Reality In The Film Of Shutter Island And David Fincher

The classical Hollywood narrative is one of simplicity, linear continuity, and comprehensive storytelling, something typical American audiences were used to for most of films history. Quentin Tarantino, however, is not one to abide by the rules of cinema. The arguably auteur director reconfigures this narrative style with his 1994 classic Pulp Fiction. This film not only presented itself as a completely new and innovative take on what a film could be, but also created a foundation for which many films since have built their narratives from.

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.

At a very young age of eight, David Fincher’s passion for cinema grew when he was inspired by the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Born in 1962 Denver, Colorado, David Fincher moved to Ashland, Oregon in his teens, where he graduated from Ashland High School. During high school, he directed plays, designed sets, and managed lighting after school. One summer, he and a friend attended the Berkley Film Institute’s summer program, where he hoped to learn film as a true art form but instead was taught the technical production. Either way he was happy to engage is this and as his early film industry career started, he was a production assistant at his local television news station. Years went by as he directed propaganda films followed by becoming a well-known music director until his first movie feature debut Aliens 3 in 1992. However, the American director David Fincher didn’t become a modern 21st century visionary until his creation of the film Se7en (1995). The huge success from this film started Fincher’s popularity in the film industry. From there he continued to make ironic movies we know today such as: Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), Gone Girl, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

For more than fifty years, Clint Eastwood has been actively defining and redefining cinema as an art form. His experiences as an actor on television and in film have greatly influenced his directing style. Across his films, Eastwood incorporates several issues and techniques that help the audience to identify said films with Eastwood's directorial style. Eastwood's aim in his films is to tell stories of the human experience. Francois Truffaut and Andrew Sarris have aimed to define the qualities that make a director an auteur whose works stand out above the rest. The qualities defined by Truffaut and Sarris can be seen in Eastwood films including Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Changeling (2008) and help to establish Eastwood as an auteur.

The film Shutter Island depicts the story of a World War 2 veteran Andrew Laeddis and his experience with mental illness, specifically portraying the memory phenomena of repressed and recovered memories also known as dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue (Kikuchi et.al. 2010). The illness is triggered by a psychologically traumatic event, which included discovering his wife had murdered his three children, and in response, he killing his wife (Kikuchi et.al. 2010). Additionally, the portrayal exhibits many of the criteria for a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Friedman et.al. 1994). The DSM-V now classifies dissociative symptoms as an additional subcategory of PTSD diagnosis, however, the film concentrates

In the hit film of 1995 -Clueless, director Amy Heckerling effectively uses film techniques to further portray the deep meaning of the story. The film tells the story of a selfish teenage girl who transforms into a responsible woman. In the beginning of the story, the main protagonist, Cher, is depicted as a narrow-minded, extravagant teenager. Heckerling uses vivid colour and extremity to show Cher’s unique characteristics. For her own interests, Cher begins to help others but begins to find more than just her own outcomes in the process. The director uses indirect actions to show the change in Cher’s character. At the end of

When directors choose to adapt a novel or short story to fit the silverscreen, they often face the arduous task of keeping the author’s original plot in tow as well as, putting forth a believable product. In the case of Scotts Fitzgerald’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, director, David Fincher and screenwriter, Eric Roth chose to scrap the original framework of the story and start anew. Although Fincher and Roth keeps the basic idea of Benjamin Button’s existence the same, their screen adaption tells a more sincere version of how it would feel to live life in reverse. However, both the director and screenwriter acknowledge that Benjamin’s tale cannot be told without giving the audience an explanation for why he is born

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is an American mind bending thriller film based on Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel also named Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio takes the lead role as a U.S Marshall named Teddy Daniels, who along with his partner, Chuck Aule (played by Mark Ruffalo), are investigating the mysterious disappearance of a patient at a highly guarded and isolated psychiatric penitentiary located on Shutter Island. Teddy Daniels runs about the island trying to uncover the mysteries of the Shutter Island psychiatric ward, only falling deeper into the conspiracy, all the while dealing with his past horrors and hallucinations that somehow help him in his investigation. As the plot unfolds, vivid scenes and music help reveal

Their facial expressions, gestures and movements make audiences empathize with the protagonists. In the scene of their first quarrel Rachel McAdams cries, sobs, portrays despair and pleads to stay ,as realistically as if she feels her character’s emotions. In scenes of happy moments she smiles and laughs sincerely, like when she listens to Noah (Ryan Gosling) sitting next to her. Ryan Gosling also demonstrated his acting talents in the movie. His character is very romantic and faithful and the actor expressed these traits very well. For instance, in the scene he first meets her he looks at her with loving eyes, his eyebrows are raised a bit as he cannot stop admiring her. When other women try to talk to him, he lets them see their attempts are futile via tone changes and hands crossed on his chest, which express his love and faithfulness. Such a realistic actors’ performance reinforces the dramatic plot.

In the movie Birdman directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture, it is about a former superhero actor who is performing a Broadway play in hopes that it will rejuvenate his dying career. The main character Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) struggles with being relevant in the world today where so many want relevance. Thomas starts to realize that the production he is putting on is an exact representation of his life. In Birdman the camera angle and performance on stage, play a vital role in the movie and allows the audience to see Riggan Thomson’s personal life and struggles.

In “The Departed”, which takes place in South Boston, State Police are tasked with bringing an end to Irish American organized crime. One of the stars of the movie is the great actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays undercover cop Billy Costigan. The cast is packed with high demand actors; one of them being Irish mob boss, Jack Nicholson, playing Frank Costello. Costigans counterpart is Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon. Both men just-graduated from Massachusetts State Police Academy; Sullivan is on the side of the mob, and joined the police force to be an informer for the mob boss. There is a key interplay between each man, and the people they are trying to deceive. The stakes are high, as each operative becomes entrenched in their double life,

The intention of this essay is to discuss the romantic notion of a film director who has etched their own cinematic vision into the body of their film work, and whether the theory and practice is dead and an infringement of the spectator’s imagination and is it the spectator who finds meaning in the film. I will be closely looking at critical material, primarily André Bazin and Roland Barthes and applying them to several case study films directed by Christopher Nolan including The Following (1998), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010), to examine whether Nolan possesses the qualities of an auteur and if so, does that imply an ideological view of what the auteur resembles or an artistic one.

Schizophrenia is defined by the American Psychological Association as, “a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent or illogical thoughts, bizarre behavior and speech, and delusions or hallucinations, such as hearing voices.” Though only effecting 1% of the population, the complex and long-term psychological disorder interferes greatly with the daily life of those diagnosed. Victims of schizophrenia often experience a combination of positive (hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech/thinking/behavior, catatonic behavior, etc…), negative (affective flattening, alogia, avolition), and cognitive (difficulty understanding, poor memory, difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior) symptoms. In the movie Shutter Island, the main character repeatedly shows the gradual increase of subtle signs of both schizophrenia and PTSD.

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up in 2006 to bring the world the organized crime masterpiece, The Departed. The film was a huge success and swept the major awards at the Oscars that year, bring home such prizes as best picture and best director. The win cemented Scorsese as the greatest living filmmaker and he finally got the respect he deserves from the Academy. DiCaprio is one of the best actors of his generation. Titanic, The Aviator, and The Departed areall the evidence needed to securely place him in the upper pantheon of great actors. Expecting a quality movie from either of these two artist is like expecting to get wet by jumping in a pool. When word first broke that the two would be teaming up

Shutter Island and Insomnia are mystery thrillers which follow two detectives that are determined to solve the case using their own techniques. Shutter Island is a classic, old fashioned thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based in 1954 and follows a federal marshal and his partner as they investigate the escape of a prisoner from a mental facility. The federal Marshall suffers a series of hallucinations and distractions on his path to uncovering the truth. Insomnia also follows a pair of detectives that suffer their own set of distractions and hallucinations. The detectives are dispatched to a small northern town where the sun never sets to investigate a murder of a teenager. The movie also resembles a classic thriller film that is directed by Christopher Nolan. Both films rely on a build-up of suspense and tension to deliver a compelling story. There are quite distinct similarities and differences in both films that are portrayed in areas such as characterisation, cinematic effects and social issues.