3/13/2008

3/13 Updates

There have been nine new additions to the Articles Library on our website.

Alfonso Arau & Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate-- Utilizing the essay format, I analyze Alfonso Arau's directorial adaptation of wife Laura Esquivel's novel Like Water for Chocolate as a successful cinematic work of magic realism while also interweaving the ways it handles family duty, gender roles, and romantic love. *contains spoilers*

Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban-- After studying the first five films in the series in the Harry Potter Film Guide linked to below, I evaluate Cuaron's successful adaptation of the third novel with a main focus on shot choice and cinematic technique in augmenting J.K. Rowling's source material. *contains spoilers*

Alfred Hitchcock's Cinematically Coiled Rope-- Critical essay exploring Hitchcock's own statements regarding his experimental film Rope, along with the reactions of cinematic historians and scholars. *contains spoilers*

The Big Score: The Killing, Reservoir Dogs and Heist-- Brief critical study of Film Noir heist movies beginning with Stanley Kubrick's influential masterpiece, The Killing and leading up to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and David Mamet's Heist. *contains spoilers*

Deepa Mehta's The Republic of Love-- With strict attention to detail, this essay compares and contrasts the novel The Republic of Love by Pulitzer-Prize Winner Carol Shields with the 2003 cinematic version from acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta. *contains spoilers*

Doppelgangers and Dreamscapes: The Cinema of David Lynch (Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive)-- Investigation of writer/director David Lynch's two most critically lauded films with inclusion of various viewpoints and commentary by film scholars regarding both Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. *contains spoilers*

"I Like the Way You Talk." Sling Blade as Noir-- Investigating new critical approaches to Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade as both a work inspired by Film Noir and one that is also considered an outstanding and sensitive cinematic representation of disability. *contains spoilers*

Steven Soderbergh: Generation Indie on Videotape-- Chronicling the independent film boom of the 1980's, this article investigates sex, lies, and videotape as arguably the most important and definitive film of Generation X in marking the change from the 1980's Me Generation to the Why Me Generation of the 1990's. *contains spoilers*

"Where Is My Mind?" Chaucer's "Unreliable Narrator" Goes Neo-Noir (The Usual Suspects, Fight Club and Memento)-- By taking a look at three Neo-Noir puzzle films, this article charts the success of each work's evolution of Chaucer's "Unreliable Narrator" and the quality and critical reception of the Singer's Usual Suspects, Fincher's Fight Club and Nolan's Memento. *contains spoilers*

For more articles on directors including Cassavetes, Truffaut, Jarmusch, S. Coppola, Ashby, Kar-wai, and Allen and topics as diverse as Jane Austen films and 1950's westerns, click here to explore the entire list.