American and World Culture

Search This Blog

Images of Palm Springs

April 20, 2011

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

PHOTOS BY: EDGAR AVENDANO

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

The Seventh Seal: Apocalypse and Redemption

The Seventh Seal , 1957 The Seventh Seal is a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman released in 1957. The story takes place during The Black Death, which devastated Europe during the fourteenth century and killed between twenty-five to fifty million people; the movie captures a portrait of death and it’s looming presence in the lives of Europeans of all ages, classes and religious beliefs. Ingmar Berman’s film is shot in black and white, though it might have been due to the slow emergence of technicolor in motion pictures during the period, the high cost or technique required to process color in films, The Seventh Seal is better told through the visual duality of shades. The film begins with a knight, Antonius Block playing a game of chess with the personification of Death. At the end of every game of chess there will be a clear winner and a loser. Death will definitely win one day, for nobody escapes it; the question, therefore, is When will death

A Reflection on Picasso's Painting in 'Oppenheimer'

This cubist painting titled " Woman Sitting with Crossed Arms " by Pablo Picasso appears at the beginning of Nolan's "Oppenheimer". Cubism was a style of painting invented in the early 20th century that portrayed subjects from various perspectives, making them appear abstract and fragmented. Cubism was a new way of viewing the world, it was creatively revolutionary. Picasso's painting - and the artworks that appear at the beginning of the film - are meant to set the mood for J. Robert Oppenheimer's contribution to a radical new way of life. World War II and the atomic bomb would change the landscape of the human experience. Oppenheimer's wife, in fact, will tell him, "The world is changing, reforming. This is your moment." Oppenheimer, though, was more than aware that the atomic bomb he created could more than change the world, it could destroy it. Of himself he said , "Now I am

Arrival (& Circles)

One of the ideas that most captivated me from Plato’s Timaeus is that which denotes that the demiurge designed the universe as a sensible representation of eternity; the fact that the planets are round and that they travel perpetually in spheres represents this notion of the eternal. Plato writes, “And the creation of the universe conformed to the model of eternity, so as to be as similar to it as possible.” Coincidentally, the day that we discussed this idea in class I saw the film, Arrival . The story follows Louise Banks, a Professor of Linguistics who is hired to communicate with extraterrestrials whose craft is stationed over the Montana plains. The aliens speak through circular symbols made of palindrome phrases. There is no beginning or end to each phrase, they represent ideas that are not constraint to earthly time. The aliens have come to earth to offer the gift of “eternal language” to humanity. Throughout the film, we see flashbacks of Dr. Bank’s daughter Hanna

Powered by Blogger