Madichi's Blog: Film

Representation of women in 'Timbuktu'  Timbuktu is a 2014 independent film set in the Malian city, Timbuktu. It features people's lives being shown as the city is overrun by Jihadi soldiers. One of the main themes of the film is the treatment of women. The representation of women in the film is fairly strong considering the regime that they are being forced to live under. They are mostly seen as strong-willed and able to speak their minds. One women, who is forced to work selling fish, stands up to a soldier after he tries to force her to wear gloves. She argues that it is not possible to do her work and wear gloves simultaneously. The fact that she has the courage to stand up to him shows a change in what would usually be shown. Even though she is taken away as a result, she still shouts at the soldier and does not leave reluctantly. Another strong female character seen in the film is a mother of a girl who has been asked by a stranger to marry him. At first she t...

Weekly film: Deadpool 2 Deadpool 2 is an action, comedy, superhero film that was directed David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The main theme of the film (as described by Deadpool himself) is about family. It was released on May 18th 2018 The film focuses on the new characters much more than the old characters, which is understandable as it focused more on Deadpool's X-Force team rather than the X-Men. Still, I would have liked to see a bit more of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead in the middle of the film. There are plenty of new characters in the film including: Cable played by Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), a hard as nails time-traveller, Domino played by Zazie Beetz a mutant who possesses the power of being lucky and Peter a regular person "with the power of type one and type two diabetes" who is there because he "just saw the ad".  One character from the first film that got more screen-time...

Weekly Film: Avengers: Infinity War Avengers: Infinity War is a film released in 2018 by Marvel. It is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo who also directed two other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America 2 and 3. The film is a huge culmination of 18 films and 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It contains themes of: love, loss, power and sacrifice. As with the previous entries it is distributed by Walt Disney Studios. It had 2 unique selling points. The first is that Infinity War marks the first time that a feature-length movie has been filmed entirely on IMAX cameras. The 2nd is that the directors promised that several characters will be killed off which was something that fans wanted due to the argument that the films lack stakes if characters always survive. There are over 40 main characters in this film with pretty much every superhero from previous films making a return. These include: The Avengers, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-man, Doc...

Compare how far the actions of the main characters are influenced by the times in which the American film you have studied were made (Casablanca,Kurtiz/ Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee). 'Casablanca' and 'Do the right Thing' both contain themes that strongly affected the world at the time: World War 2 and racial injustices respectively. Casablanca, despite being set in 1941, was made in 1942. These films both contain characters that likely contain the viewpoints of the director and go with the message that they are trying to portray. For example, in Rick's bar the French people stood up to the Germans by singing the national anthem. As a result of this, it could be classed as war propaganda like many of the 1940s noir films were. Another comparison between the two films are the character arc that the main characters (in this case Rick and Mookie) go through.  They both start off as introverts who mainly worry about themselves. However as the plot unfolds ther...

Character Creation 17 year old boy Student  Lives in modern-day London with his dysfunctional family Witnesses parents arguing a lot Has a few friends but is overall an introvert  Fights on behalf of sibling. Agile as he did gymnastics in the past Dealing with a surge of gang violence in the area People do not feel safe on the streets When sister is attacked, takes matters into his own hands Learns how to fight for 3 years Joins a team of people who fight for the same cause. Weakness: when beaten he lacks self-esteem and the ability to carry on Questions his role in life Struggles to find the line between good and evil

Ready Player One Ready Player One is a science fiction film that was directed and produced by Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jurassic Park) and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. It is based on a highly successful book written in 2011 by American author which became a New York Times bestseller and won multiple awards. It is set in a near future in the year 2045. The film contains themes of escapism due to all the characters choosing to spend most of their time in a virtual-reality landscape rather than the real world. The film follows Wade Watts, who is portrayed by Tye Sheridan (X-Men Apocalypse), an avid gamer who spends the majority of his time in the OASIS, a virtual world in which players can be whoever they want, whenever they want. When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance, The BFG), dies he leaves behind a hidden Easter egg that players have to find in order to inherit his company.  This leads Wade's avatar Perzival and his clan to go through 3 di...

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...