Movie review and how this movie relate to art making
I begin to watch some classic movies from old time, I realized that people can learn more from some old movies and it is necessary for art students to go back and watching most primitive and purest art. Because original works are the cultural wealth that elder generation left for us. We learn them and develop them.
" Being John Malkovich " in my opinion, is the best dark comedy movie in 1999. I just seen the movie few days ago and it deeply influenced my thoughts of how I think about life. It is really hard to completely explain the entire content because the plot and structure are too complicated. But there are few scenes I really want to share with everyone. They fully reflect how bizarre and brilliant the movie is.
The first scene I would like to talk about is the puppeteer Craig. Craig is an unsuccessful puppeteer who married with a girl who is pet-obsessed. And one day he falls in love with his work partner who does not like him. There is a shot of depicting Craig's mind through a puppet show. In this scene, Craig is sadly controlling these puppets to do what he have been wanting to do. And when I looking at these puppets, it just feels like watching a tragical animation. The puppets are fully infused with life. It is quite important for artists to make their
works live. What I realize from this is that our inspiration for making art is usually come from our real life. We should observe and learn from life, and then convert life experience to artwork. I think that is how artists' works producing resonance with audience. Because most of the audience who are watching the artwork may have the similar life experience.
Secondly, I really like the few scenes where Malkovich creeps into his own head and the scene when Graig's wife and his partner jump into Malkovich's head. It is very interesting to see what Malkovich can see in his own world and what other people can see in his world. It seems like you will never know who John Malkovich really is even you step into his world. In fact, when Malkovich creeps into his mind, he actually already in his subconscious and he is looking at something that no one should see. When Graig enters Malkovich's mind
and began to control it, he actually creates a third person who is the compound body of Grai
g's art gift and John Malkovich's reputation. This can relate to our art creating process. We always relate different things together, build a new context and create a new thing which is a c
ombination of old elements.
For example, the logo of Mcdonald's. It looks simple from the appearance but it is already became party of American culture. It is just the yellow "M" letter with red background. We can see that "M" is constructed by yellow chips. Mcdonald's just using "M" and chips to create the logo which is the combination of two isolated objects.
