|
Satirical Film
Satire is a television and film genre in the fictional or pseudo-fictional category that employs satirical techniques, be it of a political, religious, or social variety. Works using satire are often seen as controversial or taboo in nature, with topics such as race, class, system, violence, sex, war, and politics, criticizing or commenting on them, typically under the disguise of other genres including, but not limited to, comedies, dramas, parodies, fantasies and/or science fiction. Satire may or may not use humor or other, non-humorous forms as an artistic vehicle to illuminate, explore, and critique social conditions, systems of powerNillson J (2013), ''American Film Satire in the 1990s: Hollywood Subversion'', Springer, ("social, political, military, medical or academic institutions"), hypocrisy, and other instances of human behavior. Examples Film *''À Nous la Liberté'', 1931 *''The Trial'', 1962 *''Dr. Strangelove'', 1964 *'' Wild in the Streets'', 1968 *''Mr. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Genre
A film genre is a stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film. Drawing heavily from the theories of literary-genre criticism, film genres are usually delineated by "conventions, iconography, settings, narratives, characters and actors." One can also classify films by the tone, theme/topic, mood, format, target audience, or budget. Hayward, Susan. "Genre/Sub-genre" in ''Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts'' (Third Edition). Routledge, 2006. p. 185-192 These characteristics are most evident in genre films, which are "commercial feature films hat through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters and familiar situations" in a given genre. Grant, Barry Keith. ''Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology''. Wallflower Press, 2007. p. 1 A film's genre will influence the use of filmmaking styles and techniques, such as the use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Race 2000
''Death Race 2000'' is a 1975 American science fiction action film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment. The screenplay is based on the short story ''The Racer'' by Ib Melchior.Bosnan, John and Nichols, Peter, "Death Race 2000" in Clute, John and Nichols, Peter, eds. (1998) ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (2nd edition) Orbit Plot After the "World Crash of '79", massive civil unrest and economic ruin occurs. The United States government is restructured into a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government has created the Transcontinental Road Race, where a group of drivers race across the country in their high-powered cars and which is infamous for violence, gore, and innocent pedestrians being struck and killed for bonus points. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Truman Show
''The Truman Show'' is a 1998 American psychological satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir, produced by Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, and Adam Schroeder, and written by Niccol. The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who grew up living an ordinary life that—unbeknownst to him—takes place on a large set populated by actors for a television show about him. The supporting cast includes Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Paul Giamatti, and Brian Delate. Unlike the finished product, Niccol's spec script was more of a science-fiction thriller, with the story set in New York City. Scott Rudin purchased the script and set up production at Paramount Pictures. Brian De Palma was to direct before Weir signed as director, making the film for $60 million—$20 million less than the original estimate. Niccol rewrote the script while the crew was waiting for Carrey to sign. The majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starship Troopers (film)
''Starship Troopers'' is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein and was written by Ed Neumeier. Set in the 23rd century, the film follows the story of teenager Johnny Rico and his friends as they serve in the military under the Earth world government, known as the United Citizen Federation. As humanity explores and colonizes outer space, they come into conflict with an alien species known as the Arachnids, leading to an interstellar war. The film stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside. Development of ''Starship Troopers'' began in 1991 as a separate project called ''Bug Hunt at Outpost 7'', written by Neumeier. Producer Jon Davison noticed many similarities between Neumeier's work and Heinlein's book and asked him to re-work the script to more closely follow the novel and gain more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bullets Over Broadway
''Bullets Over Broadway'' is a 1994 American black comedy crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Allen and co-writer Douglas McGrath for Original Screenplay, Allen for Director, Wiest & Tilly for Supporting Actress and Palminteri for Supporting Actor. Wiest won Best Supporting Actress for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award. It is considered one of Allen's best works. Summary In 1928, David Shayne is an idealistic young playwright newly arrived on Broadway. Desperate to gain financing for his play, ''God of Our Fathers'', he is convinced by producer Julian Marx to cast actress Olive Neal, the girlfriend of gangster Nick Valenti, in a minor role. Compensating for his frustration with the demanding and talentless Olive, Shayne is thrilled to cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man Bites Dog (film)
''Man Bites Dog'' (french: C'est arrivé près de chez vous, literally "It Happened Near Your Home") is a 1992 Belgian black comedy crime mockumentary film written, produced and directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde, who are also the film's co-editor, cinematographer and lead actor respectively. The film follows a crew of filmmakers following a serial killer, recording his horrific crimes for a documentary they are producing. At first dispassionate observers, they find themselves increasingly caught up in the chaotic and nihilistic violence, eventually becoming accomplices. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC). Since its release, the picture has become a cult film, and received a rare NC-17 rating for its release in the U.S. Plot Ben is a witty and charismatic but narcissistic and easily-enraged serial killer who holds forth at length about whatever comes to mind, be it the "craft" of mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barton Fink
''Barton Fink'' is a 1991 American period black comedy psychological thriller film written, produced, edited and directed by the Coen brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hired to write scripts for a film studio in Hollywood, and John Goodman as Charlie Meadows, the insurance salesman who lives next door at the run-down Hotel Earle. The Coens wrote the screenplay for ''Barton Fink'' in three weeks while experiencing writer's block during the writing of '' Miller's Crossing''. They began filming soon after ''Miller's Crossing'' was finished. The film is influenced by works of several earlier directors, particularly Roman Polanski's '' Repulsion'' (1965) and '' The Tenant'' (1976). ''Barton Fink'' had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1991. In a rare sweep, it won the Palme d'Or as well as awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Turturro). Although the film was a box office bomb, only grossing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pump Up The Volume (film)
''Pump Up the Volume'' is a 1990 American coming-of-age teen comedy-drama film written and directed by Allan Moyle. The film stars Christian Slater, Scott Paulin, Ellen Greene, and Samantha Mathis. Plot High school student Mark Hunter, who lives in a sleepy suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, starts an FM pirate radio station that broadcasts from his parents' basement and functions as his sole outlet for his teenage angst and aggression. His pirate station's theme song is " Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen and there are glimpses of cassettes by such alternative musicians as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Camper Van Beethoven, Primal Scream, Soundgarden, Ice-T, Bad Brains, Concrete Blonde, Henry Rollins, and Pixies. By day, Mark is seen as a loner who has to force himself to be sociable around others; by night, he expresses his outsider views about the problems with American society. When he speaks his mind about what is going on at his school and in the community, his fellow students ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They Live
''They Live'' is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the film follows an unnamed drifter who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass media. Having acquired the film rights to the Nelson-penned short story prior to the production of ''They Live'', Carpenter used the story as the basis for the screenplay's structure, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Frank Armitage". Carpenter has stated that the themes of ''They Live'' stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the economic policies of then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as well as what Carpenter saw as increasing commercialization in both popular culture and politics. In 2017, in response to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heathers
''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Penelope Milford. Its plot portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique at an Ohio high school, one of whose lives is disrupted by the arrival of a misanthrope intent on murdering the popular students and staging their deaths as suicides. Waters wrote ''Heathers'' as a spec script and originally wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct the film, out of admiration for Kubrick's own black comedy film '' Dr. Strangelove''. Waters intended for the film to contrast the more optimistic teen movies of the era, particularly those written by John Hughes, by presenting a cynical depiction of high school imbued with dark satire. ''Heathers'' was screened on October 24, 1988, at the MIFED film market in Milan, Italy, before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazil (1985 Film)
''Brazil'' is a 1985 dystopian black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. The film stars Jonathan Pryce and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. The film centres on Sam Lowry, a low-ranking bureaucrat trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. ''Brazil''s satire of technocracy, bureaucracy, hyper-surveillance, corporatism and state capitalism is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1949 novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' and has been called Kafkaesque and absurdist. Sarah Street's ''British National Cinema'' (1997) describes the film as a "fantasy/satire on bureaucratic society", and John Scalzi's ''Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies'' (2005) describes it as a "dystopia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Videodrome
''Videodrome'' is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF television station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal of snuff films. The layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he uncovers the signal's source, and loses touch with reality in a series of increasingly bizarre hallucinations. Distributed by Universal Pictures, ''Videodrome'' was the first film by Cronenberg to gain backing from any major Hollywood studio. With the highest budget of any of his films to date, the film was a box-office bomb, recouping only $2.1 million from a $5.9 million budget. The film received praise for the special makeup effects, Cronenberg's direction, Woods and Harry's performances, its "techno-surrealist" aesthetic, and its cryptic, psychosexual themes. Cronenberg won the Best Direction award and was n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
