NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: some questions to answer ig

Do you find the ending of the film to be satisfying resolution? Why? - Personally I found the ending to this film incredibly unsatisfying. this is because there wasn't the stereotypical hero vs villian standoff that typically comes from the Western genre. How were you expecting the film to end? - I was expecting Moss and Chigurh to eventually have a face to face fight, as that's what the audience expect to happen. The audience spend the entire film witnessing the tension that our 'protagonist' and 'antagonist'have with each other, and for Moss to die off screen by the hands of someone other than Chigurh seems pretty anti climactic. Why do you feel the Coen Brothers decided to have their main protagonist killed offscreen , and then avoid a final climax between Sheriff Bell and Chigurh ? Consider the effect on the audience in terms of expectations of genre and narrative, and the themes of law and order v criminality , good v evil , heroism etc. - I think that the Coen brothers decided to have Moss killed off screen because everyone was expecting a Moss vs Chigurh scene, and to nopt have that was definitely a narrative plot twist that no one was expecting. As for the avoidence between Bell and Chigurh, i think the brothers did this to keep Bell true to his character without forcing the hero stereotype onto him after Moss died. Considering the film is a Western Action genre, the lack of western style action is quite a twist that the brothers created. Who represents the force of good in the film ? What does the film's ending suggest about the battle between good and evil ? - I think that there isn't really a force of good and evil in this film, more of morally right and wrong. Carla Jean is the innocent, white light that Moss is trying to protect. Moss himself is more grey than anything else, he does bad things but for a good cause. whilst Chigurh isn't evil, he is just a man who got paid to do a jobb.

Introduction to the coursework

- the short film idea i had was a narrative plot twist The five finger pitch: - Genre: Psychological horror - Protagonist: Dimitri Romanov - Goal: to make it to the end of the hallway - Obstacle: whatever comes out of the red doors - Why: it explores the idea that none of our fears were born with us, but from our experiences Inspiration for this short film was Le Jetee and Meshes in The Afternoon

meshes in the afternoon

TASK ONE: - do you agree with the plot synopsis? "Approaching her apartment one afternoon, a woman picks up a flower, sees a figure disappearing around a corner down the garden path, then fumbles her key as she tries to unlock the door to her room. She goes upstairs and falls asleep in a chair looking out of the window, where she has a series of dreams that recombine these simple events and objects in unexpected ways. Doubles appear, she floats up the staircase, and the person she briefly glimpsed earlier appears as a figure of menace haunting the corners of her mind." I would agree with the plot synopsis to some extent as we don't entirely know when in the film reality ends and dream begins.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: intro

The three main "Character's" in the film are Anton Chigurh, Llewellyn Moss and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. - Do you see any connections in the setting and the characters to traditional Western conventions? What we see from the first two pictures, showing Chigurh and Moss respectively, is that both men are outside- whilst the picture showing Bell is showed to be inside. what we can immedietly see from this is that Chigurh and Bell are more hands on in their 'jobs' and how they carry them out while Bell prefers to think of himself as the brains behind the operation, opting to stay behind the scenes and to not get his hands dirty despite being the Sheriff. The setting in both Chigurh abd Moss' pictures is a dry landscape with little to no life such as animals or trees. Yet the setting in Bell's is more urban, surrounded by people and artificial materials. - How do you feel their stories will be resolved? I think that the Sheriff is going to have to resolve his story by venturing out of his protective office and comfort space to actually do his job, whilst Chigurh and Bell are going to eventually confront one another. with the latter, i believe that one of the two are obviously going to end up dead, as is the case most often when a 'protagonist' and 'antagonist' collide. although i use those phrases lightly as i don't entirely believe Bell is in the right and that Chigurh is in the wrong.

The Western Genre

Use the examples below and your own research to summarise the key conventions of the Western genre. CONVENTIONS Characters : Hero /Villain Sheriff/ Cowboy/Gunfighter Narrative : shootout/ conflict resolves the story Themes : good v evil past v present law and order v chaos and criminality Film form Setting : landscape Props and Costumes - Revisionist westerns of the 1970s- 1990s became more concerned with changing pur understanding of the tradiitional good v evil cowboy v Indians binary opposition , with films such as Dances With Wolves

The Grandmother

TASK ONE - David Lynch, the director of the film, was inspired by the paintings of Francis Bacon. the two paintings were "Figures with Meat" and "Screaming Pope" - What do you notice about them? What kind of emotions do they convey and how? The first thing i noticed about these two paintings were that both men in them were alone, and that their faces were kind of blurred out. the emotions they could convey are fear, distress and anxiety. this is because of the lack of form and the unfamiliarity of them both. - Predict what the atmosphere of the film might be I thik this film is going to base a lot on horror and the unknown. trigger warning for the film uwu, violence and abuse the film is mostly silent, with occaisional outbursts of gibberish and soundtrack to convey the story. the film is a combination of both live action and animation. the story revolves around a boy who grows a grandmother to escape neglect and abuse from his parents.

David Lynch: the grandmother

Brainstorm some ideas- how does David Lynch turn these ordinary aspects of life into surreal nightmares? Being born- in a normal setting, being born is a beautiful/joyous occasion that is celebrated and seen as a blessing wheres in the film giving birth is just a way of reproducing and is not celebrated. growing up- growing up is when a child is most vunerable, they are way too impressionable and the wrong thing could scar them for life, which is what happened with the boys abuse. trying to please parents- something that is practically impossible both in the film and in real life. no matter what you do there is always something more that could've been done to improve a situation. normally a parents form of reinforcement would include firm words and encouragement to do better but in the father's case it is simply abuse towards the son in hopes of making him learn. comfort in a grandparent- they're old and have lived their lives, so it makes sense to look up to them and confide in them with any troubles, as well as the fact that most of the time they seem to know what they're doing family dinners- normally this is the time where a family comes together to wind down and relax from their days, where they talk and enjoy each others company. whilst in the film the family dinner is stressful, loud and disruptive as the parents just bark and shout at their son who simply takes it. - Write in your blog at least two paragraphs answering the following question: How David Lynch uses film techniques to portray ordinary life as nightmarish? In regards to lighting, the lack of color used makes normal people and activities appear to be dream-like and tense. yet when color is used, it feels like all the life had been sucked out of said color. The lighting is somehow harsh whilst also being sublte, as if giving off the idea that it almopst seems too real to be true/trying too hard to come across as normal. when the mother and the father are "born" the only strand of color is the red string that connects everything together, the red stands out signifying that it is the focus point of the scene. Whereas with the characters' movements, the audience can see the "horror" of the film. as is the case with most of lynch's films, the suspense and theatricals aren't in the words (or rather lack of) but in the way that the family interact with everything around them. for example, in the begining scene after the boy is born, the father is on his hands and knees barking angrily at his son. there isn't a parent-child bond that would occur with a regular family. the animalistic tendancies show the 'reality' of this film is more primal and less human than our world.