Class February 13 2014

Class tonight has been cancelled. Our next class meeting is scheduled for two weeks from tonight which is Thursday February 27. During this class I will discuss the paper requirements so nothing will be due on February 27. Everybody be safe with the snow.

Wednesday Night Class

Hi everybody there is no paper due on Wednesday February 12. On that date I will go over the paper requirements and the new due date for the paper will be on Wednesday February 26. Thank you.

Cancelled Class

Hi everybody. Class was cancelled tonight so next week there is nothing do and I will explain the paper in our next class which will be on Wednesday February 12. Thank you.

Excellent Description of The Test Screening Process Often Ruins Movies

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/darren-aronofsky-paramount-spar-over-noah-final-cut-050000849.html

Breaking Bad Song From Penultimate Episode Tie In!

If you are a Breaking Bad fan you should watch this video immediately and become even more impressed with the brilliance of the writers and creative crew!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/10/breaking_bad_s_felina_and_marty_robbins_el_paso_video_explains_how_the_breaking.html

Number 1 Horror Film

For me this is the ultimate horror film. It is also one of the crowning achievements of the entire motion picture industry! Unique, over the top, and the ultimate examination in celluloid form about Christian ideology. I refuse to believe that anyone can watch this film alone at midnight and get to bed right away. If you can you I am not sure that I want to know why you were not emotionally disturbed by what you saw. There is no horror film better then The Exorcist in my opinion and perhaps no film has ever been better then this one. William Freidkin's masterpiece! Domestically it is the most finically successful horror film of all time and the ninth highest grossing film of all time when e adjust for inflation. No other film will come close to being what The Exorcist was and continues to be!

Number 2

Checking in at number 2 is the often imitated but never duplicated "Psycho." Psycho changed the entire landscape of what a horror film was. It created the slasher genre of horror films and brought some truly wonderful ideological and Freudian components into horror films. I am very reluctant to put this as number 2 instead of number 1, however I am very partial to the number 1 film coming up next!

Den of Geek

This is the link to the articles that I am currently writing for the website Denofgeek.com.
http://www.denofgeek.com/tags/matthew-giordano
Also very proud of my former students and the movie "Catch of the Day" that they made and I am wishing them the best of success as they premiere their film at the Hot Springs Horror Festival tomorrow. Here is a link to their Facebook page check them out. They are truly very talented and I am very proud of them.
https://www.facebook.com/FuzzOnTheLensProductions?directed_target_id=0

Number 3

The number three greatest horror movie in my opinion is "Scream." Brilliant satire and brilliant horror film. It is easy to take this film for granted considering how many knockoffs it inspired (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend). However, this horror film helped to bring horror back as a legitimate genre and arguably helped to usher in this current renaissance of horror related programing. Wes Craven is a master!

Mickey Mouse

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/17/why-disney-buys-all-the-premium-character-collecti.aspx

Number 4

"Halloween"

Still the perfect movie to watch on halloween night. There have been many imitators but nothing seems to stand up to this truly great horror film.

Number 5

Checking in at number 5 may be my most shocking choice but it is "Interview With  A Vampire" which I hands consider to be the best vampire movie ever made and it is one of my favorite films of all time. Tom Cruise is many things but as an actor I am massive fan of is and in my opinion this is his best role ever. I only wish that one day Lestat could show up in Bon Temps and do a little crowd control but alas that dream will never happen. This film looks fantastic, has an interesting story that spans several time periods and arguably has Kirsten Dunst's best performance ever and that is not a knock on her she is just out of her mind good playing an extremely sinister vampire named Claudia. Check it out and whatever else you do DO NOT WATCH THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED MOVIE!

Number 6

The original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remains one of the most disturbing horror films and arguably it's low budget gritty feel makes the film seem even more terrifying as if this was someones long lost home movie. Ironically the film is not as bloody as most people tend to think as the camera cuts away from the scene of actual gore more often then not. However, the frenetic pacing of the film makes the lack of blood almost mute because your mind fills in the rest. Great horror films are often able to use a combination of showing you something terrifying while also allowing your mind to run wild with the images that you are being presented with. I still remember where I was when I watched this movie for the first time and it was in a hot summer day just like the film so perhaps that is why it still is burned deep into mind. Check it out.

Number 7

Checking as my seventh favorite horror film is "Saw." An ingenious film that added intrigue and a bit of intellectual deep to the slasher/gore genre of horror films. Also made by the new king of horror Mr. James Wan (Insidious, Dead Silence, The Conjuring). This film is one of a kind an snot to be missed.

Number 8

The eight best horror movie or perhaps more aptly my eight favorite horror film is the American remake of "Ringu" which is of course "The Ring." Brilliant concept, excellent execution and a remake that actually does the original some sort of justice. Great twist at the end.

Number 9

Clocking in at number 9 is a film you will be watching this year called Hellraiser. One of the key themes of this disturbing film deals with the idea of beauty and pain being inextricably linked together. This is a Freudian idea known as the sublime.  I will keep this short but the visual imagery in this film remains breathtaking.

Welcome Special Cinema Studies Horror Class

Welcome to the classroom blog website in which we will be having various readings and postings throughout the semester. Please feel free to familiarize yourself with this site and please post a comment to any article that you find to be interesting. To start us off on the right foot I am counting down the top ten horror films that I believe to be the best. Clocking in at number ten for me is the original A Nightmare On Elm Street. 

Breaking Bad Review

Breaking Bad Season Five Episode Eleven Review

     

     If you are not up to date with "Breaking Bad" do not read this. I am warning you now. If you continue major spoilers will follow. For anyone who has ever doubted the extent of Walter White's manipulation what I'm shore will become known simply as "The Confession" scene laid bare what this man is truly all about. Walt is a cold, ruthless, and extremely calculating narcissist and everyone is fair game when it comes to his survival. Once again give the writers at "Breaking Bad" all the credit in the world for truly understanding the character that they have in Walter White and showing us how he is truly a mad genus who has no emotional center. 

     Hank and Marie's reaction to watching the confession was some of the most brilliantly restrained acting in recent memory. Where the shocked, angry, or just downright scared of their once seemingly innocent brother in law. "Breaking Bad" may have started as the story of a seemingly hapless individual who was going to turn to a life of crime for altruistic reasons but over the course of time we realized that this man has always been narcissistic sociopath who was simply biding his time. Better writers then me have raised that point but I would like to say that this last episode of the show did an excellent job of bringing Walter's manipulation to the forefront. 

     In this episode besides brilliantly begin able to turn the tables on his DEA brother in law Hank, we see Walter use different types of emotional manipulation to twist the people in his life to his will. He brilliantly and shamefully tells his son that his cancer has come back only to keep him from going to visit his uncle and aunt, he gets Skyler to go along with his confession tape, he has Saul Goodman eating out of his hand, and of course he gets called out by Jesse about his very nature and in a second when you think that this man whom we once thought to be a decent human being (how wrong we were) was going to admit the truth to Jesse for once he pushes Jesse further over the edge. 

     Everything seems to be once again going in Walter's favor and that is certainly no accident. Then those brilliant writers give us Jesse making the connection that Walter turned him against Gus and poisoned Brock. How refreshing is it to see Jesse react the way a person in this situation would most likely react to this news and go on a one man rampage ending with him about to burn down Walter's house and not so metaphorically burn down Walter's empire. It is episodes like this that make "Breaking Bad" continually stand out from the pack and rise above pretty much everything else on television. Well done indeed.

By Matthew Giordano

Malcolm McDowell

"Malcolm McDowell"

What a truly wonderful experience it was to meet Malcolm Mcdowell. He was a true gentlemen and it was absolutely remarkable to meet him!

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas

     If The MatrixT, Forrest Gump and 2001 A Space Odyssey were combined into a movie Cloud Atlas would be the product that you would get. It is unfair of me to deny the originality that exists in this film and as such in my opinion this is the defining science fiction film of it's era. Having so many different narratives unfold over the course of an almost three hour movie is pretty much an impossible feat to pull off and yet somehow all of the stories do connect and relate to each other in both abstract and concrete ways. A lot of people hated this film and I can understand why. The narrative structure places great demands on the viewer to try to connect the different stories together and it is very hard to decipher at what point in time each of these events is taking place. As such this makes the film rather unique. 

     

     Additionally, this film deals with some serious philosophical and moral issues that do connect across generations. Such key concepts that are brought up throughout the film are why humans never seem to rid themselves of such horrendous institutions such as slavery. How rigid class systems always seem to instill their will upon society. How religion is too often a tool that is used for manipulation instead of it's intended purpose. It also examines how wealth produces greed which in many ways can have much longer repercussions for people then they might initially realize. Their are tales of personal responsibility, and quests for social justice found throughout almost every segment of this film. There are so many more issues within this film add well that this film demands multiple viewings which again is against the standard norm of Hollywood movies.

    

     This film does what the very best of science fiction can and always does. That is it makes question our basic essence as a species and makes us examine the future. Are we going to evolve as a species that deserves to survive and can we be a species that can achieve things that no other species could even safe to dream or are we doomed to fall into our animalistic natures and simply destroy each other. Lastly, this film takes a much more substantive and in depth look at Hinduism and the idea of Karma. The idea being that everyone lives multiple lives and that a person is either rewarded or punished in their next life based on their actions in the previous one. Part of my disappointment with the movie The Life of Pi was that it had a chance to examine Hinduism and other world religions in much greater depth then it attempted to do but instead choose to champion Christianity as the only true religion as so many movies tend to do in Hollywood. 

     

     This is why it becomes problematic for American audiences to understand different viewpoints because they are never presented with alternatives to their standard way of thinking. So while I think Christianity can be a beautiful religion it is just wonderful to see a hollywood film attempt to teach us about one of the worlds most popular religions and prevent the American public with an insight into the idea of Karma. This film also has a great message of redemption that certainly is one of the key concepts of any of the major religions. Tom Hanks plays multiple characters throughout the film and he starts out as an exceptionally cruel and vile human being. Yet throughout his multiple lives he is eventually able to become a better person and it is in that where a great hope lies for all of us. 

     

     The idea that we can transcend our surroundings and become better then what we are is a truly wonderful concept and this film executed it beautifully. Cloud Atlas is an exceptional film and I would dare anyone to try and deny the sheer technological wonder of it. This is a film for the ages!  

Written ByMatthew Giordano