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The natural world allows us to show of more of our individual talents, whereas the urban landscape seems to only allow us to show what is needed of us in terms of industry.
Modern Times echoes these themes and images of the early representation of the modern city. However, the film is much more comedic, but with the same message. For example, the factory scene shows the same monotony. It is comedic, yet it is also representing the dehumanizing of urban workers because of the extreme technological advances (Hicks 2007). This film represents a strange sense of automation taking the life and quality out of production within modern urban environments. There is the incessant need to be faster, and Chaplin's character can't even take a short break. Yet the workplace is not an ideal environment -- the fly that keeps bothering him represents the constant torture the modern worker endures…
References
Chaplin, Charlie. (1936). Modern Times. USA.
Hicks, Jeremy. (2007). Dziga Vertav: Defining Documentary Film I.B. Tauris.
Marko, Daniel. (2002). The man with the movie camera: Speed of vision, speed of truth? Web. http://www.25hrs.org/vertov.htm
Vertov, Dziga. (1929). The Man with the Movie Camera. USSR.
Their decision and ability to not only highlight the portions of the film that nest exemplify this (i.e. Streep's scenes as Julia Childs) but to also tie the rest of the film into the same perspective they were hoping to entice their viewers into adopting (i.e. The worship of Childs from afar a la Powell) accomplished exactly what was needed.
The construction of the television spots used in the marketing campaign for Julie & Julia were not effective only in legitimizing the story of Julia Childs told in the film, but also helped to draw younger viewers to the film. Amy Adams is a quickly emerging yet very well-received actress, and her story in the film modernizes what would otherwise be a historical piece. Though this historicism was the main focus of the advertising campaign, the television spots also reflect and understanding that younger audiences will not necessarily be drawn…
References
"Calling." (2009). Columbia pictures. Accessed 16 September 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzTpZ3gKlJo
Chang, D. (2009). "Streep unleashes her inner Child." Variety 415(10), pp. 19-22.
"Figuring it Out." (2009). Columbia pictures. Accessed 16 September 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCJbrDqHUP0&feature=related
The spectator is unwittingly sutured into a colonialist perspective. But such techniques are not inevitably colonialist in their operation. One of the innovations of Pontocorvo's Battle of Algiers is to invert the imagery of encirclement and exploit the identificatory mechanisms of cinema in behalf of the colonized rather than the colonizer (Noble, 1977).
It is from within the casbah that we see and hear the French troops and helicopters. This time it is the colonized who are encircled and menaced and with whom we identify. The sequence in which three Algerian women dress in European style in order to pass the French checkpoints is particularly effective in controverting traditional patterns through the mechanisms of cinematic identification: scale (close shots individualize the three women); off-screen sound (we hear the sexist comments as if from the women's aural perspective); and especially point-of-view editing. By the time the women plant the bombs; our…
Works Cited
Bazin, Andre. "The Myth of Total Cinema." In What is Cinema? 2 vols. Selected and Translated by Hugh Gray. Berkeley: Univ. Of California Press, 1971.
Bordwell, D. (1997). On the history of film style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Burke, K. (1997). Refining windows and frames: Visions toward integration in the discipline(s) of communication. Part 1. International Journal of Instructional Media, 24, 315-332.
Bordwell, David. Staiger, Janet. Thompson, Kristin. The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).
She must deliver the government plan to an end and be successful. She is determined and uses all her feminine best cards. At the beginning of their meeting she seems to be a superficial, sex interested woman, giving a slight sense of nymphomania. During her adventure with Roger Thornhill she falls in love with him. A theme frequently used in American films (take for example all James ond films, sexy women ready anytime to jump in the hero's arms). At the end Eve and Roger seem a happily married coupled going on a honeymoon, and the viewer is given the impression of the perfect companion, a future ideal mother and wife, and Roger the devoted husband. They had there moments of doubt, when Roger thought Eve betrayed him and named her a person with no feelings, but Roger realized his mistake and they reconciled. The characters seem to have been…
Bibliography
Wood Robin, "Ideology, genre, auteur" (1976), Hitchcock's Films Revisited, University Press 1989
In fact, the reviewer seemed to make it clear that this film would provide insight even for people well-familiar with the comfort women story. Three survivors talk about what they endured as comfort women, and how that has continued to impact them and their lives, to this day. The reviewer describes the women using graphic detail, which is an interesting and anomalous phrase. After all, would not one expect to find descriptions of rape to be graphic and disturbing? However, the euphemistic phrasing that is employed to justify human rights violations like this one, such as calling the women "comfort women" rather than "sex slaves" softens the impact of what has been done, even years after the fact. Therefore, while it is clear that the reviewer has previously studied these events, it is equally clear that the reviewer did not ever really consider the impact that being forced into prostitution…
The first part ends with Lincoln's assassination and with influential abolitionists wanting to punish the Southern states.
The second part of the movie presents the characters after the end of the war as they attempt to reach their goals. Austin travels south with the intention of taking care that blacks are being set free and that they receive their basic rights. Ben Cameron is disappointed that his people now have to treat blacks as equals and decided to form the Ku Klux Klan.
Flora Cameron commits suicide after being chased by Gus, a former slave that tried to convince her to marry him. Ben quickly apprehends Gus, hangs him, and leaves his body in front of Lieutenant Governor Silas Lynch's house. Lynch responds by ordering the executions of all those part of the Klan. The Camerons manage to escape Lynch's people and they take refuge in a country home.
As…
Works Cited
The Birth of a Nation. Dir D.W. Griffith. Epoch Film Co. 1915.
Film Criticism of Casablanca
Casablanca, one of the most famous films of the last one hundred years, uses various film and music techniques to convey the story of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's tragic love triangle set in orld ar II's North Africa. The film connects on many human levels due to its use of seamless shots including close-ups, deep focus and dissolves to name a few. The technique of mis en scene, which literally means use of stylistic items such as scenery, lighting and costumes also artistically builds the drama. The use of music also plays a huge role in setting the scene for romance in the film. It, too, can be considered a character, after all no one can forget the line "Play it again, Sam." The following paragraphs takes an in depth look at such examples in the film.
Film Criticism
Montage and overlapping of scenes opens…
Work Cited
Casablanca. Dir. Michael Cutriz. Perf. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Warner Bros, Inc., 1942.
In this area, meanings with their endless referrals evolve. These include meanings form discourses, as well as cultural systems of knowledge which structure beliefs, feelings, and values, i.e., ideologies. Language, in turn, produces these temporal "products."
During the next section of this thesis, the researcher relates a number of products (terminology) the film/TV industry produced, in answer to the question: hat components contribute to the linguistic aspect of a sublanguage inside of the English language?
CHAPTER III
FILM and TV SUBLANGUAGE
e've come to a certain point in the history of film.
Introduction
In the writing of the script for film/TV, a sublanguage, the writer's deep collection of his/her responses to life. Under specific circumstances, individuals in a particular area of expertise alter/change/utilize a language, in this case, English, to fit their profession, in turn making it easier of those in the profession to understand. This practice of altering specific…
Works Cited
Ban Barriers That Inhibit Film and TV Makers and Viewers." Canadian Speeches, March 2002, 68+. Database online. Available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000764575.Internet . Accessed 4 March 2009. www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001998288
Berry, Ralph. "Understanding Hamlet through the Soliloquies." Contemporary Review, August 2003, 115+. Database online. Available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001998288.Internet . Accessed 4 March 2009. www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5026836367
Bregent-Heald, Dominique. "The Redcoat and the Ranger: Screening Bilateral Friendship in Cecil B. DeMille's North West Mounted Police." American Review of Canadian Studies 38, no. 1 (2008): 43+. Database online. Available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5026836367.Internet . Accessed 4 March 2009.
Dirks, Tim. AMC filmsite. 2009 American Movie Classics Company LLC, 2009. Available at http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms19.html . Internet. Accessed 4 March 2009. www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002295362
These blows come in the form of beatings and disappointments encountered by Antoine while he is a student at a prison-like school. Truffaut paints the starkness of his reality effectively in his use of black and white hues. The boys are dressed mainly in dark formal clothes and their surroundings are also dark. This is contrasted with the brightness of the outside world in which Antoine is constantly looking for. He is left to his own devices, as the adults of the film appear to be "hypocritical, unsympathetic, unperceptive and untrustworthy" (Mast 353). This depicts a gloomy picture of Truffaut's outlook on life. His methods of camera technique, palette choice and story structure further promote this feeling. His choice of loner and misfits like Antoine who feel stifled by society also promote changing definitions in society. Truffaut wanted to put these ideas out into the public not only to express…
Works Cited
Cowie, Peter. The Seventh Seal. 17 March 2005 http://www.criterioncollection/asp/release.asp?id=11&eid=26&se.
Drabelle, Dennis. "Shooting From the Hip." Washington Post (June 15, 1997): 4 pages. 20 March 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp=srv/style/longterm/books/review.htm ..
Kawin. Bruce, F. Mindscreen: Bergman, Godard and First Person Film. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1978.
This is important, because the director was using these individuals to show how the struggle for independence was carried out by: ordinary people who wanted to make a difference. (Johnson)
Since the film was first released in 1966, sympathy has changed dramatically. What has been happening is: the views of the FLN and their leaders are seen as heroes throughout the film. As they are representing the struggles that Algerians are going through during the independence movement. In this aspect, the movie was about the people standing up to: capitalist regimes that were exploiting many countries. (Johnson)
However, as time has went by, the use of these tactics by the FLN (mainly bombings) has changed. What has been occurring is that, this has become a common form of attack that many terrorist groups are using against innocent civilians. After the events of September 11th and the feelings associated with what…
Bibliography
Johnson, Sheila. "The Battle of Algiers." Common Dreams, 2003. Web. 20 May 2011.
Film And Television and Culture
One of the principal concepts that Robert Zemekis' 994 motion picture Forrest Gump is meant to put across regards the problems that society has to deal with. Consequent to watching this film, most viewers are likely to look back and think about all of the issues in Forrest Gump's life. The fact that Tom Hanks soundly plays the character contributes to making the audience relate to him, especially considering that his emotional nature increases the overall feeling that one has while viewing the film.
Forrest Gump is a rather ordinary individual who somewhat accidentally becomes a part of a series of historic events. Having been challenged by life's hardships, he continuously strives to achieve his goals, regardless of the fact that he often comes across tough situations. His below-the-average IQ and his failure to connect with the love of his life in his early years…
10. The visual effects employed throughout the film are downright impressive when considering that the film was shot in the early nineties. Computer generated imagery techniques have made it possible for Tom Hanks to be shown shaking hands with several celebrities that died before the film was made. Similarly, clips showing characters during the Vietnam War put across the feeling that napalm was actually shot near the actors.
11. One is likely to feel that his personal identity is influenced by such films, considering that the sentiments that it triggers are quite strong. Even with the fact that it is very difficult (considering that individuals are bombarded with emotive feelings through a series of mediums) to influence people in the contemporary society, Forrest's determination and the fact that he uses morality as a means to get by makes viewers understand that it is best for them to remain impartial and ethical in most circumstances.
Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Forrest Gump. Paramount Pictures, 1994.
Film Comparison
Almodovar's Prisons
Prisons can be more than a place where one is confined for what they have done. A prison can be a great number of things; a prison can be a psychological, social, emotional, or physical construct. Pedro Almodovar explores these four types of prisons in two of his films, Volver and Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother). In both of these films, the characters find themselves held prisoner by what they keep as secret; the ramifications of these secrets sometimes force characters into seclusion, whether it is self-imposed or a result of social/cultural fears. Volver and Todo Sobre Mi Madre's narratives demonstrate the effects that these four types of prisons -- psychological, social, emotional, and physical -- have on the people that are forced into confinement.
"Almodovar is most interested in melodrama, approached from a variety of angles, some of them skewed" (Mast &…
Bibliography
Almodovar, P. (Director). (2006). Volver [Motion Picture]. Spain: Sony Pictures Classics.
Amodovar, P. (Director). (1999). Todo Sobre Mi Madre [Motion Picture]. Spain: Sony Pictures Classics.
Mast, G. a. (2003). A Short History of the Movies. New York: Longman Pearson.
Simon, P. (Ed.). (2010). Looking At Movies (Third ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
Film: Family Prays Together Stays Together Tyler Perry Select a film, short story, drama worthy time analysis, Aristotle's ideas good dramatic storytelling lecture, analyze story a 750- 1
Tyler Perry's movie drama "The family that preys" represents the story of two families that eventually are forced by circumstances to work together and to get along, regardless of the discrepancies that exist in their life style, mentality, and dreams.
The story line is relatively complex in the sense that there are numerous events that take place throughout the film, from marriage, to drama, from happy moments to sad ones. From this point-of-view, the story and the plot itself resembles the complexity of everyday life, with all intricate affairs and developments that usually do take place in people's lives. An aspect however that may seem somewhat unrealistic relates to the way in which paths cross between the two families. In every day…
Film Review: The Maltese Falcon
Director John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon features the actor Humphrey Bogart in one of his iconic starring roles as the hardboiled detective Sam Spade. The film is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s book of the same name, but is famous less for its plot than its atmospheric rendition of the mystery. The Maltese Falcon melds a traditional crime plot of murder, missing persons, and mistaken identity with that of the legendary bird of the title, a figure so valuable, people will do anything to find it.
The film begins with a mysterious and ultimately untrustworthy woman claiming that she is looking for her missing sister. She employs Spade and his partner Miles Archer to find her sister, who she says is seeing a man named Floyd Thursby. Both Archer and Thursby are later found dead. Eventually, the woman Brigid O’Shaughnessy, is implicated in both murders—she…
Reference
Huston, John. (1941). The Maltese falcon. USA: Warner Brothers.
My Criteria for Quality in Film 2
The period between 1970 and 2000 marked a significant change in the film industry as it was the second Golden Age of Hollywood. During this period, filmmaking experienced significant growth due to experimentation with new ideas. The experimentation not only facilitated the production of new movies, but also resulted in changes that included the incorporation of global prestige. This period is regarded as the second Golden Age of Hollywood because the old studio systems that dominated 1930s films broke down totally. In addition, the period was characterized by loosening of restrictions on obscenity, sexual content and violence (A&E Television Networks, 2018). As a result, film directors started making groundbreaking controversial content while others retained a romantic theme in their movies.
One of the directors who played a critical role in ushering the second Golden Age of Hollywood is George Stevens. Stevens shot never-ending…
It is with great pleasure and excitement that we invite you to partner with us on a historical project, a feature film inspired by true events about Afro-Germans under Nazi rule. Set in Germany, produced in Nigeria, Ava and Duante has tremendous global appeal, with particular relevance to our community in Abuja as it highlights a little-known element of modern history. Perhaps more than any other film to emerge from our country, Ava and Duante has the power to draw international investments into the Nigerian film industry and related creative arts. Mo Abudu, Chief Executive of EbonyLife TV, produced the film, which was written by Nicole Brown. Ava and Duante has the power to inform, inspire, and illuminate, which is why we believe the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany will be interested in collaborating with us in the film’s promotion and sponsorship.
Mo Abudu was inspired to produce…
References
Gbadamosi, N. (2017). Human exhibits and sterilization: The fate of Afro Germans under Nazis. CNN. Retrieved online: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/21/world/black-during-the-holocaust-rhineland-children-film/index.html
War Horse Resiliency
Introductory Statement
This paper provides a critique of the 2012 film War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg. The film takes place during the World War I era and follows the life of a horse named Joey. The film presents various depictions of what it means to be resilient. This paper will provide a summary of the film, examine the key concepts found in the film’s story line, and discuss resiliency and the Biblical solution to adversity from the film’s perspective.
Summary
The film begins with the birth of the horse, whom Albert admires over time. The colt is ultimately auctioned and bought by Albert’s father at a price more than three times its actual value. Albert’s father Ted is willing to pay the price because he knows the horse will bring his son happiness. Albert is indeed made happy by the horse and trains it to do…
References
Craig, W. L. (2008). Reasonable faith; Christian truth and apologetics (3d ed.). Wheaton, Il: Crossway Books.
Evans, C. S., & Manis, R. Z. (2009). Philosophy of Religion (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Spielberg, S. (2012). War Horse. LA: Dreamworks.
Roma: Analysis
Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, is a black and white film, stylish in nature yet reflective of reality. It is a period drama set in Mexico in 1970. The film opens with a long still shot of water swooshing over the tiled floor of driveway within a Mexico City mansion. The sounds are like waves washing over a beach (they foreshadow a climactic scene at the end of the film). The credits roll over this opening scene and when they finish the camera pans up to reveal the heroine of the film, the diminutive Cleo, who is a live-in maid in the mansion of the upper class Mexican family.
The main ideas of the film are captured evocatively but subtly by the camera’s framing, by the use of light and shadow, and by the suggesting nature of mise-en-scene. For instance, a great deal is suggested about the patriarch…
White Paper
Timeless Tools for Leadership Development
In Chapter 9 of Noel Tichy’s The Leadership Engine, the author describes leaders as protagonists in a drama. Dramatic characters from film and literature therefore serve as apt role models for future leaders interested in managing change and driving their organization towards success. The film Henry V, relatively faithful to the Shakespeare’s play, reveals the qualities of an effective leader through the titular hero. Based on the real life leader and King of England, Henry V depicts a leader who embodies many of the qualities that Tichy deems important for developing a leadership engine: a learning organization that inculcates values and ethics into its mission, vision, and culture. Henry V illustrates the importance of teaching, risk-taking, and relentless energy as core leadership traits. Furthermore, the film depicts a leader adept at learning from the past and communicating a clear and comprehensive vision for…
References
Branagh, K. (1989). Henry V. [Feature Film].
Slater, M.J., Evans, A.L. & Turner, M.J. (2015). Implementing a social identity approach for effective change management. Journal of Change Management 16(1): 18-37.
Sutherland, I.E. (2017). Learning and growing: trust, leadership, and response to crisis. Journal of Educational Administration 55(1): 2-17.
Tichy, N.M. (2007). The Leadership Engine. Harper Business/Pritchett.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal 32(3): 373-382.
Larry Adelman’s documentary Place Matters addresses the social determinants of health, focusing on the intersection between socioeconomic class, race, and geography. Place matters in terms of exposure to environmental toxins and other public health hazards like poor infrastructure. This particular episode focuses on asthma and how it is linked to exposure to environmental toxins. Moreover, place determines the access to health resources and also to the ability to form social support networks in a community. The video shows how individual variables like race or economic class need to be contextualized; that multiple variables intersect to inform health outcomes and epidemiological patterns. A person can be disadvantaged from birth, simply by the circumstances of where one was born. Geography and space are therefore linked to power and privilege in the society, unless there is effective public policy to address disparities.
I appreciated watching Place Matters, because the film carefully elucidates the…
Works Cited
Adelman, Larry. Place Matters. Documentary, 2008.
Technological developments have characterized the modern world and play a critical role in communications. Given their impact on communications, these advancements has also influenced the creation of war movies. However, war movies have existed for a long period of time. While modern technological developments are significantly different, technology has also been traditionally linked with war. One of the ways with which technology has been linked to war is through film. This is evident in the fact that various movies or films have been created to depict and emphasize the relationship between technology and war. This paper seeks to examine this relationship through evaluating films that have attempted to link the two concepts. This evaluation is based on a comparison of two films i.e. Dr. Strangelove and WarGames.
Brief Overview of Dr. Strangelove and WarGames
Dr. Strangelove and WarGames are examples to films or movies that have been made to demonstrate…
Bibliography
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Performed by Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden. Columbia Pictures, 1964. Film.
Einstein, A. “Arms Can Bring No Security.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1950).
Hughes, T.P. American Genesis. New York, NY: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Joy, B. “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” Wired (2000).
WarGames. Directed by John Badham. Performed by Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and John Wood. ProtoVision, 1983. Film.
Weinberg, A.M. “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1966).
How the government can add value to the entertainment sector
1. State of the Art film village
Lagos State could invest in a state-of-the-art film village, a site dedicated to providing a cinematic resort-like experience for vacationers wanting to combine the latest and greatest in cinema technology with luxurious destination splendor. The film village would serve a robust offering of options for visitors, complete with sound stage, recreational attractions, shopping mall, sports stadium, hotel, and of course a cinema. A film village like this would help to create hundreds if not thousands of jobs for the area. A film destination similar to Tinapa in Calabar, Nigeria would also be a terrific tourist hot spot, bringing in tourism revenue for the state and increasing its visibility and prestige globally. This would bring incredible value to the entertainment sector as well by showing that Nigeria takes the movie-going experience seriously: the cinema…
Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film, produced during the Soviet era, depicts the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin from the year 1905, prior to the Soviet takeover of the state and seen as a foreshadowing of the wider revolution that was to come. In the film, the mutineers/rebels are depicted as heroes, embodying the spirit of the fight against Tsarist oppression that the good comrades of the Soviet world wanted to project. The Cossacks (themselves a symbol of Russian tradition that the Soviet era comrades despised) and the Tsarist cavalry are depicted as brutal thugs, slaughtering the innocent people of Odessa for daring to show support for the mutineers. As Odessa was one of the most open cities for Jews to live in the Pale of Settlement, the slaughter of people can be seen also as a persecution of Jews, especially since the Soviet Revolution was largely Jewish in nature and Eisenstein…
Q1. Explain the impact of the social and cultural influences on sexual attitudes and behaviors as it relate to Brandon.
Boys Don’t Cry depicts the challenges faced by a young man in the 1990s attempting to transition from female to male. Transgenderism is the technical term used to describe someone who was born a particular anatomical sex, but identifies as the opposite gender. The film shows the difficulty of transitioning when the concept of gender is tied to anatomical sex. Even today, in more liberal cultural contexts and environments, there is often a great deal of tension when someone comes out as transgender. This tension is exacerbated in an area of the country where hyper-masculinity is embraced and the division of roles between the two genders are heavily policed.
Ironically, one of the reasons that Brandon Teena is so attractive to his love interest in the film, a woman named…
It Happened One Night 1934One of the most sensually evocative scenes in Capras It Happened One Night is when a bare-chested Peter Warne begins undressing in front of Ellie Andrews. He has a giant smirk across his face as he begins unbuttoning his pants, daring her to bolt behind the curtain that he has thrown up on a rope to serve as a divider in the room. She has scoffed at the idea of sharing a room with a man and sees the curtain as a flimsy sort of protection of privacy, while he maintains it is as strong as the walls of Jericho (the beginning of a running gag that will be used again at the end of the film). His smirk and state of half-undress (with the threat of more exposure) is enough to send her fleeing to her side of the roombut the sexual tension created by…
Works Cited
Greene, Jane. “A Proper Dash of Spice: Screwball Comedy and the Production Code.” Journal of Film and Video, Volume 63, Number 3 (2011): 45-63
Sarris, Andrew. “The Sex Comedy without Sex.” American Film, Volume 3 (1978): 8–15.
The Link between Politics, Family Separation, and Identity Conflicts
Documentary films are utilized to highlight various issues that have faced individuals or societies over time. Such films are used to show events and situations that are visible parts of individuals’ shared experiences (Nichols, p.ix). As a result, documentary films are utilized as tools for representing reality through highlighting the shared experiences of people. Historical documentary films provide important lessons on various themes relating to the shared experiences of people in different historical periods and geopolitical configurations. Analysis of documentary films help in understanding the various issues that have faced people in different societies. For instance, Dear Pyongyang which was directed by Yang Yong-hi and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige which was produced by Rea Tajiri are the examples of historical documentary films that have been used as representations of reality. These two films show different geopolitical configurations and…
Works Cited
Boyle, Deirdre. “History and Memory: On Visual Media and the Collective Memory of the Japanese American Internment.” The New School, The New School, http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/historymatters/papers/deirdreboyle.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Dew, Oliver. Zainichi Cinema: Korean-in-Japan Film Culture. Springer International Publishing, 2016.
Flowers, Neil. “Dear Pyongyang.” Elevate Difference, Elevate Difference, 26 Nov. 2010, http://www.elevatedifference.com/review/dear-pyongyang. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Koehler, Robert. “Dear Pyongyang.” Variety, Variety, 23 Jan. 2006, http://www.variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/dear-pyongyang-1200519116/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Duke University Press, 2007.
Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2010.
Shoji, Kaori. “Double Life of a North Korean Japanese Filmmaker.” CNN Travel, 4 May 2011, http://www.travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/double-life-north-koreanjapanese-filmmaker-038337/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Women Make Movies. “History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige.” Women Make Movies, Women Make Movies, 2005, http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c111.shtml. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Film Research
Films have traditionally been utilized as tools for expressing different issues that have faced different groups of people across different historical periods and varying geopolitical configurations. Nichols contends that films, particularly documentary films, are utilized to show events and situations that are visible parts of individuals’ shared experiences (p.ix). In essence, films are utilized as tools for representing reality through highlighting the shared experiences of people and groups across historical periods and geopolitical configurations. Some examples of films that have been utilized as representations of reality is Dear Pyongyang, which was directed by Yang Yong-hi and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, which was produced by Rea Tajiri. These two films are from different geopolitical configurations and provide significant insights relating to family experience. Politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts as shown in these two historical films.
Comparison of the Two Films…
Works Cited
Boyle, Deirdre. “History and Memory: On Visual Media and the Collective Memory of the Japanese American Internment.” The New School, The New School, http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/historymatters/papers/deirdreboyle.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Dew, Oliver. Zainichi Cinema: Korean-in-Japan Film Culture. Springer International Publishing, 2016.
Flowers, Neil. “Dear Pyongyang.” Elevate Difference, Elevate Difference, 26 Nov. 2010, http://www.elevatedifference.com/review/dear-pyongyang. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Koehler, Robert. “Dear Pyongyang.” Variety, Variety, 23 Jan. 2006, http://www.variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/dear-pyongyang-1200519116/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Duke University Press, 2007.
Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2010.
Shoji, Kaori. “Double Life of a North Korean Japanese Filmmaker.” CNN Travel, 4 May 2011, http://www.travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/double-life-north-koreanjapanese-filmmaker-038337/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Women Make Movies. “History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige.” Women Make Movies, Women Make Movies, 2005, http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c111.shtml. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Assignment One
Subject: “As You Wish” Scene from The Princess Bride
In the “As You Wish” scene from the Princess Bride, some of the primary themes and motifs of the film are revealed through the elements of cinematography. The scene takes place outdoors, with a backdrop of breathtaking mountain scenery. Across this idyllic background, the two main characters, Buttercup and Wesley, have a discussion. However, Wesley has become the new Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup believes she is speaking to the man who killed her one true love. There is a high degree of dramatic irony in this scene given that the audience knows that Wesley is behind the mask. The fact that Buttercup does not recognize Wesley—even though she waxes poetic about his eyes--underscores the humorous, satirical nature of the film.
The editors cut back and forth from Buttercup to Wesley, using middle range and wide-angle shots to enhance…
References
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Powell, J.T. (2006). Pirate story. Syracuse University Surface. https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1609&context=honors_capstone
Reiner, R. (Director) (1987). The Princess Bride. Film clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niul8Hy-3wk
Population and Society
In the Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, the character of Rey is conceived and communicated as a stereotypical Mary Sue—a character who is seemingly perfect at whatever she does and goes through little or no struggle to acquire skills that an ordinary person would take years if not a lifetime to perfect. For example, Rey acquires the skills of a Jedi Knight within a short space of time, while it takes Luke in the original film a great deal of practice, training and perseverence before he can begin to harness the force. Rey portrayed as a Mary Sue creates a negative bias in the audience because it fosters an unrealistic expectation of womanhood—that women can do anything by virtue of their being strong women. As Byrd (1978) points out Mary Sue stories first emerged in Star Trek and described “the adventures of the youngest and smartest…
References
Byrd, P. (1978). Star Trek Lives: Trekker Slang. American Speech, 53(1), 52-58.
Kadish, M. (2018). Is Rey From The Last Jedi A Mary Sue & Is It Sexist To Think She Is? Retrieved from https://medium.com/@matthewkadish/proof-rey-from-the-last-jedi-is-a-mary-sue-storycraft-72cb51aefd2b
Thor Skywalker. (2018). Rey and the sad devolution of the female character. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjkWb2mqdE
Western Film
The Coen Brothers’ (2010) film True Grit is an adaptation of the novel by the same name and contrasts sharply with the films of the same genre from the 1940s and 1950s. Save for John Ford’s Westerns, like The Searchers, which had a bit of realism mixed in with the sentimentality, there is not much comparison worth noting. The Coen Brothers created a film that is true to the book, while the earlier adaptation starring John Wayne romanticizes the relationship between Rooster Cogburn and the young girl who hires him to find the killer of her father. In the Coen Brothers’ film there is no romanticizing of this relationship at all: Cogburn is old and gnarly and the young girl is still a child. The Coens focus on the relationship as being one of mutual respect and the film ends with a deep not of gratitude and sense…
Avatar and the Rain Forest
The tropical rain forest is a place unlike any on earth and for that reason its vegetation has attracted more attention from writers than any other vegetation anywhere else on the planet: as Whitmore (1990) states, “more ‘purple passages’ have been penned on lowland evergreen rain forest than any other vegetation type” (p. 40). Through this lens of human beings’ fascination with the wonders of the tropical rain forest, one can see why James Cameron took such care to bring to life the tropical world of Avatar. Cameron’s film is an ode to nature—to the wonders of the environment. It is a sci-fi reimagining of what our world could be like if only we stopped trying to loot and plunder the natural world. As the villains in Avatar show, nature is corrupted by the external influence of people who seek to exploit nature and create…
References
Davis, W., 1996. One River. Simon & Schuster.
Whitmore, T. C., 1990. An introduction to tropical rain forests. OUP Oxford.
Part 1: Introduction
By the 1950s, America had moved on from the turmoil of WW2 and was enjoying a bit of peace and prosperity. The Cold War was but a looming threat that would escalate fiercely in the 1960s—but in the 50s, Americans were generally content to enjoy themselves. Still, the specter of Communism loomed and had been perceived as an encroaching problem in Hollywood since the 1930s. Following WW2, Senator Joe McCarthy began his crusade to raise awareness about this specter by flaunting a list of Communists that he knew were secretly hiding in the American government. As fear grew that the Soviets had infiltrated American society, the list grew to include others in other spheres—including Hollywood, where writers suspected of propagating Communist ideology and subtly inserting it into American films came under scrutiny. The Hollywood Blacklist actually began in the latter half of the 1940s but it reached…
The Political Process
In a political setting, people transfer their individual political power to their representatives to form sovereignty. The representatives then constitute a government at the helms of affairs, using the state instruments to control the political system in society. There are procedures involved in the power transfer, and each stage of this is known as a political process. However, there are different schools of thoughts on what constitutes a proper political process. Individual elector, politicians, and sometimes, political parties form their political ideologies based on the perspective that best suits their narrative of the right political process. From different countries, political parties, and leaders, we have witnessed different political processes, and one movie that perfectly depicts the public’s opinion of a political process is the 1992 American political comedy movie, The Distinguished Gentleman.
Written by Martin Kaplan and Jonathan Reynolds, and directed by Jonathan Lynn. The film starred,…
References
Critical Analysis: The Distinguished Gentlemen. Politics and Films Database Honors 495: American Politics, American Cinema. https://blogs.longwood.edu/politicsandfilm/legislative/the-distinguished-gentleman/
Inclusive Political Processes: Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding. United Nations Development Programmes. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/democratic-governance-and-peacebuilding/inclusive-political-processes.html
The Wizard of Oz some regard as ‘like a dream’, a kind of Alice in Wonderland motif set in America. It represents a means of witnessing the culture of the mid-west, but also a dream world that allows someone like Dorothy to find herself and her way home. Dreams influence films and vice versa. How those that made The Wizard of Oz convey the dream element was through key decisions in cinematography, lighting, and acting style. Such decisions generated a film that even now is regarded as one of the best in its genre.
To begin, one must examine the cinematography of the film. The cinematography aspect of The Wizard of Oz follows several themes. One in particular, is the theme of “Dreams, Hopes, and Plans”. The dreams of Dorothy and her friends have been brought into focus via an acting out of what they desire most (Bulkeley, 1999).
The…
References
Baumann, S. L. (2008). Wisdom, compassion, and courage in the Wizard of Oz: A humanbecoming hermeneutic study. Nursing Science Quarterly, 21(4), 322-329. doi:10.1177/0894318408323488
Bulkeley, K. (1999). Touring the dream factory: The dream-film connection in The Wizard of Oz and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dreaming, 9(1), 101-109. doi:10.1023/a:1021321227642
Plantinga, C. R. (2009). Moving viewers: American film and the spectator\\\\'s experience. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Case Analysis: Jack
In the film Fight Club, Jack is a single white male, mid-30s, insomniac. He is mildly depressed, bored with his day job, and looking for something more fulfilling in his life. His father left the family when he was young and though they maintained some contact it was negligible. Jack has essentially had no substantial father figure in his life and he feels as though he is trying to compensate for some lack of manliness in his character by joining a fight club, where he can duel with other men who feel the same as he does. The fight club seems to take on a life of its own and soon the members have formed a kind of vigilante squad whose aim is to eliminate the emasculating elements of society that keep men from returning to a hunter/gatherer type of existence. It turns out that Jack has…
References
Naumova, O. Yu., Hein, S., Suderman, M., Barbot, B., Lee, M., Raefski, A., Dobrynin, P. V., Brown, P. J., Szyf, M., Luthar, S. S., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2016). Epigenetic Patterns Modulate the Connection between Developmental Dynamics of Parenting and Offspring Psychosocial Adjustment. Child Development, 87(1), 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12485
Perry, B. D., & Szalavitz, M. (2006). The boy who was raised as a dog: And other stories from a child psychiatrist's notebook – What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Shriner, B & M. Shriner. (2014). Essentials of Lifespan Development: A Topical Perspective. Bridgepoint Education: San Diego, CA.
The author of this brief report has been asked to offer a review of a video that is currently present on the YouTube collection of videos. Rather than providing a simple “shot by shot” review or any other sort of basic review, the author will instead use proper terms, ideas and concepts to get a fuller picture of what the video is trying to accomplish and what methods are being used to accomplish the same in terms of its structure and methodology. There are a number of important factors that will be considered include actual intent, clear intent and what is truly going on within a scene including its narrative, its themes and so forth. While it is possible to read too much into a given scene or the points it is trying to make, there are other times where that is the precise thing that is to be done.…
Resources:
https://youtu.be/tHx58QpGkRo
Black Panther: Character and Monomyth
The great success of the 2018 superhero film Black Panther was noteworthy from a cultural perspective because it was a blockbuster superhero film to gain wide acclaim with an African-American cast and proudly Afro-centric themes. The film is testimony to the success of the demand that historically marginalized groups see themselves represented in major cinematic productions. However, despite the fact that the hero T’Challa is noteworthy due to his ethnicity and race, his story in many ways embodies the traditional, critical aspects of the monomyth of the hero’s journey, in which a hero is called to embark upon a needed journey (usually reluctantly), is initiated into a new way of life, followed by a return.
In Black Panther, T’Challa must return to his native Wakanda to assume the throne after the death of his father T’Chaka. To do so, he must face a test in…
Works Cited
Black Panther. Directed by Ryan Coogler. Walt Disney Studios, 2018.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1st ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2008.
Black Power Movement and Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s: A Discussion of Overlap
As many scholars agree, all art is a product of its time. The social tensions, trends, patterns of thought and political issues of an era can’t help but influence the art that is created and consumed. This is particularly true with cinema and all forms of media arts. This paper will examine how the Black Power movement influenced cinema (and at times was influenced by cinema) in three distinct films of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Defiant Ones
“The Defiant Ones” (1958) directed by Stanley Kramer was a film that succeeded and failed in making meaningful commentary on race and race relations. It was perhaps its failings that helped provoke the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s most acutely. The movie is a “buddy film” a genre of cinema that details a story around…
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. The Devil Finds Work. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013.
The Defiant Ones. Directed by Stanley Kramer, Perf. Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier. 1958.
Dunne, Sarah. \\"Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Hollywood’s Misrepresentation of the Politics of Interracial Relationships in 1960s America – The Midlands Historical Review.\\" The Midlands Historical Review, 2018, www.midlandshistoricalreview.com/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-and-hollywoods-misrepresentation-of-the-politics-of-interracial-relationships-in-1960s-america/#_ftn7. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.
Fleishman, Jeffrey. \\"\\'Guess Who\\'s Coming to Dinner\\' is 50 and Racial Tension Still a Problem in America.\\" Latimes.com, 2 Feb. 2017, www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-guess-dinner-anniversary-20170131-story.html.
Guess Who\\'s Coming to Dinner. Directed by Stanley Kramer, Perf. Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Sidney Poitier. 1967.
Harris, Glen A., and Robert B. Toplin. \\"Guess Who\\'s Coming to Dinner?: A Clash of Interpretations Regarding Stanley Kramer\\'s Film on the Subject of Interracial Marriage.\\" The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 40, no. 4, 2007, pp. 700-713.
Mellen, Joan. Big Bad Wolves: Masculinity in the American Film. Elm Tree Books, 1978.
Roediger, David. \\"The Defiant Ones, 1958.\\" For All The World To See - UMBC, 2018, fatwts.umbc.edu/the-defiant-ones-1958/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.
Gender Roles in Film:Sexual Objectification of Women
Laura Mulvey published an article that explores visual pleasure in film using a psychoanalytic background. The pleasure and unpleasure provided by conventional narrative film depicts a woman as passive raw material for the active stare of man (Mulvey, p.67). As a result, the woman is an image of castration that induces fetishistic or voyeuristic mechanisms to evade her threat. Narrative film portrays the woman in voyeuristic form by highlighting her to-be-looked-at-ness. Narrative film employs cinematic codes that create a world, a stare, and an object which generates an illusion of the measure of desire. Carol J. Clover explores the role of gender in the Slasher Film in which the killer’s “victim is a beautiful, sexually attractive woman” (Clover, p.192). The Slasher Film is an example of sexualization of both movie and action as the role of men and women is portrayed differently. Carol…
Works Cited
Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” University of California Press, University of California Press, 10 Feb. 2017, http://www.users.clas.ufl.edu/burt/paranoid70scinema/HerBodyHimself.pdf.
Cowan, Gloria, and Margaret O\\'brien. “Gender and Survival vs. Death in Slasher Films: A Content Analysis.” Sex Roles, vol. 23, no. 3-4, 1990, pp. 187–196., doi:10.1007/bf00289865.
Loreck Teaching Associate in the School of Media, Janice. “Explainer: What Does the \\'Male Gaze\\' Mean, and What about a Female Gaze?” The Conversation, The Conversation Inc., 22 Apr. 2020, http://www.theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486 .
Marian. “A Very Short Summary of Psychoanalytic Feminist Theory and Practice.” Oakton Community College, Oakton Community College, 15 Feb. 2012, http://www.oakton.edu/user/2/hgraff/WGSSummaryPsychoanalyticFemminismS12.html .
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Arizona State University, Arizona State University, Oct. 1975, http://www.asu.edu/courses/fms504/total-readings/mulvey-visualpleasure.pdf .
Not only does Nichols provide a good context for the many paradoxes that can confront film studies with his insightful and thoughtful introduction, but he also shows how sharing approaches and methods can help to stimulate a lot of the best writing regarding film. In addition he shows many of the common problems that are seen and deals with the contradictions that appear. Like the first volume of the anthology, this second volume also provides smaller introductions so that each essay and piece of information can be more easily understood. It also allows a reader to peruse the book and find the pertinent piece of information that he or she needs at that point in time, which can be very valuable, especially for a novice to the film industry trying to find information quickly. Having the smaller introductions before each piece also help to showcase each item within the context…
Bibliography
Nichols, Bill (1976) Movies and Methods: Vol. I. University of California Press.
Nichols, Bill (1985) Movies and Methods: Vol. II. University of California Press.
Conclusion
It is hard to deny that Sophie's Choice indeed has the trifecta of what I believe good movie-making needs: superb acting, sound, and cinematography, as it was nominated excellence in acting (won by Meryl Streep), cinematography, and music by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual Academy Awards. hile I have seen many movies, few have touched me the way Sophie's Choice has. I can remember the seamless acting, the haunting music, and the visual beauty of the film itself. In viewing Sophie's Choice, it's easy to see that a great film is so much more than commercial success or box office revenue; a great film is compelling. It grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. In looking for movies that resonate with the viewer, one cannot come any closer to perfection than Sophie's Choice, one of the most compelling films of all time, a gripping…
Works Cited
Adler, Stella and Kissel, Howard. The Art of Acting. 2000. New York, NY: Applause
Theater and Cinema Books. Print.
Barsam, Richard and Monahan, Dave. Looking at Movies: 3rd Edition. 2009. New
York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. Print.
Film Awards
The film industry produces experience goods for consumer enjoyment and consumption, and substantively relies on consumer differentiation for the economic success of movies. Moviegoers appear to differentiate films primarily on the basis of genre, starring actors, exposure to promotion, recommendations from other moviegoers and film critics, and -- for the dedicated film buffs and connoisseurs -- directors, cinematographers, and even screenwriters associated with the film production (Albert 1998, De Vany 2004, Eliashberg and Shugan 1997, Hand 2002, Krider and Weinberg 1998, Nelson et al. 2001, avid 1999, Smith and Smith 1986, Wallace, Steigermann and Holbrook 1993). Access to information about films is related to the resources and networks that moviegoers enjoy, and on the attention that films garner, as expressed by the media and through social networks. Information about films is accessed by moviegoers from many sources: 1) The genre of the film; 2) the rating of the…
References
Albert, S 1998 "Movie stars and the distribution of financially successful fitness in the motion picture industry." Journal of Cultural Economics, 22(4), 249-270.
Chang, B-H and Ki, E-J 2005, Devising a practical model for predicting theatrical movie success: Focusing on experience good property. Journal of Media Economics, 18(4), 247-260.
Chen, Andrew. "Forecasting Gross Revenues at the Movie Box Office" Department of Economics, University of Washington June 2002. 20 July 2006 http://www.econ.washington.edu/user/startz/OldCourses/482_SP2002_studentPapers/econ-482-finalpaper%20Chen.pdf
Decanay, JC, King-Calvo, MT, Santos, AA 2010, Information cascades as social learning: The case of box-office ticket sales in the Philippines. Proceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, 2010 p.334-344.
The leading lady of the film within the film is crazy, without the need for abusing any form of intoxicating substance. But the primary difference between the contemporary and the past film does not lie in any of these imperfect parallel details involved in their mutually chaotic plots, nor the minute distinctions in the minds and portrayals of stock characters. Rather, the difference lies in the way that DiCillo's style of storytelling constantly forces the audience to remain on edge, unaware if they are watching real life or the film that is being filmed -- or the director or actor's idealized dream of what the creative product should be. Thus, the later film has an added nuance about how the creative process can take over the lives of actors and directors, as well as seem absurd to individuals outside of the movie business. It also forces the viewer not simply…
Making a movie about making a movie. This may hardly sound like a gripping subject matter, merely annoying self-commentary and self-analysis on the part of the screenwriters, directors, and actors involved in the self-referential and navel-gazing project. However, this subject matter has proved popular fodder since Francois Truffaut filmed "Day for Night" in 1973. "Living in Oblivion," directed by Tom DiCillo in 1995 is only the most recent film to take up this now familiar plotline.
Truffaut's film despite the French director's reputation as a cutting edge auteur of cinema seems to play to many common assumptions the audience might have about 'creative types' and film. The plotline of the film within a film is melodramatic and inchoate. The film is over its budget, the director's vision, he feels, is being ruined. The leading actress abuses alcohol. The leading actor is sexually involved, to the evident detriment of his performance, with a behind-the-scenes member of the crew.
While Truffaut's film depicts the difficulties of temperamental animal and human actors -- "Living in Oblivion" depicts a temperamental dwarf who is angry about the misrepresentation of his people. "Living in Oblivion" depicts a cameraman, as opposed to a leading actor, who has romantic difficulties. The leading lady of the film within the film is crazy, without the need for abusing any form of intoxicating substance. But the primary difference between the contemporary and the past film does not lie in any of these imperfect parallel details involved in their mutually chaotic plots, nor the minute distinctions in the minds and portrayals of stock characters. Rather, the difference lies in the way that DiCillo's style of storytelling constantly forces the audience to remain on edge, unaware if they are watching real life or the film that is being filmed -- or the director or actor's idealized dream of what the creative product should be. Thus, the later film has an added nuance about how the creative process can take over the lives of actors and directors, as well as seem absurd to individuals outside of the movie business. It also forces the viewer not simply to laugh ironically at the lives of the people before them, but to realize that both the viewer, the actors, and the people behind the set are all engaging in a kind of fantasy, whenever the process of filmmaking or viewing occurs.
Woody Allen's Annie Hall
Music is hardly used at all throughout the course of Woody Allen's classic comedy film Annie Hall. Like the great Ingmar Bergman, a director that Allen has idolized throughout the course of his career, Allen chose to leave a music score out of the film altogether.
Allen has always been known for his unconventional use of music in his films. He has never commissioned an original score for any of his movies; rather, he prefers to use established jazz and classical music recordings. But in a lot of his films, these jazz scores can be heard constantly in the background. Not so in Annie Hall.
One of the few uses of background music to be heard in Annie Hall include a boy's choir Christmas melody that features in a scene where the characters are driving through Los Angeles. In another instance, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony can be…
Film Analysis: American Beauty
Women's Sexuality
Film Analysis: American Beauty
Film Analysis: American Beauty
American Beauty (1999) was written by Alan Ball, creator of the HBO series 6 Feet Under, and directed by Sam Mendes. American Beauty centers around the Burnham family, who, on the surface seems like a picture-perfect, white, upper-middle class, suburban family. The protagonist of the film is the father and husband of the Burnham family, Lester, who, fed up with the boredom and monotony of his life, has an interesting "mid-life" crisis, that includes a very active crush on his adolescent daughter's Lolita-type best friend.
The film follows the Burham family as each member (mother, father, and daughter) transition into new stages of their lives. Lester's transition is the most notable and spectacular. He loses his high paying job and begins working at a fast food restaurant. While working the drive-thru, he discovers that his seemingsly…
References:
Carroll, N., & Choi, J. (ed.) (2006). Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures: An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA.
LoBrutto, V. (2005). Becoming Film Literate -- The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Nichols, B. (2010). Engaging Cinema. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
There are enough similarities of story and characterization, however, that while one must take care not to see Troy as fact, or even as an essentially faithful movie version of the Homer's the Iliad, one may still learn something about the plot, characters, and setting of Homer's great poem by seeing it. Educationally speaking, perhaps one of the greatest benefits of a major motion picture like Troy is that seeing it might interest more people in reading the Iliad, for comparison, and/or in learning more about Greek legends, myths, and mythological characters in general.
The basic plot and setting of the film is this: the Mycenae Greeks (Greece and Sparta) and the Trojans, having been at war, have finally reached peace after many years. Two handsome young Trojan princes, Hector and Paris (sons of King Priam) are celebrating this fact with Menelaus, King of Sparta (Menelaus's brother Agamemnon is King…
Grey with a way to accommodate the needs of their Ids and their Superegos. Their Superegos imposed the societal constraints on sexual relationships, which would drive both Lee and Mr. Grey to enter into monogamous sexual relationships. Their Ids drove Lee and Mr. Grey to seek immediate gratification of their aggressive urges through sexual behavior. By entering into a relationship with each other that allows them to fulfill both needs, Lee and Mr. Grey allow their Egos to reconcile the needs of their Ids and Superegos.
Furthermore, the Secretary addresses the issue of sexuality, and highlights the intimate relationship between sexuality and aggression. The unusual thing about the Secretary is that it demonstrates that a relationship that might be viewed as deviant was actually helpful to both members of the relationship. Prior to becoming involved with one another, Lee and Mr. Grey are both in pretty bad shape. Lee was…
This lack of trust further leads to dysfunctional conflict.
Dysfunctional conflict refers to a destructive and unhealthy disagreement among people. In a team, this could lead to a removal of focus from the task at hand. This occurs in the scene, where all the members of the team allow their emotion of fear to control their behavior. Rather than seeking solutions, they appear to look for scapegoats upon whom to blame their situation. The scene ends with the potential to resolve the conflict.
The scene focuses very much upon the conflict aspect of communication breakdown, rather than clearly illustrating the positive aspects of the team involved. There appears to be no basis of trust among the team members, which leads to an escalation of dysfunctional conflict. In order to better illustrate the full range of aspects involved in the concepts, the scene might have included a sense of basic trust…
His stance is also one of superiority as he presents himself as the victim of his own vision and artistic expression. In this context, the generic pronoun "they" symbolizes Craig's detachment from the world around him as he feels superior which he believes, is what causes his isolation.
Craig's wife, Lotte, is perhaps the most radically changed as a result of traveling through the portal. She becomes convinced that she is a transsexual, and consequently, feels the only way she can be true to herself is to assume a new sexual identity, i.e. that of a man. However Lotte abandons her desire of sexual reassignment when she becomes aware that by starting a relationship with Maxine, she can in fact assume a different gender role simply by falling in love with Maxine. Maxine, on the other hand, embarks on a sexual relationship with Malkovich so she can be with Lotte.…
Weeks, Jeffrey. 2003. The Invention of Sexuality. In Sexuality, 11-28. New York: Routledge.
Dragunoiu, Dana. "Psychoanalysis, Film Theory and the Case of Being John Malkovich." Film Criticism 26.2 (2001): 1-7
Gauntlett, David. 2002. Michel Foucault. In Media, Gender, and Identity: An Introduction, 115-134. London: Routledge.
My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
Here comes the lady; let her witness it.
Translation
Setting: The inside of the administrative building. Nighttime. Othello is wearing a suit, and is confronted by the school's president, 'Dr. B,' and several members of the administration in their pajamas.
John Othello: Look Dr. B,…
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. "Othello." MIT Classics Page. [2 Nov 2006] http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/othello/othello.1.3.html
Humanity seems to unravel altogether in Pi: Faith in Chaos, both written and direct by Darren Aronofsky. Max is a brilliant but socially crippled young mathematician who has built a supercomputer and possibly unlocked the mathematical secrets of the universe, explaining everything from the stock market to God. The mathematical precision with which the world would operate if this is true casts a great deal of doubt on the existence of free will. At the same time, however, the film is asking questions about reality, and whether or not Max's discovery can truly be used in any practical way. Ultimately, both questions are rendered moot by Max's destruction of the mathematical portion of his brain. Though this seems to be an act of free will, it could also be the natural and inevitable next step in the algorithm of his life following his discovery of the sacred 216-digit number. Regardless,…
Gotham is a dark place, which manifests evil in the character of the Joker (Jack Nicholson). Bruce Wayne, Batman, is the force with which evil must reckon. Batman, however, has his own dark side, which is manifest in his costume, his gothic style mansion, and the technology he employs to combat the Joker and other criminal elements.
In this film, Burton needed only a few big name and talented actors -- Jack Nicholson (the Joker), Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne aka Batman), Billy Dee Williams (Harvey Bent), and Kim Bassinger (Vicky Vale) to attract that audience that might otherwise have opted out of a comic book to film production. Yet the actors in this instance by virtue of their talent need minimal direction, and that allows Burton to focus on the structure of the film. The film is not structured around the actors, but the actors fill the structure of the…
Reference List
Dudley, Andrew (1984). Concepts in Film Theory, Oxford University Press.
Caughie, John (1982). Theories of Authorship: A Reader, Routledge, New York, New
York.
Valicha, Kishore (1988). The Moving Image: A Study of Indian Cinema, Orient
Whereas Marco's devotion to Lydia is based on his perception of guilt and responsibility for her predicament, Benigno's infatuation with Alicia seems to be a perfect example of the manner in which men can be love struck by a complete stranger even without any substantial interaction between them first. From the perspective of human sexual attraction and romantic infatuation, Benigno's infatuation is typical; what is atypical and perhaps less realistic is Benigno's continued devotion in light of Alicia's prognosis for recovery. From a much darker perspective, the apparent mental instability to which Benigno is prone may provide some explanation for his preoccupation with a virtual stranger. Ordinarily, it is not so much the manner in which men become infatuated with strangers so quickly that is sometimes a function of mental instability.
On the other hand, what very often is an indication of psychological dysfunction or obsession is the continued infatuation…
However, in spite of the fact that the film was promoted as a motion picture displaying real-life events, it appears that the director did not hesitate to modify a series of aspects about the environment that he shot in and the story itself. The protagonist's wife and children were not actually his and Flaherty correctly believed that audiences would be more deeply impressed if he presented the story from a more spectacular point-of-view. Even with this, one can still claim that the film is a documentary because it presents viewers with its own creation.
Many individuals took advantage of the fact that documentary films were very influential and devised propaganda strategies using motion pictures. Many individuals involved in this affair considered that fiction films no longer had a strong appeal and that society was more concerned about seeing 'cinema verite'. Many filmmakers got actively engaged in creating films discussing political…
Works cited:
Aufderheide, Patricia, "Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction," (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Ellis, Jack C. And McLane, Betsy a. "A new history of documentary film," (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005)
Nanook_1.jpg
The relationship between the two women is strengthened as the film advances and as they discover that they have more things in common than they initially thought. The two criminal-oriented individuals find that they have serious issues with their families and that something urgently needs to be done for them to solve their problems. The bond they form is best observed to the end of the motion picture, when Ray has second thoughts about leaving Lila and instead presents herself to the authorities, willing to be penalized for her actions. In spite of the fact that some viewers might consider the film's ending to be dull in comparison to the dramatic outcome they expected, the final is actually satisfying, as Ray's punishment is somewhat equivalent to the illegalities that she committed.
The frozen river can be taken for granted, with all the risks involved in crossing it, and it can…
Bibliography:
1. Dir. Hunt, Courtney. Frozen River. Sony Pictures Classics, 2008.
film Field of Dreams
Executive review: The objective of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the film 'Field of Dreams' [1989], taking into consideration such intrinsic aspects of the film as the plot; characterizations; contextualization and storyline; moods and particularly evident ideological perspectives.
The plot within Field of Dreams begins to take shape when, due to instruction given unto him by a mysterious, heavenly voice one day, Ray Kinsella [Costner], a struggling owa farmer, begins to turn one of his cornfields [virtually the exclusive source of his income] into a baseball diamond. The characters he meets and the experiences he subsequently has, the eventual result of his accomplishment (s) and the ultimately reconciling and redeeming conclusion collectively converge to make for a movie that, in spite of having various fictional and illogical inclinations, depicts a pot that is fundamentally logical moralistic.
The film, directed by Phil Alden…
It begins to become increasingly apparent as the movie nears it conclusion, especially with the appearance of the ghost of Kinsella's father that the prime objective of the movie isn't baseball or success; in fact, it becomes increasingly evident that this is movie based upon representing the lives of people living with deep set regrets due to particular wasted chances within their lives. The film isn't just for baseball fans and neither is it just for those with sentimental tendencies, its fundamentally for people those experienced loss and want, just for a few minutes, a shot at regaining things that they have lost as a result of past mistakes.
External Source
Ebert, R. (1989). Field of Dreams. Digital Chicago @ http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1989/04/349987.html
Ho finds out that Mark has a twin brother who was a former gang member that went straight and traveled to America where he opened a restaurant in New York. Kit Ho's brother was fatally wounded almost the same time his daughter was born but before he got to the hospital he died .after Kit's funeral Ho, Ken and Lung decide to avenge the death of Kit by launching an attack on Ko's mansion at a time he was meeting with one of his counterfeiting clients. A huge gun battles goes down with the three men killing almost 90 people in the process. These three sit down within the mansion and the police surround them.
The plot of the movie is basically cohesive and is reasonably not complicated. The climax of the movie towards its end is both tragic and played out quite excitingly. This movie a better tomorrow is…
The ultimate proof of the film's tendency to utilize hyperbole to portray the author as someone whose morality was questionable due to his own pursuit of success, wealth and fame lies in the quantity of interactions that Capote had with the two prisoners. There is certainly evidence in Clarke's biography that implies there was a fondness and physical attraction between the author and Smith. However, the sheer number of visits that the movie portrays is certainly erroneous. In actuality, the writer's "extended prison sojourns in the film are…fictionalized. In five years, Capote…visited his subjects no more than half a dozen times, though he did correspond with [them] weekly... He…was less interested in dealing with the defendants as people (Gibbons)."
As such, it becomes fairly obvious that the film Capote exaggerated a number of different facets of his personality and behavior in order to render the author as a consummate perfectionist…
Works Cited
Blake, Leslie. "True, Man." www.offoffoff.com. 2005. Web. http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2005/capote.php
Dujsik, Mark. "Capote." Mark Reviews Movies. 2005. Web. http://mark-reviews-movies.tripod.com/reviews/C/capote.htm
Gibbons, Phil. "Capote' vs. Capote." Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. 2006. Web. http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/icapote-vs.-i-capote/
Leopold, Todd. "Bennett Miller: Fame of 'Capote', Love of 'Cruise'." www.cnn.com. 2006. Web. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/29/bennett.miller/index.html?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ
Sunset Boulevard is a classic film noir produced in 1950 and directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with the murder of Joe Gillis, a floundering screenwriter who ends up dead in a swimming pool. "Poor dope," the voice over says. "He'd always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, only the price turned out to be a little high." The voice over, delivered in classic film noir style, turns out to be none other than Gillis himself. Far from being an unreliable narrator, though, Gillis promises "the facts" and delivers. The entire film Sunset Boulevard is the retelling of "the facts" from Gillis's perspective. Wilder's choice of narration is dutifully ironic, as a failed filmmaker becomes famous. The theme of the movie is reminiscent of the Great Gatsby, with its peek at American decadence and lost dreams. Because it offers rich social commentary, Sunset…
References
Armstrong, R. (2000). Billy Wilder: American Film Realist. NC: McFarland & Co.
Gibson, A. (2001). And the Wind Wheezing Through That Organ Once in a While": Voice, Narrative, Film. Retrieved online: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nlh/summary/v032/32.3gibson01.html
Smoodin, E. (1983). The image and the voice in the film with spoken narration. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8(4): 19-32.
Wilder, B. (1950). Sunset Boulevard. Feature film.
Film Interests
Choose a Film Interests
Isolate a specific issue, case, problem, or scenario related to business, politics, leadership, advertising, marketing, or ethics in the film.
In the movie Wall Street, there is a focus on a number of issues to include: business, marketing and ethics. What happened is Bud Fox is an up and coming broker who will do anything to be successful. This is when he meets Gordon Gecko, who encourages Fox to become creative in the investment advice that he is providing (by obtaining inside information). The impact is that Fox quickly become corrupted by the easy money and fast life of Gecko's world. Once he realizes that Gecko is using him for his own personal benefits, is when he begins to face legal troubles (with him being arrested for insider trading). After wearing a wire and recording Gecko's involvement is when Fox goes to court. The…
Reference
Wall Street. (2012). IMBD. Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/
Newkirk, T. (1998). Insider Trading. SEC. Retrieved from: http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/speecharchive/1998/spch221.htm