Canadian filmmaker and cinephile, Guy Maddin once said, “I do feel a bit like Dracula in Winnipeg. I’m safe, but can travel abroad and suck up all sorts of ideas from other filmmakers… Then I can come back here and hoard these tropes and cinematic devices.” Here, Maddin addresses his filmmaking saying that he takes aspects from different film styles and appropriates them into his own work. In The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Maddin uses a combination of French Surrealist filmmaking and classical American Hollywood cinema, specifically melodrama, to create his own style. In an article by William Beard, Steven Shaviro talks about Maddin’s filmmaking, and he links Surrealism and melodrama together saying, “Maddin’s films are driven by a tension between romantic excess [melodrama] on the one hand and absurdist humour [Surrealism] on the other.” In regards to The Saddest Music in the World, the relationship between Surrealism and melodrama is not one of tension, as Shaviro suggests, but one of cooperation. This paper will analyze two films by filmmakers Maddin was familiar with —Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali on the Surrealist side, and All That Heaven Allows (1955) by Douglas Sirk on the melodrama side—to showcase the important elements of each, concluding with an analysis of The Saddest Music in the World in conjunction with both film styles. Ultimately, it will be shown how Guy Maddin combines French Surrealist cinema and Hollywood melodrama in The Saddest Music in the World, to create his own unique film style.
Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali is the quintessential Surrealist film, including shocking imagery, non-linear time, black humour, oddities and a specific editing st...
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...Saddest Music in the World. DVD. Directed by Guy Maddin. 2003; Winnipeg: MGM Home Entertainment, 2004.
Un Chien Andalou. Youtube. Directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. France.
Beard William. “Maddin and Melodrama.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 14.2 (2005): 2-15.
Beebe, John. “Canadian Surrealism.” The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal 23.3 (2004): 85-89.
Coombs, Neil. Studying Surrealist and Fantasy Film. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Losier, Marie and Porton, Richard. “The Pleasures of Melancholy: An Interview with Guy Maddin.” Cineaste 29.3 (2004): 18-25.
Semley, John. “From Big Snow to Big Sadness: The Repatriation of Canadian Cultural Identity in the Films of Guy Maddin.” Cineaction 73 (2008): 32-37.
White, Kenneth. “Forget Your Desire: The Cinema of Guy Maddin.” Millenium Film Journal 45/46 (2006): 133-139.
In this essay I am going to explore the unique collaboration between director and composer and how much a long-term collaborative process between the two can influence the establishment of the former as an author. An author, in this case, stands for an authority actively shaping the film’s story and message but at the same can be understood as an author of music, I will try to consider both factors. In this process I want to begin with filmmaker’s general relationship to music, then while answering the main question I will give examples of the European collaboration of Theo Angelopoulos and Eleni Karaindrou, focusing on their approach of using music in new ways, as well as examples from the more known collaborations between Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann and David Cronenberg’s collaboration with Howard Shore. Furthermore, I am going to include conclusions from my personal experience I have had with my friend and director Nuno Miguel Wong. Concurrently this Essay is not an analysis of the music in the films of the above-mentioned collaborations, but rather focuses on their distinct working relationship and how it might have affected their musical approach and productivity.
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
McFarlaine, Peter and Ryan, Tom. “Peter Weir: Towards the Centre”. Cinema Papers 16:4 (1981): 6-22. Web. 2 May 2014.
Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Print.
Through extensive research it is clear that many critics would agree, New Wave of French films has been unsatisfactory, although more than a few respectable films emerged from it. With the appearance of 1960s Breathless, there came a film (for it’s time) that is new, aesthetically and ethically. In a clean, yet rebellious way, Godard makes the statement, ‘Anything is possible when it comes to cinema, that there is no limit to the possibilities of film form.’ Godard understood the rules and clichés of cinema and had the guts to fool around around with them. Godard split ways from classic cinema to make a film that was at the peak of cinematic innovation, while simultaneously paying homage to those past films much like many artists were doing during that time. He innovated countless conventions and posed a scandalous new view for the time. Godard would continue to make great films, but it was Breathless that changed cinema indefinitely.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Filewood, Alan. “National Battles: Canadian Monumental Drama and the Investiture of History.” In Modern Drama. 38. (Spring 1995) 71-86
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has lead several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island. It is laced with influences from different films of the film noir and horror genre, and many themes that are directly linked to Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari shot 90 years prior.
Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.
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.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
In the short story “Serenade of the arts”, I have attempted to construct a narrative which subverts many of the common dystopian elements, while expanding and focusing on certain narrative conventions to create a cohesive and engaging plot and conflict.
Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.
Gallagher, T. 2002. Senses of Cinema – Max Ophuls: A New Art – But Who Notices?. [online] Available at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/ophuls/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].