Title: Two Versions of a Single Story: National Perspective and Auteur Approaches to the Outsider “Western”. Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Leone’s Fistful of Dollars Compared.
Student: I-Fu Chen
Class: CTCS 502
Professor: Priya Jaikumar
Due: Oct 8th, 2014
Films:
Yojimba, Akira Kurasawa (dir.) 1961, Japan (Viewed Sept 17, 2014)
Fistful of Dollars, Serge Leone (dir.) 1964, Italy. (Viewed Oct 1, 2014)
This essay is based on films of the same story, told in different ways, with emphasis, themes, meaning and interpretation shaped or shaded by the situation of the storyteller; the cinematic mise-en-scene. Based on the same story, the films reveal and reflect the film-maker’s social norms and views, emerging from their different national contexts. While exploring the two films, this essay will examine elements of film language or semiotics: color saturation (or black and white), sound, setting, type of camera angles used; repetition of visual motifs (Metz, 1985). The two films explored were made in the 1960s. Neither film is American, yet both reveal influences and reflections on American cinema and American power; the Western film, adherence or detracting from Hollywood Classical cinema tropes, i.e. close-ups, shot-reverse-shot, POV, depth of field (Bazin, 1985: 128-9). The two films are Kurasawa’s Yojimbo (1961) and Leone’s Fistful of Dollars (1964), from Japan and Italy, respectively. How are they different; how similar? Why do they use the same plot,
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Chinatown is based on Roman Polanski’s lifeworks. Polanski’s goal is to emphasizes the meaning of how cinematography is made, and how it inspires by understanding the concept of setting, lighting, and how the image is captured. This film was released in 1974 by director of Roman Polanski to focus on private investigator J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson to investigate the elements behind the truth. Polanski’s goal is to emphasize the audience to give an ominous feeling of the main character, J.J. Gittes and his point of view by showing in color instead of black and white pictures. Due to these reasons, Polanski wanted to use Panavision to give a flawed vision about the past, which the story is set in the years of 1937. Polanski states, “a traditional detective story with a new, modern shape” for Paramount picture. (1) This paper focuses on the film Chinatown which is neo-noir, not only because of the setting, but the concept of cinematography that connects duplicates occurrences together that describe three categories: background of the cinematographer, point of view of the main character, and the interpretation of the ending scenes.
Japan is home to millions of individuals. All of them with different beliefs, religions, and traditions. Japan has a long and influential visual arts history. More specifically, the Japanese film industry has had a large influence on the cinematic world stage. Due to Japans tragic and destructive history, several different categories of society were affected. Their economic industry and visual arts industry are just some examples. Japans history has had consequences on both its social and political sectors. These reactions/repercussions can be seen in Japans film industry. In my paper, I will be looking at the political and social issues involved in the movies Spirited Away and Roshamon. The repercussions of World War 2 are important in understanding both of these Japanese films. The women portrayed in these films are both respected and docile. Moreover, the genres of these films have had a lasting effect on society.
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Although this paper uses a mainstream movie, at all times you should use scholarly writing and language throughout the paper.
The use of various camera techniques such as canted frames, low-angled, high-angled and close up shots, as well as camera distance, enhances the struggle between the characters. The use of such techniques not only allows the audience to get an extensive insight into the many different characters, but also helps us understand the relationships between them and how all of these factors contribute to the overarching theme of racism in the film. The use of these camera rapid movements
It had been a hot, midsummer day when Jacques Kubrick bestowed a camera upon his son, Stanley. It had been an old, Graflex camera, and from that day forward, young Stanley could be seen lugging around his father’s gift everywhere he went. He spent much of his time snapping still photos and creating home movies depicting the Bronx, his hometown, in all its glory (Uhlich). No one could have predicted that this gift was one that would affect the world. That day - July 26th, 1941 - had been renowned American filmmaker, director, and screenwriter Stanley Kubrick’s thirteenth birthday, and it had been a ripple in time, the simple start of a visionary whose future work would one day be celebrated on various platforms by more than one generation. As
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The films, “A Fistful of Dollars”, and, “Yojimbo”, both focus on an area being taken over by bandits and facing hard times due to this. A man then comes into the area as a “passerbyer” during his travels. The man notices how out of shape the area is and faces off with the bandits. He then goes to discuss what is going on with another man in the area when he was looking for food and drink. Although the films share the same basic storyline with one another, many parts of the films differ. If I, personally, were to be put with the task to combine these two films by selecting what I favored most between the two, I would use the introduction and ending in, “A Fistful of Dollars”. However, for the rest of the film, I would use the film, “Yojimbo”. I would do this due to the dramatic style the films have at these times as well as the explanations characters give through their dialogue at this point in the two films.
Casablanca, first released on January 23rd, 1943 is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Classical Hollywood film. Written and released in the midst of World War Two it explores themes such as love, desire and especially sacrifice. Although the love story of the protagonists is the cause and catalyst for most of the narrative, one would not necessarily associate it with the conventional Classical Hollywood love story. Rather as a fabula based on the principle of the importance of sacrifice in order to overcome a common enemy, in this case the Nazis. Casablanca does indeed contain many of the common characteristics identified with the Classical Hollywood film. An example being the the way director, Michael Curtiz used a mainly chronologically ordered narrative structure and the utilisation of a Cause and Effect chain. In this essay I will looking at the various ways I believe this film does fall into the criteria of a Classical Hollywood narrative and also how some could perceive that it does not.
Caetlin Benson-Allott points out how the feel and sense that the movie tries to emulate can no longer be obtained, or viewed because of the current age of media and the role of the economic cycle plays into the current age of film. Since modern films make most of their money through DVD and movie sales after a film's theatrical release the idea behind exploitation movies has been perverted further into a direction that illustrates the death of the theatrical nature of
Citizen Kane is a movie starring Orson Welles that is loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst and the media empire that he built in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Mise en Scene is possibly the most important chapter that we have covered that pertains to Citizen Kane and shows numerous examples of it throughout the film to reinforce loss as a recurring theme. Citizen Kane’s non verbal strength is made evident through the use of not only intrinsic interest but through the use of isolated figure versus clustered and off-screen information as well. Perhaps one of the most important segments not mentioned in our scene summary notes that encapsulates Mise en Scene is when Charles Foster Kane is giving his speech when he’s
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"In his fine essay for the gorgeous new two-disc reissue of Bicycle Thieves, Godfrey Cheshire claims that Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist classic and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane are the “twin fountainheads” of modern cinema. From Welles came a cinema of egotism and personal expression; from De Sica, a cinema of collective conscience and social concern. "
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