Memento 200, Truffauts 400 Blows, Casablanca and The Spirit of the Beehive - Essay Example

VISUAL ARTS AND FILM STUDIES Memento 200 Introduction Question 2 In this story, the role of Leonard in the theme of the movie will be detailed, and related to his life. It opens a broader perception of the main character, who and the ex-investigator who is unable to create existing memories of the murder of his wife, which keeps tormenting his conscious. The story is contrasting, as one part of the story in forward motion while the other one is in backward motion. It is refers to as one memory inside the other memory. The movie is a complicated challenging adventure where we see Leonard striving to avenge the death of his wife. This is complicated by the fact he had lost his memory, hence, was unable to recall the way the events took place from day to day. He attacked and took the life of one of the attackers that led to the death of his wife. He can only remember his wife dying from the attack from the gang. Because of this pain suffered inside, he vows continue until he gets the second man who was involved in the killing of his wife. This movie changes from the black and white flow and continues in the sequential order. The two colors coincide at the end of the story in forward and reverse manner. He describes how it is vital to have written notes that constantly remind him of the killers of his wife, written in a part of his arm, John G, the man who raped and murdered his wife. He continues with his narration and tells when he met Sammy during the time he became an investigator. Sammy has a condition that did not pass as mental disorder but he was rather unable to learn by conditioning. The life of Leonard focuses on trying to unravel the truth; this brings him to meet Mrs. Jankis who he tells that Sammy was in a position to come up with new memories. Leonard discuses with the caller, as to why the police did not buy hi story of the attackers that killed his wife. Fortunately, the person whom Leonard was seeking to turned out to be a police officer, and he gives him more clues towards his quest for his killers. Soon Leonard sets up a meeting with Joe at the lobby, who is an undercover police and prefers to be called teddy. The film then continues with the flow in contrast to the first part. Here we see teddy convincing Leonard that jimmy was the man he was looking for in connection to the killing of his wife. Natalie and Leonard go to the house and agree to stay together. She then tricks him to go and beat a man who had harassed her off her money, but before he could do that, teddy warns him of the plans of Natalie, and he leaves her. The truth is slowly becoming known, and in the morning, Leonard leaves and hide in Dodd’s’ motel, beating him senselessly, before calling teddy who persuade him to elope from the country. Leonard decides to spend the night with Natalie, as a thanks giving for helping him get Dodd. Finally, Leonard puts the clues together, and discovers that teddy was indeed the second killer of his wife. In deep aggression, he shoots teddy right in the head. Conclusion The story reflects the quest for Leonard to find the truth of the death of her wife. He is surrounded by the main culprit, Teddy who tries to derail him in his findings. Leonard despite of his mental condition finds his way and puts clue together to finally know that teddy was the killer. Truffaut’s 400 Blows Question 2 This film demonstrates the steps taken by the 12 year old Antoine who was in bad terms with his parents and teachers, is seen descending into delinquency. Antoine is preparing to go to reform school, since the teachers and his parents, plus the squeezed house and classroom imprison him mentally and physically in his village. He often runs to his favorite spot where he hides fro the rest of the people. This leads him to participate in the game of hooky, which takes him to the streets where he enjoys the freedom of moving about far from the authorities. This continues to worsen as he gets more trouble both at home and school. In addition, the more trouble he creates at home, the more his matter worsens at school. He finds himself between neglect ion and abusing, which takes him round like the centrifuge he often rides when he is at the fair ground. This confusion spins him quicker and quicker, plunging him even into more confusion. 400 Blows take the filming into the streets and reflects our very own lives. There is a single seen that shows the interview of Doinel by a psychiatrist, which shows his youthful talents to his audience. In the interview, Truffaut adopts the camera and symbolically shows the Doinel break on maturity, in a scene where he is captured behind a steel cage, where Truffaut don’t use any words to summarize the picture. This tight encasement shows that Doinel is all by himself in his little world, and ha s nowhere to look for. The society isolates him, and he is locked in his world, and mind. The Sea is a less known title of this film, and it shows the lost power of the title of the film, as there is obscurity of the 400 blows. Antoine’s enthusiasm takes him to the shores where he is in a poor state of the mind, as he does not have anybody around him that can be of assistance to him. He is anxious, and he wonders of the life he has not yet lived, as he glares straight into the camera, as innocently and vulnerable he could ever be. The film leaves the audience with these glimpse glare of a young man stuck between the burdened past and the inevitable future that lies in front. The use of pictures clearly shows the condemned nature of the world that Antoine lived, for instance in school, we see him wondering rather than paying attention to what the teacher is teaching. It shows the inattentiveness that was characterized his nature, and his ambitions in school. As a result, he dislikes being at school at most occasions, and rather prefers going to the fairground to swing and see the circus. He eventually elopes from school. Another picture that depicts his nature is behind the steeled cage, wondering and glaring aimlessly. He is trapped in his own world, isolated from the rest of the environment. He does not say much, but rather chooses to remain quiet. In the cover page, the film portrays Antoine wondering in the beach alone thinking of where to go, and what to do. It portrays the loneliness felt by Antoine thinking of the past and the life facing him at that instance. He is all by himself, and decides to focus more on the life ahead. Conclusion This film is great since the audience was more involved with the characters, and it shows the gritty and realistic life of Doinel, which attracts the sympathy of the audience in attendance. It is a realistic film that follows the life of Antoine. Casablanca Question 2 Casablanca has matured into a legendary film that almost exceed complete cinema. Due to its popularity, people who have not seen the movie can comfortably quote then dialogue spoken in the play. It focuses on the life of a man and a woman, with deep feelings for each other. They are wiling too sacrifice their life for anything. This greatly appeals to the viewer as they are eager to see where the love takes them. The screenplay of this movie was retrieved from a play of no consequences; hat was written down and taken to the play. The opening play starts with comedy, the language used pts together the cynical with the fatigued. Rick easily adopts into the evil world, and the German asks him what his nationality was, and he quickly replies that he does not stick his neck out for nobody. Then he starts to narrate about Isla, the woman he once loved, before she abandoned him in a train station moments before they were heading for their freedom. They were living under the influence of the German livelihood. Isla, her former girlfriend later goes to victor, who is a legendary French fihter.sam is shocked to see Isla at the bar, and she requests him to play for her the song that Rick and her used to adore. He finally plays the song after hesitating for a few moments; it prompted Rick to storm into the room from the backside claiming he had instructed Sam to never play that song again. Rick is amazed to see that Isla was indeed the one who had requested for the song to play, he reminisce of their time together, and their love in Paris. The plot continues to enthusiasts as it takes play to Portugal from Casablanca, and the abrupt appearance of Isla ignites the wounds of Rick. She tells him her story, and he concludes that Isla indeed loves him, but at the mean time, is with Laszlo. Rick retrieves some letters and tries to convince Isla to elope with him. What follows is a series of romance, suspense and comedy, as contrary to Rick’s idea, Isla escapes with Laszlo. In contrast, rick and Claude escapes with murder. This film is much intriguing, since the majority of the characters are good, even though others are cynical, but all in all, they are eventually redeemed. The movie portrays a modern view that grants Isla the basic role of being a lover and simply a helper to a great man. The face of Bergman in this movie reflects some mixed up emotions, as her and everyone else were not sure who would get in the plane at the end of the film. All of her parts are emotionally persuasive, and she never moved in the direction the wind was coming from. In a lighter note, I can say that the film was not quite perfected, as the use of Hollywood studios creativity was rather rock-solid. The director’s main purpose was to reveal to the viewer that Rick and his lover Isla plus then other characters dwelled in a more composite time and environment. The affluence of the characters that supported the theme of the film set a trend for the mains character to adapt. Conclusion There is more arc in the story than the one portrayed in by the directors; first they use one woman to win the heart of two men, who both have a motive of eloping with Isla to another country. This portrays the huge implication that Isla played another role in bringing these two men together. It also discusses the weakness of the Hollywood settings and the way it sets the foundation for the film. All the same, it is a great film that is characterizes suspense and love. The Spirit of the Beehive Question 2 This story starts in the castle province of Spain at the early 1900. Ana an Isabela, the children of Fernandez are five and seven years old in that order. Their parents have beraed the effects of the ongoing war in their country, and separate themselves in their own dimensions. Their father Fernando, is a beekeeper and a scientist, and uses most of his time looking after and studying the behaviors of his bees. Their mother, who was abandoned by Fernando, regularly sends them mail that never reaches her family. It is only the nanny named Milagros that is left to take care of the two young girls of Teresa and Fernando. In this film, the primary idea covers the fear and anxiousness of early days, the overpowering outcome of the Franco of Spain, the function and ability of films in our lives, and the mad nature of the grown up world. This film gets hold of the wonderful pictures of young ones in the most appropriate manner available. It is enhanced by the gloomy and obscure images referring the world as a dimension. In the later stages of the film, the difference between the fictional environment of the young ones and the grueling nature of the adult world is evident, as it entails the shooting a fugitive, who was in fear of his life. Ana cannot understand why the fugitive is shot, and this puzzles her as she ponders on the outcome of the event. This cinema was produced in the period of the oppressive regime of Franco. The unproductive land and forsaken houses characterize the lack of life in Spain. It is viewed as the lifeless nature of the village, an irony of the beehive metaphor with the rearing of bees for honey that would not be consumed. Conclusion The overall significance of the film is quite impressive, and emphasizes on strong theme an points out the main ideas of the play. Works cited Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/combined. Retrieved on 19th March, 2012 Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/1999/sep/16/derekmalcolmscenturyoffilm. retrieved on 19th March, 2012 Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/. Retrieved on 19th March, 2012 Retrieved from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990808/REVIEWS08/9080803 01/1023 Read More