Explore the ways Frayn uses multiple genre in his novel 'Spies'
Explore the ways Frayn uses multiple genre in his novel 'Spies'. Throughout 'Spies', Frayn introduces us to several key genres. As the reader we are unsure which of these is entirely central to the novel; however, three prominent genres seem to arise. We see 'Spies' primarily as a mystery novel, with the unfolding plot of the "German spy", the truths that are yet to be found and the questions that are left unanswered. 'Spies' is also presented as a 'coming-of-age' novel: Stephen's conflicting ideas of childhood and the adult world and his own journey into adolescence. Finally, the novel is portrayed as a work of philosophy: the 'novel of ideas'. Concepts relating to this genre are conveyed through Frayn's portrayal of the ambiguity of memory, the confusion of illusion and reality, and perception. The concept of mystery is introduced to the reader in the very opening chapter of 'Spies', and remains with us throughout the novel. Stefan hints of a "secret thing...still waiting to be discovered", but we are given no idea of what this might be; questions are left unanswered and it seems that even the narrator himself does not know quite why this "familiar breath of sweetness" is a "cue for such powerful feelings". The mystery here is why the smell of the Liguster and the memories Stefan begins to reveal have affected him so much that he feels he must return to "bring them out
Film Review of Scarface (1983).
Film Review - Scarface (1983) He loved the American Dream. With a vengeance. Scarface is a remake of the (1932) gangster classic of the same name only this time; director Brian De Palma set the film to the backdrop of 1980s Miami. The story follows Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who upon his arrival in America sets about working his way to the top of Miami's thriving cocaine empire. Scarface is in parts extremely violent but unlike so many films of the same genre the movie is also very engaging because we see the central character brought to life by Al Pacino. His portrayal of Tony Montana is very real, and you could easily believe Pacino was actually Cuban. I think the way De Palma made Tony come from Cuba, deported by Castro rather than from Italy as was Tony Camonte in the 1932 version, make the film set itself apart from the original as its own movie. Supporting Al Pacino was Michelle Pfeiffer, playing the icy role of Elvira Hancock. I thought she looked amazing and gave a fine performance but did not find her character anywhere near as believable, the transition from Boss's lady and completely out of Montana's league to his wife and ultimately his property, just didn't convince me. The films plot is told by putting the audience in a second persons perspective. The story is character driven, focussing mainly on the lead role - Tony and his fast and brutal rise and
Man on Wire is a documentary based on Philippe Petits emotional and physical journey as a tightrope walker
Man On Wire Documentary filmmaking was created to provide objectivity, authenticity and truthfulness on a particular subject matter - something first seen in movies such as Nanook of the North, Robert Flaherty. Man on Wire is a documentary based on Philippe Petit's emotional and physical journey as a tightrope walker whose sole dream was to achieve the impossible and walk across the two world trade centers. Its subject matter aside, what is particularly interesting about this documentary is the fact that it does not follow all of the typical documentary film conventions that we see in a vast number of Michael Moore films for example. Accuracy is often a critical factor in documentary films, clichéd by unsteady, handheld camera shots, cramped framing (the rule of thirds is often entirely ignored) and the utilization of natural lighting is employed. Often times the use of diagetic sound is entirely natural as well, in particular Nick Bloomfields Biggie and Tupac where which we notice the natural sound 'runs out' and is looped on several instances. However, Man On Wire focuses more on versimilitude as opposed to accuracy itself, where fear is intensified to a whole new level and the camera recreates frantic movements, unlike conventional documentary filmmaking. Documentarians often go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered in anyway, although
Investigate and evaluate a piece of historical evidence, the Hollywood movie The Patriot starred by Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger in order to determine whether or not it is reliable
History is the study of the past, of what had really happened and who were involved. To study history itself, it is essential that the source from which the information were taken is factual as well as reliable. It is not acceptable if it contains errors and flaws or mixing the truth with some fictions. This essay will investigate and evaluate a piece of historical evidence, the Hollywood movie The Patriot starred by Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger in order to determine whether or not it is reliable and could be used to determine the events that really had happened during the American fight for Revolution. A way to determine the reliability of The Patriot as an accurate historical source is by knowing whether it is a primary or a secondary source of information. A primary source of historical information came from a person who was directly involved during the period of time or a document written during that period, such as diaries or the Declaration of Independence. In this case, this movie is considered as a secondary source. Some of the advantages of a primary source is that it brings the researcher as close as possible to what actually happened in the history and it is almost one hundred percent true. It helps to know what the people involved think and their individual viewpoints on certain events. However, the problem with primary source is that want it or not, historians
Boy A is a British drama produced by Lynn Horsford and directed by John Crowley
‘Boy A’ Essay Is Boy A any good? Boy A is a British drama produced by Lynn Horsford and directed by John Crowley. It is a film adaptation of Jonathan Trigell's novel which is also called Boy A. It was distributed by channel 4 and film 4. Boy A stars a British actor called Andrew Garfield, who plays a hefty role in the drama. He won the 2008 best actor BAFTA TV Award for his performance. The film is about a reformed child murderer named Eric who later in the film changes his name to Jack because he wants a fresh start to his second life and a new identity. He tries to escape the darkness of his sinful years. The drama draws harsh similarities with the well-known James Bulger case. The drama suggests significant messages and morals throughout and has remarkable acting. Boy A was a great drama to study in class; I have many reasons for this point of view. The drama is constantly going backwards and forwards in the life of Eric/Jack, we’re shown this by flashbacks of Eric (young) then shown him present in the life of Jack. We are shown two lives of him, which makes it seem us if he is reliving his live after his unpleasant past. There is a hint in the title of the drama, ‘Boy A’ symbolises to me that there is a clone of a boy, and therefore being labelled as Boy A. This makes the drama seem very interesting to the audience because it doesn’t expose much, as a
Jaws - Review.
JAWS Jaws is a stunning yet petrifying film movie or rather a blockbuster directed by the brilliant Steven Spielberg. The scene is Amity Island, a cosy coastal community dependent on tourist dollars during the summer months, year is 1975, favourite holiday destination, and the time is summer, just before the 4th of July holiday, time for the proud Americans to celebrate their national Independence day. This is time for the Americans to celebrate and enjoy themselves at the beaches and with summer approaching the beaches being occupied in large numbers. The movie is based on three men being brought down to the level of a real-cold blooded killer while keeping perspective upon their essential humanity. The story is about a ferocious and cold-blooded shark that is responsible for the lives of innocent young lives that are purely there to have some fun. Setting the movie in binary opposition creates more drama and anxiety for the audience as the scenes are set in a really pleasurable and cheerful environment, this creates dramatic effect to the movie, and watching small kids who are having innocent fun being brutally killed creates more tension than having bad people being murdered. Music is always an essential part of this film; it is used to create different moods. The shark is connected to the music in the title sequence as the music beats slowly and gradually gets more
Hotel Rwanda Cinematic Techniques
Hotel Rwanda Cinematic Techniques PLOT Hotel Rwanda is one of the most tragical movie I have ever watched. It is an historical dram film about a hotel manager who plans on saving the life of around 1,200 people when a deadly genocide occurred in Rwanda. The cause for this ethnic cleansing was between two tribes, “the Hutu and the Tutsi” who were claiming to be in power of running the country. Although Paul Rusesabagina was a Hutu, he plans on saving innocent people from the war by protecting them in his hotel; since his wife, Tatiana’ was from the opposite tribe, he risked his life in protecting her and her people at the same time from Georges Rutaganda, the vice president of Rwanda also a Hutu who mainly brought the foundation of this war. However, Paul alone couldn’t protect his family and hotel, so he bribed people of major influence with money and alcohol to protect him and his family from the dreadful conflict, but later when he run out of resources , he realised he was unable to negotiate any longer with the guards so he abandoned his hotel. Sadly all foreigners in the country were allowed to evacuate the country safely before any disaster could have happened to them leaving the Rwandans behind to suffer in such catastrophe. Unfortunately even the UN army couldn’t interfere in the war since they were already forbidden to intervene in the political
Anaysis of the first 3 minutes of the horror film "Wrong Turn".
Micro Elements – Wrong Turn Wrong Turn is a horror film directed by Rob Schmidt. The theme of horror will instantly attract the viewers into the film as they are always going to be sitting on the edge of their seat. The film is set deep in the woods… but no one’s lived to tell about it, where Chris Finn is on his way to an interview but turns around to avoid traffic and makes the biggest mistake of his life, where there he then crashes into a group of young friends and they are stranded along this long road. The friends then encounter a group of monsters and then face death. I am going to look at the Misc en scene and sound of the Micro Elements in the first 3 minutes of the film. The film starts off with some non-diegetic sound, which gives off a spooky, edgy vibe. As this is going on there is a crane shot of a huge forest with a long road running down the middle of the deep woods, this shot then runs down the forest at speed, whilst the track playing is getting lighter to hear. This then leads to a rocky wall with a long shot of two people both male and female escalating the wall, these actors both have their rock climbing equipment and are doing a good job of climbing the wall, this automatically gives off the image that they know what they are doing and are highly experienced in rock climbing. At this point the track has stopped playing and the diegetic sound
Looking at mise-en-scene, cinematography and sound in the film Leon (Luc Besson) 1994.
Focus on how one or more of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and and sound create meaning and generate response in a film sequence of no more than seven minutes. I will be looking at mise-en-scene, cinematography and sound in the film Leon (Luc Besson) 1994 In the opening sequence of Leon, Besson uses a travelling aerial shot of a lake followed by a huge park, which is finally dominated by huge, cosmopolitan skyscrapers. The camera rests here to show the contrast in jungle and urban life. We then enter the urban city, where several travelling shots going through the streets are used giving an apparent sense of setting and location. The added use of non-diagetic sound combined with many beautiful shots of New York's streets combine to produce a very mysterious atmosphere. This mood is enhanced once we zoom in to the dark open doorway of a small Italian restaurant. The first image of Leon goes hand-in-hand with the first scene, as we see him only in an extreme close-up of his eyes, which are concealed beneath sunglasses. This image is shrouded in darkness and mystery. We are also shown close ups of Leon's boss through the reflection of his own sunglasses. This again adds to the mood. At this point in the film, we see neither Leon nor his boss in full view, meaning that the first character conveyed to us in the film is a photograph of a victim. In this shot, the director
Bourne Ultimatum
The clip from The Bourne Ultimatum tells the story of Jason Bourne trying to help a journalist escape a group who want to kill him to prevent him from passing on his information to Bourne. The narrative follows on from two previous films and this sequence consists of three narrative threads; 1-Jason Bourne's attempts to discover his identity and expose the conspiracy, 2-the attempts of the American organisation trying to capture and possibly kill Ross, 3-the journey of the unnamed assassin ('asset') to kill Ross and Bourne. The three strands are intercut to make a coherent narrative and they come together at the end of the narrative in a crescendo, namely, the death of Ross. The early use of iconography such as red buses, black cabs, the London underground, an establishing shot and even a glimpse of the Evening Standard make it clear that the scene is set in London. These famous icons make it clear to the audience where it is set and draw on their personal experiences of this particular place, thus possibly making it feel more 'real' to them. The music and the editing create a tense and fast-paced feel to the clip as the shaky camera work and whip pans give it a documentary type feel. This method is often used in this genre of films in order to make the viewer feel like they are there, which is only a new technique as not too long ago if the camera work was shaky this was
