Over the past century, the rate of modernization has exponentially increased. From technological innovation to cultural shifts, the collective human experience has rapidly transformed. As a medium of expression, cinema has responded effectively to these changes by documenting the impacts of the evolving modern world. Film scholar Miriam Hansen’s modernity theory is manifested in creative innovations that visually showcase new technologies and respond to societal attitudes of the times. While Ozu’s That Night’s Wife and Capra’s Why We Fight incorporate the “effects of modernity” by utilizing industrial innovations in electrical lighting and film, Capra’s…
In times of desperation, humans can be capable of beyond what seems possible, either in great acts of courage or malice; the true character of individuals is revealed. It is in these times of terror that many truths are discovered about the human experience. Stories that portray such dark times can show the direction that humanity may be moving towards, as is the case in director Alfonso Cuarón’s film Children of Men, or where it has come from, such as in Guillermo del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth. Both of these stories confront the reality of human brutality and carnage through their settings. Children of Men takes place a few decades into the future where all of the women have become infertile resulting in a childless society; Pan’s Labryinth…
In his 1997 documentary film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Errol Morris directs the fascination of a man’s action that profoundly emanates his relationship with the world around him. The four men: Dave Hoover, a Wild Animal Tamer; Ray Mendez, the Hairless Mole-Rat Specialist; George Mendonca, a Topiary Gardener; and Rodney Brooks, a Robotic Scientist, each obsessed to create unconventional worlds of their aspirations. The film has a disrupted narrative format, interweaving interviews with the men and emerging a continual dialogue between the men in a way that accentuates what connects these men together, while their jobs would seem to be in such different realms to keep them apart, it doesn’t. Also the usage of black-and-white monochrome…
Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is a visually striking, dark fantasy film compiled of a range of gruesome and intriguing scenes that address themes of choice, gender and coming of age. In the ‘Final Task’ scene, the camera techniques, colour scheme, lighting, and sounds are the primary techniques used to express the ideas of good vs. evil, reality vs. fantasy, the effect of war on children and resistance. The scene begins with a high angle over the shoulder shot of Captain Vidal looking down at Ofelia, emphasising that she is vulnerable and inferior to him. The camera cuts to a shot-reverse-shot which is used to show a close up of Captain Vidal’s harshly lit face commanding Ofelia and then Ofelia disobeying him, creating tension between the two characters. Unlike the harsh lighting on Captain Vidal’s face, when the camera cuts to Ofelia the background has low-key lighting, dark shadows and blue hues.…
A War Against Boys? : Response A War Against Boys starts out with a teenage boy and his father suing the Boston school district for sex discrimination. Stating that schools routinely discriminate against males (Kimmel 65). The article goes on to state how boys have lower GPAs when compared to girls and are also 50 percent more likely to drop out of high school.…
I am not a mother yet, but I will be one day. Thinking about my children growing up in this society makes me want to something to change it. The film also brought up a lot of ideas that I had not considered before. One was the notion that the majority of films are either being created for men, or about men. I am noticing this more and more as I go about my daily life and it is shocking.…
The film I chose for my final research paper was Paris is Burning, because although we viewed 2 other films about gender roles, I believe it represented all of the gender roles found in society. Livingston was able to dive into the world of the New York City drag balls and give the viewers an insight to race, class, gender, and sexuality in America. She was able to depict this by conducting interviews with “legends” in the ball scene but also footage of ball competitions and the interaction of gay and transgender people in normal society. My thesis revolves around how Livingston showed that gender is a role performed by society not a reality. One of the main topics that represents the performance that is gender is the different categories in the balls.…
Children of Men is a film that forces the viewers to take notice that the future is born out of the present, and to be aware of the darker implications of the choices we make or accept today. Children of Men director, Alfonso Cuarón application of the background visually tells the story and warns us of a world that is not too far from our own while still keeping the background as background. In Children of Men, the director, Alfonso Cuarón, brilliantly portrays how significant the background is to amplifying the destructive state of London without blatantly laying it out for the viewers. The majority of films produced, the foreground is seen as the intended focus while the background remains just that, the background.…
Within the film, you will find a deep and fierce sense of power, stratification, and socialization. The film is a base for sociology that includes functionalism, symbolic interactionism and of course conflict theory. We will…
Masculinity is, by definition, qualities and/or the appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness. This makes men have to appear to be bellicose or tough to impress society and prove themselves as being ‘manly’ men. Making it very difficult for young men and boys to truly express themselves and let others into their personal lives. Crying, self expression, and asking for help are healthy traits for the growth of young boys and men. Without them, young boys could very potentially not be mentally healthy, and may become hostile and unable to connect to other human beings later on in life.…
Parenthood Film Family Analysis Paper Introduction The Parenthood is a movie depicting of an average family that is going the course of life changes that is actually is the building block of many families. We have the father and mother with marital disfigurations and lack of attachment between themselves and the father Frank is distant and his father was the same with as a child. Transgenerational theory. These to Parents had four children and their children extended their families with marriage, divorce, joining families through marriage as commitment to new systems.…
Roots of Dystopia in Children of Men A film is a double-edged sword. Though capable of providing an escape from modern day society, a film is equally capable of jolting audiences out of their inaction by bringing them face to face with the consequences of their choices. Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuaron and released in 2006, is a classic example of the latter. The story is set in the year 2027 where women have lost the ability to conceive children.…
Freedom Summer, just a mere 10 weeks of the summer of 1964, changed the world, just by changing Mississippi. Reconstruction ended and blacks were no longer slaves, but they continued to be oppressed. Mississippi was the state that kept blacks as slaves without the title. Mississippi had the lowest crime rate, supposedly, but most likely had the most murders of blacks in cold blood. The Mississippi Summer Project dived head first into the volatile violence, subjecting their volunteers to a unique movement with dangers that scared and motivated them to make their movement as successful as they could.…
Thirty minutes of play of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero,” I watched two characters, Flying Snow with Moon, hanging blade to blade as if through mystical powers surrounded with spinning colorful leaves. This incredibly lovely scene, decorated in untainted color, shot like a fantasy poetry, and dramatized like angels’ dance, it is unbelievable to be a fight. It is more similar to a swordplay pleasure (Harrison 570). This is the loveliest scene ever filmed and among the spectacles that the film gives to the audience who must be ready to be amazed.…
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, is a futuristic dystopian film that depicts a stark contrast between social classes within a society. The scene takes place underground and shows the shift change of the workers within the working class, a perfect example of the societal differences. In this film sequence using staging, cinematography and editing, Fritz Lang is able to express a hyperbolic representation of dominant ideologies revolving the working class. The setting and space in the sequence emphasizes the bleak atmosphere in the workers lives.…