Life Drawing : Lesson 14

Life Drawing : Lesson 13

Life Drawing : Lesson 12

Film review : Black Narcissus

Fig.1 Black Narcissus Poster

Black Narcissus was directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1947.

A group of nuns travel to the Palace of Mopu which is located in the remote mountains of the Himalaya. The nuns are tasked with setting up a school and hospital for the local people. As the story progresses the nuns start to find themselves increasingly seduced by the sensuality of their surroundings and by the local British agent Mr Dean.


 Keith Uhlich describes the surroundings in his review : "there’s something truly unearthly about this place of howling winds, yawning chasms and atmosphere thick with temptation. Sanctity, it will be proven, is no match for sin." (Uhlich, December 31st 2012)

The opening scene of the film is of a nunnery in which sister Clodagh is being assign to go to the palace and take a group of nuns with her to help set up the necessary needs for the people, we find out that one of the nuns "Sister Ruth" Is ill and so the nun superior insists sister Clodagh takes sister Ruth so that she may recover.

When the nuns arrive at the palace they are greeted by Mr Dean who in a way is as manly as a man could be (so to speak) the nuns have no choice but to interact with Mr Dean as he is there agent.

As the story progresses the nuns are introduced to the young prince who wishes to study at the covent, the nuns at first do not wish to allow this as there rules are to only teach children and females, the nuns however decided to allow the prince to study at the covent.

As sister Clodagh interacts with Mr Dean more she is reminded of her past life in Ireland in which at the time she was with a man, and begins to loose focus on the over mission, sister Ruth also starts to become effected with constant interaction with Mr Dean, Sister Ruth eventually gains feelings for Mr Dean and wishes to remove her vowels of being a nun so that she can be with Mr Dean, Sister Ruth also becomes jealous of sister Clodagh as she believes Mr Dean and Sister Clodagh have an intermit connection.

Roger Ebert saids : "This emotional conflict is one of many that eats away at nearly all of the film's characters. Clodagh's relationship with Dean reminds her of her ill-fated longings for a former friend. Ruth, who was emotionally disturbed even before joining the expedition seems to become completely unhinged once Dean shows her an act of kindness which she might have been seeking for so long. And Dean himself, a charming cynic who has seen-it-all, appears to surprise himself with how much he grows to care and admire Sister Clodagh's resolve, however misplaced it may be." (Ebert, March 5th 2010)


Sister Ruth's affection eventually causes her to become tormented by the jealousy of seeing sister Clodagh and Mr Dean together and falls into the demise of madness. In one scene sister ruth is seen wearing a red dress and seductively putting on red lipstick, as for the colour aspect red can be a representation of lust and sexual desires.

Keith Uhlich  "The exotic place and the constant wind lead Sister Clodagh to bask in memories of her past as a young woman of privilege in Ireland. Meanwhile, Sister Ruth plunges even further into her sexual reverie by convincing herself that she loves Mr. Dean, even though he has barely spoken to her."(Uhlich, December 31st 2012)

at the climax of the film sister Clodagh goes out to ring the morning bell, while sister ruth attempts to sneak up to sister Clodagh and push her off the mounting side, Sister Ruth fails to do so and ends up with both sister Clodagh and sister Ruth fighting for there safety, sister ruth eventually falls off the mountain to her death.

Keith Uhlich, December 31st 2012) https://www.timeout.com/us/film/black-narcissus-3

Roger Ebert, March 5th 2010, http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/black-narcissus-which-electrified-scorsese

Film Review: The Shining

'The Shining' was directed by Stanley Kubrick and was based off the Novel " The Shining" by Steven King.

Roger Ebert said : "Stanley Kubrick's cold and frightening 'The Shining' challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer? Whose idea of events can we trust?" (Ebert, June 18th 2006)

While watching The Shining, I came to the conclusion that a big part of the movie was the design aspect, The hotel being the main scene in the film, from what was shown seemed to be designed like a maze with tight long corridors, this gave a sense of isolation as the rooms were wide and tall.

Scenes in which a single person would be in standing in a room gave off a big sense that this person was truly alone. Another aspect of design would be the patterns and colours of the rooms, the walls of the hotel were mainly painted red which is a similar colour to blood and bruises. As for the patterns, the floor style and walls had an art deco design but also the symbols on the floor looked very similar to a maze, something I had noticed at the start where the main protagonists home was shown, was that all their walls and furniture was coloured white, just a theory of mine but this may be a possible look at good and evil as the colour white is generally depicted as good as for the alternative would be red depicting evil.

Anne Billson "In years to come I would begin to appreciate Kubrick’s film for what it was, rather than what it wasn’t. The Steadicam shots of Danny riding his tricycle around the hotel corridors are a masterclass in building tension." ( Billson, october 27th 2016)

The hotel as we are told began construction in 1907 and was finished in 1909, the area in which the hotel was built on, was previously an old indian burial ground, as the beliefs of the indians this ground would be classed as cursed ground.

The story also has aspects of supernatural powers and a theory of reincarnation, in the film we are told that the protagonists son has a power called shining, which is in a way seen as a sixth sense of being able to see darkness in the future but also is known to allow someone to see the past, it is not told but from common knowledge of what the film has told us, Jack also has the power of shining, this is how he is able to see the past and interact with the lost memories of the hotel. 

I believe that the shining is truly the reason Jack goes mad, and possibly might be the way in which reincarnation is shown, the isolation and claustrophobia of the hotel was a way of keeping jack inside so that the old spirit of Delbon Grady could influence and posses Jack,  Delbon Grady; who as we find out at the end of the film was the old reincarnation of jack. In achieving the corruption of Jacks mind the end goal would be to eventually create an endless cycle of all the reincarnations of jacks past and future versions of his spirit being influenced into going to the hotel and resulting in a tragic event.

 Jack wishes to stay at the hotel forever and one spiritual way is that your spirit is stuck at the place you have died and so if jack murdered his family and himself his spirit and his families would be in a permeant loop of murder at the hotel.

Another theory would be going back to the indian burial ground that in their tradition they would have had blood sacrifices and Jack may just be being influenced to carry out this tradition without even knowing what he is truly doing.

conclusion

the entire aspect of the design and story of the film is that it is a maze, as this all leads up to the finale of the film in which they have the final show down in the maze and the truth is finally revealed.


Roger Ebert, June 18th 2006, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980

Anne Billson, October 27th 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/27/stanley-kubrick-shining-stephen-king

What if ? Metropolis : Art Of

What if Metropolis Art Of by Sam on Scribd

( Apologise for bad Image quality but this situation could not be corrected until Wednesday, as soon as I have the better quality images I will re-upload)

What If ? Metropolis Final Image

What if ? Metropolis Final Crit

What if ? M Final Crit by Sam on Scribd

Animation: four legged walk cycle: Polar Bear

Here we had to create a walk cycle of a four legged animal and also make it Christmas themed so I decided to do a polar bear.

Maya Tutorial: House

For this maya tutorial I had to add lighting effects to my scene and add a gradient background for the sky.

Photoshop/After Effects: Paralax Video

Animation: Throwing Animation

For this lesson we had to get into groups and record ourselfs either jumping or throwing something, we then had to draw out the process on paper and then animate it on the computer.