Weekly Sightings #4

About Schmidt, Alexander Payne, USA, 2002, 125 mins.
I just loved how the voice over of Warren contradicts the actual diegetic happenings. For instance, when he tells his foster child in a letter how well things were going for him since the death of his wife and how he could easily take care of himself (by the way no child of the age of 6 would want to know about that) - While on the screen you see him dressed in pyjamas stuffing his railer with loads and loads of fast food, completely distraught. I think the satirical contrast of voice over to screen actuality contributes to the comical effect of the movie a lot.

I definitely can see the connection to Election (1999) by Payne. Here he portrays not only one, but several characters via voice over. Also, in both movies the voice over is used as a means to speed up narration: You can grasp pictures and scenes zooming by much more easily if they're explained to or put in meaningful order for you.

-KATT

Carlito's Way, Brian de Palma, USA, 1993, 144 mins.
Gangster movies are one of my gaping voids of perception that need to be filled. Somehow I always ended up watching something else, mainly because of the film's lengths. After watching Carlito's Way I definitely am compelled to abandon unfounded excuse. Being my first conscious experience of Brian de Palma's work, I was blown away by the film's implementation of a former gangster, who spent some time in prison, wants to get back to the straight and narrow but finally fails.

I think, I often refused to watch Gangster movies because of their shared story and its motors. When it comes to de Palma's way of taking this template I was and still am ecstatic considering the movement of camera, especially the tilting when it comes to tensed scenes and establishing shots, the set design as well as the sound design. I enjoyed the changing volumes, even if that forced me to adjust the volume during the movie due to the fact that it was around 1 am. (compare scenes outside in the attic versus inside the nightclub).

The narrative placement of Carlito dying while the opening credits are shown and how quickly I forgot about this fundamental information, getting more rooted for Carlito coming clean, is still lingering in my mind.

-leonfredo