Visual rhetoric paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Visual rhetoric paper - Essay Example This can be done by direct action - force, threats, bribes, for example - or it can be done by the use of "signs", of which the most important are words in speech or writing" (Kennedy, 3) As we may notice, this definition doesn't exclude the possibility of using other types of signs than those commonly used, the linguistic signs. On the contrary, it implies the fact that rhetoric uses more than a system of signs. Newer approaches on rhetoric, as well as the broader definition of rhetoric as "the totality of connotators" (Barthes, 38) - connotators being the signifiers of connotation that correspond to the general ideology - place the image at the centre of a system of signs. Image is seen as able of conveying meaning and expressing ideas as well as having a persuasive function. Advertising images are the best illustration of the second function. They don't just denote, but they have very much to do with the connotation function. An image showing a mother and a little child sleeping peacefully, and a bottle of milk on the table near the bed, is meant to suggest that the peace of their sleep is a result of their drinking the respective brand of milk that contains everything necessary both to the adult and to the child's health. And it is meant, of course, to persuade us buy the respective brand of milk. ... Art has always been seen as more than a representation of reality. With its images, it's more difficult indeed to identify the message or the meaning, but there is no doubt, a message or a meaning is present. In fact, there is always more than one meaning attached to an image and that makes it almost impossible for us to exhaust the interpretations of a work of art. Richard Wendorf's opinion, quoted in Defining Visual Rhetorics, is that "writers and painters have always been fascinated by the relations that serve to join words and images." (Hill and Helmers, 63) More than being preoccupied with making a connection between the written and the visual work in arts, researchers in the field of visual rhetoric are concerned with showing how the work of art itself carries meaning.In painting, images become the replacement of language. The elements of the image and the way they are placed together in order to make up the painting may be seen as similar to the way in which words are chosen and arranged in a sentence or in a text in order to convey meaning or to determine change in the surrounding environment. Only that the meaning you find in the painting is more varied than in the case when linguistic signs are used. Ernst Gombrich expressed the following: "looking at a picture can take a good deal of time", as it involves "scanning, remembering, antic ipating, correcting and confirming impressions." (Hill and Helmers, 65) So, the viewer's interpretation gives the meaning of the image. Meaning is constructed or it may be said that it is chosen from a wide variety of latent meanings which are only activated through the viewer's acting upon them. And the meaning

Bicycle Thieves Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bicycle Thieves - Movie Review Example The director of the movie Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini visit a brothel to do research on the film. The post-war Italy is immersed in poverty and the common people are directionless and destination-less. How poverty makes poor people lose their essential dignity is depicted in the movie poignantly. Ricci and his son Bruno begin to search for the bicycle but Rome is such a big city and police are not of much help. The father and son reach a restaurant, take refreshments and a little wine. The boy gets an opportunity to view the lifestyles of the rich as he sees a family eating plates of pasta and his father tells him "To eat like that, you need a million lira a month at least". After some time, to his great amazement, Ricci happens to see the bicycle thief and pursues him to reach a brothel. An ugly mob gathers, a cop arrives, but he is unable to take any legal action in the absence of the witness, as the complainant Ricci is the only witness. He is frustrated. In the closing sequence of the movie, Ricci is tempted to steal a bicycle himself, and the cycle of theft and poverty continues. Prominent among the Cast are Enzo Stailoa, Enzo Staiola, Lamberto Maggiorani and Lianella Carell. The experiment of introducing non-professional actors and shooting in natural locations is a new experiment and it brings about revised procedures in articulating truth and the ideas that influence the people. It is the demand of the time as well; the film makers face the budgetary constraints in the desperate post-war situation. The studios are devastated; unemployment not only makes the life of the people miserable but impossible to carry on, resulting in suffocating poverty. The experimentation of neo-realist philosophy through this movie has been highly successful. Other Cinematic Characteristics There is a famous scene on and around a bridge over the Tiber. The father, played by Lamberto Maggiorani, who has earlier stuck his son, turns back from his search in fear because he thinks the boy is drowning in the river. So also shooting of the most of the scenes in the movie are filmed i n real locations, without creating artificial and make-believe sets. The director is able to provide the sensitive touch and dealing with the untrained cast has specific advantages. They are ideal raw material for