Analysis the Movies About “Stardust Memories” and “the Kid”
Peach Zhou
Stuart Thomas
GLA_605_01
02,21,2013
Analysis the movies about “Stardust Memories” and “The Kid”
The preferred reading of Woody Allen’s movie, “Stardust Memories,” appears to be that there is comedy in the midst of our most dramatic and traumatic relationships. Preferred Reading is a term, which Stuart Hall originally uses in relation to television news and current affairs programs but which is often applied to other kinds of text. Readers of a text are guided towards a preferred reading and away from “aberrant decoding” through the use of codes. Preferred reading in movies is the intentions of movie directors who lead audiences to understand theirs movies in the way they devised. In the movie “Stardust Memories ”, Woody Allen’s characters are enmeshed in complicated relationships, which cause them a great deal of stress. However, this stress is so magnified and over-the-top that Allen allows it to take on comedy. For example, his character, Sandy Bates has several complicated relationships with women. He finds himself attracted to one woman “Dorrie”, while another visitor “Isobel” from France directly after divorcing her husband. He is torn between all of these women and is in agony because he can’t decide whom he loves. While all of these relationships seem to drive Sandy Bates crazy and are, therefore, sad, they are simultaneously humorous—mainly because he is partially responsible for these messy situations and they are so over the top. Thus, Woody Allen’s preferred reading is to emphasize how comedy and tragedy are not always so distinct.
The preferred reading of Charlie Chaplin’s movie “The kid” is that happiness always appears with suffering. It is just like what the movie says at its beginning: “A comedy with a smile, and perhaps a tear”. In the movie, the main character acts as a poor craftsman who raises an abandoned infant to five years old. He treats the kid as his own biological son, but unfortunately when the kid grows up to 5
Stuart Thomas
GLA_605_01
02,21,2013
Analysis the movies about “Stardust Memories” and “The Kid”
The preferred reading of Woody Allen’s movie, “Stardust Memories,” appears to be that there is comedy in the midst of our most dramatic and traumatic relationships. Preferred Reading is a term, which Stuart Hall originally uses in relation to television news and current affairs programs but which is often applied to other kinds of text. Readers of a text are guided towards a preferred reading and away from “aberrant decoding” through the use of codes. Preferred reading in movies is the intentions of movie directors who lead audiences to understand theirs movies in the way they devised. In the movie “Stardust Memories ”, Woody Allen’s characters are enmeshed in complicated relationships, which cause them a great deal of stress. However, this stress is so magnified and over-the-top that Allen allows it to take on comedy. For example, his character, Sandy Bates has several complicated relationships with women. He finds himself attracted to one woman “Dorrie”, while another visitor “Isobel” from France directly after divorcing her husband. He is torn between all of these women and is in agony because he can’t decide whom he loves. While all of these relationships seem to drive Sandy Bates crazy and are, therefore, sad, they are simultaneously humorous—mainly because he is partially responsible for these messy situations and they are so over the top. Thus, Woody Allen’s preferred reading is to emphasize how comedy and tragedy are not always so distinct.
The preferred reading of Charlie Chaplin’s movie “The kid” is that happiness always appears with suffering. It is just like what the movie says at its beginning: “A comedy with a smile, and perhaps a tear”. In the movie, the main character acts as a poor craftsman who raises an abandoned infant to five years old. He treats the kid as his own biological son, but unfortunately when the kid grows up to 5
Cited: Susan, Hayward. “Cinema Studies” The Kay Concepts. 3rd ed. 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY, 2006 Siegfried Kracauer. “Theory of Film” The Redemption of Physical Reality Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~blue/xhx/books/semiotics/glossaryP/section201/main.html