Hayakawa’s career was jumpstarted by his leading role in The Cheat, the film catapulted him
to overnight stardom despite his negative portrayal of an Asian lead. This later set a precedent
for much of Hayakawa’s career where he would be branded as the mysterious, exotic and
dangerous foreign lover prior to Valentino. Having reached a level of stardom, Hayakawa used
his connections to form his own production company, Haworth productions. This gave the young
actor total control over the material he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. The Dragon
Painter is just one example of the films that he produced, however, it is also arguably the most
influential in regards to the public’s opinion of Asians. The film stands true today as a
positive representation of the Japanese community.
For the second Festival visit, I ended up catching the 1940 remake of the The Thief of
Bagdad. The special effects, set design, and art direction for this film blew me away. I was
surprised by how advanced some scenes were, specifically those involving the spider,
Genie and the flying carpet. It is amazing to think of movie magic before CGI existed when
camera angles and classic puppetry were enough to do the trick. Watching this film, I was able to
see how this production had a major influence on Disney’s Aladdin. More specifically, in the
cartoon design of the Sultan and Jaffar, the human likeness is uncanny. The thieving monkey
Abu, also serves as a nice
Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if
culturally inaccurate. At the time, Asians were still very much underrepresented in film and many
What images come to mind as you reflect on your childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the warmest of memories. Yet for many mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept of their feet, and lions roar to their loyal place in the animal kingdom. There is no doubt that today’s entertainment has most of its touch using classical influences. Walt Disney has produced animated films that have captured the heart and imagination of audiences of all ages around the world through the magic of storytelling and imagery. Many of us appreciate the imagination and magic that Disney puts into its animations with out knowing they are based off of classical and traditional storylines
directors have stated that they cannot well-finance their film if the name of their leading actor is not mainstream name (Kim). White Americans during this time too, probably believed that if Asians were casted in the film, it would not be as good as they did view Asians as inferior in every way including in the performing arts. Even when Asians actors were casted to play Asian roles, Asian Americans would go out of their way not to watch. David Henry Hwang, who would later go on to write his own version of Flower Drum Song, said as a young man growing up in the sixties, watching how Asian characters were featured made him feel “icky”. All the Asian characters that he saw were either portrayed in an unrealistic or comical way or as a character that was dependent on the leading white character (Hwang). It made it hard for Asian Americans to look to media for role models when they were hardly ever represented and represented in inhumane ways.
Before becoming one of the most iconic figures in silent film, D.W. Griffith failed as an actor and writer. If it wasn’t for a friend, Griffith wouldn’t have even worked at Biograph. In fact, Griffith had no training in film prior to Biograph. That is what makes his legacy so fascinating. Griffith was ambitious to act and write, but found his true identity in directing. Without any prior knowledge of directing, Griffith rose to fame, creating over 450 films, revolutionized film with his use of parallel editing, and was responsible for defining the Classical Hollywood Style of film.
Next up for the young actor and a role on FOX’s new series 21 JUMPSTREET, at first he turned down the part. Depp thought it beneath him, or at least wrong for a serious artiste. But no one else was right for the part, so the producers asked Depp again and this time he took it. The show took off, with Depp as its most popular character. Very rapidly, he became a teen idol, worshipped for his looks, and was receiving 10,000 letters a month. From the start he did not like being a “Heart-throb” as he was dubbed by his largely female fans. He wanted out, but Depp was trapped.
As one of the most widely acclaimed and influential directors of the postwar era, Stanley Kubrick enjoyed a reputation and a standing unique among the filmmakers of his day. He had a brilliant career with relatively few films. An outsider, he worked beyond the confines of Hollywood, which he disliked, maintaining complete control of his projects and making movies according to his own ideas and time constraints. To him, filmmaking was a form of art and unlike Hollywood, not a business.
as possible and many of these effects would not achieve this. But today they still use wires in order to make actors appear to be flying; this is similar to the machine but more advanced to do modern technologies.
Marking the first use of Disney’s multiplane camera, the film also incorporates realistic depictions of animal behavior, dynamic lighting and color effects, depictions of rain, wind, and lightning, ripples, and reflections, and the use of timed sound effects to produce specific dramatic, or emotional overtones. All of these advanced animation techniques learned in producing The Old Mill would subsequently be incorporated into Disney’s feature-length animated films. Walt Disney had a vision to fulfill. While Disney did not pioneer cartoon animation, he did broaden what animation can be – feature-length films to American audiences.
He was what many people called a poet who was able to aesthetically display the American environment, especially those in the Old West. He was reported to have been able to visualize the scene in his head without the need for storyboards or graphical outlines. Furthermore, he added layers to his characters that added the gray areas in morality, taking one step further from just black and white characters. In conclusion, he was influential for his efforts in the revival of the western genre and his ability to make visually appealing scenes for the audience that would carry on the style in future westerns, showing his footprint in filming
Asian Americans only make up a small percent of the American population. Even more significant is that this percentage live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii; leaving the rest of the American population to most likely get their exposures to Asians through television and movies. However the exposure they have receive throughout the history of cinematography has been hardly flattering. Throughout the course of history Asians in film have been portrayed as evil or the "yellow peril" as described by others. If Asians are not being classified as evil in this picture then they are most likely the comic relief, with their lack of coordination or grasp of the English
My comments: I liked your sentence that you wrote in the third paragraph, “Hollywood directors do not give lead roles for Asian actors because they are fearing that Americans do not accept an Asian face on the silver screen, not because there are not many talented Asian or their wage levels are too high which is basically due to the fact that existed for more than half a century.” Hollywood directors had discrimination about color actors and did not acknowledge their talent for a long time, so it leads to stereotyping ethnic characters.
An auteur is a filmmaker whose movies are characterized by their creative influence. Garry Marshall is an American filmmaker, he has directed more than 15 films in his career. Garry Marshall’s films The Princess Diaries, Valentines Day and Overboard share a common theme of love and a genre of romance and comedy, he likes to use the same actors in his films and have the common plot of a double twist. Garry Marshall likes to keep to the same character persona and film techniques but these generalized similarities are not obvious to the audience, therefore Garry Marshall is not a recognizable Auteur.
any that has ever been made, which is evident even on the first viewing. The
It is hard to imagine a person who has not heard of Steven Spielberg. He is one of the most renown, if not the most renown, American filmmakers of the century. His films have captivated and helped develop imaginations of contemporary society and remain among the most successful films ever made.