The second part of Robert B. Weide’s documentary on Woody Allen starts with images of his European settings. This title sequence indicates the break in his stylistic body of work. People, especially his fan base, were accustomed to seeing him within the confines of the state of New York, and they were “almost shocked” to now find Allen, not only, in Europe but also with a different feel. Throughout Woody Allen’s Post-9/11 Period, from Match Point to Blue Jasmine, different forms of escapism can be encountered. The leading characters in these films share a common escapist attempt. Some escape to Europe to distance themselves from their personal circumstances or mundane lives, while others attempt to escape the self through suicide attempts. …show more content…
He has shot “almost every street corner” in the city (Weide, Woody Allen: A Documentary) and can thus set forth on a long overdue adventure. Allen aspired to follow in the steps of Bergman and Fellini and make more dramatic and unusual films but there was this constant struggle, as he states early in the 90s, “my conflict is what I really am and what I really would like myself to be. I’m forever struggling to deepen myself and take a more profound path” (Lax 285). This statement applies to Woody Allen the filmmaker as well as the actor, as he refers to himself as an actor with a small scope (cf. Lax 250) and that he could never be a grand filmmaker like his idols. The tragic events of September 11, the series of unsubstantial films, and his decision not to play the leading man any longer, has “opened a new creative space in his cinema” (Macready 96). He seems to have realized that death can be imminent and unforeseen, just like the attacks, and that we only have a limited time on this planet; time that can be taken away within an instance; wherefore he must have the courage to just make the kind of films he always dreamt of. The wound of the attacks was still too present, so it was time for a new style and a new
A storm such as Katrina undoubtedly ruined homes and lives with its destructive path. Chris Rose touches upon these instances of brokenness to elicit sympathy from his audience. Throughout the novel, mental illness rears its ugly head. Tales such as “Despair” reveal heart-wrenching stories emerging from a cycle of loss. This particular article is concerned with the pull of New Orleans, its whisper in your ear when you’ve departed that drags you home. Not home as a house, because everything physical associated with home has been swept away by the storm and is now gone. Rather, it is concerned with home as a feeling, that concept that there is none other than New Orleans. Even when there is nothing reminiscent of what you once knew, a true New Orleanian will seek a fresh start atop the foundation of rubbish. This is a foreign concept for those not native to New Orleans, and a New Orleanian girl married to a man from Atlanta found her relationship split as a result of flooding waters. She was adamant about staying, and he returned to where he was from. When he came back to New Orleans for her to try and make it work, they shared grim feelings and alcohol, the result of which was the emergence of a pact reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. This couple decided they would kill themselves because they could see no light amongst the garbage and rot, and failure was draining them of any sense of optimism. She realized the fault in this agreement,
Thus placing the film fully emersed in the old, mysterious, dreamlike settings of the city, they are equally balanced with modern technology and the collective past gives viewers a sense of definite decay, with no sure centre for future (Spotto 277). Through Hitchcock’s films Americans could reminiscence and ruminate about their past-a kind of nostalgia and longingness is created. When Scottie meets Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) in the shipbuilders’ office at the Embarcadero, what he says is striking: “The things that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast,” Elster complains quietly and referring to the old maps and woodcuts in his office he continues, “I should have liked to have lived here then-colour, excitement, power, freedom” (qtd in Spoto 280-281/qtd from the film). Here his speech echoes urbanisation that has gripped America and he also expresses a typical American sentiment of longingness for the past well expressed. And the sadness of the old things “disappearing past” is deliberately introduced to effect in Scottie and in us who are urged to identify with him, a nostalgia for bygone era (Spoto 281). Hitchcock has taken the film keeping in mind the viewers of postwar America who were nostalgic. Artist should be able to read the mind of the people. Taine has already pointed out the importance of ‘the man, milieu and
Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is a story about a young 16 year-old man, Paul, who is motherless and alienated. Paul’s lack of maternal care has led to his alienation. He searches for the aesthetics in life that that he doesn’t get from his yellow wallpaper in his house and his detached, overpowering father figure in his life. Paul doesn’t have any interests in school and his only happiness is in working at Carnegie Hall and dreams of one-day living the luxurious life in New York City. Paul surrounds himself with the aesthetics of music and the rich and wealthy, as a means to escape his true reality.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite subject was the superficial placidity of American life, whose clean, bright surfaces disguised the most shockingly moral, political, psychological and sexual aberrations. For Hitchcock, the most striking, funny, and terrifying quality of American life was its confidence in its sheer ordinariness. Beneath the surface, ordinary people and normal life were always ‘bent’ for Hitchcock.
Hollywood’s film noir represents a hard-boiled and cynical portrayal of American life that is mostly about a male-dominated world. Attractive male characters lead the film’s storyline, and female characters such as a femme fatale take their positions that indicate in relation to the male protagonists. Also, in general, the world of dark, corruption and crime are usually described in film noir, and thus it shows a strong sense of social contradictions. “Outrage,” directed by Ida Lupino, strongly criticizes the male-centered society and the film culture during the period. This is largely because not only does she represent an unvarnished image of the inexcusable crime, especially rape, but also provides the audience with the use of mise-en-scene to reproduce the protagonist’s entrapment and emotional distress, and thus makes us understand a legal failure of the attack with logical depictions.
In his third feature film, following Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, Texan director Wes Anderson demonstrates what it is like to be a New Wave director decades after the movement ended. Many aspects of The Royal Tenenbaums, namely characters and themes, hark back to many of Francois Truffaut’s work and the similarities are at the same time obvious and discrete. Both directors’ work is very autobiographical and many of the manifestations of each man’s similar experiences liken each other on screen as well. One theme that is present in The Royal Tenenbaums, as well as Anderson’s other work, is that of grown-ups who seem to be stuck in childhood. As we know, Truffaut has been christened the director of children, as well as being called a “wild child”
Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.
Stripped to its barest essentials, Jack Kerouac's novel Desolation Angels reads as a drug-induced stupor of casual sex (or fantasies thereof), mixed into a melting of jazz and poetry. The often-adolescent urges of Kerouac's character Jack Duluoz, however, are mere episodes in the fast-paced, write-it-as-you-think-it, pre-literary notoriety phase in the life of a man who essentially founded the Beat generation. Though the overflowing stream of consciousness that comprises this book seems undoubtedly spontaneous, Desolation Angels actually examines, in a most straightforward and clearly organized manner, the state of human solitude. Zipping from a Forest Service mountaintop outpost to San Francisco, from Tangiers to London, and slipping from loneliness to jazz clubs full of "cats," from a morphine addict's room to the home of his knitting French Canadian mother, the angels of desolation take on varying shapes, ceaselessly trailing Duluoz/Kerouac.
Our second to last day in New York started like all the others. Breakfast. Shopping. Sites. Back to the hotel. However, upon returning to our rooms, my stepmother (who was escorting us on this journey) handed me three tickets. Across the top of them, it read: The Nederlander Theatre presents Jonathan Larson’s RENT. I was completely stunned and my ey...
To many people, the “American dream” is having a decent job, a nice family, and a white picket fence in the suburbs. But what actually happens behind that white picket fence? Sam Mendes’ 1999 film, American Beauty, explores what happens behind closed doors of a seemingly perfect and normal family in American suburbia. The film plays on many different emotions; ranging from funny and whimsical to sad and tragic. American Beauty utilizes remarkable cinematography and stunning visual images, realistic characters, and relatable themes to show the journey of a man breaking free from the everyday monotony of the American suburban life, which urges watchers to look closer and find the beauty in life.
Living in Ohio for the majority of his life, Sherwood Anderson based many of his stories on city life in Ohio. Anderson’s short stories were influenced by not only his surroundings, but also by his life-shaping events that occurred in his youth. Throughout the stories “Sophistication” and “Hands”, Sherwood Anderson expresses his astute knowledge of loneliness and isolation in relation to the protagonists’ sexuality, while also differentiating the root of these emotions in each character’s lifestyle as he continues through life and overcomes its obstacles.
Three distinct characters found in “The Kugelmass Episode” represent the Id, Ego, and the Superego of the author Woody Allen’s persona. Whereas, the character Emma reflects upon Allen’s desires. Much like the character Kugelmass, Allen experiences several unsuccessful relationships. His most notorious relationship was with Mia Farrell, who he cheated on with their adoptive daughter. The way he treated their relationship establishes his need to trade in the old for something new and improved because he cannot find satisfaction.
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
Woody Allen has proven himself as one of the forefathers of the American film industry and media as a whole. He has helped mold the standard for modern day film through is many movies that cover a wide range of styles, from comedy and drama to romance to tragedy. He has acted in 28 of the 36 movies he has produced while also famous for his writing. Allen is known best as the creator of films containing self-deprecating and intellectual mockery. His films typically parody the neuroses of the social class of New York sophisticates. Almost of his movies dealt with sex.