Film Noir Elements in the movie Memento Essay

There is yet to be a definition to be created to accurately capture the genre of â€Å"Noir† in film. The concept was first coined by French film critics who â€Å"noticed the trend of how ‘dark’, downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war†(â€Å"Film Noir†). The term ‘noir’ is a French word which literally means â€Å"black† or â€Å"dark†. The connotation attached to the term later on came to be those films which depicted crime, strangeness, cruelty, brutality, violence and similar other attributes. The period for Noir films flourished in the 1940s up to the 1950s, which were aptly called the â€Å"classic noir† period in movies. Later on, from the 1960s up to the current times, other types of â€Å"noir† films were conceptualized like the â€Å"neo-noir† and the â€Å"science fiction noir†, all concepts of which were derived from or echoed the original â€Å"classic noir† genus. â€Å"Memento† is one movie which typifies the â€Å"film noir† genre in that it has numerous elements which categorically makes it as one. Primarily, the existence of a lonely, confused and troubled protagonist (Schoenherr) is there. Add to this the other elements like the black-and-white scenes, the struggle, the seemingly bleak situations, the crimes perpetrated, the underground investigations, the voice-overs of the lead character, evil, paranoia and deception among other things. An interesting feature of this film though is the story unfolding from its end going up to the supposed initial scenes which took place. It is not narrated exactly in a circular motion but rather they are presented in chunks of about 10 minutes each. Aside from this, there is the alternate presentation of the colored and black-and-white formats to add narration and further expound on the sequence of events. Film noir operates on specific social, cultural and historical contexts. In this particular film, the social context used is that of the protagonist becoming a different man after the rape and murder of his wife. Leonard or Lenny loses his memory after he shoots his wife’s rapist and he is shoved and clubbed by the rapist’s companion. His head hits the bathroom mirror, and from then on, he becomes afflicted with Anterograde Amnesia or not being able to retain his short-term memory. Lenny’s memories before the accident are intact and his last memories are of his wife being murdered, hence, his ever- enduring quest to avenge her death. Most people now think of Lenny as a freak for not being able to remember thoughts, names, faces and events which are a regular part of the memory of â€Å"normal† people since he forgets his thoughts and the things he does after 15 minutes or so. However, Lenny struggles to keep his sanity by taking Polaroid pictures and immediately labeling them, writing down his ideas, and tattooing the more important thoughts on his body. Having no family to call his own, he lives in a motel room and is suspicious of everyone. His life’s direction is motivated by vengeance and a major part of the film is spent on this desire to kill. The cultural context of the film is the type of culture that was used in the movie. The setting is sometime during the 2000s in Nevada. It is not shown if the protagonist had a lot of friends before the incident which led to his ‘condition’, but it is presumed that it was probably a case of not wanting to be identified with someone with a stigma of mental illness. The only friend who was identified as someone who knew Lenny immediately after the accident was Teddy, who was the one who helped Lenny to find and kill the original murderer of his wife, and then again Jimmy G. who was also killed by Lenny. As such, it meant that the culture held a discriminating attitude towards this mental illness. Pertaining to historical context, the practice of tattooing as a body art was prevalent from the late 1990s up to the 2000s. This was a period when tattooing was no longer considered as objects of diversion done in prison cells but rather as an art form to express oneself. In the movie, the lead character made use of tattoos on his body to remind himself of essential facts/details which he always wanted to be reminded of. Although not used as an art form, the existence of tattoo parlors in the locality denoted an acceptance of the practice of self-expression, which worked quite well for Lenny. It was also a time when Polaroids were popularly used and Leonard fully exhausted the Polaroids’ capability to assist him in remembering people and places with his depressing mental condition. According to Filmsite. org, â€Å"the primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia† (â€Å"Film Noir†). These themes are evident in the seclusion, isolation and omnipresent monologues of the lead character who wanted to establish the links to find meaning in his life. A wide array of emotions ranging from suspicion, confusion, naivete, loneliness, alienation, hatred, and bewilderment among others were efficiently delivered by the lead actor to the viewers who empathized with him in his daily struggle to survive. Noir movies characteristically have a protagonist who is usually reclusive, generally disturbed and commonly pessimistic. The lead character in â€Å"Memento† is not the typical protagonist since he lives his life everyday like a clean new slate. Just like the first part of this movie where a Polaroid picture was being undeveloped, Lenny lived his life always careworn to find out what he had been doing and what he should be doing next. His ultimate aim was to find his wife’s killer, a task which Teddy assists him with. Although he is somewhat of the withdrawn type, Lenny is still enthusiastic about life and is confident that his Polaroids, notes and tattoos are taking him somewhere. Different noir styles were also apparent throughout the film. One is that â€Å"storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting† (â€Å"Film Noir†) which connotes the unique presentation customarily associated with noir. Regular films are often presented in a manner where the story unfolds conventionally from beginning to end. The story told backwards and in bits and pieces was a unique way of entrancing the audience into being an active participant in the life of Leonard, trying to come up with his/her own conclusions or links to previous scenes and events. â€Å"Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device† (â€Å"Film Noir†) which was obviously the illness which the lead character was afflicted with. This sort of justified the way with which Lenny killed the possible murderers without remorse or guilt since his brain was devoid of any emotions relating to pity and mercy. Furthermore, it is said that â€Å"the protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes†(â€Å"Film Noir†) which is what happens to Lenny as the film unfolds. It is only later in the movie that it is revealed that Lenny had already killed his wife’s murderer, and Teddy had even taken a Polaroid shot of him after the said killing. It was due to his mental condition that Lenny was not able to remember the incident which Teddy later used to his advantage in getting rid of Jimmy G. who was a drug dealer. The original story of Memento was an idea brought forward by the brother of the movie’s director, Jonathan Nolan in the late 1990s. The storyline was finished after several months and director Christopher Nolan came up with the idea that he wanted to tell the movie backwards, hence the screenplay was manipulated in a way where shot sequences were cut up into small bits. In between the colored takes were the non-colored shots to denote two timelines of what was the past and the present respectively. At some point towards the end of the movie, the black-and-white scene becomes colored specifically when Lenny takes the Polaroid picture of the dead Jimmy G, who was the second murder suspect endorsed by Teddy. This signified the beginning of a new chapter in the life of Leonard, and the true commencement of the story which somehow tragically ends with the death of its instigator, Teddy. The artistry presented in the film being of a different genre is – as previously mentioned — largely seen in the story’s presentation to the viewer. The lead actor was also shown in black-and-white scenes and colored ones which showed contrasting characters – one, the rugged, unshaven, unkempt, menacing and confused character who shoots the gun at Jimmy G. in black-and-white, and the other, the suit-clad formally dressed and more confident Lenny who drives a Jaguar in colored film. This implies that the main character had good and bad traits, although the bad traits were more emphasized but later exposed to be manipulations done by some of the other characters in the plot. One of these characters is Natalie who represents the ‘femme fatale’ element in the movie, and who adds further intricacies to the plot and manipulates Lenny into a mental tug-of-war with Teddy’s statements. The cinematography of the film was excellent as emphasis was done where it was necessary, and accurate illumination was also appropriately achieved. Editing was also good especially in the cuts of the film that had to be fed in several lumps, and in two different formats of color and B&W. Continuity in the film was smooth and flowed effortlessly. The film scoring was suitable and elicited empathy from the viewer in the scenes where dialogues were not really necessary. The closest thing to special effects in the film was the way that the first sequence was presented to the viewer where the Polaroid shot was being undeveloped instead of the other way around. It goes back up to the time Lenny shoots Teddy and the latter was screaming for his life. Acting in the film was superb. Guy Pearce as Leonard was able to deliver all the emotions expected from him and thus elicited the required compassion from the viewer. Teddy, Natalie, Sammy Jankins and all the other actors also did a good job in making the plot more focused on the plight of the main character, thereby allowing Lenny to stand out. The movie â€Å"Memento† has some allusions to significant theories and concepts. One of these is the concept of Cultural Materialism. The most active proponent of Cultural Materialism is Marvin Harris and the premise of this theory is that the social life of a human being is a direct response to problems arising from his earthly existence. Leonard’s actions can be rationalized as a practice of cultural materialism because he is merely responding to his problems instead of taking a proactive role in it. This is due in large part to his illness which he cannot control and which allows him to be manipulated by some shady characters in the film. Existentialism is another concept which is apparent in this movie. The plot evolves around the lead character, Leonard, who tries to find meaning in his existence as he grapples with his affliction rendering him confused and stressed at most times. He tries hard to think and look back but cannot, and this is what leads him to try to devise ways in which he could remember things, events, places and people who have somehow played an important role in his life, after the accident which claimed his short-term memory. Lastly, there is the hint of self-determination as seen in the main character as he tries his best to make decisions without the influence of others. Unfortunately, he was not aware of the subtle approach which was used by the movie’s disreputable characters who were always one step ahead of him in his plans. Still, it was revealed near the movie’s end that Lenny was also utilizing his selective memory to manipulate the situation in such a way as to be able to create and continually re-create his motives for vengeance. Since finding the possible suspects to his wife’s murder was the only impetus which kept him alive, it was a need he had to satiate, and hence, an inspiration which kept him continually in pursuit of. References Schoenherr. Revised 4/11/03. Characteristics of Film Noir. Retrieved from http://history. sandiego. edu/gen/filmnotes/filmnoir. html Film Noir. 2010. Retrieved from http://www. filmsite. org/filmnoir. html Film Reference: Ryder, A. , Tyrer, W. & Ball, C. (Producer) & Nolan, C. (Director). 2001. Memento. United States: New Market Films.

A Story of a Girl Who Can Make People Smile

A Story of a Girl Who Can Make People Smile Everyone has a story. And its that story, good or bad, that can help change another persons life whether it is minor or drastic. What I hope to accomplish, is to be thought of as reliable, honest, trustworthy, and good natured. There will be many times during my life when I will move on from a job, from school, from a career, moving on to new friends, and in some cases leaving old ones behind. I hope that when those people think of me, and the past and experiences I had with them, that they smile. Starting off with high school, I would like to be remembered as the girl who could make anyone feel better about their self. One of my biggest goals amongst my friends, and people in my life is to brighten their day and make them feel good whether its from a simple compliment, pep talk, or just something funny or inspiring I said to them. I have always been told that I have a gift for making people smile, which feels great to hear. I also want to be remembered for being trustworthy. To me, that is one of the most important values in a friendship, or any relationship with anyone. In high school, I feel that finding a true friend who is trustworthy is very rare. Ive had several friends that have gone behind my back and said things that were unkind, or done things to sabotage the friendship I had with them and that has always been a deal breaker for me. Because of that reason, I have always held the values of honesty and trust dear in my heart, and promised myself that, no matter how hard it was, I would always keep those traits present and, hopefully in turn, be remembered for it. A lot of people want to be remembered for their GPA, intelligence, looks, or their athletics, but those things only go as far as helping yourself. These things also dont help you in the long run, as far as a career and future relationships go. To my future, past, and present coworkers, bosses, teachers, and classmates, I want to be remembered for being reliable. This is very, very important to me as well because as a student, friend, classmate, and coworker, being unreliable can cost you that job or relationship you have with those people in your life. Ive made it a point to always be on time, be trustworthy, honest, diligent, and reliable. Because of this I have grown to have a great relationship with my boss, teachers and other people that I have professional relationships with. My teachers and bosses always tell me how reliable I really am, and for that reason I have even earned the label as a star employee, with the job that I have now. For this, I hope to continue to be remember ed for my good work ethics and reliability. I want my story to be, a story of a girl who could make people smile because of how good natured and sweet she was. I want to be known and remembered for my honesty, and how reliable and trustworthy I am. These are all qualities that some of my truest friends and some of the most good hearted people I know have, and these people inspire me to have these qualities as well. I want to be remembered as a girl who could make people feel good, and in the grand scheme of things I would like to just be remembered as a good person. If people think of me and smile, then I know that I have done a good job.

Lesson Plan Deconstruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lesson Plan Deconstruction - Essay Example Contents covered in the lesson are Reading various literary and informational texts and poetry, summarizing them and writing one’s own idea about the text read, learning to evaluate and organize the coherent details. The lesson also requires the students to engage in group conversations and writing sessions to develop oral and linguistic skills. Improvement of handwriting, stressing on daily reading, subject oriented research and in-depth teaching about phonetics is included in the lesson plan. Ample importance is given to improve comprehension, writing and language synthesizing skills of the students. 2. The Texas lesson plan objectives are appropriate for the students because it uses additional scaffolds to improve ELL student’s comprehension through the connected discourse strategy. It helps the ELL student’s understand the basic concepts of English in context of their own folk tales, culture, history and helps them notice the linguistic differences between both the languages too. ELLs without sufficient previous schooling experiences are also given extra support enabling them to cope up with regular school goers. 3. Instilling daily reading habits in them to improve their comprehension. The students should be taught to identify the meaning of the English word in their mother tongue, yet express it in perfect English without grammatical errors. Students should be taught to use the technology like using online dictionaries, spell check and pronunciation tools. 4. Less proficient learners especially ELLs with little or no previous English exposure needs special care which could be done with the help of their parents. Using pictures of an object, asking them to name it in their mother tongue and explaining its name in English usually helps. For example, many students do not know the right English words for several garage tools and gardening equipments. Showing the picture of the equipments, making them say the native

Working in groups Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Working in groups - Essay Example Successful group work requires tolerance, inclusivity and assertiveness to achieve the desired goal. Group communication is known as the interaction of three or more interdependent people who work towards a certain goal. Successful groups learn how to balance the contradictory and competing forces that operate in that group. The entire group should be able to work should know their roles and be able to establish professional rapport with other members of the group (Ephross 56). The merit of working in a group is the group members learn a great deal from each other thereby performing better than individual working alone. The demerit is conflicts may be difficult to solve. When I was in high school, I had difficulties in understanding Chemistry but good in Mathematics. My friends and I decided to form a study group. In this group I found out that there were people who were good in Chemistry but poor in Mathematics. We helped each other and by the time the final exam reached, we were well prepared and the entire group member excelled. Steinberg’s book, The mutual-aid approach to working with groups offer imperative information on how effective a group can be. The key message that is passed across is forming a group that works for you and establishing clear goals. The group member should know each other so as to avoid misunderstandings (Steinberg 78). In conclusion, group work requires tolerance, inclusivity and assertiveness to achieve the desired goal. For any group to work effectively, all members should understand their roles within the group. Each member should actively contribute towards the set goals. The group members should be able to solve any issue that comes up amicable. To be able to do this, there should be effective communication amongst all group members. Without communication there is nothing constructive that that can take place in a

The Difference between Slaves and Servants Essay

The Difference between Slaves and Servants - Essay Example When it comes to putting servants to work, the nature of the work depends on the master being â€Å"merciful or cruel†. When the master shows mercy the work given to servants is light and they are well taken care of in terms of the food given to them and their lodgings. Under a cruel master, however, â€Å"servants have very wearisome and miserable lives6†. Upon arrival, many servants do not even know how to make their cabins and are at the mercy of the other servants who may choose to help them or not. Thus fresh arrivals may have to spend a few nights under the open sky before they can make their own lodgings. Their daily work schedule begins with work at 6 in the morning, a break at 11 and then back to work at 1. They will work again until six in the evening and then go back home. Living in places which provide little cover, they are exposed to the elements such as â€Å"the cold of the night†. Their situation leads Ligon to say, â€Å"Truly, I have seen such cruelty there done to servants, as I did not think one Christian could have done to another†. However, this does not make the life of the slave a bowl of cherries since they too faced cruelty and were apt to fight for their freedoms. The servants, however, decided to rebel against their masters in a bloody plot to kill the masters and overthrow the ruling of the island. Unluckily for the servants, the plot was discovered and the leaders of the plot were put to death. This method of resistance is certainly a result of the cruel treatment given to the servants. The slaves, however, seem to be more accepting of their lot in life and since they are treated somewhat better than the servants, are more apt to show their resistance in more subtle ways. They may even express their feelings with music or by looking towards the â€Å"heaven for revenge†.

Airbus Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Airbus - Term Paper Example Airbus is a company in the aerospace industry, dealing with the manufacture of aircraft in the division of Airbus Group. Headquartered in Blagnac France, Airbus has established its manufacturing and production facilities in many other countries around the globe, with the most identifiable including German, Spain, and the United Kingdom (Norris and Wagner, 1999). According to the latest statistics, the company was able to produce 626 airlines in 2013. Three individuals namely; Bernard Lathià ¨re, Roger Bà ©teille, and Henri Ziegler founded the company in 1970. Over the years, the company’s success has been realized mainly due to the contributions of two key individuals; Fabrice Bregier, the chief executive officer and Gunter Butscheck, the chief operating officer. As at 2008, the company’s revenue was at Euros 33.10 billion. Despite diversifying their operations into many different countries, Airbus deals solely in the manufacture of commercial airlines as its only product. As at the moment, the company has 63,000 employees in its sixteen different working sites in the different countries in which the company had built its production and manufacture facilities. Currently, Airbus is considered as the world’s manufacture of the largest passenger airliner the A380 (Norris and Wagner, 1999). It is the desire of many businesses to expand to different regions that show potential success opportunities. In such a perspective, Airbus has been able to establish expansive opportunities in many different countries in the world. One of the countries is China. China is currently one of the developed countries in the world, and therefore, experiencing significant changes in terms of the business ventures (Som, 2009). The substantive rise economically by China has mainly been attributed to changes the country has made in its political and economic systems. With the current manner in which China develops

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo - Essay Example Thesis statement: The close examination of the novel Pedro Paramo proves that the writer’s diction is interconnected with his aim to portray the difference between past and present, symbolism is related to the symbols like rain and fertility, usage of imagery is related to air, water and stone, and figurative language is related to the development of magical realism as a specific genre in world literature. Plot summary The novel’s plot is related to the lives of the narrator (Juan Preciado), his father Pedro Paramo, and his (the narrator’s father’s) lover, Susana San Juan. One can see that Comala, the imaginary town, is the background of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator decides to conduct an expedition to Comala to find out his father. But he did not try to stick on to his decision. Later, he was forced to start his journey to the town of Comala. Within this context, the narrator portrays the present situation in Comala. Now, the situ ation is different because most of the people who live in this town are spirits/ghosts. In the work by Rulfo, Sacabo, and Peden, the narrator made clear that â€Å"Nothing but abandoned houses, their empty doorways overgrown with weeds† (19). ... In the end, the people of Comala were forced to die by starvation. Examination: This section includes topics like diction, which portrays the difference between past and present, symbolism or the usage of symbols in the novel like rain and fertility, the usage of imagery like air, water and stone, and the usage of figurative language which represents the development of the genre of magical realism. A. Diction One can easily identify that the novelist’s ultimate aim in the novel is to make use of the story telling technique (first person and third person narrative technique) to portray the difference between past and present. For instance, the opening of the novel deals with the present condition in Comala, which is described by the narrator. On the other side, after the narrator’s untimely death, the narration suddenly shifts from first person to third person. In this way, Juan Preciado becomes unimportant in the following sections of the novel. From a different angle o f view, both the son and the father are no more and narration is handed over to the novelist. At the same time, this technique does not hinder the development of the plot because the same revolves around Pedro Paramo’s adventures. In this way, the novelist fulfils his aim to portray the difference between past and present. B. Symbolism The symbols like rain and fertility are interconnected because rain is symbolic of life/fertility. In the novel, the element of rain is made use by the novelist to portray the problems faced by the people of Comala. To be specific, the present condition in Comala is related to the lack of rain and the negative attitude of the leader (Pedro Paramo). Here, the leader is symbolic of rain which provides all to the living world. On the other