International Film Critique

Use the following format for your international film review; answers must be typed below the questions and all questions must appear in full on your final copy. You can use this document as your template. Pay careful attention to the required number of words for those questions that have them. Failure to follow the instructions here and on your syllabus will result in a substantially low grade. Minimal answers poorly written are a D grade or less. Elaboration of points, excellent arguments, and good writing garner higher grades.

*********************************************

Name: Jimmy Alcover	
Class time period Friday 10:00-12:45

1)	Title of Film: my life as a dog.
2)	Year of release:1985
3)	Language of original film: Swedish 
4)	Director: Lasse Hallstrom	
5)	Actors: Anton Glanzelius

6)	Give a brief plot summary (should be 150-250 words and not be plagiarized from the web):

So the story is a bout a boy named Ingmar, who in hard times has had to move out of his moms’ house and go to live with his uncle in the countryside. His mother fell ill and is having trouble taking care of her rambunctious children. The government steps in and takes her kids away till she can get better. While living with his uncle he is exposed to some very fun times and chances to meet new friends but also learns many lessons. He finds love, sadness, and confusion, throughout his time staying with his uncle and also while at home. The movie ends bittersweet and at times seemed very depressing.

7)	Analyze the social and philosophical issues the film addresses. Make sure you include the point of view of the movie, the context of the movie, what audience the movie is targeting, and why. (i.e. you should address and reflect upon the “argument” or “meaning” of the work. This should be analysis, not just summary of issues in the movie) {your answer should be at least  500 words}

This movie could be targeting older upper middle class people, who are looking for some feeling of what it is like to live in a working class situation. And I don’t believe this movie was ever meant for Americans. A lot of the norms of the society in the movie differ from what we see in American society and are inconsistent with what you see in mainstream American movies. This movie would also be pretty hard to swallow for younger people and defiantly shouldn’t be seen by children.

His main argument seems to be that living in a working class family is tough all around; the author wants to show maybe that people take things for granted. The movie really gives you a chance to reflect on the differences from Ingmar’s life to your own, especially with all the time Ingmar takes to just ponder and look at the sky and reflect on his life, and he seems to do this at every turning point in the movie. The author also wants to convey the importance of family in the film. Life would have been a lot darker for Ingmar had his family not stepped in to help him out.

Some of the issues in the film are poverty, sexuality, and death. Ingemar has a girlfriend in the beginning, and they are trying to act older than they are. He makes her drink his blood to signify there connection between them, his older brother shows them how to make a baby, and later while they are under the bridge his girlfriend seems to be trying to sleep with him, at least that’s what it seemed like. Ingemar was, like some of the other kids trying to grow up faster than he could. This was probably his attempt to take himself out of his own discomforts in his life.He also meets a girl who likes playing soccer and to box, and not only that, she is better than all the boys, but she struggles to find ways to hide herself being a girl for fear that she will get kicked off the team, and with ingemars help seems to do just fine, but in the process the two eventually fall for each other. Her allot sooner than him, and at first he didn’t want anything to do with it because she acted like a boy but after she pretty much throws herself at him a few times he gets the point and comes around.

In the movie Ingmar learns the value of spending time with your family, he dreams of times when his mother was healthy and he could talk to her and she would listen, but since her ill heath he hasn’t been able to enjoy that connection and he eventually losses it when she passes away. And in this he learns the value of time well spent. All he seems to want throughout the movie is to have his dog back but he never gets the chance to see her again after he first leaves to live with his uncle, his is continually lied to about what happened to the dog, either that or they just seem to ignore him. When he learns that the dog had died, he takes it with humor at first then with sadness, probably confused at first about what to believe.

8)	What is your response to the message of the film? Why do you respond this way? Show that you are thinking about your own thinking here and the biases/assumptions about the world you bring to your viewing. Did the film change the way you view the subject? Why, or why not? {at least 250 words}

The main meaning of the film was family; I think ingemar really took all of his loved ones for granted till the end of the movie. More often than not when the government steps in to help out a family because the children are acting out at school or at home, they blame the parents and take the kids away, he was lucky to have his aunt and uncle to help, and lucky that they put him there rather than in a boys home or foster home. And not only that, it gave him a chance to have a father figure in his life. To teach him how to be a man, talk to the ladies, and even what things to look for in a woman, and I think his uncle sett allot of stones in motion that ended with Ingmar going down the right path. He meets friends, gets to explore a little adult reality, and finds love all because of his uncle

9)	What cultural differences did you notice in the film (philosophical outlook, humor, architecture, customs, clothes, cities, weather, food, music, dancing, lifestyles, etc.)?  What did you learn about history, economics or politics? {There are always differences; look for them} [at least a 250 words]

The film was made I a different generation so all the norms seem to be out of place. If you whipped out your willie in grade school and stuck it in a bottle in front of all your peers, I’m pretty sure they would take it a lot more severe today than just having a short talk with your mother, I don’t think the school would let you come back after that. The film has a very rustic old European even pagan feel. The buildings were old, the cars were old, the music was classical, and everything seemed to be a little dirty probably to convey the semi poverty.

The most surprising part of the movie for me was how sexually opened everyone seemed to be, From the children to the adults. In one of the first scenes Ingmar’s’ girlfriend it taking off her close under the bridge. And his newer tomboy friend shows him her breasts as if he was going to assume they were a bad thing just like she thought at first. Also his uncles’ coworker is easily convinced to get naked and lay on the floor and let some strange guy draw her for a sculptor. And all of this seems to be pretty normal for the people in the move and they even seem to enjoy being so open about it.

10)	 What techniques did the filmmaker use that were different from what you see in the films you normally watch? Think about lighting, dialogue, atmosphere, setting, music, and how the filmmaker might play upon your own biases, etc.{150 words}

Not a lot of American film makes make such a blunt movie. The movie was filled with realism; all that sexuality is a little unsettling when you are watching the movie. In the scene where the sculptor is drawing the his uncles co worker in the nude, its very obvious that he is taking advantage of her, and left me with a feeling of guilt for her having to resort to selling herself, especially in the end when you realize it fully. One thing I really liked about this move was the scene of time the director tried to convey all of these things seemed to happen in less that a year and he shows this by simply going from summer to winter but making it vivid in your mind by showing you scenes of nature in both seasons.

11)	 Why do you think I assign a foreign film?

	To give me a chance to broaden my horizons, and to view the world through the lens of someone else’s telescope.