The murderers among us: Post-War German rubble films. The complexities of thematic and visual meaning
Thesis - 9 pages - Film studies
This paper will discuss the first post-world war II film to be made in Germany. The film, entitled The Murderers Among Us (Die Morder sind unter uns, 1946) was directed by Wolfgang Staudte. It is the first in a series of films, which are collectively entitled (Trummerfilme)...
'I reinvented the past in the pursuit of a haunting and timeless truth': Do Louis Malle's war films correspond to the notion of the postmodern historical drama?
Case study - 11 pages - Film studies
In a review published by the French periodical Le Nouvel Observateur, critic Jean-Louis Bory (1974: 56-57) described Lacombe, Lucien (1974) as ‘the first real film-and the first true film-about the Occupation...' He added, ‘I know. I was there'. The problematic nature of...
The evolution of black films (movies)
Thesis - 4 pages - Film studies
Stereotypical and demeaning roles were originally created for Blacks in film, since the emergence of the first full length feature film, Birth of a Nation (1913). Blacks did not have power in the motion picture industry when it was originally formed. Films by Black writers,...
Conflicts abound in Slumdog Millionaire: A film analysis
Thesis - 2 pages - Film studies
The text, Intercultural Communication in Contexts by Judith M. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama defines culture as “learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shaped by a group of people” (Martin, Nakayama 81).They also stress that culture has held many acceptable definitions due to its...
The uncanny: Freud's article used to analyze the film the devil's backbone
Thesis - 6 pages - Psychology
In his essay “the Uncanny” Freud writes of the rarity of a psychoanalyst being asked to contribute material to an understanding of the field of aesthetics. His discussion of the meaning of ‘horror' makes sense however, psychologically, because things that frighten us often have...
Black roles in film: Then and now
Thesis - 4 pages - Journalism
Black roles in film have expanded and transcended within American pop culture to include genres of vast variety. Today, the roles of Black actors are more diverse with actors such as Morgan Freeman playing God in Evan Almighty (2007), and Jamie Foxx playing an FBI special agent in The...
Frankenstein and the problem of visual representation in film
Thesis - 3 pages - Film studies
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly is a classic novel that was written nearly two centuries ago. The title of the book is a reference to the scientist in the novel, Victor Frankenstein, who creates this creature that has the likeness of a human, but is larger and stronger, somewhat like a...
Film studies: signs and postmodernism
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
‘L.I.E: Long Island Expressway. You got the lanes going east; you got the lane going west. You also got the lanes going straight to hell...' Thus opens L.I.E., a film about a fifteen-year-old boy who becomes involved in an unusual relationship with a much older man. Here, the first...
Teenage mutant ninja turtles (1990): Highest independent grossing film of all time (Before 1999)
Thesis - 9 pages - Film studies
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, independent films were often disregarded by moviegoers, but with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that sure wasn't the case. Many fans did not realize that the first live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie was actually an independent...
A Performance Analysis of the films Harold and Maude and American Beauty (1999)
Essay - 3 pages - Film studies
Over the course of the last three decades American society has taken its fondness of youth and femininity and turned it into an outright obsession. As a direct result of this obsession, women over the age of 35 have been made to feel bad about their bodies, their activity levels, the food they...
Similarities in the films of Alfred Hitchcock
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
Alfred Hitchcock's “Strangers on a Train” (1951) carries with it the signature of its auteur director. Hitchcock's other films are marked in the same way using similar themes, character types, and storylines. “Strangers” is most similar to “The 39 Steps”...
Masculinity in Korean and western films
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
Korean cinema has made significant progress over the years. Two of the greatest Korean movies are A Stray Bullet (Obaltan) directed by Yu Hyun-mok (1960) and The Coachman directed by Kang Dae-jin (1961). A Stray Bullet is about a man named Chul-ho who leads a life of honesty and morality. Despite...
Dark comedy in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen
Essay - 6 pages - Film studies
Joel and Ethan Coen have made eleven very different films since 1984. From a film noir set in rural Texas to a Homer's “Odyssey”-inspired convict film, their films jump from genre to genre. Each one, however, is imbued with the Coens' authorial signature....
Spiders or Virgins: Portrayals of Women in the Noir Films Laura, Out of the Past, and Double Indemnity
Essay - 7 pages - Film studies
In her article “Women in Film Noir” Janey Place states that women characters in noir films are divided into two archetypes: “the spider woman, the evil seductress who tempts man and brings about his destruction” and “the virgin, the mother, the innocent, the...
The Issue of Hope and Redemption in Film Noir: Living Day-to-Day in the Present, or Living for the Future?
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
The films Out of the Past, Force of Evil, and Double Indemnity are narratives that contain similar noir themes. All three narratives follow troubled male characters who must sever ties with their pasts in order to move forward to a hopeful and happy future. Two of these characters succeed,...
The Question of Morality Film Noir
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Moral ambiguity is a central theme in John Huston's film The Maltese Falcon (1941) and in Billy Wilder's film Double Indemnity (1944) and James M. Cain's novel by the same title. The films and novel follow characters whose motives are questionable and morally problematic....
The cultural effects of Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 film Borat
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has garnered much critical attention for its humor, both positive and negative. Cohen plays an extremely bigoted Kazakh journalist named Borat trying to understand...
The ideology of film: The portrayal of Women & Blacks in baseball films
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
Ideology is a very broad topic. Described as “a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture” (Giannetti 428), ideology can be discussed anywhere when dealing with any kind of social opposites. In filmmaking, all types of beliefs...
The development of the modern film industry in the Untied States and the international community
Essay - 9 pages - Film studies
Throughout the course of the twentieth century, the evolution of technology has notably changed society. While many scholars looking at the changes that technology has produced consider the improvements that have been in terms of medicine and technology, it is evident that technology has had a...
Films on the ongoing war in Iraq
Essay - 14 pages - Film studies
Since the start of the U.S. war in Iraq in early 2003, the citizens of the world have been bombarded with news coverage the likes of which has never before been seen in the history of armed conflict. Likewise, the world of cinema has embraced the conflict in Iraq in many varied forms and with...
Kurosawa's samurai films and the Westerns that were inspired by them
Essay - 7 pages - Film studies
The films of Akira Kurosawa, from his adaptations of Shakespeare's plays to his samurai films, have influenced filmmakers from the 1950's to the present. This influence is most obvious in the Westerns that were adapted from his samurai films. In 1960 “Seven Samurai”...
Women in the films of Jean-Luc Godard
Essay - 6 pages - Film studies
Since 1959 and the release of his first film, Jean-Luc Godard has engaged audiences with a varied body of work. He has entertained, quoted, lectured, and bored, inevitably. Throughout his entire career, both the depiction of the female and her role in his films has been of the...
Film as a Form of Dissent: The Politics of Czech Film Miracle
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - Political science
In the 1960s Prague was abuzz with artistic excitement. Prague had long been the site of innovative creations in classical music and theater, but now the films coming out of the state sponsored film industry were making headlines, not only in Eastern Europe, but around the world....
Art Defined: The Film Industry
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
In 1952 the censorship of the Film Industry lead to significant ramifications. The film medium has experienced several hurdles that are better known of as censorship. Right from the beginning, American officials knew of the influential power of film and, therefore, its...
FESPACO: More than a film festival
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
With the revolution of filmmaking has come the need to bring films and filmmakers together. The creation of film festivals provides a place where filmmakers can showcase their films. Thousands of film festivals have formed around the world over the past decades. Some...
Dragon ladies and China dolls: Images of Asian American women in American film
Essay - 6 pages - Film studies
The image of Asian American Women in film has undergone many changes from the 1920s to today. With stereotypes such as “dragon lady” and “china doll” and the practice of yellow-face, Asian American actresses had plenty of obstacles in the world of film. Actresses...
Digitalization: The Commercial Rise in Independent Filmmaking
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
Technology has always been the main threat of tradition. The core essence of the filmmaking industry has not evolved because of changes in the audiences, ownerships or content. It has evolved because of the technological push given by the modernizing world, affecting the audiences, ownerships...
Short Forms in Film
Essay - 2 pages - Film studies
Charlie Chaplin's The Immigrant (1917) is a slapstick comedy that also addresses social issues. The film has a simple plot with four main characters, one of them Charlie Chaplin. He plays a penniless foreigner who wins money from playing cards on a ship to America. He then meets Edna...
'Weaving a Myth': Magnolia and the Psychology of Religion in Film
Essay - 8 pages - Film studies
Imagination is fundamental to human life. Indeed, all the ‘humanities' are manifestations of the creative instinct that finds its origin in imagination. One creative imagination communicates its images to another in an attempt to bridge the perceived space between two minds. Hillman suggests...
A Trip to the Moon - Georges Méliès (1902)
Artwork commentary - 3 pages - Film studies
I examined 'A Trip to the Moon' because of its historical relevance, early science fiction's inventiveness, and social critique. The film's creative imagery, fantastic storyline, and sarcastic overtones shaped subsequent filmmakers and popular culture's space...
