Two notions illustrated in Sean Penn's movie "Into the wild" (2007)

 
In my opinion this movie deals with two different notions, Myths and heroes and the Idea of progress, telling us the story of a man who decided to break free from the society and his life, and go to Alaska to live like a free person. The idea of progress can be tackle, in a contrary way, because in fact the protagonist is against progress and decided to come back  to a natural state to have a better life. In fact is showing like a regression but it can be a spiritual progress for him  too. The second notion is can be tackle is the notion of myths and heroes because of the myth of  the Good Savage, which explain that living in the state of nature is something good, contrary as the vast majority of people can think. And it can be shows through the protagonist eye, who seems to became some idealistic figure of this myth. 

Myths and Heroes

Here is the link of my worksheet about Myths and Heroes.

Paris.

Choose something to present that I like...what's an hard decision! I might choose to talk about music, but it's so typical of me, or about my dream to move to Canada but no. I decided to say something about the city of Paris.
I was born there, and for me is a city which means a lot.  I can say that I am totally in love with this city, for it's architecture, history, monuments and more.  I just come back there twice at year but anyway. 
 I think that it's this kind of city that even if  you go during summer or winter, you always have fun and can be astonish of what Paris can hide.
I am not saying that people from Paris are the most lovely persons, because is not the case, because when you are walking in the street people look at you with distrust.
Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.. definitely, yes. The city of love, of the lights, of mode! People always have something to say about this city, but in fact is not my case, it's my hometown, it's the city that I will always love.

Night or Day 

 Welcome Mr Eiffel.

In...

...Or Out.

 

                                                                Cosmopolitan way of life. 

THIS IS PARIS.

Requiem for a Dream

I decided to present the movie "Requiem for a Dream", directed by Darren Aronofsky, in 2000. It's an american drama starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans.

This movie deals with the notion of power, in various aspects. 

This movie shows us, the power of different addictions, as drugs, and TV. And the power of love, of imagination, and of physical aspect. 

The power of drugs, is one of the most important think in the story, because three of the protagonists are addicted to drugs, Harry Goldfarb,  Marion Silver and Tyrone C. Love. Then, Harry and Tyrone got into the business of drugs, to can finance some things. In this story, the lives of these three characters change because of drugs; at the beginning, they started in the same point, but at the end, they all finished in three different situations.

The power of TV is really important for one character, Sara Goldfarb, (Harry's mother). The movie starts with a scene where we can see Harry taking his mother's TV, because she is so addicted. Later, Sara, received a call of a TV channel, then she starts thinking that she was selected to appear on television, on her favourite TV show. The think, is that during the vast majority of the movie she's setting in front of her television, is like the trigger element, because the majority of her actions during the movies, were engendered by her addiction of television. 

Another aspect of power can be the power of the mind in Sara's case, because, she was too obsessed of television, than she changed important things in her life, and she started to rave. At first, she understood that she was selected for the TV show, later, she convinced herself that she have to wear her red dress again. 

Which takes us, to the importance of the physical aspect, because she decided to lose weight. What jeopardize her physical and mental health. 

And finally, we can find the power of love which is not the more obvious in this movie. But Harry and Marion are a young couple, and they still in love during all the movie. Harry decided to continue with the business of drugs to can finance Marion's future project. During the movie, their paths diverge, but they still fighting because they still thinking on  each other, to won't give up.

We can definitely find the notion of power of power in Requiem for a Dream, in various way, and not the most common that we can imagine.  

Post 5 - THE NOTION OF POWER "Redacted"

Trailers: 

In my opinion, this movie deals with war consequences, like what happened during war, and the outcome after war.With the lack of communication, which causes the ill-being of the soldiers, during and after the war. I think that Brian De Palma, didn't want to shows us a typical movie, but a really realistic, like a documentary. To shows us  Afghanistan and Irak  wars from the Americans soldiers viewpoint, but on a realistic way, not showing the american superiority, or a patriotic point of view. I think that De Palma, really wanted to disturbed people who watch the movie, making some mix of film, and documentary. 

I think that this movie deals with the notion of power, because is showing us that, sometimes some people have too much power, and than they don't use it, as they have to. But, it shows too, that sometimes the soldiers are powerless, like they have to kill people, and they don't want, they just sometimes live really hard situations, like they were liking in hell, and all because of the decision of a government. So it really deals with the notion of power, in this case political power, which is not always good.

Synopsis:

Director Brian De Palma turns his lens on the Iraq War with this "fictional documentary" about the experience of U.S. soldiers involved in the conflict. Based on a news item about the rape of an Iraqi schoolgirl by wayward grunts assigned to patrol a checkpoint, the film depicts a scenario not unlike the one De Palma covered in Casualties of War. Shot on high-definition video, Redacted also addresses the ever-evolving manner in which war is covered by the media by focusing on such journalistic innovations as blog coverage and web reporting.

Review:

This is one truly powerful (for lack of better a word) film. I am left dumbfounded and virtually speechless. Of course we all are aware of the horrific tragedy of war, but this film really showed me that what I had in mind is a "G" rated version. Everyone needs to see this film so we can all truly understand what our men and women are going though. It really brings you there with them and lets you see what they see on a daily basis. Not only does it focus on Americans, but it looks into what the Iraqi's are going through as well. This war is not a pretty picture, and though this film documents the disturbing realism of war, please watch it. It's films like this that make a difference and spark change.

Post 4: IRack

In my opinion, this video can deals, with two notions: Notion of Progress, and Seats and Forms of Power.
For notion of progress, it is obviously on a critical side, showing how much technology, is improving, but sometimes, this improvement doesn't make sens. It shows us that sometimes, humans can not control technology which they created, because in this video the IRack exploded and Steve Jobs cannot does anything. 
In another side, just  the name of this new "electronic device", shows us that, the video is dealing with the implication of the U.S.A in Iraq, making  war, against terrorism. So, it's a metaphoric image, to display the power of America, in the world, so it deals with the notion of seats and forms of power.
We can conclude saying that, this is a critical video, against to much technological progress which is sometimes unnecessary, and against  too much power of America in the world, like making war in Iraq. 

Post 3 - The idea of progress : The impact of new technology in our lives

Perfecting the prosthetic leg.

This document, is a medical advert published by Eucomed organisation, in 2012. It deals with the notion of progress, in this case, especially with the medical advancement in prosthetic leg.

The designer, who was probably a researcher on the medical world, wanted to show, how much medical technology has progressed since 1800 to nowadays. It shows us, seven different prosthetic legs, and the transformation in this area. All things considered the medical and technological progress, since the last 200 years. 

This progression it shows by the timeline on the bottom of the document, which they are three different dates. ( 1800 - 1920 - today) 

I choose to present this document because, it's remind me the fact of how important is, to integrate disabled people in the society. so, this document, shows us a positive side of technological progress. 

In this advertisement what catches the eye are the seven prosthetic legs in line, which really show us the message. On the top right-hand corner, we have the logo of Eucomed, and at the left we have some tittle " Perfecting the prosthetic leg." and a sub-tittle "How incremental innovation works for patients". Which is in fact like a caption, explaining the idea of the project.

I think that it's an interesting document because, it is about a topic, which affect part of the society, but it still a theme that people are not really interested in. 

This document is an advert so it is directed particularly to some people. In this case it is much directed to disabled people,  their surroundings, and persons who woks in the medicine world. Anyway it's interesting for those people who have an external point of view of the medical environment; for example to awareness the person about such health problems, and physicals health problems. 

In my opinion this document was pretty well designed because, it catch the eye. It's a nice document, to sensitize people, and to make us understand, why medical progress are so important in our lives. Anyway if we are not faced with this type of problem, all the day; others persons can be. It make this theme more common for people. It's interesting to say that, the drawing reminds the representation of Darwin's theory of evolution's .

  

Post 2 - Videos about technology.

Description :

This video is structured around two main narrative voices and a character illustrating what the voice-over says while a singer often merely repeats what's just been said.

The setting is a christian home and church, so this particular context is very meaningful. We can notice on various occasions that the main character is addicted to high-technology products, mostly smartphones. He is shown as a family man unable to communicate with his wife, exept through texting. He is also shown as a church-goer incapable of attending worship  without all his phones vibrating all the time, marking him look like he's full of the holy spirit.Finally, he is depicted as a computer geek whose life has become extremely complicated instead of having been simplified.

Interpretation : 

Basically, this video means that high technology has become a religion for many people, even christians who are not supposed to be materialistic. Then, in a christian lifestyle, quite a few church goers and believers tend to focus more on materialistic issues rather than spiritual ones. We can add that technology reings supreme for many people who revere it as a God enlightening his followers. The question is, is this a real progress for humankind / humanity ? 

Description : 

Two people are stuck on an elevator in a place that seems litterally empty. The man looks upset. He might be an office worker walking to his job.The woman claims that she is already late, so for her, this is the last straw. At one point, she's about to cry and asks for a phone. In short, they both look hopeless.

Interpretation : 

We can relate this situation to a fairly comon one in real life : getting stuck on an elevator. The difference is that, in this situation, people have the right to panic whereas on an escalator, there is no reason whatsoever to be scared. This video points out the increasing dependence of human beings on technology. If it goes missing, it is as if a crutch had been taken away from, so these two people cannot even walk up the stairs which would be the normal thing to do. We could think  that technological progress makes humans lazy or at least less prone to taking initiatives

First Post - A Cartoon.

This document is a cartoon, called "The Fanatic Geek", by Chappatte published in the International Herald Tribune. We don't have any information about the date.
It deals with the notion of progress, especially with the Internet impact on the cinematographic world.

What catches the eye is probably, the man in black in the middle part of the cartoon, who's signing an autograph. But the boy in front of him too. We can recognize the event because of the Cannes festival logo in  the top left-hand corner.
This cartoon includes a balloon, which can make us understand the situation, the Cannes festival logo, and the "at sign" print on the boy´s T-shirt which represent the Internet.

The cartoonist aims to criticize the Internet evolution and the impact it has on our society. Here it criticizes people who download movies illegally, and pretend to be fans of the movie director.
Generally speaking the message put across by the cartoonist is not to pirate movies, because  it is not rewarding for directors and actors.

The document is well designed, because it is easy to understand the message it wants to share.
It's pretty convincing but the argument is not really developed, and we can interpret it in many ways.
I think that  can influence the readers but, that can't shock them at all.
I obviously agree with the cartoonist, but at the same time we're living in an expensive society, and some people prefer to do illegal things than spend money. The thing is that nothing is done to promote culture, and people prefer to access it, even in a bad way.

This situation was true, and probably continues to be. It's happening the same with the music industry. It's not a positive situation because is not rewarding for some persons. People pirate movies all around the world, so it's a huge problem, because nobody can really stop that. So, we can conclude saying that it's a negative thing but, all the people don't think so.