CS Research

     I am about 2/3 weeks away from the hand in for our cs work and so this week have been preparing my first draft version to be looked at. We have the option for our hand in to fully write a chapter of the essay and summarise the rest., or to do a more detailed summary of each chapter. In my mind it seemed more beneficial to use this first term to get a section of the essay to its completed standard, even though I can make changes for BA8, therefore I opted for the first choice. A very strong direction of my work so far has been the use of fairytale/folktale in "Django Unchained" and based on my research I had so much to say about it I considered that this should be the basis of my first chapter.
     This website http://elodieedjang.wordpress.com/essays/essay-one/ kickstarted a huge amount of the ideas I discussed within this first chapter. I began talking about visual references to fairytale in Django and other Tarnatino works such as "Inglourious Basterds".


     These images are used to draw comparison to the story "Cinderella" where Prince Charming identifies Cinderella with her abandoned shoe, the Nazi officer from "Inglourious" in this scene identifies a woman in much the same manner.

      These next images discuss this relationship further with the disfigurement of Nazis by Brad Pitts character in Inglourious being compared to the eye gouging of Cinderella's sisters in the Grimm's version of the tale. With both examples being a visible penance for the subjects misdeeds.
     This last example was particularly important to me as in Django there is a strong similarity within the "Mandingo" (slave fighting) scene where one slave is "punished" for his loss with the same eye gouging.





      Another visual reference to fairytales can be found in the use of intertitles within the films.




This gives the audience a sense of a story being told. In my essay I have begun to look out how the calming innocent effect of this fairytale structure is being used to create strong contrasts with the violence and horror of the film, which in turn amplifies the effect it has upon the audience.


   












     I have also been looking back at some of the work we did last year regarding narrative theory in folktale, such as Propp's action spheres. In order to properly comment on the relationship between these theories and the narrative structure of Django I have borrowed "Morphology of the Folktale" (V. Propp) from the Uni library.


     I have started to draw strong comparisons to the character functions found in Django, where Django is the hero, Dr King the donor, Broomhilda the princess etc. I have furthered this by showing how the folktale structure of characters is mirrored by a folktale told within Django itself by Dr King. This folktale happens to be the legend of "Seigfried and Brunhilde" (who represent Django and Broomhilda). The full story can be found here http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712

     I have also found a very good site here (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-django-unchained-siegfried-20130413,0,4870063.story#axzz2jFcyJqLc.) that compares Django and Seigfried further comparing villain "Calvin Candie's" imprisonment of Broomhilda in the hotbox to the dragons similar imprisonment of Bunhilde in the castle.

     This is about as far as I have taken my research at this point I have included my references here:

David Ng. 2013.'Django Unchained' pays homage to Wagner's 'Siegfried'. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-django-unchained-siegfried-20130413,0,4870063.story#axzz2jFcyJqLc. [Accessed 18 November 13].

Jerome Magazine. Undated. TARANTINO’S FAIRYTALE: WHAT YOU DID NA-ZI, THE GRIMM TRUTH ABOUT INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://elodieedjang.wordpress.com/essays/essay-one/. [Accessed 05 November 13].

Metoperafamily. Undated Synopsis Siegfried. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712. [Accessed 06 November 13].

Propp, V, 1928.Morphology of the Folktale. 2nd ed. USA: The American Folklore Society and Indiana University .

Django Unchained, 2012. [DVD] Tarantino, USA: Columbia Pictures, The Weinstein Company

Inglourious Basterds, 2012. [DVD] Tarantino, USA/ Germany: Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company, A Band Apart, Zehnte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Visiona Romantica

I will continue to add to my essay following its review by my tutor.