Summary: The plot follows naïve, penniless English writer Christian in bohemian Paris, falling for beautiful courtesan, Satine. Glittering star of the low-life Moulin Rouge, Satine is dying of consumption. Manager, Harold Zidler, desperate to save his theatre, trades her sexual favours to a wealthy English Duke. Forced to choose between love and poverty with Christian,…
Author: JL Admin
A collection of high-quality academic essays.
Mother India (Film) – Story & Analysis
Story: Set in rural India in the years surrounding India’s independence (1947), Mother India tells the story of Radha, a poor, illiterate villager who struggles to care for her family. Radha’s husband Shyamu is forced to pawn the gold bangles which come in her dowry (known as stree dhan or the woman’s wealth), their land,…
Mon Oncle (My Uncle, 1958 Movie) – Summary & Analysis
Summary: The young Gérard Arpel (Bécourt) lives with his mother and father in their ultramodern villa on the edge of Paris. Gerard finds it hard to adapt to the monotony and regimented routine of this life. The father (Zola) works for a large plastic pipe factory, while his mother (Servantie) cleans the house all day…
Modern Times – Summary & Analysis
Summary: The Little Tramp’s final film strings together Depression-era vignettes. In an 83-minute film,the Tramp is arrested five times and works at four different jobs. He begins the film as an assembly line-worker but a nervous breakdown sends him to the hospital. After his release, he is arrested and imprisoned for allegedly leading a communist…
The Misfits (1961 Movie) – Summary & Analysis
Summary: Roslyn, a former burlesque dancer, has travelled to Reno, Nevada, to obtain a ‘quickie’ divorce. Shetakes up with Gay, an elderly cowboy, who persuades Perce, a struggling rodeo rider, to join him in rounding up some of the last feral mustangs of the region. Assisted by Guido, a freebooting pilot, they manage to capture…
Mildred Pierce (1945 Movie) – Summary & Analysis
Summary: In contrast to the novel on which it is based, the film is structured as a fragmented flashback which gradually unravels the story of a murder. The deliberate omission of a standard reverse shot that would have clarified the situation, tricks the viewer into thinking there is no ambiguity regarding the identity of the…
Man Without A Past – Summary & Analysis
Summary: Man without a Past follows the noirish travails of its protagonist M, who, in the film’s first sequence, arrives in the city on the train with a modest suitcase in tow, only to be mugged and beaten in a city park. Having sustained a gruesome head injury, M suffers from amnesia that has him…
Meghe dhaka tara / The Cloud-Capped Star – Story Synopsis & Analysis
Story Synopsis: Meghe dhaka tara tells the story of Nita who takes on the role of breadwinner for a refugee family struggling to retain its middle-class status. When the movie opens Nita seems to be moving towards a relatively happy future, despite the self-destructive generosity with which she responds to the demands made on her…
Manila, In the Claws of Light – Summary, Reaction / Reflection
Summary: Based on a 1967 novel by Edgardo M. Reyes, Manila tells the simple tale of a country lad named Julio who ventures to the big city in search of his girlfriend, Ligaya.1 The latter goes missing shortly after being recruited to work as a housemaid. Between back-breaking jobs at a construction site and a…
Street Angel (1937 Film): Summary & Analysis
Summary: Orphan sisters Xiao Yun and Xiao Hong from war-plagued northeast China live under the exploitation of their adoptive parents in Shanghai 1935. Xiao Hong, forced to work as a teahouse singer, falls in love with her neighbour Xiao Chen, whose room window faces hers. Her elder sister, the silent and gloomy Xiao Yun, has…