Fight Club (1999): What is it about?

What is fight club about?

“An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soapmaker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.”

Fight club is an American film based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (1966) and the film was made in 1999. The director of this film was David Fincher, produced by Art Linson, cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth and music by Dust brothers. The production company of this film was Fox 2000 and distributed by 20^th century fox. The budget of the film was $63 million and made a box office of $100.9 million. This film starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter.

Norton plays the narrator of this film that stops his white collar job, and forms a ‘fight club’ with soap maker Tyler Durden and other men joined this club that wanted to fight recreationally. The whole of film was based on Norton growing a closer relationship between Tyler and Marla, not only to know that Tyler was fictional character throughout the film. The whole film from judgement has the genre of psychological thriller, while Keith Gandal defines it as a "slumming trauma". The white masculinity in the film differs from noir films by focusing on the upper middle class instead of the lower middle class or the working class.

My A2 Film (edit)

Film Studies: Split (2018) by Saira Begum

I have taken pictures of my protagonist as a working-class boy
dealing with drugs and gang affiliation.

Here I have taken a picture of my protagonist in a contrasting life, he is working towards
middle-class background by reading, empowering the knowledge he has for
 a delayed gratification.

Meaning:

"Contrasting the lives of a middle class (rich) student who reads in order to gain knowledge for a better future against a working class (poor) student who attempts to read with the means of an escape from gang violence."

The genre of my film is a Crime Drama and the themes of this film are education, gang, violence, poverty, cultural deprivation, class systems and these are expressed throughout the film significantly through the protagonist “Mohammad”. Mohammad (also referred as “Mo”) plays two contrasting roles who also share the similar interests in books, but how their lifestyles determine whether they read it or not.

This scene is significant to show how he tries to escape
the estate by doing his education. 

The first role Mo plays is as a 19 year old teenager of a middle-class background who attends University and is keen to study. He dresses in smart clothes to represent his wealth and indicates that he is middle class. When filming these scenes, Mo will be shot in broad daylight, which gives the significance that there is hope for his future.  Mo is often located in the library reading books, showing he is keen to learn and build his knowledge for delayed gratification.

Here my protagonist is in utter darkness walking into the estate
to signify how he is isolated and trapped in poverty.
The darkness represents lack of hope.

The second contrasting role Mo plays is a 19-year-old boy of a working-class background who isn’t a student but is involved in the gang culture. He wears black puffer jacket, tracksuits, and trainers, which is indicative that his clothing shows he is always outside involved in the nightlife. These scenes will be shown of Mo in the dark walking through the estate that he lives in, the darkness represents how he is trapped in the estate, symbolising he is a trapped in poverty. Mo discovers a book left on the estates' bench and hesitates to touch it.

The use of the books is significant to show both protagonists react to it.

The working class student is unable to gain the patience for reading due to his gang affiliation which brings up the question “if books were illegal, would you read more?”

As he believes reading is irrelevant and tries to escape cultural deprivation, and selling drugs is a better means of gaining his social status in society.

Murder on the orient express (2017) by Kenneth Branagh

Murder on the Orient Express is a 2017 American mystery drama film directed by Kenneth Branagh with a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The film stars Branagh as Hercule Poirot, with Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley in supporting roles. The film is the fourth adaptation of Christie's novel, following a 1974 film, a 2001 TV film, and a 2010 episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot. Poirot is a fictional world-renowned detective who seeks to solve a murder on the famous European train in the 1930s.

The themes that ran throughout this film were status, wealth and murder. Status was presented through the different characters of different financial status in this film. Furthermore, wealth is presented through each of the characters as they were all in different class carriages, which determined the difference between who was the upper class and who was lower. This film built up a lot of tension from the audience to wonder who the killer was. 

"Stylish production and an all-star ensemble keep this Murder on the Orient Express from running off the rails, even if it never quite builds up to its classic predecessor's illustrious head of steam."

Rust and Bone by Jacques Audiard

Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d'os) is a 2012 French–Belgian romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on Craig Davidson's short story collection of the same name. It tells the story of an unemployed 25-year-old man who falls in love with a woman who trains killer whales.

The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received positive early reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. It was a critical and box office hit in France and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, three Magritte Awards, and nine César Awards, winning four, including Most Promising Actor for Matthias Schoenaerts.

This film presents meanings through various powerful scenes. This film is less focused on society and events occurring; this film focuses on the characters. The theme that this film was presented was poverty as the father and son in the opening scene was scavenging for food on the train to eat. Another theme that was reoccurring was hope, and this was shown through the protagonists not giving up on the fight and on herself for losing her legs.

Furthermore, Alian never gave up on fighting whether it was for money or not, and this symbolises how he valued his masculinity. Stephanie represents woman empowerment as she never gave up on herself after losing her legs and still carried on normal. The end scene of Alian, Stephanie and son walking together in the light symbolises the theme of hope and ended the film on high note. Whereas the other films watched (la haine) represented that they was trapped in poverty.

Comparing 'La Haine' and 'City of god'

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé . The film received worldwide critical acclaim, receiving four Academy Award nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director (Meirelles), Best Editing (Daniel Rezende) and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Mantovani).

La Haine is a French black and white crime written by Mathieu Kassovitz. ‘La Haine’ is French for the word ‘hate’ and later in the film you depict how this theme is presented throughout the film. This was distributed by Canal+ and located the film in France. The budget of the film was $2.6 million and had a box office was $15.3 million. This film gave an insight of the subcultures and poverty of France. During the film release their was issues with it being released as the government didn’t agree with what the film was portraying. However, Kassovitz did this to show the views of France that was hidden by the government and director ensured he wanted to show the subculture’s life in poverty, conflict, etc.  Furthermore, this film differs from other French films as films of this time often portrayed films of the middle class life, whereas the film ‘La Haine’ completely contrasts with all these films.

Both films are foreign films that share the same themes of drugs, crimes; violence, etc. however are presented in two different locations. Also, City of God is presented in a cyclical structure, which makes the story understood from beginning to end. La Haine is presented through a non-linear narrative. In comparison to La Haine, City of God does the opposite introduction to the film. City of God has a quicker pace to the start sequence of the film , which throws the audience straight into action whereas La Haine slowly shows real events making me, as a spectator, think about the real event that is occurring  first, before being introduced to the character.

In the opening scene of La Haine, a documentary was shown of the French riots. This presented the theme of conflict between the police and the civilians fighting back by rioting, stealing and looting.  One civilian said ‘you may have guns, but we have stones’, which shows even though stones are not more powerful over a gun, they still are willing to attack back and are remorseless; presents that they have nothing to lose.  Throughout this documentary, police officers was attacking people, which presents the theme of power the police had over people as they are seen as an elite organisation. The use of the documentary is useful to present the realism of the film, and what the audience need to be prepared for. Furthermore, the use of the reggae music was used when presenting the documentary which can make the audience predict and identify the type of characters are involved in this film. The end of the documentary showed a young coloured male stated in the documentary to have been put in hospital, this shows how he presents all the rioters that have been attacked.  Moreover, there are a lot of cutting/ flashing scenes throughout the film, which jumps from one event to another which is a good way to keep the audience engaged with the time zone it changes to.

In the opening scene of City of God, The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you" this is indicative that the story presents the idea of poverty, violence and drugs being the lifestyle that is inescapable. At the beginning of the scene, there was close up and flashing shots of people drinking, cheering, sharpening a knife and plucking chickens. Through this culture is presented and the theme of violence is continuously presented through the sharpening of the knife. Furthermore, performance of Lil Ze is presented as he was the first person to be shown in this scene, which is key as we can already depict that he is the antagonist of the film as he doesn’t carry a good impression from this very scene. He is holding a gun and laughing, the performance here presents Lil Ze in superior yet intimidating way. Furthermore, the camera angle looking up at Lil ze presents him with dominance showing that the director wants the audience with dominance. And could be potentially showing the power he has, which he hadn’t had before.

Coursework: Film Catalogue

Saira Begum

Explore how the roles of female characters have developed in films today

Item 1 Focus film 1: Bend it like Beckham (2002)

The protagonist Parminder Nagra in this film is very useful to depict how women are signified, which interlinks to context of ethnicity. The film is a cultural mirror of its time, with women of Asian background to construct stereotyped lifestyles and depend on family honour that controlled their life. This is a typical representation of Asian women in Britain.  This is a very interesting starting point for ethnic roles highlighting the importance of marriage, family honour, etc. towards the end of the film with her being allowed to strive for the goals that were restricted at the time.

Item 2 Focus film 2: Gone Girl (2014)

The antagonist Amy in this film is suitable to present the empowerment of the female protagonist had over her husband. This explores how trapped the husband feels due to the wife and how she portrayed her false vulnerability at the beginning of the film, giving the audience the illusion that her husband was dominant. This film breaks the stereotype of women being dominated by a man, creating a film to publicise that men are victims in marriage too. Amy is the antagonist and plays a distinctive role as wife that emotionally blackmails her husband.

Item 3 Focus Film 3: Wonder Woman (2017)

This film is valuable to explore female superhero in a DC comic’s film. It is centred on Diana being a strong independent woman that doesn’t rely on a man, and lives in women dominated empire. This film challenges an ordinary superhero movie breaking the stereo type of a male superhero. Steve falls in love with Diana, but Diana doesn’t understand the meaning of love as her life with her family didn’t encourage it at all, which is interesting. This is thus an incredibly useful movie to show how far film has comes with its representation of women.

Item 4: Media, gender and identity (David Guantlett, 2002)

This book helped me identify the stereotyped gender roles in today’s society and what is what like in the past. This helps me recognise the difference of how the gender roles theory has changed over time, which helps back up my point with this contextual research.

Item 5: Teaching women and film (Vivienne Clark, 2003)

This book gives a wider perspective of women in the film industry, which discusses women’s roles in films. This also discusses the construction of women overall in the film industry, which helps and adds complexity to my study.

Item 6: ‘Why, in 2016, are women still (mostly) silent film stars?’

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/12/women-film-speaking-roles-2016-study-hollywood

This article by talks about how women are often described as sexually desirable figures.  This article is useful to study how women are seen in the film industry and how my focus films can argue against this study.

Item 7: ‘Has feminism had an impact on films?’

https://www.headliners.org/has-feminism-risen-in-film

This article talks about the feminist theory and how it has impacted the role of women in films. This article talks about a range on genres and how women have developed a variety of roles in the film industry. In majority of the films studied in this article talks about how women have independence. This article is relevant to my study of how women have developed in the film industry.

Item 8: ‘A woman’s place? How Hollywood learned to love superheroines’

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/26/women-female-roles-hollywood-films

This article talks about how there are superheroines in the film industry are becoming more common. This article covers a range of topics of public figures and films of different genres. Furthermore, it talks about my focus film ‘Wonder woman’ involving other movies like this that have women dominating the market in 2017.

Item 9: http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Bend_It_Like_Beckham.pdf

This material further analyses my focus film ‘Bend it like Beckham’ as it covers ethnic issues as well as gender issues. This is useful to research in depth about my focus film as it analyses my both stars Parminder Nagra (Asian origin) and Keira Knightly (white origin).

Item 10: http://time.com/3472314/gone-girl-movie-book-feminist-misogynist/

This article talks about whether one of my focus films is agreeing with feminists or misogynists. This material is useful to my argument as it analyses the views of the protagonist and the antagonist and shows how Amy depicts an abnormal role as a wife.

Item 11: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/oct/06/gone-girl-female-stereotype-women

This article is about how the film ‘Gone girl’ breaks the stereotypical role of a husband and wife and is useful to analyse how Amy plays powerful role in this film. This is useful to distinguish the role of the antagonist and protagonist. Furthermore, this article talks about Amy was able to ‘get away with murder’ whilst formerly playing a victim.

Item 12: Bidding for the mainstream? Black and Asian British film since the 1990s

This book is useful as it talks about my focus film ‘bend it like beckham’ and is an analysis of how the female protagonist is portrayed in the male dominated sport of football. This is useful to my study to show not only how women have evolved over the film industry, but also ethnicity. The book stated ‘it isn’t seen as a ethnical issue, it is seen as a British issue’ which is indicative that the ethnic minority have become a part of the society with their issues being consider as ‘British’

Item 13: the ‘f’ factor: women: where it’s at (2004)

This is useful to show women filmmaker’s feels about the female representation in and behind the camera. This is useful to see if it the impacts of women director are the cause of women evolving in the film industry or if male filmmakers have the same attitude to see how women are represented.

Item 14: In Papaji’s house: representation of the father/daughter relationship....’

This article talks about ethnic issues with interlinks highly with my focus film ‘bend it like beckham’ as it analyses the whole issues of ethnicity and gender issues of father and daughters in these film including other films that are similar to my focus film.

DESELECTED ITEMS

Men, women and chainsaws- focuses on one genre, narrows my search and study

This article talks about women roles, however it is only narrowed into one genre of horror, which isn’t useful to my study as my focus films don’t consist of this genre.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/women-lead-roles-in-movies-study-hunger-games-gone-girl-1201429016/

This talks about a one sided view of women in the industry and doesn’t support my argument as it talks only about how women are still are unequal in the film industry. This also talks about they’re considered as ‘second class citizens’. 

Item 14: In Papaji’s house: representation of the father/daughter relationship....’

This article talks about ethnic issues that doesn’t interlink with my focus film ‘bend it like beckham’ as it analyses the whole issues of ethnicity of father and daughters in this film. Although it doesn’t show aspects of gender issues, it talks about the ethnicity of the father and daughter relationship being similar and this would disregard my research topic of gender issues.