Films are divided by different genres – “a French word meaning ‘type’ or ‘kind’” (Neale Stephen, 7), including melodrama, comedy, and tragedy. Genre has occupied an important place in the study of the cinema for over thirty years. One of the biggest genres that has been evolved over the years and has many implications is melodrama. “As a theatrical genre, melodrama came into existence in the late eighteenth century in France and Germany” (Neale Stephen, 184). In the following century melodrama genre has spread and developed quick from France to Britain, America, and the rest of Europe. The melodrama “initial definition was both formal and specific: melodrama was a dramatic passage, scene or play in which at first spoken dialogue, then later …show more content…
This directly associate and linked with feminine rather then masculine concerns. Thus, melodrama are often focuses on woman, and mostly written by women. Cléo from 5 to 7 is a French film that has a unique glams photographic and cinematic style, which is part of the French New Wave. Cléo from 5 to 7 written and directed by Agnès Varda, a French pioneer of feminist cinema. Varda made a feminist portrait of a women way before its time. What makes it extraordinary film is the way Varda structured the film with real time within the story. Varda bring to the film her previous photography experience. Cléo from 5 to 7 is beautifully photographed and choreographed with a jazz soundtrack as the camera following Cléo through the streets of Paris following her journey of discovery. Varda smartly combined documentary footage to create a narrative of fiction. Another beautiful and smart contribution that Vdara added to the film is the free spirited and playful touches of clever cuts including the epilogue at the beginning of the film which filmed in colors, while the rest of the film is filmed in black and white in order to explore the silent film within a …show more content…
Mildred Pierce emotionally involved with her daughter. She is always there to protect her and do anything for her, and devotes her life for her even though sometimes is too much, and her daughter does not appreciate it, nor want her in her
Mildred, even though was someone that lacked excitement and interesting things, still was one of the biggest and most influential characters in the entire novel. Her purpose was not to only show the reader how a normal citizen would act and think, but to make them understand how someone could do such tremendous things after being brainwashed and believed to be someone that had no potential or reason in life.
This paper will discuss various elements of mise-en-scene, specifically; character development, lighting, performance, costume, makeup in the film "Casablanca".(Michael Curtiz,1942) The setting of the story sets the tone for the entire film. Shots of tanks and planes show the violence of war that coincides with the cutthroat city that is Casablanca. From there, those sentiments are reinforced when a man is shot in the street while another man pick pockets someone whom is distracted. The mood of the movie stays on the dark side of things when we enter Rick's Café, where we meet our protagonist played by Humphrey Bogart. In this scene we are treated to the jaded portrayal of night club owner. We see his utter disregard for a French woman
Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a particular obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away throughout the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a waitress in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled; a constantly recurring
(Bradbury,25) Mildred's character is interesting because she subverts all expectations of what a relationship in a marriage should look like.
Diversity in films is important because representation matters. Viewers are drawn to shows with ethnically diverse lead cast members. Mostly all viewers love to watch shows that reflect and relate to their own experiences. Reddigari, a freelance writer, also expresses the question of why we lack diversity in films. “Hollywood has been producing inspiring films intended to capture the beauty, joy and sorrow in everyday life. As much as we love our favorite movies, we can’t help but notice that many of them fail to capture the life experiences of all moviegoers, leaving the voices of millions of Americans from diverse backgrounds underrepresented” (This Tumblr Shows the Startling Lack of Diversity in Film). Diversity in films is an important topic in society because it represents equality and people of color to look up to.
Agnes Varda is not only one of the few female directors of new wave cinema; she is also credited as having helped create the genre. Her short film La Point–Courte is considered by some as the first new wave film. Her first full length movie, Cleo 5 to 7 falls within this genre as well. It is the story of a young woman dying of cancer and how she sees the world in the context of time. We follow the singer Cleo as she changes into the woman Flora and as she does so she begins to look at time in a different manner. It is the way time is represented through the camera shots which really make this film part of its new wave genre.
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.
In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that,
as it is shown that, Ethan is the main hero within the film, Martin is
Hollywood cinema is primarily subjected to telling stories. The inclination of Hollywood narratives comes not just from good chronicles but from good story telling. The following essay will discuss Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic as applied to storytelling, expand on the characteristics of the “principles of classical film narration” and evaluate alternative modes of narration and other deviations from the classical mode.
Cléo from 5 to 7 is a Nouvelle Vague film directed by the only female director in the French New Wave movement, Agnès Varda. Having a double-status as a female and a film-maker, Varda is known to be a female outsider of Cahiers du cinema (a film clique including all the major-league Nouvelle Vague film directors – François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette) who “include[d] her desire to assert her individuality” (Bénézet, 10). The film is about a young singer, Florence “Clèo” Victoire, who waits for her cancer diagnosis and undergoes through a metamorphosis – from a pretentious singer into a “flâneouse” through the city she lives in” (Mouton). When the film shows a careful transition in her emotions in the first sequence when Clèo is visiting a fortuneteller’s house to foresee her future.
The producers will develop a test and the audience will tell the producers whether it is something they want to see or they are not going to see. This can affect the next text to be produced in an attempt to conform to the audience demands. Looking at the development of different types of genres and the development of films within the same genre, it’s possible to look at similarities and differences and identify changes in society and audience ideologies and tastes.
Genre theory is used to study films and put them into a classification so that audiences know what type of film it is before they see it. Genres are categories based on the story of the film, sometimes the actors and actresses, or even the directors. All films fall under a genre or sub-genre category. Romantic Comedy is an example of a genre which is light-hearted, humorous story involving people in love, sometimes overlapping with subgenres such as screwball comedy teen comedy, or gross-out comedy. ( Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, table 4.1). This paper will focus on the romantic comedy genre and movie Rocky. It will take a better look at the specific conventions of this genre and how this movie fits the gangster genre.