Peter's friends

Peter's friends (Kenneth Branagh, 1992)  tells the story of six old friends who first met in England, where the film takes place. They have the first meeting for the first time in years. To let us know how they became friends, the film starts with a flashback of the times they met, when they shared all their life and meant everything for each other.

The main attraction of the film is the appearance of famous faces of the British television: the comedian Stephen Fry and the popular Hugh Laurie.

Then, it goes back to actual times and shows us how time acts. Because time changes everything and it is not fair. All these six friends are now unhappy in some way. They used to be fortunate, but their lifes now seem to be a poor version of what they hoped. Expectations never met reality.

Even more, the special relation seems to have changed. Years have passed and they are not able to rely on each other. They do not feel comfortable sharing their misfortunes with the others. The film is about these changes: before, they understood each other, now they feel judged. 

Is it impossible, then, for a friendship to survive? Only the memories will stay even if the friendship was pure? In the film, a difficult situation will prove if the old friendship is still somewhere in there , hidden, or if it is completely dissapeared now. Who knows if they will face up to it together, as they would have done before..?

Reservoir dogs

In the first Tarantino's film as director, where he also acts as Mr Brown, he lays the foundations of the main characteristics of all his work.
One of them is the special treatment of time. I have not seen every Tarantino's film, but I can not remember any film in which the time is lineal. Also, in Reservoir dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) we are not shown the core of the film, a jewelery heist, but its training and consequeces. Moreover, we are shown, by flashbacks, the origin of the plan.

Another of this typical Tarantino's characteristic are the conversations about irrelevant topics. Like a Virgin's real sense, tv soap operas.. In any case, the most famous irrelevant conversation in a Tarantino's film is the one about hamburguers in Europe. I am sure you remember it. In these scenes we identify ourselves with the characters, since we realize they are not inaccessible but normal people.

With regard to mise-en-scène, costumes play an important role in Reservoir dogs. Why do six gangsters dress the same and so elegant? If you watch the film, you'll see that the six main characters do not know any personal information about each other. They name each other with a color as a name. As they can not share any personal information, they have to dress uniform. Only Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son (Chris Penn) wear informal clothes.

  -I don't give a good fuck what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway.

The offscreen space has also an important role, since we are not shown violent scenes. We get the sound, a shot close to the action, but not the action itself. 

I would recommend this movie. I thought this kind of movies were not very entertaining, but time flew when I watched it. Maybe because my friends and I were talking about our different impressions of the film calmly, as the gangsters could do just before shooting their gun.

The last of the Mohicans

I saw The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992) because I had to do it as homeworks. I must say I was always looking for historical details more than for film devices.

The landscapes are beautiful and some aspects of mise-en-scène, as the customs of both British and Amerindians are depicted in great detail.

Without any doubt, one of the most known and interesting things in this film is the soundtrack.

Singles

Singles (Cameron Crowe, 1992) is not the typical "boy meets girl" romantic comedy. The own characters, who are interrelated, are responsible for the narration, and extra information is given in this way. This is sometimes made by the use of flashbacks, or making for the viewer possible to listen a character's thoughts. They explain, for example, their previous relationships in a very natural way.

This way of telling stories in a natural way can be seen also in the great amount of references to the popular culture of the time, like music and films, specially to the "grunge". It is easy to relate Cliff's (Matt Dillon) group to a bad Nirvana impersonator. The band, by the way, is mockingly called "Citizen Dick", a clear reference to Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). The connection between Linda (Kyra Sedwick) and Steve (Campbell Scott) is in some way shown through the things they like also. For example, Robert Doisneau's work, Le baiser de l'Hotel de Ville.

	With regard to editing, Singles is divided in several "chapters", a very original way to connect several stories.

The sound plays an important role in the film. There are both internal and external music. The internal one show us the grunge culture and the external is a more varied and popular one.

There is a little detail that I really liked. The first time Steve and Linda have lunch together, she gets in to his car. There is a slow scene in which Linda opens his door. This scene is exactly the same as in A Bronx tale (Robert de Niro, 1993). And, for me, it has the same meaning that it had to Sonny, who said that a girl is worth it only if she helps (Opening the door) a boy.

To finish, there is something I did not like at all: The very end of the film. The two couples end up together and happy. The stupid singer, who ignored Janet (Bridget Fonda) suddenly becomes a sensitive guy who cares for her. It is the only thing that does not fit with the rest of the realistic film.