Kate Kujawa Mrs. Kahle Great Books 17 December 2014 Blanche’s Facade The first scene of Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire contains specific details that introduce the theme of false appearances. Blanche hides behind a façade to conceal her true self from others because of self-hatred, guilt, and humiliation. The sound of the blue piano and polka music contribute to this theme by revealing Blanche’s self-hatred from feeling responsible for the losses in her past. Blanche also uses dim lighting to hide her biggest insecurity, her age. Similarly, Blanche focuses on her appearance and her possessions to cover- up her humiliation and strengthens the façade.
In the movie Black Swan, Nina Sayers suffers from several mental disorders that were possibly triggered by her stressful lifestyle as a dancer. She displays symptoms of a subtype of schizophrenia known as paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most commonly diagnosed schizophrenia subtype. Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia tend to experience symptoms including auditory hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, anger, detachment, aggression, condescension, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This mental disorder makes it difficult to differentiate between what is reality and what is fantasy.
The Balanchine Ballerina; Oppression in Ballet Classical ballet has always been a symbol of femininity; ballerinas have always been depicted as wispy, fairy-like, and exceptionally thin. Within the classical ballet community, dancers are trained to attempt to fit into this impossible stereotype. To be thin and possess a flawless image is the unspoken yet always present pressure. Ballerinas go to such extreme lengths to fill this stereotype that they literally deteriorate their bodies, suffering physically and psychologically. The pressure to fit the stereotypical image of a ballerina is oppressive, yet it continues to be dictated through the influence of society.
- Halle berry plays a hooked stripper that suffers from multiple personalities and triumphs from her mental illness with the help of a patient psychiatrist. c. Purpose: Don’t write: “I will review this film” but rather, include your purpose in a statement that will make it clear to the reader. For Example, “Reviewing a classic action film like The Bourne Identity is always challenging because these kinds of movies develop a cult following of fans who are no longer able to watch from a objective perspective.” d. Main Point (Thesis): This is a statement that includes your “overall assessment” of the film. Remember that you want to go beyond saying it is “good” or “bad,” but instead identify specific story and/or visual elements that inform your opinion of the film. For Example, here is Maslin’s overall assessment of Fight Club: “The director of Seven and The Game for the first time finds subject matter audacious enough to suit his lighten-fast visual sophistication, and puts that
The noir stories that are known as the most characteristic tell of people trapped in unwanted situations, generally they are striving to achieve something, but more frequently than not, they are doomed to fail. The lighting aspects in the films, black-and-white at the time, lent more psychology to the viewer. Filmmakers allowed spectators to distinguish their own plots through the use of lighting. Sunset Boulevard gave the end of silent film cinema and the emergence of Classical Hollywood narratives. Both in Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard, each played a role in the progression of the characterization of the femme fatale.
A Case Study of Schizophrenia in “A Beautiful Mind” Movies in popular culture often attempt to characterize psychological problems, such as the four time academy winning film, “A Beautiful Mind.” Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant mathematician John Nash who succumbs to the deteriorating mental disorder schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a brain disease characterized by impairments in the perception of reality, most commonly manifesting auditory or visual hallucinations, disorganized speech/thinking and paranoid delusions as in the case of John Nash. There are many causal factors that can lead to schizophrenia, including environmental and genetic factors (J.A. Dyce, personal communication, March, 2009). In terms of Axis I disorders, Schizophrenia is the fourth most common with a lifetime prevalence of 1 – 1.5%.
As composers from different contexts, Freddie Mercury (of Queen) and Aronofsky hit common ground, as they both efficiently explore the notion that external forces can adversely impact our sense of identity. The stills from Black Swan grasp the intertextuality of the ballet to identify the exterior pressure that consumes Nina’s innermost psyche. The pressure she experiences to adopt the role of both the White and Black Swans is echoed through her costuming in the delicate white tutu and positioning in front of a broken mirror in a dark room, which symbolically reflects the initial forming of her dual personality. The mirror acts also as a vector, reorientating the image to reveal the person she holds to be the true Nina Sayers. Similarly, Bohemian Rhapsody conveys the internal struggle Mercury encourntered upon discovering he had AIDS.
She ends up cursing him for make rash judgments. Throughout the whole story these themes are present. 3. To what extent does the form of storytelling (ie. this ballet compared to the Disney movie) shape the way we understand and/or respond to a particular narrative?
Hysteria describes a state of mind with unmanageable fear or excess emotion. Multiple past events conflicting with something severe can often cause this fear. Hysteria is often in relation to an imagined problem with a body part and often can cause a person to lose self-control due to an overpowering amount of fear. (Elaine Showalter) When Freud returned from Paris back to Vienna he established a practice in neurology and devoted his studies to the treatment of hysterical patients with hypnosis, a practice he picked up from Charcot. Under Dr. Joseph Breuer (his mentor) Freud began to study Breuer’s patient Bertha Pappenheim indentified as Anna O. Anna, who was twenty one years old,
First, the scenes that lead up to the supposed confrontation between US and Soviet forces exhibit his growing paranoia. Second, the scene where the true nature of his schizophrenia is revealed also point to the hallucinatory nature of three other characters in the film. Third, the scenes of his relapse involving conversations with supposed federal agents and the leaving of child in the bathtub serve to highlight his bizarre behavior. Fourth, the scenes of his recovery also indicate strange motor activity and a disturbed affect. Lastly, the film takes the theoretical discussion of a psychological disorder and explains it in visual terms that I can appreciate.