New York, New York

(Martin Scorsese, 1977)
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New York, New York, is Scorsese's typical Hollywood telling of a love-hate relationship. As a director, Scorsese is fantastic at telling a story or opinion that is unpopular, which is probably why, at times, the film is quite difficult to watch- even to a modern de-sensitized audience. He makes us feel a real feeling of danger and threat between the two explosive forces of De Niro and Minnelli; really distressing us, as viewers, as we practically watch domestic abuse.

The design features heavy use of painted scenery and back-cloths as well as vulgar clashes of colours within the jazz clubs (purple and yellow), adding I suppose to the uncomfortable watch that the story had already established.

500 Days of Summer

(Marc Webb, 2009)

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We are introduced to the main characters, Tom and Summer, via a montage of childhood home videos, showing them developing their interests and personalities. The film constantly flashes back and forth between the 500 days of their relationship, the colours reflecting the tone in that stage of their time together.

Tom dresses in greys and pale colours whilst Summer wears pale blues and yellows. Her apartment is decorated with patterns and “ditsy”, pale furniture, whilst Tom's apartment is furnished with dark wood. When he's in a relationship with Summer, the whole filter of the film is brighter and warmer, whereas everything gets colder and pale when she leaves and Tom feels miserable.

During the film they visit an IKEA, which is exactly like every other IKEA you've ever visited in your life! Homely and a little quirky. The morning after Tom and Summer spend their first night together, everything is noticeably brighter. There's an upbeat song playing, the sun is shining, everyone smiles and walks with rhythm. The people in the park are all in sky blue clothing and form into a synchronised dance, only accentuating Tom's happiness. As he enters the elevator everything is bright, the lift door closes and it re-opens ahead in time, where the relationship has gone dark and cold, along with the tone of the film.

In the expectation vs. reality scene, the screen is split and narrated, there's no audible dialogue. The scenes start the same and reality plays out slightly behind Tom's expectations. The expectation side is bright and warming, intimate, whereas reality is more sterile and cool.

The scene takes place on a rooftop garden with pastel shades and lantern hanging lights of pinks and pale blues. Reality and expectation become one single screen as the camera pans and focuses on Summer showing somebody her engagement ring. A great realisation of emotion comes over Tom and the colour in his face fades. As he flees the scene and runs down the street, the colour begins to drain and the shot becomes illustrated and the scenery is erased until all that remains is the slumped silhouette of Tom, alone.

An Education

(Lone Scherfig, 2009)
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Set in 1961, in a middle-class London suburb we see a montage of girls practising etiquette, dancing, cooking and sport. The girls sit in a high-ceiling school room, with large windows through which they stare longingly. Jenny is a mousey, A+ student bound for Oxford. She dresses in browns and greens and lives by her Father's rules and ambitions for her. Her home is nice but dowdy, pale blues and patterned curtains.

A charming older man enters Jenny's life in a classic, maroon Bristol. He offers her excitement and colour, takes her to luxurious places and buys her quality gifts. Jenny is cultured above her age and enjoys fine music. David takes her to the theatre which is so extremely different from her pale, home life. The interior is decorated with luxurious golds and reds. They drink from crystal glasses and the singer stands amongst red velvet drapes, wearing a sequinned fish-tail dress.

David's friend lives in luxury, his apartment is furnished with white sofas, classic upholstered chairs, dark wood furniture and crystal ornaments and collectables. The exterior architecture is white, art deco style.

In France, Jenny lives like she has always desired. They dance in the street, browse book stalls of French literature and drink wine on the riverside. Paris is much brighter than home, so much more colour. Jenny dresses glamorously, with big sunglasses. She walks on the wall of the riverbank, high heels in hand.

Bunny and The Bull

(Paul King, 2009)
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The house is a set of clutter and random collected items. Rooms are filled from top to bottom with boxes and boxes of organised and arranged junk, filed and stored precisely. The collections include stamps, drinking straws 1995 to 1996 and crossword cut-outs. The kitchen cupboard is filled with ready meals, labelled by day. All surfaces house piles of videotapes, folders and files.

The walls are also covered with clutter, one wall houses a variation of different clocks.

In a flashback, the scenery becomes illustrated and 2D. Chairs, tables and surroundings are drawn cut-outs, drawn fish swim in the fish tank. Landscapes are created from newspaper and on a visit to the shoe museum(!) the whole scene is filmed in front of a green screen. The surroundings of each scene are made from familiar objects, seen previously in the house- reality.

The sets are very handmade, some even noticeably and purposefully spill off from their rostra. The materials that the sets and props are made from are very recognisable, for example a floor in one case is created from black bin liners. A large pile of newspapers appear as the leg of a road bridge and there's a miniature fairground created from the the cogs and wheels within a cuckoo clock. Other rooms are created using illuminated beer crates and stacks of books too.

The Third Man

(Carol Reed, 1949)

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Shot in a mixture of studio sets and on location, the film is known for it's music creating a part of the narrative. Set in post war Vienna, the streets are filled with rubble and reminders of war. It features fine design and important photography and revolves around a complex narrative of espionage/ thriller.

The famous zither music repeats throughout, complimenting the fine interiors of Vienna's crumbling streets. Anna resides in a once lavish apartment, furnished with a brass bed and several potted plants. On the wall are dust marks where pictures had been hung. There's also a stylish spiral staircase.

The doctor's house is full of collectables and various beautiful and desirable statues and ornaments, and the walls are lined with mirrors and paintings.

The Man with the Golden Arm

(Otto Preminger, 1955)
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Six month clean heroin addict, Sinatra, arrives in the lower side of town, surrounded instantly by temptation, with signs for liquor, drugs, beer and girls. 

His girlfriend, Sash, is wheelchair bound, as a result of his actions under the influence of heroin. She waits for him each day in an attic bedsit, understandably a bit mad and paranoid. It soon becomes clear that Sash is pretending to be disabled in order to keep Frankie to herself and away from the, by comparison, glamorous Molly, a dancer with whom he has history. The attic room is dull and cluttered and doesn't offer much excitement.

Frankie occasionally visits a shop window, showing an ideal middle-class kitchen, accentuating his longing for a better quality of living, away from temptation. The temptation though is only emphasized by the soundtrack and the great, booming brass interludes as he injects again and again.

The Night of The Hunter

(Charles Laughton, 1955)
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The terrifying Robert Mitcham, a real life bad boy, plays the leading role of a preacher, complete with love and hate knuckle tattoos. Laughton experiments with a lot of different shots, including aerial/ above shots and even a with camera attached to the front of a car.

Mitcham appears terrifying and looming, a black figure at the end of the garden in the shadow of a single street lamp, accompanied by the booming, great music each time he appears. He speaks with musicality and authority, casting a shadow over any other characters within his scenes.

In the attic room scene, there's a single bedside lamp that provides little light. The light from the single window casts across the set and the mother lies in bed, within the white light. The preacher casts a looming shadow over her and the room plunges into darkness as he stabs her. Later her body sits upright in a white car at the bottom of the river. Her hair blows with the current of the water, in synchronisation with the underwater reeds.

The preacher later appears haunting as a silhouette on the hill at dusk, chasing the children from their homes. And the children appear drifting downstream in a rowing boat, silhouetted against the the dark riverbank.

La' Belle et La' Bête

(Jean Cocteau, 1946)
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This was created partly, as a morale booster for France, following the war. The film is heavily stylised and instantly recognisable to those aware of Cocteau. Cocteau uses lots of shot framing as well as plenty of experimentation with focus.

In the Beast's castle, parts of the set are living. The candlesticks on the wall are simply oval-framed, silver-painted human arms, that move when passed. The stone heads in the fireplace are also real, painted human faces that silently react to the main action within the scene. Hands appear from within the table to serve food, doors and gates open themselves, and grand shadows provide mysterious hiding places, within which the beast sinks quietly into.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

(Nigel Coan, 2012)

WIKI

From the childlike imagination of Noel Fielding, comes the mixture of live action and animation that is, Luxury Comedy. The sets are created from what looks like the contents of a child's craft set; reflective card, glitter, felt tip pens, crayon, sparkly fabrics, sequins, feathers, etc. It's an extravagant mixture of exaggerated textures and surfaces, for example, creases are painted onto fabrics. It is psychedelic and over the top and props are created from the most normal of objects, making them very abnormal in the process. Beards created from pencil crayons, facial features made from plastic cups. Make up and face paint are used in an exaggerated manner too. The whole feel of the programme is colourful and bizarre, a neon, geometric world.

The Jonathan Ross Show

(Various Directors, 2012)

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The studio for Jonathan Ross' show is by no means innovative, it works as a simple concept that has been used time and time again amongst similar programmes, the world over. It provides the basic presentation, performance and guest area, with space for an audience too. The guest area typically including the most simple of props, simply a desk for the presenter and your average 3-piece leather suite for the guests.

The set is outlined with curves, accentuated by the orange, strip-lighting that illuminates the multi-levels of rostra. The set wall is almost an “S” shape, housing each individual studio area in it's two-directional curve. The wall houses light panels that are illuminated in spots, with what resemble traffic-sign lights, again in orange. In yet another unoriginal part of the set, behind the desk area is a London night-time cityscape! This said, I like the set, it serves it's purpose!

Fresh Meat (S1EO2)

(Various Directors, 2011)

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Fresh Meat is the telling of six first-year university students who missed out on places in halls and so find themselves living together in a student house. The living space that they all share is very typically “student house” and I hate to use such a phrase! However, the furniture is mismatched and somewhat worn, sofas with throws and cushion strewn over them. Various sets of different coloured fairy lights hang around the room, which merges with the kitchen. The kitchen is a you would expect, with mismatched crockery and glasses stacked around the surfaces. Empty drink bottles are also dotted around. Space invaders stickers decorate the otherwise plain, dated kitchen cupboards.

The IT Crowd (S4EO2) “The Final Countdown”

(Graham Lineham, 2010)

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One of my favourite TV sets is the basement office of The IT crowd. It's fantastically “nerdy” and cluttered with an assortment of items. The walls are covered with graphic posters and cult imagery and every display surface is crammed with books, CD's, board games, memorabilia and models. Cupboards and other smooth surfaces are decorated with an array of stickers. Pieces of computer components are dotted around the set. The furniture is dated and mismatched, only adding to the cluttered and dis-organised feel of the whole IT department.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

(F.W. Murnau, 1927)

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This film was one of the first to feature an abstract and surreal montage sequence as a way of storytelling. It used a combination of models, live action, photographs, animation and clever editing to create this madness of the city, the place for which a 1920's vamp is trying to tempt a married countryman to. The overlaying of imagery as well as the combination of two different pieces of music, creates a wild and almost hysterical short sequence.

Battleship Potempkin

(Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)

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The Steps sequence of Battleship Potempkin is universally one of the most famous pieces of storytelling at the start of Hollywood, and a prime example of editing to inform a narrative. As a silent film, it wonderfully portrays the change from sheer joy to hysteria, through the use of clever and well informed editing. Eisenstein cited that as a storyteller he was most influenced by Dickens and it's quite evident as his narrative is constructed in such a sophisticated way.

Spellbound

(Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
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The famed “Dream” sequence is truly a view into Dali's paintings, translated into physicality. His collaboration with Hitchcock provides visual references to Un Chien Andalu, specifically with reference to the description of the character dreaming of eyes being sliced through. It's a very specific and surreal visual language that he has.

Catfish

(Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost, 2010)

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Catfish is the somewhat worrying documentary following what starts out to be an innocent picture about, director, Ariel's brother Nev, but unfolds to be something completely unprecedented. The story is fantastic but most of all I enjoyed the way the information was presented to the audience. In today's consumer society and with social media being now, bigger than ever, I think that the way information was shown was a simple but clever- the perfect way to present things to the “Facebook generation”.

I refer to the landscape views, shown through the online satellite map, Google Earth, and the use of this tool's virtual pins to show the documentary's locations. Even the Universal logo at the start of the film is replaced by google's spinning earth, the text replaced with early computer type.

It also cleverly introduces new characters in the documentary through the, very familiar, Facebook tagging system, i.e. a mouse hovers over a face on screen and their name shows up. To highlight key information too, it is typed as we hear it being said, as if it were being entered onto a computer screen.

Handheld camera work throughout only amplifies that sense of this “facebook generation” in that everything is so instant and, in the sense of this documentary, we are to believe it's cinema verite, that these events are unfolding instantly, in this ever faster world. With another use of social technology, texts between characters are read to the audience to fill us in, to tell us what we need to know-- and quickly!

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

(Robert Weine, 1920)

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Following the strange tale of a somnambulist who performs at fairs and around whom a strange series of murders occur. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a landscape of expressionism, complete with wonky and jagged sets, presented in a very theatrical way. The set for the fair, for example, could easily be a physical theatre stage, complete with it's own painted frame (like curtains) and it's canvas backgrounds.

The buildings in the foreground, as well as in the canvas background, appear very abstract, similarly in a way that much of the furniture featured in the film is highly impractical and stylised.

For the actual representation of murder, in true horror style, we see the actual act unfold as an exaggerated and stretched shadow against a wall. The film is widely considered to be one of the greatest silent-horrors ever made and the twist ending is said to be the first of it's kind. It's evident nowadays that director, Tim Burton, has likely taken heavy influence from Weine (though he denies knowing of the films existence until recent years!).

Zero de Conduite

(Jean Vigo, 1933)

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This title, that was banned in the UK until the 1970's, follows the lives of pupils at an all boys school who see their place of education as a dull, prison-like place. In this strict and regimented environment, the boys find several ways of rebelling against the school, along with the encouragement of new teacher, Huguet.

From the outset we witness the boys as rebellious, smoking cigars in the non-smoking carriage of the train in between showing each other their pranks and jokes. The dormitory of the school is a long, sterile room, resembling that of a hospital ward, with one curtain-enclosed area, in which a teacher sleeps. The narrow room is lined on each side, with a row of metal beds. In another classic act of rebellion, we witness the boys collected together, smoking in the toilets.

The teacher, Huguet, displays a similar view to the regimented environment and so acts, on numerous occasions, in a less than exemplary way. He steals possessions from the children whilst they are at break and then conducts his lessons through a visual chaos, in which the boys are scattered around the classroom. Some boys at desks, others on the desks, and others on shelves! The teacher is powerless amongst these boys, who display behaviour similar to that of wild animals. He also tries to outdo the boys' attempts at impressing each other by performing a handstand in the classroom, only with the use of clever filming, it appears he is stood on one hand, whilst using the other to draw! In another performance of editing “trickery”, one boy shows another a trick in which a ball disappears from his hand.

In a visual comparison to their lives at school, the kids home lives are dull and the impression is created that they'd rather be causing chaos, as they spend their time plotting revenge against the school's principal.

As well as this film being an obvious example of rebellion against a wider culture, an idea that was not to be be promoted at it's time of release (considering that this was the year the Nazis came to power), it also features the issue of homosexuality, by featuring an over-friendly relationship between two boys, one who appears to be very feminine, as he is favoured by another teacher who strokes the boys hair and tends to treat him very much like a girl. Again, homosexuality was outlawed in the UK until 1967, so this film succeeded in causing wide offence!

In a timeless scene, in which Vigo really plays with imagery, slow motion is used more effectively, I think, than almost any other film to date. We see a boy back-flip onto a chair, amongst the rest of the boys gathering in the dormitory, proceeding ahead like soldiers to war. Slow motion intensifies the determined efforts of these boys, about to fight their “dictators”, as they walk into a headwind of pillow feathers, holding their hand-made weapons proud. The scene is quasi-religious too, as the crowd carries a boy above their heads, on a chair. Also, they tie their sleeping teacher to his bed, displaying him upright, in a position that resembles Christ on the cross.

In the final scene, and in the boys' final push for freedom, they manage to escape by bunny hopping across the roof tops of Paris, only after causing more chaos and embarrassment to those trying to conduct order. Huguet, predictably the whole time, laughing along with the boys' antics! At no point in this film do you have any doubt that the audience are meant to be on any side but the boys', it suggests no respect towards order and heavy ruling, whilst remaining whimsical in a time when the world was still dealing with the effects of the 1931 depression.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
(Tim Burton, 2007)
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Based on the Broadway musical, this is Tim Burton's adaptation of the age old tale of Sweeney Todd. Immediately, the film is recognisably Burton, with the obvious casting of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter.

The film starts off with mechanical, silhouetted imagery. Everything appears through a dark filter, as if to accentuate the dirt and darkness of life in Victorian London. Todd's (Depp) face appears ghostly light, grey amongst the blacks and blues of the mysterious, shadowy, gleaming wet cobbled streets of London. A single noir-esque light casts across the street.

The flashback scenes, in which times were evidently better, the imagery is visually much more crisp, brighter and full of colour, as if to be emitting a warm glow. The crisp, clean whites; so different to the, almost underworld, visual qualities of the rest of the film. Similarly in the flashback to Judge Turpin's party, a masked ball, the surroundings are visually luxurious, filled with reds and golds, feathers, velvet and candles. The imagery becomes visibly overpowering and increasingly decadent as the pace of the scene rapidly increases and acquires a sense of urgency. Characters, abundant with masks of mythical creatures, surround the frame, bringing about a rush of colour and emotion.

Back to the Victorian London of the primary narrative, the colours darken and dampen again. In Lovett's pie shop, complete with it's dusty net curtains that, appropriately (in a Tim Burton film!) appear like cobwebs, flour and dust appears to coat every surface, completely blanketing the dark wooden furniture, absolutely none of which shines. Each surface too, literally crawling with cockroaches.

A set I'm particularly fond of in this film is the actual barber's attic. It's dusty wooden floorboards, lit by a single hazy light from the roof window. Other parts of the single room are hidden by the shadows and the furniture is minimal. The dull, broken mirror provides only fragmented reflections, a true reflection of the characters' personalities.

As Lovett fantasizes of a life away from the city with Todd, her ideas are expressed with essentially warm colours. As she wishes for a life by the sea, the colours used are typically nautical, pale blues and whites, represented by worn beach huts and deckchairs. The fantasy scenes are visually inviting, you feel the warmth in Lovett's desire for family life, in her desire for colour, away from the darkness of London.

Metropolis
(Fritz Lang, 1927)
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Metropolis is the futuristic story of a working and upper class divide. It houses the classic tale of an upper class man, Freder Frederson, who falls in love with a working class woman, the preacher, Maria.

Set somewhere in the future, Metropolis truly is a masterpiece of visual forsight, with sets of Chicago skyscrapers, when actually skyscrapers didn't appear until at least 30 years after the film's release. With visions of modern travel too- Monorail, trains, planes, all envisaged in this 1927, sci-fi that has influenced so many other films since. The film begs the question; how could the director have had such a vision of a future, that to a 2011 audience, is so actual and current?

The narrative is predictable now, however to a 1927 audience, it would have been innovative and exciting. At times the film seems a little fragmented but this is due to the fact that physically, some parts of the film were lost to the deterioration of celluloid. The film's look is very industrial and advanced, mixing imagery of neon-illuminated skyscrapers and flashing signs with imagery of whirring cogs and steaming pipes. The set makes use of a lot of strong forms; very linear buildings, especially within the working-class area and more adventurous designs within the cityscape, exploring curvature and much less the use of the straight line.

The music is very dominating, menacing at times. It works very well with the very much “German” imagery of the regimented workers in linear formation, and definitely heightens the sense of the looming “below”, where the workers spend their gruelling shifts. Contrast between light and dark is very widely used throughout the film, often adding an almost film-noir aspect to the film; a single light shining upon the desperate woman as the elongated shadow of a madman nears.

In keeping with it's futuristic and visionary theme, the film even explores the possibilities of robotics, making this then, the textbook for all sci-fi films that would follow it's 1927 release. All of the sub-categories explored in Metropolis can be found countless times over in films from the same genre. Personally, I was surprised with the complexity of the editing in this film. At times there are several images all super imposed and layered together and, during a scene demonstrating Freder's delirium following illness, the pace of the cuts between imagery is remarkable! It's very successful in creating a menacing and almost disturbing tone, using the fast pace to highlight the uprising of Maria's (The Machine Man's) hysteria and overwhelming control over the sheep of society.

In the scenes in which Brigitte Helm plays her main character's double, known as The Machine Man, I find her acting really quite disturbing; her movement very disjointed and unnatural. I was initially wary of Metropolis, but ultimately I enjoyed it, it's interesting to see how so many films since this have drawn influence from it, whether that be through editing or actual content. I understand that although I've seen a similar storyline so many times before this, Metropolis, in it's day, was truly innovative and Lang was very much ahead of his time in terms of narrative and content.