Louis Malle’s “Elevator to the Gallows” is a film surrounding the lives of Florence Carala and Julien Tavernier. Florence and Julien plan to murder Florence’s husband, Simon. While Julien is stuck in an elevator, his car is stolen by Louis and Veronique. While Florence is waiting for Julien, she sees his car take off with Veronique. Assuming Julien has taken off with another women, Florence wanders the Paris streets feeling melancholy all night. This sets the film up to be an epic crime drama. Malle splits the film into three segments, one follows the two characters that steal the car, another follows Julien, and the last follows a wandering Florence. Throughout this film, we can see various aspects of the director’s cinematic style, themes, and philosophy – all of which play an important part in the world of art cinema. Louis Malle’s cinematic style is often associated with the film-noir style and new modern/wave style of art cinema. Louis Malle’s style is associated with film-noir due to the emphasis on crime, sexual motivations, and cynical attitudes. In Elevator to the Gallows, we can see these aspects of film noir throughout the film. At the beginning of the film, an example of this could be the camera’s focusing on close-ups of Florence and Julien’s mouth as they are finalizing the plans to kill Florence’s husband. While Simon’s murder goes according to plan, various events start to unravel that set the characters up for twists and turns. I believe that the beginning of these events start with Malle’s choice to implement a black cat (which symbolizes bad luck), as Julien murders Simon. With this stated, I also think that distance plays a key part in this noir film. We also see this with the above descr... ... middle of paper ... ...hough she plots to murder, Malle makes a point to almost victimize Florence. Should we really be feeling bad for her? Is she the one who really created this mess, or was it Julien? With most films, themes and philosophical values are an underlying subject. With Elevator to the Gallows, we can see a more societal approach to crime. Like many films in art cinema, most is up to interpretation. I take various themes away from this film. One being that one crime inevitably leads to another, and the other being that not just committing a crime, but carelessness in committing a crime leads to a spiral of events. Estrangement and confinement are also two major themes throughout the film. Literally, Julien is the one confined due to him being stuck in an elevator, but Florence is confined figuratively because as cliché as this sounds, she is a prisoner of love.
To be a True Blue Aussie you have to have a mate because “You've to have a mate,” as verbalized by poet Dave Butler in 2013. For in Aussie culture, a mate is a person whose actions speak louder than their words. In Australia, being a mate is a value that is held in the highest respect.
Such a series of tragic events has a great toll among the two main characters (Cox ) . For a vicious, careless indivi...
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.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
Who should take the blame for this tragedy? In Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano is portrayed as a valiant hero who exhibits humorous intelligence as well as great generosity. However, if we examine the play more carefully, we would find that Cyrano is personally responsible for his downfall; his constant aspiration for perfection and excessive deception eventually leads to his death. Such ornery behavior is exhibited when he adamantly insists on being himself, when he feigns the love letters for Christian, and when he hesitates to tell the truth and confess his love to Roxane. These acts ultimately aid in his defeat, leading us to conclude Cyrano is the only one to blame for his own destruction.
Suspense is a 1913 film that portrays the story of a tramp intruding into a family’s home, where a mother takes care of her child while her husband is away. The plot is a common one that had been used previous times before the film’s release, such as in The Lonely Villa (1909). However, through taking advantage of the single frame shot, the filmmakers were able to create a masterful aesthetic of two separate stories that turn a basic plot into a complex story. The film created an inventive way of illustrating stories within cinema by allowing the audience the chance to consume more narrative in less time within just one take.
Rife with different themes in every storyline, Les Misérables entices critics to examine the numerous themes and speculate as to their meanings. These themes that they elicit from the text include, but are not limited to, fate dictating the course of one’s life, good works saving every soul, evil being the root of all of the problems of humanity, society weighing a person down, misfortune being the sole cause of faults in a person, love being the meaning of life, and the ability of love to alter a person. Many who read the novel are enamored with the many themes and agree that they are all explicitly explored. First, according to the critic Reeves, one can try to shape his own destiny all that he wants by “[chiseling] the ‘mysterious block’” from which his fate is made. However, no matter...
The parallel between Alicia’s dependence on Devlin and Alex’s on his mother is prominent in the final scene. The scene takes place on the grand staircase of Alex’s mansion. Influenced by German Expressionism, stairs serve an integral role in this and subsequent films. Alicia, propped up by Devlin, and Alex, shadowed by his over-bearing mother, all descend the grand staircase in the mansion under the eyes of the Nazi party. Outside of the house, Alicia and Devlin make their escape to freedom while Alex reluctantly returns up the stairs to his fate with the Nazis. Ending the film on the stairs attests to Hitchcock’s style.
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.
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
To bring you into Viconte's world, you must place yourself in early Baroque France. Affluence is everything, and discreteness is a virtue. The beautiful and vixenous Marquis De Merteuil and promiscuous Viconte Valmont are a fiery duo. The Marquis has requested the assistance of Viconte in what she describes as a "heroic undertaking". More clearly stated: revenge on her former husband who ran off with Viconte's mistress. The idea is to destroy and ruin Cecile, the ex-husband's virginal bride- to -be. Unfortunately for the Marquis, Viconte has another challenge to conquer. He set his sight on the virtuous Madam de Tourvel. Viconte intends to make the lovely lady fall in love with him. Despite his refusal of her request, Viconte persuades the Marquis to promise him a reward (a sexual favor) if he accomplishes his self-appointed task. In the meantime, the Marquis drags in a poor music teacher Dawsoni to achieve her desires. Eventually for purposes of revenge, Viconte assists the Marquis in her venture. This leads to Madam de Tourvel falling in love with Viconte, as he desperately falls in love with her. Their love is tormented by the fact he is ashamed of actually loving, and all of his skeletons come out to haunt him. Viconte brings down the Marquis, but fights Dawsoni because of Cecil's honor.
Red is the prison’s head chef and Norma is her sidekick. Both women are in prison due to the pressures of their husbands to maintain a certain role. Red’s husband was involved in the Russian Mafia thus making her conform to the roles of a “mafia wife” that is to be quite, be helpful, and above all be respectful. Red eventually is forced to be a drug mule for the mafia landing here in jail for life. Norma on the other hand was involved with a cult leader who forced woman to marry him to make the cult larger. Norma is a mute character due to the continuous oppression by this man leading her to a complete psychotic breakdown and pushing her husband off a cliff to his death landing Norma in jail for life. Both women were once fighting for basic human rights within their own lives. Both were never looked to as an influence in a highly oppressed patriarchal society. They were women who were forced to play the historical roles of the “lady of the house.” De Beauvoir writes, “We can see now that the myth [of woman] is in large part explained by its usefulness to man. The myth of woman is a luxury. It can appear only if man escapes from the urgent demands of his needs; the more relationships are concretely lived, the less they are idealized” (1271). Simply, these women were oppressed to play the historical role in their home life in order for their husbands to feed his needs. They are just a pawn in the
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...