Monterey Pop is a documentary of the 1967 music festival held in California. Beginning with the title sequence of the film, it is immediately different than others. The title and credits are being handwritten on the screen, giving it a naturalistic and free flow, very much different to the film Playtime (1967) directed by Jacques Tati and its usage of straight lines and fonts such as Heletica. It is quite crude with free flowing curves and music. The splashes of colors and quick flashes of light give off a sort of funky and trippy feeling, which was understandable in the 60's and 70's period. The film shoots everything, from the many distinctively individual people walking around, to the performances on stage. The cameramen were not afraid to really get up close and personal to the people's style and faces. It's freeness can be seen through the camera techniques. The camera does not stay still like in Playtime, it does not stay traditional and is hand-held and moves around with the actual concert goers, filming them napping, eating, and having fun with one another in the busy atmosphere. The emotions evoked through the various musical performances are felt through the music and by the facial emotions of the audience. One example is the long performance by Ravi Shankar. His extreme speed and precision in playing his traditional instrument to play classical Indian music stunned the audience and myself as well. The camera that zoomed into his hands moving up and down his instrument at such a fast pace astounded me and it was quite the interesting performance. The camera does not forget to include the actual audience's shocked and open-mouthed expressions as well.
The colorful clothes and eccentric non-western style of clothing worn by the concert goers resembled to that of hippies. White's essay People in Motion describes how the looseness and freeness of the camerawork successfully captures people in the moment, like dancing to the music, eating to their heart's content, and simply having fun. Furthermore, various performances had lights and projections on behind the musicians similar to the title sequence; fast, quick-paced, organic, and colorful.
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Playtime (1967) directed by Jacques Tati
Playtime is a film that required a lot of time,construction, consideration, and money. Tati's film took 365 days to shoot and an extra 9 months of post-production before it was ready to be shown. At first I was surprised that a movie would take that long to produce. But, then I remembered that this was the late 60's and considering the overall work that was put into the set itself, it really isn't too much of a shock. Everything in this film was the definition of modern and modernism. Everything from the sets, backgrounds, buildings, and more were all typical modernism. Most of the things and backgrounds in this film was neutral colored, mainly black, white, and grays. All of the lines were very straight and pinpoint. Any usage of colors was used scarcely and accordingly. Colors would work in contrast to the overpowering black and whites to catch the viewer's attention. There was also evidence of pop culture, such as in one scene where two teenage boys wearing bright sporty red and green jackets were interrupting a woman trying to take a picture of a florist on the streets of the city. All objects, such as desks and chairs, were geometrically shaped and were man-made. The huge and spacious buildings had a futuristic charm to it with a lack of human presence. Each scene and set in this movie screams out a successful attempt at modernism.
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Comparison
Playtime and Monterey Pop are quite the opposite style when put next to one another. Playtime is described more as tight, strict, geometric whereas Monterey Pop is more free, loose, and organic. However, the two both depict modernism. Playtime creates a man-made modernistic and futuristic world with buildings and objects that are mostly black and white with straight lines. Everything put together with the tourists all strongly show a modernistic style. Monterey Pop strays away from the traditional still camera shooting and incorporates a hand held camera to get up close and personal with the audience of the concert. It shows every part of life at that time and does not leave anything out. The scenes do not necessarily have to flow together either. One moment could be a musical performance on stage with a singer singing their heart out and the next scene could be someone lying on the grass relaxing with friends. Monterey Pop catches the heart and soul of the then modern world as it was.
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