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More handpicked essays just for you.
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Analyzing/ Evaluating a Movie Y tu mama tambien Y tu mama tambien by Alfonso Cuaron is the movie evaluated in the next paragraphs. The movie is starred by Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and the Spanish Maribel Verdu. The movie starts with the typical two best friends Julio (Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Luna) whose girlfriends are about to depart for summer vacations. As they leave the airport, after their take off they continue to their own world of irreverence and over stimulated hormones. So despite of their promise of the loyalty sworn to their women, they go on to look for other girls to spend the night. After many attempts they get nothing, but then they meet Luisa (Verdu). Julio and Tenoch then invite Luisa to a virgin beach off the Pacific Ocean (which they actually made up). So that is how the long road trip starts, where friendship, innocence, and sexuality go into a sentimental melee. It is here where our protagonists realize that lies hurt, but sometimes the truth hurts even more. Y tu mama tambien or And your mom too as the translation recites, really gives no sense at all if you have not seen the movie and even when seen , that detail is very easy to miss. As a first time audience I would expect it to be a drama. The movie is starred by Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. Both of these actors have been known in other roles, but none compared to this kind of presentation. I would see this as an effort to present two characters, previously known as young and innocent, then to place them in a real world setting where sex and alcohol is present every where. Maribel Verdu is a rather unknown Spanish actress. This was done perhaps to illustrate a beautiful girl, yet unknown to the public. This movie was said by many to be a XXX movie for its numerous and explicit sexual scenes. It was also rumored, that the two male protagonists would kiss in one of the sex scenes. My first impression would be that at the end, one the protagonists would fight each other to death over Luisa for her love and that something unexpected would happen. The plot of the movie starts with both Julio and Tenoch are having sex with their girlfriends as that would be the last time they would do it before they left.
She takes a job in a white lady named Ms. Cullinan’s home as a maid, who calls her Mary for her own convenience and lack of respect. This enrages Maya and in order to get away she smashes the finest china to get her fired. At her eighth-grade graduation, a white man comes to speak in front of everyone and he states that black students can only become athletes or servants which makes Maya furious. Later, when Maya develops a nasty toothache, Momma decides to take her to a white dentist who refuses to work on her. Momma claims that she lent him money during the Great Depression so he owes her a favor but he says he’d rather stick his hands in a dogs’ mouth. Lastly, one day while Bailey is walking home he sees a dead black man rotting in a river and a white man present at the scene says he will put both the dead man and Bailey in his truck. This terrifies Bailey and Momma wants to get them out of Staples so she sends them to Vivian’s again in San Francisco. There they live with Vivian and her husband Daddy Clidell who is a nice man to Maya, and has a lot of money from his businesses. One summer Maya goes to live with her father Big Bailey and his girlfriend Dolores, who are poor and live in a trailer. Maya and Dolores do not get along and constantly fight, so Maya runs away and lives with a group of homeless teens
“Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel, is a beautiful romantic tale of an impossible passionate love during the revolution in Mexico. The romance is followed by the sweet aroma of kitchen secrets and cooking, with a lot of imagination and creativity. The story is that of Tita De La Garza, the youngest of all daughters in Mama Elena’s house. According to the family tradition she is to watch after her mother till the day she does, and therefore cannot marry any men. Tita finds her comfort in cooking, and soon the kitchen becomes her world, affecting every emotion she experiences to the people who taste her food. Esquivel tells Titas story as she grows to be a mature, blooming women who eventually rebels against her mother, finds her true identity and reunites with her long lost love Pedro. The book became a huge success and was made to a movie directed by Alfonso Arau. Although they both share many similarities, I also found many distinct differences. The movie lost an integral part of the book, the sensual aspect of the cooking and love.
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
Yunior struggles with personal acceptance, due to his father not completely accepting him. Papi struggles with being the head of a lower class family. Both of their personal conflicts with themselves and their conflicts with each other set the theme of “Fiesta, 1980.” Junot Diaz depicted a scenario a plethora of individuals know all too well. Both Yunior and Papi love each other, both have strange ways of showing it. The conflict of Man vs. man within this story shows that no matter the age, an internal struggle can greatly affect the people around you.
Sandra Cisneros’s “Never Marry a Mexican” introduces readers to Clemencia. Cisneros eludes Clemencia as a woman who appears proud of her Mexican heritage, yet knows not how the slanderous phrase “Never marry a Mexican” uttered from her well-meaning mother’s trusty lips about Clemencia’s own Mexican father negatively foreshadows her seedy life and gloomy world perspective later down her destructive journey of adulthood.
History usually forces itself into the present in Juan Jose Campanella’s film “El Secreto De Sus Ojos” (The Secret in Their Eyes). Although it was filmed in 2009, the story is an attempted memorization of the violent reality in 1970-1980s Argentina, an era in which the country was rapidly sinking into military rule-ship. Campanella offers flashbacks into Argentina’s dark days, a period where violence homicide, rape and injustices ruled. Through memory, the film narrate a era in which it was impossible to be an innocent person as the innocents were falsely accused, tortured and even murdered for crimes they never committed, all these for the whims of those in power. Even though, the film is set in the 1970s, it does not call immediate attention to the animosity, the hopeless feeling and the constant struggle between the desire to forget vs. the attempts to remember the chaos and confusion of these years. However, through the use of memory Campanella allow the views to portray an almost perfect picture of what happened in Argentina.
To understand fully the implicit meaning and cultural challenges the film presents, a general knowledge of the film’s contents must be presented. The protagonist, Tita, suffers from typical Hispanic cultural oppression. The family rule, a common rule in this culture, was that the youngest daughter is to remain unwed for the duration of her mother’s life, and remain home to care for her. Mama Elena offers her daughter, Tita’s older sister Rosaura, to wed a man named Pedro, who is unknowingly in mutual love with Tita. Tita is forced to bake the cake for the wedding, which contains many tears that she cried during the process. Tita’s bitter tears cause all the wedding guests to become ill after consuming the cake, and Tita discovers she can influence others through her cooking. Throughout the film, Tita’s cooking plays an important role in all the events that transpire.
The film “Camila” was produced in 1984 and directed by Maria Luisa Bemberg (1922-1955). Based on the true story of Camila O’Gorman, an Argentine woman who falls in love with a priest in 1840’s Buenos Aires, this story dealt with the terrifying reign of Juan Manuel de Rosas. Camila is from an influential family and is betrothed to a Rosas loyalist. She is passionate and daring, just like her grandmother, and reads books that have been censored by the ruthless Rosas. When she falls in love with Father Ladislao, the two flee Buenos Aires and assume new identities as school teachers in a small village. During a party, a priest from Ladislao’s old church recognizes Ladislao and turns them both in. They are both executed by firing squad even though Camila is pregnant.
In her essay, “Momma, the Dentist, and me” Maya Angelou describe her insight in remembering an incident of racism. The incident refer to a time when a white dentist named Lincoln did not treat her tooth ace just for being colored “Niggah.” In America no one should be allowed to be a form of prisoner, because of their native skin color. Americans should be held accountable for their actions whenever a color person are in need of help their social life. There should be laws ordinances to prohibit persons from confronting -either verbally or physically -color people for not being a Caucasian person. This conflict in rights between those held by color people and the American people those held by, because American refused freedom rights, endanger lives, and economic issues.
The comparisons--North vs. South, city vs. country, technology vs. nature--are numerous and have been well documented in 20th century literature. Progress contrasts sharply with rooted cultural beliefs and practices. Personalities and mentalities about life, power and change differ considerably between worlds... worlds that supposed-intellectuals from the West would classify as "modern" and "backwards," respectively. When these two worlds collide, the differences--and the danger--rise significantly. This discrepancy between the old and the new is one of the principal themes of Gloria Naylor's Mama Day. The interplay between George, Ophelia and Mama Day shows the discrepancies between a "modern" style of thinking and one born of spirituality and religious beliefs. Dr. Buzzard serves as a weak bridge between these two modes of thought. In Mama Day, the Westernized characters fail to grasp the power of the Willow Springs world until it is too late.
The main Character in the book that I read is Mickey Bolitar. He has blue eyes,short brown hair, is six feet four inches and weighs just over two hundred pounds. He acts like a normal highschool kid and he can be very curious sometimes. When he got curious about things in the book he usually got in trouble with the police or with his uncle. Like when he was at the “Bat Lady’s” house he went inside without even knocking on the door and when he was inside, somehow the house caught on fire and burned down. The police came and had arrested him for breaking and entering. That time when he was curious he got in trouble with the police not his uncle. His personality is curious,protective,willing,friendly and nice. He was once very protective of his friend Ema when some of the mean guys of the school said “Hey ema mooo!” When he heard that he was about to explode but Ema gave him a look that said don’t. He interacts nicely with the other characters except with the people he doesn’t like and the people that are mean. Mickey was my favorite character in the book.
...the story. It gives us no insight on why the characters were put in this position and why they would even end up being together if they know there will be no happy end. I don’t think it is a movie about love, just a slice of the lives of the two as it happens during that period. Ben is an alcoholic and because of the amount he is drinking, he can not be fully aware of his actions and decisions about what is going on around him. Sera is just a prostitute that loves having control over her clients and has gone through a lot of abuse and out of desperation takes in any guy that treats her humanely. In return for Ben’s loving, Sera slips in the role of the prostitute at the end when she pours liquor over her breasts and lets Ben lick it off fulfilling his greatest fantasy. The story is very slow at times and is not suitable for every audience. For some, it may be too vulgar, for others just too boring, but I believe Figgis and both actors did remarkable jobs. The story is obviously not meant to entertain or to be the typical Hollywood romance drama, but to show Sera and Ben’s relationship leading to isolation, anxiety and self-destruction because life does not always have a happy end.
...a car accident, and her father is woken up. After the horrendous trip to Mexico, Maya and her father return home to find his girlfriend enraged. In an outburst, the girlfriend calls Maya’s mother a whore. Maya slaps her, which provokes Dolores, the girlfriend, to attack her. After that situation, Maya goes and lives with children in a junkyard. After living in the junkyard, she returns home to her mother. Later on after that, she gets pregnant.
The movie Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood was directed by Callie Khouri is a movie that describes the relationships between a mother and father and what can cause these relationships to become bad and harmful to those in them. Sidda, who is the daughter in this movie is angry at her other for what she went through when she was a child.
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning - the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are (Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born "good" or "bad" and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.