In both When Harry Met Sally (1983) and Pillow Talk (1959), the generic romantic comedy formal elements such as sound, setting and cinematography are starkly contrasted with ill matched characters. This highlights that although a “conservative and traditional ending” (McDonald 85) is adopted, romantic comedies should be treated as cautionary tales. Despite expectations, these films highlight that although characters are drawn together by aspects of so-called fate, they often selectively ignore realistic issues conveyed through dialogue and cleverly hidden iconographic symbols. In When Harry Met Sally, there are numerous non-diegetic sounds, more specifically the genre jazz throughout the film. The exploration of diverse sounds allows for the …show more content…
His best tools in his pocket are humor and sarcasm, effectively masking his fear of vulnerability and any real connection with women. Sally, on the other hand, is idealistic and romantic, frequently portrayed in her nonchalant brushing off of her breakup with Joe. While Harry and Sally’s communication style rivals a blunt vs sensitive approach, the real issues lie in the emotional barriers both have. Where Harry has become quite lenient with burning the rope before it is anchored, Sally adopts a structured, all too controlling demeanor. Furthermore, the conflict in values such as patience vs impatience is depicted in a scene where Sally is meticulously placing each letter into a mailbox, and Harry, becoming restless, stuffs them in at once. Similarly in Pillow Talk, Brad is the stereotypical trope of a playboy with a phobia of commitment. Once again fitting the classic trope of the holy virgin, Jan is more independent yet simultaneously idealistic in the romance department. Although she is quite emotionally vulnerable, she has grown attuned to deciphering men's intentions with her and upholding her idea of ethical values. Jan and Brad not only falter in their horrible miscommunication, but also suffer a lack of respect for personal boundaries. This further translates into his manipulative behavior, creating the base of their romance on faulty shallow lies from the persona of country man Rex. Although these may paint the image of eventual romantic desire, the barriers created by conflicting values, communication and idealism serve as a caution to those who idealize said films. Although visual motifs are not necessarily a pairing of iconography’s definition of “particular objects, archetypal characters and even specific actors” (Grant 12), they still hold symbolic meaning that can vary widely. Visual metaphors are utilized in both films as subtle reminders of
In conclusion, each film will serve as a vehicle for learning about interpersonal communication and relationships and When Harry Met Sally is one of them. There are illustrates a number of communication concepts, principles, and term in the movie. After analyze the film I understand that really important to be more carefully with communication especially in relationship and I understand more about concept relate between in class and in the real
The period of American cinema between 1965 and 1975 produced many films that almost completely restructured classical Hollywood’s accepted genre conventions. A fine example of this would be Robert Altman's iconoclastic take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), a detective film based on the final book in Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series. Altman, who is known for turning around traditional genre conventions, revises and reinvents the film-noir style made popular by Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), and Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947). The actors and the films in the 1940’s film-noir period conformed to genre conventions, and it wasn’t until Robert Altman directed Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye that the detective genre had changed.
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
The movie Dirty Harry is about a cop who was known as Dirty Harry. Harry is a cop film with Clint Eastwood, who depicts Harry Callahan, as a strict cop. He uses any means to bring down a criminal, even if it means breaking the rules. He seeks justice and never forgets the case until he gets it done, even if the government asks him to leave the case. Regarding the movie, Edwin J. Delattre states that “It is easy for the justice system to protect potential suspects ahead of enforcing the rights of victims while ignoring citizens who were in danger or who had been murdered” (2002).
Keathley, Christian. "Trapped in the Affection Image" The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, Noel King. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 293-308. Print.
The princess bride is an incredibly entertaining book. Although it was written mostly as a parody it contains many themes. The developments seen in the dynamic characters are astounding ones. The theme, or motif, which I'm going to follow through the story is that of Fezzik and his quest for self confidence and a good self image. From the time that the novel starts to the end, Fezzik achieves a good self image. He starts out with a very low self image and, by the end, he finds in himself talents that give him a better image of himself.
The film I chose to view for this Romantic Comedy paper was When Harry met Sally. I enjoyed this movie. The two main characters were Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally Allbright (Meg Ryan). When first introduced to these characters, Sally is driving to New York, and Harry, who is the boyfriend of Sally's friend, is catching a ride with her.
the wall. Even though it could have been a bad sign, if he had told
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
Two of the best things in the world, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and “Harry Potter,” have a good deal in common. Other than the vast amount of space reserved in my brain for storing quotes and random facts from these two stories, both tales share many similar objects, plot devices, character attributes, and themes. Even though Python's “Holy Grail” is an exact historical representation of the Arthurian Grail legend, some might argue that the “Harry Potter” story is more reflective of the actual ancient texts than the 1974 film.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was written by J. K. Rowling and is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. The book is about a seventeen-year-old wizard, named Harry Potter, who has to travel all over England to find things that will help him defeat the evil wizard, Lord Voldomort. The main theme/moral of the entire series is good will always triumphs over evil. In every book, even when it looks like evil is going to win, good always triumphs in the end.
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...
Harry Potter starts off slow, but gets very interesting near the end. In the beginning, you meet the Dursleys, Harry’s aunt, uncle, and their son Dudley. Then you learn that Harry’s parents were witches, and that they were destroyed by a evil wizard. A good witch, Albus Dumbeldoor, sends Harry to the Dursleys, because they’re his only remaining family. The Dursleys however, hated Harry and his family, so Harry was mistreated for years. He was forced to live in a cuborrod under the stairs. He had to watch as the fat, stuck up Dudley got whatever he wanted, and then usually broke whatever it was he got. Then one day Harry got a letter.
Johnson R. Kimberly, and Holmes M. Bjarne. "Contradictory Messages: A Content Analysis of Hollywood-Produced Romantic Comedy Feature Films." Communication Quarterly 57 (2009): 1-22. Print.