Traffic Movie Essays - English-language Films,

Traffic Movie This saga of the so-called war on drugs is a masterwork of superb performance, smart writing--and, most of all, the mark of a director who not only knows what he wants, but also exactly how to make his ambitious vision a glorious reality. Unlike most multicharacter pastiches, such as the ones made by Robert Altman, or Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, the characters of Traffic's three tales don't constantly crisscross, nor are they all brought together by a big event. Intersections are rare in Traffic, and the junctions that do occur are often fleeting. Yet the stories are strongly linked by their greater thematic concern: to vividly illustrate how the drug problem touches all corners of the country, all walks of life, from people on the harsh urban streets to those in lavish upper-class neighborhoods. Soderbergh and writer Stephen Gaghan, working from the '80s British miniseries Traffik, steadfastly refuse to force easy, comforting conclusions from difficult and complex situations; as in real life, one is left to decide for oneself who or what is right, and what it all means. While Traffic is essentially about the war on drugs in America, the film's starting point is the almost-exclusively south-of-the-border (and nearly-completely Spanish-language) story of Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro, doing away with his annoying tics and delivering a career performance), an average Tijuana State policeman who is given the opportunity for greater prestige by working for General Salazar's (Tomas Milian) efforts against the drug cartels. Just north of the border in San Diego is the setting for another thread, in which very pregnant European ?migr? Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones, her real-life condition adding a deeper layer to her role) learns that the pampered lifestyle provided by husband Carlos (Steven Bauer) comes from dabblings in drugs, not legit business ventures. The film also travels a bit northwest to Cincinnati, the third central locale, where Caroline (Erika Christensen), the teenage daughter of newly-appointed U.S. drug czar Robert Wakefield (Micha el Douglas), brings her father's enemy much closer to home than he could have ever imagined. Soderbergh effortlessly weaves the individual strands into a tapestry that is at once cohesive and characterized by its contrasting colors. The latter can be taken in a literal sense--Soderbergh, under the pseudonym Peter Andrews (his father's name), shot the film himself, and he gave each part of the film its own distinct look: grainy, washed-out yellow for Mexico; a solemn blue sheen for Cincinnati; sun-drenched full color for San Diego. Each, of course, is representative of the prevailing mood: the arid amorality of the all-powerful drug cartels; the sad desperation of daughter and father; the sparkle of a too-good-to-be-true standard of living. The intimacy and realism of the characters and their situations, aided immeasurably by Soderbergh's hand-held documentary-style lensing, smooth out any possible seams between the pieces. Traffic may sound like a grim exercise in arty pretense, but the weightiness of the subject matter doesn't necessarily keep the film from being an accessible entertainment. This element is largely satisfied in San Diego, where Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman make a crack seriocomic team as FBI agents surveilling the Ayala home and protecting a key witness (Miguel Ferrer); this thread also delivers its share of unpredictable twists. The other two sections are by their very basic premises--power struggles between drug lords and overmatched law enforcement, teen substance abuse--darker and hence less open to offering more standard genre satisfactions, but the performances make them instantly absorbing. It is easy, almost too easy, to peg Traffic as merely a statement on the futility of the war on drugs. Yes, once boiled down to the bare essentials, that is what the stories are about; yet the film's essence are its painfully, truthfully imperfect people, who show how everyone, knowingly or not, in some way becomes a casualty and a perpetuator of the war machine. With its wide focus, Soderbergh's film is technically epic in scale, yet Traffic derives its lasting power from the savvy notion that sheer size is no match for urgent, true-to-life immediacy. Film and Cinema

Richard Avedon Essay

Richard Avedon Essay Richard Avedon Essay Richard Avedon Richard Avedon was an American photographer, born to Jewish/Russian immigrants in New York City. He grew up with fashion as an influence in his daily life with his parents owning and running Avedon Department store on 5th Avenue. Avedon studied at Columbia University briefly before landing a job as an id picture photographer with the camera his father had given him as a gift. He got his first photography job in the fashion business as an advertisement photographer for a dress company. Alexey Brodovitch, the art director for Harper’s Bazaar, soon discovered him in 1944. It was post WWII and Harper’s Bazaar was trying to bring back the glamour of pre-war Paris. Avedon did not like the current trend of perfectly posed and arranged models and preferred to capture his models in action and to put them in situations that told a story. In doing so he created a new standard for fashion photography. Avedon worked as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar and later, Vogue Magazine to support his personal projects. He traveled for a while taking photojournalism pictures in places like Vietnam but decided that he would rather be a creator than an observer. His personal love in photography was th e face. He made portraits of people where the only subject was the face. There were no backgrounds, no props, nothing to take away from what he was truly interested in. Avedon was not interested in taking nice, flattering portraits that one could see displayed on a mantle piece. He wanted to capture moments of pure emotion. During his photo sessions he would often talk to his subject, studying them and then carefully saying what he believed would invoke an emotional response. During his photo session of the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, he was not satisfied with their â€Å"ladies home journal† poses. He noticed that they had their pug dogs with them and observed their love for dogs. He then said, â€Å" If I seem to hesitate tonight, forgive me, I’m a little disturbed. My cab driver ran over a dog on my way over here.† When their faces fell he took the picture that captured their sadness for the poor deceased dog. He was always prying a little here and there to get the emotional response he needed for his art. Avedon always stated that although the face of the subject does not belong to him, he does have absolute control over the situation at all times in order to create the image needed. Avedon said that he always photographed what he didn’t understand or what he feared. In the beginning of his career as a young man it was women, then it was illness, poverty and loss. In another of his photo sessions he was to photograph Marilyn Monroe. Avedon stated that Marilyn Monroe didn’t exist. She was a creation of Norma Jean’s. When Avedon was shooting Marilyn Monroe, she did Marilyn Monroe. She danced and sang and flirted and twirled around the set for hours. At the end of the night she sat in the corner like a little girl and everything had left her. He never photographed her without her knowledge and as he walked up to her with the camera, she saw he was going to take her picture and

Investment theory and analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Investment theory and analysis - Case Study Example "The Reported Amount reflects a value of $0.02 Per Share of Data Center Relocation Costs." SEATTLE (BUSINESS WIRE) May 13, 1999. Nordstrom, Inc. also reported diluted earnings per share of $0.22 for its first quarter, ending April 30, 1999. Nordstrom's Earnings per share increased by 33%, to 52 cents a share, about a penny more than the analysts at Wall Street had expected. There has also been an increase in sales to about 12% in the fall, amounting to about $1.87 billion. Sales at locations open at least a year (same-store sales), have also increased to an impressive 11%. Nordstrom's Catalog sales gained the most, increasing as much as 30%, followed by sales at the company's discount stores, which increased by about 11%, and sales at the full-line department store, which went up by nearly 9%.This reported amount reflects a value of $0.02 per share of non-recurring costs related to the resettlement of Nordstrom's data center from Seattle, Washington, to Denver, Colorado. Earnings per share also went up by 4.8 percent, above the $0.21 recorded between January and April last year. The company's Net earnings dropped by 2.5 percent, as compared to Net earnings of $31.5 million in the prior year. Company sales also dropped by 0.1 percent, from last year, and totaled $1.0 billion. Nordstrom Historical Stock Chart. Other relevant informationNordstrom, Inc. has an Internet presence at http://www.nordstrom.com, and the company's total square footage is 13,813,000. The company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Whitacre said "We were neither satisfied nor surprised with our first quarter performance. While we have been successful at paring inventory levels, which had burgeoned recently, we must now refine our merchandise... John W. Nordstrom was only 16 years old when he boy left Sweden, his home country, to come to New York City In 1887. He arrived in New York with just $5 left in his pocket, and was not even able to speak English at the time. For some years, he worked in logging camps and mines across the United States, but later went north to Alaska, after learning that gold had been found there.Nordstrom’s business philosophy has been based on quality, value, exceptional service, and selection. The company has built a devoted customer base, and has more than 180 stores across 27 states in America. Nordstrom now has a stock market value of more than $12 billion. Nordstrom, Inc. has an Internet presence at http://www.nordstrom.com, and the company’s total square footage is 13,813,000. The company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Whitacre said "We were neither satisfied nor surprised with our first quarter performance. While we have been successful at paring inventory l evels, which had burgeoned recently, we must now refine our merchandise mix to better align it with customer needs." As of April 30th, 1999, retail store inventory per square foot declined 7.1 percent and total inventory declined 4.7 percent, both from year-ago levels. Gross margin increased 0.9 percentage points to 33.8 percent of sales in the 1999 first quarter. For the quarter, comparable store sales declined 2.6 percent.