Mr. Nobody, written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, is a philosophical, thought provoking film that continually adds layers to its story, so much that it leaves you confused and caught up in its crazy logic. It is a movie about how our lives are made up of each and every choice we make. With beautiful cinematography and artistic notions, Mr. Nobody explores the idea that from each choice we make, there is an alternate universe in which we made a different choice. Movies about chance and fate can lead its viewers to make deep, emotional observations about how our lives could have ended up so differently depending on one simple decision. This can bring viewers to see how much we cannot control about our lives, leaving the viewer in a mix of …show more content…
awe and anxiety. This movie is structured around Nemo Nobody’s non-linear narrative of his life. His narration begins when he wakes up one morning only to realize that he is 118 years old in the year 2092, the last human that will die because of old age, and that he has become quite the commodity in this utopian like future. As far as Nemo is concerned, however, he is still a 34 year old man. Being the commodity that he is, a journalist sneaks into his hospital room to hear and report his story. It is then that we learn of the difficult choice Nemo had to make as a 9 year old boy: to stay with his father, or to leave with his mother after they’ve separated. We are then introduced to a myriad of different lives that Nemo could potentially lead based off of his decision. This is when the film begins to jump around in the storyline and become more confusing, but as each of his stories progress and even intertwine, the overall plot can start to be pieced together and become clearer. The style of this film is strategic and symbolic. It showcases key elements in the story that establish the personalities of characters each time Nemo finds himself in a new dimensional existence. The reason that Jaco Van Dormael use this non-linear narrative style is to show how confusing existence is, and how unsure of our actual existence we as humans really are. The connecting factor of each of the timelines is the women that Nemo ends up with. Divided up between three completely different girls, Elise, Anna, and Jean, the story seems to jump to and fro between their first meeting, marriages, and family life. Keep in mind that we are often placed in the same place and time, yet at very different dimensional perspectives throughout the film, to compare the extremely large differences that each person has on Nemo and the subsequent effects they have on the outcome of his life. When Nemo meets with Dr.
Feldheim, a strangely tattooed doctor, he is hypnotized and able to remember his past. He is even able to remember before birth, where one is still a part of the sacred and able to know every possible life with the parents they choose. Before birth, the angels tell you to “shh” and put their finger over your lips. This creates a mark on the upper lip to symbolize that they have now forgotten everything they once knew and are ready for their lives in the profane. However, the angels missed Nemo allowing him to remember everything. This could be the explanation as to why he has so many different memories of his past life, and trouble distinguishing which is real.
It becomes all the more clearer as the film reaches its climax, that there is something wholly wrong with old Mr. Nobody, not excluding that he lives in a futuristic city that shouldn't be even close to as futuristic as it is or that in his story Mars travel and vacationing seems to be an everyday occurrence in a handful of years within one of his dimensional counterparts. It's the fact that the film seems to be viewed through the eyes of a child that makes it so engaging and thought
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provoking. Eventually, you find out that the older Nemo was the only one who could distinguish what was real, or what actually existed. You find out that each of these parallel lives has yet to happen, and Nemo is still standing at the train station trying to decide what to do. When imagining what would happen, Nemo created all of these different lives that he could live out. At some point in time, the older Nemo is able to find a way to explain to the other Nemo that they do not exist. They actually show the construction of the different worlds he is believed to live in as well as the deconstruction of them. By including these parts, Jaco Van Dormael is able to show that entire worlds can be created in the imagination of a child, and when there is no use for it anymore, it becomes unneeded and broken down. The meaning of it all is revealed when Old Nemo declares that “every path is the right path.” This is clearly the way the 9 year old Nemo resolves his impossible dilemma.
In fact, one might say that the entire moving takes place in that uncertain second in which Nemo leaps for the departing train. Does he make it? The movie hints that he did not and must live with his delay in making a decision. Had he decided immediately when asked which parent to live with, he would have chosen his own path. Yet, he delays. This brief delay made him miss the train and set the path of his life. In his mind, through his alter-ego, he comes to peace with the outcome. In that epiphany, he realizes that the path he went was as valuable as the path he lost. It was also the right one. Old Nemo’s epiphany clearly makes this the “best day of [his] life.” This peace is signified by his dying which is followed by the rebirth of the “Big Crunch.” I think that’s the lesson to the viewer as well: “things work out in the end.” Perhaps there is a bit of fatalism in that. But perhaps there is some wisdom
too.
I chose to do my paper on the movie Sweet Nothing in My Ear. The movie was about a child who was born hearing and ended up going deaf, so his parents had to deliberate on whether or not they wanted to get him a cochlear implant. The wife Laura (played by Marlee Matlin) is deaf and her husband Dan is hearing. The movie is centered around Laura and Dan’s struggle to decide if a cochlear implant is what’s best for their son Adam. It doesn’t help Laura make the decision when her parents are both deaf, and her father is basically prejudiced against the hearing culture.
[2] Missing is a rather confusing film to follow at first. Admittedly, I had to view it a few times to understand what was happening. Perhaps the initial feeling after seeing this film is confusion. However, after having watched it a second, fourth, eighth time, what I really felt was anger. Each time I watched the film, the anger and disgust would grow, so much so that it pained me to watch it again. However, in identifying the cause of my anger, I began to realize many things.
...t actually be dead. “And here is the one good thing: / If [Zero is] alive, then so, briefly, are [the children]” (7). This abandonment of reality did not necessarily happen or may have been transient, but Zero simply maintains its existence as a possibility.
In the film, “North by Northwest” we see a series of shots that creates suspense and danger. The point of the film is very vague and it ends without a resolution to the main conflict. The incredible camera work and techniques that Alfred Hitchcock did created a feeling of danger and suspense, making the audience want to see more. Also, Hitchcock's film main character Roger O. Thornhill creates suspense with his mistaken identity and fight for his escape. The film uses a handful of shots, for example, medium shots, close ups, long shots and shot-reverse-shots. I found particularly interesting how a handful of shots can create suspense and the feeling of danger can create a misleading plot.
“There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!” (Sunset Boulevard). The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder focuses on a struggling screen writer who is hired to rewrite a silent film star’s script leading to a dysfunctional and fatal relationship. Sunset Boulevard is heavily influenced by the history of cinema starting from the 1930s to 1950 when the film was released.
After the fetus was found to be abnormal, the 2 partners were at discrepancy about whether to terminate the pregnancy or not. Gwen wanted to terminate the pregnancy while Nicole insisted on continuing the pregnancy. This dispute put stress on both partners and caused the first tear of their relationship. Besides the couple, everyone in the care team is also facing this ethical dilemma. Some people might agree with Gwen while others might be on the same page with Nicole. Some people might have no side but feel troubled and distraught by the situation. It’s natural and normal for care providers who are involved in a situation like this to have an opinion based on their personal
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and
On January 22, 2016, directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert premiered their comedy-drama film, Swiss Army Man starring Paul Dano, and Daniel Radcliffe at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics have positively received the film written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Swiss Army Man has received numerous accolades including, a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award Best Featured Film, and the Best Director award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Although Swiss Army Man is a comedy about a flatulating corps, it has a very profound message encoded into its context. The movie Swiss Army Man seamlessly presents the power social restraints have on people’s self-image, and the shame associated with not fitting into society’s standards
Trainspotting presents an ostensible image of fractured society. The 1996 film opens, famously, with a series of postulated choicesvariables, essentially, in the delineation of identity and opposition. Significant here is the tone in which these options are deliveredit might be considered the rhetorical voice of society, a playful exposition of the pressure placed on individuals to make the "correct" choices, to conform to expectation.
She called Eddie wanting to know what to do and he advises her to take one of the pills implying that it will be clear once she is on the drug (Limitless). This shows that in the movie, taking that little clear pill instantly fixes a situation. This is a view that is shared in the American society today. If you’re looking for proof, just think about how when a child is diagnosed with a hyperactivity disorder (ADD, ADHD) the doctor often immediately prescribes adderall.
Furthermore this movie revolves around a plot in which Nemo is seen in distinct timelines and different characters which are really hard to keep track. However it is very important to consider the claims made in this movie. It is claimed that Nemo as a child is capable of predicting the future and thinks that as long as he doesn’t make a choice everything seems to be possible. And the whole movie is based on this principle and
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.
...n (Director) mistakenly seems to believe can carry the whole film. On the strength "based on a true story", he has rejected attention-grabbing characters, an imaginative plot, and unforgettable villains.