At first glance, the “rude mechanicals” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream seem little more than comic relief; simplistic characters who remain ignorant of the events unfolding around them. However, through greater examination, it becomes clear that there is greater insight to be attained – they are crafted, additionally, as satirical figures. In their introductory scene, as they assign parts of their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe, the actors go back and forth on matters relating to the play’s infrastructure. After all, as mere members of the working class, if their performance terrifies, upsets, or offends in any way, then they could potentially be put to death by those in power – those who, incidentally, are also their audience. This seems…
Born on September 8, 1954, Ruby Nell Bridges grew up in an all white town, located in the suburbs of Tylertown, Mississippi. As Ruby grew older, her parents - Abon and Lucille - moved with her to New Orleans, hoping for a better life in a bigger city. After living there for quite some time, Ruby had gotten two younger brothers, and one younger sister. Their names are Michael, Malcolm, and Joana. In New Orleans, Ruby’s father worked in a job at a gas station, while her mother took daily night jobs to help support their growing family.…
Everyone knows about the American movie business. Millions of dollars go into financing big movie projects just to entertain ourselves away from the real world, and millions of dollars are sent back in tickets to go see these films. Certainly, this business has been booming for the past one-hundred years, and we keep on fueling the fire. Movies aren’t just about entertainment only. Many films have become part of the American culture, and many films from the US show how Americans think and feel about certain trends or ideas.…
Nonetheless, ownership of property does not only apply to things, but also to people such as Maria. She is an asset to the studio that employs her as an actress until she is not. Maria is also a property of Carter as her husband, at least that comes from an actor in the elevator she meets. (Didion, 23). Helen May reaffirms this sentiment of property, like any other women in entertainment business, a statement mentions “That women are nothing more but a prop”…
the adults involved. Some may consider such “loyalty” to be misguided, but the journalists’ refusal to make a bad situation worse was the very essence of the second type of courage. The film also exhibits the first type of courage. It would have been easy for Sarah Polley to keep quiet about the situation and simply live her life, but instead, she came forward and shared her story in spite of the difficulty.…
The Conversation, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, follows Harry Caul, an expert in the field of surveillance, as he becomes obsessed with trying to decipher a distorted audio of a conversation between two people that he thinks are in danger. He is already wracked with guilt after his work on a previous project led to a person's death, and this guilt fuels an obsession to prevent it from happening again. This obsession contributes to a disconnect from reality and Harry's tendency to distance himself from the people in his life. This scene shows Harry's disconnection from others and his obsession with the people in the recorded conversation in a few different ways. It was represented most clearly through the composition of the shots and use of sound throughout the scene.…
The movie Radio is based on a true story of T.L. Hanna High School football coach and a mentally challenged man, named Radio. This story took place in the 70s in the small town of Anderson, South Carolina. The qualities of the facilities in the movie were common during this time period. The football field, basketball court, locker rooms, storage area, bleachers, and offices appeared to be a good quality for a high school in the south.…
Friday night I went and attended Girls Life play directed by Grant McGowen at the Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theater. There were 6 main actors and actresses – Janie played by Christie Vozniak, Liza played by Alexa Staudt, Diana played by Jackie Costello, Catey played by Jordan Demers, Jack played by Omer Mughal and Alex played by Pedro Ferreira. Janie’s character was very bubbly and energetic, always talking about herself and her now ex-boyfriend, Alex. He raped her after a party and to defend herself from any future incidents, she reported him and filed a lawsuit against him. Catey and Liza had a love affair, but on the other hand Catey had a boyfriend with whom she was going to get married.…
Father Comes Home from the Wars, Suzan-Lori Parks Suzan-Lori Parks created a character that had the illusion of choice. She showed how Hero’s perception of having control of his destiny undid his relationships. The costumes of this production propelled this show into modern day and made commentary on how systemic racism may still be inhibiting the freedoms of African Americans. This play forces the audience to reconcile with the past sins, and then points out the ways society still discriminates against people of color.…
The waiting room by Lisa Loomer is a fascinating piece of work, three women waiting for doctor’s call . In this waiting room Lisa Loomer explores how society view women beauty through different places and time. One of the women is a Chinese, she came to see a doctor because of her foot, in this period china view of beauty meant small feet. The other women is a British women during this time women wearied very tight dress that made the waste small, she was well educated women and her husband insisted her ovary removed because it was causing her hysteria. The third women is a modern women from united states, through advancement in science in now possible to modify ones body to their specific needs.…
There is so much that I am learning about education throughout my experience in college. When you think you know how schools are ran, you learn new information that makes you do a 360. I feel as if I am always keeping up with current events so I know what is ongoing throughout education in America. There is so much that is happening behind closed doors that the public has no clue about until it is presented in a documentary or by a “conspiracy theorist". I am appalled at what I learned from this documentary.…
The article, ‘Film Bodies: Gender, Genre & Excess’1 by Linda Williams explores whether the forms of sex, violence and emotion found in the genres of pornography, horror, and melodrama (specifically the woman’s weepie) respectively, are as gratuitous as my film scholars and critics believe them to be. Setting out to disprove this idea, Williams’ investigates and compares the form, function, and system of the three genres. Ultimately, William’s central claims reveal the value in the supposed excess of these three genres that benefit a spectator in a variety of ways. Seeking to argue her idea, Williams’ firstly uncovers why elements of these genres are regularly deemed as excessive. This is presented with the contrast of Classic Hollywood and…
To create a persona or to stay sane, what a difficult decision! In Hamlet, there are many themes that go back to telling the truth. The two main ones being hiding and twisting the truth as well as creating a persona to avoid suspicions. During the play, many characters take on the challenge and try to save their face and hide from the truth. By changing the roles that they play, the audience becomes anxious to find out what will happen next.…
Film, in general, is a narrative medium, or, at least, a medium of many narrative capacities” (Kuhn). For a film to be a narrative it must present a story with a series of events in ways that imply connections between one event and the next. Narratives must, therefore, have constituent parts, which are also discernibly related; however, the type of relationship may vary greatly. Generally we expect a cause-and-effect relationship: one event has the effect of causing another event, which causes another, and so on. Narratives also require narration, or communication.…
Classical Hollywood and neorealism are two important movements that have equally influenced the development of filmmaking. They both engage the audience into the film but their narrative conventions do differ from each other. The significance of the location and actors used differentiates the two approaches; as neorealism focuses on portraying reality by avoiding the glimmer of Hollywood stars and mise-en-scène. This allows neorealism to express the natural occurrences in life and the social issues of its time. CHC is known to use continuity editing to produce a naturalistic flow in its narrative to engage the audience in the film, but neorealism avoids these techniques because they simply illustrate an illusion of reality.…