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. Their heroes are flawed, their...
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 American...
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” (Kurosawa, 1954) was...
Cinema of the absurd: The baby boom generation in The Big Lebowski
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
After World War II, America experienced what would eventually be termed the “baby boom,” in which about 75 million births occurred between the years of 1946 and 1964. The “baby boomer” generation has been constantly examined since its inception, and the world during its time...
Sexuality in modern melodrama
Essay - 7 pages - Film studies
The depiction of sex and sexuality in American cinema was slow in maturing, but in the last two decades there have been a growing number of popular melodramas that depict sex as a meaningful part of a relationship. This practice distinguishes modern melodramas from the classical Hollywood type....
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...
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” (1935) and...
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 utmost importance....
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...
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 such as Anna...
Manipulation of space and sexuality in L'Avventura
Essay - 5 pages - Film studies
In Rudolf Arnheim's Dynamics of Architectural Form, Arnheim argues that in many ways, physical space is less important to human beings than the psychological perception of space. For the average man, experience isn't made up of isolated incidents, but rather an “experience is generated only...
If only I were an Indian, de John Paskievich
Essay - 3 pages - Film studies
The film "If only I were an Indian", incorporates many controversial topics. It is mainly focused upon the borrowing of cultures and traditions. The film is about a group of Czech people who, from time to time, attempt to live the traditional lives of the people from the Plains of North America....
British cinema and society with analysis of the film: Passport to Pimlico, 1949, Henry Cornelius
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
Great Britain is usually perceived as a country that has a very developed culture, with respect to several points of view, not only musical, but also literally and, of course cinematographic. It thus seems interesting to show what the relation between cinema and British society is. To deal with...
Shakespeare in vegetable underpants: Peter Stein and Peter Zadek's opposing approaches to Shakespeare
Essay - 9 pages - Film studies
“Shakespeare in underpants,” is how Peter Stein has described the work of fellow director and rival Peter Zadek, while the latter has called Stein's work boring and overly polished to the point that his actors become overcooked “vegetables” (Patterson 132, 168). Both German...
Transformers: America in disguise
Essay - 8 pages - Film studies
Michael Bay's Transformers is a genre pastiche, combining elements of action films, science fiction, high school dramas, general comedy and even moments of direct satire. Most interesting, though, are the ways in which Bay's film ties into the genre of war cinema and the modes and conventions it...
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 are larger and more...
European cinema, the French Nouvelle Vague Cinema: Truffaut's representation of childhood/children in 400 Blows
Case study - 3 pages - Film studies
A French expression ?faire les Quatre Cents Coups' is a common idiom used to describe children who are very undisciplined and disorderly. If correctly reflected and cited, this idiom is an extension from the expression that derives the title of Truffaut's first real film Les Quatre Cents...
The new American musical: How the musical has changed to attract a new audience?
Essay - 6 pages - Film studies
Throughout the greater part of the twentieth century the American musical has entertained audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The musical has become a reflection of American life: sometimes tragic, somewhat unpredictable, but always persevering. The American musical has taken many shapes...
Comments on "Thank you for smoking" by Jason Reitman in the light of business ethics
Essay - 3 pages - Film studies
“Thank you For Smoking” is a movie from 2005, about a tobacco industry lobbyist, Nick Naylor. As the negative effects of tobacco on health are no longer easy to deny, the tobacco companies join in the creation of the Academy of Tobacco Studies. The purpose of this academy is to prove...
Adaptation: The perfect adaptation
Essay - 19 pages - Film studies
In 2000, The New Yorker magazine writer Susan Orlean published her book, The Orchid Thief, a history of orchids and orchid collectors. The main themes of the work include the history of the passion for plants held by cultures past and present, the perils of harsh habitats such as the Fakahatchee...
Human connection in international cinema
Essay - 7 pages - Film studies
Many of the films we have watched in Contemporary International Cinema explore the nature of love on various levels. Some focus on the platonic aspect of human connection, some look at the sociological and nationalistic bonds that hold people together, and some delve deep into the inner workings...
Musicality in movies
Essay - 3 pages - Film studies
The journey to self-discovery is a highlighting period for many young adults. Many filmmakers utilize those coming-of-age experiences to express the reality and pains of growing older. One contemporary example of this genre is Garden State. Released in 2004, this film transcends beyond the...
Hitchcock, Truffaut and Godard:New wave's brothers from another motherland
Essay - 13 pages - Film studies
Alfred Hitchcock's fascination with French culture emanates in nearly all of his films. Conversely, many aspects outlining the fundamental guidelines of the 1950's French film movement adopted quintessential “Hitchcockian” devices. Hitchcock's influence on French filmmakers shaped much...
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...
Analysis of Abbas Kiarostami's Ten
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
A car may be the most inconvenient and difficult setting for a film. I made a sixteen-minute movie which took place almost entirely in a car, and I ended up at one point crying from the frustrations. The three actors and I didn't leave so much space left for the camera, and so the entire...
Critical analysis of The Passion of the Christ and The Da Vinci Code
Essay - 4 pages - Film studies
Movies are typically created as a means to entertain and inform a wide audience. While this is the case in most instances, it is evident that movies that deal with overt religious themes—while many times fictitious in nature—often spark considerable controversy and anger. One only needs...
Discovering Who the Other Is: Finding Forrester
Essay - 3 pages - Film studies
People create their lives based on the environment surrounding them. In Gus Van Sant's 2000 film, Finding Forrester, Jamal Wallace, a black sixteen-year-old basketball player from the Bronx, was always a C student until his test scores showed his true intelligence and potential. This resulted in...
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...
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...
