Fritz Lang’s 1931 film M, a classic thriller about a serial killer who targets children by befriending them. Trying to have compassion for Hans Beckert, might seem hard, but Fritz Lang uses his film techniques to make audiences have sympathy for the devil. The film is about a man that kills children but Lang focuses less on the crime and more on Beckert's humanity. The point of this film Lang wants the audience to see is that people are credible of understanding anyone, including a madman who killed children.
Throughout the film, there are montages of clocks and watches that represents order. The characters are cold and are consumed with time and routine. If you notice, in most of the scenes without Beckert, the characters are either looking at the time or asking what time it is. the characters are obsessed with structure and rules. by Lang showcasing the supporting characters as robots, this makes Beckert the only person who is sane. Unlike the other characters, Beckert is not preoccupied with a set occasion. Lang gives Beckert a humanness
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In the outdoor scenes, Lang never shot at eye level, but from a bird's eye. By Lang angling the camera this way, it is unlikely that you'll see the characters' faces or expression. In the indoors, Lang would finds a way to hide characters' face with either use cigarette smoke and shadows. These characters are now faceless or unknown, Lang has automictically taken away the characters' identity. Lang intentionally does this so the audience can not relate to or have feeling toward that character. I mean how can to have emotions for a character that you never see? Beckert on the other hand face is shown in the film. First he is in the shadow and seen from behind, but once the audience sees his face, they form a connection. By the audience seeing Beckert's face and emotion gives the audience the ability to have more
It is my intention to compare the book, Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, to its modern movie version, Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I intend to examine how the original French text was modified in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes. I also plan to discuss how these transformations change the meaning of the story and reflect different cultural/historical contexts. There are some major differences between these two works, if only because of when they were written.
On a cold Halloween night in 1963, in the film Halloween, a six-year-old boy named Michael Myers was seen stabbing his older sister to death with a gigantic kitchen knife then leaving to stand outside the house with a blank expression on his face. As a result he was sent to Smith Grove’s Mental Hospital which he escapes from 15 years later to go after 17 year old Laurie Strode and her friends Lynda and Annie. Warshow’s essay, The Gangster as Tragic Hero, depicts American society’s need to show public cheerfulness and maintain a positive morale as well as its desire for something more sinister, something more brutal. This desire to indulge in the forbidden fruit of sadism and cruelty is what makes the gangster persona so appealing to the nation. He is the man of the city. He emerges from the crowd as a successful outlaw and his only aspiration is success through brutality.
The movie Psycho was created in 1960, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film has many meaningful moments behind it, which all lead up to a shocking yet interesting twist for an ending. Many clips corresponded well with Bill Nichols thoughts, and opinions on how “Every movie is a Documentary.” By comparing both the Nichols reading, and the film Psycho, it is easy to see that this film is a wish-fulfillment documentary. This film shows what could be a scary reality in many people’s lives. It gives us examples of what could be our deepest nightmares and dreads, influences an opinion over people who have multiple personalities, and even feeds some people’s interests.
The level and degree to which the audience, in horror, being persuaded, constantly shifts around, but the message stays consistent. For example, in the novel, Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris), brings a “paradoxical” tone to your understanding of Hannibal Lecter; while, you are quite disgusted with the crimes he has committed, you are at the same time, quite intrigued by the wit and sophistication of the “monster;” humanizing him. However, James Whale, takes a different approach in the horror film, The Bride of Frankenstein. James Whale, a prisoner of war during World War One, coaxes us to feel sympathy for the monster through the outward and internal entorturement of the monsters isolation due to it’s appearance. Even though both of these films diverge from each other in ways to compel their audiences to feel certain emotions; the movie or novel come together in the sense that; they revolve around two central aspects, thrill and a message; the message is what gives all the layers the consistency of flavor, we all long for the mouth-watering jawbreaker known as
The prominent theme in the thriller movie, Psycho and the short story, "The Devil and Tom Walker", is that greed has its consequences with the suspenseful and uneasy atmosphere which was developed by the high, overwrought emotion.
The genre of horror films is one that is vast and continually growing. So many different elements have been known to appear in horror films that it is often times difficult to define what is explicitly a horror film and what is not. Due to this ambiguous definition of horror the genre is often times divided into subgenres. Each subgenre of horror has a more readily identifiable list of classifications that make it easier to cast a film to a subgenre, rather than the entire horror genre. One such subgenre that is particularly interesting is that of the stalker film. The stalker film can be categorized as a member of the horror genre in two ways. First, the stalker film can be identified within the horror genre due to its connection with the easily recognizable subgenre of horror, the slasher film. Though many elements of the stalker film differ from those of the slasher film, the use of non-mechanical weapons and obvious sexual plot points can be used to categorize the stalker film as a subgenre of the slasher film. Secondly, the stalker film can be considered a member of the horror genre using Robin Wood’s discussion regarding horror as that which society represses. The films Fatal Attraction, The Fan, and The Crush will be discussed in support of this argument. (Need some connector sentence here to finish out the intro)
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a film which functions on multiple levels simultaneously. On a literal level it is a mystery-suspense story of a man hoodwinked into acting as an accomplice in a murder, his discovery of the hoax, and the unraveling of the threads of the murder plot. On a psychological level the film traces the twisted, circuitous routes of a psyche burdened down with guilt, desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy. Finally, on an allegorical or figurative level, it is a retelling of the immemorial tale of a man who has lost his love to death and in hope of redeeming her descends into the underworld.
"Why We Crave Horror Movies” is an essay in which the auther, Stephen King, whos one of the most succesful horror witers, assumes that we as humans are mentally ill. ”I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all.” King gives his reasoning as to why we make the independent decision to buy a ticket and watch other human beings get killed. In other words, why we go cinema to watch horror movies. Futhermore he explains that that people enjoy watching horror movies because they to keep our insane
Ruppert, Peter. “Technology and the Constructions of Gender in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” (2000) [Accessed 18 December 2012]
Aspects of good and evil are portrayed in a number of different ways throughout the film, ?Schindler?s List?. The story of Schindler's List reminds us that there is hope; that sometimes the actions of one person - one ordinary person even, for Oskar Schindler is not the stereotypical altruistic hero - can make a difference, even in the face of mass apathy and e...
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
The juxtaposition of the happiness and deep despair of the monster is only separated in chronology by the man shooting him. It is obvious that there is a cause and effect relationship between the shooting and the monster’s hatred for humanity. This hatred for humanity cannot be explained by nature because it contradicts the monster saving the little girl. Since nurture is about external stimuli shaping a person, one can directly conclude that monstrous behavior was a result of human interaction.
Maddan, S., Hartley, R., Walker, J., & Miller, J.. (2012). Sympathy for the Devil: An
For our paper we’ve chosen to analyze the film, The Wild Child. The film helps to serve as a great example for multiple psychological phenomena and concepts pertaining to the material that we have learned throughout the course this quarter. Right from the opening scene of The Wild Child, the viewer is able to make note of the complexity that is the life of the young Victor; otherwise known as the wild child in this film. The viewer is able to view Victor’s lack of social awareness, his inability to cope in a way society deems fit when placed in a stressful situation, quintessentially he lacks the basic skill of language to voice his distressed thoughts. All of this can be analyzed from the opening situation in which he frightens a women picking
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are