Life is beautiful Review

this film was directed in 1997 by Robert Benigni. I was critically well acclaimed despite having mixed emotions about the theme of the film which was the holocaust.  It won the Grand Prix at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, nine David di Donatello Awards, including Best Film, in Italy, and three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Benigni.

It says he received alot of mixed reviews on the theme of his film but if asked on my opinion, he covered a really interesting aspect to the film. I'm not sure how he managed to take something so goofy and light hearted to something so dark without making it seem too awkward.

This film was based around a Jewish man who meets the love of his life. The settle and even have a child but it's all put on hold and threatened when people are carted off the concentration camps after being labelled jews by the Nazi regime. Inorder to shield his son from the horrors going on around them, the Italian man does his best to mask everything and lie saying its all a game building up to the grand prize; an actual tank. And thanks to his fathers quick thinking, the child manages to survive the entire trip without any harm. To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of old generation films as they cringe me out mostly. But this one wasn't too bad towards the middle and conclusion. 

Animations

Today in class we went over several older animations done in Rotoshop style of animation. Rotoshop animation was a style where the live filmed frame was painted over to create a stylized visual representative. we watched Snack and drink (1999) -The film follows an autistic boy to a local supermarket

Waking Life(2001) made using rotoscope style and 30 artists.

as well as Scanner Darkly(2006)

My take?.. I didn't really like any of them. Even if movies such as Scanner darkly had people like Robert Downey jr whom i love as a actor, I just couldn't dig it. It seems like an abstract artist's paradise but it isn't really for me

Class animation reviews

Today we watched the following:

                                                       - trailers for bugs life and antz
                                                       - Gorilla's music video
                                                       - Trailer for Perfect blue
                                                       - The old man and the sea
                                                       - Sink
                                                       - the man with beautiful eyes

I really liked the old man and the sea in particular with its painting-esque frame by frame animation, I suspect it would have taken a gobsmackingly long period of time to complete. I loved the visuals felt near dream-like to be honest as scenes swirled around and transitioned into one part to the next. The film was a paint on glass animation directed by a Russian animator named Aleksandr Petrov in 1999 based on the novel written by Ernest Hemingway.

The story follows the story of this old man who has been fishing for ages without a catch and is on such a unlucky streak even his apprentice wont go fishing with him. One day he heads out far and his line is swallowed by a huge marlin and a vicious battle ensues. The marlin pulls the old man around for ages till finally the old man manages to capture it. Unfortunately sharks smell the blood and come strip the flesh off the marlin's bones and the fisherman returns to the shore; defeated.