It’s interesting that they chose to make Jennie even more ambiguous in the film than in the book. We find ourselves doubting her existence, despite the interactions she has with Eben.
There were a few notable differences, but my favorite one was the fact that Jennie’s friend, Cecily, is “in Boston” instead of dead from scarlet fever (Who knows…maybe “moved to Boston” is a euphemism for death? Haha.)
This post is ridiculously lacking in substance, but I think I’ll have much more to say once we finish the film. I’m trying to …

I have to say that I didn’t particularly like Portrait of Jennie. The book itself wasn’t especially well-written or captivating, and certain parts were even a little dull. I’m even a little skeptical when people call this book ‘romantic’ because it’s not really about romance at all. On the simplest level, it’s about being lost (and loss itself). Every character is lost, in one way or another, and most try to recover through Eben. So it’s about being lost, it’s about Eben, and it’s certainly not about his romance with …

My apologies in advance to Dr. Campbell for the enormous tangent I’m about to embark upon.
I was going to write a post analyzing exactly what it is about eye contact in film, photography, and traditional art that captures the audience in such a unique way. However, I discovered something else along the way. Artists are always staring straight at the viewer in their own self-portraits, whether photographed or painted. In over an hour of searching, I only managed to find ONE famous self-portrait in which this was not the case. …

What’s at the root of this whole manipulation thing? Do we view everything sentimental as manipulative? In that case, how do you account for the popularity of movies like “It’s A Wonderful Life”? Or perhaps we forgive films like these because of other redeeming characteristics.
Or maybe we want to be manipulated occasionally. Remember, to some degree you have to allow yourself to be manipulated by a film. You have to allow yourself to be sucked in by it. Manipulation demands a greater degree of audience involvement. So could it follow …

Just wanted to throw a couple ideas out here.
First, Morris’ use of Dutch angle shots was mentioned in class. We discussed their technicality and meaning, but not the main purpose. I believe that Morris included so many Dutch angle shots and extreme close-ups for the same reason. It prevents you from immediately focusing on what you’re seeing. In the case of Dutch angle shots, Morris is forcing his audience to pay MORE attention to exactly what is in the frame rather than taking it for granted and perhaps overlooking important …

What if we selected tiny parts of “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control” to apply to our lives, rather than the whole thing, and interpret each of those in any way that makes sense? Perhaps what makes this film so unique is that there are endless possibilities for such interpretation. The concepts presented are so much fun to toy with. Perhaps if I just keep musing in subsequent blog posts I’ll eventually say everything I want to about this….but it may take the rest of my life. I think I’m …