1. What is the reviews main argument about the film? Stephanie Zacharek’s main argument in this review is to applaud the ingenuity of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s in producing the highly entertaining film, The Assassin. Throughout the review, Zacharek highlights the many positive attributes of this movie. This gives the reader a thorough overview of what to expect when watching this action packed film. In particular, Zacharek focuses on distinguishing this film from the norm. She illustrates how Hou has gone an extra mile to fuse scenes from the ancient Tang dynasty, utilizing different color contrasts to place the viewer right in the middle of the action. In addition to this, the author stresses that the plot of this film can be rather confusing. …show more content…
What formal features of the film (narrative, editing, cinematography, lighting, sound etc) does the reviewer use to support their argument? The reviewer utilizes several formal features of the film to support her argument and drive her key point home. First and foremost, she extensively utilizes narrative to explain to the reader the different scenes in the film. It is through narratives that the reader gets to know the characters in the film and the roles they play. They entice the reader by providing a sneak preview of what to expect in the film. Secondly, Zacharek uses cinematography to show Hou’s professionalism in films. She explains how Hou balances the use of color to depict different times and moods in the film. Black and white represents gloomy ancient times while vibrant colors signify intense action-filled scenes in the film (Zacharek, …show more content…
What is the basis for the reviewer’s positive or negative opinion of the film? The basis of Zacharek’s positive opinions on the film lies on the quality of the cinematography employed by Hou in this film. She likes the way Hou contrasts color to symbolize mood and time. In addition to this, the quality of the film is also denoted by the mentioning of the cinematographer behind the scenes, i.e. the prominent and highly skilled, Mark Lee Ping Bin. Another factor that Zacharek bases her positive opinions about the film on is the settings. She stresses that there is a perfect selection of different sets that perfectly suit all scenes in the film. The mode of dressing is also aligned with the plot. All of these factors assist the viewer in fully understanding the different moods in the plot. This is where Zacharek derives her positive reviews on the film (Zacharek,
After evaluating the 2081 movie, it is apparent the film elements and techniques are important when defining the mood. The four main techniques used throughout the film were lighting, music, sound, and dialogue.
Film adaptations of literature tend to have a bad reputation. As Brian McFarlane observes in “It Wasn't Like That in the Book...”, viewers are more likely to come out of a theater after viewing an adaptation griping about what was different or better in the book than by commenting about the film in its own right (McFarlane 6). It is rare for such films to be judged as films in their own right, and often viewers aren't looking for an adaptation inspired by the novel, but rather a completely faithful representation of the original work, in film form. However, not only is this not always possible due to time limitations, but it also overlooks all of the things possible in film that are impossible on the written page. Wendy Everett points out in “Reframing Adaptation”, that film is much more than just plot and simple narrative, with filmmakers being able to utilize “ the rhythms and nuances of the dialogue, of course, but also the film's visual images and cadences, the camera’s angels and rhythms, and the internal dynamic between and within each shot” in their storytelling (Everett 153). While literature is bound to the printed word, film is capable of creating an entire visual and audible world in which a story unfolds.
The film’s story does not simply shines forth, but is also the foundation of the plot. The film’s plot makes the traditional guidelines applicable...
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
The words “writing about film”, to my mind, conjure up the Siskel & Ebert-like desiccation of film that one usually finds in a review column. Needless to say, such “writing” can hardly be found appealing to one who looks for more than the appreciation or dislike of a performance or the absurdity of story. In “A Short Guide to Writing About Film,” I discovered that writing on film should and can be a far cry from such drivel. It is a staunch review of technique in relation to writing specifically on film. Obvious technique, to be sure, but if approached the proper manner, these reminders can be quite useful in articulating the often hard-to-capture meaning or imagery in film.
If the aesthetics of astonishment are not employed whatsoever, the film loses its purpose and becomes an empty recital of the actions of its characters. This deems the striking montage elements necessary. If these elements are overdone, then the audience can and will lose sight of the narrative element. Should this cause the audience to lose interest in the film altogether, then the film is a failure and the director loses credibility. The most important aspect of creating a film is finding a healthy medium between completing the objective of the film and presenting the narrative. Directors are responsible for depicting the necessary montage elements in a film while avoiding creating what Gunning describes as “an excess of mimesis” (FTC). One could argue that this very conflict is what distinguishes films that find this medium as “great films.”
According to Munsterberg’s film theory, the motion picture is an original medium in that it aesthetically stimulates the spectator’s senses. Although both still picture and theatrical play can possibly leave images on the spectator’s retina or brain, each element of motion picture, including camera angle and work, lighting, editing, music, and the story itself, appeals to somewhere more than just retina or brain— the element of motion picture truly operates upon the spectator’s mind. Speaking of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, the film unfolds a story of physically and mentally repressed ballerina’s life. Due to the film’s effective filming and editing techniques, the film successfully increases excitement as well as suspense in the story. Since Black Swan captures not only the real world the ballerina lives in but also the other side of the world the ballerina has within her mind, its spectator would experience a fantastic world where one ballerina lives in two different worlds at the same time. Even though the still picture and the theatrical play also give the spectator either a visual or an aural image, motion picture is the one that stimulates the spectator’s senses with its story, color, sound, acting, filming, and editing.
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
One strand of auteur theory, as Graeme Turner explains, concerns the identification of a director's visual style (Turner 44). When it comes to talking about visual styles of Asian directors, particularly in the context of Hong Kong cinema, one name that immediately comes to mind would be none other than Wong Kar-wai. Any Asian film student would probably be familiar with his signature works. Wong Kar-wai has been considered as "the very latest auteur produced by the second wave" in Hong Kong cinema (Teo 193). His passion for stylistic filmmaking and pursuit of film artistry gave him the recognition as a Hong Kong auteur. His auteur status arose from the distinctive visual style and individualistic visions evident in his films. Apart from directing, Wong Kar-wai also writes the screenplays for his own films. That gives him almost complete control over the entire film production and reinforces his authorship. He is famous for shooting without scripts, improvising the narrative as he shoots the films. With all his films being labelled as independent art-house and in contrast to the many commercial Hong Kong products, Wong Kar-wai stands apart from other directors (Stokes 186). In this essay, I will examine and discuss how academic film critics and scholars such as Stephen Teo, David Bordwell and others have talked about his visual style, in relation to one of his many award-winning films, Chungking Express (1994).
Provide a paragraph ONLY summarizing your understanding of the film. In this summary, address the main theme or idea of the film as well as any underlying themes that are conveyed during the production. In other words, what primary message was conveyed to the audience IN YOUR OWN WORDS via the production of this film? (Note – I have seen all of these films – thus, this section should be one paragraph only – the majority of your critique should include your responses to Items 3 & 4).
“Orient Express is arguably her most enduring work as far as the average reader goes, due to the daring gimmick the author was able to pull off: they all did it ("Murder on the Orient" 155). This critical comment made by Greg Wilson gives an accurate depiction to the mystery that Agathe Christie builds up in her book. The Murder on the Orient Express has many aspects that played big roles in creating the novel. The way the author uses the aspects, such as plot, setting, the author 's style, and the characters are what made the book suspenseful and intriguing to the reader.
Forth are Lighting and color. In case of Lighting, this film uses High key light that makes this film look like natural light and feel warm. In the case of color, some scene of this film use warm color to express love and warmth to audience such as in the wedding scene or some scene use dark color to express about sad feeling such as funeral scene and in scene that Rosie knows her dad was died. I think in some scene if you watch it in HD, it’s very beautiful such as in scene that Rosie drinks a cup of coffee and thinks about the past in sunset time because Lighting and color of sunset time is very
Due to the film’s quality and interest it became an award winning film. The film had excellent sound effects such as the battle scenes. The image quality was also outstanding; it used many different angles to depict the actor to make you feel involved in the scenes. In the action scenes the most common viewpoint used was a close up shot which allows the audience to see and feel the intensity of the scene. The second viewpoint mostly used was a tracking shot due to the actors c...
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.