Le Mépris is a film distinct in Jean-Luc Godard’s career, for many reasons: amongst others, it was his first foray into a more big-budget, large scale production. Ironically – or perhaps purposefully - one of the overarching themes explored within Le Mépris’ is maintaining artistic integrity, whilst attaining commercial success. Nowhere is this better explored than the famous middle sequence: their extended argument indoors. I aim to analyse this scene’s depiction as not only a simple argument between tumultuous lovers, but as it’s symbolic exploration of their decaying relationship as a whole, encompassing many of the overarching themes of ‘Le Mépris’ – love, ennui, and of course, contempt.
As soon as they step into their home, the door
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Perhaps this is really a subversive way to express the emptiness consuming their relationship.
Significant too at the beginning of this scene, is the way the camera follows Lucille and Paul. The majority of the time they are framed in shots alone, only in passing does the frame capture them both. Though they are inhabiting the same space, the choice to capture them separately is very deliberate, highlighting the isolation mounting within their relationship as they start to grow apart; tying into the existential theme that eventually, we all die alone. The vehicle of a failing relationship to depict this existential dread is an apt choice; nowhere more is isolation emphasized than in contrast of it’s antithesis: once romantic love, the communion of two souls.
Paul seems engrossed with his letters, pacing around the apartment staring at them, never really lifting his eyes to properly meet his wife’s gaze. The letters are symbolic of his work – his priorities now lie there, and not his wife. For a second, Lucille seems to snap from a sullen mood to a more playful one, and perhaps in a bid to grasp her husband’s attention once more, she asks him to guess what she bought today. When he asks what, and does not get an immediate answer, he reacts with irritation instead of
One choice in particular that greatly impacted Paul’s future in Tangerine was when his mother decided to inform his new principal of his eyesight disability, giving him a label of a disabled student that he did not want to receive. Mrs. Fisher was only benefitting herself when she pressed Mrs.
The decision was made after the doctor informed them that Paul would not be blind, and would most likely not remember any of this. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher decided to leave the situation like that for Paul not to know and not hate his brother. Paul’s glasses had always affected his self esteem. Consequently, he loathed himself for the glasses and the reason he had gotten them. Now that Paul remembered what had happened, he was enraged with what his parents were telling him.
It is my intention to compare the book, Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, to its modern movie version, Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I intend to examine how the original French text was modified in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes. I also plan to discuss how these transformations change the meaning of the story and reflect different cultural/historical contexts. There are some major differences between these two works, if only because of when they were written.
Paul is the main character in Willa Cather’s short story titled, “Paul’s Case”. Paul is a very troubled young man who believes he is destined for greatness. He was always in trouble at school and was never content with being himself. Paul had a very troubling past where his father would constantly emotionally abuse him and was always looked down upon at school. Paul feels that his is stuck where he his and cannot control his own future. One symbol used in this story was Cordelia Street. This is the street that Paul grew up on and he talks about this street as being boring and common, much like his life. Paul has a real problem with his past and how to escape it. Because
The French New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague, is among the most revolutionary film eras in the history of cinema. Spurred as a result of major shifts in economic, social and technological norms within post-WW11 France, the New Wave conceived a renewed mode of expression across various creative industries. Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) are two films, which despite major disparities, would go on to exemplify integral characteristics of the movement in the following years. Perhaps, the best way to truly appreciate the fervor of New Wave cinema is to examine the context of its inception. Both the stylistic and thematic qualities of French New Wave works directly reflect the implicit values, virtues and vices possessed by the emerging youth culture of the late 1950s, which consequently posed a fundamental challenge to the institutions, ideas and attitudes of the past.
After being forced to leave his job as an usher at Carnegie Hall Paul gets a job working at Denny and Carson's office firm. He gets the money to go to New York City by taking the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank from Denny and Carson's deposit and pockets it. Paul arrives in New York and lives the luxurious life by buying fancy clothes and checking into a nice hotel. After eight days in New York his fun runs out when he discovers in the Pittsburgh papers that his father had reimbursed the firm and was coming to get him. "Paul had just come in to dress for dinner; he sank into a chair, weak to the knees, and clasped his head in his hands. It was worse than jail, even; the tepid waters of Cordelia Street were to close over him finally and forever" (Cather 11). After succeeding
Un Chien Andalou was created by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali to be both disturbing and thought-provoking, and the effect is one that epitomises the surrealist film movement of the late 1920s and 30s. The surrealist movement was born out of a hatred for the regimes and order that, according to a group of people from all over Europe known as Dadaists, caused the First World War (Elger and Grosenick 8). This essay will discuss how this group’s refusal of all things structured and conventional is explored in the film Un Chien Andalou, and how the conventions typical of the surrealist genre have a strongly disturbing and confusing effect on the viewer.
Once Paul begins to lay his deceptive relationship on Aunt Rosalie the tone changes again and becomes cheerful and happy and shows Rosalie being deceptive by allowing Paul to act as if he had good intentions knowing all to well it was a
In addition, Meursault’s sensory experience of life, his physical pleasures and in-the-now perspective, is a demonstration of living life to the fullest. The absurdist must live life passionately, putting all of one’s weight into existence by not wasting time or energy on the ethereal or ephemeral. The fact that Meursault does not want to think about religion, even as he awaits execution, shows how the ideal absurdist would live life: loyal to one’s own being until the end – not to a father in the sky, or to an abstract hope. Meaning of one’s life must come from one’s own creative efforts. Meursault’s indifference to spiritual matters – and even sensory matters that are in the distant past and are therefore unimportant to him – is used to emphasize the passion for the present that Camus decided the absurd hero should have. So it is not so much that Meursault is totally indifferent, he is just indifferent to things outside of the now.
Albert Camus’ 1942 novel L’Etranger (The Outsider) follows reclusive protagonist Meursault as he lives through a bout of significant events, acting unusually amongst his peers, hence the anglicised title ‘The Outsider’. Camus places strong emphasis on the social expectations surrounding Meursault, making his characteristic reactions exemplify Camus’ own Absurd philosophy. Social expectations such as displaying emotion, following religion, and having empathy, are not often seen in Meursault. 1940s Algeria, where the novel is set, was experiencing a cultural conflict between the Muslim Algerians and Christian immigrated Christian and Jewish people from Mediterranean countries. The resulting colonial unrest caused both the Muslim Algerians and the Pieds-noirs to follow and promote these social expectations more extremely than in other environments, emphasising the contrast between Meursault’s Absurdness and his surrounding, behaviourally-contrived Pied-noir society.
This easy-going, pleasant hedonism is interrupted permanently by Meursault's murder of the Arab on the beach. Not only is he incarcerated, but also he must examine the reality behind the illusion of his trial and, ultimately, of his life. Introspection has not been his metier. It takes him a while to realize that the judge, the jury, the journalists, even his own lawyer, do not wish him well. Meursault finally realizes that he is going to be convicted, not because he killed an Arab but because he did not mourn his mother's death.
In “The Stranger” by Camus, Meursault’s actions throughout the story can be summed up in one word, absurd.
In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the murder committed by Meursault is questionably done with no reason. Although the entirety of the second part is spent in society’s attempts to find a cause, Meursault has a durable existential mentality that proves that even he knows that there is no true reason for the crime. Through the use of light and heat imagery and diction in The Stranger, Albert Camus comments on the duality of society trying to find a cause for the murder and Meursault defying this because of his existential mentality. These elements heighten Meursault’s negative outlook on life by
In the piece, Paul’s wife Ellen suggests that due to their unsteady crops and financial instability, they should consider moving into the city with her family to star a better life. In responce, Paul gets angry and states they he “can’t go [live] with [her] people” and it felt like this was cry for “charity” (112). This shows Paul reflecting the characteristics of a provider, he is stuck in his ways and does not want to be shown in pity or weakness. In addition, Paul not only refuses help in his farming, but has pride in it aswell. The protagonist shows confidence and persistance when speaking about his work. Although in this moment in life where his crops are failing and are not profitable, he repetitively states that “ the land will come back” and that it is “worth waiting for” (112). Paul displays the prideful aspect to the societal norm of a provider as he is cosistantly persisant and sanguine towards his work. As mentioned, Ellen had been attempting to convince Paul to leave the farm and start fresh in the city, however due to Paul remaining steadfast in his ways, he gave excuses and refused to accept her proposition. This lead to anger in the house, and each began placing blame for their situation on each other. Paul stated in fustration that “[he was] not to blame
Paul was a young man. He was getting a teacher’s education. He was a good student and a wonderful sportsman. He lived with his mother, Mrs Burgess, in Belfast. She was quite unsociable and reserved. The first five years of his life Paul had spent in the North of England. He had very good relations with his father, Rees; they loved to spend time together. Later his family moved to Wortley. When they lived there, his father died because of a railway accident. Soon after