Week 4.4 : Comments on Life is Beautiful

Comments on Life is Beautiful

This is one of those movies that have a lasting effect on you. After watching it, I found that it has less to do with the Holocaust and more to do with the human feelings and the beautiful relationship of a father and his son. The holocaust provides the ultimate context, that brings and highlights the story and adds yet another deep dimension to the movie. No such piece of art has ever before combined laughter and tears of sadness in me before and that is the miracle of the movie. 

The realism of the movie is not its strong point, but then again it is not supposed to be. This helps in bringing the audiences to a state of mind away from reality, focusing on the feelings generated by forgetting about all external events and developments of the war. Despite that, the movie does not fail to point out an element of the Nazi psychology demonstrated by the doctor who was obsessed with riddles. This portrayed the Nazi 'state of mind' as a sick mentally disturbed state. 

Life is really beautiful as you watch Guido's relentless efforts to make a lovely exciting experience of the concentration camp to his son. You get exhausted just watching him going through his painful day and yet you smile as he speaks to his son and makes him laugh. One can go on forever describing the creativity of this movie, but one will not be able to capture all its beauty in writing.

Week 4.3 : Who is Johannes Gutenberg?

Who is Johannes Gutenberg?

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (February 3, 1468) was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe. His introduction of mechanical movable type printing to Europe started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium, the seminal event which ushered in the modern period of human history. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.

In 1439, Gutenberg was the first European to use the printing press and movable type in Europe. Among his many contributions to printing are the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type, the use of oil-based ink for printing books, adjustable molds, mechanical movable types and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system that allowed the mass production of printed books and was economically viable for printers and readers alike. Gutenberg's method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting type. The alloy was a mixture of lead, tin and antimony that melted at a relatively low temperature for faster and more economical casting, cast well and created a durable type.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information, including revolutionary ideas, transcended borders which captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities; the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its people led to the rise of proto-nationalism, accelerated by the flowering of the European vernacular languages to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.

In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale, while Western-style printing was adopted all over the world, becoming practically the sole medium for modern bulk printing.

The use of movable type was a marked improvement on the handwritten manuscript, which was the existing method of book production in Europe, and upon woodblock printing, and revolutionized European book-making. Gutenberg's printing technology spread rapidly throughout Europe and later the world. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible), has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality.

Week 4.2 : What is Surrealism?

Definition

Surrealism, also called semiotic studies, is the study of meaning-making, the study of sign processes and meaningful communication. This includes the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, allegory, metonymy, metaphor, symbolism, signification and communication.

The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications. As different from linguistics, however, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems.

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions. For example, the Italian semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco proposed that every cultural phenomenon may be studies as communication. Some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science. However, they examine areas belonging to the life sciences such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world. In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study, the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics (including zoosemiotics)

Week 4.1 : What is Post Modernism?

Definition

Post Modernism describe a broad movement that developed in the mid-to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture and criticism which marked a departure from modernism. While encompassing a broad range of ideas, postmodernism is typically defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony or rejection toward grand narratives, ideologies and various tenets of universalism, including objective notions of reason, human nature, social progress, moral universalism, absolute truth and objective reality. Instead, it asserts to varying degrees that claims to knowledge and truth are products of social, historical or political discourses or interpretations and are therefore contextual or socially constructed. Accordingly, postmodern thought is broadly characterized by tendencies to epistemological and moral relativism, pluralism, irreverence and self-referentiality.

The term postmodernism has been applied both to the era following modernity and to a host of movements within that era (mainly in art, music and literature) that reacted against tendencies in modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical critical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, linguistics, economics, architecture, fiction, feminist theory and literary criticism. Postmodernism is often associated with schools of thought such as deconstruction and post-structuralism, as well as philosophers such as Jean-François Lyotard and Jacques Derrida, Frederic Jameson.

Week 3.2 : Comments on Not One Less

Comments on Not One Less

The Chinese director Zhang Yimou has a rare gift for dramatizing highly theatrical stories in highly naturalistic settings. His movie, Not One Less, is simple and yet emotionally affective. The mayor of a small village in western China replaces the local schoolteacher, away for a month, with a 13-year-old substitute barely older than her unruly students.

Wei Minzhi has a wide-open face with flushed cheeks. It takes a while to warm up to her, because she seems all too well adapted to her role as martinet. Her drive is a little frightening in someone so unformed, but she becomes a true heroine when a student, Zhang Huike, is forced into the city to earn money for his family. Minzhi, who has been promised a bonus by the mayor if all her students remain enrolled, connives her way into the city to bring back Huike, a student with a naughty urchin's grin who has given her nothing but trouble.

The village scenes and the city scenes have a mysterious connectedness. Together they seem to take in the whole range of quotidian life. Minzhi's search for Huike, seen at various points in the story alone and scavenging for food, becomes her passion. We can see how all her pride, devotion and willfulness are wrapped up in this little boy's plight. Seemingly unlocatable in the urban sprawl, Huike has no idea that he is being searched by his teacher.

When Minzhi, hoping to spread the word, manages to get herself interviewed on a television news program, she clams up at first, but then her concern and sorrow break through and Huike, seeing the spectacle on TV, cries along with her. It's one of the most improbably satisfying love scenes on film, but Zhang Yimou doesn't milk the moment. He's a stringent sentimentalist, and so, when our emotions well up, we don't feel like we're being played for fools. His feeling for these children is deep, and he honors them with the full measure of his respect. They have the mettle to survive poverty, and it shows in their brazen, lyrical faces.



Education in rural areas

Based on the film, we can clearly see that the children that live in poverty have to suffer greatly just to take a grasp in a bit of education, something that we city folks take for granted. The schools in rural areas are not even safe to be teaching in and yet every day students and teachers alike in rural areas risk their life in an unstable, dirty building with nothing but a piece of chalk and a flimsy blackboard to teach students.

The movie opens our eyes and tells us that we should pursue education while we still can, as we have plenty of it in the city and yet very few do so. At the ending of the movie 'Not One Less', the school received donations from kind patreons, one of which were lots of chalk. Minzhi and her students are very happy for the donations to the school as these can boost the students' education.

As there are very few fortunate rural areas that receive donations from others, the others that don't suffer greatly. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to contribute at least something useful to them so that children in rural areas can pursue their hopes and dreams.

Week 3.1 : Biography of Zhang Yimou and his works

Biography of Zhang Yimou

 Zhang Yimou, (born in April 2, 1950), is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directional debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum.

Zhang has won numerous awards and recognitions, with Best Foreign Film nominations for Ju Dou in 1990, Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, and Hero in 2003, Silver Lion and Golden Lion prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, which received considerable international acclaim.

One of Zhang's recurrent themes is the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity, a theme which has been explored in such films as To Live (1994) and Not one Less (1999). His films are parcticularly noted for their rich use of colour, as seen in some of his early films, like Raise the Red Lantern, and in his wuxia films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. His highest budgeted film to date is the 2016 monster film titled The Great Wall, set in Imperial China and starring Matt Damon.

Zhang Yomou's works

As an actor

Year	English title	Chinese title
1986	Old Well	老井
1987	Red Sorghum	红高粱
1989	Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior	古今大战秦俑情
1997	Keep Cool	有话好好说

As Cinematographer

Year	English title	Chinese title
1982	Red Elephant	红象
1983	One and Eight	一个和八个
1984	Yellow Earth	黄土地
1986	Old Well	老井
1986	The Big Parade	大阅兵

As Director

Year	English title	Chinese title
1987	Red Sorghum	红高粱
1988	Codename Cougar	代号美洲豹
1990	Ju Dou	菊豆
1991	Raise the Red Lantern	大红灯笼高高挂
1992	The Story of Qiu Ju	秋菊打官司
1994	To Live	活着
1995	Shanghai Triad	摇啊摇，摇到外婆桥
1995	Zhang Yimou
1997	Keep Cool	有话好好说
1999	Not One Less	一个都不能少
1999	The Road Home	我的父亲母亲
2000	Happy Times	幸福时光
2002	Hero	英雄
2004	House of Flying Daggers	十面埋伏
2005	Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles	千里走单骑
2006	Curse of the Golden Flower	满城尽带黄金甲
2007	Movie Night
2009	A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop	三枪拍案惊奇
2010	Under the Hawthorn Tree	山楂树之恋
2011	The Flowers of War	金陵十三钗
2014	Coming Home	归来
2016	The Great Wall	长城

Week 2.4 : A brief comment on Food

Food

Link to video

Food is a 1992 Czech animated short film directed by Jan Švankmajer that uses claymation and pixilation. It examines the human relationship by showing breakfast, lunch and dinner

Initial release             : April 13, 1994 (New York City)

Director                     : Jan Švankmajer

Screenplay                 : Jan Švankmajer

Producer                    : Jaromír Kallista

Production company : Channel 4

My thoughts on Food

This was by far the weirdest film I've seen. Although, it acts as an eye opener to the problems of the world. For instance, Breakfast represents labour workers under a communist government, Lunch represents politics and Dinner represents... cannibalism?

Week 2.3 : A brief comment on Down to The Cellar

Down to The Cellar

Link to video

Initial release : 1983 (Czechslovakia)

Director         : Jan Švankmajer

Screenplay     : Jan Švankmajer

Story by         : Josef Kolber

Producer        : Eduard Galbavý

Cast                : Aleksandr Letko, Monika Belo-Cabanová, Oľga Vronská

My thoughts on Down to The Cellar

It was a mixture of scary and anticipation when I first saw this film. This film taps into the feeling of being a scared child exploring a dark and strange cellar with striking imagery that is both amusing and unsettling.

Week 2.2 : Definition of surrealism

What is surrealism?

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. Its aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super reality".

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.

Week 2.1 : Biography of Jan Švankmajer and his works

Biography of Jan Švankmajer

Jan Svankmajer, (born in September 4, 1934, Prague, Czechslovakia [now in Czech Republic]), is a Surrealist artist, puppeteer, animator and filmmaker known for his dark reimaginings of well-known fairy tales and for his avant-garde use of three-dimensional stop-motion coupled with live-action Animation. Some critics hailed him for privileging visual elements over plot and narrative, others for his use of dark fantasy.

During the 1950s, Svankmajer pursued an interest in theatre and puppetry. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague from 1950 to 1954 before enrolling in the puppetry department at the Academy of Performing Arts. He also worked at a marionette theatre and other theatres in the city. It was through this theatre work that Svankmajer discovered an appreciation for film and consequently he began a cinematic career. His first short -  Posledni trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (The Last Trick), in which two magicians participate in a heated competition of skill, gave evidence of his early interest in stop-motion.

Svankmajer continued to develop his aesthetic by experimenting with puppetry, animation and avant-garde film techniques. The budding director began a transition away from theater puppetry and toward film in order to incorporate seemingly disparate visual elements in a medium that would allow him to easily do so. His work in the theatre nevertheless remained a steady source of inspiration. Svankmajer combined the tradition of Czech folk puppetry with animation to develop many of the visual innovations established a generation earlier by Czech animators Karel Zeman and Jiri Trnka. As important as his skillful technique was the dark and subversive tone and mood Svankmajer's films projected. His first feature film, Neco z Alenky (Alice), is a sinister adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The film combines animation, puppetry and live action to evoke a fantasy-like quality while distorting these elements to create an ominous atmosphere.

Svankmajer's most famous work, Lekce Faust (Faust), gave a mew spin to the familiar tale of the Faustian bargain. The film is set in a foreboding puppet theatre that lures the main chatacter inside. There he experiments a strange version of the Faust play, which includes giant puppets and clay figures filmed in stop-motion.

Svankmajer also drew on fairy tales for the inspiration of his plots. For example, his film Otesanek (Little Otik) is a dark comedy based on "The Wooden Baby" (1865) by Czech folklorist Karel Erben. The premise of the film follows that of the tale, which is about a wooden baby who comes to life and devours his parents. However, Svankmajer put a modern spin on the story, using it to parody the Czech Republic's growing involvement with global capitalism in the 1990s. Ultimately, Little Otik connects the country's newfound appetite for consumer goods with barbarism.

Beyond Alice and Faust, Svankmajer adapted other literary sources. His work Sileni (Lunacy) was described as a comic horror story demonstrating the influence of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe and the French nobleman Marquis de Sade.

Although Svankmajer won more than 30 awards and honors from various International film festivals, he remained relatively unknown in North America throughout most of his career. He started making films in the early 1960s, but he did not really emerge in western Europe until his short film Moznosti dialogu (Dimensions of Dialogue) won great critical acclaim. His lack of reputation was in large measure a result of political events in Czechslovakia. After the Soviet Union invaded that country in 1968, the authorities restricted opportunities for his films to reach a wider audience, finding his work generally unsuitable for their desired ends. Svankmajer's reputation grew considerably after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Jan Švankmajer's works

Feature-length films

	English title	Original title	Source material
	Alice (1988)	Něco z Alenky	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
	Faust (1994)	Lekce Faust	The Faust legend (including traditional Czech puppet show versions), Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and Goethe's Faust.
	Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)	Spiklenci slasti	Original story
	Little Otik (2000)	Otesánek	Otesánek by Karel Jaromír Erben
	Lunacy (2005)	Šílení	"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial" by Edgar Allan Poe
	Surviving Life (2010)	Přežít svůj život	Original story
	Insects	Hmyz	Pictures from the Insects' Life by Karel Čapek and Josef Čapek

Short Films

	English title	Original title	Notes
	The Last Trick (1964)	Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara
	Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor (1965)	Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll
	A Game with Stones (1965)	Spiel mit Steinen
	Punch and Judy (1966)	Rakvičkárna	Also known as The Coffin Factory and The Lych House
	Et Cetera (1966)
	Historia Naturae (Suita) (1967)
	The Garden (1968)	Zahrada
	The Flat (1968)	Byt
	Picnic with Weissmann (1968)	Picknick mit Weissmann
	A Quiet Week in the House (1969)	Tichý týden v domě
	Don Juan (1970)	Don Šajn
	The Ossuary (1970)	Kostnice	About the Sedlec Ossuary
	Jabberwocky (1971)	Žvahlav aneb šatičky slaměného Huberta	Based on "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
	Leonardo's Diary (1972)	Leonardův deník
	Castle of Otranto (1973 - 1979)	Otrantský zámek	Based on "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole
	The Fall of the House of Usher (1980)	Zánik domu Usherů	Based on "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
	Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)	Možnosti dialogu
	Down to the Cellar (1983)	Do pivnice
	The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope (1983)	Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje	Based on "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe and "A Torture by Hope" by Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
	Virile Games (1988)	Mužné hry	Also known as The Male Game
	Another Kind of Love (1988)		Music video for Hugh Cornwell
	Meat Love (1988)	Zamilované maso
	Darkness/Light/Darkness (1989)	Tma, světlo, tma
	Flora (1989)
	Animated Self-Portraits (1989)		Portmanteau film by 27 filmmakers
	The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (1990)	Konec stalinismu v Čechách
	Food (1992)	Jídlo

Animation and Gadgets 

	English title	Original title	Director
	Dinner for Adele (1978)	Adéla ještě nevečeřela	Oldřich Lipský
	The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981)	Tajemství hradu v Karpatech	Oldřich Lipský
	Ferat Vampire (1982)	Upír z Feratu	Juraj Herz
	Visitors (1983)	Návštěvníci	Jindřich Polák
	Three Veterans (1984)	Tři veteráni	Oldřich Lipský

Week 1 : What is Media?

    The Media is a form of medium that are the main means of mass communication in the Modern Age. The people of the modern age have used the media to their advantage such as for Broadcasting News and Weather Reports, Publishing Newspapers and uploading Pictures and videos on the Internet. They are the means of communication.


Here are a few Definitions of Media :-

1) www.dictionary.com/browse/media                                                                                                 

• Media is a form of medium presented in the Modern Age. It can also be described as the means of communication such as radios, televisions, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, all of which can reach and influence people widely. 

• The means of communication that reach large numbers of people such as television, newspapers and radio. 

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication)

• The word "Media" in the Modern Age is defined as one of the means or channels of general communication in society. Some of these examples are newspapers, radio, television, etc.

• It can also be defined as the beginning of human communication through designed channels. These channels however are not vocalization or gestures. The oldest form of human communication dates back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps and writing. 

3) https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelsongranados/2016/10/03/what-is-media-in-the-digital-age/#6f28d04551ea

• Today, the term "Media" can mean different things to different people, depending on how it was used.

• The media is used for communicating via television, print and radio. The idea or content could be in the form of video, print or audio and it could be fiction or non-fiction. It could be professionally produced or non-professional (think public access). That definition still applies to the term "Media" in the Digital Age, but it has been expanded to include online and social media.

About myself

Hello. My name is Izzudin. I am a MMU Student in Cyberjaya. and welcome to my blog!

About myself

This graph briefly describes the things that I choose to reveal about me.