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. 

Zootopia

This was the film that I have decided to watch during the raya holidays. Zootopia (2016), Disney's newest animated film. Zootopia features Judy Hopps, discovering that she is the first bunny cop on a police force of big, tough animals. Things did not turn out as easy as expected for her as she determines to prove herself. She jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast talking, scam artist fox, Nic Wilde to solve the mystery.

The genres used in the film are Comedy, Action Film, Family Film, Adventure Film and Buddy Film. Comedy genre is a work intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter. One of the types of comedy used in the film is dark comedy, this is because dark comedy makes jokes out of serious or disturbing matter. Dark comedy is used at the scene where Judy Hopps and Nick Wilds needs to run a car plate with the help of Flash. In that scene, it shows all the workers as sloths to depict what people feel about the services in real life.  Comedy is used throughout the film, one example is in the end credit where they show Flash speeding in his high speed vehicle. 

Zootopia is also an action film, action film is films where the hero of the story faces a series of challenges that involve violence, close combat, physical feats and fanatic pursuits. Action film features a hero struggling against all odds which includes life threatening situations which in the end proves victorious for the hero. Action film could be seen in zootopia in the scene where Judy hopps and Nick wilde finds  Mr Manchas, Mr Big's limousine driver for an explanation of the incident. The scene shows Mr Manchas going berserk from the effect of the drug causing him to attack Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. 

Family films is also considered as Children's film is films that contains children or relate them to home and family.Family films are made with a wide appeal with a general audience in mind which includes both parents and children. Zootopia is a family film because it is a Disney animation that appeals for children and yet making it entertaining for parents as well.

Adventure films are films which uses exotic locations in an energetic way. Adventure films mainly shows characters going on a heroic journeys into the unknown. Zootopia is an adventure film as it shows Judy Hopps leaving her home to be the first bunny cop in the police force in the heart of Zootopia, not only she is new to the city, she has to explore unknown continents to crack the case within 24 hours. 

Paranorman

Based on the film of Paranorman from Laika, I am going to discuss about the genres that are used in the film and plan to explain what the genres are. Before moving on to the types of genre found in this film, first is to understand what is the definition of genre and how it is used in categorizing films.

Genres is a form of classifying films or grouping of films and film type. According to Rick Altman, we can classify genres by using semantics and syntactic approaches as they could help in identifying a particular film. Semantics approach are based on visuals of the film, such as the mise-en-scene. Based on mise-en-scene, it can help in telling what sort of genre it is. For example, if the setting is taken place in a dark and empty house it may be a horror genre. Syntactic approach on the other hand is based on themes. For example, if the theme is romance, then the story will revolve around romance.

Paranorman tells a story about a boy, Norman Babcock who has an ability to speak to the dead. He prefers to be with the dead than to be accompanied by the living. One day, Norman receives a message from his uncle Prenderghast that a century old witch's curse on their town is real and is about to come true. and Norman is the only one who could stop it. When the zombies rise from their graves, Norman must summon all his courage and compassion and push his abilities to the limit to save his town.

The genres used in the film are Comedy, Horror, Action and Melodrama. Comedy is a genre that focuses on making the audience laugh, the main purpose of it is to entertain or amuse the audience with funny actions, characters, situations or behavior. There are many type of comedy, for example, slapstick, screwball, dark comedy and parody. In Paranorman, the comedy used is Screwball as it shows the main character "Norman" going through a unhappy life as he is always being bullied by others and being treated weirdly as he has an ability in seeing and talking to the dead. All the conflicts ended when he the witches curse brought the zombies to life and Norman is able to prove that he is not crazy, in fact showing that his ability is a gift by resolving the curse of the witch.

Besides that, Horror genre is also used in the film. Horror genre is one of the oldest genre from Hollywood, it focuses on scaring the audience and to cause panic as it aims to invoke our hidden worst fears while captivating and entertaining us at the same time with a cathartic experience. Horror has a few sub genres, which are Unnatural, Psychological, Massacre or Slasher Flicks. In Paranorman, unnatural horror film is used as the main theme is about Zombies, Witchcraft and Ghosts. This could be seen since the starting as Norman is able to see ghosts and communicate with them. Later on the story, Norman could be seen trying to solve a witch's curse of raising the dead, which are zombies.

Action genre is about showing the main protagonist going through a series of challenges that involve violence, close combats, physical feats or frantic pursuits, it also means showing the main character facing challenges and struggling incredible odds that include life threatening situations which in the end, the main character will become the hero. Action genre is used in the film as it shows Norman struggling through life as a challenge, as he has an special ability which makes people think he is crazy. He later has to face his fears of zombies as he is continuously being chased by the zombies of the witch's curse, and has to face the witch himself as he has to fight of his life and bring an end to the witch's suffering.

Melodrama is a genre that brings a sensational and dramatic story that excites and appeal to the emotions of the audience. Melodrama is used in the movie as it keeps using dramatic scenes that excites and keeps the audience entertained. Melodrama is used in scenes like where Norman is trying to battle the witch as he is constantly being thrown and pushed around, he is also seen getting up with determination as he jumps towards the witch to try to talk sense into her.

In conclusion, genres plays a vital role in making a movie interesting. As Rick Altman approach is true and important as the Syntactic and Semantic approach must go hand in hand to make all the film spectacular.