Reel World

Hailed as "the first landmark film in Japanese history" by film critic Mark Cousins, Souls on the Road  is a film to which many students and scholars of modern filmmaking give a hard pass.  Some criticize the film as offering a patchy narrative and overly melodramatic character portrayals.  It has also been criticized as being "messy" by modern standards, in terms of directing, lighting, camera angles, and in its unconventional, non-linear storytelling. However, all of these criticisms can also be viewed as groundbreaking in these very areas. Once again, scholars, Context reigns as King!  It is imperative to note that at the time this film was made in Japan, live musicians played traditional instruments to one side of the screen, while a narrator or troupe of narrators called "Benshi" elaboratively explained ("setsumei") the action of the film and its dialogue during the screening.  When intertitles arrived in Japan, Benshi would often inc...

Hello, DP Film Scholars! Mr. Byrne and I are missing ALL of you, and our 7th-period gatherings in the Media Living room. We hope you are well, and that you are getting caught up on your current film projects, and using your creative energy and gift of time and sunshine to make new ones! Before we left on spring break, we had ask you to consider your choice of two possible films for our next film discussion:   Marley and Me  and   Under the Tuscan Sun ,  two favorites of Mr. Byrne and Mrs. Caraway.  We highly recommend that you watch and enjoy both of them under our new circumstances, but we ask that you respond on this blog for just one of your choice. In the interest of familiarizing yourselves with how to comment on and consider various contexts, I have designed a commentary format for you to use below as you watch the films with the critical eye of a film student! But first, I would very much like to share some fun facts about each fil...