Grace is Gone_Unspeakable Pain

This film is a pretty sad film. The feeling of sadness is unspeakable to their daughter (Heidi and Dawn) as a father (Stanley Phillips). However, the emotion of grief has to be expressed in order to fully accept the truth and get out of the sadness.

We could notice that Stanley experienced 5 stages of grief from the moment he got the unfortunate news. The 5 stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

Primarily, he was in the stage of Denial. He denied the truth that his wife, Grace, was killed in Iraq. He tried to not talk about their mother in front of Heidi and Dawn. He just tried to act normal. He also tried to escape from the reality. He called home and informed her wife that they were alright and they were heading to Enchanted Gardens to have some fun.

Later on, in the stage of Anger, he showed some angers while he was talking to his daughters. Anger is an emotion that would apparently impact the people surrounds you. Stanley might feel that he was abandoned in certain extend because he had to deal with the grief and the daughters alone at that moment. For instance, he kept putting pressure on Heidi and asked Heidi to have some funs together. Probably he just wanted to pretend that his wife was actually still alive, so the family was still complete and they should be joyful as usual. However, he got mad when his daughter told him that she felt stressful from being asked to have funs. This scene probably symbolized that the illusion of happiness he wanted to maintain was destroyed by her daughter, so he got angry. And also he got really angry when John tried to pursue Stanley to inform the daughters the truth. He even pushed him to hit the door.

Bargaining is the third stage. Taking the girls for a trip is also a way to show Stanley’s thoughts about bargaining. After taking them out from the D&B Game Centre, he asked the girls where they wanted to go and Dawn suggested Enchanted Gardens as an option. At that moment, Stanley agreed with it and said “What if we did?” This question symbolized that he might able to get rid of the pain if he could do something for it.

During the stage of four, Depression, he made the second call to Grace is to show his depression and sadness. At first, he seems like he was to deny the truth again, but actually he cried and had started the process of accepting the truth by asking Grace to tell him what to do. He showed the sign that he was kind of losing the direction.

He was in the stage of Acceptance when they were on the way back to home. Obviously, informing their children the truth, holding their child and crying with them together were to show his acceptance about what had happened to him and the daughters. He accepted the truth that grace was gone.The scene of reading a eulogy and three of them presenting in front of the grave is a pretty wrap up to show that they were ready to accept a new phase of life after the great loss.

            Sometimes the person would not strictly follow the sequence to experience the 5 stages. However, throughout the whole trip to Enchanted Gardens, it could be seen as a trip to go through the 5 stages of grief. 

The Sixth Sense_What Are You Afraid Of?

This film has a pretty good ending. There is a plot twist which shows that actually the Malcolm was dead after the housebreaking.

Actually, there are some techniques to evoke the feeling of fear in this film. 

Music is one of the major components. We could imagine that all the horror scenes without frightening music. Music is a step to initiate suspicions of audience. Music gives them a hint that something might happen, but you do not exactly know what you are going to see. Also the fear comes from imagination with something unknown and expected.

For the purpose of scaring people, the pace is important. Frankly, I think the pace is important for evoking any kind of feeling.

Basically, there are 4 steps to scare people. At first, there must have a long period of peaceful scenes. Those peaceful scenes help the audience to stay calm.


Before the horror scene, the camera would bring the audiences to the venue and frightening music possibly will be inserted now or in the next step.









In the step 3, something unusual and anomaly must happen. They could be the occurrences of unusual behaviors, thoughts or people.

In the final step, the horror part will come out. Normally, people will be terriefied in the third or fourth step.

Additionally, the angle and movement of the camera will help to initiate the feeling of fear as well. 

The scene who had a boy with a big wound behind his head is an example. Before the presence of the wounded boy, the camera space out the left side of the screen, in order to be ready for the appearance of the wounded boy. This kind of unusual angles implies that a horror scene is ready to come out.

Using the point-of-view shot would also create a sense that you are actually in the film. Sometimes they would make it a bit shaky to create a sense that there is someone watching the actors.

You would feel that someone is watching, but you do not know who the persons are because they are invisible at that moment. 

At the end, I have a question, would people be frightened anymore if everyone of us has the sixth sense? Or what would be happened if everyone has the "talent".

Film review of Forget Paris

Couplehood is the theme in this film. What makes this film stand out from other romantic films is in their focus on what happened after they were together. In the normal films, the directors would only show how two persons find each other attractive and live happily ever after. In this film, they focus on the interactions, developments and conflicts after being together. Mickey was a NBA referee. Ellen was a dedicated airplane employee. They met in Paris. After one week, Mickey went back to America because of his job. They started their long-distance relationship, but very soon they get married.

Conflicts:

Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger) sometimes they could not find a balance.  Ellen gave up her job in Paris and went back to America to accompany Mickey. However, Mickey travelled a lot because he had to referee NBA matches in different states. Ellen also did not enjoy her job. Hence, Ellen felt lonely and quarrelled with Mickey. In order to find a balance, Mickey took one-year leave of absence and became a car salesman. However, Ellen got promoted and be head of one development.

Soon after, they fought again because Mickey thought that he had invested too much in this relationship. It is an unbalance relationship.

Improvement:

At the end, they came back together. It seems like both of them missed each other so much during the period of absence. However, they eventually got together because they focus and work on their life. Normal people cannot love a person without full life, especially when this person gives up his/her own life for you. It puts a lot of weights on the partner. Thus, that’s a right choice that they choose what they want at the end. Both of them have a full life again, that’s their preconditions for being together again.