Description
Blade Runner 2049
Neo Noir
Antihero (Moral ambiguity)
Main character, Rick Deckard he's a murderer
Pessimism
Not Special
Human lives seem crappy
Replicants are going to eventually take on the lives of the humans which aren't good; There's a staircase in life that you keep climbing; There's no escape
The past is how this comes about
Fate vs Luck
Prophecy/Destiny/Memory/Vegas
Is it engineered?
Constantly undermining
Many questions, can you make your own luck?, do you have a destiny?, etc.
Past Comes Back
Sequel, Rachael, Memory, Wipeout
Deckard is living a life as if Rachael is still alive; Rachael comes back Because of the past, the characters aren't happy; They have to have their past erased in order to be so If you want to learn more check out What is effective quality management?
Happiness is possible through all of the past being wiped out
There are still fragments
Urban
In the back streets, black alleys, antihero exits as well as their sense of self Gritty realism of the city
Bogart takes matters into his own hands and starts punching people
Conflict/Chaos
Product Placement
Always raining; Always dark, fake pleasure, no joy/happiness/pleasure, citizen soldiers: whether or not, when we enlist in the military, we are trained through media to think as if we are a soldier and we take on that persona day to day in our reality
SciFiCyberpunk
Artificial world, pessimistic world view; embracing Entropy, which is chaos or the breakdown of structures; Mvmt towards chaos
Borders (Breakdown)
Social orders being overthrown or collapsing
Revolt is useless
Replicants/Cyborgs
Utopic(overlapping of differences) vs Dystopic (Idealized Femininity; Mae Fantasy; Race) We also discuss several other topics like What are the elements of a stable government?
Based on our own perceptions/projections
Race: All white, the only black man is an evil black slave owner
Cyborgs/Humans
Very few times we are aware that we are faced with a replicant/Can't distinguish Naming; what is the difference between a series of letters vs a series of numbers Luv
By end of it all, we still can't figure out love
Relationships
Interacting with our projections of someone else, try to put our best selves out there; Once
those projections are thrown out there, the relationship starts to crumble
Expectations, the way we project them, anniversary, moving in, etc.
Before Joy dies, Captain K finds out that he is only having a relationship of himself and that If you want to learn more check out What are the essential manifestations of the chicano movement?
she told him what she wanted to hear and did what she wanted him to do; Romantic Progression
We don't know how to be human; Human as?
There is always a mask underneath every mask and we can never get underneath
Reality vs. Appearance
Plato, the cave, are we watching the shadow on the wall or what's behind the shadow? Reality itself is a simulation
Old and ancient and from a tree
Video game playing
Love: Why he can never be in a real relationship
Sexuality: Luv is ascentant to K's fantasy
Virgin and the whore
She can always maintain his fantasy We also discuss several other topics like What is the purpose of the federal open market committee?
Religion vs Corp Don't forget about the age old question of How to compute correlation coefficient?
Replicants and humans: Whether replicants should have the same rights as humans
Does the distinction between what's real matter? Because we're just going to believe what we get anyway
Mystery of the Noir: It cannot be solved, if it can, it's not a Noir
There are fears and anxieties and questions as to what it means to be human and a replicant
Battle of the Sexes
In the film, there’s one person of color, of the lower class
Based on a true story, film has silences, nuances and innuendos
Masculinity
Shift in Masculinity
The husband character, Larry King, who supports his wife, Billie Jean, in her tennis career
He looks like a Ken doll
He knows Billie Jean in a way that Marilyn doesn’t; He knows what she needs and is willing to put her career first, along with Billie Jean (Career takes priority)
The Arm
Career first Don't forget about the age old question of Who is george g.m. james?
Husband raising child
Bobby Riggs, Main guy
Supposed to be a chauvinist pig, but he really isn’t; He’s supposed to play this role for the sake of his wife, Priscilla; Claims he’s opted out by choice
Sexuality
Ted Tinling, Alan Cumming’s Character
Larger Than Life
Always knows, pops out of nowhere
One dimensional
Queer character alongside a gay man, not fighting or competing
Straight and gay people have more in common
Bi(Cheating)/Lesbian (Political Identity)/Queer
“Cheating”
Morality vs. Ethics
SelfDiscovery vs. Commitment (Can Have Both)
Poly/NonPoly
Compersion
Taking joy in the place of your partner’s happiness
Society pushes this concept on relationship, making people think that they own each other when they enter a relationship; Love/possessiveness
“Gaze”
When Billie Jean and Marilyn are in the club, Marilyn goes to dance for Billie Jean to watch and give her pleasure, disrupting the traditional gaze
Consensual NonMonogamy (CNM)
Visual
Yellow, “70s”
Billie Jean hitting the tennis ball, the shot is surrealist
Boxedin way of thinking for Bobby Riggs; Shot of him in a square window Conflict with freedom and being a square
Freedom of MVMT
Red/Pink/Glittery or Sparkle Pink used for the love scenes between the women Hair
Shaving
Haircut
Hair functions as a sense of identity
Symbolic hair salons
Close up of the scissors cutting the hair
Subtext of the haircut, representing of the innuendo, spoken feeling of what’s going on with Billie Jean and Marilyn; Billie Jean and Marilyn are looking at each other
Emma Stone’s Performance
Put on a little weight, moves around differently
Wears less makeup
Tells what she’s feeling at every moment
Uses eyebrows to show repression
Strongest scene: She goes into the locker room and cries; Releasing the pressure, happy and sad
She’s showing the stoic philosophy, keep a tough skin and not show any negative emotion in public
She’s the only one going through this whole situation with the tennis
Shows her humanity
You Throw Like A Girl (Article)
Biological Essentialism
People are categorized based on physical attributes
Women being good at sports are apparently men masquerading as women Sex/gender
There are certain things that men do and certain things women do
We assume based on sex/gender
Men in sports can’t be around women because women drain them
Why are sports so sexist/homophobic?
Male dominant
Violation of the gender identity to have women play
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
Polyamory
Relates to Big Love, Sister Wives, French Twist, The Dreamers, Shameless, Three, Vicky Christina Barcelona
It was presented in a normalized manner
Polyamory, Queer, BDSM
Polyamory
Polyamory – Multiple marriages
Polygyny – 1 man, multiple women
Polyandry – 1 woman, multiple men
Polyfidality
Legal System will and can ruin your life and use your sexuality against you once you have kids
People don’t like this because it breaks the traditional status
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
Triangle diagram
Primary
Secondary (has less power than primary)
Tertiary
Queer
Bisexuality and Lesbian identity
Clear that the women are in love with each other
Director is Queer and of color
BDSM
Normalized vs. Eroticized
Normalized: Assimilation/Acceptance, People are allowed to exist as human beings, Nymphomaniac, Battle of the Sexes
Eroticized: Increased otherization
Abscence Absence
Negative Stereotypes
Idealized Stereotypes
Representation (Identity/Main Subtext)
Gay white males
If we see a representation, it’s not done properly
Fifty Shades of Grey: Normalized too much that the subculture is forgotten Bondage Dominant Submssion/Sadistic Masochism
D/S – Dominance/Submission; M/S – Master/Slave : Doesn’t completely pertain to personality
Power
Activities – Kink/Fetish
Usually not falling into these by choice
DISC Theory
D – Dominance (Consensual manipulation)
I – Inducement (Charm, making someone think your idea is theirs; Non consensual manipulation)
S – Submission (Giving up one’s power by choice; active choice)
“Submit to a loving authority” Marston
C – Compliance (Forced into submission, to perform and it produces
unhappiness; forced)
Sadist – Causing pain (that someone else doesn’t enjoy); psychological/physical pain to an extent
Masochism – Enjoy pain (response to pain is different)
Ex. Little Shop of Horrors
Film focuses on Power Exchange and Sapio Sexuality
Sapiosexuality/Intelligence connection between Elizabeth, William and Olive Dominance; Submission: Much harder to become so
Elizabeth is too proud to submit/weak; Doesn’t want people to have power over her; The only time we see her submit is when the neighbor walks in
During the tying up scene, Elizabeth walks out when William ties up Olive Men being submissive gives people another way of thinking
You have to actually say yes to an agreement with BDSM/Poly, etc.
Switch: Identify Dominance/Submission and find people that way
Lie Detector
Questions have to be meaningful enough to lie
Idea that you can love two people at once
About the body and sexuality
Sister Wives
Polygyny
1 man, multiple women
SW: 1 man, 4 women
Upside: Women help each other out with chores, children, work, etc.; Children have more people invested in their lives
Happy Death Day
Neitzche
Preexistentialism
Romantic in existentialism
Easy to love life if it’s beautiful
More relevant when on a bad part
We can deal with suffering as long as it’s meaningful
If time is infinite, probabilities will play themselves out over time
Cosmological Theory
Cosmology: Worldview
Designated Cosmos
Chaos becomes an expected thing
Creator creating for us
Belief in most religious deities
Sometimes some scientific views will fit in
Plato/Aristotle Theories
How the world will fit in
Once we see enough chaos, we start to become more cynical
Perfectible Cosmos
Humans can make the world a better world; We have a purpose; Neutral; Can be changed through certain actions; It will only get it better if we allow it to become what it’s meant to
Horrific Cosmos
The universe is filled with aliens; Humans are not anything; We don’t belong; There’s no reason for us to be alive
Neitzche
Critical of socialists, human rights, etc.
They’re always trying to fix things
Suffering always happens, we need to accept this
Utopian Thought: Projecting a future ideal that sounds good but isn’t attainable
Fantasy, when it doesn’t work out, we create a scapegoat and secretly keep pushing to obtain the fantasy
Scapegoat = violence
Means nostalgia: living in the past; utopia: living in the future; keeps us from living in the present
Present Moment
Don’t forsake the now
Utopia Now
Actively subjecting oneself to suffering
Overcoming our own fears
The good life makes us forget about the reality
Bringing people out of their suffering causes them not to find meaning in it Why are these theories bad?
Denial of the present
Projecting different visions of the future
Eliminate all chaos, there comes a scapegoat
We should look within our own suffering
Human rights are valuable because someone’s been denied them
Where there’s inclusion, there’s exclusion
Horror of Existence
Amor Fati Love Fate; What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us Stronger
Accept Everything and Love it
No need for violence
Either we love the world or we don’t
Accept the suffering and the perfecting stops
Suffering for the sake of another is not good; Suffering for the sake of yourself is good
To hold yourself responsible for your suffering
Blame Guilt
Move on quicker if we accept our faults
Victoria and Abdul
Religion
Queen Victoria finds meaning outside of Christianity
Spiritual Teacher (Abdul)
Islamophobia
The household and Victoria’s children’s feelings towards Abdul
Love Transforms
Hinduism
Colonialism
Destruction of culture/artifacts
Appropriation – Abdul: Missionary figure or source of knowledge to Victoria Empress of a nation she’s never been too
Forced Immigration
Slavery
Military Occupation
Romanticism
Inter…Relationship (Cultural, Racial, etc.)
Oppositional Gaze?
Different age, gender, culture; classic odd couple
Older (80s) woman having sexual feelings for a younger man
Familial Love
Mother/Son
Formalism
Britain 1800s
Period Fancy/Stylized, On Location, Historically Accurate Fashion Handheld (India)
Long Shots/Wide Shots (England)
Color Change
Class Status
LowKey/soft lighting
Use of mirrors; Rack focuses from the Queen to the Queen; She only understands herself Power Dynamics
Power/Lack of Power in Position
Controls through Eating
Abdul gains “power” as servant
Colonial control
Killing of A Sacred Deer
Based on a Greek Myth
Feeling that something is bound to rise up
Use of music
Opening shot
Moral Luck
How ethics are always ambiguous
Whoever is guilty gets the luck
Main character made the choice to drink, then went to drive, killing a sacred deer and now he must pay the consequences; Now had to face the morality and his choices
Long Take
Beating heart
Body Horror
Use of tragic irony
Tragic Irony: Audience knows something that the characters have yet to find out; Basic knowledge to suffering; Has something to do with the father; Oedipus; Romeo and Juliet; Hitchcock uses this a lot
Things characters say vs. things that they don’t say
Level of writing puts us offbalance
Visual style: Long shots or extreme long shot, which is different from what we’re used to; breaks the 360 rule; Seen from far away; Slow zoom in; Camera movement calculated, not in the action
Techniques: Off angle, Strange heights, violates 360 rule, no shot/reverse shot, extreme long shot, camera unmotivated, distance intimacy
Stars Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman
Kidman shows a coldness
Shot in Cincinnati
Cincinnati has heart the same way this film does
Sacrifice has ultimate value
Thing being sacrificed has a chance at saving humanity and preventing further suffering Burden of responsibility
Moral value depends on luck
Still the moral reality (Greek)
Greek: Either you have blood on your hands or you don’t
Making a decision faster and worrying/thinking about it less
Individualism: Worry about the relative value of yourself
Biting of the arm: The man bites himself as a punishment; Removing the eyes is like a further punishment