purple rose, Zach Pedroncelli

In this week’s film the purple rose of Cairo the film centered around the depression and American way of life in its time. The main character Cecelia lives in an abusive and seemingly bipolar relationship where she settles for below mediocrity with her jerk of a husband and only escapes in the moments of being in the movie theatre. This theme was very similar to that of many people who lived during the great depression. The affordable escape that movies created allowed for people to forget their current life sorrows and enjoy the feeling of being brought into the film alongside the characters. The film takes the unique twist when the character from the movie Cecelia repetitively goes to see decides to enter the real world in order to escape with Cecelia. Tom the escaped character charms Cecilia and beings to experience a set of unexpected adventures until the actual actor who plays tom finds out about his escaped role. This allows for Cecelia to feel the freedom and love from a man which had never happened before in her marriage. There was a strong sense of symbolism in the role of tom and its contrasting role of Gil Shepard. Gil has no thought of anybody but himself and his expected rise to become a star, whereas tom only cares about Cecelia and getting away from the normal life that is forcibly upon him. In the end of the film I was disappointed that Cecelia was left alone when she displayed he desire to experience change. But the film showed her true affinity for film and the movies when she eventually stops hanging her head to sit through another escape of a movie. The overall theme I believe is that no matter how great things seem to be all it is is a distraction from reality and temporary escape that eventually returns to real life suffering. 

harold and maude, zach pedroncelli

Harold and Maude was interesting to say the least. The opening scene baffled me when the young man hangs himself and the mother seemingly disregards the act and leaves the son there. At that moment I wondered what this movie was and why on earth we were assigned this film. Then the movie continues and I realized it was based off some crude sense of humor that this boy bestowed. The film continues with this attempt to gain attention form a disturbed quest to falsely commit suicide. The later parts of this film begin to make sense and revolve around the idea that everyone has someone out there like them. Even if those people maybe have strange ideas of what it is they strive to do or enjoy. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and others cringe such as in the scene of the boy waking up in bed with the old woman. Overall the film had a unique sense of humor and overall turned into a very intriguing and complete plot. The sense of connection that the main characters react brings many ideas to mind. Some of those being the director’s intention and what it is the message truly is. I believe that the humor was more an indicator of freedom and the enjoyment in the scenes only takes place when the boy and woman are together otherwise his emotions portray depression. Overall I enjoyed the film and had an interesting story to follow. 

young frankenstien, zach pedroncelli

Young Frankenstein was the best film I think we have watched up to this point. I did my expectations essay on this film and it met them in many different ways. It was laugh out loud funny with characters that solely their personalities made the film amusing. With scenes ranging from Igor’s ever changing pronunciation to Abby normal brain mix up. This film exaggerates emotion and leaves characters with dumbed down personalities making for a witty and amusing film as a whole. The doctor’s temper and the ditsy attractive assistant make for laughs all in themselves. Although predictable one of the most amusing scenes occurs when the doctor and his assistant go into the cellar with skull models set up showing how old they were then Igor pops up into the display on the final model. The mix between tense or suspicious creepy feeling with constant comic relief is one of the strongest aspects of this film as a whole. I thought the black and white filming of the movie added to the feel and made it resembling in aspects to the original film. The dim lighting throughout also made for a positive addition to the setting. Overall the film was full of laughs and met my expectations from my previous writings.