The Hollywood Western was once one of the most popular of genres. Set in the late 19th century, attentive to Old West myth-making, folk heroes, and morality tales, it was an altogether American invention. Tying these familiar genre trappings with those of horror and fantasy is also a long tradition, one that goes at least […]
Hollywood is predominately about heroes. As a result their stories can be often very predictable. No matter what happens during the story, one can almost be assured that our central hero will be victorious by the end. It reflects our desire for popular culture to be more optimistic and positive than real life, which can […]
What does nostalgia look like to you? Cambridge Dictionary defines nostalgia as a feeling of pleasure when musing over one’s past. A feeling complemented by just a slight tinge of sadness. It’s something universally melancholic, a peculiar sensation with the ability to surface in the most unexpectedly unremarkable of situations. From smoking a cigarette on […]
It’s hard to top the master of suspense, especially on his home field that covers a variety of genre movies, including thriller, horror and mystery. The mastery of Hitchcock lies in his simplicity to visually combine scenes into a very suspenseful storyline, almost all his films are one never-ending breathless emotion. It’s a combination of […]
Influenced by the visionary works of writers H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, science fiction films are both a prediction of future innovation as well as a speculation of current societal anxieties. They often feature fantastical storylines complete with alien invasion, mystical worlds, and dystopian civilizations. With tales of grand heroes and corrupt leaders, they incidentally […]
Since D. W Griffith’s studies and the advent of the Hollywoodian rules and narrative – strongly appearing in The Birth of a Nation – the average viewer got used to the false illusion that classic cinema provides. After that, multiple cinematographic styles moved away from such basic principles. Movies that stray away from this tendency […]