Scarface by Ásta Svavarsdóttir

After two difficult years in the making, SCARFACE appeared in late 1983, marking De Palma's entry into territory he hadn't previously explored -- the American gangster film. It was also a first for him in another sense; here he was part of a collaborative team on a picture designed to showcase its star, in this case Al Pacino.

Hvað var De Palma að kanna í fyrsta skipti? _________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: territory = _______________________

collaborative = ___________________

previously = ______________________

In a situation typical of the often divisive nature of the director's work, many people would come to see the result as one of his least personal efforts, while others consider it an influential masterpiece. The first view stems from one basic argument: that unlike De Palma protagonists before and since, Pacino's Tony Montana has few inner virtues to be threatened or lost in the course of the story. Það eru tvær skoðanir á myndinni. Hverjar? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: divisive = ______________________

stems = ________________________

efforts = _______________________

virtues = _______________________

A convict expelled from Cuba in 1980 when emigration to the U.S. is briefly opened, he enters Miami's underworld with a lust for power and material wealth that we witness more in awe than in empathy. Since a quick rise and fall is assured from the start, our hope is that De Palma's skill at portraying the outrageous potential of human greed will

be enough to keep us hooked. On this count, for at least two thirds of its running time, even SCARFACE naysayers would have to admit it succeeds. Hvað þurfa gagnrýnendur myndarinnar að viðurkenna að heppnist? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: emigration = ___________________

portraying = ___________________

material wealth = _______________

naysayers = __________________

empathy = _____________________

Transferring the premise of Howard Hawks' 1932 classic from Prohibition era Chicago to then contemporary South Florida, Oliver Stone's screenplay follows Tony's journey in a "matter of course" style that makes it clear just how he gets so far in such a short period of time. This method of storytelling is a perfect match for the cinematic "domino effect" De Palma had been developing since SISTERS, whereby characters move toward pivotal confrontations (i.e. Carrie from early humiliation to her disastrous prom) through a simple but inexorable flow of events.

Hvaða frásagnatækni notar De Palma? ____________________________________________________________________ Þýddu: premise = _____________________

cinematic = ____________________

Prohibition era = _______________

pivotal = _______________________

contemporary = ________________

inexorable = ____________________

Thus a mob hit set up by Tony's friend and partner Manny Rivera (Steven Bauer) leads to their early release from a refugee camp. This in turn brings them more work on the outside, and after surviving a drug pickup gone bad, they win the trust of local kingpin Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia).

Hvernig vinna þeir traust Frank Lopez? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu:

refugee = __________________

kingpin = __________________

Once Tony has reached this stage, the rest seems natural. If he can establish himself as a major player in the cocaine industry, then take Lopez' beautiful mistress Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer) as his wife, a dream he once thought impossible will become reality: he'll have "the world and everything in it."

Hvaða draumur rætist hjá Tony? ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: establish = __________________

Yet by then the seeds of his destruction will have already been planted. The very trait that brings him success on the streets -- a refusal to trust anyone but himself -- can only sabotage the relationships that might have redeemed his life. He'll never be able to see Elvira as more than a possession, and the obsessive love he does hold for a symbol of his own lost innocence, younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), will lead to her corruption as well. Add to this a growing addiction to cocaine that gives him a false sense of invincibility, and Tony is caught in the worst of "no win" situations. Hvað er það sem bæði kemur Tony á toppinn og eyðileggur fyrir honum? ______________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: destruction = ___________________

possession = ___________________

trait = _________________________

obsessive = ____________________

sabotage = _____________________

corruption = ___________________

redeemed = ____________________

Played out in broad strokes against Ferdinando Scarfiotti's elaborate sets and a bright visual landscape that's still unique for the genre, SCARFACE is never less than interesting. But there's a heavy price to pay in the third and final hour. The epic structure De Palma has established demands equal focus on Tony's dissolution ... and 60 minutes is a long time to spend watching the downfall of someone you didn't care much for in the first place. (A decade later with CARLITO'S WAY, he'd place Pacino in a similar milieu, as a man more worthy of our emotional investment.)

Þýddu: elaborate _________________

dissolution ________________

visual ____________________

milieu ____________________

genre ____________________

But in retrospect, whatever its flaws, the film did continue the progression toward more fully realized drama that had started with BLOW OUT. Even the frequent bursts of violence that stirred so much controversy at the time often serve to enhance the characters -- or at least make them harder to pigeonhole.

Þýddu: retrospect ___________________ progression __________________ controversy __________________

pigeonhole __________________

For example, the notorious and justly acclaimed chainsaw sequence leaves us impressed by Tony's bold obstinacy in the face of almost certain death. And just as this reveals strength in Tony, other moments -- like the callousness we see in Manny when he acts as Tony's henchman, make us question his standing as a wholly sympathetic figure.

Hvað heillar okkur? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: notorious ___________________

obstinacy __________________

acclaimed __________________

callousness ________________

Finally, SCARFACE also built a fervent and devoted following among viewers who, perhaps seeing themselves as disenfranchised in much the way Tony is when the story begins (and admiring his blunt humor and honesty as a character), embraced him as nothing less than a hero. Even more than CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL and

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE before it, the film's acceptance spilled past the borders of De Palma's usual fan base, and within a few years it was solidly entrenched in popular culture. In some ways it has stayed an anomaly among his works, but certainly not a forgotten one. Hvaða stöðu hefur Scarface innan kvikmyndaheimsins? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Þýddu: fervent __________________

disenfranchised _________________

Scarface: The Shame of a Nation The last of the "big three" gangster movies, 1932's Scarface is acknowledged to be the most artistic - and most violent - of the trio. Directed by Howard Hawks, Scarface was based on a novel by Armitage Trail, which in turn was based on the life of famed gangster Al Capone (who had his own copy of the film). Producer Howard Hughes was determined to outdo all previous efforts at celluloid gangsterland, and production values were higher than those of Little Caesar or Public Enemy. The body count was also higher, creating a backlash that would destroy Hawks' artistic vision and keep Scarface virtually out of circulation for fifty years.

Regluleg þátíð myndast með því að bæta –ed fyrir aftan sögnina. Í textanum hér fyrir ofan eru 6 sagnorð með –ed endingu. Finndu þau og skrifaðu þau í nafnhætti. ______________________

______________________

______________________ ______________________

Plot Synopis The plot centers on the rise and fall of Tony "Scarface" Camonte, whom the audience first see taking out Big Louie Costello, last of the old-style gangsters. Tony then becomes the right-hand man of new boss Johnny Lovo, strongarming saloon keepers into buying Lovo's beer. Meanwhile, the women in Tony's life - Lovo's ice-cold moll, Poppy, and his young sister, Cesca. Tony catches Cesca kissing a suitor in the hall of their tenement home. Outraged, he throws the man out the door. Cesca is determined not to let her unnaturally protective brother boss her around, and we see her throwing a coin from her window to Tony's right-hand man, Guino.

Í kaflanum fyrir ofan koma fyrir mörg lýsingarorð. Finndu 5 og stigbreyttu þau.

________________

Lýsingarorð.

Lýsingarorð er hægt að nota til að bera saman fólk og hluti. Þegar lýsingarorð eru notuð svona heitir það stigbreyting og stigin eru þrjú: frumstig, miðstig og efsta stig. Flest ensk lýsingarorð stigbreytast með því að bætt er við þau –er í miðstigi og –est í efsta stigi. Mundu að setja the framan við efsta stigið. Dæmi: cold

kaldur

colder kaldari

the coldest

kaldastur

strong sterkur

stronger sterkari

the strongest sterkastur

old gamall

older eldri

the oldest elstur

small lítill

smaller minni

the smallest minnstur

short stuttur

shorter styttri

the shortest stystur

tall langur

taller lengri

the tallest lengstur

Þýddu: Ice is cold but Poppy is colder. ____________________________________________________________

Óregluleg stigbreyting (mjög svipað og í íslensku) good góður

better betri

the best bestur

bad vondur

worse verri

the worst verstur.

Big Louie Costello er illur en Tony Camonte er verri. ____________________________________________________________

Sum lýsingarorð tvöfalda endasamhljóðann á undan -er og -est fat feitur

fatter feitari

the fattest feitastur

Tony's ambitious exploits cross over into the territory of the Irish North Side gangs, led by O'Hara. After a corpse is dumped outside of Tony's headquarters, he takes revenge by having O'Hara assassinated. The Irish gangs fight back, using the new weapon of the streets - the machine gun. Entranced by the gun, Tony rushes out to take down his rivals. Scenes of gang warfare follow, with the cold-blooded murder of seven gangsters in a reenactment of Al Capone's real-life St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Tony is moving up in the gangster world - both Gaffney, the leader of the Irish gang, and his own ostensible boss Lovo live in fear of his wrath. Af hverju lætur Tony myrða O’Hara? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ The audience sees Tony at a performance of Somerset Maugham's Rain. He's not so caught up in the performance, though, that he isn't able to leave at intermission for a hit - this time, on Gaffney. Afterwards, at the Paradise nightclub, Tony sits down with Lovo and Poppy. Poppy makes it clear that she is happy to see him - when the two men offer their lights for her smoke, Poppy chooses Tony's. Lovo, left alone as he watches his moll dance with Tony, plots revenge. Tony's own happiness is shattered when he sees Cesca, clad in a revealing sleeveless dress. In a rage, he wrenches her out of the hall and drags her back home.

Mundu eftir reglunni um 3. persónu eintölu –s- í nútíð!

Finndu 4 dæmi um 3.p.et.nt. í kaflanum fyrir ofan.

__________________

When Tony steps out, a hail of bullets awaits. He jumps into his car and eludes his pursuers. Suspicious, Tony and Guino concoct a plan to determine whether Lovo was behind the attempt on his life. Lovo, shaky and obviously guilty, begs for his life before being shot down by Guino. Tony is now king of the gangsters. Tony leaves for a month in Florida to celebrate his triumph. When he arrives home, he finds that Cesca has moved out. In a frenzy of jealousy, he tracks her down to her new apartment, where we see her happily playing the piano for Guino. Tony shoots down Guino while Cesca's horrified scream echoes across the soundtrack. Cesca screams at her brother, revealing that she had been married to Guino the day before. She reviles Tony, calling him a butcher. Tony staggers to his hideout, where Cesca tracks him down, gun in hand.

Hér fyrir ofan eru fjölmörg dæmi um 3. p. et. nt. –s-. Skrifaðu 6 þeirra. ________________

________________

Suddenly, police sirens break into the silence. Instead of shooting her brother, Cesca runs into his arms, telling him that she's not afraid of going down with him. Gloriously happy at the prospect of a showdown with his sister at his side, Tony is drawing the steel shutters shut when Cesca is hit by a bullet. Tony carries the mortally wounded Cesca to a sofa, where he weeps over her, telling her that without her he will be completely alone. With her last words, Cesca accuses Tony of being afraid and calls for Guino. A tear-gas grenade forces Tony out of his protected room and down a flight of stairs - where policemen await at the landing. The cops shoot Tony's gun out of his hand as he prepares to open fire. The defeated Tony pleads for his life, crying "Don't shoot....I don't got nobody....I'm all alone." The police attempt to take Tony into custody, but he runs frantically out the door, where he is cut down in a hail of bullets. The camera travels from Tony's body to a sign flashing "The World is Yours" above the tattered corpse.

Þýddu allan bláletraða kaflann. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Hawks took an artistic approach to Scarface, using subtle imagery lacking in other Warner Brothers offerings. The "X"-shaped scar of the title reflects itself as a symbol of death - Cesca wears a dress with crossed straps, Gaffney's murder takes place at a bowling alley and is preceded by a strike, and during the murder of the seven gangsters the camera cuts to a beam cut into seven X's. Before Tony kills his superiors, he whistles "Chi mi fena in tal momento?" from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. (Translated, the title means "What restrains me in such a moment?" - an ironic touch.) Hawks, who was at first reluctant to direct, brought a touch of historical class to the picture by basing the lives of the gangsters on the lives of the Borgias - thus the implied incestuous relationship between Tony and Cesca had a Renaissance basis.

Scarface Cut Up Censorship and a new gangster A backlash of criticism from Christian magazines and other sources followed the success of Public Enemy and Little Caesar accusing the two films of glorifying gangsters. Scarface, however, was so violent that began its wrangles with the censors even before its release - it was actually ready for the screen in 1930 but was held up for two years the recent disapproval of the Two Warner movies making the process even more difficult. In order to get a Motion Picture Association of America seal of approval, many changes had to be made to the picture. The title was changed to Scarface: Shame of a Nation, and a moralizing introduction was added: This picture is an indictment of gang rule in America and of the callous indifference of the government to this constantly increasing menace to our safety and our liberty. Every incident in this picture is the reproduction of an actual occurrence, and the purpose of this picture is to demand of the government: 'What are you going to do about it?' The government is your government. What are YOU going to do about it? (www.filmsite.org) Why was Shame of a nation added to the title? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Cuts and erasures were made throughout the film, and scenes featuring an angry chief of police and a sermonizing newspaper publisher were added (these scenes were not directed by Hawks, but by Richard Rosson). The scenes are clumsily added and give nothing to the film's overall dramatic structure. The first scene, featuring the monologue by the chief of police, is almost an apologia for the Hays Code (which allowed outright violence in Westerns on the grounds that they were set in a less civilized time): Say listen, that's the attitude of too many morons in this country. They think these hoodlums are some sort of demagogues. What do they do about a guy like Camonte? They sentimentalize, 14

romance, make jokes about him. They had some excuse for glorifying our old Western badmen. They met in the middle of the street at high noon and waited for each other to draw. The scene in the newspaper publisher's office also condemns public interest in the gangster lifestyle. When a group of concerned citizens calls for less violence on the front pages, the publisher defends his right to free speech and calls for citizen action against the gangster menace: All right, I'll tell you what to do. MAKE LAWS AND SEE THAT THEY'RE OBEYED - IF WE HAVE TO HAVE MARTIAL LAW TO DO IT...

The additions by the censors are obvious attempts to shame moviegoers who are taking pleasure in the gory story of Scarface. The government should do something - and since the American government is run by the people, the argument goes, if the government is too lax in its prosecution of gangsters it is the fault of honest American citizens and their misplaced sympathy for the "hoodlums."

What do you think about this censorship? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Added scenes were not the most blatant changes made to Scarface. A totally different ending was shot (without Hawks' direction and without Paul Muni, who was replaced by an extra shot from a distance.) The new ending alters Cesca's reunion with Tony during the standoff. In the original ending, Cesca tells her brother that "you're me and I'm you. It's always been that way" before

hugging him and running to load the guns. In the altered ending, this dialogue is cut so that Cesca seems to be a passive and "womanly" accomplice, rather than an as active accomplice. After Cesca's death, which corresponds with the original version, Tony runs down the stairs broken and alone. Instead of running past the police, though, the scene fades to black with the police holding Tony captive. A judge then appears. Shot in close-up, he speaks to the audience while addressing the unseen "Tony." Sentencing Tony to death, he says that "There is no place in this country for your type." A shot filmed from underneath a gallows follows as the hangmen test the apparatus with a sack, then a pair of limp feet (Tony's) are belted together in preparation for the hanging. A policeman is seen in extreme close-up from Tony's point of view, placing a blindfold over the lens. The last shot of the altered ending is of policemen using knives to activate the hanging mechanism. The film fades to black and the words "The End" appear on the screen. Even with the altered ending, the various cuts, and the added scenes, Scarface's frank depictions of violence led to controversy and gossip (a rumor spread that in one scene, an actual corpse was thrown from a taxi). The film was banned in several states and its release was delayed in other areas (over a year in Chicago). As Scarface lost money, producer Hughes pulled the film from circulation.

The passive: present and past Þolmynd: nútíð og þátíð a) Þolmynd = Eitthvað gert af einhverjum b) Germynd, dæmi: Perhaps the Druids built Stonehenge Ef við breytum þessari setningu í þolmynd þurfum við að nota sögnina to be í réttri tíð (nt eða þt) og lh.þt. (sem er -ed ending á sagnir eða 3. dálkur í óreglulegum sögnum). Við notum stundum einnig by (af einhverjum).

Þolmyndin verður þá; Perhaps Stonehenge was built by the Druids. c)

Nútíð: am/are/is + lh.þt. dæmi:

The triangle is made of rocks Many UFO sightings aren´t reported

Þátíð: was/were + lh.þt. dæmi:

The stones weren´t moved by machines How were the stones moved?

In 1979, after Hughes' death, Universal Studios re-released Scarface, revealing a film that had languished in obscurity for over fifty years.

The Depression Like the other gangster heroes during the depression, Tony "Scarface" Camonte lusts after possessions -expensive clothes, expensive jewelry, especially expensive women. This is shown most clearly through his pursuit of Poppy. Poppy's first reaction to Tony is one of scorn. Undeterred, Tony jokes to Johnny Lovo that Poppy is "a very busy girl. Expensive, huh?" Later on, Poppy acts cold but is secretly impressed by Tony's acquisitions of jewelry and a snappy new dressing gown. Poppy herself becomes a (willing) acquisition after Lovo's death. In an era when many Americans had lost their material possessions, Tony's decadent lifestyle seemed like a dream. Perhaps even more appealing was the fashion in which Tony rises to the top. Tony shows contempt for all leadership, law, and anything that stands in his way. He shoots the old-fashioned Big Louie then expresses his contempt for the leadership of Johnny Lovo. 17

Tony: There's business just waiting for some guy to come and run it right. And I got ideas. Guino: We're workin' for Lovo, ain't we? Tony: Lovo, who's Lovo? Just some guy who was a little bit more smart than Big Louie, that's all. Hey, that guy is soft. I could just see it in his face. He's got a set-up, that's all, and we're gonna wait. Someday, I'm gonna run the whole works.

The skinny Lovo, with his fear of confrontation, could stand for the authority figures of the early 1930s, with their refusal to confront the bleak economic reality. The idea of overthrowing weak, inefficient leaders obviously resonated during the floundering Hoover era.

What is The Depression? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

The Individual The world of Scarface is also a world of individual action . Tony is constantly on the move, fighting, partying, plotting. For a nation out of work, this was the ultimate fantasy. An individual viewer could imagine himself or herself taking charge of life and making it back to their former position in life. As a 1930 letter to Screenland magazine read, "we will be better able to gather up our worries and thrash them soundly; to line up our cares against the wall, shoot them one by one and glory in it just as we saw the hero do." (born to, 160) The St. Valentine's Day massacre could be interpreted as a reconstruction of Al Capone's notorious murders - or as a elimination of the troubles of the hero/viewer.

Why, in the view of the article, did the audience like the movie? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Tony is a fighter - willing to overcome any obstacle to make it to the top. He is "thoroughly ambitious, totally ruthless, and absolutely fearless until the end." (born to lose, 209) This is not the sort of person who would be content standing in a breadline. Tony's story made it easy to believe that, with the right attitude and a healthy selfesteem, "The World Is Yours."

The American Dream

The movie does not develop the young hopes of its main character like the two earlier Warner films did. Instead it jumps in when Scarface has already become a regular in the gangster world he simply materializes from a pan to a shadow spread on the floor, Scarface appears. Already, cold hearted and whistling as he kills Big Louie in the first scene, right after Louie gives a small speech about how he has everything he could ever want, Scarface is seen more as a force that destroys the American dream rather than a simple man who dreamed it. In fact the scene skips directly after than to Gang warfare- another antithesis of the American dream. The scenes added by the Hayes office also serve to accuse not only Scarface, but all gangsters of ruining life for everyday Americans. Of course, when the film finally came out the public backlash ignored these depictions and focused on the excessive violence and unredeemable qualities of Scarface that were depicted. Unlike the earlier movies the viewed is not allowed for a moment to feel sorry for the main character.

What is The American dream? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Famous Cases Alphonse Capone, aka. Al, Scarface Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899, of an immigrant family, Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and associated with a notorious street gang, becoming accepted as a member. Johnny Torrio was the street gang leader and among the other members was Lucky Luciano, who would later attain his own notoriety. About 1920, at Torrio's invitation, Capone joined Torrio in Chicago where he had become an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. The rackets spawned by enactment of the Prohibition Amendment, illegal brewing, distilling and distribution of beer and liquor, were viewed as "growth industries." Torrio, abetted by Al Capone, intended to take full advantage of opportunities. The mobs also developed interests in legitimate businesses, in the cleaning and dyeing field, and cultivated influence with receptive public officials, labor unions and employees' associations. Torrio soon succeeded to full leadership of the gang with the violent demise of Big Jim Colosimo, and Capone gained experience and expertise as his strong right arm. In 1925, Capone became boss when Torrio, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, surrendered control and retired to Brooklyn. Capone had built a fearsome reputation in the ruthless gang rivalries of the period, struggling to acquire and retain "racketeering rights" to several areas of Chicago. That reputation grew as rival gangs were eliminated or nullified, and the suburb of Cicero became, in effect, a fiefdom of the Capone mob.

Í ensku eru til óreglulegar sagnir. Þær eru óreglulegar vegna þess að í þátíð bæta þær ekki við sig –ed endingunni heldur hljóðbreytast (eins og í íslensku er - var). Í kaflanum að ofan eru 4 óreglulegar sagnir. (Ein kemur fyrir tvisvar en það er nóg að skrifa hana einu sinni) Geturðu fundið sagnirnar?

_______________________

Perhaps the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929, might be regarded as the culminating violence of the Chicago gang era, as seven members or associates of the "Bugs" Moran mob were machine-gunned against a garage wall by rivals posing as police. The massacre was generally ascribed to the Capone mob, although Al himself was then in Florida. The investigative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Investigation during the 1920s and early 1930s was more limited than it is now, and the gang warfare and depredations of the period were not within the Bureau's investigative authority. The Bureau's investigation of Al Capone arose from his reluctance to appear before a Federal Grand Jury on March 12, 1929, in response to a subpoena. On March 11, his lawyers formally filed for postponement of his appearance, submitting a physician's affidavit dated March 5, which attested that Capone, in Miami, had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia, had been confined to bed from January 13 to February 23, and that it would be dangerous to Capone's health to travel to Chicago. His appearance date before the grand jury was re-set for March 20.

Past perfect continuous (samsett þáliðin tíð) We use the past perfect continuous to look back at a situation in progress.   

It was a good time to invest. Inflation had been falling for several months. Before I changed jobs, I had been working on a plan to reduce production costs. We had been thinking about buying a new house but then we decided to stay here.

We use it to say what had been happening before something else happened.   

It had been snowing for a while before we left. We had been playing tennis for only a few minutes when it started raining. He was out of breath when he arrived because he had been running.

We use it when reporting things said in the past.   

She said she had been trying to call me all day. They said they had been shopping. I told you I had been looking for some new clothes.

Í textanum fyrir ofan kemur samsett þáliðin tíð tvisvar fyrir. Finndu það. 1.____________________________________________________________ 2.____________________________________________________________ On request of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bureau of Investigation Agents obtained statements to the effect that Capone had attended race tracks in the Miami area, that he had made a plane trip to Bimini and a cruise to Nassau, and that he had been interviewed at the office of the Dade County Solicitor, and that he had appeared in good health on each of those occasions.

Why couldn’t Capone appear in court? ____________________________________________________________

Capone appeared before the Federal Grand Jury at Chicago on March 20, 1929, and completed his testimony on March 27. As he left the courtroom, he was arrested by Agents for Contempt of Court, an offense for which the penalty could be one year and a $1,000 fine. He posted $5,000 bond and was released. On May 17, 1929, Al Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philadelphia for carrying concealed deadly weapons. Within 16 hours they had been sentenced to terms of one year each. Capone served his time and was released in nine months for good behavior on March 17, 1930. On February 28, 1931, Capone was found guilty in Federal Court on the Contempt of Court charge and was sentenced to six months in Cook County Jail. His appeal on that charge was subsequently dismissed. Fyrir hvað var Capone dæmdur? _____________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax evasion charges - in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Frank Nitti and other mobsters were subjects of tax evasion charges. On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-andone-half year sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any deal. Capone then changed his plea to not guilty. On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial, and on November 24, was sentenced to eleven years in Federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on 24

back taxes. The six-month Contempt of Court sentence was to be served concurrently. While awaiting the results of appeals, Capone was confined to the Cook County Jail. Upon denial of appeals, he entered the U.S. Penitentiary at Atlanta, serving his sentence there and at Alcatraz. On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes. Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment, and then went on to his Florida home, an estate on Palm Island in Biscayne Bay near Miami, which he had purchased in 1928. Following his release, he never publicly returned to Chicago. He had become mentally incapable of returning to gangland politics. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist, after examination, both concluded Al Capone then had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family, in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947. Skrifaðu útdrátt á ensku úr æviágripi Al Capone.

_____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

Say Hello to My Little Friend! The legendary actor, Al Pacino has remained one of Hollywood's premier actors throughout his lengthy career, a popular and critical favorite whose list of credits includes many of the finest movies of his era. Í kaflanum að ofan kemur fyrir einföld núliðin tíð (present perfect simple). Hún verður til með hjálparsögninni to have í nútíð en aðalsögnin er í lýsingarhætti þátíðar.

Einföld núliðin tíð er notuð til að tala um liðið atvik sem hefur áhrif í nútíðinni. Finndu þessa orðmynd. (2 orð, hjálparsögn + aðalsögn) ____________________________________________________________ Pacino was born on April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, New York. Raised in the Bronx, Pacino attended the legendary High School for Performing Arts, but dropped out at the age of 17. He spent the next several years drifting from one job to another, continuing to study acting and occasionally appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1966, Pacino was accepted to train at the Actors' Studio, and after working with James Earl Jones in The Peace Creeps, he starred as a brutal street youth in the off-Broadway social drama "The Indian Wants the Bronx", earning an Obie Award as Best Actor for the 1967-1968 theatrical season. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in "Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?" Although the play itself closed after less than 40 performances, Pacino was universally praised for his potent & charismatic portrayal of a sociopathic drug addict, and he won a "Tony Award" for this performance.

Hvaða orð eru þetta á ensku? gekk í = ________________

flæktist = _______________

Al Pacino made his film debut in the 1969 flop "Me, Natalie". After making his theatrical directorial debut with 1970's Rats, he returned to the screen a year later in "Panic in Needle Park", again appearing as a junkie. (To prepare for the role, he and co-star Kitty Winn conducted extensive research in known drug-dealer haunts as well as methadone clinics.) Despite the film not being a hit, Pacino still earned critical raves. Next came Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia epic "The Godfather". As Michael Corleone, the son of an infamous crime lord reluctantly thrust into the family business, Pacino shot to stardom, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his soulful performance. While the follow-up, 1973's Scarecrow, was received far less warmly, the police drama Serpico was a smash, as was 1974's The Godfather Part II for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination. The 1975 fact-based "Dog Day Afternoon", in which Pacino starred as a robber attempting to stick up a bank in order to finance his gay lover's sex-change operation, was yet another staggering success. The 1977 auto-racing drama "Bobby Deerfield", on the other hand, was a disaster. Pacino then retreated to Broadway, winning a second Tony for his performance in the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Upon returning to Hollywood, he starred in "And Justice for All", which did not appease reviewers but restored him to moviegoers' good graces.

Taktu eftir setningunni: “…which did not appease reviewers…

Þarna er notuð hjálparsögnin – do- (að gera í beinni þýðingu) . Do í nútíð og did í þátíð tekur alltaf með sér aðalsögn í nafnhætti (að friða to appease) þannig að þótt um sé að ræða 3. p.et. þá bætir aðalsögnin ekki við sig –s- endingu. Og ef setningin er í þátíð eins og hér þá kemur þátíðarmyndin á hjálparsögnina en ekki aðalsögnina.

Do er notuð með neitun “but that didn’t (did not) stop…” í beinum spurnarsetningum nútíð og þátíð. “Where did they come from?” og til að forðast endurtekningar. “He drove better than you did.”

Þegar dregið er saman þá kemur útfellingarmerkið fyrir þann staf sem fellur út. Do not => do+not => don(o)t => don’t Does not => does+not => doesn(o)t => doesn’t Did not => did+not => didn(o)t => didn’t

Þýddu. Lék Robert De Niro í Scareface? ________________________________________________________________________

Nei, hann gerĂ°i ĂžaĂ° ekki. ________________________________________________________________________

Pacino next starred in William Friedkin's controversial Cruising, portraying a New York City cop on the trail of a serial killer targeting homosexuals; it was not a hit, nor was the 1982 comedy Author! Author! Brian DePalma's violent 1983 remake of Scarface followed; while moderately successful during its initial release, the movie later became a major cult favorite. Still, its lukewarm initial reception further tarnished Pacino's star. However, no one was fully prepared for the fate which befell 1985's historical epic Revolution; made for over 28 million dollars, the film grossed not even one million dollars at the box office. Pacino subsequently vanished from the public eye, directing his own film, The Local Stigmatic, which outside of a handful of 1990 showings at the Museum of Modern Art was never screened publicly. While his name was attached to a number of projects during this time period, none came to fruition, and he disappeared from cinema for over four years.

What happened after 1985? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

Finally, in 1989, Pacino returned with the stylish thriller "Sea of Love"; the picture was a hit, and suddenly he was a star all over again. A virtually unrecognizable turn as a garish gangster in 1990's Dick Tracy earned him a 30

sixth Oscar nomination, but The Godfather Part III was not the financial blockbuster many anticipated it to be.

Kaflanum að ofan eru 5 nafnorð með óákveðnum greini. Finndu þau. __________________

__________________

Óákveðinn greinir a/an Óákveðinn greinir er aðeins notaður í eintölu og er a fyrir framan samhljóða en an ef orð hefst á sérhljóða í framburði. (Hour er með samhljóða fremst en hann heyrist ekki í framburði þess vegan er sagt an hour. Alveg eins og University hefst á sérhljóða en u er borið fram jú og því er sagt a University.)

Skrifaðu a eða an. ____ automatic gun

____ criminal

____ riffle

____ script

____ actor

____ jury

____ movie

____ Academy Award

____ cinema

The 1991 romantic comedy "Frankie and Johnny" was a success, however, and a year later Pacino starred in the highly regarded Glengarry Glen Ross as well as Scent of a Woman, at last earning an Oscar for his performance in 31

the latter film. He reunited with DePalma for 1993's stylish crime drama Carlito's Way, to which he'd first been slated to star in several years prior. Remaining in the underworld, he starred as a cop opposite master thief Robert De Niro in 1995's superb Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann. Pacino next starred in the 1996 political drama City Hall, but earned more notice that year for writing, directing, producing, and starring in Looking for Richard, a documentary exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III shot with an all-star cast. In 1997, he appeared with two of Hollywood's most notable young stars, first shooting Donnie Brasco opposite Johnny Depp, and then acting alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Following roles in The Insider and Any Given Sunday two-years later, Pacino would appear in the film version of the stage play Chinese Coffee (2000) before a two-year period in which the actor was curiously absent from the screen. Any speculation as to the workhorse actor's slowing down was put to rest when in 2002 Pacino returned with the quadruple-threat of Insomnia, Simone, People I Know and The Farm. With roles ranging from that of a troubled detective investigating a murder in a land of eternal sunlight to a film producer who successfully establishes the worlds first virtual actress, Pacino proved to filmgoers that he was as versatile, energetic and adventurous an actor as ever.

How did Pacino put to rest all speculation as to he was slowing down? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

Brian De Palma b. September 11, 1940, Newark, New Jersey, USA

by Keith Uhlich Is Brian De Palma cursed? From a purely populist perspective we might conclude in the affirmative, but this would be to deny the development of a career now in its fifth decade and still provoking the most divisive of viewer reactions. I don't think it's a stretch to say that De Palma is the most visible American director now working to inspire such passionate, often violent, choruses both pro and con. Yet in the face of these critical tempests one simple fact is conveniently ignored: De Palma continues to work steadily through it all. Whatever one's opinion of the man's output, his sheer dedication to his art form, regardless of those praising him to the heavens or condemning him to an early grave, is reason enough to take a closer look at a varied career, one fascinating in its complexity, themes, and obsessions.

Hvernig er með og á móti á ensku? _____________________________________________________

I. Birth, Death and Dreams Why does it not surprise me that Brian De Palma's birthday is September 11? :-) —from a colleague's (and De Palma detractor's) e-mail message No one can help when they're born. From our first breath a birth-date is life's one true certainty, an unavoidable fact we keep coming back to on a mockingly circuitous route. It reminds us of the joy of being alive, but there's also a mixed-in cosmic contradiction: it forces us to consider, more often subconsciously, our own mortality. How was De Palma to know that his birthday would become a cultural curse, a date with more explicit,

tangible, conscious images of mortality than anyone should ever have to witness? And yet it's fitting, for a key to De Palma's cinema is this very idea of staring death (life's simultaneous certainty and uncertainty) in the face. In an unplanned bit of prescience, De Palma's film Sisters (1973) has several glimpses of the unfinished Twin Towers. In this way does film act as both historical witness and time capsule. Combined with the timelessness of De Palma's cinematic technique, his films have the distinction of lookin backward at history and forward to the future. Put more simply, De Palma forces us to remember, to confront our dark pasts and secrets in an effort at recognizing our perpetual humanity. What does De Palma force us to do? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

Numerous stories quoted throughout De Palma biographies attempt to explain the director's fascination with death. Oft told is the one about De Palma's father, a surgeon who let his son (the youngest of three boys) witness medical operations. Many take this as the signifying stressor for De Palma's liberal use of blood in his films. But this is too superficial a response. Much more pointed and interesting is this story, which Laurent Bouzereau relates in his book The De Palma Cut: During his early years, De Palma experienced an event that left with him a sensation of intense terror: his two brothers were playing and young Brian hid behind a refrigerator and got stuck; eventually, he had to cry out for help. Evidently, this event reinforced the inferiority complex De Palma felt toward his brothers, and added to it the fear of being humiliated for losing control. (1) This anecdote touches on a recurring motif in De Palma's work, which feeds into his portrayal of death. Helplessness is a constant, an inferiority (or impotence) of both physical and emotional means. A De Palma protagonist rarely has control over the events in which they find themselves embroiled. This springs from a lack of communication, often a verbal or sexual remove from the people around them. Emotions run rampant, as illustrated cinematically by De Palma's luxurious, fluid camera movements, and inevitably someone ends up dead.

Taktu eftir að þarna er talað um events, emotions, movements. Þetta eru fleirtölumyndir nafnorðanna.

Eintala – fleirtala

eintala one/a film

fleirtala two/many films

ein/kvikmynd

one/a director

einn/leikstjori

tvær/margar kvikmyndirtwo /many directors

tveir/margir leikstjórar

Fleirtala fæst yfirleitt með því að bæta – s við nafnorðið.

Breyttu í fleirtölu

story __________________

book ________________

year ________________

grave ___________________

anecdote _________________

refrigerator _______________

event ______________

brother ___________________

son _________________

career __________________

SkrifaĂ°u af hverju myndin er.

____one gangster

______________

_______________ ________________ __________________ _____________

_____________ _______________

The anecdote specifically recalls De Palma's film Body Double (1984), the director's last all-encompassing thriller of the '80s, which treads on the postmodern impulses he will explore in Raising Cain (1992). Craig Wasson's Jake Scully is the ultimate example of an impotent De Palma protagonist. A Z-movie actor playing a Z-movie actor may seem like a too-obvious joke, but it is this very lack of star persona that gives Body Double its expressive power. If it was Kirk Douglas or John Travolta decked out in vampire garb in the opening movie-within-a-movie, then the slow disintegration of Scully's facial expression into abject terror would pack a significantly lesser punch. Minus the buffer of a recognizable face we're with Scully from the get-go. It's a distillation of De Palma's relationship to his audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his best films are about identifications (between characters, audience, and director) within cinematic moments.

The finest example of this is in De Palma's thriller Dressed to Kill (1980). The much talked about elevator murder, in which Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is razor-slashed by the transsexual Bobbi, climaxes with the introduction of prostitute Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) as both witness and carrier of the moral Dressed to Kill torch. Lying in pools of her own blood, Kate reaches out to the horrified Liz, and De Palma slows down the film to zoom in on both actress' eyes, emphasizing connection. In this moment we are subject to one woman's dying point-of-view as she passes her emotional truth onto the conscience of another. De Palma plays with this sort of identification throughout his career: it is how Gillian (Amy Irving) becomes a tragic killing machine in The Fury (1978), how Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) becomes a silent witness (hence participator) in the central rape that haunts Casualties of War (1989), and how the astronauts of Mission to Mars maintain connection with each other across that film's vast reaches of space. Point-of-view is key to understanding the humanity in De Palma's work. Like many of his technologically obsessed characters it is through film form that he finds human truths and, as movies practically demand crises to maintain interest, De Palma uses death as a way of challenging his audience's precepts. Taktu eftir heitinu: Casualties of War hér er um of-eignarfall að ræða.

of-eignarfall eintala húsinu.) fleirtala árinu.)

the roof of the house the months of the year

þak hússins (þakið á mánuðir ársins (mánuðurnir í

of-eignarfallið er notað um hluti og hugmyndir.

Þýddu setningarnar. Notaðu upplýsingarnar í rammanum þér til hjálpar.

The colour The windows The capital The name The number

the girl the boat the car the house England

is KSW 169 is London are big is blue is Nancy

1.Báturinn er blár á litinn (litur bátsins). _____________________________________________________________

2. Stelpan heitir Nancy (nafn stelpunnar). _____________________________________________________________

3. Gluggarnir á húsinu (gluggar hússins) eru stórir, _____________________________________________________________

4. Númerið á bílnum (númer bílsins) er KSW 169. _____________________________________________________________

5. Höfuðborg Englands er London. _____________________________________________________________

Of course, death in a De Palma film can take on forms other than the physical and it's not rare for the director to end his movies on a metaphysical note, within the limitless space of dreams. Funny that it is most often De Palma's female protagonists who are the inhabitants of this dream-space. In Dressed to Kill the film is book-ended by the fantasies of its leading ladies. Kate Miller, the bourgeois housewife, escapes into her violent dreams because of a rotten sex life. Finally making her fantasies reality (by picking up a stranger in a museum) Kate's violent inner world follows suit, and she pays a price for her indiscretion.

líkamlegt = _______________

smáborgari = ______________

táknrænt = ________________

óvarkárni = ________________

Enter Liz Blake who helps to solve the mystery behind Kate's murder and is then invited home, platonically, by Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon). There, Liz dreams of her own death at the hands of the razor-wielding Bobbi, only to wake up in the very same bed Kate occupied at the film's outset. The prostitute who uses sex in her normal occupation 'dies' because of her stray into domestication.

Af hverju deyr Liz Blake samkvæmt greininni? _____________________________________________________________

It's a darkly funny reversal of societal gender roles and, using the transsexual Bobbi as the connecting force between the two women, it adds to De Palma's complicated views of the opposite sex that are also a career constant. Some other examples that illustrate this consistency: Sandra's (Genevieve Bujold) regressed memories in Obsession (1975), Sue Snell's (Amy Irving) final runin with Carrie (Sissy Spacek) in Carrie (1976), Margo's (John Lithgow) rebirth in Raising Cain, and Laure Ash's (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) film noir imaginings in Femme Fatale (2002).

Conversely, De Palma's men are more usually confined to waking life's nightmares. Jake Scully in Body Double, racing along a Jacques Tati-like beachfront after the villainous Indian, is unable to get through a tunnel because of his claustrophobia, and it's this self-impotence that prevents him from stopping the murder of Gloria (Deborah Shelton).

claustrophobia = _________________

Common to De Palma's work, Jake gets a second chance—in the form of porn star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith). “I like to watch,” he says in the sex film within the film, a verbal explication of his passive character and the very thing he must overcome for Body Double to reach its true conclusion. That Scully succeeds at both saving the girl and keeping his life is an uncommon De Palma occurrence, and one of the reasons Body Double remains a major work—its happy ending feels like a goodbye of sorts, and indeed De Palma doesn't tread in this lurid, sexual world as explicitly until Femme Fatale. Other De Palma men who aren't as lucky as Jake: Charlie (Charles Pfluger) with his apprehensions about marriage in The Wedding Party (filmed 1964), Winslow Leach (William Finley) and his subjugation to the music industry in Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Jack (John Travolta) failing to save Sally (Nancy Allen) in Blow Out (1981), Tony Montana's (Al Pacino) inescapable demise in Scarface (1983), Eriksson's moral and cultural helplessness in Casualties of War, and Rick Santoro's (Nicolas Cage) fall from media grace in Snake Eyes (1998). Þessi texti er í þátíð. Hjálparsögnin að vera (to be) er iðulega notuð í þátíðarmyndum. Rifjaðu núna upp hvernig sögnin to be (að vera) er í þátíð.

Ég var

I _________________________

Þú varst

You ______________________

Hann var

He _______________________

Hún var

She ______________________

Það var

It ________________________

Við vorum

We ______________________

Þið voruð

You _____________________

Þeir voru

They _____________________

Þær voru

They _____________________

Þau voru

They _____________________

Why is Jake lucky? _________________________________________________________

In listing these examples I hope to refute another common misconception about De Palma: that he is a misogynist. I think these selections show both the director's acute awareness of gender differences and how he treats this loaded idea cinematically. Having a concrete understanding of maleness, De Palma deals with it in a real world setting, warts and all. He Blow Out likewise does so with femininity (almost all of his women are complex real-world creations), but adds an extra dream layer to acknowledge their mysteriousness, that ineffable something that, rightly, baffles him. I can hear the naysayers calling this a kind of reverse misogyny—the illusion of complication hides De Palma's 41

one-sided hatred. In which case I can only step aside and point to several of De Palma's actresses as guides: the cutting gaze of Amy Irving in The Fury, the feisty toughness of Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, the profound sadness of Thuy Thu Le's face in Casualties of War, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' lithe grace and gender-defying striptease in Femme Fatale. These are in no way hateful stereotypes and the actresses' performances illustrate it better than I could ever say it.

misogynist = _______________

feisty = ___________________

If you detect a kind of vitriol seeping in at this point, I acknowledge it. To be a De Palma connoisseur, I've found, is to invite all sorts of ridicule and there's a frustration that comes along with that, which tries even the most patient of cinephiles. As I said, no other American director I know of inspires such a wide variety of responses and it's tough to wade through all this muck and come out the other side with something worthwhile. With that sentiment in mind I think now's the time to deal with the most common De Palma criticism, one which, quite sadly, deserves a section all its own.

sælkeri = _______________ bíófíkill = ______________

II. The Hitchcock Problem I am what you made me, Dad. —Cain (John Lithgow) to his father (John Lithgow) in Raising Cain While re-watching The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) I experienced firsthand the hex that continually haunts De Palma's critical appraisals. Picture a rainy courthouse exterior: an overhead shot shows a mass of people, umbrellas opened, running towards an arriving limousine. As they swarm around the car, shaking it slightly with a crowd's sheer momentum and force, a lone voice (from my side of the screen) cries out, “Look! It's the 42

umbrella scene from Foreign Correspondent [Alfred Hitchcock, 1940]!” Pronouns (Personal, Possessive and Reflexive Pronouns) Fornöfn (persónu-, eigna- og afturbeigð) Pronouns are words like I, me (personal pronouns) or my, mine (possessive pronouns). Personal Pronouns

Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns

subject form object form

possessive adjective

possessive pronoun

mine

myself

you

your

yours

yourself

him

his

himself

she

her

hers

herself

its

itself

our

ours

ourselves

you

your

yours

yourselves

they

them

their

theirs

themselves

“Ha,” I think to myself. And I shoot my companion a withering glance to complete the contemptuous silence. In an ideal world this would be an isolated occurrence, something easily brushed off and forgotten. But De Palma's movies themselves have shown that the world is a less than ideal 43

place (a reality that the director does not exclude himself from) and so the Hitchcock problem remains. I have no doubt it will follow De Palma to his dying day and beyond, and at this point I say bring it on. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then repetition (in this case of a decades old critical reduction) is the mortal enemy with which it must struggle. Í kaflanum að ofan eru 10 fornöfn. Finndu þau. __________________

__________________

I don't mean to sound reductionist to either camp. In no way do I consider De Palma an imitator of Alfred Hitchcock's visualizations and themes, but I do admit that the criticism has a factual basis upon which several writers have expounded eloquently. My point here is to reinterpret the Hitchcock criticism within the context of another common De Palma theme: generational conflict.

generational conflict = ____________________________

An interviewer once asked De Palma about his past, and the director pointed to Home Movies as the most explicit answer. Indeed, what is most interesting about the 1979 feature, made as part of a film production course De Palma taught at Sarah Lawrence College, is its insight into the director's life. Critical to the film is the relationship between the young Dennis Byrd (Keith Gordon)—the obvious De Palma stand-in—and his elder brother James (Gerrit Graham) who passive-aggressively dominates him. This sibling rivalry is the best part of an otherwise very amateurish movie 44

because it feels like a personal exegesis—as in the best of De Palma's work both the pain and humor of life make for a palpable combination. Taktu eftir ... the most explicit answer... og ...what is most interesting...

difficult erfiður

more difficult

the most difficult

erfiðari

beautiful

more beautiful

fallegur

fallegri

erfiðastur the most beautiful fallegastur

Löng lýsingarorð stigbreytast með more og most.

Þýddu: Ágúst er hamingjusamur, Gísli er hamingjusamari en Kaj er hamingjusamastur. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Taktu líka eftir: “as in the best of De Palma's work “ Hér er um óreglulega stigbreytingu lýsingarorða að ræða.

Þýddu: Það er vont veður í dag. Já, en það var verra í gær. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ What strikes one most about the brothers' relationship is the physical differences: James is big, broad and muscled as compared to weakframed Dennis. If this is indeed a self-projection it provides a clue as to how De Palma views himself within the shadow of his own cinematic brother, Alfred Hitchcock. Or might De Palma view Hitchcock as a long-lost father?

The Fury

Key to that latter interpretation is the relationship between the government operative Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and his psychic son Robin (Andrew Stevens) in The Fury. Separated at the outset of the film, the reuniting of father and son is a key plot element of The Fury. During their separation, however, Robin changes to such an extent (subjected to manipulative tests at the hands of the evil Childress [John Cassavetes]) that the characters' reunion is anything but a happy one. If we read Peter as a fatherly Hitchcock and Robin as the young De Palma, then things become clearer.

Tilvísunarfornöfn.

That’s the dog! The dog bit me! Það má sameina þessar setningar í eina: That’s the dog ← which bit me. Orðið which er tilvísunarfornafn. Það er notað til að þurfa ekki að segja ,,the dog” aftur.

Hér er önnur aðferð til að sameina tvær setningar í eina: That’s the boy. The boy hit me. That’s the boy who hit me. Í þessu dæmi er who tilvísunarfornafnið.

Mundu þetta: Dýr og hlutir

which

Fólk

who

By the release of The Fury Hitchcock had made his last film Family Plot (1976) and the way Douglas plays Peter Sandza suggests a man in his twilight years whose last shades of greatness are behind him. Conversely, Robin is in the prime of his life (a true reflection of the man who had just made Carrie) and it's no accident that The Fury opens with two tenderhearted conversational scenes between father and son, both devilishly interrupted by Childress. In the ensuing separation (which lasts about a year) the lack of contact between the two effectively destroys their tender bonds— Robin believes his father is dead and Peter thinks his son is the same as he always was. As a result, when they meet again they inevitably destroy each other. Perhaps this is De Palma slyly and subtly addressing the Hitchcock criticism, which, in spite of The Fury's destructive efforts, continued to follow him into the present day.

Bæði tilvísunarfornöfnin koma fyrir í kaflanum að ofan. Skrifaðu þau niður ásamt tveimur orðum sem koma á undan þeim og tveimur á eftir ._________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________

These examples illustrate how I like to view the Hitchcock criticism: as a conversation between two filmmakers—one who has been absorbed into history and memory, and another who uses certain of the elder filmmaker's techniques and themes as a prism through which he filters his own sensibilities. As with the best conversations between artists, this is a love/hate relationship, typified by the two examples above and several other De Palma mentor/protégé associations: Michael (Cliff Robertson) and Amy (Genevieve Bujold) in Obsession, Eriksson and Meserve (Sean Penn) in Casualties of War, Margo and Carter Nix (John Lithgow) in Raising Cain, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) in Mission: Impossible, among others. Conflict is inherent in all these characters' relationships, and I think it is, in subtext, De Palma addressing his own relationship to the filmmaker who 48

inspires him most. That this filmic conversation continues, and is constant throughout De Palma's career, is not something to criticize, but to use as another route to understanding both the filmmaker's work and the intrinsic role inspiration plays to any artist working in the medium they love.

III: Brian De Palma: Political Humorist Nobody cares what anything's about. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Philbin (George Memmoli) from Phantom of the Paradise Brian De Palma cares, and one thing often ignored in light of the Hitchcock criticism is the director's pointed and cutting sense of humor. I think a lot of people consider the beginning of De Palma's career to be Sisters or Carrie and, in doing so, ignore his comedic roots. That's a shame because to see these early films is to see a De Palma quite different from the populist view. Often accused of being a cold, humorless director, De Palma's output from The Wedding Party through Hi, Mom! (1970) reveals otherwise untold depths, and key to this success is another artist not often recognized for his comedic talents: Robert De Niro.

Why is it a shame that De Palmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comedic roots are ignored? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

De Niro first appears in The Wedding Party as Cecil, the beefcake friend of the protagonist Charlie (Charles Pfluger), and half of the Punch-and-Judy act rounded out by the tall, gawky Alistair (William Finley). This film, directed by the triumvirate of college-aged De Palma, classmate Cynthia Munroe, and their instructor Wilford Leach, is most clearly De Palma's in the scenes between Cecil, Charlie, and Alistair. Here is a comedic energy, of both physical and verbal means, that effectively satirizes the bland Charlie's

conflicting impulses—Cecil and Alistair are like the angel and devil sitting on his shoulders arguing about virtue and vice. Showing the director knew talent when he saw it, De Palma uses De Niro in most of his '60s output, while Finley appears in Murder à la Mod (1968) and is a main fixture of De Palma's '70s work. Reglulegar sagnir bæta við sig –ed endingu í þátíð. Óreglulegar sagnir hljóðbreytast í þátíð. Hér fyrir ofan eru tvær óreglulegar sagnir. Finndu þær og skrifaðu bæði ú nútíð og þátíð. __________________

__________________

The De Palma/De Niro collaboration through three more films (Greetings, Hi, Mom!, and The Untouchables [1987]) is much more rewarding overall than De Niro's more popular association with Martin Scorsese, which starts out brilliantly but devolves into been-there/done-that. De Palma seems to make sly note of that inevitable decline in The Untouchables with De Niro's cartoonishly entertaining Al Capone—a post-modern riff on the actor's own Travis Bickle with a dash of Rudolf Klein-Rogge's Mabuse.

Greetings

How does De Niro portray Al Capone in The Untouchables? _____________________________________________________________

No surprise then that De Niro's Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976) character has his roots in Jon Rubin, the protagonist of Greetings and Hi, Mom!. Initially a supporting player in the former (running around carefree as he and his two

friends dodge the Vietnam draft) he comes front-and-center in the latter as the voyeuristic purveyor of “peep art”, the failure of which drives him to commit a terrorist act. peep art = _____________________

Greetings plants the seeds of Rubin's discontent in its best scene, a bravura real-time take in which the budding voyeur, as an off-camera voice, instructs a girl to take off her clothes. Funny and horrifying in equal measure, the fact that neither De Palma nor De Niro flinch from the sight before them speaks to the sequence's great satirical punch. You laugh, but it sticks in your throat. You're forced to consider two or more simultaneous responses, which is exactly what the best satire should do. And then the director and the actor take you further in a climactic scene with Rubin now in Vietnam instructing a Vietcong girl to strip for a news camera, thus conflating collective and personal voyeurism into the same sordid ball of wax.

Taktu eftir setningunni: “No surprise then that De Niro's Taxi Driver.. character ...” Þarna er eignarfall á ferðinni.

Eignarfall s-eignarfall eintala

my brother’s bike hjól bróður míns the cat’s tail kattarrófan

fleirtala

the boys’ school skóli strákanna the women’s clothes föt kvennanna.

Eignarfallið sýnir eigandann (bróðurinn, köttinn o.s.frv.) S-eignarfall er notað um persónur og dýr. Athugaðu vel að nafnorð með óreglulega fleirtölu, woman-women, fá ‘s í eignarfalli fleirtölu.

Búðu til setningar í eignarfalli. Gleymdu ekki kommunni!

Here is Tony. It is Tony’s little friend.

This is his little friend.

Here is Mr Camonte.

This is his car.

________________________________________________________________________

Here are the convicts.

This is their prison.

________________________________________________________________________

Here are the men.

This is their office.

________________________________________________________________________ De Palma's first masterpiece, Hi, Mom!, finds a parallel to these audacious scenes in its revolutionary â&#x20AC;&#x153;Be Black, Babyâ&#x20AC;? sequence. Rubin, now returned from Vietnam, is a restless war veteran who tries out several occupations to satiate his voyeuristic desires. A Rear Window-like attempt at capturing reallife sex acts in the building across from his fails, and so Rubin joins up with a troupe of experimental theater actors who are putting on a show (similar in ways to what De Palma's camera catches in Dionysus in '69 [1970]) that attempts to emulate the Black experience. We see the performance in neartotality as a television documentary playing in a storefront window. This framing device creates the illusion of the performance being a single shot, and it adds several layers of experience to the very act of watching what unfolds (a theme of the whole of Hi, Mom! and an integral one to De Palma's 53

career). As the theatrical troupe verbally harass and physically batter their terrified white, bourgeois audience, we as viewers are drawn in, equally passive towards and active with the proceedings. De Niro's Jon Rubin doesn't show up until late in the game and when he does, we're allowed a breather. Our total absorption into the scene is broken and we can laugh at the absurdity of it all. But this is just set up for the final, painful joke—that moment when we realize that no one involved (audience or actors) have learned anything from the other. “Clive Barnes was right!” shouts one of the bloodied, smiling audience members. And our own laughter sounds like a hollow scream. What is the set-up for the final, painful joke? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

IV: A Newfound Hope What was his crime? That he showed a little emotion?! —Woody Blake (Tim Robbins) in Mission to Mars The young De Palma's humorist pokes and prods make for an interesting contrast with the De Palma of late. For with Mission to Mars and Femme Fatale De Palma's cinema now reflects the wisdom of age, a newfound spiritual development akin to Carl Th. Dreyer in his final film Gertrud (1964). The sense of wordplay that is such an essential part of Dreyer's masterpiece is also the entrée to understanding De Palma's Mission to Mars. Many have criticized the space adventure script as sub-par and if one imagines the dialogue on the page alone then it is a valid criticism. But films are not just their scripts, and it is De Palma's triumph that he makes language a fundamental part of Mission to Mars. Words, to these characters, are what ground them in an otherwise hostile and unknown environment—the cosmos.

This focus on more vast, epic spaces (both physical and emotional) is a radical change of pace for De Palma. Many of his films to this point are more microcosmic in their views, detailing the intimate problems of a select group of people and the hell it plays with their inner space. The jump to outer space (at the turn of the century to boot) suggests De Palma is at the point of considering more than earthly matters. With the help of Femme Fatale frequent cinematographer Stephen H. Burum, Mission to Mars visually reflects this newfound hope. It is perhaps De Palma's most ravishing film to watch— the camera floats as if a weightless participant, and it carries us along for the ride. When the mystery of Mars is revealed to the astronauts, De Palma frames each of them against a backdrop of glowing stars, an image that implies infinite connection and emphasizes each character's personal choices. In the end Mission to Mars is Jim McConnell's (Gary Sinise) journey, and the climactic shot wherein he opens his mouth to speak (or scream) and finds instead a transcendent peace makes full use of the expressive power of the human face—an individual 'star' among many—and readily builds upon the foundations of De Palma's cinema. Whose journey is Mission to Mars? ____________________________________________________________________________ With Femme Fatale the director returns to a favorite genre (the thriller), which has of late become a cinematic bastion for cynicism, and finds in it the possibility for redemption. The spirituality of De Palma's cinema is rarely remarked on, perhaps because of the supposed tawdriness of the genres he works in. Nonetheless it is there, especially in the director's death scenes—with their slowed down pace and focus on the characters' eyes, De Palma attempts to catch moments of soulful recognition. In jewel thief Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), De Palma finds all this and more. The director exercises his sensual and sexual nature, regarding his female lead as 55

mysterious, independent, and a total bitch. But never one to stay on one side of the fence, De Palma makes audacious use of the dream trope that is his female characters' frequent refuge. It provides Laure, as well as De Palma, the opportunity to explore several aspects of their natures, all ultimately ending up on the cosmic side of right. The resulting film is a De Palma masterpiece, mixing the satirical, sexual, voyeuristic, generational, and hopeful into a wondrous whole. “Only in my dreams,” says Laure at the film's close—an awe-inspiring verbal summation of De Palma's views on life, love, and art.

Conclusion Pauline Kael, film critic: Wrong about De Palma still her acolytes proliferate —from New York Magazine's article “100 People Who Changed New York,” April 7–14, 2003. Pauline Kael would have made a great De Palma protagonist—singleminded, sexual, and hopeful about an art form she loved wholeheartedly. I include this final, recent quote as both a reality check and a challenge. Put aside the fact that it is superficially about Kael and De Palma. Look deeper and you'll see a more disturbing and far-reaching trend—the collective need to conflate artists into a comprehensible box that they do not fit. Kael fought against this tendency to her dying day, and Brian De Palma continues to do so. It is this dogged pursuit of individual truth (as a way of addressing universal issues) that makes De Palma a filmmaker worth considering as the practice of movie art continues to grow past any boundaries we may set for it. A final note: in my previous Great Directors pieces I've discussed the artist's work chronologically, but I've found in the writing that this does a disservice to De Palma. It is best to talk about De Palma thematically, weaving the films in and out as appropriate and necessary, but I can attest that viewing De Palma's films chronologically is essential to a full understanding of his work. Par for the course, De Palma's artistic achievements vary from film to film, but there is nonetheless a consistency of thematic obsession that never falters, and I hope my piece has shown this. Assume The Wedding Party as the foundation film from which De Palma builds to his most recent—I think finest—achievement, Femme Fatale. Viewed this way I think you'll see as loud-and-clear a statement of cinematic (and life) intentions as any artist has 56

given us. And hopefully you'll find it as rewarding and worthwhile an experience as I have.

ÂŠ Keith Uhlich, June 2003 Endnotes: 1. Laurent Bouzereau, The De Palma Cut, Dembner Books, November 1988, p. 17

Filmography As director: Icarus (1960) short 660124, The Story of an IBM Card (1961) short Wotan's Wake (1962) short Jennifer (1964) short Mod (1964) short Bridge That Gap (1965) short You Show Me a Strong Town and I'll Show You a Strong Bank (1966) short The Responsive Eye (1966) short The Wedding Party (filmed 1964, released 1969) co-director, also co-producer, co-writer, editor Murder Ă la Mod (1968) also screenplay, editor Greetings (1968) also co-writer, editor Dionysus in '69 (1970) co-director, also producer, director of photography, editor Hi, Mom! (1970) also story, screenplay Get to Know Your Rabbit (filmed 1970, released 1972) Sisters (1973) also story, co-writer Phantom of the Paradise (1974) also screenplay

Obsession (1975) also story Carrie (1976) The Fury (1978) Home Movies (1979) also producer, story Dressed to Kill (1980) also screenplay Blow Out (1981) also screenplay Scarface (1983) Dancing in the Dark (1984) Bruce Springsteen music clip Body Double (1984) also producer, story, co-writer Wise Guys (1986) The Untouchables (1987) Casualties of War (1989) The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) also producer Raising Cain (1992) also screenplay Carlito's Way (1993) Mission: Impossible (1996) Snake Eyes (1998) also producer, story Mission to Mars (2000) Femme Fatale (2002) also screenplay Toyer (2004) tentative

Obsession