The eleven years of Margaret Thatcher’s reign, which spanned through the 1980s were known for the social turbulence they caused. The right wing political ideology that has come to be called Thatcherism is deemed reactionary in many ways. To given an example, a pub near the Underground station at Highbury and Islington in north London…
Category: Media Studies
Discuss the contribution of Hammer Studios to the Gothic tradition in British cinema
In the decades following the Second World War, Hammer Studios produced a number of films in the horror genre. These decades were considered the ‘Golden Age’ of British Cinema (1945-1975) and filmmakers were trying to experiment and explore the medium of cinema. The period witnessed “the evolution of a radical and subversive cinema focused upon…
Th impact of the Second World War on British Cinema
Do Experiemental Video Art convey their message to the audience clearly? Or is it not important?
Video as a medium of communication has been in existence for more than hundred years now. In this time the role, technology and application of the medium has evolved considerably. Experimentation is done for numerous purposes. The obvious motivation is to stretch, test or expand the techniques of creating video art. But the manner in…
William Shakespeare: A Question of Authorship
William Shakespeare and JS Bach are perhaps the two most important cultural figures in Western Civilization. This high pedestal that they occupy makes questions over their authorship almost blasphemous for their admirers. If Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor has come for scholarly debate in recent years, the question marks over Shakespeare’s authorship were…
Report on Student Half Recital by Melissa Hight
I attended the Student Half Recital by Melissa Hight on the 3rd of November. The program was conducted at the Mathes Hall Auditorium at 3pm. It was one of the rare occasions where I had the pleasure of enjoying classical vocal music. The solo vocalist Melissa Hight and pianist Dr. Jessica Keup brought their experience…
Existential Themes in the film My Life Without Me
The basic plot of the movie – that set on the last days of a dying young woman – hints at being a tear-jerking melodrama. But contrary to this threat My Life Without Me delivers a surprisingly novel representation of a life about to end. The announcement of death, instead of limiting the physical and…
Compare and Contrast: JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto 4 (First Movement – Allegro) and Joseph Haydn’s London Symphony (No.104 First Movement)
The two music pieces chosen for this exercise are JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto 4 (First Movement – Allegro) and Joseph Haydn’s London Symphony (No.104 First Movement). These two pieces were chosen on account of the sharp differences between them in terms of style, texture, genre, period, etc. For example, Bach’s piece is written for a…
The Pursuit of Happyness: Theme Analysis
The Pursuit of Happyness was a commercially successful film whose main appeal is its ‘feel-good’ ending. It treads the much worn path of the rags-to-riches narrative, albeit with some variations in plot, characterization and context. This essay would argue that despite the commercial success of the film, it fails as a social instrument. In other…
The Journey of Man by Spencer Wells (Documentary): Summary & Analysis
The Journey of Man, presented by Dr. Spencer Wells, is a very important documentary film that sends out a message of human solidarity. As Dr. Wells says in the introduction, it is the retracing of the all routes of human migration out of Africa in the last 50,000 years. It is a fascinating story constructed…