Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Film Noir and Zombies
A dark little vid of Jake Gyllenhaal photos in B&W, set to a strange song, "Film Noir."
"As in "I walked with a Zombie", Tourneur compensates us with psychological finesse. He does the same in another production for RKO's suspense department, cat people (click on it to watch it), featuring lovely Simone Simon.It is, in a way, a film noir, like "Out of the Past". This one movie directed by Tourneur is worth viewing not only for the fact that it features Robert Mitchum as cool as he could be. It is regarded a classic film noir and I do think, more than rightly.Might be a meek association, but the same seems to hold for the first Zombie Movie of the "apocalyptical type", albeit its ending in restoration of governmental power". Source: cultrelhgh.blogspot.com
"The theme of Zombieland is trust. If you can't trust then you can't love. And if you can't love then you might as well be a zombie.
Zombies have been a very popular staple in the recent years of storytelling. It's a take on the Western society and how many of us get so wrapped up in the things that really don't matter in the grand scheme of life. Job status, money, food, alcohol, getting laid etc...; it's all tools to keep us in the state of a zombie. We pay attention to the non-important things in life and basically get trapped inside of our own souls. How storytellers attempt to make an analogy to this is to give us man eating creatures who destroy the world. Because after all, many of us believe most people have already become zombies already.Zombieland puts a different spin to this genre by telling us that we should just enjoy the small things in life. No matter if 6 billion people have died, if you're alive then you might as well enjoy being alive. There have been recent zombie comedies in the last few years. The most popular being Shaun of the Dead, a film that WILDsound movie reviewer Joshua Starnes put in his TOP 10 Comedy Movies of the 2000s decade. Perhaps he needs to adjust that list after seeing Zombieland as it's a far superior film. And I think you can only have one zombie film in a top 10 list.What makes this film so endearing is the relationships with the 4 characters. You have our narrator, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a young man who really never had love in his life. The older gruff man, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who lost a deep love of his life. And the two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who don't trust a soul because of their hardship of a life so far. All four people who have been hit hard by love and all think that you can't be hurt as long as you don't attempt to care about someone else.Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson, the four survivors in "Zombieland".
This is a common theme in the movies these days because it's something many of us understand. We've all been hurt before and we all know that pain sucks a whole lot. So we protect ourselves from that pain by distracting ourselves. We become zombies. All four characters in Zombieland must overcome their inner fears and learn to trust again in order for them to not become zombies". Source: www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com
"Roger Dodger is a 2002 comedy noir that explores the relationship between men, women, and sex. Directed by Dylan Kidd and starring Campbell Scott and Jesse Eisenberg, the film follows Roger Swanson (Scott) and his nephew (Eisenberg) during a night on the town in search of sex. After cynical New York advertising copywriter Roger Swanson (Campbell Scott) is dumped by his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Joyce (Isabella Rossellini) — who is also his boss — his painful workday is further complicated by the unexpected arrival of his 16-year-old nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg). After asking to spend the night at Roger's, Nick reveals that he has come to ask for help—in hopes of ditching his virginal status, Nick begs Roger for a lesson in the art of seduction".
Source: www.freebase.com
I never thought of zombieland having a theme of love but after thinking about it I think your completely right.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, zman!
ReplyDeleteI think the writers gave the themes of search of love and trust other persons more emphasis over other horror elements.