Méliès’s Trip to the Moon Essay Example for Free

Mà ©lià ¨s’s Trip to the Moon Essay The film opens with a gathering of academics in a lecture hall. They have robes, beards and pointed hats. They are standing at first in ranks in the room, five more men join them and are given telescopes by female servants. The leader enters and assumes a position at a blackboard on the left where he draws an image of the Earth and the Moon and a bullet-shaped craft landing on the Moon. They all being discussing or arguing about the project. The technique used for acting is based on what one might see acted out in the theater with no modern cinematography such as close-ups or zooms are used to focus the attention on a particular character. All the characters appear onstage and if there is any focus on a certain action is done through theatrical technique such as the females marching out and handing out telescopes and leaving. When the main character, seeming like a professor comes in the group sort of comes to attention and stand still at first while the professor speaks and draws on the board. One’s attention’s shifts to the group again as they discuss and argue with over-large gesticulations in this silent film without written inter-titles. It is a silent stage drama recorded on film, else it would be mime theatre. The film’s scene changes almost like a shift of scene in the theatre. There is a very fake-looking space capsule that is being worked on and some of the astronauts try out the interior. There is a moment when someone falls into a shallow barrel. Possibly, this was meant to be a comic touch which would be at home later in vaudeville. There is no camera movement. It is as if one had a good seat at the theatre and watching a series of tableaux vivantes. The film owes much more to the stage and picture books than to any already-developed film technique. The subsequent boarding of the space-bullet on the left with the cannon on the right looks especially fake and hand-drawn. There is little aim at a believable set and much over-acting: doffing their hats and so on to an imaginary group of spectators, actually us who are watching the living theater more than a film by today’s standards. After the firing of the cannon, there occurs the use of something like special effects where the Man in the Moon, framed by clouds comes closer to the viewer and has human like expressions which show the space vehicle hitting him in the eye. It is a real human looking like he has whipped cream on his face.

Big Brook :: Personal Narrative Fishing Essays

Big Brook â€Å"When you leave this place, you will always remember the nights fishin’ up on Big Brook,† my father once told me. And to this day I have never forgotten my experiences up on that little tributary of the Namakagon River in northern Wisconsin. My father always dreams of the old days when he would go out with a creel over his shoulder and catch a meal of fish. Work takes too much of his time now, but I remember the times we would go up to Big Brook after work and spend the last hours before the sun set fishing our favorite holes in hopes for a big trout to bite. I remember this now, many years later, but my memories are still perfectly clear. We would get home from work, dad would say, â€Å"Alright, I am goin’ up to Big Brook, if ya wanna come with, I am leavin’ in five.† This was our cue, my brothers and I would drop everything we were doing, grab our rods, and head out to the garden to pick a handful of worms. The garden was always the best spot for the worms; they seemed to love the dark rich soil and always grew the biggest. Even though we dug them every week, there would always seem to be more the next time we went out. When we arrived at the meandering stream, Dad would say, â€Å"Alright, I get the first 100 yards downstream, everything else is open season for you all to fight about.† My brothers would usually get the section just upstream, cause they were bigger, and I didn’t have much say in the matter. So there we were, all the guys in the family on the river, my father heading to his favorite spot, my brothers marching upstream together, and I left to make my way downstream, through the blackberry brush to the beaver pond. When I left the river to walk downstream all the difficulties from the day were left behind. I walked through a grove of aspen, and looking under a clump of brush I saw a cottontail rabbit, but he knew, if he didn’t move I wouldn’t see the little guy; so I passed quietly, in hopes not to scare him. As I walked I would be occasionally wafted with the smell of wild roses, or the smell of fresh air that would blow through the trees.

The Hunters: Moonsong Chapter Thirty-Five

Initiation night for the newest members of the Vitale Society had arrived at last. The cavernous room was lit only by golden candlelight from long tapers placed around the space and by the fire of high-flaming torches against the wal s. In the flickering light, the animals carved in the wood of the pil ars and arches almost seemed to be moving. Matt, dressed in a dark hooded robe like the other initiates, gazed around proudly. They'd worked hard, and the room looked amazing. At the front of the room, beneath the highest arch, a long table had been placed, draped in a heavy red satin cloth and looking like some kind of altar. In the center of the table sat a huge deep stone bowl, almost like a baptismal font, and around it roses and orchids were set. More flowers had been scattered on the floor, and the scent of the crushed blossoms underfoot was so strong that it was dizzying. The pledges were lined up, evenly spaced, before the altar. As if she'd picked up on his pride at how everything had turned out, Chloe pushed her dark hood back a bit and leaned toward him to mutter, â€Å"Pretty fabulous, huh?† Matt smiled at her. So what if she was dating someone else? He stil liked her. He wanted to stay friends, even if that was al there could be between them. He tugged at his robe self-consciously; the fabric was heavy, and he didn't like the way it blocked his peripheral vision. The current masked members of the Vitale Society wove silently among the pledges, handing out goblets ful of some kind of liquid. Matt sniffed his and smel ed ginger and chamomile as Wellas less familiar scents: so this was where the herbs had been used. He smiled at the girl who gave it to him, but got no response. Her eyes behind the mask slid over him neutral y, and she moved on. Once he was a ful member of the Vitale Society, he would know who these current members were, would see them without their masks. He sipped from his goblet and grimaced: it tasted strange and bitter. The soft rustlings of cloaked figures moving across the floor were silenced as the last of the goblets was handed out and the masked Vitales quietly retreated under the arch behind the altar to watch. Ethan stepped forward, up to the altar, and pushed back his hood. â€Å"Welcome,† he said, holding out his hands to the assembled pledges. â€Å"Welcome to true power at last.† The candlelight flickered over his face, twisting it into something unfamiliar and almost sinister. Matt twitched nervously and took another swal ow of the bitter herbal mixture. â€Å"A toast!† Ethan cal ed. He raised his own goblet, and before him, the pledges raised theirs. He hesitated for a moment, then said, â€Å"To moving beyond the veil and discovering the truth.† Matt raised his goblet and drained it with the other pledges. The mixture left a gritty feeling on his tongue, and he scraped it absently against his teeth. Ethan looked around at the pledges and smiled, locking gazes with one after another. â€Å"You've al worked so hard,† he said affectionately. â€Å"Each of you has reached his or her personal peak of intel igence, strength, and leadership ability now. Together, you are a force to be reckoned with. You have been perfected.† Matt managed to politely restrain himself from rol ing his eyes. It was nice to be praised, of course, but sometimes Ethan was a little too over the top: perfected? Matt doubted it was even possible. It seemed to him that you could always strive to be a little more, or a little less, something. You could always wish to be better. But even if he could, after al , be perfected, he suspected that it would take more than a few obstacle courses and group problem-solving exercises to do it. â€Å"And now it is time to at last discover your purpose,† Ethan continued. â€Å"Time to complete the final stage in your transformation from ordinary students into true avatars of power.† He took a clean and shining silver cup from the altar and dipped it into the deep stone bowl in front of him. â€Å"With every step forward in evolution, there must be some sacrifice. I regret any pain this wil cause you. Be comforted by the knowledge that al suffering is temporary. Anna, step forward.† There was a slight uneasy stirring among the pledges. This talk of suffering and sacrifice was different than Ethan's usual emphasis on honor and power. Matt frowned. Something was wrong here. But Anna, looking tiny in her long robe, walked without hesitation up to the altar and pushed back her hood. â€Å"Drink of me,† Ethan said, handing her the silver cup. Anna blinked uncertainly and then, her eyes on Ethan, tipped back her head and drained the cup. As she handed it back to Ethan, she licked her lips automatical y, and Matt tried to peer more closely at her. In the flickering candlelight, her lips looked unnatural y red and slick. Then Ethan led her around the side of the altar and into his arms. He smiled, and his face twisted, his eyes dilating and his lips pul ing back in a snarl. His teeth looked so long, so sharp. Matt tried to shout a warning but realized with horror that he couldn't move his lips, couldn't draw the breath to cal out. He knew, suddenly, that he had been a fool. Ethan sank his fangs deep into Anna's neck. Matt strained, trying to run toward them, to attack Ethan and throw him away from Anna. But he couldn't move at al . He must be under some kind of compulsion. Or perhaps something in the drink, some magic ingredient, had made them al docile and stil . He watched helplessly as Anna struggled for a few moments, then went limp, her eyes rol ing back in her head. Unceremoniously, Ethan let her body drop to the ground. â€Å"Don't be afraid,† he said kindly, gazing around at the horrified, frozen pledges. â€Å"Al of us† – he gestured toward the silent, masked Vitale behind him – â€Å"went through this initiation recently. You must brace yourself to suffer what is only a smal , temporary death, and then you wil be one of us, a true Vitale. Never growing old, never dying. Powerful forever.† Sharp white teeth and golden eyes shining in the candlelight, Ethan reached out toward the next pledge as Matt struggled again to shout, to fight. Ethan continued, â€Å"Stuart, step forward.† Elena smel ed so good, rich and sweet like an exotic ripe fruit. Damon wanted to simply bury his head in the soft skin at the crook of her neck and just inhale her for a decade or two. Snaking his arm through hers, he pul ed her closer. â€Å"You can't come in with me,† she told him for the second time. â€Å"I might be able to get James to talk to me because it's a question about my parents, but I don't think he'l tel me anything if someone else is there. Whatever the truth is about the Vitale Society and my parents, I think he's embarrassed about it. Or afraid, or †¦ something.† Without paying attention to what she was doing, Elena shifted her grip and held on to Damon's arm more firmly. â€Å"Fine,† Damon said stubbornly. â€Å"I'l wait outside. I won't let him see me. But you're not to walk across campus at night by yourself. It's not safe.† â€Å"Yes, Damon,† Elena said in a convincing imitation of meekness, and rested her head on his shoulder. The lemony scent of her shampoo mixed with the more essential Elena smel of her. Damon sighed with contentment. She cared for him, he knew that, and Stefan had taken himself out of the picture. She was stil young, his princess, and a human heart could heal. Maybe, with Stefan gone, she would final y see how much closer she was, mind and soul, to Damon, how perfectly they fit together. In any case, she was his for now. He lifted his free hand and stroked her head, her silky hair pliant beneath his fingers, and smiled. The professor's house was barely off campus, just across the street from the gilded entrance gates. They'd almost reached the edge of campus when a familiar presence that had been lurking nearby at last came very close. Damon wheeled to scan the shadows, pul ing Elena with him. â€Å"What is it?† Elena said, alarmed. Come out, Damon thought with exasperation, sending his silent message toward the thickest shadows at the base of a crowd of oak trees. You know you can't hide from me. One dark shadow detached itself from the rest, stepping forward on the path. Stefan simply gazed at the ground, shoulders slumped, his hands loose and open by his sides. Elena gasped, a smal hurt sound. Stefan looked terrible, Damon thought, not without sympathy. His face seemed hol ow and strained, his cheekbones more prominent than usual, and Damon would have bet that he wasn't feeding properly. Damon felt a twinge of disquiet. He didn't take pleasure in causing his brother pain. Not anymore. â€Å"Well?† Damon said, raising his eyebrows. Stefan glanced up at him. I don't want to fight with you, Damon, he said silently. So don't, Damon shot back at him, and Stefan's mouth twitched in a half smile of acknowledgment. â€Å"Stefan,† Elena said suddenly, sounding like the word had been jerked out of her. â€Å"Please, Stefan.† Stefan stared down at the path under his feet, not meeting her eyes. â€Å"I sensed you were nearby, Elena, and I felt your anxiety,† he said wearily. â€Å"I thought you might have been in trouble. I'm sorry, I was mistaken. I shouldn't have come.† Elena stiffened, and her long dark lashes fel over her eyes, hiding, Damon was almost sure, the beginnings of tears. A long silence stretched between them. Final y, irritated by the tension, Damon made an effort to ease it. â€Å"So,† he said casual y, â€Å"we broke into the campus security office last night.† Stefan looked up with a flicker of interest. â€Å"Oh? Did you find anything useful?† â€Å"Crime scene photos, but they weren't very helpful,† Damon said, shrugging. â€Å"The folders were marked with black Vs, so we're trying to figure out what that means. Elena's going to talk to her professor about the Vitale Society, see if it could have anything to do with them.† â€Å"The†¦ Vitale Society?† Stefan said hesitantly. Damon waved a hand dismissively. â€Å"A secret society from back in the day when Elena's parents were here,† he said. â€Å"Who knows? It may be nothing.† Drawing a hand across his face, Stefan seemed to be thinking hard. â€Å"Oh, no,† he muttered. Then, looking at Elena for the first time, he asked, â€Å"Where's Matt?† â€Å"Matt?† Elena echoed, startled out of her wistful contemplation of Stefan. â€Å"Um, I think he had some kind of meeting tonight. Footbal stuff, maybe?† â€Å"I have to go,† Stefan said tightly, and was immediately gone. With his enhanced abilities, Damon could hear Stefan's light footsteps racing away. But to Elena, he knew, Stefan had been nothing but a silently vanishing blur. Elena turned to Damon, her face crumpling in what he recognized as a prelude to more tears. â€Å"Why would he fol ow me if he doesn't want to talk to me?† she said, her voice hoarse with sorrow. Damon gritted his teeth. He was trying hard to be patient, to wait for Elena to give him her heart, but she kept thinking of Stefan. â€Å"He told you,† he said, keeping his voice even. â€Å"He wants to make sure you're safe, but he doesn't want to be with you. But I do.† Firmly recapturing her arm with his, he tugged her lightly forward. â€Å"Shal we?†

Homer s Odyssey A Greek Hero - 940 Words

Homer’s Odyssey Work Sample Odysseus is not your typical Greek hero. Greek heroes like Achilles and Hercules used purely their physical advantages and enormous strength to overcome their challenges. Odysseus however, in addition to his god-like strength, used his wits and mental horsepower -- which needless to say he had a lot of. This allowed him to get out of some very sticky situations. Odysseus primarily used thought, patience, and clever tricks to overcome obstacles thrown in front of him and his men. In the Epic Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus used his brains to take a Cyclops’ sight and escape its clutches, defeat the powerful witch Circe with garlic, and destroy tens of suitors attempting to steal his wife Penelope. Cyclopses, as portrayed in ancient Greek literature, are certainly a force to be reckoned with. They stand high over the height of your average Greek hero and have the muscles to rip a man in two like wet tissue paper. The single large eye in the middle of their head gives them enou gh of an in-human look to spark fear in the hearts of whoever is unfortunate enough to encounter one. These few facts about cyclopses would scare any tough Greek hero, but not Odysseus. He has the brains to accompany his muscles that would make a cyclops, assuming he knew about Odysseus, tremble in his dirty, oversized loin-cloth. When confronted by the cyclops Polythemus, Odysseus’s men and even the great Odysseus himself were worried. However, Odysseus had a plan. During theShow MoreRelatedOdysseus Is A Hero?1143 Words   |  5 PagesThe Odyssey by Homer, The character Odysseus is one of the greek heros in this book. He is known as a great hero, because he manages to get through all of these dangerous mission such as : First odysseus makes it alive after travelling for ten years and facing different and more difficult challenges. Odyssey faces dangerous creatures and people. Homer have odysseus pass all theses task and missions to name him one of the great greek gods that ever lived . Some may say Odysseus is not a hero butRead MoreGreek Epics873 Words   |  4 PagesGreek Epics There are some challenges in each history period, and authors will create some heroes in their epics that reflect values of the culture at the time. By studying the hero’s actions and his motivations, it tells the society conditions and the civilization of that history period. Homer; the authors of The Iliad and The Odyssey; and Vergil; the authors of The Aeneid are two of the greatest writers in ancient western civilization. There are heroes in these three literatures to reflectRead MoreThe Bronze And Iron Age Essay2093 Words   |  9 PagesQuestion: 1-What Can Homer tell us about the Bronze and Iron Age The Bronze and Iron Ages were 2 of the main periods in Greek History and Homer can tell us a lot about them. The Bronze Age was all about mixing copper with tin or arsenic to bronze hence it is called the Bronze Age. The Iron Age was when the whole of the east Mediterranean was in crisis. In central Anatolia, the collapse of the Hitties opened the gates to invaders who overran the country. Firstly, let’s talk about Homer- a lot of the worksRead MoreThe Between Greek And Greek Society1318 Words   |  6 Pageswere many forms of heroism. How would you define heroism? What does a true hero consist of? A hero is a common and quite simple term, but is not always easy to define within a character. A hero according to Roman and Greek Society is someone who stands up for their country and fights for their beliefs. Normally a hero is someone who everyone looks up to. Heroes show tremendous amounts of courage and desire to fight for one s country. Arete, known as excellence, is a well defined term in the HellenisticRead MoreComparison Between The Odyssey And The Iliad1068 Words   |  5 Pages In the novel The Odyssey, the author Homer describes an outcry against death; whereas in the Iliad death is portrayed as an accomplishment., Both were in the times that is also known as Before Common Era, or BCE. It is known that Iliad begins 10 years before the great Seige of Troy and eventually the odyssey had begun a couple years after that(Classical Lit). When Homer had written these novels it is clear that they have numerous lines, and Homer had written both. In the novel The IliadRead MoreHomer s Epic Hero, The Odyssey, By Homer1670 Words   |  7 Pagesthe greatest tales of a hero is one of a man returning home after war. King of Ithaca, Odysseus was a Greek champion in the Trojan War. However, he is known best not for his heroic acts during combat, but for his journey back to Ithaca, to his wife and son, in the ten years that follow. In Homer’s epic hero, The Odyssey, the Greek poet tells of Odysseus’s hardships and how he used his heroic traits to overcome them. The myth is told in twenty four books. Odysseus is a hero because of his clevernessRead MoreThe Odyssey By Homer s Odyssey Essay1314 Words   |  6 Pagescentury, The Odyssey, is Homer s epic of Odysseus 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus defining character traits, such as nobility, courage, thirst for the glory and the app ealing confidence in his authority dominated the storyline throughout. The many themes of this epic mainly focus around the Greek hero Odysseus however in my essay I will attempt to analyze hospitality. Hospitality shaped an important part of social interactions in The Odyssey. Although Greek society emphasizesRead MoreThe Demeaning Role Of Women In Homers The Odyssey1280 Words   |  6 PagesThe Odyssey is one of two poems written by Homer describing the drama of the Trojan War, more specifically, the catastrophic journey of the hero Odysseus back home. Throughout the tales, female characters exhibit the many and diverse roles of Greek women, and also their significance in a world dominated by immortal beings.   Like countless others, the goddess Calypso’s beauty and elegance could be the cause of circumstances both good and evil. Calypso is remembered most for keeping Odysseus as a prisonerRead MoreKleos in The Odyssey by Homer938 Words   |  4 PagesTHE ODYSSEY Heroic glory occupies a very crucial place in the Indo-European epic tradition, because the Greek society is a shame culture, in which being honoured is one of the primary purposes of people s lives. Hence, the concept of kleos formed an essential part of the bardic tradition which helped the people to maintain the heroic stature of the mythical heroes from generation to generation. This is why, it has got an important place in the Greek epics also. In The Odyssey by Homer alsoRead MoreWhat Is The Importance Of Storytelling In The Odyssey1111 Words   |  5 PagesWoodard Honors 111 9/25/17 Storytelling in the Odyssey The Odyssey is a story made up of stories. Because there is very little action that happens in the present, the presence of storytelling within the Odyssey is something that characterizes it and makes it unique. The spreading of stories serve to form legends and myths that can have the effect of shaping a culture. In addition, since stories were such an important aspect of entertainment in Greek culture, stories also shape the audience, either