Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris a Dissertation Submitted to The
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Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Arts and Languages For the Award of the Degree of Master of English By Leechingamba Khanganba Regd. No: 11503077 Guide Dr. Shreya Chatterjee Faculty of Arts and Languages Lovely Professional University Phagwara, Punjab, India 2017 Abstract "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen demonstrates and makes obvious Paris as a kind of a unit with numerous diverse uniqueness which captures figure according to the eyes of the viewer. In actuality Paris doesn’t actually have that one proper description of it that everybody independently contributes to. In Allen´s film, Paris, survives no more than in the phenomenology of the viewer’s observation, an observation frequently disfigured and made unpredictable by an escapist require withdrawing from the current order in charge to take cover in an overestimated, utopian history. Allen accordingly disapprove of the longing inclination, the "Golden-Age thinking" (as it is identified in the film) that forces a range of characters concurrently to dwell in separate worlds, that of an innocent past and that of the collapse current. His central character´s expedition reverse along with onwards among the current and the romanticized Thriving Twenties is every person’s expedition, from time to time dreamlike journey connecting actuality with thoughts, stuck between the globes in point of fact occupied moreover the planet synthetically assembled on behalf of oneself. Nonetheless it is at time, Allen´s leading role ultimately finds out reminiscence contained by his reminiscence, a yearning contained by his yearning, with the intention that he be familiar with the blemished viewing after his more or less mythologized awareness of the history, dazzling every person’s awareness that the history is at the end of the day the appearance of our current requirements. Keywords: Emancipation, Memory, Nostalgia, Paris and Woody Allen. Declaration I declare that the dissertation entitled Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris has been prepared by me under the guidance of Dr. Shreya Chaterjee, associate Professor, School of Arts and Languages, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab. No part of this dissertation has formed the basis for the award of any degree or fellowship previously Acknowledgements First and foremost I give my gratitude to God for keeping me in good health and helping me throughout my dissertation without whose help and grace I would not have been able to complete successfully. My sincere gratitude to my beloved parents for their immense love and support it is because of them that I am able to complete my work. Thank you for believing in me. I am very privileged to express my sincere thanks and deepest sense of gratitude to my guide and supervisor Dr. Shreya Chaterjee, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Lovely Professional University, Punjab. It is due to her valuable advices, splendid supervision, constant practice, focus and most importantly the quality time she spent to enable and shape this dissertation the way in which it is been presented. It was her vast knowledge and her experience in this particular domain and her excellent guidance which gave me strength to complete the task. Her constant encouragement, unconditional love and guidance and her confidence in me that I can finish the task has always been a moral support for me. I will always be in debt to her for her time that she invested in me and for taking me as her student when unfortunately my previous guide left. I am also very grateful to Dr. Ajoi Bhatta, Head of the Department of English and Mrs. Reshu Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of English, my former guide and mentor, for their immense concern and guidance throughout the journey of this dissertation. I am also grateful to my friends for their support and concern. Certificate I hereby declare that this dissertation entitled Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris is a record of first hand research work done by me during the period of my study in the year 2016-2017 and that this dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any other degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship, or other similar title. Place: Jalandhar Signature of the Candidate Date: Contents Serial No. Title Page No. Introduction 1-26 Chapter 1 Critical Theory and Research 26-33 Methodology Chapter 2 Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris 33-40 Conclusion 40-41 Work Cited 42-43 Introduction 19th Century Cinema: A Background Since its initiation in the late 19th century, cinema has become one of the most popular and inspiring forms of entertainment, arts, education and propaganda. The birth of cinema is one of many interconnecting events and inventions around the world, born out of an array of new technology revolving around machinery, photography, optical illusion and a human love to be entertained and inspired. The invention of cinema is one process that took for nearly half a millennia. A miracle called cinema developed through a series of different and unconnected inventions around the world. It all started in 1515 when Leonardo da Vinci presented a drawing of a type of image projector which will come to be known as the Magic Lantern. In 17th century, the Magic Lantern was improved and it captivated people’s attention and soon became very popular in Europe and North America. The Phenakistoscope was invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau. A device in which pictures on one disc viewed through slots in the other appeared to move when the two were spun and viewed in a mirror. In 1839 an English Inventor called William Fox Talbot developed the Calotype process, a chemical photographic process. William George Horner invented the Zoetrope. It uses the same principle as Plateau’s Phenakistoscope but instead of disc the pictures and slots are combined in a rotating drum. In 1877 Emile Reynaud introduces the latest findings on optical reproduction of the movement. The Praxinoscope, similar to the Zoetrope puts the illusion of the movement produced by the Praxinoscope was viewed on mirrors in the center of the drum rather than the slot on the outside. In 1872 Eadward Muybridge, a San Francisco photographer adapted Horner’s Zoetrope to produce a Zoopraxinoscope. In East Orange, New Jersey Thoman Edison was privately working on perfecting his favorite of all his inventions, the Phonograph. He assigned William Dixon to the project of developing a machine that could visually accompany his phonograph. For over two years and not much result they finally designed a machine the Mirror-scope that they thought might work. In 1888 George Eastman device that flexible film based covered with photographic emulsion. This was exactly what Edison and Dixon were looking for. The result was the Kinetoscope. It is a continuous loop of film that passed over a series of rollers and in front of a lens. But it had a flaw; it allowed only one person at a time to watch the moving images being put on display. Thomas Armat found that what the camera did to hold the film stationary while the images were being photographed could be repeated in a projection mechanism itself. In 1885 in Atlanta, Georgia Armat made a vital connection. He demonstrated a projector that worked. The Lumiere family is the biggest manufacturer of photographic plates in Europe. A local Kinetoscope exhibitor as brothers Lewis and Augustin Lumiere make films which is cheaper than the ones sold by Edison. They designed the Cinematograph, a camera which serves as both a recording device and a projecting device. The cinematograph uses flexible film cut into 35mm white strips and used an intermediate mechanism modeled on the sewing machine. The device became the standard for nearly 25 years. The Arrival of a Train is considered to be the first motion picture presented to a large public audience. One of the forbears to advantage and develop the creative aspects of cinematography was George Melies. He is considered by some to be the father of the narrative film and whom DW Griffith is quoted as saying “I owe him everything.” Melies made over 500 films from 1896 to 1906. He was one of the first people to introduce cutting and chronological editing as we see in the movies today. In 1903 Edwin S. Porter made The Life of an American Fireman which displayed new visual storytelling techniques and incorporated stock footage. The movie acted as a major precursor to Porters most famous film The Great Train Robbery also made in 1903. It is considered a milestone in film making and one of the first films to tell a story. The first feature length film was made in 1906 by Charles Tate, it was called The Ned Kelly Gang. DW Griffith is considered as the father of modern cinema. He set the way for modern movies in terms of narrative structure and editing. He developed filmic techniques and codes that brought in depth narrative storytelling to cinema. One of his most notable films is Birth of a Nation 1915. In 1927 the first ever talkie was made, it was called The Jazz Singer. It contained synchronized dialogue sequences. From here it began the start of the talkies and the end of the silent film era. Numerous movies are being produced every year after this. Notable movies through the ages are City Lights, Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, Gandhi etc. American Dream The American Dream is an essence for the nation of the United States, the quintessential set of ideals such as liberty and equality which gives the freedom and the opportunity to achieve success and prosper and gives the right and dream to the stairway upward social mobility for the citizens of America all adults and children alike, all people from different class and race.