Economic and monetary union

Economic and monetary union Identify and discuss the costs and benefits of joining the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Thesis Statement The Economic Monetary Union has been the centre of prolonged debates as to whether a country joining it will either create benefits or drawbacks. During the course of this analytical report, both costs and benefits will be identified and explained in order to judicate the feasibility of joining the EMU and a specific country will be chosen to illustrate this further. Introduction To understand the concept behind the creation of the Economic Monetary Union, the overall objective of the European Union must firstly be understood. Since the end of the World War II, European political forces have been attempting to unite forces in order to escape the extreme forces of nationalism which were seen as unsustainable. Industries were evolving and beginning to compete globally, international trade throughout the globe expanded at an exponential rate and some felt it had to be regulated in order to maximise the gains achievabe. As a result, the European Union was set up in 1993 with X. Its primary principles are of a single market with no barriers to trade in goods and services or to capital and labour movements, competition and social policies, co-ordinated macroeconomic policy and a harmonised fiscal policy. In order to regulate these aspects effectively the EU set up a body named the Economic Monetary Union. This was seen as potentially a contender to the widely trade d and valued US dollar and as the solution to deepening the integration of the European Union. The EMU is characterised by the following policies, policy harmonisation to remove barriers to improve mobility, a common monetary policy which states there is one interest rate and exchange rate policy determined by the Central Bank, fixed exchange rates via the single currency and the pooling of foreign exchange reserves. The evolution of the EMU began in the late 1980s and was characterised by three stages set out by the Delors Report in 1993. The first stage was devoted to ensuring all member states participation in the Exchange Rate Mechanism and improved policy co-ordination and the removal of barriers to capital flows. The second stage consisted of the creation of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) and central banks becoming independent from their national governments (January 1994). Finally the last stage involved fixing the participating currencies and creating the European System of Central Banks which takes over the responsibility for monetary and exchange rate policies and finally the Stability and Growth pact came into force by January of 1999 to ensure member states that do not comply to the EMU principles are fined or sanctioned. During this evolution in 1992 twelve countries signed the Maastricht Treaty, which fundamentally was the root of the introduction of the Euro. During 1992 and 1997 the convergence criteria was set out which stated that in order for a country to join it must have a low and stable inflation, stable exchange rates and stable public finances and by 1999 the countries officially joined the EMU. However as the Euro could not be introduced overnight, there was a transition period in order to allow the member states to adapt to the new currency and after three years, by 2002, the euro was officially the single currency for all European union member states. Initially the transition period was considered a triumph by European Union members, but as individuals (mainly economists) observed the evolution, many critics are still debating whether joining the EMU and endorsing the euro brings success or just adds to the ever amounting issues each member states are already experiencing. This topic will be thoroughly explored throughout the course of this analytical report and a balanced argument will be drawn from the information available as to whether the EMU carries with it primarily, benefits or costs to a member state joining. The Economic Monetary Union is considered to be one of the major steps in integrating a before divided Europe, as people and businesses could begin moving and trading freely as trade barriers were removed, the currency becomes more stable, financial markets are integrated, the cost of exchanging currencies was eliminated, transaction costs reduced and theoretically increased competition between countries which is a driving factor in keeping prices low and productivity high which is both favourable for consumers and businesses. These benefits must be more deeply explored in order to comprehend the extent to which they have aided success or deepened the intricate network in Europe. The success of the EMU has been difficult to quantify as its revolutionary principles have only been recently enforced, however the theoretical benefits are supposed to be more easily identifiable in the long run as more member states join and European integration is extended to particularly the eastern European community. Debra Johnson and Colin Turner state that one of the major benefits, the elimination of transaction costs in intra-EU trade, have only saved 0.5% of the EUs GDP and that SMEs which predominantly serve local markets, will not benefit extensively from this. However as successful SMEs usually have high exports they can expect a favourable return from the introduction of the Euro. The EMU is also responsible for the lowering of interest rates. Various studies suggest that decentralised fiscal policies cause a bias in inflation and public spending (Sibert 1992, Levine 1993, and Levine and Brociner 1994) and therefore are in favour of the co-ordinated fiscal policies in a monetary union. The single European market can bring numerous benefits to a joining country such as the price transparency. It is still considered too early to quantify precisely the degree to which it has helped and many argue that the EMU must speed up the price convergence through enabling consumers to compare prices across member states more easily. This in turn could facilitate a lowering or raising in in labour costs and could change supply patterns resulting in a more stabilised and fair souricng of resources for firms and possibly improve equality throughtout the European union. These benefits are possibly achievable but have not yet been completely achieved as these processes take time and co-operation and some believe these are not present in todays European society as the recession has caused political and financial instability. The EMU has the potential to create extraordinary gains for the member states but these will not be visible or quantifiable in the near future as it is a timely process of evolution, this therefore poses a risk of not only time consumption but also of resources both nationally and individually and along with the few drawbacks of joining the EMU, critics believe the EMU is not the optimum choice for certain countries in Europe. The drawbacks of joining the EMU are considered to not outweigh the benefits by the majority of observers but still must be considered thoroughly before joining a revolutionary body which causes a country to enter a short-term of deflation, the loss of the exchange rate tool which is considered a tool of national economic policy, the potential problems related to a lack of ‘real convergence and potential policy conflicts and finally the inappropriateness of one monetary policy for many states. These will be analysed and explored in order to conclude whether these outweigh the benefits even considering the majority of parties disagree. The main risk of joining the EMU is the differences in trade cycles between countries, this is one of the core reasons as to why the UK is yet to join. European countries have differing economic statuses and languages, which fundamentally are essential in permitting countries to maximise the gains achievable from a single currency. It is therefore argued that more attention needs to be given to how economies can enhance their factor mobility to balance out the differences found in differing countries. Cohesion funds are the possible solution to the problem but today there are still great differences across the member states in terms of economic performance and labour mobility. This raises the legitimate question whether one monetary policy can fit all member states. The globe today is experiencing an economic recession which is highlighted one of the major issues with joiing the Economic Monetary Union as governments from member states are obliged through the stability and growth pact to keep to the Maastricht criteria meaning they cannot regulate or alter fiscal and monetary policies in order to alleviate the problems arising from a receeding economy. Countries would not be able to devalue to boost exports, to borrow more to boost job creation or to decrease taxes because of the public deficit criterion. The most debated issue with joining the economic monetary union is the loss of national sovereignty. This would result in more established and developed states having to co-operate with the less stable and strong economic countries which are more tolerant to higher infation rates. Finally, the last drawback of joining the EMU is the initial cost of introducing the single currency. This issue is mainly debated in the UK as the British Retailing Consortium estimated that British retailers will have to pay between  £1.7 billion and  £3.5 billion in order for the Euro to be introduced. However it is argued that the one off cost does not outweigh the long-term benefits obtainable from the policies and regulation and that if more countries join the EMU these benefits will be amplified even further. Robert Mundell and Abba Lerner(1960s) believed in a currency area. This is a group of countries that maintain their separate currencies but fix the exchange rates between themselves permanently (Nello, 2009:205). The optimal currency region (OCR) is the idealistic view that an entire region sharing a single currency can benefit extensively the efficiency of the member states economies. It states the optimal characteristics needed for a successful economic integration to occur. These are optimal labour mobility across the region, openness with capital mobility and price and wage flexibility across the region and an automatic fiscal transfer mechanism to redistribute money to areas/sectors which have been negatively affected by the first two characteristics. Supportive Evidence The UK has the worlds fourth largest economy and the EUs second largest and is consequently one of the primary targets of speculation as to whether the benefits outweigh the costs of joining the EMU. In 1999, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown said that although the government supported the principle of a single currency, Britain would not join. This decision was based on various factors that could have caused rifts in the country. In terms of trade it was seens as unfeasible to join because the UK has the lowest level of intra-EU trade and therefore is more vulnerable to fluctuations in external countries. The UK is vulnerable compared to the rest of the EU counties to potential unfavourable interest rates set by the Central Bank because it has one of the highest percentages of home owners potentially leaving British mortgage holders in a state of crisis. Another characteristic that lead the UK to not favour the joining of the EMU is its position as an oil producer and ex porter meaning it is harshly affected by changes in oil prices, however as the quantity of oil diminuishes at an ever expanding rate and the gradual transition to more sustainable energy resources means that this is not as important as it was when the EMU was introduced a decage ago. These issues are feasible arguments to the absence of the UK in joining the EMU however as the countries that have joined the EMU continue to attract foreign direct investments, the UK has been threatened by foreign investors that the Eurozone is becoming a more attractive zone to trade with because of its increased stability. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development released information on the World Investment Report in the form of a bar graph clearly illustrating the downward trend of inward FDI of the UK compared to the general upward trend of the countries with the EMU. As clearly illustrated by figure 1.0, the UK continued to attract FDI from 1992 until 2000, where it increased five-fold from 20 billion in 1992-1997 to almost 120 billion U.S dollars in 2000. However by 2003 this figure drastically fell to below 20 billion, which was less that it was almost ten years before. Whilst France, Netherlands, Spain and Ireland all either increased or stabilised by 2000 and resumed until 2003. This is further evidence that the UK should consider joining the EMU, in order to guarantee long-term success. As more countries join, currently 26 today, the EMU is ever closer to achieving an optimal currency area (Mundell, 1973) creating, idealistically speaking, a perfectly harmonized economy and resulting in countries flourishing. Conclusion In a perfect world, the EMUs potential benefits would be endless but due to unforeseeable fluctuations in economies, labour mobility, and personal matters it is difficult to quantify the benefits and costs of joining the EMU. Especially with the recent economic downturn the risk of joining the EMU has been even more re-considered by certain countries especially the U.K. However these drawbacks are limited and do not outweigh the vast benefits achievable from embracing a single currency and single European market as it would guarantee to a certain extent the long-term success of a country as harmonization and stabilisation will cause consumers to be given better prices and businesses to trade more efficiently creating a, arguably, more competent country. Establishment of the Maastricht Treaty which was signed by twelve countries in 1992, which set out the convergence criteria, ultimat The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 established a single currency, the euro, and on January 1st 2002, the EMU began using the euro.The EMU was created in 1992 It has stringent conditions and objectives which countries have to meet via signing the Maastricht Treaty. With joining the EMU, the euro must be endorsed and therefore the monetary policies become the responsibility of the European Central Bank and national central banks of member states. Essentially they are co-ordinating the monetary and fiscal aspects of the member countries. Sovereignty

Hatchet – Gary Paulsen

HATCHET ESSAY Brian Robeson, the main character in Gray Paulsen’s novel Hatchet does experience problems after crashing in the Canadian wilderness. However, he is able to survive because he learns from his mistakes and he becomes more positive and resilient. When Brian survives the plane crash he initially finds it very difficult to cope in his new environment. His clothes were soaked and muddy, he was freezing cold and his anorak had been torn. As he was practically motionless a â€Å"swarming horde of mosquitoes flocked to his body. † He was being eaten alive but didn’t have the energy to fight back!Brian approached the lake and all he could see was his ‘ugly’ reflection of his beaten up face. Brian was miserable and lonely and depressed. He could remember how in the city it was all grey and black but now he was in a green nature. Brian had no food so he managed to find some berries which he called â€Å"gut cherries† because of the massive stomach pains they gave him. He was satisfied that he had food but it was nothing compared to what he could eat back home. One night whilst sleeping Brian felt something on his leg, he awoken to see a porcupine near his foot.Without thinking he kicked it and got some of the quills stuck in his foot, Brian then threw his hatchet at the porcupine but didn’t hit it and landed against the wall in his cave. Brian felt so upset with himself. â€Å"It was all too much and he couldn’t take it. † So it can be seen that initially Brian certainly finds it hard to survive in the wilderness. Although Brian finds it difficult at first, he is able to survive because he learns from his mistakes and he is persistent. After the incident with the porcupine Brian needed rest so he lay down on his side and shut his eyes.That night Brian had a strange dream his best friend Terry & his father were in it. His dad was trying to speak to him about how he threw the hatchet against the wal l and that if he did it again sparks would come. His dream wasn’t at all clear but Brian managed to find out its purpose. The next morning Brian looked over his dream again and again. He grabbed his hatchet and kept hitting the wall with it. Brian knew that he needed something to keep the spark alive so he grabbed a few twigs and tore up a twenty dollar note that he happen to have in his pocket.At first he didn’t succeed but with his persistence Brian made a new friend †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ fire†. Brian had still been eating gut cherries and needed something new. Brian was down at the lake and noticed some strange tracks across the sand, he thought they may have been turtle tracks so he followed them to find turtle eggs buried, about 12 or so. Brian quickly cracked one open and drank what was inside. He was in heaven and was going crazy over these eggs. He knew he had to leave some so he took the rest back to his shelter. Brian knew he had a fire and he knew that his shelter was near the lake.And what lives in the water? Fish do. Brian could make a fish spear! He carved a stick with his hatchet and began his task of trying to get a fish. It wasn’t working, the fish would just swim away as soon as Brian raised his arm or made the slightest of movements. He needed a better weapon, maybe a bow & arrow. Brian’s fire had gone out whilst he was outside and it just so happens that a plane had flown past. Brian was screaming out to try and get the pilots attention but without the smoke he didn’t seem to look down.Brian was destroyed on the inside, he just didn’t want to bother anymore. He grabbed his hatchet and started cutting his wrist. The next day Brian woke up upset but after thinking long and hard he was a new man, he learnt from his mistakes and made a better fire which he would sustain and he would not let anyone or anything get in the way of his survival. He even managed to complete his bow and arrow, he was tryi ng it out when the arrow splinted into his face. He didn’t want to be upset so he made a better arrow which would hold.Brian remembered from past experience with the spear that the light refracts in water so he knew exactly how to get a fish. The trouble was that it wasn’t as easy as he thought but after about an hour of trying Brian finally got one, his first fish. In all the time he’d spent so far in the Canadian wilderness he never thought he would feel so good. With the spare fish guts Brian places them in a shallower pool of water which of course attracted more fish. He then made a small net which fenced off the pool. He basically had his on fish tank where he could eat any at any time.Because Brian is determined and is able to learn from his mistakes he manages to endure this difficult time. As time passes, Brian becomes more positive and resilient and he refuses to give in. Brian had been going well, he’d been eating fish and maintaining his fire s o that if rescue did come he’d be back home. Fish was getting kind of boring for Brian and he felt like meat. Of course there were birds around, Brian could hear them all the time. The problem was how to get them? He could use his bow and arrow but the birds might fly away at the sound of movement kind of like the fish.Brian knew about a bird called a fool bird. They have amazing camouflage skills. Brian discovered that the fool birds were shaped rather like pears and that he should look for shapes not colours when trying to capture these birds. With his brain and agility Brian managed to kill one of the fool birds, having his official â€Å"day of first meat. † Weeks had passed and still Brian hadn’t been rescued, it was as if they’d forgotten about him or at least looking in the wrong place. But Brian had to be positive and think positive as he patiently waited day after day.He was doing everything he could think of right so why hadn’t he been re scued yet. Time would tell Brian thought. There would been no Brian Robeson without more injuries, like one day when he was down at the lake a moose came to get a drink and thought of Brian as a pray so the moose rammed his leaving Brian without broken ribs as he thought. Things weren’t going good, he could barely walk well and one night a terrible thing happened. He heard gusts of wind coming from hear there and everywhere. It was a tornado. Brian wasn’t safe at this point in time and he was scared for his life.The next morning he woke up to complete disaster. His shelter had been torn apart, there were trees on the ground everywhere you looked and out on the lake Brian could see that the tornado was that strong that is managed to move the plane so its tail was sticking up. Brian needed to get his fire started again he couldn’t risk another chance of not being rescued. So he fixed up his shelter and started the fire again but still he wasn’t rescued. Bri an was getting a bit fed up with the situation that he had to take matters into his own hands.There must have been a survival kit in the plane which he knew would have some sort of rescue device so he put together a raft made out of logs he’d found after the tornado. With his broken ribs Brian paddled out towards the plane. All he had with his was his hatchet. When he got to the plane he tied the raft up and began examining how he could get inside. Brian started chopping at the plan with his hatchet. Then all of a sudden he dropped his hatchet. He couldn’t believe it all this time Brian had been lost the only useful thing he had was his hatchet and now that was at the bottom of the murky lake.He had to retrieve it, he just had to! Brian dived down into the lake looking around but wasn’t able to see anything. He then dived down a second time managing to get his hatchet. He then continued chopping at the plane. After a few minutes Brian had made it bigger for him to just fit through so he climbed inside the plane. Brian looked around and couldn’t see any type of survival kit or bag. So he dived under and found the bag which was attached to the seat in the front of the aeroplane. He managed to get it and started making his way out of the wreckage.As he was pulling the bag out he would budge so Brian moved around whatever was inside and thankfully it came out. He paddled back to shore and back up to his shelter, where he then looked inside the bag. It had everything you could imagine. Blankets, pots, food, water, knifes but most of all Brian saw a transceiver type of device he turned it on at the bottom but it didn’t seem to do anything. Brian was so hungry that he didn’t care about survival right now. He saw packets of food which you just had to add water and you were done. Brian ate about 5 adult meals and then he heard a noise.It sounded like a sort of plane, then he looked up. Coming down landing next to the lake was a plane and a man approached him and said â€Å"Your Brian Robeson, that kid that got lost aren’t you? † Brian said nothing but â€Å"Would you like some food†. By refusing to give in and remaining positive, Brian survives his time alone in the Canadian wilderness. When Brian’s plane crashes it first appears that he will struggle to survive. However with each experience Brian learns to do things differently and this assists his survival. He becomes a person who is able to learn from his mistakes and remain positive and determined in his new environment.

David Lynch as a Cult Auter

David Lynch as a Cult Auteur David Lynch has long been known for his abstract, surrealist, highly ambiguous, and often confusing films. Since his first film, the bizarre and depressing Eraserhead, Lynch has become synonymous with the word â€Å"baffled. † He has been responsible for heady acid trips such as Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire. He has created a bizarre examination of sex and violence in Blue Velvet and a quiet, emotional character study in The Elephant Man.Lynch has always been the artsy type; throughout high school, he was a keen painter, with a very abstract style, and after leaving school, he studied painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1964. However, he left after only a year, stating that â€Å"I was not inspired AT ALL in that place†. He then proceeded to travel around Europe to study the works of Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. He returned to America, however, after only 15 days. He then studied Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, before moving to Los Angeles in 1971 to study filmmaking at the AFI Conservatory.It was at this time that Lynch began winning grants in order to fund his films, including one for $10,000 which he received from AFI in 1970 to make his debut feature-length film, Eraserhead. Over his lengthy career, Lynch has been nominated for four Oscars, but has yet to win. Four of his films have been nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival; 1990? s Wild At Heart won the prestigious award, and Lynch also won Best Director at the festival for his 2001 film Mulholland Drive. Lynch, like many other burgeoning directors, started his audio visual career making short films.From 1966-1974, he created four of film history’s arguably most memorable shorts, leading up to his breakout, oft-critiqued feature, Eraserhead (1977). His style is defined by the dark, the grotesquely physical, and the straight out bizarre. Many of h is shorts included animation of his paintings. Sound and music for films was also of utmost importance to the paranoia-filled atmosphere of his works. The dark and the bizarre were aspects he would carry over to his television show, Twin Peaks, which aired for two seasons in 1990 and 1991.Lynch is valuable because he explodes conventions, both cinematic and psychological, but it’s not enough for him to be as strange as possible—even an approach based on throwing off the fetters of the conventional and the logical demands a kind of discipline. The trick is to allow one’s imagination free play, but to be able to recognize what is genuinely strange and unsettling, rather than merely bizarre, to distinguish between the rare specimens you’ve unearthed from the darkness of the ocean floor and the seaweed clinging to you when you emerge from the water.It’s a completely unscientific process, and one that can’t be forced, so in a sense it’s ac hievement enough that Lynch has remained devoted to exploring his own subconscious, however successful he’s been in conveying his findings to the screen. Leading film critics Le Blanc and Odell state that Lynch’s films â€Å"are so packed with motifs, recurrent characters, images, compositions and techniques that you could view his entire output as one large jigsaw puzzle of ideas. One of the key themes that they noted was the usage of dreams and dreamlike imagery within his works, something they related to the â€Å"surrealist ethos† of relying â€Å"on the subconscious to provide visual drive. † This can be seen in John Merrick’s dream of his mother in The Elephant Man, Agent Cooper’s dreams of the red room in Twin Peaks and the â€Å"dreamlike logic† of the narrative found in Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Another defining pattern of Lynch’s films is that he tends to feature his leading female actors in mul tiple or â€Å"split† roles, so that many of his female characters have multiple, fractured identities.This practice began with his choice to cast Sheryl Lee as both Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddy Ferguson in Twin Peaks and continued in his later works. In Lost Highway, Patricia Arquette plays the dual role of Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield, while in Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts plays Diane Selwyn/Betty Elms and Laura Harring plays Camilla Rhodes/Rita and in Inland Empire, Laura Dern plays Nikki Grace/Susan Blue. By contrast, Lynch rarely creates multi-character roles for his male actors.In a short film titled â€Å"How to Make a David Lynch Film† a group of young film makers explored just that. In the short, the group highlight a number of definitive features found in Lynch’s films. They mention that â€Å"the people who like David Lynch do so because he is the master of mood, or because he’s all about atmosphere† and that â€Å"the ‘art sier’ the fan you speak to, the more they pretend to understand Lynch’s nonexistent plots. † Other Lynchian traits mentioned in the short include: * Unneeded tension brought about by dramatic pauses between dialogue * There must be ominous ounds or music in every scene to create a mysterious atmosphere * There must always be a character that goes by the name of Mr. , followed by a common first name (eg. Mr. Jimmy) * When in doubt, add close ups of eyes and lips * Phone calls to add suspense * Halfway through the film, change the actor/actress playing the lead character * In between scenes always fade in and out of black * There should be nudity for no apparent reason * Random shots of out of focus movement * Lots of kissing * Painted fingernails * Lesbian love scenes At least one sex scene, often overexposed * Infantilism (eg. Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet) * Use of black and white * Abrupt endings and loose ends Lynch is an established auteur; in f act, not only does he write his screenplays, but he has been involved with every level of his films production at one point or another: sound design, editing, camera work, lighting, casting, special effects, music, etc. His hands-on approach to every aspect of his films has helped to tie them all together with a common thread.Lynch has sufficient strength of identity within his work and peculiarity of world view to warrant his position as auteur, and David Foster Wallace, in his ‘Premiere' article for Lost Highway, said : â€Å"Whether you believe he's a good auteur or a bad one, his career makes it clear that he is indeed, in the literal Cahiers du Cinema sense, an auteur, willing to make the sorts of sacrifices for creative control that real auteurs have to make – choices that indicate either raging egotism or passionate dedication or a childlike desire to run the sandbox, or all three. As Orson Welles said, â€Å"Cinema is the work of a single man, the directorâ₠¬ . Lynch's films, good or bad, successful or not, have been the work of a film-maker in control of his medium, aware of his position as auteur and willing to assert it within his texts. Many of Lynch’s works have developed a cult following over the years. Of note are Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.There are also many in the Lynchian â€Å"cult† who are not film specific. That is, they are fans and followers of David Lynch himself, and are intrigued by all things Lynchian. The major reason that Lynch’s films stand the test of time is due to their very nature; because his innovative style is so surreal and cryptic, a selection of viewers are compelled to delve further into understanding his films.That’s the beauty of Lynch; his films deeply intrigue his audiences, igniting a thirst in the niche, cult followers to decipher meaning in films where others see none. In most cases, a director cannot really foresee whether or not a film will develo p a cult following over time. However, a further urge to make sense of his works is almost inherent of Lynch’s style, and some may argue that Lynch has constructed his films with the intention of being labelled by society as ‘weird’, or ‘strange’.It almost gives his loyal followers an excuse to be self righteous of their involvement in the cult community; â€Å"Hey look at me, I study Lynchian films, aren’t I cultured? † It can give them a sense of intellectual snobbery. Lynch’s most recent feature, Mulholland Drive was initially scripted and filmed as a television pilot, however, the project was turned down by several networks, and so, after some deliberation, Lynch decided to finish the text as a feature film.As a pilot, the story didn’t have a proper ending, and it took Lynch quite some time to formulate an ending for the film; however he says that it all came to him one night when he sat down on a chair and closed his eyes. In Mulholland Drive, Lynch dwells upon the theme of duality of identity, set in the world of Hollywood. After the failure of both her movie career and her love affair, the main protagonist, Diane, imagines a fantasy of her as another character named Betty, by recreating her ruined career and failed relationship with the woman she loves.To further expand on his main themes of identity, fantasy and reality, duality of things and Hollywood, Lynch uses contrasted filming techniques for each of the parts of the movie, creating a visual dichotomy between Diane’s fantasy (where everything is embellished in a way, highly illuminated, colourful and visually striking) and reality (which is almost completely dark and uses very little lighting, making it seem quite surreal), thus blurring the edges between the two. In her fantasy, Diane loses her identity, as her dream presents another aspect of herself. One ight argue that this fantasy is actually Diane’s attempt at self-id entification, but it is also another representation of her own personality. In the end, Diane must understand that she is comprised of, and capable of, both light and dark, good and evil, naivete and deep mystery. Therefore, she cannot escape or ignore the darker parts of herself – her failure, her hatred, her jealousy. Lynch has explained duality in his films in this way: â€Å"You must have the contrasts. Films should have power. The power of good and the power of darkness, so you can get some thrills and shake things up a bit.If you back off from that stuff, you’re shooting right down into lukewarm junk. †¦You have to believe things so much that you make them honest†. In other words, he argues that in order for films to be strong and powerful, they need to present both sides of a coin, an unrestricted view of life with all of its light and all of its darkness. However, according to him, there is no need to fear the darker side because it is a part of all of us: â€Å"Fear is based on not seeing the whole thing and, if you could get there and see the whole thing, fear is out the window†.Hence he argues that once we come to terms with these darker things and accept them as a natural contrast in all of us, rather than try to hide and escape them, we will be able to face and understand them. In an interview with The Denver Post during the release of Mulholland Drive, Lynch says: â€Å"we know that when we're walking around we see the surface of things, but sometimes we sense something more, sometimes what we sense approaches a kind of dreamlike state.Those feelings take on a life of their own; they are just as real as anything else. † This echoes Breton’s lecture that these often dichotomous forces of inner and external reality â€Å"are the one and the same thing. † However, Lynch does make note that we do approach these various layers of reality in different ways: â€Å"We have waking, sleeping and dreami ng—for most people that's what we deal with. So all of them are real, though the brain functions in a different way for each. The final movement of Mulholland Drive asks its viewers to reinterpret the first 100 minutes of screen time as now being a universe fabricated in the consciousness of small-time, failed-actor Diane Selwyn, who lies dying (or dead) somewhere in a run-down apartment in Hollywood. Linking the narrative material of the film’s final movement to the material that preceded it becomes critical in terms of how one understands the workings of the film. Of course, crucial as it may be to connect narrative information to the film’s internal structures, it is not this alone that makes Mulholland Drive such a unique experience.As in much of Lynch’s other work, the film asks its viewers to attend to every aspect of its construction, from colour schemes to camera movement, from music and sound to performance, from lighting to editing patterns, fro m set design to costume and make-up. In short, every element of the film’s construction can be a container of possible meaning. Because of this, most viewers miss much of the film’s meaning, and walk out of the theatre complaining that it made no sense. Others, however, may pick up on certain symbols or motifs, and are intrigued to decipher their meaning after viewing.What’s especially interesting in Lynch’s films is the way the entire mise-en-scene is presented as meaningful and significant. The hierarchy of significance that we associate with most movies, where some things are to be attended to more than others, is abandoned. We can never tell while watching a scene – at least the first time around – what its most significant features are. It’s possible that a seemingly minor detail will turn out be of critical importance. Everything is presented on the same level of significance.Over the years, Mulholland Drive has developed a cult following in a niche audience, and many of its devout followers are continuously attempting to decipher elements of the film. The website mulholland-drive. net is an extensive database of information regarding the film, where the film’s loyal followers can discuss the film and share their understanding of certain elements of the movie. Since all of the posts on the site are by members of the niche audience, it gives everyone a chance to see what other people thought of the movie and their analysis of its meaning.The website epitomises the commitment of members of a films cult following. To conclude, it is fair to say that David Lynch has well established himself in society as a cult auteur to be reckoned with. His abstract style often leaves his viewers with more questions than answers, and for some viewers, a desire to learn more. It is this factor that has essentially led to Lynch’s grandiose cult status. His followers are intrigued by his ambiguity. Although his ti me as a director will inevitably come to an end, the legacy of his films will last forever through their cult status. ——————————————- [ 1 ]. Lynch and Rodley, 2005, p. 33 [ 2 ]. David Lynch. (2013, March 16). In  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [ 3 ]. Le Blanc and Odell, 2000, p. 08 [ 4 ]. Lynch and Rodley, 2005, p. 148 [ 5 ]. Cook, 1986 [ 6 ]. David Lynch On Mulholland Drive, DVD Extra [ 7 ]. Lynch and Rodley, 2005, p. 150 [ 8 ]. Lynch and Rodley, 2005, p. 244 [ 9 ]. â€Å"Lynch composes cerebral symphony†, Rosen, 2001 [ 10 ]. Breton, ed. Fotiade 2000, p. 04

Lady Josephine And Sir Bonaparte Descriptive Essay

As an up-and-coming artist I found myself in a peculiar situation - the sight of a white canvas and a paint brush in my hand induced an unbearable state of boredom. So I sat out on a quest, searching for the perfect muse to rejuvenate my artistic spirit. Diligently I explored every aspect of society and within six months my inspiration sauntered into my life. Afterwards, I spend an-other month soul searching before I finally made two life altering decisions. Now, all I needed to do is have a chat with my mother. Bright and early Sunday morning, I arrive at the family’s country estate, Whispering Breeze, and find my mother relaxing on the veranda. Since she insists on formality, I greet her with the proper salutations, and†¦show more content†¦It reeks of immaturity. Thus, I assume you played numerous rounds of eeny, meeny, miny, moe, before deciding to slither into the dark shadows of society and forsake your social ranking. Have you no idea what your unor-tho dox behavior has done?† â€Å"What has it done?† â€Å"Brought shame upon the ancestral name?† It would have been useless to give reasons for my decisions, so I flippantly say, â€Å"Whitney, as I recall, five horse thieves, seven drug smugglers, three prostitutes and hordes of corrupt politi-cians hang from the West family tree. Honestly; no one will notice a college dropout or a tattoo artist perched upon one of its branches.† Patiently, I explained that Tommy would be my mentor during a three year apprenticeship program. However, when I mention Tommy believed I had the potential to become the greatest ink icon of my generation, because of my freehand techniques, Whitney came unglued. And con-temptuously lambasted me with every negative adjective in her vocabulary and her favorite ‘im-petuous’ she used redundantly. In spite of her accusations, I gently reassured her that my actions weren’t whimsical. And then respectfully, mentioned h ow Michelangelo had used paint and brush on a ceiling, to create a masterpiece, consequently only a few million people a year cast their eyes on his magnum opus. Whereas, a tat artist uses a tattoo gun and ink on every inch of human skin, therefore, millions can view this