Week 5 Film Review Ecstacy 1933

Ecstacy 1933

Director: Gustav Machatý

Plot: The film is about a young woman who marries a wealthy but much older man. After abandoning her brief passionless marriage, she meets a young engineer who becomes her lover.

Ecstasy was highly controversial in its time because of scenes in which the lead character, Emma, swims in the nude and runs through the countryside naked. It is also perhaps the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual scenes, although never showing more than the actors' faces. The film was celebrated as the first motion picture to include a nude and sexual scenes.

Even though the movie file we were given was in german with no subtitles, the acting and the tones/ moods/ visuals of the movie were enough to convey whats going on I think. It's interesting watching this movie not fully understanding everything they say yet still understanding whats going on. 

My chosen scene:

In my scene the young man who bandaged up Emma's hurt ankle sits on the ground next to her and shuffles his hands into the grass. We see that he picks up a flower in one hand and weak bee in the other and tries coercing the hungry weak bee onto the flower. Emma notices this act of kindness and then suddenly turns away when she meets eye contact with him. Earlier on in the film her ex husband squashes a poor bee with the leg of the chair without a second thought. Purposely going out of his way to kill it. Emma looked at her husband disgusted. She seemed immediately taken with this young mans gentle kindness. As if he was a breath of fresh air and she just relaxes and takes in her peaceful surroundings. I like this scene mainly because it's the turning point in Emma's life. She lets go of the heart ache of her previous marriage and just soaks up her peaceful surrounding and appreciates the young dashing strangers kindness. She looks as if  a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Characters:

Emma: She is the main character of this movie. The young beautiful lady is first seen in this movie being carried over the threshold by her new and much older wealthy husband. As their relationship continues over a period of time it's obvious they are not like normal loved up newly weds. Emma grows increasingly lonely during her married life as her new husband continues to be cold towards her and basically ignore her. Eventually she grows tired of the marriage and run home to her father for support and soon divorces her husband. I noticed in this movie she seems to be the only character who has a name which emphasizes her lead role in the film. No other characters name is mentioned throughout the movie. She comes from a wealthy family and her father successfully breeds horses. She lives in her fathers mansion like home and everyday wears fine expensive looking dresses. She gives the impression of being a Lady or Dame.

When she meets the young engineer it's obvious she's not very fond of him, mainly out of embarrassment and stubbornness I believe. But she was soon taken with his kindness and gentleness. It was almost as if his kindness was a breath of fresh air to her especially since she was in a smothering cold marriage for so long. Eventually she gets into a relationship with this man and they both seem to be extremely happy and loved up together. However, once Emma's ex-husband commits suicide, Emma seems to be overcome with guilt. Emma and new lover decide to leave/ run away together but as the young man nods off, Emma sneaks away, sorrowfully whispering goodbye to the man she loves and gets on the train leaving him behind. Perhaps she felt she didn't deserve to be happy out of guilt of her ex-husbands death. Yet instead of being happy with the man she loved she made the same mistake twice and broke two men's hearts.

Young engineer: We don't really get to know whole lot about the young engineer. He works on a site where men were building roads and small bridges. He seems like the typical dashing prince charming type coming along on his horse to find a damsel in distress, which is what technically happened. He laughs slightly seeing Emma hiding in the bushes in the nip, but he helps by returning her runaway horse and clothes to her. He seems immediately taken with her and watches her leave. When she trips and hurts her ankle he immediately helps her and bandages her foot. They both relax together on the grass where he finds a weak bee and helps it out by coercing it onto a flower. He seems to be a kind, gentle man who's always smiling and ready to help out anyone. It's obvious as the film continues that he loves Emma. Carrying around her pearl necklace and tenderly smiling as he stares upon it. Taking her out to dinner and taking the time to make sure the evening is perfect by laying out flowers on the table etc. It was also clear he was left heart broken when she left him. We see him back to work trying to continue with his life yet he has lingering painful thoughts/ dreams/ fantasies of her where they started a family together and that's where the film ends. 

Setting:

My scene begins at 00:36:00 on the timeline and ends at 00:38:40. It's set in a lovely sunny field with large trees scattered throughout. The two main characters, Emma and the young engineer sit on the grass in front of whats left of a broken tree.

Mise-en-scene:

The bee/ fly seems to be symbol that appears several times throughout the film. I'm not entirely sure what it could mean though. At times I believe the bee could be a symbol for Emma herself. When her ex-husband swatted, squashed and killed the fly, perhaps it meant he was killing their marriage and even slowly killing her. When the young engineer brought the weak bee back to life, perhaps it meant he gave Emma some hope in her life because of their meeting. When Emma blew the bee off the flower and watched it fly away it's almost as if she embraced her freedom. She wasn't shackled to a lonely marriage any longer and it looked as if a massive weight left her shoulders.

Camera Work:

• Establishing shot. Emma and the young engineer sitting on the grass.
• Zoom in/ close up-  Emma and the young engineer sitting on the grass.
• Close up on Emma's face.
• Close up on young engineer picking up bee and flower.
• Close up of his hands trying to coerce the bee onto the flower.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of young engineer concentrating on the bee.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of his hands trying to coerce the bee onto the flower.
• Close up of Emma looking over her shoulder.
• Close up of engineer looking at bee on the flower, then looks at Emma smiling.
• Close up Emma looks away.
• View of the couple. Emma in front of Engineer. He hands her the bee and flower and blows at them.
• Close up Emma smiling at the little bee. Blows at it and watches it fly off.
• View of the couple from the right.
• Close up on couples faces from the right.
• Low angle shot looking up at the top of a tree and the sky.
• Low angle close up looking up at Emma's face.
• Low angle shot looking up at the top of a tree and the sky.
• Fades of a view of part of a tree trunk
• Zoom on tree trunk
• Fade low angle close up of the flower of a thistle.
• Close up on grass
• Panning to the left shot of grass
• Establishing shot. Couple sitting down in the distance. Pan downwards and fade to black.

Sounds and Music:

This film is almost like a silent movie. There is very little dialogue or sound effects and they are only added when necessary. Overall this film has a series of orchestral french like music over it. In the scene I have chosen the french song is played throughout and there are no sound effects. There are no layering of sounds in this scene. All you can hear is the orchestral song and the rustling sound of old recorded music, almost like the old record players.