Montage

Last week one of my classmates did presentation on Sergei Eisenstein. He was film theorist who concerned about techniques rather than content: montage. The use of montage is best known as film editing. He believed that montage will shape the audience’s emotions, thoughts, and create metaphors as well. Therefore, he developed montage into five categories:

1. Metric montage which focuses on length of shot by combining the shot
2. Rhythmic montage which focuses on visual pattern within the shots. It will be based on matching action and
screen direction. It will be considered as portray conflict such as opposing screen.
3. Tonal Montage which focuses on editing that establishes emotional character of scene.
4. Overtonal Montage is the interplay of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage. The interplay will combine ideas and emotional in order to bring the desired effect from audiences.

5. Intellectual montage which combine two scenes as a kind of metaphor. There is no meaning in the individual

shots.

When I heard about these montages, I tried to figure out which film that relates with these montages. The scene from Face/Off reminds me the fight scene of So Close (2002) that Ai Lin (Shu Qi) assassinates the chairman of Chinese company. The shot technique is conflict by offering fight/violent scene along with calm music. This scene brings about the emotional to audiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Ea0abq04w&feature=PlayList&p=806B3F1CC4AD92F5&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV_vwIMN7Ww&feature=PlayList&p=806B3F1CC4AD92F5&index=2

Another montage is intellectual montage in the film Siam Renaissance (2003) which in the last scene when MeeJan talks to their parents switch with the scene ManeeJan’s parents pour holy water for her along with falling of roses’ petal. With this technique, the film represents each petal of roses that drop slowly as the infinity love of parents to her. Individual scene cannot represent the meaning to audiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_bKmqxqE8&feature=PlayList&p=FE3B85D0E423E19C&index=11

Gaze--- Who gaze?

Today, many films and magazines are related to male gaze who represent women from male point of view. This idea was developed from the article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey who is feminist film theorist. She stated that the female characters are objects that are controlled by the camera. Through the films a scene of male gaze involves with the camera capture on the curves of a woman’s body.

For example, my last film My Wife is Gangster, when female character, Eun-jin dresses a beautiful dress the camera pans around and focuses on her body slowly. Another example, in the film Miss Congeniality (2000), there are many scenes that the camera focus on female body such as when everyone see agent Hart after she has make up on and dress sexy cloth. The camera focuses on her body through the other characters’ eyes.

However, films are not only one media that focus on female body, the advertising industry especially magazine as well. The picture of attractive women will be shown on the cover on inside pages in order to show products to customers. The advertising aims at the viewers who think that they could be the same as model so they decide to buy products. In addition, the men customer will buy magazine because the attractive women picture as well. Again, I think there is male gaze in cartoon, if we consider male gaze carefully such as the way female characters dress.

Can the subaltern speak?

My Wife is Gangster (2001) is about woman who joins a gang and become a boss named Eun-jin. She acts, talks and dresses like a man. She has a lot of her subordination. One day she discovers her sister, unfortunately she found out that her sister has cancer. Eun-jin asked a doctor to operate her sister, but the doctors refuses because her cancer is at last stage. Before her sister dies, she asked Eun-jin to get marry and has happy family. Therefore, Eun-jin decides to make a promise with her sister and she has to find a groom to make her sister’s wish come true.


Eun-jin is a good example for the easy “Can the Subaltern Speak?” wrote by Spivak. She pointed that the subaltern does not have their own voice to ‘speak’ because their voice are never heard. In this term of subaltern, I talk about feminism. Throughout the films, Eun-jin is denied a voice or the films absent her voice. In this film, Eun-jin character can compared as Hindu widow who burn herself for honor her husband because she does not have her own voice to ‘speak’. First, she has to follow her boss although she has her own man. Second, she has to get married as her sister asks her to do. Eun-jin has to follow what other people say to her in order to follow rules and make her sister is happy. We can say that Eun-jin does not have her own desire same as Hindu widow who jump on fire.

These two ideas point out that feminism still does not have her voice in the global world today even she has power, man, and position