Proof: 1990s

Tyler Justice

20^th Century Cinema

            The films sense of action revolves around the instance of Martin experiencing a memory from a long time ago and abandoning his trust in people due to a supposed lie his mother told him during childhood. This makes Martin think that people will take advantage of him due to his blindness; he doesn’t want their pity only to be respected. Another form of action relies upon the fact that Martin uses others to tell him about his photography, thinking that everyone is going to either use or pity him. Martin uses these descriptions from people to form his opinion about theme and the world around him. He eventually develops a friendship with a man named Andy who describes his photographs to him. Another from of action mainly involves his housekeeper Celia, and her unrequited love for him. Celia uses her own photographs, ones of Martin to keep up this delirious obsession that he will one day, give her the love she so desperately desires. This seems to connect the characters of both Martin and Celia on a deeper level, both concerning their love of photography. This love differs from Martin because although Celia loves of photography is somewhat more primitive, obsessive and at times bordering on the psychotic, concerning the fact that she only wants to photograph Martin to feed her own twisted obsession and longing for him, to show any form of affection towards her. This scene could also be a connection between Celia and Martin because they both long for affection and attention from people who won’t or wouldn’t reciprocate their feelings of longing. Celia’s feeling rely on her obsessive compulsion for Martin and Martin’s desires are not to be pitied by humanity and to be not taken advantage of; in way I guess Celia feels similar in some aspects of this towards Martin. The other action involves Martin and Andy’s relationship. Martin begins to develop a genuine companionship and camaraderie with Andy, by relying on Andy to shape his view of the world, and Andy learning to appreciate Martin’s work. Andy helps Martin get past his feeling of betrayal and self-loathing hatred of humanity. However, this trust is put to the test when Celia the conniving, woman tries to take advantage of Andy and get him to lie to Martin out of pure jealousy of their friendship. Eventually however, after the lie Martin does realize the truly despicable part of Celia thanks to Andy and ends up firing her. I think that this scenes best describes the relationship between the three main characters, because Celia finally shows her true colors and Andy tells Martin that people do sometimes lie but, that doesn’t mean they aren’t to be trusted; in other words their human. The film ends with Andy and Martin resolving the trials they had endured with the jealous Celia and look at the photo that started Martin’s hatred of human kind. Andy tells Martin his mother told the truth, and didn’t lie to him, making Martin realize the error in his judgment of his unjustified hatred of humanity.

Unit 8 1980s

Many Romantic Comedies today follow many of the tropes that were set by their predecessors. One of the comedies that established the genre that we know today is When Harry met Sally. This film practically set the standard that this generations knows as romantic comedies, that are followed today by all of Hollywood; not giving rise to anything new for the genre. A film from a more modern context I chose to compare it too is Hope Springs, with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. A scene similar to the dinner scene where Sally fakes her orgasm is where, Meryl and Jones’ characters are in a movie theater and she performs a sex act on him, and they get caught. These scenes are similar in the fact that both are sexual in nature and you feel a tad voyeuristic watching them. The main difference being that in Hopes Springs the characters are actually doing the act in a public setting, which makes it all the more awkward when they get caught in the act. Another scene similar for both is the endings. In the end of Harry met Sally they profess their love for each other, and Hopes Springs ends with the couple renewing their vows. While both involve acts of love, Hope Springs’ ending reunites a couple who nearly destroyed their marriage through bitterness.

Unit 7 Annie Hall

I think that Woody Allen' type of comedy is successful today, because in Annie Hall, Allen virtually creates the improve comedy film. Annie Hall relies on the typical tropes of Woody Allen movie with the jazz music and other things commonly associated with his film, while making you genuinely feel for Allen's character and his neurotic relationship tendencies. The scenes rely on Allen and Keaton's chemistry on screen as well as Allen's own neuroses to feel their "realness" to their relationship. The scenes where Ivy reflects back on his childhood are especially comedic given his timidness to ask his mother for any dating or relationship advice. I think that in these scenes people can relate to Ivy and the type of improve Allen does so well, certainly having been in similar situations during their adolescent years. Allen is very successful on using improvisation to his advantage and his own comedic awkwardness to successful get us to laugh at a character who we can truly relate with due his strange relationship history. Annie Hall I feel is one of the best examples of Allen as a comedian because it gives Allen a chance to be in the spotlight to his comedic talents, unlike today where that comedic edge is behind the camera.