Different forms of literature work apply different styles to communicate its message to the intended people. In most cases, novels and films pass their messages to their audience through expressing particular themes. For a theme to be created, specific techniques are applied by the author of a book or director of a given film. To be precise, this essay discusses the themes displayed by three movies, The birds, Persepolis and Nosferatu. Each film will be considered separately and the comparisons made will be analyzed. Application of different techniques in a movie affects how best the films communicate its theme to the audience. However, not all methods are applicable in bringing out the idea a video director wishes to address. To address the …show more content…
Part of the film reveals a woman waiting to pick a young girl from school. The woman, by waiting, has hopes to save the female child from the wrath of the birds. In the movie The Birds, the editor makes use of suspense for revealing to the viewer the dangers posed by the birds (Mulligan, p.539). Hitchcock, the primary publisher, utilizes various techniques such as visual design, cinematography, editing, and sound design to develop an abstract horror film. Use of birds in the movie symbolically presents to the viewer the struggle against the immediate dangers associated with the life that human beings …show more content…
To achieve the essence of horror and suspense in the movie, Hitchcock makes use of the mise en scene. This technique comprises of everything that the viewer can see on the screen, that is visible matter, the set, positioning symmetry and lighting (Mulligan, p.543). For instance, in the film Daniels is standing outside, and one sees the playground her gradually filling up with birds. Changing the color of the scenes is also a technique that the editor utilizes to increase suspense in his film. The scene in which the farmer was found dead in a room makes full utilization of color change, though the chamber is bright, as the camera begins revealing the body, the lightings gradually becomes darker. Lastly, the shadow covers the body showing us only the face of the farmer and with the pitch black eyes where the birds ate the eyes out. The power of the movie is revealed through the use of camera angles and lighting balance and lack of soundtrack. More specifically the use of lighting and camera creates suspense for the horror genus
Many films, and sometimes film genres, are dismissed as being part of the cinema of escapism. This assumes that in times of particular social or economic hardship (often on a national or international level), people go to movies for the sole purpose of “getting away from it all.” While some films may follow this overall trend, it is important to note that it cannot be a generalization made for all films. During the Weimar era in Germany, the nation was in the midst of a national struggle on many fronts. As a people, Germans attempted to deal with their past (the problems during World War I as well as the consequences of their loss) and move toward the future (finding a solution for their economic struggles and defining themselves culturally and socially). This period saw a resurgence of the horror genre, this time adapted to the new medium of film. However, the way horror was portrayed via film is the interesting part: it drew specifically on the struggles of the nation to instill horror. This is an exact reversal of the idea of cinematic escapism, since many Weimar era horror films used relatable struggles in order to both entertain and terrify (in this case, existing concurrently as well as dependently on each other). One of the clearest examples of this is through the film Nosferatu, a cinematic retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula directed by F.W. Murnau. The budding horror genre of the Weimar era, as exemplified by Nosferatu, succeeded because it drew parallels to the German people’s collective post-World War I mindset, including references to the terrible nature of the war itself and the fearful prospect of how to move forward.
According to rotten tomatoes this film the birds was Alfred Hitchcock success that turned birds into some of the most terrifying villains in horror history. The Guardian titles this film my favorite Hitchcock: the birds. Well according to the Guardian the film provides no answer and no escape. The film leaves us confused with multiple questions. A common question that a person may have after watching this movie would be, what made the birds want to attack human beings in the first place? Another question would be why would birds even attack
Alfred Hitchcock’s films not only permanently scar the brains of his viewers but also addict them to his suspense. Hitchcock’s films lure you in like a trap, he tells the audience what the characters don’t know and tortures them with the anticipation of what’s going to happen.
into strange trances. Jonathon escapes from the castle but is not free of Draculas power,
The purpose with this paper is to study and compare two different directors, and to compare and contrast the two different works. How are they working with their movies and how do they use mise-en-scene? By studying two different directors that uses different techniques when making movies, we are going to find out how important mise en scene really is, and how it affects the movie.
All directors of major motion pictures have specific styles or signatures that they add in their work. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time, has a particularly unique style in the way he creates his films. Film analyzers classify his distinctive style as the “Alfred Hitchcock signature”. Hitchcock’s signatures vary from his cameo appearances to his portrayal of a specific character. Two perfect examples of how Hitchcock implements his infamous “signatures” are in the movies, A Shadow of a Doubt and Vertigo. In these movies, numerous examples show how Hitchcock exclusively develops his imagination in his films.
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...
A thriller is a type of film that usually instills excitement and suspense into the audience. A thriller is commonly described as a tense edge of the seat environment. The movie, Vertigo, is one of the most famous thrillers ever made. However, Vertigo does not fit into the stereotypical genre of thriller. Vertigo, often viewed as an experimental film because it was one of the first major thrillers of that time that used many different and innovative camera techniques. These techniques used in this film are different types of lighting, montage, intense music, etc. Vertigo is known to be one of Hitchcock’s best movies because of his unique sense of style and his famous “Hitchcock signature” The movie Vertigo is about a detective who is hired to follow his friend’s wife Madeline. In actuality, however, he is being tricked to participate in a murder. Throughout the movie the detective, Scottie, ends up falling for Madeline while she is stringing him along her hidden agenda. Even though at the forefront of the movie Madeline...
Run Lola Run, is a German film about a twenty-something woman (Lola) who has 20 minutes to find $100,000 or her love (Manni) will be killed. The search for the money is played through once with a fatal ending and one would think the movie was over but then it is shown again as if it had happened ten seconds later and changed everything. It is then played out one last time. After the first and second sequence, there is a red hued, narrative bridge. There are several purposes of those bridges that affect the movie as a whole. The film Run Lola Run can be analyzed by using the four elements of mise-en scene. Mise-en-scene refers to the aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theater. Mise-en-scene pertains to setting, lighting, costume, and acting style. For the purpose of this paper, I plan on comparing the setting, costume, lighting, and acting style in the first red hued, bridge to that of the robbery scene. Through this analysis, I plan to prove that the purpose of the narrative bridge in the film was not only to provide a segue from the first sequence to the second, but also to show a different side of personality within the main characters.
Hitchcock has a way of throwing clues in the face of the spectator, yet still allows some room for the spectator to find their own less obvious details. In the same museum scene, Hitchcock shows the viewer exactly what he wants them to see. In a sense, Hitchcock can be very manipulative with the camera. The audience sees the picture containing the women with a curl in her hair holding flowers, and then the direct connection is made by the camera, by showing the curl in Madeline’s hair, and the flowers sitting next to her. The spectator is led to believe that they have solved the mystery and she is truly possessed by the women in the picture. However, Hitchcock does this on purpose to lead the audience away from the truth that she is only acting. It is for these reasons that Hitchcock’s work at an auteur adds a level of depth and intrigue.
The two films Psycho and The Birds, both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, share similar themes and elements. These recurring themes and elements are often prevalent in many of Hitchcock’s works. In Psycho and The Birds, Hitchcock uses thematic elements like the ideal blonde woman, “the motherly figure”, birds, and unusual factors that often leave the viewer thinking. Hitchcock’s works consist of melodramatic films, while also using pure cinema to help convey messages throughout the film.
From the opening seconds, when Alfred Hitchcock’s camera closes in from afar on a private lunchtime rendezvous, Psycho makes clear that its focus is on the secretive and reserved. This scandalous scene is the first of many that initiates the viewer to the notion that beneath the surface lays a distorted and crudely reticent domain. Hitchcock seems determined to trick the audience, delightfully subverting character tropes and conventional setting as the plot descends further into darkness. This high-strung thriller may at first glance appear nothing more than a simple murder mystery, but on closer examination the film makes an argument for a lurking, sinister omnipresence. Psycho reveals that there is a twisted world hidden beneath everyday
There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène.
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
“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.