Using Groucho Marx, illustrate the progression from vaudeville, to Essay

Using Groucho Marx, illustrate the progression from vaudeville, to movies, to radio, to television in the history of popular culture. Be explicit about the time - Essay Example By studying the career of Groucho Marx in detail, much about the history of popular culture could be learned. Marx, having lived and performed in the first half of the twentieth century, bore witness to the advances in the way entertainment will be produced and delivered. Hence, Marx’s progress as a performer is interlinked with the revolutionary technological advancements of the day. (The Best of Groucho, 37) Vaudeville was a highly innovative form of entertainment that was very popular during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It comprised a series of short but action-packed â€Å"acts† that could range from comedy skits to dance and music to mimicry. The acts were performed for a direct audience similar to the contemporary theatre and hence required the actors to possess qualities of spontaneity and talents for ad-libbing. Groucho Marx was a prominent exponent of this form of entertainment. The comedy team of the Marx Brothers is best remembered for how they induced convulsions of laughter in the audience. Groucho’s quick wit and funny insults during the Vaudeville days are still remembered fondly by his fans. (The Best of Groucho, 37) The Marx Brothers’ made a move into a more conventional form of performance art when they worked for the Broadway show â€Å"I’ll Say She Is†. The success of this show led to the more popular shows like The Cocoanuts (1925) and Animal Crackers (1928). This was about the time when silent movies were taking centre stage. It led to both Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers being made into â€Å"talkies†. Its success led to further silent movie offers from Paramount Studios – Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933). Although these movies were regarded as classics by the critics, their box-office returns were uninspiring, leading to speculation that the Marx Brothers’ days in Hollywood were at an end. (Rosten 104). But

Taxi Driver by Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips Essay

Taxi Driver by Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips - Essay Example However, mise-en-scene techniques and slow moving camera shots soon reveal Travis’s point of view, positioning a subjective view of Travis’s world. The film uses camera movement and cinematography together with mise-en-scene at the outset to establish the tensions that build up to the violence. The film opens with the credits in the foreground of a taxi coming out of the steam of a street at night. A montage reveals rain beating against the taxi’s windshield. In the meantime, the yellow taxi is accented by rain and neon lights that bring it into sharp focus. Travis’s eyes can be seen moving from one image outside of the taxi to another as he travels Times Square and 42nd Street. The viewer sees what Travis sees: prostitutes, couples, and pornographic theatres visited by men. The camera alternates from the inside of the Taxi where Travis’s watchful eyes are moving and observing, to outside of the taxi to show the audience what Travis sees. These scen es are juxtaposed against a more tranquil, ordinary and inescapably artificial world. The camera takes the viewers to a campaign headquarters with red and white colours and signs and slogans that appear to be inconsistent with the world that Travis observes from his taxi. Travis sees the world as inherently diseased and is on a mission to root out violence, disease and decadence. He becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign worker played by Cybill Shepherd. Point of view via mise-en-scene is displayed through scenes in which Travis’s point of view and his disconnect and social isolation comes across. For example, in an attempt to connect with Betsy, Travis gets it right the first time when he has coffee with her. On his next date with Betsy, he takes her to a seedy, sexual film. Betsy is no doubt offended by this effort at connection. By taking this approach, the viewer is drawn into and observes the distorted mind of Travis at work. Camera movements and mise-en-scene functio n to highlight Travis’s distorted mind and subjective point of view. For example, the camera picks up views of New York City that demonstrate just how Travis sees the world around him. A camera shot from inside Travis’s taxi picks up drug addicts and prostitutes. This is the world that Travis sees and is distracted by. He does not see beyond these images and forms his opinion of the outside world accordingly. The camera, by showing a view outside the taxi that selects drug addicts and prostitutes takes the viewer into the disturbed mind of Travis. This is world that Travis sees and is fixated on. A world diseased and decaying and in need of cleansing. Mise-en-scene is also used to demonstrate contradictions. The camera depicts a seemingly ordinary man, dressed neatly and appearing to be respectful and naive. Yet, the camera follows and depicts Travis visiting seedy theatres and writing letters to his parents that reveal that Travis would like to live an ordinary life, but is trapped by his perceptions of a diseased world. In his letters to his parents, Travis unrealistically himself as a working man on the verge of marrying a respectable woman (Betsy) when it is well known by the time of writing, that Travis has been rejected by Betsy. Therefore, the underlying message is that there are contradictions between that which occurs in Travis’s mind and the world in which he actually lives. The contradictions are reaching a fever pitch and this is