Free Custom «Art and Design: "King of Hearts", "Discreet of Charms", "Chocolat" and "In Pleasantville"» Essay Paper

Question 1

Philipe de Broca, the director of the French comedy titled King of Hearts, displays the relevance of the use of costumes for social identity. In France, people used costumes to signify several aspects of the social identity including an individual’s class and position. In his comedy, de Broca uses costumes to connote power and role in the French community. For example, the film presents Charles Plumpick, Scottish soldier, as a kilt-wearing that reflects Plumpick’s role as a soldier. However, most of the French people find the costumes unique since it does not reflect their dressing mode. Therefore, it is apparent that most of the French comedies like King of Hearts use costumes to signify the position or role of a person in the society. Furthermore, the King’s dressing style also depicts his social identity. In many scenes, the film shows the King wearing costumes made of jewelry or gold. From the perspective of French culture, such costumes are expensive hence belonging to the royal families. The director uses dressing styles with an aim of reflecting the social class of such people like King. The use of the extravagant styles of the French Royal court depicts the sense of belonging to a given social group. Following the nature of the costumes, it is clear that only higher-class people can afford them. Another category of costumes that indicate social station from the film is the use of Parfums Lubin. Therefore, these dresses are exotic and expensive scents that only people of higher-social classes can afford. The society acknowledges the French designers’ talent in producing costumes that fit every social category. As a result, most of their comedians use the costumes to show the dominant segregation of individuals regarding their dressing styles. The use of expensive clothes is a show that such costumes belong to a category of individuals.

Question 2                                                                    

According to the Marxist philosophy, the bourgeoisie is middle-class consisting of capitalists, bankers, and employers. They own the means of production while they exploit the working class. In Bunuel’s, the Discreet of Charms, surreal dreams to satirize the Bourgeoisie are used. For instance, Bunuel shows the peculiar manner in which they converge for their lunches and dinner and share their views on politics and the world. The phenomenon is clear when they are required to converge at a restaurant. The demand follows the mix-up of their meeting dates due to death of the restaurant’s owner. Moreover, the body of the person lied on the floor in the next room awaiting people in charge to take it to the funeral parlor. In this regard, Bunuel satirizes their behavior since instead of feeling remorseful they abandon the meal. In the process, they disregard the work that the organization chooses for the employees to make the ends meet. The employees, who were left behind, struggled to go on with their duties as well as serving the customers. In one dream of a failed dinner party, the inhuman nature of the Bourgeoisies’ is also seen when an American Ambassador shoots an army colonel at a dinner as he insulted his country. Moreover, the Bourgeoisie also smuggle drugs in their country and at the same time criticizing the drug addicts which is very hypocritical of them. He did this not because it was a lie, but because it was ill-mannered to say such things loud. Bunuel also finds their social organization to be hilarious as they believe in things like lust, greed, and hunger do not exist in them unlike other human beings. The author satirizes the condition by illustrating the postponement of one dinner party when the host and hostess (Alice and Henry Senchel) had sex outside in the bush. The victims did so due to the fact that they could not risk being heard while doing it in the house and suppressing them would be admitting that they have sexual urges.

Question 7

The film Chocolat explains the situation of a woman called Vianne who moved to Lansquest, a French village in the 1950s, and opened a Chocolaterie. Due to her Maya heritage and nomadic nature, she did not plan to stay there for long. However, the Lasse Hallstorm uses the chocolate as a symbol to satirize the French politics. The author illustrates this situation when Vianne presents chocolate as a means of mediation between her and the town during the town’s festivities. Furthermore, the Chocolate’s use appears in the mediation of Josephine’s development into an independent female thereby giving Serge power in the relationship. Despite facing criticism from the City Mayor, who is also a significant player in the Catholic Church and influences the priest’s decisions, they use the chocolate in many instances to mediate. In his attempt to destroy the chocolateries before the festival began, he ends up eating them and falling asleep. To explain the religious hypocrisy in Chocolat, Lasse Hallstorm elucidates how the Chocolateries replace the church as a gathering place despite the people criticizing that they cannot experience such pleasures in some religious times. Moreover, people see Vianne as an atheist since her cultural norms contrast everyone’s expectations, and she does not devout to Catholicism like the lent, mass, and confession. Instead, she celebrates together with the town’s people despite their religious and cultural differences. The next scene of the religious hypocrisy is when the Mayor, who was a key player in the religious influence, broke into the Chocolaterie. Consequently, upon enjoying the pleasure of the food, he decides to join the festival.

Question 8

The film In Pleasantville explains the value of the differences among individual, community, creativity, and thought. Gary Ross, being the director, uses colors to express the differences between the 1950s and the 1990s. At one instance, Ross substantiates the scenes from the ones in the 1950s and the 1990s. For example, in his film of 1998, he examined the differences between images of the 1950s and the 1990s by transporting the characters in the 1990s into the ideas and the images of black and white of 1950s. These characters include a mother who has a relationship with a person nine years younger than her, a daughter, and a son. Whenever Pleasantville had something new, the color changed from black and white to another. The artist used the contrast among colors to show feminism and racism during such times. In regards to feminism, the writer illustrates that the color changing to black portrays the suburbs where the women were forced to keep the house neat and ate dinner while their husband came home late and used the infamous slogan of "Honey I am home". Another instant of color is when the play teleports the daughter and the son to assume the role of Peggy Sue and Bud Parker as they fight over the remote control. In most of the occasions, the film shows color variations between the 1950s (black and white) and 1990 which is colored. Additionally, the film represents the instance of color when the sexual relationship between Mary Sue, and her boyfriend Skip Martin, becomes exposed. The circumstance takes place when Marin Skip drives home and sees a rose which appears in a "real red" color to symbolize the sexual experience he had. As a result, Martin decides to share his experience with fellow basketball players.