Annie Adams
5/16/12
Elements of Film
Temporal Aspects
of Film
One
aspect of film that I have always noticed is how temporal issues are introduced
and resolved. A basic temporal issue is trying to show some one aging without
making you sit there for the 30 or so years to watch them get older and then
carryout explaining that crucial moment in the character’s life. This temporal
aspect is resolved with make up or casting two actors for the same character.
In some movies, like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, Brad Pitt had
extensive make up on but other props and CGI also had played a big role in
creating a character that aged backwards. This is just one of many examples of
tools that writers, producers, and directors can use in just any ol’ film that
follows basic temporal rules. These rules follow basic human natural tendencies
with time. For example, most movies will have the events in a specific sequence
that follows the patterns of our daily lives. For example, one might eat
breakfast before going to work, and then go out to lunch, which is later
followed by coming home for dinner. However, there are a few movies that
manipulate the temporal aspects of a story to create something more
interesting, or allow for the story to play out in a particular way. I have
chosen three movies to discuss that incorporate these types of temporal issues
in very different ways, which are Memento, Inception, and Midnight in Paris.
Memento
is a movie about how a man with amnesia deals with his wife’s rape in murder,
and tries to figure out what happened by writing himself notes to remind
himself of things that he as already figured out. What makes this movie so much
more interesting than any other kind of crime-solving one, is that all of the
information is delivered to the viewer out of sequence. As I explained in the
introduction, the human brain is used to seeing things in sequence, as in,
breakfast comes before lunch, which comes before dinner. This aspect of time
went completely in the garbage in the editing room for Memento. All of the
scenes were cut and placed out of order so the viewer really had to sit and pay
attention to the story. The overall plot wasn’t anything new but the fact that
it was put together in a way that viewers were required to really think throughout
made it a more interesting and original movie.
Inception
on the other hand, was very original in it’s story, and in it’s use of time.
Inception is about a man, Cobb, who, with several colleges, “breaks into” other
people’s dreams to extract information for an important case. Cobb takes on an
important case where he has to put information inside some one’s mind, rather
than taking it out. The technology used allows for Cobb and his colleges to put
their victims to sleep and take their time to get the information. Cobb,
Leonardo Decaprio’s character, describes it in the following scene,
This scene explains an odd phenomenon that every human
experiences, but uses it for the story of the movie later on. This element
makes the story relatable, which is what sucks the viewer into the movie in the
first place. Reliability is so crucial in “Inception” because the whole movie
revolves around concepts that don’t exist in the real world. This next scene
shows how time is slowed down to make a point, and also for the movie to play
out the way the writers wanted it to.
This scene shows how slow motion is used to be able to
depict the detail in which the story has. The characters wouldn’t have been
able to carry out their task of putting the information into the victim’s mind
without slowing down time in the other dreams. Without the manipulation of
time, this movie wouldn’t have been as big of a hit as turned out to be,
because the story would have holes in it and the common viewer wouldn’t have
been able to follow.
Midnight
in Paris works with the manipulation of time in a slightly different way than
Inception, but uses time to make a similar point. Midnight in Paris is about a
writer, Gil, who is in Paris and trying to get inspiration for a book he is in
the process of writing. He is a very nostalgic person, and is obsessed with the
1920’s. While on a walk through Paris very late at night, Gil sits down on a
set of steps around midnight, and a car from the 1920’s pulls in front of him,
and picks him up. Little did Gil know that it was his window to the past, which
landed Gil right in the 1920’s. Time Travel is one of Hollywood’s favorite
manipulations of time, but in this movie, it was done differently. Writers
often use time travel to explore their curiosities with the past, but sometimes
it’s used to create what could happen in the future. This type of time
manipulation is often used in science fiction type movies, but Woody Allen took
this concept and applied it to a more realistic setting. This is what made the
movie so much more original. There wasn’t fancy equipment in which the
characters traveled through time; there wasn’t any 80’s suspenseful music to
hint at potential threats. Though the clip was unavailable online, there is a scene
towards the end in which Gil, played by Owen Wilson, is talking to Adriana,
played by Marion Cotilard, and Gil realizes that the past isn’t as amazing as
he made it out to be. This is a lesson that the grass isn’t always greener on
the other side. This lesson was well executed through time travel, and wasn’t
in the least bit cliché.
Time
is so important in film that writers and directors work really hard on making
the timing of the story work well. Time has a huge influence on so many aspects
of film that if not executed properly, the movie is a total flop. Memento
would’ve been like all the other detective movies if it hadn’t been out of
sequence, Inception would have been your typical Science Fiction movie, and
Midnight in Paris would’ve been your typical movie about a struggling writer.
In conclusion, the temporal aspects of film can make or break the story of a
film.
ReplyDeleteMovies are the best way to see a story with the the so experienced actors nowadays
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