Camera Techniques In The Immigrant

Since the establishment of the colonies, America has been viewed as the “land of opportunity.” It is thought to be a safe haven for immigrants, and a chance at a new beginning for others. “The Clemency of the Court” by Willa Cather published in 1893, tells the story of Serge, a Russian immigrant, who overcame the struggles of a tough childhood and fled to America to receive protection from the state. “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni published in 1995, tells the story of Sumita, a Indian immigrant, who is moving to America so that she can marry her husband that her family has arranged for her. Both “The Clemency of the Court” and “Clothes” show the evolution of the American immigrant experience.

In conclusion, we take a basic movie about revenge and pull back to reveal a great historical piece about change in America. We see how immigration affects culture by introducing new a group into an environment and how people adapt to change in varying ways. Also we see how material possessions have a huge impact on the different social classes. The saying “to the victors go the spoils” holds true in all eras. Finally, we see how politics and popular culture play

“The Arrival,” by Shaun Tan, is a wordless novel that depicts the experience immigrants go through when vacating their home countries to start new in a different country. Readers can see that on the first page there is a collage of headshots from multiple people of different ethnicity and religion. The first image page of the wordless novel helps viewers get a clearer image of what the novel is about. In “The Arrival,” Shaun Tan depicts the hardships and enjoyment that immigrants experience when moving to a new country, since the piece was written in 2006, there seems to be more hardships than enjoyment when coming to the United States, which means the idea of the United States being a melting pot is flawed.

This characterization gives a bigger meaning to the dangerous journey taken by immigrants to cross these socially constructed borders and brings meaning to immigrants as people, and not just as objects. The film shows the landscape of Honduras, people working in the fields, how children learn in school, soccer playing as a pastime and other visual occurrences that expose the viewer to the daily life of a Honduran citizen. The personification of Yohan being from Honduras, being father of three kids, a husband, a son, and a worker in his community, shows that his identity does not just amount to one negative connotation that is perceived out of ignorance and xenophobic principles. With Yohan as a real-life example, it motivates individuals to see that migrants expose themselves to dangers because of their family and goals. Yohan is not just a number or a name, but a person with a dream and a background—which provides a further representation of immigrants as people. This depiction gives immigrants a contextual background, gives them an identity through their “homeland.”

Anzia Yezierska provided readers a small glimpse into the world of immigrant life during the progressive era in her novel, Arrogant Beggar. Though narrator of the story, Adele, was an American born citizen— she was immersed in a world similar to the experience of one of immigrant status. Throughout her story, we see how social class, ethnicity, and political factors play a part in daily life of early nineteenth century Americans. Her journey is a reflection of what many young immigrants experienced in their search for freedom, prosperity and “The American Dream.”

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

In a diverse society, America is home to many types of people, whose beliefs and experiences may arise conflict among the races. To diminish discrimination and show that there is a connection that unites each and every individual, films offer a different perspective of the lives of whom may be misunderstood and enable audiences to discover that others live under similar circumstances as themselves. How might the depiction of 21st century Latino immigrants be compared to that of 19th century southern slaves in feature films? Time nor race is a boundary that can stop two groups from relating to each other, such is the case with African-American slaves and today’s immigrants in the U.S. Like slaves, most immigrants work for a low wage in plantations, both these two group’s motives are also similar: the struggle for freedom. One

The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American

This theme is supported when the author writes,” ‘You want to get us all arrested as harraga? Get out of the boat if you want to get there…” This shows that the immigrants had to risk everything, including their lives, to get to land where they have the possibility of opportunities that were not available to them in their home country.

The director mainly used eye level shots, to leave it up to the audience to judge the two main characters of the movie, although certain power struggles in the film are shown from high angles to illustrate someone dominating a conversation or argument. Figgis also uses some point of view shots to show the imbalance during Ben’s drunken periods where the camera is placed at an oblique angle to show tension and approaching movements. The images in the film are in high contrast with streaks of blackness and harsh shafts of light to underline the dramatic events that occur.

2) Many early films, and even films today, use what is called Freytag's Pyramid. Freytag’s Pyramid refers to the way a film is structured narratively, creating a similar pattern among the beginning, middle, and end of most films. I believe that The Immigrant mostly complies with this structure. Typically, a movie’s narrative using Freytag’s Pyramid will be laid out in a way that starts with a exposition, where the characters, scene, and mood is introduced. The Immigrant happens to comply with the pyramid on this point. The film opens with a shot of a ship, then continues on to show a rolling boat, its seasick passengers, and Charlie Chaplin’s comedic character. Most everyone aboard is sick except Charlie, and a few others. However, We don’t quite get much detail on the characters backgrounds, other than they are obviously immigrants from another country. Next, usually an inciting incident would occur that would trigger a conflict. When eating in the ship's dining room, charlie looks up from his table where a girl standing that he shows much interest in, and gives his seat to her. I personally believe this moment is the inciting incident that drives the rest of the story. Charlie’s drive to “get the girl” ends up causing him to give her all of his money after her mother had her money stolen. Later, after everyone is dispersed onto land, Charlie is left with no money. However, he finds a coin on the ground and decides to spend it on a meal in a nearby restaurant. Eventually, he spots the girl that was on the ship with him, and offers her a meal. Eventually, the scene shows a man being beat up and kicked out of the restaurant for being 5 cents short on his bill. Later, the waiter brings Charlie his bill, and as charlie reaches into his pocket for the coin he found and realizes the hole in his pocket. This could be seen as rising action, the next part of the pyramid. This moment escalates the conflict of not having money, since now Charlie is in clear danger. Tension rises as many minutes pass of Charlie stalling by ordering more food, and the waiter growing impatient with him. At one point, he even finds the coin again and the waiter

Ewa Cybulska and her sister Magda come to America seeking a better life escaping the Great War in Poland in the movie “The Immigrant.” Many people view this movie as a modern visual for what the life of an Immigrant was like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. How accurate does this movie depict the life of an Immigrant from the gilded age? Can one watch this movie and fully understand how these immigrants live their lives in this time period. The movie “The Immigrant” does a good job in the aspect of showing the way a women immigrant that was desperate for money such as Ewa had to live but it focuses on this particular situation such as Ewa and Magda’s. To fully understand what immigrants that were flooding to America in this time

Immigration makes up of the United States. The life of an immigrant faces many struggles. Coming to the United States is a very difficult time for immigrant, especially when English is not their first language. In Oscar Handlin’s essay, Uprooted and Trapped: The One-Way Route to Modernity and Mark Wyman’s Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, both these essays describes the life of immigrants living in America and how they are able to make a decent amount of money to support their families. Handlin’s essay Uprooted and Trapped: The One - Way Route to Modernity explains how unskilled immigrants came to adapt to the American life working in factories to make a living. In the essay, Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, this essay describes the reality of many immigrants migrating to the United States in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Many were living and adjusting to being transnational families. Both these essays show how the influx of immigration and industrialization contributed to the making of the United States. With the support from documents 3 and 7, Thomas O’ Donnell, Immigrant Thomas O’Donnell Laments the Worker’s Plight, 1883 and A Slovenian Boy Remembers Tales of the Golden Country, 1909, these documents will explain the life of an immigrant worker in the United States. Although, the United States was portrayed as the country for a better life and a new beginning, in reality, the United

The Movie “The Immigrant,” directed by James Gray in 2013, is a historical piece, mostly because it was not made in 1921 when the events it portrays actually happened. I would also have to attribute the movie to be a drama as well as a romance, as the movie is about an evil man hooking the main character, Ewa who is played by Marion Cotillard, into becoming a prostitute. The movie has certain aspects of romance as well as fear. There are many times where you feel love will be sparked and Ewa will live happily ever after. However, these moments are fleeting and go away very quickly, only to pop up again a few minutes later. In the two hour duration of the movie, I felt hopeful, as well as sad. While not learning any historical information, I was entranced in the lives of the characters. I feel as though they did a fantastic job of portraying the time period, through the cloths, speech, and even the way the buildings were built.

The arrival of immigrants into developed nations has been a common trend for centuries, but so has the wave of resentment from natives of the land towards those who are migrants. Adichie illustries this migrant struggle through Americanah, which explores the hardships migrants must face with trying to be accepted into the new society. With her portrayal of the immigrant tendency to assimilate, Adichie skillfully highlights the pain associated with losing essential parts of one’s true identity.