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Essays on americanization
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High Fidelity is directed by Stephen Frears (The High-Lo Country, Dangerous Liaisons) and is written for the screen by D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, Scott Rosenberg and John Cusack, from the novel by Nick Hornby. High Fidelity offers a comedic look at its heartbroken main character and narrator, whose recent breakup forces him to rethink his previous failed romances and to confront the fear of commitment. The owner of a vinyl record store, Rob Gordon (John Cusack: Being John Malkovich) feels misled and mistreated by his new ex-girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle: Mifune). Bored and confused, Rob decides to revisit a series of old girlfriends (played by Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter and Catherine Zeta-Jones) in order to learn from their reasons for having rejected him. When his research produces a somewhat optimistic view of himself, Rob's self-esteem is revitalized and he feels compelled to pursue a new adventure with the exotic Marie DeSalle (Lisa Bonet). Conflicts arise when Rob learns about Laura's sudden interest in his intolerable neighbor Ian (Tim Robbins).
High Fidelity portrays the banal aspects of falling in and out of love. Its main character, who personifies the identifiable ups and downs of bachelorhood, often turns to the camera to describe his misfortunes and to incite the viewers' sense of sympathy and humor. High Fidelity draws most of its comedy, however, from Rob's two eccentric employees, Barry and Dick (Jack Black and Todd Louiso), whose well-defined personalities and distinct tastes in music contrast Rob's overall ambivalence. High Fidelity offers a strictly male point of view by depicting a world where every male character --troubled or not-- is nonetheless a funny character, and where all female characters are either too angered, too hurt or too indifferent, yet always serious. This choice supports the protagonist's perception of the female mind as impenetrable and makes High Fidelity a film which comments one-sidedly on the irrationality of love.
Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanization, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (cowritten by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups--which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment.
The film I chose to view for this Romantic Comedy paper was When Harry met Sally. I enjoyed this movie. The two main characters were Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally Allbright (Meg Ryan). When first introduced to these characters, Sally is driving to New York, and Harry, who is the boyfriend of Sally's friend, is catching a ride with her.
Watching a Kevin Smith film is like jumping into a puddle of pop culture. This is because he has packed his movies with real to life factors, such as love and relationships, jobs, friends, and there is always some form of reference to movies themselves (meaning the video store in Clerks, the movie being made in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). “Smith clearly has his hand on the pulse of his generation (“X” marks the spot). His observations about comic books, video games, and other aspects of life in the ‘90s are as insightful as they often are scathing. But this is nothing new – it was evident in both Clerks and Mallrats. What’s different here is that Smith has crafted a touching nuanced romance which may be the most memorable screen love affair since Before Sunrise.” (Chasing Amy, James Berardinelli) Meaning, Kevin Smith has kept his eye open since making Clerks and has added new touches of pop culture that catch the eye of the moviegoers. This could be because of his “hand on the pulse of his generation”. He incorporates his main passions: Comics and movies together to form a finished product.
It was a cool, crisp November evening, while five teenagers were hustling and bustling around my house excitedly getting ready for their very first showing of the live version of their all time favorite movie. They knew it would be the best night of their lives. The night of my 15th birthday party, my friends and I all piled into my parents car around 11:00 PM and headed off down the road to the Heights Theater. The movie we are about to see is an all time classic. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the best cult film of all time. The movie has all the three basic elements it should have. It has funny audience participation, wonderful acting, and a great story line.
The audience sees through staging and conversation between the two main characters that the communication of modern relationships
Todd Field's 2001 film, In the Bedroom, is a perfect example of such a film. It is a bourgeois melodrama that reflects the sensibilities of melodramas of the 1950s, but also one that refashions the aesthetics of the genre to accommodate the interests of modern audiences. The film tells the story of a middle-aged couple, Ruth and Matt Fowler (Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson), as they try to cope with the murder of their adolescent son, Frank (Nick Stahl). When the film opens, Frank is romantically involved with Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei), a divorced mother. The Fowlers do not approve of this relationship, but allow it because of the happiness it brings Frank. When Natalie's ex- husband, Richard Strout (William Mapother), kills Frank in a fit of jealousy, the Fowlers must find a way to continue on with their lives in the wake of this catastrophe. Field, who also co-wrote the screenplay, creates an intriguing modern-day melodrama that both reflects the narrative principles of the films that preceded it and adapts the genre to meet the aesthetic expectations of contemporary audiences. Narrative choices in melodramas have become so commonplace that, like any genre, they have grown into a part of the genre's language.
The director Antoine Fuqua vision for this film was to bring that intense love-hate relationship onto the big screen and showcase it for the world to see. To ensure a convincing film setting, Fuqua shot on location in some of the most hardcore neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Fuqua also wanted to show the daily struggles of officers tasked to work in the rougher neighborhoods of cities and how easy it can be to get caught up in a street life filled with killers and drug dealers. Overall the film displayed the city of Los Angeles in a different perspective. One which m...
In Pleasantville (1998), Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play siblings who are trapped in a dysfunctional turn-of-the-millenium family. Maguire?s character deals with the situation by obsessively watching Pleasantville, a black-and-white rerun from the 1950s in which the American dream directed the script. Witherspoon?s character deals with her life by turning to a 1990s distraction: sex. The two are accidentally zapped into the television show by means of a magic remote. They are thrust into the roles of David and Mary Sue Parker, and they begin to make the most of their hiatus?Maguire blends into his role, while Witherspoon begins to teach ...
From 1095 to 1291 C.E., the Crusades spread across Europe in the name of Christianity. The high tension between the Muslims and the Christians was caused by the want of the city of Jerusalem. The Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims believed Jerusalem was theirs, and went to violent efforts to achieve it. In the movie, Kingdom of Heaven by Oliver Stone, the main character, Balian is thrown into the fight between the Christians and the Muslims. Kingdom of Heaven is a portrayal of one of the Crusades, and although the movie was based from real people, the film makers decided to change aspects about the characters and situations to relate to current events and audiences.
John (Richard Gere) and Beverly (Susan Sarandon) Clark are comfortably married. They have two children, and he a good job as a lawyer. Yet, he is not ‘happy’. He fills the void in his life by impulsively shooting out of his commuter train seat up the stairs of Miss Mitzi’s Dance School after being captivated by Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) gazing out of the school window. A clumsy, shy, reluctant dancer at first, he taps a hidden side to his personality and blossoms into an accomplished ballroom dancer. All very well, except none of his family is aware of this chrysalis bursting open in this way.
This text is about the author reviewing the famous movie “Precious”, which is directed by Lee Daniels and based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire. This 1-hour-and-50-minute film is about a pregnant Harlem teen named “Precious”, played by Gabourey Sidibe, attempted to escape from her abusive mother Mary, played by Mo’Nique, in order to build a new life together with her babies after being offered to turn her life around. In addition of reviewing the movie and just giving thoughts about the general aspects, she went on talking about the director’s style, each actor’s performance of the main as well as side characters. She described Daniels’ style as “confronting viewers with the most squalid, violent depredations Precious suffers at her mother’s hands” and realistic as Precious cannot face the reality of abusing because she retreated from it by daydreaming her “boyfriend”. So as we can see, instead of lessening the pain, Daniels showed us the full view of Precious’s sad and miserable truth, which is quite unlike many directors of the same era. Although Hornaday did mention about the problems and cliché of the film’s characters like Mary and Precious herself like how precious can withstand the “plague of social ills” without becoming “grostesque” , she said it made up for the actors’ impressive performance to the point
Jane, the daughter, is uneasy throughout the whole movie by the constant arguing going on between her parents and also her father’s lust towards her best friend. She has unpredictable mood swings that cause her to lash out at her parents unfailingly. Even just being in the same room as her father is triggering to Jane. She is also impulsive. This is proven in the scene in which her boyfriend asked her if she wanted to run away with him and she immediately accepts without thinking through the consequences. She admits to her boyfriend near the end of the movie that her father has caused massive psychological damage on her, and although she does not explain why, it can be inferred that the reasoning is because he has neglected her for a large portion of her teenage years and also because he is sexually attracted to her sixteen year old best friend, Angela. With these symptoms, it can be assumed that she has borderline personality disorder.
Johnson R. Kimberly, and Holmes M. Bjarne. "Contradictory Messages: A Content Analysis of Hollywood-Produced Romantic Comedy Feature Films." Communication Quarterly 57 (2009): 1-22. Print.
This is the hot issue of all cinematic adaptation when trying to decide whether or not a piece was a successful adaptation. Fidelity will be critical when examining how critics and audience members justify their complaints or praises. According to Blumenfeld (1995) in his essay “Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry”, fidelity is contrasted with truth and characterized as moral in character. Fidelity is further characterized as a betweenness construed as both intersubjective (obligations between teller and receiver) and as a resonance between the story told and the social and cultural context of a story. Fidelity abandons any techniques of simple matching through media for a creative transformation. Andrew (1984) added that it might be better to examine the overall adaptations in terms of being true to the spirit than to look deeper and seeing something as being faithful. Fidelity has also been seen throughout the ages as having a single correct meaning and it is up to the filmmaker to capture this meaning or fail entirely (McFarlane, 1996). The examination of two sets version of Alan Paton’s novel Cry, The Beloved Country will show that the elusive single meaning is an impossibility in
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
“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.