Showing posts with label Visuta Panit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Visuta Panit. Show all posts

November 15, 2011

Comparison between the Rhapsody in August and The End of August at the Hotel Ozone: View on Feminism and generation


I was thinking about the name of the movie today, then suddenly, it came to my mind, there was another movie with a familiar name ‘Rhapsody in August’. Although ‘Rhapsody in August’ was made like 30 years after ‘The End of August at the Hotel Ozone’, the movies seems to have some interesting similarities.

Rhapsody in August DVDs cover

First of all, a short synopsis written by Matthe Rorie about Rhapsody in August:

An elderly woman living in Nagasaki Japan takes care of her four grandchildren for their summer vacation. They learn about the atomic bomb that fell in 1945, and how it killed their Grandfather. (Matthew Rorie <mrorie@vt.edu>)

And this is the synopsis of The End of August at the Hotel Ozone.

The End of August at the Hotel Ozone DVDs Cover
Many years after a nuclear holocaust, a small group of young women roam the forests, led by an "Old Woman" (Beta Ponicanová) who wears military garb and tries to keep the less stable members in line…


Rhapsody in August
The End of August at the Hotel Ozone
The point that really stands out in both of these movies is the way that they both show the feminism. Moreover, the main character in these movies is not just women but old women! Why would the director choose these old women? From my own analysis, I believe that old represent the previous generation. Both movies seem to have the plot around the theme of generation. Even though each movie present it in a different way, Rhapsody is about passing on the memories to the next generation while The End of August feature more about what would happen if the old generation died out and there is no one else to teach this next generation, what would the world be like? Moreover, by choosing female to be the lead in both of the movies is another interesting topic. Most people would probably view a female image as weak, wimpy, and not capable of doing great things. However, the female in both movies illustrate a brave and courageous image. The old woman in Rhapsody in August is clearly a leader of these young wild girls and she is certainly in control of everything; she knows and mostly decides what is right and what is wrong. In the scene, where one of the girl throw the bullet in the burning tank and eventually got slap by the old woman; there was no argument, complaints, nothing, this clearly shows that the old woman has the authority over these young girls.

In conclusion, both of these movies, even though made around 30 years apart, both give importance to old generation and female which also show that in along with the equality of woman's right; it could be seen in these entertainment through movies also.

November 6, 2011

Reflection on The End of August at the Hotel Ozone

The movie seems to be demonstrating the hope of the old generation that wants humanity to live on. While the new generation after the H-bomb, seem to be rather call ‘innocent’ but at the same time, ‘cavemen’, the start of the new life before civilization once again. It clearly stated in the scene, they don’t even know what is a man. Moreover, these ladies also know nothing of TV set, coffee, and etc. things that exist in the world before the H-bomb. Once the old woman died, there’s pretty much nothing that could keep all these young ladies in control.
This leave a question as to if the world would ever to end, would that be also the end of the civilization and the cycle of the cavemen would start again?

two young ladies from the survivor band

October 30, 2011

Movie review from an outside source

http://www.touchupsoft.com/dvdmovie/konec-srpna-v-hotelu-ozon1967/

Pavel Juracek: the screenwriter of "The End of August at the Hotel Ozone"

Pavel Juracek
Czech filmmaker and screenwriter Pavel Juracek started his career following graduation from the scriptwriting department at Prague's FAMU film school in 1962. The following year, Juracek made an auspicious directorial debut with his internationally acclaimed drama Postava K Podpírání (1963). Juracek made two more features before he was forced to leave the studio and abandon filmmaking in 1968. He signed Charter '77 and was forced to emigrate to West Germany for several years. Upon his return to Czechoslovakia, Juracek made a single educational short, but received no credit. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The following is the trailer from one of Juracek's work,Voyage to the End of the Universe.

October 27, 2011

Another side of the story...

Although the brief description behind the DVD of the movie would be as mellow as 'Nuclear war has destroyed most of civilization. A pack of wild girls search for males who can give them children.' There are a deeper aspects of the movie that we have discover throughout the lectures. It is not always about a girls that just want to find someone who can give them children; deeper down, this movie demonstrate a whole lots of aspects of the nuclear effects on the world.