Title |
Creator | Date | Era | City | Country | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godfather | Director: Coppola Francis Ford | 1972 | 1971-1990 | United States |
Life demands death; life is a horror of killing and retribution. Life is tragedy and malevolence |
Behind beauty and success lies corruption and death. |
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| Green fabric | Designer: Mariano Fortuny | circa 1920 | Italy |
Still produced by the Fortuny fabric company. |
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| Greystoke | Director: Hugh Hudson | 1984 | 1971-1990 | United Kingdom |
Life is Loss -- life is grim and culture is grim and the jungle is grim. All is grim. The other important feature of the film emotionally is that Tarzan has been crippled by his circumstances of being brought up in the jungle -- he cannot live as a man, so the great tragedy of the story is that he has to return to the jungle, which is below primitive -- it is an isolated hell in which death is at every corner, and at best the companionship of apes. Given that the story partly portrays civilized men as brutes who relish killing animals, perhaps the emotional intent is to make the choice to return to the jungle as positive, but for this reviewer it is unutterably tragic and ugly. |
Loss, Loss, Loss. Man as metaphysically alien from human culture. |
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| Head of a Bearded Man | Domenichino: | 1625c | 1600s | New York | United States |
Pensive, worried, detached qualities of humanity |
Worry is the way of the world. |
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| Helene Arpels Dress | Designer: Maggy Rouff | 1937 | 1901-1950 | Paris | France |
Elegance and richness of detail |
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| Her Face to the Wind | Painter: William Hosner | 2006 | 2000s | Traverse City, Michigan | United States |
One gets the feeling that the young woman is able to stand strong in the world, with panache and beauty all at once. |
Facing life in a fresh, strong, vivacious way. |
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| High Noon | Director: Fred Zinnemann | 1952 | 1951-1970 | United States |
There is palpable evil in the world. There is heroism in the face of evil in the world. The movie is full of fear and foreboding and betrayal. |
Civil Society is the ideal, and worth fighting for. Doing what is right is the right way to live. Don't let the evil bastards win. The theme is expressed repeatedly in the movie via the contrast of the Marshall who grimly faces the need to do what he lives for, despite the death facing him, vs. the mealy mouthed town folk, many of which who won't fight for their civil society, and vs. the deputy marshall who portrays the sellout who will give into evil force in order to "get along". |
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| Horse Seen from Behind | Draftsman: Andrea Boscoli | 1587c | 1500s | United States |
Not much except perhaps stylistic -- confident, strong drafting style, and a vibrant, alive, horse. |
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| Hyacinths to feed thy soul | White, James Terry: | 1911c | 1900s | United States |
Hopeful. Even in poverty one can have beauty. |
Beauty is a form of sustenance |
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| I'll See You Again | Composer: Noel Coward | 1929 | 1900s | Manchester | United Kingdom |
Life is bittersweet |
Sweet memories of love last forever |
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| Johnson Wax Building | Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright | 1939 | 1900 - 1950 | Racine | United States |
Day to day life can be exalted and pleasurable. |
To Work should be a condition of grandeur and joy. |
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| King in Khaki, A | Author: Henry Kitchell Webster | 1909 | 1900 - 1950 | United States |
Honesty is a noble and practical way of life. |
Business acumen produces both material wealth and moral right. The success of the entrepreneur in this story, along with his relation to all his staff and secondary and tertiary folks on the island who work for him -- makes him into a "king" based on important human relations and the rightness of his decisions that result in a successful business enterprise. A subsidiary theme might be termed the power of morality over physical power or economic "power". |
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| La Gomena (Towing a Boat) | Painter: Ettore Tito | 1909 | 1900s | Italy |
There is great effort in life, and a woman can be the master of it. This painting is a curious combination of romantic heroism and 19th century genre naturalism. It has a visual dynamism and dramatic content that is strongly romantic, yet the subject is the prosaic task of pulling a boat out of the water. |
The will and the power of a woman. Implacable determination. |
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| La Grande Nevrose | Loysel, Jacques: | c.1896 | 1800s | Paris | France |
The dynamic female body is beautiful and exciting. Although it may not explicitly suggest it, the nude and its tense position could be felt as erotic. |
An animated female body is a vessel of perfection. |
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| Landfall | Shute, Nevil: | 1940 | 1900 - 1950 | United Kingdom |
Heroes and Heroines are self-made, by anyone at any level of intelligence who seriously pursues what is important in their lives. |
Truth will triumph -- with perseverance. |
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| Laocoon (Laocoön and His Sons) | Sculptor: Agesander | 1st century BCE to 1st century CE | 500 BCE - 1 CE | Rome | Italy |
Life is a desperate, agonizing struggle. |
The heroic but agonizing defeat of Men. This sculpture certainly represents at the same time the heroic nature of men but cast into an impossible situation that can only be tragic. |
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| Love Actually | Director and Screenwriter: Richard Curtis | 2003 | 1991-2010 | United Kingdom |
Romantic love, family love, filial love, and the love of friendship are of central importance to human existence, and are possible to achieve. |
Wonderful experiences of love are found in many forms and places. |
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| Mad Men | Creator: Matthew Weiner | 2007 | Los Angeles | United States |
Men must sell their souls in order to live, and they are chauvinist pigs to boot. And women are sluts. Dark. |
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| Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) | Composer: Franz Lehar | 1905 | 1900s | Vienna | Austria |
Love brings gaiety and joy to life. |
Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous. |
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| Monster, The | Director: Roberto Benigni | 1994 | 1991-2010 | Italy |
Just laughter and more of the same. |
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| Much Ado About Nothing | Playwright: William Shakespeare | 1993 | 1991-2010 |
Sweetness and light and beauty are what the world is made of. |
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| National Farmers' Bank | Architect: Louis Sullivan | 1907 | 1900 - 1950 | Owatonna MN | United States |
Being able to breath freely -- expansively, and feeling that there are no limits to what man can do. |
The world is expansively, infinitely rich. |
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| Niobe | Sculptor: unknown | c. 200 BC | Rome | Italy |
Human action is beautiful. |
Life is movement. |
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| Octopus | Schaefer, Taf Lebel: | 2005 |
Playful. |
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| Of Human Bondage | Maugham, W. Somerset: | 1915 | 1900 - 1950 | United Kingdom |
Life is a fearful gray spread of actions and in-actions without genuine values. We are all deformed in mind or spirit and should accept convention as demanded by those around us. |
Man's life is outside his control. Conventionality is the final ideal. |
