Mans Dark Nature in Film Essay examples - 2223 Words

From the beginning of cinema to the present day, Hollywood has had a morbid fascination with the dark, shadowy side of society. This is reflected in many films of the past, inherently most evident in the German expressionistic films of the 1920’s and 30’s. In a sense, society’s fascination with the macabre stems from their fears and anxieties. Thus, allowing filmmakers and storytellers to toy with their fears and horrify them like a terrible nightmare that comes to life. Most people in today’s society have a fear of the unknown, this can stem from natural factors like growing old and dying to such terrifying abnormal factors that may be real or not. The boogeyman is one figure that haunts our children’s minds and nightmares, this mythical†¦show more content†¦M was his first talking picture he ever made and the particular synchronization of diagetic sound with horrifying suggestive images, made this film very unnerving at the time for the audience. Although the sound-design of the film is very important in suggesting the monstrous, it is the silence that suggests even more terrible images that penetrate our psyche and imagination. We shall come back to M in a short-while, as I want to shift gears and talk about Frankenstein and synthesize the two pictures together in a way that will provide us with an understanding of why these two films are similar in their themes and symbolism. Frankenstein (1931) was directed by James Whale, who is an English-born director from Dudley, England. While World War One broke out, Whale decided to enlist in the army, he did this hesitantly and this decision almost cost him his life as he was taken as a prison-of-war in a Germany prison camp. Thus, this tormented his soul and therefore, he had an absolute hatred for Germans (Wikipedia). His horror films, particularly Frankenstein have some interesting sub-text encoded onto its mis-en-scene and narrative that derive from his experiences in war and his dark experiences in the prison camp. James Whale was ironically influenced by the German expressionistic movement of the time, particularly, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). In my opinion, he adopted this movement because he found the Germans horrifying and cruel, so heShow MoreRelatedThe Visual and Audio Representations in Arthur C Clarkes The Sentinel1374 Words   |  6 Pagesthe visual and audio representations in Arthur C. Clarkes short story, The Sentinel, and those found in director Stanley Kubricks film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clark actually aided Kubrick in writing the script for the movie, which was in no small part based on the work of literature the author had previously written (Soriano, 2008). 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This is the event that occurs in Edgar Allen Poes vivid tale The Tell-Tale Heart, from the book Designs For Reading: Short Stories. br brEvery night at precisely midnight, the narrator, who remains nameless and sexless, but for the sake of this essay I will refer to as he, ventured into the old mans room without making a soundRead More Apocalypse Now vs Heart of Darkness Essay1120 Words   |  5 Pageshuman nature remain intact, the characters of the film bare little resemblance to their literary counterparts. The film serves as a re-interpretation of Conrad’s novella, updated from 19th-century British imperialism in the Congo to a critique of 20th-century U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. Copp ola’s changes in setting and plot structure, however, force the film to sacrifice the character development so crucial in the literary work. 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