An excellent site HERE to practise reading, listening and practising English from the movie.
This is an interesting analysis.
Sidney Arthur Lumet (/lu??m?t/loo-MET;[1] June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Lumet started his career in theatre before transitioning to film where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York dramas which focused on the working class, tackled social injustices and often questioned authority.
Paramount pictures have released twelve awesome posters showing the pebble-shaped alien crafts hovering ominously above a different location in each, which in the right order show the ships spinning, a cool little easter egg I’m sure most will agree. See it spinning HERE.
THE DIRECTORAND THE ACTORS
It’s a film by Denis Villeneuve. Learn more about the director and the film on the IMDB website HERE.
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Incendies (2010). He is married to Tanya Lapointe.
The film stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner as lead actress and actor.
THE STORY
A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.
DIFFERENT THEMES
LANGUAGE
Language has the power within it to destroy or bring help.
TIME
For the heptapods, time is not linear as it is for humans. Their language allows them to perceive time in a non-linear manner which gives them the ability to alter their choices in the present moment to obtain a better outcome in the future. The film poses the question, « If you knew the future would you change anything? » We are all subjects of Time and what we choose to do with it is our own, regrets and all.
DUALITY AND BALANCE
Louise and Ian embody the theme of opposing forces working together in order to create balance. However, despite their opposite way of thinking, it is clear that both characters need each other in order to succeed in the task of communicating with the heptapods.
Finally, the theme of duality is reflected in the names given by Ian to the two heptapods, Abbott and Costello, a popular comedic duo characterized by the opposite personalities of each man.
Their comedy routine was « Who’s on first ». As the bit starts, Abbott states « Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I don’t know is on third » several times. Costello doesn’t understand and his questions of which player is on which base are taken as true or false statements needing affirmation or correction. For example « Who’s on second base? » – « No, Who’s on first. » – « I’m not asking what’s the guy on first. » – « What’s on second. » – « I don’t know the guy’s name on second. » – « No, he’s on third base. » – « Who’s on third? » – « No, Who’s on first. » – « Who’s on first? » – « Yes » and so forth. Both Abbott and Costello’s bit and Arrival show the ease of misunderstanding while communicating.
Inside the Shell, the only colors shown are black, white and gray. This can be related to the theme of duality and balance featured in the movie, as black and white are usually associated with opposites: good and bad, light and dark, even yin and yang. Furthermore, gray is the combination of these colors, and thus represents the union between said opposing forces.
GEOMETRICAL SHAPES
Squares and circles are used in the movie to represent order and a lack of it. In photography, squares are associated with stability and structure, while circles are a less rigid shape, often tied to cycles. For this reason, the imagery of squares is prominently featured in Louise’s life before the arrival of the heptapods – for example, in the university, her office, even in the opening shot of the window of her house. On the other hand, from the Shell to their language, circles are associated with the alien creatures, which in turn represent a challenge for the systematic view of time adopted by humans.
THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
“Ian Donnelly: If you immerse yourself into a foreign language, then you can actually rewire your brain.
Dr. Louise Banks: Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It’s the theory that the language you speak determines how you think and…
Ian Donnelly: Yeah, it affects how you see everything.”
This theory is controversial but one of its arguments for it is that Chinese-speakers for example tend to think of time running from top to bottom, as opposed to English-speakers, who think of time running left to right.
MORE TO SEE
‘Ma classe au cinéma’, a video in French about language HERE.
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 26: Director Jeff Nichols poses at the ‘Mud’ photocall during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 26, 2012 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Jeff Nichols was born on December 7, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Take Shelter (2011), Midnight Special (2016) and Mud (2012).
4. The plot
AFTER THE FILM
Nature. It is a space for adventure and dream. In this tale of initiation, what role does it play ?
Nichols invites us to a tale of initiation in a natural setting. The journeys back and forth between the island and the town of De Witt (to and from the island) form the main plot around which several stories are told, like so many tests for young Ellis who discovers reality. His passage to adulthood is symbolically shown during the fall into the snake pit. The sequence, which is highly suspenseful, also allows Mud to leave behind his eternal adolescence.
The direction of Mud borrows from several cinematographic genres. Filmed in the tradition of American adventure cinema, space is a territory to be conquered, an imagination to be discovered. Nature is both a vivid, radiant force and a space of dreams (island, forest).
The first images of the boat, borrowed by Ellis and Neck, rocketing on the water express the call of adventure that attracts them.
As in a fairy tale, the two boys’ desire for wonder takes shape: at the beginning of the film by the vision of a boat perched in a tree, then by footprints that suddenly stop in the sand, and finally by the fantastic appearance of Mud. Very simply, the director brings to life the reality and the imaginary.
Then, the mystery or the threat of a supernatural force seem to be everywhere, and are carried, in part by Mud, whose double personality, half hero-adventurer, half evil spirit from the waters of the Mississippi, fascinates the two protagonists.
Finally, the film also borrows from the rules of the thriller: tracking, shooting and suspense.
He made 4 films with Hitchcock, The Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo.
Grace Kelly. She was from a wealthy (= rich) family and she only did 3 films with Hitchcock (who loved platine blonde women) yet they are often considered as the finest in her career: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.
She finally married Prince Rainier of Monaco so she had to stop her career as an actress. She died in a tragic car accident.
Detective Lt Thomas J. Doyle. What does his name make you think of?
The action takes place in Greenwich Village, a famous area in Manhattan, New York city. The set was 56 meters long with 36 furnished apartments, 1000 lamps and 2000 spotlights.
This film was the most expensive closed-door affair ever shot!
LE PROLOGUE
La caméra se charge de tout dire. Il n’y a aucun dialogue mais en quatre plans, Hitchcock dit tout.
Plan 1. Générique et lever de rideau qui révèle le petit théâtre privé du héros, Jeff. A la fin du plan, la caméra passe par la fenêtre, comme une annonce de la scène finale…
Plan 2. On suit un chat… pour le moment, on ne sait toujours pas qui regarde… fin sur Jeff.
Plan 3. 90° F = 34° C. Idée de chaleur qui peut donner des hallucinations.
Plan 4. Fonction sociologique et psychologique. On assiste au réveil d’un quartier populaire. Le spectateur est déjà coupable de voyeurisme avant même que Jeff s’en passionne. La caméra produit ensuite seule la caractérisation du personnage. ‘Voir, c’est savoir’. Il est plus intéressant de découvrir les détails de cette façon plutôt que si un personnage demandait à Jeff ce qui lui était arrivé.
Ce prologue est virtuose. Tout est dit en 4 plans. Ce que permet cette fenêtre: le permis / l’interdit et la limite du cadre.
La télévision
Avènement de la TV comme média de masse. En 1950, il y a 4 millions de postes et en 1954, on est passé à 20 millions. Parallèlement, en 1943 on compte 8 millions d’entrées au cinéma. En 1954 on est passé à 4 millions. Jeff n’a pas de TV chez lui. Pour lui, sa fenêtre est la lucarne.
This video was made to illustrate a radio interview by Colin Edwards from the http://PacificaRadioArchives.org
« The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, sat down for a short interview on the set of a film tentatively titled, From Amongst The Dead. The film would be released in early 1958 as Vertigo, the classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. In this interview, we go inside the mind of a master storyteller with a penchant for fear. »
This short video-essay examines various themes and techniques Alfred Hitchcock developed throughout his career. Using 40 titles, it includes every feature film Hitchcock made from 1934 right through to his retirement in 1976. Of the several themes on display here (falling, ascending and descending staircases, opening curtains, reading newspapers, poisoning drinks, women’s hairstyles, shoes, train compartments, sleeping and dreaming, pulling away from and dollying in on the action, overhead shots and characters looking directly into the camera), there are yet others for fellow essayists to examine further (looking through and climbing in and out of windows, nuns and clergymen, eating food, kissing in the countryside, women wearing glasses and people playing games such as tennis, hide-and-seek, fancy-dress and blindman’s bluff).
Hitchcock’s famous cameos, the article HERE or THERE.
English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films. For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment in a non-speaking part as an extra, such as boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph.
This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock’s signatures; and fans would make a sport of trying to spot his cameos. His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films, with over half in the first 15 minutes.
