ZooScope

Tag: Biographical

  • Ring of Bright Water. Dir. Jack Couffer. Cinerama Releasing Corp. 1969.

    “He was boneless, mercurial, sinuous, wonderful… he was an otter in his own element and the most beautiful thing in nature I had ever seen.” [1] The 1960s seems littered with autobiographical accounts of human and animal relations which are, as a result of the popularity of the novel, projected upon the platform of film.…

  • Tarzan. Dir. Kevin Lima, Chris Buck. Disney. 1999.

    Tarzan-Two Worlds Tarzan is best characterised by the title of the film’s opening song Two Worlds, sang by Phil Collins. This is the story of flora and fauna, represented by gorillas, colliding with mankind in Disney’s 1999 classic. The film sees an orphaned human baby in Africa adopted into an ape family by a Gorilla mother. The…

  • Povelitel’Mukh / Lord of the Flies. Dir. Vladimir Tyulkin. Kazakhfilm. 1990.

    Vladimir Tyulkin’s Lord of the Flies (Tyulkin, 1990), shot in Kazakhstan on the eve of the Soviet Union’s fall, discusses imperial, social, and human fragility within the microcosm of ‘Grandpa’ Kirill’s yard. As Kirill states, “My yard is… a state in miniature… I look upon the numerous breeds of animals living in my yard as nations”. Kirill,…

  • Gates of Heaven. Dir. Errol Morris. New Yorker Films. 1978.

    Figure 1: The original cinematic release poster for Gates of Heaven. Eighty-Five minutes of predominantly medium close-up shots without narration with a focus, superficially at least, on the pet cemetery business. You may think that the initial prognosis for Errol Morris’s 1978 debut Gates of Heaven is bleak; indeed you would be in good company.[1] Morris’s fleeting between concepts led…

  • The Elephant in the Living Room. Dir. Michael Webber. NightFly Entertainment. 2010.

    The Elephant in the Living Room (2010, dir. Michael Webber) As The Elephant in the Living Room rolls towards a conclusion Webber appropriates a pair of Brumfield’s home videos to give a raw and powerful insight into a personal tragedy.[1] These juxtaposed excerpts represent the film’s climax and epitomise both the intense emotional relationship between Brumfield and Lambert as…

  • Into The Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Paramount Vantage. 2007.

    It’s 1992, and Christopher McCandless, reborn as Alexander Supertramp, embarks on a ‘rite of passage for a young man in search of meaning,’[1] escaping from the human world and into the Alaskan wilderness. A ‘vagabond loner’[2] who donates his college fund to Oxfam and abandons his worldly goods by the side of the road, Alex forges relationships with the…

  • Project Nim. Dir. James Marsh. Roadside Attractions. 2011.

    Project Nim, is a biographical documentary that tells the story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was subjected to an ambitious language acquisition research-experiment in the 1970s to determine if apes had the ability to communicate with humans. Taken from his screaming, and subsequently   sedated mother only a few days after his birth, Nim was raised…

  • Greyfriars Bobby. Dir. Don Chaffey. Disney. 1961.

    Based on the children’s story by Eleanor Atkinson[1] of a loving Skye terrier and his master, Disney’s Greyfriars Bobby[2] presents us with the heart – warming tale of a unique bond between Bobby and Auld Jock (Alex Mackenzie). Auld Jock and his loyal companion have a very special relationship – one that continues beyond the grave.…

  • The Ghost and the Darkness. Dir. Stephen Hopkins. Constellation Entertainment. 1996.

    Film Poster for The Ghost and the Darkness URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Ghostandthedarkness.jpg This film is a retelling of The Man-Eaters of Tsavo – the published journal of John Henry Patterson. He was an Irish engineer and soldier (played by Val Kilmer), who is sent to Africa to help build the British railway from Mombasa to Uganda (572…

  • The Queen. Dir. Stephen Frears. Pathé Distribution. 2006.

    In the centre of constitutional drama, The Queen, a moment occurs in which a stag unexpectantly enters into a private moment being experienced by Elizabeth II. The Stag has a highly commanding presence onscreen, and works in unison with the film’s discussion on the public and private sphere. The scene opens with the Queen’s (Helen Mirren) back…