Morgan Robertson
Thea 336 History of Theatre II
Victor/Victoria, dir Blake Edwards/ Kiss Me, Kate, dir George Sidney
Victor/Victoria and Kiss Me, Kate are both fantastic films presented in a similar fashion. Both films carry heavy themes of sexuality and what society states about sexuality and gender roles. Together both films show the multiple sides of working in the theatre industry. From successful and powerful (Kiss Me, Kate) to broke and desperate for a job (Victor/Victoria). They span the lifestyles of those in the performing arts. The cinematography in both of the films was brilliantly done and well beyond its time, especially for Kiss Me, Kate. The costume design aided very much in the sexuality of the story, using outfits to show how modest a character was, or simply whether she was portraying a man at that time or not.
The film Victor/Victoria begins beautifully. In Paris, early 1930’s, a trained coloratura opera soprano, Victoria Grant, can't get a job as a performer and is broke beyond reason. She lacks enough money for food and shelter let alone luxuries of clothing. She reaches a point of desperation where she offers to sleep with her landlord for a meatball. She goes to a restaurant where she meets gay cabaret singer Carole Todd, also known as Toddy, who may encounter the same problems as Victoria because he was just fired from his singing gig at a club for insulting a few guests. Toddy comes up with a crazy plan when he learns of Victoria’s talents: with Toddy playing the part of her manager, Victoria, will pretend to be a man, get a job singing as a drag queen. If they pull this off, Toddy explains excitedly to Victoria, with her as a man, she will be the toast of Paris and be extremely wealthy. They decide Vic...
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The costuming in Victor/Victoria helps to show much of the story, as Victoria gains status as Victor her style, even when she is not in the public eye, sticks to the male character. That is until she meets and begins to fall in love with King. Then we see the feminine touches return to her wardrobe, mainly in her nightgown.
I, personally, enjoyed Victor/Victoria much more than Kiss Me, Kate. Both of these films were incredible in their own right. Victor/Victoria seemed to be more of an original story. It seemed to be filmed more on locations rather than a sound stage as Kiss Me, Kate appeared to be. The humor was darker and fitting for an audience.
Kiss Me, Kate and Victor/Victoria are both incredible films with great storylines. The costuming was helpful to the storyline and the reasoning behind character choices made sense to the common viewer.
Exploring Sexuality in Taming of the Shrew Human sexuality underlies many of the happenings of "Taming of the Shrew.". It affects the conflict, theme, and resolution of the play. It becomes evident throughout the play that sexual behavior denotes whether a character is thought of as good or evil (not necessarily good evil as meant in conventional terms, but rather as a "nice" character versus a "waspish" or "mean character" or "mean character" At the beginning of the play, there is an obvious conflict between Kate and Kate. and her sister, Bianca. This conflict stems from the fact that their father favors Bianca, as well as the fact that Bianca has many suitors, while Kate has none.
Victorian Era was roughly throughout 1830’s to 1900’s while Queen Victoria’s ruling, it made status of women often seen as an illustration of the striking inconsistency between the United Kingdom's national power and wealth. The period saw many variations in fashion, including in clothing, architecture, literature, and visual arts. Women's clothing proceeded with trends that emphasised elaborate dresses, skirts around wide volume created by the use of layered material. At the beginning of the Victorian Era, clothing was increasingly factory-made and every so often sold in vast, fixed price department stores. Custom sewing and household sewing were still significant, but were refused. New machinery and materials developed clothing in plenty
Opinions: Personally thought that the Christian Bale's Batman films were much better (Dark Knight is my favorite)This film shows Batman and
The focus of this essay is to explore sexuality presented by Philoclea in the New Arcadia. Philoclea cultivates a relationship towards another women in the book. Yet readers understand that Zelmane is in fact Pyrocles. Sidney allows the reader to be given the impression that until Pyrocles admits to be Zelmane, Philoclea would be shown to have a homosexual tendencies. Philoclea herself is certain that a same-sex friendship is giving way to sexual desire.
As a lover of books, I am often very disappointed by the movies based off of books. This was the case with both of the Romeo and Juliet movies we watched in class because it differed from the play Romeo and Juliet quite a bit. The 1968 and the 1996 movies based off of William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, are alike in few ways but they deviate from each other very much. A few examples of how they veer from the actual play include the balcony scene, Tybalt’s death, and even the letter that was sent to Romeo by Friar Lawrence.
In the book West Side Story as Cinema: The Making and Impact of an American Masterpiece by Ernesto R. Acevedo-Munoz, the author makes an evaluative judgement on the musical West Side Story and details the history of the extensive production and the making of the film and also analyzes the cultural controversy and impact of the film on society. Through the use of primary sources and thoroughly researched claims, the author convincingly demonstrates how the production, presentation, and release redefined the conventions of the classical hollywood musical, and the role of cinema in culture as a way of observing and rehearsing social issues.
The actors in this movie make it what it is. The storyline is strange and can be weird at times but the actors’ emotion and fluidity make the ever so impossible plot and storyline, seem as realistic as ever. Gloria Swanson (Norma Desmond) and William Holden (Joe Gillis) were unfazed by the unusual plot they had to illustrate to viewers and rather did it flawlessly. As a viewer you really believe you are watching in real life, such a indifferent love story take place before your eyes. I guess that’s what usually happens when you have a 2 time Oscar nominated actress and 2 time NBR Award winning actor in the same movie right? Not to mention the numerous awards they both won after this work including a best male nominated Oscar award and a best actress in a leading role Oscar winner by Swanson.
The movie made the play a lot easier to imagine the script instead of picturing it myself, what I did not like was the fight scenes, it was like WWE, really bad acting and fighting, it was not what I had in mind, especially the fight scene with Tybalt and Romeo, usually if you are a prince, you are usually taught how to fight with swords, but no one bothered to teach Romeo apparently.
Masculinity. A word that has set communities aflame and drenched generations into utter disrepair. A term that changes in every culture and era. A term that one can’t simply define. Some attempt to define it in opposition of the term femininity. Others prefer to define it to fit to their tailored needs and societal expectations of the time. In literature, the era in which the text is written depends greatly on how people go about integrating this term in their work. The Bronte sisters come from a long lineage of female writers that follow directly the Romantic period. Their heros and how they interacted with the heroines in the novels were largely based on Lord Byron’s ideal Byronic Hero. The two sisters Charlotte
The costuming in the play is said to be like the clothing worn during the era of Queen Elizabeth. Men typically wore boots, pants, shirt, vest and a hat. However, women wore, an over and underskirt, a shirt, a bodice and a hat. In the film Romeo + Juliet, Romeo is seen wearing laid back hawaiian clothing whilst Juliet is seen wearing a white dress. This shows that there is a big contrast between the costuming worn in the the classic tragedy and the film, Romeo + Juliet. This demonstrates that Baz Luhrmann uses modernized costuming in the film to make it more understandable to a modern
The movie The Young Victoria is an amazing film that just happens to be about some very important people in history. The film follows well my set of rules for what a period history film should contain and in this movie one will not only find romance and drama but also actors that actually look like the characters they are portraying and certain parts of history portrayed accurately in the film with only little exaggeration to detail. The Young Victoria is certainly an amazing movie and a way to get a glimpse at that point in
She and Mr. Jacks took off into the woods, ducking at every branch. Each time she looked back, the guards got closer and closer. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She and Mr. Jacks took a sharp turn and dove behind a bush. After the guards ran by, Kate and Mr. Jacks started running again. They had just escaped from the force field, and were almost free. As they were nearing the edge of the woods, they saw a building. It was an abandoned warehouse, where airplanes might have kept at one point. The guards were not in sight anymore, so they bolted into the dark warehouse.
Looking back in history, it can be easily argued that the role of the actress in society has gone through a notable evolution. During the 16th century, it was a rare occurrence for a woman to be seen on stage. Women’s roles were played by young boys. It wasn’t until the 17th century that women first appeared on the English and Parisian stages. However, it was considered improper because women were expected to remain in the shadows, and actresses had to put themselves on display in order to work. As the role of actresses evolved and they were seen more frequently on stage, society considered them to have bad morals and be prostitutes. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the view of an actress in society had reached a respectable level.
Ultimately when I finished watching this film I had a lot of tears on my face. I was taken by surprise on how the movie concluded. I was not expecting Ricky and Robby to become a couple. In the beginning I was fooled by the title. It was such a cliché title because I literally thought the plot was going to focus on a heterosexual romance story which I was completely ready to search for a different movie. They all have the same ending and it is not so touching to me.
A pivotal characteristic that defined the Victorian era was its exultion of formality in appearance and behavior. Citizens were heinously scrutinized based on their social ranks and execution of public events. In addition, the era was a time where citizens were exhorted to act on behalf of the interest of the community. Individuals were urged to behave accordingly to fulfill the betterment of society; however, the attempt came with degrading self-sacrifices to satisfy society’s demands. Independence and morality were often neglected to oblige to society’s rigorous expectations. Likewise, in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the main protagonist, Jane Eyre, resides within a society dominated by patriarchy. Characters are restricted to