These three films, Casablanca, Daughters of the Dust, and Monsoon Wedding are all films that play into the importance of film narrative. There are different styles of film narrative and I will focus on the differences between the three films in the Classic Hollywood Narrative and the Alternative Narrative.
Casablanca is a film that focuses mainly on the life of Rick
Blaine. Rick is living in Casablan
ca during WWII. He owns his own cafe and has a good reputation in the town. Rick's story turns into a classic love story when he former love comes to Casablanca with her husband and everything Rick had tried so hard to forget came rushing back to him with a few notes on the piano.
Daughters of the Dust is a film that focuses mainly on a group of people, or well in this case a family of African Americans who are living in North Carolina and preparing for a big move the day after. The family has to make a decision that will in the end effect everyone, whether to move off the island or stay with the others
and the ones they love. The stories of this film are mainly told through the baby girl who is yet to be born, the grandmother, and the other women on the island.
Monsoon Wedding is a film that depicts a typical Indian family preparing for their daughters wedding day. This film is adapted from the original Bollywood style and is made to showcase all of the normal traditions that an Indian family goes through while planning a wedding. The difference in this film though is that the stories of the family are told through the majority of the characters in the film, with a small side story about the family maid and the wedding planner. This family has a lot of secrets that must come out and are told in ways that only real families can understand.
There are a number of differences among these three films that we could really get into, but then we would be here all day, so I will just point out the ones that are very important in explaining the differences in narrative styles. The main difference that stuck out to me throughout watching these three films and reading about the narrative styles is that in a classic hollywood narrative film there is usually one or two main characters that the film is focused on and that the audience really gets to know, and when watching Casablanca this was completely noticeable because the story was mainly about Rick but also at times about his past love. In Daughters of the Dust the stories of the family are told by the women of the family and a soon to be baby girl, so this film was different in how it was narrated and told by a number of women instead of just on or two. In Monsoon Wedding we run into the same issue because the stories of the Verma family are told by more than one of the characters, but instead they are told by all members of the family. These two films are both similar to one another in how they both focus on the importance of family and the number of troubles and issues that families run into on a day to day basis, without giving away too much that is. Casablanca is different from these two films and follows the Classic Hollywood Narrative styles in a number of ways.
Although these three films are so different, I cannot help but wonder why wouldn't they be so different. Not only are they all filmed at different points throughout history, but they are all depicting different cultures and beliefs. There is no question in my mind that these three films are crazy different in pretty much every way. We have the classic Americans, African Americans descended from Africa, and Indians all three are so different and focus on different things in their cultures. In Casablanca it is nothing new that yet again there was another love story it is what Americans seem to live for anymore when they go to the movies. And in the African American culture there is a great emphasis on family and having generations and generations of their family members living with them or near them always. In the Indian culture it is very typical for the family to be very close for life. That is why the arrangement of marriage is so important and common in their culture because whole families are involved in the decision of who can and will marry who.
Overall I think that after looking at these three films in a narrative way I can see the difference between classic hollywood narrative and alternative narrative. It is more common in the classic hollywood narrative to focus on an individuals story and life, and in the alternative narrative it is more common for the film to focus on groups and families and different cultures as well. These two narratives are very different in themselves and both are very important in the making of different kinds of films. The two styles that were used in these three films truly make the movies what they are.
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