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Degree Level Media Studies Essays

Question: Le Dernier Metro has been criticised for presenting a vision of the Occupation years that is inappropriately \'comforting and comfortable\' do you agree? What aspects of the Occupation period does Truffaut\'s film emphasize, and how?

Answer: The key features of Truffaut’s film, according to Joy Gould Boyum, ‘make for a comforting and comfortable vision: of life, of the theatre, of the occupation’ . Such criticism appeared on numerous occasions after the release of The Last Metro and while such reactions can be explained, they are not, in my opinion, justified.......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: What is meant by terms such as ‘generic instability’ or ‘generic constellations’? Discuss a film from the module which crosses the definitional borders suggested by these terms.

Answer: Classifying films according to genre was one of the earliest methods of organising the production and marketing of films by Hollywood. It allows for standardisation and product differentiation in a market flooded by competitors. However genre is more than an industry device. It is a fluid and changing state of film conventions.......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Analyse the key features of two or more northern, working class films of the 1990s relating the films clearly to their social and political contexts.

Answer: The two films under analysis in this essay are Billy Elliott (Stephen Daldrey, 2000) and The Full Monty (Peter Catenao, 1997), which have politically and sociologically common themes. Both films deal with northern British industrial crises and how the subsequent effects impact on the affected communities. Billy Elliott is set in County Durham and deals with the 1984/85 miners strike, while The F......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Critically Analyse Stuart Hall’s Text, ‘Encoding/Decoding’ and the Theories of ‘Semiotics’ Within.

Answer: Beyond its literal meaning, a particular word may have a multitude of differing underlying meanings, and this is what Stuart Hall refers to as ‘Semiotics’, except that he calls the actual word in question the ‘denotation’, and the series of meanings which that word can represent the ‘connotations’. In this essay, I will critically analyse Hall’s model of ‘encoding/decoding’, and......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Popular generic texts, according to Annette Kuhn, “are reflections of social trends and attitudes of the time, mirroring the preoccupations of the historical moment” (1990). With reference to a genre of your choice, discuss the validity or otherwise of Kuhn’s statement. (\'Gangster films\')

Answer: By its very definition Genre is made up of a collection of texts. A genre isn’t just born out of one film it is developed by a collective number of texts, all which host a number of similar elements an audience can use to categorise a film. An audience will have certain expectations of a genre film and much of the films success will......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Why should we and how can we study the media?

Answer: Since starting the course in Media, Culture and Society, it has become evident to me that studying the media is not only interesting but a vital tool in analysing contemporary society. So far in our lectures and seminar sessions we have examined the role of the media, the message and the audience. During this essay I aim to provide a deeper understanding of the importance in studying the media a......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: \'Art cinema is at it\'s best when it\'s subversive\'. Discuss the subversive intent and effectiveness of any two films in the module.

Answer: Art has always retained the potential to be subversive, in other words to challenge the pre-conceptions held by the majority in relation to the way we live. For example, a book can be written with subversive intent to make the reader question certain things and situations they may previously have taken for granted or rarely thought about. In doing so, they are instilling new ideas and questions in......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: A review of the film, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Answer: Since the beginning of time, man has been fascinated with the stars and sky. In our time, this fascination has lead to many great movies. Among the many science fiction movies, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey stands out as the pinnacle of the genre. This movie covered various themes which include, but are not limited to: space, evolution, technology, religion, artificial intelligence, de......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: An explanation of neorealism and an insight to the films of Federico Fellini – a personal understanding.

Answer: In this essay, I would like to analyse the genre of neorealism, with particular reference to the films of Federico Fellini. This may seam an odd combination, the association of neorealism to Rossellini, Visconti, or Desica may seem more appropriate, but I hope to show that Fellini used all that was special pioneered in the pure neorealist years of 1943 to 1951, and extended it with a very persona......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: It has been argued that film and video censorship in Britain cannot be explained simply in terms of the policies and activities of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). What other factors need to be taken into account?

Answer: There are many factors other than the policies and activities of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) that are taken into account when censoring a film. A film censor has to shield the strong-from the strong. He has to protect the public from the excesses of the film industry, and the industry from the intolerance of the public, the effects of censoring a film have to be considered b......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

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