"The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist" - An Analysis of How Film-makers of The Usual Suspects Achieved the Shocking Effect

Author: Sarah Rusch
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638561941
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English and Linguistics), course: Studying Media, language: English, abstract: When the filmThe Usual Suspectswas released in 1995 nobody knew it would eventually be rated as one of the best films of all time.1The appeal of the film lies within its cleverly structured narrative and its unique way of making the viewer want to watch the film again in a different light.The Usual Suspectsis one of those films you have to watch at least twice to get close to the truth of what is being told. During the second watching you will ask yourself if you are really seeing the same film and the same character, because you were sure that Verbal Kint seemed incredibly harmless the first time around while he comes across very differently the second time. That is the question that shall be examined in the course of this paper in which I want to analyse how Bryan Singer, the film's director, achieved his aim of creating a completely innocent character in the course of the film, only to let the audience find out that Kint might be the criminal mastermind behind the whole scheme. How do the film-makers achieve the portrayal of the harmless Kint, and how does he come across in the second watching? By choosingThe Usual Suspects,this paper also serves as an example of how audiences can be manipulated. Therefore, I will also have a look at the role and the behaviour of an audience. First of all, we will concern ourselves with a film theory developed by Kracauer examining the role of an audience and the effects films might have on it. We will analyse how audiences feel and behave during the experience of a film screening and how their minds function at the time. Secondly, I will shortly introduce the filmThe Usual Suspectswith its most important characters and its plot, before I, thirdly, want to go into the analysis of the creation of Verbal Kint's character, and scrutinise how Singer worked with narrative and technical means to leave behind a puzzled audience. To achieve that, I will pick a few scenes from the film and analyse them in respect to their filmic realisation. I hope that this paper will thoroughly answer the question of how an audience let themselves be manipulated by a feature film and what effects certain filmic means can achieve if properly deployed. Towards the end, all the gathered information will shortly be summarised and a conclusion will be expressed.

"The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist" - An Analysis of How Film-makers of The Usual Suspects Achieved the Shocking Effect

Author: Sarah Rusch
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638561941
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 20

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English and Linguistics), course: Studying Media, language: English, abstract: When the filmThe Usual Suspectswas released in 1995 nobody knew it would eventually be rated as one of the best films of all time.1The appeal of the film lies within its cleverly structured narrative and its unique way of making the viewer want to watch the film again in a different light.The Usual Suspectsis one of those films you have to watch at least twice to get close to the truth of what is being told. During the second watching you will ask yourself if you are really seeing the same film and the same character, because you were sure that Verbal Kint seemed incredibly harmless the first time around while he comes across very differently the second time. That is the question that shall be examined in the course of this paper in which I want to analyse how Bryan Singer, the film's director, achieved his aim of creating a completely innocent character in the course of the film, only to let the audience find out that Kint might be the criminal mastermind behind the whole scheme. How do the film-makers achieve the portrayal of the harmless Kint, and how does he come across in the second watching? By choosingThe Usual Suspects,this paper also serves as an example of how audiences can be manipulated. Therefore, I will also have a look at the role and the behaviour of an audience. First of all, we will concern ourselves with a film theory developed by Kracauer examining the role of an audience and the effects films might have on it. We will analyse how audiences feel and behave during the experience of a film screening and how their minds function at the time. Secondly, I will shortly introduce the filmThe Usual Suspectswith its most important characters and its plot, before I, thirdly, want to go into the analysis of the creation of Verbal Kint's character, and scrutinise how Singer worked with narrative and technical means to leave behind a puzzled audience. To achieve that, I will pick a few scenes from the film and analyse them in respect to their filmic realisation. I hope that this paper will thoroughly answer the question of how an audience let themselves be manipulated by a feature film and what effects certain filmic means can achieve if properly deployed. Towards the end, all the gathered information will shortly be summarised and a conclusion will be expressed.

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die PDF Author: Sarah J. Robinson
Publisher: WaterBrook
ISBN: 0593193539
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind PDF Author: Julian Jaynes
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547527543
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

The Generous Gambler (A short but grand prose poem)

The Generous Gambler (A short but grand prose poem) PDF Author: Charles Baudelaire
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN: 8074843769
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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Book Description
This carefully crafted ebook: "The Generous Gambler (A short but grand prose poem)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Generous Gambler is written by Charles Pierre Baudelaire and was first published in 1864. Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet, translator, and literary and art critic whose reputation rests primarily on Les Fleurs du mal; (1857; The Flowers of Evil) which was perhaps the most important and influential poetry collection published in Europe in the 19th century. Similarly, his Petits poèmes en prose (1868; "Little Prose Poems") was the most successful and innovative early experiment in prose poetry of the time. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a 19th century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence. At the same time his works, in particular his book of poetry Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), have been acknowledged as classics of French literature.

Sophie's World

Sophie's World PDF Author: Jostein Gaarder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466804270
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.

Thimblerig's Ark

Thimblerig's Ark PDF Author: Nate Fleming
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0615984894
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
You know about Noah, but what about the animals? Thimblerig is a little groundhog with big problems. He's a loner con-artist who's losing his mojo; the wild dogs who run the forest harass him at every turn; he's started having vivid nightmares of apocalyptic floods; and worst of all - he believes he sees unicorns when everyone knows unicorns are only the stuff of legend. But what one animal calls problems, Thimblerig calls opportunity. His problems inspire him to come up with the ultimate con: convincing a group of gullible animals that a world-ending flood is coming, that the fabled unicorns have told him where the only safe place will be, and that only he can lead them to safety. And all for a reasonable price, of course. But when the flood really does come, Thimblerig has a choice to make: either he really does save the ones who have trusted him, or he loses everything. And he discovers that his problems have only just begun.

Crazy Like Us

Crazy Like Us PDF Author: Ethan Watters
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416587195
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
“A blistering and truly original work of reporting and analysis, uncovering America’s role in homogenizing how the world defines wellness and healing” (Po Bronson). In Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself: We are in the process of homogenizing the way the world goes mad. It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But is it possible America's most troubling impact on the globalizing world has yet to be accounted for? American-style depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anorexia have begun to spread around the world like contagions, and the virus is us. Traveling from Hong Kong to Sri Lanka to Zanzibar to Japan, acclaimed journalist Ethan Watters witnesses firsthand how Western healers often steamroll indigenous expressions of mental health and madness and replace them with our own. In teaching the rest of the world to think like us, we have been homogenizing the way the world goes mad.

Cincinnati Magazine

Cincinnati Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Cincinnati Magazine taps into the DNA of the city, exploring shopping, dining, living, and culture and giving readers a ringside seat on the issues shaping the region.

Sculpting in Time

Sculpting in Time PDF Author: Andrey Tarkovsky
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292776241
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A director reveals the original inspirations for his films, their history, his methods of work, and the problems of visual creativity