ZooScope

Tag: Birds

  • The Lighthouse. Dir. Robert Eggers. A24. 2019.

    “𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 π’šβ€™π’π’†π’‚π’—π’† 𝒕𝒉𝒆 π’ˆπ’–π’π’π’” 𝒃𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 β€™π’†π’Žπ’” 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒇 π’”π’‚π’Šπ’π’π’“π’” π’˜π’‰π’‚π’• π’Žπ’†π’• π’•π’‰π’†π’Šπ’“ π’Žπ’‚π’Œπ’†π’“.” The Lighthouse is a film about madness and evil. The film uses the arrival and death of a seagull, at the hands of Thomas, to explore the threshold between sanity and madness, and our capacity for evil. Thomas’ sanity is questioned…

  • Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. 1986

    Lynch has made a career out of the surreal, exploring the dark and often animalistic nature of human existence. His 1986 neo-noir mystery/psychological horror Blue Velvet centres around college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), who after returning home after his father suffers a stroke, discovers a rotting human ear that leads him on an investigation…

  • Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012

    Ernest and Celestine[2] (2012) is a French animated film that presents the unorthodox relationship between a bear and a mouse. Introduced as a struggling musician, Ernest is starving and on the hunt for food; Celestine is on the hunt for teeth when they form an unlikely pairing to help one another. Due to societal constraints and animal…

  • American Honey. Dir. Andrea Arnold. 2016.

    Andrea Arnold’s films are renowned for their nuanced focus upon human behaviour. However, as Michael Lawrence recognises in his analysis of her 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Arnold β€˜privileges the natural environment and its non-human inhabitants as characters in their own right’.[1] This scene is no different, as even within the interior setting Arnold utilises…

  • Howl’s Moving Castle. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2004.

    There is a surprising lack of non-human animal representation in Studio Ghibli’s 2004 film Howl’s Moving Castle, despite an overarching theme which frequently pits an idyllic pastoral version of Japan against a threateningly industrial one. The major depiction of human-animal relations is that of secondary protagonist Howl as he gradually transforms into a bird-like creature…

  • Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Universal Pictures . 1996.

    Twelve Monkeys begins: human beings whoop and rattle in cages, buried deep underground. Wild animals roam free in the streets; in the churches, on top of this underground prison. But who dug the hole? The animals or the human… …beings? The deadly virus which forced the survivors to flee underground came from the animals. But the…

  • The Cat Returns. Dir. Hiroyuki Morita. Toho. 2002.

    The Cat Returns (2002) is a Japanese fantasy film animated by Studio Ghibli, which follows dissatisfied schoolgirl Haru Yoshioka, who after saving a cat from a road collision, discovers she has the ability to talk to cats. Upon saving the feline it is revealed that this individual is none other than Prince Lune, Heir to the…

  • Arrival. Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Paramount Pictures. 2016.

    When I think of science fiction films, I immediately think of two things: aliens and explosions. Arrival plays with these expectations of the genre, asking the viewer to look at aliens in a way they’re not used to. Taking Villeneuve’s vision of the alien to be a non-human creature, it is appropriate to categorise the aliens in Arrival as…

  • Bambi. Dir. David Hand. RKO Radio Pictures. 1942.

    The story of Bambi has captured the hearts of many ever since its release back in 1942. The main character, Bambi is a sweet, newborn mule deer when he first graces the screen, and earns the love of many with the lovely antics shared by him and his friends. The most memorable scene however, is…

  • Cinderella. Dir. Sir Kenneth Branagh . Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2015.

    During Ella’s journey from a happy, sweet child, to the mourning servant of her stepfamily, to cherished wife of the King, her fundamental characteristics are consistent. Her mother tells her to β€˜have courage and be kind’. The message is not subtle: this exact phrase is repeated another 9 times in the film. For the sceptics…