UNIT 1-Part C

The Theory of everything review
At the Showroom on Friday 9th January 2015, me and my boyfriend went to see 'Theory of Everything' which is a film about Stephen Hawking's life. My rating of the film I will give the film is a 4/5, as the film was amazing and really touching. The plot of the film was showing Stephen Hawking growing up and living with 'Motor Neuron disease' which effects the muscles in the body which was really heartbreaking to watch. There was also another touching story within the film with him and the relationship between his wife Jane, who later do not stay together as she couldn't cope with the problems regarding his illness. I haven't given it a 5 out of 5 because some parts of the film for me were difficult to understand and it isn't my usual genre of film that I regularly watch and enjoy. However, this surprisingly turned out to be amazing and touching film.

The film was basically aiming at Stephen Hawking's life and how he grew up living with Motor neuron disease with him being such a intelligent man, going to a high class boarding school when he was younger and becoming such a outstanding theorist. The director I believe was trying to raise awareness also on the disease and making people realise the troubles people have to go through. The central goal for the film is to raise awareness of the disease and to educate viewers on the life of Stephen Hawking.

The motifs that were in the film were the relationship that Stephen was in from when he was at University, who he met at a small party. She called Jane. After Stephen found out that he only had 2 years to live, Stephen and Jane made the most out of it as they got married and gave birth to their child. However, as time passes and Stephen's muscles get weak, he relies on Jane to do everything for him, we see Jane slowly get more and more stressed out at the fact of caring for him as she wasn't strong enough. Later in the film Jane gets close with a man that works at the local church who is a choir director he then becomes apart of the family as he is helping out with Jane and Stephen and wants the best for the family. However, Jane and the man who is called Jonathan Hellyer Jones start to share feelings between one another, however Jane doesn't accept her love for Jonathan as she believes she cannot leave Stephen. A new character who becomes Stephen's helper, Elaine, starts to show much more attention to Stephen than Jane was and they fall for each other. Jane finally gets to share her life with Jonathan and Stephen shares his with Elaine.

Stephen was the main character of the film as the film was based around him and his life, he was a good caring character and showed a funny sense of humor which made me laugh a couple of times. He was always smiling and being positive despite the illness. He was highly interested in science and was a incredible theorist as he created a theory on the black hole and the universe. Jane in the film who was Stephens wife at the beginning, who he fell in love with, we see her as being a intelligent young women with a passion for art. However throughout the film we see her character get slightly weaker with her coping with Stephen's illness and trying to care for everyone and clean the house also. Elaine was a character that came into the film near the end as she was Stephen's carer but later fell in love with him, we see her give a lot of attention to Stephen and love relationship them was touching. Stephen had a good relationship with his friend who he shared his dorm with. Throughout the illness he helps him around the University and still treats him like he's normal, fit and healthy, an example of this was shown when they all go out and get drunk and having a laugh with each other.

The genre of the film is a romantic biographical drama which is a combination of highly popular dramas that would be suitable for a large audience. The cinematography of the film I believe wasn't strong enough as it was mainly based on his life, however the shots that were shown I will give 4 as they was taken beautifully and made you feel like you was back in that time era. I think the film had a good use of set as it was very believable with the set of the University/school as it looked inspirational and very realistic of the time era, this was also shown by the costumes that were worn as they were long robes for the high academic uniform and nothing spectacular. Throughout the film though, you do see the costumes changing as time changes, which helps with the story of him growing up and time changing around him also which people don't really notice.


Tate Liverpool
On Tuesday 3rd February, I went on a photography trip to Liverpool to the Tate Liverpool. In Tate Liverpool, we listened to a talk about the artist Andy Warhol and learnt about the background of his life, the style of his art and his life in the spotlight. Andy Warhol was a American Artist who was known for his unique style of art which was visual art movement known as pop art. He used different types of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film and music. We discovered the man who transformed the modern art world. Transmitting Andy Warhol bring together more than 100 artworks from one of the most influential, controversial and notorious artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition provides a new insight into the breadth of Warhol's artistic processes, his philosophies, as well as social, political and aesthetic implications of his ground-breaking practice.

After the Andy Warhol talk, we then went to view the exhibition and saw the art up close which was interesting and unique. The style of his art was quite different and nothing that I have seen before, some were quite disturbing to look at as they were quite explicit. Also at Tate Liverpool, there were also exhibitions shown such as Gretchen Bender who was an American multimedia artist. There were DLA Piper series: constellations which is an exhibition of major contemporary works of outstanding quality and significance. I didn't go in all of these exhibitions as they didn't relate to my work in photography but I did go in Gretchen Bender and didn't find her work relatable to my work however it was interesting to explore different styles of art.

By the end of the trip, we walked around the Liverpool centre and got many photos of buildings around Liverpool to work with for my exam work for photography.

Feedback
This is feedback on my reviews of Liverpool and the film The theory of everything. My friend Molly Evans has commented on both reviews and explained what was good about them.