Torran Rodgers, BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester

Film Review:- King Kong The movie King Kong (1933 – Merian Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack) had a great social, creative and cultural impact upon release, become what is considered the first Block Buster movie of the golden age in cinema. However, in recent years the movie has come under scrutiny for its portrayal and semiotics of black people in society. Its release lines up with many social changes and scenes in the movie point to idea and fears of the people making the movie. Because of these facts I will elaborate on in the coming essay I explain how a technical masterpiece became problematic in the eyes of modern society.   There is a lot social context that makes King Kong’s release problematic, due to the relatively recent abolishment of slavery, large amounts of black people where moving away from the countryside plantations into the city. This made many city dwellers afraid of a change in their lives making. This can be seen in figure1 a front cover of The New Yorker in ...

Film Review :- Metropolis  Metripolis is a movie made in 1927 by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. It was made in Germany after the first world war, during a time of hyperinflation and economical chaos. It takes alot of influence from modern art of the time, this being mainly expressionism. The circumstances in Germany after the first world war pushed many artists to create pieces inspired by depression and Grimm emotion, focusing of feeling then realism.  The film is about and based in the city of metropolis where out protagonist Freder Fredersen, goes into the depths of metropolis to find a woman and sees the condition of work before committing to helps resolve the problems the workers face. The movie has many missing scenes and is considered a lost film. The version i saw used many different versions of the movie and edited them all to look the way it would have been first presented in the theatres. Metropolis Poster Metropolis is " Generally considered the firs...

Film Review :- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari The cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a silent film release om 1919, directed by Robert Wiene, influenced by the German expressionism movement  as well as other modern ideas of the time. The movie is about the story one man tells another on a bench, the story is about how the Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist named Cesare to kill people. The movie is set in a physiological fantasy scape, In sets that use visual tricks and great design to aid the story. While watching the movie I noticed how a lot of the sets where very similar to play theatre sets, many using painted backgrounds with wooden constructed sets in-front of it, with lots of steps and ladders into the set as well as paths in and out of the screen sides. Its sets change and warp throughout the movie helping to tell the narrative, that  " lay down a template for today's scary movies, noirs and psychological thrillers."  (Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian) This being how the story...