Rashomon & The Work of Art...

I, like almost everyone else, was not looking forward to having to watch a movie with subtitles at first. To my surprise though, the movie actually ended up being pretty good. Thankfully there weren't a whole lot of subtitles, which can get distracting, so I was able to actually enjoy the movie. After finishing the movie and reading the passage it was obvious there was a direct correlation. The reading caused me to think of film as more of an art form. I never have really thought of film as art before. I mean, who really thinks of Superbad or The Hangover as being anything close to art? When something is changed from its original form, Benjamin says, it is no longer unique. I can definitely see this in the movie. What if the movie were to be re-made in English with American actors? I don't think the movie would have as much of an impact as it is in its original form.

"Rashomon" and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

After finding out we were assigned to watch Rashomon, a movie that was in Japanese, and had only some subtitles throughout, I automatically thought it was going to be horrid. I figured I was going to spend all my time trying to read the subtitles, rather than get the full view of what the movie was supposed to be about. For the parts that had the subtitles, I did think it was harder to grasp the understanding, but where there were no subtitles at all, I felt, as though, I could really take in the art of the movie.

When I finished reading, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," I saw instantly the connection between the movie and the reading. In Benjamin's essay, he talks about how an original piece of artwork is more unique than something that was redone or reproduced. He mentions that it takes away from the art by doing this. That's where I saw the connection between the movie and the reading. I believe, if the movie did not have the subtitles, it would have given the viewer a better chance to see the art of the movie as it was intended.

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.

Rashomon and The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Upon having watched the film Rashomon directed by Akira Kurosawa, I immediately began reading Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in order to keep both fresh in my mind. Benjamin’s discussion of the availability of art allowed me to question how films extended such limits. The more traditional forms of art such as paintings and writings are not held in such high esteem or given as much publicity as movies in modern times. When turning on the TV it is almost impossible to watch without seeing a commercial or advertisement for a new movie. In my experience, I have never seen an add for art exhibitions or new works of literature of any kind aired on television. While films do remove barriers and increase availability of its art form, they restrict the awareness of other forms of art.

Rashoman and The Work....

I really enjoyed Rashoman. Each different perspective was intriguing and it was interesting how different the stories varied, it's almost like that game "telephone". I thought the bandit character was hilarious and psycho and great, but the real crazy one was the girl. In each story she was nuts; it's interesting that such a seemingly innocent and timid girl at first turns out to be malicious and, I guess, blood thirsty in a way. The Walter Benjamin article was interesting. I thought the Russian film industry was interesting, that they try to have people who are actually similar to the characters in real life. I think Benjamin and others are a little harsh on film, I understand where they're coming from because film is so glamorized but I like to think that film is a great art form that is beautiful and not completely "aura-less".

"Rashomon" and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

Benjamin’s piece, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” made me start thinking about film as art. Before I read this, I thought of film and movies as entertainment, but not necessarily as art. As Benjamin alludes to, film has lost some of its “aura” and therefore artistic value with all the reproduction that it goes through and the depersonalization through the camera. I was thinking about this while I watched “Rashomon.” The fact that it was in Japanese and not English had some positives and negatives. The subtitles were a bit distracting, but there weren’t very many of them. Since there wasn’t a lot of talking in the movie, I found myself watching the characters and the scenery more closely. This did make the film seem more artistic and like a silent movie. I think that if this movie was redone in color and in English, I wouldn’t find it as artistically appealing. Maybe older films are more ‘artistic’ because they don’t record exactly the same thing that someone could see by just watching the scene as modern films seem to do.

Rashomon and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

When I saw that we were reading Walter Benjamin's essay on "The Work of art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," I was relieved because I had to read this essay last semester for one of my film courses and we spent an extensive amount of time on it. There is a definite correlation between Benjamin's essay and the film Rashomon. In Benjamin's essay he talked about the aura, which is an artwork's unique presence in space and time, but when you change something from its original form, that artwork is no longer unique. He talks about how the reproduction of takes away from contemplation aspect of the piece and instead inserts distraction into its place. This was evident to me while watching Rashomon, because I was trying to watch and take in the film but at the same time I have to be looking at the subtitles, therefore I don't think I took away as much as I could of from the film. On the other hand, Benjamin also discusses the idea of exhibition value and how it replaces what was lost when an artwork is separated from its original. Although we may have to read subtitles for Rashomon, we still see the rest of the movie the way it was intended. It is still in black and white and because the movie was reproduced it is given a greater social and market value, so more people are able to view it.