Years back I wrote an incentive paper for our Geography class. The assignment is to write a review for any movies that we watch and relate it to geography.
So here what I had to say with: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Nine, A Dangerous Method and Hugo
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I placed these four movies into one paper because I have watched all of them, among many others, not quite legally through the internet [please do not call the police and do not pass a law against watching through the web]. The web has been an almost “real” place to many of its users. We ‘socialize’ and mingle in it, we shop and we visit many places in the internet. Now, it is slowly becoming my new theatre. Since I have my laptop on for several hours and also because of the nocturnal orientation of my body clock, I load a movie while doing my homework and papers or any other requirements, it will take around two hours to load and to buffer (well it is also an issue with my internet) and then after my homework or when I think that I need a movie break I go to my theatre.
To me it is very convenient, I do not have to leave the comfort of my own couch or bed, I do not have to deal with the weather, if it is raining heavily or too hot to move, if I have missed a movie or one of my teachers mentions a title of a movie that I actually haven’t watched, I just have to search for it and then I can already watch it, whenever I want to. If for some reason there is someone (whose opinion I really value) and has watched a movie and tells me that the movie is “fake DVD worthy” then I do not have to waste my money and time going to a mall, queuing and watching the movie and eating popcorn just to get disappointed of that movie. Another advantage is I can watch whenever I want (well when my internet permits me), there is no movie theatre open for 24 hours, and going to the mall on weekends is sometimes a hassle because of the surge of people. Another thing is, usually I get to watch a movie in advance like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I will still watch on actual movie house).
Another thing that fascinates me with these movies or movies in general is their ability to bring you to a time and era that you don’t belong to.
NINE
Set up in 1960’s Italy. This musical is about Continni a struggling (because of creative-idea-blackout) director, writer and film maker. The story revolves around his coming up with a brilliant idea for a movie. The events then turn his world to spin differently as he discovers himself more, delving deeper into the female representations of his muse, mother, staff, wife, mistress, producer, a gypsy woman and a fashion enthusiast.
A play like places can have different meanings and utility to different people depending on the background, culture and personality of that person. An example from the movie is when a fashion enthusiast, a Vogue Magazine editor (played by Kate Hudson) suggested or said her idea to Guido Continni (Daniel Day-Lewis). Her number was about how people want to dress and undress likes the protagonist of the upcoming movie; that people want to be fashionable. Penelope Cruz’s character Carla Albanese however has a seductive number since she is Guido’s mistress.
A DANGEROUS METHOD
The set was in pre-world war 1, England.
This historical film is about a psycho-sexual patient at first then later a physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) and her professional to romantic relationship with her doctor Carl Jung. And Carl Jung’s turbulent relationship with his mentor Sigmund Freud.
For me recreating places to look like what it used to includes a lot of imagination and creativity. By the way that the actors dress and act tells you that the setting is not in today’s time. It is stunning how the same place looks different and has a different and yet a similar feel to it. Maybe the polite and courteous accent and use of language makes all the similarity. Or maybe the structure of the houses that you still can see in today’s time.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
This movie is set up in modern times (2000’s), Europe.
A mystery story. A journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who lost from a libel case was asked to find a missing girl forty years ago. He was assisted by a hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) – the girl with the dragon tattoo.
Like a regular place, there is theft in the cyberspace. And it is much scarier, in this movie the hacker stole millions of Euros just by hacking into their account. She hacks to one’s computers and it is scary because one can see what you are actually doing and the things that you share only to your closest friends can be known. One’s identity can be stolen.
Where you grow up, the culture, the norms form you as a person. You are influenced and made up of the place that brought you up.
HUGO
1930’s, Paris.
This is a story of a boy who lived in the walls of a train station in Paris. He is an orphan who lived with his uncle (a clock winder in the train station) when his father (clock maker) passed away. Before Hugo’s father passed away, he was fixing a machine – the Automatron. After his father’s death Hugo was determined to finish the work his father had done and therefore unlocking mysteries of the past.
I still am dumbfounded at how technology made our world so much different than the setting of Hugo. There were still clock winders during those times (I’m not sure if there are still now, but then I’m guessing there are none). People then need to adapt with these changes. Since, nowadays, most things are automated people need to equip themselves. Example, people trying to apply for a secretarial position nowadays have to know how to use Microsoft applications, during the 1980’s and early 1990’s (in the Philippines) they needed to know how to use the typewriter. Machines are starting to make people’s lives easier, but they are also taking away jobs that were supposed to be ours.
What I loved about Hugo is its idea of the world being one big machine. Hugo said something like “machines come with no extra parts, they always come with all the parts they need, so if I am here, then I have a purpose.” Humans, animals, trees, roads, insects, they have a purpose. It is the same with geography or other social sciences; it can’t be there without an explanation. If something exists then therefore it must have a reason.
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