You're right! I'd never spotted that, so thank you. I wonder what is the story behind the cameo. Yes, Greed (what we can see of it) is a huge achievement. Best wishes.

These are fair questions. I call the character 'the female' as that is how the alien is referred to in the screenplay (though never on screen) and, as I screen the film in class over a few lessons, saying 'the alien' is a bit of a spoiler. Also, as the character is clearly coded by a) the film as mimesis and b) by the aliens as diegesis to be a conventionally attractive female in order to seduce men, it is the simplest way to refer to her in an analysis. This is consistent with most analyses that I have read of the film. She does discover that she has no clear genitalia, which undermines the labelling of female, of course. As to the point on prostitution, again I think that you have a good case there to criticise a film written and directed by men - a wholly valid perspective of the film industry as a whole. To defend this film, I would point to the way that as spectators, we are clearly aligned with Johansson's character, rather than with any of the males in the film and that our sympathies ultimately lie with her and her attempt to break away from an oppressive patriarchal system - even if she doesn't succeed. I have also suggested that the film avoids the typical cinematic devices that encourage the male gaze through lighting, soundtrack, costume, cinematography etc, which I think dissuades us from an eroticised viewing perspective - or at least aims to.

Thank you. Best wishes.

But yes, we know who Ingmar Bergman is.

Thank you.

Not too many of my students did when I recorded this for them during lockdown though.@ashleyoakes7300

Thank you very much for that! You've made my morning.

Thank you!

Fair points, and validated well, though why might they want human skin in the first place? The humans as food element comes from the source novel, which doesn’t necessarily make it relevant to the film, of course. The flesh is liquidised, perhaps to make it digestible? Either way, we end up going down a rabbit hole if we try to seek a motivation for the aliens’ behaviour, when it is ultimately unknowable. Ultimately, whatever they are up to is logistically dubious.

@@hbkfilmmediadeptfilmsvideo4589 😅 rabbit hole indeed. I’ve only read a detailed summary of the novel (after leaving my comment), and yes, I see now! I find the changes intriguing. Now, I want to find a way to ask the director. My theory is that to meet his overall minimalist aesthetic and the time constraints of features, he switched genres from the novel’s Sci-Fi to Horror (Aliens to Alien), which allowed (or forced) him to ditch the whole people meat concept. I think, too, that because “Soilent Green is people “ vibes are not this film’s aesthetics and a trope, it might have been another motivation to tweak the story towards skin harvesting. I could be very wrong and love what he did, including leaving things mysterious, regardless. Re: the skin: I zoomed into skin/ bodies to get a better look when watching the first time. It’s as if their technology sucks everything but the dermis and leaves it intact, perfect. It’s horrifying but true enough that without the muscular-skeletal system and organs (if the cutaneous (without the subcutaneous fat), what’s left would be about that size. I dunno if he was going for that, but it’s an effectively chilling element if so. The only thing that would have visually conveyed that concept better would have been to show a water current inflating more parts of the skin sack better. 😅 I’ve done a lot of effects in movies, in 2011, the tech to do water sims + backlight skin more extensively was still pretty expensive. Another detail that I found interesting in that scene was how, before being suctioned, that first victim looked as though his skin was very saturated/pruned and loosened. It reminded me of Silence of the Lambs / “it puts the lotion on its skin.” I assumed that they left the skin in the embryonic fluid until they grafted it onto another alien’s body. The fact that the skin on the hero’s body came off in the final scene, yet she functioned with no pain, made me think it was a mask of human skin but with some advanced, painless bonding/grafting tech. If I had read the novel, I’m not sure if I would have though about it so hard, though. 😂

@@RND-USA All thoughtful points and your theory suggests a reason why the human exteriors (of both the prone woman in the white room and the female at the end) show small signs of independent consciousness through tears or blinking. By the way, the shooting script can be found online and it is far more explicit in expressing character motivations. Not that that should be used to ‘explain’ the film as released. Hints through image and sound are all the Glazer gives us to go on, which I suggest is its strength.

Thank you!

Top quality coursework!

Kurtz and Winkel are still operating the penicillin scam and Harry says to Holly, "I'd like to cut you in, old man". That suggests that profits are still being made, despite the pressure from the military police. Harry is also hiding out in the Russian sector (he informs them about Anna's papers), so he is safe from the British and Americans if he stays out of their jurisdiction or they think that he is dead. Harry takes the risk of meeting Holly to get him to stop his investigation that might reveal that he is alive, either through persuasion or by killing him. Harry is definitely surprised when he hears that his grave has been dug up, which prompts him to stick to persuasion.

1. To avoid being caught for his crimes by the military. 2. Harry. 3. Selling black market (presumably watered down) penicillin that fails to work on children with meningitis, causing several deaths. (That's why as a baddie, he is so complex - his crimes are actually monstrous, yet his character avoids the usual tropes of the screen villain.) 4. Harry contacted Holly before his penicillin racket was exposed and he had to go into hiding.

Thank you. That's a lovely comment. Best wishes.

Thank you very much.

I am so cooked for the exam xD

lol im revising too

Good luck!

It really is. Thank you for the positive comment. Best wishes.

My thoughts exactly

You are welcome and I hope your studies go well! You are right about 'show not tell'. There are very few intertitles in the film and long passages with none at all - a huge influence on Hitchcock, who would also go on to include extended sequences with no dialogue. Murnau's The Last Laugh has only one intertitle in the entire film and that is a joke about the film's narrative conclusion. Best wishes.

That's an interesting double bill right there.

I'm glad you found it helpful, though I've clearly not quite convinced you of its merits. 🤣 best of luck with the essay!

@@hbkfilmmediadeptfilmsvideo4589 don’t get me wrong I think the movies is well directed and super thought provoking but as an English guy listening to a foreign language whilst reading subtitles can be outright distracting for me maybe it’s just my ADHD or something but I just also don’t really enjoy fairytales but the way this one is written with the bookmark opening I believe it’s called is super cool

@@Mymusicisjunkhow was the essay? i’ve got one on wednesday

@@emmaportor2909 I did pretty good it isn’t as hard as you think :)

Thanks for this got my film exam today in 30 mins and I've watched this video 5 times over the past week so hopefully the information sticks

Coz you wants an A Level, innit. Good luck with the essay!

Thank you very much! Best wishes.

😊Thank you!

Thank you very much, that is a really encouraging comment. Best wishes.

Thank you! Best wishes.

Thank you. I'm probably guilty of thinking far too deeply about The Beatles when I should be doing something else. 🤭

This was recorded during the Covid lockdown with very limited resources.

Here's an extract. The music starts 20 seconds in: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ony5m2mGhNB9sKs

Best of luck!

Thank you! I hope that you enjoy the film. I will upload more analyses when I can. Best wishes.

That's a lovely comment. Thank you!

Thank you very much. It really is a film that rewards patience. Best wishes.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

What about her luring men into goo while she never sinks that was a dead giveaway

Fair point. Having said that, I've shown this to students and some haven't twigged about the alien aspect, despite the goo. They thought I was just putting them through another weird film.

What about the first scene?

@@Daughterchasya I thought that could be symbolic imagery rather than literal black goo 🤷🏻‍♀️

@@josef.ramoss.8457 because it's the first scene and there was no context I wasn't sure what was actually happening first time I saw it, or how literal it was meant to be.

Thank you! Best wishes.

What a lovely comment! Thank you very much. ☺Best wishes.