Kahlil Mitchell - Smith ENG 254: Intro to Film. 4/28 Surreal and Disturbing : How Fantastic Planet Forces its Viewer to Confront Their Relationship with Life on Earth Introduction Fantastic Planet by René Laloux is a film that has astonished audiences for more than 50 years. It utilizes mise-en-scene coupled with shot distance manipulation to craft a truly alien world in which its primary inhabitants (called draags) are framed as domineering and dangerous. Yet, this sense of scale is similarly used to showcase how the humans, called oms, are able to use their unique abilities and ingenuity to confront the dragons. This creates a theme of power in which there is an ongoing power imbalance between the large and domineering draags and the …show more content…
In fact, this same focus is presenting the same figures, with the draag being clearly visible and the oms being human-shaped blobs. However, such oms are now framed as being in a position of power as a mass of them are able to overwhelm and kill the draag. This reframing is quite intriguing as the exact same formal elements are being reused and recontextualized through the placement and actions of the subjects in the frame. Now it is the oms who have finally found a means to defeat the draags; a feat not initially thought possible by the oms or the draags. The same use of a medium close-up shot showcases the same difference in scale, this time highlighting how the small blobs are overwhelming the visible drag. With the aforementioned analogy to the oms as being relative to insects and the draags being relative to humans, the viewer is rendered even more uncomfortable as the ant analogues are killing the human analogues. It makes the viewer wonder if the tiny creatures that we believe we have complete dominion over could also overpower and kill us if we are not careful. After all, the scene presents the ant analogues, …show more content…
Curiosity Through Metaphysical Abstraction While much of the scalar differences showcased in the film feature the draags directly demeaning and killing the oms, there are also instances of scale being coupled with mise-en-scene to create an abstract and psychedelic framing of varying instances in the film. Here it is apt to go back to an earlier scene that is perhaps one of the most famous in the entire film. Here we find a young Terr, the main character of the story, witnessing 4 male draags undergoing a kind of odd ritual. The scene is first presented with a wide shot showing all the draags before it transitions between close-up and medium shots to show all of the individual draags undergoing the ritual. Throughout this scene, the camera cuts to Terr, indicating that we are meant to view this ritualistic meditation from his perspective and should pay close attention to his facial expressions. After the close-ups show the individual draags undergoing parts of the ritual, the scene transitions to one static shot in which the mise-en-scene is manipulated to showcase what happens to the bodies of the draags in the midst
Cowperthwaite uses pathos to grab her audience’s attention, but not to a point where they are enraged; she uses just the right amount to persuade them that the animals at SeaWorld are in terrible living conditions and are treated
Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S Lewis, is an exciting tale of one man’s unintentional adventures in space. A philologist by the name of Dr. Elwin Ransom accidentally interrupts the plans of two scientists, Professor Weston and his partner Devine, and as a result is kidnapped and taken to Mars. The criminal pair intend to offer Ransom as a sacrifice, unbeknownst to their victim, but Ransom eventually discovers their evil plans and is determined to fight for his life. Ransom manages to escape from his captors once they land on the planet, but then finds himself alone on a strange planet that he knows nothing about. Ransom’s honor, curiosity, and bravery aid him throughout his journey in a terrifying but fantastic new world, leading him to discover
“Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story” is a documentary featuring Stan Romanek and his ties to what some believe is the connection to aliens and forces beyond ourselves. Stan Romanek is an individual who claims to have been first abducted in the year 2000, and since then has been trying to share his experiences. With the help of J3FILMS, Romanek’s story is brought to the eyes of thousands in a documentary featuring his twenty years of encounters. Because “Extraordinary” documents a controversial topic, criticism can be expected from viewers of the film, as many have expressed since its release. Despite the backlash, many of these viewers find that the closing message from the film rings true; that the human race is most likely not alone, and
The setting and environment of the movie had successfully fulfilled the naturalism setting. The characters’ fate also matched the naturalist’s perspective about humanity.
D'Arcy McNickle, through his classic novel, Runner in the Sun, is able to articulate a clear and well informed account of the historic cultures and lifestyles of Native Americans, document the struggles of these groups as they adapt to changing environmental and social circumstances, propose solutions to these struggles in the form of new crops, knowledge, and leadership, critique modern culture through the activities of his characters, and support an engaging and well-constructed storyline. The primary struggles demonstrated in this work seem to be those between Native Americans and Nature and those within Native American society. The story documents these people as they work to reconcile these struggles. Solutions are proposed and adopted
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.
Understanding the Big Bug Movies of the 1950s”, William M. Tsutsui states, “Critics and historians have invariably interpreted these cinematic big bugs as symbolic manifestations of Cold War era anxieties, including nuclear fear, concern over communist infiltration, ambivalence about science, and technocratic authority”( Tsutsui, pg. 1). 237). The's' of the's'. Indeed, most of the big bug movies, and gigantic monster movies are there as a representation of peoples anxieties pertaining to the situation that certain group of people is experiencing, like war, or fear. The film Godzilla helped its viewers deal with the trauma they had about the atomic age. It wasn’t a secret, a fear you had to keep to yourself because the film in a way helped connect people from different countries to have a little sympathy for their fellow human being misfortunes.
Rocket Boys is a memoir about a boy named Sonny and his dream of building rockets. It’s the fifties and the town of Coalwood, West Virginia, is more dependent on its mine now, than ever. Most of the boys in Coalwood are expected to play football in their early years, and mine in their late years. However, Sonny and his friends, together named the Rocket Boys, have other ideas. Because of the launch of the Russian satellite, Sputnik, the boys have been inspired to one day, launch a rocket of their own.
...n earth is not alone” create engagement and curiosity. The montage sequence of Will barricading his home and the sheer sunset reflecting from the window informs that the protagonists are vulnerable to night. The bird’s eye view shot of Will in the bathtub with his dog and hugging a sniper emphasises the protagonist’s vulnerability. This visual construction has really exerted a strong emotional effect for the audience as well as a clear emotional synopsis of a dystopian narrative.
...r, with investigation into the visual elements of this film, meanings of this film expand beyond the literal dialog and -- existing in the film.
Gallagher, T. 2002. Senses of Cinema – Max Ophuls: A New Art – But Who Notices?. [online] Available at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/ophuls/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
In the wake of global warming and environmental degradation, many media outlets are focusing on ways to alert the public to sustain the planet. In “Princess Mononoke,” the film aesthetically creates a complex socio-cultural world in where the audience is force to weigh in on complex questions about our nature and how we treat the planet. The film follows Ashitaka as he journeys from his home village to western Japan to find answers to his impending doom. His quest soon leads him to the industrious fort of “Irontown,” and he finds himself the middle of a deadly battle between humans and spirits. “Princess Mononoke” depicts a sublime story of a devastating war on humans against nature and challenges the audience to find the real-world application in it.
Pedro Almodovar’s 1997 film Live Flesh (Carne Tremula), is rich in both visual and story elements, making in the perfect candidate for a scene analysis. Upon writing this paper, however, this was almost to my disadvantage. I watched it through and whittled it down to about five scenes I considered analyzing. This self-challenge is a testament to not only this film, but Almodovar’s whole body of work; he has created so many thoughtful, intricate, and all together entertaining films in his career, I had to somehow forgive myself for just choosing one short scene out of only one of his movies for analysis. So, without further ado, here is an analysis of a scene from Live Flesh.
Cinematographer Jasper Wolf skillfully employs a variety of visual techniques to convey the eerie, otherworldly atmosphere that pervades the film, making liberal use of wide-angle lenses, slow zooms, and extreme close-ups to generate a sense of spatial disorientation and temporal instability. Similarly, composers Max Richter and Lorne Balfe contribute an evocative score that oscillates between ethereal ambiance and pulsating electronica, mirroring the characters’ shifting emotional states and heightening the overall sense of
In an instant, Alice stops, hugging a street pole and we hear the low growl of something inhuman off-screen, and at that moment, the prospect of danger becomes inherently unified with the threat of bodily harm, and a painful death. Suddenly a screeching bus charges into frame between Alice and the camera, and the animalistic growl is subsumed into the screeching breaks of the bus providing an instant cathartic relief from the tension. For the film viewer, our aesthetic distance from the film, that is knowing the perception is fiction, has provided albeit, short-lived but undeniably palpable feeling of the sublime. While safety arriving in the form of the bus brings us relief from the building tension, the sublime, arising only for a few moments, is felt as the danger and threat of death through bodily harm was all but too