Django Unchained

The dentist/ bounty hunter Dr Schultz buys the slave Django to use him to find some valuable criminals. However, being a European who despises slavery,after the job is done, he frees him. Soon he not only discovers a true friend in Django, but a real Siegfried as well, who is eager to save his Brunhilda.

A freshly spiced western of the South by Quentin Tarantino with amazing cast, such as Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and the Oscar winner  Christoph Waltz.

Opening Voice Over

Working Title: The Nightmare

(Opening Sequence)

Voice Over

Song: Girl With One Eye, Florence + Machine, from the Lungs album
The voice over is supposed to be very slow and melancholy, almost to the beat of the song. The message is from her suicide note


The story I'm about to tell is my last message to the world. By the time you get this, I will be dead. But people wouldn't understand my death without knowing my life first.

Have you ever had the feeling that you don’t know where you are when you wake up? I have it all the time. But unlike others, sometimes I don’t even know who I am. It’s all in a confusing mess.

If you looked at me from afar, you would see two very different people. Deviating in looks, social class, morals and behaviour. There is no sign of relation or proof that they ever met each other. There’s nothing that connects these two people - apart from sharing their mind.

Most people try to follow their dreams. In my case, the dream followed me. It doesn’t even sound too bad - ‘living the dream’. I never really have dreams like others, I just live in another body for a day and then it starts all over and over and over. Like a spinning top that never stops. My whole life is an endless, grey routine.

I was always jealous of others, who had more, for whom it was easier. But my dream to be someone else became a nightmare. Now I live two lives: one when I am awake and one when I'm asleep. In the morning, I don't remember clearly who I was before. All I have is fragments of memories from another life. Sometimes it seems that I am awake and I'm still dreaming.  Sometimes I'm asleep and I really live. I can't tell the difference anymore. I am a shadow of myself and a darkening doubt towers over me: am I going crazy? Or is this real?
 

Of course, I carry on as normal. Act like everybody else. Wake up, get dressed, eat, work and go out with my friends. But they don’t know. They don’t know this pain, this unbearable restlessness. Because, when everyone else goes to bed to forget their daily problems, I just face new ones.
That’s why I’m always lonely, and yet never alone. Sometimes I think of ending it. Others did it before... But a question always held me back: if I died in this body, would the other me still wake up?

I’m not even sure that there is still me. One tiny little thought haunts me all the time. I start to believe that this is all just my imagination, none of it is really real. And what proof do I have? The feeling that when I greet people they don’t recognise me. The sense that when I look in the mirror it is not me who stares back. I see only one way out.

Bibliography

Bibliography

MEST4 Research Essay

Printed Resources:

Books

• ANG, I. (1996). Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World. Oxon: Routledge
• APPIGANESI, R. GARRAT, C. SADDAR, Z. CURRY, P. (2007) Introducing Postmodernism A Graphic Guide. 11th edition. Cambridge: Icon Books

• CURRAN, J. SEATON, J. (2010). Power Without Responsibility. 7th edition. Oxon: Routledge
• De SOLA POOL, I. (1983). Technologies of Freedom. USA: Belknap Press
• FUREDI, F. (2006). Culture of Fear. 2nd edition. London: Continuum
• HUBER, P. W. (1997). Law and Disorder in Cyberspace: Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm. New York: Oxford University Press
• JENKINS, H. (2006).  Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press
• MILLER, F. (1987). Batman - Year One. New York: DC Comics

• PAGE, E. (2005). Quintessential Tarantino. London: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd.
• THOMPSON, M. (2010). Understand Philosophy. 5th edition. London: Teach Yourself

Journals

• McCARTHY, TODD. (2012). The Dangers of Film’s Dark Side.The Hollywood Reporter (Aug. 3), page 47
• McCLINTOCK, PAMELA. ( 2012). How Going to the Movies Will Change.The Hollywood Reporter. (Aug. 3, 2012), page 45
• NEWMAN, K. (2005). Cape Fear. Sight and Sound. 15(7,July), page 18-21.

Internet Resources:

Websites: 

• Film Studies For Free. ‘Christopher Nolan Studies’ edited on 21 July 2010
  (accessed 29/09/12)  
  Available at: http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=christopher+nolan
• The IMDb profile of Christopher Nolan. It shows a list of film he directed and wrote including casting and other information. Served as a primary source in recognising his trademarks. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634240/
• http://www.mylearnedfriends.com/2012/07/the-brilliance-of-dark-knight_26.html
  A fan review (dated July 2012) on Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman (accessed 10/10/ 2012)

• www.lovepomo.blogspot.co.uk
  My own blog on postmodernism involving contemporary movies, music, paintings and other art forms. It is also connected to a Facebook page where I received many comments by fans and opposed audience.
• KCRW: Southern California’s leading National Public Radio and the community service of Santa Monica College. Available at: http://www.kcrw.com/

Online Books:

• BAUDRILLARD, J. (1981). Simulacra and Simulation. Available online at: https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf
• TISO, G. (2006). Impossible Recollections The Troubled Imaginary of Mediated Memory [Online] Victoria University of Wellington. Available at: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/gtiso/impossible_recollections.pdf (Accessed: 10/11/2012)

Visual Resources

Main Films: 

• INCEPTION. (2010). Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers

• SUCKER PUNCH. (2011). Directed by Zack Snyder. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures

Additional Films:

• BATMAN BEGINS. (2005). Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

• BLACK SWAN. (2010). Directed by Darren Arnofsky. [DVD]. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox

• FIGHT CLUB. (1999). Directed by David Fincher. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises

• INSOMNIA. (2002). Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

• MEMENTO. (2000). Directed by Christopher Nolan [DVD]. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox
  - Bonus Feature The Independent Focus interview with Christopher Nolan, host Elvis Mitchell

• THE DARK KNIGHT. (2008). Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

• THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. (2012) Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.
  - Bonus Feature 'The Journey of Bruce Wayne' with director Christopher Nolan, writer Jonathan Nolan and co-writer David S.Goyer

• THE PRESTIGE. (2006). Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

TV Programmes:

• THE CULTURE SHOW (Aug, 2012) Interview with Christopher Nolan

• Charlie Rose - interview with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale on Batman Begins, 2005 (Also available on YouTube)

Audio Resources

• THE TREATMENT. (2010) Host: Elvis Mitchell. Interviews with Christopher Nolan on Inception and The Dark Knight Rises
• Sucker Punch, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. (2011). Sony Classical