Directed by Spike Jonze, Her stars Joaquin Pheonix Theodore, Scarlett Johansson as Samantha, and Amy Adams as Amy. The film follows Theodore and the operating system called Samantha that he eventually falls in love with. Jonze, since the beginning of his career, has focused on bringing an art house style to the masses. Even with his first feature film, Being John Malkovich (1999), Jonze focused on incorporating his specific blend of art house and popular film techniques into a major film.
Jonze’s most recent endeavor, Her (2013), is the culmination of all his previous efforts. Her’s uniqueness is not rooted in the novelty of the story; while a man falling in love with an operating system does raise some interesting philosophical questions, at the core Her is just a romantic film. What makes Her unique is the way the story is presented—the films artistic vision serves as a vessel for Spike Jonze’s unique exploration of what the world looks like to a man that has fallen in love, and what happens after that love is taken away from him.
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Her’s biggest strength is how beautifully relatable it is.
There is not a single frame in Her that could not be its own photograph—while most high ranking films do have a similar quality it seems to me that the world in Her, a world that is perpetually fifteen minutes ahead, is specifically created for this. Every building, every person, even the cubicles in Theodore’s office seems to be created to match a very specific aesthetic. It’s not like Snowpiercer (2013) where the world that director Boong Jong-Ho created is meant to seem far off in the future and far away from the real world, Her has the exact opposite quality. Jonze’s film is meant to feel real while maintaining a semblance of distance to the viewer; it’s meant to make the viewer feel sympathetic, not empathetic. That’s the main quality that makes Her so good—everything in the movie is presented realistically and beautifully, without being
pretentious. There’s very little that this movie does wrong. Its exposition is overlaid on top of interesting and relevant dialogue by playing montages of Theodore’s memories, keeping the exposition and the important dialogue interesting. It doesn’t patronize the viewer, it assumes that the viewer can keep up with its futuristic plot developments and relatively progressive story line. However, there are moments in the movie that seem slightly unnecessary. Her is an exploration of human relationships, and specifically how Theodore interacts with those around him. However, there’s a scene early in the movie where he is introduced to Amy Adams’ boyfriend. This scene is puzzlingly unnecessary—not to say that the scene wasn’t entertaining, but it doesn’t offer anything other than give an excuse for Adams’ character to appear again later in the film. For a movie that is so intricately constructed, it seems strange to include the scene. There’s very few people who won’t find something relatable in Her. That’s the beauty of a film like this—Her could lack all of the dialogue, all of the philosophical meandering and still remain a beautiful piece of art. Her is a study in film aesthetics. The technical aspects; color grading, cinematography, score, and set design all work in perfect harmony to drive the story forward. As long as the technical aspects endure, Jonze’s film remains an experience that is unique every time. As the viewer evolves, so does the meaning within Her.
The auteur theory is a view on filmmaking that consists of three equally important premises: technical competence, interior meaning, and personal signature of the director. Auteur is a French word for author. The auteur theory was developed by Andrew Sarris, a well-known American film critic. Technical competence of the Auteur deals with how the director films the movie in their own style. Personal signature includes recurring themes that are present within the director’s line of work with characteristics of style, which serve as a signature. The third and ultimate premise of the Auteur theory is the interior meaning which is basically the main theme behind the film.
Beyond the Lights, is a romantic drama film Directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. The film premiered in September 2014 at an international film festival held in Toronto, and this followed by its release on November 14th, 2014 in the United States. The film is one of the strangest music industry romance based films, alternating between the entertainment business, wisdom and heartfelt flourishes. Yet, Gina Prince-Blythewood manages to show all the elements of her play into an irrefutably entertaining package.
Reichardt, Kelly (Director), Raymond, John and Reichardt, Kelly (Writers), Williams, Michelle and Robinson, John (Performances). 2008. Oscilloscope Pictures, 2009. DVD
How would mankind communicate to each other without names? Names are what describe people in terms of personality, traits, and association. That’s why names are immensely important and thus, used in films such as Bound, in order to create a deeper meaning in a character’s actions and personality. The film Bound is written and directed by The Wachowskis. The film is about two lesbians: ex-convict Corky, and lesbian prostitute Violet who is in a relationship with mob money-launderer Caesar but decides to escape from Caesar after meeting Corky for she fell in love with her the moment she sow her in the elevator. So Violet wants to leave Caesar for Corky, but that’s not all. She and Corky come up with a strategy to steal two million dollars from the mob and blame it on Caesar. "Your name defines you," says Gregg Steiner, a Los Angeles talent manager (Parenting). In the film Bound, characters’ names have a lot of significance in which some have more connotations than others. Each character’s name holds symbolic meaning to the character’s role in the film and this is very apparent among Corky, Violet, and Caesar as well as the supporting casts: Gino and Johnny Marzzone.
Incohesive, long, and dialogue-heavy, Inherent Vice has all the potential to flounder. Yet under the steady (or rather, wild) hands of director Paul Thomas Anderson, the film becomes a psychedelic, incredibly enjoyable ride brimming with wit and melancholy. The film follows Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello (played in routinely magnificent fashion by the now ever-reliable Joaquin Phoenix), and his exploits to help his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fey (Katherine Waterston, also exquisite) investigate a kidnapping of notorious real-estate billionaire Mickey Wolfmann. From there, the plot descends (or ascends, depending on your perspective of the film) into sumptuous lunacy; a mystery involving the coveted and secretive
Jezebel is a dramatic, romantic film set in 1852 in New Orleans, Louisiana and based on the play, Jezebel, by Owen Davis Sr. who collaborated with the other writers - Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Robert Buckner, and Louis F. Edelman to create this award-winning movie. Jezebel was filmed in 1938 with William Wyler as the director and producer, along with Warner Bros (“Jezebel” IMDb and “Jezebel” Wikipedia). This movie depicts themes of pushing against societal rules, out of rebellion or progressive thinking, and the consequences these actions bring. The yellow fever epidemic was also a running theme throughout the film. During the 1930s, art forms depicted life very plainly because of the Great Depression in the United States. Therefore, the movie’s interpretation of the historical affairs that occurred in this period is mainly accurate with emphasis on New Orleans’ genteel societal rules of the 1850s and on the epidemic of yellow fever.
The popular dancing movie, Footloose, was directed by Herbert Ross in 1984. Craig Brewer, produced a remake of Footloose in 2011. Both of the original Footloose and the remake, have multiple differences that split them apart. Although they follow the same theme, the sequence of events that took place happened in different orders and well as some characters were not present in the remake as they were in the original. The acting, dancing, and setting were varied slightly but it followed the same trend as the original. Directors Herbert Ross and Craig Brewer, directed the same film, while Craig Brewer made the film more modern, while keeping the film following the same trend.
In almost every film there is constant gender expectation and role audiences expect men and women to act like in a particular story. It always seems that every plot the women are the ones that can't fend for themselves, so they are saved by masculine male figure. Although this is how most stories pan out, with slasher films, this is not entirely true. Slasher films have “The immensely generative story of a psycho killer who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived” (Clover 193). It is thought that most people only subside
"Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me," says Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols in 1967 is an influential satire/comedy film about a recent East Coast college graduated who finds himself alienated and aimless in the changing, social and sexual general public of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society. The theme of the film is of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, self-indulgent, and discredited older generation (that finds stability in “plastics”) that I found to be quite clear and understanding, while also capturing the real spirit of the times and allows America's youth to perceive onscreen an image of themselves which they can both identify with and emulate. The Graduate is a significant film even today due to its use of abstract camera angles, telephoto lenses, excellent cinematography, and great acting. Few visual effects were used, however, matting and numerous point of view shots were used. These characteristics and the fabulous use of mis-en-scene, great writing and the era of the film all made The Graduate what it is today, magnificent.
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
How does it feel starting over in a completely new place? In the movie “The Karate Kid”, Daniel, the main character, and his mom moved to the California from New Jersey because of his mom’s new job offer. Daniel started going to school in California and met a girl named Ali, whom he started to like. He started going out with her. Daniel was getting beat up by some bullies; one of them was Ali’s ex-boyfriend. They knew karate very well, but Daniel did not. So Daniel decided to learn karate. Daniel and his mom were living in an apartment and one day he discovers that the handyman at his apartment, Mr.Miyagi, knows karate very well. He asked Mr.Miyagi to teach him karate, and Mr.Miyagi became his karate teacher. It was hard for him to make new friends in a new place and he believed that Mr.Miyagi would be the only best friend he ever met.
Jealousy is an emotion that many would experience in their lifetime. The trigger for the emotion jealousy differs for everyone but no doubt that people would experience this emotion a handful of times in their life. Many if not most people would develop jealousy during their time in a relationship regardless of the length of the relationship. Some researchers like Attridge (2013) consider jealousy a positive behavior because of the fear of losing one’s partner could mean the transition of one love style to another with an increase in one of the components. There are different types of jealousy (Miller,
‘Our interest in the parallels between the adaptation inter-texts is further enhanced by consideration of their marked differences in textual form,’
The world before her is a film of hope and dreams for Indian women. We examine two girls with different paths but one goal in common, empowerment. This term conveys a wide range of interpretations and definitions one of them being power over oneself. Both Prachi and Ruhi manifest a will for female empowerment but both have distinct views on how this is achieved. Prachi believes the way to achieve empowerment is through her mind and strength, while she still confines to tradition views of Indian culture. Ruhi desires to achieve female empowerment by exposing her beauty in a non-conservative way while maintaining her Indian identity.
“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.