Author Archives: Christian

BRAZIL

Brazil is a film based on the story of 1984. There is a vast difference in the separate monetary classes. In the story we have a character Sam who’s mother tries to get him into the upper class with her. He doesnt want this help as he is content with where he is. He dreams of a woman and when sees her in real life he then wants to take up the offer his mother had put in place for him to move up in his company so he can find her.

1984

In this book we see a society ran by a hierarchy. The people are not allowed to think for themselves or they are thrown in jail. This is a sort of totalitarian society where the people are all under a higher government in which no one really knows who “big brother” really is. People are divided into two serparate categories of classes, the higher class and the low class. The government system ensures that there is no middle class because with a middle class there is always rebellion because they try to even themselves with the higher class.

Maltese Falcon

This semester we were introduced to noir with the film Maltese Falcon. In the film our protagonist is Samuel Spade who is accused of killing his partner Miles whom he is not very fond of. The film also includes a femme fatale Miss Wanderly. In the story an important puzzle piece would be the Original Maltese Falcon model that everyone seems to want their hands on.

Asphalt Jungle

Many of the noir films we’ve seen thus far involve different lighting effects that affect the story line. For the first time in the Asphalt Jungle we have a scenery that can proably be used as a character in the story. Throughout the story we see characters dodging things in the scenes or using different things in the scene to aid them in hiding. This film is also different in that it is about a heist as apposed to other more common crimes in the other noirs.

The Set-up

In the set-up we are introduced to a new type of noir. In the set up there isn’t necessarily a crime which our protagonist is directly involved in. In the set up we see the darkness and shadows throughtout the film. In particular after Stoker wins the fight and little boy and his posse surround Stoker outside of the boxing arena. In the scene it is dark and shadowey, one of the characteristics of most noirs we’ve seen, and little boy’s posse beats up Stoker for the money he caused little boy.

Murder My Sweet

In this film we see a man, Phillip, trying to isolate himself to a small remote town and leave his past behind. Unfortunately for him his past catches up to him, in the form of his old partner when he was a detective. His partner was working for a man who wants Phillip to go and find his old girlfriend who ironically is the wife of another old man she is plotting on. Phillip gets caught up in the middle of this woman, the femme fatale Velma’s, scheme in which she would get her husbands riches and run off with the money. Fortunately Phillip gets tips on and off of who she really is by her stepdaughter Ann and is able to decipher her evil plot before it can come together. In the end he ends up running off with Ann and the movie ends with them kissing in the back of a taxi.

Double Indemnity

In class we describe a femme fatale more or less as a beautiful character who leads the protagonist to danger and can end up also betraying the protagonist. In “Double Indemnity” Phyllis definitely fits the role of the femme fatale. She builds up Walter by showing feelings for him and using her beauty and sex appeal to her advantage. Phyllis and Walter go through with the scheme to collect life insurance from the death of her husband and at the end she is ultimately plotting a larger scheme where she would keep all the money for herself. Walter ends up realizing this and confronts her about it. She then ends up shooting Walter in the back. When she realizes she missed she couldn’t shoot again and Walter kills Phyllis. Phyllis fits the femme fatale based on our class definitions because she uses her beauty to lead Walter into the danger of being arrested and at the end betrays him by trying to KILL HIM!!