ipl-logo

City Girl Analysis

1566 Words7 Pages

F.W. Murnau’s City Girl is a masterclass in creating and contrasting different worlds within a film. The film is set both in the city and the country, and Murnau expertly weaves between the settings, teaching the audience about both places in relation to the other. Once Lem and Kate make it to his parent’s farm, City Girl also creates a world within the farm for the couple, distinct from farm life. Overall, F.W. Murnau uses a restrained yet expressionistic mise-en-scene and comparison-focused editing to create a lover’s paradise separate from the reality of the struggles of the farm. F.W. Murnau uses a restrained yet boundless mise-en-scene to create a romantic space within the wheat fields for Lem and Kate’s return to the farm. Upon leaving …show more content…

This goal is often achieved through the deliberate cutting from a country-life action with its city-life equivalent. Notably, Lem’s mother cuts freshly baked bread at the table for the family. The next shot is in Kate’s diner, where an automated bread slicer makes quick work of an entire loaf. Through juxtaposing these thematically similar shots, City Girl highlights the disconnect between city living and the production of goods. In addition, Murnau cuts back and forth between Lem’s father’s scrawled math of the optimal price to sell wheat and the impersonal and cruel truth of the stock exchange. Overall these sorts of cuts tend to happen towards the beginning of the movie, before Murnau muddies the waters of the more simplistic “city-life is cold, country-life is wholesome” thesis. Once this dynamic has been established, Murnau can use editing and cinematography to compare perspectives much more subtly and within a single location, one example being their romantic scene within the wheat. The two perspectives here are Lem and Kate laughing together behind the shack, and Lem looking towards the farmhouse from the other side. Both of these shots inform one another in the same way as the bread slicer scene. Through seeing Lem and Kate we understand how close they’ve grown, and the joy that they currently share. On the …show more content…

For Kate’s city apartment, the film uses an expressionistic set design to demonstrate the artifice of city life. Her apartment is viewed flat and squarely from the side, with an emphasis of the geometry of the space. Kate’s apartment is a claustrophobic little box within the big harsh city. Through her windows, we see billboard lights and theater marquees flicker on and off with no clear pattern, showing a hectic world outside. Even if the audience can tell that the billboards look unrealistic, the set still communicates Kate’s experience of her uncomfortable environment. An elevated train rushes directly by her window, and the audience can almost hear it. Kate daydreams while staring off at a billboard advertising the Minnetonka shores: a reminder of the serenity and romance that exists outside of the city. To contrast this chaos, the mise-en-scene of the farm is oftentimes didactic and demonstrative. One notable scene is when Murnau spends several minutes carefully showing how the harvesting process realistically. As opposed to the distance from food processes in the city as seen through the automatic bread slicer, City Girl wholly immerses the audience in the detail of the wheat farm. Through inviting the audience to understand the intricacies of the process, the city folks relationship with bread seems even more distant when compared to the toil of the

Show More
Related
507 Words | 3 Pages

But when she arrived at the plantation and she found out she had to like in a tiny little shack, with another girl, and only one bed and a floor mat, everything was very sad, gloomy and nothing was exciting. This shows that the village and the plantation is very different because of the feelings and emotions that go around. Another difference in the story is, the people and respect there, In the village everyone love each other, help, respects, and enjoys each others company. At the plantation everyone hates each other and one one gets along. I know this because at the village everyone was dancing and singing together and they were all getting along and at the plantation it is the exact

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

Denise Kiernan’s book, “The Girls of Atomic City”, a New York Times best seller in its first week of publication, tells the story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A created in 1942 and one of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities that didn’t appear on maps until 1949. The town consumed more electricity than New York City and homed over 75,000 people. Many of those people were young women that were recruited from small towns in the South with promises of good pay and war-ending work. Their work was covered in mystery and workers faced job loss and eviction if they talked about work.

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

Rhetorical Précis In her rhetorical essay “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos” (1999), Wesleyan University graduate and feminist Joan Morgan claims that if a man cannot love himself, than he is incapable of loving women in a healthy matter, and it is up to women of color and the African American community to change these threads. Morgan supports her claim using ethos by questioning artists such as B.I.G and their aggressive lyrics, with logos by providing statistics from the U.S Census Bureau in regards to the decrease of the number of black two parent household, and also with pathos by providing a personal example of her family friend. Morgan is hoping to improve the music industry by examining hip hop and rap lyrics in order to raise awareness instead of censoring the industry. Morgan's tone is disdainful, concerned and disappointed in order to establish credibility with her audience, which consist of women of color, feminist, and hip hop artist.

Read More
699 Words | 3 Pages

“The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from provinces of riots… The price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery.” (Document 3)

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

t Lucy’s Home for Girls is a safe haven for werewolf girls to learn how to change into better humans through a curriculum taught by the home’s nuns. Claudette, a student at St Lucy's Home For Girls, follows the nun’s curriculum closely, but sometimes she strays from it. This short story written by Karen Russell follows three werewolf girls as they learn about and adapt to their new way of living as humans, all of them heading in separate directions. In the beginning of Claudette’s journey, everything is new and different. She shortly learns that hard work is crucial to adapt to her new way of life and that from that point onward the stakes will be high.

Read More
1402 Words | 6 Pages

Saint Kathy Kathy Dobie believed that being the saint to others will confirm her path to inclusion. In the catholic faith, being a saint and spreading kindness is powerful. To achieve sainthood there must be acts of selflessness. Kathy Dobie expressed selflessness by finding her path of inclusion. She used acts of courage to meet this desire.

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

In this passage from, "The Street", by Ann Petry, Lutie Johnson's relationship with her urban setting is expressed thoroughly. The author creates a vision of the surroundings and expresses Lutie's relationship with her urban setting through the use of selection of detail, personification,imagery and figurative language. Petry begins the passage utilizing the selection of detail. She stated, "It rattled the tops of garbage cans, sucked windows shades out through the top of the opened windows and set them flapping back against the windows"(Paragraph 1). She uses details to describe how forceful the wind that was blowing was and the strength of it.

Read More
1246 Words | 5 Pages

Love tends to effect each character’s action differently. For example, love is what motivated the plot of the story “The Valley of Girls” by Kelly Link. For instance, the Olds observed society and performed actions to make sure their children are aligned with success. Love and social status is what makes these people relate, or correlate with each other; it reminds me of a government politically develop by love and society. In “The Valley of Girls” by Kelly Link, from Teenagers and Old are motivated by two specific motives, which are love and social status.

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

Picture book review: Stolen girl August 2015 ‘Stolen girl’ written by Trina Saffioti and illustrated by Norma MacDonald, is a touching, emotionally stirring picture book about the tourment a young aboriginal girl experiences when she was taken away from her mother, by the Australian government. The story takes place in a children’s home and is told with the use of small bursts of detailed paragraphs and intense, colourful and melancholy illustrations. Written for 8-10 year olds, the purpose of the book represents the experiences of children who were a part of the stolen generation in the 1900s-1970s. In this time period it was government policy in Australia that each indigenous Australian child was to be removed from their families as the

Read More
1222 Words | 5 Pages

The late 19th century was a monumental era for the city of Paris. As the city kept growing and increasing in popularity around the globe, the city itself was being modernized from its dated medieval layout. These modernizations had a direct impact on the culture of the city, the lifestyles of its inhabitants, and the prominence of the city across the world. Paris’ inhabitants were as social as ever, and often enjoyed themselves at cafés and bars. This modernization acted as a perfect catalyst to support the surging wave of capitalism across Western Europe.

Read More
1130 Words | 5 Pages

It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people”(Gilman). This quote is showing people at the beginning of the story how she views her situation. She 's in love with where she is and what she has.

Read More
533 Words | 3 Pages

The charging bull sculpture, sculpted by Arturo Di Modica, on Wall street is a very well-known piece. Earlier this year there was another sculpture placed in front of the charging bull called, "Fearless Girl", sculpted by Kristen Visbal. This sculpture being placed in front of the charging bull has caused some major controversy. Some believe that the fearless girl sculpture needs to be taken down because it takes away from the meaning behind the original sculpture. Others believe that the fearless girl sculpture should be kept because it sends a good message out there for women.

Read More
1651 Words | 7 Pages

‘Daddy’s little girls’ is a touching movie. The movie incites sadness in its viewers, the anguish felt by the protagonist and his children is one that many can identify with and understand. The central character Monty was an ambitious young man who grew up in an inner city community, he had three beautiful girls with is former partner, Jennifer. Monty’s daughters remained his priority throughout the movie and he fought tirelessly for the benefit of his children. Monty had to endure the selfishness of Jennifer, her poor parenting skills and her bad ill sense of judgement.

Read More
1217 Words | 5 Pages

She was afraid that the way she spoke about this city would not be the same anymore, but she said,"we will find out." However, when she was in the car to get to the hotel boutique, she said, “this is my place, it is here where I left behind many childhood memories, it still remains in paradise”. On the other hand, I felt I was in Europe because of the architecture. I was fascinated with the way the city looked because there were pink, blue, and yellow colored houses. One thing I found surprising about

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

When the viewers are first introduced to Moore River Settlement it is shown from Molly’s POV. Phillip Noyce uses this perspective as it gives a connection to the viewers and Molly. Moreover, this POV camera technique in this scene shows the adults as big and frightening and effectively shows the surrounding area as bigger and more intimidating as it is shown from a young girl's perspective. In a later scene, we see Molly and the girls all cramped into one bed. The scene is dimly lit and the only light source is the moon which is lit onto Molly and the girl's bed.

Read More

More about City Girl Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document