The Mayor of Casterbridge (Part 1)

The Mayor of Casterbridge was adapted from the novel of the same name. In the beginning it is about a guy who auctions off his wife and baby daughter. And well she comes back with the daughter 19 years later to find that he is successful.  The acting is alright although I think the person who plays Farfrae could be younger and they showed no change whatsoever of Henchard over the 19 years. This movie seems to make close-ups of like anyone whenever they are speaking. which is getting kind of annoying. Also the camera is very shaky at times, also annoying. But eh I guess it is alright.

Citizen Kane (Part 5)

Hm well the movie is over it was really good. The ending was quite powerful in particular. When the camera was panning over all of Kane's belongings all in piles they all of the paintings, statues, furniture etc. seemed  worthless. Like all of those material possessions he acquired over his lifetime mean nothing. The teacher I TA for asked me if I had cried at the end I cannot say I did because I was so awestruck at the fact that this man's life pretty much equated itself to a sled. So yes a man's life can be summarized in one word.  

Citizen Kane (Part 4)

This movie is still going really fast. I find it fairly difficult to keep up when watching it in parts, it is definitely a movie one has to watch in one go to pick up on a lot. Although something I did notice in the opera scene during Leeland's interview the camera was facing the stage while during Susan's interview the camera was behind her looking out into the audience for a majority of that scene. I think that this might represent the different points of view and the different views of the same story by two different people. 

Citizen Kane (Parts 1, 2 & 3)

Wow this movie feels like it is going much much faster than the last one. Fast kind of like the news reel in the beginning. Connection??? Maybe! But anyway I really like the transitions between the scenes they executed them quite well (for example the one where one portrait covers the other). I wonder why it had that scene where Kane receives the sled from Thatcher but I guess that will be explained. Everything is going so fast but it is so good and so this movie marches on.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Full Film)

I found it much like any black and white war movie (as I said in my previous post similar to Red Badge of Courage). It was alright overall. And while yes the soldiers did seem very American maybe this was done on purpose to show how similar we are to them. Personally I like how everything had a purpose and it was connected to something else. For example wasn't Kat the one who was telling the troop how to avoid getting injured by artillery shells and wasn't he also the one who later got mortally wounded by shrapnel from a shell. I kept that scene in mind throughout the entire movie and hey it came back. But anyway I believe that a door is closing on this movie and beyond that door is another movie.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Part 1)

Despite the poor sound quality when watching the first part I was able to see in what direction the director was going with on this film so far. Many of the doors and window scenes makes it feel like the director wants you to see the world of the movie. I felt that I was really watching a lot of the action from the sidelines with this. Also the acting reminded me of the 1951 film "The Red Badge of Courage". They seemed to have this "all-American vigor" that really doesn't quite capture German soldiers. However I must watch more of this movie to form a true opinion on it.