Easy A

After watching the film Easy A, I will attempt to find the female archetypes used in the film. An archetype is relating of behavior, modern psychological theory, and literary analysis. Examples of female archetypes are strong female, femme fatale, good wife, blondes are dumb and brunettes are smart. This is because women are constantly under oppression in that era which contributes to stereotyping of women.  Women are objectified as prize.

The women archetypes in the film could be seen at the ending. The characters Olive, Ms Griffith, Mrs Penderghast, Rhi and Marianne. Let's start with Olive, she is a brunet, smart, independent, sympathetic and kind. Throughout the film, you could see that she is the smartest among the characters as she is the teachers pet, she is also independent as could be seen in the scene where Rhi invites her for a family party but she declines and spends the weekend alone, and she is the kindest character in the film as she helps all of the male characters that needed help.

Moving on, Marianne is the blonde character in the film. As what the archetype has set, she is dumb, mean, egoistic, and unfriendly. She could be seen acting holy throughout the film as her father is a pastor at a church but she is the most evil character in the film. She could be seen always backstabbing Olive by spreading false rumors about her but yet cry in front of her friends as if she is trying to save her. As Olive gets into trouble, Marianne could be seen glaring at Olive in the office while hammering on the stapler trying to scare Olive.

Breathless

After watching Breathless, I will attempt to see if Breathless is under the category of French New Wave. French New Wave started in 1959 and ended at 1969. French New Wave filmmakers are linked by their self-conscious rejection of the the literary, their desire to shoot on location, and intention of experimenting with the film form.  This means French New Wave rejects editing and focuses on visuals.

In the film Breathless, they focus on strong female archetypes as in they focus on Patricia in the film. Patricia is a independent woman as could be seen in the film as she has her own job and even has education. In the scene where Michel looks for Patricia while she was working as a newspaper seller, it shows that Patricia has job and Michel does not.

Patricia is also rebellious as she could be seen in the scene where she steals cars with Michel although knowing that it is a crime.

Patricia is also able to practice choices, this shows she is strong as she is brave enough to rat michel out to the police in the end after she knows that he does not sincerely love her.

There were also elliptical editing and jump cut in the film, this shows that the filmmakers were experimenting with the film form. Elliptical editing could be seen as their mouth were not sync with the dialog during in the film. Jump cut could be seen in the film where they change scenes but using the same shots.

The incredibles

After watching The Incredibles, I will attempt to match the feminist film theory to the film. Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism coming from feminist politics and feminist theory.  Feminist film theory started after the influence by second wave feminism and the development of women studies in the 1960's and 1970's.

Feminist Film theory could be seen in the film by matching the characters to their abilities. Starting with Helen, she is a mother of three children and is family oriented. She is strong, dominant and independent as she is able to fight criminals and control the family. She is also a strategist which practices pro-choices. When we think of mothers, we tend to think they could split into a million pieces because they have so much to do. Therefore, her ability was matched with Elastic girl, the ability to stretch making her extremely flexible. Her strong personality could be seen in the scene where Bob sneaks of to save citizens from a burning building and when he returned, Helen was waiting for him and she knows what he had done by picking up a little rubble from his clothes. She could be seen arguing with Bob for his safety and the safety of the family. This shows she is a strong women that isn't afraid of anything to protect her family.

Moving on, Helen's daughter, Voilet is a shy and obedient girl. She also lacks in self confidence therefore she has the ability of stealth or invisibility. She is also able to cast a force field shield as if it is her wall around her. It matches her personality as she is shy and introverted, therefore she is always hiding from people and from her crush. She could be seen becoming brave and having more self confidence to face challenges in her life at the end. This aims at to educate young girls to take charge of their lives by being confident. Her changes could be seen at the start of the movie where she is hiding from her crush and in the end of the movie where she bravely asks him out for movies.

Other types of women could be seen in the film. For example, Kari, a talkative and nerdy girl who talks louder than action. She could be seen bragging all her expertise and promises her that she will take care of Halen's baby, Jack Jack, She could be seen calling Halen for help in the end as she could not handle her baby.

Edna Mode, she is confident, talented and an elitist. She could be seen proudly saying she design for the gods.

Mirage, a typical femme fatale which is sexy but deadly. She uses her sexuality to bait the supers to their death. This could be seen in the scene where she sends her message to Mr incredible with her seductive voice.

Frozen's Wife is the dominating wife in the film. This could be seen in the scene where frozon is looking for his super suit as his wife angrily scolds him and tells him that she is his only greater good.

Bicycle Theifs

By understanding Italian Neorealism, I will attempt to explain the effect of Italian Neorealism on the film Bicycle Theif. Italian Neorealism is also known as the golden age of Italian cinema. It is a national film movement that usually tells stories of the poor and the working class. The scenes are usually filmed on location and usually use non-professional actors. Italian Neorealism contents are usually about effect of world war II towards the difficult economy and moral value of the country. This shows the life of poverty and injustice and desperation. 

The Bicycle Theif shows the suffering of Antonio Ricci and Bruno Ricci as their life are already poor and barely has income to sustain the family. To get a job, Antonio Ricci has to struggle to get a bicycle that his wife Maria Ricci has to sell their bed sheets to get one. It also shows that his job and income depends on the bicycle he has which was later stolen on his first day on his job. He could be seen desperately looking for his stolen bicycle and even show his desperation pushing him to the limit that made him try to steal other peoples bicycle and caused him to be caught.  

Neorealism is the depiction of Realism, it focuses on the mise-en-shot and mise-en-scene to enhance the narrative of the film. The location they used in the scene shows the effect of the world war II, it shows the city of ruins. This could be seen in the scene like Antonio Ricci's house, the road are destroyed and the buildings could be seen like its newly built. In the city, buildings could be seen mixed with old and new buildings.

All the actors used in the film are unprofessional actors, the only professional actor in the film is the man distributing the flies at the stairs. 

The scenes in the film used are long takes. It usually have shots that has duration of 20 seconds and above. The purpose of these long takes are to let the audience immerse themselves into the surrounding of the scene.

Maltese Falcon

By understanding Film Noir under the Italian Neorealism category, I will attempt to study about Film Noir through the film Maltese Falcon. I will study the characteristics of Film Noir in terms of visuals.

Film Noir comes under Italian Neorealism, it is a type of cinematography which focuses on the type of characters, story and mise-en-scene. This traits are similar with Film Noir as it also focuses on the visuals, characters and Narrative. Film Noir is under the category of dark films, this means the story tends to be dark, visually dark or evil characters. 

Film Noir tends to be dark visually as in it could be visually suffocating, effect of shadow, lines and angles of shots. This effect of shadow seen in Film Noir are representing good and evil, this could be seen throughout Maltese falcon as some of the scene takes place at night and the shadow are highly visible. This tells the people that the characters that may look good on the outside has a very evil side as well.

The effect of lines could be cause by using the effect of shadows as well. The effect of the lines causes distortion to make it seem that everything is distorted and out of place. This makes it feel like there is always something not right as if it is a warning that something bad is going to happen.

Low angle shots are used in the scene where Sam Spade finds the "fat man" known as Humphrey Bogart. The low angle shot gives the impression that Humphrey is a very rich and powerful or very evilly powerful man. His big sized body further compliments the character as it makes him look even bigger.

Film Noir is all about blurred morals, this is why they are categorized under Dark Films. There are not one good character in the film, even the detective is bad. The detective, Sam Spade is the main character with flaws, he is the protagonist and an anti hero of the film. He could be seen extorting money from O'Shaughnessy and framing Wilmer to cover up the crime. In the end, he even calls the police to arrest O'Shaughnessy despite his feelings for her.

Film Noir also features strong women as the character O'Shaughnessy is shown to be strong enough to even plot out to murder Archer and even take down her accomplice Thursby so she could have the full value of the maltese falcon. She could be seen telling all the lies and manipulating Sam Spade the detective to do all her bidding. 

The mood for love (2000)

French impressionism is a film movement which started in 1959 and ended in 1969. French films were mainly adaptations from tales published in books and adapted to cinema. French impressionism rejects montages and favors more on mise-en-scene

French impressionism can be seen in the film where Chow-Mo wan goes into his office after talking to Su Li zhen about marriage life. In that scene, it shows a shot of tobacco smoke rising from his body into the lights. This shows the dilemma of Mr.Chow as the smoke shows his mind is clouded with frustration.

Throughout the show, there were scenes showing Mr Chow and Ms Su walking or shot of them buying noodles with monotonous music playing in the background. This shows them being stuck and the time spent being alone despite being married. It shows they are living the life of a single despite being married.

 The slow motion used in the film where Ms Su was leaving the aunties while they were chatting shows that she was unhappy. This is because the slow motion shows that time goes very slow when we are unhappy or suffering as a min feels like hours.

There were two scenes in the film where they freeze it, the scenes are where Ms Su leaves Mr Chow and where Mr Chow leaves his room before heading to Singapore. The freeze of this scene shows that moment is embedded as a memory.

Dark City

By understanding German Expressionism that emerged in the film industry, I will attempt to determine the German Expressionism elements found in the film "Dark City" (1998). 

German Expressionism is a number of creative movements that began in Germany before the first world war. It was a part of the expressionist movement in the European art culture. German Expressionism began emerging in films from 1919 till 1926, this is because they were influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art at early 1900s. However, they started to fade in the 1920s because the German film industry tried to imitate and compete with Hollywood films, which caused them to dilute their expressionist tendencies. 

German Expressionism includes themes like revolt, self-analysis, madness and primitive sexual savagery. This genre spreads into cinema in terms of narrative, set and mise-en-scene, this could be seen in the set design and low key lighting.  The style in German Expressionism are oblique camera angles, Distorted bodies and shapes, bizarre and incongruous settings, low key lighting and contents of surreal and Gothic, usually about unnatural acts. 

John Murdoch wakes up in a bathtub and alone in a strange hotel to find himself wanted for a series of brutal murders.Problem begins to arise as he can't remember whether he had committed the murders. For a brief moment, he was convinced that he has gone completely insane. Murdoch begins to find ways to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity. As he edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of ominous beings collectively known as the Strangers.

German Expressionism could be seen throughout the film with their low key lighting, distorted bodies and shapes, bizarre and incongruous settings and it is about unnatural acts. First of all, the city in the film is always dark as the title of the film is after all "Dark city". This provides and generates the sense of mystery of the film to the audience, it also enhances the investigative nature of the film. 

Moving on, the mise-en-scene of the film are bizarre and incongruous, distorted bodies and shapes are seen on the set. This could be seen during the scene where the strangers begins their process of installing new buildings as buildings could be seen twisting out of the ground. The strangers movement are similar with the Somnambulist in Dr. Caligari.

Primitive sexual savagery was also seen in the film as it plays the role of showing how evil the strangers are. This could be seen at the scene where Mr.Hand kills its victim by stripping them half naked and carves symbols on them. 

In conclusion, Dark city is under the influence of German Expressionism as the elements found in Dark City determines that the film has used German Expressionism.