Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies are prime examples of the relationship between moments and their respective films. Roger Ebert, in his review of Kill Bill Volume 2, describes Tarantino’s method as creating “lovingly structured episodes that play on their own while contributing to the legend.”1 Indeed, all of the individual moments in Kill Bill Volume 2 have their own significance, while at the same time adding to the wider film. This is especially true of the moment I will discuss, in which Tarantino makes heavy use of visual and auditory “opposites”. By juxtaposing these various opposites, Tarantino creates contrast, bringing out the fine details in both of the subjects. The moment I highlight occurs about fifty-six minutes into …show more content…
He subjects her to a torturous and unrelenting training regimen, forcing her to punch wooden boards every day until her knuckles are bloody, among other activities. Pai Mei regularly flicks his beard as he watches Beatrix train. This simple action is highly important, because it can be used to accurately sum up Pai Mei’s entire attitude towards Beatrix. In the beginning, he grunts and frowns whenever he brushes his beard, indicating his extreme displeasure. However, as the flashback montage progresses, Beatrix’s skills begin to improve, and Pai Mei’s view of her improves as well. As he performs his beard-tossing gesture repeatedly, his frown gradually disappears, replaced by head nods and slight smiles. This brings us now to the moment I focus on. Compared to the rest of the flashback, this moment seems incredibly out of place. It is dark and calm, and Beatrix and Pai Mei are neither talking nor training. The moment begins with a shot of the single window in the room. It is made of parallel, vertical metal bars, with torn cloth hanging over. Outside, it is dark and stormy, and the sound of rainfall gently permeates the room. The next two shots follow in quick succession, showing the rice bowls and a teapot. These opening shots set up the scene for the viewer, showing the dismal conditions in which Beatrix lives during her training. There is a single source of light streaming in from outside the window,
Christopher Nolan’s neo noir thriller film, Memento (2000), follows the life of the protagonist, Leonard Shelby, as he searches for the person who murdered his wife, whilst dealing with anterograde amnesia, forcing him to use “memento’s” to retain new memories. Through the employment of mise-en-scène and sound design, the central theme of ‘the pursuit of vengeance’ could be conveyed. Additionally, the theme ‘the fragility of memory’, is illustrated to the viewer through cinematography and editing. These techniques and themes are most evident in the dramatic final sequence in the film, specifically when Leonard finally gets revenge and Teddy unveils the truth about John G to him.
My initial reaction to the film was of utter shock at the brutally raw reality of the film. Upon reflection and commentary from other sources, the film’s simple yet vastly effective filmmaking techniques of developing the explicit and implicit meaning of the film. The explicit meaning, as
Almost every piece of cinema seeks to give the viewer an understanding by intricately assembling shots in a coherent, and a sometimes muddled, manner; the techniques used in editing places various shots in purposeful sequences, to emphasize certain relationships between shots. The shots can be arranged smoothly and logically, or shift abruptly from shot to shot; different methods of the aforementioned arrangement of shots are utilized in either discontinuous or continuous editing. Sherlock Jr. and The War on Drug’s music video “Holding On”, are two motion pictures that offer spatial relations, by applying techniques of both continuous and discontinuous editing.
revenge filled journey. Within the scene Showdown at House of Blue Leaves, through the use of mise-en-scène, sound, and cinematography, Quentin Tarantino beautifully reflects the emotions and capability of The Bride and her enemy O-ren Ishii.
For my shot analysis I chose a shot from the Spike Lee Movie Do the Right Thing. This is the second shot following the climactic riot scene. It features Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister reacting to the hellacious events of the previous night. The block was just devastated by a melee that broke out because the police killed Radio Raheem after he and Sal got in an altercation that was triggered by the volume of Radio Raheem’s boom box. Though at a very superficial level the fight was about the loud stereo, the real significance of the fight had more to do with the culmination of anger and tension between the characters of the film caused by prejudice and ignorance. This paper will analyze
The Silence of the lambs (1991) is in doubt a film which demonstrates a well-constructed horror film. The film, ranging with scenes, shots, and frames that were well constructed to be identified as horrific. The films cinematography shifts the films narrative and impacts the film, especially the film’s frames. It seems reasonable to suppose that from the film’s frames and of those of the characters expressions, they shape the film’s genre to be horrifying, psychological, and thrilling and they guide viewers towards where the film’s narrative will lead to. Therefore, even a single or series of frames in the film such as Hannibal Lecter’s evil smile, Buffalo Bill opening the door, Hannibal Lecter standing in his cell, and the dialogue between Agent Starling and Hannibal Lecter, act collectively to represent and symbolize claims about the film.
“All my life I’ve been a lonely boy.” Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66 is a peculiar, surreal film to analyze. As a semi-autobiographical work, Buffalo 66 greatly exaggerates the events in the film and makes the viewers suspend disbelief on more than one occasion. Yet despite this, the main focus of this film is a broken Billy Brown’s emotionally raw journey seeking revenge but instead finding unconditional love through Layla in the end, and the formalist film techniques used here enhance this. Through the deliberate use of photography, staging, and movement, Buffalo 66 works as a formalistic classicism film, a predominantly classicism film with strong elements of formalism, on the style continuum.
Kill Bill: Vol 1. (2003) is a film directed by, the famous, Quentin Tarantino. From start to finish, it is packed with action and excitement. This movie has a plethora of interesting elements. Yet the cinematography of Kill Boll: Vol 1. is one that makes history. Not only does it have camera angles unlike any others shown in a normal film, but it keeps the audiences’ attention. The unique choice of music adds originality to the film. For a movie with such a serious storyline, the music involved is quite quirky. Some would even say childish. Anyone who has seen a movie directed by Quentin Tarantino before will understand that adjustments like this are a reflection of his style. All of his work reveals that.
Her mother’s “genuine” tone indicates that she has believed on her daughter’s talents for the last thirty years and has wanted to help her daughter in improving them. That was why she has repeated the same words since Jing-Mei was little. Even though years have passed, Jing-Mei’s mother wants Jing-Mei to know that she had talents but it was effort that she lacked. The quote above clarifies how Jing-Mei’s play of two piano pieces “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented” signifies that she has truly recognized her identity and has turned into a satisfied
The following essay examines the characteristics of the aestheticisation of abjection by analysing Jonathan Demme’s, The Silence of The Lambs (1991) to better understand what pleasure we, as a culture, find in consuming horror films. The Silence of the Lambs shows women being tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered yet is still a widely popular film that serves to entertain a seemingly sane society.
The Departed, a film written by William Monahan, Alan Mak, and Felix Chong, directed by Martin Scorsese, was in my opinion a spectacular crime-thriller deserving of less criticism from overly sentimental viewers. Though this film is in some scenes brutal and vicious, I praise Martin Scorsese’s refusal to cower away from the undeniable truth that organized crime in the United States is murderous in nature just to satisfy certain viewers as critics advocated he should. Being a four time Oscar winning film with sixty-three other awards for numerous aspects in the movie industry, I don’t believe anyone can contradict that The Departed is profoundly unforgettable to masses of moviegoers.
Martin Scorsese’s film “Raging Bull” is considered by many to be one of the greatest “sports” films of all time. The plot focuses on the professional and personal life of boxer Jake LaMotta. In the opening sequence, the film uses narrative, mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound to provide a framework for the rest of the picture. These elements also help to establish the film’s themes of nostalgia, isolation, loneliness, and suffering. In addition to setting up the film’s themes, these elements also help to create two distinct personas of the main character Jake LaMotta.
Many critics have noticed that Mulvey’s application of psychoanalysis and filmmaking appears in an ironic return to Freud and Jacques Lacan. Mulvey uses the gaze to examine male pleasure in narrative cinema, but Lacan
In service of this argument, the essay unfolds in three parts. The first section sketches an appropriate framework for understanding how cinema marshals and moves viewers by engaging them in a fully embodied experience.4 The second section offers a brief overview of the film's plot before turning to an analysis of its triptych narrative and affective development. The third and final section considers the methodological, critical, and theoretical implications suggested by the preceding analysis.
There are many different types of film and film genres. A film can fit into more than one genre, but there are some genres that are more general than others. Some examples of film genre are animated, science fiction, documentary, comedy, and historical fiction. Within each genre, there are also specific characteristics that help support themes and story lines within that genre.