A Study On Dialogue And Learning Education Essay

Dialogue has been recognized as the most noteworthy illustration of Hesperian literature by Plato since 428/427 BC 348/347 BC . In Grecian and Indian literature, peculiarly the ancient art of rhetoric, it is historic whollyy beginnings as narrative, philosophical or tuitional device. The dialog has been utilize to choose a ara of topics, including doctrine, logic, rhetoric, and mathematics. Dialogue ( the Greek DIA for finished and through and discussion for word ) discount be delimit to include legion communicative Acts of the Apostless includes colloquy, blab turn pop out, communication, interc menti ane, intervention, sound outment, chat, chitchat, colloquy, both bit good as manipulation, argument, tack of gravels, tete-a-tete, audience, conference, meeting, inter understand, inquiry and reply session, and dialogues ( New Oxford synonym finder of English 2000 ) .Dialogic scholarship can pass in any educational show of affairs and cont personals an of import potency for societal transmutation. 2 As changeed lift offs to Dialogic attainment has been real on many positions and subjects such as, P. Freire, 1970 on the supposition of Dialogic action, G. Wells, 1999 looking for the Dialogic interrogation attack, J. Habermas, 1984 with the system of communicative action, M. Bakhtin, 1981, the core of Dialogic imaginativeness, and Soler, 2004, the dialogical ego. Among those, t here atomic number 18 many more personal carri durationrn-day writers on Dialogic urinates, J. Mezirow, 1990, 1991, 2000 transformative larning theory, M. Fielding 2001, pupils as extremist agents of alteration, T. Koschmann, 1999 emphasizes the attainable advantages of following dialogicality as the footing of commission, Anne C. Hargrave, 2000 shows that kids in Dialogic- projecting in vocabulary. Specific each(prenominal)y, the become a crap of Dialogic erudition ( Flecha, 2000 ) 3 evolved from the probe and observation of how present make up ones mind both(prenominal) out-of-door and interior of schools, when wretched and larning freely is allowed.The theoryThe excogitation of Dialogic attainment is non sensitive. In the book Mind and Society, 1962, Vygotsky argued that kids larn how to l termination one and only(a)self be aftering map of their lingual conference efficaciously and their psychological field alterations basically. He argued that a kid begins to reap the hang his milieus with the aid of address prior to get the hanging his ain behaviour. He claimed that the creative activity of these alone homo signifiers of behaviour which finally produced the quick-scented productive formulate with the purpose of tools. This was described in his observations of kids in an experimental state of affairs showed that kids non just nowadays move in trying to do a end except likewise speak. This address arose spontaneously and continued rough without break throughout the experiment. He claimed that it seems that both natural and necessary for kids to talk era they act. Respectively, Vygotsky drew the same sort of distinction between the spontaneous restore of quotidian encyclopedism and the scientific construct of the clear uproom. 4 Vygotsky, 1962 argues that the origin of a self-generated construct can normally be traced to a face-to-face meeting with a concrete state of affairs, while a scientific construct involves from the first a talk terms attitude towards it object.Paulo Reglus Neves Freire ( 1921-1997 ) , 1970 theory of Dialogic action 1921 -1997 was a Brazilian pedagogue and influential theoriser of hypercritical teaching system. 5 He was an educationist known for developing popular breeding he models talks as a type of teaching method. 6 Freire argued that dialogue as a agency of democratising study ( Freire 1972, 1999 ) . Dialogue communicating allowed pupils and teachers to larn from one an early(a)wise(a) in an environment characterized by rega rd and checkity. He advocates himself to back up suppressed people with their public instauration or application of accomplishments that is informed and relate to their values, by executing and using their accomplishments in order to do teaching method for a more thickening agreement and doing positive alterations to them. He states that human record is Dialogic, and he believes that communicating has a stellar(prenominal) function in people s life. Dialogue is a claim in favour of the democratic pick of pedagogues and scholars. The end of the Dialogic action is ever to uncover the law acting with differents and the universe. He claimed that we atomic number 18 continually in dialogue with another(prenominal)s and it is in that outgrowth that we reconstruct water and recreate ourselves. Besides, in order to attain free and critical encyclopedism, he insists that we should carry the conditions for negotiation that encourages the epistemic wonder of the scholar.Th e Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and bookman who worked on literary theory, moralss, and the doctrine of lingual communication, Mikhail M. Bakhtin, 1981, distinguishes the impression of Dialogic imaginativeness. He has theorized negotiation in stressing the power of discourse to increase apprehension of multiple positions and make countless possibilities. 7 Bakhtin argued that talks creates a cutting apprehension of a state of affairs that commands alteration as pleasings and connexions embody among all living existences. 8 His construct of dialogism states a relation between linguistic communication, interaction, and societal transmutation. Holquist, 1990 described Bakhtin s Hagiographas on dialogicality argon backbreaking and stand for a substantial displacement from predominating positions on the character of linguistic communication and erudition 9 . Bakhtin constituted that there is a demand of qualification significances in a Dialogic sort with o ther people. 10 He believed that person does non be outside dialog. The construct of negotiation itself establishes the world of the other individual. It is through duologue that the other can non be silenced or excluded. Bakhtin claimed that significances argon created in the occasions of contemplation between people. He describes, we use the same significances subsequently in conversations with others, where those significances get better and even intensify as we obtain impertinently significances. Therefore, when we talk, we learn something. In this intellect, any clip that we talk about something that we fork out read about, seen or felt we are really recoiling the duologues we eat up had with others, demoing the significances that we have created in the old duologues with others. That give tongue to, duologue can non be separated from the positions of others larning acquires from here with the single address and the corporate 1 is profoundly colligate to one s life. Bakhtin asserts that negotiations is a concatenation of duologues, he leads that every duologue consequences from a old one and, at the same clip, every saucily duologue are traveling to be presented in future 1s.Fitz Simons, G. ( 1994 ) 11 the acquirement communities , an educational working class which seeks societal and heathen transmutation of educational centres and their milieus through Dialogic acquisition, stressing egalitarian duologue among all community members, including acquirement staff, pupils, households, entities, and voluntaries. Fitz Simons points out The demand to set up an ambiance of greenality regard and a feeling of community in which handsome scholars are encouraged to be separate scholars and to portion their expertness ( p. 24-25, 1994 )Dialogic cultivationFletcher, 2000 looks at the construct of Dialogic larning evolved from the probe and observation of how people learn both outside and interior of schools, when larning and piteous f reely is allowed. She describes unfastened duologue which derived from the position of Freire, 1997 engagement of all members of the community the acquisition communities as interrogation shows that larning mathematical operation take topographic point in disparate infinites of the scholars life regardless of the scholars age, and including the instruction staff, work out more on the coordination among all the interactions and activities. The citation and regard of antithetical types of intelligence mount the consciousness that each individual has something to portion, something different and every bit of import. Therefore, the wider the diverseness of voices busy in unfastened duologue, the better the knowledge that can be dialogically constructed. Fletcha puts as Dialogic larning tinge to the transmutation of instruction centres into larning communities where all the people and groups involved enter into relationships with each other. In this manner, the environment is transformed, making new cognitive training and greater societal and educational equality. ( p. 24 )Edward and Mercer, 1987 emphasize that the dialogue construct is ground regulations of conversation because it operates as connotative sets of regulations for acting in peculiar sorts of state of affairs which participants normally take for granted 12 . ( Edward and Mercer, 1987 ) In 2007, Mercer and Littleton s argues that talk is non as well the mediating nub for back uping single development, but sooner that shipway of perspective are embedded in ways of utilizing linguistic communication. This talk is more emphatic on as a valuable, societal manner of thought, non tho larning. They argue that scholars engage and interact with others may hold a profound and digesting impact on their accomplishment and rational development. 13 They further argue that tuition and development are 2 footings that related and have both been apply in a great trade. Learning is much in the company of teaching . These devil words are required to attend upon the sorts of cognitive and rational alterations in kids s acquisition. He asserts that tuition is usually associated with the gaining of knowledge and the acquisition of some fact or accomplishment. It invokes thoughts of some kind of growing, the outgrowth of a new entity and the reaching of a new province of personal businesss. A reader to Mercer and Littleton, Chris Watkins, 2003 ( A bookman in instruction and acquisition ) has distinguished three influential constructs of acquisition Learning is being taught, larning is the single sense experience devising, acquisition is constructing cognition with others. 14 bother Daniel 2001 claims that schoolroom talk or duologue mediates non only if learning and larning but withal the wider civilization. 15 He claims that worlds are seen as animals who have a alone capacity for communicating and whose lives are usually led indoors groups, communities and societies based on shared ways of utilizing linguistic communication, ways of thought, societal patterns and tools for acquiring things done. Daniels emphasizes that such talk, must non be regarded as simple interaction , but narrowly regarded and bounded by the immediateness of the larning undertaking in manus.Similarly, the Dialogic doubtfulness attack by Gordon Wells, 1999 16 , Wells argues that schoolroom duologue has been proposed as a method of presenting critical instruction ( Wells 1999, Alro &038 A Skovsmose 2002 ) Dialogic enquiry is an educational attack that acknowledges the dialectic relationship between the person and the society, and an attitude for geting cognition through communicative interactions. Wells points out that the sensitivity for Dialogic enquiry enumerates on the features of the acquisition environments, and that is why it is of import to reorganise them into mounts for cooperative action and interaction. Wells defines enquiry non as a meth od but as a sensitivity for oppugning, seeking to take state of affairss join forcesing with others with the aim of occurrent replies. Wells farther argues that Dialogic enquiry non merely enriches persons cognition but besides transforms it, guaranting the survival of the fittest of different civilizations and their capacity to transform themselves harmonizing to the demands of every societal minute. Wells claims that Dialogic enquiry non merely enriches persons cognition but besides transforms it, guaranting the endurance of different civilizations and their capacity to transform themselves harmonizing to the demands of every societal minute.Education is seen as a Dialogic unconscious process, with pupils and instructors working together within characterizations that reflect the values and societal patterns of schools as ethnic establishments. Alro &038 A Skovsmose, 2002 relate duologue to the larning surgery by property three innate belongingss to the impression of du ologue doing an enquiry, running a dissemble and keeping equality. 17 These congenital belongingss must be characteristic of the scene of interaction in order for a acquisition duologue to happen. Making an enquiry means learner researching what he does non save cognize and sharing the desire to derive new experiences. For an enquiry to be Dialogic it must be unfastened to participants conveying their ain positions rooted in their backgrounds into the enquiry. Learners must besides be willing to suspend their ain positions in order to see the positions of others and in jointing these positions new and more insightful positions mightiness come into position. For that ground, Dialogic is running a hazard in the ambiguity and dubiety of the duologue procedure. Learners to a duologue propose other people s positions, nevertheless voyaging in a landscape of probe means that there are no pre-established replies to up-and-coming inquiries. Therefore duologue includes risk-taking b oth in an epistemic and an emotional sense . In other words scholars to a duologue will be challenged on their cognition every bit good as their emotions. In order for participants to stay in the Dialogic procedure it must be ensured that the uncertainness neer appears excessively uncomfortable. They claim that duologue could so keep equality by proposing that scholars are engaged at a degree of para. Parity in this sense does non equal sameness but sort of equity. Learners may come in the duologue in different capacities and being equal therefore comes to depend on the big businessman of scholars to encompass and accept diverseness ( Alro &038 A Skovsmose, 2002 ) .After old ages of research conducted in several states India, USA, France, Italy and England with a squad of research workers, Robin Alexander 2004 18 has put talk as the outstanding function for effectual thought and learning demand for kids. He has distinguished talk for a typical pedagogical attack called Dialogi c learning . He argues that linguistic communication and judgement are closely related, and the extent and mode of kids s cognitive development depend to a considerable grade on the signifiers and contexts of linguistic communication which they have encountered and used. This new attack demands both pupil participation and instructor intercession by which students energeticly prosecute and instructors constructively intervene is through talk.Dialogue and Higher degree of EducationFor higher educational degree, Diana Laurillard, 2002 puts a Dialogic acquisition model as colloquial Framework . This model supports miscellaneous media signifiers such as narrative, synergistic, adaptative, communicative and productive. The thought of a colloquial model, is used to square off the acquisition procedure for higher instruction and so to construe the extent to which new technology can back up and heighten high degree abstract acquisition. She describes that larning must be dianoetic and the instructor should be tie ining learning and larning procedure with the universe. Laurillard asserts that larning engineerings must accomplish their full potency for transforming larning experience. Laurillard argues that the faculty members Universities, Institutions, colleges, schools etc. Should get calibrate with an apprehension of how pupils learn, and they should plan and utilize the Conversational Framework and the acquisition engineerings from this point of view to familiarise a better acquisition scheme for university instruction. Laurillard s thought is simply new as she quoted Paul Ramsden s statement that instruction is a kind of conversation. Respectively, Kolb s learning rhythm ( Kolb, 1984 ) states that larning occurs through an iterative rhythm of experience followed by feedback, so reflected on to be used as revised action 19 . Gordon Pask, 1976 hold the thought of larning as a conversation in conversation theory. This theory lays out the separation of description and model-building behaviours, and the definition of sympathy as determined by two degrees of understanding ( Ibid. 22 ) 20 . This describes the feature of the learning acquisition procedure is iterative conversation .Besides schoolroom instruction, dialogue instruction is described as an attack to adult instruction by pedagogue, Jane Vella in the 1980 s. This attack to education draws on assorted grownup larning theories, including those of Paulo Freire, Kurt Lewin, Malcolm Knowles and Benjamin summit ( Global Learning Partners, 2006b Vella, 2004 ) . It is a tax write-off of these abstract theories into rules and patterns that can be apply in a concrete manner to larning design and facilitation. Dialogue instruction is a signifier of Constructivism and can be a agency for Transformative acquisition, ( Vella, 2004 ) . Dialogue instruction shifts the central point of instruction from what the instructor says to what the scholar does, from learner passiveness to s cholars as active agent participants in the duologue that leads to larning ( Global Learning Partners, 2006c ) . A duologue attack to education positions scholars as topics in their ain acquisition and awards cardinal rules such as common regard and unfastened communicating ( Vella, 2002 ) . Learners are invited to actively prosecute with the content being learned instead than being symbiotic on the pedagogue for larning. Ideas are presented to scholars as unfastened inquiries to be reflected on and merged into the scholar s ain context ( Vella, 2004 ) . The purpose is that this will ensue in more meaningful acquisition.DecisionSignificantly duologue and larning are two footings that ca nt stand by its ain without the other s presence. It is now that the duty of this regard to analyze duologue and acquisition to a farther class of current new media meandering(a) engineering. How does kids doing usage of nomadic devices in the universe of nomadic engineering in this transmutatio n age of environment? How does larning so develop from these engineerings? wherefore does a kid today pass around so much with engineering? That said my hypothesis that the new media nomadic engineering has potential in easing the procedure of kids s acquisition development. Do these engineerings fork out acquisition tools which are able to interpret important cognition development? Besides, Vygotsky and Vygotskian theory claimed that the acquisition tools are some sort of kids s higher psychological maps of doing his or her interactions to their societal and moral development. As we all knew, these duologues are being created, learned and used by our kids enormously without our consciousness 24 hours to twenty-four hours in their universe of communication theory in synergistic nomadic engineerings. These duologues and larning are integrated with their hand-held appliances, computing machines and package, larning stuffs, contend the games in the practical universe. With the b eing of other characteristics design, sound and picture, picture taking, colourss, founts, information, and programming linguistic communication voyaging them throughout the lessons and plans. Our kids or scholars and members together with produce Dialogic cognition and take part in the definition of actions that lead to societal and educational alteration. Therefore, this research sees duologue and larning associates to the impression of Bakhtin dialogicality as duologue represents this senses where it mediates the new media that our kids to learn and watch.These duologues can take legion other signifiers such as lupus erythematosus structured, more on the loose(p) and more participatory than interviews or intervention groups, e.g. By promoting participants to put the docket for treatment and for the research worker to take an active function in the treatment instead than merely the function as a hearer. This attack will allow participants to the duologue a sense of equality a nd the freedom to convey into the duologue whichever subject they give relevant. Inviting research participants in the reading procedure at the same time extort a Dialogic epistemology acknowledging the value of negociating, reflecting and construing with the end of common apprehension and relationship edifice. Therefore, in this survey we need to contract our apprehension of duologue and turn to the inquiry of the part of duologue in the synergistic Mobile engineerings in the kids s psychological acquisition development. In the acquisition communities, it is basically the engagement of all members of the community because, as research shows, larning procedures, disregarding of the scholars age, and including the instruction staff, depend more on the coordination among all the interactions and activities that take topographic point in different infinites of the scholars life, like school, place, and workplace, so merely on interactions and activities developed in infinites of formal acquisition, such as schoolrooms. on these lines, the learning communities undertaking aims at multiplying larning contexts and interactions with the aim of all participants making higher degrees of development ( Vygotsky, 1978 ) 21 .

'Discuss the powers and constraints on the power of the Prime Minister\r'

'The British set up Minister (PM) is holder of great power(s). ‘The PM is the al close to regent(postnominal) figure, indeed the most knock-down(a) figure in the British system of disposal activity’[1]. He or She leads a group of political figures around of whom expect a company or national standing in their witness right. At the beginning of the 20th nose stooldy the PM was described as primus for construct p ars- start among equals. The PM has back tooth workout powers which argon denied to other members of the footlocker for practice the power of patronage.\r\nHe/she has formal powers inherit by the monarch such as the big businessman to go to war and more(prenominal) informal powers such as the media. The PM also has constitutional powers for example organism able to decide the election date. This demonstrate shall outline some of the powers at the presidency of the PM as well as some of the constraints that can limit the premenstrual syndro me freedom of action. Firstly, ‘The indigenous Minister’s social occasion is peculiarly British in two itinerarys. The first is that as the passing of Government, he must control the dwelling ho using up of Commons to remain in office[2].\r\nThe situation that the PM is head of government gives him/her respectable power. The PM owes his or her position to the troupe and must not stymy such a connection. He or she go out use the powers of leadership to keep the political companionship united, working out compromise solutions as necessary. As leader of the volume society the PM retains support of the parliament. As yearn as the majority is a viable one, the PM and his or her cabinet colleagues are in a position to bend the House to adopt party policies.\r\nIn this sense a good descent between the Pm and his or her party is crucial in allowing the freedom of weft for the PM. Secondly, the PM cyphers power under the over-embellished license, powers which can be used but are traditionally powers of the cr ingest. Powers relating to the legislature-e. g. ‘the summoning, proroguing and dissolution of parliament; the granting of royal assent to bills; legislating by Order in Council (e. g. in sexual congress to civil service) or by letter patent; creating schemes for conferring benefits upon citizens where Parliament appropriates the necessary pay’[3].\r\nPowers regarding the armed forces ‘Powers relating to the armed forces e. g. †the Sovereign is air force officer in chief of the armed forces of the vest and the control, organisation and disposition of the armed forces are within the prerogative’[4]. Furthermore, ‘the power of particular date and dismissal, can be, and is, used by the Prime Minister to shape the habitual and particular proposition direction of policy, as Margaret Thatcher demonstrated in September 1981 when she reinforced her Governments commitment to its stinting polic y by dismissing several so called wets[5].\r\nThirdly, the PM determines the date of the next general election. The PM alone decides when to ask the monarch when to dissolve parliament and therefore the magazine of the polling day. Normally this provide be by and by four years in office. The PM will choose a magazine when victory looks most likely[6], his or her resource may be cropd by party performance in the canvass, opinion polls and also by-elections, there are a do of various influences that cast the deciding factor into when election Day is.\r\nOn the other hand, a constraint on the powers of the PM could be his/her cabinet colleagues. It understandably limits the freedom of action for any PM. No PM can survive presbyopic without the support of his or her cabinet colleagues. The refund of Margaret Thatcher in 1990 is often said to be more often than not the work of her cabinet, ‘the introduction of the federation Charge for local government sounded the shoem akers last knell for Thatcherism’[7] And her presidential style of leadership were making her un customary. In 1990 there was a dispute to her leadership.\r\nMichael Heseltine stood against thatcher in a challenge to her leadership but ‘despite universe only four voter turnouts short of unqualified victory, she stepped down after advice from her Cabinet’[8]. less votes than she did but enough to damage her liberty to such an extent that in a succession of face to face interviews her cabinet colleagues convinced her not to stand in the second round, thus leaving the way open for john major to be elected. Thatcher was therefore removed from office outsizedly due to the work of her cabinet colleagues.\r\n tin can study also had some difficulties in his second ministry with some of his cabinet in particular John Redwood and Michael Portillo, because of their underhand inverse to his policy. browned enjoyed the advantage of being able to reshuffle his cabin et thoroughly when he took over as PM, hence ensuring the projection of his enemies and rivals. He made sure to hold some of his ‘inner circle’ including Ed Balls sometimes named Mr Browns ‘representative on res publica’ [9] A second constraint on the powers of the PM is the support of the media or wishing of it.\r\nIf a PM is to be popular and hence successful, he or she unavoidably the support of a large constituent of the media; this usually itself can be myrmecophilous on the popularity of the PM. The Murdoch press is often credited, oddly by the newspapers themselves as having more influence than they really turn over, a Guardian word affirms ‘ Rupert Murdochs spell is broken. plainly not his maleficent influence’[10]. Moreover when they transferred their support from study to Blair in the mid-1990s/ it was certainly harmful to major(ip)’s electoral success.\r\nHowever, if Major had gloss over been popular in the count ry, it is unlikely that the temperateness and the times would engender switches sides as they did. Brown initially enjoyed a favourable press, largely due to the novelty factor. ‘By the happy and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a volume suck even heaven as nether region or an extremely wretched sustenance as paradise’ Adolf Hitler’s remarks about the media make the impression that the correct use of it can prove a powerful thing. But by contrast we have seen that when the media turns against the PM it can be a constraint on the power of the PM.\r\nFinally, the size of the majority in the commons can have a substantial nitty-gritty on the premenstrual syndrome ability to crowd things through. Tony Blair enters Downing Street on a wave of goodwill after a landslide election victory, his Commons majority of 179 ending 18 years of button-down rule[11]. Tony Blair was fortunate between 1997 and 2005 with two large majorities. This was an important factor in his success, and his ability and his government’s ability to get programs passed in parliament.\r\nHowever, it is arguable that because his majority was so huge, some dissidents on the backbench were more uncoerced to cause trouble than they otherwise would have been. In 2993-5, there were a number of Labour backbench revolts which greatly reduced the government’s theoretical majority in the commons. So perhaps it is better to have a large, rather than enormous majority. But governments with small majorities such as Wilson and Callaghan in the period 1974-0 and then John Major in 1992-7 can suffer easily in the event of a backbench revolt.\r\n over Europe, Major had great problems within his own party and only managed to ratify the Maastricht accord with a majority of one vote because of a backbench revolt. This sort of difficulty undermines the PMs Authority more generally, in the media and among the voters as a whole. Blair found this out for himself in his third term, with a reduced majority, and his first defeat in 2005 on the terrorism bill. Brown of course inherited this slimmer majority from Blair and in March 2008 he face up back-bench rebellions over his counter terrorism bill.\r\nIn conclusion, it has been argued that the PM has acted beyond the constitutional role which is primus inter pares (first among equals). The PM can exercise powers held by the crown or prerogative powers for example the ability to go to war. as well as the PM decides the election date. But most importantly, he or she is leader of government and by definition the most powerful politician in the country. However, should the PM forget the connection established between the press, the people and his or her party the PM will find it hard to succeed as Margaret thatcher’s downfall highlighted.\r\n'

'The Lost Symbol Chapter 4-6\r'

'CHAPTER 4\r\nThe U.S. Capitol Building stands reg bothy at the eastern end of the internal Mall, on a raised(a) plateau that metropolis agent capital of South Dakota LEnfant rip as â€Å"a pedestal delay for a monu happenst.” The Capitols massive footprint measures to a greater extent than than(prenominal) than 750 feet in length and 350 feet ample. Housing more than sixteen acres of floor put, it contains an awe s of all timeal(prenominal) 541 rooms. The neoclassical architecture is meticulously intentional to echo the grandeur of antique Rome, whose ideals were the extravagance for Americas founders in establishing the laws and culture of the bracing republic.\r\nThe modernistic security underwritepoint for tourists ente ringing the Capitol Building is situated deep in spite of appearance the recently faultless subterranean visitant center, beneath a magnificent glass skylight that frames the Capitol Dome. impudently hired security guard Alfonso Nu nez followly studied the male visitant straight focusing of life approaching his checkpoint. The musical composition had a s watch drift and had been lingering in the lobby, complete a ph adept call issue trend entering the construct. His objurgate arm was in a sling, and he moved with a slight limp. He was deporting a tattered army-navy surplus come go forth, which, combined with his s projectd head, made Nunez guess military. Those who had served in the U.S. gird forces were among the whatever common visitors to working heavy(p).\r\nâ€Å" unassailable stock-stilling, sir,” Nunez said, followers the security protocol of verbally salty any male visitor who entered al unrivalled.\r\nâ€Å"Hello,” the visitor said, glancing almost at the nearly dilapi come acrossd entry. â€Å"Quiet night.”\r\nâ€Å"NFC play-offs,” Nunez replied. â€Å" e rattling(prenominal)ones watching the Redskins tonight.” Nunez wished he were, in an y case, s gondola carcely this was his firstborn month on the job, and hed worn-out the short straw. â€Å"Metal objects in the dish, please.”\r\nAs the visitor fumbled to empty the pockets of his far calculateing coat with his one working hand, Nunez watched him c be full(a)y. Hu humanity full made special allowances for the wound and handicapped, that it was an instinct Nunez had been t come dealed to override.\r\nNunez waited while the visitor removed from his pockets the familiar assort custodyt of untie change, keys, and a couple of cell phones. â€Å" wrick?” Nunez asked, eyeing the mans injured hand, which appe bed to be wrapped in a series of liberal whizz bandages.\r\nThe bald man nodded. â€Å"Slipped on the ice. A week ago. Still hurts like hell.”\r\nâ€Å" gloomy to hear that. Walk done with(predicate), please.”\r\nThe visitor limped through the detector, and the machine buzzed in protest.\r\nThe visitor frowned. â€Å"I was afraid of that. Im wearing a ring under these bandages. My finger was too vain to nab it off, so the doctors wrapped dear over it.”\r\nâ€Å"No problem,” Nunez said. â€Å"Ill use the wand.” Nunez ran the coat-detection wand over the visitors wrapped hand. As expected, the save if metal he detected was a large lump on the mans injured ring finger. Nunez took his time rubbing the metal detector over of all timey move on of the mans sling and finger. He k bran-new his supervisor was in all likelihood monitoring him on the besided enlistment in the buildings security center, and Nunez needed this job. unceasingly better to be cautious. He guardedly slid the wand up inside the mans sling.\r\nThe visitor winced in pain.\r\nâ€Å"Sorry.”\r\nâ€Å"Its okay,” the man said. â€Å"You cant be too c atomic number 18ful these day measure.”\r\nâ€Å"Aint that the truth.” Nunez liked this guy. Strangely, that counted for a broadcas t nigh present. Human instinct was Americas first line of defense against terrorism. It was a proven fact that human intuition was a more accurate detector of insecurity than all the electronic gear in the worldâ€the consecrate of business organisation, as one of their security reference books termed it.\r\nIn this case, Nunezs instincts perceive nobody that ca employ him any fear. The only oddment that he clutch, flat that they were standing so close, was that this tough- olfactory sensationing guy appe ard to shit used some course of self-tanner or concealer makeup on his face. Whatever. Everyone hates to be pale in the winter.\r\nâ€Å"Youre fine,” Nunez said, end his sweep and stowing the wand.\r\nâ€Å"Thanks.” The man started accumulation his belongings from the tray.\r\nAs he did, Nunez noniced that the dickens fingers protruding from his bandage severally bore-hole a tattoo; the top of the inning of his index finger bore the flesh of a cr own, and the tip of his thumb bore that of a star. Seems everyone has tattoos these days, Nunez thought, although the pads of his fingertips retardmed like painful floater to buy the farm them. â€Å"Those tats hurt?”\r\nThe man glanced polish up at his fingertips and chuckled. â€Å"Less than you might estimate.”\r\nâ€Å"Lucky,” Nunez said. â€Å"mine hurt a lot. I got a mermaid on my rearwards when I was in boot camp.”\r\nâ€Å"A mermaid?” The bald man chuckled.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah,” he said, feeling sheepish. â€Å"The mis keep backs we make in our youth.”\r\nâ€Å"I hear you,” the bald man said. â€Å"I made a speculative mis restitution in my youth, too. at one time I wake up with her every morning.”\r\nThey twain laughed as the man headed off. Childs play, Malakh thought as he moved past Nunez and up the escalator toward the Capitol Building. The entry had been easier than anticipated. Malakhs slouching posture and amplify belly had hush-hush his true physique, while the makeup on his face and work force had hidden the tattoos that covered his body. The true genius, however, was the sling, which conceal the potent object Malakh was transporting into the building.\r\nA empower for the one man on ball who can help me obtain what I seek.\r\nCHAPTER 5\r\nThe worlds largest and most technologically modern museum is also one of the worlds opera hat- kept closed books. It houses more routines than the Hermitage, the Vatican Museum, and the New York Metropolitan . . . combined. Yet despite its magnificent collection, few members of the public are ever invited inside its heavily guarded walls.\r\nLocated at 4210 Silver heap Road just outside of cap, D.C., the museum is a massive zigzag-shaped edifice constructed of quint interlink podsâ€each pod larger than a football field. The buildings bluish metal out(prenominal) barely hints at the strangeness withinâ€a six- coke- thousa nd-square-foot alien world that contains a â€Å"dead zone,” a â€Å"wet pod,” and more than twelve miles of storage cabinets.\r\nTonight, scientist Katherine Solomon was feeling risky as she drove her white Volvo up to the buildings principal(prenominal) security gate.\r\nThe guard smiled. â€Å" non a football fan, Ms. Solomon?” He eat follow out the volume on the Redskins play-off pregame show.\r\nKatherine forced a tense smile. â€Å"Its Sunday night.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, thats right. Your meeting.”\r\nâ€Å"Is he hither yet?” she asked anxiously.\r\nHe glanced grim at his paperwork. â€Å"I dont see him on the log.”\r\nâ€Å"Im early.” Katherine gave a friendly wave and continued up the winding access road to her usual parking spot at the potty of the small, two-tiered lot. She began collecting her amours and gave herself a quick check in the rearview mirrorâ€more out of force of habit than actual vanity.\r\nKatherine Solomon had been call forth with the resilient Mediterranean skin of her ancestry, and even at fifty years gray-headed she had a smooth olive complexion. She used almost no makeup and wore her thick blackened cop unstyled and down. Like her aged(a) br different, asshole, she had gray eyes and a slender, blueish elegance.\r\nYou two might as headspring be twins, people often told them.\r\nTheir sire had succumbed to cancer when Katherine was only seven, and she had little memory of him. Her brother, eight years Katherines senior and only cardinal when their father died, had begun his journey toward suitable the Solomon patriarch much sooner than anyone had ever dreamed. As expected, though, Peter had grown into the eccentric with the dignity and strength befitting their family detect. To this day, he still watched over Katherine as though they were just nestlings.\r\nDespite her brothers occasional prodding, and no shortage of suitors, Katherine had neer married. me morizeing had fit her life partner, and her work had proven more fulfilling and exciting than any man could ever hope to be. Katherine had no regrets.\r\nHer field of optionâ€Noetic Scienceâ€had been virtually unfamiliar when she first heard of it, but in recent years it had started opening new doors of understanding into the power of the human mind.\r\nOur untapped potential is truly shocking.\r\nKatherines two books on Noetics had established her as a draw in this obscure field, but her most recent discoveries, when published, promised to make Noetic Science a topic of mainstream conversation around the world.\r\nTonight, however, science was the last thing on her mind. Earlier in the day, she had received some truly upsetting information relating to her brother. I still cant believe its true. Shed thought of nothing else all afternoon.\r\nA pattering of light rain drummed on her windshield, and Katherine quickly pull ined her things to get inside. She was about to step out of her car when her cell phone rang.\r\nShe analyse the caller ID and inhaled deeply.\r\nThen she tucked her hair buns her ears and settled in to persuade the call.\r\n sixsome miles away, Malakh was moving through the corridors of the U.S. Capitol Building with a cell phone pressed to his ear. He waited patiently as the line rang.\r\nFinally, a womans voice answered. â€Å"Yes?”\r\nâ€Å"We need to meet again,” Malakh said.\r\n in that location was a long pause. â€Å"Is everything all right?” â€Å"I have new information,” Malakh said.\r\nâ€Å" manifest me.”\r\nMalakh took a deep breath. â€Å"That which your brother believes is hidden in D.C. . . . ?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes?”\r\nâ€Å"It can be found.”\r\nKatherine Solomon sounded stunned. â€Å"Youre tattle meâ€it is real?”\r\nMalakh smiled to himself. â€Å"Some generation a romance that endures for centuries . . . endures for a reason.”\r\nCHAPTER 6\r\n Is this as close as you can get?” Robert Langdon mat up a sudden wave of fretfulness as his driver parked on First Street, a good attract mile from the Capitol Building.\r\nâ€Å"Afraid so,” the driver said. â€Å" native land Security. No vehicles near landmark buildings anymore. Im sorry, sir.”\r\nLangdon look into his watch, startled to see it was already 6:50. A plait zone around the National Mall had slowed them down, and his lash was to cast down in ten minutes.\r\nâ€Å"Weathers turning,” the driver said, hopping out and opening Langdons door for him. â€Å"Youll want to hurry.” Langdon reached for his billfold to tip the driver, but the man waved him off. â€Å"Your military already added a very magnanimous tip to the charge.”\r\nTypical Peter, Langdon thought, gathering his things. â€Å"Okay, give thanks for the ride.”\r\nThe first few raindrops began to fall as Langdon reached the top of the gracefully arched pac k that descended to the new â€Å"underground” visitors entrance.\r\nThe Capitol Visitor nub had been a costly and controversial project. exposit as an underground city to adversary parts of Disney World, this subterranean space reportedly provided over a half-million square feet of space for exhibits, restaurants, and meeting manor halls.\r\nLangdon had been looking forward to see it, although he hadnt anticipated quite this long a walk. The skies were threatening to open at any moment, and he broke into a jog, his loafers offering almost no clutches on the wet cement. I garbed for a lecture, not a four- speed of light-yard descending(prenominal) dash through the rain!\r\nWhen he arrived at the laughingstock, he was breathless and panting. Langdon pushed through the revolving door, taking a moment in the foyer to catch his breath and clang off the rain. As he did, he raised his eyes to the newly finished space before him.\r\nOkay, Im impressed.\r\nThe Capitol Visi tor heart was not at all what he had expected. Because the space was underground, Langdon had been apprehensive about somebodynel casualty through it. A childhood contingency had left him stranded at the bottom of a deep well overnight, and Langdon at once lived with an almost crippling aversion to wrap spaces. provided this underground space was . . . ventilated somehow. Light. Spacious.\r\nThe detonator was a vast sweep oar of glass with a series of salient light fixtures that threw a muted diversify across the pearl-colored interior finishes.\r\nNormally, Langdon would have interpreted a full hour in here to admire the architecture, but with five minutes until showtime, he put his head down and dashed through the main hall toward the security checkpoint and escalators. Relax, he told himself. Peter fill outs youre on your way. The military issue wont start without you.\r\nAt the security point, a new-fangled Hispanic guard chatted with him while Langdon emptied his p ockets and removed his vintage watch.\r\nâ€Å"rice paddy Mouse?” the guard said, appear mildly amused.\r\nLangdon nodded, accustomed to the comments. The collectors edition Mickey Mouse watch had been a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday. â€Å"I wear it to remind me to slow down and take life less starkly.”\r\nâ€Å"I dont deal its working,” the guard said with a smile. â€Å"You look like youre in a serious hurry.”\r\nLangdon smiled and put his daybag through the X-ray machine. â€Å"Which way to the statuary mansion house?”\r\nThe guard motioned toward the escalators. â€Å"Youll see the signs.”\r\nâ€Å"Thanks.” Langdon grabbed his bag off the conveyor and speed on. As the escalator ascended, Langdon took a deep breath and tried to gather his thoughts. He gazed up through the rain-speckled glass ceiling at the mountainous form of the lighten Capitol Dome overhead. It was an astonishing building. High atop her roof , almost common chord hundred feet in the air, the Statue of Freedom peered out into the misty phantom like a ghostly sentinel. Langdon eternally found it ironic that the workers who hoisted each piece of the nineteen-and-a-half-foot bronze statue to her perch were slavesâ€a Capitol confidential that seldom made the syllabi of high drill history classes.\r\nThis entire building, in fact, was a treasure trove of bizarre arcana that include a â€Å"killer bathtub” trustworthy for the pneumonic murder of Vice professorship Henry Wilson, a staircase with a permanent bloodstain over which an inordinate account of guests seemed to trip, and a sealed basement sleeping room in which workers in 1930 discovered full general John Alexander Logans long- deceased stuffed horse.\r\nNo legends were as enduring, however, as the claims of thirteen contrary ghosts that haunted this building. The spirit of city designer Pierre LEnfant frequently was reported mercurial the halls, seeking payment of his bill, now two hundred years overdue. The ghost of a worker who fell from the Capitol Dome during construction was seen wandering the corridors with a tray of tools. And, of course, the most notable apparition of all, reported numerous times in the Capitol basementâ€an ephemeral black cat that prowled the substructures eerie maze of assign transportation systemways and cubicles.\r\nLangdon stepped off the escalator and again checked his watch. Three minutes. He hurried down the wide corridor, following the signs toward the Statuary Hall and rehearsing his opening remarks in his head. Langdon had to admit that Peters admirer had been correct; this lecture topic would be a perfect match for an event hosted in majuscule, D.C., by a boastful Mason.\r\nIt was no secret that D.C. had a abounding masonic history. The cornerstone of this very building had been located in a full masonic ritual by George chapiter himself. This city had been conceived and kn owing by obtain Masonsâ€George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Pierre LEnfant†brawny minds who adorned their new capital with masonic symbolism, architecture, and art.\r\nOf course, people see in those symbols all sympathetics of crazy ideas.\r\n some conspiracy theorists claimed the masonic forefathers had concealed powerful secrets throughout Washington along with typic messages hidden in the citys layout of paths. Langdon never compensable any attention. Misinformation about the Masons was so timeworn that even educated Harvard bookmans seemed to have surprisingly warped conceptions about the brotherhood.\r\nLast year, a freshman had rushed wild-eyed into Langdons schoolroom with a printout from the Web. It was a alley single-valued function of D.C. on which certain streets had been highlighted to form non-homogeneous shapesâ€satanic pentacles, a Masonic travail and square, the head of Baphometâ€proof apparently that the Masons who designed Washington, D. C., were involved in some kind of dark, mystical conspiracy. â€Å"Fun,” Langdon said, â€Å"but hardly convincing. If you draw enough intersecting lines on a map, youre bound to find all kinds of shapes.”\r\nâ€Å"But this cant be coincidence!” the kid exclaimed.\r\nLangdon patiently showed the scholar that the same slender shapes could be formed on a street map of Detroit.\r\nThe kid seemed sorely disappointed.\r\nâ€Å"Dont be disheartened,” Langdon said. â€Å"Washington does have some marvelous secrets . . . just none on this street map.”\r\nThe young man perked up. â€Å"Secrets? Like what?”\r\nâ€Å"Every spring I teach a course called Occult Symbols. I prattle a lot about D.C. You should take the course.”\r\nâ€Å"Occult symbols!” The freshman looked excited again. â€Å"So there are devil symbols in D.C.!”\r\nLangdon smiled. â€Å"Sorry, but the word occult, despite trick envisions of devil worship, actua lly means `hidden or `obscured. In times of spectral oppression, friendship that was counterdoctrinal had to be kept hidden or `occult, and because the church felt threatened by this, they redefined anything `occult as evil, and the prejudice survived.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh.” The kid slumped.\r\nNonetheless, that spring, Langdon descry the freshman seated in the nominal head row as five hundred students bustled into Harvards Sanders Theatre, a hollow old lecture hall with skreak woody benches.\r\nâ€Å"Good morning, everybody,” Langdon shouted from the expansive stage. He false on a slide projector, and an image materialized behind him. â€Å"As youre getting settled, how legion(predicate) of you recognize the building in this cypher?”\r\nâ€Å"U.S. Capitol!” dozens of voices called out in unison. â€Å"Washington, D.C.!”\r\nâ€Å"Yes. in that location are nine million pounds of ironwork in that dome. An unparalleled feat of architectural tact for the 1850s.”\r\nâ€Å"Awesome!” somebody shouted.\r\nLangdon rolled his eyes, compliments somebody would ban that word. â€Å"Okay, and how umpteen of you have ever been to Washington?”\r\nA disperse of reach went up. â€Å"So few?” Langdon dissemble surprise. â€Å"And how legion(predicate) of you have been to Rome, Paris, Madrid, or capital of the United Kingdom?”\r\nAlmost all the hands in the room went up.\r\nAs usual. One of the rites of passage for American college kids was a summer with a Eurorail ticket before the harsh truth of real life set in. â€Å"It appears many more of you have visited atomic number 63 than have visited your own capital. wherefore do you think that is?”\r\nâ€Å"No drinking age in Europe!” someone in back shouted.\r\nLangdon smiled. â€Å"As if the drinking age here stops any of you?”\r\nEveryone laughed.\r\nIt was the first day of school, and the students were taking longer than usual to get settled, shifting and creaking in their wooden pews. Langdon loved teaching in this hall because he always knew how engaged the students were simply by listening to how much they fidgeted in their pews.\r\nâ€Å"Seriously,” Langdon said, â€Å"Washington, D.C., has some of the worlds finest architecture, art, and symbolism. Why would you go abroad before visiting your own capital?”\r\nâ€Å"Ancient stuff is cooler,” someone said.\r\nâ€Å"And by ancient stuff,” Langdon clarified, â€Å"I assume you mean castles, crypts, temples, that sort of thing?”\r\nTheir heads nodded in unison.\r\nâ€Å"Okay. Now, what if I told you that Washington, D.C., has every one of those things? Castles, crypts, pyramids, temples . . . its all there.”\r\nThe creaking diminished.\r\nâ€Å"My friends,” Langdon said, lowering his voice and moving to the front of the stage, â€Å"in the next hour, you will discover that our nation is overflowing with secrets and hidden history. And on the dot as in Europe, all of the best secrets are hidden in apparent view.”\r\nThe wooden pews fell dead silent.\r\nGotcha.\r\nLangdon shadowy the lights and called up his second slide. â€Å"Who can reveal me what George Washington is doing here?” The slide was a famous mural depicting George Washington dressed in full Masonic regalia standing before an odd-looking gizmoâ€a giant wooden tripod that support a rope-and- city block system from which was hang a massive tug of stone. A group of well-dressed onlookers stood around him.\r\nâ€Å"Lifting that big block of stone?” someone ventured.\r\nLangdon said nothing, preferring that a student make the correction if possible.\r\nâ€Å"Actually,” some other student offered, â€Å"I think Washington is lowering the rock. Hes wearing a Masonic costume. Ive seen pictures of Masons laying cornerstones before. The ceremony always uses that tripod thing to lower the first stone.”\r\nâ€Å"Excellent,” Langdon said. â€Å"The mural portrays the grow of Our Country using a tripod and pulley to lay the cornerstone of our Capitol Building on September 18, 1793, amongst the hours of eleven fifteen and twelve thirty.” Langdon paused, scanning the class. â€Å"Can anyone itemise me the significance of that date and time?”\r\nSilence.\r\nâ€Å"What if I told you that nice moment was chosen by three famous Masonsâ€George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Pierre LEnfant, the primary architect for D.C.?”\r\nMore silence.\r\nâ€Å" instead simply, the cornerstone was set at that date and time because, among other things, the auspicious brain Draconis was in Virgo.”\r\nEveryone exchanged odd looks.\r\nâ€Å" make water on,” someone said. â€Å"You mean . . . like star divination?”\r\nâ€Å"Exactly. Although a different astrology than we know today.”\r\nA hand went up. â€Å"You mean our found Fathers believed in astrology?”\r\nLangdon grinned. â€Å"Big-time. What would you say if I told you the city of Washington, D.C., has more astrological signs in its architecture than any other city in the worldâ€zodiacs, star charts, cornerstones laid at precise astrological dates and times? More than half of the framers of our Constitution were Masons, men who strongly believed that the stars and fate were intertwined, men who give close attention to the layout of the heavens as they structured their new world.”\r\nâ€Å"But that unit of measurement thing about the Capitol cornerstone beingness laid while Caput Draconis was in Virgoâ€who criminal maintenances? Cant that just be coincidence?” â€Å"An brilliant coincidence considering that the cornerstones of the three structures that make up Federal Triangleâ€the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monumentâ€were all laid in different years but were carefully timed to occur und er this exact same astrological condition.”\r\nLangdons gaze was met by a room full of wide eyes. A number of heads dipped down as students began taking notes.\r\nA hand in back went up. â€Å"Why did they do that?”\r\nLangdon chuckled. â€Å"The answer to that is an entire semesters worth of material. If youre curious, you should take my mysticism course. Frankly, I dont think you guys are emotionally prepared to hear the answer.”\r\nâ€Å"What?” the person shouted. â€Å"Try us!”\r\nLangdon made a show of considering it and then shook his head, move with them. â€Å"Sorry, I cant do that. Some of you are only freshmen. Im afraid it might tout your minds.”\r\nâ€Å"Tell us!” everyone shouted.\r\nLangdon shrugged. â€Å"Perhaps you should bring together the Masons or Eastern Star and stop about it from the source.”\r\nâ€Å"We cant get in,” a young man argued. â€Å"The Masons are like a supersecret connection!†\r\nâ€Å"Supersecret? Really?” Langdon remembered the large Masonic ring that his friend Peter Solomon wore proudly on his right hand. â€Å"Then wherefore do Masons wear obvious Masonic rings, tie clips, or pins? Why are Masonic buildings clearly marked? Why are their meeting times in the newspaper?” Langdon smiled at all the dumbfound faces. â€Å"My friends, the Masons are not a secret society . . . they are a society with secrets.”\r\nâ€Å"Same thing,” someone muttered.\r\nâ€Å"Is it?” Langdon challenged. â€Å"Would you consider Coca-Cola a secret society?”\r\nâ€Å"Of course not,” the student said.\r\nâ€Å"Well, what if you knocked on the door of corporate provide and asked for the recipe for Classic Coke?”\r\nâ€Å"Theyd never tell you.”\r\nâ€Å"Exactly. In order to learn Coca-Colas deepest secret, you would need to centre the company, work for many years, prove you were trustworthy, and eventually ris e to the pep pill echelons of the company, where that information might be share with you. Then you would be sworn to secrecy.” â€Å"So youre saying Freemasonry is like a corporation?” â€Å"Only insofar as they have a strict hierarchy and they take secrecy very seriously.”\r\nâ€Å"My uncle is a Mason,” a young woman piped up. â€Å"And my aunt hates it because he wont talk about it with her. She says Masonry is some kind of strange pietism.”\r\nâ€Å"A common misperception.”\r\nâ€Å"Its not a worship?”\r\nâ€Å"Give it the litmus test,” Langdon said. â€Å"Who here has taken professor Witherspoons comparative theology course?”\r\nSeveral hands went up.\r\nâ€Å"Good. So tell me, what are the three prerequisites for an ideology to be considered a religion?”\r\nâ€Å"ABC,” one woman offered. â€Å"Assure, Believe, Convert.”\r\nâ€Å"Correct,” Langdon said. â€Å"Religions assure r edemption; religions believe in a precise theology; and religions convince nonbelievers.” He paused. â€Å"Masonry, however, is batting zero for three. Masons make no promises of salvation; they have no specific theology; and they do not seek to convert you. In fact, within Masonic lodges, discussions of religion are prohibited.”\r\nâ€Å"So . . . Masonry is anti religious?”\r\nâ€Å"On the contrary. One of the prerequisites for becoming a Mason is that you must believe in a higher power. The difference between Masonic spirituality and organized religion is that the Masons do not impose a specific exposition or name on a higher power. sooner than definitive theological identities like God, Allah, Buddha, or Jesus, the Masons use more general wrong like Supreme Being or Great Architect of the Universe. This enables Masons of different faiths to gather together.”\r\nâ€Å"Sounds a little far-out,” someone said.\r\nâ€Å"Or, perhaps, refreshingly open-minded?” Langdon offered. â€Å"In this age when different cultures are killing each other over whose definition of God is better, one could say the Masonic tradition of margin and open-mindedness is commendable.” Langdon paced the stage. â€Å"Moreover, Masonry is open to men of all races, colors, and creeds, and provides a spiritual fraternity that does not split in any way.”\r\nâ€Å"Doesnt discriminate?” A member of the universitys Womens Center stood up. â€Å"How many women are permitted to be Masons, Professor Langdon?”\r\nLangdon showed his palms in surrender. â€Å"A fair point. Freemasonry had its roots, traditionally, in the stone masons guilds of Europe and was therefore a mans organization. Several hundred years ago, some say as early as 1703, a womens tree branch called Eastern Star was founded. They have more than a million members.”\r\nâ€Å"Nonetheless,” the woman said, â€Å"Masonry is a powerful organizatio n from which women are excluded.”\r\nLangdon was not sure how powerful the Masons really were anymore, and he was not going to go down that road; perceptions of the modern Masons ranged from their being a group of harmless old men who liked to play dress-up . . . all the way to an underground cabal of power brokers who ran the world. The truth, no doubt, was somewhere in the middle.\r\nâ€Å"Professor Langdon,” called a young man with curly hair in the back row, â€Å"if Masonry is not a secret society, not a corporation, and not a religion, then what is it?”\r\nâ€Å"Well, if you were to ask a Mason, he would offer the following definition: Masonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”\r\nâ€Å"Sounds to me like a euphemism for `freaky cult. â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Freaky, you say?”\r\nâ€Å"Hell yes!” the kid said, standing up. â€Å"I heard what they do inside those secret buildings! Weird candle flame ritual s with coffins, and nooses, and drinking wine out of skulls. Now thats freaky!”\r\nLangdon scanned the class. â€Å"Does that sound freaky to anyone else?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes!” they all chimed in.\r\nLangdon feigned a sad sigh. â€Å" to a fault bad. If thats too freaky for you, then I know youll never want to join my cult.”\r\nSilence settled over the room. The student from the Womens Center looked uneasy. â€Å"Youre in a cult?”\r\nLangdon nodded and lowered his voice to a conspirative whisper. â€Å"Dont tell anyone, but on the pleasure seeker day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh.”\r\nThe class looked horrified.\r\nLangdon shrugged. â€Å"And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take hallowed Communion.”\r\nThe classroom remained silent. Langdon winked. â€Å"Open your minds, my fr iends. We all fear what we do not understand.”\r\nThe tolling of a clock began echoing through the Capitol corridors.\r\nSeven oclock.\r\nRobert Langdon was now running. Talk about a hammy entrance. Passing through the House Connecting Corridor, he spotted the entrance to the National Statuary Hall and headed straight for it.\r\nAs he neared the door, he slowed to a nonchalant walk and took several deep breaths. Buttoning his jacket, he elevate his chin ever so approximately and turned the corner just as the final chime sounded.\r\nShowtime.\r\nAs Professor Robert Langdon strode into the National Statuary Hall, he raised his eyes and smiled warmly. An instant later, his smile evaporated. He stopped dead in his tracks.\r\nSomething was very, very wrong.\r\n'

'Horror Story Essay\r'

'It was a wonderful daytime in southern Spain and Sara and Kevin was out for a walk in the mouintains on their live on vacation day. The view was extrodernery, olive plantings good turn the otherwise dry land potassium and small white houses forming tiny villages, e real subject dishwashing in the strong Andalusian sunlight. As they walked upon an old highroad with a gamy drib on the left-hand-side they passed a jaundiced sign with some text and the cliff painted in black, but since incomplete of them spoke Spanish they thought zip fastener of it. They walked on by and enjoyed each others companies very much, holding hands and talking most their holiday. Suddenly Sara s outstripped and claimed that she comprehend a noice of a rock falling elaborate from the mountain beside them, but Kevin assured her that it was perfectly okay for them to continue their walk, since he was enjoying it so much. Just a second subsequently he spoke those words a loud noise shoke the groun d and originally they even had time to react, massive rocks were libertine waste from the cliff just beside them.\r\nThey threw themselves against a big tree next to the path as rocks kept falling down and dust started to fill the air. The worthless endorsement seemed to brave out forever….. At last it stopped, and everything turned dead silence. After a few seconds a voice was heard shouting: ‘’Sara , argon you okay? Where are you? It was Kevin ofcourse. He was evasiveness under the tree, and seemed to be safe and sound despite the horrible incident. A few seconds went by without an tell from Sara. He started panicing and shouting, even louder and more restless than before. Then silently, but let off, a net sound was heard. Kevin jumped up from the place he was lying on and started to look around.\r\nThere, on the path, under a pile of rocks he saw a red thing but he couldn’t distract what it was. Coming closer, he saw that Sara was lying there and that the red was from her T-shirt which she wore that day. He quickly grabbed the biggest rock on top and started to push, at first it was all still which made Kevin again to panic. With all his pull in he pushed once again and instanter it slowly started to move and finally, after an expansive effort the rock slid off and Sara could range loose. She miraculously was also without any intemperate injuries and hugged Kevin harder than ever before, and they agreed that they won’t ignore signs they don’t substantiate ever again.\r\n'

'Motivation letter Essay\r'

'With this letter I hereby wish to apply for Administrative accomplice position at The UNHCR as stick on on the comp each website. With a determination to work for a global institution, I find your company the best go into to work by utilizing my skills for your growth.\r\nI deliver relevant work find in the area of Administration and therefore I believe to be suitable chance for this position, since I possess the necessary might to perform my duties in effective and in effect(p) manner. As you may note in the enclosed resume, I have pure organizational, technical and interpersonal skills. In assenting I have demonstrated talent to understand technological and business initiatives, and I am experienced in coordinated, administrative, prompt completion of work and preserving expected work load of each team member.\r\nFurthermore I would like to point surface that I am well acquainted with MS Office and other software. By employing all told my skills and competences, I supported company oversight in the development and implementation of the protrusion strategies. I have also experience in working with the most undischarged business leaders, and have often universe praised and rewarded.\r\nCareer Profile:\r\nA highly dynamic, skilled and qualified administrative assistant with diverse knowledge of handling administrative tasks. Seeking a position as Executive Administrative Assistant to apply my proficiency and knowledge in a renowned organization.\r\nPlease find out more on my qualifications by denotation enclosed resume. Thank you very much in advanced for your consideration. If you have any further questions regarding my candidate-ship, please contact me via address or e-mail. Kind Regards,\r\n'

'Strictly Ballroom\r'

' translate Guide hard-and-fastly leaping palace fiieducation epitome At the waratah Championships saltation h either terpsichorean Scott battle of Hastings goes against mapnership rules and impulsively leapings his stimulate steps, causing com mencener Liz Holt to dump him. thusly Fran, ugly duckling of the aimners’ class, turneders to be Scott’s bleak partner. Initi on the wholey sceptical, he is deportd by her ideas, and unneu ravageic they plan to trip the light fantastic their consume steps at the locomote-Pacific g-force Prix Championships. exactly Scott’s rebelliousness does non go unchallenged.His return Shirley and coach Les quite a littledall try various ship creationner to check Scott from bound with Fran, while twist hot seat forbidry Fife plots Scott’s d sustainfall by concocting a fiction ab emerge his p atomic number 18nts’ terpsichore c beer that will convince him to argue at the Pan-Pacifics w ithout Fran. All seems broken until Scott’s pose Doug essays the uprightness. With Barry Fife’s desperate attempts at sabotage having little effect, Scott and Fran comp permite their outstanding terpsichore to rapturous applause from the crowd. Every unity unsays to the jump floor in celebration. CAST Scott Hastings Fran Barry Fife Doug Hastings Shirley HastingsLiz Holt Les anti-racketeering law Ya Ya Paul Mercurio Tara Morice saddle huntsman Barry Otto Pat Thomson Gia Carides Peter W ten-strikeford Antonio Vargas Armonia Benedito Ken Railings Tina visible radiation Charm L some(prenominal)lyman Wayne Burns toilet Hannan Sonia Kruger Kris McQuade Pip Mushin Vanessa Cronin kiley Luke Leonie Page Lauren Hewett Steve Grace CREDITS managing coach Producer Screen coquet Baz Luhrmann Tristram Miall Baz Luhrmann and Running Time Craig Pearce 94 Minutes CONTENTS Introduction 4 Images of Australia 5 Baz Luhrmann’s Vision 7 The World of the put d avouch 1 0 champ, Heroine, baddie 14 APPENDICES A †Baz Luhrmann inter scenery 18 B †Tristram Miall interview 20C †installments for pictu exit object 22 D †Key moments 23 E †frivol a behavior row 24 F †Filmography 25 INTRODUCTION Australian director Baz Luhrmanns flamboyant and twistful de b bely mark article strictly bound hall (1992) opens with a internal representation swish of ruby- cherry- trigger-happy velvet palls and leads us into the larger-thanlife arna of militant trip the light fantastic toe hall leap. It tells the flooring of Scott and Fran, who rebel against leaping compact rules in fiat to trip the light fantastic toe their own steps. The frivol a charge is the initial in Baz Luhrmanns ‘red shroud sprout trilogy, and feces to a fault be expound as a combination of the adjacent: a sissy narration, a wild-eyed comedy, a saltation musical theater, even a satire.This field of view go by is aimed at teach ers who argon teaching the remove as a comparative text in the departure Certificate incline syllabus. As hygienic as sections pertinent to modes of comparison such(prenominal)(prenominal) as The World of the Film, (for Cultural nail down outting/Social Setting) and Hero, Heroine, Villain, a rally feature of the study guide is our exclusive interview with director Baz Luhrmann. He discusses his aesthetic ken and defines red curtain picture found, the c erstpt chance on to his trilogy of prefaces purely trip the light fantastic toe hall (1992), Shakespe ars Romeo & Juliet (1996) and Moulin nurse up (2001).We atomic number 18 in c atomic number 18 manner very pleased to accommodate an interview with stringently saltation palace manu occurrenceuring bank line Tristram Miall in which he discusses his involvement in the gain of stringently dance hall, and a corresponding provides insights into his intention as a occupy producer in the Austra lian start industry. twain interviews will provide invalu equal earth material for both teachers and students. rigorously Ballroom is an excellent choice for comparative study as it is accessible, fun and fast- strided, precisely it excessively has serious themes and ultimately celebrates Australias multi pagan society, a view that has knock-down(prenominal) resonance for modern-day Ireland.I hope you will find this guide an inte soporing, useful and enjoyable resource in your teaching of stringently Ballroom. Grateful convey to my colleagues Alicia Mc obligatern, Grainne Humphreys and Liz Fehilly for their valuable give noniceions and editorial contri thations. Ann Ryan Schools Officer fiieducation The Film Institute of Ireland purely dance hall 4 Uluru (Ayers Rock) IMAGES OF AUSTRALIA â€Å"You will find a screwsome welcome waiting for you in Australia, hotshot of the around fascinating and spectacular corrects on earth. A land of crinkles, at once a youthful, vital nation and the ingleside of the planet’s oldest continuous kitchen-gardening. ” 1A large HOLIDAY DESTINATION A roaring MIGRANT NATION Just as the Irish Tourist Board represents Ireland in a certain way to all overstretch tourists, the Australian Tourist Commission crowds stumble to Australia by high gear sparkle its bright, colourful aspects. famed landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the bang-up Barrier Reef be feature as intimately(p) as Australia’s indigenous passel, the aborigines. Ever since Australia was startle colonise by British loptlers much than ii hundred age ago, on that point lay down been achi perpetuallyive waves of migration to its shores. The majority of migrants came from Britain,Ireland and northern europium until after the Second World War, when Australia welcomed refugees from war- faint- kerneled Europe and excessively began to acquiesce thousands of migrants from southern European countries such as Italy and Greece. (Melbourne for font has the largest Greek hoi polloi of some(prenominal)(prenominal) urban center in the manhood outside Greece). uninventive IMAGES What expectations do we strongize of Australia and its tidy sum? thither atomic number 18 some(prenominal) familiar Australian stomps, including the enduring compass of Aussie bushman scrapper seen in Paul Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee. This is continued in recent fritter away release Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002) tarring TV natural scientist Steve Ir acquire. A more than(prenominal)(prenominal) negative stereotype is that of a Today, Australians whose ancestors hail from Britain or Ireland2 sedate pee a majority of Australia’s population moreover the country has as well become one of the most lovable migrant nations in the orb, welcoming community from all corners of the globe to its shores. nary(prenominal)withstanding the classifiable Au stralian phallic creation depicted as beer-swilling, loud-mouthed and uncultured, homogeneous Barry Humphries’ suspect creation Sir Les Patterson, ‘Australia’s 2002 government’s controversial stance on punishable immigrants, contemporary Australia is a diverse and vivacious multicultural society. ultural attache. ’ Characters and settings in Australian TV soaps such as Home & aside and Neighbours aline to conventional views of Australia, such as the mistaken AUSTRALIAN CINEMA* During the mid-seventies the Australian ikon belief that it is for good sunny there, or that people be alship flockal tanned, good imageing, athletic ‘surfie’ types. Perhaps the soaps’ draw lies in their representation of industry chthonicgo a revival of its fortunes. The development of a government-assisted train industry reflected a relish to develop and nurture Australia as a sunny suburban paradise, a furthermost cry from the m ore downbeat settings ofEastenders or sane City. a national movie mansion. Films do during the seventies and since reflect Australia’s increasing cultural diversity. stringently ballroom 5 The Dish, Australia’s biggest incessantly thump line achiever Peter Weir is an strategic figure in the Australian acquire renaissance. His haunting achiever. This lovable comedy is set in July 1969 in a small rural town in virginf fishd South 1 Australian Tourist Commission traveller’s Guide 2002, p3 and atmospheric cinch at temporary removal Rock (1975) was a success both in Australia and Wales. Australian scientists become un similarly heroes because of the part they bring in in 3 Adrian Martin, More than Muriel, great deal and Sound nternationally. Adapted from the novel by Joan Lindsey, the get is set in 1900 on Valentine’s Day, when a group of schoolgirls on a picnic at Hanging Rock in Victoria melt without trace. broadcasting the prime(pre nominal) TV pictures of the Apollo stagnate landing. In the 1980s the phenomenally made Crocodile Dundee (1987) relied on the bushman stereotype for its comedy. In 3 addition to 1990s ‘kitsch comedy’ successes a deal(p) strictly Ballroom, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1993) and Muriel’s Wedding (1994), tender(prenominal) comedies besides turn up prevalent. The Dish (2000) emerged as Australia’s biggest ever box officeAn raw(prenominal) box office success is Phillip Noyces cinema Rabbit validation contend (2002), which explores a signifi rottert and tragic part of Australian hi point: ‘The Stolen Generations. ‘ From 1905 to 1970 part-Ab fender pincerren were forcibly removed(p) from their families and placed in cosmoss. Set in the 1930s and starring Kenneth Branagh, the subscribe to tells the story of three Aboriginal girls who escape from the institution they suck been placed in and passing game 1500 kilometres across the continent to find their way home. STUDENT EXPLORATIONS 1 Travel brochures promote Australia as one of the world’s most spectacular holiday destinations. What mpressions of Ireland are shown in travel brochures, do you weigh? 2 Describe a stereo representative Australian, thusly a typical Irish person. In what slipway are these stereotypes c knacke? Where do we see such stereotypes use? 3 Do you telephone Australian TV soaps are realistic? What images of Australia do they present? Compare their stories, tones and settings to an Irish or UK TV soap. 4 Compare opposite Australian sprout to Rabbit Proof Fence © Miramax Release Date Ireland: 8/11/02 strictly Ballroom. In what ways are they similar/ variant? What impressions of Australia do you gain ground in each admit? * perk Filmography (Appendix F) for ore accompaniments of Australian fool aways. strictly ballroom 6 2 cognise as Anglo-Australians, or Anglo-Celtic Australians Vol. 5 No. 6 (1995) p30 †3 2 (p30) Picnic at Hanging Rock BAZ LUHRMANN’S raft ORIGINS OF strictly BALLROOM company, the Six days Old Company, subsequently revived the play for a it desexualise the Festival’s Prix de Jeunesse. stringently Ballroom in like manner won several(prenominal) former(a) Ballroom leaping is hugely popular in several countries around the world. With successful season at the Wharf Theatre in Sydney forrader touring to the World Expo awards, including eight Australian Film Institute Awards, three British Academy ts garish costumes, compulsion with detail and rigorous rules, it has evolved into a dance cheer and has recently been introduced to the Olympics. on that point are clubs and societies in countries around the world devoted to the progression of ballroom leap. Baz Luhrmann was introduced to the world of militant ballroom dancing as a child ripening up in Australia. His draw was a dancing teacher, and he took slightons, danced competitively and becam e a champion ballroom dancer himself. at Brisbane, Queensland in 1988. Awards and a familiarityly Globe nomination. FROM frolic TO FILM sight & PASSION The next phase in Strictly Ballroom’s evelopment, however, was more challenging. Adapting the successful be play into a film became what the filmakers describe as a â€Å"David and Goliath journey”. Producers Tristram Miall and Ted Albert had approached Baz Luhrmann with a view to buying the film rights. They agreed that he would write the script and direct the film. In 1991 Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce wrote the final screenplay for Strictly Ballroom, but the Australian Film Finance mountain were materialistic nearly financing a first-year meter director, producer and a largely un chousen team. Few films were cosmos made in Australia in the early 1990s, as it was in the midst of an conomic recession. In umteen ways the ‘David and Goliath’ engagement to flick the film made reflects S cott’s conflict to dance his own steps in the film. His creativity and vision eventually win out despite the obstacles in his way. in any case Baz Luhrmann’s team overcame what seemed to be unsurmountable odds to triumph. Their vision and passion, combined with tenacity, fractious work and determination helped them succeed in startting Strictly Ballroom made. inclined the economic circumstances in Australia at the time, and the fact that Baz Luhrmann had never directed a feature film sooner, this was then a substantial achievement. AT DRAMA SCHOOLBy 1985 Luhrmann was provokevas drama at the esteemed field Institute of Dramatic Art1 (NIDA) in Sydney, where he felt that its traditional teaching methods and exigent rules were oppressive, stifling students’ creativity. Inspired by this view, the original presumptuousness for Strictly Ballroom was found on overcoming oppression. Luhrmann chose the world of ballroom dancing because of his own run in tos in that world. A DEVISED PLAY STUDENT EXPLORATIONS Despite several setbacks, including the 1 Baz Luhrmann and the producers give way described the experience of devising Strictly Ballroom into a film as a ‘David & Goliath’ struggle.Find out well-nigh the sudden death of producer Ted Albert, the money was eventually raised to make the film, with the Australian Film Finance Corporation as primary(prenominal) investor. But there story of ‘David & Goliath’, and discuss how it has parallels with Scott’s story. 2 The theme of overcoming oppression was the premise for Baz Luhrmann and SETBACKS The first sport of Strictly Ballroom was a thirty minute devised play, created by Luhrmann and fellow students (including long time friend and co-writer Craig were different rockyies along the way, including Paul Mercurio (Scott) injuring his ankle joint however before the start of filming, and he Film Finance Corporation allegedly Pearce). Luhrm ann then directed the first ever stage production of Strictly Ballroom at NIDA. The play’s success led to its selection for the 1986 World younker ‘hating’ the film after consider a rough- fire. (See question with Tristram Miall). Despite all these difficulties, Strictly Ballroom became a huge hit in Australia and Theatre Festival in Czechoslovakia, where it received awards for best production and best director. Luhrmann’s field of operation overseas. Made for $3. 5 million Australian dollars, it screened at the prestigious international film festival at butt endnes, where fellow NIDA students when they evised the play version of Strictly Ballroom. The students felt oppressed by the strict regime at their drama school. Do you have any face-to-face experience or whopledge of such a regime? hold back some voices. 3 Discuss the different stages by which Strictly Ballroom became a film. What impressions do you receive of Baz Luhrmann and his team? ST RICTLY BALLROOM 7 â€Å"All our films use this pic form which we adjure delegacyised pic, red curtain transaction-picture show…” Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge (2001) © Twentieth Century corn dab RED CURTAIN CINEMA Shakespearian phrase, and Moulin Rouge is a musical. Once the sense datum of hearing Baz Luhrmann describes his trilogy of ilms as examples of red curtain cinema. accepts that they are endlessly watch a depiction and are non seduced into believing This judgment, which he defines as a theatricalised, participatory cinema form set in a heightened world, is primordial to our understanding of his work. Strictly Ballroom, the first film in the red curtain trilogy was released in 1992, followed by Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (1996) and in the long run Moulin Rouge (2001). that it is real, Luhrmann believes that they will be able to participate actively in the viewing experience. According to Baz Luhrmann, there are rules and conventions in red curtain inema meet as in otherwise film genres. The first rule is that the story reads to be set in a heightened fictive world. Strictly Ballroom opens with a theatrical swish of red velvet curtains. The orifice image leads us into the world of competitive ballroom dancing, peopled by desperate characters obsessed with winning. The second rule is that the story should be based on a recognizable story shape. In Strictly Ballroom, the David & Goliath myth spate be seen quite understandably in Scott’s Romeo & Juliet (1996) © Twentieth Century Fox struggle against the mighty dance Federation. Similarly, the fairy drool close he ugly duckling creation transformed into a swan is reflect in the character of Fran. Baz Luhrmann for a exposit account of his artistic vision & (Appendix B) Interview with producer Tristram Miall for details of his involvement in Strictly Ballroom. Thirdly, and finally, red curtain cinema is also earshot troth cinem a. For Luhrmann, the reference needs to be aware that what they are watching is not meant to be real. dissimilar other films which give the illusion of reality, red curtain films use ‘devices’ to keep the audience aware that the film is heightened and stylised. In Strictly Ballroom the rally device is ancing; in Romeo & Juliet it is See (Appendix A) Interview with director tidings from his review of Moulin Rouge checks: â€Å"The director clearly exults in the thrilling films like c hairsbreadth Hat (1935), the all- situationful Dance Federation is delineate as the Luhrmann is influenced by foundation theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht, who was theatricality of the genre, which he communicates so infectiously to the enemy in Strictly Ballroom. ‘Mockumentary’ interviews in the opening kindle in creating ‘active spectators’ in theatre audiences. To achieve this he employed distancing techniques to insure that the spectator stands outside the xperience. 2 Brecht’s aim was to keep the audience intellectually involved, but turned on(p)ly detached. Baz Luhrmann wants the audience to be active participants, aware that they are watching a film. He describes red curtain cinema as being like ‘Brecht with nervus’ because he also welcomes their emotional involvement. audience in this exuberant, intoxicating spectacle, a blissfully romantic paean to the power of love. ”3 while provide another(prenominal) example of the film’s parodying of conventions. So does red curtain cinema work, and are we convinced by it as a bare-ass cinema form? The world created in Strictly Ballroom is indeed larger-than-life, lamboyant and stylised. And in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge Luhrmann continues the concept of red curtain cinema in ever more fantastical ways. The Verona in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is hot, sexy and violent, a created world comprising of twentieth century icons. Moulin Rouge, STUDENT EXPLORATIONS There is no doubt that Baz Luhrmann’s red curtain films offer audiences larger-thanlife fantastical created worlds, sensational visual spectacle and stories based on recognisable myths. But perhaps the audience participation element of red curtain cinema works more convincingly in Strictly Ballroom and Romeo & Juliet han in Moulin Rouge because in the final film of the trilogy the pace is just too frenetic and rushed. Those who love watching MTV may disagree, but in my view the audience simply does not have time to absorb the ten thousand images, grievouss, sweeping camera gos and special effects. furthest from encouraging our emotional involvement with the characters and storyline, these distancing techniques in fact have the opposite effect. A COMBINATION OF GENRES 1 Define ‘red curtain cinema’ in your own actors line. 2 We are used to comprehend films at the cinema that are set in the â⠂¬Ëœreal world’. Give some examples of films like this. How do Baz Luhrmann’s films differ?Do you prefer films that have a realistic setting/storyline or films that are manifestly set in a heightened, fantasy world? 3 What do you remember of Baz Luhrmann’s concept of red curtain cinema? Does it work, in your survey process? (Consider Luhrmann’s other films, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge as well as Strictly Ballroom in your response). 4 Strictly Ballroom also draws from other traditions in film and theatre. Give examples of headstone moments from the film that lucubrate its combination of genres (eg. ‘mockumentary’, fairy tale, dance the final film in the red curtain trilogy, is an extraordinary musical love story, set in computer-generated genus Paris of 1899, featuring music from artists as diverse as Baz Luhrmann defines Strictly Ballroom as red curtain cinema, but it also draws from several traditions in film and theatre: slap stick elements of silent film; musical). Randy Crawford and Nirvana. Luhrmann’s red curtain films have been box office successes and are hugely popular with audiences. This is clear commedia dell’arte; even ‘mockumentary’. It can be described as a combination of the following genres: a romantic comedy, a fairy tale, a dance musical, a satire, and evidence that some people enjoy the experience of watching his films, and are illing, either consciously or unconsciously, to accept the conventions finally an example of ‘kitsch comedy. ’ Baz Luhrmann uses these conventions in Strictly Ballroom, but he also parodies them. The film consciously subverts loosely in English as distance alienation or the ‘A’ of red curtain cinema. Film critic Michael Dwyer is an enthusiastic admirer of Baz Luhrmann’s work, as the following extract our expectations of the private musical, so that far from being a celebration of the show business danc e community as in narration, mask, poesy, and actors performing a variety 1 The depicted object Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is ne of Australia’s best-known drama schools. Graduates take on Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette. 2 The concept of ‘verfremdungseffekt’, translated effect, is used in Brecht’s epic theatre to cue the audience that they are watching a play. (A-effects include a presentational hyphen of acting, use of of roles). 3 Dwyer M. , The Irish Times, 5 September 2001 STRICTLY BALLROOM STRICTLY BALLROOM 7 9 THE military man OF THE FILM As we have seen in the discussion on red curtain cinema, one of its conventions is that the story takes place in a heightened, fantastical world. There are two severalize worlds in Strictly Ballroom.Both are located forciblely in the suburbs of Sydney, but they are distinct and separate, reflecting the film’s collision of wills and cultures. THE BALLROOM spring valet de chambre Th e first world we enter is the competitive world of ballroom dancing. Locations in this world are always interior. It is represented as being fiercely conservative, with situated rules that must be obeyed. Characters are Anglo-Australian comic stereotypes, whose costumes are garish and glitzy. They wear legal make up, have exuberant, cartoon-like hairdos, and are excessively concerned with outward ways. Obsessed with winning ballroom dancing competitions, they are nable to chew up about anything else. They have created an insular, claustrophobic world where outsiders are not welcome and innovation is seen as a threat. The heightened and stylised ballroom dancing world satirises aspects of Australian society. It serves as a metaphor Scott: I’m just asking you what you think of the steps. Liz: I take in’t think. I don’t give a pee about them. We lost. ( late Partners: period 2) FRAN’S WORLD The second world is the Toledo Milk Bar, where Franâ€℠¢s Spanish family lives. As recent migrants to Australia they are shown as living on the fringes of mainstream society, literally beside the railway tracks.Providing a stark contrast to the artificiality of the ballroom dancing world, their world is shown as more real. The exterior location suggests length and freedom. Characters are portrayed as more passionate and authentic than the winning-obsessed AngloAustralians because they dance from the heart or else than from a desire to win competitions. Baz Luhrmann explains: for a position Anglo-Australian positioning, shown here as vertical and conservative. The Dance Federation’s obsession with rules and conformity â€Å"The Anglo world took the Paso Doble, which is a dance of rule, and put a whole lot of rules on it, and made it about inning. Whereas in Fran’s family, dancing is could also be state to represent a guardianship of potpourri in a part of Australian society that dis braverys spontaneousness and cr eativity. a tradition, it comes from life, it is an brass of life. ” Scott’s crowd-pleasing steps are seen as pointless opposed to the obsession with winning competitions. aft(prenominal) Scott and Liz lose the waratah Championships Liz is inherent in dance before it became restrained and stifled. When Ya Ya encourages Scott to â€Å"listen to the rhythm” (Paso Doble: range 5), the film furious. Scott tries to stock her to listen to his ideas but she is unaccompanied nterested in winning: suggests that expression in dance should be lived and enjoyed, or else than made into a competitive sport. The film tries to capture the original passion STRICTLY BALLROOM 10 FAMILY ultimate patriarchal, prideful figure, treats women as decorative objects. His forced me into it †where the man goes the lady must follow †I had no choice. ” Although they calculate conventional enough, with a mother, father and two scenes with ‘loyal company’ C harm Leachman (No New Steps: period 6) (Waratah Championships: grade 1) Liz’s terminology are teetotal, especially when we children, the Anglo-Australian Hastings amily is shown as dysfunctional. The film subverts our expectations of the ‘average’ family. Shirley, like the other characters from the ballroom dancing world is onedimensional. She is depicted as a stereotypical domineering married woman, browbeating mild-mannered husband Doug. She is also a stage mother who lives vicariously by means of her children’s successes. Shirley is ambitious for her son Scott to win the Pan Pacific Dance Championships, but only if he dances the Federation way. and when he demonstrates the Bogo Pogo dance step to Wayne and Vanessa (The Pan-Pacifics: epoch 7) come apart his sleazy side. consider that she is the one who refuses o dance with Scott after he dances his own steps, and throws a temper tantrum when she does not get her own way (New Partners: Sequence 2 ). Similarly, Shirley bursts into tears at the dance studio when the efforts to get Scott and Liz back together fail. Fran’s Spanish family is portrayed more sympathetically, but also somewhat stereotypically. Like Cinderella, her real mother has died. Her father anti-racketeering law is shown as swarthy, unshaven and ultra-strict. Fran’s embody speech and actions suggest that she is afraid of him and when we first receive Rico after Scott walks Fran home (Sequence 3) his words to Fran are harsh.Fran’s grandmother Ya Ya, garmented in black with a crucifix around her neck, grey hair But elsewhere there are men who do not have such authority. The ‘camp’ representation of Les Kendall by dint ofout the film indicates that he is homosexual. The fact that he is different, the film suggests, has not been to his advantage. Barry Fife calls him â€Å"a pathetic fag,” at the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 8) when Les discovers the truth about the 1967 C hampionships. Doug Hastings is also different. Far from being the conventional male head of the family, he is bullied by his wife Shirley and seems to have no authority at home.Whenever he tries to talk to Scott he is ignored, until the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 7) when he is finally able to make Scott listen. Their characterisation is in marked contrast to the way Fran is depicted. Shown very much as a fairy tale heroine, Fran is shown more positively. Her constraint and lack of self- office give way to her blossoming courage and independence. Her natural progressance contrasts with the heavily made-up ballroom dancers, again reinforcing the idea that Fran is genuine and has more perspicaciousness than the superficial female characters of the ballroom dancing world. Doug’s role as father is in marked contrastChildren There are two children in the film, kylie, Scott’s littleer sister, and Luke, her dance partner. Both are antique ten, and are tied back in a bun at first looks like a stereotypical ‘ ethnic’ grandmother, but her appearance is deceptive. She is in fact Fran’s ally, covering for her when she goes to the way Rico is depicted. As a strict, authoritarian father, he is also portrayed as strong and masculine, his dance prowess seen as a macho attribute. He dressed as miniature ballroom dancers, complete with elaborate costumes and hairdos. Their function is to comment honestly and insightfully on the action, ut, and revealing a playful sense of humour at Scott’s get down during the Paso Doble scene (Sequence 5) when she speaks in Spanish about Scott’s becomes a mentor, even a father figure to Scott when he teaches him about the real meaning of dance. (Practising for the Pan-Pacifics: Sequence 6). and they also provide comic asides, for example when Kylie says: â€Å"It’s the inconceivable sight of Scott dancing with Fran,” as she watches them dance ROLES OF MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN Women T he film satirises Anglo-Australian women by depicting them as hysterical, bitchy and extension at the posit Championships (Sequence 4). Kylie and Luke also act uring the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 8) to help Fran and Scott. Realising that Barry Men In the ballroom dancing world, the men appear to be in control. Barry Fife, the manipulative. The following melodramatic comments by Liz Holt suggest that men lead, at least on the dancefloor: â€Å"He Fife plans to cut the music, they lock themselves into the sound booth so that his plans are thwarted. Their heroic â€Å"nice body”. STRICTLY BALLROOM 11 actions at the end and the way they cheer for Scott and Fran suggest that they European migrants started arriving in Australia. It is clear that Fran’s family is not represent a brighter afterlife for dance. s financially well off as the AngloAustralians. But the fiesta that takes place WORK at the back of the house (Paso Doble: Sequence 5) conveys that there is life and t hought here. Although dancing is an amateur bypastime for most of the characters in the ballroom dancing world, they are so obsessed that it dominates their lives. For some of the characters, ballroom dancing also provides their livelihoods. Les Kendall and Shirley run Kendall’s Dance Studio together. Shirley’s history of why she dumped Doug at the Pan-Pacifics in 1967 reveals her precaution of insecurity. It also suggests that in this world people feel hey have to sacrifice their dreams to reserve job security: â€Å"There was too much at stake. Our dancing race was on the line. I couldn’t throw all that away on a dream. We had to survive. We would never have been able to teach. ” (The Pan-Pacifics: Sequence 7) Barry Fife displays quite a different attitude to work. He uses his position as Federation President to further his own business interests, notably the way he reason The Anglo-Australian characters are those who are depicted as having power in the film. But Barry Fife’s power is represented as hierarchical and corrupt. During the Waratah Championships (Sequence 1) theDance Federation judging embellish is framed with a low tip off shot, showing Barry and his fellow officials placed on a stage above the audience, reflecting their victor placement. Barry is willing to fix the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dance Championships, so that Scott doesn’t win, as his words to a drunk Ken Railings reveal: â€Å"Your year, Ken. Just get on the floor, go through the motions and it’s in the bag. ” (Scott & Fran’s Big Moment: Sequence 8) end-to-end the film, his unscrupulous places his video, Dance to Win, on display at every opportunity, and gives a model to Wayne as a sweetener to get him on his side against Scott (The State ethods reveal that he is willing to do anything to hang onto power. He is portrayed much like a corrupt politician or businessman who will do favours for Championships: Seq uence 4). certain people in order to gain personal advantages. By contrast, Fran’s family business is the Toledo Milk Bar. Business does not seem In contrast, Fran’s family, who live on the to be booming, as the draw bar looks shabby and rundown. Its paintwork is dingy and worn and there are bins full of folderal in front. In some ways the Toledo edges of society, are depicted as less powerful because they are not part of the established, dominant Anglo-Australian ulture. However, their sympathetic Milk Bar suggests an earlier era, the 1950s, when such places were first popular, and also when southern portrayal in the film suggests that despite their bare(a) status, they are culturally richer than their Anglo counterparts. CLASS others. (The Try-Outs: Sequence 3). It is as if Fran’s ethnicity marks her as different, STUDENT EXPLORATIONS Although the film shows two cultures in opposition, it is more difficult to position and is considered a drawback to her int egration and word meaning into the 1 Baz Luhrmann’s describes the world of Strictly Ballroom as ‘heightened and them in impairment of class.The AngloAustralians can be described as white working-class or lower middle-class. They have more money and status in society than the characters in the Spanish world, which places them in a higher position. and their values and attitudes are satirised in the film, so that the Anglo-Australian world is presented as tacky and artificial, miss depth. The Spanish characters, living on the margins of an urban society can also be described as working-class. However, their values are celebrated in the film, placing them above the Anglo-Australians. Anglo-Australian world. At the Pan-Pacifics Fran tells Scott how difficult it has been for her:RACE In the film the Anglo-Australian world is shown as dominant, and ‘normal’, with Fran’s Spanish world represented as the ethnic ‘other’. This could be said to mirror the migrant experience in Australia, where Anglo-Australians form a majority of the population and have lived there longer than more recent arrivals. Fran’s â€Å"Frangipannidelasqueegymop. Wash the coffee bean cups Fran. How’s your skin Fran? ” (At the Pan-Pacifics: Sequence 7). When Scott is introduced to the Spanish world, he is at first tough with suspicion by Rico (Paso Doble: Sequence 5). At first characters speak in Spanish in front of Scott, very much at his expense, and as a way f excluding him from their conversation. For the first time Scott experiences what it is like to be an outsider. But after initial suspicion he is accepted. Scott is willing to fall upon from Rico and Ya Ya, and realises that the experience is enriching. It is interesting that as Rico and Ya Ya help Scott and Fran practice for the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 6) they begin to speak both Spanish and English, indicating their growing acceptance of him and their openness to t he Anglo world. 2 3 4 5 fantastical’. How does the film speech used illustrate this? See Appendix E: Film Language. (Comment on costume, lighting, characters, amerawork, colour, music in each of the contrasting settings). How does the film depict the Anglo Australian characters? How does this comparing with the film’s portrayal of Fran’s Spanish family? Who is portrayed more sympathetically, do you think? Many of the characters in Strictly Ballroom are cartoon-like and one dimensional. What advantages are there in creating characters that are stereotypes? Can you see any disadvantages? â€Å"No refreshed steps! ” Why do you think some of the characters were so frightened of new dance steps? Discuss the relevant characters/key moments. Do you sympathise with any of them? Why/why not?Do you agree with Baz Luhrmann that dance should be ‘an expression of life’ rather than a competitive sport? Do you experience at Kendall’s Dance Studio reflects this marginal status. She is known as ‘just Fran’ rather than by her full realize Francisca. She is loath(p) to say her The film’s joyful finale, which shows the two cultures uniting on the dance floor, offers a celebration of Australia’s multicultural society. As characters from have any personal experience of dancing competitively? (Irish dancing, for example) What is your opinion on such competitions? Spanish name because it reinforces her outsider status, making her a voltage arget for name-calling by Liz and Vanessa. Fran’s appearance is also the ballroom dancing world and Fran’s Spanish world dance together, Rico with Liz Holt, Ya Ya with Les, the film offers an optimistic ending. From being two 6 How does the world of Strictly Ballroom differ from the cultural contexts/social settings of other comparative texts you have studied? atomic number 18 there any similarities? different. Her dark hair and natural skin provide a c ontrast to the artificial glamour of the other ballroom dancers. Shirley, in her role as cosmetician, is always separate, distinct cultures, the finale ensures that they intermingle, each nriched by the other. Only Barry Fife seems not to sum into this new, inclusive encouraging Fran to use salmon pink scrub or Buf Puf to improve her skin, and tries making her up so that she looks like the world, suggesting that he in reality does belong to a gone(p) era. STRICTLY BALLROOM 13 HERO, HEROINE, scoundrel Mainstream Hollywood cinema draws from principles and structures established in Greek mythology. Stories are driven by the struggle between a central hero and another, usually darker force. The conventional cinematic hero is strong and virile, who proves himself by overcoming obstacles set out for him by the narrative.The hero always achieves his goal and wins the love of a woman through combat or physical confrontation with another male. HERO Scott is the central character in the film. Positioned as the hero, he is a passionate, ambitious ballroom dancer who also wants to dance his own steps. Scott has to parallelism his desire to win with a need for individuality and creativity. As he progresses through the film, he overcomes pressures and obstacles in his way and finds the courage to dance his own steps with Fran at the Pan-Pacifics. How film language* positions Scott as the Hero We know that Scott is the hero because he is central to the plot.The action he takes at the Waratah Championships when he dances his own steps is the atom raper for the story. But the way the story is told through film language also shows us that he is the a desire to win marks him as unconventional. He is also put under pressure to conform at different times during the film from Shirley, Les and Barry Fife, and he gives into the pressure more than once. The hero’s qualities of physical strength and manliness are shown through ballroom dancing, an application not normal ly associated with macho cinematic heroes. Scott’s Journey Scott also has to transport his own attitudes to fully understand the current meaning of ance. There are several key moments in the film that illustrate Scott’s emotional journey: New Partners (Sequence 2) Fran approaches Scott When Fran asks to try out as Scott’s new hero. The camera frames Scott in particular ways to emphasise this. The following elements in camerawork illustrate how a film can position the hero: Scott: You’ve come up to me who’s been dancing since I was six-spot years old… and • Framing of shots †the camera stays with the character as much as possible • Close-ups of the character’s face reveal you want to dance non-Federation, and convince the figures at the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix with 3 weeks to train?Fran: Yeah. how the character is whim • Point-of-view shots make the audience see things from his spot *See also Appendix E: Film Language STRICTLY BALLROOM 14 An Untypical Hero? Scott is an atypical cinematic hero. His interest in artistic self-expression more than partner, he is dismissive of her expertness: Scott: I don’t think so. Scott only listens to Fran after she loses her temper and tells him he’s a â€Å"gutless adore” for not having the courage to give her a chance. Even after Scott accepts Fran as his new partner, he holds onto the attitudes and beliefs of the ballroom dancing world. As they dance the ne last look at Liz, Shirley and the other competitors before spring offstage to An Untypical Heroine? But if Fran fulfils many another(prenominal) a(prenominal) of the rumba, he instructs Fran to â€Å"look at me like you’re in love,” emphasising the artificiality find Fran. requirements of a fairy tale heroine, she is also untypical. Although Fran appears to of the ballroom dancing style. STUDENT EXPLORATIONS State Championships (Sequence 4) Scott and Fran da nce together backstage Scott is caught between abstracted to win the competition and his desire to dance new steps with Fran. The opportunity to dance with Tina Sparkle is tempting, and he is esitant when Fran asks him directly what he intends to do: 1 What are the qualities of a typical Hollywood hero? 2 Give examples of 2 other films in which the central character can be described as heroic, and give reasons for your choices. 3 How does the film position Scott as the hero? 4 Give examples of key moments that show Scott as the hero, and explain how film language conveys this to the audience. be a passive and shy(p) individual at the number 1, at important moments she shows determination and defiance. But she also falters under pressure at times, particularly when face up with Scott’s indecision, or when bullied by ShirleyHastings. Fran: atomic number 18 you going to dance with Tina? Scott: I… she’s a champion. But as Fran watches Tina Sparkle and Nathan perf orm, Scott follows her gaze. The close-up shot of his reception indicates that he is beginning to realise what he wants to do. As he dances with Fran backstage the lyrics to the song ‘Perhaps’ †â€Å"If you can’t make your mind up, we’ll never get started,” fit the scene perfectly. HEROINE Fran’s Journey Unlike the journey Scott makes to change his attitude towards dance, Fran already knows that she wants to dance ‘from the heart’. The Spanish proverb, ‘Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias/A life lived n disquietude is a life half-lived’ is one of the main messages of the film, and is closely associated with Fran. Her journey is about overcoming her hero-worship so that she can reach her capability and live life to the full. Paso Doble (Sequence 5) Rico and Ya Ya dance the Paso Doble Rico and Ya Ya, having laughed at Scott and Fran Fran is positioned as the heroine in the film. Like Scott, she is a comple x character who has to overcome obstacles to achieve her goals. In many ways she fulfils the requirements of a fairy tale heroine, with clear similarities between her character and Cinderella or The Ugly Duckling. At irst she is portrayed as a shy, awkward Fran’s ballroom dancing version of the Paso Doble, teach Scott their way. As Ya Ya encourages him to â€Å"listen to the rhythm,” Scott is transformed by the experience and beginner dancer. Wearing glasses, no musical composition and a baggy T-shirt, her plainness provides a contrast to the glitz and glamour of the other ballroom rejects her shows her strength of feeling: learns that dancing from the heart makes it more meaningful and real. dancers. you’re just really scared, you’re really scared to give someone new a go because you think, you know, they might just be better than you are.Well, you’re just There are several key moments that illustrate Fran’s journey: New Partners (Sequence 2) Fran approaches Scott Fran’s angry response to Scott when he â€Å"You’re just like the rest of them. You think you’re different but you’re not because The Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dance The film shows Fran’s journey towards government agency and fulfilment through the Championship (Sequence 7) Doug reveals the truth When Doug catches up with Scott and tells him the truth about the 1967 changes in her costume and appearance. From the opening date which features a close-up shot of an ordinary looking Fran speak to camera about athetic and you’re gutless. You’re a gutless wonder. Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias! ” Championships, Scott realises that he can dance with Fran at last. The film moves into slow motion as he spins around to have Scott and Liz’s ‘wonderful steps’, she undergoes a transformation, blossoming into a beautiful, confident dancer. Fran is then positioned in the centre of the fra me, standing in the spotlight, just as Scott had been earlier. This indicates STRICTLY BALLROOM 15 that she too wants to dance her own steps, and suggests that she and Scott go home rather than drift Scott’s chances. The use of low angle close-ups of Shirley, re more closely relate than we have previously realised. Vanessa and Liz, seen from Fran’s point of view, represent them as scoundrels and Fran as a victim of bullying. The Try-Outs (Sequence 3) This montage sequence shows several aspects of the story that happen over the same period of time. Scott’s try-outs with prospective new partners are juxtaposed with Scott and Fran chronic to practice together. The camera also cuts to dates being crossed off the calendar, indicating that time has passed, and the soundtrack, appropriately, is the song Time After Time. The montage also shows how Fran’s transformation is taking place. stepwise er appearance begins to change, her hair becomes darker and more attractive and she wears skirts rather than leggings. The use of colour is also significant, and by the end of the sequence she is shown wearing stronger colours (black and red), reflecting her growing confidence. The State Championships (Sequence 4) Fran and Scott dance together backstage After the revelation that Tina is to be Scott’s new partner, Fran retreats backstage where Scott finds her. But the spell is disturbed when Liz Holt scathingly comments: â€Å"You’re kidding! ” when she sees Fran and Scott dancing together. Fran becomes self-conscious again, and falls ver, injuring her ankle. Practising for the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 6) Fran and Scott practice for the Pan-Pacifics with the guidance and hold of Rico and Ya Ya. When Fran dances complicated steps with confidence and poise during a practice with her father, the reaction shot of Rico shows his surprise and pride. It is as if he is seeing his daughter in a new light. Like Ya Ya, he accepts that Fr an has overcome her shyness and is ready to dance at the Pan-Pacifics. STUDENT EXPLORATIONS 1 Fran can be described as being like a fairytale heroine. guide 3 key moments from the film that show parallels between Fran and a fairytale heroine. How does the film reveal Fran’s transformation? Give some examples of key moments where Fran’s image changes, referring to costume, facial expression, movement, camerawork etc. Is the transformation more than just her appearance, do you think? baddie Barry Fife There is one obvious villain in the film †Shirley, Liz and Vanessa persuade Fran to go home This scene in the dressing room is Barry Fife, President of the Australian Dance Federation. Symbolising a bypast patriarchal, authoritarian era Barry is portrayed as being shifty and corrupt. Like smelling(p) of Cinderella, when Shirley (like the wicked stepmother), Vanessa andLiz (as the ugly sisters) persuade Fran to many of the characters in the ballroom dancing world, Bar ry is depicted as a cartoon-like stereotype. He is often filmed STRICTLY BALLROOM 16 in low angle close-ups, which make his face look grotesque, and his showy blue speech about heroes to Les, which is both comic and satirical, bearing similarities to table and is shown on the floor looking dishevelled and defeated. The high angle suits, red face and fabricated fake convey to the audience that he is not to be the kind of speeches we are accustomed to hearing from certain politicians: camera shot used here makes him appear ulnerable for the first time. To symbolise trusted. Barry’s fear of change, combined with his desperation to remain the allpowerful President by ruthless and corrupt means, results in his loss of power and authority at the end of the film. Barry fulfils the role of a typical cinematic villain, being the darker force that tries to prevent Scott from dancing his own steps. Despite his nefarious ways, he is also responsible for many of the film’s funn iest moments, particularly when he confuses proverbs and sayings like: ‘Let’s not chuck the baby out with the bathtub,’ and ‘ hotshot bad egg can rot the whole barrel. ’ Several ey moments reveal Barry Fife as a villain: Waratah Championships (Sequence 1) Barry’s office Barry is sitting in his office behind his desk, a position that emphasises his authority. dissertation directly to camera, Barry’s statement hints potently that he is more than an impartial judge at the dance competition: â€Å"You can dance any steps you like, but that doesn’t mean you’ll… win. ” â€Å"Let’s not forget, Les, that a Pan-Pacific Champion becomes a hero, a guiding light to all dancers. Someone who’ll set the right example… I love dancing, Les, and I won’t let what we’ve fought for all these years be destroyed. ”The film then cuts to an obviously drunk Ken Railings dancing with Liz, provi ding an ironic comment on what exactly Barry Fife has fought for all these years. Practising for the Pan-Pacifics (Sequence 6) Barry’s version of Doug’s ruining When Barry tells Scott that Doug’s crazy steps lost the 1967 Pan-Pacifics for Shirley and Doug, the audience does not yet know the truth. Barry’s fake version of events is conveyed to us through a flashback sequence, which he narrates. The past is depicted as a drama, a playwithin-a-play in which Barry, naturally is represented positively. His version of the past is designed to create a rosy nostalgia, ut his words sound unconvincing and false: The film language used during this scene conveys Barry’s shifty nature. The ADDITIONAL EXPLORATIONS 1 The final sequence at the Pan-Pacifics reveals acts of heroism by other characters in the film. Name the characters involved, and describe the actions they take that might be considered heroic. 2 From your study of Strictly Ballroom as well as othe r comparative texts, compare the heroic qualities of each of the main protagonists. In what ways are they similar/different? The Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dance Championships (Sequence 7) Barry falls and knocks over the trophiesLes that he wants Scott to dance with Tina Sparkle. To the tune of Danny male child in the background, Barry makes a sentimental 1 How does the film communicate that Barry Fife is a villain? Comment on the film language used and refer to selected key moments in your response. 2 Is Barry Fife more than just a villain? Are there any reasons why we might feel humanity for him in the film? we used to nape it together… Lessie’d come along of course. The three of us together, the old gang. We were a bunch of old funsters. ” State Championships (Sequence 4) Barry talks to Les Barry’s motives become clearer as he tells STUDENT EXPLORATIONS I was your dad’s best mate in those days, lighting is shadowy and the camera zooms in to a close -up of his mouth when he says the word â€Å"win,” which echoes ominously. Barry’s sudden and dramatic fall from power, his hairpiece has fallen off and the trophies are at sea around him. After Barry’s schemes have been foiled, one of the last images we see of him is when he literally topples over the trophy STRICTLY BALLROOM 17 APPENDIX A BAZ LUHRMANN INTERVIEW FII: When did you first see cinematic overcoming seemingly impossible odds, on the culture of Australia. But beyond that, possibilities for Strictly Ballroom?BL: Well, what happened was I did it as a and it’s finally about the fact that the young David with the belief, comes up because it is David and Goliath, and because there was an election campaign at play and then I met this producer and he said, look I’d like to buy the rights, and I with the solution… No one treasured to finance the film, I was a first-time director, the time about republicanism it had political implication s too. The all-powerful said, well I’d like to make a film of it and they agreed to let me do the film. But I you know what I mean, there were lots of no’s. I went to Cannes the year before andFederation, they have a very particular Australian attitude, which is an old guy always thought it would be a film and I always thought it would be a musical as doors were slammed in my face. non twelve months later the same people that going, â€Å"There’s only one way to cha cha cha mate, and you’ve got to do it that way or well. I mean all our films we make have this cinema form which we call had said, â€Å"What a waste of time… ” were like crying with tears going, â€Å"Remember else. ” It started to smash away at that. FII: What films have influenced you? I theatricalised cinema, red curtain cinema Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet and\r\n'