«The nomenclature of “disaster movie” is as difficult a classification to place upon a film as any; for its definition is extremely malleable. Many movies incorporate a disaster, or even numerous disasters, and are still not known as “disaster...» Document abstract
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film studies
school essay
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SummaryThe nomenclature of “disaster movie” is as difficult a classification to place upon a film as any; for its definition is extremely malleable. Many movies incorporate a disaster, or even numerous disasters, and are still not known as “disaster movies”; the definition is not that simple. A disaster movie is usually declared as such when, and only when, the entire essence of the film revolves around disaster. Characters, and the realities which they inhabit, seem to exist only in order to be affected by the disaster(s). Disaster movies of all types (from alien invasions to in-peril travel movies), operate within the same formulaic realm; the death toll is large, the disasters horrific, and hero(s) nearly always saves the day. The allure of the disaster movie is that of “danger at a distance”; the audience can live (and nearly die) vicariously through the characters facing the disaster, while remaining safe in the knowledge that it’s only a movie. The thrill is the heart of the disaster movie. However, there is more to the average disaster film than meets the eye; these films have a way of acutely reflecting the times in which they are created. Disaster movies are often capable of analogizing the fears and concerns of contemporary society in particularly inspired and insightful ways.
Table of Contents- In the 1950's and 1960's, disaster movies based in the realm of science fiction reigned supreme.
- What set these sci-fi disaster movies apart, other than their enhanced visuals and massive scales of destruction, was the fact that they were not based in a tangible reality.
- One of the largest fears during this time period was the use/misuse of nuclear weaponry.
- Within all the sub-genres of sci-fi disaster movies (nuclear monsters, space invaders, etc.) at least one similarity universally existed.
- Another prime example of this form of disaster movie is 1972's The Poseidon Adventure.
- Whether watching the Earth under attack from flying saucers in The War of the Worlds (1953), or rooting for Gene Hackman to save the day in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), audiences have always flocked to disaster movies.
«As is the case with many art forms, the exact origin of Cinema is tainted with controversy. While numerous innovators played important roles in the dawn of the medium, the Lumière brothers (Louis and Auguste) of France are most directly accredited...» Document abstract
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film studies
school essay
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SummaryAs is the case with many art forms, the exact origin of Cinema is tainted with controversy. While numerous innovators played important roles in the dawn of the medium, the Lumière brothers (Louis and Auguste) of France are most directly accredited with creating the first “films”. Credited with inventing the Cinématographe, a device that could record, print, and project film, in 1895, the Lumière brothers were at the forefront of filmmaking as a technical innovation. Film’s transformation from technical achievement into valid art form, however, came at the hands of a different type of French innovator, Georges Méliès (1861-1938). Cinema, in fact, can literally be divided into two categories; pre and post-Georges Méliès. More so than any other filmmaker in the history of the medium, the roots of narrative filmmaking can be traced directly to Georges Méliès. His infusion of magic and fantasy into fledgling medium paved the way for the now-limitless possibilities of Cinema.
Table of Contents- After the creation of the Cinématographe, Louis and Auguste Lumière invested themselves fully in investigating the most basic technical possibilities film had to offer.
- Georges Méliès, like the Lumière brothers, grew up in a well-to-do bourgeois family.
- While it is unclear how Méliès first came to possess film equipment, it is known, as Alan Williams points out, that 'by March 1896 he had a camera, and in April he presented the first film programs in his theater.
- While the visual tricks in Méliès films are certainly what stand out at first, it is vital to understand that at the heart of his work was a focus on fantastic narratives;
- Méliès' La Voyage dans la lune represents the beginning of what could be described as 'modern cinema?.
- After his film A la conquete du pole (Conquest of the Pole) (1912), Méliès gave up film production for good.
- Georges Méliès is responsible for numerous innovations in the realm of cinema.
«The United States of America is often referred as “the great melting pot”; a place where people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and plights exist under a single title “American”. The title is simple; those living in The United States are, by...» Document abstract
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film studies
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SummaryThe United States of America is often referred as “the great melting pot”; a place where people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and plights exist under a single title “American”. The title is simple; those living in The United States are, by definition, American. And yet, there is lot more to the term “American”. The word brings about a great deal of sentiment; ardor for some, pride for others, some consider themselves patriots, while some would say the simply live here. American culture is one of singular poignancy and countless connotations.
Table of Contents- A picture is often said to be worth one thousand words; when dealing with American culture, this phrase is an understatement.
- In the photograph, a mass of people fill the top of the frame.
- The composition of the photograph is stark, yet energized. At first glance, the photograph seems to be asymmetrical, for there is a lot going on, throughout the frame, and not all of it is balanced
- The camera placement in this photograph works hand-in-hand with the framing to create a wonderful effect.
- The aesthetic effects created by Robert Frank are, seemingly, quite simplistic. However, they all serve very important and detailed purposes.
«Distinguishing a film as “campy” is, arguably, as difficult as determining whether or not a film is “good.” The definition of “camp” is utterly malleable and, moreover, exists almost purely in the eyes of the beholder. Similarly, a film is rarely...» Document abstract
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SummaryDistinguishing a film as “campy” is, arguably, as difficult as determining whether or not a film is “good.” The definition of “camp” is utterly malleable and, moreover, exists almost purely in the eyes of the beholder. Similarly, a film is rarely definably solely as “good” or “bad”; these are merely opinions. It is oddly fitting, and quite unfortunate, that films which become marked as “campy” are rarely described as “good”. This can be partly explained by the fact that the majority of movies known as “camp films” are largely unintentional camp; put simply, camp films with a “so-bad-they’re-good” quality receive the most attention. The films of Edward D. Wood Jr. are examples of classic, unintentional camp; movies made famous by the degree to which they do not “work.” While unintentional camp is certainly an important part of cinema history, intentional camp often goes unnoticed, or at least underappreciated. Many intentionally campy films are quite noteworthy, and, moreover, are simply good films. John Carpenter’s They Live (1988) is an example of a camp film that not only “works,” it has something meaningful to say. It is, in fact, a campy film, a socially parodic film, and a good film. Upon its initial release, They Live was dismissed as a campy sci-fi/horror movie with dreadful special effects and poor acting.
Table of Contents- When They Live was released in 1988, film critics were, to say the least, unimpressed.
- There is no real depth to 'Nada,' nor should there be, for he exists only as a supremely campy avenue for the audience to access the weighty undertones of They Live.
- They Live uses camp, largely, as a method of permeating intelligent and important social satire into the minds of the audience.
- While They Live fell flat with many critics, others were able to embrace the film's campy exterior while appreciating its thought provoking social commentary.
- The weighty issues They Live deals with may, in fact, have been too much for mainstream audiences and critics to accept.
- They Live is not a perfect film, but it is a good film. Not only does it provide still-pertinent social commentary/satire, it also works as an enjoyable, campy film.
- The essence of intentional camp, arguably, lies within its ability to make fun of itself before it can be made fun of by others.
«Since the dawn of cinema, there have been numerous film directors who have garnered the reputation of innovator, auteur, even genius of the medium. Only three directors, however, have created such unmistakably identifiable styles as to warrant film...» Document abstract
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film studies
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SummarySince the dawn of cinema, there have been numerous film directors who have garnered the reputation of innovator, auteur, even genius of the medium. Only three directors, however, have created such unmistakably identifiable styles as to warrant film terminologies based on their very names. Alfred Hitchcock, with his unparalleled techniques of suspense and intrigue gave birth to the term Hitchcockian. In recent years, the phrase Spielbergian has found its way into the film-language lexicon, referring to Steven Spielberg’s ability to weave stirring, emotional themes into massive-budget, blockbuster films. Perhaps the most-coined phrase taken from a filmmaker’s name, however, is Felliniesque; based on the work of Italian director Federico Fellini. Felliniesque applies to the way Fellini masterfully blends fantasy and reality in many of his films; most notably in his revolutionary Otto e mezzo (1963). Upon its release, Otto e mezzo, which translates to 8 ½, garnered massive critical acclaim and won numerous prestigious awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Acclaim for the film has only grown over the years, and Otto e mezzo has, today, become routinely known as one of the greatest films ever made. While Federico Fellini’s career is full of landmark films, Otto e mezzo, stands out as one of his most undeniably intriguing films, as well as his first and clearest foray into the style that would later lead to the term Felliniesque. That Otto e mezzo would, in part, lead to such an often-coined phrase in film terminology is ironic, as the film itself is, among other things, the single greatest movie ever made about making a movie.
Table of Contents- Otto e mezzo deals with the internal and external pressures placed on a film director named Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastoianni) to repeat the success of his last project.
- At times when Guido feels most pressured, most at conflict with himself or others, he slips into daydreams and recollections
- In what is perhaps the film's most somber daydream sequence, Guido imagines having a conversation with his dead father.
- The way Fellini presents the artistic process of an unsure film director is one of the reasons Otto e mezzo is regarded as the greatest film ever made about filmmaking.
- The film's longest fantasy scene is the famous sequence in which all the women of Guido's life, past and present, occupy a Harem together.
- Specific themes and images repeat themselves in Otto e mezzo, and the more the audience sees something in the film
- The result of the pressures placed on Fellini was a truly postmodern; Otto e mezzo is, in essence, a film about Fellini struggling to come up with an idea for a film.
- This brings about a very important, and sometimes overlooked aspect of Otto e mezzo.
- The way Fellini uses imagery and dreams in Otto e mezzo is hypnotically beautiful, and part of the reason the film works so well is the score by Nino Rota.
- Federico Fellini was a filmmaker of the highest order. He truly understood the magical possibilities of the medium.
«During the first half of the twentieth-century, a movement known as “classical Hollywood cinema” thrived; this was the dawn of truly “mainstream” films. The movies created during this time operated largely within metanarratives; all-embracing laws...» Document abstract
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SummaryDuring the first half of the twentieth-century, a movement known as “classical Hollywood cinema” thrived; this was the dawn of truly “mainstream” films. The movies created during this time operated largely within metanarratives; all-embracing laws which governed human behavior. These films utilized well-known plot structures and familiar characters to tell their stories. There was almost always a hero and a villain, and, in the end, the hero would inevitably get the girl. This was a decidedly modernist period in the realm of film. In the latter half of the century, the metanarratives of mainstream, modernist cinema began to face subversion at the hands of a new generation of filmmakers. One filmmaker who has lead the way in this fundamental shift in cinema is David Lynch. Lynch has, for nearly thirty years, stood out as a remarkably postmodern, independent filmmaker. He is largely responsible for ushering in a new breed of independent film, in which the simultaneous subversion and celebration of mainstream metanarratives creates endless cinematic possibilities. His films, most notably Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), and Mulholland Drive (2001) have generated extreme controversy, dozens of awards, and a reputation as one of America’s most brilliant, offbeat directors. The stories these films tell are elaborately interesting, but what sets Lynch apart as a writer/director is the way he tells his stories. Lynch’s work is categorically postmodern, extremely controversial, and undeniably independent.
Table of Contents- The world that David Lynch portrays in his films is both utterly fantastic and strangely familiar.
- David Lynch's first successful film to showcase his uncompromising, unrivaled talent for storytelling was 1986's Blue Velvet.
- The innovative storytelling behind Blue Velvet works largely do to its acceptance of modernist genre themes.
- Many film critics took issue with the brutal violence and perversion in Blue Velvet; largely seen in the sadistic, psychotic character of Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper).
- Lynch's world is simultaneously beautiful and disgusting, intoxicating and repelling.
- What most critics of Wild at Heart failed to recognize was measure of parody that Lynch utilizes in the film.
- Wild at Heart could be described as a shock-laden, intangible road movie with an under-the-surface love story, but nothing substantial on the surface.
- While there is little violence in the Mulholland Drive, and the sex scenes are almost jarringly romantic, Lynch still relentlessly subverts the metanarratives of mainstream cinema.
- Kenneth C. Kaleta surmises that, 'quite simply, the cinematic vision of Lynch is the landscape of the twenty-fist-century film?
«Nothing can create nostalgia like a movie camera. There is something about the moving image that can trigger emotions like few other mediums can. It is easy to get lost in a film; they have the awesome ability of capturing and recreating the past....» Document abstract
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film studies
school essay
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SummaryNothing can create nostalgia like a movie camera. There is something about the moving image that can trigger emotions like few other mediums can. It is easy to get lost in a film; they have the awesome ability of capturing and recreating the past. The nostalgic value of the cinema is immense, but where professionals recreate, amateurs simply need to record. When it comes to remembrance, nothing comes close to the power of home movies. The unprofessional quality of home movies—the poor sound quality, the unedited images—do not impair their power; they are what makes them all the more endearing. These amateur aspects of home movies have also become an often-used effect in the world of professional cinema. When a film wants to be wistful, emotional, and touching, nothing can achieve the same effect as old-fashioned home movies.
Table of Contents- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) stands out in a genre that is attempted often, but very rarely succeeds.
- During this home movie montage, no diajetic sound is to be heard. The home movies are silent, and Ray Charles' 'The Spirit of Christmas' presides over the entire montage.
- The home movie sequence in this film is one of the most memorable scenes.
- As Clark Griswold sits teary-eyed watching the home movies of a Christmas long ago, the viewer can't help but feel nostalgic as well.
- The fact that a couple dusty reels of film can inspire such emotion in someone is a phenomenon. It is also very relatable.
«The term “independent film” is extremely malleable in the realm of American cinema. A film may be considered “independent” if it is financed and/or distributed outside of a Hollywood studio, or if it bends and/or breaks the conventions of mainstream...» Document abstract
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film studies
school essay
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SummaryThe term “independent film” is extremely malleable in the realm of American cinema. A film may be considered “independent” if it is financed and/or distributed outside of a Hollywood studio, or if it bends and/or breaks the conventions of mainstream American movies. There are numerous, if not infinite, ways to categorize and classify films as independent, and any attempt to do so is nearly impossible. That said, there are certain films that inarguably deserve the controversial classification, and certain filmmakers that approach American cinema in a manner that undeniably independent. One such film is Stranger Than Paradise (1984), and one such filmmaker is Jim Jarmusch. The film, Jarmusch’s second feature as writer/director, was financed with a shoestring budget (around $110,000), and became an archetype of what American independent cinema would strive to be in the following two decades. The narrative style of Stranger Than Paradise bends nearly all the “rules” of mainstream cinema. Everything about the film is minimalist, to put it lightly. In the early 1980’s, when films with grand narratives—such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984)—dominated the box office, Jarmusch’s film served as a daring, wholly original way to approach American cinema. Stranger Than Paradise’s sparse visual and narrative qualities frame its subject, American identity, in a way that few movies had ever attempted. His emphasis on the small, mediocre, and often-unexamined qualities of everyday life, made for a truly independent film.
Table of Contents- While independent cinema is, by and large, a debatable categorization, the stylistic differences between independent films and mainstream Hollywood features'perhaps particularly in movies from the 1980's'are quite clear
- The narrative style of the film, in many regards, is the story. Jarmusch breaks the film into three parts, entitled ‘The New World', ‘One Year Later', and ‘Paradise?.
- Like the film itself, the characters' meaning is revealed through the most minimal of actions.
- American identity, which Willie has desperately been chasing since he emigrated from Hungary, is the heart of Stranger Than Paradise.
- One of the funniest scenes in Stranger Than Paradise involves Willie, Eddie, and Eva, in Cleveland, making a trip to Lake Eerie.
- Stranger Than Paradise is a film that derives great meaning from the parts of life that usually go unobserved in mainstream Hollywood films.
«In the last century alone, the United States of America has witnessed dozens of “equal rights” movements. Some of the most significant rights Americans currently enjoy have come out of great struggle and controversy. Whenever a group of citizens...» Document abstract
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SummaryIn the last century alone, the United States of America has witnessed dozens of “equal rights” movements. Some of the most significant rights Americans currently enjoy have come out of great struggle and controversy. Whenever a group of citizens protest the way their society views them, whenever they demand change, there is always an external, contradictory force trying to hold them back. Often times, however, there is also controversy within a rights movement; it is not unlikely for ideologies within a “movement” to clash. The feminist movement(s) of the past thirty years has been considered to be both largely successful, and somewhat of a failure; depending on who one asks.
Table of Contents- Today, the historical connotations of the 'feminist movement' are largely divided into two sub-movements known as '1970's feminism' and 'post-feminism.?
- Today, the historical connotations of the 'feminist movement' are largely divided into two sub-movements known as '1970's feminism' and 'post-feminism.?
- In the past century, motion pictures have become one of the most imbedded forms of media in the United States of America.
- Post-feminism gave birth to films such as Pretty Woman (1990) and Working Girl (1987), which many considered signs of progress.
- While feminist screen theory criticizes women's role as a sexual object for the voyeuristic male-gaze to 'take in,' Charlotte Brunsdon criticizes certain examples of post-feminism for their archetype of women as 'happy consumers.?
- Both 1970's feminism and post-feminism take issue with the way women are seen through the 'male-gaze' of most main-stream films; and to a larger extent, society.
- Despite the vast differences in the 1970's feminism and post-feminism movements, the goal has remained the same; a fair, equal view of women (both on screen and in society)
«A horror movie does not work unless it is frightening. A meek horror film is as ineffective as an unfunny comedy or an uninteresting drama. If a horror film succeeds at being scary, then, by definition, the filmmakers behind it have accomplished...» Document abstract
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SummaryA horror movie does not work unless it is frightening. A meek horror film is as ineffective as an unfunny comedy or an uninteresting drama. If a horror film succeeds at being scary, then, by definition, the filmmakers behind it have accomplished what they set out to make. The difference between a good horror movie and a great horror movie, however, is its ability to transcend the genre. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) is, today, universally accepted as one of the greatest genre movies of all time. It is a perfectly crafted horror film; frightening and engrossing. It is also much more than the horror movie. With its emphasis on music and songs, at times it approaches a musical. Moreover, its highly engrossing storyline and deep, well-rounded characters arguably make it a drama. However, The Wicker Man is, at heart, a horror film. Its ability to transcend the genre lies in its willingness to acknowledge itself as a horror movie, and its capacity to move far beyond such a simple categorization. An intelligent, thought-provoking work, it challenges the very ideals most audience members hold sacred. Taking on organized religion, sex, and morality, The Wicker Man deals with topics and ideas that most films are afraid to confront. Perhaps due to the fact that it was created under the simple classification of a “horror movie”, it is able to explore themes that most mainstream films shy away from. The Wicker Man stands as one of the greatest horror films ever made, but it is much more. Highly influential, thoroughly controversial, and inarguably provocative, it is an intensely brave movie that has the ability to transcend almost any label that can be attached to it.
Table of Contents- The film begins in Scotland, where Police Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) receives a mysterious letter from Summerisle; a small, reclusive island off the coast of the mainland.
- Sgt. Howie is a deeply religious, intensely prudish police officer that lives and breaths by the word of the Bible.
- As The Wicker Man progresses, however, these traditions seem less and less mysterious, and the audience begins to grow intensely interested in the belief system of the people of Summerisle.
- That night, as Sgt. Howie is praying by his bedside, he witnesses Lord Summerisle standing with a teenage boy outside Willow's window.
- The Wicker Man is, for the most part, even-handed in its representations of Christianity and the pagan-based ideology of the Summerislanders.
- Sgt. Howie eventually discovers that Rowan Morrison is alive, but believes that she is in great danger.
- It is not hard to see why The Wicker Man, upon its initial release, was largely praised by critics, and largely ignored by audiences.
- The Wicker Man is a brilliant genre picture because it is atmospheric, frightening, and in the end, quite disturbing; all attributes of any successful horror film.
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