Bison's Liver

“They wept together, for the things they now knew.”(104) The last sentence of the first story in Interpreter of Maladies, reveals the cruelty of the elapsed romance in a marriage. In the two collections, A Temporary Matter and The Third and Final Continent, Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates that a marriage can be either uplifting or discouraging depends on the mindset held by the couple and the strength of human bonding. Lahiri emphasizes the significance of mindset and human bondings through the ending of the two stories. The endings of the two stories are polar opposite : In A Temporary Matter, Shukumar and Shobha weeps for the termination of their relationship; The Third and Final Continent, by contrast, the protagonist(MIT) enjoys a fairytale-like

Just as there is a male gaze, there is also a female gaze. Mulvey argues that, “... such arguments don’t consider how insistently women are presented as sexual objects” (Monash). And yet many continue to argue that genres such as romantic comedies invalidate the male gaze’s offensiveness because it sexualizes men in the same way women are. In response Mulvey points out that, “... female viewers are not invited to desire male bodies, instead, they’re positioned, to identify with a heroine that is desired by a man” (Monash). Take the widely popular Love Actually. One of the most prominent romantic comedies in the industry, it follows several storylines of characters falling in love. Though good natured in spirit, the movie’s assigned gender roles pose a problem. The relationship between the latina maid, Aurelia, who doesn’t speak English, and novelist, Jaime is purely physical. Due to the language barrier, they never have an actual conversation and in fact Jaime doesn’t even admit that he’s in love with Aurelia until she strips and jumps in the lake to retrieve his papers. After Jaime leaves, Aurelia learns English, but doesn’t pursue a better situation, instead choosing to wait for him to return. It displays the woman as dependent with a future dependent on the man. Prime Minister, David, and house staffer, Natalie’s, relationship should also be examined. The romance plays on the boss/subordinate trope. It

The lovers are in love with themselves being in love. They love each other, but are more preoccupied with being seen as lovers. They often feign mild hatred. She is extremely aware of being watched and plays with the audience for sympathy in their plight and ccasionally flirts with spectators.

My initial reaction to the film was of utter shock at the brutally raw reality of the film. Upon reflection and commentary from other sources, the film’s simple yet vastly effective filmmaking techniques of developing the explicit and implicit meaning of the film. The explicit meaning, as

“Analyse, evaluate and compare the techniques used to dim the horror of the real life events discussed in the novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and the film Life is Beautiful.”

Tim Burton’s gothic drama film Edward Scissorhands explores what is immoral with our society. A present issue with humanity is people who are different are encouraged to conform. In addition, society plays by the rules and follow societal norms rather than listening to their hearts. Most importantly, humans are cruel and exploit those who are vulnerable for their own benefit. Through the use of film techniques, Burton proposes the faults in humanity and the brutal nature of humans.

The film represents the main protagonist Nola all the way down to her three lovers, with each representing a different personality trait that is not necessarily race identifiable. Lee develops a new form of cinema by creating a new aesthetic. Lee details the double standard that exists for Nola by showing her deviating from social norms. She refuses to live by anyone else’s rules and resists conventional ideals such as marriage and monogamy. This film portrays a possible explanation of racial dynamics within gender and sexuality. If roles were shifted for men and women through various aspects focusing on mise-en-scene, editing and narrative conventions.

Within the film, Ma Vie en Rose (Alain Berliner, France, 1997) we are encouraged to sympathize with the main character, Ludovic (Georges Du Fresne), a seven year old boy that insists that he is actually a girl. The importance of viewing this movie and being able to identify with the character of Ludovic shows us as an audience the absurdity of gender norms, while simultaneously encouraging us to have a more empathetic viewpoint in regards to such topics.

Secondly I would like to write something of a quick summary so that the movie can be better understood. The movie begins as many do as of late with a man, or to be more specific a bachelor. Of course

Right at the opening scene of the movie we are greeted with a view of two men waking up in bed together. The room paints a very blunt picture of the nature of the owner. It is decorated with paintings of flowers and the colors are all very light and pastel. I was instantly under the assumption that at least one of these two men would be very feminine. Instantly, I was made aware of which of the two it would be. The older gentleman was covering himself all the way up to his chest, this is something many women do instinctively in order to cover up their breasts. On the other hand, the other man begins to get dressed in a hurry and it is easy to see that he presents himself a lot more masculine. He carries himself aggressively and leaves the older of the two in bed while taking money from his wallet without asking. It is completely unspoken throughout the scene yet the silent actions makes it seem as if the younger is in a secret gay relationship and wants to hurry out.

Aylmer’s craving to make his wife Georgiana perfect is destined to fail because perfection cannot be found on earth and only found in heaven. Aylmer obsesses about the birthmark that is on his wife for an extensive time that it actually starts to inconvenience him. For Aylmer, it symbolizes mortality and sin and comes to mast over Georgiana’s beauty in his cluttered mind. Consequently, her tiny imperfection, which is only a birth-mark, is all he can see and is so prominent to him. The desire for perfection not only kills Georgiana inside and out, but it also ruins her husband. Aylmer starts to break down because his desire to create the ideal woman becomes such a fixation that it prevents him from seeing all the good his wife has to over him and the world. Nevertheless, Georgiana says that she will risk her life for him and have the birthmark erased. Aylmer is very confident about it but ends up killing her in the process, emotionally and

Babb, Francesca. “Wes Anderson: ‘I don’t think any of us are normal.’” The Guardian. (2012) Web

Cléo from 5 to 7, directed by Agnes Varda, is a film about one woman’s struggle to come to terms with the possibility of her potential illness. Not only is Cléo struggling with her physical health, but she is also dealing with her beauty and the consequences of being an attractive woman in the modern world of the 1960s. When examined through the lens of Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” theory, another aspect of the film comes to light. The film seems to objectify Cléo and thus trivialize her struggles with others’ perceptions of her throughout the film by adhering to the construct of the male gaze. Although Cléo from 5 to 7 appears to play into the construct of the male gaze through the repeated objectification of Cléo, it actually subverts this idea and instead confronts the viewer, and the notion of women as passive objects to be viewed.

The portrayal of women, gender roles and stereotypes in Disney films has long been a controversial topic. Disney’s 1959 animated film, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and Robert Stromberg’s 2014 live action remake, ‘Maleficent’, each provide a different take of Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, ‘La Belle au bois Dormant’ (‘The Sleeping Beauty’). The comparison of Aurora, one of the main characters from both films, brings into light the stark contrast in portrayals of gender roles as well as physical ideals and stereotypes in women. Emphasis or lack thereof on physical characteristics and gender representation from both texts challenge and reflect ideals and stereotypes that are impactful to the audience.

This scene depicts the gesture that Omi did that changed Kochan's view of love. This scene proves that one act of kindness towards Kochan made him fall in love. He was so desperate to receive such attention that when Omi gave that to him, he was head over