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David Tennant’s Hamlet

I would like to comment on David Tennant’s performance of Hamlet. I believe that David Tennant did a great job to grab the audience's attention to the power of literature and words rather than visuals and the usage of the set design. He is like telling and narrating the story rather than presenting the actual scene. I will be talking about how the director’s preference of shooting the scene added quality to the performance of the actor through the usage of sound and set design and how David Tennant’s performance contributed to the meaning and meditative state of the original text.

The atmosphere and the location that he is in is dark and we don’t get much information about the surrounding. The camera movement is also limited, we first see Tennant’s back and he’s lighted with a harsh suspenseful, depressing lighting which adds to the vibe that they want to give and the meaning of the text then we get closer to him and get a close-up shot of his face. In this particular shot, we’re focused on the actor’s facial expression and the voice rather than the external elements that may support the scene. Since it’s a minimalist scene that we are forced to pay attention only to the actor’s voice and face, it directs our attention to the text as well as the way that the actor conveys his speech. Tennant’s voice doesn’t overpower anything, he is subtle in his way of speech, the words seem naturally at that moment coming out of the actor’s mind. He whispers rather than raising his voice and that makes a great influence on the audience, he uses the power of silence that can give more information rather than noise. This performance creates a Hamlet that is sensitive but at the same time like he’s about to explode. The ambiance sound, the silence of the room, and his way of delivering his speech quietly and by whispering creates tension. He’s like a person that kept his grief and his sorrow so much inside of him and never talked or shared his hurting to anyone that in any minute he acts like he can do something mad and loud in contrast to his naive conversation that he has with himself. Towards the end of his speech, he directs his sight to the camera which breaks the 4th wall. As the audience, we usually get uncomfortable and disturbed when someone does that in movies because we’re observers that observe fictional lives that are supposed to not know we’re watching them. In this case, Tennant looks at us and it feels like he looks at our souls. He is like saying to us that we all have these thoughts, fears about the afterlife. Which makes us wonder and meditate on the issue as well.

In conclusion, David Tennant’s performance of Hamlet is a subtle but effective one. He brings the more depressing, melancholic, fragile, and sensitive side of Hamlet. Therefore, he avoids being loud and theatrical, he draws attention to the power of the soliloquy the influence of sound and words on people. In the end, the audience is left with the same thought patterns that Hamlet had ended they recognized themselves and can relate to the character more.

Lucas David’s Art

Lucas David is an artist that gained fame through posting his unique dark sketches/art on Instagram. When I first saw his art I was fascinated by it and it seemed like he gets me, he had the same point of view of art as me and the same perspective that is constructed from finding beauty in dark and creepy stuff. His style and theme that he applies to his art never changed but lately, I’ve noticed that his lines and techniques changed a little bit.

First I would like to comment on his earlier drawings. He drew many celebrities and icons that are associated with the punk rock, alternative, and grunge culture. He’s focused more on the 90’s and early 2000’s cult movies, music, and celebrities which I also very much enjoy. He had me with his Kurt Cobain drawing, I could get the Kurt Cobain’s vibe through those drawings. Lucas David has a style that illustrates people as pale, almost sick looking but at the same time, he makes it look aesthetically pleasing. In the end, they all look like creepy porcelain dolls or vampires that look dead but not scary-looking dead. His art looks otherworldly and draws people in, if I were to describe his art through other artists and arts from other mediums I would say he is a mixture of Tim Burton, Mean Girls, Sex Pistols, Gustav Klimt, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He gained many followers and even got noticed by Taylor Momsen the lead singer of Pretty Reckless which he has drawn many times. The band hired him to combine all the illustrations of Taylor Momsen that he made and animated them. For me the music video turned out to be the coolest thing in the 21st century ever, it suited the band’s tone of the music and their grungy reckless vibe. Also, Taylor Momsen in real life looks like a pretty but at the same time creepy porcelain doll so he is basically a walking/breathing Lucas David art.

Now, he has been doing more digital art rather than rough sketches or hand-drawn pieces. Recently he made an illustration of Megan Fox as Jennifer in Jennifer’s body. He illustrated one of the iconic scenes that Megan Fox turning into a monster/devil. It’s great to see that his art is becoming 3D and animated because as a fan I would like to be surrounded by those creepy-looking people and creepy-looking creatures. I would like to see a world that was created with his aesthetic and art it would be so interesting if he made a fantasy gothic world created by his art. Maybe in the future he would get more noticed and appreciated therefore the production companies would provide him everything he needs to create a world like that just like how he got noticed by Taylor Momsen and made an MV for them.

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Lola Rennt (1998)

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child also as known as The Legend of Sirius is a Japanese Anime film and it is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. But it has its universe and owns unique characterization that compelled me to watch it in the first place. At first, I was drawn to the name Sirius because I know that there is a star called Sirius and there are some legends that tell stories about the beings that live and exist on this star so I wondered if there is a connection between these legends and the anime. I will focus on the characters and the way they are depicted as well as try to find the connections between the legends and the myths I’ve read.

I would like to start with the legend of the merpeople that came from the sky with their spaceships. This legend belongs to the Dogon tribe of Mali, West Africa and according to them a thousand years ago a spaceship landed on their territory then strange fish-like people came out of the spaceship. The tribe named them The Nommos which means “to make one drink”. The aliens/merpeople taught the tribe about their star system and now in the 21st century, we can confirm the knowledge according to science which is a little scary but very interesting. In short, the tribe believes that there are fish-like aliens that exist on the Sirius star, an advanced civilization. Actually in the anime, one of the character’s names is Sirius, not the planet but since Sirius lives under the sea and he’s the prince of the sea I made that connection. Since in the anime they’re not in a world-like planet but somewhere more magical and Atlantis like I believe the authors just got inspired from the Dogon tribe’s legend.

I believe Sirius is a water elemental. In mythology, an elemental is a being that embodies the power of one of the 4 main elements; water, fire, earth, and air. Since Sirius doesn’t have a fishtail we can’t consider him as a merman. However, the other character Malta is a fire elemental but she has wings therefore, she is more likely a fire fairy. In their world because of a war caused by the Dark Lord of the Wind once the elements fire and water that lived in peace together become enemies and separated their worlds. But it didn’t help Sirius and Malta to fall in love with each other. However, different than the original story of Romeo and Juliet if Sirius goes into Sun or fire, he dies likewise, if Malta goes into the water she dies as well. The only solution for them was to go to a star which the fire and water existed together but surprise they didn’t change the end of the original story that is why they both die in the end. That’s where I got frustrated I mean even if it might be an adaptation they could’ve shown us the planet that both elements existed together because I wondered a lot. The other thing that bothered me was how Sirius’ friend Ruu and Malta’s friend Piale sacrificed themselves for the happiness of the two. It’s touching but Malta didn’t even thank Piale and they just tried to get away and caused the others to sacrifice themselves. I think the friendships were toxic.

However when they died the king of the Sea help them to go into the sky and I believe they’ve become stars which made the earlier connection that I’ve made about the star Sirius stronger. Despite how it ended I enjoyed watching the film because it made Romeo and Juliet magical and mythical. I also loved how they combined science fiction and mythology just like the legend of the Dogon tribe.

The Hater / Suicide Room

The Hater is a polish movie directed by Jan Komasa. I’ve also watched a movie directed by Jan Komasa called the Suicide Room. After watching them both I’ve concluded that either all the Polish movies are depressing and leave you with heartache or it’s just Jan Komasa. By no means I’m telling you that I don’t like his work, in fact, I love his work which makes the experience more painful in the end because I make a deep connection with his characters and storyline however in the end I’m left with a broken heart. In this post, I will focus more on The Hater but I will also compare it with the Suicide Room and illustrate and talk about Jan Komasa’s patterns and artistic choices that he followed in those movies.

First of all, it’s a theme that in his movies there’s a character that is either depressed, full of hatred, and has a hard life, to begin with. They’re usually very different from other people that’s why usually they’re the outsiders. Later on, these characters have a breaking point which changes everything about who they are and their lives. The breaking point comes with society and how others treat these characters in both stories. Because these characters feel rejected by society they either choose to be a really bad person to be accepted or they isolate themselves from the rest of the world. In The Hater the protagonist Tomasz does things that even Lucifer would be shocked, I mean at first, I felt sorry for him and the first things that he has done weren’t that bad at all however in the end I was paralyzed because he has become a serial killer, internet bully and a terrorist at the same time. He literally started a civil war and caused innocent and good people to die. I hoped that he would do something good to at least cover a little part of his bad decisions but the opposite he made it even worse. And the saddest part is he got the girl he wanted, the Money, and the approval of the people. Don’t judge but I like these characters, they have depth in them and they’re interesting. For some reason, I can empathize with them. Tomasz reminded me of Light Yamagi from the Death Note, maybe because of his intelligence. However in the end I hated Tomasz but at the same time, I felt sorry for him. In the Suicide Room, the protagonist Dominik wasn’t evil at all, in fact, he had a pure innocent heart but ended up committing suicide. That’s why I won’t ever get over the suicide room it makes me cry every time I watch it. I love Dominik and I deeply felt everything he felt while watching the movie. I won’t forgive Jan Komasa for killing Dominik and making Tomasz a hero, but maybe that’s the irony.

Also, Jan Komasa uses the theme of internet bullying in both of these movies. He reflects the main issues and relevant topics through modern technology. In both of them, there’s a game that characters use to solve their problems. In the Suicide Room, it’s more dominant and it’s used as escapism but in The Hater it’s used as a weapon. In the end, I loved both of the movies and even though they showed dark stories everyone can see themselves in it and find bittersweet connections between the movie and real life.

#suicide room #thehater #the hater #tomasz giemsa #dominik santorski #jan komasa #movie

Singin’ in the Rain

I can say that I’m mesmerized by all the ’50s and 60’s movies. I just love the pureness, the atmosphere, clothes, relationships between characters, pretty much everything in them. That’s why when it was pleasurable to watch Singin’ in the Rain for me. I’m not a huge fan of the musicals portrayed in the movies maybe because I haven’t seen many good ones however, I wasn’t even bored even for a second when I’ve watched the musical scenes in the movie.

In the context of the movie I think they did a great job of criticizing the movie actors' sufficiency to act and have stage presence. Despite criticizing and making fun of those movie actors who are just being visuals rather than being real performers every actor in the movie performed astonishing performances and was multitalented. And it was as if they were saying this is the type of actor you should consider hiring. They can sing, they can dance, they can act and they’re attractive people with charisma it’s like a perfect combo for a movie director. I believe that is what makes the movie actors and actors in general stars, their alien-like natüre, their attractive visuals combined with their talents is what makes them admired. I believe that the old movies in general pay attention to that more than the new movies. Actors were selected more precisely and were expected to be good-looking as well as to have talent. Nowadays I see that actors in recent movies are either talented yet not charismatic or not talented but are good-looking. It’s really hard to have the combination of both. But if you ask me what’s more important to have the talent or to have the looks I would say of course talent but I believe stage presence is as important as the talent to keep the audience's attention and give the excitement. That’s why in the movie there is an emphasis on theater actors being the real actors because they perform on the stage without cutting or montage or retakes, it’s just a one-shot and those actors should be able to control their body, control their voice and act well at the same time.

I’m not saying those movie actors are just not talented and have those qualities. I think Singin in the Rain shows that they can be as astonishing and as good as the theatre actors. And maybe even more influential when the magic of the cinema comes into play. With all the camera movements and edits and effects, it grabs the audience's attention more and gives them a dream quality. Like in the movie it says “if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all”. This line stuck with me because it is so true but not in a bad way. I think there are some core values and themes that all movies have in common yet it’s the preference of the producers that how they choose to Show and portray similar stories. It depends on the different perspectives of different creators. That’s why there are good movies and bad movies, the core values are given but it's their choice to make it a good one or not. It’s about the resonance between the movie and the audience.

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decision

love

by Mehran Djo

Annihilation

I’ve never watched something really scary and creepy yet colorful and visually pleasing at the same time like Annihilation. I mean I find many creepy things aesthetically pleasing but Annihilation was full of aesthetic that even in some of the scary scenes I couldn’t stop looking at the screen. To be honest I wasn’t expecting the story to be that interesting as well since some movies do a good job on visuals but the storyline lacks imagination and interestingness. But the story flowed very well and smoothly with beautiful imagery and successful camera shots.

I liked the way they shot the water glass scene and also the way that they connected that shot meaningfully with the theme of the story. When I saw the glass scene at the beginning of the movie it grabbed my attention and made me think that the glass was giving an important message that I should keep in my while watching the movie. And my instinct was right, at the end of the movie I understood that the way they shot the water glass with the reflection of the actors created a mirror effect that was relevant to the story, it was showing their reflection, twin just like what the shimmer did. The movie also reminded me of spirituality and the fear of the unknown that is outside of our comfort zone and different. I think the shimmer didn’t represent an evil force or it wasn’t intended to destroy humankind which it did to a certain extend. I think considering the aliens or supernatural forces as different than stereotypical representations is what made this movie interesting to watch. It forces the audience to think about everything, and it also shows in the movie that existential crisis mode and humans struggle for finding meaning in everything. But in reality, everything doesn’t need to have a meaning, some things just are. This shimmer thing doesn’t need to have a meaning to kill something or recreate it, these things happen because of its nature.

However, I was uncomfortable watching most of the scary scenes, especially when the bear-like monster reduplicated the voice of the girl that it killed. It was creepy. And in the lighthouse when Lena faced with her doppelganger it was disturbing to watch because the doppelganger looked so creepy and alien-like but at the same time the colors of her body shimmering and stuff was beautiful.

Overall, I did enjoy the storyline and the visuals. It reminded me of we are all one concept in spirituality and I think the movie had this symbolism and meaning behind it. The shimmer’s atmosphere, colors of the lights, strange unicorn-like animals were like heaven in contrast it had scary and disturbing elements that were against the human natüre which made the movie a lot creepier.

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70 Million by Hold Your Horses !

When I found the music video of 70 Million Hold Your Horses I got excited to see a band creating various popular paintings since I myself am interested in both of these fields. However, it was not like what I expected it to be. They’ve created 24 paintings from Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper to Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers however, the tone they used to recreate these paintings was humoristic in contrast to the seriousness that we get from the actual paintings.

That’s when my expectations were not met because I was expecting more visually pleasing and creative recreations but it was fun to watch and I believe that it suited the band’s image and the song that they produced. The painting was highly modernized with sarcastic imagery that was obtained mostly by males putting a silly wig and makeup to recreate the female figures in those paintings. Most of them even though they were quite funny at the same time were quite uncomfortable to look at. For example, in the music video, the 0:33 rd second was showing the recreation of The Birth of Venus we can consider to be a tableau vivant because first of all at the first glance we can recall the painting through the mise en scene, through the composition they’ve built like venus being in the front standing on a sea Shell and the people around her trying to cover up her naked body with cloths. The same composition is achieved in the music video but Venus became a male band member with a beard and a weird wig and makeup as well as the other people that recreated from the actual painting, he is also naked but he is holding a guitar to cover his certain body parts which make the composition even more absurd. The environment is achieved by colorful cloths like the sky being a huge blue cloth, the flowers on the background were recreated the same I believe, they might be face flowers too though and the Shell is a collage of different tones of brown cloth which I found it to be really creative. The wings of the angels are made of cotton in the music video and also the color palette is very similar to the actual painting and probably that is the most dominant element of resemblance.

Lastly, despite being ridiculous and funny, in my opinion, it was a creative way of reproducing an artwork as a tableau vivant, it suited the band’s overall vibe and their song. Also with all those paintings they added something from themselves which I think is very important to do as an artist, they didn’t just try to copy the composition exactly the same way but they added a little bit of humor and used creative solutions such as using cloths fort he sky and the ground. They also added instruments to those compositions to indicate that they are the band members recreating a painting as tableau vivant which made it more related to the art they actually perform.

Citizenfour

For all those years America bragged about how its citizens are free and they can express themselves without any restriction. It’s sad to see the country that is portrayed as a dreamland and full of opportunities and liberation in those Hollywood movies that we’ve watched when we were kids is actually based upon a lie. We’ve seen the pseudo world that they’ve created and swooned over the portrayal of America in those movies that we couldn’t quite see the truth behind it.

9/11 is a whole another broad topic to discuss American government's games but according to the documentary Citizenfour the surveillance stars after that event. Before watching the documentary I was aware of the theories that the government tracks us through the devices we use however it was absurd to think that way for me because I found it ridiculous that the government as if had nothing to do other than spying on its citizens. But after watching it I’ve realized that it’s actually a really powerful weapon to get information as well as control people. The sad thing is we are not surprised to hear that the government is doing the surveillance, we expect it because of the power that they have on their hands especially the American government. And we as citizens are afraid to take action because they suppressed us. After all, we think that if we express ourselves we might get into trouble and lose our so-called freedom as if we’re living freely. The government has all the knowledge yet they share nothing with the people, they use the knowledge for their benefit, and violating the privacy of their citizens is not important to them and they defend themselves as they’re doing it for the benefit of the whole. But I never observed that in the history of any country. It’s scary to think that even if we want to protect ourselves and refuse to use technology which is quite impossible because of the century we live in, they can still Access what we’re doing through our bank cards, metro cards, etc. And all the technological developments are focused on social media, in my opinion, they intentionally do it to distract people or have access to their private lives more easily. Lately, my brother and I have noticed that when we talk or text about something or some product it pops up on our phones as advertisements later on. I don’t believe that this is a coincidence. We live in a matrix and we have the power to change it yet because of fear we are afraid to take action. But if we don’t we are doomed to live the life that the others create for us and we will probably die thinking that we had freedom and we were able to choose. I admired Edward Snowden because he is an activist and he thought about the benefit of the whole. He fearlessly put the information out there for us to awaken and many people answered and started questioning. The government is nothing without us we should understand that we are the electors and they are the elected instead of they are being the rulers and we are the ones that ruled.

In conclusion, the American government realized that knowledge is power, but if we choose not to give them the knowledge that they seek we become the creators of our own reality. And the documentary removed the veil between cinema and reality, it guided us through a revolutionary event with all of its details and the steps they took to publish the information.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was a fun movie to watch however, it had strong parallels to the movies such as Avatar. I think valerian did a great job at creating a world of its own, especially for the pearl people. I think the visual effects were great and fun to watch, also I found the color palette of the film pretty decent as well. It had many cliches and some problems in the scenario, it wasn’t like Luc Besson’s other epic film the fifth element but it was fun to watch and grabbed my attention in its world throughout the movie.

First I would like to comment on the actors. Even though Cara Delevigne is not necessarily an actor and she is a model but I think she did great in it, her acting didn’t bother me at all I was impressed. However, the other big star in the movie Rihanna was the one that surprised me. When I first saw her I was like “What is she doing here?” then she started her performing scene and I thought that they cast her just for a fancy dancing scene so that the movie would sell more. But after her dancing scene she started to involve more in the story and her character Bubble was pretty interesting and the character suited Rihanna and that’s when I understood why they cast her. Bubble added a lot to the movie and made it more interesting and emotional. Yet her death was pretty sudden and unnecessary, I thought like “Oh I guess Rihanna didn’t want to act more in the movie” in my opinion they could’ve developed her character more and maybe in the and she could be the one that helps the pearl people get rid of humans. Despite my judgment of Cara and Rihanna, they did a pretty good job in terms of acting. On the other hand, Valerian as a character was pretty cliche and shallow. I had no problem with the actor but the character was a typical womanizer in the 28th century and when his pretty-looking co-worker didn’t give the attention that he seeks he suddenly becomes a romantic and proposed to Laurine to marry him. I mean the character Laurine was pretty problematic as well she didn’t do much other than consistently try to make Valerian a better person. I think Cara in that sense added something to the character, she added a little bit of tomboyish approach to it and it made the character more likable in my opinion.

Secondly, I loved the pearl people, their design, world, and characteristics interested me more than anything. I think the character designer did an amazing job, they were so naive and elegant. I liked the distinction between male and female being few because that’s how I imagine the aliens. I would love to see more of their world and their way of living. However, their planet getting destroyed by humans for something valuable reminded me of Avatar. I think they could’ve found something unique to apply to the story rather than humans destroying everywhere they go.

In conclusion, the valerian world was like any other sci-fi movie nothing special other than the pearl Alien. The story was filled with cliches and unnecessary dialogues but the visual effects and character design were successfully done. Overall, it is a great movie to kill time.

La jetée

To be honest I’ve watched le Jette several times before we watched it in class. When I’ve watched it for the first time I couldn’t quite catch the story, therefore, I’ve watched it again. In my opinion, the storyline is hard to follow and many connotations can be made. I think many people can take a different meaning from certain images.

I believe that the storyline is as relevant and compelling as it was in 1962. The foolishness of humans causes their destruction and they’re trying to make it right by using people as lab rats to go back to the future and make everything right. But apparently, they need to send the subject into the past first to catch a time gap to make a time warp. That’s what I couldn’t catch when I watched the movie maybe it was me but I think they couldn’t quite convey the equilibrium. I understood that it was in the time of war in Paris but because of the missing information about the time and space, I had a hard time following. Maybe the lack of time and space is what they did intend to give the feeling of time travel and to emphasize the storyline. The other thing that kept getting my attention and was a little ambiguous for me was the German talking. I’ve studied German before so I can understand it a little bit that’s why I tried to understand what he was saying (whispering) but I couldn’t. Even though the story was taking place in Paris I couldn’t understand why the doctors were German but then I’ve realized that maybe this story is about after the second world war and the outcome of the second world war was the German Nazis’ victory and the destruction of the world. I thought maybe because of this the German doctors tried to solve this problem.

The way they portrayed this process was strange for me maybe because it’s an old photonovel but the technology they were showing and the way they shot this technology and future couldn’t quite match in my head. Because they presented a futuristic story yet the shots were old-fashioned. But I loved how they used photographs to resemble the memories because when I think about a memory I automatically get a frozen moment in my head. The memories don’t move but when it moves it becomes a dream for me. That’s because when I saw the bed scene where the woman’s blinking was continuous I thought that it was the man’s dream at that moment. Like that moment was so pure and full of love he could embed himself into it. However, the background sound in general conveyed the story a lot stronger and effectively than a dialogue. The raising heartbeat of the man when he was tested and when he met the woman, the bird sounds when he was with her in that bed scene was peaceful and relaxing for me.

Lastly, the choice he made, in the end, was giving the message of what people in a time of war was yearned for, to love and to be loved. I mean even he could’ve joined the people of the future he refused their proposal because all he missed and all he wanted was to be in a peaceful and loving space which he found when he was with her.

Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Fatboy Slim’s Praise You music video was pretty fun to watch. It was really different and low budget than the other music videos that I’ve watched or seen yet it got stuck into my mind. It wasn’t that much visually pleasing or high quality but it was free.

At first, I thought they were representing the evolution of dancing because the first movements looked like they were performing some kind of ritual and that movement slowly evolved to bale like foot movement and then the hip-hop r&b moves. But with the silly movement, it kind of felt like they were portraying the evolution of man as well with the concept of dance. Then it felt like us humans in our daily lives took most of the things even art in such a serious and strict matter that the performance of the dancers in the music video gave the sense that they were breaking that barriers that strictness hence they moved their body, however, they liked without any rules or barriers. I think that silly approach and the un perfection in the music video made the audience sympathize with the performers and that’s why they booed the man who tried to shut down the music. For me, it put a smile on my face, and at a certain point in the music video, I wanted to join them and move my body however I like regardless of what people might think. In my opinion that is what the performers wanted to achieve, they tried to say that we’re dancing like this and we look silly but we don’t care about what you think of it. The carefree approach makes it easy to sympathize with them. And it goes well with the music too music the music in the background had that carefree and chill vibe as well. I believe, the lyrics tell a story about people should not care what other people might think therefore praise the ones they love and care for.

Overall I get the vibe of living life to the fullest without caring too much about what people might say and listen to our hearts and move according to it Lastly, their clothing was sporty and chill and it gave that carefree, relaxed vibe but the place they performed had contrast with it and the performance turned out to be more absurd. Because a theatre is a more serious place that people go to watch some drama or tragedy that is done by the rules.

#fatboy slim #praise you #music video

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