool with it. This love triangle to some might be useless in the movie as the main concept of the film was supposed to be the rich vs the poor. However in my opinion, I think this is very important for the film as it gave the poor face and kept the movie moving. It also helped the audience engaged in the movie even if the concept of capitalists vs anti-capitalist can be boring when there are only information thrown to the audience. The last few scenes also show the audience how a tight knit group of friends can stay together and forgive each other if they are able to talk to one another and be honest in how they feel towards each other. Even when Peter’s best friend and girlfriend got together after he left for Barcelona, he was able to forgive them and continue to travel and live with them.

Timecrimes was a movie that made me shout in the beginning because of fear then shed a tear near the end. My emotions just rode through a roller coaster but in the end I was able to enjoy the movie.. It was a movie that was centered on Hector who was involved in a time travel situation. I think the film focused on the character development and the story development. In the beginning Hector, the main protagonist of the movie seemed to be a timid and is an easily scared guy. He also seems to be observant and curious about his surroundings as seen in the beginning of the movie where he plays with his telescope a lot and when he found the girl in the forest, he immediately goes after her and enters the forest. He starts screaming and running away after he get stabbed by the scissors. When he came back as Hector 2, he started as a confused and stubborn guy who do not want to do what the scientist tells him to do. He still sneaked out of the laboratory even when he was told to stay and wait. When he figures out what to do, he slowly becomes for decisive of his actions. After becoming Hector 3, he was very decisive of his actions. He was able to lead a girl to her death to save his wife and he keeps on threatening the scientist. He also started to get less and less happy until eventually he almost had no emotions left to show.

                The story development on the other hand started something like a horror or a thriller movie during the time of Hector 1 because during this time the audience has no idea what would happen and he was constantly getting chased by the bandaged man. There were also a lot of jump scares and the sound effects used added to the horror and thriller theme of the film. When the main protagonist becomes Hector 2, became a bit of a comedy because of his failed attempts to create the situations he experienced when he was Hector 1. There was a sin where he was looking for the proper angle to do the surprise by turning around quickly with his hands as a binoculars. The way it was portrayed was very comical and since this time you know what to expect, it was easier to watch for those who hate jump scares like me. Then slowly the story became darker and heavier when Hector 2 thought that he killed his own wife so he went back in time again and became Hector 3. This time the story was just dark and heavy as we have to watch Hector 3 lead the girl from the forest into her own death just so he could save his own wife. Hector shows no emotions and seems to be dead inside and the only sound we hear are ambulances and his wife crying weakly as he questions Hector what is happening.

The starting scene where they claimed that all the footages recovered were true made me expect almost no trolls to be seen throughout the movie. Oh how wrong I was. As a found footage film, I thought they would limit the CGI they used and just focus on the interaction of each character. However in Trollhunter, there was a troll attack quite early in the movie and they were able to be captured on the team’s camera. Trolls were repeatedly captured in camera throughout the film.

In the film, most of the scenes where just the characters of Thomas, Johanna, Kalle and Hans. For the three students of Volda University College, I find them annoying especially during the early parts of the movie because they keep on mocking Hans and keeps on stalking him just for their interview. They do not care even though Hans clearly did not want to be interviewed in the beginning. When Hans finally let them interview him and follow him, they were still mocking him and making faces behind his back. Clearly they do not believe him but still come with him. Another thing that was bothering me was how even if they do not believe in Hans story about trolls, can’t they at least follow some of his rules like no Christians. When they were told to spread troll stench on themselves they were clearly hesitating about it. Even after their first encounter where Thomas was injured, they still do not take Hans and the troll business very seriously.  The only time they focused on their task was when Kalle finally died because he lied about not being a Christian hence when they got trapped in the nest of the trolls, they were able to smell him and endangered everyone. Hans’ story on the other hand is quite sad. He is doing his best as a trollhunter to keep the surrounding areas safe but instead of recognition, other people suspects that he is just a bear poacher. The compensation he gets from the job is not that high too when his job is very tiring and extremely dangerous. There are also times when he is forced to kill trolls even if he did not want to as a trollhunter. The government in the film especially Finn, tries their best to keep the trolls a secret. In the end of the film, they even ran after the students to try to get the camera and the film that contains the trolls. In the end, the film tried again to make the audience believe that trolls are real by playing a news clip of a Norwegian Prime Minister making a slip of a tongue comment about the trolls in a press conference.

Even though the characters kind of annoyed me, I was still able to appreciate the film because of the decent CGI of the trolls and the unique concept of the film. I think I was able to appreciate the movie more when I stopped thinking of it as a found footage film and that the footages are true. Without those it becomes a decent fantasy film that is based on the Norwegian culture and Norwegian folktales.  

Holy Motors was a movie that made me just shut down my brain in trying to understand what is happening and instead just focused on what the characters in the screen are currently doing. The main character Mr. Oscar who was played by Denis Lavant was able to show his talent in acting by being more than 7 different characters throughout the film. One of the first scenes of the film include Mr. Oscar riding his limousine towards his first appointment. On the way he talked with a guy in the phone and they were talking about guns and bodyguards so it seems like they were businessmen. However when they arrived in Oscar’s first appointment it was a surprise to see him dress up as a beggar and guarded by his bodyguards walked towards his post where he begged passing strangers for some money. Just from these first few scenes, I was already lost but was still trying to make sense of what is happening. Maybe he just wants to know how the beggars are treated so he became one. However on his second appointment, he wears a motion capture suit with lights and just starts doing martial arts. Seems fine until suddenly a girl on her own motion capture suit walks in and they just start to simulate sex. At this scene I just gave up and made my brain go to bed instead of trying to understand the story of the movie.

Oscar continued to do different characters throughout the film like a violent man who kidnaps a supermodel who was having a shoot in a cemetery. He also became a father who was picking her own daughter from a party. This is one of his few roles where there is not much action and the focus is on the dialogue between father and daughter. There were also two scenes wherein he was dying but was able to be back in the limousine unharmed. First was during his fifth appointment where he thought he was able to kill his target but instead gets stabbed in his neck. Even though he was bleeding, he was able to limp himself towards the limousine where he was passed out just a few steps away. The second time was when he run out of the limousine to shoot at a banker at a café.

I think the film Holy Motors was a film that was made to showcase the talent of the main actor, in this case, Denis Lavant. He was able to show that he was able to act characters that needed a lot of emotions just like when he played as a father or as a character that needs physical skills like during his second appointment where he was able to show his martial arts skills. He was even able to show his acting of a dying man and was able to show his singing skills when he sang with Eva who also works in the same business as they sang the song “Who Were We.”

Goodbye Lenin was one of the films showed in class that I enjoyed a lot. It was straightforward and I did not need to think a lot to understand the plot of the story. The humor the film used was also easy to understand and was to my liking. The film was set in East Berlin. The film revolves around   Alex and his mother, Christine, and how Alex tries his best to keep his mother in the dark about the fall of the Berlin wall to prevent her from dying. The two themes that was shown in the film was the history about the fall of the berlin wall and the theme of love for family.

Alex the main protagonist of the film was showed as a loving son to his mother Christine. However there were some scenes in the film where in my opinion, he was a little bit too bossy to the people helping him deceive his mother. For example he got mad at his sister, Ariane got pregnant again or when he lied about the history of Lara’s family. Every person has her own life and decisions to make. The fact that he got mad at Ariane annoyed me a lot. Alex was forcing his decisions to his sister even when his sister is already having a hard time in keeping up appearances for their mother. He also tends to use guilt against his sister whenever her sister wants to give up by saying “you want mother to die” or “you don’t love her.”

Alex’s love for his mother is shown clearly shown in the film in different ways. First he sacrificed his life as he redesigns the apartment they live in to look just how it looked before his mother fell into a coma. All the people who makes contact with Christine has to wear old clothes to make it look like nothing changed. They look for old jars that their mother used to eat and fill them with products from the west to trick their mother. Alex even pays kids money to sing for her mother old songs from the past. When Christine requests for a television to watch news, Alex looks for old news to show her mom and eventually has to film their own fake news as Christine sees more and more clues like a Coca-Cola poster right outside her window.

Christine also showed her love for her family when she finally revealed her secret to her children. I will not decide if her decision to stay was the right choice or not, but I think it shows her love for her children as she was afraid that they would get in trouble if they attempted to join their father in escaping.  Another way she was able to show her care for her children was in the last few scenes where she was already made aware by Lara that the news Alex shows her were all fake. She still acted like she knew nothing and continued to react as if she was happy and surprised.

Five Obstructions is a documentary film by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth. Lars challenged Jorgen to remake Leth’s The PerfectHuman five times wherein each time there would be an obstruction when filming. The first obstruction was to film the perfect human in Cuba, without a set and making sure that no shot would be longer than twelve frames while making sure that he still answers the questions posed in the original film. For the second obstruction, Leth would have to remake the film in the worst place in the world without showing it in screen.  Also, Leth must play the role of the “man” himself and must include the meal while the women is not included. Leth decided on the red light district of Mumbai. Since Leth failed the second obstruction as Lars comment on his end product was “This is not the film I asked for!” Lars gave him two options, the first option was to remake the film in any way he chooses or to repeat the second obstruction and to go back to Mumbai. The fourth obstruction was to remake the film as a cartoon with the help of Bob Sabiston who is a specialist in rotoscoping and creates animated versions of shots from the previous films. Even though they both hate to work with animation, this became a great experience for the both of them as practice and to be able to understand more of the different kinds of filming. The fifth obstruction is that Lars has made the fifth version already, but it must be credited as Leth’s, and Leth must read a voice-over narration from his own perspective even though it was written by Lars.

The entire movie was playing different versions of “The Perfect Human” trying to portray each version as different movies but still trying to make sure some of the things remain the same as the two directors work together. As someone who is not that interested in the arts, the movie was not for me. Repetition of the perfect human again and again even if the movie tried hard to portray each obstruction as a different movie, got me bored. For people who are interested in the arts however, it would be a great film as it showed different techniques that are available in filming. It also showed how even though Leth is already one of the veterans in film making and is quite old, he could still think of new ways to remake his old film. He was challenged to go out of his comfort zone in his filming career. Leth’s style is clean, spare and classical and through the challenges given by Lars, he had to try new ways that he is not that comfortable with. However he was still able to deliver 5 different versions of “the Perfect Human” that are still up to standard. Leth was forced to demolish and destroy “the perfect human” multiple times and even his style in filming for this challenge that was presented to him by Lars.

L’Avventura is an Italian film that was about the disappearance of a young woman and the search that was conducted for her after by her best friend and her lover. The young woman who went missing was Anna and her best friend was Claudia. After meeting with Anna’s boyfriend Sandro, they drove to the coast and meet up with more people. After reaching their destination, Anna and Sandro jumps right away into the water for a swim.  Anna shouts that she saw a shark to get the attention of Sandra who goes to her side right away to protect her from any harm. After arriving in one of the smaller islands where they were able to rest, Anna and Sandro had a fight as Anna was not happy with Sandro’s long business trips. Sandro in response just dismisses her and proceeds to sleep. When they finally decided to leave the island because of the weather, Anna disappeared and no matter how they search they do cannot find her.  Even when the police arrived to help continue the search, they were still unable to find anything.

From here they just continue to find clues but until the end they were unable to find Anna. However while searching, their feelings towards each other changed. Even though in the beginning Claudia felt guilty about being with Sandro because of Anna, in the end she still gave in and they both fall for each other. Sandro on the other hand was able to show right away his feelings for Claudia even when Anna just recently disappeared. He was also not very loyal as he was caught having sex with Gloria even when he was already courting Claudia.

It can also be noticed that throughout the film the only people who are actually trying hard to look for Anna are Sandro and Claudia. For the other group of people, they were just concerned with looking for pleasure for themselves. Even when people finally meet each other again, people are not that interested about the updates about the case of Anna. People who attend the meeting are just flirting with one another. Even Giulia who is a married woman openly flirts with the young prince even if her husband is also present.

L’Avventura is one of the longer films at 143 minutes and the pacing is quite slow and there is not much that actually happens as in the end they never found Anna anyway. The film was just about Sandro and Claudia’s relationship after Anna disappeared and aside from that almost nothing noteworthy happens. If you think that their relationship is immoral because of the recently disappeared Anna, then it would be harder to watch just like it was for me. I think L’Avventura is for people who are patient and can appreciate the cinematic beauty it offers. For people who are impatient and do not have the eye for the arts or do not know how to, L’Avventura would be extremely boring to you.

Persona is a film about two women, Alma, a young nurse and Elisabet, a stage actress who suddenly stopped moving and speaking due to her own choice rather than because of an illness. Alma was assigned as a nurse for Elisabet as she tries to recover. When Alma read a letter for Elisabet from her husband with a picture of their son, Elisabet tore the picture quickly and this got me thinking, what was the reason why she hates her son so much?  Because of this, Elisabet’s doctor suggested for them to transfer to a cottage by the sea as there might be a better chance for Elisabet to recover from there. There they were able to become closer to each other. One night when Alma was a little bit drunk, she shared a secret with Elisabet from the past where she had an orgy in the beach with Katarina whom she had just met with two young boys while she was in a relationship with Karl-Henrik. This resulted in her getting pregnant and so she had an abortion to get rid of the baby but in the end she still feels guilty about it. However the next day when Alma was delivering the letters they have into town she saw Elisabet’s letter and it says how she studies Alma and it also contains her secret about the orgy and the abortion. This led to her getting mad and confronting Elisabet about it. However in the next scene it does not make sense to me why she was the one running after Elisabet and apologizing instead of the other way around. In the end we were able to learn that Elisabet tried to abort his baby but failed in doing so. This resulted in him still hating his son even after she gave birth to him.

Persona was a film that was very hard for me to watch. The movie was very silent and there were some images that were quite disturbing. There were scenes that were easy to understand the characters speak clearly on what is happening but there are some scenes where there is only silence as we watch the visual of the film to continue moving. This makes it very hard for me to understand which makes me frustrated as it disturbs me that I cannot understand what is happening in what I am watching. The ending just got me super lost as there was suddenly a guy calling Alma, Elisabet and then they started getting intimate. I do not understand if this is just in their imagination or if it really happened to them. I think their personalities were slowly becoming one as they spend time with each other.  Persona also gave me the vibe that Alma and Elisabet wanted and loved each other so it might deal with lesbians as well. One thing I noticed though was that in the beginning it was Elisabet who needed Alma to help him recover but in the middle of the Film they were slowly switching roles as it was Alma who wants and needs Elisabet’s presence.