... The film I will speak about today is “Color Purple” which was first adopted from a novel by Alice Walker in 1982. This film revolves around a native African American lady named Celie whose life was destined by oppression and mistreatment by her own father. This reminded me of my country Yemen sadly. Women in my country were always oppressed by men and had no rights. And this is one of the reasons I chose this film. The theme I will focus on today is religion and how the confusion of the Christianity belief took away her innocence at the age of fourteen...
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...ENG225: Introduction to Film Instructor: Michael O'Donnell August 27, 2012 DIRTY DANCING Dirty Dancing came out in 1987 and they didn’t have the technology they do today to make it fancy, but they didn’t need to. It was supposed to show the transition of a girl becoming a woman by falling in love with someone no one saw as her equal, according to society. Although the movie was made 25 years ago, it still brings a good message to the audiences that watch it. It has become a classic movie that no amount of technology could change. It takes so much to make a movie, and no one realizes it, but in this paper, it’s going to analyze what made Dirty Dancing become such a classic movie. Storytelling The narrative structure of the movie is told from Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman’s point of view as it was the summer she fell in love. The storytelling in Dirty Dancing is told in chronological order because she sees the dancers, wants to be one, then the female dancing lead, Penny Johnson, became pregnant. Baby fills in for her and Johnny teaches her dance in her place. The story takes place at Kellerman’s country club where she goes on vacation for the summer with her family. The conflict in the story is that Baby comes from a respectable family and falls in love with Johnny, the dance teacher, and Baby’s father does not like Johnny because he believed that Johnny got Penny pregnant and then moved on to be with his daughter. The conflict is resolved when Robbie, the man that got Penny pregnant...
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...two distinguishing traits that separate us. I think it's what keeps us apart. That leaves several abstract questions that the film Crash illustrates. What are the origins of personal prejudice? Do individual experiences fuel standing stereotypes? Is it easier to perpetuate existing stereotypes because "things will never change?" Can people battle internal struggles within their own ethnic group? What prohibits us from overcoming these prejudices? The writers of the Crash managed to extend my viewing experience beyond the 90 minute film, thus forcing me to analyze my own prejudices and racial stereotypes towards others. I always thought that racism occurred as a result of a person's upbringing. If your parents were racist, there is a good chance that you will be a racist too. At first glance, Matt Dillon's character exhibits characteristics typical of this theory. Dillon exhibited a close bond with his father and later, we discover the roots of his racism. I naively assumed that Dillon was absorbing external cues from his father regarding his attitudes towards black people. It turns out that his father was not racist towards black people. It was Dillon who, in combination with his father's negative experiences and his own as a member of the LAPD, formed his own perceptions towards blacks. Another example of this occurred at the beginning of the film when the Persian family was attempting to purchase a gun. The clerk at the gun shop made a few blatantly racist comments about...
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...“American Beauty” - An analysis of the movie with focus on Carolyn & Lester Burnham The Burnham’s seem to live the ‘American Dream’. They have good jobs, two expensive cars, and a nice home in the suburbs, and a healthy teenager. The family is portrayed as a normal, happy family, but if you do as the film tag says and “look closer”, you see that it isn’t true. Instead, they are living in a “suburban prison”. Carolyn Burnham is the lonely wife of Lester Burnham and can be summed up in five words: materialistic, ambitious, seemingly successful, yet insecure, and a perfectionist. You see her fragile and insecure sides in a few scenes, for instance, when she tries to sell a house, and it doesn’t go as planned, she get’s more and more desperate. She’s alone in the house when she breaks down and allows herself to cry, but first she makes sure that nobody can see her by closing the blinds. She only let herself be vulnerable for a quick moment, before she gets angry, and starts to slap herself in the face, screaming: “Stop it! Shut up! You’re weak! You Baby! Shut up!” It’s a way to remind her that she’s strong, but the slapping is also a way of punishing herself for being weak. To most people crying is a natural thing to do when you’re sad, but for Carolyn it’s a shameful behavior. After the big fight scene at the dinner table, Carolyn goes to Jane’s room to talk, and she tells her daughter: “You cannot count on anyone except yourself. You know, it’s sad but...
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...under analysis is a short story "The Smile"written by the prominent American writer Ray Bradbury. Raymond Douglas "Ray" Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. He is best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into comic books, television shows and films. The Smile" is set in the future after warfare has destroyed nearly all traces of civilization. Cities have been reduced to junk piles and cornfields glow with radioactivity at night. The survivors of this warfare wear soiled gunnysack clothing. Their homes are caves and other semi-dwellings that can give them even a measure of protection from the icy weather. Their spirits are as cold as the winter weather because they are filled with hatred for the past; the past has caused their present to be miserable and deplorable.In this society where beauty is nonexistent and where only hatred and destruction remain, the young boy Tom,the main character, stands in a queue, waiting his turn to view "the smile," the Mona Lisa. As each man passes by the portrait, he "appreciates" it by spitting upon it. However, when Tom's turn comes to spit upon the painting, his mouth is dry. All that he can say is "She's beautiful...
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...ng, CityVarsity Television and Film Production Techniques DIR200 2nd Year Directing “The Director's POV” Index: 1. Introduction 4 Section A: My Version 2. 1st Chosen Scene: Original Script 5-8 3. 1st Chosen Scene: Shooting Script 9 4. 1st Chosen Scene: Shot List 9-12 5. 1st Chosen Scene: Floor Plan 13 6. 1st Chosen Scene: Chosen Shots Storyboarded 14-15 7. 1st Chosen Scene: Short Analysis of Scene 16 8. 2nd Chosen Scene: Original Script 17-22 9. 2nd Chosen Scene: Shooting Script 23 10. 2nd Chosen Scene: Shot List 23-26 11. 2nd Chosen Scene: Floor Plan 27 12. 2nd Chosen Scene: Storyboard 28-29 13. 2nd Chosen Scene: Short Analysis of Scene 30 Section B: Their Version 14. 1st Chosen Scene: Floor Plan of Actual Shots 32 15. 1st Chosen Scene: Marked Up Script 33-38 16. 1st Chosen Scene: Various Notes on the Filmed Scene 38-39 17. 2nd Chosen Scene: Floor Plan 40 18. 2nd Chosen Scene: Marked Up Script 41-47 19. 2nd Chosen Scene: Various Notes on the Filmed Scene 48 Section C: Comparison 20. Comparison 49-52 Section D: General Analysis of the film 21. Plot Summary 53-54 22. Tag Line 54 23. 'What if...?' Statement 54 24. List of Locations 55-57 25. Character profiles 57-59 26. Subtext 60-61 27. "Moments" 61 28. Director's Style 62 29. Emotions 62-63 30. Conclusion 63 1. Introduction Initially I was going...
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...The Hunger Games: Action-film feminism is catching fire Lisa Schwarzbaum Burning up Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is both strong and vulnerable – a new kind of action heroine who has powered The Hunger Games: Catching fire to a $158m US debut. (Lionsgate) Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is a new type of female action film icon, and moviegoers should be very excited about that, writes Lisa Schwarzbaum. As Catching Fire ignites on movie screens around the world, this is what we know about the 21st Century heroine called Katniss Everdeen: she is strong but also soft. She is brave but she has doubts. She is a phenomenal fictional creation, yet is real enough that moviegoers can draw inspiration from her values, her resourcefulness, and her very human inner conflicts. And she is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who appears not only to be handling her current duties as Hollywood’s finest model of well-adjusted millennial female stardom but doing so with charm. Everdeen and Lawrence: golden girls both. Personified in Lawrence’s lithe movements and cool, focused gaze, Katniss is a brave, resourceful and independent-minded fighter; but she is also a troubled and vulnerably guilt-ridden human being. Nina Jacobson, the producer of the Hunger Games film franchise, puts it this way: “She is a singular heroine in that the burden of survival weighs on her. She has a ton of survivor’s guilt. And she keeps surviving.” Girl on fire It is strange that behaving like a well-adjusted...
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...TV/Movie Analysis (Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns) Introduction Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is an American sitcom created and produced by playwright, director, and producer Tyler Perry. It is made in the model of his play and film of the same name. The show stars David Mann and Tamela Mann, who starred in the earlier stage play and motion picture. The main premise of this program is to reflect the lifestyle and culture of the African-American family and shows the different relationships that the family cultivate during many challenging times and oppositions. It also revolves around a senior family living under one roof in Decatur, Georgia led by patriarch Mr. Brown and his daughter Cora Simmons.(‘Meet The Browns' – 2008-08-26, Broadcasting & Cable".) Show Attributes Who are the main characters? The show revolves around the misadventures of the multi-generational Brown family. They live in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. All main cast members are credited only for the episodes in which they appear. It is a comedy sitcom that consists of a total of 9 main characters that makes up the show with all having a very vital role displaying to the audience of a family oriented lifestyle that faces many everyday life challenge where they seek ways to overcome. David Mann in the sitcom plays as Leroy S. Brown: The show's main protagonist, Mr. Brown is a church deacon who's very proud about being saved. He is 79 years old, making him 74 during the first season and 76 during the last...
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...Florence Nightingale Film Analysis The story happened in England in the early 1840s. According to the narrator, it was a time of only two classes: the fabulously wealthy or the very poor. As a member of the aristocratic gentry, young Florence Nightingale's life has been predetermined by tradition: she is to marry a suitable man of her class and become a mother. Any personal ambitions she may possess should be ignored as she pursues this singular goal. But Nightingale is a strong-willed woman and she knows what she wanted to achieve. She wants to learn. She wants to pursue a life of service to those less fortunate than herself as a result of a "calling" she's had since God spoke to her when she was 17. She saw the devastating conditions of a public "hospital" in Middlesex and decides to become a nurse, a situation that horrifies her mother and confuses her father because during that time, nurses were considered as harlots or of low class. She decides to attend the Kaiserswerth Institute in Germany, the first school of nursing, a decision that devastates Richard Milnes, who has courted Florence, and who has asked for her hand in marriage.At the hospital for Gentlewomen, she begins to put her theories concerning hygiene and good mental health into practice, even though she comes up against resistence to her new methods by the staff, particularly the stern, imposing Nurse Davis. Richard waited for Florence to answer his marriage proposal but eventually, he became impatient to...
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...says there are 3 main purposes of the Woman’s Film. Which purpose (choose one) do you think best describes the messages in Mildred Pierce? Explain why. Jeanine Basinger's article, "The Genre" discusses 3 main purposes of the Woman's film. I believe the purpose that best describes the message in Mildred Pierce would be the purpose of choices. Mildred Pierce makes many choices that have a relation on what tends to happen in the next chain of events. The reason she makes these choices is to make her current situation better in any way possible. The ability to make a choice is the underlying message that the story makes. For example, Mildred is in a situation where she is jobless and does not have a husband who can support her. Therefore she steps out of her boundaries and takes a stand to find a job and eventually open a business. She does become successful but she has to give up on her personal life to become more successful and support her daughter. She chooses this lifestyle and has lives with the downfalls of the choices she made. In this case, she is dealing with the downfall of working very hard and not having much of a personal life. This suggests the fact that a woman has to choose from a bunch of choices. 2. Into which Women’s Film category (Molly Haskell's four categories) would you place Mildred Pierce? Why? (Use the Woman's Film Lecture notes for this question). Molly Haskell discusses four categories in Women’s Film- sacrifice, affliction, choice, and competition...
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...My Fair Lady Film Analysis CHARACTERS: * Eliza Doolittle: A cockney flower girl from Lisson Grove working outside Covent Garden. Her potential to become “a lady” becomes the object of bet between Higgins and Pickering. * Henry Higgins: British, Upper Class professional bachelor who is a famous phonetics expert, teacher and author of “Higgins’ Universal Alphabet.” * Colonel Pickering, Higgins's friend and fellow phoneticist who is a retired Brisiths officer with colonial experience and the author of “Spoken Sanskrit”. * Alfred P. Doolittle: Eliza's father, an elderly but vigorous dustman. * Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Upper Class young man who becomes completely smitten with Eliza. * Mrs. Higgins: Higgins's socialite mother * Mrs. Pearce: Higgins's housekeeper * Zoltan Karpathy: Higgins's former student and rival SETTING: "My Fair Lady" is set in Edwardian London, sometime between 1901 and 1910, which is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII. The costumes in the 1964 movie version of "My Fair Lady," such as the peach colored outfit Eliza wears after the ball, when she meets her father on the way to his wedding, and the type of automobiles seen indicate the year 1912. This would be the time just before the start of World War I, during the reign of King George V - just after the end of the Edwardian era. PLOT: * Introduction: Higgins hears Eliza shouting in her harsh ‘Cockney’ accent in Covent Garden. He says to his new acquaintance...
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...Final Film Critique: Crash (2004) Jay Dennis ENG 225 Introduction to Film Instructor: Cicely Young April 13, 2014 Final Film Critique Draft: Crash (2004) There are many different critical elements and artistic aspects to examine when analyzing and critiquing any film. In 2004 Paul Haggis wrote and directed the award winning drama Crash about various intertwining experiences involving racial relations and the socioeconomic status levels of the diverse cast of characters. This film addresses how humans being deal with real life circumstances and addresses how racial stereotypes and prejudices impact our society by causing a separation of customs, ignoring human and civil rights, and demonstrating how racism can cause moral, cultural and economical suffering. This detailed essay will address the cinematic elements employed throughout the movie, and provide a critical analysis on the various components and techniques used to create this compelling and powerful film. Crash is a movie that involves several different stories and plots that all manage to somehow connect the characters to each other in a series of events that take place during two days in California. America’s ever-growing melting pot is distinctly represented in the film as the audience is introduced to a black LAPD detective, two black mischievous car thieves, a white district attorney and his prejudice wife, a white racist beat cop and his neophyte partner, a black Hollywood director and his wife, an...
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...Set during the Weimar Republic in Berlin, Fritz Lang’s ‘M,’ depicts investigations aimed at supposed child murderer, Hanz Beckert. Unlike typical depictions of evidence as supporting claims, the film depicts evidence as suggesting claims. We see this immediately as paranoid people restlessly accuse each other of being child murderers, because of their visual interpretations. Within the first ten minutes of the film we are shown adults arguing, almost embarrassingly, on whose recollection of what they saw is more accurate: adults yell at each other: Red! Green! Red! Green! In this way the efficacy of seeing as an objective medium to gathering evidence, and even what counts as being evidence is questioned. In this paper I will explore the question: “What constitutes evidence?” by focusing on the coalescence and manipulation of evidence through sight in ‘M’. Despite the ostensible validity a fingerprint or paperwork may hold, and the objectivity police seemingly have, police still end up gathering these pieces of evidence in such a way that they actually invalidate them. The film portrays this manipulation of data by showing how police inspection (through bare sight), creates a sense of control over how things are seen and the impending problems with controlling how things are seen. Police commissioner, Lohmann, is shown seated as a line files past him one by one as he inspects their paperwork for them to identify and thereby prove their identities. A person has no paperwork...
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...Forrest Gump (1994) Film review and analysis Varga Noémi – HKDE13 The blockbuster movie Forrest Gump was made in the year 1994, and it was an American romantic-comedy-drama film that won multiple awards and nominations, including awards won from the 67th Academy Awards, 1995 Golden Globe Awards, 1995 MTV Movie Awards, 1995 People’s Choice Awards and various other ones. In 1996, a themed restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, opened based on the film and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide. The scene of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected Forrest Gump for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was an adaption of a novel of Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom. The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel, including Gump's personality and several events that were depicted. Robert Zemeckis was the director of the movie, and he made great decisions about the camera techniques to be used in each scene. The movie stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field. Principal photography took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Released in the United States on July 6, 1994, Forrest Gump became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released in that year. The story depicts several decades...
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...Film Analysis 1 -Eat, Drink, Man, Woman Eat, Drink, Man, Woman reminds us of universal wants and needs through the lives' of a father and his three daughters. The family struggles to keep their bond while dealing with individual challenges and hardships. In the end, these struggles are worked out with the help of family, as we see each character grow and develop; which causes the family to be redefined all together. Interesting to me, was the theme of tradition versus modernization. This was central to Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, and it is shown in the development of the characters, in the symbols and motifs, and even in the use of light and sound. I would like to further explore this theme and the implications. The characters develop through conflict resolution, and each conflict presented shows some spectrum of tradition versus modernization. Let's begin with the conflict between Senior Master Chef Chu (Chu) and his middle daughter Jia-Chien (Chien). Chu is traditional in his ways -he prepares food traditionally, he was matched with his wife traditionally, he was faithful and committed to his wife, and even after her death, he is incredibly slow to remarry,he provides and cares for his family, he values family tradition, and he does not talk about his feelings. Chien is a representation of modernization -she is a powerful woman in the workplace who seemingly does not place high esteem on family values. She is not committed to any one man, even though she longs to be wanted...
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