Expressing Oneself

Introduction 

    Directors can use a film to express ideas they have in their mind, or as a way to tell what is happening in the world or in their own life. The way to tell the difference can be by using a Personal or Political stance for the movie. 

Personal

    A personal stance in a movie, personally for me, would be that it happens in our lives and is something one can go through personally. There is not a set definition of personal in movies but when I was researching about it one sentence that stuck out to me was "It is a film which may not be that great objectively, but which holds for you a deep personal meaning: which is either enigmatically inexplicable or, is noncommunicable except in emotional connection with a time, place and person(fergalcasey)."It really sticks that a personal movie is something people can really connect to and it is something that can be a guilty pleasure. 

    A perfect example of a Personal film would be Modern Romance (Brooks), the story is surrounding the love relationship of the main character Robert who is also played by Brooks. This movie really showed the reality of many couples' situations of breaking up and ending back together and keep going through that same cycle many many times. Also can show how toxic one relationship can be, and one of the biggest things I remember my group talking about was that since we are the viewers of the movie we have a much more clear mind than the main girl and we were able to see that Brooks character really was able to twist the way the lady was thinking and keep making her believe him. 

    This movie still had humor in it, and there are techniques in this movie that were able to show with it. The main actor Albert Brooks is a comedian who has worked in late-night shows and has developed the hang of humor that will attract audiences. One of the first elements that caught my eye and left a big impression on me was the placement of props. After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend he intended that he would not call her or think about her, and his goal was to try to stay away from the phone but in the scene, he was constantly around a phone or there was a phone in all the rooms of the house just being asked for him to call her. This is really relatable to many people that wanted to end a relationship but there are things in life that are not going to make it so easy even when you are super determined. 

The perfect way of summarizing what personal filmmaking would be mentioned in THE LAST DETAIL is, "Personal filmmaking is about the sharing of recognizable human experiences between a filmmaker and an audience. Films that mean something to the people making them are bound to connect with at least some part of an audience who see something of themselves in the characters or situations." It really explains how audiences are able to connect with a movie that seems real and seems like people can go through it. 

Political 

    A political view on filmmaking would be having topics involving money or the current situation of our society. As said in THE LAST DETAIL "provoke a strong reaction, often by expressing an overt political point of view or argument" In our society times it is really hard to poke exactly at what is happening in the world and need to twist in to allow it to be seen, but back in the past, it was much easier. 

    A movie that we watched in class that had a political view but not really putting too much force on the topic would be Pennies from Heaven (Ross). It was set in the 20/30s when our country was going through the Great Depression so money was a problem for many, but the main goal of our main character was for him to sell his own music sheets of course there are problems in the way but how the movie was set up as a 'musical' we were able to escape reality with his fun and fancy musical numbers. 

    The music scenes placed in this movie especially the ones that are involved with money showed how the main character was really trying his best to get his American Dream of having money to get what he wants and have the real life that he has dreamed about with his loved one. In the music scene after his hanging, we can do not know if he is really dead or not but in that music scene it really was pennies from heaven there were girls being the 'pennies' dancing while more are falling from the sky and it is all his at the end. The director really allowed us viewers to have our own imaginary ending and try to guess if it was still on earth or in a make-believe
heaven, also using musical numbers can give a serious problem a hint of humor too. 
       

Conclusion

    When we watch a movie try to think if the theme of it is something that can be personal to one person or is it a reminder of our society just in a different way. Take a look at Modern Romance and Pennies from Heaven and see which one you like more! 

Links 

https://fergalcasey.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/personal-movies/#:~:text=What%20then%20might%20a%20'personal,a%20time%2C%20place%20and%20person. 

http://thelastdetailfilm.weebly.com/personal.html 

http://thelastdetailfilm.weebly.com/political.html