The Five Senses Blogathan

I ran across this blogathon, hosted by Nostra at My Film Views, a while back and had planned on participating. I sort of forgot about it, then it started popping back up as of late on several blogs I follow. So, refreshed memory and all, I decided to jump in. 

What a cool idea! How can you relate your movie experience to the five senses? Here's the rundown:

The idea

As you know the body has five senses (although some movies might suggest there is a sixth one): Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell and Touch.

So what’s the idea behind this blogathon? For each of these senses you will have to describe the movie related association you have with it. This can be a particular movie or even a scene, but also something having to do with the movie going experience (so for example the smell of popcorn in the theater).

What do you have to do?

– Write your entry to The Five Senses blogathon, where you describe the association you have for each of the senses

– Include the above blogathon logo in your post

– Add a link to this blogathon announcement so others can participate as well

– Leave a link to your entry in the comments so people can easily find your entry

So, without further ado, here are my movie connections to the five senses: 

Sight

Wes Anderson's yellows, sometimes more pronounced than other times, but always there. His movies catch the eye on a number of levels, but the colors are the kicker for me. I also love the little splashes of pink and/or light blue in all of these shots. You can almost see his evolution as a filmmaker here. With Bottle Rocket (1996), it's as if he wasn't quite there yet. Then, look at the similarities between the shot from Rushmore (1998) and the shot from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), the vehicle in yellow, the blues in the foreground. The character off-center in the shots from The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). The character dead-center in Hotel Chevalier (short, 2007) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Wes Anderson fascinates because there is just so much in every frame. 

Sound

Pretty much any time a good tune perfectly matches the moving image, I am hooked. I have hailed movies as masterpieces simply for the use of that one right song with that one right shot or sequence. The clip above from Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (1999) is a perfect example. 

Taste

My home city is home to Regal Cinemas. They have the market pretty much cornered here and in a good deal of the country as well. Nothing beats a hot, buttery bag of popcorn and an ice cold fountain Coke. And I mean the real deal. None of that diet shit. 

Smell

From my review of The Giver (2014), which was the last movie I saw in the palace pictured above, The Ritz Theater on Main Street in Clinton, Tennessee: 

When you walk into the historic Ritz Theater in downtown Clinton, Tennessee, you become washed over with a cool blast of nostalgia. It has a smell to it, a look long forgotten.

The smell is of an old, city building, delightfully musty (a great thing), mixed with a fresh batch of popcorn. The look is like so many other Main Street, USA, one-screen movie houses, save one important detail:  this one is not only still standing but operating.

Touch

I realized when I knew I would go with The Ritz Theater as my smell connection that I had seen director Philip Noyce's adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver there a few months back. It is a story that relies so heavily on the sense of touch. Touch is everything in this movie. And the evolution of touch as the movie plays is quite powerful. Take another look at the sequence of shots above.