In 1949, Motion picture director Vincente Minnelli carefully crafted a film adaptation of author Gustave Flaubert’s 1854 novel Madame Bovary. Minnelli was able to portray various literary metaphors from Flaubert’s novel in his film to capture the image of the story. Through Minnelli’s own use of cinematic metaphors, with the help of the camera movement, editing, lighting, and music. Though Minnelli’s creation was brilliant there are times that he fails to fully express Flaubert’s imagery. This paper will be a critical analysis of a scene in the film, (1:50:15-1:51:33) and a passage from the novel, (Part III, chapter eight page 288-289). It will review the ways the film, properly portrayed the novel in its use of dialogue, the adaptation of the literary metaphors into cinematic metaphors. In the scene in discussion, the central character Madame Bovary is on her deathbed. She had eaten a handful of arsenic, and is dying a very painful death. By her side are her husband Charles Bovary, and the town priest Abbe Bournisie, who has come to give the women a blessing sacrament of holy unction before she passes.
The literary structure in Gustave Flaubert dialogue is composed of very descriptive metaphors, and similes that leave his readers to examine the symbolic meaning behind them. The passage in discussion presents several of these literary expressions. For example, in the description of Charles eyes, “Pale as a statue, his eyes red as coals.”(Pg.188) The simile puts emphasis on Charles’ sorrow. Flaubert gives a very vivid depiction of Emma while the priest is reciting the holy unction’s. “First on the eyes, which had so coveted all earthy splendors”(Pg.288). Emma’s eyes are the representation for her constant desire for all pleas...
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...llow, her eyes immediately close, and her face seems completely lifeless. And through the kiss her soul has left her body and entered into the crucifix (1:51:28-1:51:30). Minnelli seems to have been trying to symbolize, not a kiss to God. But one of the romantic kisses, in her romantic novels, she has longed for through out her life. The last sequence of the scene portrays Charles’ reaction to his wife’s kissing of the cross (1:51:32-1:51:33). The take begins after a cut to Charles in a medium shot. The lighting contrast ratio is about 80:20. Minnelli does this to portray Charles realization that his wife will indeed not recover from her illness. This take is juxtaposed to the first take of Charles. In the first shot he had a sense of hope upon his face still (1:50:28 1:50:34). However, now all that his face expresses is lifelessness as a resemblance to his wife.
At the top of the artwork the upper part of the cross extends beyond the altarpiece. The edge of John the Evangelist’s red robe on the left of the altarpiece and the edge of Mary Magdalene’s pale blue skirt on the right are cut off when the panel ends, giving the viewer the feeling that, rather than looking in on the scene, the viewer is actually taking part in the scene. This, added to the empathy invoked through the delicate, heart-wrenching rendering of the figures in the artwork, let the observer directly interact with the painting and places him/her within the narrative.
As a result, the best and most efficient way to analyze this film is to compare and contrast two characters that are central to the theme of the film: Comte de Reynaud and Vianne
It is my intention to compare the book, Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, to its modern movie version, Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I intend to examine how the original French text was modified in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes. I also plan to discuss how these transformations change the meaning of the story and reflect different cultural/historical contexts. There are some major differences between these two works, if only because of when they were written.
Edith Waugh’s Vile Bodies is a twisted comedy that has the reader questioning whether they should be distressed or amused by the antics of the various characters. It reminds me of paintings from the Rococo period, which are almost exclusively on frivolous, often with scandalous undertones, subjects that do not portray the impoverished and harsh reality of the majority in France at that time.
The somber and effusive tone of the selected passage from Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is shown through its general diction and imagery. Hurston uses skillfully chosen words to enhance the imagery, and both devices contribute to the tone of this scene.
This essay uses a contemporary short film and an 18th century text to discuss Chatman's concern of bestimmtheit in films. I hope to address certain concerns such as the extent to which a film can "specify" a particular object and what this specification does with regards to our understanding of the text. In addition, I will relate the compression of information into imagery to the limitations of time, given that a short film has a limit of 15 minutes. To do this, I shall analyse the cinematography of the short film, and show how relevant they are in bringing out certain scenarios described in Defoe's text. The short film in question is The Periwig-Maker, a clay-animated film directed by Stephen Schaeffler and narrated by actor Kenneth Brannagh, and it will be analysed with relation to the text it is based on, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe.
The relationship shared by Pierre and Helene is best described as a lustful charade. It is no coincidence that Pierre, one of the most introspective characters in the novel, first marries a shallow, inwardly-ugly adulterer. His first recorded attitude towards Helene is one of admira...
Gustave Flaubert incorporates and composes a realistic piece of literature using realistic literature techniques in his short story, “A Simple Heart.” Flaubert accomplishes this through telling a story that mimics the real life of Félicité, and writing fiction that deliberately cuts across different class hierarchies; through this method, Flaubert
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
The script’s opening image defines the film’s POV, by using the camera to subjectively identify our protagonist’s recent affliction as he awakens paralyzed from a stroke induced coma. Jean-Dominique Bauby, a.k.a. Jean-Do, is informed of his condition by the doctor. He is unable to respond to the doctor’s questions, which sets-up the conflict that he will struggle to communicate his thoughts throughout the script. As Jean-Do looks around his hospital room, we are informed by pictures and drawings beside his bed that he was a successful editor of a fashion magazine who led a comfortable and pleasurable lifestyle. There are images of his children alongside drawings that they have made for him. There is a sense of hopelessness and despair expressed through his interior monologue when he asks, “Is this life”? There are several unified themes stated in the opening pages of the script. First, there is a bell heard in the distance which informs the reader that our protagonist is trying to somehow communicate with others, but cannot do so throug...
Gustave Flaubert incorporates and composes a realistic piece of literature using realistic literary techniques in his short story, “A Simple Heart.” Flaubert accomplishes this through telling a story that mimics the real life of Félicité, and writing fiction that deliberately cuts across different class hierarchies; through this method, Flaubert is able to give the reader a clear understanding of the whole society. Flaubert makes the unvarnished truth about simple hearts clear by exposing a clear replica of a realistic story, therefore, allowing the reader to clearly understand the society and the different classes of characters. The story, “A Simple Heart” focuses on the life of a naive, simple-minded underclass maid, Félicité, and her encounters with those around her.
In her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, British film maker Laura Mulvey attempts to demystify how pleasure can be fulfilled in film. Contending that a pleasure in looking (scopohilia) and a pleasure in possessing the female as what to be looked at (voyeurism) fufills the audience’s desires, Mulvey suggests how filmmakers use this knowledge to create film that panders to our innate desires. In “Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren and “Vertigo” by Alfred Hitchcock, it is seen that Mulvey’s argument—the desire to look, the hunting, seeking, and watching, and harnessing of the female form is natural human desire. Deren and Hitchcock will use entirely different techniques to achieve that sense of fulfillment for the audience. But how does this watching and looking translate in to the written word? In “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare, we will see the ideas approached by Mulvey and the themes used by Hitchcock and Deren utilized to create a sense of looking and objectifying the woman in the absence of the screen. Through this paper, the concepts of pleasure for Mulvey will be shown to have applicability not only in cinema but in art in far more universal terms. First, a discussion of pleasure and Mulvey’s definition of it will allow for clearer understanding as to what this fulfillment actually is. Secondly, Vertigo will be examined—as an example of “mainstream film” utilizing the ideas of scopophila and voyeurism in a perfect balance. Scottie and his search will then be contrasted with Leontes of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, where again desires will be balanced in harmony with Mulvey’s principles. It is to become clear through...
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.
Madame Bovary, a novel by Gustave Flaubert, describes life in the provinces. While depicting the provincial manners, customs, codes and norms, the novel puts great emphasis on its protagonist, Emma Bovary who is a representative of a provincial woman. Concerning the fundamental typicality in Emma Bovary’s story, Flaubert points out: “My poor Bovary is no doubt suffering and weeping at this very moment in twenty French villages at once.” (Heath, 54). Yet, Emma Bovary’s story emerges as a result of her difference from the rest of the society she lives in. She is in conflict with her mediocre and tedious surroundings in respect of the responses she makes to the world she lives in. Among the three basic responses made by human beings, Emma’s response is “dreaming of an impossible absolute” while others around her “unquestionably accept things as they are” or “coldly and practically profiteer from whatever circumstances they meet.” (Fairlie, 33). However, Emma’s pursuit of ideals which leads to the imagining of passion, luxury and ecstasy prevents her from seeing the world in a realistic perspective or causes her to confuse reality and imagination with each other.
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s first novel and is considered his masterpiece. It has been studied from various angles by the critics. Some study it as a realistic novel of the nineteenth century rooted in its social milieu. There are other critics who have studied it as a satire of romantic sensibility. It is simply assumed that Emma Bovary, the protagonist, embodied naive dreams and empty cliché that author wishes to ridicule, as excesses and mannerisms of romanticism. She is seen as a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Innumerable theorists have discovered and analysed extensively a variety of questions raised by its style, themes, and aesthetic innovations. In this research paper an attempt has been made to analyse life of Emma Bovary as a paradigm of Lacanian desire.