Film is often an important medium through which the filmmakers can express important views and opinions. Often, filmmakers use cinema as a way to criticize the societal norms and other problems with the government in an entertaining way. Satire is the use of humor to critique serious issues. Through animated films, satire can be implemented in a much more effective way. The cartoon drawings and animations directors can greatly exaggerate elements of real life in order to satirize them to a higher degree. In the Fyodor Khitruk films Story of One Crime, and Film, Film, Film from the Masters of Russian Animation collection, animation is used to satirize both the housing crisis of the Soviet Union and the filmmaking process / bureaucracy in order to expose the heinous situation imposed on Russian citizens and arts.
In the film, Story of One Crime, Khitruk criticizes the Soviet housing crisis and its negative effect on everyday Soviet citizens. At a time where the available living spaces were in short supply, many family were forced into cramped apartments, and Khitruk emphasizes the dangers of having so many people living in such close quarters. The main character, Vasily, is described as an ordinary, everyday, hardworking, Soviet Citizen. Because of the horrible living conditions and surplus of noisy neighbors keeping him up at night, Vasily is driven to killing two of his women neighbors. Through the night, while Vasily is trying to sleep we see different vignettes of his
First, let me introduce you to the main character himself otherwise known as the murderer in this story. Raskolnikov is the main protagonist of the novel, making the story in his point of view. He is very alienated from society due to his
Crime and Punishment revolves around Raskolnikov and his amplifying guilt after he murders the pawnbroker, Alyona. From the beginning of the novel his poverty is displayed in his living condition, which is further described by the “yellowish dusty wall-paper peeling off the
“How to poison the earth” by Linnea Saukko can be seen in two different aspects. The first one would be by looking at it in a literal way, in which it will make it a very harsh, inhumane and cold text. On the other hand, it could be seen as a satire, sarcastic and ironic text in which Saukko expects to catch the reader’s attention. Saukko exaggerates the sarcasm, and satire in her writing in order to make the readers realize and understand the main purpose of her essay, which is to warn readers about threats to the future of our planet.
Jamie and Mark Roberts of Forteau posted a picture of themselves paddling around in a puddle in the main road of their town using an inflatable dinghy. This is to show the terrible conditions of their road.
The protagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former student, decides to murder and rob an old pawn broker, Alyona Ivanovna, not due to his desperate need of money, but due to a theory he wants to test. Raskolnikov leaves no evidence which would lead the investigation to him; however, the police lieutenant in charge of the case, Porfiry Petrovich, a meticulous thinker, understands Raskolnikov’s theory and has a big role in influencing the student to confess. Between the murder and the confession, Raskolnikov undergoes a long and painful process of thought. His friend, Razumikhin Prokofych, along with a prostitute and his future significant other, Sonia Semyonovna Marmeladova, are part of the protagonist’s path. In the end, Sonia turns out to be Raskolnikov’s salvation as she helps him find redemption and start living
Freedom of speech is one of the most important rights that an American possesses. Satire should not be censored until it crosses the line into hate speech. Hate speech is aggressive and negative language directed towards a group of people due to something such as race, religion, or culture. Kuruvilla details recent issues with hate speech by writing, “recent prosecutions include a white supremacist convicted of sending a threatening anti-Semitic tweet to a lawmaker.” Hate speech, unfortunately, is not a rare occurrence. It is seen on social media, such as Twitter, and anti-Islamic hate in particular has become a recent issue. It is important to understand where satire ends and where hateful speech begins.
Political and social satire go hand in hand in showing examples of the past and the future. While social satire mainly focus on the current problems of society, political satire can represent a warning about the future. Both types are important to learn and understand when reading works involving satire. Putting a light on satire will help people understand satire better. Educating students about satire in schools starting at a young age will allow for students to grow up with a better understanding of satire. Satire can play such an important role in novels that it is essential that everyone understands the concept. Understanding satire will allow for people to see different viewpoints of today’s society through the authors’ eyes. Satire can add humor to a piece, yet that humor can be revealing something much different. It is important for people to be able to differentiate from the two. People first need to understand satire to see the historical importance of it or understand the hidden warning it can
Raskolnikov murders an old pawnbroker woman for seemingly no reason at all. His sister and mother move to St. Petersburg following his sister's engagement to a man whom Raskolnikov was extremely displeased. Raskolnikov undergoes severe mental trauma, and falls ill after the
It was the only way to find relief for the constant ache. I could not bear to burn the photographs, they were too lovely. And deep inside, I knew I couldn't disorient the truth. I began making copies of the photographs. I kept the originals in a box under my new bed. I would cut you out of the photographs or erase like, Stalin censoring Trotsky in Russia. We talked about the situation in Russia before you were displaced from my life. Do you remember? You were angry at communists and angered at Stalin’s measures to keep power, you said it was the “falsification of history”. The irony is scornful. From a nurse to a housewife, I became a plastic surgeon. Only it wasn’t a face I was fixing but, a memory. A girlfriend took me out to dancing on
Films and movies hold much than we can guess, they reveal a lot of vices and rots that are happening in society. Others give a history of a particular society, its beliefs, culture and their standard of living in the society. Films are used to disclose the social responsibilities in a given season and customs, moral values, societal worries and other cultural practices.
In “Battleship Potemkin,” released in 1925, opposition and comparison were used to idealize Russia as well. Any film that was not propaganda was seen to be against Soviet Russia. Montage was used to effectively transmit a certain political
Many see propaganda as undermining reason. Propaganda works with the emotions to get a mass to do a certain action. Since propaganda tries to remain hidden, are there any in the world who see it and try to uncover such propaganda? Satirical television and radio shows as well as newspapers challenge the conceptions of which we take for granted and of which are propaganda. How does satire function in relation to propaganda?
The soviet communist party, or the Bolsheviks, always new that strong propaganda was essential to increase the consciousness of the masses. As stated in the Encyclopedia of Propaganda, " propaganda was central to Marxist-Leninist ideology long before the Bolshevik revolution of 1917."(675) The power of persuasion and coercion were exercised with great force by Soviet leaders. The two leaders whom utilized propaganda to influence public opinion in the USSR were Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Both men used many different facets of the media to spread their propaganda. They also used the troubled social climate along with the ignorance of the masses to custom tailor a regime that lasted for over seven decades.
The main theme of Crime and Punishment is estrangement from society. In the beginning, Raskolnikov distances himself from the people of the world. “It was not that he was a cowed or naturally timorous person, far from it; but he had been for some time in an almost morbid state of irritability and tension. He had cut himself off from everybody and withdrawn so completely into himself that he now shrank from every kind of contact.” He was poor but because of his egotistic view of his importance and his feelings of superiority to everyone else he “had ceased to concern himself with everyday
In the presented essay I will compare the style of work of selected artists in the montage of the film. I will try to point out some general regularities and features of Soviet cinema. At the same time I will try to capture especially what is common in their systems and similar or conversely what differ. For my analysis, I will draw on the feature films of the Soviet avantgarde, namely these are the movies - The Battleship Potemkin (S. Eisenstein, 1925), Mother (V. Pudovkin, 1926) and The Man with a movie camera (D. Vertov, 1929).