Preferred reading is a term in which the director of the movie takes the audience to a message with the codes. Stardust Memories is all about art. When one sees an excellent work of art, it should hold up the audience and take them further into something deep. Even while watching the video more than once, the opinion about Stardust Memories stays the same that it is one of the greatest black and white movies made. ‘Fear of failure’ is the phrase that sums up the entire movie. For any artists, it kills their egos to think that they will fail so they want to work more and gain more knowledge about their work. Without the fear of failure, the artists form a lot of ego in their heads thus they fail to present themselves with different challenges that would help them to achieve much greater heights . The fear of failure makes the artist take risks and experiment with different things.
Charlie Chaplin directed the Kid in 1921, which was inspired by the death of his own son. In 1971, The Kid was released again for theater with a new composition in which Charlie Chaplin edited some scenes that he thought was too sentimental. Silent comedians convey the best messages and it is also difficult to convey the message to the audience because they all see it with their own perspective . Charlie Chaplin has always highlighted the social issues through his silent films and he did the same in The Kid.
Are there any SUBTEXTS?
A movie with subtexts somehow helps the audience to understand the message that the director is trying to convey to the audience. Both the movies involved subtexts. Subtexts help the audience to get the exact message which otherwise they would not have gotten due to the films being silent. Both the films had great messages and wanted to exactly convey them to the audience. The audience watches the movies with their own realities so it is a good decision to involve the subtexts.
How viewers might today "Read" the film text as compared to its original release (Stardust Memories in 1980 and The Kid in 1921).
The viewers of today have more opportunities as they study each subject with detailed specialization and work. The movies especially the silent ones made in the early eras of 1980s were watched by a lot of people but the general audience could not have understood what exactly the film was about to convey the message. The students who are studying film and theatre have more scope of getting through to the messages and finding out about the deepness of the messages presented in the movie. The main message in Stardust Memories was that the artists should not have complete egos over their head but they should have the fear of failure so that they can face different challenges and present themselves with more hard work. The viewer’s today would get the exact message that was the focus of the director. The Kid too is a silent movie but gives powerful messages to the audience about the issue presented by Charlie Chaplin. The movie was inspired by the death of Charlie Chaplin’s son and this was the first film that he made which exceeded his normal 15 to 20 minutes. The black and white silent movies take more time than the ones with dialogues to convey the exact messages that they and since the audience is watching with their own perspectives, one never knows what they make out of the message.
Try to place the films on the scale of REALISM and FORMALISM we reviewed last class as well as their categorization among the outlined film forms (NARRATIVE, EXPERIMENTAL AND DOCUMENTARY)
Woody Allen conveys his art through filmmaking. He makes sense of his art making and reality through his art which also helps the audience to understand the message he is trying to convey. The film begins with Woody Allen wondering whether he is an empty vessel and cannot do anything to end the suffering of the world. His audience adores him but it also makes him angry as he wonders whether he deserves the appreciation that he is receiving.
There is more reality in The Kid as it talks more about the social issue of losing a son. A lot of the audience thinks that there are two scenes in the movie which do not look as if they were shot together but look like two different movies. The dream scene in the movie is shown like a sequence which is way too long for a single scene. On the other hand, the movie is very funny and Charlie Chaplin as usual has succeeded to convey the type of acting that he was famous for.
Works Cited
"New York Times." nytimes.com (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/27169/The-Kid/overview
Schneider, Dan. "STARDUST MEMORIES - Woody Allen, Charlotte Rampling." Altfg (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/stardust-memories-d-woody-allen/
