Category: Art

Introduction

The prehistoric world starts from the Palaeolithic era all through to the emergence of Islam. Many of the contemporary concepts of art including abstraction and expressionism trace their origin to the primeval world. The history of evolution articulates the basic ties between the government, people’s beliefs, and art.

This paper will examine the characteristics of two forms of ancient art. This will include the Greek and Roman art. It will compare and contrast the “Parthenon (447-438 BCE)” which is a Greek art to the Roman art “The Colosseum 72-80 CE”. The two examples symbolize the characteristics of each culture.

Discussion

One of the most acclaimed Greek Temples is the Parthenon. The temple was built in honour of goddess Athena in 5 BCE and was located in the region of Acropolis of Athena.

The sculpture was constructed on the ruins of an older temple. The Parthenon was constructed on three marble platforms and in its architecture is based on three kinds of columns including Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. These columns were used in the construction of holy places. In total, the Parthenon had 46 and 19 external and interior columns respectively (Neils, 2005).

The base of the top part of the architecture was made of although it was covered with marble. The entire architecture comprised of white marble and when the sun shone on it, the southern side changed its color to gold with the northern side becoming grey. The sculpture was “provided with more sculptures than any template before or after” (Neils, 2005).It had four parts: the pedometer, metope, frieze and the statue of Athena which comprised of ivory and gold.

Source: http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTy8TK3FSHlT2-I7ixW0AdIhdcn6qvzBw7CWGsWJGkH6V8LRVU7oQ&t=1

The Colosseum, on the other hand, was constructed in 72-80 CE, and is regarded as one of the best sculptures of Roman architecture. It is defined as the “troubling monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty” (Neils, 2005). It is one of the most prominent Roman structures and serves as an archetype for the contemporary colosseum. It was constructed during the reign of emperor Vespasian and rests on a six acre piece of land. As a result of its large size, the Colosseum could accommodate about 50,000 persons (Neils, 2005).

In comparing the Greek sculpture “Parthenon (447-438 BCE)” and the Roman “The Colosseum 72-80 CE”, one sees two distinct pieces of two cultures though with similar values. The function of the Colosseum was quite different from that of the Parthenon. In the primordial era, the sculpture was used for leisure activities such as gladiatorial contests, communal spectacles and animal hunts.

According to Preble and Frank, the Colloseum was built by rulers of the Flavian dynasty for pleasure and recreation (Preble & Frank, 2005). The Parthenon was architecturally built as a place of worshipping Athena who was a Greek goddess at that time and just like the other Greek temples, the building was also used as a treasury.

In contrast to the Parthenon, the Colloseum is elliptical with an entertainment ground at the centre. We can, therefore, conclude that the Parthenon is three dimensional with the Colosseum being two dimensional. The Parthenon had few entrances with the Colosseum having eighty entrances and these were marked by porches. Seventy six entrances were for the audience, three for the elites and one was for the emperor and his assistants.

Although auditoriums were built all through the Roman Empire, none were as large and luxurious like the Colosseum. It was built with concrete floor and its exterior parts were made of brick with a combination of barrel and groin vaults. The idealized figures in the body of the Colosseum were not only meant to be pleasing to look at, but acted as a symbol signifying what the Romans should struggle to be like; it was a like a training contrivance locked in a marble (Preble & Frank, 2005).

Unlike Parthenon, the Colosseum has a rough appearance. The Parthenon has a smooth appearance and this depicts the presence of the goddess. While Colosseum focuses on beauty, Parthenon is cool and is not that pleasing and was made to represent the gentleness of God. The Parthenon has a smooth texture and this stands as remembrance of a naval victory, which was won as a result of worshipping the goddess (Preble & Frank, 2005).

Both sculptures have extensively used the contrapposto stance, idyllic proportions and epic poses. The use of iconography has been used in both, as a sign of inspirational thinking among the audience. Both the Parthenon and Colosseum used the same forms of columns, that is, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian in their construction. Each arch in the second and third floors of the sculptures had statues at their edges.

Color has been used in the two sculptures as a device and a compositional element. The typical subject of the Colloseum originates from its large size which represents an important person among the citizens such as a general. It portrays an animal reminding the citizens of Rome that have originated from Romulus and Remus who were brought up by a wolf mother in the natural habitat.

While the two pieces of art were both done in the primeval world, they have distinct impressions. The Roman sculpture focuses on leisure while the Greek sculpture is quite practical and focuses on mythology.

Discussion on peer posts

In this paper I will discuss the images selected by Shaina Erwin and LaChandra G. Frails. Since we have all selected “The Colosseum” as the Roman artwork with LaChandria and I also selecting “The Parthenon” as the Greek artwork, then much emphasis will be laid on the Greek artwork “The Doryphoros” selected by Shaina.

The Doryphoros is among the greatest Greek art works of the 5^th century. The statue is curved in such a way that it stands alone and is represented by a naked male human body, which symbolizes a standard of proportion and imagery. The bronze artwork, also known as spear bearer is square in shape and stands in a calm contrapposto position.

The left side of the sculpture is curved backwards with a spear shaft on the arms and this creates a sense of motion .The face of the sculpture symbolizes the early classical era and the chest and other abdominal regions appear separated from one another. The face of the sculpture is also generic and lacks emotions and other personal features while the body is smooth, powerfully built, and proportionate (Moon, 1995).

I feel that shaeyna Erwin did not interpret this piece of art well since she did not discuss the significance of lines, texture, shape, value, color, and balance as seen in the sculpture. The artist by carving the statue was trying to portray the new approach of depicting human beings during the classical era. He placed his emphasis on the typical man who in the heroic nudity was represented by a young, healthy body that was naturalistic in strength and pose (Moon, 1995).

The best artwork from the same artist is the Diadoumenos, which represents a slim and elegant athlete. I like the sculpture due to its tectonic organization, balance, and modeling, which symbolize victory.

References

Moon, G. (1995). Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and tradition. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.

Neils, J. (2005). The Parthenon: from antiquity to the present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Preble, D., & Frank, P. (2005). Preble’ Art forms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Publishers.

Background

Anne Truitt was an American minimalist sculptor and color field artist. She was born, Anne Dean on March 16, 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in psychology.^[1] Anne married journalist James Truitt in 1947 and they moved to Washington DC where Anne studied sculpture at the Institute of Contemporary Art and at the Dallas Museum of Fine Art. Truitt became a full time artist in the 1950s working with clays casted and wrapped in cement.

In the 1960s Truitt began to experiment painting multiple layers of colors on her sculptures which she was later became known for. She once wrote in 1965, “What is important to me in not geometrical shape per se, or color per se, but to make a relationship between shape and color which feels to me like my experience. To make what feels to me like reality”.^[2] Anne Truitt’s masterpieces include not only sculptures which she is famous for but also parvas, paintings, piths and other works on paper her artistic mind can create.

Works

Anne Truitt’s artistic self was awakened when she and her husband visited New York in 1961. When she was viewing the works of Ad Reinhardt, Barnett Newman and Nassos Daphinis in the exhibit “American Abstract Expressionists and Imaginists” at the Guggenheim Museum.

Examining Dahnis’ work, Truitt was reminded of how much she liked wood and the multitude of color by Newman’s art made a great impact on Truitt’s works. In her third published journal, Prospect, Anne wrote the works“ Reverse(d) my whole way of thinking about how to make art”.^[3] She realized her passion in making art herself and taking control of materials to use in solidifying her own ideas and creativity. In Prospect she wrote of that afternoon:

“Combined these three works exploded to reverse my whole way of thinking about how to make art. Until that afternoon, I had thought, had initially been trained to think and had continued dumbly to think, that art was somehow intrinsic to material, immanent in it. That if I applied certain techniques to material will due respect for its nature, art would emerge out of it rather inevitably”.^[4]

That night Truitt could not sleep with her desire to create something of her own. She wrote:

“And suddenly, the whole landscape of my childhood flooded into inner eye: plain white clapboard fences and houses, barns, solitary trees in flat fields, all set in the wide, widening tidewaters around Easton.

At one stroke, the yearning to express myself transformed into a yearning to express what this landscape meant to me, not for my own emotional release but for the release of a radiance illuminating it behind and beyond appearance. I saw that I could trust that radiance could rely on its presence even in the humblest object. Before I went to sleep, finally spent, I decided to start making a white picket fence”.^[5]

After she was struck by artistic inspiration, that year, Anne Truitt made the white picket fence inspired, wooden sculpture, First. Examining First, incongruities are revealed in that, it has only three (3) pickets and they are of different heights and widths are not evenly spaced. The center picket was the tallest and widest one and all the tops of the pickets are tilted at different pitches.

Carol Diehl in her article compared these pitches to the roofs of neighbouring houses and added that “there is something cathedral like in the upward motion of the trinity of slats to a triangular peak that presages the slightly ecclesiastical aura”^[6].

To some First can also be interpreted as a loss of innocence in the anticipation of life being organized with the flawed version of Truitt’s picket fence. Curator Kirsten Hileman interpreted the sculptor as the artist’s relation to her siblings. Hileman wrote:

“the unexpected highlights of the sculpture’s pickets, one (1) tall and two (2) shorter, expand the work from the concept of boundaries to a depiction of three joined but distinct entities, perhaps not without parallels in the relationships among Truitt and her two (2) siblings”.^[7]

Continuing her artistic drive, the following year, 1962, Anne Truitt continued to produce more sculptures but she abandoned remaining references from First and created a great amount of significantly simplified, solely abstract work. During this time she had developed a procedure of coating acrylic paint in several layers, polishing between applications to generate a smooth surface and mixing her own colors. In her journal, Prospect, she wrote:

“I was in an exalted state of mind, possessed…and remember thinking that no matter what the things I was making looked like, I would make them anyway…The sculptures had become what I have been making ever since: proportions of structural form counter-pointed by proportions of metaphorical color-essential paintings in three dimensions”.^[8]

As time passed by Anne Truitt started creating more abstract, vertical wooden columns painted in layers of acrylic paint. Her first show was at New York in 1963 at the Andre Emerich Gallery where Clement Greenberg, an art critic, considered her a precursor of the Minimalist movement together with Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

Curtor Kristin Hileman defined Truitt’s work as otherwise stating that “minimalist artists sought to purge their work of meaning and strip their work down to its most fundamental features while Truitt tried to fill her work with meaning and trigger emotional associations in viewers”.^[9]

Reacting to such comments of her work being minimalist, Anne Truitt commented: “I have never allowed myself, in my own hearing, to be called a minimalist. Because minimal art is characterized by nonreferentiality. And that’s not what I am characterized by. My work is totally referential. I’ve struggled all my life to get maximum meaning in the simplest possible form.”^[10]

She produced Hardcastle in 1962 which is an undifferentiated black rectangle about more than eight (8) feet high. It was supported on the back by bright red buttresses. Truitt’s sculptures are metonyms to a multifaceted of relations.^[11] Most of her works were associated with Easton, Maryland, her home town and her love of Greek and Roman classical literature. In 1962, Truitt made Ship-lap which was inspired by the Third Haven Friends’ Meetinghouse in Easton Maryland. Built in 1682 – 1684, the house has an early frame arrangement.

The outside has a unique asymmetric geometry while its raw ship-lap wood inner walls and ceiling was held by thick, rustic square columns. Also during that year she made Platte, which was inspired by Teotihuacan and Tula’s four-sided Atlantean pillars and Watauga which resembles a memorial plaque and was painted half black and half purple. The latter seemed shocking when it is applied to a condensed form that implicit Brancusi-like seriousness of purpose.^[12]

Truitt’s Morning Choice sculpture made in 1968 is a six (6) foot tall column painted in uneven segments with apple green, navy blue and bright pink with a strip of orange was very intense especially in contrast to its bleak shape. In 1974, Truitt displayed her play in color with the 17^th summer sculpture.

Truitt painted the yellow green sculpture purple at the bottom. In her View made in 1999, she painted stripes in vertical form which are irregular and illustrating a more complexities with strips of light colors blue and yellow adjoined darker ones at the column’s edge. Truitt explained this radicalism in her journal:

“What I’m trying to do is lift the color up and set it free in three dimensions…I am trying to move it out into space…magnetized to the line of gravity just as we are (so that) it becomes flesh, it becomes human, it becomes emotion, it becomes alive and it vibrates. And since I don’t let it lie down on the sculpture, it goes around the corners…so it has to move. Sculptors are supposed to be interested in weights and balances, but i am not. I am only interested in the line holding it, the gravity. And the only reason I need the gravity is to set the color so it will move the way we do on our feet”^[13]

One of Anne Truitt’s popular exhibitions was in Danese Gallery, New York in 2011 which featured thirteen (13) of her sculptures. With her signature style of wood column about five (5) to seven (7) foot tall and layered with acrylic paint, the sculptures are monochrome but some have vertical stripes which appears to be lifted off the floor because of the different color painted on the end of the column touching the floor.

Among the works showcased were Sound created in 1999 which is a two (2) sculpted cube painted in blue-green. Twinning Court I made in 2001 is a deep and rich like lacquer ware is “as dignified as sentry, sudden as an electric shock”. Lastly Cambria dated 2002 is painted in maroon giving its viewers the feeling of secrecy and tranquillity perceiving to slumber.

Anne Truitt’s works reveal her personal life as a controversial female artist in the 1960s, author, mother of three (3) and grandmother. Each of her sculptures is a tribute to a specific event or relationship in her life with First (1961) depicting her relationships with her two (2) siblings and the loss of innocence, Creswell (1980) which was attributed to her daughter and her marriage, Sorcerer’s Summer (1991) when she was unfairly demoralized by people in the Washington art scene and Tribute (1997), which marked the beginning of calmness and acceptance in Truitt’s life, honest and forthright without revealing anything.^[14]

Truitt as an Unconventional Artist

Anne Truitt was different from other artists in a sense that she was an introvert compared to other artist. Photographer John Gossage described Truitt as someone who didn’t fit in with the bohemian art bar world. He depicted her as more of an art historian with her “old-school, Bryn Mawr manners”.^[15] In an interview regarding her balancing of time in her art and family Truitt said: “It’s very difficult to do. It’s difficult to hold the line and it’s difficult to stay true, true in very many ways.

True to yourself, true to your experience so you don’t lie about it, don’t fudge it. … It’s extremely difficult and you have to make sacrifices. …You can’t have it all. You can’t. In a way, you can’t have much of a personality or anything because everything has to go into your work. So often you just look dull”.^[16] According to curator Kirsten Hileman, Truitt’s importance lies in the fact that she had created art that echoes the movements in American art. Truitt provides the artistic scene “an alternative kind of minimal abstraction”.^[17]

For Truitt’s former students, Tim Gunn, Chief Creative Officer of Liz Claiborn and Project Runway co-host, and filmmaker and photographer, Jem Cohen, aside from Truitt’s artistic discipline, her honesty and courage made her undeniable, rich and overdue.^[18]

Truitt’s aim was to get maximum meaning into the simplest possible form. Later she realized that she was the one in control of the meaning of her works thus she created sculptures which mirrored the events and relationships in her life as artist, author, mother and later grandmother.

Influence in Modern Art

Anne Truitt was associated both the minimalist and Color Field movement together with Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. Her works of wooden columns with acrylic paints inspired artists in examining layers of paint to produce an array of color which may deem extreme and radical during her time.

Truitt’s intricacy with the minimalist’s rigid assertion on primary structures was reduced to their formal and material essence when Clement Greenberg contrasted her. According to Greenberg, Truitt’s work was new art and that “seriously new art doesn’t ordinarily win acceptance that fast” (Clement Greenberg Changer Anne Truitt). He regarded Truitt as the artist who made the first serious venture into minimalism with her First (1961) and later on Hardcastle (1962) and other “box-like objects of wood and aluminium”.

Conclusion

Anne Truitt was an American artist based on Washington DC. She was widely associated with the minimalist and color field movement despite her strong reactions towards such relations to her art. Truitt was famous for her wooden columns painted with acrylic. Her works of art depict her sentiments and relationships during times in her life. She was widely criticized as an artist because unlike others she was very plain and boring as she would say.

She never mingled in the artistic bar scene instead during her free time she spent her time with her family. She distanced herself from the then key social scene at Max’s Kansas City. It is believed that the isolation gave Truitt the courage and freedom to follow and dictate her own path. As Greenberg once wrote “She certainly does not belong. But then how could a housewife with three (3) children, living in Washington belong? How could such a person fit into the role of pioneer of far-out art?”^[19]

Bibliography

Diehl, Carol. “Anne Truitt: The Columnist.” Art in America, March 2010.

Finch, Charlie. “Mother-in-Law,” Artnet, 2011. Web.

Greenberg, Clement. The Collected Essays and Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Hileman, Kirsten. “Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection.” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, January 2010.

“Introduction.” Anne Truitt Biography. Web.

June-Friesen, Katy. “Anne Truitt’s Artistic Journey: Balancing the two loves of a Washington, D.C. sculptor – 1950s hostess and emergent artist,” Smithsonian Media, September 30, 2009. Web.

Truitt, Anne. Daybook: The Journey of an Artist. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.

Truitt, Anne. Prospect: Journal of an Artist. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.

Wilson, Meagan and Miller, Talea. “Beloved Sculptor Anne Truitt Gets Her Du.,” Art Beat, 2009. Web.

Footnotes

1. “Introduction.” Anne Truitt Biography.
2. Anne Truitt, Daybook: The Journey of an Artist. (New York: Penguin Books, 1984), 20.
3. Anne Truitt, Prospect: Journal of an Artist. (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 19.
4. Ibid., 20.
5. Ibid.
6. Carol Diehl, “Anne Truitt: The Columnist,” Art in America, March 2010, 136.
7. Kirsten Hileman, “Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, January 2010, 14.
8. Anne Truitt, Prospect: Journal of an Artist. (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 23.
9. Katy June-Friesen, “Anne Truitt’s Artistic Journey: Balancing the two loves of a Washington, D.C. sculptor – 1950s hostess and emergent artist,” Smithsonian Media.
10. Ibid.
11. Kirsten Hileman, “Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, January 2010, 72.
12. Carol Diehl, “Anne Truitt: The Columnist,” Art in America, March 2010, 141.
13. Anne Truitt, Prospect: Journal of an Artist. (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 35.
14. Charlie Finch, “Mother-in-Law,” Artnet, 2011.
15. Katy June-Friesen, “Anne Truitt’s Artistic Journey: Balancing the two loves of a Washington, D.C. sculptor – 1950s hostess and emergent artist,” Smithsonian Media.
16. Ibid.
17. Meagan Wilson and Talea Miller, “Beloved Sculptor Anne Truitt Gets Her Due,” Art Beat.
18. Ibid.
19. Clement, Greenberg, The Collected Essays and Criticism. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1988), 288.

The meaning of visual perception

Visual perception is an ability of our brain to analyze information, which is provided by the eyes. Although some visual elements can be broken, our brain tries to recognize every element of the picture, etc. Thus, some memories depend upon certain visual productions, i.e. photos, pictures, videos, etc. Sometimes, the production can be familiar, but we can’t remember an event or a situation, which is related to a visual item. Usually, there are some missing parts, which prevent the process of remembering.

The object of the analysis is the picture; I should investigate and explain perceptions, feelings and interpretations the production causes.

The thesis statement

A person’s perception of a picture depends upon numerous aspects the picture includes. Thus, the most important visual elements are shape, color, texture, contours of the picture, etc. The context a visual item reflects is of great importance too, as it determines the way, a person understands a production. Generally, all elements should be analyzed jointly.

Visual deceptions vs. the abilities of a person’s brain

The first and the most appreciable feature of the picture is that it reflects folk culture. The only point I rely on when making such a conclusion is the contour of the painting. The fact that the picture is black-and-white and there are no flagrant colors, which could affect visual nerve and create strong emotions can confuse the persons who are familiar with the production as well as those, who have no idea what picture I am talking about. I mean that there is a lack of the context of the picture, so, it is not so easy to make any conclusions.

As far as every image changes, the scopes of perception became wider. I suppose I could see it in some books on mythology or an art history as the landscape of the picture seems to be similar to various other mythological productions. The mood and emotions the picture provokes are still easy, but more vivid as some details appeared.

Generally, the picture reminds me of W. H. Auden’s poem Musée des Beaux Arts. On the other hand, the picture is also associated with the Greek tragedy of Icarus written by William Carlos Williams. Anyway, the fact that the production is related to mythology is indisputable. The emotions the picture arouses are positive, as colors are not obtrusive.

In my opinion, the reflection of the Greek tragedy of Icarus is a little sinister. However, there are some doubts as the production reflects some daily activities of the time. On the other hand, the silence the picture reflects seems to be ominous in some way. Thus, Cole is of the opinion that:

A crucial aspect of Brueghel’s painting is its perspective. The force of the picture is thus, I think, to move the viewer not only to recognize the unconcern for catastrophe inherent in the preoccupation of ongoing life, but also to register a horrified protest that it should be so (1).

So, as far as the picture reflects the sign of catastrophe, some new features appear. This time I became alerted. Ominous silence of the picture as well as its reflection of daily activities puts me on my guard. The key point of the picture is the color of nature. Thus, although that the picture is color, its tints are still solemn. According to Hunt, “The mutual emphasis of both Ovid and Bruegel on the realms of nature and these three landscape elements is strengthened by the triple light” (1).

The point I think over is famous saying No plow stands still just because a man dies…So, my own perception of the saying is quite ambiguous. It is a touch of irony, which the picture reflects. The reflection of beautiful weather and catastrophe is really unusual combination. It means that there are no reasons to rely on visual perception as visual deception is always possible. In my opinion, death irony is the key idea of the picture.

The perspective of Brueghel’s painting

To my mind, Auden’s poem reflects the protest which is related to the artist’s production. My own feelings are similar as there should be more details pointing to a disaster. The perspective of Brueghel’s painting is difficult to predict; there are some minor details which persons usually neglect when analyzing the picture. Gutman states, “In the simplest terms, what the poem tells us is that no one notices suffering” (1). In other words, people are to think differently in order to understand the meaning of the production.

Works Cited

Cole, David. On “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, 2000. Web.

Gutman, Huck. The Power of Poems – and The Difficulties in Poems, 2011. Web.

Hunt, Patrick. Ekphrasis or Not? Ovid (Met.8.183-235) in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 2005. Web.

Introduction

Casablanca is a thrilling film that combines archetypical situations and several genres to acquire extraordinary status as the quintessential Hollywood film. It contains dramatic conflicts of politics and love giving it a tasty flavor through mixing the foreign mood settings and style together with Popular American Tunes (Eco, 1987).

Casablanca has included many quotable lines that no one can ever look down upon them. More so, popular music has been included in the film. It is a wonderful idea that it can match with other styles in the movie. It is due to the wonderful combination of style and song together with dialogue that this paper intents to discuss at a greater depth.

Development and Origin

One can simply identify the name Stein at opening of most films of early 1930s up to 1940s. He is considered as one of the greatest composers of over 150 films of the Hollywood films. Hollywood movies has used several popular tunes including As Time Goes by, which was composed and written by Hupfeld Herman and appeared on Broadway in 1931 which feature in everybody’s welcome (Field, 1984).

This particular play never went on stage but provided a basis for Casablanca. The director of the film acknowledges that the song stayed on radio as “Hit Parade” for around twelve weeks although not in a different version as found in the film.

However due to the ban of the recording musician union, the Rudy Vallee of 1931 became a hit (Jørholt, 1989). It has a verse that is not found in the film. According to Steiner in the interview of 1943 says that song attracted most of people who had a change to listen to it.

Popular tunes circulation between movies and movies came from as far as the early 20^th century (Langkjær, 2000). The inventions also include the radio and the records. According Peatman’s survey, Hollywood had more than eighty percent of their songs performed as early as 1942.

Intermingling techniques

According to the film Casablanca, sound is much dependent on visual effects together with the scenes that appear on the screen (Eco, 1987). The major theme of Casablanca is extremely well known and has had several rerecording in various ways. The main factors in this context are shooting and screening.

Shooting in movies is done then editing follows to remove any unwanted pictures or sounds from the film. This is a crucial job done by dialogue editors. They ensure that the film has the required flow of events and scenes follow one another as desired. They also ensure that the sound is correctly attached to the sound effects consistently.

Some sounds maybe trapped in the process of shooting. There are soundproof blimps that prevent this form of sound so that the images can match with the desired sounds during editing. A keen study of the movie indicates that there were several challenges in shooting and editing movies in earlier developments. More so, matching of sound and images was a great disaster (Jørholt 1989).

According to Casablanca, the audience does not interested in all that is happens during shooting process (Field, 1984). This prompted the earlier inventors to use cameras that were placed in soundproof blimps so that the recording process can take place later.

This means that if the recording process would take place at the same time with shooting, there would be unnecessary sound that could distract the major objectives of the film. Due to this factor, the sound editors had to work diligently to edit the film and remove any sort of material that could have a negative impact on the film (Langkjær, 1996).

The creativity of intermingling aural and visual effects is a great challenge. The reality in Casablanca is that no one can trace the soundtrack as a separate item from the lines. The director of Casablanca enables the viewer to get the emotions and feelings through controlling aural and visual effects.

Plot development

Cinematography, sound and mise en scene are a great combination of features which form a cult film that has a substantial meaning (Jørholt, 1989). A scene where by Rick slouched at the bar gives more weight on this matter. It is during this period that the director of the film allows in a man playing a piano.

Rick provides lines that indicate Ilsa abandoned him. This makes him sad together with the audience. In fact, non-dialect effects in this movie are bringing decisive emotions to the viewer. The dialectic music applied in this movie is just wonderful (Langkjær, 2000). It creates suspense and at the same time, listening clearly one can identify that the dialect is easy to reproduce and more so, can be sung.

The Paris scene where kissing takes place with Sienna at the setting makes the viewer remembers this movie so much (Eco, 1987). It also creates the urge to keep watching it severally without getting tired. The use of sound as applied in his film is quite interesting that it enhances the audiences’ viewing (Field, 1984). The zooming of the camera zooms to a medium level the viewer is exposed to the real experience of romantic moment.

The Song; Ancient and contemporary

Casablanca is a movie of its own kind. It is always appealing every time the viewer sits down to watch. It encompasses quoted scenes across all ages and generations.

This is due to the excellent matching line of actors and the sweet synchronized sound that brings the reality of the movie in action. Currently, there are productive directors who work to provide the viewers with excellent movies. Astonishingly, there is no any comparable movie to Casablanca, which creatively associates the scene and the song playing in the movie (Langkjær, 1996).

This makes Casablanca an exemplary movie, which entertains, and educates all viewers each time they settle down to watch it severally (Langkjær, 2000). Contemporary soundtracks are unable to adjust to the audience’s concentration to ever changing scenes in the film (Jørholt, 1989). This is quite contrary to As Times Go By whereby it gives the viewer full experience for concentration and enjoyment at a go.

Steiner’s first impression was negative toward this melody for the film. In fact, he acknowledges the fact that it was not a melody of his choice but it was given to him. He never knew that it could receive a warm welcome by the audience. Most of the artists received training in America so he believed that they were influenced by the European trends of music.

After realizing the success of the film he that “Composition is a highly developed art that’s now dominated by young men who can only hum a tune” since 1927 film industry developed rapidly from the first invention of sound techniques from overhead booms which improved to microphone that could follow actors around the shooting scenes (Field, 1984). This was a challenging task since most of the actors’ voices never complemented with the talkies.

Casablanca Politics

Casablanca movie was shot at the pick of the Second World War, which involved almost all countries of the world. The war affected the Casablanca community in many ways. This was a struggle to drive away the colonialists. Through a series of scene, Casablanca unfolds the struggle that existed between the local people and the Germans.

For instance, the local people sing in unison against the Germans. This indicates that they are spirited and they are out to win the war. It brings a sense of togetherness. Another scene finds the Germans singing a war song loudly but when they reach where Ilsa and Rick, they diminish slowly by slowly, thus meaning that the colonial rule is ending.

In another oration, Laszlo asked for La Marsellaise. This part really involves the viewer in that he starts singing along with the actors in the movie. The French girl does not want to remain behind so she also comes in singing to develop more on the plot of the story. The scenes really emphasize on unity of the community against the Germans.

The main plot becomes complicated when it is interrupted by romantic plot (Eco, 1987). It is through the thrilling plot that enables Rick to decide on love afterward. The romantic scene really complements the real plot thus making the viewer get more than enough entertainment. Through locality and characterization, the viewer is able to realize emotions acted more than just traditional or cultural effects (Field, 1984).

Foregrounding Music in Casablanca

Some of the duties of film music are to ensure that the plot goes through and enhance the viewers’ attitude towards some characters in the film. The film started at a point where two German messengers who were involved in transportation of exit-visas are murdered (Langkjær, 1996). The major in charge Strasser, arrives to make sure that Laszlo does not escape from Casablanca. The dubious help by the natives to the rebellion leader enables him to run away with his wife.

This was a major achievement for the part of narrative closure. Great consideration is given to music with regard to development of the main plot of the movie. The music in the first half of the music concentrates on two main duties. First, it deals with characterization of the inner focal individuals to the effect of the romantic plot. In the case of Rick and Ilsa Secondly, it enables to characterize the place of action (Eco, 1987).

Casablanca emphasize on the characterization of the locality in the first sector of the movie, this is only but one of the main duties . This enables the audience to get a glimpse on different characters while providing a mood of suspense. On the other side, music focuses on place. The only divergence that comes out is the contextual part of the chase scene, which takes place in the streets of Casablanca (Jørholt, 1989).

As Time Goes by appear just after the first sector in the movie. This in fact it fills in what is known as plot-point. Plot-point is a scene in a film that gives it a new direction to the scene. It also gives a forward direction to the film.

Conclusion

Casablanca is a movie that entails both audio and visual effects encompassed together stylistically to educate and entertain its audience. It also helps to give a point that sound and audio use in modern films developed over a long period. The development though with greater problems, it has achieved much in terms of providing extraordinary movies that can never be matched with the current movies.

Casablanca is extremely popular due to the mixed use of plot line and sound which is a complex issue in the film industry. The director has identified a major plot and a minor one then brings them to the audience quite creatively. The film also highlights some aspects of the tense moments during the Second World War.

References

Eco, U. (1987). “Casablanca”. Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage in Travels in Hyperreality. London: Picador.

Field, S. (1984). “Screenplay”, The Foundations of Screenwriting. New York: Dell.

Jørholt, E. (1989). Spil den igen og igen og igen, Sam, Kosmorama no. 189. Washington, DC: McGraw-Hill.

Langkjær, B. (1996). Filmlyd & filmmusik. Fra klassisk til moderne film. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.

Langkjær, B. (2000) Den lyttende tilskuer. Perception af lyd og musik i film. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.

The composer of the song must have been Michael Praetorius. This composition has got some specific elements of oratorio and operand concerto. These are the most important and significant features which Michael Praetorius utilized in his other compositions as well.

As a matter of fact, the opera element is observed in the middle section of the song which is referred to as the arias, whereby musicians display expressively their feelings in the song as well as reveal their attitude to it . The listeners are easily moved by the arias’ section as they relate to situations and similar events expressed in the song.

The concerto element is evident from the unity of the instruments and the voices .The harmony represented in this piece is considered to be influenced by religion. This sphere of life was very important and influential that time, that is why it defined the concertos works with grouped soloists who widely used the harpsichord and other instrument to create the song effect. Oratorio element dominates the song since the composer put emphasis on religion as the subject matter.

The oratorio element distinguishes this song from staged operas since it does not incorporate the acting section. The theme of the song is highly relevant to the religious populace as it enhances a connection of the believers with their supreme being.

The song, initially played only in religious grounds, has attracted a greater population as persons learn to embrace religion now. Songs are among the major communicative devices being used in modern ages to educate and pass messages as they are entertaining and have greater power of the spoken words.

The emotions in this song are vividly expressed allowing the listeners to connect with the song. The harmonious integration of tones and the theme ensures the listeners attention and focus is drawn towards the song. The rhythmic flow is cannot be easily predicted increasing the listeners anticipation of the progress and desire to keep listening for an in-depth understanding of the content.

The qualities of this composition similar to those of Bach and Handel pieces are; change in intonation and the utilization of the homophonic structure in creation of the song texture. George Frideric Handel widely studied the styles of song compositions and advocated greatly on the compositions of operas and oratorios, elements evident in the study compositions. Johann Sebastian Bach was greatly involved in religious composition structures and had great harmonics and melodies.

Bach and Handel are among the major forces behind the success of the Baroque music which was used as a benchmark to measure the effectiveness of proceeding compositions. The composition of study has greatly relied on the works of Bach and Handel especially in change of tones and incorporation of the homophonic structure and spectral fusion of sounds.

The tones in the study compositions vary symmetrically from the first cadence to the last cadence where a prolonged period marks the end of the composition. Similar to the works of Bach and Handel, the study composition has utilized the homophonic structure to enhance the texture of the song. The sounds vary throughout the song in harmony ensuring listeners’ interests and attention is maintained.

Observations evident in the song include the following song characteristics

Music form

The composer incorporated the classical type of variations in the song. The song progressed symmetrically with a voice leading effectively maintaining the harmonic theme. The composer maintains a clear phrase structure ensuring the listener interestingly relates to the theme of variations.

The theme is of ternary form with contrasting intonation variations. The first part of the song has an open cadence. The second section has immense harmonic details that progressively transits to the final section of the song in a hierarchal aspect. The final cadence provides a considerable release that marks the end of the song.

Texture

The composer utilized the homophonic structure. The listener focuses on a stream of varied voices throughout the song that harmoniously produce desired sounds. The composer layered the sound streams in such a way as to keep the listener interested and keen on song integration a texture referred to as homophonic. The sound quality is of Spectral fusion nature since it consists of a number of integrated components forming a single sonic entity attributed to a single real or imagined source as described by Risset (1991).

Orchestration

The first cadence begins with evident harmonic sound of a harpsichord. Music notes varied at different sections of the song due variations in instruments played. String instruments ensure listeners interest in the song is heightened as the song draws to climax, since the melody grows sweeter and mellower. The composer rhythmically incorporated more instruments as the song progressed to give the desired notes and ensure effective articulation of harmony and melody.

He further emphasized on a single melody and bass line giving the song an interesting flow. The technique of playing the instruments is highly developed and the performance is desirable. Implications of study indicate the use of an orchestra to play the instruments, an idea borrowed from the Baroque music by Bach and Handel.

Work Cited

Risset, Timbre et. synthèse des sons. Le Timbre, métaphore pour la composition. (Ed).IRCAM/Christian Bourgois: Paris, 1991. Print.

The film ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Anderson presents various themes among them capitalism, greed, hatred, revenge and godlessness. However, the title of the film summarizes its most important concerns. Daniel Plainview is prevents the hero in the film from succeeding and later becomes lonely, a factor that ends the film tragically. This essay analyzes the perspectives presented in the title of the film and how they help in understanding the concept’ There Will Be Blood.’

Daniel Plainview is a complicated character in the film who is overly mistrusting. His last name ‘Plainview’ serves to portray his supposed lack of trust. He does not strive to gain a better understanding of people and never values them since they just like commodities to him. His ability causes him to be proud and also compels him to feel disgusted with the incompetence of other people. He cannot see anything in people that would make him like them.

The only person he ends up liking later is a child he adopted. He says that he cannot continue to do things with people he does not trust because it makes him feel lonely. Daniel’s first name means ‘God is my Judge’ and ‘judgment by God’ (A Critical Analysis of There Will Be Blood 2). The meaning of the name first implies that as the film ends, God judges him by retribution for his pride. Secondly, it is also implied that Daniel subconsciously considers himself as a God who judges.

He strongly believes that the words he speaks are powerful and that things must turn out they way he says they will. His appearance before people is characterized by talks of the things he intends to do for them. For example, his meeting with Tilford turns into a confrontational platform where he tells him that he should not lecture him on how to raise his own family.

He eventually threatens to cut his throat to silence him. After his winning of the oil contract of the union, he says that it was obvious for him to win. Plainview’s voice is his power thus he does not allow anybody to silence him. This helps the audience to understand him well and the reason why he always uses force to achieve his goals. He will use any means even it is shedding blood hence the title ‘there will be blood.’

As the film comes to an end, the words spoken are ‘I’m finished.’ The ending is quite a sad one as Plainview tries to prove that he still possesses the power of speech, although it is evident that he is not happy. He declares that the film has ended and also says that he is finished thus presenting double meaning. He destroys his life by perpetrating a murder in the presence of a witness. This portrays him as a person who will do anything to achieve what he wants.

He had said that there will be blood and this justifies the title of the film through this murder. Another significant portion of the film is the one that presents the idea that what is said is believed. In this portion of the film, the underlying meaning behind its title is clearly brought out. The first literal meaning is that violence will not be inevitable in the film. Plainview has the ability and will to kill in order to accomplish his mission.

The second meaning is inferred from his words when he says there will be blood. This makes the outside audience believe so because he has said it while the third and most important one is the statement he makes as he attempts to create family or kinsblood for the sake of his mission. It is a desperate endeavor for an individual to create a family by simply saying it verbally. This is sheer vanity which forms the bulk of the play (A Critical Analysis of There Will Be Blood 5).

His son is a symbol of the God complex Plainview talks about. He strives to have the child resemble him. In other words, his desire is to see a rebirth of himself through the son. Unfortunately, the son suffers from deafness which is the last thing he could have expected. This makes him lose all the powers he has over his son hence he fails to raise him in the manner he wants to.

He can no longer use his authoritative voice to communicate to his son. Eventually, his verbal stories of being a family man never materialize. Plainview looks for blood to finish his loneliness in a manner that is rather pitiful. He declines to accept his alleged long-lost brother, Henry, and tells him that he must denounce his ambition.

This gives him an opportunity to have close association with somebody who does not challenge him. He later kills Henry when he discovers him to be an intruder since it is impossible for him to have people who are not his blood close to him. His shortsightedness causes him to lose any family that could be close to him.

The section of the film named reaping the conclusion leads to the film’s tragic irony and the other meaning of ‘There will be Blood. Plainview does not succeed in his attempts to solve the loneliness he is going through.

He ruins every person who qualifies to be his blood, even though not necessarily family blood. ‘There will be blood’ implies that sacrifices have to be made according to him. However, this compels him to lose individuals who could be his blood. His arrogant way of speaking does not negate the fact that he is human and mortal.

Irony becomes more evident when Eli is considered ideal. And yet, he continually offers sacrifices to the salvations due to his fate. This is God but in a person who is mortal. Biblically, Jesus was given to the human beings by God but this is a sacrifice that Plainview is not ready to make. In the name of God, Eli is false just like Plainview is in the image of God.

One important aspect to highlight is the misconstrued notion that the main focus of the film is capitalism. It is true that capitalism is one of the themes in the film but this is not what drives Plainview.

Human greed in the film resembles capitalism. The word refers to capital accumulation which means sanctioned property or riches. Plainview cannot be described as a greedy man because greedy people value personal gains rather than values and people close to them. In a bid to prove his ability, he chooses to pursue difficult long-term benefits instead of cheap short-term ones.

His wish to have a trustworthy person in his business is also evident (A Critical Analysis of There Will Be Blood 12). The film strikingly uses an appropriate cinematography to document the loneliness of Plainview. This is done through the inviting opening scenes and the shots that depict solitary vegetation and deserted landscapes. It is an interesting film to watch because in real life, many people have characteristics that resemble those of Plainview hence it is easy for them to identify with it.

Works Cited

A Critical Analysis of There Will Be Blood 2008. Web.

Tannen’s Styles

Tannen has depicted specific features of female and male styles of interaction. Thus, the researcher claims that females tend to establish rapport while communicating with other people. On the contrary, males tend to report without bothering the atmosphere. This difference between the styles is manifested in one of the episodes of the famous TV series Friends (Episode: “The One with the Thumb”).

Two succeeding scenes portray the way females and males support each other. It is obvious that women are more supportive as they try to create a comfort zone, whereas men simply report on facts without thinking of their interlocutor’s feelings and emotions.

Settings and Interlocutors’ Descriptions

The two succeeding scenes depict the way females and males talk things over. Two female colleagues, having friendly relationships, talk at their working place. Thus, Monica asks Paula what to do about Monica’s new boyfriend. Monica does not want to date Alan, but her friends really like the man, so Monica is afraid to disappoint her friends. Paula says that Monica should listen to herself.

The second scene depicts the way Joey and Ross persuade Chandler to quit smoking. The three men are sitting in their favorite café. They speak of health problems associated with smoking, though Chandler seems to ignore such arguments.

Females Establish Rapport

The scene with Monica and Paula is very suggestive. In the first place, it is important to note that they are talking at their work place. Therefore, the atmosphere is not very favorable for intimate conversations. However, the two females still talk about such an intimate thing as dating.

They still manage to create a comfort zone to talk over such an important thing. Paula is very supportive and understanding. Remarkably, Paula knows about Monica’s friends who the latter described as “coyotes”. Thus, when Monica mentions her friends Paula is responsive: “Wait-wait… we talking about the coyotes here?” (Friends). Therefore, Paula encourages Monica to go on talking as she makes it clear that she remembers about Monica’s situation and is always eager to help.

Thus, Paula creates a comfort atmosphere so that Monica can feel free to share her feelings. It is also necessary to point out that Paula pays attention to Monica’s feelings: “Honey… you should always feel the thing. Listen, if that’s how you feel about the guy, Monica, dump him!” (Friends).

Paula advises Monica to listen to her heart. The very intonation and word choice verifies that Paula (as any other female) establishes rapport. For instance, the use of the word ‘honey’ and the interlocutor’s name suggests that the speaker tries to comfort the interlocutor. Paula reaches this aim and comforts Monica.

It is also important to pay attention to the way the two females communicate. Even though they are fulfilling some of their tasks (wiping tables, etc.), they manage to be attentive and supportive. Paula’s gestures and facial expressions suggest that she does want to comfort Monica. The woman does establish rapport.

Males Tend to Report

As far as males are concerned, it is important to claim that they pay more attention to factual information rather than emotional part of communication. Thus, even though Chandler, Ross and Joey are in their favorite café and they are relaxed, it can hardly be said that the men are trying to create a favorable emotional setting. Even in such a comfort setting, they focus on dry facts. Of course, it is important to note that the conversation is very informal and the three are best friends. However, there is no such rapport as in case with the females.

Thus, Ross and Joey focus on health issues:

Joey: Do you have any respect for your body?

Ross: Don’t you realize what you’re-you’re doing to yourself? (Friends)

This conversation illustrates the way males tend to interact. They do not bother much about feelings and emotions of their interlocutor but try to use precise facts. Ross and Joey do not create a comfort zone for Chandler. They do not use any encouraging words like “buddy”. At this point it is necessary to note that they may use such words in other conversations and interactions. However, the conversation in question verifies that the use of such words is not that common among the males.

Furthermore, the two friends’ gestures also contribute to the assumption that males are not concerned with establishing rapport. Ross and Joey pinch Chandler illustrating physical sufferings he is going to endure because of smoking. Of course, the men are trying to help their friend. However, their ways differ greatly from the ways of females.

Female’s Rapport and Male’s Reports

On balance, it is possible to note that males and females do tend to use different styles of interaction. Thus, females try to establish rapport, i.e. to create the comfort zone for their interlocutors. However, males are concerned with factual information rather than with emotional constituent. It is important to note that males are still supportive, but this support is manifested in a specific manner which differs greatly from females’ ways to support people.

Works Cited

Friends. Dir. Alan Myerson. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video. 1994. DVD.

What is the blues? It seems that the answer to this question can be easily found while examining its peculiarities as the music style, but this issue remains to be one of the most controversial questions which are associated with the blues as the music and philosophy.

Moreover, the attempts to define the blues as a notion gave the start for the discussions of the blues as the expression of the African-Americans’ identity and the possibility to play this music by white people. Thus, can white people play the blues? To examine the problem and give the reliable answer, it is necessary to pay attention to the blues as the cultural phenomenon and to its ethical significance.

In his work “The Blues as Cultural Expression”, Phillip Jenkins gives the answer to the question and discusses the blues from several approaches to it as the cultural and aesthetical phenomenon. Jenkins states that it is necessary to differentiate between two understandings of the blues in order to be right while answering this provocative question.

Thus, he accentuates the blues as “the cultural expression” and as “the musical form”^[1]. When people speak about the blues as the cultural expression it is important to focus on the fact that white people cannot play the blues because they do not have those national identity and historical, social, and cultural experience and background which the African-Americans have.

However, when we speak about the musical form it is possible to state that “the blues is really nothing more than sound patterns or forms that require only the ability to manipulate the instruments (including the voice) in the right way”^[2]. That is why white people can follow the blues techniques and play it. Nevertheless, is it a real blues?

In their work “Even White Folks Get the Blues”, Douglas and Nathaniel Langston argue the first one of Jenkins’s principles and support the second statement about the blues as the possibility of white people to play the blues as the musical form^[3].

Their argument is based on the idea that it is unnecessary for people to be black, if they come from the South and feel the blues as the African-Americans do. Moreover, the blues can exist in the world of white people as the specific form known as the white blues^[4]. That is why Jenkins’s thesis can be considered as rather controversial.

The blues is the music which traditionally reflects the feelings and emotions of the African-Americans in relation to their state in the country, the peculiarities of their living and visions of their life. Thus, the main ideas of the blues are closely connected with the issues of justice and liberties in the society.

That is why it is possible to discuss the blues in the context of social and ethical significance. To understand this significance, it is useful to refer to Michael Sandel’s ideas about social liberties which reflect some which are typical for the blues. Social justice can be based on individual rights and the freedom of choice^[5]. This idea is close to the ethics of the blues because the blues is the music of freedom of will, choice, and desires which are not limited by restrictive social norms.

It is difficult to define the blues as a notion and to develop strict considerations about its meaning and significance because the blues is the music of the souls which freedom cannot be limited by any social, cultural or philosophical norms.

Works Cited

Jenkins, Phillip. “The Blues as Cultural Expression”. Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low. Ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather. USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. 38-49. Print.

Langston, Douglas and Nathaniel Langston. “Even White Folks Get the Blues”. Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low. Ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather. USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. 167-176. Print.

Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? USA: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print.

Footnotes

1. Phillip Jenkins, “The Blues as Cultural Expression”, Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low, ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather (USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011).
2. Phillip Jenkins, “The Blues as Cultural Expression”, Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low, ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather (USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011) 40.
3. Douglas Langston and Nathaniel Langston, “Even White Folks Get the Blues”, Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low, ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather (USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011).
4. Douglas Langston and Nathaniel Langston, “Even White Folks Get the Blues”, Blues – Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep About Feeling Low, ed. Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather (USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2011).
5. Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (USA: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).

Introduction

This case study focuses on “Rent” a musical production that first opened in Broadway in 1994. Jonathan Larson wrote and composed this musical. The musical is based on the Bohemian Ideals and is loosely based on La Puccini’s “La Boheme” (Puccini 1). The show was first shown in a limited three-week period at the New York Theatre.

It then ran until 1996. The show was a success managing to garner a Pulitzer Prize and eventually moving to a much larger Broadway theatre in Nederlander. The show also won a Tony award among many other awards in the course of its production. Financially, “Rent” was a success grossing over two hundred and eighty million dollars in Broadway earnings. By the time the show closed in 2008 after running for twelve years, it had already been staged over five thousand times.

It was also the longest running Broadway show at the time (Bennett 45). The show enjoyed successful tours both in the United States and around the world. Some of these tours include the “Angel” tour and the “Benny tour.” Around the world, there have been tours in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. The show has also been adopted in over thirty-two countries around the world. It has also been performed in twenty-four languages.

The show has enjoyed positive reviews throughout it run. It was praised for its audience friendly scripting and the performance of some of its cast members like Neil Patrick Harris. Eventually, the show was adapted into a film in 2005. Some of the original cast members were featured in this film.

The plot of the show is linear, with the action arranged into two acts. The first Act introduces the main character Mark and his friends. This Act chronicles each character’s afflictions and problems. There are those who are battling AIDS, those who are seeking love, those who are battling to maintain their relationships, and those who are battling with financial insecurities.

There is also Benny who is seeking to achieve his goals by subjecting his friends to suffering. This act is centered on a demonstration that is planned to prevent Benny from developing a cyber studio in the lot next to Mark’s apartment. This Act reveals each character’s fears, trials and tribulations. The second act opens with Mark and Roger having been locked out of the apartment.

They are gathering a crowd around the apartment to help with the break-in. In the course of this Act, several relationships are severed, and Angel dies. The act ends with Mimi being very sick. At this state of near death, she struggles to confess her love for Mark. Then, they all gather to rejoice for the little time they have lived with each other.

The story is centered on Mark, a filmmaker, together with his group of friends: Roger, a rocker, and his roommate, who is suffering from AIDS. He was once a successful musician and had a drug addiction problem.

There is Mimi an exotic dancer who is also suffering from AIDS and is Roger’s love interest. She lives in an apartment below them and is a drug addict. Mark and Roger lived in an apartment complex that is now owned by their former roommate Benjamin “Benny” Coffin. Benny was able to purchase their building and the lot next to it after marrying a wealthy girl.

Although he had promised to let Mark and Roger live in his building rent free, he still goes back on his word and starts demanding rent from them. He now seeks to develop a cyber studio in the area occupied by the lot. Many people oppose this development led by Maureen Johnson, a lesbian, who used to be Mark’s girlfriend, and Joanne Jefferson, a public interest lawyer, and Maureen’s, current girlfriend.

Tom Collins used to live in this apartment before moving in with Angel. He is a gay anarchist and a teacher. Mark describes him as a computer genius. Angel is a drag queen and a street percussionist who has AIDS. Angel is Mark’s love interest and eventually succumbs to AIDS.

This musical’s performance touches on the themes of love, loss and betrayal (Rapp 19). Several characters have romantic feelings towards each other. The main character Mark used to date Maureen who has, in turn, become Joanne’s lover.

The strongest love is, however, exemplified by Roger and Mimi. Initially, Roger is reluctant to get romantically involved with Mimi. Near the end of the movie, he sings a very romantic song titled “your eyes” which is partially responsible for Mimi’s revival (Larson 1). Love, in this case, is closely connected to loss. Mark lost his love for Maureen and, since then, he has not found love in another woman.

Collin loses his love interest to AIDS and struggles to overcome his loss. Roger’s former girlfriend committed suicide when she found out she had AIDS. Betrayal is the other theme in this performance. Several characters feel betrayed by their bodies for contracting AIDS. In addition, Benny betrays his friends and former acquaintances.

This production appeals mostly to young people. This is because they are more likely to relate to the issues of love, sex, and same sex relationships. The story chronicles the struggles of young people. These include struggles with their careers, their parents constant meddling, their sexuality, drug addiction, or even newfound status. The older people may also be appealed to by this musical because it opens their eyes to the struggles of the young people.

The writer of this musical set it in his own town of residence, New York. Several of the addressed issues were situations the writer encountered on a day-to-day basis. During the time, the town was grappling with the AIDS epidemic that was cutting short the life of many young men and women at the time. The debate on same sex marriages was also in high gear during this time. This is probably why the writer of the musical chose to represent those in same sex relationships in a positive light.

“Rent” is a highly charged and emotional performance that uses music and artistic performance to communicate to its audience. This case study focuses on effects of “political modernism” when adapting the musical into a film.

The case study aims at investigating how modernism affects adaptation of the musical into a film through revisions, rewritings, change in musical performances, costumes, surfacing of themes among others (Baker 34). For this reason, the original “Rent” performance will be compared and contrasted with the 2005 film with the same name.

Areas of Analysis: Rewritings

One of the rewritings in the film is occasioned by the addition of an engagement scene in the film version. Joanne’s parents host this engagement. This change is most likely in line with modernism.

During the time the original musical was first performed, the issue of same sex marriages was frowned upon. By the time the film premiered in 2005, this stance had already softened. This makes this scene more palatable to the audience at this time.

Musical Performances

The number of musical performances in the Braodway’s original performance is less than that which is in the film. In some instances, these songs are turned into dialogue. The director of the film cites some of the reasons for cutting out the songs as lack of pacing and some songs bearing unnecessary emotional burden.

After television audiences have been exposed to constant emotional distress, there is a need for more entertainment content in films than was needed a decade ago. The songs that were cut include “Christmas Bells,” “We Are Okay”and“Happy New Year.” All these songs are modern day television clichés. In line with artistic political modernism, they would not appeal to the latter audiences as they used to (Levenson 24).

Conveyance of Themes

The death of Roger’s girlfriend in the musical is shown as suicide. She did so when she found out that she had AIDS as stated in her suicide note. In the film version, she is only seen reading a doctor’s note.

The reason for this discrepancy may be that, back then, contracting AIDS was practically a death sentence. This has, however, changed over time. In addition, it is considered more politically correct today to give hope to those affected as opposed to agreeing with their desolation.

Conclusion

The transition of “Rent” from a musical to a film was a smooth one with no major discrepancies. However, a closer investigation reveals the effects of modernism in this translation. Several details were altered during this adaptation in line with political modernism (Zatlin 49). While the central theme remains the same, several other minor details of the original film have lost significance over time.

Works Cited

Baker, Houston. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Print.

Bennett, Susan. Theatre audiences: A theory of production and reception, New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. Print.

Larson, Jonathan. Rent the Musical-Lyrics. 1996. Web.

Levenson, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.

Puccini, Giacomo. La bohème —Libretto in English. n.d. Web.

Rapp, Anthony. Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Print.

Zatlin, Phyllis. Theatrical Translation And Film Adaptation: A Practitioner’s View, London: Multilingual Matters, 2005. Print.

Nowadays, in the era when the humankind has reached the bar people never thought they will ever be able to, it is hard to believe that thousands of years ago, there were different cultures and a completely different civilization, just as well-developed as ours, only in a different way. One of the most famous and the least explored, the Sumerian civilization is worth taking a closer look at.

The first issue to discuss, the Uruk vase is closely connected to worshipping of Inanna, the Sumerian Goddess. The impressions of animals and grain of the vase speak for themselves, making it clear that the vase was supposed to be used in the ceremonies worshipping fertility.

Cuneiform is the method of writing which was invented before people learned how to produce paper. Carving letters in clay tablets, people managed to keep certain information.

As for the Stele of Naram-Sin, the artifact tells the story of the king who was considered to be nearly divine. An obvious element of the ancient worship, the stele offered an innovation I writing art for the Sumerians, since it is written in a horizontal format instead of the old-time diagonal one.

Standing motionlessly in the calmness of The Square Temple, Votive Statues are supposed to represent the people who used to come of the temple to pray. The exact copies of the then men and women, these statues are a great study of the Sumerian traditions and even fashion.

A peculiar alternative for alphabet, hieroglyphs are specifics signs which are meant to define certain people, objects, notions or phenomena. They are used to write down information. For instance, Japanese and Chinese people use hieroglyphs instead of letters.

Considered to be the symbol of Egypt unification, the Palettes of King Narmer have the impression of the pharaoh with the crown of Upper Egypt on the one side and him wearing the crown of Lower Egypt on the reverse. The two impressions are supposed to symbolize that Egypt became an entity.

The elements that most people associate with such cultures as the Egyptian one, mastabas are the burial place with rooms in it for the tombs of the diseased.

Another element of the Egyptian culture, serdab is the chamber in a mastaba.

An integral element of a serdab, a serdab sculpture, such as the statue of King Djoser, was supposed to be a kind of homage to the diseased person and to serve as a specific “reservoir” for the soul of the diseased. Placed in the serdab, it was supposed to be the necessary element of the Egyptian burial tradition.

The modern world knows Hatshepsut, the famous pharaoh of Egypt, only owing to the fragmentary sculptures. Most of them depict the pharaoh in her royal dresses and devoted to her royal routines. However, some of the statues portray her as Osiris.

Speaking about the Nanna Ziggurat, the Sumerian temple, one must mention that it was apparently built to honor Nanna, the Sumerian deity of the night and moonlight. Unlike Nanna Ziggurat, which was made of mud bricks, the Pyramid of Djoser was made of stone blocks; however, the two still look much alike, with their pyramidal structure and sharp angles.

Thus, it is clear that the Sumerian people, as well as the people of the Ancient Egypt, reached the peaks which the present-day world has never heard of. Though the has-been kings of the universe knew nothing about the technological discoveries of the present-day science, they still managed to create the culture which still remains a mystery and is filled with the most incredible legends. Taking a closer look at their artworks, one can reach the ancient culture and see the magnificence of the human race.