Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream is a movie that was directed by Darren Aronofsky. It's a story about the decent in to the hell and torment of drug addiction; however, Aronofsky sets out to demonstrate both the seductive ecstasy of a high and the shattering anguish of addiction. Character development is the main focus of Requiem, which is shown through creative camera angles, precise editing, and brilliant acting.
This movie blew my mind away, actually I found it difficult to sit through the entire movie without taking a break to go outside just to make sure that reality wasn't as bad as the movie made it seem. Aronofsky did a mind-boggling job of exploring the pleasures, and horrors of drug use. However, he did it in a way that I had never seen before, his camera work and editing were so creative I couldn't help but repeatedly think "Wow, I've never seen anything like that before." In a movie review of Requiem Arthur Lazere states "Technique is important here because Aronofsky's films are both manneristic and expressionistic in spirit and style, exaggerating and distorting images for dramatic effect. He uses split screens, fast motion, fades to white, body-mounted cameras, repeated sequences, exaggerated sound effects somewhat self-conscious methods that quite deliberately keep the viewer always aware of the filmmaker and what he is up to, much the same way some painters use a think impasto"
"I'm somebody now, Harry! Everybody likes...
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s episode of Learning Literature. Tonight we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gattaca by analysing the techniques text producers employ to construct representations of social issues relating to marginalised groups. We will focus on two classic pieces of literature, Ken Kessey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. Through a range of techniques, the text producers have included representations of freedom and independence, power, as well as discrimination in each of their respective texts.
History is consistently used in films as a technique to teach the values and morals of events that occurred. But what’s the point in teaching history through films when they are terribly fictional? In films, the director finds the best scheme to intrigue their audience only by changing the actual event to satisfy their interest. This is true for Stanley Kramer when he made the history of John Scopes and his “monkey trial” into a film called Inherit the Wind. Kramer knew the exact stereotypical “Hollywood history” his audience enjoyed. The trial itself had a series of conflicts, the main one being evolution vs. religion. Yet there was also a series of tensions throughout the movie, including the argument between individual vs. society. The same themes from Inherit the Wind can also be seen from the actual “monkey trial” event in Dayton, Tennessee. It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction and according to this film, truth is also stronger than fiction. Inherit the Wind ignored the true dramatic moment, which is essential to the actual trial that happened in Dayton, Tennessee. Kramer even portrayed his own opinion of this trial in this film. The truth was so distorted in the film so now the argument is not individual vs. society or evolution vs. religion but history vs. fiction. Inherit the Wind is set in the little town of Hillsboro when Bertram Cates (played by), a biology teacher, was thrown into prison for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Two famous lawyers were behind this case, Henry Drummond (played by) as the defender and Mathew Harrison Brady (played by), as the prosecutor. Mathew Harrison Brady who was “voted 3 times for a presidential candidate” was sent to Hillsboro is carry out the job as a prosecutor for this trial. As for Cates, a journalist from Baltimore Herald by the name of E.K. Horrbeck willingly provided a lawyer named Henry Drummond for him. Horrbeck was interested in the Cates, expecting to make big bucks from this big “media” case. The two opposing lawyers, Drummond and Brady, were Kramer’s two main characters, both with different opinions on how humans arrived on earth. Drummond supported the evolution theory, while Brady, the creation theory. In this film, Kramer distorted the facts of the actual trial to make this film more of a drama than a history documentary.
Theatre students are often told what not to prepare for an audition because some pieces have been done so many times they lose their meaning. Of Shakespeare’s entire canon, the two most often forbidden texts are Puck and Helena monologues from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Therefore, the two roles are often the most sought-after and coveted in the play when in production. However, in the 1999 film version, Kevin Kline as Bottom gets top billing. According to the rules of Elizabethan hierarchy, Bottom, being of the merchant class, is literally at the “bottom” of the social spectrum. The Athenians and fairies rank higher on the great chain of being. Kline’s billing is not merely a result of stunt-casting: Athenian Helena is played by television star Calista Flockhart and the fairy queen, Titania, is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, both “stars” at the time. The movie is considered “The Kevin Kline Version” because, compared to the text alone, the plot changes, cinematic adjustments, and Kline’s performance flesh out Bottom’s character, creating a protagonist for an otherwise ensemble cast.
Idoru by william gibson is nothing less than an awe-insiring book for me. no other author that i have come across can inspire one to recreate visions of reality at the turn of every page. Gibsons books are all compelling; neuromancer (1984) needing perhaps a special mention; as this book single handedly created the cyberpunk genre, aswell as coining phrases such as "cyberspace". However, as one of his later works (1996), we are able to find within Idoru's more contempory exploration of our worlds transformation into a high density infomation-governed datasphere, an analysis of what might happen to certain aspects of humanity as technology, infomation, and a new reality converge within the global infrastructure.
With a new century approaching, Bruce Weigl's twelfth collection of poetry, After the Others, calls us to stand on the millennium's indeterminate edge. This book, opening with the last four lines of Milton's "Paradise Lost," parallels our departure from this century with Adam's fearful exit from Eden, beyond which is "all abyss, / Eternity, whose end no eye can reach" ("Paradise Lost"). Weigl posits that we stand at the century's uncertain gate naked, cold, and greedy; he refers often to a looming future, to give our collapsing present more urgency. We've forgotten, he says, how to love and live simply, how to write honestly and well.
Daru, the schoolteacher in a remote area of Algeria, is torn between duty and what he believes is the right thing to do when he is suddenly forced in the middle of a situation he does not expect. He must escort an Arabic prisoner to the nearest town. It is not that Daru has much sympathy for the man; in fact, he does not, and actually finds himself disliking the Arab for disrupting so many lives. "Daru felt a sudden wrath against the man, against all men with their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lust." Unfortunately, Daru loves his homeland, and cannot bear to think of leaving, despite the chaos that is raging around him between France and the Algerian natives. I believe that Daru makes the right choice in letting the prisoner choose his own fate. Daru has reaso...
"A Clockwork Orange", directed by the immeasurable Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adirenne Corri, Aubrey Morris and James Marcus and produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, is, in my opinion, one of the greatest morality plays ever captured on film. It leads viewer in to many different pathways of thought about the time we live in, and about the validity of the concepts of law and morality, and the applications of the two in general society.
In Selby's 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream each character succumbs to self-gratification, which eventually and inevitably leads to self-destruction. The four main characters, Harry Goldfarb, Sara Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love each suffer from individual addictions, be it their dreams, illegal/legal narcotics, or even television. "Ultimately not only their bodies and minds, but their very souls are destroyed by their addictions" (Giles 104).
Requiem for a Dream offers a haunting glimpse into the life of addiction and drug abuse. This book depicts four individuals and their addictions to cocaine, heroin, and diet pills. Each of the characters have their own American Dream while the addictions to their drugs are keeping them further away from achieving it. In the beginning of the book, all the characters wanted was more out of life. Harry and Marion wanted to become financially stable so they could own their own coffee shop and have lots of money to travel the world. Tyrone just wanted to make more money to have a better life and Sara wanted to look good on television by losing enough weight to fit into a red dress. While following these dreams, they got lost in reality and slowly
Aging is a phenomena we are all familiar with, a trait characteristic of all humankind, in fact, of all living organisms. What are the effects of aging, especially those which go beyond the biological aspects and effect the social aspects of changing roles, seniority, and treatment of the aged? What was the original human condition before high-tech medical interventions redefined death and dying, before the industrial age changed the nature of the nuclear and extended family? Going back still farther, what can the behavior of chimpanzees tell us about the origins of our responses to the aging of those around us?
The American peoples debt is almost entirely the faults of all those who participate in the active use of the credit cards solicited to them. This is due to several factors, the first of which is the ability of classes below the Upper-Middle and Upper classes being able to acquire credit cards easily and readily. The second reason is that the interest rates of these credit cards, set by the companies that advertise and produce them, has been and, in the foreseeable future, will be extremely high. Finally, the credit card debt is such a problem today because the market for credit card companies is so concentrated that isn't regulated enough to make any difference.
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
If these views are correct, perhaps they reflected a certain “theory of aging” at a “certain moment” in history. In order to develop an account that is more general and not limited to a particular time and place, one needs to examine the life course perspective on aging. “Life course theory holds that transitions are related to changes in roles and possibly, to changes in identity as well” (Moen, Erickson, & Dempster-McClain, 2000, p. 560). This perspective gives insight to the last stage of life as the result of all the stages that come before it (Moody & Sasser, 2015, p. 2). This means we view old age as a matter of individual choice and social policy (Moody & Sasser, 2015, p. 2). As discussed in the forums, the meaning of aging varies from individual to individual and can be influenced by things such as history, culture, and life experiences. For example, someone in poor health living in a low socioeconomic class may view old age quite differently than someone in good health living in the upper socioeconomic
The plights of aging and minorities are substantially difficult to those to have endure the hardships of both groups. With the amount of the elderly majority increasing rapidly, this work examines certain aspects such as education and economic status. Based on that concept, I intend to find weather there is a correlation to the quality longevity of life for those of the aging minority differ in comparison to their counterparts
Some of the arguments in the article say that the reason why people are in debt is because expenses are higher now than they were in the 1970 's. Another argument is that we are living in a materialistic place, especially in California and New York. Everybody wants to look good and have the best, so they use their credit card to make these expenses. Some arguments blame teens for using credit cards. Teens already use credit cards and spend money. Banks and financial institutions are also blamed for the rise in credit card debt because they lower monthly payments on credit cards. Others just think that Americans are comfortable with having credit card debts.