Lies and Talkies: Singing in the Rain vs. Sunset Boulevard
Long before the self-reflexive, pastiche ethos of postmodernism that is popular today, films like "Singing in the Rain" and "Sunset Boulevard" used the medium of cinema to critique the false nature of Hollywood and to critique the medium of film itself. Both the films "Singing in the Rain" and "Sunset Boulevard" chronicle the rocky transition of Hollywood from a purely silent and image-based means of generating a creative pictorial reality to a talking and slightly more realistic version of 'real life.' But while "Sunset Boulevard" shows this supposed transition was really a lie -- talking pictures are no more real than silent life, "Singing" in the Rain was more hopeful in its presumption that talking and even singing movies could be slightly more realistic than the silent epics of costume balls and far-off lands.
"We had faces then," says Norma Desmond as she watches a younger version of herself slink across the silent screen of the movie theater she has installed in her decaying Hollywood mansion, comparing the fantasy glamour of the Hollywood past with the more drab Hollywood present....
This quotation is supposed to indicate to the viewer how deep Norma has sunk into madness -- she cannot conceive of herself, or any human being as having a real face unless it is properly portrayed on a movie screen. As the score from the film swells in the background, Norma rises in a darkened room, lit only by the light of the film projector that unkindly highlights her older, real-life face. Her gestures seem theatrical and forced, even though they are of Norma herself, and not a director's creation like her image on the screen. Still, in Norma's view her own filmed image and the false lies of screenplays are superior to the reality, a lie that is perpetuated by the Hollywood system, the structure of "Sunset Boulevard" suggests.
The lack of realism in the Hollywood machine is also evident in "Singing in the Rain," as in "Sunset Boulevard." The movie idol played by Gene Kelly begins the musical opining to the Hollywood press, with a flattering full-on camera angle that makes him look smooth and polished. He is talking of his childhood as it meshes with his cultivated screen persona -- however the viewer is shown flashbacks of what the…
Cinema and American Politics The modern politics of the U.S. and their imperialistic manifestations within the global political economy (GPE) have often been reflected in the mainstream Hollywood films of the era yet simultaneously criticized and satirized by auteur and/or independent filmmakers, such as Kubrick with his 1964 Dr. Strangelove or Oliver Stone's JFK. While political science is a field in which the dynamics of political discourse may be examined
The Shining vs. The ExorcistThe Shining and The Exorcist are both horror classics that have terrified audiences for decades. Both films are masterpieces of suspense and tension, with scenes that will stay with viewers long after they\\\'ve left the theater. However, each film is also unique in its own way. The Shining is a classic real-world horror story in which the terror grows both from a real fear of domestic
Films Cinema is a cyclical phenomenon of images, themes, stories, and visions yet each interpretation presented to viewers is unique and connects with them in a different manner. By studying the foundations of cinema, one can trace the influences of directors in modern cinema. Quentin Tarantino's most recent film, Django Unchained, is not only a postmodern film that draws influences from Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen: Siegfried, an Expressionist film, and
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These films. Swing Vote (2008), The Queen (2006) Rules of Engagement (2000) The Quiet American (2002) and Jarhead (2005) clearly support this hypothesis and build on the idea that art reflects life and life reflects art. Resources Boggs, C. & Pollard, T. (2006) The Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture Boulder CO: Paradigm Publishers Bellah, R.N. Madsen, R. Sullivan, W.M. Swidler, A. Tipton, S.M. (1991) Good Society New York: Random House. Fishman,
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