Notes on Hamlet

1. Hamlet decides to try a play performance, to “catch the conscience of the king.” (to summon the Ghost?)
2. Next, Ophelia appears, and she has gone mad, apparently in grief over the death of her father. She sings odd songs about death and sex, says “good night” during the daytime, and exits.

Notes on Citizen Kane

1. Camera leaps through time periods and locale (famous Susan Alexander song sequence)

Bazin and Reality

I have a problem with Bazin.

First problem: He states that there are many ways to portray the real. Yet, he prones a modest and self-effacing, objective, recorder of this ‘reality’. If the point is to always be objective…which are the ‘many ways’ of portraying the real that he mentions?

Second problem: But he does prone ‘auteurism’. So wouldnt he be the ultimate paradox? Praising objectivity and stylization simultaneously? Wouldn’t he have been the greatest Herzog fan? No wonder Truffault called Herzog the ‘most important director’ in the world.

Isn’t his anti-editing attitude simply a counter-reaction to the Russian editing school?

Notes on Bazin:

An admirer of minimal editing. He believes long shots are ‘democratic’. They allow the viewer to choose where to look, what to focus on, or to ‘form an opinion’. And also in love with the idea of sneaking story elements (that drive the story forwards) in unedited shots. A big fan of ‘preserving continuity of time and space’ (a clear attack on the Russians).