Everything is Illuminated

(Liev Schreiber, 2005)

Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best selling book, Everything is Illuminated is both a funny, quirky, and thought-provoking film. The main story is a grimly familiar one - A young Jewish American--Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and the grandfather's deranged dog, named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. He has only a photograph and the name of a village. Will they find the village? This directorial debut by Liv Schreiber will leave you smiling and, most likely, scratching your head just a little bit.

ASSIGNMENT: How does the past illuminate everything? Consider both the film and your thoughts on life in response to this question. 200 words

MORE ON MARTIN.........http://www.scorsesefilms.com/

The Departed (2006)
The Aviator (2004)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Bringing out the Dead (1999)
Kundun (1997)
Casino (1995)
Age of Innocence (1993)
Cape Fear (1991)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Color of Money (1986)
Raging Bull (1980)
New York New York (1977)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Mean Streets (1974)

ASSIGNMENT: Reflect on Scorsese as a director, in regard to style, light, angle. Be sure to also mention at least one of his charcters and how they might connect to Scorsese himself.
DUE: Thursday, 5/7


Taxi Driver (1976)
Vietnam vet Travis Bickle is 26, a loner in the mean streets of New York City, slipping slowly into isolation. In solving his insomnia by driving a yellow cab on the night shift, he grows increasingly disgusted by the low-lifes that hang out at night. Travis constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. In nearly every phase of his life, Bickle remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone.

His touching attempts to woo Betsy, a Senator's campaign worker, turn sour when he takes her to a porn movie on their first date. He even fails in his attempt to persuade child prostitute Iris to desert her pimp and return to her parents and school. Driven to the edge by powerlessness, he buys four handguns and sets out to assassinate the Senator, heading for the infamy of a 'lone crazed gunman'...

Casino (1995)

This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.

MARTIN SCORSESE

After serious deliberations about entering the priesthood, Martin Scorsese opted to channel his passions into film. He graduated from NYU as a film major in 1964. He first caught the attention of Roger Corman with his 1960s student films (including co-editing "Woodstock" (1970).

Quintessential Scorsese style consists of New York settings, loners struggling with inner demons, pointed-shoes rock-meets-opera soundtracks and unrelenting cathartic violence.

GOODFELLAS (1990)

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) admits, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." As a boy, Henry idolized the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quit school and went to work for them. The local mob capo, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) (based on Jimmy Burke) help cultivate Henry's criminal career......

The Godfather
(Francis Ford Coppola; 1972)

“Don’t ever take sides against the family.”
The film begins at the wedding of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie to Carlo Rizzi in late summer of 1945, on Long Island, New York. The Don's youngest son Michael, who has returned from World War II service as a highly decorated war hero, does not intend to become part of his father's business.

Don Vito lives his life in the way of the old country, but times are changing and some don't want to follow the old ways and look out for community and "family". An up and coming rival of the Corleone family wants to start selling drugs in New York, and needs the Don's influence to further his plan. The clash of the Don's fading old world values and the new ways will demand a terrible price, especially from Michael, all for the sake of the family.

KUBRICK REFLECTION
Reflect on the style and talent of director, Stanley Kubrick.
Some questions to consider:
- What did impressed you the most about this director?
- What are his views and interests on society/humantity?
- How would you describe Kubrick's style?
- What did you like/dislike about his films? (Full Metal Jacket; Dr. Strangelove;
A Clockwork Orange; The Shining)

Dr. Strangelove or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a "Doomsday Machine" which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Premier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that "such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious." Will the bombers be stopped in time, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world ?






A Clockwork Orange (1971):
Protogonist Alex is an "ultraviolent" youth in futuristic Britianwhose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven. In the world of the novel and film, youth violence is a major social problem, and Alex represents a typical—though highly successful—teenager. He dresses in the “heighth of fashion,” frequents all of the popular hangouts, and is the undisputed leader of his gang. Ultimately Alex's luck eventually runs out and he's arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, he agrees to try "aversion therapy" to shorten his jail sentence, and is thus brainwashed to be proper citizen of society. "Cured," he has become adverse to violence and is eventually let out of jail only to find a world of rejection.....


Unforgettable images, startling musical counterpoints, the fascinating language used by Alex and his pals - Kubrick shapes them into a shattering whole. Hugely controversial when first released, A Clockwork Orange won the New York Film Critics Best Picture and Director honors and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The power of its art is such that it still entices, shocks, and holds us in its grasp.







The Shining (1980):
A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining." Along with writer's block and the demons of the hotel haunting him Jack has a complete mental breakdown and the situation takes a sinister turn for the worse......