Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of science fiction genre
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analysis of science fiction genre
Children of Men: A Cinematic Analysis
The breath is polluted and water soiled, bizarre groups have formed. Chants of “The world is dying” swell the air as newscasters announce “Britain soldiers on”. Children of men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuaron is a science fiction film set in the year 2027 in Britain where infertility is rampant and no child has been born for almost 18 years. The director uses various aspects of mise en scene to project an ominous time and to immerse the audience in to the film where the era resonates a World War or post 9/11 environment. There are several cinematic devices used in the movie to achieve the mentioned motive, some of which that will be discussed in the essay are the styles of editing and camera work, both of which
…show more content…
But that is not the only notable camera work use in the film, the placement of the camera plays a vital role in the perception of the scene. Replacing camera cuts with long camera takes adds realism and a sense of space to the picture; wherever the camera pans is where the realm exists, and even beyond that. A good example of this is again the coffee shop scene at the start of the movie. As Theo walks out of the shop the camera follows, and pans around the city just like a person stepping out and staring at every detail, similar to how a viewer would if he/she were warped into the film. Then the camera pans over to what Theo is doing rather than cutting to his face, again simulating how a person would react. After the explosion happens the camera runs towards the aftermath and shows the destruction. This whole sequence shows how the director chose the camera to be placed from the viewpoint of a person following Theo, A.K.A the viewer. Another result of this is a feeling of real time, of knowing exactly how much time has elapsed since Theo left the shop and not missing anything that has happened in that time
Afterwards, in the 1990s films portraying Latinos would take a somehow new direction, one of the most famous filmmakers would be Gregory Navas, he directed the movie My Family/Mi Familia, a film that portrays the lives of a Mexican-American family and the difficulty that the couple faced in order to establish in the U.S. “by passing as immigrants and all the struggle to integrate their family in another country” (Peña Acuña, 2010). The film let the audience see a potential reality that most immigrants went through when they first moved to the United States and how the system worked differently and the way immigrants had to adapt not only to the system, but also to the language and culture.
By showing the historical struggle of Mexican immigrants to be equal members of American society, portraying the humble and unique characteristics of Fernando Valenzuela, and by emphasizing his incredible rise to fame, the film Fernando Nation introduces a new type of American dream. Fernando Valenzuela became the embodiment of the Mexican-American dream to many people. By understanding his story we can understand the hopes and dreams of many Mexican immigrants in America today.
The film I will focus on is the Men of Atalissa by Kassie Bracken. The significant limit of the rights that these disabled men faced was the right of a livable wage. The film depicted how the men were dedicated workers and wanted a good life for themselves. However, because of being disabled, they were not paid a fair wage for their work. The people in the town would refer to them as the boys (Bracken, 2014). This illustrated that they were devalued and seen as less important. In addition, when they were seen as the boys it could have been an excuse to devalue their work and pay them less. I choose this as most significant because all the men were promised a lavish retirement if they worked at the turkey farm. They strived for this lifestyle,
In effect all the techniques mentioned above portray a society of individuals who are weary of the world they live in. They are rejects who lead a pitiful existence in a wasteland called earth because they are not fit enough to go the out-world colonies. Suppressing their own natural instincts for the sake of physically surviving they really the walking dead. Scientific progress conducted not for the best interests of humanity but for the best interests of business has effectively brought about the progressive degradation of society. By exploiting and destroying the natural world human can no more find solace or beauty so as to recuperate their weary minds and rekindle their dying spirits. In summary the techniques that are unique to film such as camera, lighting, costuming, colour and location works in conjunction with common literary techniques such as visual symbolism, irony and characterisation to effectively convey the relationship between humanity and nature.
One way the filmmakers did this is with the on location shots of rubble in many scenes. The characters in these shots are carefully placed to make the rubble stand out behind them. Lighting is carefully placed to illuminate the rubble and make it stand out. However, the carefully planned cinematography also plays into the overall meaning of the film and not just how it looks. The lighting, for example, influences our feelings for certain characters. Susan Wallner is always filmed in light. This is a drastic difference from how we see Hans Mertens. Hans is usually filmed with low light and is very dim. This helps show that Susan is optimistic, while Hans is pessimistic. Another way lighting is used in this film is to create shadows. Shadows are very prevalent in the last sequence of the film. Hans has confronted Bruckner and as the camera cuts back and forth to each of them we see Hans shadow keeps growing bigger and bigger behind Bruckner. We can interpret that as the shadowing is growing bigger so his Bruckner’s fear, because the dialogue coming from Bruckner is getting faster and we can also hear the fear. There are many times in the film where close ups are used to make the storyline more dramatic. One scene that comes to mind that makes use of quick cuts and close ups is in the end of the film: Susan ran in, stopping Hans from killing Bruckner. At this point we
The movie, “The Perfect Dictatorship” (“La Dictadura Perfecta”), directed and produced by Luis Estrada and released in 2014, is a political, satirical comedy story of two reporters attempting to repair the image of a corrupt governor after he signs a deal with the boss of their television company, Television Mexicana. That’s one way we could describe the plot of the movie. Another would be that the movie depicts the inherent corruption of the Mexican government and the lengths to which they will go to retain (or regain) their reputation. Equally, we could see the movie as a demonstration of the corruption of the Mexican media and the ways in which the media influences and effects politics. In fact, the
The camera zooms into the faces of the characters speaking, directing the audience’s attention to what they are saying making this information seem important and true. In the scene where David Palmer finds out about the nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, the camera first focuses on Eric Rayburn who is telling Palmer about the bomb but then zooms into Palmer’s face to show his expression at receiving this information. When Palmer is told the bomb will go off today, he asks, “How do we know this?” Rayburn replies with a computer image of Mahmoud and the camera zooms into the suspected terrorist’s face. The camera in this scene moves quickly from face-to-face, following the conversation visually. Additionally, the camera captures the expressions of...
An old English proverb states that the eyes are the window to the soul. In the film The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), directed by Juan José Campanella, this premise holds some truth. Set in the late 1970’s in Argentina, the crime thriller treats the start and end of the rape and murder case of Liliana Coloto, a 23-year-old schoolteacher. It simultaneously portrays the romance between a retired justice agent, Benjamín Espósito, and a new judge hailing from Cornell, Irene Menéndez-Hastings. In trying to write his first novel, Benjamín helps bring the case to a close after 25 years. The symbolic use of Benjamín’s rival, Romano, the color red, and doors enable character enhancement and further development of the plot.
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
In every country of the world, different cultures are seen. Each culture has a different way of raising children and that is seen in the film Babies. Kids are raised differently depending on the resources available and the economic situation of the country and that is clearly seen in this film. The methods of childrearing are completely different in each of the countries covered in the film, but that is because in each country the kids are being raised for different types of futures. Babies are raised differently depending on the culture and location, however, the one thing that does not change throughout the film is that the mothers care extensively for their babies.
Vertov uses montage make the viewer understand the connection between individual potential and societal potential, and furthermore, how technology is able to factor into this connection. To achieve his goal, Vertov uses one scene which begins with a close-up, eye-level of a woman cleaning her face with a towel (Vertov, 11’42”-12’11”). The use of a close-up, eye-level shot pins the viewer on the woman’s eyes. The woman abruptly peers up, and as she does so, Vertov fluidly cross cuts to a close up shot of blinds of a window looking out the city opening, successfully blending together the motion of both shots. The window of the house is a unit of the community, and by blending the motion of the woman’s eyes with the blinds of the windows house, Vertov establishes the woman as a unit of her greater society. Vertov uses another crosscut to connect the shot of the blinds to a close up shot of a camera. The camera focuses in and out on a subsequent close-up shot of flowers. Just as the woman can use
In this movie, much emphasis is placed on simplicity, spontaneity and directness, so we can focus on the true story without being distracted from the normal every day routines these characters have. A degree of realism is achieved in this movie, because the fact remains that Ben is an alcoholic, although he does drink in extremes where the normal human being would be unconscious, and Sera is a prostitute, so the intense situations and decisions in this movie are reasonably depicted. One of the first scenes is an extreme long shot of the city of Las Vegas, because this sinful city was very carefully chosen as the setting of the story to preserve realism. Full shots are often used to show the protagonists on their daily routine, such as when Ben goes shopping at the supermarket for liquor. Figgis mainly used multiple shots to emphasize the two protagonist’s interactions with each other. The two shot and the over-the-shoulder shot were used often to build a sit...
What’s so amazing about people is the little things push people to do dramatic and outrageous things, without actually thinking about the effect of their actions, most people seem to continue to make radical decisions. The most reoccurring thing that ticks people off is the controversial decision to separate or judge someone based on what racial background they come from, this has been a huge issue for what seem like forever and honestly what seems like an never ending issue for people around the world no matter their race, sex, age, or financial background. In the film Children of Men, the entire plot is based on a pregnant immigrate whose baby is the key for a revolutionary revolt against the government. The government is the film based majority of their focus on immigration and sending people back to where they were from and taking out any terrorist that may eventually harm the well-being of people in the UK, the reason this is so relevant is because while everyone focus was immigration there was so much going on that could’ve prevented all of that from happening but because of the ignorance it just left the world even more separated than before. This film
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universal understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society, using sound and editing.
Are we human if we don’t have a choice to choose between acting good or acting evil? A Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick is a brutal film that entails many sociological meanings. Alex DeLarge and his “droogs” (gang) live in a derange society of “ultra-violence” and rape. Alex and his gang cause havoc around the town that leads to the “droogs” turning on Alex during a mischievous act on an innocent women and Alex getting arrested. While in prison he is chosen for “treatment” that is suppose to purify Alex and turn him into the “perfect citizen”. We’ve gone over many sociological concepts in class, but the three that I believe apply the most to this film are socialization, deviance, and resocialization.