In his painting, Paris Street: Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte showcases his view on late 18th century Paris. The figures nearest to the audience are blurred and seemingly out of focus whereas the pedestrians and carriage towards the center of the town square have sharp edges and are more distinctly defined. The images in the background of the painting remain nebulous and dim. The point of focus advances the viewers eyes to the buildings in the background. Caillebotte demonstrates a two-point perspective using parallel lines in his arrangement of roads and buildings. This two-point perspective sends the focus to the back and blurs out images on the foreground.…
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.” (Night 24) Never shall I forget reading that bone chilling quote from Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, Taking place during one of the darkest periods of human history. 6 million lives lost and countless families destroyed with one goal in mind; Exterminate the Jews. Throughout his novel Wiesel experiences many instances of hope and hopelessness, as many of us do. Without hope many things that we try to accomplish could not be done, hope is what helps us carry on and survive, Night proves this point.…
The Musée du Louvre and its Pyramid, and St Paul’s Cathedral with the nearby 30 St Mary Axe were the chosen topics by both members of our group. All of these buildings are iconic building within their cities, and all were designed and built with vastly different contexts and purposes in mind. In this essay we will compare and contrast the different buildings in a manner that will help us understand the juxtaposition of old and new buildings. We will also investigate what made the contemporary buildings in question switch status from controversial to widely accepted as unique and brilliant pieces of architecture. After considering the different context(s) and style(s) of the building we will present our informed personal opinions based upon our research, to reach a conclusion in accordance with the research question. Before we undertake an analysis we will quickly summarise what has been aforementioned in Patchworks 1 & 2.…
Carolyn Forche successfully integrates the elements of mystery, surprise and detail to comprehensively elude that the colonel is very threatening.…
In the book “Night”, Elie Wiesel displays loyalty and solidarity within his relationship with his father even through the horrid obstacles he had to endure. Wiesel demonstrated to us readers that his love for his father was a stronger force for survival than the selfish idea for self-preservation. He also demonstrated how having little faith can conquer and that a person should not lose faith no matter how hard the challenges are. As times became harder, their relationship became stronger. Although their relationship transformed, Elie had to face burden and guilt towards the end of their journey.…
Through the midst of torture and suffering during the Holocaust, hope can be found through love and family. Two examples of this would be a memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel and a movie, Life is Beautiful directed by Roberto Benigni. While some similarities are noticeable, the differences are astonishing and striking, which gives the audience various experiences.…
Paris is one of city I like the most. When I start to watch this movie, I can appreciate really beautiful Paris’ views for four minutes at the beginning of film. I think if anyone watches these views, he/she could not have appealed to that city. So, I guess why the background is Paris in the film. I conclude Paris has a lot of thing including historic romance and arts. It gives us food for thought.…
Throughout European history, there has been a trend towards romanticizing the agrarian lifestyle. From the whitewashing of folktales to Stalin-era propaganda musicals, the idealized peasantry are presented as harmonious, cheerful, and cooperative. This view was especially prevalent in imperial Russia at the end of the 19th century, with many writers believing that the Russian peasantry’s “cooperative and communitarian” nature would serve as a model for a future socialist Russia (xv). In an attempt to correct this “naive” view, the Russian ethnographer Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaia spent four years observing several villages around her home estate, chiefly the village of…
Mowing begins with the statement of a fact, followed by a question —a scythe whispering to the ground and "what was it whispered?". Thus hinting at the theme of the poem, the poet develops it through a series of comments and providing a provisional answers to the initial question. There is a touch of humour in the poem. The lines move on in a casual colloquial manner, floating rhythmically like a man talking to himself.…
There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza fight and struggle to survive the situations they are in. But they can’t survive it on their own because they aren’t physically or mentally strong enough. That’s why in the memoirs Night and Left to Tell, Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza reveal how important it is to always have something to live for, even when times are tough, and how keeping hope alive is essential to surviving hardships.…
The film styles of Casablanca and It Happened One Night were completely different from that of Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives. Casablanca and the earlier films were all shot with very basic techniques where the frame just focused on the action. However, in Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives everything was in focus in the frame, even the events taking place in the background. Rather than just one main conversation or action being the concentration point of the film, there were things taking place in different layers of the frame, including the background. The Best Years of Our Lives is a series of long takes, unlike the other movies we watched where there was a lot of back and forth filming. My favorite technique they…
The Oscar-winning film, Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen uses cinematic techniques to create a world of fantasy and reality. Throughout the film, reality and fantasy are constantly paralleled. This film succeeds because of the elements Woody Allen uses to juxtapose the main character, Gil Pender, sense of reality and fantasy. Elements such as mise en scene, costume design, the auteur theory, and the screenplay writing all work in conjunction to bring the story to life.…
In today’s society doing gender has been made a focal point examining the social traits of masculinity and feminity. Society thinks that if you do gender your practicing a performance. I have noticed in my studies that judging people gender practices can reinforce gender equality as well as take for granted the human body. Have you ever watched the film Paris is Burning? Paris is Burning is about the 1980’s and queer culture. Paris is Burning describes how queer communities survived during this time. In Gender is Burning Butler writes “Paris is Burning documents neither an efficacious insurrection nor a painful resubordination, but an unstable coexistence of both.” What does she mean?…
As humans, people are not looking for more technology and advancements; they look for longing and time. People live life searching for their place and most people believe they cannot find it in the time they are in. No matter what era a person is from they will never think that their era is the greatest time in the world. Some people believe they should be from a time before their own; this is called nostalgia, which is the theme to the move Midnight in Paris.…
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Manet’s last major work, depicts a cynical view of modernity where subtle suggestions of the impact of consumerism, the mixing of social classes and class ambiguity have crept in. The café-concert culture was born out of Hussmann’s renovations, and it was common for 19th century artists to depict a vibrant café scene full of spectacle and frivolity in Haussmann’s new boulevards (Gronberg 1984). A Bar at the Folies-Bergère reveals a level of isolation and uncertainty that has become typical of modern life. The barmaid is fashionably dressed, but ambiguous in her appearance, so as to appear satisfactory to all clientele who frequent the bar (Iskin 1995). Merchandise on the bar indicates that she is a barmaid, but…