life drawing

The Elephant Man

John Hurt stars as John Merrick in the film The Elephant Man.

Merrick in the film is the elephant man who at the start is shown to be a side show freak, which people have to pay to see him. When the film progresses as Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) comes and rescues him from the humiliation. The film was choose to be done in a black and white lens which I think is a good idea because the film is set a lot earlier than it was produced.

You get to see how old style England looked like and you also saw how the medical sides of things looked.

After being looked after Dr. Frederick tries to teach him to talk in convocation, going on the conclusion he couldn’t talk. After time goes on he realises not only can he talk he is very intellectual and sensitive.

But trouble is coming for the poor man as a man hears about him and rounds up about 20 people that pay to see him but this time its not just looking at him through a window they all bully him when he is resting. After everyone leaves the man who used to get money to show Merrick off comes back and takes him and puts him back where he started.

Luckily the people who are also in the show help him get away. The police help him back to the hospital where he lives.

I liked how they used a wide range of different camera angles also the fact that they didn’t show Merrick too early on to draw the people watching the film eager to see what he looks like.

Over all I found the film a well thought out and produced old style film and would defiantly encourage people to watch it.

la Belle et la Bête

Love for the beast

I thought this film was one of the most dramatic film’s I have ever watched in the sense that there was next to no laughing but filled with love, hate and dejection.

I loved all of the camera angles they did especially the close up’s and extreme close up’s.

I felt that they made the film have an atmosphere in which I mean made your eyes drawn to the screen and want to know what was going to happen next.

For the time that the film was released into the French cinema’s in as early as 1947 I feel that they did a pretty good job on how they wanted it to look, with all of the make up especially the beast (Jean Marais).

I didn’t see many special effects with in the film apart from using of the camera and use of smoke and mist. I felt that the music played one of the biggest parts in the film, as it was done so well.

As with many old films with dramatic scenes in them they always seam to have all of these spooky instrumental music a lot of it is piano, light drums, violin or trumpet.

This film I feel is different in many ways in the sense that in the film ‘The Fly’ he wasn’t shown till later on in the film but in this film the lion type man is showed only about 20 minuets into the film.

I feel that the props are a bit cheesy and not that well thought out also the director has opted to use a lot of smoke in scenes.

The Fly 1958

The Fly a 1958 film about a dedicated scientist that builds a machine that can teleport objects and humans, in the film he makes the film work perfect but the last time he does proves to be fatal as a fly enters the chamber and the partials get mixed up and he ends up with a fly’s head and hand where the fly has his head.

I found this film quite interesting because of the fact that I had never seen a film like it or even so old but I didn’t enjoy it that much.

I liked how they started the film three quarters of the way into it then went back to explain the film then carried on telling it.

Japanese Armour

I was having a look at the Cockroach and i realised what it resembled, i found this style of japanese armour that reminds me of the look of the Cockroach with the slatted body plates and the helmets they wore.