Madichi's Blog: Film

Film theories and Shaun of the Dead Propp theory: Propp's theory of narrative is that it is driven by 8 characters. The Hero, villain, princess father, dispatcher, donor, false hero and sidekick. This works for Shaun of the Dead as each character could fall into these brackets. Shaun is the obvious hero, Ed is the obvious sidekick and it could be said that the villains are the zombies themselves. Liz is the princess character as she is the typical love interest. Yvonne could be described as the helper or the donor character due to her help in the narrative. Dave is the false hero which is primarily seen in the middle of the film where he tries to shoot Shaun's mother after the revelation that she has been bitten by a zombie as well as when it is revealed that he is in love with Liz. The story is driven by these characters and how they respond to zombies attacking them. Barthes theory: Narratives are a series of codes that are read and interpreted by the audience. These...

'We Need To Talk About Kevin' Analysis We Need To Talk About Kevin is a psychological drama film directed by Lynne Ramsey. It contains themes of mental health. It was adapted from a book written by Lionel Shriver. The BBC got the rights to the film in 2005 and started developing the film form there. However the film took 5 years to make, with filming commencing in 2010 and the whole film eventually being released at the Cannes film festival in April 2011 and released theatrically on 21st October 2011. There are three main characters in the film. These are Eva, the mother portrayed Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange), Franklin, the father portrayed by John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) and Kevin, the troubled son played by Ezra Miller (Justice League). Despite Kevin being the titular character, the film is taken from the mother's perspective and how she deals with her son's actions. Colour is used quite often in the film, particularly the colour red which symbolises...

Weekly Film: A Wrinkle in Time A Wrinkle in Time is a fantasy, adventure film directed by Ava DuVernay, famous for the multi-award winning film Selma. The film  had a budget exceeding $100 million, making her the first African-American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of that size. Despite the main character being portrayed by child actor Storm Reid, the marketing department chose to focus on established actors: Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon's involvement. The film is based on a novel written in 1962 by Madeleine L'Engle.  The film contains themes of self-belief and has the clear binary opposites of light vs dark, good vs evil.  It consists of main character, Meg Murray embarking on an adventure to try and find her missing father  whilst trying to avoid the dark entity known as the IT. They are accompanied by the three Mrs: Who, Which and Whatsit. To be honest the Mrs do not exactly help her at all doing little to...

Industry news: Spielberg's Netflix claim Widely known and praised director Steven Spielberg has recently stated that he believes that films made for Netflix do not deserve to win Oscars. Spielberg, who is famous for making films such as E.T and Jurassic Park, told ITV news that he does not believe that they should be qualified for an award that is made to celebrate films that have been released in cinemas. As Netflix was created initially as a TV streaming site, he believes that their original films should count as TV movies and instead be nominated for Emmy's (the awards for TV shows) stating that 'once a director commits to a television format, then it should be considered a television movie'. In recent years, Netflix and other streaming services has become more and more popular and have been blamed as one of the reasons for the recent downfall of people who are going to the cinema. One of Netflix's original movies 'Ojka' premiered at the Cannes...