Mads Iden

Rope is an American crime thriller film that was directed in 1948 by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on a play by Patrick Hamilton in 1929. Rope was Hitchcock's first Technicolour film and the film was also filmed to look as if it was one long and continuous shot. The plot of the film follows two aesthetes named Phillip Morgan and Brandon Shaw, who murder their old classmate; David Kentley. They put his body in a wooden chest and host a dinner party, inviting David's father, aunt, fiancee and her former partner who was once David's friend. Figure 1. Rope (1948) This film features Hitchcock's famous technique of creating tension through revealing information tot he audience but then keeping the characters in the dark. "Hitchcock always wanted to make his audience suffer, and with Rope, guilt, the guilt that Brandon should be feeling, is what makes us miserable. The murderers need an audience to applaud their crimes, and with their dinner guests in the dar...

La Jetée is a French film made by Chris Marker in 1962. It is made up of many different black and white photographs and the story is of a post-nuclear war experiment which specializes in time travel. Centered in post-apocalyptic Paris, survivors live underground and scientists make research into time travel with the intention of helping the future. The main male character is a prisoner of war after World War III and the main prisoner that is experimented on. He is transported to the past where he remembers a woman who he met before the war. He remembers seeing her on a jetty at an airport before witnessing a man die there. He develops a romance with the woman from the past but he is eventually sent to the future where he asks them to hel p escape the scientists who will kill him. The future people offer him a chance to escape permanently to their time but he declines and asks to be transported to the past so that he can rekindle his romance with the woman ...

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover was a film that was written and directed by Peter Greenaway in 1989. It is considered to be a romantic, crime drama and the film follows the story of Albert Spica who takes control over a high end restaurant called Le Hollandais. He makes a series of appearances to the hotel with his wife, Georgina who gains the attention of another regular diner, Micheal. Over the course of the film Georgina and Micheal begin an affair and when Albert finds out, the couple go to hide in Micheal's book shop. Albert finds out their location and sends his men to break in when Georgina is away to torture then kill Michael. When Georgina finds his body she begs the restaurants chef to cook and prepare Micheal's body which leads to her confronting and forcing Albert at gunpoint to eat a forkful of Michael's body. The film ends with her killing Albert which can be seen in figure 1. Figure 1. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover  (1989) The...

Figure 1: Suspiria Hotel (1977) Suspiria is a film that was directed by Dario Argento in 1977. It is considered an Italian horror film and it starts of following the story of Suzy Bannion who is a ballet student arriving in Germany to study at the Tranz Dance Academy, shown in figure 1. It is soon shown that there is more to the hotel when she witnesses another student Pat Hingle running from the institution in fear. It is revealed later that the school has held the location of many different murders. " The finale is an orgy of kill-'em-all nihilism (that sounds like a spoiler, but it’s not) that’s blood-chillingly terrifying in spite of the thoroughly unconvincing characters. It’s a thrilling, vexing film, a kind of ode to aberrance, teeming with preoccupations and fetishes that exist only for their own delectation." (Kenny, 2016) This suggests that with each new murder the film raises the tension to lead to the end which is truly a pit of horror and blood.  Fig...

Figure 1. The Shining - Overlook Hotel (1980) The Shining is a film that was made in 1980 and it was directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the  1977 novel by Stephen King titled The Shining. The film follows the story of Jack Torrance who is played by Jack Nicholson, who travels to Overlook Hotel, which is shown in figure 1, where he acts as winter caretaker. He plans to use the job as an opportunity to write. In isolation over winter he was previously warned that the last caretaker went mad and murdered his own family. His son Danny has a premonition that is about the hotel being filled with blood, shown in figure 2, which leads to him falling into a trance. Jack's wife, Wendy is an innocent throughout the film and she is the one who ends up saving her sons life at the end of the film when Jack goes mad.                                         ...

Repulsion is a British horror film that was directed by Roman Polanski in 1965. The screenplay was based work by Gerard Brach and Polanski. The film follows the story of Carol Ledoux who lives in London with her older sister, Helen. Carol declines the advances of male attention and when she is left alone in the apartment she shares with Helen, she begins to hallucinate and when one of the men who is interested in her, Colin, breaks into her apartment to beg for her heart, she beats him to death with a candlestick. Later, the landlord breaks in looking for payment, he then sexually assaults her and she ends up slashing him with a razor. Later when Helen returns she finds the dead bodies and Carol hiding under the bed in a catatonic state. The film ends on a close up of a picture of Carol as as young girl with a look of hatred on her face, turned towards a male figure in the photo which can be seen in figure 1. Figure 1. Repulsion (1965) The way that the scenes are filmed fills the...

Figure 1. Black Narcissus (1947) Black Narcissus was a film that was based off the book written by Rumer Godden in 1939. The film came out in 1947 in Technicolour and it is considered a psychological drama with significant sexual tension. The story follows a group of nuns who are sent away to a small village in the Himalayas where the freeing nature of the area and its people bring about an introduction to a sense of sexual freedom that the nuns have yet to experience.  Figure 2. Black Narcissus . Sister Ruth (1947) Clodaugh is one of the main nuns who is the Sister Superior and Sister Ruth is one of the nuns under her who becomes mentally unstable as she becomes jealous of Clodaugh who has gained an interest in the local English agent called Mr Dean. Towards the end of the film this jealousy causes Sister Ruth to have a violent response to the other nuns “her final appearance in the film, gaunt and wraithlike, is still one of the scariest moments in British cinema his...

Edward Scissorhands was a film that was made in 1990 and directed by Tim Burton. The production design was created by Bo Welch and the design of the film features a European style Gothic castle alongside a pastel American suburbia. The way in which the sets are designed also works in relation to the main characters of the film and their differences in wardrobe and personalities. The main character, Edward is depicted wearing all black with pale skin and dark eyes and lips as shown in figure 1. This contrasts massively with the character design of the love interest, Kim who has blond, neat hair and delicate features. Figure 1.  Edward Scissorhands -Character Design (1990) Edward Scissorhands uses the environments to show the differences between people and societies. The soft and pastel vibrance of the American suburbia works in relation to the sort of people living there who are very much the typical American families that the film industry usually depicts. The other main ...

La Belle et la Bete was made in 1946 and it is a film adaptation of the novel Beauty and the Beast. It was directed by Jean Cocteau who was a French filmmaker and poet. The main stars of the film are Jean Marais as the Beast and Avenant, and Josette Day as Belle. The film suggests an underlying theme of sexual desire "b efore she has even seen him, she is aroused to her very depths, and a few seconds later, as she tells him she cannot marry--a Beast!--she toys with a knife that is more than a knife" (Ebert, 1999) and throughout the film there are many other moments where sexual desire is accentuated through costume or dialog. The themes of sexual desire explored within the film could also be linked to the fact that Jean Cocteau was a poet and he used this skill to add a new depth and to tell the story. Figure 1. Film Poster La Belle et la Bete shows Belle to be drawn to the Beast and she almost seems to have no control over herself or her own desi res "As Belle firs...

Alien is a science fiction-horror film made in 1979 and directed by Ridley Scott. The film follows the story of a crew on a commercial spaceship that is heading back to Earth, only to come across other lifeforms. The crew lands on the new alien planet and discover a nest of alien eggs, shown in figure 1, one of which gets on board, hatches and causes the ultimate destruction of all the crew accept one, Ellen Ripley who is the main character and sole survivor.  Figure 1. Alien Egg Ellen Ripley is portrayed by Sigourney Weaver and her role in the film is a part of why the film is so memorable and celebrated even today. She is a female character who is not shown as the damsel in distress or as sex appeal and she dominates the screen by taking control of the dangerous situation and the threats to herself and crew members and she survives.Ripley has a responsibility and takes her work and j ob seriously "she also appears to have no romantic interest whatsoever. Instead, s...

2001 A Space Odyssey is a Science Fiction film that was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1968. Stanley Kubrick's films famously have a cold almost disconnection to the characters and their emotions as he never uses close ups to the faces of the characters meaning that audiences never get to experience those raw emotions up close which can be seen in figure 1. He also often uses symmetry in his camera directing which can give off the impression of a almost clinical and controlled effect. "Maybe only rocket science and deep space could absorb Kubrick’s famous coldness and control and tendency to visionary gigantism." (Bradshaw, 2014) This also relates to the dialog used in the film which is minimal and is manly used to tell small parts of the story. Figure 1: Video Call The visuals of the film are the most important and me morable as Stanley Kubrick uses camera tricks and big composition shots to create the innovative look of the film. Kubrick himself has said “Do it rig...