Campion on Film Jane Campion has been a writing and directing powerhouse since even before her first feature film Sweetie (1989). Her works and direction garners certain attributes that are distinctly Campion-esq. From characters to images and the way they are presented on screen nothing is quiet like Campion on film. Firstly, there exists a darkness to her films that is unique to each film and the story it tells as well as uniform in its lurking presence throughout her oeuvre. When referring to the "darkness" that lingers in her films, not always is this darkness a malicious or insidious thing. Sometimes it takes the form of a bleak personality or a dark setting. In The Piano (1993) the main character Eda (Holly Hunter) starts out as the bleak creature. While she finds joy in her daughter and her playing, she does not speak, and the start of her marriage and new life is lackluster and difficult. Eda at one point deems her piano to be polluting her life and so she has it cast into the sea, thus freeing her of bad luck and sorrow. In this case the piano symbolized the darkness as it clung to her and literally drags her down. Other films play into darker settings, surrounds, or atmospheres. her earlier short films …show more content…
It admittedly gets confusing trying to figure out whether or not a character's action is right or wrong, but Campion films are very rarely about right, wrong, or justice they are about the actions themselves and the reactions that they cause. Her films always seem to be character studies that put a microscope to the cause and effect of events as opposed to the moral or ethics that surround the events. It is refreshing and at first odd to watch some of the scenes that give no hint on how to feel, but the different type of movie-watching experience it creates is wonderful and explicitly
There was a time of history where the entire world was watching an unthinkable tragedy take place, the Holocaust. The film industry exploded with the creation of Holocaust films. From Germany to America, before, during, and after WWII, films portraying the Holocaust took center stage. Interestingly enough, America was not directly effected by the events taking place in Europe. There are accusations towards America asking why did we not help? "How is it possible for a influential country to just sit back and watch a genocide take place?"(CITE) How is it possible for a country who was not directly affected by the Holocaust create many influential films depicted the Holocaust, such as The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), Schindler 's List (1993), and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)? This is where the Americanization of the Holocaust begins. These films are recognized in Europe as being highly influential as well. This welcomes the question as to whether Americanization in film leads to misinterpretations of the true historical account of the Holocaust. Film professor, Ilan Avisar
Slowly she asked "Is anyone there?" as she walked down the dark deserted road. When she heard a loud sound she turned abruptly trying again "Hello?" Met with only silence she picked up here pace almost running down the dirt road. Her nerves had just began to calm when she heard "WRRRREEENNNNNRRRRRRR" as a chainsaw started behind her. Running she started looking behind her hoping that whoever it was, wouldn’t catch her. With her lack of concentration she tripped over her high heels and face plants into the dirt, giving the murderer a chance to catch up. Slowly he lowered the chainsaw and began cutting --CUT -- This is a common plot used in horror movies today. Movies have changed over the years. They were different five years ago, fifty years ago, and even a almost a century ago. Technologies have unthinkable things possible. They have allowed us to re-sink "the unsinkable ship." They have allowed us to see dinosaurs in all their brutal glory. We have seen imaginary creatures, only ever mentioned in stories brought to life. Movies have moved so far from the 1920's and 1930's. They have developed ideals, rules and even standards; but where did they begin? Did movies just fall out of the sky? Did they just come into being? No they began slowly, silently moving towards a new era, the era we today call "Pre-code Hollywood"
I found the representation darkness within the story to be at times subtle, but it helps the reader to see the characters in a clearer way. At first, the narrator tells us of two darknesses, “the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness…” (36). This is where he first describes the darkness. Here darkness has a negative view from our narrator. He portrays the boy’s futures to be dark after telling the reader how they were being rushed to grow up and filled with rage. He uses the image of darkness of movies to represent their focuses now. Their focuses now of watching movies for example is keeping them from seeing what their future will be come.
The words “writing about film”, to my mind, conjure up the Siskel & Ebert-like desiccation of film that one usually finds in a review column. Needless to say, such “writing” can hardly be found appealing to one who looks for more than the appreciation or dislike of a performance or the absurdity of story. In “A Short Guide to Writing About Film,” I discovered that writing on film should and can be a far cry from such drivel. It is a staunch review of technique in relation to writing specifically on film. Obvious technique, to be sure, but if approached the proper manner, these reminders can be quite useful in articulating the often hard-to-capture meaning or imagery in film.
Bordwell and Thompson define the art film as "a film which, while made under commercial circumstances take an approach to form and style influenced by "high art" which offers an alternative to mainstream entertainment" (1). Like avant-garde film making, this style offer the audience with a movie that takes glory in cinemas stance as a modern art form, for art house films are not just intended to be entertaining, they are designed to be imaginative.
In the story Sonny's Blues the author, James Baldwin, uses the image of darkness quite frequently. He uses it first when the older brother (main character) talks about his younger brother Sonny. He says that when Sonny was younger his face was bright and open. He said that he didn't want to believe that he would ever see his "brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out." Meaning he had gone from good (clean and innocent) to bad ( giving into drugs like so many of the other young people).
The piano represents itself as something different for everyone. For Berniece, it exists as an artifact to speak with her ancestors. For Boy Willie, it acts as a piece of property he can sell to get more money, no matter how much it means to the family. And to Doaker, it stands as just a piano that has a good and bad effect on the family, until the end where the ghost of Sutter leaves them for
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
When delineating between first and second generation American Independent cinema directors there is a fine line separating the two generations. This line usually lies somewhere in the early 80’s when the term ‘American Independent Cinema’ first began to emerge. Many other things that were pertinent to the American Independent Cinema movement also arose such as the emergence of video as a media form. There is a strong distinction in the change of dynamics between film school in the first and second generation of American Independent filmmakers as well. Reichardt exemplifies a strong relation to the second generation, executing these ideas in her films such as Wendy and Lucy and Old Joy.
...specifically. Darkness suggests the inability to see, but as a description of the human condition it has an intensified significance.
Alexander Mackendrick’s On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director is quite an interesting read. Director of such films as The Ladykillers and The Man in the White Suit, Mackendrick left Hollywood to pursue instructing at the California Institute of the Arts, where he would teach until his death in 1993. Published in 2004 by Faber & Faber, edited by Paul Cronin, this book showcases the committed, prestigious teachings of Mackendrick,...
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
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...
The movie, “Mona Lisa Smile” is an inspirational film that explores life through feminism, marriage, and education lead by a modernist teacher at the end of a traditional era. It begins by introducing the lead character, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a liberal-minded novice professor from California, who lands a job in the art history department at a snobbish, all-girl college, called Wellesley, in the fall of 1953. Despite warnings from her boyfriend Paul that a Boston Brahmin environment was out of her element, Katherine was thrilled at the prospect of educating some of the brightest young women in the country however, her image of Wellesley quickly fizzles after her first day of class, in which, was more like a baptism by fire. Her smug students flaunted their exhaustive knowledge of the text and humiliated her in front of a supervisor. However, Katherine, determined not to buckle under pressure, departs from the syllabus in order to regain the upper hand. She quickly challenged the girls’ idea of what constituted art and exposed them to modern artist not endorsed by the school board. She dared them to think for themselves, and explore outside of their traditional views. This form of art was unacceptable by the students at first however, overtime Katherine penetrated her student’s distain and earned their esteem.