Welcome back to the second part of the analysis of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The blog before this gave you some history of the movie as well as plot detail for those of you who've never seen the movie. We also briefly looked at the overall morale of the story and one hidden morale through the character Gaston and his vanity. This time, I will use some of the methods to analyze what the movie makes wanted us to think, feel or believe.
In our first blog, I gave you some terminology. A long shot is when the camera has a full bodied view of characters or when you can see their entire room and activities within the room. A close up is when the camera is showing all of a person's face or from the shoulders up. The long shot of Belle and Beast has to be the most famous shot of the movie. The shot begins a distance away from Belle and Beast, showing Belle's beautiful golden ball gown and Beast's very handsome suit. As the camera gets closer from a lower angle, you can see the details in her dress as they begin dancing while Mrs. Potts sings. The camera continues to get near to them and moves from being a long shot to a close up. This close up shows Belle and Beast's shoulders and their smiles as they gaze into each other's eyes. The shot moves around them for a moment and moves back towards being a long shot once again. The movie makers used this technique to make you, the audience, feel the love that they have between them, even though they have not yet told each other how they truly feel.
Once they're finished dancing, they retreat to the balcony where Beast plans to tell Belle how he feels about her or "confess his love" as Lumiere, one of the servants, phrased it. The movie makers used a double close up shot of Belle and Beast looking into each others eyes once again. This time however, we can see more than their love for each other. We can tell in this shot that they would do anything for each other. Before he is able to speak, Beast sends Belle home to find and care for her sick father, never revealing his true love for her.
Now that you've had an example of how you can observe camera shots to tell what kind of message the writers are trying to show us. So please, when you comment, give me a suggestion as to what movie we should analyze using Pathos, Logos, and Ethos. I will pick one or two and write the next blog about those movies. ( I can't write about it if I haven't seen it, please keep that in mind!) Thanks and keep reading!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Hello all! Welcome back to Rherotic in Film! Last time we met, we talked about some things to help you better understand what rhetoric is and some techniques that movie makers use to bring rhetoric in film to get their message across. This time we will be using some of those simple things to discuss a film. We will be starting small and simple, where most children's history of movies starts at: Disney movies! My favorite is Beauty and the Beast.
First I would like to give you some history of the movie. Beauty and the Beast is "related in plot to Apuleius 2nd-century Latin 'Cupid and Psyche'...and in motif to the ancient Panchantantra tale 'The Girl who Married a Snake'" (http://www.ansers.com/topic/beeauty-and-the-beast). Ther version that we see is most closely related to the 1757 version composed by Mme leprince de Beaumont. The plot was somewhat different, however, from the film that I first saw in 1991. A very rich merchant, or "a person who buys and sells commodities for profit" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merchant), who has stumbled across an enchanted castle. He takes a flower, note that it makes no disctinction as to what flower it is, from the grounds and upsets the master of the castle, the beast in the title. The master tells him that in exchange for that flower he must send one of his daughters. His youngest daughter accepts and goes to her fate. She is surprised to discover that death or torture do not await her at the castle. Instead she is papmered and showered with the best of everything and lives a very luxurous life. She also experiences "elevated conversation with her monstrous partner, whom however, she is unable to love"(Http://www.answers.com/topic/beauty-and-the-beast). She is released to see her family and convinced to stay by her jealous sister who want her to betray the trust of the master in order to get her into trouble. She has a dream where the beast is sick and she immediately gets up and returns to him stating that not only will she marry him but that she cannot live without him. Her words restore the beast to his human form.
The 1991 film version by Disney has some differences, of course, to this version. In the movie, Belle or the Beauty, has no sisters and her father is an inventor. He discovers the castle while lost looking for his way to a fair where he would have been presenting a new invention of his. Belle is being sought after by Gaston, the town's most eligible bachelor and when her father's horse, Phillippe, returns home without her father, Maurice, she goes to look for him. She too finds the castle and goes inside looking for him. She is unknowinlgy led by enchanted household objects who used to be the servants of the master. They were also changed by the curse that was placed upon the master and the house. She takes the place of her father inside the castle to allow him to live. She also is treated well by the beast and is allowed to go home to visit her father, who she finds is sick when she looks into an enchanted mirror that allows her to see anything that she wants just by asking. Gaston, still upset by being turned down by Belle earlier in the movie, has formed a plan to get Belle to marry him. She reveals the existence of the beast to show that her father is not crazy and it leads Gaston to go after the beast not only because he seems to pose a threat but because he realizes that Belle loves him. The towns people head to the castle and try to kill the beast. The beast is stabbed by Gaston after a fight and right as he is dying, Belle admits her love to him. He turns back into the prince he once was and, as most Disney's movies end, they live happily ever after, with the curse lifted.
The moral of the story is simple: Love will prevail. I think that there are also other morals inside the story that are small, even though its not hard to tell that its the continuing theme throughout the movie. Gaston for example does not look like a normal person in the small town. He is very healthy and strong and his body is entirely muscle. He is the best at things that are manly. He does not have to bake bread or sell things like most men in the town do. The entire tavern is decorated with his trophies. Animals that he has killed and mounted on the walls. There is also a group of sister who think that he is the best thing walking and do not understand why Belle does not like and want to marry him. They even cry when he prematurely announces (and plans an entire wedding) for him and Belle. Gaston believes that Belle should love and want to be with him simply because he looks good, and has lots of trophies to show how successful he is. Belle wants more for herself.
Through song, we see how Belle and the Beast fall for each other. The first song, is after Beast saves her from a pack of ravenous wolves. He is hurt during the fight and she fixes his wounds for him afterwards. The song is Belle and the Beast's thoughts about each other. Belle's words say exactly how confused she is because she doesn't know the details of the curse that was placed on the house. The Beast who at first was trying only to do enough to break the curse (along with the enchanted household items) falls in love with her almost unsuspectedly. He changes from the young, ignorant, and selfish prince who only wants the spell to be broken, into the man that the fairy who changed him wanted him to be.
That's all for this post. Please be looking for the following posts because we will continue to look at the rhetoric in this film, by way of the mechanics that were discussed in the first post!
First I would like to give you some history of the movie. Beauty and the Beast is "related in plot to Apuleius 2nd-century Latin 'Cupid and Psyche'...and in motif to the ancient Panchantantra tale 'The Girl who Married a Snake'" (http://www.ansers.com/topic/beeauty-and-the-beast). Ther version that we see is most closely related to the 1757 version composed by Mme leprince de Beaumont. The plot was somewhat different, however, from the film that I first saw in 1991. A very rich merchant, or "a person who buys and sells commodities for profit" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merchant), who has stumbled across an enchanted castle. He takes a flower, note that it makes no disctinction as to what flower it is, from the grounds and upsets the master of the castle, the beast in the title. The master tells him that in exchange for that flower he must send one of his daughters. His youngest daughter accepts and goes to her fate. She is surprised to discover that death or torture do not await her at the castle. Instead she is papmered and showered with the best of everything and lives a very luxurous life. She also experiences "elevated conversation with her monstrous partner, whom however, she is unable to love"(Http://www.answers.com/topic/beauty-and-the-beast). She is released to see her family and convinced to stay by her jealous sister who want her to betray the trust of the master in order to get her into trouble. She has a dream where the beast is sick and she immediately gets up and returns to him stating that not only will she marry him but that she cannot live without him. Her words restore the beast to his human form.
The 1991 film version by Disney has some differences, of course, to this version. In the movie, Belle or the Beauty, has no sisters and her father is an inventor. He discovers the castle while lost looking for his way to a fair where he would have been presenting a new invention of his. Belle is being sought after by Gaston, the town's most eligible bachelor and when her father's horse, Phillippe, returns home without her father, Maurice, she goes to look for him. She too finds the castle and goes inside looking for him. She is unknowinlgy led by enchanted household objects who used to be the servants of the master. They were also changed by the curse that was placed upon the master and the house. She takes the place of her father inside the castle to allow him to live. She also is treated well by the beast and is allowed to go home to visit her father, who she finds is sick when she looks into an enchanted mirror that allows her to see anything that she wants just by asking. Gaston, still upset by being turned down by Belle earlier in the movie, has formed a plan to get Belle to marry him. She reveals the existence of the beast to show that her father is not crazy and it leads Gaston to go after the beast not only because he seems to pose a threat but because he realizes that Belle loves him. The towns people head to the castle and try to kill the beast. The beast is stabbed by Gaston after a fight and right as he is dying, Belle admits her love to him. He turns back into the prince he once was and, as most Disney's movies end, they live happily ever after, with the curse lifted.
The moral of the story is simple: Love will prevail. I think that there are also other morals inside the story that are small, even though its not hard to tell that its the continuing theme throughout the movie. Gaston for example does not look like a normal person in the small town. He is very healthy and strong and his body is entirely muscle. He is the best at things that are manly. He does not have to bake bread or sell things like most men in the town do. The entire tavern is decorated with his trophies. Animals that he has killed and mounted on the walls. There is also a group of sister who think that he is the best thing walking and do not understand why Belle does not like and want to marry him. They even cry when he prematurely announces (and plans an entire wedding) for him and Belle. Gaston believes that Belle should love and want to be with him simply because he looks good, and has lots of trophies to show how successful he is. Belle wants more for herself.
Through song, we see how Belle and the Beast fall for each other. The first song, is after Beast saves her from a pack of ravenous wolves. He is hurt during the fight and she fixes his wounds for him afterwards. The song is Belle and the Beast's thoughts about each other. Belle's words say exactly how confused she is because she doesn't know the details of the curse that was placed on the house. The Beast who at first was trying only to do enough to break the curse (along with the enchanted household items) falls in love with her almost unsuspectedly. He changes from the young, ignorant, and selfish prince who only wants the spell to be broken, into the man that the fairy who changed him wanted him to be.
That's all for this post. Please be looking for the following posts because we will continue to look at the rhetoric in this film, by way of the mechanics that were discussed in the first post!
Monday, January 31, 2011
A Small Introduction to Rhetoric in Film
The word “rhetoric” has a few different meanings. Its origin is both Greek and Latin, translating to mean “the art of rhetor”. Dictionary.com defined rhetoric as meaning “the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience” (“Rhetoric”, 2011, para.1). In film, writers, producers, and directors are using an art form, the film, to influence your thoughts and/or actions. For example, a movie about the effects of tobacco use could be trying to keep you from smoking cigarettes. Now, while most movies may just try to persuade you to think a certain way, some movies use rhetoric in their films to bring about a social change.
In order to understand rhetoric fully, I went to a website called Auburn.edu. The site was “intended as a guide to analyzing film rhetorically and writing about it” (“Introduction”, 2005, para. 1). Although the site is someone else’s final project from a college, the site contains a lot of very useful information. In order to examine a movie, we will use the three rhetorical appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is also referred to as the logical appeal. According to the author, Kristen B. Miller, logical appeals are the facts about what is being sold”(“Logos(Logical Appeal)”, 2005, para 2), or what message you are being sent. Logos are very obvious in most films. Ethos is also referred to as the Ethical Appeal. According to the article “ethical appeals are usually made through the arguer’s credentials, the knowledgability with which they present themselves, their use of credible sources and their use of the appropriate tone” (“Ethos(Ethical Appeal), 2005, para 1). The last rhetorical appeal is Pathos, or the Emotional Appeal. Anything in a movie that is designed to get an emotional appeal out of the audience is an emotional appeal. So, for example in the movie The Boondock Saints when Murphy and Connor’s best friend Rocco is killed in front of them, is an emotional appeal.
To help you further understand how to analyze a film using these three rhetorical appeals, you will need to know some cinematography film terms. While in the editing process of a film, the selected editors use a “cut” or change from one shot to another without using a fade or other type of transition to move onto the next shot. For example, in Twilight, the editors cut away from Edward to Bella during their conversation he saves her in the parking lot. Other transition techniques are fade, wipe, and dissolve. All of these are used to create the effects that writers, producers and editors want you to see. Lastly, long shots, medium shots, and close-ups are used to show things like the emotion in a characters face(close-up), or the atmosphere around them (medium shot) or the entire ship while its in warp speed while in space (long shot).
Now that you have some background on rhetoric in films, you can use it to watch your favorite movies or even movies that you disagree with, to find out what the underlying message is.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Welcome to Our Blog
Welcome to the first blog of CarmG83, PrivateGray21, A.Will27, and Ml.Roberson! On this blog we will be discussing Rhetoric in Films! Enjoy future posts!
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