Mary Poppins- Final Analytical Paper

Mary Poppins

An Analytical Essay

12/17/2012

Mary Poppins comes into Jane and Michael’s life with a change of the wind and promises to stay until the wind changes again. Her mission is to put things right before she has to leave. The inevitable truth of her impending departure after she does this is what grounds the whole movie. She seems to be aimlessly gallivanting all over the countryside, taking the kids on all sorts of adventures, but in the meanwhile, things are being cleverly planned to bring the father and mother back to their senses. She takes special care not to get too attached to the kids. At the end of the movie, her umbrella tells her- the kids love their parents more than her, and she says- That’s as it should be.

The movie begins with Bert performing a one man band in the park. In his own words, he is performing a rendition of “comical poems, suitable for the occasion, extemporized and thought up before your very own eyes”. This is the entertainment myth in all its glory. At the end of the performance, he talks directly to the audience and leads the audience to 17 Cherry Tree Lane, where Jane and Michael live.

Once inside the house, one gets thoroughly grounded on the time period in which the story is happening. The mother returns home ecstatic after a meeting for women’s suffrage. While she is singing about women voting, the cooks and nanny join her and the shot that has all four women in the frame, singing at the top of their voices is symbolic of the new thirst for equality that women were experiencing at the time.

Pretty soon, the father comes home and further drives home the time period by singing- “ Its grand to be an Englishman in 1910, King Edward’s on the throne, it’s the age of men.”

The admiral’s booming shots keep time throughout the movie and are indicative of how many days Mary Poppins stays with the kids. Mary Poppins would have seemed overly cold if not for her enduring friendship with Bert and the laughing uncle. Her relationship with them makes her more human and likeable.

Mary Poppins comes floating down with her umbrella after all the other nanny applicants get blown away with a sudden gust of wind. Mary Poppins’ umbrella is perfectly poised in her hand, whereas the other nannies get carried away by their upturned umbrellas; very much like witches with wayward brooms.  

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The chimney sweeps dancing on the rooftops of London are so synchronized in their dancing, but their dance is so casual that one tends to think this perfect dance routine is not because of practice off camera, but simply because they’ve got together and done this rooftop dance on many evenings just like that day picturized in the movie. This is a very difficult effect to pull off. But again the entertainment myth is in full effect.  In fact, Bert calls out the names of the steps before they do it, and the rest of the lyrics are just a repetition of the same phrase- Step in Time.  This makes the sudden burst of coordinated dancing more believable in the viewer’s eyes.

If one were to choose the word ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ as a gram, it would lead us through a merry dance through the movie until the final upheaval, where the father is getting shamefully fired from his job at the bank, and he suddenly starts snickering. He shouts out the word filled with glee, to the utmost shock of the stuck up bankers, and says that what Mary Poppins said was true; the word does make everything better. A lot of incidents are responsible for this sudden change in his disposition, but this is the point at which the story comes full circle. The concrete universal in this case is the fact that he finally understands what’s going on in his children’s minds. 

Rush 9

I would like to write my final analytical paper on Mary Poppins, using the concepts we studied in our class this semester.

 There was a time in my childhood when i would watch parts of Mary Poppins everyday. I would make my bed in the morning while 'spoonful of sugar' played in the background !! 

Analytical Essay

Singing in the Rain

An Analytical Essay

11/13/2012

One too many love stories portray the stuck up celebrity brought crashing down to the ground by the humbling power of love. Singing in the Rain is refreshing that way. Despite his swooning fans, Don Lockwood is a sensible down to earth kind of guy who values the important things in life. Kathy Selden at first assumes that Don’s pride would be insufferable and tries to bring him down a few notches. She later comes to the pleasing realization that it was not necessary at all. This aspect of Don’s character has a presence throughout the movie and has an overriding effect irrespective of the story arc.

The character of Cosmo is a far cry from the usual freeloading celebrity sidekick. He is portrayed as a talented and exuberant person who often helps Don when he is feeling at a loss. The strong friendship between Don and Cosmo is another aspect of the movie that is not altered in any way by the story arc and is a force to reckon with throughout the movie. This is probably why I noticed more than a couple of medium close-up three-shots of the two friends with one other person. For example, the three-shots of Don and Cosmo with the diction coach, R.F. (the studio head) and Kathy Selden.

The stars are caught in a tricky period of time when Hollywood is in the upheaval of transitioning from silent movies to ‘talkies’. The blossoming love between Don and Kathy and the world of Hollywood movies are the two parallel strains of the story.

A scene where these two worlds clearly meet is the one in which Don professes his love for Kathy in the empty movie set. This throws into sharp relief the fact that their romance is moving in tandem with their professional careers. This scene is a pleasant meeting point for these two sides of the Mobius strip.  The two domains again commingle on an amicable note when Kathy agrees to do the voice for Lina Lamont with no worries about her own career. She does this due to two reasons- one is her selfless love for Don and the other is her strong belief that ‘the show must go on’. Towards the end of the movie, these worlds collide when Lina Lamont tries to exploit Kathy Selden and declares that she is going to keep using Kathy’s voice for her movies. When Kathy runs out of the theatre, Don declares to the audience that the beautiful voice they heard during the movie was indeed Kathy’s. In doing so, he is at the same time declaring his undying love for Kathy.

One cannot write a paper about ‘Singing in the Rain’ and not talk about the singing in the rain!! I think this scene quintessentially captures the fierce happiness of being in love. What makes this song incomparable is that along with each of Don’s lively steps, one gets to hear the splashing dance of the water as well. The diegetic truth of the sound of water makes the song a more tangible and unforgettable experience. It is ironic that this splashing sound has been painstakingly perfected in a sound recording studio and so much effort and deliberation has gone into something that comes off as completely carefree and natural. Along those same lines, I would also like to mention the bright red objects that have been purposefully incorporated into the scene to catch the viewers’ eye during the song- like Don’s shoes, mailbox, flowers, flowerpots and fire hydrant.

Don’s description of the song ‘Broadway Melodies’ towards the end of the movie was remarkable in the way it played with visual volume and depth of field. The song starts off with a medium close-up of Don in a bright light with the rest of the shot completely dark. Soon the camera zooms out whereby Don and the light get really small and the visual volume is taken over by the darkness that surrounds the light. Suddenly, parts of the darkness get lit with brightly colored Broadway signs, the bright purple stage gets lighted, and the stage swarms with dancers. A super colorful musical production ensues which ends as it began, with a medium close-up shot of Don.  

Rush 7

My gram from the movie Wizard of Oz was the fence around the pig sty in the farm. The word 'fence' means 'a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etc., usuallymade of posts and wire or wood, used to prevent entrance,to confine, or to mark a boundary. '

Other than the points i noted in my previous Rush for Wizard of Oz, I also recently thought about  how the Cowardly Lion cleverly avoids any situation that requires him to be brave by 'fencing' around the truth. 

However, the word 'fence' also means 'to defend, protect or guard.' 

This is especially obvious in the movie when the Great Wizard is trying really hard to protect his identity, but Dorothy's wit and brave repartee in a way forces him to reveal himself. 

Dorothy spends the whole movie guarding the red shoes from the Wicked Witch of the East. In this instance, the yellow brick road combines both these meanings, by being both a physical barrier between the surrounding land and Dorothy's path, and also the symbolic entity that protects her from the Wicked Witch. Another instance of the Mobius strip. 

Rush 6

My gram from the beginning of the movie was the curtain on one of the windows. As the movie progressed, i was enchanted by how the curtain ended up having symbolic significances on various levels.

Judy Garland sings a song about her interesting neighbor from behind her curtain. The thin translucent layer of cloth is a powerful separator of the two realms- her home and the neighbor's home, where the object of her attention lives. Just like the mobius strip, the curtain is separating two worlds which we know will finally come to be one.

After the farewell party for her brother, Judy Garland wants to spend time alone with the guy she likes. She is not brave enough to make a move until he walks out of the house and they are separated by the mesh door. As soon as he is on the other side of the door, she realizes that if she doesn't do something now, it will be too late. The thin mesh suddenly created the other realm by separating them. This gave her the urgency to make her move and invite him in to help her turn off the lights. 

Rush 5

My gram at the beginning of the movie Wizard of Oz was the fence around the pig sty in the farm. As the movie progressed, Dorothy lands in Oz and sees the munchkins for the first time. The munchkin land has a garden where really tiny wooden fences separated flower beds. It seemed interesting to me that the first fence held pigs(stinky) whereas the second fence held flowers(fragrant).

Later on, she and her friends walk along the yellow brick road. The road passes through different terrains like meadows, forests, etc, but the road is same throughout, as if it was just a ribbon unfurled on top of the land. It seemed to me like an invisible fence separated the road from the land around it. Also, the good witch told Dorothy that she would be safe as long as she stayed on the yellow brick road. So that means that there was some invisible power looking after her which could help her only if she stayed within the boundary(fence) of the road.

Towards the end of the movie when Dorothy and friends reach the Emerald city which is surrounded by a high wall, which i likened to the fence. Here, the fence was hindering her rather than protecting her. 

Rush 3

My gram from the beginning of 'Devdas' were the white sheets that were used to cover furniture in Devdas's room.

In the second half of the movie, Devdas's dad dies and everyone at the wake is wearing white. The body of his father is also draped in white. White in this case depicts the pureness and peacefulness of his departed soul as it sheds all the trappings of his high and mighty material life. One hopes that at least in death, he has attained calm and peace.

By the end, Devdas is really sick and about to die. His white clothes get stained with blood and dirt, symbolizing his downfall.