Pedro Almodovar’s 1997 film Live Flesh (Carne Tremula), is rich in both visual and story elements, making in the perfect candidate for a scene analysis. Upon writing this paper, however, this was almost to my disadvantage. I watched it through and whittled it down to about five scenes I considered analyzing. This self-challenge is a testament to not only this film, but Almodovar’s whole body of work; he has created so many thoughtful, intricate, and all together entertaining films in his career, I had to somehow forgive myself for just choosing one short scene out of only one of his movies for analysis. So, without further ado, here is an analysis of a scene from Live Flesh.
The scene I chose to analyze is the one in which David (Javier Bardem) returns home from a basketball game, only to find out his wife, Elena (Francesca Neri) has slept with another man. It occurs at roughly an hour and 17 minutes into the film, and is relatively short, but extremely powerful.
The opening shot to the scene of Elena returning home from her tryst early in the morning. She enters the shower and begins to smell her naked body, seemingly bringing back memories from the previous night. Every time she inhales, she lets out an orgasmic sigh, which makes it clear to the audience exactly what she is recalling. With each sigh it seems that she not only had an amazing sexual experience, but that she also doesn’t regret it at all. This is until her last deep breathe. After this, she pauses for a beat, and in this moment, a look of full realization about the events of the past night washes over her face. This moment is fleeting, however, because right when she turns the shower on, she closes her eyes, as if she is recalling not only the scents of the night before, but even the sights and sounds.
As soon as she stops moving and cracks a smile, the shot quickly changes to David’s cab pulling up. The cab symbolizes David’s dependence, in that all he can do is sit in the back and tell the driver where to go, showing that his disability has forced him to become dependent on so many different people. The fact that David’s cab was shown right as Elena began to smile shows that David’s dependence is preventing Elena from truly being happy, which I’m sure is a struggle in any relationship involving a handicapped person.
Films are designed for numerous purposes, some entertain, frighten, enlighten, educate, inspire, and most make us think about the world we live in. This paper will be focused on the cinematic interpretation of the film "Stepping Razor Red X", the Peter Tosh Story. The makers of a film from the writer, director, cinematographer and the art director, design, and conceptualize what they want the viewer to see.
This analysis will explore these cinematic techniques employed by Pontecorvo within a short sequence and examine their effects on our understanding of the issues and themes raised within the film.
I have discussed how Francis F. Coppola exploits a wide array of audio and editing techniques to create suspense, tense, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s feelings. Despite the simple fabula, this multifaceted film requires certain intellectual involvement and efforts of the audience to grasp fully its underlying meanings and subtle nuances.
"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Laura Mulvey asserts the fact that in mainstream films, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed. That is to say, the woman is both an object of desire and a spectacle for the male voyeuristic gaze. The male's function is active; he advances the story and controls the gaze onto the women. Interestingly, the spectator identifies with the male through camera technique and style. In an effort to reproduce the so-called natural conditions of human perception, male point-of-view shots are often used along with deep focus. In addition, camera movements are usually determined by the actions of the male protagonist. Consequently, the gaze is dominated by the active male while the passive female exists to support desire within the film. In an attempt to change this structure, Mulvey stresses the importance of challenging the "look." One way this is accomplished, is in the film Reassemblage, where the look of the camera is free from male perspective and dominated more by passionate detachment. In doing this, the filmmaker, Trinh Minh-Ha attempts to destroy the satisfaction and pleasure derived from images of women in film, by highlighting the ways Hollywood depends on voyeuristic and fetishi...
During the opening six minutes of Nicholas Roeg’s film Don’t Look Now, the viewer experiences a dynamic mixture of film techniques that form the first part of the narrative. Using metaphor and imagery, Roeg constructs a vivid and unique portrayal of his parallel storyline. The opening six minutes help set up a distinct stylistic premise. In contrast to a novel or play, the sequence in Don’t Look Now is only accessible through cinema because it allows the viewer to interact with the medium and follow along with the different camera angles. The cinematography and music also guide the viewer along, and help project the characters’ emotions onto the audience because they change frequently. The film techniques and choppy editing style used in Don’t Look Now convey a sense of control of the director over the audience and put us entirely at his mercy, because we have to experience time and space as he wants us to as opposed to in an entirely serial manner.
have chosen to analyse to answer my title is the scene where he is at
The major issue that runs through the film that I am going to discuss in this chapter is that there are elements of the gothic, grotesque and me...
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.
‘Das Leben der Anderen’ (The Lives of Others) is a striking example of how a director can convey narrative links within a film by employing various styles and film techniques. The Lives of Others relies upon these visual means to assist with the telling of the story as much as it relies upon the script. In this selected sequence of the film, several narrative links are drawn here to form the conclusion of ‘Operation Lazlo’. These narrative links are further cemented by Donnersmarck’s use of various lighting styles, diegtic and non-diegtic sound, revealing camera shots and intricate mise-en-scene.
In The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl Theodor Dreyer uses the visuality of spatial relationships in each shot with the human face and its ability to convey unspoken emotion in his portrayal of the demise of Joan of Arc. Unlike most film, the message is almost entirely told by just the eyes and expressions of the actors. There is very little reliance upon props and background. The camera angles and close-up shooting accentuate emotions and reactions. The editing style is almost methodic in keeping the emotional pace; it is much like an argument, alternating images of Joan’s tenacity, and the judges’ contempt. The artistic elements of the film are found in the subtle elements of the setting in contrast with the story that is realized by looking into Joan’s eyes as she witnesses her lifelong beliefs condemned and destroyed by her martyrdom.
Martin Scorsese has made a reputation from making movies that show a profound perceptiveness of human nature through their images of toughness and violence. On the surface, one would be hard-pressed to find a story more unlike Raging Bull or Goodfellas than The Age of Innocence, which seems better suited to a Merchant-Ivory production. However, Scorsese has placed his indelible stamp on this picture, not only through the camerawork, but in the potent tension that builds between the main characters. For while blood has often been Scorsese's method, the characters, and what exists between and within them, have always been his ends.
Don DeLillo’s ‘Videotape’ is a short story of man who is absolutely captivated by some footage on the news that can be described as both, raw and shocking. The footage is being repeatedly played over and over. It depicts a young girl with a camcorder travelling in the backseat of her family’s car who happens to be filming a man driving a Dodge behind them. She continues aiming the camera at the man and filming until, suddenly, he is shot and murdered. The man watching the tape at home is clearly mesmerized and fascinated with the footage to the extent that he was trying to get his wife to watch it with him. This story portrays society’s utter fascination of shocking and disturbing content relating to death and other horrible events unless they themselves are involved. This, along with other characteristics, clearly suggests that “Videotape” is a piece of postmodern literature. This report will analyze and describe why “Videotape” belongs to postmodern literature through the in-depth analysis of the selected passage and a brief breakdown of the story as a whole.
Veganism is a diet that consists of eating NO animal products. This includes any animal meat, eggs, dairy products, and honey. They are also known to boycott any company associated with animal cruelty and/or animal testing. Veganism is also known as a wholefood, plant based diet. As well as saving the animals, veganism is also a way to tremendously decrease the waste of fresh water and the levels of pollution in our environment. Because of these restrictions, they eat only vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds, and legumes. The main concern of skeptics, is whether or not this diet has a convincing source of protein. People who follow this diet rave about its benefits, not only in health, but in emotional wellbeing. They say that eating a clean diet like this one, keeps you energized and feeling amazing. Also, studies have shown that people on this diet have significantly lowered their risk for heart attacks, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, strokes, and cancer. While some people might think that this diet is extreme, there’s a diet that’s even more
Morality has been a subject of many philosophical discussions that has prompted varied responses from different philosophers. One of the most famous approaches to morality is that of Immanuel Kant in his writing Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals. Kant in this work argues that the reason for doing a particular action or the drive to do good things is a fundamental basis of defining moral quality in a person. To him, an action could be considered morally right only if the motivation behind doing that action was out of ‘goodwill’. When he defines these moral rules, he characterizes them in the form of imperatives – the hypothetical imperative and categorical imperative. While hypothetical imperatives deal with motivations and actions that lead to a particular end, categorical imperatives are a product of rational behavior in human beings. Kant considers such categorical imperatives to be the moral basis for life.
Many, if not the majority, of Americans are obsessed with protein. The general attitude towards protein is that the more one consumes, the healthier and stronger one will be. General concerns for protein intake are highest for those who follow a vegan or plant-based diet, and they are constantly questioned about whether they are getting enough. The answer is yes; vegans do get enough protein in their diet and it is also incredibly easy to do so. Vegans are able to consume just as much protein, and sometimes more, than those who do not follow this specific lifestyle choice. They are able to do so because of their well maintained diet that is adequate in calories, nutritionally balanced and consists of a wide variety of plant-based whole foods.