On the Verge of Lunacy

Analysis of the movie "Babel" based on Stanley Cavell's "Audience, Actor, and Star" and Alexander Sesonske's "Space, Time, and Motion in Film" Brad Pitt became famous as a screen actor when he played a starring role in the Dark Side of the Sun in 1988. Like most famous "stars" he is well-known in some of the roles he played in his movies. According to Cavell, "the screen actor is essentially not an actor at all: he is the subject of the study..." In popular culture the roles these stars have played are overshadowed by the fact that they played them. The audience knows immediately what to expect from the movie through the actors' names.The characters they play in the story are created by them, not unlike in plays where the characters roles have already been established. In the example given in the essay, King Lear has been portrayed in flesh just like he is in the story. While in some movies, the roles are specifically ma...

Comment on the movie "In the Mood for Love" based on Laura Mulvey's "Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look" "The presence of a woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation." Personally I never liked women in movies. Most of them are fragile, foolish and always in need of another person for help. I don't want to think of myself as that kind of woman and so I cannot identify with most of the female characters. * * * Women always have to look good. Li-zhen's sexuality is emphasized through close-up shots of erotic zones. The angles in some of the scenes have that voyeuristic quality. The viewers intrude their lives.Like most female characters, she is a passive counterpart to Chow. The male protagonist provides the actions of the story to keep it going. In the end, the...

AN ANALYSIS ON ORSON WELLES' " CITIZEN KANE " PHOTOGRAPHY, MISE EN SCENE and MOVEMENT Orson Welles' use of theatrical techniques in lightning has an unusual effect in the movie. Some shots exaggerate the symbolic features of the story such as separation and loneliness. The contrasts are very obvious and early in the film, the audience is provided with a foreshadowing of the protagonist's fate. The play of light and darkness overstates the contrasts in foreground and background, the textures and the characters' demeanor. The positions of the characters also perform the same functions. What I like most about the film is that the director can place all the elements in the film without overshadowing the rest (the deep-focus shots for example). He can maximize the space making it possible for the audience to different characters at the same time. The camera movements are very dynamic and give the audience another side of the story aside from the dialogues o...

PLOT At first glance, the story might be about Sam and his friends, but it was only through them that a more important theme of the story has been told. The musical play was all about the small community in Jolo, Sulu whose bloody history was long forgotten by the generations that followed after the massacre. At the end of the story we see that Sam and Amrayda's marriage was more important and symbolic. What seems to be an ordinary concern of a young Tausug complicates to challenges that led to self-discovery of great proportions. CHARACTERS The actors were well suited to their roles considering the fact that they are real Tausugs who carry with them their culture and tradition. Sam appeared to be the protagonist of the play but he was only the instrument through which the story was told. DICTION The dialogues were appropriate for each character based on the personality they have established from the very beginning. They might have changed views in the end but their lines refl...

The beat of the agong might have been a requiem for the Tausugs in Jolo, Sulu on March 6, 1906. The sound of the guns have been the last music they danced to.But tragedies can be a source of inspiration. And the incident was what inspired 2-time Palanca awardee Arnel Mardoquio to write the Antigong Agong for its centennial celebration. The music, the actors and the story of the Bud Dahu massacre made the musical play an unforgettable experience (or maybe it was just the effect of sitting in the front row).At first I thought it was just another corny love story but I'm glad it turned out differently. Sam's ordinary problem of getting the money for the dowry led to bigger and more important discoveries. The musicians did a great job. I enjoyed the songs that contained comments on social issues and how the characters themselves made fun of their misery.The play is full of social commentaries that are bold and amusing. The songs and dialogues are meant deliver it with grace a...

I guess what makes art Art is that it is a level above or below reality. It either enhances the image of the object to give more essence to its existence or the artist strips down ordinary things to make them look more ordinary. I think this what Aristotle meant by the "essence of the ideal". Whatever that ideal image is, it can only be seen or felt by looking at how and why the object was made. And by that he pertains only to the physical appearance of the object because the the truth itself can only be seen through its physical manifestation. He was trying to say that although we only imitate the ideal, the essence, even it is much farther removed from the truth as Plato claimed, is still within that object. If that is the case then we should look at art as to how it is imitated. There must be something in a piece of work that we do not like that we must have overlooked. Just like what the director did to the story in the movie "Tuhog". To him the story is more ...

People vary in responses and opinions on what is beautiful and not so pleasing to the eyes. Not everyone finds Brad Pitt attractive and not everyone likes dark skin. These judgments reflect familial, cultural, religious or political conditioning. But even people in the same background vary in their preferences. Most girls like me do not consider guns as works of art. Not everyone likes the sound of it. For most people it symbolizes violence, cruelty and death. But to me, they are no different from paintings or music or literature. So what do people look for when they judge its aesthetic value? There are two things or categories that people use to evaluate objects. It can be what most would label the “objective” perspective where the person looks at the elements like lines and colors in a painting for example. The others try to attach meanings and compare them to experiences and memories of people, objects or events that appeal to the emotions. It was this emotional part that Plato ...