Archive for the ‘Deep Thoughts’ Category

Hollywood musicals have been shaped quite differently over time, from their earliest years in the 1920s (ex. The Jazz Singer. 1927) to the present (ex. Dancer in the Dark. 2000). Film musicals have gone under significant changes, or to more aptly describe them, movements. The classical Hollywood musical set the standards by fabricating regulatory narrative structures and conventions, which by the 1970s and 1980s led to the most considerable alterations to these structures and conventions yet made. The reasons for the alterations are numerous and will be detailed, and present a fascinating study and discourse of musicals that has yet to find an explicit perimeter. These newer musicals are part of what is called the modernist or post-modern movement, and understanding why and from where this movement grew is important to investigate for anyone interested in thinking about what direction musicals could go in next. Read the rest of this entry »

Halloween‘s definition of normality - that is, how normality is represented in the film - is depicted as being relatively care-free with only minor day-to-day inconveniences and annoyances to battle with (a friend speaking to your crush for you, a boyfriend getting grounded on a date night, getting harassed by bullies, etc.). It is an enclosed suburban world where evil does not reside, and the time of when it once did is considered a distant memory; a history that is acknowledged but not really known or given much, if any, attention. The horror inherent in this film is that this normality comes under threat by something completely unexpected that they could not have prepared for. Michael Myers is a threat that seeks to change the definition of normality in his world – that is, the world as seen through his eyes - and ends up also changing it for others. Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is regarded by many to be the first horror film in terms of how we recognize the genre today. Released just two years later, F. W. Marnau’s Nosferatu barrowed some of Caligari‘s style to help construct what were to become the basic features of the horror genre that would continue to present day. Converting expressionism from the medium of painting and sculpture to the medium of cinema, Caligari‘s style would prove to be even more influential than what following 1920s German films would indicate. Not only would these films set the standard for critical and popular success in their genres in Germany, but the entire field of cinema as well (particularly with America’s Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), and Italy’s 1960s and ’70s horror). Read the rest of this entry »