David Corbett TMA 102 Section 9 1 April 2015 Final Film Analysis Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a fantastic film that combines seemingly disparate ideas into a coherent theme and narrative. The theme that seems so prevalent in the film is the struggle to move on and find love and admiration. The movie tries to understand this struggle by asking the question of what defines art and whether Hollywood-like spectacle approach to art is a good thing. The film also faces the viewer with the internal conflict that these characters face when having two types of personalities on and off the stage. The movie conveys this theme through its use of cinematography, acting and production design. The cinematography in Birdman is truly …show more content…
First and foremost, the way I pick movies have changed. I am now a little more open to watching an older, black and white film. I am also more likely to select a foreign film with subtitles. However, I still have a hard time picking films that aren’t critically acclaimed. I am more willing to watch a black and white film but only if it is directed by Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles. The same goes for foreign films. I have also changed the way I analyze films. Now when I critically looks at a movie I find that I judge a movie based on more than the story and acting. I will looks and what goes on to getting that shot or how hard it must’ve been to edit some of the scenes. I think that it has made me a little more lenient when I review a movie. In the past I would think a movie wasn’t good if I didn’t like the story but now I can look past things and judge it by the cinematography and set design. I think I have started to understand that film is an art form and deserves to be treated more carefully than most people treat it. I now understand just how hard it is to make and be a part of a movie. I am still working on fixing my flaws as a viewer and I believe that it will come as I take the time to view more
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.
The first camera angle we see is an extreme long shot, it is of the
The Bolshevik Revolution was a defining turning point in Russian history. This overall revolution consisted of two individual revolutions in 1917 which resulted in the overthrow of the Tsarist government and the formation of a socialist society led by Vladimir Lenin’s radical Bolsheviks. For a moment with such enormous weight like the Bolshevik Revolution, there will be various interpretations on the true results of that moment and the meaning and value of these results. The film Man with a Movie Camera deals with the results of the Bolshevik Revolution and the early Soviet Society it birthed as it utilizes footage of one day in this early Soviet Union, thus making it worthy of examination. In the film Man With a Movie Camera, Vertov impressively
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and
The film Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt, presents a sparse narrative. The film has been criticised for its lack of background story, and as a short film, much of the story is left to the viewer to infer from what is presented in the plot. However, Wendy and Lucy is able to depict the intimate relationship between Wendy and her dog as well as reflecting more broadly on the everyday, and commenting on the current economic state of the film’s setting in America. This essay will examine how film form contributes to the viewer’s awareness of the story in Wendy and Lucy and allows a deeper understanding of the themes presented. The aspects of mise-en-scene, shot and editing and sound in the film will be explored.
In today’s society, pre-existing assumptions and stereotypes of other ethnicities and individuals play a large part in the way we see others. This social construct of stereotypes has placed restrictions on many people’s lives which ultimately limits them from achieving certain goals. In this sense, stereotypes misrepresent and restrict people of colour to gain casting within the Hollywood film industry. The issue of how casting actors to certain roles and how these actors are forced to submit and represent these false stereotypes is one worthy of discussion. White Chicks (2004), directed by Keenan Wayans, illustrates this issue through the performance of Latrell, performed by Terry Crews, and his performance of the hyper-sexualised “buck” will be a prime example in this essay to discuss the racial politics and stereotypes in Hollywood casting.
There are no gender identities, orientations or roles that are not poked fun of and explored in the movie The Bird Cage. The director seems to have played up humorous stereotypes of each, creating an awareness in the audience of the silliness of attributing characteristics to an individual based solely on his or her sexual orientation. While homosexuals are seen as oversexed and horny, heterosexuals are seen as having no sexual urges. Women are characterized as being emotional ditzes, and men as the voice of reason. The fact that society perpetuates so many stereotypes about homosexuals is what makes this film so humorous. Who can help but laugh at a gay males dancing cabaraet style as women? This film shows individuals living alternative lifestyles, and being happy and adjusted while doing so. This is a new concept to many viewers, who can laugh about their ignorance while seeing that sometimes different is just plain fun. educating its audience through the exploration of sexual roles, and the stereotypes that we hold of them.
How does it feel starting over in a completely new place? In the movie “The Karate Kid”, Daniel, the main character, and his mom moved to the California from New Jersey because of his mom’s new job offer. Daniel started going to school in California and met a girl named Ali, whom he started to like. He started going out with her. Daniel was getting beat up by some bullies; one of them was Ali’s ex-boyfriend. They knew karate very well, but Daniel did not. So Daniel decided to learn karate. Daniel and his mom were living in an apartment and one day he discovers that the handyman at his apartment, Mr.Miyagi, knows karate very well. He asked Mr.Miyagi to teach him karate, and Mr.Miyagi became his karate teacher. It was hard for him to make new friends in a new place and he believed that Mr.Miyagi would be the only best friend he ever met.
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
The movie “Freedom Writers” relates to the chapter one A Nation at Risk, by giving examples of the Six risk behaviors in students. The one being Behavior that contributes to unintentional and intentional injuries. The movie takes place in a high school that is know for their racial street gangs. The students repeated say in the beginning of the school they will protect their own race. The students would plan to take action against other gang groups if they wrong them at school or on the streets. One of the students at the school would carry a gun in school and had the intended to use when a school wide fight broke out. One of the students at that school was shot and killed in the crossfire. 82% of 15 to 19 deaths are killed with a firearm.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel based in Afghanistan that shows the betrayal between two boys with two different social backgrounds. Four years later “The Kite Runner” was filmed by David Benioff, which shows the meaningful message that the book delivers in a movie. Throughout the book and movie, Amir the protagonist must live the rest of his life with guilt from his childhood. Although the movie gave the same meaningful message that the book delivered, the book was further developed, which had more detail and kept the readers wanting more. Ultimately these details that were present in the novel gave the readers a better understanding of the characters, which led to the relationships
The film Family Weekend was not given a fair shake. Family Weekend is story of a dysfunctional family. Eldest daughter Emily comes up with the plan of kidnapping her parents in order to save her broken family. Emily is a driven girl who is an accomplished jump-roper. Her siblings consist of her older brother Jackson (Eddie Hassell) who is openly gay, her younger sister Lucinda (Joey King) who is movie obsessed, and her youngest brother Mickey (Robbie Tucker) who has the perfect memory. Along with Emily’s crazy siblings she also has two self-absorbed parents, Samantha (Kristen Chenoweth) and Duncan (Matthew Modine). The bases of the film story are surround by the problems that go along with Emily kidnapping her parents. Critics
The film that is being used for the movie analysis is “Enough”, this movie was chosen due to the fact that it is based on domestic violence towards women. The movie begins with in Los Angeles diner were a waitress named slim works with her best friend Ginny (Kazan, 2002). While working her shift slim has a customer that starts harassing her over the name she has, but the companion of the annoying customer defends slim, which in turn starts a romance, later to become a marriage between the two (Kazan, 2002). The couple is later blessed with a daughter they name Gracie, and at the beginning the marriage seems to be a fairy tale out of a story book (Kazan, 2002). The fairy tale becomes a nightmare as time moves forwards for the couple,
“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.