American film directors

African American Films and Directors in the 1990s Many of the African-American films of the 1980s depicted the community as violent and unsafe. Hollywood was not interested in filming the success stories of thousands of young blacks. And rather than dealing the realities of street life and black neighborhoods, many films portrayed the communities as gang-ridden and violent-- with frequent drive-by shootings and alternating chase sequences. This was because these over-the-top scenes resonated well with young black males in the audience, and ensured profits. One example is the Menace II Society by the Hughes Brothers. The film, which provoked controversy during its release, contains a brutal and despairing depiction of the hood. It also casually deals with murder, drug dealing, victimization of women, and hopelessness While inner-city and suburban adolescent audiences loved the film, others were much more critical. Many complained…

Auteur theory is the theory of filmmaking in which the director is regarded as the key creative force in a film. Dubbed by American film critic Andrew Sarris in France during the late 1940’s, auteur theory was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. This theory states that the director, who oversees all visual and audio elements of a film, is considered somewhat of an ‘author’ of a film more so than the writer of the screenplay. This means that visual elements…

It compares the film director to the author of a book, it attributes artistic control to the…

The Tree of Life is a subtle film that intricately links together the world while discussing vast concepts. One such concept, the way of nature, is personified through Brad Pitt’s character; he is a man who acts in primal animalistic ways, and consistently lets these emotions get the better of him. This motif has been explored in many films prior to Terrence Malick’s masterpiece and previous directors’ efforts by no means come close to the beauty of Malick’s film. Many of the films of the…

News has broken concerning a very high-profile new film project for Mexican-American filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. The man known for directing a wide range of different genre films (Desperado, Spy Kids, Sin City), will be helming a live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita for 20th Century Fox. Perhaps of even more notoriety though, is that the film will be produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau under their Lightstorm Entertainment banner, which certainly promises a…

covering the basic idea of the theory, the differences remain evident. This essay seeks to demonstrate not only that Rear Window (1954) is a clear example of auteur cinema but also that Alfred Hitchcock himself should be considered as an indisputable auteur. Firstly, it will define an auteur as a film director whose cinema is conceived as an art form that allows him to express his personal thoughts and views using exclusively cinematographic language. Thus creating a personal style adopted as a…

It is often the everyday issues that matter to us most when engaging with a visual or oral text. Mark Romanek’s cinematic rendition of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a tragic tale of three clones Kathy, Tommy and Ruth as they struggle to find meaning in their lives and overcome their own personal struggles. Although the film is science fiction, Romanek separates it from the typical connotations associated with the genre by not focussing on the errors of Never Let Me Go’s society, but…

be well spend by enjoying a well-made film. The film Get Out is seen by some viewers as a horror movie, but for me it is seen more as a suspenseful film. This is shown in the film with the script of the film and how the main character, Chris, goes to his girlfriend’s house, Rose, to meet her parents for the weekend and he ends up discovering a truth that he could have never think of, which puts his life in danger. After Chris arrives to his girlfriend’s house there are some events that make the…

Are we alone in the universe? Men have struggled with this idea throughout the whole of human history. M. Night Shyamalan takes a fresh look at this idea in his sci-fi blockbuster film Signs as he follows the journey of a family in crisis as they face an alien invasion. As the story unfolds, Shyamalan reveals his ideas on the universal theme of man’s struggles with faith and a belief in the divine design of the universe through his use of allegory, conflict, and character. The primary way…

How does Hiddleston's Henry V differ from Branagh's? Branagh’s Henry V flawlessly executes Branagh’s vision of the hard consequences of war. Every element of the film reinforces this theme. Branagh’s screenplay presents many of the play’s darker elements: the English traitors, the hanging of Bardolph, the deaths in battle. The mood and production design are somber throughout. Branagh assembles a remarkable cast of famous actors for all the major roles, who all bring their characters to specific…