Edvard Munch is an artist that has been traumatized and haunted by death throughout his entire life. His works of art are both terrifying and mesmerizing. In the film Edvard Munch, director Peter Watkins does an excellent job at showing the life of Munch as if it was Munch telling his life. The film is a mixture of documentary and a drama about Munch’s life, and how his torments were reflected in his art.
The film has a very grey and cold tone throughout its run. It definitely helps set the mood of Kristiania (Oslo), Norway where Munch grew up. The film’s depiction of Munch was that of a very shy, and reserved young man, in fact he hardly ever spoke. It also portrayed him as a sort of outcast in his family, as his father was a doctor, and his other siblings were also aspiring to be doctors. During this time, we can see that Munch’s early studies of his family always showed the side of people’s faces. There was no eye contact. In the film it not only shows those paintings, but it also shows Edvard and his father always arguing and they never make eye contact with each other.
He began working on a portrait of his younger sister in 1884. The painting only illuminated her face and her hand, everything else was black. The critics in Kristiania called it a “frightening ugly portrait.” This negative criticism would follow Munch’s work for the next fifteen years, affecting even his painting of The Sick Child which is a painting of his older sister’s death. In the film Edvard is
Concerning color, there is a stark contrast between the figure on the painting and the background. More specifically, the figure of the woman is predominantly delineated in white color, especially pale, ashen white, as far her apparel and facial complexion are concerned, while there are also various hues of grey, with respect to her hair and accessory feather. These white and grey shades are vividly contrasted with the prevailing red and crimson hues of the background (viz. the drape, armchair, and table). Moreover, one can detect colors of dark green (jewelry), some beige on the left (pillar), and darker or lighter shades of blue on the right side of the canvas (sky), which all in concert and in addition to the subtle purple hue forming the sun or moon exude a certain dramatic sentiment. Also, there is brown, which often easily segues into gold (viz. books and attire details respectively). The main contrast of colors between white and red would be interpreted as serving the purpose of rendering the figure of the woman, and especially her face, the focal point of the work, despite, paradoxically enough, the lush red shades at the background. Bearing that in mind, the significance of the woman’s face will be enlarged upon later, when discussing aspects of her identity.
In Wolfgang Staudte’s (1951) film, Der Untertan, the main character named Diederich Hessling develops from being a meek and cowardly boy to become a manipulative and self-involved man. The film uses many instances of imagery and subtle moments of foreshadowing to convey the ideals of the people of that time which lead up to the World Wars. Diederich is a typical Prussian citizen who blindly follows, supports the true “German values”, and bows to his superiors while stepping on his subordinates. The film illustrates Diederich’s character development, his shift in personality, and political confrontations through carefully crafted camera techniques that also highlight the time period that the film was set in as well as produced in.
Fritz Lang's 1931 film M takes a look how one German town comes together to take down a prolific child serial killer. The film is interesting in theme, narrative, and editing and is a standout film in Germany's cinematic history. M can also be considered to be one of the last great German films to come out of the country before Hitler took over the German film industry in 1933 (Mast & Kawin 148). M is also Peter Lorre's first film and his performance helped to catapult him as an actor and allowed him to establish a villainous persona that he would later be known for. M is not only a significant film due to its narrative and editing, but it is also significant because of its style.
Edvard wrote of the inspiration of the painting in his diary. The paintings showed emotion that had never been expressed so openly through art before. This painting is laced with hidden meanings, the faceless clock represents the uncertainty of the artists time left, the bed represents death, the placement of the figure between these two pieces symbolises the decisions and issues he is experiencing. The painting depicts a horse pulling a cart, which appears to be dangerously out of control. The body is distorted, twisted and disfigured with terror.
As most of you probably know, this is The Scream, artist Edvard Munch’s most famous and influential work.
Mme Charpentier and her Children was a portrait and painted in the 1878 by Auguste Renoir a painter who resided in Limoges. The subject is identifiable because she is in the center of the room. The paint that was used was oil and work of art is impressionism. Also In this essay I am going to depict or take apart this work of art by breaking down each element. For example, the subject and general observation of the work of art. Along with the shape and form, medium and technique, the composition and the color of a work of art. Light and shadow and texture of a piece of art work. All of these elements create one single piece of art work.
Looking at the top of the face, viewers can see one large eye and a tiny bit of the other eye. The eye is mostly black, filled with a little white in the center to make it clear to viewers that this is an eye. Moving down the face is a good-sized nose that is yellow and black for viewers to see it is a nose, along with a mouth that is mostly dark and difficult to distinguish. Near the eye and mouth are pink colored, flower petal shapes. This is the only bright color that is on this side of the painting, other than the yellow face, the small amount of white, and the black shadows on the face. Also, near the eye, are small, yellow dots that seem to be coming out of the other eye. This side of the painting is quite simple compared to the other side considering it lacks color. This part of the piece reminds me of a girl who goes everyday without expressing who she truly is. The face in this painting looks sad and straight-faced as if something is wrong. The face is much different from what is portrayed to left of the face. This image makes me think that this girl has so much inside her, but is not able to express herself because she may be afraid to do so. The yellow, small dots that are coming from her eye make me think that this is the only way she is expressing herself, and that only a tiny bit of her personality comes out when she is near others. Where the yellow dots go back
The three most significant art principles I found in this painting are the contrast of the light and dark areas, the focal point being his aunt, and the sense of unity conveyed. The contrast of colors shows the natural cast of shadows within an
Edvard Munch is regarded as a pioneer in the Expressionist movement in modern painting. At an early stage Munch was recognized in Germany and central Europe as one of the creators of a new movement in art. Munch and many artists of the time needed to express their feelings about all the change that was happening around.
Rene Magritte was an enigmatic and strange man who painted surrealism paintings. Little is known about his childhood except that his mother, Regine Magritte took her own life by drowning herself in the Sambre river. Young Magritte is thought to have discovered her body floating with her night garment covering her face. There is speculation that this trauma was an influence on many of Magritte’s works. When Rene Magritte took up his brushes, he created beautiful visual riddles that delight and bewilder the viewer. His clean lines and highly detailed finishes made his brush strokes nearly invisible; his paintings look as if they came from a printing press. Magritte referred to his paintings as “his labors.” He did labor over the paintings
Alfred Hitchcock’s attention to detail in his films is one of the many things that makes him one of the most recognized film auteurs of all time. He was very particular what about he wanted seen on screen and how he wanted to get those shots. From camera movements to the things found in the mise-en-scène, Hitchcock was very precise about every little thing that is seen in his on screen worlds. He would strategically place objects throughout the mise-en-scène and have characters wear certain clothing. By doing this, Hitchcock is able to let the audience know things about the characters and the plot without it having to be said on camera. Hitchcock once said that “If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on” (Tiffin). That’s why there’s no surprise that when Hitchcock finally made his first color film, he began to use color as another way of communicating with his audience.
The movie, Requiem for a Dream (Selby & Mansell, 2000) exposes the multiple faces of addiction. Addiction can change a person’s identity and therefore, impacts each person differently. This movie explores the life of four addicts who push the boundaries of their own lives leaving the viewer to wonder, how far will they go to use drugs? The focus of this paper is on what addiction looks like for the character, Harry Goldfarb.
The very first things I notice in the painting are the subject’s eyes. Dix paints Dr. Heinrich’s eyes with a heavy, swamp-like impasto. The decision to make the eyes of Dr. Heinrich to look directly at the viewer combined with the heavy impasto used on the eyes fortifies the hypnotic effect that this painting holds. The use of the swampy green and grey colouration with a tinge of bloodshot pink in the eyes gives the painting a vile and uncomfortable aura. The colouration of the rest of the face is tinted with a sickening green; Dix’s decision to represent the doctor’s face in this colour
Dark colors picture anguish, loneliness and to a certain extent the feeling of insignificance of the man. On the other hand, bright colors denote what he thinks of his lover. Munch use lines to draw the viewer’s attention to the main area of interest. In this case, that is the connectedness of the man with his lover despite their separation. One example of a line is the woman’s golden hair floating towards him as a symbol of their love. Lines are also used to etch the man’s facial expressions and the woman’s lack thereof. But other than the two lovers, the nature in the background has a symbolic meaning. The crimson bush, the tree, the land, the sky and the water all help represent the man’s inner turmoil. All of the elements of the painting collectively help to convey the permanence of
reached the age of 14. At 18 he became more serious about his art and