Silent Film Essays (Examples)

Silent films were caught in the cross-hairs of all this.
Buster Keaton: Silent Film Visionary -- Too Much Imagination

Yet, that sort of nightmare world of industrialization both inspired and was depicted in silent film. The Lumiere brothers were innovative geniuses who devised a portable camera, better equipped for transfer than Edison's bulky machine, and photographed technological marvels (like that train engine) to entertain audiences. One of the great comics of the silent film era, Buster Keaton, would explore the fascinating technological world of the railway in his greatest cinematic work, the General. The General debuted in 1927, again, the same year as the first talkie, and served as a kind of farewell to the marvelous world of the silent film era. Described as a "Civil ar farce" by New York Times reviewer Mordaunt Hall, Buster Keaton's portrayal of Johnnie Gray is viewed as "hardly the person who would be…

Silent Film And How Critical Reception Shifts Over Time
The objective of this study is to examine the film Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari or 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and to examine silent film and how critical reception shifts over time.

The film Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari or 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" echoed the German psychological warfare that had been waged against the people by Hitler and throughout the film runs the theme of tyranny over such treatment and psychological maneuvers against the human soul. Over time critical reception of the silent film, 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' has noticeably experienced shifts in perception and in the reception of critics.

The basis of the story is a fictitious German town in the north near the Dutch border named Holstenwall. The story involves a fair moving into the two and along with the traditional merry-go-round and typical sideshow…

Silent Film: obert Flaherty and Nanook of the North
obert Flaherty is one of the most renowned filmmakers of all time. He was born in 1883 and died in 1951, so that his life and work encompassed what is frequently referred to as the Golden Age of cinema. Although Flaherty was an American, he lived near the U.S./Canadian border, and went to Toronto for his schooling. His early work experience was in the Hudson Bay region of Canada, and was as a worker for the railroad, not as a filmmaker. However, he gained exposure to themes that would eventually permeate his early filmmaking during this work experience. He began his work during the silent era and immediately came to prominence with films that focused on individual protagonists working hard to conquer nature. His most famous film was the 1922 film Nanook of the North, which immediately brought him attention as…

The first scene of The Great Train Robbery takes place inside the railroad telegraph office when two masked bandits are able to force the telegraph operator stop a train that is approaching the station so that they can climb aboard. After getting the telegraph operator to lie about a water stop, the next scene finds the train at the water tower by the station where the bandits will sneak onto the train. The next scene shows the mail messenger in the mail car working before he hears a strange noise. hen he looks through the door's keyhole, he sees the two bandits -- the men from the station. The messenger immediately locks the lock box that contains the valuables and throws the key out the open door as moving scenery rushes by. These first three scenes are woven together seamlessly in order to create the set-up for the movie. These…

For approximately three quarters of the film it is without dialogue but, "It was for the clink of plates, the rattle of ice cubes, the sound of a man singing, of two people talking, that silent films died." (Eyman 76). The lively exuberance of Al Jolson was truly what made this film an instant classic and demanded the continuation of arner Brothers and the talkies. For the first time, music had a face to accompany the voice. By January of 1928, an increasing number of theaters were wiring for sound and making way for "They Jazz Singer," which by that time was playing to a million customers a week (Eyman 77).
The powerful appeal of audible dialogue was made manifest by the success of the first 'all talking' feature, 'Lights of New York' (1928)." (Sklar 172). The draw of this picture was neither compelling acting, writing, directing, nor dialogue; it…

Silent Film Melodrama, Race, and the Oppression of Missionary Idealism: "Broken Blossoms" (1919) and "The Color Purple" (1985)
Both Steven Spielberg's rendition of Alice alker's novel "The Color Purple" and the 1919 silent film directed by D.. Griffith entitled "Broken Blossoms" function as melodramas of racial misunderstandings. This silent film tells the story of an opium-addicted Chinese man who fosters an illegitimate Cockney waif, played by Lillian Gish. The young woman is abused and ultimately killed by her brutish, prize-fighting father, the "Battling Bruiser." "The Color Purple" tells the tale of another abused young woman, the girl Celie, played by hoopi Goldberg. Celie is raped by her father, and then, when she becomes incestuously pregnant, has her baby ripped from her arms and is passed along to a man named Mister, who also abuses her and forces her to take care of his existing children from his first marriage.

Like…

These subsequent Draculas are all pretenders to the throne, thanks to the iconographic excellence that emerged in the 1922 version. Indeed, subsequent Draculas in many cases have taken on slick, well-dressed, classy appearances, quite the opposite of the repulsive, disgusting, repugnant - and pathetically sickly - Count Orlok.
enowned film critic oger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times, 1997) praises the iconography of Mumau's Orlok: "The vampire should come across not like a flamboyant actor but like a man suffering from a dread curse"; and of course, Orlok is suffering from a disease / curse, and his bat ears, claw-like nails, and fangs are located not on the side of his head like some movies show Dracula, but in the middle of his mouth, like a rodent, which he is, at least partly. ("Nosferatu" is derived from the Greek "Nosophoros," which means "plague-carrier," which a rat is known to be.)

Meantime, part of…

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…

There is a direct correlation with, say, Henry Hill's cocaine abuse and the increasingly rapid cuts between shots. Faster-paced narrative parallels quicker-moving shots. When viewers finally see the film in the theater, the finished product reads like a cohesive narrative when in fact the filmmakers strung together disparate shots and cuts and combined them later after thousands of hours of painstaking labor. Analyzing a movie must therefore include respect for the editorial prowess of the post-production crew.
Editors must be intimately familiar with the screenplay they work with, especially in films that do not have a linear narrative. For instance, Christopher Nolan's 2000 film Memento describes one man's struggle with memory degradation. elying on a non-linear plot, the filmmaker depended on the post-production crew to adequately convey the disjointedness of amnesia. Other elements like dramatic irony, in which the audience is privy to information that protagonists do not have access…

Silent Period -- I was impressed by how this chapter explains the development of film and the innovations people like Porter and Griffith made that would help to define the techniques that evolved into modern cinema.
Early Sound -- One of the things I liked about this chapter is how it explains the purpose of synced sound in film; sound enhances an image by sonically creating meaning.

Imaginative Documentary -- This chapter succeeds in demonstrating how propaganda, or politically charged film, can influence individuals. However, this chapter could use more examples of how documentary and propaganda come together.

The Influence of the Documentary -- This chapter succeeds at providing good parallels between film and real world events, and it makes good use of images to further support the examples presented. On the downside, the chapter contains too much filler information to the point that the conclusion best summarizes the chapter.…

Mis) representations of African-Americans in film:
From the Birth of a Nation onward

Recently, the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded 12 Years a Slave the title of Best Picture of the year. However, it is important to remember that the development of American cinema, racism, and the perpetuation of African-American stereotypes in film has a long and ignoble history. In the essay "The Good Lynching and Birth of a Nation: Discourses and aesthetics of Jim Crow," historian Michele Faith allace examines how one of the great silent film epics directed by cinematic master D.. Griffith consciously and subconsciously validated hegemonic racial ideologies. allace argues that when cinema was in its infancy, although African-Americans were portrayed on screen less frequently than whites, they were not addressed in the same derogatory manner as characterized the Griffith epic and Griffith's masterpiece set the tone for decades afterward. "The film's continued notoriety challenges all…

Scorsese equates him with "a magician enchanted by his own magic." This freedom allowed Welles to create from narrative techniques and filmic devices a masterpiece that is self-aware of its own form. It intends to communicate this self-consciousness to the audience, thus contradicting the classical canons of filmmaking whereby the camera ought not to be noticed and the shots should be seamless. In other words, Welles expanded the art form of cinema, using the camera the way a poet uses a pen. He even created fake news footage in unique ways to enhance the film's appearance. His immense influence can be seen more on the art form as later with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Censorship was still rife in Hollywood. The league of decency suppressed adult themes. Elia Kazan's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was censored. What we would see now as almost innocent -- a…

Davis who was not especially beautiful in the classical sense of beauty ruled Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, playing tough women who chose their careers and their own desires over sacrificing for men or children or the social and economic benefits of a well protected family home. Davis who was very popular with the mostly female audience "never pretended to be dumb, or a little girl."

In the 1930s cinema tough and independent women were often nasty leading to the effect that they could rightfully be punished. Bette Davis was "the prototype of the "Hollywood Bitch."

Her characters wanted more often victimizing a weak man with her behavior finally backfiring on her. In particular, her role as Julie Marsden in the 1938 movie "Jezebel" is the quintessential Bette Davis character. A calculating tough, aggressive and complex character who decides to break the social roles of the South in the…

1934 film The Goddess directed by Wu Yonggang, uses the film elements mis en scene and cinematography in order to compose and deliver a moving and dramatic narrative. This short clip tells the story of a woman who suddenly discovers that her savings are missing. Upon learning this she exits rapidly to find the culprit, but not before comforting her young son. The main elements used in mis en scene are the following: setting, props, costume, performance, lighting and composition. The main elements used in cinematography are: framing, shot distance, length of take, camera movement, camera angle and depth of film.
During the beginning of the clip the first element that stands out is the setting. This element is carefully chosen in order to give the audience specific information about the characters. The setting is the interior of a humble and simple home. This tells the audience about the characters…

sound technologies and sound design in Film
Sound in films

Experiments in Early Age

Developments

Crucial innovations

Commercialization of sound cinema: U.S., Europe, and Japan

Sound Design

Unified sound in film production

Sound designers in Cinematography

Sound Recording Technologies

History of Sound Recording Technology

Film sound technology

Modern Digital Technology

History of sound in films

Developments

Sound Design

Sound Recording Technologies

The film industry is a significant beneficiary of performing arts. The liberal arts combined with latest techniques and advancements experienced a number of stages. The introduction of films and sound in films was a significant development of its times. The introduction of first film along with sound was a unique event and it revolutionized the industry in such a way that it influenced every individual related to the industry to start thinking on creative and innovative grounds for improvements. The stages of films can be identified as silent films…

Student of Prague and German Cinema
The Germany film industry revolution

The Film industry in Germany has come a long way and is seen as one of the ancient film industries that gave a portrayal of both the artistic as well as the aesthetic and the economic value of films in Germany in the early 1900s. The paper will hence not only look into the history of the Germany film industry, but also select a relevant film to demonstrate the significance of the film selected to the subject matter it covered, the people and the relevance to the time that it was produced and it depicted. The film that will be used in this demonstration is "The Student of Prague" which would be analyzed to see the kind of contribution that it brought to the film industry in Germany at that given moment in time.

The films of the early…

Technology in Film
Fred Ott was the very first movie star that every existed. His brief starring role in the five-second film that showed him sneezing started the use of technology to make films. Since then, technology both in and out of film has changed immeasurably and what technology is used and is said about technology in these same films has evolved quite a lot and the statements sometimes made are profound. A summary of the Fred Ott principle and how it pertains to three films in particular in the early 1900's will be covered in this report. Those films are Modern Times, The General and Lonedale Operator. It will then be answered what technology allows the director to do from a narrative and technical level standpoint as well as when/how/where/why the new technology appears. It will be answered whether there are particular characters that are associated with the technology…

The film celebrates motion and freedom in its visual images, exemplified in the frenetic pace of the American automobile. Pop is a good man, but his horse and buggy are slow, and of another era. Although some suspicion of progress might be seen in the way that it imperils the protagonist with machines and how the city officials strive to cheat Jane's 'Pop,' even Pop knows that he can no longer survive driving a horse and buggy and it is time to retire. The lighting of the film is also bright and most of the scenes are bathed in light. Of course, as one of the last silent films, "Speedy" is in black and white, but it is more 'white' than black, in its tones. Coney Island, when the couple goes to see the Yankees is positively awash with light. Even when Jane and Speedy are encased within various shiny…

Maya Deren: An Experimental Life
Maya Deren, born Eleanora Derenkowsky on April 29, 1917 in Kiev, Ukraine, has been referred to as "the high priestess of experimental cinema." (1) Even though she was a dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer, she is still considered a pioneer not only in experimental filmmaking, but also a voice for the feminist film community.

In 1922, the Derenkowsky family fled the threat of anti-Semitism in the Ukraine, arriving in New York where they changed their name to "Deren." The family, though, was frequently unhappy and at odds. As an adolescent, Maya was sent to Geneva to attend The League of Nations International School while Maya's mother, Marie Deren, studied languages in Paris and her father, Solomon Deren, practiced psychiatry in New York City.

After attending school in Geneva, Deren studied journalism and political science and became active in student politics at Syracuse University. She…

1
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN FILM:
HIS GIRL FRIDAY, SEMI-TOUGH
&
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

The history of women in the cinema can be traced back to the early days of film production, beginning ca. 1896 with films by director Alice Guy lache, such as "The Cabbage Fairy" and "The ewitched Fianc?." With the advent and popularity of the so-called "silent era" of film production, women began to be depicted as various stereotypes, such as "damsels in distress," weak-minded, timid city girls and impoverished "white trash," while men played an overwhelming majority of lead roles, usually as heroic figures who rescue these "damsels" from a plethora of dangerous situations. In a study of one hundred films released between 1930 and 1940, part of the "Golden Age" of American cinema, "eighty percent focused on the love/hate of a man with a good/bad girl, while fifty percent had the good/bad girl opposing…

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…

movie industry in America has been controlled by some of the monolithic companies which not only provided a place for making the movies, but also made the movies themselves and then distributed it throughout the entire country. These are movie companies and their entire image revolved around the number of participants of their films. People who wanted to see the movies being made had to go to the studios in order to see them. They made movies in a profitable manner for the sake of the studios, but placed the entire industry under their control and dominated over it. The discussion here is about some of those famous studios inclusive of that of names like Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Culver, RKO, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Universal Studios, Raleigh Studio, Hollywood Center Studio, Sunset Gower Studio, Ren-Mar Studios, Charlie Chaplin Studios and now, Manhattan Beach Studio.…

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) came in a time when the public became fond of funny westerns. The editors carefully made the movie's beginning and its end in order for it to have an exceptional result consequent to the audience viewing it. The silent beginning and the freeze-frame ending gave the movie an exceptional character, showing the public something that they had never seen before.
In times when the whole world filmed in color, a number of directors reached the conclusion that it had not been the color that made the difference between a good movie and a bad one, as it had been the script and the movie crew. Peter Bogdanovich, the director of the Last Picture Show (1971), had been influenced to film the movie in black and white because of a conversation that he had with Orson elles. The two concluded that it had been…

film "In Bedroom" story "Killings Andre Dobus.
Too Hollywood: "Killings" vs. In The Bed

In all actuality, it would be exceedingly difficult for any feature film to match the emotional depth and breadth of a (good) work of literature. Although Hollywood will claim otherwise, a true story cannot be told with images but with the connotations, the complexities, and the nuances of words, and with words alone. Subsequently, as can be expected anytime anyone attempts to stretch out a 15-page short story (approximately) into a two hours plus (130 minutes) film, there are several inconsistencies between Andre Dubus' short story entitled "Killings" and its feature film adaptation, In The Bedroom. But that's not the primary problem with the latter which, even more so than the short story itself, is a bloated, exceedingly lengthy production high on theatrics and drama and relatively low on emotion and characterization. The primary problem with…

Women Want is an American romantic comedy brought to the big screen in 2000, staring Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson. The story revolves around Nick Marshall (played by Mel Gibson), a Chicago advertising executive and ultimate alpha male personality and considered to be a chauvinist. He is considered highly skilled at selling what men want and seducing women. Although Nick thinks he is next in line for a big promotion, he is faced with new competition from Darcy McGuire (played by Helen Hunt), who is hired in the position Nick aspired to, to broaden the company's general appeal to women. In a freak accident, Nick is electrocuted and develops the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of women. He subsequently uses that ability to advance his ideas vicariously through Helen Hunt; encouraging her as if the ideas were her own or even a collaboration of their two ideas. Nick also…

The film is about rather ordinary events taking place in an environment that experiences a forceful change. Adults practically contrast children through their thinking and the way that they behave, considering that in spite of the fact that they talk while the children are on a silent strike, they fail to put across thorough thought and only manage to fuel each-other's prejudiced nature. Isamu and Minoru are intriguing through the fact that they manage to display clever and sincere acting, demonstrating that they had a special relationship with the director and that they collaborated in making it possible for the film to express authentic feelings. The fact that their actual role in the film regards their interest in criticizing their parents over their reluctance to say what they think when they think it adds to the thought that the children take on a more rational character. This makes their parents…

In the first post-World War decade, Maya Deren stood out among her experimental filmmaking contemporaries by collaborating with her husband Alexander Hammid on one of the most famous of all American avant-garde films, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) in which a woman portrayed by Deren herself experiences a series of "mysterious encounters with a hooded figure whose face is in a mirror. She passes through chambers, splits into several personalities and eventually dies" (490). In this instance, the abstract imagery used in this film is focused upon the mirror which reflects the personalities of Deren, much like the common theme of Jekyll and Hyde, a type of doppleganger construction. This film also projects a dream structure, meaning that the images of part of the dream state and lie beyond reality. Deren also experimented with psychodramas which contain strong cues for the audience that "the images are projections of the heroine's…

Director John McTiernan's 1999 film, The 13th arrior, is a competent movie, made entertaining by its tight storyline, moody tone, masterful cinematography, realistic and often graphic fight scenes, and the strength of its supporting cast. A great deal of the movie's success comes from the cinematography of Peter Menzies, who creates an almost supernatural mood through his shooting of well-choreographed battle scenes in a dark, silent mist. Overall, the movie could never be described as Oscar-worthy material, yet its many strengths make it a watchable and enjoyable film.
The movie's main storyline is tightly plotted and concise. This is not a movie with a preponderance of plot twists and turns, and the storyline is largely self-evident and linear. There are a couple of exceptions, as in a short love interest between Banderas' character and a Norse princess, but they are short and do not distract from the main plot. As…

Horror
What is Horror?

According to Sigmund Freud, das unheimliche -- or the uncanny -- can be defined as something that is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. In horror films, the uncanny can be achieved through the depiction of a series of events that will lead a character into a dangerous situation without the implicit description or portrayal of what the danger is. Horror is much more effective if danger and violence is left to the viewer's imagination because it is then influenced by an individual's personal fears. If a director explicitly shows danger or violence, the individual is then forced to accept the director's depiction without psychologically engaging in the suspense as much as they could have done if danger or violence was only implied.

In terms of horror as a genre, the true masters of horror are the writers of Gothic literature who helped to define…

Political Issues Based on the Film "Eye in The Sky" In Which Government Attitude, Which Decides Who Lives and Who Dies for The Cause of The Nation Is Examined
The film "Eye in the Sky" is somewhat a literal depiction of war fare between the drones. This is a flagrantly contrived film that examines the ethics of using remote control to kill. The subject was dramatized a year ago in Andrew Niccol's film "Good Kill." In this film, there is a simplistic device of the little girl in which it is made clear that the new ones have no chance of winning hearts. The debate is getting awful to change any mind; even though, there is no attempt to try and change the mind. That is where its strength lies. In the film "Eye in the Sky" the case is argued on all fronts: the merits and the perils of…

Rosewood is a film particularly suitable and interesting for the application of social psychology. It concerns the story of a black community in early 20th-century Florida. The community was rather a-typical of the time, since black people were wealthy landowners. The neighboring company town of Sumner on the other hand, was occupied by poor white people, who were jealous of the wealth they observed in Rosewood. This setting provides a backdrop for social psychological analysis concerning ingroups and outgroups, and how racism leads to escalating tension.
Prejudice and Racism

Prejudice, according to rehm, Kassin & Fein (147), can be unintentional. It also means the stereotyping of a certain group of people on the irrational grounds of a perceived threat, exacerbated by the fact that little personal information is available about the target of prejudice. In the film, prejudice against black people is a paradigm of the historical time. The likelihood…

Agora Film
Agora (2009) is set in Alexandria, Egypt in the 4th and 5th Centuries AD and describes the life and death of the Neoplatonist and Stoic philosopher Hypatia and a freed slave named Davus, who is in love with her. Many of the characters and events depicted in the film are true, such as the Christian Archbishop Cyril, who really did expel the Jews from Alexandria and forced the pagans to convert to Christianity. He was also extremely hostile to pagan philosophers like Hypatia, and very likely ordered his supporters to put her to death in 415 AD. She was dragged from her chariot and dismembered, although in the movie Davus smothers her before the mob tears her body apart, in order to spare her suffering. Orestes, the oman prefect, was also a genuine historical character, who was opposed to Cyril politically and sympathetic to the Jewish and pagan…

In Erikson's "Stage Two" children are trying to become self-confident and do things themselves ("Autonomy vs. Doubt"), like tying their own shoes even if it takes hours. Parents should let them do things because, according to Erikson, "...failure to reinforce these efforts will lead the child to doubt themselves" and doubt a parents' trust in them. hen Bambi ventured out of his little sleeping spot into the snow for the first time, surely his mom knew he would slip and slide and even get banged up a little. But she stayed in the sleeping nest spot and let Bambi learn for himself, which he did by slipping on the ice over and over before he finally got his feet under him and learned about the reality of slippery ice.

Jean Piaget put forward a theory for very young children, that he called "heteronomous moral orientation." He theorized that in the…

Films and Filmmaking
As Spike Lee noted in the 25th Anniversary celebration of his film Do the Right Thing, "the only reason why my generation went to film school was we couldn't get our hands on the equipment" (Macfarlane). Do the Right Thing had an independent feel to it, largely because of Lee's hands-on oversight of production, direction, writing and editing -- but it was ultimately a Universal picture. Since its inception, the film industry had been by and for the dominant culture in society. As the technology developed (from silent shorts to silent epics to sound film and the first talkies on up to the world of independent cinema, where taboos and cultural cues were challenged and explored), so too did the face of cinema. This paper will discuss how the history of technological innovations in the filmmaking industry favored the dominant culture of the era, how social and…

Chola by K. Kvashay-Boyle, and the film The Killing Fields directed by oland Joffe. Specifically, it will compare the film and the short story and discuss the issues and themes dramatized in the two works. Both of these works are studies of people in difficult situations, and they illustrate what can happen when cultures clash and people misunderstand or hate each other. While the two works may seem very different at first, they actually have many commonalities, including characters that make the reader feel their emotions and needs. They show that two different works might not seem to have much in common at first, but that a thorough examination can bring out commonalties that are important and even striking.
"St. Chola" is an amusing short story that tells the story of one young Muslim girl's struggle with her identity as a Muslim and a woman. She is just like all…

It has made joint ventures with Hollywood that have done quite well at the box office. The Indian movies are not only seen in India, but the industry has also made arrangements for showcasing their productions at International platforms, as these movies are dubbed and on aired in many other languages all over the world. In the past, most of the movies that were produced in India were Masala movies with no solid plot and mere glitz and glamor. However, now since these movies are sold all over the world and shown in cinemas throughout the world, the approach of the producers and directors is now changing. Keeping in view the demand of realism from the audience, the directors and producers now try to come up with a plot that is close to reality and something that the people can actually relate to. For example, the film called Slumdog Millionaire…

If anything, the urge to document their performance as fully as possible -- extended long shots and all -- runs the risk of swamping the narrative, but for Kelly, perhaps, the balletic dream was the narrative, or at least, the point of constructing the story in the first place.
Extended detours into pure ballet notwithstanding, the "stage-oriented" economy of Singin' in the Rain does not permit it to linger on the outright repetition of any shot or sequence. However, allied techniques allow it to achieve a certain degree of formal and sentimental unity. In terms of large-scale structure, the decision to bookend the film's action between two theatrical premieres is extraordinary. Unlike a more explicitly flashback-driven story like Sunset Boulevard (a near-contemporaneous but darker meditation on Hollywood's transition to sound), the trajectory here is less circular than spiral in form: The gala debut of the film-within-a-film that closes Singin' in…

The films Pickford brought to life as a producer later in her career were often nothing like those she starred in as an actress: For example, "in 1945, during the independent production boom at the end of orld ar II, she organized Comet Pictures to make medium-budget films with Ralph Cohn, the son of Columbia Pictures cofounder Jack Cohn. At Comet she produced probably her finest later film, the noir hit Sleep, My Love (1948)" as well as the broad, comedic-style films My Little Chickadee (1940) with .C. Films; Love Happy (1950), with the Marx Brothers comedy and (briefly) Marilyn Monroe and the war movie the Story of G.I. Joe (1945) (Aberdeen 2005).

Pickford defended the role of independent producers in 1934, in a speech that noted that for film to continue to remain relevant in the 20th centuries, it must be innovative and challenging, particularly given that radio and…

She has killed the modern wordsmith Joe, the representation of young Hollywood, and resurrected her reputation, but in an ugly, negative way.
Psycho," like "Sunset Boulevard," ends with an image of the character that has thoroughly unraveled. hile the image of the young Joe Gillis opens "Sunset Boulevard," the image of the insane, older Norma closes the tale, and in "Psycho," the image of the sane Marion Crane opens the film, while the image of her murderer, Norman Bates, closes the film. Even more so than the domineering Norma, Norman Bates takes over the narrative of "Psycho," transforming it into what should have been Marion's tale of liberation and escape into a story of her murder. Likewise, what should have been a story of Joe's success in Hollywood instead becomes a story about Norma, even though Joe is a professional screenwriter.

The idea of 'rewriting' and 'retelling' reoccurs in all…

Conclusions -- It becomes immediately clear that the art of the silent film depended on three major elements: smooth editing, appropriate use of subtitles, and actors who were able to use their eyes and movement to communicate or "play to the camera." It was surprising that only one of the films viewed seemed "primitive," and that was only the initial parts of Gertie. By the time we get to The ink, there has been an obvious improvement in camera techniques and the ability to film from different angles and heights, even if the camera is stable. In addition, the vaudevillian arm and comedy of The ink is classic. It is also interesting to note that the subject matter, while varied, seemed far less censored that what we would come to expect in later Hollywood years -- we see prostitution, abject poverty, criminal behavior, sexual innuendos with fairy creatures, and a…

films, or of stories in magazines in different price ranges, depend not so much on subject matter as on classifying, organizing, and labeling consumers. Something is provided for all so that none may escape; the distinctions are emphasized and extended. The public is catered for with a hierarchical range of mass-produced products of varying quality, thus advancing the rule of complete quantification. Everybody must behave (as if spontaneously) in accordance with his previously determined and indexed level, and choose the category of mass product turned out for his type. Consumers appear as statistics on research organization charts, and are divided by income groups into red, green, and blue areas; the technique is that used for any type of propaganda (Adorno & Horkheimer).
The media is of course complacent in such a system, in that it plays a significant role in turning heroes of consumption - actors, singers, and models -…

Sound in Cinema
The end of the era of silent film and the movement to sound effects was an inevitable occurrence in cinema. As the viewers clamored to identify a more realistic portrayal of subjects in the film, the worldwide industry of cinema transitioned quickly from rudimentary sound effects to the prospect of "talkies" by the 1930s. However, even with the vanguard and innovation of synchronized sounds at the peak of Golden Age cinema, many critics and directors alike were uneasy with this rapid movement from silence to sound.

The beginnings of silent film era produced motion animation based on black and white still photography. The idea of montage became a further artistic expression in the industry, popular amongst experimental photographers and directors of the early 1890s to 1920s (Alexandrov). Once life and movement became achievable in films, however, viewers and filmmakers saw the opportunity to include sound within the…

It is a humorous take on the time of unrest between the two World Wars, when Germany smarting from the ignominious defeat after the First World War allowed Hitler to take charge. This led to the large scale extermination of the Jewish people. This film is about what might have been if Hitler had a change of heart. This film also underhandedly mentions the Great Depression. In the last speech of the movie, the Charlie Chaplin character, the barber, who is mistaken for Adenoid Hynkel, bemoans greed and the loss of democarcy. This Jewish barber also calls for peace and for soldiers to drop their weapons and fight against those who would enslave them and force them to resort to untold instances of violence. The fact that this film was made in 1940 is remarkable and shows great courage on the part of Chaplin. The war was still five years…

Production: Gaumont-British; Producer: Michael Balcon; Screenplay and Adaptation: Charles Bennett and Alma Reville from the novel by John Buchan; Principal Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Robert Donat, Lucie Mannheim and Godfrey Tearle
The 39 Steps was based on the John Buchan novel, written in 1915. Hitchcock freely adapted and changed the premise of the novel that very little of the original plot remained. Buchan, who was also the British Governor General in Canada at that time, was initially upset; but, after he saw the final product, he admitted that the film was much better than his novel.

This was the first time that Hitchcock used the now often-repeated theme of sympathy for the man unjustly framed and on the run, all the while attempting to clear his besmirched name and find the real culprit. Hitchcock also used the techniques of combining two scenes unrelated visually but by sound. The director relied more…

Other studios relied on a few stars, but nevertheless did very well: Fox made an estimated $20 million on Shirley Temple, while Universal had WC Fields and Abbott and Costello. David O. Selznick split off in the mid-30's from MGM and started his own studio, relying on top-quality movies to break into the studio system's hold on the business (Dinks).
Conclusion: The reakdown of the Star System

One could argue that the star system has never left us. Even today, the drawing power of an Angelina Jolie or a rad Pitt can make the difference between mediocre and strong box-office results. "Star Power" exists as long as stars have the ability to bring a positive impact on the results of a picture. What is different from the "star system" of the 1930's is that the stars, directors and independent producers have much more power than they did at that time.…

Iranian Cinema After the evolution
An introduction to Iran:

Iran or Persia as it was previously known was founded more than 4,000 years ago and is thus one of the oldest surviving nations of the world. Iran had been primarily ruled by series of dynasties including such illustrious families as the Achaemenids (500-330 B.C.), the Sassanians (A.D. 226-650), and the Safavides (1500-1722). Iranian dynasties have been synonymous with victories and land acquisition but at the present Iran has s 1,648,195 square kilometers of Middle Eastern territory under its command. It is situated close to former ussia and two former Soviet republics (Azerbaijan and Tajikistan) are its close neighbors. Some other prominent neighbors include the Caspian Sea in the north, Turkey and Iraq in the west, and Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east. And in the south it has the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman as its neighbors. The…

Positively a enaissance woman with a background in art, acting, photography, and journalism, Frances Marion positioned herself at the forefront of early filmmaking in Hollywood. Her legacy lives on with more than 300 films in her portfolio and two screenwriting Academy Awards, and yet her name lacks the notoriety of many of her contemporaries. Marion's work in filmmaking helped to propel Hollywood from the era of silent movies to the world of "talkies," which was around the time businessmen and major studios started taking over the once-bohemian industry from early pioneers like Marion. Marion also came to fame during a time when filmmaking boasted gender equity in its ranks. Women in the silent era of filmmaking "directed, produced and edited hundreds of silent movies," and by some estimates more than half of all silent movies were made by women (Blakemore, 2016). Sisterhood, a conscientious effort to help other women in…

Wonder is a movie directed by Terrence Malick and starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams. This is a very unorthodox romance in that there is really not much romance in it at all. Instead, the movie takes a look at how romance evolves into something else in a real life relationship. It looks at how people fall in love and in the beginning, when they meet, there is a spark -- that romantic feeling. But reality soon sets in and the two individuals must cope with one another's personalities, their faults and failings and beliefs (or lack of belief, which is the case for Ben's character through much of the film). The movie also focuses on a fourth character played by Javier Bardem, who is a Catholic priest in the movie struggling to make sense of his own role in the world as he tries to preach the…

Griffith trusted the intelligence of his audience. For instance, he showed that splicing two different sequences such as a house on fire and the approaching fire engine together over the course of a film would not confuse an audience. He took his work seriously, and conducted research to film "Birth of a Nation." Henderson states that Griffith was "almost obsessed" with research. But Griffith focused only on research that confirmed his racist ideas. (p.150) This is why Griffith remains controversial even to this day, because of the racist images in his great cinematic work about the Civil War. His screenplay for "Birth of a Nation" was based upon a novel called The Klansman by an unrepentant pro-Confederate Southerner. Black leaders protested the film even in its day and the film remains widely credited for causing resurgence in the popularity of the Klu Klux Klan, a Southern Reconstruction-era instrument of hatred.…

Last of the Mohicians
James Fennimore Cooper's The Last of The Mohicans was published in 1826, part of a pentology, but the best known work for contemporary readers. The story takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain were at odds for dominance of the North American Colonies. During this war, the French made treaties and allied themselves with many Native American tribes to up the balance between the far more numerous British and colonialists. It was written in a popular genre of the time in which historical accuracy came second and numerous inaccuracies in terms of Native culture were simply overlooked, or became part of White popular culture (Peck). Ironically, there is a famous American author who took great pains to deride the material, Mark Twain. Twain found the novel lacking in variety with excessive verbiage, and even suggested that before praising…

Family Animation
Animated Families

When cartoons were first popularized back in the silent movies days, they were intended for children's eyes. This practice continued through decades of American culture, until the first adult oriented animated television was put on air in the late 1980s. These shows, starting with the Simpsons and then continuing with Beavis & Butthead, Family Guy, King of the Hill, and others, represented a huge shift in television programming. For the early era of television, most programming was broken until comedy, drama, and news. Situational comedies were a staple of acting and actors, and animation was far too sloppy to be considered as anything acceptable to adult standards of television. Technology has advanced, however, and adult cartoons are more popular than ever before. Animated television for adults, which airs in primetime slots on various television networks, created an entirely new genre of sitcom.

These shows often over…

This were then replaced with larger big band orchestras as technology allowed such large groups to be clearly recorded, "As the swing era began, shorts were made of many of the top orchestras," (Yanow 2). Big band orchestras began showing up in all the major Hollywood productions. They featured pre-recorded songs where the musicians lip singed. It is interesting to have such a crucial period on film. The Swing Era "was fortunately captured for feature films and short subjects at the time it was all happening," (Behlmer 1). Big bands became incredibly popular in feature films during the 1930s and 40s. Benny Goodman, "The King of Swing," had a movie- Hollywood Hotel in 1937 "the full orchestra plays an abbreviated version of that quintessential Swing Era arrangement of 'Sing, Sing, Sing' in the film," (Behlmer 1). From big Hollywood productions came popularity on the small screen. As televisions became the…

Instead of presenting males and females in the "traditional" roles, television and film seems to depict an entirely different focus. Specifically, the male protagonist is often viewed against a background of multiple females in contexts that suggest all of the females are sexually available to the male. In terms of attire, female models in this genre of entertainment typically represent hyper-sexuality and are clearly meant to be sexually provocative.
Advertising apparently directed at primarily black audiences tends to incorporate sexuality less differently from that geared to white audiences, frequently relying on similar messages that associate products with the desirability of the consumer to highly attractive models of the opposite sex.

Latino-Oriented Media:

Generally, contemporary sexual behavior depicted in television and film whose target audience is primarily Latino tends to emphasize a third formula for sexual expression and gender relations. Specifically, Spanish television routinely features females in a manner that is…

Cultural Representations of GLBTQ Peoples and Communities in the Mainstream Media
Attitudes and laws in American society concerning the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and queer (GLBTQ) communities have changed in substantive ways in recent years, and many observers credit the cultural representations of these communities in the mainstream media as contributing to this progress. Notwithstanding the progress to date, though, some observers suggest that the status of the GLBTQ communities today is still comparable to the status of women and blacks a half century ago and there is clearly a need for greater understanding of these alternative lifestyles communities by the general American public. To this end, this paper provides a review of the literature concerning current GLBTQ issues in American culture followed by a discussion concerning the manner in which interpretation of mainstream media content such as films, television shows, books, plays or events can provide fresh insights into…

Music and Dance in Indian Films
In sheer quantity, INDIA produces more movies than any other country in the world-over 900 feature-length films in at least 16 languages, according to a recent industry survey. This productivity is explained by several factors: the size of the Indian audience, low literacy rates, the limited diffusion of television in India, and well-developed export markets in both hemispheres. (http://worldfilm.about.com/cs/booksbolly/)

In its historical development, India's film industry paralleled that of the West. Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra, the first silent film for popular consumption, appeared in 1913; Alam Ara, the first "talkie," was released in 1931. ut the Indian cinema derived its unique flavor from the older Indian musical theater-particularly from the Urdu poetic dramas of the late nineteenth century. The influence of this tradition ensured that Indian movies would favor mythological or legendary-historical stories, that their dialogue would carry an Urdu flavor even in languages…

In this scene Anna points at Sanderson and identifies him as "the man who betrayed me," but it makes no difference. She is banished. Sanderson is not. David, the Squire's son who is in love with her, is shocked and anguished to learn the truth about his beloved, that she is not a pure and moral woman. Everyone jumps to the conclusion that Anna is "wanton" and immoral -- she probably likes sex and cannot control her baser instincts.
If a woman becomes impure as a result of sexual activity, this implies a societal view of sex as low and dirty. At the same time it is juicy and fun to gossip about Anna's scandalous behavior, as Griffith clearly shows when Martha tells the Squire and appears to be tremendously self-satisfied in her total condemnation of Anna. Men, because they are men, cannot be expected to resist, but women because…

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar often presents his themes in a satiric and comic framework emphasizing certain melodramatic and exaggerated elements. His film Talk to Her (2002) is not as darkly comedic or as exaggerated as some of his films, but he uses the various elements of film to heighten the odd nature of his characters and to illuminate their inner states on the basis of external action, sets, and camerawork. A primary mental state for these characters is that of audience, for life to a great degree is a spectator sport at which they are better as observers than participants.
The film maintains a certain theatricality throughout, beginning with the opening shot, which is revealed as a curtain is drawn back as if for a stage play. Indeed, the first thing seen in the film is a stage play, a very odd interaction at which the main character is seated…

The door itself is a barrier, and she does not realize what is behind that door until she is inside and it is too late.
This kind of innocence is repeated in other Griffith films, and some of his biographers have speculated that the sort of character represented mirrors Griffith's view of his older sister, who raised the family after the mother's and father's deaths and who herself never married (Henderson 23-26). hether this is the true source or not, the innocent female from the country was a staple in Griffith's films and a character tested again and again as various temptations are placed in her path. In ay Down East, the temptation may include the more affluent lifestyle of Lennox Sanderson and the Tremonts, and this desire to rise above her station may be the real sin for which Anna must atone. Sanderson's house has a high ceiling that…

This is pantheism defined cinematically.
Pantheism is a departure from Christianity or other theisms as it does not have at its center a God, but suggests that all things, people, animals, creatures, elements, are of the collective; that the collective, together, in its entirety, is the "god (Levine, Michael P., 1994, p. 147)."

The philosophies that surround pantheism are many, and make sound and tempting arguments in favor of a superior being as opposed to the superiority of being the collective. Renee Descartes was one such philosopher, and certainly Descartes' philosophy is supported by many philosophers and academicians today. Descartes set about to prove the existence of God, and he began his research by becoming a skeptic and questioning everything, even existence itself (de Spinoza, Benedictus and Britan, Halbert Hans, 1943, p. 12). Descartes proved, at least in the minds of many philosophers, the existence of God (de Spinoza and…

Female character answers the door.

Shots of the conversation between the main character and the female character discussing the parcel.

Shot of the female character showing she has the parcel.

Close up of the parcel with the film title.

Master shot/establishing shot of the murder-taking place.

Two shots used for the murder scene as well as an introduction to the conversation between the main male and female characters.

Close up shot / reverse shot between main character and female character while in conversation.

Close up shots of the main character as introductory shot to show the star of the film.

Cut away shots were used in the murder or of the conversation dialogue between the main character and female character.

Sound effects of a voiceover, conversation with the extra diegetic music/sound.

Narrative disruption/event:

Showing the parcel at the end of the sequence although the audience does not see what is…