Category: Hollywood Station

This academic paper closely analyzes the first and final shots of John Ford’s “The Searchers” (1956) to situate the film as an old and new Western. In doing so, the paper sees the film as representative of the Mid-to-Late 50s – marked by the end of the studio system and the rise in popularity of […]

A fun film festival programming assignment that encouraged us to make connections between director Mike Leigh’s work and another director of our choice! INTRODUCTION It’s all about those long-drawn-out silences. Or the never-ending rambles. People’s desire to connect but their inability to do so is a reality that humanist filmmakers consistently tap into to understand […]

This academic paper compares the different ways in which two schools of 70s filmmaking – The Hollywood New Wave , and the LA Rebellion – tackle the post-traumatic stress that its male protagonist’s face post Vietnam-war. Major Spoilers for “Taxi Driver,” (1976) and “Ashes and Embers (1982).” Vietnam is over, but its images and sounds […]

This academic paper conducts a formal analysis Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1973), extensively focusing on its cinematography and editing. Major Spoilers ahead. In his infamous interview with filmmaker and critic François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock details the critical difference between eliciting surprise and suspense from an audience. Using the “bomb under the table” analogy, the […]

Minor spoilers for Unbreakable (2000), Split (2016), and Glass (2018).  Films based on comic books tend to gravitate towards displaying a sense of grandiosity on screen. Even the supposedly more grounded blockbusters, like Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy,” exaggerated certain aspects of filmmaking, like the actors’ performances, the visual scope of the action scenes, and […]

This is an academic paper on the analysis of  Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay’s career, persona, and films (with a significant focus on her recent feature “You Were Never Really Here”), and how all these factors define her personality as an indie or independent filmmaker.  Within the context of American cinema, writer Michael Z. Newman proposes […]

This is an academic paper on the thematic, historical, and scene analysis of Alfonso Cuaron’s modern sci-fi masterpiece. Major spoilers ahead. French philosopher, Paul Virilio, emphasizes that the world’s collapse is going to come about due to the exponential growth of technology. Virilio’s philosophy aligns perfectly with Hollywood science-fiction dystopian classics like The Day the […]