Like every college course, this class has had it’s ups and downs. There were some things I enjoyed, and some things that were a bit more challenging. Obviously, my favorite part of this class was watching the films. There were a few that I knew, like The Hundred Foot Journey , some that were new to me but I thoroughly enjoyed, like Mostly Martha, and Big Night, and some that missed the mark for me, like Woman On Top and Like Water For Chocolate. Through watching these different films, I learned a lot about different film themes that I had never heard of before, like the prevalence of magical realism in Mexican/Latin-American film, and the concept of “the falcon” of a film, which makes it stand out from other films. On top of all of that, I had never even considered “Food Film” as a film subgenre before. In the films we watched, the food itself became its own character of the story. The film viewing combined with the assigned readings allowed me to improve my ability to ana...
Big Night is the type of film that seems very simple on the surface, but once you look a little deeper, every single scene has unspoken messages that even the casual viewer can’t help but contemplate. As a film student, It’s part of my job to look for meaning and symbolism in films, but even my mom, a fan of cinema, but not a film scholar by any means, was fascinated by hidden messages and implications this film brings to the table. The film Big Night is a masterclass in using long, silent scenes that have incredible impact without the use of dialogue. The most notable example of this is the final scene of the film. Secundo walks into the kitchen after the titular big night. Cristano, the waiter, wakes up from where he has been sleeping on the kitchen counter. Secundo cooks simple eggs, and divides the eggs among three plates, and he and Cristano, and eventually Primo, eat their eggs with the leftover bread from the previous night. The scene is silent, and mostly ...