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. The limited shots used in the …show more content…
Thornhill and Eve Kendall's escape was. The medium shots showed those around Roger O. Thornhill, letting us see those behind him and the environment he was in. The close up showed face reactions between characters creating emotion and prediction. In addition, shot-reverse-shots were used in conversations between characters creating tension and drama. UFilm Analysis Blog states, “The camera methods and techniques in North by Northwest, contribute to the feeling of suspense that this film is known for. Without the varied use of techniques the suspense created by the environment, character-environment interaction and character-character interaction, would be lacking. Establishing shots, all create a smooth, believable and above all suspenseful film.” On the other hand, the characters clothes say alot about the character and their identity. Christopher D. Morris states, “Thornhill’s clothes are just as illusory guarantors of identity as his driver’s license. His suits provides only spurious confirmation of his “true” identity when he lamely compares it to “Kaplan’s” smaller jacket” (50). Morris agrees with the fact that the characters clothes identifies them and shows who they are. For example, as Roger O. Thornhill and Eve Kendall are in Mount
What marks North by Northwest as the father of the modern action film is that of its hero. He is a contemporary man, with a decent and respectful job (here an advertising executive). As opposed to the heroes of Westerns, who are dark and mysterious characters with shady pasts, in the action film the hero is likeable, attractive, and witty. What made Cary Grant so perfect for the role of Thornhill is that he is attractive to both men and women. “Cary Grant is the male love object,” said Pauline Kael. “Men want to be as lucky and enviable as he is—they want to be like him. And women imagine landing him.” The influence of North by Northwest on the action and spy film is immeasurable. It influenced the James Bond series, the Die Hard movies, and even science fiction films such as Total Recall. What Hitchcock did, basically, was create an action film of such quality that directors ever since have been trying to equal its success in story, action, and characterization.
The movie Dope, written and directed by Rick Famuyiwa, follows the story of Malcolm through his senior year of high school in the Inglewood California. He lives in a poor neighborhood, with only his mom, yet he still strives for greatness. He has a couple of friends, and they all love 90’s hip hop culture. They try to do their best to stay out of trouble and away from bullies. Malcolm sees a girl he likes and ends up following her to a drug dealer’s birthday party. When the cops bust the birthday party, he unknowingly goes home with all the drugs and the gun that the drug dealer owns. This sets off a wild chain reaction, as he now has to sell these drugs to payoff the supplier, who happens to be the Harvard Alumni that Malcolm’s needs approval
Dear Zachary is a heart-wrenching documentary made by filmmaker Kurt Kuenne. Originally intended as a tribute for the deceased Andrew Bagby’s unborn son, Zachary, the purpose changes drastically when Shirley Turner, Andrew’s ex-girlfriend and killer (and Zachary’s mother), kills Zachary in a tragic murder-suicide. Believing that Shirley Turner should never have had custody of Zachary and that poorly made bail laws led to Zachary’s death, Kuenne alters his documentary to have a more argumentative message. Kurt Kuenne’s argument in his documentary Dear Zachary is that bail laws for those charged with a serious crime need to be reformed in order to protect people – especially any children – who may fall under the custody of the accused criminal.
“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.
In the movie we see a native American man giving a man a woman and
The film The Searchers directed by John Ford, featured actor John Wayne. The setting of the film takes place in 1868 in the frontier of Texas. The main character, Ethan Edwards was an ex-confederate soldier, who had return home from the war. The question of “Was John Wayne’s character, Ethan, an Indian hater?” can be answered through the use of examples found throughout the movie. Ethan can be depicted as an Indian hater because of the dislike of his 1/8 Cherokee nephew Martin and other natives, his view of captured women by the Natives and his urge for the killing of the Comanche natives. During 1868 you have an expansion of the western frontier. People are going out west, to make a better future for themselves. The western frontier was a
Alfred Hitchcock's idea of horror involves human suspense and teh realistic aspect of scary situations. Hitchcocks masterful directing leads the audience to be the frist to understand what is going on. The characters are left in the dark until the suspense reaches its climax. As the impending danger builds, the viewer is allowed to wtiness the situation before the character. This raises the level of suspense making it more realistic. Hitchcock takes normal situations and adds a terffiying twist. The twist is always something that has never happened, but is definetely possible. Hitchcocks The Birds is an excellent example of this. He takes normal situation with normal birds and turns them into killers. As the birds gather behind one unsuspecting victim, only the audience is allowed to see the impending danger. The woman is calm and collected as she waits on the bench. Hitchcock adds a little scare music and the woman suddenly realizes she is being watched. She whips around in horror and the birds are there ready to attack. This scfene is not a common occurance, but to an overactive imagination it could become a very real possibility.
To understand why Hitchcock believed that he should never have put in a flashback that was a lie, requires an understanding of the traditional construction of narrativity. Defined by Braudy and Cohen as “the process by which a perceiver actively constructs a story from the fictional data provided by the narrative medium” (83), narrativity relies on the relationships between narrative structure, narrator or narration, and the narratee.
Alfred Hitchcock masters the art of storytelling, framing every shot carefully to help further the plot and develop characters. The techniques of visual storytelling that Hitchcock implements in his films are not just meant to entertain; they all serve specific purposes in building his fictional universes. Hitchcock establishes the personalities of his characters by showing exactly what the characters see and hear, as well as their reactions to their surroundings. Along with point-of-view shots, Hitchcock employs montage editing, creating suspense and further allowing characters to be seen as multi-faceted beings. Point-of-view shots are most apparent from the Rear Window.
A League of Their Own (Marshall, 1992) explicitly characterizes an American era when a woman’s place was in the home. Even our modern perspective implicitly follows suit. Although women have gained rights and freedoms since the 1930’s, sexism remains prevalent in America. This film offers an illustration when men went to war and big business men utilized women as temporary replacements in factories, sports, and so on. Here, course concepts, such as gender socialization, gender expressions, role stereotypes, emotion expressions, and language, correspond to the film’s characters and themes.
There are two other scenes that exemplify Hitchcock’s technical competence and ability to connect his vision with the film’s subject matter. A turning part of the film is when Alex realizes he has married an enemy to the Nazi party. He drudges up the staircase, a central facet of a Hitchcock film, to break the news to his mother. Alex, sitting in a chair, delivers the line “I am married to an American agent”. The image of Alex is an overhead close up shot in low-key lighting. This scene denotes a shift in Alex’s character. He is no longer trusting of Alicia because now she poses a threat to his façade for the Nazis.
"Fed Up (Soechtig, 2014)." narrated by Katie Couric, focuses on the growing link between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic. The film aggressively attacks the food industry, advertising, and the government who, it claims, all contribute to the U.S. sugar-dependent, obesity problem. The film sets out to prove the government, and food industry is knowingly causing an increase in the amount of obese children. It reserves its most critical comments for government advisory panels who make and enforce food and health policy, and its failure to properly regulate the food industry. They claim lobbyists for the sugar board have been instrumental in the removal of negative statistics from research papers worldwide. Instead
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
In addition, the elements of lighting can be a supplement to a visual story with alluring amount of light and darkness. Firstly, light versus dark is a complex theme in the film. It is looking at terms of the film’s images with use of lighting, day and night, and use of color. Second, is the way the film examines the dark recesses of the human mind and its dimensions of evil. For example, in one scene in the film, Marion Crane gets to know Norman Bates a little too well. Norman states, “Well a boy’s best friend is his mother”. There is an alluring shadow behind Norman Bates, as a shadow is not seen from Crane. It was implied in the film that Bates was deranged and had multiple personal...
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is a Steven Spielberg science fiction drama film, which conveys the story of a younger generation robot, David, who yearns for his human mother’s love. David’s character stimulates the mind-body question. What is the connection between our “minds” and our bodies?