A scene-by-scene examination of 'Ali: Fear Eats The Soul'

A scene by scene analysis of 'Ali: Fear Eats The Soul'

You can follow this Analysis with the DVD

Title 2 (1:34-20:26) (19:52) Stop after they make love and hug

The story is set in Munich, Germany. It is raining outside and the sound of Arabian music draws Emmi into the Asphalt Bar where she meets Ali. A young woman dares him to dance with Emmi and he asks Emmi to dance.  Afterwards, he walks her home and she invites him up to her apartment until it stops raining. Over a cup of coffee and brandy, they talk. She and her father were in the Nazi party. He is a Muslim and comes from a large family. He is guest worker from Tismit in Morocco.He stays over the night and they make love.  

My viewpoint

Right away, it is clear that both Emmi and Ali are lonely. The rain is her loneliness and the Arabian music is Ali calling out to her and drawing her into the bar. At first when the young beautiful Arabian woman dares him to dance with Emmi, it seems like he’s simply playing along. However, as they dance and talk about themselves and share their pain with each other, you can clearly see that there is something there and the girls at the bar see it, too, which is why they don’t look so happy about it. Ali and Emmi have a connection that goes beyond their differences. Another thing that Thomas D. and I discussed at the Meetup (12/3/16) is how the younger women in the bar are the ones who show their insecurities against a woman who is twice their age and unattractive (in the conventional sense of the word). Usually, this would be the other way around with the older, unattractive woman being the one showing insecurities against younger attractive women. I believe that the younger women in the bar could “feel” something about Emmi that they themselves lacked. Emmi brings warmth.

The apartment where she lives is like her, old and worn, but at the same time, warm. They talk in the vestibule. She has 3 children but only sees them on special occasions. They live their own lives. She cleans for a living and lives alone. Emmi opens the door to see if it is still raining. It is and she invites him to stay until it stops. She makes a beautiful statement that sums up the whole move: “I’ll go see if the rain’s stopped,” she says, and seeing that it hasn’t she says, “It’s still pouring. Why don’t you come up for a while? I’ll make us a coffee, and maybe the rain will stop.” Great moment! 

Ali and Emmi are emotional opposites. Ali doesn’t show or express his feelings and Emmi does. With Ali, it is impossible to know from his face if he is not simply leading Emmi on. But when he shows up in her room and sits on her bed and starts caressing her arm, and, most importantly, sharing his pain with her, only then is it certain that Ali is as taken with Emmi as she is with him. From this point in the film, Emmi shares Ali's pain and Ali is able to deal with the racist attitudes from her society.  

Wikipedia 

• The film was shot in just under two weeks, and was planned as an exercise in film-making for Fassbinder, to fill in the time in his schedule between the work on two other films, Martha and Effi Briest.

• Ali is played by El Hedi ben Salem, who was Fassbinder's partner at the time. Barbara is played by Austrian actress Barbara Valentin, who was in the 1980s a partner of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen. 

Title 7 (26:17-29:13) (2:56) Stop after “Your mother’s got a screw loose.”

Emmi tells her daughter and son-in-law that she’s in love with Ali, a Moroccan 20 plus years her junior and they think that she is joking, not really taking her seriously at all. 

My viewpoint

This is a great scene from the standpoint of the cinematography and costume design. Her white daughter has on a black nightie that suggests that her outlook on her mother’s relationship will be polarized and racist. Contrast this with Emmi’s dress which is multi-colored coinciding with her attraction to Ali. Also, note the crucifix hanging in the corner suggesting what will happen to her and Ali from this point forward as they make their relationship public. 

Wikipedia

The man playing her son-in-law in this scene is Fassbinder himself who was in a relationship with the actor playing Ali in this film 

Title 11 (43:22-46:05) (2:43) Stop after children leave 

Emmi breaks the news of her marriage to Ali to her children who all disown her and leave. 

My viewpoint

Emmi is devastated by the way her children react to her marriage while Ali is almost completely unemotional. The 2nd half of the film reverses the emotional roles he and Emmi play in the 1st half of the film. Now, though, it is Emmi who acts as the safety-valve for the both of them. 

Title 12 (46:05-49:15) (3:10) Stop after Emmi leaves store

Store owner refuses to serve Alit. Emmi confronts store owner and he throws her out

My viewpoint

Ali is unemotional when he is mistreated by the store owner who refuses to serve him; Emmi is the opposite, confronting the store owner directly

Title 13 (52:17-57:34) (5:17) Stop after police car leaves

One of Emmi’s co workers has lost a sister and stops by to ask if Emmi can stand in for her. But when Emmi introduces her friend to Ali, the woman changes her mind and leaves. Ali wants to go see his buddies but Emmi tells him to invite his friends to their place. Emmi’s neighbors call police on her for playing loud music. 

My viewpoint

Emmi begins to distance herself from Ali in the form of denial. When the woman sees Ali then leaves Emmi blames the sudden about-face on the fact that the woman just lost a sister even though the woman was obviously disturbed at the sight of Ali. The pressure has weakened Ali but when Barbara invites him to her place he still has the will-power to refuse her invitation. Another thing to note is the rejection of his culture when the police order them to turn down their music. It’s not that the music is loud but the fact that it is Arab music. You also notice that all of the rejection comes from Emmi’s society. Ali’s side has no problem with Emmi being white. 

Title 14 (59:57—1:03:08) (3:11) Stop after Emmi says “They will.”

Emmi and Ali are at a table on the patio of a restaurant. The employees of this restaurant are gathered together staring at them. Emmi cries but Ali is unemotional. 

My viewpoint

This is the pivotal scene in the film but 1st I want to comment on the cinematography. The scene begins with a very wide shot showing the couple surrounded by empty tables and space. They are totally alone as they have been ostracized by Emmi’s family, her friends, and her society. The close ups focus on Emmi’s face which is worn down with age and fatigue. This scene compresses everything they’ve dealt with being together. This scene is also the breaking point for Emmi, that she has reached the limit of her strength.

Title 15 (1:04:41-1:10:52) (6:03) Stop after Ali leaves

Mrs. Ellis, who once insulted Emmi and Ali, asks to borrow Emmi’s storage space and Emmi agrees, getting Ali to move the woman’s stuff. Next, Anton, the grocery who refused to serve Ali and who threw Emmi out of his store sees her and is all smiles. He drags her into his store. Next, Emmi’s son Bruno asks her if she can babysit his kid for a given time and Emmi agrees to do so. This is the same Bruno who kicked in her television when he found out she was marrying Ali, a Black man.

My viewpoint

Emmi tells Ali to be nice to Ms. Ellis “and she will be nice to you.” This is the statement that defines Emmi from this point on. Everyone in this scene needs something from her and are willing to “tolerate” Ali and hide their true feelings. Emmi wants so badly to be accepted that she is blind to the fact that none of this is real. She even goes to the point of condemning Ali of the one thing he has to remember his own culture by refusing to make couscous for him. He left his Arab friends, the bar where he used to hang out and listen to Arab music, everything that he identifies with for Emmi’s culture where he has no friends, only those who wish to use him. And now that Emmi feels accepted again, she won’t even make his favorite dish! Emmi is no longer expressing her feelings and now all of the pain Ali’s been holding in begins to show in various ways.

Title 17 (1:18:23-1:19:44) (1:21) Stop after Ali leaves

Emmi allows her racist friends to grope Ali, feeling his muscles. He is insulted and leaves

Emmi is selling her soul to be accepted by her friends at Ali’s expense. Now, she’s showing him off like a freak. Again, the feelings he’s been able to suppress earlier in the film begin to show.

Title 17 (1:21:12-1:22:38) (1:26) Stop after they fall on couch

Ali visits Barbara who own the Asphalt Bar. They make love and he stays the night. 

My viewpoint

Ali is weakened by Emmi’s rejection and to address his pain he seeks pleasure in the form of sex with Barbara. Barbara, is much younger and far more attractive then Emmi but she can’t replace the warmth Emmi gave Ali. Without Emmi’s warmth, Ali seeks sex as a distraction. Again, the cinematography in this scene is very effective in showing the coldness of their lovemaking as the camera perspective is far away from them, almost detached, turning them into vague forms enclosed by darkness. 

Title 19 (1:25:22-1:33:12) (7:50) end of film

Ali is at Barbara’s bar gambling and losing all of his money. Emmi stops in the bar and she and Ali dance. Ali doubles over and is taken to the hospital to have a perforated ulcer removed. 

My viewpoint

Ali’s pain expresses itself in diversion, in this case, the diversion is gambling. Slapping himself foreshadows the perforated ulcers in that both are him attacking himself. Without Emmi as an emotional safety-valve, Ali implodes. When they reunite and dance as they danced in the beginning of the film, he tells her of his affair with Barbara and they make up. But by this time the damage is done and it is too late. However, there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the film as Ali lay unconscious with Emmi at his side holding his hand. Once again, as she had in the 1st half of the film, she cries, and in doing so, gives expression to his pain. 

Baptism: a scene from 'The Godfather'

In this scene from 'The Godfather', I will examine the baptism of Michael Corleone's godson.

Art Of War, Chapter 4: 

Tactics

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”--Sun Tzu

Chapter 6:

Weak Points and Strong

“All men can see the individual tactics necessary to conquer, but almost no one can see the strategy out of which total victory is evolved.”--Sun Tzu

Again, in this clip we see the organic relationship between life and death as Michael attends the baptism of his godson as his soldiers kill off the heads of the other 4 New York Families. By the time the godson is baptized and the heads of the 4 New York Families are executed, Michael emerges in all of his glory as the undisputed Don of Dons, the reincarnation of his father, Vito Corleone. By pretending to be weak, closing the Family’s New York businesses and moving everything out to Vegas, Michael and his Family were not only underestimated, but their enemies became arrogant to the point of letting their own guard down as the Bible says in Proverbs 16 and verse 18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Scene analysis of Ingmar Bergman's 'The Virgin Spring'

This is a scene by scene analysis of Ingmar Bergman's film The Virgin Spring. 

Title 1: (2:55—8:40) (5:45)
A pregnant servant girl named Ingeri is jealous of a young virgin named Karin who is the daughter of a wealthy farmer. The farmer, Tore, and his wife, Mareta, both pray to a figure of Christ on the cross. Karin is supposed to take the candles to church for mass this morning because she is a virgin and the custom is that the candles are to be delivered by a virgin.  But Karin is not feeling well and is still in the bed. She’d spent the previous night dancing with boys and had worn herself out.

My viewpoint

• This scene is the last supper as described in the Bible 
• Karin’s mysterious illness is an omen of something terrible about to take place
• Ingeri’s character is a female version of Cain out of  the Bible. She is scorned by the servants and the farmer’s wife for giving away her virtue
• Ingeri is very dirty which represents sin and Karin is very clean, a metaphor for virtue

Title 2:

Title 3:

Title 4: (11:36—18:45) (7:21)

Mareta dresses Karin:
she wears a yellow silk dress and blue shoes, a blue cape and white pearls
15 virgins made her yellow dress

My viewpoint
Karin’s blue shoes and cape represent the sky, her yellow dress represents the sun (Son of God), and her white pearls represent the rosary
The15 virgins that made the dress represent the 15 hail Mary’s
Ingeri accompanies Karin on her trip to the church
 Ingeri’s horse its dark brown in contrast to Karin’s horse, which is white, the dark brown horse, like Ingeri’s dirty clothes and face representing sin and Karin’s white horse representing goodness and virtue.

Title 5:

Title 6: (22:45—24:45) (2:00)

This is a very interesting scene!
Karin vows that she’ll only have a child in marriage (a bad omen foreshadowing her rape and murder)

(23:25) An old man roaming the countryside tells Karin “It’s better to blossom on the road than to whither in church,” (an omen foreshadowing her rape and murder. This statement is also a slight against the church’s position on chastity) Karin slaps Ingeri for insinuating that she saw Karin behaving inappropriately with the man who impregnated her.

Title 7: (26:42—30:40) (3:58)

Ingeri meets the old man in the woods who sees and hears what men think in their hearts. He makes human sacrifices to the Pagan god Odin and he already knows Ingeri and offers her her heart’s desire in exchange for sex. Ingeri is torn between her conscience and her hatred for Karin and escapes the old man.

My viewpoint

This scene is a crossroads in Karin’s journey to the church. She and Ingeri separate and Ingeri is left to consider whether to go through with her wish to see harm to Karin. The old man in the woods is Karin’s conscience. The presence of water in this scene is important because of it’s symbolic meaning. Water, in Christianity, symbolizes cleansing as well as life and death. In this case, the brook running through the woods represents the opportunity for Ingeri to turn back on her desires for Karin’s death. Ingeri could use this water to clean the dirt from her face (as she does in the final scene of the film) but she does not. She rejoins Karin but she is still torn between her conscience and her desire to fulfill her jealous desire to see Karin killed.

Title 8: (31:21—34:15) (2:54)

Karin meets three herdsmen and offers to share her food with them.

My viewpoint

Virginity in this film equates virtue, innocence, and ignorance. In the beginning of the film, her father, Tore, is accused by his wife of spoiling Karin and being overprotective of her, meaning that he shelters her from the harsh realities of life. Here, she sees 3 herdsmen (2 men and a boy) who could overpower her as Ingeri said but Karin doesn’t give the situation a 2nd thought and follows them to a remote spot off the trail. The trail itself is symbolic, representing the way of God. In this case, she’s being led off the path in much the same way as Ingeri was in the film’s backstory.

Title 9:

Title 10: (36:40—43:00) (6:20)

The herdsmen show Karin their true motives. Karin tries to escape but they overpower her. The adult herdsmen rape her as the boy watches. Ingeri sees all of this from a distance. She clutches a large stone to help Karin, then drops it. After raping Karin, the herdsmen kill her and strip off her clothes.

My viewpoint
Karin falls victim to the herdsmen’s lust, representing Jesus’ crucifixion due to the fact that she is considered pure sacrifice. This paradigm is reinforced by the lamb she holds when she realizes what the herdsmen intend to do. In the Bible, Jesus is often referred to as a lamb, an animal representing innocence.


Title 11: (43:45—45.25) (1:40)

The men who rape Karin leave the boy to watch the goats. The boy attempts to cover the girl’s naked body with dirt.

My viewpoint

This is an ironic scene. The boy is the only one among the herdsmen who has any guilt for the crime his adult counterparts committed. The boy is so sickened by the girl’s death that he even vomits. That she is left naked is symbolic of shame, the shame of what the herdsmen did. And as if to hide this shame, the boy makes a poor attempt to covered the girl’s naked body.

Title 12: (47:00—53:05) (6:05)

Karin’s father stands watch outside of his home as the sun begins to set. The 3 herdsmen appear at his gate. They are on a long journey and the winter is cruel. Karin’s father lets them stay the night in his home. Inside, Karin’s mother Mareta looks at her husband hopefully but he shakes his head. He invites the 3 men to his dinner table where the boy, still thinking about the way Karin was raped and murdered, throws up.

My viewpoint

Again, out of the 3 herdsmen, the boy is the only one who shows remorse for the girl’s death. Earlier in the scene, one of the farmer’s helpers recites a lyrical poem containing clues about the crime the herdsmen committed.


Title 13:

Title 14: (100:00—104:10) (4:10)

Mareta can’t sleep. She’s up late worrying. Karin hasn’t returned home from the village where she delivered candles to the church for mass. Mareta hears a scream from the herdsmen room and there, she finds the boy unconscious with blood trickling from his mouth. Nervously, one of the herdsmen offers her a bundle of clothes for sale but Mareta recognizes her daughter’s clothes, which are dirty from when the herdsmen raped her.

My viewpoint

Karin’s clothes return to her parents as the physical body returns to the earth when we die. When Karin started out on her journey to the church, her clothes are clean meaning that she hadn’t had any knowledge of the world because she had been sheltered by her father. Her dirty clothes suggests the violence she suffered. This is also a very curious scene because Mareta was the most pious of all the characters in the film. As soon as she recognized her daughter’s clothes you knew that forgiveness was the last thing on her mind.

Title 15: (104:30–107:48) (3:18)

Ingeri confesses that she not only prayed for something bad to happen to Karin, but that she could have intervened but dropped the large stone she held and watched the herdsmen rape and kill Karin. Tore prepares to kill the herdsmen who are sound asleep in their cabin completely unaware.

Title 16:

Title 17: (115:40—118:40) (3:20)

Tore avenges Karin’s death. He waits till dawn and kills the herdsmen with his dagger, even killing the boy who had nothing to do with the girl’s death.

My viewpoint

Tore plays the role of God here, dispensing harsh judgement on both the guilty and the innocent. Notice how dirty his once clean face is now. This dirt represents sin in this film. Another Biblical symbol here is the fire representing Hell or wrath. This is a sad scene as Mareta’s maternal instincts kick in to protect the boy from her husband. Here, she was probably thinking about her daughter Karin who was their only child.



Title 18: (121:30—126:50) (5:20)

Ingeri leads Tore, Mareta, and the other servants through the woods and off the path where they find Karin’s body where the herdsmen left it. Tore implores God, asking why He allowed this to happen to their daughter. He then swears to build a church of mortar and stone on the spot of his daughter’s murder.

My viewpoint

Karin’s death gets Mareta to confess her jealousy and guilt over the fact that the girl loved her father more. But Tore accepts equal blame for Karin’s death; he’d spoiled her. As Tore implores God over the death of Karin, we see Tore not up close but from afar and from behind him as he is juxtaposed against a stream running into a pool. To see him isolated against his surroundings makes the scene more introspective because the space around him makes him appear more isolated. Even when the camera closes in on Tore, it remains behind him and impersonal and this makes Tore’s words seem universal, like he is speaking for not only himself but for all mankind.

Title 19:

Title 20: (2:30)

My viewpoint

In this film, Karin is equated with Christ because she is a virgin, therefore her life is a ransom for sin which is why Ingeri is dirty. Spring represents the beginning where everything is clean. However as the season grows older and changes we pick up dirt from the world. Even Ingiri was once a virgin but along the road of life she stumbled, as Mareta tells Karin, and was seduced by evil. The journey to the church represents the evils and temptations of life and the church represents God, or perfection and Karin, in taking this road, was following in Ingeri’s footsteps. At the same time, keeping in line with the allegory this film makes with the crucifixion, Karin is the only one who can make this trip because she is without sin and her life is a sacrifice for the sins of the world, represented by Ingeri. The stream that comes out of the ground underneath Karin’s body is the death of Christ washing away the sins of the world and redeeming mankind. Ingeri finally washes the dirt from her face with this stream, but you notice that at no time in the movie does she attempt to clean the dirt from her face. When they meet the one eyed man at the house on the brook, she could wash her face in his stream but she can’t because only water from the blood of a pure being like Karin can clean the dirt from her. Water is an important symbol of Christianity.

A scene analysis of David Fincher's 'Fight Club'

This is an analysis of 'Fight Club' based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk. 

Clip 1: (0:00—2:07)

The opening title is a zoom-out from inside of the main character’s head where we see the physiology of his fear, neurons firing and flashing along synapses, until we see the frightened face of the narrator with a gun in his mouth.

Clip 3: (3:54—6:20)

In this series of scenes we see Jack’s life, a life ruled by insomnia, monotony, conformity, and fatigue. The inside of his apartment is full of the latest name brand consumer goods to which he is a slave to, working in an unrewarding unfulfilling job as a recall specialist. Reading catalogs, to him, is like reading pornography in that the stuff in catalogs reflects his ideal self. These scenes end with Jack in a doctors office asking for drugs, something else external to make him feel good and he sees an image of a man blink then disappear. Jack is showing symptoms of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder or Split Personality Disorder) and Schizophrenia. Symbolically, his personality disorder is divided into three parts, what Freud called the id, the ego, and the superego. At this point, Jack is the superego in that he is careful in observing norms and trends like the cup of Starbucks that he leaves on the copy machine, the trash can by his desk that’s filled with empty name brand food containers, and his apartment in which every item in it is named and priced, including the items in his refrigerator.

When he sees glimpses of Tyler Durden flashing he is receiving a subconscious projection of his ideal self, Superman, or what Freud calls the “id,” the complete inverse of who he is. This is why Durden flashes in and out, because Jack’s superego, which is drawn to conformity and routine and external validation is not ready to accept him yet but because Durden is flashing suggests that Jack is having trouble repressing his id.

Clip 5: (6:21—10:21)

Jack attends a lot of male support groups. This one is for men who survived testicular cancer. As the men talk about the women who left them and had babies with other men, Tyler Durden blinks in and out so fast that no one but Jack sees him.

Again, Jack’ subconscious mind projects his id, or his ideal self. He is unaware that his submerged psyche is rebelling against his superego or what he consciously believes himself to be. The men at this meeting are emasculated or castrated, well on their way to becoming women, in a society that has conditioned men to be excessively narcissistic and preoccupied with how they look (symbolized by Bob, who used to be a champion bodybuilder but due to steroid overuse has grown women’s breasts).

Clip 7: (11:34—19:12)

Jack’s insomnia goes away but when a woman named Marla Singer begins popping up at his support groups, even his testicular cancer support group, Jack’s insomnia returns. The reason why Jack can’t sleep is because Marla reminds him of what he and his male counterparts are becoming. Marla is looking for a man, which is why she does not join Fight Club and starts dating Tyler who, to her, represents a real man.

Clip 9: (21:41—25:47)

Jack meets Tyler Durden on a plane trip. They have the same luggage. Tyler is a soap salesman. Jack is detained by security at the airport because of a vibrating dildo in his luggage. But he doesn’t remember having a dildo. Later, an explosion destroys his apartment and all of the name brand items he’d collected. Tyler Durden left him a card and Jack finds a phone booth.

Finally, Tyler comes out of Jack. This happens as Jack is praying for the plane he’s in to get hit because insurance pays more for airplane collisions.

This idea is an invocation that calls Tyler from Jack’ subconscious. That Tyler sells soap is a metaphor. Tyler is here to clean up Jack’s life starting with his dependence on external attachments to things. Immediately after meeting Tyler, Jack’s place blows up representing the rebirth of Jack, and the psychic inversion of his personality in which his superego takes a backseat to his id, or Tyler Durden.

Clip 12: (32:27—34:10)

This scene doesn't look like it, but this scene is very crucial to understanding Tyler Durden. He works as a film projectionist in a theater. The film projection here is Jack’s subconsciousness. The clip of the penis Tyler sneaks into the film reel is himself. You’ll notice that in the beginning of the film, Tyler appears as a projection of Jack’s subconsciousness, blinking in and out exactly as the penis in this scene. This means that Tyler represents Jack’s ideal of masculinity. This metaphor is reinforced in the initial love scene between Tyler and Marla. Tyler goes over to Marla’s place and there he stands by a dildo on a dresser, intentionally placed there to be compared to him.

Clip 17: (50:15—53:29)

In this clip, Durden pays a visit to see Marla who had called threatening to kill herself with prescription drugs. They have sex and Durden shares this with Jack later who seems appalled.

It seems innocuous but the dildo on Marla's dresser provides a strong clue as to what she was looking for at support groups. Not sex. But notice how the phallus and Durden are juxtaposed against each other. Marla was looking for a man among the eunuchs attending the support groups. This is also why she says to Durden, referencing the dildo: “Don’t worry, it’s no threat to you.”

Clip 26: (1:35:36—1:37:47)

Members of Fight Club disguised as waiters at a Police fundraiser ambush the Police Commissioner and threaten to cut his balls off if he messes with Project Mayhem. Afterwards, Jack sees Tyler hugging one of the Angel Face and becomes insanely Jealous and in a fighting match, disfigures Angel Face’s once pretty face. Later, in a car, Jack is upset that Tyler didn’t tell him about Project Mayhem. Tyler lets go of the steering wheel allowing the car to crash.

Jack and Tyler’s relationship is homoerotic throughout the film but in this scene in particular. When Jack sees Tyler taunting him by embracing Angel Face who is younger and almost virginal by comparison to himself. Jack is inflamed with jealousy and in their subsequent fight match he gets back at Tyler by messing up Angel Face’s pretty face telling Tyler that he just wanted to “destroy something beautiful,” a statement with a double meaning. Not only did he want to destroy the face of the man for Tyler’s benefit but Jack also meant that he wanted to transform Fight Club as a way of personal self-improvement into a corporate terrorist group, in other words, he wanted to transform Fight Club into a franchise. This scene also represents a role-reversal for Jack who becomes the id by allowing his actions to be dictated by jealousy and expressing those actions in a primitive manner.

Clip 27: (1:37:48—1:41:26)

In the car scene, we again see a homoerotic verbal exchange between Jack and Tyler who, like a man and his wife in a dysfunctional relationship, argue in front of their children being the 2 Project Mayhem members in the back seat. In this scene, Jack’ psyche reverts to his childhood when he saw his own parents argue. The other symbols in this scene are the rain and darkness, representing the unknown; the center line in the road representing the norms of society and the steering wheel representing the tug-of-war between Jack’s ego and superego which wants to control everything and stay within those norms. He also wants to control Durden and Fight Club but Durden is the id and unrestricted and he lets go of the steering wheel representing the letting go of Fight Club and allowing it to deviate into anarchy, which is symbolized as both the car going off the road and crashing in a ditch and earlier when Jack himself “let go” and disfigured Angel Face’s face.

Clip 28: (1:41:26—1:45:06)

Tyler leaves Jack and Project Mayhem, the group they started together. Jack wakes up after a deep sleep and the house is crowded and swarming with members engaged in various activities. Marla drops by to see Tyler and Jack tells her that he’s abandoned both of them.

Jack and Tyler split apart from each other. Before, they found common ground with Fight Club but once the club escalates to corporate vandalism and terrorism, Jack’s superego takes over. The only difference between the beginning of the film and now is that in the beginning Jack wasn’t aware of Tyler’s existence. Now, Jack is just in denial. He knows that Tyler exists, he’s just in denial that he and Tyler are one and the same person.

Clip 30: (1:47:58—1:51:21)

In a drawer in Tyler’s room, Jack finds plane ticket receipts. He flies from city to city hunting for Tyler who is 1 step ahead of him setting up franchises in every city, building an army. Every guy he meets, guys working regular blue-collar jobs, already knows Jack and refers to him by “sir.” A bartender in a neck brace addresses Jack by the name of Tyler Durden. Jack returns to his hotel room and finds Tyler there, who breaks the news that they are one and the same.

This is Jack getting past denial and the ensuing violence between them is the superego punishing itself with guilt and self abasement symbolized by the beating he subjects himself to through his Tyler persona.

Clip 34 (2:05:55—2:09:37)

Jack wants to stop Project Mayhem but Tyler wants it to continue. He beats up Jack.

This is Jack getting past denial and the conflict between his superego and id without the agreement of his ego.

Analysis of a scene from' 'Citizen Kane'

This is an analysis of the opening scenes of the film 'Citizen Kane'.

In this clip we see a small boarding home surrounded by snow and Kane out playing on his sled. Meanwhile, inside of the boarding home, Mrs. Kane and Mr. Kane, her husband, are arguing because Mrs. Kane has inherited a gold mine on the property and she is signing papers to turn their son over to Mr. Thatcher who's bank holds the trust that Charles will inherit on his 25th birthday. Mrs. Thatcher wants the bank to be their son’s guardian and believes that their son will be better educated in the bank’s care. As Mrs. Kane is at the table with Thatcher signing the paperwork, Mr. Thatcher’s angrily objects in the background as Kane is framed in a window outside playing happily on his sled; this image says that Kane, at this point, is the picture of happiness. Thatcher mentions the 50,000.00 dollar a year allowance Mr. and Mr. Kane will from the fund and Mr. Kane calms down immediately. After signing their son over to Mr. Thatcher and the Bank, Mrs. Kane calls her son in. Mr. Thatcher takes the boy and the abandoned sled is covered in snow.

This is where the sadness starts. Mrs. Kane decides to have her son raised in a materialistic environment that is insensitive to his emotional needs. Kane’s viewpoint of the world in relation to himself is “If I give you something, you must love me,” but throughout his public and private life he is incapable of giving love because he was raised by a banker who only provided for his material needs and this upbringing taught and his mother’s reason for giving him up in the 1st place conditioned him to think that he could be loved by returning something other than love. 

Fantastic scene. Right away, the film presents us with the paradox of Charles as a small boy who is happy and yet very poor. His parents, particularly his father, are not college educated but the boy seems happy and content. His happiness is interrupted and taken away from him by Thatcher, a banker, who, his mother believes, will provide the proper education for her son. Right away, there is a trade-off of his childhood and happiness for wealth that  he searches for throughout the film. This scene also sheds light on his motivations later as an adult as to why his newspaper stands up for people who are poor. His father in this scene has no say so over his son being turned over to the bank and Kane’s newspaper is the voice for those who remind him of his father. 

An analysis of scenes from 'All That Heaven Allows'

This is an analysis of 'All That Heaven Allows' I shared with a group of fellow film lovers at the public library. Let me know what you think of this great film.

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS By Douglas Sirk

Title 1 (00:00-11:50) (11:50) Stop at “What a horrid thing to say, Mona.”

Cary attends a dinner where she is subjected to criticism for wearing a red dress. 

My viewpoint

The 1st shot of the film shows a clock on a church tower beside an overhead view of a New England suburb. The leaves are turning indicating the season and the theme of the film which is not death but change going with the fact that Cary, whose mourning her husband, is going to fall in love with another man again. We are also introduced to other elements of the plot that foreshadow elements later in the story. At around the 2:47 point on the DVD, Cary invites Sara to have lunch but Sara is attending a dinner and doesn’t have the time. She arranges a date for Cary. This establishes the film’s theme of other people running Cary’s life. Ron is finishing up some yard work for Cary and when she invites him to coffee and lunch, he accepts—this contrast between Sara and Ron—she, being too busy and he, not being too busy—sums up the entire film. This also is an illustration of what Alida says later about her and Mick getting off life’s merry-go-round. The opening shot of the clock and the neighborhood is also a metaphor for people living their lives on the clock. 

In this scene, we meet Cary’s children who remind her of what’s acceptable and not acceptable for a woman her age, expressing their approval of whom she chooses to date and expressing disapproval of a low-cut dress she wears out on a date. Cary is bombarded in this scene by what others like and don’t like. The dinner party is full of gossipers. 

This film makes excellent use of technicolor. The colors or deep and saturated. Criterion did a great job on this movie as they always do. 

Title 2 (5) (16:32—20:49) (4:17) Stop at “It was probably thrown there because the pieces were missing. Better leave it.” 

Ron finishes up some final landscaping on Cary’s property and tells her that he plans on giving up the business to raise trees full-time. He invites her to his place to show her some trees and she accepts. 

My viewpoint:

Ron’s place is out in the woods with nature away from civilization and Cary’s world of materialism. Cary is taken by an old mill there, an old mill that hasn’t been used in a while. This mill, like Ron, is sturdy but empty because he doesn’t have a steady woman. The broken tea server is a metaphor for his heart which some woman has broken. Only love can fix it which is why he tells her to leave it. 

Title 3 (7) (26:20-33:39) (7:19) Stop after Ron opens bottle with his teeth

Ron introduces Cary to his friends, Mick and Alida who also have a nursery business. Mick and Alida live a simple life like Ron and Cary wants to know why. Alida, Mick’s wife, explains to Cary how Ron helped them to get out of the rat-race. 

My viewpoint:

It is no coincidence that both Ron and Mick are in the nursery business. This society is so materialistic that we tend to connect our happiness to how much stuff we own. The message in this scene is that the closer we get back to the basics and nature the happier we become. All of Mick’s friends in this scene have occupations that have something to do with nature: 

• There’s Manuel, the lobster catcher
• There’s Grandpa Adams, a beekeeper and artist
• Then there’s Mrs. Edna Pidway, head of the Audubon Society and bird-watcher

Also notice how easily Cary is accepted by Ron’s friends who aren’t judgmental and contrast this with how Ron is rejected by Cary’s society.  Ron’s friends are diverse while all of Cary’s friends are lily-White.

Title 4 (10) (47:49-57:34) (9:55) Stop as Ron and Cary leave party

Cary announces to her children that she is going to get married to Ron Kirby and they aren’t happy about it. What will everybody think of her marrying a gardener? Cary takes Ron to an evening dinner to meet her friends and things don’t go well there, either. 

My viewpoint: 

Cary’s society rejects Ron in direct contrast to how his society accepts her. First, her children are more concerned with what people think of Cary’s decision to marry Ron than they are with her happiness. At the party, Ron is treated as a novelty and a gold-digger. There is a lot of class discrimination here and it is easy to see from this scene and others how this film inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to make Ali: Fear Eats The Soul 19 years later.

Title 5 (12) (59:46—1:06:38) (6:52) Stop after Ron and Cary break up and he sits on stair

Ned tells Cary that he won’t accept Ron as his father or come to the wedding; Kay blames an argument with her boyfriend on her mother’s decision to marry Ron. Cary calls off the wedding.

My viewpoint:

Cary is confronted with making a choice between being what her society expects her to be and pursuing her own happiness. She chooses, what she feels at this time, the best route by living her life as others want her to.

Title 6 (17) (1:12:14—1:15:31) (3:17) Stop after “Drama, life, comedy, life’s parade at your fingertips.”

Ned and Kay come home for Christmas. Kay is engaged to get married and shows her engagement ring to Cary. Ned is going off to Paris to study for a year and off to Iran afterwards to work for a company. He plans to sell the house. He and Kay buy her a TV set for Christmas. 

My viewpoint:

Now, Cary sees that her children, who ran her life, are living their lives and are completely unconcerned about her. Cary realizes the mistake she made in living for others instead of seeking her own happiness. The TV set means that while she’s at home by herself she’ll be watching others live their lives, happy and not the least bit concerned about what she thinks. 

Title 7 (19) (1:19:57—1:21:35) (1:38) Stop after Rod falls in snowbank 

Cary realizes her mistake and goes by to see Ron but he’s not in the mill. He sees her and tries to get her attention. He loses his footing and fall off a ledge and lands face first in a snowbank. 

My viewpoint: 

Title 8 (20) (1:24:52—end) (3:55)

Rod is in the mill under doctor’s care, unconscious since falling off the ledge into the snowbank. He has a concussion. Cary understands now, how she’d let other people come between her and Ron. He comes to and the 1st thing he sees is her face over his.