Homework: Experimental and Underground cinema November 25th 2009

One of the videos we saw in class was The Big Shave. Watching the beginning, it gives you a different idea of what you are watching. I thought that it was advertising bathrooms as it was showing a new bathroom, but then when the m

an comes in and starts shaving, you get a different idea of what it is about. I then thought that it was advertising a shaver as it was showing alot of close ups of the shaver. I thought that it was a strange video as he starts cutting his face open with the shaver. The video was good but i thnik that it is very different compared to the other videos we saw.

The Big Shave is a 1967 six-minute short fil

m directed by Martin Scorsese. It is also known as Viet '67. Peter Bernuth stars as the recipient of the title shave, repeatedly shaving away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene. Many film critics have interpreted the young man's process of self-mutilation as a metaphor for the self-destructive involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, prompted by the film's alternative title. The music accompanying the film is Bunny Berigan's "I Can't Get Started", recorded in 1939. The film was produced at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for a film production class called Sight & Sound Film.

This information about Big Shave comes fro

m Wikipedia, here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Shave

Here is The Big Shave video:

This video has come from youtube.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wvdKMnnQz8

Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorses

Here is a photo of him:

He was born on the 17th November 1942, and is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the decaying of motion picture film stock.

Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and violence. Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era, directing landmark films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; all of which he collaborated on with actor Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed and earned an MFA in film directing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Martin Scorsese was born in New York City. His father, Luciano Charles Scorsese died in 1993, and his mother, Catherine Scorsese died in 1997. They both worked in New York's Garment District, his father as a clothes presser and his mother as a seamstress.

As a boy his parents would often take him to the movie theaters; it was at this stage in his life that he developed his passion for cinema. Obsessed with historical epics at an early age, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep and lasting impact on his cinema psyche. Scorsese also developed an admiration for neo-realist cinema at this time. He recounted its influence in a documentary on Italian neorealism, and commented on how The Bicycle Thief alongside Paisà, Rome, Open City inspired him and how this influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian heritage. In his documentary, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, Scorsese noted that the Sicilian episode of Roberto Rossellini's Paisà which he first saw on television alongside his relatives, who were themselves Sicilian immigrants, made a significant impact on his life. He has also cited the Indian neorealist filmmaker Satyajit Ray as a major influence on his career. His initial desire to become a priest while attending Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx was forsaken for cinema– the seminary traded for NYU Film School, where he received his MFA in film directing in 1969.

Scorsese has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; she is his fifth wife. They have a daughter, Francesca, who appeared in The Departed and The Aviator. He has a daughter, Cathy (Catherine), from his first marriage to Laraine Brennan, and a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is also an actress and appeared in The Age of Innocence, from his second marriage to Julia Cameron. Scorsese was also married to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1983. He married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985; their marriage ended in divorce as well. He is primarily based in New York City.

This information and the photo has come from Wikipedia. Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese