3 in 1… a blog entry for the film Babel..

three in one..

this is how i would describe the award winning movie Babel..

the movie was directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu…

yup, the director of aanother award winning films Amores Perros and 21 Grams…

Babel won awards in the Cannes Film Festival (Best Director, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and Technical Grand Prize), Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture – Drama), Gotham Awards (Best Ensemble Cast), and many more along with numerous nominations in other award giving bodies.

I have mentioned of the casts, this film includes:

Brad Pitt

Cate Blanchett

Adriana Barraza

Gael Garcia Bernal

Koji Yakusho

Rinko Kikuchi

Now, why 3 in 1?

Just like Amores Perros and 21 Grams, this movie gives us three inter-related stories in one movie. The first one is about a couple (Pitt and Blanchett) who are in a vacation in Morocco, when Blanchett got hit by a gun. She was hit by a kid with his brother who got the gun from their father. The gun was given to the father by a Japanese hunter. This leads to the second story that was set in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese hunter’s daughter who is a deaf mute is struggling to overcome pain due to the death of her mother. The third one is the story of the couple’s housekeeper’s (Barraza) happiness and struggles as she brought the couple’s children to Mexico illegally (without legal papers) without their parents’ consent.

On Audience, Actor, and Star 

I would like to reconstruct this film based on Stanley Cavell’s essay Audience, Actor, and Star…

 In a film, as compared to theatre, audience is not considered to be present mechanically. The film is done in front of the cameras, lights, directors, staff and crew, not infront of spectators. With this, actors are not fully expected to be really great actors unlike those of theatre. I’m not saying that theatre actors are better, its just that these actors(theatre) doesn’t have any room for any mistakes because of one single element, their live audience. A theatre actor projeccts the character during a performance, a screen actor, on the other hand, the performer itself is being projected by character. In the movie Babel, for example, Brad Pitt is being projected by his character in the film. If Babel was a theatrical performance, Brad Pitt is the one projecting his character.

Star, we often here this term nowadays, referring to the actors and actresses. Superstar, mega star, star for all seasons, starlets… name it, we had it all.. what is common to these is being called Star. As Stanley Cavell said in his essay, “…the stars are to gaze at, after the fact, and their actions divine ur projects.“

On Space, Time and Motion in Film

According to Alexander Sesonske on his essay Space, Time and Motion in Film; space, time and motion are the primary formal categories in cinema.

Space… how in the world can we determine space in a film since it is just contained in the frames of our TV screens or in the widescreens at movie houses? That’s what make es this aspect of cinema tricky… in this aspect, we see the film’s space through way or manner of framing the scenes in the film with the use of the cameras. Different techniques were used, such as long and short focal lengths. Close up shots shows more details, more intensity, more proxemics… Long shots on the other hand shows motions as a whole. As compared to those close up shots, close up shots shows us more motions, as we objects in the frame in constant motion. On the film Babel, as I could recall, there is a point where I got thirsty. This was when the housekeeper, along with the kids, are in the middle of a dessert. The long shots or open spaces that shows great implication on the setting and weather condition on that particular scene, shows the audience how hot and how tiring it is to be in their situation.

Time… the time in a film or in the world of the film is shown through many different techniques such as facial hairs, wrinkles, and etc. Honestly speaking, in Babel, I had a hard time getting track of the time because the film is not just compose of three stories, but also of two locations (Morocco and Japan).  These locations doesn’t have the same time; if the one is night, the other is daytime…

Motion… in a film, we see so many movements, so many that we would have a hard time noticing that these movements are of great significance or have great effect on us as viewers.. In a scene wherein the frame or the camera moves along with the character, it gives us greater idea of motion than just seeing the frame still while the character moves across the scene. In this situation, the motion becomes part of the composition.

Ausience…Actor…Space…Time…Motion… these elements in the film Babel where constantly presented and well considered… I believe, that this made it possible for the film to win so many awards and made it considered a true….Star…

References:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449467/

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/
http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1159138/photo_23.jpg