The Polanski film Death and the Maiden is a wonderful and intelligent interpretation of Ariel Dorfman’s human rights problem play. Polanski has produced, in this film, an exceptional piece of direction, in which his own personal, emotional input is evident. The main theme of the play is an extremely personal one for both playwright (and scriptwriter) and director. Both Dorfman and Polanski have had to face and flee the horrors of dictatorship and human rights violations: Dorfman in Chile, under General Augusto Pinochet, and Polanski in Poland under the Nazis. But despite this similarity in past experience, significant differences exist between the original play and the film. Apart from the specific techniques of lighting and …show more content…
In the surreal, dim lighting of her bedroom Paulina is shaken by a strangely disturbing laugh upon recognising Roberto Miranda’s voice as that of her tormentor. This moment sees the birth or manifestation of another facet of Paulina’s character, the part of Paulina’s mind that fantasized about doing to her torturers what they had done to her. This is the unbelievably unreasonable Paulina; she is a Fury, a mythical deity, the embodiment of vengeance, unsusceptible to male logic or opportunistic, careerist rationalisation. Polanski makes Paulina throw the car over the cliff-edge. In doing this she is not only destroying a phallic symbol, and thus undermining Roberto’s sexuality and any claims he has on sexual dominance or superiority, she is destroying a perfect symbol of the male thirst for power and control, and the pragmatic logic to which her need for revenge has been sacrificed, into the infinite, chaotic abyss that defies all these principles, and unquestionably swallows it up. In doing this she breaks the railing, civilized society has created to guard itself from that chaos, allowing those forces of suppressed rage to escape. Polanski’s Paulina re-enters the house, a different person. Illuminated by typically horror-movie-style lighting. Her sharply focused face – lit by an almost electric blue with harsh shadows cast across it, highlighting her
When one hears the title I Am Legend being mentioned, they usually associate it with Will Smith and the terrific job he did in portraying the protagonist of the story Robert Neville. However, what they typically leave out is the equally terrific job done by author Richard Matheson coming up with the storyline and writing the original book version. While Richard Matheson’s post-apocalyptic science fiction book, I Am Legend, and Francis Lawrence’s post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, I Am Legend, both have similarities and differences, in the end, the original book version prevails mainly because the movie version alters the original storyline too much.
Peter Jackson’s 2009 film, The Lovely Bones, is based off of the New York Times bestseller novel written by Alice Sebold. Both the book and the movie adaptation tell the story of a young, 14-year-old girl named Susie Salmon who is brutally murdered by her neighbor. In both versions, Susie narrates her story from the place between Heaven and Earth, the “in-between,” showing the lives of her family and friends and how each of their lives have changed since her murder. However, the film adaptation and the original novel differ in the sense of the main character focalization throughout, the graphic explanatory to visual extent, and the relationship between the mother and father.
Alvin Ailey’s Revelations and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake are two different styles of dance from very different points in history. Revelations is a contemporary dance and Swan Lake is a classical dance. Each dance has certain points that have made it critically acclaimed. They both incorporate different styles of dance but they do share a few characteristics.
When comparing the book Twilight, written by Stephanie Meyers, with the movie Twilight, screenplay written by Melissa Rosenberg and produced by Catherine Hardwicke, there are multiple visual differences between the two. Some important scenes were changed or even omitted from the original text, leaving noticeable gaps in the movie’s plot. There are big and important differences, which are obvious, while there are also less important differences between them such as names and small missing details. The most important differences between the book and movie were when Bella tells Edward she knows he is a Vampire and when Edward saves Bella from Tyler’s van in the beginning. In reading the book before seeing the movie
In the movie Wit, English literary scholar Vivian Bearing has spent years translating and interpreting the poetry of John Donne. Unfortunately, she is a person who has cultivated her intellect at the expense of her heart. Both colleagues and students view Bearing as a chilly and unfriendly person lost in her private world of words and mysterious thoughts.
After more than forty years Nicholas Hytner decided to film the movie version of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. As most producers tend to do, Hytner was able to insert his own position while still maintaining the original story line. To get the right reaction from his audience Hytner deleted, altered, and added to the movie. While still following the storyline of the play, Hytner was able to make changes while not changing the play dramatically. While watching Nicholas Hytner's film there were many similarities and differences in the way the characters developed, the scenes, and the feelings of the audience and actors.
In a report published by UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) it states that there are around 300,000 child soldiers, participating in over 30 different conflicts worldwide. Of these 300,000, 120,000 are serving in different countries in Africa. One of the countries where this issue has been extremely prevalent is Sierra Leone, where child soldiers made up a significant part of the armed forces during its 11-year civil war, with 10,000 out of about 50,000 soldiers being children. Accounts of child soldiers in Sierra Leone have been made, with both the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the movie Ezra telling the story of a Sierra Leonean child soldier. Even though both the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and the movie Ezra by Newton Aduaka are important works, A Long Way Gone is more important to help people think critically and understand important aspects of the world around them.
they ran to the back of the stage, it was like a camera zooming out.
FILM NOTE -- Sarah's Key, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot
Paulina is the victim of sexual harassment and torture during the violent Chilean dictatorship. She believes that the guy, Roberto, who
Cry, the Beloved Country is a moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom. They live in an Africa torn apart by racial tensions and hate. It is based on a work of love and hope, courage, and endurance, and deals with the dignity of man. The author lived and died (1992) in South Africa and was one of the greatest writers of that country. His other works include Too Late the Phalarope, Ah, but Your Land Is Beautiful, and Tales from a Troubled Land.
Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite love stories of all time. Margaret Mitchell wrote the beautiful story in 1928 and first published in 1936. The book is one of the best-selling novels to this date. Shortly after the book was published, it sold over one million copies within six months, as well as being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The book immediately caught the eye of a young producer named David O. Selznick who immediately purchased the film rights for $50,000. The movie was just as big of a hit as the novel. Gone with the Wind won ten Academy Awards out of thirteen nominations. By today’s box office records, after adjusting for inflation, Gone with the Wind is still the most successful film in box office history. (IMdB) This
In the play Death and the Maiden, written by Ariel Dorfman, Paulina goes through a deterioration of character. She steadily becomes more and more unstable, and her actions become alarmingly irrational. The events that took place in her captivation are gradually revealed as the play progresses, yet much is left unsaid, leaving it up to the reader's interpretation. There is no specific context to time and place as no historical events are introduced, however, it is revealed that the country is moving from a harrowing dictatorship to a democracy. The traumatic events Paulina experienced can be perceived differently by each reader through her reliance on a safe haven, the structure and techniques used in the play and the universal setting and time permitting alternate nations with varying social norms to differ the reader’s perception of Paulina. Dorfman’s undefined setting grants the play Death and the Maiden to be universal, thereby altering how each reader perceives Paulina’s trauma.
With the constant streaming of new movies and television shows available, moviegoers tend to watch them for fun. They see an entertaining movie about conflict that sparks the sense of adventure in them. But do they really grasp what the movie can teach the viewers? With today’s society, the themes are lost in the entertainment purposes. However, books have developed to do what a movie does and so much more. In this way books give life to all people that read them.
Why did a pick a movie that has some many questionable connections to the things we’ve “discussed” in class? I guess I picked the movie because I’ve watched it over 100 times, and pretty know it like the back of my hand, as well as it was one of the first adult-like novels I read when I was a very young girl that my grandmother didn’t have a problem with. I remember after reading the first couple of chapters, my grandmother asked what did I think of it. I teared up and said I felt sad and could relate to the feelings of abandonment and conflict Celie was going through. We had such a great discussion about the book and that’s when my grandmother decided that I was mature enough to watch the movie. I cried like a baby and had so many questions for my grandmother after. So, when presented with doing a final paper on a film, what better film to choose than one I have analyzed in so many ways except maybe from a leadership perspective.