Frame by Frame
Close readings and analysis of films, frame by frame.
Zizek on the McGuffin
As Zizek indicates in the article, the corpse is the McGuffin in the film, and in this film we can once again experience the void created by this object, as well as its relation to all of the plot and character.
Threshold Manifesto on Hitchcock
1.
Threshold in Psycho + Rear Window
The threshold acknowledges the different programs or atmosphere in the two spaces, and tries to mediate between the two.
The King of Hearts
Philippe de Broca Reminded me of Foucault and madness Between madness and rationality The rational people left the scene before the show begins, scared by the sophisticated language the mad could...
The Birds Reply
I would like to provide an alternative reading on the love birds, as I kind of see the love birds as the ticking bomb in a sequel suspense movie.
Suspicion Painting
Hi Tomas, I really appreciated you bringing up the two abstract painting shots as a form of gaze towards an inanimate object.
Suspicion Gaze
To bring up a later film we are going to watch, Rear Window also deals with the gaze, The illusory quality of the romance is also Lina with her glasses serve as a critical visual frame that...
Rear Window — Lisa and the Female Gaze
One could say that Lisa is not the only female figure in the movie under Jeff’s voyeuristic gaze, as Jeff spies on other single women in the film, including Ms.
Psycho (1)
“we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The difference between the book and the movie: McMurphy: when he was lying to get rid of the manual labor, his characterization is still appealing to the audience. Sacrificial god: crucified; the...
McCabe and Ms. Miller:
The gender aspect of the movie: the reality of being a woman in the west The human subjectivity of the women The modern world unfolds both fulfills and undermine the genres: Western: - the western...
Les Creatures
Agnes Varda Life is between a chess game and a claw machine Evil gets every chance that fate hands him/it 豆瓣： Life is between a chess game and a claw machine. 好人只有三次挽救的机会，但是坏人随心所欲 （Evil gets every...
Hitchcockian Thresholds in Uncanny Homes
Yi Yang 21L.706 Paper #1 Hitchcockian Thresholds in Uncanny Homes The two domestic spaces in the films Blackmail and Shadow of a Doubt share a similar theme of “the uncanny home as a trap” for the...
Hitchcock Paper #1
Hitchcockian Spatial layouts The two architectural spaces in the respective films are telling the same story, or the same horror experience on the narrative level? Tells the parallel story of an...
History of American Cinematic Spaces
The cinema was a descendent of the long history of conventional theaters and movie technology.
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is a sincere storyteller.
Five Easy Pieces
The way Five Easy Pieces introduces the protagonist, as we discussed in class, is similar to the way we get to know a stranger in our life.
Film Analysis Essay of Taxi Driver
The New Hero of the 1970s in United States Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is clearly a character-driven film, in which we explore the world through the perspective of the protagonist Travis . Without...
Directors on Cinema and COVID
We wanted to close this section by quoting some of our favorite directors, as they contemplate the relationship between cinema, COVID-19, their daily life, and the future.
City in Film: The Crowd
The similarity between the film and Bicycle Thieves The micro-struggles The city as a smooth organism — The interior and the exteriority of the house Public and private — the bathroom door The...
A New Leaf Analysis —
A New Leaf, directed by and starring Elaine May, tells a story of a bankrupted playboy pursuing an intelligent female botanist, to pay up his debt.
39 Steps
Mcguffin The void How do you see it play out Formal Narrative form Sound Marriage — love Guilt The wrong man Frame — private — visibility Whenever Hitchcock was working with a new writer, they...
Blackmail
I would love to highlight the narrative significance of the set design of Mr.
Strangers on A Train
I want to further the discussion in Leitch’s article about Bruno’s identity as a child by looking at the role play game between Bruno and his mother.
The Parallax View
Alan J.
The Conversation
The Conversation presents Coppola’s view on what happens to the religion and morality in the modern age when the technology gives us more power.
Wanda
Last weekend I went to the Brattle Theater to watch Wanda.
Nashville
Known for its scope of the characters, the film presents itself as a complex world, allowing the audience to dig into and explore more about their world as an outsider.
Chinatown
It is fascinating that everything in the movie is about Chinatown, and not about it at the same time.
The long goodbye
Yi Yang: The Long Goodbye is extremely fragmented; its events are connected only by the main character Marlowe.
The Birds
On the apocalyptic ending, political subtexts in the diner scene, and the surprising parallel between birthday surprises and bird attacks.
Shadow of a doubt
I want to talk about the other suspect of murdering who remained in Maine.
Psycho
I want to talk about the camera’s “looking” and following Norman walking the stairs to his mother’s room at 1:26, and specifically on how the camera’s looking works with the architecture to creates the uncanniness in home, and structurally echos with two other interactions between characters and the staircase.
North by Northwest
Movement or travel or departure In the late ’50s, Frank Lloyd Wright was the most famous Modernist architect in the world. Any house he designed for the film would have been instantly recognizable to...
Bonnie and Clyde
This is the third time I watched Bonnie and Clyde.
Notorious
Alex’s house in the film was perverted from a “castle” to an uncanny trap for both Alicia and Alex (at the end).
Vertigo
From minute 13 - 25, At around minute 20, we see that Scottie follows Madeleine into an alley that leads to the florists shop. In this week’s reading, the author mentions the significance of such...