Film Noir

Hello,

Today I will be talking about film noir. The term film noir means”black film” or “dark film” in French, and these movies came to be called this because of their relatively dark themes. This is a genre of film made mostly in the 1940s and 50s. Three examples of film noir are The Third Man, Ministry of Fear, and Double Indemnity. All these films have been filmed in black and white without sharp contrasts, to make it seem a little more eery, as film noir usually does. These film noir movies all contain some type of crime, usually a murder. I really enjoy watching these films because they’re so suspenseful and exciting and thrilling that you just can’t stop watching. Many public libraries will have these movies, because they are all very famous. There are many instances in film noir in which the female characters are “bad”; usually at the beginning of the movie, the women are good, but you find out later that they are actually criminals. Personally, I think that these movies are for people age ten and up, or younger people who have very mature personalities, and will understand the plot, and not be uncomfortable with the violence and mild sexual themes of the exciting film noir, like a woman attracting a man, and the man killing someone to “get” the woman. But because these movies are from the 40s and 50s, there are no graphic sexual scenes, just graphic violence. But these movies are not like modern violent movies, like Captain America, or World War Z. I have not seen these movies, but the trailers certainly show their themes well. Films noir have no fantasy elements, and the violence is not just running around shooting zombies and wearing ripped shirts and leather vests, but more in the theme of something like violence in World War 2. They wore suits and ties, and many of these movies take place in World War 2, because these movies were made very soon after it, and people realized how dangerous the world can be. I really recommend watching these movies.

Laurel and Hardy

Hello,

Perhaps you have heard of Laurel and Hardy, two comedy geniuses. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were two of the funniest people in the world, movie-wise. They were featured in 107 films, including a few of my favorites: Beau Hunks, The Big Noise, and Great Guns. Most of their movies include slapstick and language comedy, slapstick being physical comedy — for example, someone pushing someone else over — and language comedy having to do with combining words humorously, saying the wrong words in a given context, and saying humorous phrases when the characters are being serious. Laurel and Hardy’s movies are hilarious, if you are one who likes that type of comedy. As it was the early part of the 1900s, there were some racist elements in some of their early movies, but you don’t have to watch those. I don’t. There is sexism in these films, too, but really that was just because of the time period. If you would like to see a montage of some of their funny moments, click here.

Classical Music

Hello,

I would like to share with you some classical music; I think it may be my favorite type of music. We start in the Medieval Era, around the year 500. During the Medieval Era, a vielle was a prominent instrument, very similar to a violin, but other prominent instruments were: the wooden flute, the gemshorn, the lute, the mandore, the gittern, and the psaltery. This was just the beginning of classical music. There was the Renaissance Era, the Baroque Era, the Classical Era, the Romantic Era, the Modern Era, the 20th Century Era, the Contemporary Era, and the 21st Century Era. Today I will talk about Mozart, in the early Classical Era. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), born in Salzburg, Austria, was a child prodigy. He was an amazing composer, and one of my favorite pieces of his is his 25th Symphony. A few more of his great pieces are in this Youtube playlist. But he wrote hundreds of pieces, about 626, in his lifetime of 35 years. Just imagine how much he could have accomplished if he had lived longer. Mozart was one of the most famous people at his time.

Why Bad Horror Films Make Good Comedy Films

There was a movie director named Ed Wood who made movies in the 1950s and 60s. This movie director was awarded with a Golden Turkey Award, as the worst director of all time. He made horror films, which had terrible acting and special effects. One of his worst horror movies was Plan 9 From Outer Space, a movie about aliens who try to take over Earth with hypnotized zombies. He used pie plates on strings as flying saucers, and graves made out of cardboard. Because these films were so terrible (and he thought they were scary), they make hilarious movies. Plan 9 from Outer Space is one of the funniest, if you look at the small details in the movie. You can see this movie here.

 

Yes, there was music before 2000

Instead of listening to the same old pop music, why not listen to some classics? One of the many musical genres that I will be talking about is soul. Soul was developed in the 1950s and was popular in the 60s and 70s – and remains popular today. This music was created with a foundation of African American gospel music, jazz, and blues. A very famous musician in this genre was — and a lot of you may have heard of him — James Brown. He created the songs “I Got You,” (I Feel Good),  “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” and “Get Up Offa That Thing.” These are all very energetic songs. He is a very theatrical person, and his songs are very theatrical. If you don’t like very loud, energetic songs, but are still interested in soul music, Aretha Franklin may be good for you. She sang the song “Respect,” which is probably her most famous song, and the song “Think,” which she performed in the movie The Blues Brothers.

 

Photo by Heinrich Klaffs

In the next music post, I’ll talk about classical music, all the way from the Medieval Era to the 21st Century Era.

An alternative to sit-coms

Photo by Sujit Kumar

You don’t need to watch TV shows to entertain yourself. Instead, try watching a nature documentary.  I just watched a documentary called Big Cats: Secret Lives, by Animal Planet. This documentary is about a man, John Varty, who reintroduces big cats who have been raised in captivity, injured, or abandoned back into the wild. He and his associate, Dave Salmoni, a zoologist, were the first two people to introduce two captively bred tigers into the wild. They “taught” them how to hunt (I say “taught” because the tigers did most of the work themselves). It’s amazing. I’d like everyone reading this to support the prevention of animal cruelty, and protection of endangered species.