The comparison of Moi, un Noir and La Pyramide Humaine portrays a very different reality of Abidjah, Treuichville. The question of authority, who's version is more "true", to me, does not arise because in neither film were the subjects being filmed attempting to "speak for" the city. They speak for themselves, and their lives. In Moi, un Noir, they speak of the different cities based on class/economic difference and in La Pyramide humaine is all about exploring the different cities between what they call the European students and the African students.
Even though Moi, un Noir was released in 1958 and La Pyramide Humaine was released in 1961, I wonder if the filming of the two ever overlapped, if the films shared any footage such as footage of the La Goumbe social club or the footage of the water skiing in Moi, un Noir. If they were filmed serially and year/years apart (which I believe to be the case - the S. African event they discuss in the film sounds like the Sharpville massacre which happened in 1960), how much increased familiarity of Abidjah and the people of Abidjah affected Rouche - from longer immersion/greater participant observation to simple production ability to source things such as paperwork for permission to film at an airport/on a tarmac or find a plane for the aerial view at the end of La Pyramide Humaine, knowing increased technical awareness of what nighttime filming conditions of La Goumbe was to take better footage the second time around, finding a classroom for class scenes, possibly finding some of the later participants of La Pyramide Humaine from going to La Goumbe earlier or talking to the waterskiers, etc.
Then the lack of use comparatively "high touch" production in Moi un Noir and the use in La Py...
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...of control that echoed what the participants were portraying.
In all, the presentation of the multiple, different perceptions of the same reality by the participants of the film (eg, who has won Nadine's affection, one person, everyone, no one?) is a subtle version of Rashmon's explicit presentation of clashing multiple realities. This also fits in well with the different presentations of the Abidjah between Moi, un Noir and La Pyramide Humaine.
As an aside, I think the party music opened with the same piece played at the bar in the Battle of Algiers bombing scene. Battle of Algiers was made years later so it probably was a coincidental connection, both just played a popular dance song, but the sound of the music accompanied by a visual of young French people dancing in a colonial setting made me think immediatly that the party was going to end up no where good.
Film Noir, as Paul Schrader integrates in his essay ‘Notes on Film Noir,’ reflects a marked phase in the history of films denoting a peculiar style observed during that period. More specifically, Film Noir is defined by intricate qualities like tone and mood, rather than generic compositions, settings and presentation. Just as ‘genre’ categorizes films on the basis of common occurrences of iconographic elements in a certain way, ‘style’ acts as the paradox that exemplifies the generality and singularity at the same time, in Film Noir, through the notion of morality. In other words, Film Noir is a genre that exquisitely entwines theme and style, and henceforth sheds light on individual difference in perception of a common phenomenon. Pertaining
This analysis will explore these cinematic techniques employed by Pontecorvo within a short sequence and examine their effects on our understanding of the issues and themes raised within the film.
In the film the music is very important. At the beginning it is set at
... time line of events. Which also goes hand in hand with Jacks insomnia, which shatters the barriers between reality versus fantasy, and memory versus dream for the spectator. Lastly the vast and bizarre camera angles from which the film was shot in help maintain the uncertain feeling for the spectator.
Hello my name is Daniel Quinn and today I will be talking to you about the parallels between the film Baraka and my novel Ishmael. To give you all some context before I start, I will explain the premises of both pieces of work. Baraka is a non-narrative documentary film that was released in 1992. Throughout the film there is no narration or dialogue, it is just a compilation of multiple events. Some of what is shown includes natural events, life, human activities and technological phenomenon. The film was shot in multiple locations that includes the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Ryoan temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smoldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations, of the Masai in Kenya, and chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling monastery.
To begin, the idea of two realisms is first illustrated in the opening sequence of the film and continues throughout the length of the story. For example, the neighborhood shown in the film is very staged, with warm and soft lighting, providing a calm, serene feeling.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
While all this was taking place on the other hand in France a new movement was surging of blanket term devised by critics for some of the French filmmakers of the late fifties and sixties who were impacted by the Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood films. It initially was never a movement which was officially planned, but the up surging filmmakers were being connected to it because of their self-conscious dismissal of classical filmmaking methods and their spirit of young iconoclasm which was a sample of the European art movies. Many filmmakers were involved with their work as they tried to involve the social and political turmoil’s of the era.
Movies will become less as of a political standpoint to more of a storytelling platform. Many filmmakers achieved this idea of storytelling by using narrative perversity (Berliner 9). According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one of the definitions of the word “perverse” is “improper, incorrect” (“Perverse”). Given this, narrative perversity is when the filmmaker turns away from the narrative’s linear timeline. Most movies, prior to the seventies, used the technique of scene x and scene y, scene x then scene y, or scene x therefore y (Berliner 10). The French Connection, a 1971 film directed by William Friedkin, used this technique which allowed it bring in a gross amount of $51,700,000. The plot of this movie consisted of two New York cops are trying to bust a heroin drug shipment from France; this five oscar winning thriller is considered one of the best crime movies of its time (“The French
This is notably clear through the ending sequence in City of God, where the civil war is situated in the middle of the street through erratic camera movements, making the audience feel like they are involved in this war rather than spectators. Furthermore, this idea of conflict is key through the shot reverse shot of Rocket in the middle with Lil’zee on the left and the police on the right. The message this scene communicates is that although violence may be associated with the urban environment, it does not mean the youth there, in particular, choose this lifestyle of crime. Therefore, although Meirelles has no experience living in the favela, he reiterates justice through Rocket and the prop of the camera as a motif for escapism. As well as that, Shorty’s apartment scene is another example of this conflict, identifying a power struggle as the use of fading in and out has the effect of Meirelles exploring that there will always be a power struggle in the urban environment because of the lack of governmental
conspicuous about French society of that period. The beauty of the film is that it
Analysis of Movie Moulin Rouge In this essay I will be analyzing in depth four scenes from Baz Luhrmann's critically acclaimed Moulin Rouge that was released in 2000. I will be analyzing the opening sequence, the sequence in the Moulin Rouge itself, the two dancing sequences 'Like a Virgin' and 'Tango Roxanne' and the final scenes of the film. Throughout this essay I will be commenting on the filming techniques that Luhrmann uses and what affects these have on the audience, also I will be analyzing how the film is similar and different to typical Hollywood Musicals.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
While reading the novel, I was most intrigued by how respectfully and amiably the guards and the local officials treated Meursault –¬ not at all like how a man under arrest for murder would be treated. However, after the OI, I understood that the Arabs – under French colonization – were stripped of political involvement and dehumanized, and that the hostility between the French and the Arabs was great during the 1940's. This explains why Meursault’s trial was not focused on the dead Arab, but on Meursault's refusing to cry at his mother funeral: for the French, defying societal norms was a much bigger crime than taking the life of an Arab.
Man has been said to be the master of their own destiny, but it all leads down to who is master and who is man. Perhaps it is not for us to question fate as it leads to the development of events that is outside our control. The real question that can be derived from the quagmire of philosophical understanding of moirai, is whether we accept our predetermined future and synapomorphy designed for us by a higher power. In breviloquence, the idea of Katharsis that causes the deep sense of pity and fear in the audience would disseminate throughout the viewers, making them feel sympathy, but not empathy. It is important to understand how this feeds the Status Quo, not in a disruptive manner, but in a more subservient nature when one challenges social taboo, the gods, or fate, in ‘anathemic' intention.