Comparing The First Passport To Pimlico And The Ladykillers

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.

Bordwell, D. (1979). The art cinema as a mode of film practice. Film Criticism, 4(1), 56-64.

Alexander Mackendrick’s, The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), is a ninety-six-minute film noir, that incorporates many techniques in cinematography to depict the dark and mysterious genre of film noir itself. This paper will go over the summary of the film, the concept of film noir, followed by a formal and social context of the film, that is the techniques in cinematography used to portray the essential theme of darkness or distrust in the genre of film noir – more specifically, the roles that women play in this particular film. Thus, Mackendrick’s The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) is a classic genre of film noir that uses extensive low-key lighting to portray a certain darkness in the world of film noir, and the darkness in each of the

The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike because both of these pieces contain great cinematographic value, and are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well beyond their era. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain why I believe Citizen Kane has achieved the status of greatest film ever made.

It was not uncommon in 1920’s and 30’s film and literature to allude to the ostentatious capitalist figures of the times. Figures like

In Sullivan’s Travels Preston Sturges satirizes the process of Hollywood film-making and depicts how the specificity of a certain genre (slapstick comedy, melodrama, prison movie) or the influence of a historical background (the Great Depression, capitalistic regime) can influence on the movie production. This paper suggests the analysis of the main female character in terms of Preston Sturges' satire on Hollywood studio system and tries to explain the gradual change of her personality according to Hollywood requirements.

Oliver Parker’s (2002) film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is sadly completely consumed by the romantic comedy style, masking Wilde’s key concerns and detracting from important comic elements of the play. This can be observed through the varying representations of characters, the film’s lack of contextual jokes, the more prominent sub-plot between Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism, the addition of music and the way in which dialogue, while remaining true to the play, has lost meaning in the film.

When looking at Norma Desmond the last thing that comes to mind is the monstrous figure of Dr. Caligari, but their movies have more in common than what we think. In this essay, I will compare and contrast two scenes: one from Sunset Boulevard and another from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, to show how German Expressionism helped to shape the aesthetic of Film Noir. While both of them rely on making a distorted reality that keeps us restless, Sunset Boulevard lacks the twisted visual style that characterizes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Milberg, Doris. The art of the screwball comedy: madcap entertainment from the 1930s to today.

The success of this film can be attributed to many filmic elements. Juliet Robert admirable depiction of free-spirited, sharp-witted Vivian Ward and Richard Gere depiction of stoic, uptight

A full spectrum of social class is depicted in the movie, Gosford Park. In the cleverly written screen play, the lives of British social aristocrats, their lowly servants, and some of Hollywood’s American elitists intertwine during a weekend shooting party in a country estate. The line between playful leisure and tasked work, not always clearly defined, are surprisingly reversed from what one might initially expect.

Introduction With a career that encompasses much of the history of film itself, it’s no wonder that one can look at the films of Alfred Hitchcock’s and see influences from most of the major movements that took place in film informing his body of work. However, there is one movement in particular that seems to have had a lasting impact on Hitchcock, that movement being German Expression. By looking at German Expressionism, its roots, and ultimately its influence on cinema, juxtaposed upon Hitchcock’s own early years as a filmmaker, with films such as The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), continuing with a look at Spellbound (1945), and culminating with one of his best-known films Vertigo (1958). We can see that German Expressionism

In this essay I will examine the cultural significance of Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night. Examining its influence on other films and cultural phenomena, I shall argue that Lester’s film invented or popularized many filmic conventions now considered standard in the movie and television industry. This paper covers concepts such as montage theory, jump cuts, camera shots, French New Wave, art film (especially surrealism), realism (documentary), and performance of the ‘actors’ (particularly accents) as they relate to a Hard Day’s Night.

Bred in England and nourished by America Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock had a flair born of two different environments. In America he placed himself in the midst of cultural formation by becoming a detached observer, critic and an analyst. Hitchcock’s firmly entrenched persona as a popular entertainer and master of suspense was methodologically cultivated and exploited during the fifties. He was able to engender an audience of his own, have had the courage and also the opportunity to depart from the status quo and carry out experiments and hence remain singular in Hollywood.

The evaluation of a film assigns some form of value to a film and the experience you encountered while watching the film. Evaluation can imply the criteria and standards that you can argue about to place value on a film. Thus, giving people a reason to question a film to develop reasons, make such standards are met and to understand the film. These standards can stem from the classical evaluation and pluralistic-category method which has given viewers a blueprint of how you should properly evaluate a film. There are certain ways that you can go about judging a films effectiveness. For instance, the classical evaluation method imposes the use of cinematicity within three concepts that all films should have. Like medium specificity, cinematicity allows film to distinguish itself from theatre with the use of close-ups, camera movement, etc.; thus, creates a universal structure for critics to judge a film. This is based on the creative style of the director and how much the viewers admire the way the has stuck with its cinematicity. However, the pluralistic-category does not base its evaluation on style and opinion. In all, these types of evaluations are used in different ways which will be further explained throughout this essay.