Some of the movies on this vision board include:
1.The Master directed by Paul Thomas Anderson: The haunting, utterly inward stillness of the actors in “The Master” is one of the director Paul Thomas Anderson’s most apparent achievements, and it’s no mere ornament or element of dramatic plausibility—it’s at the core of the film, as is the very question of performance as such. I’ve seen the movie twice, which proved important. The first time, I found myself wondering about what it isn’t; the second, I was all the more struck by what it is. It’s not a work of psychological realism but one of extravagantly stirring symbolism masquerading as naturalism, and the first symbols that it sets in motion are the actors themselves.
2.A Very Long Engagement by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet: In the horror of trench warfare during World War I, with French and Germans dug in across from each during endless muddy, cold, wet, bloody months, not a few put their rifles into their mouths and sent themselves on permanent leave. Others, more optimistic, wounded themselves to get a pass to a field hospital, but if this treachery was suspected, the sentence was death. “A Very Long Engagement” opens by introducing us to five French soldiers convicted of wounding themselves; one is innocent, but all are condemned, and it is a form of cruelty, perhaps, that instead of being lined up and shot they are sent out into No Man’s Land and certain death.
3.Elephant by director Gus Van Sant: Elephant is a record of a day at a high school like Columbine, on the day of a massacre much like the one that left 13 dead. It simply looks at the day as it unfolds, and that is a brave and radical act; it refuses to supply reasons and assign cures, so that we can close the case and move on. Many viewers will leave this film as unsatisfied and angry as Variety’s Todd McCarthy, who wrote after it won the Golden Palm at Cannes 2003 that it was “pointless at best and irresponsible at worst.” I think its responsibility comes precisely in its refusal to provide a point.”
4.Somewhere by director Sofia Coppola: Don’t distinguish what he feels with the word existential. It has nothing to do with philosophy. This is called depression, but it may simply be a realistic view of the situation. Johnny Marco sits in a suite of the Chateau Marmont, that little hotel for generations of Hollywood hideouts, and finds himself a hollow man. With that comes such options as money, fame, sex, drugs. Fame is a joke because he gets nothing from it. Sex involves mechanical manipulations of the genitals.
5.Milk by director Gus Van Sant: Few characters could be more different, few characters could seem more real. He creates a character with infinite attention to detail, and from the heart out. Here he creates a character who may seem like an odd bird to mainstream America and makes him completely identifiable. Other than the occasional employment of Harvey Milk’s genitals, what makes this character different? Some people may argue there is a gay soul but in reality we all share the same souls.
6.On The Road by director Walter Salles: Although Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” has been praised as a milestone in American literature, this film version brings into question how much of a story it really offers. Kerouac’s hero, Sal Paradise, becomes transfixed by the rambling outlaw vision of a charismatic car thief, Dean Moriarity, and joins him in a series of journeys from his mother’s apartment in Ozone Park, N.Y., as they crisscross the continent to Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and then back again, until it occurs to Dean “I’ve never been south.” They turn to Mexico, finding in its long, straight cactus-lined roads, some secret to themselves. They also find marijuana; the two may not be unrelated.
Why these movies were chosen
These movies were chosen because they are significant films that study the relationship between a metaphysical opposition and a characters emotional state. Whether it is through a relationship, or the journey that our protagonists go through, all the movies listed go in-depth regarding different character types interacting with one another. This creates a very interesting character study between all the different variations in character types. We see how different genders interact with one another and how their actions effect the progression of the film. For example, in the film Milk, the two homosexual protagonists move to San Francisco and change the local Chavez district. This is an example of a unique character interaction that changes or challenges the ideas established by the rest of society. This expresses a sense of change throughout all these works that make them influential and important as messages of change.
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