Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is a black and white 1966 film by Mike Nichols. This film takes place in one night on a New England College Campus, in and by the home of George and Martha. They come back to their house after a party at Martha's dads, which is the dean, and they are a little wasted. The viewer experiences Martha downsizing George with stories that she is always right about, and George just takes the insults she gives him. Martha had invited another couple to come have more drinks with them at their house, and when they arrive the viewer can already see that Martha just wanted the man over for alone time. George already knows this about Martha and as the movie progresses the characters become less sober and more violent with their arguments, especially when Martha brings up their son when George has told her never to bring him up. It does not end well when Martha gets what she wants and George reveals the truth that their son is dead.
Elizabeth Taylor, an actress recognized for her beauty and luxurious lifestyle. She played parts in many movies during Hollywood's Golden Age. In this film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, she releases some of her best acting by changing her emotions so easily on demand, for she even won the Academy Award for the Best Actress for this film. Elizabeth had really made her character believable the way she first appears abusive to her husband and always searching for a drink or cigarette to hold in her hand. The viewer can deduce that Martha has been carrying on with this lifestyle for many years the way she pushes George around and even when she was sitting beside Nick, a guest in her home, flirting in a manner that she knows will catch his eye for her, while ignoring his wife. Martha's character develops into a more emotional wreck through out the film when her husband repeatedly stops her from getting her way. A very good example of
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this is when Martha is at the diner with George and the other couple to "dance and have fun". George hurries to put an end to her fun, which is some of the beginning of his madness, Martha does not like this and pouts the rest of the time in the bar,which later she cries and explodes in anger at George in the parking lot when she does not understand why he can not take her behavior anymore. This is the way the movie progresses while Elizabeth plays her role completing her objective of moving the plot along by pushing Georges limits over the edge until he flips and spills the secret to her. Elizabeth Taylor may not always be looking directly on the camera, but that is
because she knows where ever the camera moves. This unique talent makes every director want the actors/actresses because it will take less tries to get a shot perfect if the acting person knows what to do and can play their part like Elizabeth Taylor has done in all her films. I would have to give a 4.5 out of 5 to Elizabeth's performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wool?.
Misery, a film based on the novel written by the famous author Stephen King. Misery is a thriller about a writer, Paul Sheldon, who has just finished a novel and wants to head back to his publisher, but his drive suddenly ends when a snow storm hits. He is lucky though because a stranger, Annie Wilkes, takes him home to revitalize him all by herself. His luck runs out once he figures out she is a psycho that wants him to continue the Misery novel series and once he is done with the copy she will claim his work and kill him. Paul has a search party of one man, a sheriff, out looking for him. The sheriff's search ends and Paul carries out his own escape by ending the madness of Annie Wilkes, and although this tragic event scarred him for life, he still thanks her for inspiring him for his newest novel.
Kathy Bates, who acts as Annie Wilkes in Misery, is a fantastic actress. She has performed many roles over the years in different films, but this specific role asked a lot of her, for she had to escape her normal acting in order to play the biggest fan of Paul Sheldon. Annie Wilkes is a psycho killer, and Kathy Bates does an amazing job of developing her character. When the viewer first meets her, they get the impression that she is a very nice, religious, and caring being, but as the movie progresses on she reveals her true self as being too controlling and willing to even kill or break ankles to get what she wants. Her life revolved around the Misery novels, and when Paul mentioned he is killing the series off, Annie flips out and smashes stuff around her house. No doubt about it that Kathy makes her role as a psycho path believable, for she even won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for this part. Annie Wilkes rose Kathy's career as an actress to the top. Kathy completed her objective when she told the part of Annie Wilkes, when watching the film the viewer can notice that every shot with her in it has a reason for being
shot. Each time an actor or actress, such as Kathy, completes their objective in a shot it moves the plot forward into motion and keeps the plot going at a steady pace until it reaches its climax. Kathy makes her performance so believable that if was to meet her in person I would actually be quiet scared that I would say something wrong to make her psycho side come out again, but I would be the victim. As an actress Kathy's job is to know where the camera is at all times, and she shows this with every bit she acts, like in the scenes where Paul is looking out the window watching Annie leave and she keeps in view of the camera to the car. Another good example of this is when Paul is bed ridden and Annie would hurry up and pop open the door with her gleaming smile, and it is no mere incident that she is faced straight at the camera. Kathy Bate's performance in Misery, deserves a very high rating for acting the role out the best anyone could have, so I would rate her a 4.9 of 5.
Blue Jasmine, directed by Woody Allen, is about a recent widow named Jasmine, who was a multi-millionaire, and had lost all her money because her recent husband embezzled the money. Jasmine moves in with her sister, Ginger, but is so deeply deprived of money that she becomes addicted to anti depressants. Jasmine convinces Ginger that she could get a rich man's heart and live better off than how she is living. When she tries getting a job at a dentists, the dentist hired her only to try and forcefully woo her. She gives up on jobs and decides to try and marry into money again. She finds a man with money, but she does not tell him how her husband died and that she is poor and does not have a job, which costed her, for he broke the future engagement because of the lack of trust. Ginger was only being used, so she went back with her old boyfriend, which made her happier. Jasmine lies to her sister saying that she is getting married and she will not need to stay anymore, but really she is just giving up life.
Cate Blanchett, in Blue Jasmine, won an Academy Award for Best actress in a leading role because of this film. Cate Blanchett played this role as if she really went through it, there was so much depressing emotion involved that makes it not a real happy film. She real made this part believable, and apparently others believe so too since she won an Academy Award for it. The parts where she showed the most emotion was when she would get frustrated with her sister, Ginger, or at her two sons for being too loud. Cate always knew where the camera was because the way she just kind of acknowledges the camera makes the viewer feel as if they are her little third person conscious. In this film she did not have to really
memorize where the camera would be for some action scene, but would have when she was trying to escape the dentist when he sexually assaulted her. Her character had a slow development to madness and depression. Through the film it shows Cate in flashbacks when she was rich, and these flashbacks showed how before she really only enjoyed the pleasures that money gave her. When she was broke she started to become more humble and actually wanted to work. She gave up on that quiet quickly and the viewer sees her spiral down into a deeper depression. Cate completed the object in every scene, but they were not as clearly completed like the other actresses in this blog. Cate did a fantastic job acting over all and that is why I feel she deserves a 3.9 out of 5.
In Film Studies, we have watched a movie that has sent my mind and many of my friends minds down a spiral of confusing thoughts, but it has made it in my top ten favorite movies, Triangle. Triangle, which was made in 2009, is a horror film about a girl named Jess. Jess is a single mom who goes on a yacht trip with one of her friends that brings along some of his old friends. They sail into an electrical storm and the yacht flips, but they are saved by a cruise ship. Once they get on the cruise ship, they find no one on board except for someone that keeps stalking them that keeps giving clues that its Jess. When people start dropping over dead they start blaming Jess for it when she was no where near them. When Jess dispatches the killer she re-experiences the same event, but from a by-standards point of view. This keeps happening and she goes from accidentally killing them to purposely killing them to restart the experience so she can get off the ship to her son. When she does get to him, she realizes she is still stuck in this continuous loop of time.
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Melissa George, who played Jess in the film Triangle, did not win any special Academy Award for acting in this film, but never the less her acting was superb. Melissa's role was to play Jess as if she had been scared for life it looked. Every scene, especially the scene where Jess is on the dock walking towards the yacht, looks as if she had seen ghosts. If this was Melissa's acting the part or the director's orders it match the role and made her character very believable, for as soon as the viewer is finished watching they realize why Jess is so freaked out that she looks like there is no color in her. The madness and horror that the viewer can observe that is stricken into Melissa through out the movie and the multiple slasher scenes flows quiet
smoothly because Melissa looks as if she believes it is real, which in return makes the viewer believe it is real to. Melissa completes the director's objective to confuse the viewer and show them that she slowly is becoming the mad killer. It seems as though each actor and actress knows where the camera is and Melissa especially. Most people take it for granted, but imagine how hard it would be to do the scary-dash-across- the-screen scenes such as when Downey and Sally are in the ball room and Jess dashes through the hall and only a glimpse is caught of her. Melissa would have to know exactly where the camera was in order to get that shot perfect with no mistakes. Melissa did not do as well as most actresses and actors do when it comes to the character development. She showed her struggle through the plot and how it effected her, which was mostly on the ship , but it seemed as though she learned nothing and did not really change through out. That did not change my opinion on her rating as an actress though because I would give her performance a 4 out of 5.
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