Still Life
"Each of us is a kind of crossroads where things happen. The crossroads is purely passive, something happens there. A different thing, equally valid happens elsewhere. There is no choice, it is a matter of chance." Ð Levi-Strauss
"It was boring."
"How could you find it boring?"
"It just...sat there. Mooned over itself. It was talky."
"It was...great. I dunno. I think it says something to people in transition."
"Well, I'd hardly think of my life as...I don't know..."
"Static?"
"Right."
My mother, my sister, my father and I walked two blocks, and took the subway back to our hotel.
That wasn't the first time I'd seen the movie. The summer I learned how to wear cologne, I was burning my last bridge to the city of Los Angeles, one kiss at a time in a Venice Beach apartment. There was an early cut of Lost In Translation playing on a gaudy television, in a gaudy entertainment center, in a gaudy black leather-smeared den, in a rundown walk-up.
You can see without seeing, obviously. I can certainly tell you the converse is true. I'd been working most of that summer as an overnighter in a chic department store catering to aging Westwood matriarchs, leaving the sales floor perfumed with my distaste for high fashion. But I remember, more than anything else from that last tango on Figueroa, Scarlett Johansson in a pink wig, singing "Brass In Pocket" to a dried-up matinee idol.
"You know, looking back, I'm beginning to realize...those characters were assholes! How did we like them?"
"Maybe they were but...I dunno. I just see something in Charlotte that's so...'I am trapped here, and I don't know it.'"
"But Bill Murray! What a fuckin' dick!"
"I don't see that. I just...Maybe this rings to me in a way it shouldn't."
"I'm not trying to make fun of the movie, I liked the movie too, but you've got to--"
"I know. You're very even-handed, Josh, and I'm putting on extra eyeshadow."
"Fuck you, you know what I mean."
"You workin' today?"
"Shit, yeah. Call after you're out of seminar."
"Cool."
I walk home, and sure as silver, we meet at 7.
He is certainly not wrong, but he forgets completely why I, and many others, are completely in love with these two unlikely friends. Chance. The best part of Lost In Translation is not what everyone points out - the imagery, the music, the acting, the sweetness and strangeness of the narrative, but it is how the viewer finds it.
The way that a movie is pieced together by the director/producers has a huge impact on the viewer’s experience. Stylistic elements are used to help engage the viewer; however, without these techniques the viewer will most likely loose interest. In this essay I will be taking a look at a scene within the movie Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942. Casablanca is a classic film that is reviewed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. This could be due to the notable quotes used throughout the movie, or its ability to follow a historic, comical, and romantic storyline throughout the course of the film. It caters to several different viewers, making this movie favorable to many. This scene in Casablanca uses specific editing techniques
Dazed and Confused is a film that follows a plethora of characters on the last day of school before summer vacation. Although lacking in tangible plot, it makes a bold attempt to encompass and present the zeitgeist of the 1970s. In my opinion it is as if Dazed and Confused was produced in hopes of making those viewers who lived through the 1970s feel a sense of nostalgia. The film’s trajectory, harnessing of zeitgeist, and soundtrack are all very similar to George Lucas’s American Graffiti—a film that also successfully rooted in nostalgia. Dazed and Confused was released in 1993 and, like American Graffiti, was able to look over its shoulder to determine what music stood the test of time. The film attempts to epitomize what it meant for someone to grow up in the 1970s. Its success depends on its ability to recreate the spirit present in that era. In this paper I will talk about how the use of the popular soundtrack functions with the overall narrative, show ways in which characters actually interact with the music, how the soundtrack functions in a specific scene, explain my personal relationship to the soundtrack, and touch briefly on how the meaning of the film has changed over the course of time.
"Life Quotes and Sayings, Thoughts on the Philosophy of Life." The Quote Garden - Quotes, Sayings, Quotations, Verses. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
Unfortunately, Coppola changed the style of Classical Hollywood Cinema by not allowing the characters to not be fully aware of everything. For example, during the scene of the whiskey commercial, Bob Harris was confused because of his Japanese interpreter didn’t speak like the Japanese commercial director. In all, Bob was lost and the audience without the use of subtitles. Being away from their true lives Bob, the washed up movie actor, and Charlotte, the young wife, find comfort in each other. Being lost in their own lives and marriages the short time built a love that take years to achieve. The lingering confusion of Lost in Translation is the whisper between Bob and Charlotte that leaves Act III
"Life Quotes and Sayings, Thoughts on the Philosophy of Life." The Quote Garden - Quotes, Sayings, Quotations, Verses. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
Life in USSR under Stalin." Life in USSR under Stalin. History Learning Site, 2000. Web. 24
Potter, Claire. "Should They Stay or Should They Go?: A Few Thoughts on Who is 'Supposed' To Be in College.". The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2011. Web. 16 November 2013.
In breaking down The Prestige overall, the film utilizes cinematography, sound, and its mise-en-scene to convey its theme. The film’s theme is centered on sacrifice, obsession, and secret. By focusing on one scene specifically it is conceivable to completely value the film's exceptionally demanding and viable utilization of mise-en-scene and cinematography to exhibit and uncover detail. The scene I have carefully examined is that of the film's opening in which it we are presented with a scatter of many hats.
“Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.” In
...ting as followed in the Ancient Period and shows the changing beliefs of the Egyptians and their embrace of the Christian faith. It is also interesting to note that the wings in the icons seem to be based on the depiction in the papyrus scroll, attesting to the influence of Ancient Egyptian art on the period.
“Is College Worth It?” Pews Research Center. May 15, 2011. Pg. 26. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/05/higher-ed-report.pdf. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Fate defines itself as that if you are on its path, you could not change what the outcome was going to be. In Act
Bhomwik, Someswar. "Politics of Film Censorship: Limits of Tolerance." Economic and Political Weekly 37.35 (2002): 3574 - 3577. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
“Every challenge you encounter in life is a fork in the road. You have the choice to choose which way to go - backward, forward, breakdown or breakthrough,...
...RT, Richard, The Administration of Aesthetics: Censorship, Political Criticism & The Public Sphere, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994