ELS Autoblog

I have become very interested in a point that is mentioned in an article by Sherry Turkle entitled: “Video Games and Computer Holding Power”. In her piece, Turkle discusses the experience you feel when you are playing a video game and are so into it that you can’t tear yourself away from it and you always want more.  In a side note, Turkle also discussed psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s (Mee-high CHICK-sent-me-high-ee) philosophy about a sensation he has dubbed to be FLOW.
This is what I understand flow to comprise of(from the combined perspectives of Turkle and Csíkszentmihályi, as well as what was brought up in class discussion): a unified zen state of action and awareness where what you are doing, thinking, and feeling all come together and you lose track of time because you have become so merged with the activity and inside the thing you are doing that the world just […]

Original post by Peanut!

Kathleen’s blog entitled Drama, Romance, Fantasy — Oh My addresses some of the differences that arose in turning Portrait of Jennie into a film.  I agree with her in that Spinney has a much larger role in the film than she did in the book, but I don’t really feel that Spinney’s interaction with Mathews changes very drastically from book to movie as Kathleen suggests.  In each medium I saw a distinct, reversed role of gender between the two characters.  In her blog, she then talks about some of the special effects and usage of color in the film, which I didn’t cover extensively in my paper, so check it out.  Kathleen also included a link to a website that covers the movie’s failure when it was released, which is very interesting.  I really agree with what she closes her blog with, “Interesting how a movie may seem better over […]

Original post by cdame2of

Film directing over the decades has been a very involved art. When one looks back at the progression from the earlier soviet-style films…
Haha. Just kidding. Please don’t shoot yourself.
This post is actually about Miller’s Crossing. Specifically how, in my view at least, it did by far the best job of bringing out Ned and Madvig’s relationship to one another. Granted, this isn’t a particularly bold assertion to make given that the only other film in the unit that really attempted this was Heisler’s The Glass Key, and that film was working under the restraint of the Hayes Code. So really the focus here is going to be more on what I feel the Coen Brother’s did right as opposed to how I think Heisler dropped the ball.
Perhaps my biggest gripe character-wise about the film The Glass Key was the way in which it portrayed Ned and Madvig. […]

Original post by crain2mn

 
Robert Nathan’s Portrait of Jennie is a story about art, with a bit of fantasy peering around the edges of its pages.  The         narrator and protagonist is Eben Andrews, an everyman starving artist living in the rumbling belly of New York City during the Depression era.  He is lonely, faithless and uninspired until he meets Jennie, his ethereal muse.  Published in 1939, a movie adaptation was released in 1948 by Selznick Studios, starring Jennifer Jones as Jennie and Joseph Cotten as Eben.  The movie stayed fairly faithful to the book, but shifted the focus from art to love with a healthy dose of fantasy in its eerie dreamscapes and misty surrealism.  When comparing and contrasting the two mediums of Jennie, it quickly becomes a debate of art versus love.  The novel and movie lends us fascinating, tortured, complex characters, ripe for some analysis, as well as the countless themes and motifs […]

Original post by cdame2of

Since my first glance at the syllabus I was quite certain of what my final paper would analyze: something Errol Morris. Last semester in a Geopolitics course I had the pleasure of viewing The Fog of War, though it was through much different eyes than how I view it today. This class has given me a new lens (pun slightly intended) through which I am can view films, with more awareness and respect for elements other than solely the plot. Needless to say I was quite excited to see other Errol Morris films—and they did not disappoint.
I have chosen to analyze Fast, Cheap and Out of Control along with cognate film The Fog of War. My discussion will start with the films relations to an article in Film Theory and Criticism, before I proceed into a […]

Original post by malbrooks

So, we watched the Democratic debate hosted by CNN and Youtube streamed LIVE over the internet. Candidates were asked questions from Americans via video uploaded onto Youtube. Entrants were allowed to create a video under 30 seconds in length which could pose a question to a specific candidate or the whole group. An added kick was that the entrants could personalize the video in true Youtube culture fashion: the result of which were the standard webcam video of the questioner or even a more creative approach of song or animation. One such question was and animation of a snowman that was used to kick off the debate on global warming…which I thought was actually counterproductive in that it took what should have been a serious subject and made it seem more trivial (didn’t Kucinich yell something about making sure our snowmen had a future?). I stray though…this debate allowed for […]

Original post by georgestreet

After reading Portrait of Jennie, I was immersed in a sort of dream-like state myself. I had many questions that seemed rather over-played and obvious at the time; however, after attending class (and thinking a little bit longer about it) I realize that these questions are to be appropriately discussed at length and with no unfortunate conclusion. Obviously, that is the making for a good book.
I also wanted to take a greater look at art in literature. Specifically, the portrait of a character has been used in many great literary works to address the age-old questions of what is life? Time? Do they coexist? I found myself rifling through my British literature textbooks (and sounding strangely like the voice from the beginning of the movie of POJ) for My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, or The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
I had read them both in high […]

Original post by elizabethomas

Little Women is a novel published in 1868 and written by the American author Louisa May Alcott. The story concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. The book was based on Alcott’s own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts with her three sisters, Anna, May, and Elizabeth.

Several movies have been based off of the novel, Little Women. In the 1949 version, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, the most noticeable diversion from the novel was the fact that Beth March (Margaret O’Brien) is portrayed as being the younger sister to Amy March (Elizabeth Taylor), while in the novel she is older. This noticeable change was due to the fact that the studios had to deal with the actors and actresses they had available to them. Since O’Brien was considered the best choice for the […]

Original post by Amanda

Since we’ve only really just begun Unit Four in terms of actual class discussion, classmate’s blogs on this subject are a little scarce. However, several entries (along with Dr. C’s in-class pointers) have really given me some things to think about with regard to the complex relationship between art and love, and the very thin line between love and obsession. Also, although blog entries rarely mention Jennie, it seems like her motivations and presence lurks everywhere, the same kind of integral-but-invisible presence she served in the novel. For instance, in Charlie’s blog, he comments that “Of course, the nature of love and whether or not soulmates exist is something each person has to decide on his/her own.” Clearly, Jennie has made this decision, and her confidence and certainty that she and Eben are meant to be together is what propels her through the film–and really what propels the film itself. […]

Original post by anniek