Pedro Almodovar, in his recent films Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) (2002) and
Live Flesh (Carne Trémula) (1997), has brought a thoroughly modern
interpretation to the genre of melodrama. These fresh illustrations of human
love, loneliness, frustration and individuality explore the complexity of human
interaction and interestingly, in Talk to Her, the interactions of the sentient
in relation to the insentient. "Nothing is simple," Alicia's ballet teacher
muses in Talk to Her, this statement accurately captures the essential Pedro
Almodovar style.
Both of the works selected for analysis in this essay are melodramas. The word
"melodrama" originated from the Greek root which directly translated means
"music drama". These films do incorporate music to add to the emotional impact
of certain scenes. Examples of this are: (a) in Live Flesh! When Victor is
watching TV in prison and sees Elena and David celebrating David's new career,
there is a close up of Victors face conveying his hurt accompanied by music
in-keeping with Victor's frame of mind. This increases the impact for the
viewers as the music is in contrast with Elena and David's joy. (b) in Talk to
Her the same tense, measured music is used during several scenes to denote their
importance in the narrative (when Benigno is about to speak to Alicia for the
first time, at the beginning of Lydia's last fight and when Marco is rushing to
the prison in an attempt to stop Benigno from taking drastic measures in
prison.)
The use of intertextuality in these films is also apparent. The newsreel of the
coverage of Victor's birth is significant. Victor's mother appears cold and
restrained compared to the intimacy the audience achieves in the scene prior as
we hear her cries from her labour pains. In Talk to Her the opening and closing
performance art pieces are an outlet for the emotional pain and turmoil which
Marco must grapple with. The silent movie too expresses more efficiently what is
occurring for Benigno on an emotional level than a depiction of the act of rape
could have.
Apart from the use of music, colour is integral to Almodovar's melodrama. In
Live Flesh! the walls of the apartments where the characters live, as well as
the school where Victor and Elena work, are warm and vibrant. The contrast
between dark green and deep reds and mustards provide a cosiness that puts...
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...an a single life partner.
The film Live Flesh! explores the responsibility of sexuality. The film opens with Victor’s birth, the result of his mother’s sexual activity as a prostitute, just after Christmas (an event alleged to celebrate the exact day of Jesus’ birth [not, apparently, the result of sexual activity] and hence the birth of the New Testament and an enormous religious following, the birth of Christ is therefore considered as an overtly positive and important event for Christians to this day). The next important event in the film is Victor’s one night stand with Elena, and the events which follow result in life changing consequences for all involved. Aside from David’s injury (the result of David sleeping with Sancho’s wife), David and Elena fall in love and marry and Victor goes to prison. The sexual relations between Victor and Clara and Victor and Elena subsequent to his release all have major consequences, Elena’s divorce from Davis and the deaths of both Clara and Sancho. Sancho points out just prior to his death that he “should have shot your balls off when I had the chance.” Yes, that would have made life easier and more boring for all characters concerned.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
is also used when we are in Vanessa’s room with the baby, also showing tenderness of
Rape is a crime of power, violence, and gratifications. Brownmiller tells us, "Public opinion perceives various motives (e.g., power, violence, sexual gratification) as underlying bases for rape (e.g., Brownmiller 1975; Donat and D’ Emilio 1992)" (Schneider 410). In "Spanish Roulette", power is the motivation...
Whenever Sira, Aminata’s mother went to help women deliver their babies, Aminata would go along too. She would watch and help her mother, eventually le...
When Romeo meets Juliet for the first time in Act 1, scene 5 at the
In the taming scene (Act 2 Scene 1) it is the first time the reader
In order to continue controlling the economy of its colonies in America, the British Parliament passed acts and levied taxes against the colonists from the first Navigation Act as early as 1651. The British passed this series of ...
After the Seven Years Way England was broke for she had spent more money needed to win the war. Also winning the war gave the colonist a “we can do it spirit”. However because England now was facing debt she decided to tax the colonies. One the first acts passed was the sugar act passed in 1764. This Act was the raise revenue in American colonies. What it did was lowered the tax from six penses to three penses per gallon on foreign molasses. Molasses is a product made by refining sugarcane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. This upset the colonist because before the sugar act they didn’t have to pay the tax so even if it was lowered that meant nothing for they now had to pay for it. A year later, in 1765, the Britain’s passed another act known as the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act put a tax on stamped paper, publications, playing cards, etc. Because it was on all paper products in a way it affected everyone; from the papers for the upper class such as lawyers, publications such as newspapers for the middle class, and playing cards for the lower class for entertainment. Next, the Townshend Act passed by Charles Townshend. This came in 1767, which imposed taxes on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass which just like the Stamp Act affected all of the classes in the colonist in the Americas. Though this act was removed three years later in 1770, it still left colonists with a warning that conditions may become worse. Around 1773, parliament passed the Intolerable Acts one of those acts which affected taxation was the Bost...
Selena, “Le Reina de Tejano”, was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson. She was the youngest of three children of Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcela, his wife. At a young age, Abraham had a strong passion for music that he still has. During the 1950s and 1960s, him and his friends made a group called “Los Dinos” and played at nightclubs and restaurants. Even though his passion for music, he gave it up when he got married and earned a job at Dow Chemical as a shipping clerk.
With the stereotypes and myths that are seen throughout the areas, we are able to see how things make a difference when it comes to how things are portrayed. Victims of rape should not blame themselves or see the situation as a joke, which is proven in Patricia Lockwood’s poem, “Rape Joke”. She uses a very unique style of a story-like poem to tell a story of an instance that could happen and how to see the situation afterwards. There is the aftermath of how victims feel and act after going through the traumatic experience of a rape. Lockwood is able to portray that experience in detail in her poem “Rape Joke.”
"So Long A Letter" by Mariama Ba and "Blood Wedding" by Frederico Garcia Lorca Thesis: Characters that cause immense pain to another, especially to their consorts, succumb to death in the texts So Long A Letter and Blood Wedding by Mariama Bâ and Federico García Lorca respectively. Death is one aspect of life that prevents a person from being invincible. It is one of the inevitable occurrences that a man has to yield to. In the texts So Long A Letter and Blood Wedding by Mariama
In Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, a tyrant woman rules over her five daughters and household with absolute authority. She prevents her daughters from having suitors and gives them little to no freedom, especially with regard to their sexualities and desires. They must conform to the traditional social expectations for women through sewing, cleaning, as well as staying pure and chaste. While, as John Corbin states in The Modern Language Review, “It was entirely proper for a respectable woman in [Bernarda’s] position to manage her household strictly and insist that the servants keep it clean, to defend its reputation, ensure the sexual purity of her daughters, and promote advantageous marriages for them,” Bernarda inordinately
It was a series of consequential events, spurred on by democratic failure, not one key turning point, that resulted in the decisive defeat of the Athenians by the Peloponnesians, with the aid of Persia. Because of democratic fickleness, with or without Pericles the Athenians were doomed for defeat, and therefore the death of Pericles was not the key turning point, rather it was only a factor which determined the length of the Peloponnesian War.
The second time we see them is in Act 1 Scene 3,it is just after
To create an illusion of reality throughout the novel Defoe uses different narrative techniques such as epistolary and the use of lists. An example of this is by Defoe interweaving Crusoe’s personal diary entries into the story. Written by him during his time on the island they help give the reader a sense of how he felt and what he was thinking of. This style is typical of early eighteenth century novels “early eighteenth-centur...