Well this is just a little side note to something I read today. I was reading one of my favorite, if not my favorite web log (Blog) [ turnstile ] and he mentioned something about narcassisitic fools and their weblogs. Now, I know he wasn't talking about me cause I am not a fool nor am I narcassistic. And there is a reason why someone who believes himself to be as great as I believe myself to be, can consider himself to no be arrogant or egotistical, and especially not narcassitic. The reason has nothing to do with delusion...

Arrogance, Hubris, Ego, Narcasism, they all stem from the greek myth of the narcasist. Now everyone knows this, he falls in love with himself and doesn't know it is himself and stays stairing at his reflection for eternity. If you use this, and you should, as your definition of arrogance, then realize that one of the requesites to being arrogant or narcassitic is not knowing you are, because if the narcassit knew it was him, he would have gotten up and left. So the reason I am none of these things, is because I KNOW that I am all of them. I know I love myself, but I am not going to let that blind me in anyway. I can, and am if you know me, very self critical. Really, I do think I am pretty great, and you should too, but I am not arrogant or narcassistic, its just a neurotic thing about my personality. It doesn't really affect anyone else but me. I am trying to explain this the best I can, but I am just gonna stop trying now. Right, to go on.

I added a new feature to the site called Perscribe This, it is on the bottom near the comments. It let's you vote for daily doses and send them (as a text link) to an email address. Pretty cool eh? well enjoy. I am going to see Joe Strummer tonight. Oh you know what, I am goign to reproduce an essay I am writing for my film class over here.

Breaking The Waves

The term French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague refers to the work of a group of French film-makers between the years 1958 to 1964. The film directors who formed the core of this group, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, were once all film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. The French New Wave directors' background in film theory and criticism was a major factor in their film careers, allowing them to change the notions of how a film could be made and inspiring them to forge new cinema. The influence of American film effected Jean-Luc Godard tremendously and his third feature film, and first world wide release, “À Bout de Soufflé” (Breathless - 1960) consciously breaks Hollywood conventions, while at the same time pays homage to what he regards as good American cinema. Godard's “À Bout de Soufflé” set the tone for La Nouvelle Vague, by telling a simple story about a relationship in a convention-challenging style with numerous references to previous cinema. When compared to a classic Hollywood genre picture, say “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), Godard’s innovative and revolutionary technique, both behind the camera and as a writer, elucidate.

The most relevant break of the French New Wave, clearly seen in “À Bout de Soufflé,” is the highly personal mise-en-scène created by hand held cameras and actors acknowledging the camera as a character in the film, thereby constantly reminding the viewer that he is watching a movie. Traditionally, Hollywood film makers, such as John Huston of “the Maltese Falcon,” used the camera to establish interesting shots, but still, the camera was just a tool to record the action, it had no roll in the film. Godard transcends that and makes the camera human. From the beginning of “À Bout de Soufflé” Michel Poiccard, alias Laszlo Kovacs, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, talks to the camera as a character, waits for responses, and responds to the camera. But beyond that even, Godard has the camera respond to Poiccard by jump-cutting, where two shots of the same subject at a slightly different angle are cut together with a noticeable jump on the screen. Also, Godard has the camera react to Poiccard by panning at Poiccard’s request, for example, again at the beginning when Poiccard notifies the camera of the police officer chasing him; the camera pans left to take a glimpse at the review mirror, seeing the cop just as Poiccard sees the cop, creating a personal relationship between the camera and Poiccard – and more importantly the viewer. The viewer is not just viewing the plot, like in “the Maltese Falcon,” but rather is seeing the plot via a personal connection with Poiccard. This subtle relationship creeps up on the viewer, but regardless, allows the viewer to sympathize, to understand, even to love, Poiccard despite him being a villain.

While the American audience was at times confused about the protagonists attentions, as in “the Maltese Falcon,” where it is impossible to be sure whether Spade is working for the monetary value of the falcon, or to find the killer of his partner, Godard makes an effort to create Poiccard as an anti-hero; someone who is undoubtly rotten, but is so amazingly human that compassion and love flow naturally from the viewer.