Introduction To The Cinema Assessment Answer
Key Topics
- Film: Psycho
- Film: The Pianist
- Film: Interstellar
- Film: Twenty thousand Leagues under the Sea
- References:
The film log takes the form of five brief (250 word entries). You need to write an entry on five films and related readings chosen from the first seven weeks of the unit.
Each entry should consider one or two issues, of your choosing, raised by that particular week’s readings in relation to the film. The entry should NOT RECOUNT the film or the reading but should offer a concise critical analysis of a particular scene, character, and so on.
Film: Psycho
In the world famous horror genre movie Psycho, the lead character known as Norman Bates was a serial killer. The character happens to be a person suffering from a disease known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. He runs a small motel in Fairvale, California. The character of Bates was exposed to severe emotional torture and abuse by his mother, Norma. She taught him that sex was a sinful act and every woman is a whore. At his teenage, Norman killed his mother Norma and her lover inside the motel with strychnine out of jealousy and made it look like it was a suicide. He then hid her body. After returning from a hospital where he received shock treatment, he dug out her body and using his taxidermy skills preserved his mother’s body. He often indulged in two-way communications with his mother. Whenever he felt aroused, he tended to acquire the characteristic of his mother. He used to kill every woman who spent night in the motel. As for example, when a visitor named Marion Crane entered the motel for a night stay, Norman gave her a room that was adjacent to his office so that he can keep a close watch in her. He used to peep from the keyhole and watch her every move. Then suddenly he began talking to his mother Norma that was heard by Marion. When she asked Norman about his mother at supper time, Norman did not reveal that his mother was dead. Later on he dressed up as Norma, entered Marion’s cabin and murdered her with a kitchen knife. The Psycho will always be remembered as a cult film that is still being loved by all (The Hitchcock Zone, 2017).
Film: The Notebook
The story revolves around the main character of Noah who is the protagonist in the movie. He is a person who believes in true love, romance, artistry and faith. The time is reminiscent of the medieval period representing the morality of that time and Noah is just another man. The character of Noah depicts true and committed love for Allie. Noah loves Allie so much that he always remains dedicated in his love towards her. Noah is an idealistic and good looking poet who helps anyone in need. He has a strong bonding with his family and believes in the keeping warm bonding with his friends and is respectful to nature also. Noah is an epitome of loyalty and honesty. The notebook is dedicated to his wife and it is basically a love letter from Noah to his wife who he loved very much. Noah happens to be a millworker who is dedicated in supporting his father and he engages himself in manual labor works to fend for his family. Noah likes to spend time with his best friend named Fin. At a carnival, Noah meets with Allie and instantly falls in love with her. He convinced her to go out on a date with him and finally they went on a date where they fall in love with each other. Their love affair is extremely passionate. When Allie’s parents disapprove of her relationship with Noah and send her back to Charleston, he fell heartbroken and wrote letters to her for a year but received no response. Out of desperation he joined the army in the World War II. After his services are over he returns to the old house which he and Allie once admired and restored it to win her back that shows that love is an eternal bond (Cliffs Notes , 2016).
Film: The Pianist
The Pianist is a movie that is based on the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who is a Jewish pianist entrapped by the rule of the Nazi German forces at the time of the World War II. The movie depicts the apathy of the Jewish people towards the Second World War. He loved playing his piano and at the same time had a strong wish to survive. Various struggles and emotions of the pianist have been depicted in the movie. The movie begins with the scene which depicts the actual footage from Warsaw in the year 1939 at a time before the place was invaded by the Germans. The shots depict the peacefulness of the place and the simple lifestyle of the people before the Germans invaded the place and totally annihilated it. Before the Germans attacked, the scene shows that people are busy in their daily chores of life as the piano plays softly in the background. The scene emphasizes the situation that the Polish people were completely unaware that they were being subjected to a German attack that would change their lives forever. In the radio, Szpilman and his family listened to the news that war has been declared with Germany, and at first they just laughed it off as if the news was not true. Many of the Jews though aware of the impending doom decided not to flee from their homes and to wither the approaching storm thinking that no massacre would take place. However, this turned out to be an ominous decision as the Germans not only invaded Warsaw, they killed thousands of Jews and devastated the place completely. This is the main pathos depicted in the film (Hollaatyoboy, 2012).
Film: Interstellar
In the movie Interstellar, the protagonist is named as Cooper who happens to be an ex-NASA pilot who has been discharged of his duties and lives as a farmer. He is a widower and lives with his daughter. He is a person with the desire to explore the unknown. He is engaged in the task of raising crops in a village where the supply of the crops is getting scanty and people are having troubles in accumulating adequate food supplies. He is person that loves his children very much and therefore is undertaking such a painstaking life to raise his children amidst the rigors of crop-raising in a faraway agricultural land. This shows that he loves his life with his family. He has undertaken an emotional journey in what he believes and he is a person wearing his heart on his sleeves. His childhood dreams and those at his young age were robbed off him by the cruel world. At a particular point of time there arrives a situation where Cooper has to choose between his farm lives with his children or to accompany NASA in a secretive space mission for the sake of saving mankind. Standing at this ethical dilemma, he finally agrees to see accompany NASA in their space mission for the bigger picture that is to save people on this earth by transporting them to another planet as the earth’s resources would be exhausted soon and mankind could not survive (GradeSaver, 2018).
Film: Twenty thousand Leagues under the Sea
Captain Nemo is one of the main characters in the movie and his name ‘Nemo’ makes the audiences aware of the larger than life status of the captain. His name means ‘No One’ in Latin. In this story by Jules Verne in his famous book which was adopted in the movie of its namesake, the author as well as the director in the film wants the audiences to be inquisitive about the past of Nemo. Nemo was the captain of the submarine in the movie and was a person of enigmatic character. He built his submarine for a purpose and wanted to be alone and detached from the society. He was such a person that would not even surface above the sea for the purpose of burying his crewmen those died. He buried them instead in a large undersea cemetery. The true identity of Nemo is not revealed in the film. Some might think that he was a veteran from the American Civil War but there is no conclusive evidence as to form an idea about his actual identity in the movie. Nemo annihilated the mystery battleship at the end of the movie. He has been represented as a person with superhuman dimensions. He cannot be considered as a normal human being but as a spirit living underneath the seas. He happened to be an arrogant person who hated the society and its laws. In the end of the movie, it can be perceived that Nemo was a man who ended up losing his identify, family and even his own country. His character is still ambiguous and cannot be properly described as he has always been shrouded with element of mystery (SHMOOP, 2018).
References
Cliffs Notes . (2016). Character Analysis Noah. Retrieved from cliffsnotes: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/n/the-notebook/character-analysis/noah
GradeSaver. (2018). Interstellar. Retrieved from gradesaver: http://www.gradesaver.com/interstellar/study-guide/character-list
Hollaatyoboy. (2012). The Pianist Scene Analysis. Retrieved from hollaatyoboy.wordpress: https://hollaatyoboy.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/the-pianist-scene-analysis/
The Hitchcock Zone. (2017). Norman Bates. Retrieved from the.hitchcock.zone: https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Norman_Bates
