Formal Film Studies #1

For my Formal Film Study I have chosen to take a slightly different approach in the picking of my movies.  I
have decided to watch movies that star Paul Giamatti.  At first, I did this because he is one of my favorite
actors, and yet I had only seen him in a handful of movies.  Paul has the ability to grasp the sincerity of a
moment in an instant, just by giving a show stopping stare or stroke of his magnificent beard.
Paul Giamatti was born on June 6th, 1967 and is the youngest of three.  He has one sister and one brother,
both of whom have indulged themselves in the delight of the arts.  Paul has a mother who was an actress
before marrying Dr. Bart Giamatti who was the commissioner of Major League Baseball for six months before his untimely death.  (all of this bio info came from IMDb)The three movies that I have decided to formally critique are Sideways, Duets, and Barney's Version.  As

expected, all three were excellent.  The interesting thing about these three movies is that Paul seems to play a very similar character in all three of these movies.  One can easily deduce that there is depression apparent in all his characters throughout these motion pictures.  In each, Paul plays a middle aged man who just can't seem to keep a relationship together.  Though these movies are dark at times, given the nature of his characters, these movies can get dark at times.  But Paul never fails to bring back the balance with some comic relief or passionate monologue/song.  Here's an example! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlKHz3wzyM
In this fun clip, Paul Giamatti mixes his humorous character singing with Andre Braugher's talented vocals.

I noticed in all of these movies special camera angles that gave the moment a sense of anticipation.  I liked the cinematography in the scene in Sideways when Paul's character Miles is getting the news about his new book.  He is on the phone finding out whether or not his book is going to be published and as this is happening he is walking farther and farther away from the camera.  When he receives the crushing news that his book would not be published, he stops right before the shadow ends in the sunlight.  I thought this emphasized the blow he just took.



The message that I received by the end of all of these movies were surprising close to each other.  They all meet at the point of depression and hardship, but all three have a kind of encouraging yet open ended ending.  If the message of these movies had to be broken down into a catch phrase I would say it was "Don't give up!".  It really is as simple as that!  his character just has to find a way to keep going and the characters around him are trying help him achieve this goal.

Each film had a different kind of sound to it.  Sideways had a very 50s sounding soundtrack.  A lot of the time it would be a simple trumpet just bouncing in and out of scenes.  This went perfectly with the two crazy characters of Miles and Jack, running around causing trouble.  Barney's Version on the other hand, has a lot of piano and strings playing in the background.  This made his movie much more elegant feeling than Sideways, which in my opinion were two very similar movies.

Sideways being one of Giamatti's most prestigious pieces, grossed 71 million dollars.  Duets, a modest 12 million, and Barney's Version (the best of the three), a measly 7.5 million.  None of these movies were ground breaking in terms of their sales, but an argument can certainly be made for groundbreaking production.  The directors and crew behind the scenes did a great job of capturing moments when needed but not trying to do too much.  They weren't moving the camera so much or flickering the lights on and off so quickly that it made you dizzy and/or uncomfortable.  They let the professional grade actors do their thing from a medium view throughout with just a few long shots and close-ups when necessary.

 To give a view of the most popular, Sideways, David Ansen said, "Sideways stays resolutely life-size. And that, in this age of hype and hyperventilation, may be the most radical thing about it".  96% on Rotten Tomatoes!!!