Scene Analysis: ALFIE opening scene

Alfie was made by Paramount, who made a large majority of the 'Swinging Britain' Films. Michael Caine, who had a deal with Paramount, starred in many of these, and Michael Caine and Paramount represented the both the fascination with swinging Britain and the rise of working class Britons.
The film itself starts with long shots of London, where the film is set. London was chosen as the location for many of these films, as it was a city that many Americans would know of. The soundtrack also reflects the times - jazz was experiencing a revival at the time.
The Dog then appears- The Dog is used as a visual metaphor for Alfie. These films still dipped into the technique of the New Wave films of the fifties, but watered down for American audiences.
The Main Character of the film, Alfie, is immediately introduced as having a poor attitude to women. The film has quite a casual approach to sex, and even ten years previously a film like this would not have been able to be made due to attitudes and the Hayes Code. Alfie lives in the 'typical' swinging sixties lifestyle, that many people wanted to emulate, but this film shows how self-desturctive and harmful to others it can be. In this scene, Alfie states he doesn't want to see anyone unhappy. This could be taken two ways - that he genuinely doesn't want to upset anyone, or, more likely, that he doesn't want to see it - literally. He spends much of the film dismissing the concerns from his partners, turning violent or leaving when it gets to much for him. He also enforces double standards -he sleeps with many different women, some at the same time - at the start of the film, we see him with Siddie, but almost immediately after he visits her, he goes to see Gilda. He is angered by the thought of Annie or Gilda seeing another man, but at the same time, he is seeing other women. He presumes that he is the only man in these women's lives, something that backfires dangerously when he presumes that Ruby will want to settle down with him.
There was a tradition at the time of having an 'angry young man' antihero'.

Review of Spotlight (2015)

Spotlight (2015) dir. Tom McCarthy, is a thriller/docudrama about the Spotlight Investagative Journalism Team for the Boston Globe, and their Pulitzer Prize winning report on the Catholic Church's methodical dealings and cover up of abuse within the Church by Priests. It stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian D'arcy James, Stanley Tucci and Liev Schrieber. Spotlight was nominated for 6? academy awards, and won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Spotlight manages to perfectly capture the look and feel of Boston – You feel like this is a real place with real people who were affected by this. The simple style of the cinematography and the editing is what is needed in a film where the emphasis is on the story. This doesn't mean that the other elements have been neglected – but if they were done extravagantly, the rest of the film would be over the top, this film's success is down to it's almost minimalist style. The colour palette is very grey and neutral. This is symbolic of the fact that this is bleak movie. It also associates you with the gritty realism of Spotlight.

Spotlight won best original screenplay at the eighty eighth academy awards, and it easy to see why (though an argument could be made that since Spotlight is based on true events, then it is not truly original. However, the powerful nature of the script and the way the events unfold means that the simplistic nature of the film means the cinematography and editing works with the dramatic nature of the narrative.

Spotlight handles well the sensitive subject of child abuse within the catholic church, it is both harrowing and respectful. It also educates – despite the events of the film taking place in 2001/2, I had never heard of the scandal and the investigative report that uncovered it.

What is perhaps most distressing about this film is the ending. As the film fades to black, a list of places around the world where they uncovered similar cover-

ups to that in Boston. The list is three slides long. There is not enough time to read it all.

The frightening efficiency of the Church in this situation is unnerving. They would discover the priest, the Cardinal in whatever City in the place they were found, and they would then immediately be moved. As this was a time with limited technology, priests could be moved without being easily tracked. If someone filed a suit, which would be an adult, as children were generally kept quiet by their parents, if hey even told them. This settlement would be carried out by the Church's lawyers, and would usually not be taken to court. Garibedean, the lawyer, portrayed by Stanley Tucci, had a hold of damning documents, directly implicating Law in the mass cover up, including letters from a mother of one of the victims to the cardinal and the reply from him, showing his unwillingness to let this out.

This is why Spotlight is important. Because, despite the Spotlight teams work, this investigation and knowledge of it has faded. The events depicted in this film took place fifteen years ago – and most people I know had never heard of the investigation and the cover-up. After the events of this film, Cardinal Law was moved to the Vatican, where he still operates today.

Response to: The Last Seduction

The Last Seduction (1994) at first seems to follow the classic Film Noir structure. It uses the three main themes of money, sex and murder. It has a fall guy, a femme fatale and her husband, the victim. It even makes a couple of casual references to the classic Film Noir Double Indemnity. But this film also completely diverts from classic Film Noir. Whereas in the classic Film Noir, the fall guy would always be the main protagonist. In The Last Seduction, Bridget, the femme fatale, is the protagonist, and you feel no sympathy for the fall guy, whereas in Double Indemnity, Walter is both the protagonist and the fall guy, and you do feel sympathy (to some extent) for him.
I personally thought that this film was a good homage to classic Noir. I also thought that whilst the ending scene was clever, and a twist I did not see coming, I felt it could have been handled more appropriately. Most viewers know what rape looks like, and whilst showing it explicitly is shocking, I felt this wasn't done to be shocking, it was just done because they didn't think of a way to make it shocking without showing it.

Microanalysis of Double Indemnity: 'How fast was I going, Officer?'

Double Indemnity is the story of an insurance salesman who is seduced by a conniving woman into a scheme to murder her husband and make it look like an accident in order to collect upon his impressive life insurance policy. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, Fred Macmurray as Walter Neff , and Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes. The film was made in 1944 and was directed by Billy Wilder.
This scene takes place not long after the start of the film, with Neff having arrived at the Dietrichson house for the first time. It begins as he waits for Phyllis to finish dressing and join him in the sitting room. Neff is a typical film noir protagonist - up until the events of the film he is a very ordinary man. He is the 'fall guy':the one that will take the blame for the crimes orchestrated by Phyllis. He believes he is in love with her, and she with him - but the truth is the exact opposite. Neff is simply in love with the idea of helping a pretty damsel in distress, and Phyllis just wants to be free of her husband and to get the insurance money, and will do anything to get there. Phyllis is a classic film noir femme fatale - she knows what she wants and she knows how to get there.
This links to the three vital elements that are needed for a successful Film Noir - Sex, Murder and Money. Phyllis uses her sexuality to seduce Neff in order to get him to help her kill her husband, so she can get her hands on the $100,000 insurance money.
Venetian blinds were often used in Film Noir to create different atmospheres, and in this case they are used to cast shadows across the room to create an effect of bars. This could symbolise two things: One, that the Dietrichson House is a cage, to trap Neff. Two, the bars symbolise how Neff will end up in jail.
The photos of Mr. and Lola Dietrichson are bathed in a white light. White light is often used in movies to symbolise goodness and purity. The fact that Phyllis is not there indicates her true nature.

Love Hate (2009) review

Love Hate is a short film starring Ben Whishaw and Hayley Atwell. Whishaw plays Tom, a kind, polite, somewhat socially awkward charity worker, and Atwell plays Hate - literally the personification of Tom's hate that he's been repressing for years. This creates a bizarre, darkly comic and surreal scenario.
When Hate arrives into Tom's mundane boring life - where he tries to be a 'nice guy' - she is everything that he is not. She is loud, confident, cynical, blunt. When the two first converse, he mutters, and stumbles over his words, while she is bold. Their differences are reflected in their wardrobe - and this stage, Tom wears loose, neutral clothing, with the only splash of colour being his orange charity t-shirt. Hate dresses in more risqué clothes, in deeper shades and harsher fabrics.
Slowly, Hate starts to get to Tom. Tom starts to feel Joy in being wicked, revelling in his pent up disgust. She manipulates him, making him watch as she tears his favourite teddy apart alongside his life.
As Hate takes over more and more of his life, Tom becomes an entirely different person. He dresses in darker colours and behaves in a similar way to Hate. At one point, when he is lying on the floor in pain, Hate comes along and kicks him several times. When he asks her why, she responds by asking him if he had ever heard of self-hate.
Love Hate creatively explores the balance one must have to live a pyschologically balanced life. The reason Hate has so much power over Tom is that he has repressed her for so long, she has not been allowed to be let out and dealt with, She has simply grown and grown. You can't live a Hate free life, but, as Tom found out to his peril, that doesn't mean Hate should be allowed to control you.

Profile on: Maggie Smith

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, CH, DBE has had a career in stage film and television that has spanned over sixty years, making her début (on stage) in 1952. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire(DBE) in the 1990 New Year Honours for services to the performing arts, and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour(CH) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
Smith was born on 28th December 1934, in Romford, Essex, England. When she was 18 her career began on stage at the Oxford Playhouse. For her work on stage, she has won five Best Actress Evening Standard Awards, and one Tony. She has played many TV roles, such as Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice and David Copperfield. Her most well known television appearance, however, is in ITV's Downton Abbey, as Violet Crawley.
Maggie Smith has been married, twice, once to Robert Stephens (1967), with whom she had two children, the actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens. The couple divorced in 1974, and a year later she married the playwright Beverley Cross.
In January 1988, she was diagnosed with Graves Disease, and in 2007 was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she made a full recovery from birth.
She first drew praise on screen for the crime film Nowhere to Go - which resulted in her first BAFTA nomination. In 1965 she played Desdamona in Othello, for which she recieved an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination.
Maggie Smith has two Academy Awards, one for Best Actress in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and the other for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite. Alongside nominations for Travels With My Aunt, A Room with a View and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, this means she has been nominated six times. Other notable films include Death on the Nile, Sister Act, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and of course, her role as Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter franchise.
Her most recent films are Gnomeo and Juliet (Lady Blueberry), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and it's sequel, Quartet, My Old Lady and The Lady in the Van, adapted from the play of the same name, in which Smith plays the Lady in the Van, who lived on Alan Bennet's drive for 15 years. Smith has played the role twice before, and while promoting the films, appeared on a chat show for the first time in 42 years.

How Music is used in the Beginning of August Rush

The very beginning of the film before there has even been any screen time, is the quiet drone of a few notes whilst dialogue is spoken very clearly about the music being all around. Then, as the black screen dissolves to the corn swaying, you realise the pulsating of the notes is in time with the swaying of the corn. Deeper base notes come in as we zoom out to the corn field in it's entirety, symbolising the large mass of objects we see. The music pulsates faster as Evan raises his hand to conduct the corn and the music he hears in it, almost as though the very movement of his own hand is creating music.
As we pull over the corn, now swirling in circles around Evan, like he is their commanding force, windchimes come in, accompinied by a shot of several stalks moving alongside the windchimes, as though the drone is the corn in it's entirety, but the windchimes are the individual stalks.
The music once again seems to rise and fall with Evan's hands. As we pull out even further over the swirling, twisting field, strings come in. This motif appears in August's Rhapsody at the end, so is a way to link the start and end of the film together.