Film

Essay Film - Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot is a remake movie of Fanfare d'Amour, a 1935 French movie. This American comedy film was made in 1958 and released in 1959, directed by Billy Wilder. This movie is the most famous one of Marilyn Monroe's carrier who casted with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft.

The movie is all about a huge farce. A two musicians, one gambler and both broke, are witnesses of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre hence both end up on the run dressed as females in an all female band to get away from Chicago. 

 

Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) being one of the females in the band, falls to Josephine's (Tony Curtis) lies of being a rich guy and both end up falling in love, whilst his friend has to entertain a real millionaire for his friend's sake.

Summery aside, the movie has some interesting scenes which are worth talking about. The start was a dramatic action scene by showing who the so called 'bad guys' really are, giving us an idea were the movie will be headed. The director did not leave the camera still and went for tracking shots after the vehicles as they shot each other.

The moment our protagonists were introduced: Joe and Jerry, (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) was a two-shot of a small-talk situation were it clearly showed us what type of personality they had, in only half a minute. 

The grand entering of Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) accompanied by a seductive soundtrack, did not need any dialogue as she just storms her way down the station to catch the train. Joe and Jerry are in a two-shot stunned stupor as they see her rush past them. The no dialogue and their stunned expression while the camera unmoving and switching from her movements to their expression, was more than enough to show us how attracted the both male leads were to her. 

 

As she starts talking, her personality is built to be seen as if she is this bimbo like naive party girl who just wants to run away and marry a rich guy with a yacht hence how Joe schemes his way into make her believe he is the guy for her and she falls in all his traps. 

There is a low-angled scene as the boss gives a carefully taught sarcastic speech as he directs his subordinates to kill the guys that were after our two protagonists for failing to kill them. As the two were trapped under the table while hiding, which were shot with a close up to make the viewer feel trapped just as much as they were, freaked out and ran away.

As they were running away, Joe hears Sugar singing a heartbroken song and can not help but go to her. Unthinking about his safety, (having a close up for them both to show their kiss and enhance the emotion for the viewer,) he shows how much he loves her, and tells her that she should not cry as no guy is worth her tears. 

The ending is an epic moment as they all manage to run away thanks to Jerry's admirer Osgood and Sugar catching up to them. Sugar and Joe had their happy ending while Jerry reveled that he is a man. The epic reply by Osgood was: "Well...nobody is perfect"  

In today's movies, many took the idea dressing up as the opposite sex due to a situation and ending up falling in love. This plot was taken into many old and recent films, even series like Coffee Prince, a Korean romantic comedy drama, and another one called To the Beautiful you and many more.

My inspirational use: I would like to use Marilyn Monroe's image from the movie to be added into my poster as probably the main subject.

Reference:

Wikipedia, 2010, Some Like It Hot. [online] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Like_It_Hot#Cast > [Accessed 18th December 2013]

Geneseo, 200?, Technical Terminology for Film Criticism. [online] Available at: < http://www.geneseo.edu/~finkelst/250filmtermsF05.htm > [Accessed 18th December 2013]

Allthatdramanews, 200?, Coffee Prince. [electronic print] Available at: < http://allthatdramanews.blogspot.com/2012/12/coffee-prince-review.html > [Accessed 18th December 2013]

Film Fan, 2012, Some Like It Hot Poster. [electronic print] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Some_Like_It_Hot_poster.jpg > [Accessed 18th December 2013]

Fanpop, 201?, Some-Like-it-Hot-some-like-it-hot-11041433-2045-1537. [electronic image] Available at: < http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/some-like-it-hot/images/11041433/title/some-like-hot-photo > [Accessed 18th December 2013]

(All the remaining images were screenshots taken by me as I wanted to catch the actual moments from the movie that I was talking about hence why there is no referencing about them.)

Movement.

Skyfall.

The movie is filled with movement, and not just in the action scenes themselves.  The movie starts with action and ends with action as we all expected. The camera movement is dynamic in itself as it follows Bond's movement instead of the action coming straight to the camera. In an interview Sam Mendes points out  that " The action is moving, and the camera moves with it. It’s not just moving for the sake of moving. " The most impressive part was that they used their cameras in a very traditional way.

There is movement change as well as Bond travels from one country to another, while the plot thickens . From Istanbul to London to Shanghai to Macau and finally Scotland. There is even change and movement in characters development, even though it's the 23rd James Bond movie, it always shows the character as it learns something new and fighting through new struggles as it moves on.

Bibliography:  

+ Kat Clay, 2012. Why Skyfall is a masterclass in Cinematography. [blog] 29th October. Available at: < http://www.katclay.com/why-skyfall-is-a-masterclass-in-cinematography/ > [Accessed 26th October 2013] 

+ ATC After the Cut, 2012 Skyfall-Q [Image online] Available at: < http://afterthecut.com/2012/11/11/review-skyfall/skyfall-q/ > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+ The hollywood Reporter, 2012. skyfall_bts_a_l [Image online] Available at: < http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-skyfall-hobbit-life-pi-402087 > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

Movement.

Death Bell

Death Bell is a Korean horror movie about a class made by the principle to put all together the brightest and most successful students of the school. This turns wrong when the number one student goes missing. When the students notice the missing girl, the class television flicks on, showing her caged in a fish tank slowly being filled with water. On the tank there was exam questions and if the class does not solve it in time, the girl dies. The students were accompanied by two elite teachers who together tried to work it out, but were too late. Other students of the class got missing only to be revealed the same way as the first. One student for one correct answer.  The protagonist student which is ranked 5th, noticed that the kids being killed are getting missing by their rank, starting from the first.

Movement: The movie changes from a serene day to day school life to unbearable fear of being pressured into answering complicated questions, with people's lives at stake. The movement and shifting between the characters, first thinking all is a joke, then reality with a side dish of bloodbath snaps you out of your safety shell.  The teachers are just as scared yet try to hold it together due to their responsibilities. The camera movement, fast at parts to make your suspense and fear feel like you're a part of the story. Close up shots following gruesome points, to take your sense of security away. 
The worst part of it all; Knowing that you're next.

Bibliography:  
 Death Bell 2008. [Image online] Available at: < http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Death_Bell.php > [Accessed 29th October 2013]
  Death Bell 2008. [Image online] Available at: < http://www.cultreviews.com/reviews/death-bell/ > [Accessed 29th October 2013]