tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68077656557991147952024-03-13T17:50:09.381+00:00The Film ObsessionKelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-45067308946195474962013-06-30T01:55:00.001+01:002013-06-30T10:41:24.152+01:00The top 8 things a Film Studies student will hear.To some people, Film Studies is a questionable degree. Maybe because it's arts focused, or maybe because people are a little confused by it, but generally Film Studies students get a hard time.<br />
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If you're getting ready to start your Film Studies degree this September, here's the top 8 questions or phrases you will hear.<br />
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1. Film Studies isn't a real subject.<br />
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2. So what are you currently filming?<br />
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3. [In a pub quiz] It's the film round - Kelly, you got this.<br />
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4. What's that film with the famous guy in?<br />
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5. Hey, what's on at the cinema tonight?</div>
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6. It must be SO HARD sitting around watching films all day.</div>
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7. [When talking to any of your extended family] "So, what's your degree going to be in?" "Film Studies." *Vacant stare*</div>
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8. You haven't seen The King's Speech?! And you call yourself a Film Studies student...<br />
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But just remember, at the end of the day...<br />
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Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-44387421686504940552012-11-07T12:20:00.000+00:002012-11-07T12:20:05.090+00:00Happy 4th Birthday, HeyUGuys!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a little blog post in dedication to <a href="http://heyuguys.co.uk/">HeyUGuys</a>. </div>
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If you haven't visited this site, why not?! Okay, I might be bias as I am a part of the HUG team, but honestly, I wouldn't be if it wasn't a great website now, would I?</div>
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Ever since first contacting Jon and Dave back in 2009 when I started university, they have been the friendliest and kindest people to work with.</div>
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With a true passion for film, and a genuine respect for the industry, they work night and day to bring their readers the top film news, reviews, interviews and event coverage. With a strong team behind them including film writers from all around the UK and America, this website remains one of the UK's top read film blogs, and I'm sure one day will be one of the world's. </div>
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It's their 4th birthday today and they deserve all the congratulations they can get.</div>
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I feel honoured to work for such a fun and exciting blog, and am so thankful for everything they have allowed me to do.</div>
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I'm sure I speak for everyone that works with the website when I say:</div>
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'Well done Jon and Dave, you did good.'</div>
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I hope the success carries on for years to come.</div>
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Just look at all these celebs that think so, too (<a href="http://heyuguys.co.uk/heyuguys-is-4/" target="_blank">taken from their birthday post</a>):</div>
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Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-60025165787556516162012-10-31T12:52:00.000+00:002012-10-31T13:01:38.812+00:00[Essay] Discuss the view that a woman’s body ‘has come to signify the spaces of the unknown, the terrifying, the monstrous’ (Barbara Creed) in mainstream cinema. <br />
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<b>Discussion of graphic content that could scare men away from women FOREVER... </b></div>
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<b>During my final year of university, I seemed to stray away from respected films in cinema. I got bored of writing about how great these iconic movies were. So I chose to go down the opposite route and write about films I absolutely adored, and that were generally critised - Teeth being a prime example.</b></div>
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<b>This is one of my favourite films, for exactly the reason explained through this essay. It takes images, contradicts them, mocks them and has fun. </b></div>
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<b>It's not well acted, it's not oscar worthy, but my god it is fun... Well, for my sadistic mind anyway.</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“The horror of the putatively dangerous female genitals finds symbolic expression in the far-flung image of <i>vagina dentata</i>, the saw-toothed orifice that waits to mutilate the male” (David D. Gilmore, 2001, p.41). The ‘far-flung image of <i>vagina dentata’</i> is precisely what the audience are given in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein, 2007), a film showing “the castrating power of a teenage girl who wreaks vengeance on disrespectful young men who try to use her sexuality” (Eric Michael Mazur, 2011, p.465). </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There is some speculation on deciding whether this film is a mainstream product, or whether it becomes independent from, as Pamela Craig et al. (2010) states, “offer[ing] a potent combination of deliciously black humour, graphic horror, and social critique in its often impressively sensitive portrayal of the emotional and psychological pitfalls of female adolescences, bodily insecurity, and sexual coming-of-age” (p.90). By taking these delicate issues offered by Craig and combining them into one statement film seems to turn </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> into a product that mocks the traditional ways for mainstream cinema to represent a theory. As mainstream cinema has to cater for such a broad audience, the use of a theory in the subtext of the film can become vague or confused. By taking theories such as Freudian theory or Feminism in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and using them in such a blatant way, they seem almost laughable. The horror of the film turns into this black humour with a critique on popular culture, suggesting this isn’t a mainstream product, but a criticism of it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The black humour that surrounds the film also places the audience in a peculiar position. Are women supposed to laugh? Are men supposed to be fearful? Linda Williams (1984) states “whenever the movie screen holds a particular effective image of terror, little boys and grown men make it a point of honour to look, while little girls and grown women cover their eyes” (p.83). Contradicting William’s argument, the myth of <i>vagina dentata</i> is so </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">gruesome to men in this film that it seems as if their honour is taken away as they are afraid to look, while women are encouraged to laugh, sympathise and understand the monster that is within Dawn (Jess Weixler). The role reversal within the audience works with Craig’s point that the film socially evaluates what is conventional for a mainstream audience and how they interpret the film.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Although, contradicting this argument, when taking Dawn and seeing what she comes across through the film, it does seem to comply with the strong theory that women are monstrous within mainstream cinema. Jill Nelmes (2000) backs this point by believing that “despite the enormous emphasis placed on woman as spectacle in the cinema, woman as woman is largely absent” (p.276). A reason for this argument can be provided by the idea that the woman is an abject within cinema. This is witnessed in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> when it is discovered Dawn has the abnormality of <i>vagina dentata</i>, turning her into a literal monster, and the abject. What’s also interesting in Nelmes’ statement is the fact that she classes a woman as a spectacle, as well as stating a woman as a woman is rarely seen. It seems within mainstream cinema women can only be an abject or a spectacle. Dawn has teen boys lusting over her, she is molested by her gynecologist and has an abusive stepbrother who is sexually forward with her. These elements of the film provide evidence for her being the spectacle, but in a deeply disturbing way to fit in with the themes of the film. T</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">eeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> could therefore be taken as a mainstream film with very strong, graphic content, looking into topics of sexual harassment, degradation of women and, as Hantke says, the female adolescents and sexual coming-of-age. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With all this in mind, I’d like to take </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and discuss whether it is a mainstream product, representing the woman as monstrous, unknown and terrifying with deeply insightful topics at the heart of its story, or whether it is more likened to independent </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">cinema, commenting on the poor attempts at representing these ideologies within mainstream cinema through a black comical approach.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Starting with the opening scene, the images given are bombarded with substance. The camera starts on a clear, idealistic blue sky, but slowly pans across to focus on the image of two large towers which are immediately assumed to be nuclear power plants. The non-diegetic music turns into a silly tune supposedly representing a threat, but actually offering a comic tone. The camera then tilts to a birds-eye-view shot showing a house in front of the towers with two parents and their children sitting in a swimming pool outside. As the camera cuts on a closer image of the children, Brad (Hunter Ulvog) is shown splashing his step-sister Dawn (Ava Ryen Plumb). His father Bill (Lenny Von Dohlen) shouts “Brad, stop splashing your sister!” to which Brad replies “She’s not my sister!” After Brad calms down he turns to Dawn and from an over-the-shoulder shot, he looks down his body and shuffles a little. Dawn looks down his body and Brad says “lets see yours now.” The shot then focuses on the parents holding hands, but soon after a scream is heard coming from Brad. The children are both quiet as the parents ask what’s wrong. The opening scene ends with a close-up shot of Brad’s finger cut and bleeding. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Contradicting the threatening images of nuclear contamination, there seems to be a sadistic laughable tone to them immediately. “Kaplan (1983)... points out that it makes more sense to use familiar and recognisable cinema conventions to explain that the ‘realism’ of mainstream cinema is a fabrication” (Richard Maltby, 2003, p.278). As an audience watches </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, familiar patterns witnessed in mainstream films become recognisable. Nuclear contamination and its side effects are one of those recognisable </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">qualities in horror films such as </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. With this in mind, Nelmes’ suggestion that “the audience can be accredited with entering into a viewing situation with a range of skills and competences and a background of cultural knowledge” (p.286) is quite interesting. The discussion of the side effects when living next to a radioactive area, and how it can destroy lives is provided in the narrative, much like the discussion that takes place in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> (1998, dir. Ronald Emmerich). The film shows a monstrous dinosaur-like creature taking over a city, becoming almost unstoppable from its irregular size and power that’s assumed to have come from an irregular growth from nuclear contamination. This monstrous creature is also a female, as later on in the film it is discovered she is pregnant. Because the audience are accredited with this “background of cultural knowledge”, watching </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and the themes that are played out becomes purposefully noticeable. Each time a scene in which Dawn castrates a man is given, the audience are reminded of the nuclear power plant before she commits the act. The smoke becomes darker, filling the sky more as Dawn becomes more powerful and connected with her mutation. She, like Godzilla, becomes impossible to stop and more monstrous as the film carries on. Maltby carries on his argument to suggest that a critique of Hollywood cinema is that “its stories are psychologically unrealistic, mechanically conventional, “melodramatic”, implausible [and] excessively dependent on coincidence” (p.486). </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As the audience are aware of this likeness from their previous viewings of the conventions in Hollywood cinema (such as the monstrous female in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">), they are able to laugh. The combination of the distinct shots of the power plant first seen in the opening, and then repeated several times during the film, and the unusually witty music which is a tune carried on through the film, along with the likeness to </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and the dramatic monster taking over the world makes </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> seem as if it is mocking mainstream cinema. Its melodramatic focus on the nuclear power plant, psychologically unrealistic monster that is Dawn, and implausible story that creates </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">her as a monster becomes so much like what would be witnessed in a mainstream film that’s created to be taken seriously. However these elements are so exaggerated, the only way to interpret the film is to take it as a dark comedy. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> is ludicrously unrealistic, but because it doesn’t have a brazen tone to it, the story becomes a mainstream representation of true fears, with subtexts of nuclear wars at the heart of its story. In </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, the film is also ludicrously unrealistic that Dawn’s body does signify the monstrous, the unknown and the terrifying, but to an extent in which the reality in the film is laughable as it clearly mocks what mainstream cinema tries to create. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It is interesting to ask who is laughing, though. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (2011) notes “Dawn’s ability to punish her rapist at the point of penetration is presented as a blackly comic feminist fantasy” (p.182). A common association with feminists is that they hold strong bias towards females, unwilling to accept a male’s viewpoint. It seems as if you could describe Dawn as the reality of this ignorant viewpoint. Her power to take away what defines a man (in the biological sense) makes her a role model for what is naively believed to be a feminist. She becomes, when taking the film in a literal sense, what all men fear and what all women aspire to be. This is seen in the independent film </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">A Question of Silence</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> (1982, dir. Marleen Gorris)<b> </b>in which a group of woman graphically kill a man without a real motive other than the fact that he is a man. It links to the assumption that feminists disregard men completely. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, and other similar films provide such “over (self) consciousness” (Hankte, p.91) that its ideologies become the cause of the black humour. This can be seen as Dawn chooses to have sex with Ryan (Ashley Springer), who is meant to be the hero conquering her mythical mutation. As she has sex with him for the second time, Ryan answers his phone to his friend. He says “as we speak” and begins to explain to Dawn how he and his friend made a bet to break her “sacred vowel of </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">abstinence”. She becomes outraged at this, questioning it to which Ryan responds “you’re mouth is saying one thing babe, but your sweet pussy is saying something very different.” The shot turns to a close-up of Dawn’s face in which her eyes become almost animal like, and we are shown Ryan’s face with the diegetic noise of a crunch. The shot-reverse shot shows Dawn looking surprised at Ryan’s pain. She then claims “Oh, shit” and gets off him. The next shot shows a very graphic mid-shot of Ryan’s now castrated penis bleeding. As Ryan screams, Dawn is shown in the middle of the screen, blocking the view of Ryan on his bed, walking away claiming “Some hero...” to which another shot of Ryan’s severed penis is given, as he then calls for his mother. As brutal and graphic as this scene is, the only reaction is to laugh. Dawn’s nonchalance makes this scene a blackly comic (supposed) feminist fantasy.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Heller-Nicholas goes on to argue that “the presence of the monstrous feminine in the horror film speaks to us more about male fears than about female desires or female subjectivity” (p.182). The females of the audience gain no enjoyment from watching Dawn have sex with Ryan, but the males do feel a sense of fear from the nauseatingly explicit shots of the bitten off penis. When linking this idea back to </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, everyone (with a predominant cast of men) in the film fears this monster. To make the monster female only reaffirms this male fear of the female. Linda Williams (1984) complies with Hankte and notes “what is feared in the monster is similar to what... is feared in the mother - Not her own mutilation, but the power to mutilate and transform the vulnerable male” (p.90). Leading up to this scene, Ryan is told about Dawn’s <i>vagina dentata</i>, and even in the middle of the first time they have intercourse, Dawn tries to stop him, but he convinces her he is conquering the monster. Ryan doesn’t fear her mutation, and nor do the males watching as Williams states. What they do fear is her power and ability to mutilate them. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">However, for females watching, they gain a sense of recognition within Dawn. Williams suggests that “the female look... recognises the sense in which the freakishness is similar to her own difference. For she too has been constituted as an exhibitionist object by the desiring look of the male”(87/88). Men in the audience will immediately assume Dawn is the spectacle, but in reality she is a threatening woman who “clamp[s] itself onto men and their phallic sources of life energy” (Mazur, p.464). Similar to </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">A Question of Silence</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, the woman are assumed to be spectacles, but as they conduct this murder, they threaten the males of the audience. As the film ends, the woman laugh in unison when appearing in court. The reaction to those viewing this film is very similar to the reaction of </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The reversal within the audience in terms of the look means women are able to laugh while men look away in fear. Within mainstream film, the male gaze is predominant, but within </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">A Question of Silence</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, it is the women of the audience that look and enjoy the film actively. The themes and theories being discussed in this film so clearly “poin[t] to male fears and fantasies about the female genitals as a trap, a black hole which threatens to swallow them up and cut them into pieces’” (Heller-Nicholas, p.182) that women watching can laugh at the male and with Dawn. To reduce Ryan to calling for his mother after he has been castrated, and to position Dawn on the screen so she blocks him with the statement “Some hero” turns him not into a conquering hero, but a pathetic man. Similarly in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Godzilla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, to create the monster as a pregnant female means the females in the audience will relate to her. This monster has become the spectacle for the man as she is observed and studied. Yet, she is destroying the city because she’s protecting her child - A very maternal instinct which the females in the audience will recognise, leading to the males only fearing her. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This doesn’t allow for the women to laugh, however. The topic of a pregnant female monster becomes a serious discussion in the film, making it more </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">mainstream approach. Contradicting this, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">A Question of Silence</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> takes an independent approach at dealing with women, as does </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, allowing the females to laugh. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Looking into why </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> could be a mainstream product, its interesting to see that the characters go through a process of identification which is commonly represented in mainstream film. Freudian theory and Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage suggests the ways in which children discover themselves and their purpose for being through a psychoanalytical perspective. The scenes which show this process, rather than being blatantly referenced to as we’ve seen above, show rather a more softer side to the characters in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, suggesting a more mainstream, subtle approach to telling the story of female adolescents and sexual coming-of-age, as discussed in the introduction. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Freud suggests that early sexual experiences “constituted sexual traumas”, and although experiences have no side effects at the time, as the child develops, the memory of the experience reactivates itself at puberty, “producing pathological results” (Seymore Keitlen, 2003, p.11). In the opening scene described at the beginning of this essay, Brad openly shows his genitalia to Dawn and asks to see hers. In the process of this, it is assumed he touches Dawn, and her mutation of <i>vagina dentata</i> bites Brad. As the characters progress to their adolescent stage, Brad shows his scar to his girlfriend and states he can’t remember why he has it. Dawn has no recollection of this event either. This leaves these early sexual encounters in the subconscious of the characters, like Freud states - But they do produce pathological results. Brad becomes abusive and aggressive towards his father. He is unable to have a stable relationship with a woman, and will only have anal sex - According to Freud, these are very common symptoms if the child hasn’t developed past the anal stage, and has experienced premature sexual encounters. The </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">way in which this is presented in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> seems more to interpretation than being forcefully told, meaning the film becomes mainstream through the subtle approach of the topics. Adding to this, the use of Dawn becomes evident too. “Castration anxiety and symbolic castration are primary forces to repress instinctual and/or id impulses towards forbidden and gratifications, particularly the taboo of incest” (David Adams et al., 2010, p.127). The use of Dawn in this film could be to repress and warn Brad of the gratifications of incest. The whole film leads up to the point in which Dawn castrates Brad. Before this moment, Brad has a physical fight with his father claiming “You made her my sister”, forcing his unmanageable dog to bite his neck. This fight again emphasises his rebellion against the same-sex parent, describing why he paused during his development as a child, and gives reason for Dawn becoming a monstrous female. She is the castrator. The film warns the males watching that if they do not develop properly, they will be castrated. “The threat of castration has no authority to the already castrated” (p.127) meaning the females watching face no fear in Dawn, it is only the males. What the females do face is a representation of themselves and their development, which is described in the mirror phase.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Lacan (1977) notes “that the child learns to recognise itself in the mirror and develops the first inklings of self-consciousness by identifying with the specular image” (Anneke Smelik, 2007, p.184). Within </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, a common image given of Dawn is her looking in a mirror. This is first seen as she steps out of the shower before she discovers her mutation. The look is more of a female observation of her own body. This is then repeated as she is put against the detailed image of a vagina from her biology book, in which she is in the bathroom, removing a sticker that the school placed over their books. She looks surprised and intrigued at the image given of the vagina. At this point it is clear she is discovering herself, and what it is to be a woman. This effectively sets up her trauma as she discovers she isn’t what every woman should be. We see her look in the mirror several times after </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">she discovers her <i>vagina dentata</i>. Rather than a look of wonder on her face, she has a frightened one. Smelik uses Doane’s (1987) argument that in “classical Hollywood film, it [the use of the mirror phase] often indicates the weakness or even mental illness of the female character” (p.185). If we look into </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Now, Voyager,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> (1942, dir. Irving Rapper) Charlotte (Bette Davis) often looks into the mirror at herself. This is emphasised as she has a mental breakdown. This uses Doane’s argument to confirm that it points towards the female character’s weakness. The mental breakdown is also caused by her mother, a reason for her pausing in her development and rebelling against her, signifying the use of these topics in mainstream film. Clearly, the way in which Dawn is frightened by her own “illness” indicates a certain weakness in her character. And it is this weakness that becomes problematic for her. Although “her biting vagina is a rape-avenging weapon... the rapes themselves do not appear to be so much her real problem as the fact that her vagina has teeth” (Heller-Nicholas, p.183). Dawn’s sexual encounters with males usually include a form of rape. The first time she is alone with Tobey (Hale Appleman), rather than being the perfect virgin boyfriend she longed for, he tells her he has had sex before, and when she wants to sit quietly with him, he forces himself upon her. The second interaction with a man is when she visits the gynecologist. As he discovers she hasn’t been to one before, he takes advantage of her by removing his glove and penetrating her with his hand. Ryan is the third male to sexually interact with her. He suggests he’d look after her, and whilst giving her a pill that supposedly calms his mother’s nerves, he drugs her instead, allowing him to break her vowel of abstinence. Hankte describes the procedure at the gynecologists “as humiliating, degrading and physically painful” (p.91), which can be used to describe the other scenes in which she encounters a man. The idea of degradation is a common theme for women in mainstream cinema. But even so, all the time she is abused, the real fear on her face comes from the <i>vagina dentata</i>. She screams </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">with Tobey as he discovers he has been castrated, runs away in fear as the gynecologist's fingers are spread across the floor, and looks in confusion at Tobey as she castrates him. The mirror phase in this film shows her weakness as a female character, creating her as the abject in the film. When looking at the film from this perspective, she doesn’t seem to stand as a confident female, but a tainted one. As Linda Williams discusses, the female spectators of the film are punished as the monster expresses their “sexual desire literally and symbolically... Trapped in the traditional role as object of the gaze, [the female spectator] finds herself unconsciously aligned with the monster as the movie’s object of disgust” (Tony Magistrale, 2005, p.8). By being aligned to the monster, they are punished by watching these humiliating scenes which Dawn experiences being played out in front of them. Similarly in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Thelma and Louise</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> (1991, dir. Ridley Scott), the<b> </b>film shows Thelma (Geena Davis) being raped with the emphasis of the scene looking at the emotion on her face, homing in on the degradation of her. Because the females of the audience are aligned to Thelma, they are punished as they see her deviate from her traditional role, enjoy this and therefore watch as she is raped. So it seems no longer is </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> a film which argues against mainstream cinema - It actually suggests a representation of why the woman should be punished. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This is only at a certain point in the film, however. Towards she end, Dawn becomes more powerful with her monstrous deformity. She learns to “be in charge of her to-be-looked-at-ness” through the narcissistic view of herself from the mirror phase (p.185). This development in her look is seen after she has sex with Ryan. The expression on her face as she gazes at herself in the mirror is shown with a smile as she caresses her body. Dawn becomes more aware of her deformity, but also more in control of it. She is no longer scared, but accepting. In the final scene, the audience watch as Dawn discovers her mother has died. She gets told her abusive step-brother didn’t help as her mother</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">screamed. Being aware that he has an incestual interest for her, Dawn punishes him, as discussed above. Starting with Dawn standing outside the house, the iconic images of the nuclear power plant are in the centre of the screen. As she moves into the house, the next shot shows her looking at herself in the mirror, putting on makeup. The camera slowly zooms in to pause on her looking. As the film moves to the shot of Brad, it is shown he is watching a film starring Medusa - Another monstrous, mythical female able to kill anyone that glares into her eyes. Dawn then comes into Brad’s room, takes his cigarette and smokes as she watches Medusa glare at a man. She smiles at this moment in the film, and then moves to stroke Brad. He states “this is too fucking weird” to which she responds “just wait” and sits on top of him in her angelic white dress. As the music from the film becomes more threatening, Brad tries turning Dawn around to have anal sex. She becomes infuriated and hits him. As they sit, she starts to pull up her dress. He looks and agrees to penetrate her. As he does so, he starts talking and says “We always knew it would play out this way eventually, didn’t we? Ever since we were little kids...” An extreme shot reverse shot of his face to Dawn’s, and then a revert back to when they were children with his bleeding finger is given. The music then intensifies to high pitch strings as we see her castrate him. He starts to look for his severed penis, and as she stands, her legs are open in the middle of the screen and his penis falls to the ground. To finish the scene, instead of Brad’s vicious dog attacking her, he eats his penis.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Williams states “it is a truism of the horror genre that sexual interest resides most often in the monster” (p.87). Linking with Lacan’s theory, Dawn develops a self-consciousness and ability to be in charge of her body and the use of it. Brad’s revert back to his childlike state at the point of penetration emphasises fully his pause in development as he is reminded of why he has this scar, and therefore reminded of his early sexual traumas causing this pause. It is at this point in the film that Dawn becomes the most terrifying as she has learnt </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">to control the </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0px;">vagina dentata</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, using it only to her advantage, rather than it debilitating her to the point in which she cannot have a relationship sexually with a man. She becomes the most terrifying woman of all in mainstream film - An abject who’s desires are met and isn’t punished as the film ends.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Pamela Craig summarizes </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> by stating it is constructed by “mobilizing dark comedy and recurrent images of penile trauma to explore serious youth-orientated social issues, simultaneously literalizing, deconstructing and celebrating the <i>vagina dentata</i> myth” (p.90). </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This is witnessed to the fullest extent in the final scene. After Dawn walks away from Brad, she runs away from home, being forced to hitchhike as her bike breaks. She gets in the car of an elder man and drives off. The scene then moves to an image of the car parked and her waking up. As she does so, she sees the driver gesturing towards her, licking his lips. Dawn tries to escape but the doors are locked. In a moments thought, she turns her head, looks down the camera with devilish eyes and smiles. By looking into Heller-Nicholas’ observation “Dawn’s look-to-camera in the film’s final scene implies that she is reconciled with both her unusual talent and its particular utility in protecting herself against sexual predators. That it comes with an acceptance of herself as “the monstrous feminine” and at the expense of her being able to enjoy sex it its own right” (p.183). The film can be a mainstream product in producing a deeply thought-provoking look at women and the way in which they are typically set out to be in film. Rather than ending with death, seen in most mainstream horror products, she suggests to the audience she will castrate the man and feel no guilt towards this. The monstrous feminine therefore becomes something much more powerful, celebrating this myth associated with woman, deconstructing it to a point in which the woman have full power on the film, possibly working as a “reaction to the </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">emergence of feminism and the threat posed by woman’s autonomy” (Patricia White, 1998, p. 118). </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But this idea seems a little farfetched when placed against </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. There is an alternative view on this scene. The revolting image of the man licking his lips seems so unappealing to males or females that the image becomes funny. Seeing an elder man carry out this gesture isn’t common within mainstream film, so the ridiculousness of it induces this black comedy that Craig sets out, pointing towards the fact that this film is more an independent piece. The film also includes clothing that states “Warning: Sex Changes Everything”, has this repetition of the nuclear power plants and a sarcastic dialogue which all supplies the self-consciousness of it. The characters back this further with Brad presented in an infantile state, the two boyfriend characters, Tobey and Ryan, presented as rapist, and the gynecologist as an abusive pervert. But more poignant than this is the way in which the film ends without Dawn being punished. The scene contrasts with the final scene of</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"> I Spit On Your Grave </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">(1978, dir. Meir Zarchi). Jennifer (Camille Keaton), after being gang raped, individually kills the men involved. As the final man clings onto a boat motor to stop himself from drowning, he begs her not to kill him, to which she responds “Suck it, bitch” and starts the motor. These were the words said to her as she was raped. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Teeth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> sees Dawn smile as she is about to be raped as she knows she will castrate him. The irony in both scenes removes any representation of women in mainstream film, and leaves only a monstrous woman never to be punished again which would only be seen in independent cinema. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-26675062365265882782012-09-05T12:10:00.000+01:002012-09-05T12:10:15.769+01:00How I got my PR internship for the Brighton Digital Festival<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>(Featured on <a href="http://www.wiredsussex.com/">Wired Sussex</a>)</i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDCATe0CkrK-RtwnkgDRXUYmfQmiNc9KgYVROPJtGiY0e57R8aMS11IPlLSYdH-4W82BLSoUowVUbvaRCcbQvkLEMzjqt7fTr_KLilEG4PkgJxx1hRCIUJ_F-5eOm8F1KP_zbSZRy82_I/s1600/logo-bdf-2012-RGB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDCATe0CkrK-RtwnkgDRXUYmfQmiNc9KgYVROPJtGiY0e57R8aMS11IPlLSYdH-4W82BLSoUowVUbvaRCcbQvkLEMzjqt7fTr_KLilEG4PkgJxx1hRCIUJ_F-5eOm8F1KP_zbSZRy82_I/s400/logo-bdf-2012-RGB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’ve always been quite proactive when it comes to looking for work experience and jobs. If I’m bored you can guarantee I’m looking at jobs (or pictures of Ryan Gosling), usually just out of interest, but when my degree in Film Studies at the University of Sussex in May this year was coming to an end, it was time for me to apply and figure out what I wanted to do with my life after Sussex.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I’ve had quite a lot of work experience previous to my placement with Fugu PR. I’ve worked in small boutique companies in lovely Brighton, to big professional companies in London – Some in PR and some in journalism. I knew once I had worked with the PR companies and seen the buzz of the job, that’s the direction I wanted to head in – A job that’s social, creative and definitely not 9 – 5.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I came across a post from Vicki, Managing Director and Owner of Fugu PR, on LinkedIn requesting for someone interested in a summer placement. I hastily replied stating my interest, and we soon met for a little chat about what she wanted and what I was looking for.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At this point I was in the middle of writing my two mammoth dissertations with a combined word count of 16,000 words so there wasn’t much room to discuss anything immediately. Once my degree had finished in May, however, we met again to discuss further actions with the placement. Things were still up in the air as to whether there would be a placement or not so everything was quite nice and informal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By the time July came around I had received my results (a 2:1 classification), and also an email from Vicki asking me to come in for a formal interview. <a href="http://www.wiredsussex.com/jobs/search/all_jobs" style="text-decoration: none !important;">Wired Sussex</a> were running an internship programme, and working alongside FuguPR, they had a role for a PR intern to work with the <a href="http://www.wiredsussex.com/blog/www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk" style="text-decoration: none !important;">Brighton Digital Festival</a>, a month-long festival with over 100 events combining the digital and arts communities through exhibitions, conferences, workshops and performances with a real, great Brighton community spirit running throughout.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Obviously, this was something I was very interested in, so I came in, had the interview, showed my<a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.co.uk/" style="text-decoration: none !important;"> journalism portfolio</a> with film reviews and press cuttings, wrote a mock press release and left again. The next day I got a call from Vicki saying she’d like to offer me the placement, but I had to start straight away because the position (originally meant for mid-August) had been moved to mid-July.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I was working in Angel Food Bakery full-time where I had to give two weeks notice I thought I had lost out on the position. Luckily, thanks to the flexibility of both Vicki and Angel Food, I was able to work both jobs until the end of July – Which was also the month I graduated.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very, very busy indeed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now August is here, I am a full-time Fugu PR intern managing the PR for the enormous Brighton Digital Festival. With the very kind help from Vicki and Penny (Fugu PR executive), I have been taught how to effectively write press releases, approach press, deal with enquiries, manage coverage of the event, provide all information required for press, along with so many other amazing job roles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s a great internship to be a part of, especially for such an brilliantly creative festival and a wonderful, friendly company. I’m lucky enough to be supported by lovely colleagues, as well as work in a job that I’m absolutely and 100% loving.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank goodness for LinkedIn.</span></span></div>
Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-69323402199784530862012-06-30T14:51:00.000+01:002012-06-30T14:55:43.489+01:00[Dissertation] Sexualities and the Cinema<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">WARNING: Strong language and graphic images. </span><br />
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">'Pleasure and Repulsion'</span></b></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The Grotesque Romantic Comedy in Contemporary Cinema</span></b></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Synopsis</b></span></b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Grotesque images of sex and vulgar lifestyle in contemporary culture seem to dominate media outlets in today’s news. When looking into cinema, these images only reflect this point further, presenting audiences with the grotesque lifestyle they have apparently adopted.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Taking <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i> (2005) and <i>Knocked Up</i> (2007) this dissertation discusses exactly those grotesque images. Using the template of a romantic comedy and pushing in images of vulgar activity, they seem to offer a new type of genre, that being ‘The Grotesque Romantic Comedy’. Through this new genre, Bahktin’s theory of the carnivalesque laughter is put into place, with a new type of audience laughing at the transgressive nature of the romantic comedy put forward by Judd Apatow who directed both these films. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Looking into theoretical debates and key scenes from both these films, this piece will explore the idea of The Grotesque Romantic Comedy, and look into the roles of men and women, with a particularly focus on how they are presented to a contemporary audience.</b></span><span style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Introduction</b></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When looking into today’s society, it seems sex dominates almost all outlets available to the public. Stories of celebrities leaking a sex tape are often reported as front page news, surveys conducted throughout the country describe teenage pregnancy rates as raising, and we are even being offered a daily sex position by magazines such as Cosmopolitan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Bluntly suggested by Alan McKee (2005), these outlets ‘make trash’ and ‘produce vulgar’, they ‘avoid serious politics and focus on human interest, sport and celebrities’ (p.66).<b> </b>However, as vulgar or trashy as these outlets may be, Mckee continues his argument suggesting ‘the most trashy culture provides some of the most interesting thinking about the workings of the public sphere’ (p.67).<b> </b>When taking popular romantic comedies today, the image of a trashy, vulgar society comes screaming through. <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin </i>(2005) and <i>Knocked Up</i> (2007), both directed by Judd Apatow, describe some of society’s most vulgar subjects, discussing contemporary, grotesque attitudes towards sex itself. <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>, obvious to the title, discusses Andy (Steve Carrell), a 40 year old man who hasn’t lost his virginity. The film shows his life so far, how he gets by on a daily basis with this (what is suggested) bad trait, and then delves into his pursuit to lose his virginity with a variety of women. <i>Knocked Up</i> on the other hand, takes the opposite route and centers on a couple who get pregnant after a one night stand. Alison (Katherine Heigl), a successful TV producer and Ben (Seth Rogen), an unemployed, weed smoking man have their two worlds collide when this problematic, yet apparently translatable to society situation arises.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">With such vulgarity in media today as suggested by McKee and demonstrated by these contemporary films, it seems romance has been lost. Previous to this specific type of comedy used in <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin </i>and <i>Knocked Up</i>, audiences had become accustomed to the framework of the romantic comedy, detailing ‘the follies and misunderstandings of young lovers, in a light-hearted and happily concluded manner’. The main essence of the stories in the romantic comedy genre has remained intact throughout a history of cinema. Audiences expect to see a film that provides a couple who are unlikely to be paired, and watch as they become more aware and attracted to each other, ending in a climatic kiss to unite them together in a ‘happily concluded manner’. This type of story has been dealt with since 1909 with <i>Le Baromètre de la</i><b><i> </i></b><i>Fidélité</i><b><i> </i></b>(dir. Georges Monca)<i> </i>through to the 1930s with screwball comedies such as<b> </b><i>Bringing Up Baby</i> (dir. Howard Hawks, 1938), during the 1960s with<b> </b><i>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</i> (dir. Blake Edwards, 1961) and into the 1980s with <i>My Best Friend’s Wedding</i> (dir. P.J. Hogan, 1997). These films have the narrative drive of romance running throughout their story, with only a contemporary twist to the type of situation the characters are put in. For example, <i>My Best Friend’s Wedding</i> introduces George (Rupert Everett), Julianne’s (Julia Roberts) gay best friend that accompanies her throughout the whole film. For the time of release, bringing in a gay best friend to a romantic comedy was not yet seen in this genre, yet completely appropriate for the attitudes in society. This shows the only change in a romantic comedy is the modern appeal it olds. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When trying to understand whether <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i> and <i>Knocked Up</i> are appropriate for contemporary times, it seems they fit accordingly when placing them against the vulgar images of sex in media outlets today. ‘New Yorker film critic David Denby identified this new romance comedy as the “slacker driven romance’” (Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, 2011, p.128).<b> </b>With a lead male who is sexually unappealing and fearful of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">female ambition, and a lead woman who is taking charge of her life, the slacker driven </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">romance embraces this idea of the passive man, and exploits the career driven woman. Previously, men were seen as successful breadwinners with an ambition of obtaining a housewife who was the perfect mother and partner. This type of story can be witnessed in many popular romantic comedies, such as <i>As Good As It Gets</i> (dir. James L. Brooks, 1997) in which Carol (Helen Hunt) works as a single mother and waitress who meets Melvin (Jack Nicholson), a rich author who wants to look after her. Today, women are shown to be ruthless, ambitious, successful types while the men stay in an adolescent state, as Karlyn describes, willing to accept the woman’s fate and therefore act up to their teenage state of mind. Through these ideals of the story, the use of love in the film seems to slack. Audiences are being offered grotesque images of sex, bodily fluids, as well as foul language and graphic, revolting scenes, rather than tender moments of passion and connection between the two lead stars. Applying these ideas to <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i> and <i>Knocked Up</i>, rather than the contemporary, popular romance offering ‘gendered expectations of women and men’ as Laurie Naranch (2009, Contents) states, argued by Karlyn (p.129):</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The slacker romance rejects romantic comedy’s belief</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>fantasies driven by male fear of female ambition.</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Through the rejection of a traditional romantic comedy by switching the role of the man and the woman, Judd has created a particular type of representation of the male remaining in a childish state, while the female is represented as an independent, career driven woman. Through this representation, there has been a result of grotesqueness in the films. Due to the adolescent state of the man, and the dominant appeal of the woman in these romantic comedies, the comedy becomes the grotesqueness they provide. </span></span></div>
The foul language, activities and situations that are used through the films turn what once was light-hearted ‘follies and misunderstandings’ into acts of repulsive and graphic actions. The romance is therefore pushed aside, acting as a template for the story rather than a driving motive. Through this the films seem to turn to trash, in terms of McKee’s argument. They produce vulgar images, and ignore serious matters. In doing so they suggest a good representation of contemporary society.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">According to Celestino Deleyto (2010), because the romantic comedy genre and the gross-out teenpic genre seem to dominate the images of these two films, they do not complement each other well. Instead they emphasis the ‘cultural contradictions between them’ (p.29). The films essentially set out two plots and try to combine them into one film, turning what would have been a recognisable romantic comedy into the trashy grotesque romantic comedy being discussed. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Knocked Up</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, rather than solely appealing to a female audience which is predominant with a romantic comedy as Naranch inserts, become inviting to a young male audience due to its vulgar teen appeal. By being so drastically different from what is expected of a romantic comedy, the use of this specific type of gross-out comedy turns the scenes into examples of carnivalesque acts of expression, as Bahtkin (1984) describes. He states ‘the basis of laughter which gives form to carnival rituals frees all mysticism and piety’ (p.7). Freeing themselves from day-to-day rituals, those who participate in carnivalesque activities gain a sense of ‘liberation and freedom’</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(Joachim Wichman Strand, 2004, p.8) by encouraging almost any behaviour. By degrading everything that is perceived as ‘high’ in society, the carnivalesque laughter turns those high societal aspects ‘inside out and upside down’ (p.13). When applying Bakhtin’s argument to the films in questions, those laughing at the supposed to be romantic comedy are actually laughing at its mockery of the genre. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They’re laughing at the graphic ‘conveyance of pleasure and repulsion’ (Robert Phillip Kolker, 2009, p.41) in terms of sex and life that hadn’t been previously seen in a popular film before. They are taking part in the carnivalesque laughter that represents the grotesque in society, emphasising the trash and ridiculing the privileged. No longer are women being aimed at in contemporary romantic comedies, but men are too. It seems in order for the genre to appeal to a male audience it has to take a grotesque turn. Examined by Richard Dyer (1993) ‘popular culture tends particularly to exploit the contradictory nature of things, of attitudes, precisely because it aims to be popular, to appeal to different people with different attitudes’ (p.92).<b> </b>By ridiculing the topics often associated with romantic comedies, such as love between a man and a woman, <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i> and <i>Knocked Up </i>open themselves up to a wider audience as it brings in different attitudes that wouldn’t normally be discussed in this genre. At the heart of the narrative there is a love story running throughout. This will therefore attract a female audience as the films are classed as romantic comedies. But by being hidden with grotesque images and carnivalesque humour, the films create a new type of comedy used within them - That being grotesque which seems to match with society’s representation of love and sex through the media today. Therefore both these films become popular, as Dyer states, attracting males to watch the films as well as females.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">By taking </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> this dissertation will discuss the representation of the grotesque comedy with the predominant story of the film being dominated by men. It will look into the grotesque humour when using sex as the subject, and look at the portrayal of life as a man, as well as the redundant role of the woman. When taking </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>Knocked Up</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, the exploration of women and grotesque, along with the similar appeal of men in the film will be examined, taking contemporary issues of sex and career as the </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">subject. By concluding with the final scenes of the film, this dissertation will examine the true motive behind these grotesque romantic comedies and what they actually offer contemporary audiences today.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The 40 Year Old Virgin</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In an interview previous to <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin’s</i> release, Steve Carell expressed his concerns over the promotion of the film, and seems to confirm Deleyto’s argument of two opposite genres vying for dominance. By stating the film is both “really sweet and grounded and real” yet contains </span></span></div>
elements of “raunchiness” and bawdiness highlights the transgressive nature of this romantic comedy. On the posters for the film, the phrase ‘the longer you wait, the harder it gets’ is printed in bold letters. Along with this, surrounding Andy are couples kissing while he sucks on a straw in beige clothing. Juxtaposing each other, Andy offers the innocence and sweetness of the film by being childlike, while the blatant title and play on words suggests talks of sex and erections bringing in the raunchiness and bawdiness. The concern expressed by Carell offers an indication of how ‘out-there’ the idea of this film was. Even though the public are filled with images of sex, never before has a film been so graphic and open with its topics for a mainstream, popular audience. This brash take on life brings the (what is meant to be) romantic comedy into contemporary society, and begins to offer the grotesque romantic comedy as a substitute for the genre’s expected films. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When looking into the opening scene of the film, no hint towards a romantic comedy is given. The audience aren’t offered both ‘sexes played by well match adversaries’ as Karlyn </span></span></span></div>
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describes, they only witness Andy in his flat alone, surrounded by comic books and action figures. Along with this, Andy has a constant erection but continues to carry out his day to day routine. This blasé use of the erection confirms what the audience expect to see - A film graphically discussing sex in a real and honest way as Carell stated in the interview. By being almost shocking because the images of his erection are so casual yet graphic, the audience begin to participate in an act of carnivalesque laughter. Being so defiant against a traditional romantic comedy, Apatow has created comedy that contradicts the traditional genre images, replacing them with grotesque, sexual ones. Therefore the audience are laughing at its disregard for established expectations, and are enjoying the use of graphic, sexual occurrences. Dyer suggests, ‘the sex comedy is one of the artistic forms that consistently plays on ambivalences surrounding male sexuality’ (p.92). When applying this idea to the opening scene of <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>, the comedy seems to fit accordingly. The film isn’t suggesting or opening up discussion on male sexuality, it is overtly stating it and playing with the images to create the new grotesque romantic comedy genre. Dyer continues to suggest that ‘comedy is an area of expression that is licensed to explore aspects of life that are difficult, contradictory and distressing’ (p.92). By combining these ideas, the film uses its comedy to have male sexuality as a topic, while simultaneously providing male anxieties over sex by discussing being a 40 year old virgin. Rather than using love as a focus for this film, the driving motive is sex, suggesting a move from a romantic comedy to a romantic sex comedy.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Working in ‘Small Tech’, a home electronics shop, Andy is the technician for faulty equipment working alongside Cal (Seth Rogan). As they begin to discuss their weekend, Cal tells Andy about a surreal show he watched. Graphically describing it as “a woman </span></span></span></div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">fucking a horse”, he slowly reveals how unsettling the event was. Through this description, Andy is seen awkward and embarrassed trying to move past the conversation. Once the detailing of this show stops, Andy tells Cal about how he made an egg salad sandwich, which seemed to be the highlight of his weekend. The contrast between the two characters brings together the vulgarness of Cal and the innocence of Steve, and adds emphasis to the grotesqueness of the comedy, and significance of sex to this film. More characters are introduced as Cal expresses his concern to David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Mooj (Gerry Badnob) that he feels Andy is a psychopath. Although his colleagues at this point do not know he is a virgin, the audience do and are therefore aware of his ‘abnormality’. Andy is immediately singled out in the film, which is a common fear among teenagers classing him as the<b> </b>‘nerd’, and the rest of the group as the ‘cool guys’. This notion is represented in numerous grotesque films aimed at teen audiences including the <i>American Pie</i> (dir. Paul Weitz, 1999) and <i>There’s Something About Mary</i> (dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly, 1998). This continues as his workmates toy with the idea of inviting him to play poker. David states “I just wanna get drunk, fucked up and play some cards”. Although Cal protests in a juvenile way claiming Andy is ‘weird’, the rest of the group eventually give in and invite Andy to the game. As the films moves into the game, the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">group are heard describing graphically the weirdest sex acts they have been apart of. Jay </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">describes how a woman he had sex with liked to be “foot fucked”, whilst Cal shares his experience of a dog licking his buttocks as he was about to climax. The conversation then takes a turn as David describes how he made love to his ex-girlfriend, to which the rest of the group protest in the ‘soppy talk’ and ask Andy to tell David what a “real fucked up story” is. After a few initial attempts at making up sexual stories, describing breasts as “a bag of sand”, they soon discover Andy is a virgin. Whilst at first shocked, the group realise </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">the seriousness of the situation to which Jay claims “your dick is my dick, I’m getting you some pussy.” </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This scene benefits the argument that Robert C. Sickels (2011) makes stating Apatow’s productions show the rise in ‘bromantic comedies’ (p.44) through the romantic comedy. By being so open with the idea of sex, the group of men express an agenda which puts sex first and love last, as witnessed through the dismissal of David’s comment on making love, and their pursuit in getting Andy to lose his virginity. From this point in the film, after initial bullying from more store colleagues as they find out he is a virgin (which again emphasises their adolescent state), the group of men make it their aim to find Andy a woman in which he can have sex and lose the dreaded label he is associated with. The film isn’t following a man and a woman in a series of misunderstandings, it is following a group of men who are becoming increasingly closer, sharing experiences and being a part of the ‘bromance’ that Apatow plays focus on. This scene also gives detail to the level of comedy which is included. By being so graphic in the discussion of sex, the images provided are so vulgar and disgusting, that by playing focus to them in the conversation means the film turns from a romantic comedy to a grotesque romantic comedy. Engaging the audience in a carnivalesque laughter, the humour is the graphic images of sex and the defiant behaviour </span></span></span></div>
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against the romantic comedy, as this discussion would never occur in a traditional film of the genre.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Continuing this comedy, to give context to Andy’s situation, the film reverts back to his adolescence. There are several short clips including him receiving fellatio from a teenage girl with braces in which he screams, him failing to undo a bra and then climaxing with his clothes on, and finally him kicking a girl in the face after she sucks his toes. These clips focus on the absurdity of male sexuality (Dyer, p.95),</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and result into him fearing the idea of sex itself. Andy is unable to live up to the expectations of sex which has therefore resulted in him failing to lose his virginity. By taking ‘refuge in a prolonged adolescence’, those watching the film enjoy the comedy that focuses on their ‘poorly groomed, physically unappealing... lacking in drive’ (Karlyn, p.129) appearance and personality. This subject matter and representation of the male to contemporary audiences widens the appeal of this film. Previously the romantic comedy would have been aimed at women due to the relatable woman and desirable man in the narrative. But because the film emphasises the unappealing state of the men and prolongs the appearance of the main female character, the narrative sets itself up as a ‘bromantic’ comedy focusing on the slacker hero and the adolescent buddies. The use of the ‘gross-out’ images seems to address itself to a ‘young male audience’ (Hilary Radner, 2011, p.182) and therefore becomes the contemporary romance film that focuses its attention on the male audience members rather than the females. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When females are brought into the story, they become conquests rather than love interests. The goal for the audience is to watch Andy have sex and lose his virginity. But in order to do so, he has to meet a woman. Although at thirty two minutes into the film Trish </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(Catherine Keener),<b> </b>his love interest, has been introduced the men warn Andy that he cannot sleep with her because she will hate him from being so bad in bed. He therefore needs to meet several women to gain Trish, ironically. In a club, surrounded by his adolescent buddies, Andy is told to look for a drunk woman who he can take advantage of. There is no mention of love or interest - The women are purely being used as sex objects. As the men approach a group of women on a hen party, they state “there’s nothing more horny than a woman about to watch her friend get married”. Andy soon meets Nicky (Leslie Mann), one of the drunk women part of the party. In the club she forwardly kisses him and they soon find themselves in her car as she drunk-drives them home. On the journey home she sings ‘Get Your Freak On’ by Missy Elliott - A song about having sex. After crashing into several cars, they finally find themselves outside her house. At this point Nicky is almost unconscious from the alcohol, but ends up being sick over Andy, covering his face and body. After a short silence Nicky states “I’ll still have sex with you if you want” to which Andy replies “I’ll pass on the sex”. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When thinking of the word ‘grotesque’ the definition states it is a term that refers to all aspects of culture that appears ‘simultaneously horrific and humorous’ (John Collic, 1989, p.74). This scene sums up the definition completely. The use of ‘eccentric behaviour, excess and extraordinary situations’ (Joachim Wichman Strand, 2004, p.13)<b> </b>sets up the carnivalesque laughter by using the horrific and grotesque nature of this woman and the situation they are in as comedy. The film uses Nicky to ‘get away with its barefaced celebration of male fantasies and its consequent lack of concern with women’s interests and desires’ (Deleyto, p.256).<b> </b>He doesn’t want love from Nicky, but purely a sexual fulfillment, which in turn makes her redundant in the narrative. As the film introduces more women from the failed attempt of losing his virginity through Nicky, Deleyto’s<b> </b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">statement continues to be represented. During the scene in which the group of men feel Andy will benefit from a speed-dating session, their aim is to find a desperate woman who will fulfill Andy’s needs. Through the series of women offered to Andy, one is a lesbian who wants to “jump back onto the pogo stick”, another doesn’t realise her breast has slipped out of her top, and another swears in anger at him. The images these women create are completely passive when compared to the men. They offer no sentiment or value to the story other than a few gags and sexual jokes. The women are there to find a companion, but instead the men are there to find a sex object. The film remains in a ‘bromantic’ state in which the men come together at the end of the session and realise what a mistake the activity was. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The only woman that makes in impact to the story is his love interest Trish. After Andy approaches Trish asking for a date from the failed speed dating incident, their story begins in the film, replacing the emphasis on the relationship between the men. They have several bad attempts at having sex, which involves Andy failing to put a condom on, him getting too nervous and Trish’s children walking in on them. They finally agree to go on twenty dates before they have sex, yet still at this point Trish does not know Andy is a virgin. Through these dates Andy seems to develop into a man, moving past his adolescent state. He sells his action figures, becomes a floor manager at work and talks to Trish’s children - In one scenario even attending a sex education class with her daughter. As they become closer, they reach their 20th date and tell each other they are in love. This is when the film seems to turn into a romantic comedy. The couple are becoming increasingly closer, and the female audience are being offered a woman he can finally connect with. As that moment arrives, Andy is packing up one of his most valuable collectable action figures. Trish states it is their twentieth date, and after a little protest from Andy, they carry out a </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">passionate kiss. Through this, the box Andy was packing falls to the ground. Andy seems to overreact to this and pushes Trish away. She states “All you can think about is fucking toys... I’m trying to help you grow up - What do you want me to do to get you to have sex with me? I’ll dress up like Thor, or Iron Man”. Through this conversation, rather than showing the development of Andy, he reverts back to his original state. The film continues to focus on the prolonged adolescence of him, placing matters of toys more importantly than love in his life. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Did we have sex?” - Knocked Up</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Judd Apatow states himself that the aim of this movie was to create a film that was both “real and emotional and sweet” whilst it still made “you pee in your pants with laughter” Knocked Up Interview, <i>Youtube</i>, Online). By combining both these elements, a more conventional appeal is offered in the narrative of<i> Knocked Up</i>, with its opening scenes showing the separate lives of the two lead stars Alison and Ben, and then progressing into a story that follows the lead couple through their misunderstandings. The contemporary twist that offers the grotesque nature of the genre is the situation they are placed in - That being that Alison is pregnant from a drunken one night stand with Ben. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The story initially sets up the characters of Alison and Ben in their separate worlds. Seen wrestling, smoking weed, rollerskating and dancing in a dirty house, Ben is surrounded by his buddies that are carrying out similar activities. As they discuss pubic hair and challenging Martin (Martin Starr)<b> </b>to not shave or cut his hair, it is discovered their career path as a group is to run a website that notes down every female nudity scene in a film. From this initial set up, it is witnessed that the men hold the same prolonged adolescent appeal by being poorly groomed and physically unappealing as Karlyn </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">identifies,<b> </b>and engage in immature behaviour that lowers their adult status, similarly </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">witnessed in <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i><b>. </b>Placed against this in the opening scene is Alison waking up in a house on her own, presented well and sharing breakfast with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her brother-in-law Pete (Paul Rudd).<b> </b>As she arrives at her job working for the entertainment television programme ‘E’ as a producer, she is asked to see her boss, in which he offers her a promotion. Upstaging the men in this film, Alison is the successful career driven woman while the men remain in a passive state of mind, reversing tradition male and female roles in this contemporary romantic comedy. At this </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">point in the film, it seems as if the set up of a romantic comedy is complete according to Claire Montimer (2010) considering ‘the seemingly incompatibility of the central couple is typical of the romantic comedy, with the pairing of the well-favoured heroine with the less illustrious male’ (p.61).<b> </b>Alison, the well-favoured heroine working in a successful television company and Ben, the less illustrious male being unemployed and surrounded by his male companions seem two people that are extremely unlikely the be paired. The predominant female audience come to watch the pairing of the two, allowing this film, compared to <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>, to open itself to a wider female audience from the beginning. Yet it still holds the grotesque humour that Apatow favours with the grotesque sexual talk of pubic hair and naked women, allowing the males in the audience to participate in a carnivalesque laughter they previously witnessed in <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">An added element to grotesqueness in this film is the fact that the central women talk in a grotesque manner too. As Alison tells her sister about her promotion, they decide to go for drinks. In the car journey over, Debbie states how her towels are never as soft because Pete masturbates into them. Continuing through the journey Debbie asks “Guys would fuck me, right?”. Giving credit to this film, Heigl herself stated in an interview that the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">most interesting part about her role was that the narrative offered a voice for both men and women, “its not his or her voice, its the perfect combination of both” (Knocked Up Interview, <i>YouTube</i>, Online).<b> </b>By showing a side to women that does discuss grotesque matters such as masturbation provides an added viewpoint. The audience are being offered a real life situation in which women discuss personal matters. This seems to confirm Apatow’s aim at creating a film that is real and honest.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As the women proceed to the club, the union of the Alison and Ben occurs. They stand next to each other at the bar and share eye contact. Ben states “If you can’t get served, I have no chance.” He eventually gets a drink for Alison, and after an awkward silence, the pair divide. After encouragement from his friend Jason (Jason Segel)<b> </b>Ben approaches Alison again. The pair continue to drink and dance into the night until the point of the club closing. They are both drunk and Alison takes Ben back to her house. They begin removing each other’s clothing to which Ben states “you’re prettier than I am”. Ben tries putting on a condom but through impatience of Alison she claims “just do it already” to which Ben throws the condom on the floor and they begin to have sex. Ben states “I’m sorry about the sweat” and the scene fades to black. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> There is no courtship or love witnessed in the union of Ben and Alison, it is purely for sex. The slightly overweight image of Ben placed against the perfect image of Alison adds emphasis to the comedy. With Ben apologising about his sweat only strengthens the argument that this is a grotesque romantic comedy. The thought of Ben sweating is unpleasant, along with his unappealing image making his representation perfect for the aim of this film. As the pair wake up, Alison is seen holding a coffee cup staring in disgust at the sight of Ben’s buttock bare in her bed. She tries waking him to which he tells her to </span></span></span></div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“fuck off” as he thinks it is one of his housemates. After he realises where he is he states “I’m naked... Did we have sex?” to which Alison responds bluntly “Yes”, and he replies “Nice”. When looking into Raja Halwani’s (2009) argument of casual sex, he states ‘casual sex is not usually considered morally good’ (p.338). By focusing this film around the idea of casual sex, the film breaks down the morally good ideals of sex after marriage, and focuses on a society that has made sex so casual, that picking up someone in a bar and bringing them home becomes a standardised activity. The casualness in its approach </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">to the idea of sex in turns becomes the carnivalesque as it celebrates the breakaway from ‘established order... and norms’ (Bakhtin, p.10)<b> </b>and represents a society that doesn’t put love first, but sex. Halwani continues to suggests “casual sex is sexual activity that occurs outside the context of a love relationship” and therefore means the parties involved purely want sexual fulfillment’ (p.338).<b> </b>Ben’s reply of “nice” marks their act of sexual fulfillment, making their situation so casual they seem to have no feelings towards each. This is emphasised by Alison’s reaction to Ben in her bed. From her grimace at his appearance, the act of sexual fulfillment she gained from the previous night has now turned into a grotesque act of sex. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After the two lead characters establish their relationship, the film begins to delve into the conversation of pregnancy. Whilst at work, Alison is interviewing James Franco, a recognisable Hollywood star. But through this conversation she starts to feel sick, and eventually throws up into a bin at the side of the room. Alison therefore becomes the grotesque element of the film at this point, similarly to Nicky in <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>. She is placed against a very attractive male, but by throwing up she becomes disgusting. To make the scene poignant, James Franco even walks away from her. Through speculation </span></span></span></div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">from colleagues and her sister, she decides to take a pregnancy test in which it is positive. After eight weeks of not seeing Ben due to the causal nature of their relationship, she contacts him. Over dinner she tells Ben she is pregnant and their conversation carries out like this:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison: I’m pregnant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ben: Fuck off</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison: What?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ben: What?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison: I’m pregnant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ben: With emotion?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison: No, with a baby. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">With such a childish reaction to Alison’s serious news, Ben acts as the adolescent male, naively ignoring the idea of a baby and asking whether she is pregnant with emotion. The film keeps Ben formed as this representation by showing how he doesn’t ‘know how to grow up’ (Radner, p.46).<b> </b>This persona he holds is used as the basis of the narrative from now on. The film moves into showing these two unlikely characters dealing with a situation they are unprepared for. What’s interesting, as Montimer states, is the fact that it is not only Ben that is unable to adapt to the pregnancy. Both characters ‘don’t know what decisions to make or how to be adults... There is a shortage of responsible role models’ (p.61). Even though Alison is a successful career driven woman, she claims she never planned for children. When consoling in their parents, Alison’s mother encourages her to abort the baby, while Ben’s father tells him how he used to smoke weed whilst Ben was upstairs. This lack of responsible adult seems to translate itself to society today. With increasingly more successful women, as Liza Mundy’s study discovered ‘in more and more households the woman is the main income earner’ (Robert Wright, 2012, Online) meaning<b> </b>the drive for marriage and children seems to be pushed aside in favour of a good career. With this in mind, men seem to become slightly inferior and revert back to this adolescent state which </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">allows for them to engage in childish activities, meaning both men and women are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">becoming less responsible in their traditional roles of housewife and breadwinner. Taking this idea further, from this point in the film the two are thrusted into a predicament that almost forces them to come together. Alison and Ben don’t decide to be together due to the love of one another, they do what they think is right. In a tender moment between the two as they discuss keeping the baby, Alison states “don’t fuck me over okay?” and they share a kiss. The couple connect and go through a series of events that become comical due to their naivety of the situation - Including Ben playing fetch with Debbie’s children and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison hiding the fact she is pregnant at work.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As Alison’s pregnancy develops, the idea of her as the representation of grotesque seems to become more predominant. After previously witnessing her foul language and vomiting, the audience are already being offered a less than ideal woman as the lead role. As she becomes larger during her pregnancy, the notion of the large woman as a spectacle begins to come into the picture. By being large the women is ‘often constructed as comic spectacle” and “the target of our laughter and butt of the joke’ (Angela Stukator, 2001, p.17). Alison states “just because I’m pregnant I’m not some ruined woman”. Rather than being a desirable female in the film, she turns into an audacious woman. Emphasising this further is the scene in which Alison wants to have sex with Ben to strengthen their relationship. Trying a variety of positions, Alison states she can’t be on top because she feels obese, and that her breasts are moving around too much. When they finally find a position in which they are comfortable Ben states his fear that he will poke the baby with his penis and refuses to have sex with her. From this point the film seems to suggest the more grotesque behaviour occurs, the more their relationship becomes problematised. In a </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">car journey to a sonogram, Alison starts a fight with Ben in which she states “you should just support me. I’ve had to sacrifice my body, my youth, my career, my vagina. It will never look the same.” From this point in the film the couple split. To console Alison, Debbie takes her to the club in which Alison and Ben met, except this time they are refused entry. Confronting the bouncer, Debbie states “Am I not skanky enough for you?” to which he tells her “You’re old as fuck for this club... She’s pregnant”. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> The bluntness these women are expressing, from detailing concerns over her loss of her body, to stating that Debbie is “old as fuck” breaks down the connections between </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison and Ben completely, again providing the significance of grotesque humour in the film. It is a way of representing the modern female concerned with her career rather than motherhood, and the man concerned with his pro-longed adolescent buddies - Which is highlighted as Ben joins them once more after his fight with Alison and they all have pink eye after they have flatulated on each others pillows. These vulgar images on screen offer no way of bringing the couple together, like traditional misunderstanding would in a romantic comedy. They only add to the carnivalesque humour that gives the popularity to the films. The vying for dominance highlights their contradictions and seems to only allow for two separate readings of the film. As Alison gives birth, these difference in images continues to represent the contradictions. The audience are provided with Alison sweating, screaming and swearing next to Ben holding her hand, placed against Ben’s friends who are carrying out juvenile talk of the bet between Martin and Jason<b> </b>as they are in the waiting room. When the two scenarios cross paths, what is given in an extremely shocking close-up of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Alison’s vagina as the baby is crowning.</span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_32GfQkn36Dyb4FvA4Y57gqb3dec5rSzBxOvGe4qMjd5sXZF0vf0VO2qMdv1_a37dQ04zHNk1myPHt8hNifPvdKbXnhZdj1oQWxXZjzo9qUxEo53-JC6gu3z4URqhPnroi761lkVXtCp8/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_32GfQkn36Dyb4FvA4Y57gqb3dec5rSzBxOvGe4qMjd5sXZF0vf0VO2qMdv1_a37dQ04zHNk1myPHt8hNifPvdKbXnhZdj1oQWxXZjzo9qUxEo53-JC6gu3z4URqhPnroi761lkVXtCp8/s1600/images.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jay, another friend of Ben’s, walks into the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">delivery room from being upset by the noises Alison is making and sees this image. She screams at him to leave, and he returns to his friends distressed and appalled by the experience stating “I shouldn’t of gone in there, promise me you won’t go in there”. Although this scene should be the romantic reuniting of Alison and Ben (which has slightly been offered as Alison starts contracting and asks Ben to pick her up previously) it offers a ludicrously dramatic scene in which both the career woman and the adolescent man come together and face this fight for dominance in which the grotesque images of Alison take over the romance, carrying out carnivalesque laughter for the audience to participate in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Named one of Hollywood’s ‘fifty smartest people for his inspired new formulation of comedy’ (Karlyn, p.128) both <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i> and <i>Knocked Up</i> show a ‘distinctive new departure for the romantic comedy... borrowing extensively from the gross-out comedies of the past decade and appealing to a broader audience as a consequence’ (Montimer, p.61).<b> </b>The combination of both romance and grotesque images as examined in the previous two chapters shows the embark of the contemporary ‘grotesque romantic comedy’ witnessed in cinema today. From extreme images of sexual encounters, to foul language and gender role reversals, these films discuss a new romance that fits in with contemporary attitudes towards the casualness and vulgarness of sex in contemporary society. Through the process of the images, according to Bahktin the now broader audience can participate in several types of carnivalesque laughter. This first being that the ‘carnival laughter is the laughter of all the people’ (p.11/12). These films do not </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">intend to isolate a particular group of people, but instead open themselves up for </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">audiences to participates in its ‘triumphant’ and ‘mocking’ appeal to the humour, which is the second type of laughter. The films openly mock the traditional romantic comedy by providing such nasty and sickening ideas and images of the male and female, with sex at the heart of its topic, neglecting love altogether. Finally, the third type of laughter reveals </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">that it is ‘universal in scope; it is directed at all and everyone, indulging the carnival’s participants’. Through the universal appeal these films hold, they become a shared experience between all watching the films. By degrading the high in culture and emphasising the trashy, a ‘temporary new order’ (Strand, p.24) is given in the film setting out the appeal of these contemporary grotesque romantic comedies. They create a template for the story of a romantic comedy, not being traditional in their execution, but being just as popular and well respected as the traditional genre. Through this, according to Naranch (Contents), the audience witness: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Elements of positive transgression of traditional </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">gender roles for women and men to notice: We </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Although as discussed by Karlyn, the slacker driven romance allows for the males to remain in an adolescent state, meaning the domineering women can take charge of their lives and be successful, these reversals do offer the positive transgression that Naranch describes.<b> </b>By providing the grotesque gross-out comedy to the males, and the unlikely couple going through misunderstandings for the females, the romantic comedy has broadened its appeal and therefore created a contemporary film that both men and women can relate to and enjoy. This use of romance in these films shows a ‘process of self-</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">discovery through which both parties come to understand their own identities’ (Spicer, p.78).<b> </b>When looking into <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>, although offering vulgar language and grotesque images, Andy learns that he doesn’t have to be alone due to his label as a virgin, and discovers that a woman will love him for who he is. In doing so, Andy makes the ultimate move from adolescent male to husband by marrying Trish and losing his virginity, all through the process of self-discovery this film has set out. In<i> Knocked Up</i>, Alison learns that her career doesn’t have to be jeopardised by pregnancy. Her boss offers her a presenting role as a pregnant mother who interviews other pregnant celebrities. Ben is seen to move out of his student-like house from his buddies and into his own flat, setting </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">up a crib for his child, and offering a home for his baby and the mother.<b> </b>Karlyn continues to describe how the story ‘eventually maneuvers the male into growing up by fulfilling his fantasy that the women with good looks and good sense loves him even if he has nothing comparative to offer her’ (p.129).<b> </b>The woman is provided with a man who comforts her yet accepts her contemporary feminist attitudes towards her career.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> By participating in this self-discovery that the contemporary romantic comedy sets out, both films seem to revert back to a traditional sense of a romantic comedy. In the final scenes of <i>The 40 Year Old Virgin</i>, Andy ends up participating in the most traditional sense of sex by losing his virginity once he is married. <i>Knocked Up</i>, although sharing a slightly contemporary appeal to their romance by giving no indication of marriage, are shown raising a child together in a happy relationship. Instead of grotesque language or images, the films provide a ‘happily concluded’ story that is presented in all romantic comedies. Looking into Deleyto’s argument of two polar opposite genres combining into one, although when first examined it seems grotesque comedy takes over the narrative of the romance, the final scenes actually offer a very traditional romantic appeal to them. The </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">films unite the couples in a solid bond, offering the audience an ending which is both </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">satisfying and concluding showing the adolescent male can develop, and the unruly woman can be tamed. What gives these films the contemporary appeal is the way in which they discuss sex in such an overt way. But relating to McKee’s point, by producing trash, Apatow provides an interesting look into the contemporary attitudes of sex. Today it seems audiences are much for accepting of casual sex, open to witnessing graphic and blasé uses of sexual images, and are much more accepting of sex before marriage. Through this acceptance a grotesque appeal can be taken to the comedy because, as witnessed through the media, the discussion of sex and the images surrounding it can be grotesque itself. By centering the comedy in the films on grotesque matters allows for a contemporary audience to relate to the film. They are provided with the ‘grotesque romantic comedy’ that represents a contemporary appeal to the attitudes of sex in the narrative, but which also ends in a traditional sense of the genre that they have become accustomed to.</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
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</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-72396512787134569122012-06-29T16:23:00.001+01:002012-06-29T16:23:56.139+01:00Mugly, the world's ugliest dog.I've just received this picture in a press release:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYFrGyNH-yKVJU96YGW_sL5Yf6BkY_iQA7NVPqq96nhr71YrTKU4EFV2PFA9eFzV148_Ijn6WrK_pHLTtXr_4ABw5L20m9dWZxDB8KgTfSAgrNIAhM2tlP2t-npjEhq08Ic6-Eho-1rLB/s1600/mp02+MUGLY+UGLY+DOG.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYFrGyNH-yKVJU96YGW_sL5Yf6BkY_iQA7NVPqq96nhr71YrTKU4EFV2PFA9eFzV148_Ijn6WrK_pHLTtXr_4ABw5L20m9dWZxDB8KgTfSAgrNIAhM2tlP2t-npjEhq08Ic6-Eho-1rLB/s640/mp02+MUGLY+UGLY+DOG.JPG" width="474" /></a></div>
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For anyone that knows me, it will not come as a surprise that I love ugly dogs, especially considering I have a Boston Terrier, so I had to blog about Mugly! </div>
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He won the not so prestigious award of 'World's Ugliest Dog' and will now star in Channel 5's new show Mutt Ugly - I think I know what I'm putting on planner tonight!</div>
<br />Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-74672516841391031462012-06-29T16:16:00.001+01:002012-06-29T16:16:14.531+01:00[Review] The Five Year Engagement<div style="text-align: center;">
I went into this film with my expectations firmly set on neutral. I wasn't expecting a groundbreaking film, or something that was going to move me to my very core. Of course, a film with Jason Segal that was directed by Nicholas Stoller was never really going to offer those things, and it didn't, but that's what made it enjoyable. It's a film you can sit and watch quite happily to cheer you up for a couple of hours. </div>
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Focused on Tom Solomon (Jason Segal) and Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt), the story follows the joys and stresses of getting engaged, and evidently what comes along with it - Commitment. </div>
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The couple were extremely believable as one, and after watching interviews with the two and seeing how much admiration they had for one another (even to the point of Segal writing the part for Blunt) its proven even more so. The film is filled with co-stars that also work with the plot and theme of the film comfortably, offering alternatives to the central 'perfect' couple, creating the comedy and emphasising the love in the film. </div>
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Its not as <i>out-there</i> as you may want it to be. By no means is this a Judd Apatow type of love story. The morals are extremely traditional for a Hollywood production. It seems to have borrowed minor aspects of the grotesque comedy that plays focus in a lot of romantic-comedies today, but still remains grounded in the fact that this is a love story. You follow them from the early stages of getting engaged, through to the planning, obstacles that come their way and then what happens next (You can find that out yourself). </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
I found it interesting that you are offered both the man's point of view and the woman's when it comes to getting engaged. Instead of the man remaining completely passive throughout all the stages of the woman planning her dream wedding, you are offered both their interests and concerns, but in a very real way. The film shows this best in which Violet tries to encourage Tom to talk about his feelings whist he remains cold and states men do not talk about their feelings. You've got both the typical woman and the typical man together in one film, which is what makes it quite a relatable and fun film to watch. </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
What also makes it fun is the fact that if you're a Segal fan, you will not be disappointed. He gets a little bit naked, takes part in dressing up in a ridiculous costume and offers punchlines and silly voices that make you want to burst out with a very loud laugh. Along with Blunt who is a complete English rose with an edgy comical twist, this combination makes for a fabulously amusing film. </div>
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As I said, by no means is this one of those films that you'll HAVE to show your kids when their older to teach them about the joys of cinema, but its definitely one to watch on a Saturday evening, and a good one for Stoller to add to his growing 'Director' list. </div>
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<br /></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-51199425835643219212012-05-30T10:45:00.000+01:002012-05-30T10:46:10.580+01:00Ten Word Review: Avengers Assemble<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>An epic, explosive mesh of everything Marvel has to offer. </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOu5WVx8hi4tlXpswhR0-iN-0hMRx6gVKz0XPg7M8KYvl7GGIFh4IGiF4kVDgPtFFveCZW5n5m26gLCZqplcXZbQrI39PcaQSY5XI0MLMhTcRPxccNynrUN1dts8NydT_tQc5XEUmgO_a/s1600/funny-Hulk-punching-Thor-Loki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOu5WVx8hi4tlXpswhR0-iN-0hMRx6gVKz0XPg7M8KYvl7GGIFh4IGiF4kVDgPtFFveCZW5n5m26gLCZqplcXZbQrI39PcaQSY5XI0MLMhTcRPxccNynrUN1dts8NydT_tQc5XEUmgO_a/s320/funny-Hulk-punching-Thor-Loki.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-66614732538007675782012-01-12T16:11:00.001+00:002012-01-12T16:12:12.389+00:00Disney films in 3D... Yes or no?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVkCg-GhDnqjPrbHHNniS7hR0ekCMIH-dBzZlk53kussY_rcQrOuz1PjFnuPkOEPubNdTzg9o7KSSCpm1ySUmAX2p3cDVSCqTuko80gMp6Gls0xLwFUBefYKpvAKRHOm-IRFNLtcyAtdr/s1600/Unknown21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVkCg-GhDnqjPrbHHNniS7hR0ekCMIH-dBzZlk53kussY_rcQrOuz1PjFnuPkOEPubNdTzg9o7KSSCpm1ySUmAX2p3cDVSCqTuko80gMp6Gls0xLwFUBefYKpvAKRHOm-IRFNLtcyAtdr/s320/Unknown21.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">With the release of the trailer for Finding Nemo in 3D, a hot topic of discussion has come about on whether Disney should be putting their films into 3D or not. What the debate seems to be suggesting is that the films weren’t made for 3D. Disney has had no problem creating success, so putting the films into 3D apparently means they are cashing in on the hype by releasing films that have come and gone already. To an extent this could be true. Disney are choosing particular formats to release their films on that will gross the most money - Whether this is a re-release onto DVD, Blu-Ray, and yes, 3D. This does mean they are making money from new crazes hitting the movie fan’s world. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But there is another side to the argument. What Disney set out to do is showcase their films to every generation. This is why we are given silver, gold, diamond, platinum editions of their films on DVD and Blu-Ray. With the new release of the same film, which becomes more digitally advanced and clearer to watch than the original, Disney are providing their classic tales to a modern audience, fulfilling their goal of allowing all children from different generations to enjoy their films.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Releasing the films in 3D is no different. This year, we should see Beauty and the Beast, Monsters, Inc., The Little Mermaid and of course Finding Nemo in 3D. We’ve already had Lion King 3D, and the more recent Pixar releases such as Cars 2 and Toy Story 3 in 3D. This relatively new craze in cinema means Disney are fitting with the trend, and allowing themselves to stay on top of the game in terms of children’s cinema. 3D will always attract children - It’s exciting, it’s theatrical and it makes them laugh. Anyone who has sat in an audience for a 3D film will know this. Disney are playing on this and bringing children these classic tales with a modern twist because its what they want to see. This new generation are growing up with 3D films. When they get a little older, they will probably learn that 3D cinema is only really good for children’s films, but that doesn’t matter to them now. All they want to do is sit in a cinema with their glasses on, watch fish swim around them and laugh at the jokes Disney create.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6_cizRXtYbLc-2fSAIGQfEYeTgaEaY8E1AkJE6UhdJsu8kfZmghmdrmAUuthdSJmY4oDhi0oBiJc34y6wVdtjDWnMhtYDkbVyXjgL46EddsKzUCur15SkFcpeXzuF4uGxhQdqpbte9-f/s1600/Unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6_cizRXtYbLc-2fSAIGQfEYeTgaEaY8E1AkJE6UhdJsu8kfZmghmdrmAUuthdSJmY4oDhi0oBiJc34y6wVdtjDWnMhtYDkbVyXjgL46EddsKzUCur15SkFcpeXzuF4uGxhQdqpbte9-f/s1600/Unknown.jpg" /></span></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For adults, it seems to be a different case. We are the generation that grew up with the original 2D films. But, I bet you bought the DVD when it was released, and then the Blu-Ray. I know I did. Disney place a lot of emphasis on their work with market research. They find out what’s popular, what’s attracting audiences in, and what works. With us, it was the incredible animations. We were drawn to the cinema to see Sleeping Beauty’s art or Toy Story’s digital animation. With children today, it’s 3D that’s drawing them in. Just because these films have already been in the cinema doesn’t mean Disney can’t provide for a different generation. They’ve taken their films and transformed them into something that children now are going to watch.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This evolving aspect of Disney makes them the company they are now. I personally won’t see the film in 3D because I saw it in the cinema when it first come out, and I don’t particularly like 3D films. But I love the fact that children are being able to witness these tales that I grew up with. Disney films are a part of so many people’s childhoods. You have your favourite film, your favourite character, your worst character. If turning these films into 3D makes them a part of someone’s fond childhood memories and allows them to be involved with these characters, then so be it.</span></span></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-7621169814648369832012-01-12T13:41:00.002+00:002012-01-12T16:03:50.643+00:00How to use Twitter effectively.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIz8K_FWDZnVkFvV7rCvrk5BGyPTxHc6vP7Dq3rb9T6reS0sFGv8Wo0ExGS8EoP5RqZsUmWVmoJZaXUYfvJsgl855THQeHJ8glr3wogW-mg13Qq0XoSL7NevAxTPvxL5KN3ZFPguRRlUbK/s1600/feed-the-conference-twitter-bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIz8K_FWDZnVkFvV7rCvrk5BGyPTxHc6vP7Dq3rb9T6reS0sFGv8Wo0ExGS8EoP5RqZsUmWVmoJZaXUYfvJsgl855THQeHJ8glr3wogW-mg13Qq0XoSL7NevAxTPvxL5KN3ZFPguRRlUbK/s400/feed-the-conference-twitter-bird.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Twitter isn't simply a place where you self indulge in the mundane things you do in a day. It also isn't a place where you just read what you're favourite celebrity does. It's one of the most effective social media websites there is today, and can really help you. Here's a few tips on Twitter, and why you shouldn't be scared of it because it doesn't have a wall or a place to tag friends.<br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
<u>What to do:</u><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Your Twitter Name.</b><br />
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This can simply be your name (Mine's @KellyAlyse) or your blog's name (@TheFilmObsession, for example) - These are probably the most effective as when you start talking to people, they are immediately aware of you and will gain a sense of your personality. This is instead of names like "GlitterFairy64" because you're not really giving the person reading anything to reference, other than the fact that you're a glittery fairy.<br />
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<b>Your 'About Me' section.</b><br />
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When people search for someone to follow on Twitter, the key words you put in your section will make you appear on their suggested list. For example, in my profile I have the words Film, PR, Student, Cupcake and Blog. If someone were to search "Film PR", I'd pop up on the list of suggested followers. Make it snappy, short and effective, and you'll soon have followers. If you want an example, mine is:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">I study film full-time, sell cupcakes part-time and work in PR part-time. I write a blog, attend film related events... And I love lamp.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Who to follow.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Now, with the hundreds of celebrities on Twitter, it can be very easy to start following all of them, read what they say, and then forget to log on after a while - I did that when I first got it. But then I started this blog, and it all kicked off from there. Simply search what you're interested in - This can be from medicine, to bands, to films. You'll soon get a list of people who are doing similar things to you. Also, if you're wanting to be in a particularly competitive industry, like Film journalism for example, follow different outlets you're interested in. More often than not they will post jobs or work experience places available - It can be very helpful.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>What to say.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Make what you say interesting, funny or informative. From there, you'll get followers and people will retweet you. If you follow someone who says something funny, retweet them or respond to them. You'll start a conversation, they might bring other people into the conversation, you'll build more followers, and then you go from there. You can also post things you do like new blog posts, new songs you've uploaded, or photos of something funny you've seen. Believe me, this is what will get people talking the most. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Trending and Hashtags. </b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Down the side of your profile, you'll see a list of 10 things that are currently 'trending' - This means those words are what people are tweeting the most at that point in time. For example "Blue Ivy" was trending when Beyonce gave birth as that is the name of their child, so people were typing "Blue Ivy" in their tweets. A hashtag is a similar thing, but you put a # symbol at the beginning of a group of words. For example #FilmsRepresentingMyVagina - This is a common game. Someone (me) will Tweet 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari #FilmsRepresentingMyVagina'. When you put a hashtag at the beginning of the set of words, they will highlight, create their own page, and anyone that tweets with that same hashtag will also appear in that highlighted page. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>How often to Tweet.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">This can be the making or breaking of how successful you are with Twitter. If you don't say enough, people will lose interest and unfollow you. If you say too much, you'll bombard people's news feeds and they'll unfollow. Keep your tweets interesting, keep in contact with people and respond to someone if they tweet you. That's as simple as it is. There's always going to be people interested in what you're saying, just make sure you've got all the above and you'll build a good network.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Things to avoid: </u></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u><br />
</u></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Too much self promotion</i> - People are aware of what you do already.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Follow Me Back teams</i> - If people want to follow you, they will.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Being creepy and wanting to know too much</i> - Just, don't. You'll get blocked and banned.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Spamming or clicking on spam</i> - You'll just regret it.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Getting annoyed if people don't respond to you</i> - Come on, not everyone is reading every tweet you do.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Linking Twitter with your Facebook if you tweet a lot</i> - Facebook isn't made for uploading something every 5 minutes, people there don't want to read your tweets.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Saying or posting really inappropriate things</i> - A little inappropriateness is fine, as long as its funny.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- <i>Giving too much personal information away</i> - Remember, these people are strangers essentially.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">- Don't be this girl:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ALbH63Ali9U" width="480"></iframe></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>That's it - Now go enjoy Twitter.</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-28020236143420015382012-01-10T11:12:00.001+00:002012-01-10T11:14:46.546+00:00100 years of Universal and you still can't hit the beat.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ZNowLtDAqvvtcomPwuBC74tDLCWBlwqhrUGLrvOMPIOZ_aLekrPmXHKN4ujZ0fss5WEq2VtCVmwpDgpbqxs88nV-R1V7gKjM9aOKavRT8VMvD9PvepoFk-x53qYGXce6jQKgxkBY9WxR/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ZNowLtDAqvvtcomPwuBC74tDLCWBlwqhrUGLrvOMPIOZ_aLekrPmXHKN4ujZ0fss5WEq2VtCVmwpDgpbqxs88nV-R1V7gKjM9aOKavRT8VMvD9PvepoFk-x53qYGXce6jQKgxkBY9WxR/s400/image002.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Does it annoy you too? When you're watching a film and the famous Universal Studios music comes on and you air drum everything else right, expect for that final beat at the end. It bugs the hell out of me. I've done it once I think, and thought I was going to pass out from joy.</div><br />
ANYWAY.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">This year, 2012, Universal are celebrating their 100th anniversary.</div><div style="text-align: center;">If you don't know why that's so important, watch this video and be reminded of how great they are at choosing films to make:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1tUmgyJu1Eg" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">To celebrate, they will be releasing special editions of their most famous films on Blu-Ray including To Kill A Mocking Bird, Jaws and Schindler's List.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">If you're going to watch Dr. Seuss' The Lorax in February, look out for their updated animated logo that will be used in all aspects of the company from now on, and see if you can hit the final beat. </div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-87649113755353204502012-01-09T19:36:00.001+00:002012-01-09T19:36:53.853+00:008 Men I'm Looking Forward To Perving Over in 2012.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">1. Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Amazing Spider-Man.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Z3KnyBcugSFOPA8pd-ObvZIwzyiVqQCZDj5mR5Zcy4Y8Tg6x9zMQC7qySo0jCyQuXoiTD2htjSmQ8q1fBtPCNFWZBqOgAo3gPPaHjNNY-2WOczaBATVlC6MlCHVlU3eYq2QsKhBtbKb7/s1600/Andrew-Garfield-Spider-Man-costume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Z3KnyBcugSFOPA8pd-ObvZIwzyiVqQCZDj5mR5Zcy4Y8Tg6x9zMQC7qySo0jCyQuXoiTD2htjSmQ8q1fBtPCNFWZBqOgAo3gPPaHjNNY-2WOczaBATVlC6MlCHVlU3eYq2QsKhBtbKb7/s320/Andrew-Garfield-Spider-Man-costume.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">2. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man<br />
in The Avengers.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-odkHoajWRjDN8aNnsQqyKtfnYLlDn-sAyhuiNMkWmns5DcfSuTM81WcFHH27KhRUDM-mHXlo_LFXd4oWOHs5Ve87QWysYgwNdyU02nL_akKQIGdIWie_9XfgLZqBw2sNdf52G39sWWM/s1600/avengers-iron-man-robert-downey-banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-odkHoajWRjDN8aNnsQqyKtfnYLlDn-sAyhuiNMkWmns5DcfSuTM81WcFHH27KhRUDM-mHXlo_LFXd4oWOHs5Ve87QWysYgwNdyU02nL_akKQIGdIWie_9XfgLZqBw2sNdf52G39sWWM/s320/avengers-iron-man-robert-downey-banner.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">in The Dark Knight Rises.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24WB-VA5Y5rO7uzsFcmOxYqSJbPo9PvBR5iYRSMA4B5ZauoRHOmE7a_zHUmKcFt3_LvEQdR0jCZYI9YLzS_KNOfLtJYj1KMXRbFDDZhas35cIqN7o2OSL8byP5nspbRTbBUSWDvl7oN6U/s1600/joseph-gordon-levitt-set-the-dark-knight-rises-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24WB-VA5Y5rO7uzsFcmOxYqSJbPo9PvBR5iYRSMA4B5ZauoRHOmE7a_zHUmKcFt3_LvEQdR0jCZYI9YLzS_KNOfLtJYj1KMXRbFDDZhas35cIqN7o2OSL8byP5nspbRTbBUSWDvl7oN6U/s320/joseph-gordon-levitt-set-the-dark-knight-rises-01.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="250" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">4. Ryan Gosling as Luke </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">in The Place Beyond the Pines.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpZ4tEeYWiuv2CAQY1KtGYBRY04TgotLuD9riJZq-BiwsPJW-dtXDnzAm6X7vBtuC0iPiT9Z8WO2c1JIk7SXXnYZipJxBhQq91EcFRRGgfyTlVGE5inoyMQpBwRTRG2hDw53tdq_3ilPP/s1600/ryan_gosling_place_beyond_pines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpZ4tEeYWiuv2CAQY1KtGYBRY04TgotLuD9riJZq-BiwsPJW-dtXDnzAm6X7vBtuC0iPiT9Z8WO2c1JIk7SXXnYZipJxBhQq91EcFRRGgfyTlVGE5inoyMQpBwRTRG2hDw53tdq_3ilPP/s320/ryan_gosling_place_beyond_pines.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">5. Taylor Lautner as Jacob<br />
in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EE62kI7FePiIL6L8aMBQCrQTer0c7pvIcutre8MdE1Dzm7RuMCOFv9GzqPPOys5c1jWmh8ViTore44HkFQkQGW_FL-GiFOK3IA7UXNobHTt2iF2GcpJqoRxclpzSCMSJvmcCnrJxMXR_/s1600/Taylor-Lautner-attends-the-The-Twilight-Saga-Breaking-Dawn-Part-1-premiere-in-Los-Angeles_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EE62kI7FePiIL6L8aMBQCrQTer0c7pvIcutre8MdE1Dzm7RuMCOFv9GzqPPOys5c1jWmh8ViTore44HkFQkQGW_FL-GiFOK3IA7UXNobHTt2iF2GcpJqoRxclpzSCMSJvmcCnrJxMXR_/s320/Taylor-Lautner-attends-the-The-Twilight-Saga-Breaking-Dawn-Part-1-premiere-in-Los-Angeles_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">6. Tom Hardy as Bane<br />
in The Dark Knight Rises.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQU7IzldCGRSDFDQUltP-MJi52lUdp7Mdu9PTcORjJoU8O5EGLLiMwjHdFFlsevt3oG7Z5zjIAgX-aSq1nVt2d4TvvIrz-f1T0MD4iilOToWvLiC17pVYIXeDxwBe__Bq8N6x_M1681xwY/s1600/Tom-Hardy-Bane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQU7IzldCGRSDFDQUltP-MJi52lUdp7Mdu9PTcORjJoU8O5EGLLiMwjHdFFlsevt3oG7Z5zjIAgX-aSq1nVt2d4TvvIrz-f1T0MD4iilOToWvLiC17pVYIXeDxwBe__Bq8N6x_M1681xwY/s320/Tom-Hardy-Bane.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">7. Will Smith as Agent J<br />
in Men in Black 3.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptUuA65E3rXioLLFvRfBvfJ87pwB3SDBACjr8E7FXB8609sbg3WP1jBLYL99yfGEj7T-w8hPv71OWVFW-wl7b-O213LyHBcyYKm3DnB7qFMr5P7q9_x5pGYT7HjVbSPq0kDohqwE640kj/s1600/will-smith-mib3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptUuA65E3rXioLLFvRfBvfJ87pwB3SDBACjr8E7FXB8609sbg3WP1jBLYL99yfGEj7T-w8hPv71OWVFW-wl7b-O213LyHBcyYKm3DnB7qFMr5P7q9_x5pGYT7HjVbSPq0kDohqwE640kj/s320/will-smith-mib3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">8. Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">in Dark Shadows.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDfA2h88jCC7Mj5QcGOmBlmoCzNBbwXJAWA0Fgje7VaUgsGC-P0EmFJMfX_SZQUzfNypejlKFnHTGaaFPtGHh8Ft_sPCF2tFXmklEtrAIKCUU_dXh6oQyu0Ed04cd7HHUWDId4SWtJnOY_/s1600/johnny-depp-and-tim-burton-film-dark-shadows_500x332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDfA2h88jCC7Mj5QcGOmBlmoCzNBbwXJAWA0Fgje7VaUgsGC-P0EmFJMfX_SZQUzfNypejlKFnHTGaaFPtGHh8Ft_sPCF2tFXmklEtrAIKCUU_dXh6oQyu0Ed04cd7HHUWDId4SWtJnOY_/s320/johnny-depp-and-tim-burton-film-dark-shadows_500x332.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I guess I'm looking forward to watching these films, too...</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-85470154414820137292012-01-09T10:39:00.000+00:002012-01-09T10:39:01.968+00:0010 videos that will make you happy.<div>Oh no!</div><div><br />
</div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x5d2wpjMdro" width="480"></iframe><div><br />
</div><div>Heeeeeeeey!</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O6Xo21L0ybE" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>Give him what he wants.</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KBluUZ4NnZg" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>The maple kind? Yeah.</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGeKSiCQkPw" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>Now put your hands up!</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0Bmhjf0rKe8" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>I ruuuuv yoooooooooou.</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qXo3NFqkaRM" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>Mwuahahahahahaha!</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XF7b_MNEIAg" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>Right... there.</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g9f-6jygRJk" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>If he come in here, he'll kick my ass!</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Fk-1mla0LeU" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br />
</div><div>It's a Syd!</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OgrZ5Dtsi-E" width="480"></iframe></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-83048491704243070802012-01-08T22:59:00.001+00:002012-01-08T23:00:12.688+00:002011, you were good to me.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBCRI6bjSW3PQ58Vnyp12l0F9khHJkAZir5hTDzfM5R-Q9UXeGj9hlmKeSZ-Pqxpox-a5JG9cis-o7MQrZqXPFbHvlrvv0xDZ88WrjiSP1_R3ljcpkcR7nuG7LeU0P42oy7mNadn8UuCE/s1600/DSCF2536.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBCRI6bjSW3PQ58Vnyp12l0F9khHJkAZir5hTDzfM5R-Q9UXeGj9hlmKeSZ-Pqxpox-a5JG9cis-o7MQrZqXPFbHvlrvv0xDZ88WrjiSP1_R3ljcpkcR7nuG7LeU0P42oy7mNadn8UuCE/s400/DSCF2536.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">So, in 2011 I...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- had my 21st Birthday</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- celebrated mine and Jonny's 1 year anniversary</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- saw Kate Nash</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- saw Guillemots 4 times, and met Fyfe Dangerfield twice</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- saw Wicked</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- saw Russell Howard</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- was in the audience for the Beyonce TV special</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- saw a very good friend perform in Wind in the Willows outside</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- got Syd</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- moved in with the 'The Film Girls'</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">- left HMV</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">- started working at Angel Food Bakery</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- started my last year of University</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- did a talk to 3 groups of A Level students at my old school about Film Journalism</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- did work experience at Bullet PR</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- volunteered at Empire Big Screen</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- was a guest on a radio show in Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- filmed and interviewed at the Empire Jameson Awards and Paul world premiere</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- attended the Arthur, Never Let Me Go DVD release and 50/50 press screening</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- got invited by BBC to celebrate Mark Kermode's 10 year anniversary in Manchester</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">- tweeted from the BAFTAs</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">This was an incredible year with memories I'll treasure for a very long time. Looking back through all these things is quite overwhelming for me. It just goes to show how much you can get done in a year, I guess. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">I hope your year was just as eventful as mine, and lets hope 2012 brings some more amazing moments.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Thanks to everyone who was a part of my 2011. You made my year.</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-46867541662440369042012-01-05T00:02:00.000+00:002012-01-05T00:02:46.424+00:0013 Films of 2011 Represented Through Onomatopoeic Words.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dbrxBBFa0Q8/TwTmO7rwp-I/AAAAAAAAA0s/j7AhbcHceZs/s1600/Unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dbrxBBFa0Q8/TwTmO7rwp-I/AAAAAAAAA0s/j7AhbcHceZs/s1600/Unknown.jpg" /></a></div>I've been asked by a few people what my top 10 films of 2011 were, but to be honest I haven't really thought about it. I didn't see or review nearly as many films I wanted to for various reasons.<br />
<br />
So instead, what I'm going to do rank the films I reviewed on this blog from awful to brilliant with onomatopoeic words to reflect my general mood towards them.<br />
<br />
This should suffice. If not, then, wait until 2013 and I'll do a top 10 of 2012.<br />
<br />
So, here we go...<br />
<br />
13 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/01/reef-dvd-review.html">The Reef</a> (Errugh)<br />
<br />
12 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/01/rebound-dvd-review.html">The Rebound</a> (Ffffffeeeew)<br />
<br />
11 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/04/roommate-review.html">The Roommate</a> (Tut)<br />
<br />
10 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-pirates-of-caribbean-on-stranger.html">Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides</a> (Hmm)<br />
<br />
9 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-bad-teacher.html">Bad Teacher</a> (Meh)<br />
<br />
8 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/04/arthur-review.html">Arthur</a> (Huh?)<br />
<br />
7 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-transformers-3-dark-of-moon-3d.html">Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon</a> (Ummm)<br />
<br />
6 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/02/buried-review.html">Buried</a> (Mmmmm)<br />
<br />
5 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/05/made-in-dagenham-dvd-review.html">Made in Chelsea</a> (Woohoooo!)<br />
<br />
4 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-x-men-first-class.html">X-Men: First Class</a> (Oooo)<br />
<br />
3 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/04/submarine-review.html">Submarine</a> (Ahh)<br />
<br />
2 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/02/paul-review.html">Paul</a> (Hahahahahaha)<br />
<br />
1 - <a href="http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-senna.html">Senna</a> (Phwwoar)<br />
<br />
I would like to just remind you that these were the only films I reviewed on this blog last year. It's not a reflection of my favourite films of the year at all. Films I saw which deserve an honourable mention are 50/50, Breaking Dawn and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, particularly 50/50. Although, I don't think many films I could have watched and reviewed would have beaten Senna. It moved me so much I can remember exactly how I felt as I left the cinema.<br />
<br />
So there. Sorry it's not exactly what you wanted, but it is a little bit. Look out for a "Best Things I did in 2011" blog soon...<br />
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For now, here's a video of turtles high fiving each other:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UmrkhEKoQs8" width="560"></iframe>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-73418334874607346072012-01-02T22:55:00.000+00:002012-01-02T22:55:23.449+00:002012 is already turning out to be cra...... ZY.<br />
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So, it's only the 2nd of January and I already have lots of things to look forward to.<br />
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<b>1 - Returning to university.</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-665jd_JT0Jo/TwIxDrePUZI/AAAAAAAAAzM/qSjeBiU5fj4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-01-02+at+22.34.27.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-665jd_JT0Jo/TwIxDrePUZI/AAAAAAAAAzM/qSjeBiU5fj4/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-01-02+at+22.34.27.png" width="320" /></a></div>Although 3rd year is horribly stressful, who I'm living with, what I'm studying and where I am is incredible this year. I live with 3 other wonderful ladies who also study film. They're all mental... But in a good way, it's not like I'm living in an asylum. The topics we've chosen seem to be really interesting ('Sexualities in Cinema' and 'Cinema and Realism', if you're interested), as oppose to the standard ones you're given in first and second year. Our house is lovely and CLEAN, and Brighton especially is just getting better and better the more I discover it. I have great friends from Angel Food and HMV, and an alright boyfriend so going back to university is only a delight. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mkTm-MFyDZE/TwIyFS0FBFI/AAAAAAAAAzY/-qLBQc-IvKE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-01-02+at+22.38.52.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mkTm-MFyDZE/TwIyFS0FBFI/AAAAAAAAAzY/-qLBQc-IvKE/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-01-02+at+22.38.52.png" width="320" /></a></div><b>2 - I have a new job.</b><br />
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As well as working in the lovely Angel Food Bakery with these crazy girls (including another gorgeous girl to my left in this photo who also studies film), I will also be working for Bullet PR - A creative PR company in Brighton. I did a few days work experience at the beginning of December and they've asked me to come back one day a week. I am so unbelievable happy about this.<br />
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<b>3 - Graduating.</b><br />
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After starting in 2009, I'm finally finishing university. I say "finally" as if I've been waiting desperately for this to happen - That's only half true. I do absolutely love the lifestyle, the social life, the friends, the classes, the course, the uni. But I am completely ready to stop referencing and getting results back... Just after another 16,000 words to write.<br />
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<b>4 - A holiday.</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ztN0yGC9TzQ/TwIyzYIFcEI/AAAAAAAAAzk/yuyCcjfMamI/s1600/n532685531_6400976_1001023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ztN0yGC9TzQ/TwIyzYIFcEI/AAAAAAAAAzk/yuyCcjfMamI/s320/n532685531_6400976_1001023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I haven't been able to sit on a sandy beach, swim in the warm sea, wear a bikini or get a tan since I was about 14 I think. I'm going to be 22 this year. How awful is that?! After university my boyfriend and I have decided we need to let our skin feel the loveliness of vitamin D. This means a holiday with a plane involved. That's not quite the same as a 5 hour journey in a car to the cold, cold Cornwall but I think I'll be okay.<br />
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<b>5 - Going into the real world.</b><br />
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All I want is to leave university and go into Film PR. I'm not stupid. I know this is near impossible but I am going to do all I can to make this happen. It might take days, months or years, but this WILL happen. It's my calling, I can feel it. I've done work experience in almost everything else to do with film, and this is the only thing I really enjoy and do well. So, if I don't make it happen I'm pretty much screwed. Unless I open up a cupcake shop, which is my back up plan.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A0-26Sh9M-s/TwIzmHssYsI/AAAAAAAAAzw/lU7BUJqxROE/s1600/316082_10150819241005532_532685531_20855252_761991533_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A0-26Sh9M-s/TwIzmHssYsI/AAAAAAAAAzw/lU7BUJqxROE/s320/316082_10150819241005532_532685531_20855252_761991533_n.jpg" width="296" /></a><br />
I don't really make New Year's Resolutions - I give into temptation too much to say "I'm not going to eat chocolate." Plus, I do work in a shop that sells cake so you tell me how I could go on a diet with discounted cake in front of me?<br />
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Instead I think of things I'd like to do. The things on this list include things I'd like to do, like graduating and getting a job, so I'll stick with those. Maybe I'll add "Buy more DVDs" to the list as well.<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">So, there you go. 5 things that makes this year CRAZY already.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Wow.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Happy New Year! </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Make this year excellent. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-91424879643481131792011-12-28T23:06:00.001+00:002011-12-28T23:09:45.385+00:00The most anticipated film of 2012 for me is...<div style="text-align: center;"><b>... Frankenweenie!</b></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pBcCQRQPrkc/Tvudh-THZQI/AAAAAAAAAyk/qdbJLSpgjoI/s1600/Frankenweenie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pBcCQRQPrkc/Tvudh-THZQI/AAAAAAAAAyk/qdbJLSpgjoI/s400/Frankenweenie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo published by HeyUGuys.co.uk</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;">I absolutely adore Tim Burton. Admittedly his most recent films haven't been the greatest in the film world, but next year seems to show a revert back to his original interest of gothic animation.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2qsrxj2xO8s/TvueWO-aD1I/AAAAAAAAAyw/7OkoOSV9mvs/s1600/frankenweenie-2012-20111028024943177_640w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2qsrxj2xO8s/TvueWO-aD1I/AAAAAAAAAyw/7OkoOSV9mvs/s400/frankenweenie-2012-20111028024943177_640w.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Frankenweenie's cast includes Burton's favourites such as Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Landau and Conchata Ferrell. The film tells the story of Young Victor conducting scientific experiments to bring his dog back to life... But with this comes some strange side effects.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T97QUrYGgLo/TvueWj7yHdI/AAAAAAAAAy4/v1Qfk_FPFko/s1600/frankenweenie-2012-20111028024943730_640w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T97QUrYGgLo/TvueWj7yHdI/AAAAAAAAAy4/v1Qfk_FPFko/s400/frankenweenie-2012-20111028024943730_640w.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">God, it's going to be good.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-51874618791485006612011-12-27T00:50:00.002+00:002011-12-27T11:36:55.095+00:00Why do sausages wrapped in bacon make me think of Teeth?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2-4ETlETYw/TvkUKYoKEYI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/NmKOg3FdCSc/s1600/Teeth+severed+penis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2-4ETlETYw/TvkUKYoKEYI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/NmKOg3FdCSc/s1600/Teeth+severed+penis.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merry Christmas!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It's a very depressing question to ask yourself on Christmas day. Sausages wrapped in bacon are the one thing on that whole plate of food that turn it from good to great. The simpleness of a sausage wrapped in a meaty coat of bacon is a luxury so pleasurable it makes me want to cry. But you know what else made me want to cry? When I saw one laying on my plate, all pink and juicy, and likened it to Brad's severed penis in Teeth. What made it worse was watching my dog eat one too.<br />
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I'm sorry to put that horrific image in your head, but I wanted you to feel my pain, because apparently I'm a sadistic cruel woman. Currently I'm writing a 4,500 word essay on how women are represented as monstrous in film, and chose Teeth as my main film to discuss. So, instead of watching The Snowman or playing family games, I've taken it upon myself to spend my Christmas break repeatedly analysing scenes in which Dawn castrates men. I'm also writing this for a very, very strong feminist who hasn't seen Teeth, so describing this film and how it does portray feminism effectively is a particular challenge I'm finding interesting.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8gJWy5dC0wM/TvkVJMbMJ5I/AAAAAAAAAxc/O-6baA1_AdA/s1600/407015_10151072162605302_571585301_22158328_303581863_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8gJWy5dC0wM/TvkVJMbMJ5I/AAAAAAAAAxc/O-6baA1_AdA/s320/407015_10151072162605302_571585301_22158328_303581863_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I get told my dog looks a little S&M in this...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>My Christmas hasn't been completely filled with vagina dentata, however. I've watched Elf (possibly my favourite Christmas film besides Jingle All The Way), Santa Claus The Movie and Miracle on 34th Street. These are my go to films to get me in the Christmasy mood. Usually Love Actually is whacked out on Christmas Eve, but this year my family chose to walk my dog through muddy woods then crack open the champagne - Not a bad substitute. I just watched the scene with Andrew Lincoln telling Keira Knightley he loved her through cards on YouTube. That's one of the only reasons I watch that film, and to see Rowan Atkinson as the sales assistant, and Bill Nighy as the rock star... Oh sod it, I <i>actually</i> bloody love that film.<br />
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Christmas day itself was a wonderful affair, besides the whole penis incident... I got some lovely presents including amazing speakers for my laptop so I can watch scenes like this and listen to every little detail:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="328" src="http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/4dc7a8d8f6" width="512"></iframe><br />
<div style="font-size: x-small; margin-top: 0; text-align: left; width: 512px;"><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4dc7a8d8f6/great-moments-in-movie-history-25-teeth-vagina-dentata" title="'from theoffline">Great Moments In Movie History 25: Teeth - "Vagina dentata!"</a> - watch more <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/" title="on Funny or Die">funny videos</a> <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=138711277798&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.funnyordie.com%2Fvideos%2F4dc7a8d8f6%2Fgreat-moments-in-movie-history-25-teeth-vagina-dentata&send=false&layout=button_count&width=150&show_faces=false&action=like&height=21" style="border: none; height: 21px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: middle; width: 90px;"></iframe></div><br />
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After I've written this essay, I'm doing a research project of the same length on Batman Returns... Hopefully that won't traumatise New Years for me too much. I hope your Christmas was filled my merriment and joy, and you have a lovely new year! I'm sure you'll be kept up to date with my opinions on penis-less men again at some point.Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-81599100560924292942011-12-24T02:32:00.002+00:002011-12-24T02:36:53.088+00:00The Film Obsession is changing...<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LHpdgHTINik" width="640"></iframe><br />
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I know, I don't usually like change either, but this time its for the good, trust me!<br />
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If you're a keen reader of this blog, or just keep up to date with the things I do through the various social networking sites, you probably would have noticed I've slowed down on the reviews and features. This isn't because I've grown to dislike it intently, it's because I'm a 3rd year student, soon to be an unemployed graduate.<br />
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To anyone that's been to university, or to anyone with an imagination, you'll understand what its like to juggle university work, a part-time job, the desperate attempts at trying to find work experience, and not forgetting the social life you somehow have to create. This is exactly what I'm experiencing at the moment.<br />
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I naively thought I'd be able to jump into 3rd year no problem and settle back in fine. The truth is, the gear's changed and I'm not fond of it. The workload is incredibly intense, and the expectations are high. In order to even try and get close to what is needed, I had to cut a few things off the list, and one of those things (regrettably) was adding to this blog. I tried writing as much as I could, but I found my writing lost its edge a bit. I started to feel that I had to write rather than a wanting to write.<br />
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This is why my blogs have been very infrequent, even though I promised to do more, and even start those vlogs again - Yeah, that's not going to happen. It turns out I'm too cringe stricken to even face watching my old ones, let alone start doing more.<br />
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So, with all this in mind, I'm going to change what The Film Obsession is. Rather than just a way of advertising my articles to readers of the Internet, I'm going to turn it into a more personal blog. I'll write about weird encounters I have, exciting things to happen to me, and generally talk about things that intrigue me. Of course I'll still write reviews and features on film, because that is what I love. But I'm hoping this new sense of personalisation will help with finding my writing style again.Too many times I've written formal essays that my creative writing has started to feel too formal. And formality is the last thing I want... Which probably isn't the best, come to think.<br />
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ANYWAY.<br />
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"The Film Obsession... And my weird and wonderful life" starts here.<br />
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MERRY CHRISTMAS! (Go onto Google's homepage).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--k3x2ua1tvc/TvU5nXteRSI/AAAAAAAAAwg/Vel_OTa0sB0/s1600/Unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--k3x2ua1tvc/TvU5nXteRSI/AAAAAAAAAwg/Vel_OTa0sB0/s1600/Unknown.jpg" /></a></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-74435843978047032862011-11-08T17:31:00.002+00:002011-11-08T17:40:13.733+00:00An alternative look at a fight scene in The Dark Knight RisesBefore you see the videos below, just look at this great photo:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpbs9OIbgexB9u2hsWF2YXvShhTGi8nXE5JD9p89wm0104E9FOjtbemqzruWAn4FuAB9afbast5PIE7P2zCz5orkD8ANU7NUsYjzQBMv5D09EfoRggLDP4y0AiIF6yL2zUnc6QEXGQNM9A/s1600/dark-knight-rises-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpbs9OIbgexB9u2hsWF2YXvShhTGi8nXE5JD9p89wm0104E9FOjtbemqzruWAn4FuAB9afbast5PIE7P2zCz5orkD8ANU7NUsYjzQBMv5D09EfoRggLDP4y0AiIF6yL2zUnc6QEXGQNM9A/s640/dark-knight-rises-2.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><br />
Anyway! It seems some lucky people on Wall Street have got to witness scenes being filmed for The Dark Knight Rises. The videos below are all taken from people working in buildings surrounding the area. It beats checking the stocks, right?<br />
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There are a few videos roaming around, but these were some of my favourites:<br />
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(P.s. If you play these all at once with your speakers on full volume, you might feel as if you're there)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fKhB2ooH7nA" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cE-NHipP7N0" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_Ht8py2Hffw" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QIbbooX86_w" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OPfv8eBgELo" width="640"></iframe>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-33281283179040214172011-10-28T11:05:00.000+01:002011-10-28T11:05:14.548+01:00Why did the audiences clap at the end of Johnny English Reborn?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7HTIf7jz_-dqapuy2HM6ytzu-O9RG_ITUl0fFXwFrXe9EYCVbJl2Isj7XPdgBTpqcpMzKW3_0bVUILJVn2pU-LEehyphenhyphenLpQgLqYbbCJTIBHygPUcZ8Y2lEf4eBQ2ekDNfa1kUDgR1Tfs76/s1600/Johnny_English_Reborn%2528movie_wallpaper_pictures_photo_pics_poster%2529Johnny_English_Reborn_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7HTIf7jz_-dqapuy2HM6ytzu-O9RG_ITUl0fFXwFrXe9EYCVbJl2Isj7XPdgBTpqcpMzKW3_0bVUILJVn2pU-LEehyphenhyphenLpQgLqYbbCJTIBHygPUcZ8Y2lEf4eBQ2ekDNfa1kUDgR1Tfs76/s320/Johnny_English_Reborn%2528movie_wallpaper_pictures_photo_pics_poster%2529Johnny_English_Reborn_5.jpg" width="320" /></a>Eight years after the first Johnny English film graced our screens, we're now being taken back to that same state of mind with the sequel that was released earlier this month. Almost three weeks after it came roaring into cinemas and hearing quite poor reviews of the film, I (reluctantly) decided to watched it. To my surprise, the cinema was almost full with the audience's ages varying from 8 to 80! It was filled with laughter from beginning to end, and as the film came to a close the audience clapped. Only once have I experienced this happen, and that was at the press screening of Scott Pilgrim - And that really did deserve an applause. So why do audiences love these films so much?<br />
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The first, most obvious reason that comes to my mind is the fact it stars national treasure Rowan Atkinson. In England this man can do no wrong. He gained fan's attention from Black Adder, became internationally popular with Mr Bean, starred in films such as Love Actually and Rat Race, and is now Johnny English. With these comedy roles securely placing him as one of the most popular comedians of our time, he literally can do no wrong, including starring in this relatively dull, silly film.<br />
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The second reason could be because it is a silly film. You're not there to experience a life changing, melodramatic performance that's been created to make everyone rethink about the way a film can be produced. It's there to gain cheap laughs, fulfil that inner child's humour and be a fun couple of hours to pass on a day off. Added with this, the third reason could be because it caters to so many different people. The target audience isn't set strictly to children, so the protagonist isn't a spy child ready to concur the world. But it also isn't set in stone for adults, so it contains slapstick comedy ready to make the young'uns laugh. By doing this makes it a perfect family film. No one's going to be frightened, no one's going to be bored (well...) and everyone's going to enjoy the silliness.<br />
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The forth, probably most important reason, is because it's a British film. We've all seen how successful The Inbetweeners Movie was. Us Brits love a good laugh when the comedy is directed exactly for us. It's a sarcastic film filled with iconic shots of London and the way English people see themselves as. We take it as one of our own creations, and being typically British, we're very proud of that and will support it.<br />
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And finally, the fifth reason why audiences could love it so much is because he isn't actually a good spy. He's an everyday guy, getting into situation that anyone of us, when put into that situation, would do. We would trip over things, we would miss a shot when killing a bad guy - That's what makes him so relatable for audiences to enjoy. Johnny English doesn't try to be the smooth badass that gets all the ladies, he's the extra in the film that's been given a chance to shine.<br />
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So whether you hate these films or love them, you can't deny they are perfect for a family gathering, sitting in front of your TV after watching The X Factor, and seeing the stupid antics he gets up to. Whether it deserves an applause, I'm still not sure...<br />
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<i><b>He is a bit brilliant.</b></i><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6Sf_pogZ8jE" width="480"></iframe>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-66115865444427513082011-10-21T22:23:00.000+01:002011-10-21T22:23:35.015+01:00Psycho trailer: The best (or most ridiculous) trailer I've ever seen.<div>During my seminar this week for a module called 'Hollywood: Industry and Imaginary" we were shown this trailer for Psycho (1960). </div><div><br />
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</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMimNElW3vGJcJO7anZFuczV4V9xi0ZVfD6mZUw3ZKyBlIDO6Ck8cu4bgFi-ru6wuMivUqMuD2UE25z1lKJKGlQyuEDfrCD18gHfxg0P1tQXzrq-G4pumV2LSpwDv6Cd3O04A55oLRWTCy/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMimNElW3vGJcJO7anZFuczV4V9xi0ZVfD6mZUw3ZKyBlIDO6Ck8cu4bgFi-ru6wuMivUqMuD2UE25z1lKJKGlQyuEDfrCD18gHfxg0P1tQXzrq-G4pumV2LSpwDv6Cd3O04A55oLRWTCy/s200/images.jpg" width="158" /></a>Isn't it just the best thing you've ever witnessed in your whole life? </div><div><br />
</div><div>Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but just how intrigued were you to carry on watching it? You might of found it cheesy, funny, creepy or weird, but you still didn't switch it off. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Why do we not get films advertised like this anymore?</div><div><br />
</div><div>Hitchcock, what a man.</div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-4952458890571974052011-10-20T16:48:00.001+01:002011-10-20T16:50:05.275+01:00Hey, I'm back.July 1st, 2011 - That is when my last blog was. How disgraceful is that?!<br />
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I'm sorry if you have been waiting for a post at all. I've had a few comments asking whether I had stopped blogging, or why I haven't updated it in so long, or why I haven't been at any events. This poor thing's been so neglected. But now I am back, but with a change.<br />
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Previously this blog was mainly focused on formal reviews or press event coverage. But recently I've had to slowly come to terms with the fact that trying to attend press events, work a part-time job and study at a 3rd year level is very, very stressful. So, I will of course keep blogging, but at a more relaxed pace with a few features on various random topics. I will try to attend as many events or screenings as I can, so they won't be forgotten either. But there won't be a post twice a week or something like that. I will use this blog as a way of expressing how I feel over different film issues, review films I see at the cinema or a screening when I get a chance to go and do the same with events.<br />
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I really need to focus on finishing my degree and actually figuring out how I'm going to have a career after university.<br />
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So, yes, The Film Obsession is still alive. I will post a new video on here in the top left corner which I discover to do with film, and will generally post as and when I can.<br />
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Thanks for sticking with it and keeping an interest!<br />
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Kelly x xKelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-5667653563790844742011-07-01T14:18:00.000+01:002011-07-01T14:18:39.346+01:00[Review] Bad Teacher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglX770muTNlhlLgY1ZYduTvRYgd1ammaK1sSYs02w1qi0TKYBp34t_fr2UCO6EEshOkpbiGWjkcck0PqDuRhx3MO57trkQEcC2khGlciaJU_lHeaDOAxMuJIKnR_PfKAPtsI2GuHZVZ05G/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglX770muTNlhlLgY1ZYduTvRYgd1ammaK1sSYs02w1qi0TKYBp34t_fr2UCO6EEshOkpbiGWjkcck0PqDuRhx3MO57trkQEcC2khGlciaJU_lHeaDOAxMuJIKnR_PfKAPtsI2GuHZVZ05G/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>Cameron Diaz isn't exactly recognised for her moving performances. When in interviews, she doesn't conduct herself as a typical Hollywood superstar. Bad Teachers is never going to be seen as a groundbreaking movie. That being said, it doesn't mean this film is any less of a movie just for those facts. It's surprisingly entertaining with quite dark humour running throughout the storyline, making what seems to be an awful film actually quite enjoyable.<br />
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I didn't have any expectations whatsoever when venturing into the cinema to see this film. Truth be told, I love Justin Timberlake as an actor, so I wanted to see how he would live up to the role. He isn't the shining light in this film, but still plays a humorous part. His personality as Scott seems a little confusing and peculiar which can make some scenes (particularly the 'sex' scene with Diaz) a little uncomfortable to watch, but I think that's the point.<br />
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Diaz (Elizabeth) to me isn't all that entertaining to watch either. You can see her role from the trailers, and that's exactly what you get in this film - A really bad teacher. Not just bad as in she breaks a few rules, but as in she just doesn't know how to teach. She isn't even changed in the traditional Hollywood fashion by the end of the film either, which leaves you feeling a little empty. This might be because they're hoping for a sequel - "Badder Teacher".<br />
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The two characters that do shine are Jason Segel (Russell) and Phyllis Smith (Lynn). Segel is a match for Diaz playing the love interest, but in his own perverted way. This adds some great lines in the film such as "Hold my ball sack" whilst he's carrying a bag of basketballs. I like that sort of humour, don't judge me. Smith has the audience laughing the most. She is so adorably awkward and shy, that her little drawn out lines and odd love for Elizabeth is so amusing and endearing to watch.<br />
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That's what exceeded my expectations the most about this film, the humour. It seems you'd get lots of silly jokes around how bad she is as a teacher. Although that's obviously a running theme throughout the film, it's the personalities that make this a good fun watch. It's not to be taken seriously. And because I went in with such low expectations, I came out pleasantly surprised and quite happy to watch it again with a group of friends.<br />
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So, the moral of the story is - never be swayed by film reviews...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WhwbxEfy7fg?rel=0" width="480"></iframe>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807765655799114795.post-46679514288647968312011-06-29T22:03:00.000+01:002011-06-29T22:03:47.989+01:00[Review] Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (3D)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9la0GcaidWCgkncT4T_RS-IkXon3fYha0rk9cDYxQMxARLyoI1HmP2LW6l1NeU0YzjrGpnJbtjeInUsBvuxfcZ-fO-h6nOQB87YsMsvoBUyuLxwKvb8P9P-by07CdHPOB2Oitpi-pqov/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9la0GcaidWCgkncT4T_RS-IkXon3fYha0rk9cDYxQMxARLyoI1HmP2LW6l1NeU0YzjrGpnJbtjeInUsBvuxfcZ-fO-h6nOQB87YsMsvoBUyuLxwKvb8P9P-by07CdHPOB2Oitpi-pqov/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a></div>Michael Bay knows how to make an explosive, mind blowing, action-packed film. I can imagine if another director were to compete with his obvious love for this detail, they would be pretty hard done by. You can witness his work perfectly in the Transformer films - And this one is no different. But, if you are going to see the film for anything other than watching the screen fill with torn apart buildings and robots fighting in surprisingly impressive 3D (Plus, of course for some lingering eye-candy shots of a hot blonde) you will be massively disappointed. I want to say I was entertained, but I can't. However I also want to say I really disliked it, but I can't. <div><br />
</div><div>What let the film down in my opinion was the length and the storyline of it. There were so many scenes, including the ridiculously long set up of the story in the first quarter, that could have been easily reduced and had a more quick, easily understood impact. As it was so drawn out, the focus to the story becomes hazed and the inevitable fight towards the end of the film is all you want to wait for. </div><div><br />
</div><div>The dialogue seems to have lost its witty edge as well. The parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) are there as if to keep the fans happy without a real influence on the story, which is a shame because they were always a highlight to the scenes in the previous two. Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky) still plays the scaredy-cat hero, but because he's got a knowledge of what the robots are, there's less surprise and more of a "LET'S GO!" attitude. </div><div><br />
</div><div>There's no human character written into the story that really stands out in the film. Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) plays the new Megan Fox and does live up the the expectations, but doesn't have the bad girl image alongside it, so she falls under the damsel in distress category which leaves her passive to the story. If John Malkovich (Bruce Brazos) had more of a role in the film, I think he could have really lifted it, but he was a cameo for a fun few scenes. </div><div><br />
</div><div>What is the saving grace of this whole film is the amazingly edited special effects. Even from the first Transformers film, I have always been amazed at the quality of the visuals. So much of this film is in slow motion as well, so you can fully be in awe of the minute aspects the editing team have created - Such as the Transformers changing from car to robot, and the way they fight and break each other. </div><div><br />
</div><div>With this means the events are just so entertaining to sit and watch. So what if you've seen Bay destroy almost every landmark known to man! He'll always find some more and it will still be just good plain fun. And I think that's the whole point of these films - You're not there to be emotionally moved by the acting or the morals of the story, you're there to watch robots fight and things blow up. There's nothing wrong with that, and anyone who tells you otherwise, well, you can just class them uptight adults who want to neglect their inner immaturity rather than embrace it. </div><div><br />
</div><div>As for the 3D? Well, this is one of the exceptions. It's the little details that should be in 3D, not just guns pointing towards the audience, and that's exactly what happens in this - Even sun light reflections. This film makes the war among inanimate objects quite beautiful, actually. </div><div><div><br />
<div>Yes it's long, yes I was disappointed, but I still left the cinema thinking "Those fight scenes are bloody brilliant to watch."</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_AIFoBRIny0?rel=0" width="480"></iframe></div></div></div>Kelly Alysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09414505209893054382noreply@blogger.com0