Whoa, first let me say, the film this week Valerie and Her Week of Wonders was beautifully filmed, I am a HUGE fan of contrast and the way they contrasted colors, black and white was just beautiful, I did feel a bit odd though, it was an obviously younger girl being constantly sexualized. On paper the film was interesting but I couldn’t help but just think of how disturbing it is to see a young girl sexualized the way she was. That being said, I do plan on watching this again, I just wish they could have made the main girl a bit older so I wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable watching a lot of the highly sexual scenes because if this girl was older, not 13 I would have thought this was a stellar film, that being said, I can’t deny artistically it was ethereal, some of the shots were just so satisfying.

This film is dizzying, its like nightmare daydream. Before this film had watched The Wicker Man 1973 which despite being very different visually are similar so I enjoyed watching this film. Both films deal with taboo subjects. Surreal films are my all-time favorite. I  love watching an artist make a piece of work that is not necessarily grounded in the story but the visuals. With surrealist films such as this, I feel it is more so based on the visual atmosphere or narrative. This film definitely fits into the artsier side of art cult film, it also reminded me of Alice in wonderland, but a lot more sinister. It also reminded me of a Jodorowsky film just how much taboo there was packed into one film. This quarantine has had me watching so many films and side note I recommend Jordorowskys Santa Sangre. One of the readings this week also noted Andrei Tarkovsky’s influence and I completely see the visual similarities. Very spacey, ethereal and atmospheric.

One reading I particularly enjoyed was The Exploitation Generation. The 1970s is one of my favorite eras in film, The reading discusses how many of the filmmakers at the time were dismissing normal themes in western culture and embracing feelings not usually talked about. Nihilism and cynicism were common themes, rebellion, sex, anger. A lot of this was a response to the world at the time, people were not happy and it is expressed via film which reflects cultural themes at the time. The happy golden years of Hollywood were over. “The filmmakers of the exploitation generation were steeped in the rebellious mores of the1960s, which celebrated sex, drugs, rock music, pop art, high camp, low culture,épater le bourgeois pranks and wholesale rejection of venerable social institutions. They found inspiration in cultural detritus and south to reclaim the motion picture past that nurtured them as youngsters, filtered through layers of nostalgia, pop-culture savvy and self-awareness.” The new generation or New Hollywood directors challenged every idea of what a popular film could be and created wonderful films. Some of these include Bonnie and Clyde 1967, Scarface 1983, The Godfather 1972 (one of my favorite scenes in movie history is the baptism/boss killing scene in this film),  Chinatown 1972 and many more. Stylistically you see this in our screening, just in a more experimental way.

This era in the film was such a reaction to the circumstances of this time. I can’t help wondering during these less than ideal times which types of films we will be watching in a few years and how they reflect the paranoia and uncertainty we are all feeling. Again, the film is a tool to study the culture and political situations at a point in history and I am excited to see what comes from our current situation.