looking at movies from the 1990s pre 1990s and recent releases

looking at movies

In my own time I also decided to look at a range of movies released in the pre 1990s , the 1990s and also a recently released movie, in order to better my knowledge on the motifs, genre choices and also how the director manipulates the hair and makeup styling of a character to make an audience understand the movie through emotion.

A newly released movie

Maleficent film poster
Anonymous. (unknown). maleficent . Available: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2488531712/tt1587310. Last accessed 30/09/15

 The Maleficent movie released in 2014, is a recreation of Disney's sleeping beauty animation. The movies genre can be recognised as a fantasy film  with an element of romance . The film also includes the use  of computer animation and special effects.


The motif/ recurring pattern in the movie  love which evolves into betrayal  jealousy and revenge . When Maleficent the good fairy fell in love with Stephen and he soon betrayed her so h could become king she soon seeks revenge putting a curse on his beloved daughter, she is sent to the forest with the three fairies until her 16th birthday in the meantime King Stephen starts to plot revenge on maleficent for the curse she casts on his daughter, however maleficent's relationship starts to grow with Aurora and she soon feels guilty for what she has done. The film ends with King Stephen turning evil towards maleficent and getting killed, Aurora then lives in the forest with Maleficent her fairy godmother.

a young maleficent
Goforthegoodone. (02/06/14). lessons learnt from the movie maleficent . Available: http://yourhappyplaceblog.com/2014/06/02/lessons-learned-from-the-movie-maleficent-2/. Last accessed 30/09/15

The director manipulates the story into making the audience think is maleficent character good or bad throughout the film. at the beginning of the movie the lightening and sound and setting appears quite magical explaining the fantasy genre, however when malficent is betrayed and jealousy grows the sound and lightening is manipulated into the build up of suspense , the emotions felt during tis scene are anger and excitement.

The scene where Aurora is cast under a spell and pricks her finger on the spinning wheel, suspense is caused by the dramatic music and fast past actions made by maleficent running after her. Once Aurora pricks her finger on the spinning wheel and is sent into a sleep, the emotions felt are sadness and hope .

Aurora
Disney insider. (2014). meet maleficents magical characters. Available: http://blogs.disney.com/insider/2014/05/05/maleficent-character-posters/. Last accessed 30/09/15

The last scene which was the battle fought between King Stephen and Maleficent, causes suspense, there  dark lighting and dramatic music whilst  Malficent is trying to battle the king who is portrayed as evil and crazy . when King Stephen is killed this is the end to the dramatic climax the emotions felt are relive and shock .

King Stephen
Dena Mendez. (04/06/15). Maleficent movie spoiler. Available: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/06/04/maleficent-2014-spoiler-review-1469992. Last accessed 30/09/15.

 

 

 

The character styling is very periodic in terms of the hair makeup and costume design. visitors of the castle are dressed in gowns and hats, men are seen with long hair and styled beards. What I found interesting about the movie is the thee fairies character styling help the audience to understand there personalities which move the plot along. The film also has a good example of the development of the a character which also helps to move the plot along, Aurora as seen as a baby in the film to 16 years of age she is portrayed in beautiful gowns with golden curls to convey purity and beauty.

During the movie te one character I reflected on was Maleficent her character styling I found really interesting she appears at the beginning of the film as a good fairy with natural earthy colours incorporated into her costume , however her character son forms into a witch like creature with pasty skinny horns and black gown and the iconic cheekbones created using special effects, as a result according to the characters change in emotion her outfit completely changes which also helps to over the plot along. When Maleficent enters the castle during the welcome scene for Aurora the director emphasises Maleficent jealousy with the green illuminous smoke coming from behind the character which I feel works well.

Anonymous. (03/06/14). best maleficent inspired tutorials . Available: http://www.ryanseacrest.com/2014/06/03/5-best-maleficent-inspired-makeup-tutorials-on-youtube/. Last accessed 30/09/15.

1990s movie

The Addams family 1991
Anonymous. (unknown). Addams family 1991. Available: http://cyberd.org/addams-family-1991.html. Last accessed 30/09/15.

The 1990s film which I decided to analyse as the Adamms Family due to finding the hair and makeup design fascinating. The 1991 movie falls into the comedy, fantasy and horror genre. The characters are portrayed as almost cartoon which conveys the comedy genre category. The film is also manipulated in dark lightening and the characters styling also appears quite frightening and uneasy which conveys the horror genre. The characters styling and the story appears as antirealism which conveys the fantasy genre.

The motif in the movie is the emphasise of eccentricity, the Addams Family do everything the opposite of a normal family in terms of mannerisms and actions .

Throughout the film I felt all the characters were understood in terms of there personalities through appearance for example Wednesday Adamms appeared as a solemn and brattish child her face was addressed as a pasty and her hair was separated into a centre parting with two equal plaits her dull coloured dress also portrayed her as Victorian. Gomez Addams and Morticia were styled as vampires and appeared to be the main characters and ring leaders of the adams family, their love for each other was also recognisable by there eccentric actions taken place. Another character Uncle fester can be considered as quite comical but also scary , his face is styled as almost cartoon his complexion is pale and the circles around his eyes are an over exaggerated black, his clothing was also oversized, alike Fester Lurch's makeup design was created by using special effects to make him appear also comical and also cartoon.

I felt the characters styling in the movie didn't really help me to understand the movement of the plot throughout the film but however gave me an insight on the eccentricity, what the characters personalities were like and also what genre the 1991 movie would fall into .

pre 1990s movie

West side story film poster

Anonymous. (unknown). west side story . Available: http://www.impawards.com/1961/west_side_story_xlg.html. Last accessed 30/09/15

The next film I analysed was the iconic musical West side story. The film fell into the genres of romance, drama and musical . The recognisable motif in the film was , the blossoming romance and forbidden love story between Maria and Tony and also ethnicity, the fights and issues caused between the sharks and the jets. Marias brother Bernado was part of the sharks, the latin Americans , however Tony was part of the jets, the New Yorkers his best friend Riff was the leader.

The character which I mainly reflected on was Maria and her forbidden love story, the emotions were expressed through arts such as music and dance, when her brother got killed during a fight you instantly felt sorrow for her and the musical background and lightening was manipulated by the director as sorrow. Once again at the end of the film sympathy was felt towards Maria when Tony was shot, this was conveyed once again through light and sound.

A Latin American women ( Maria ) falling in love with a New Yorker man ( Tony)-forbidden love

Anonymous. (25/03/15). best of classics . Available: http://best-of-classics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/couples-and-musicals-game.html. Last accessed 30/09/15

The characters styling I felt convey the difference between the two groups the sharks and the jets. The jets appeared to be styled a lot clean cut with sculpted hairstyles whereas the sharks appeared  more rugged and rough looking. Maria was portrayed in the film as a natural beauty, with minimal makeup her neatly sculpted curls , the other Latin American women who was Bernados girlfriend was portrayed with a red lipstick and a pink flowing dress. During the dance Maria was seen styled in a plain white dress this was to manipulate to the audience purity and beauty. The character styling also helped to understand the character personalities and hat groups they came from it also sometimes helped to move the plot along .

sharks vs jets
Anonymous. (2015). battle of the gangs . Available: http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/battle-of-the-gangs-1715134/. Last accessed 30/09/15

looking at movies chosen 1990s

Titanic

Anonymous . (unknown ). oscar winning movies. Available: https://www.pinterest.com/emvb/oscar-winning-movies-1928-2015/. Last accessed 27/09/15

When looking at movies released in the 1990s, he film which I chose to analyse was the popular classic the Titanic released in 1997, which stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCapro and won several awards for best hair and makeup. The reason I decided to analyse the movie is because it reflected on the history of  a real life event as well as conveying to an audience a clear motif and genre, it also conveyed the use of narration and historical footage.
 
The Titanic, edited by James Cameron 1997, experiences the genre of drama and romance ending in sorrow after a ship docking from Southampton sinks after hitting an ice berg. The clear motif which stood out to me when watching the film is the importance of different classes of living. as well s the signicance of Roses necklace.  Rose Played by Kate Winset is an upper class woman who aboard the ship with her upper class family and fiancé. Jack who wins a bet and aboard the ship is lower class and is frowned upon by the upper class. Once the ship has hit the ice berg and is sinking, the upper class , woman and children were made to board the boat first, due to the fact that the 'unsinkable ship' did not have enough life boats majority of the lower class lost their lives, this highlights to me just how powerful the motif in the film is.
 
The film experiences narration by a the main character Rose in the future telling the story of the Titanic as well as historical footage of a  submarine and divers going into the ocean to research the remains of the shipwreck.
 
The characters which I feel the audience reflected on most when watching the movie, as did I were the main characters rose and jack and the love story between them ,throughout the movie there is a sense of hope that they Rose and Jack will fall in love and she will leave her arrogant upper class fiancé . Once Roses fiancé finds out about her secret relationship with jack he seeks revenge, this builds suspense leading to a climax in the movie when he handcuffs jack to the bed of a sinking ship, Roses goes back to save him just as she is about to aboard a life boat building towards the climax. However by the time Rose unhand cuffs Jack there are no lie boats left they are in the ocean for hours waiting for a life boat to return unfortunately Jack dies from hyperthermia and she is saved  by a lifeboat. The film ends by showing a future Rose who is narrator of the romance drama movie shortly passing away from old age , there is a reflection of her on the Titanic meeting Jack again and all the others who were aboard the boat.
 
The hair and makeup in the movie relates to the Victorian era . The significance of classes also helps with the audiences understanding of the characters in the movie due to the hair styling and costume design. The makeup department in the film also had to convey to audience how severe and dramatic the historical event was by making characters appear cold looking with hyperthermia, for example Jack when he is in the ocean waiting for a life boat to return .

Virginia Skeels . (15/09/12). Why Jack didn't get on the plank with Rose... James Cameron puts to rest the latest Titanic meme with cold, hard physics. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2203532/Titanic-James-Cameron-explains-Jack-climb-raft-Rose.html. Last accessed 27/09/15

 

Roses character styling in the movie conveys to the audience her being an upper class Victorian woman. Her hair is styled into neat perfected ringlets or an updo with ringlets falling around her face. Her makeup is soft and natural , she has a soft blush to highlight he cheekbones completed with a pale complexion and rose colour lipstick. She Is often seen styled in an Victorian style gown usually a navy colour with an oversized hat and lace gloves.
 

Anonymous . (unknown ). dawson rose dawson. Available: http://dawson-rose-dawson.tumblr.com/page/3. Last accessed 27/09/15.

 

Jack on the other hand is styled completely opposite to upper class his face almost looks grubby his hair is rough and he is usually styled in a cotton shirt with a waistcoat like majority of the lower class

Anonymous. (24/02/15). Leonardo Dicaprio. Available: through the years. Last accessed 27/09/15

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Looking at movies pre 1990s

Grease 1978

Nellie Andreeva . (28/04/15). fox sets grease for live production 2015 . Available: http://deadline.com/2014/04/grease-live-production-fox-2015-720677/. Last accessed 24/09/15

When deciding on a pre 1990s film I decided to analyse Grease 1971 due to it fitting into a variety of genres and also the audience being able to notice the development of a character.

The 1978 film fits into the following genres of: comedy , drama , romance and the obvious genre which is musical. The iconic songs makes it one of the most famous musicals around, and the typical scenario of boy meets girl also conveys the use of romance throughout the film.

The motif or in other words reoccurring idea or pattern  throughout the film is, the different groups/ classes of people and reputations  particularly  at  school such as the jocks, geeks, the goody two shoes and the popular rebels. The boy meets girl scenario is also used a number of times throughout the film. love in the 1950s was the main idea which the director wanted to portray.

Anonymous . (Unknown ). best movie makeovers . Available: http://www.realstylenetwork.com/beauty/2013/01/best-movie-makeovers/. Last accessed 24/09/15. 

When watching the film a character which I felt developed the most in terms of personality was sandy. She portrays her image as pure wearing pastel colours and minimal makeup . She falls in love with a T Bird a boy from a popular group at school with a rebel reputation. She makes friends with the pink ladies who are considered as the female versions of the T birds but is portrayed as too pure to be a pink lady .Throughout the film the boy trying to get the girl scenario is repeated several times . Towards the end of the movie sandy transforms into a confident pink lady with a biker image and leaves happily with Danny in a flying car which is portrayed to the audience as anti realism .

Anonymous . (Unknown ). grease Danny Zuko. Available: http://www.ultimofashions.com/grease-dannyzuko-johntravolta-jacket. Last accessed 24/09/15. 

The styling I feel in this film is very important and moves the plot along particularly at the beginning and end of the film , when sandy and Danny meet on the beach, when he meets her again at school , when she tries to fit into the pink ladies and also the complete image change at the end of the film. The styling tends to convey the different classes of people, the T birds and Danny are styled in leather jackets with the famous teddy boy hair style with makes them stand out amongst others. The pink ladies are styled in pink jackets with their group name stated on the back and each of them have a certain characteristic to make them stand out , for example frenchie has the brightly coloured hair, wigs. Jan is known for having  two pony tails , marty's main accessory is sunglasses and Rizzo is usually seen supporting a  neck tie and heavy makeup in comparison to the others , this also conveys the characters personalities. Sandy is styled as pure at the beginning of the film in pastel colours with a neat 1950s hair style  and natural makeup application, at the end of the film her leather cat suit backcombed  curls and red lipstick and increase in makeup application conveys the statement she is making. 

 

anonymous . (2015). grease pink ladies . Available: http://wallpaper222.com/explore/grease-pink-ladies-hairstyles/. Last accessed 24/09/15.
 

The visual motif which the director is trying to achieve is the different catergories which people fall into and the reputations which come with it .