Even though Aronofsky speaks of art and artists relatively more often, I would say, than other young directors, there is a strong idea that nature still grounds art, in contrast to the illusions and hallucinations of artifice. In Selby's novel, Mari Continue Reading...
Sexuality and Cinema Laura Mulvey's arguments in "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" are readily illustrated with reference to the 1991 Jonathan Demme film "The Silence of the Lambs." Mulvey's starting point is psychoanalytic, and suggests that Continue Reading...
Infinite Megapixels Digital photography presents a whole new world of opportunities for casual and professional photographers alike. Probably the most significant contribution of digital photography is the ability to change pictures at any stage. Th Continue Reading...
Secretary The protagonist in "Secretary," Lee (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal), goes from recently having been released from a mental institution, to learning how to type, to a job with an odd, controlling lawyer, to being his mistress of pain, to beco Continue Reading...
Homosexual marriage does not pose a threat to me or my manhood therefore I am for it." Although I am heterosexual, I know what it means to long for union with another human being. I will choose a woman for my partner, but if another man desires to c Continue Reading...
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 Continue Reading...
She eventually does however, and this particular episode merely shows the types of problems that families have with one another. It functions as a piece of foreshadowing since it occurs in the beginning of the film. While the aforementioned couple a Continue Reading...
The newsreels are a successful thematic device as they are used to guide the viewer through the details of the events. It was the decision more so of the studio executives to leave some things out as they only used what would drive the story of the Continue Reading...
Analyzing a Scene: Hitchcock and the Male Gaze There is a scene in Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) in which the leading lady played by Anne Baxter descends an outdoor staircase to the man she loves waiting below. Hitchcock uses a tilted or Dutch a Continue Reading...
Crazy Stone Hao Ning's 2006 film Crazy Stone is part action thriller, and part comedy crime caper. It has a polished look and feel due to excellent cinematography and good use of multiple camera angles. Because of the direction, cinematography, soun Continue Reading...
Three Colors Directed by Krysztof KielowskiKrysztof Kieslowskis trilogy Three Colors is inspired by the national colors of France, blue, white, and red. Being an auteur filmmaker who can control almost all aspects of the movie, from characters to mus Continue Reading...
Citizen Kane is one of the most influential films in Hollywood history. Director Orson Welles used many camera, lighting, and musical techniques that seem quite common now, but were quite revolutionary when the film was made in 1941. For example, thr Continue Reading...
Right Thing The first scene of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing presents Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) in his element as morning radio host. Shot in one long take, the scene begins with an extreme close-up (ECU) of an alarm clock bearing the t Continue Reading...
Cape Fear, Then and Now Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of the 1962 classic Cape Fear offers superb opportunities to compare American culture and values in two vastly different eras separated by a mere 29 years. The 1962 classic, directed by J. Lee Tho Continue Reading...
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 Holl Continue Reading...
God on Trial: Movie Analysis and Review The Holocaust of World War II spawned many tragedies, one of which was the crisis of faith it precipitated amongst European Jews. The film God on Trial depicts the inhabitants of a concentration camp literally Continue Reading...
Society is the same way; it is polarized between "black and white," (as the film's black and white theme indicates), "good and bad," and "kill or be killed." The film's motifs indicate that society and Michel's flaunting of society are intertwined, Continue Reading...
Red Sorghum The clip under discussion comes early (starting approximately ten minutes after the beginning) in Zhang Yimou's film "Red Sorghum." Jiu-er (played by Gong Li) is being carried across a sorghum field in an enclosed sedan chair, as part of Continue Reading...
Arsenic and Old Lace The movie Arsenic and Old Lace uses a variety of film techniques to tell its story. Rather than opening with a voice over, it uses text on the screen to provide background information for the story. The director frames shots in Continue Reading...
Atonement Joe Wright's 2007 Atonement opens with a shot of the home of Briony et al. in miniature -- a replica of the mansion estate where the main characters live and work in England, 1935. The shot pulls back as the keys of a typewriter are heard Continue Reading...
Suspects There are many different aspects of life, culture, society, and history that are embedded in the 1996 film The Usual Suspects, however, one of the more prominent themes deals with the notion of stereotyping. In this respect, the film promi Continue Reading...
Interactivity in Video Games and Movies Information technology has changed the way we live in today's world. Everything from our television to our cell phones are connected through network medium. Computers define the way we do many of the things i Continue Reading...
But even though the film's camera work is mainly conventional, it does feature some surreal-looking shots and sequences, e.g., Boo Radley's shadow hovering over Scout's older daredevil brother Jem, as Jem, having intruded on the Radleys, cowers on t Continue Reading...
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 Continue Reading...
hilarious film starring many actors who appeared in Christopher Guest's earlier films 'This is Spinal Tap' and Waiting for Guffman. The movie focuses on the inherent silliness of everyday life. With improvisation and excellent camera work, Guest man Continue Reading...
The film may skip scenes like this, and others, to tell the story more quickly, and arguably more dramatically. This may also be because films are expensive to make, so every omitted scene saves money. Polonius has more scenes in the play than the f Continue Reading...
Recognizing that the film's title functions on both of these levels is important because it reveals how Alfredson deploys common vampire tropes in novel ways which serve to elevate the emotional content of the film, so that the "rules" surrounding Continue Reading...
lighting in the film "Titanic," directed by James Cameron. Specifically, it will discuss the director of photography, Russell Carpenter, and analyze how his lighting helps represent and help the story and characters throughout the movie. CARPENTER Continue Reading...
ALFRED HITCHCOCK: A Master of Duality For many, the name Alfred Hitchcock conjures hazy and disconnected memories of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Rio, Tippi Hedren being chased by killer birds, or Jimmy Stewart in a wheelchair; but for others -- Continue Reading...
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 Continue Reading...
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 Continue Reading...
My own take on Treadwell and his 12 summers among the bears in Alaska is similar to Herzog’s. I feel that Treadwell on some fundamental level had sentimentalized nature and thought that he could be one with this brute force. In reality, he had Continue Reading...
Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film Magnolia depicts a complex web of interlocking events, people, and relationships. The three-hour masterpiece proves that long cinematic journeys need not be tedious, tiresome, products of an overly ambitious Continue Reading...
The Totalitarian Soviet Ideal and The Circus In Grigori Aleksandrov’s (1936) Soviet film The Circus, an American white woman named Marion Dixon is chased out of the racist South after giving birth to a black baby. She escapes by train and is pr Continue Reading...
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 driv Continue Reading...
A Documentary Filmmaking Experience Aim and Accomplishment Renov (1993) states that there are four fundamental purposes of a documentary: “1) to record, reveal, or preserve; 2) to persuade or promote; 3) to analyze or interrogate; and 4) to exp Continue Reading...
Good Man Hard Find," short film, "Black Hearts Bleed Red." http://www. Flannery O'Conner's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Jari Cain Rossi's motion picture "Black Hearts Bleed Red" both address an account involving a dysfunctional Amer Continue Reading...
Semiotic Analysis of a Celebrity Photo Semiotics may be additionally referred to as semiotic studies. It is the study of signs and the processes by which the signs operate. Semiotics is used in conjunction with may other fields including linguistics Continue Reading...
Memento as Film Noir Christopher Nolan's Memento as Film Noir Film noir rose to prominence in the late 1940s and was at first described as being "murder with a psychological twist (Spicer 1). Since the 1940s, the film noir genre has undergone a few Continue Reading...
