Adaptation

Adaptation is a film that we watched in Monday’s last class during conferences. We had a choice between two films to reflect on but I decided to go with this one instead of Moon. Adaptation is directed by Spike Jonze and stars two of my favorite actors Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. I think this was one of the main reasons why I wanted to write about this play. Its because of my interests towards the main characters. Well, this movie is based on the nonfiction book called “The Orchid Thief” written by Susan Orlean. In this movie there is an interesting twist by the way the director wanted the audience to know what is imagination and what is real. Nicolas Cage is one of the main characters playing the twin brothers Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Meryl Streep is another main character who plays the author Susan Orlean. The plot of this movie is that one of the twin brothers, Charlie is going through a depression and is hired to write the screenplay for The Orchid Thief. His brother Donald moved in with him. He gets writers block. They switch places when he meets Susan in New York. They then follow Susan to Florida. In Florida Susan has a relationship with the guy Laroche. This Orchid is discovered as a drug. Caught spying on Susan and Laroche they want to kill Charlie. Faced at Gunpoint he has to drive a swamp while the other brother is in the back of the car un noticeable. They run for escape and hide. Interestingly being put in this situation they resolve their own issues that they have in a conversation of their differences and Charlies problems with women. The morning comes and they try to head off. Laroche was sleeping and didn’t notice them until Susan sees them and screams where Laroche shoots at Donald accidentally. They flee off driving off thinking they finally escaped but then get hit by a truck that kills Donald.  Charlie gets out of the car to help his brother singing the song but it didn’t last long. Then comes Susan and he runs again into the swap. There is an alligator and that alligator Kills Laroche before Laroche killed Charlie. The movie ends by Susan getting arrested and Charlie calling his mother to make up with her. He also tells his former lover that they showed in the beginning of the movie and he was to afraid to kiss her how he is still in love with her then a voice over about the film. I enjoyed watching this movie. At first I was confused, and it lost me here and there but towards the end I understood it clearly. Great pick!

Summary on Gombrich

Ernst Gombrich: The Limits of Likeness

According to Gombrich there is no one correct representation of what art is.  He believes that art is seen through the eyes of the painter not through the beholder. Its depicted on the artists mood, personality, the artists culture, the situation, the style, the tools and materials being used. He gives an example from an autobiography from the German illustrator Ludwig Richter relating to how he and his fellow young art students’ friends in the 1820’s in Rome visited the famous Tivoli and sat to draw. There they saw another group of French artists who approached this place with a different technique. The comparisons given where meant to show how two different types of people are staring at the same exact thing and it is being drawn differently. The French came with big baggage, carrying large quantities of paint and using big brushes on a huge canvas while the German used a little brush focusing more on the artiness and details on a small piece of paper. This example explains the influence by what they see and how they represent their work of art is the limit of likeness. A painter will paint what he likes and he likes what he can paint.

350 word description for HUP 107

After browsing through many different paintings and sculptures, I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to find anything of interest to me. You know how there are people who settle for less and will just pick anything to get the job done, well I didn’t want to be one of them. I really didn’t want to settle for just anything. I wanted to find something that sparked my eye, caught my attention instantly, and find something that means something to me; whatever that is.

Several paintings and moments later I came across Pablo Picasso’s “A Seated Bather”

OBJECTIVE: Paris, early 1930. Oil on canvas, 64 1/4 x 51" (163.2 x 129.5 cm).

I thought finally, I found something and instantly it caught my attention. At the moment I didn’t know why it did but thinking about it on my train ride home, I knew that it was the one I wanted to do my paper on.

SUBJECTIVE: This piece of art work with the blues and nude colors made me feel calm. Staring at it, it was very peaceful. Without looking at the title it was something I enjoyed just from observance and not having any knowledge about it what so ever. It filled me up with joy and lifted my spirits up.

In this piece by Picasso I see a naked woman somewhere by a pool or a beach in a private place. It reminds me of summertime. One who is proud to be in her own skin, one who is comfortable, one that shows confidence and ideally speaking what a woman should be looking like?

This is how I want to feel, when I’m on the beach in my swimwear. Right now I don’t feel this way. The psychologist in me realized no wonder why you picked this; I am dealing with major body issues. Not being where I want to be and not being comfortable this is something I look up to. This piece of art work is how I want to be, definitely not for this year but by next year summer.

I could hang this picture up my wall and look at it as being my motivation.

Outline Streetcar Named Desire

Essay2

Intro paragraph 1 with Thesis: 

A Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women’s lives. Williams uses Blanche’s and Stella’s dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. While reading the play it unfolds a sense of fantasy’s inability to overcome reality. How comparing and contrasting the way Tennessee Williams uses characters motives to slowly reveal who they truly are. While sympathizing to what “life ought to be” than to the one who goes about accepting “life as it is.” Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois are two of the main characters in this play that I will talk about.  

 

Paragraphs 2, 3,4

•  Analyzing how Tennessee Williams portrays Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois from beginning to end.
• How Tennessee Williams shows the characters values and keeping of them.
• Stella Vs. Blanche (Contrasting)

 

Conclusion Paragraph 5:

In conclusion, Tennessee Williams portrays Stella as the person who “accepts life as it is,” while Blanche “clings to what life ought to be.”

Quotes that I will use:

One thing that appears constant in the character Blanche Dubois is her struggle to keep up a certain appearance, that being a character of pure and delicate femininity.  Because of specific examples that Williams gives us—particularly how Blanche behaves when she is alone vs. her behavior around men—allows us to see her character’s “range” and the contradictions.  Among examples we see are how she keeps her drinking habits hidden, and her refusal to be seen in bright light or daylight.  Another is the way her dialogue expresses an ultra-melodramatic femininity (her bizarre treatment of the Young Man at the end of scene five is a great example).  This being said, is Blanche the only character who performs?  A strong argument can be made that Stanley too, has begun to convey and demonstrate more masculine behavior since Blanche’s arrival in New Orleans.  Breaking radios and plates, making lewd demands of his wife, raping Blanche; these all point to the notion that he is acting out the common man (“I was common as dirt.”) as a sort of retaliatory gesture.  You could argue about some other characters performing as well, though Stanley and Blanche might be enough.

 (taken from the internet) http://www.paperstarter.com/streetcar.htm