Reflections of the Self: Nature, Identity, and Coming of Age in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight
Written by Spencer Stutman for Robin E. Feenstra’s Coming of Age Fiction course Nature, in many ways, can be the strongest reflection of self throughout one’s life. Through the trauma, the joys, the lessons, and the often-unexplainable grief of childhood, it is the natural world which surrounds us that continues to raise us, even if we do not fully realize it. The film Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) reflects this importance of the natural world which witnesses our lives through the journey of the protagonist, Chiron, from youth to adulthood. The countless displays of nature reflect the individual scenes of his…
Isolation and Desire: The Psychological Landscape of Tom at the Farm
Written by Zheng Cheng for Justine McLellan’s Cinema Styles course Tom at the Farm (2013), a psychological thriller directed by Xavier Dolan, tells the story of Tom, a young man from Montreal, who attends his deceased boyfriend’s – Guillaume – funeral in rural Quebec. At the remote farm, Tom struggles when he develops an abnormal relationship with his deceased boyfriend’s sadistic brother Francis, whilst simultaneously resisting the temptation to reveal the truth about the nature of his relationship with Guillaume to his mother, Agathe. By employing gloomy and confined settings, wide shots of open spaces, and monotonic and unsettling music,…
Reconstructing Memories: Intimacy and Silence in Aftersun
Written by Élise Léger for Justine McLellan’s Cinema Styles course Aftersun (2022) is a film acting as intimate memories reminisced by daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) about a vacation spent with her father (Paul Mescal) in the 1990s. Directed by Charlotte Wells, the film deals with themes of depression, connection, and detachment. These themes are well illustrated by Wells who tackles this in an unique way, ultimately serving the story justice. The quiet, simple dialogue enables the viewer to interpret things outside the constraints of obvious scripting. The themes are manifested through the use of realistic dialogue and sound design that…
Organic Futures: Intersecting Tradition, Technology, and Asian Identities in After Yang
Written by Luca Graziani for Justine McLellan’s Cinema Styles course Following the lives of mixed-race couple Kyra and Jake, who purchase an android named Yang to teach their adoptive child Mika about her Chinese culture and heritage, After Yang explores the theme of Asian identity through the means of technology, nature, and the instrumental contrast hidden within the score. Along with the absence of Chinese languages, director Kogonoda illustrates the feeling of duality many Asian-Americans are faced with. After Yang is a 2021 science-fiction drama by the Korean-American director, Kogonada. The film challenges the audience’s expectations of a science-fiction film,…
An Analysis of Midsommar: Burning Men and May Queens
Written by Michaela Charbonneau for Dr. Magdalena Olszanowski Cinema & Communications: Selected Topics course *This text contains spoilers to the film Midsommar The night-winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow-grass. And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass; There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the livelong day, And I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May. — The May Queen, Alfred Tennyson Wearing a white gown with a wildflower crown, the young blonde dancer, prances round and round the maypole. Bodies dance, dizzy,…
Alienation as a Result of Mass Industrialization in Antonioni’s Red Desert
Written by Dorothée Gingras-B for Magdalena Olszanowski’s Ecocinema course Through grim images of factory chimneys, opaque fumes, and behemoth infrastructure, Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 drama Red Desert tells the story of a woman’s growing sense of alienation and disorientation in the face of a highly industrialized and increasingly polluted environment. In the midst of Italy’s booming after-war industrialization, Giuliana (Monica Vitti), the wife of the manager of an Italian power plant, attempts to find a sense of stability. After getting hit by a truck and hospitalized, she grapples with a persistent case of neurosis, which only seems heightened by her polluted and…
The Mesmerizing and Brutal Essence of Nature in Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland
By Angélique Babineau, written for Magdalena Olszanowski’s Ecocinema class Nomadland (2020), set in 2011 Nevada, Arizona, South Dakota, and California, is an independent American drama directed by Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao. Adapted from the 2017 novel by Jessica Bruder of the same title, Nomadland mostly features real nomads as fictionalized versions of themselves (Linda May as Linda, Charlene Swankie as Swankie, and Bob Wells as Bob Wells). The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a sixty-one-year-old woman, who loses her job after the US Gypsum factory in Empire, Nevada closes. Recently widowed, Fern finds herself alone on the road, with nothing…
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