Rashomon, Walter Benjamin

When we were assigned to watch Rashomon, I was not in any way excited. After watching the movie I can't say that it was a film that changed my life, however, I did enjoy the movie a lot more than I had anticipated. Even though I thought that with the subtitles it would be hard to concentrate I really didn't have that much of an issue with it, I found that there were far more scenes with no subtitles at all, which really gave me an opportunity to concentrate on the characters and the film. I really like the way that even with not as much dialogue as I thought there were going to be I really found myself questioning which form of the story was the real one. After watching the movie I read Walter Benjamin's writing right away. I enjoyed the fact that he discussed art and all the different forms and growth that it has taken over the years. I think the reading doesn't perfectly tie into the movie however, it does make you look at the artistic value of film as more of an art form rather than just a form of entertainment.