critical approaches to fight club

Auteur. i feel that an auteur approach to fught club will not help in the examine. i can definalty see clearl links in david finchers style of directing in amajority of his films, but i feel that this knowledge dose not add much to the film as it is a stand alone movie.

gender. gender would be a good topic to focus on as the main theme of the movie (the crisis of male mascinility) and while thereis only one female charatcer she has a very  prominent role and is a very interesting character.

institution. this will most likeley be the aspect of focus on most as there is alot talk about in terms of finchers struggle to keep the movie the way he wants it and the contreversy of casting brad pitt.

technology. this will probably be the worst chocie for me to use as there is not much use of cgi in the movie.

social and politcal issues. this would be a good topic as there is a heavy feature of these issues in the film.

star performer. i most likely won't choose this in the exam as i could talk about these in instution.

ethnicity. there is not a large ethcnic background

fight club reviews

the guardians review of fight club is largely negative, saying that it changes the theme of the movie half way through from a "spiteful satire of our bogus contemporary crisis of masculinity" to a strident, shallow pretentious bore with a 'twist" ending that dose not work.
empire's review takes a similar view. while it is alot more positive in general, describing David Finchers film as "a molasses-black comedy shot through with his blistering, hyper-kinetic style, a score that punches you in the chest, and standout performances from Pitt and Norton."
it dose criticize the latter part of the film for not being well executed and describing the twist ending of being dug out of the bottom of a packet of cornflakes.

grizzly man

Bfore viewing grizzly man i was aware about the basic outline of the film. that it follows a man who spends his summers living amongst kodiak bears in a national park in alaska. however i thought that Timothy Tredwell would be a steve erwin / ray mears type of man, in the sense that he was very capable of living in the wild with the bear minimum, and had actually studied bears and other such wildlife, and new all about there habits. instead he was a man who had rejected socioty and chosen to live among bears becuase he "loves" them. much like a twelve year old girl who loves pony's.
the film mainly focused on the life of timothy tredwell. while this was not what i was expecting i can understand why werner herzogg chose to do this as he is an intresting subject to focus on.
a man who, after a losing a diving scholorship, getting involved in drugs and heavy drinking and failing to get a caarer as an actor find solice in the company of bears.
the film also features interviews with close friends, family members and ex girlfriends of timothys about timothys decsision to do what he did and how they reacted upon his death.
however these interviews appear to be scripted and fake

power and conflict in the class.

The class.

The class uses many different aspects of film to portray power and conflict. These include mise en scene, cinematography, performances and editing to name a few.

The aspect’s that portray these two themes the most effectively (in my opinion) is the mise en scene, performance and cinematography. One way in which it doses this is through the use of setting. The whole film takes place with in the school, and most of it is with in the same class. The class is a tiny room in which the students and teacher are cramped into. This feeling of crampedness is passed on to the viewer with the help of mid/close up shots.  This feeling helps in raise the tension in the student teacher relationship when ever one of the pupil’s answers back to the teacher.  This is easily noticble when you watch one of the conflicts that takes place outside the class room, the tension you feel is nowhere near there levels you feel in the class even when its during one of the smaller arguments about proper grammar use, let alone when one of the students get’s physically assaulted.

Because of the choice of setting the audience can get a clear picture of who it is who has the power, which is obviously the teacher for the most part. This is clear visually as the teacher is standing high above the students who are sat at there desks. There are times when the power can be said to have shifted to one of the students. During these shifts in power he teacher is the one who is sitting and the student standing. An example of this is when one of the teachers asks on of his students to apologise to him. The student apologizes and then gets up and walks out of the class and the teacher sits down, it is at this point when the student says she was lying and run’s away laughing, to which the teacher sits stunned and defeated.  Another example of this visual representation of power is when a student has hit another student with his bag and drawn blood, after an argument. The teacher shouts at him and he storms out of the room. During this both the teacher and the troublemaker are standing (both being of similar height) this could show how the teacher is still the main authority in the class but dose not have control over this student.

While in the class the teacher has the power (for the most part) when a scene ventures out into another area this is not always the case. In one scene François Marin (the teacher) ventures out into the play ground to continue an argument he had with to of his students in his class. Whilst in his class he managed to stay very level headed and in fairly in control of the situation. In the playground all the students circle around him trapping him in a group where he is vastly outnumbered. When arguing his voice is louder and it is clear that he is angered by the situation, where as the students are the ones who appear to be calm and collected.

While most of the film is set in the one classroom, there scenes that venture into other areas of the school. From what we see of these other areas the school in question has a similar look to the prison in “a prophet”, with its tall white walls, tiny classrooms and it’s overall grey dull feel. This gives the feeling that the students are prisoners and the teachers are the guards, which again effectively portrays power. 

creative c/w

For my creative project I have chosen to do a short film script. Narrative (non linear) will follow a group east Londoners as they try to make a some quick cash by selling some drugs they happen upon. My influences for this are a combination of all of Guy Ritchie movies and Taratino movies like reservoir dogs and pulp fiction.

persepolis

persepolis is a follows a young girl named marjane as she grows up in war torn iran during the iranian revolution and her travels around europe. i found the movie the to be very good with its gripping narratives, interesting characters and unique style of animation. there were sevral clear aspects of conflict all through out the film, one of the main one's being that of the revolution. the is also conflict that is originates from religion.for example through out the movie police men are berading women for not wearing there head scafs properly and calling them sluts, also marjane has an internal conflict with god as she starts losing her faith in him. poverty dose not appear to play a big a part in this film as it has in others. for example in city of god you could agure that the poverty drives the actions of the characters, but the same can not be said in persepolis. however, whene marjane is living in europe she spends some of her stay living on the streets. you could also argue that the lack of emotion, creativity and expression in iran is another form of poverty. whilst you would asume that the goverment of religous represent power the most (with good reason) i am more enclined to say the marjane's grandma shows the most power with in the narrative. this is beacuase marjane look upto her grandma a great deal and thus has the most influnce over her actions. one good example of grandmas power over marjane is when marjane acuses an innocent man of a crime he did not commit to save her own neck. once she tells her grandma she acts very dissaponted in her and reminds her how her own ffamily were sent to jail for crimes they did not commit. another example is when marjane lies about where she was born and her grandman tells her to stay true to yourself and be proud of your culture. after this marjane shouts at a group of girls who are lauging about her home country, saying "im iranihan and proud of it."

Research Catalogue

What  Films have influenced the stylistic aspects of Edgar wrights directing technique.

Films

Item 1

Shaun of the dead (2004, universal pictures)

This is one of my primary sources. It is Edgar Wright’s first feature film, which he directed and co wrote with Simon Pegg. In my opinion it is a valuable source because the movie reflects lots of elements from other famous zombie movies such as dawn of the dead and evil dead 2, through the use of cinematography and editing. It also makes small references to these movies through mediums like character names, and even the title. These influences are commented on by Wright in the commentary feature on the DVD.

Item 2

Hot fuzz (2007, universal pictures)

This is one of my primary sources. It is Edgar wrights second feature film with him as both director and co writer (along with Simon Pegg) and is the second film in their definitive blood and ice cream trilogy.  It is a valuable source in the same way that Shaun of the dead is a valuable source. Because reflects lots of element from other more iconic films in the same genre. The difference being that because this is, primarily an action movie it makes reference to films like die hard and point break instead of dawn of the dead. These influences are commented on by Wright in the commentary feature on the DVD.

Item 3

Fistful of fingers (1995, blue dolphin film distribution)

This is a remake of a film Edgar Wright made whilst in school. The reason for remake his on film was this time he had a bigger budget as he had won funding because of the quality of his early films.  This film is homage to the spaghetti western genre, primarily the il buono, il brutto, il cattivo which has been described by Edgar as a big influence.

TV

Item 4

Spaced series 1 and 2 (channel 4, 1999-2001)

I have chosen spaced for similar reasons I have chosen the films, because it makes references/spoofs/reflects different films that have influenced/inspired Edgar Wright in his style of directing. Because this is a TV show it has different narratives for each episode meaning it references a wider verity of films than both hot fuzz and Shaun of the dead.

Internet

Item 5

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/feb/12/guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank (Jason Solomons, February 2007, the guardian)

Although in this interview Edgar Wright dose not talk a lot about films that have had a great influence on his directing and writing, he dose talk about how he has been a great lover of films since a very young age and how that has effected his life early on and later in life and some of his favourite directors and actors. This is a reliable source as it is from the guardian newspaper.

Item 6

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0942367/

Edgar wrights imdb (internet movie data base) page. A large source for quick references that includes film names, release dates. Also lists numerous quotes and general information about Wright. Should be noted that much of the information found on the website is provided by volunteers so may not be considered 100% reliable, it dose however have 20 members of staff who’s job is to check information.

Item 7

http://www.edgarwrighthere.com/

Edgar Wright’s official blog. Gives information about his early life and how he managed to get to where he is in the movie business. Also, it is regularly updated by Edgar on his current film projects. This is a reliable source as Edgar Wright himself writes it.

Item 8

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=8&sid=606a35c1-f197-499d-b009-cb9da8685415%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ukh&AN=52619562  (Ethan Alter, film journal international vol. 113 issue 8 pg10-12, 01/08/2010)

This is an article/interview taken from the film journal international magazine. In it they talk about how Edgar developed a love for cult cinema from an early age. Also talks about how his blood and ice cream trilogy (Shaun of the dead, hot fuzz, the world end (not yet realised)) are suppose to homage to the films they spoof.

Videos

Item 9

http://www.empireonline.com/features/edgarwright/

This probably the most valuable source out of all the sources I have found because it is a video of Edgar Wright naming ten of his favourite movies and how they have influenced his style of directing and writing. This is a reliable source as the list was comprised by Edgar Wright

Books and magazines

Directors A-Z a Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Film Makers (Geoff Andrew 1999)

This is a “companion to 250 of the all time great visual stylists.” I have chosen to include this book into my research because it includes information on directors of films Edgar Wright has stated to be a big inspiration to him, such as john woo and George Romero. This is a reliable source because the author is one of Britain’s leading film critics and the fore word is written by the Coen brothers.

The cult film reader (Ernest Mathijs, Xavier Mendik, December 2007) 

This book delves into the realm of cult films all the way from the start of cinema to present day. I have included this into my research as Wright is a self confessed lover of cult films and many of his favourite movies are cult films and are discussed in this book (evil dead 2, dawn of the dead). This is a reliable source because the author is the director of the cult film archive and convenor of the ma in cult film and T.V. at Brunel university.

Sergio Leone: Once upon a time in Italy (Christopher Frayling 2005)

A biography of Leone’s film career. I have included this as it Edgar Wright has described leone and his films (especially the dollars trilogy) as having a major impact on him when he was younger. This is a reliable source as the author was the governor of the British film institute and was knighted for his services to art and design education.

Discarded sources

Scott pilgrim vs. the world (2010, universal pictures)

I first choose this film to be one of my sources because it the biggest budget film Edgar Wright was involved with, so with there for mean he would be able to do a lot more in this movie than his others. In this sense I was right but the movie did not have lots of influences from films but games and modern pop culture.

http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=155

Although this is a q and a with Edgar Wright about Shaun of the dead, the whole interview is focused more about the process of filming and editing and the reception it’s got.