Title | Creator | Date | Era | City | Country | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme | |
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Trustee from the Toolroom | Author: Nevil Shute | 1960 | United Kingdom |
A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world. |
The importance of pursuing one's personal values. |
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Rembrandt | Director: Korda Alexander | 1936 | 1931-1950 | United Kingdom |
Life is hard as an independent spirit, and wealth will elude you, but you will be happy, after a fashion. |
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Chocolat | Director: Lasse Hallstrom | 2000 | United Kingdom |
Pleasure is good; religion and conventional thinking is bad. |
Follow your dream and disregard convention. |
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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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Design for Living | Writer: Noel Coward | 1932 | 1900s | United Kingdom |
Life can be giddy and bright. Facing up to one's anti-conventional values is important. Conventional morality must be questioned if it causes suffering and conflict. |
You should follow your deepest values and accept them no matter how unconventional the outcome. A rare combination of the wittiest, lightest of Noel Coward's style, along with deeper themes of romantic love, proper morality and how should one live. |
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Feast of Belshazzar | Painter: Rembrandt Van Rijn | 1635c. | 1600s | London | United Kingdom |
The only way to know the sense of life or world view of the painting is through it's history, since the image is very mixed. Shows an opulent and sumptuous world, but the people are obviously distressed over something. Assuming one knows its history, you could conclude it is an exercise in depicting the dangers of the worldly pursuits and wealth. |
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Billy Elliot | Director: Stephen Daldry | 2000 | 1991-2010 | United Kingdom |
Life is dirty but one can clean up. |
Go after what you love. |
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Chariots of Fire | Director: Hugh Hudson | 1981 | 1971-1990 | United Kingdom |
A complete feeling of openness of the world to greatness of your own choosing. |
Life is achievement. |
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Ardabil Carpet | Classical Persian School: | 16th century CE | London | United Kingdom |
sumptuous eye candy. |
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Rob Roy | Director: Michael Caton-Jones | 1995 | 1991-2010 | United Kingdom |
Life is a struggle. The life you make for yourself can be difficult, but living it with strength and morality is the way to live. Happiness is possible in romance. |
Heroism in everyday life leads to heroism writ large. A man works hard to lead his life and those of his extended clan in an honorable, productive, honest way. This is the everyday heroism. But dishonorable, evil men seek to steal from him and ruin him. This leads to a life of larger-than-life heroism to vanquish his mortal, and stronger enemies. |
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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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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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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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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. |
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Brief Encounter | Screenwriter: Noel Coward | 1945 | 1931-1950 | United Kingdom |
Passionate love. Tragic choices. |
High romance is possible. Such love is unlikely to survive. This film manages to embrace two contradictory themes, leading to a major bittersweet outcome. |
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Sports March | Singing Group: Soviet Army Chorus and Band | unknown mid-20th century | 1900s | Russia |
Happiness triumphs. |
The power of joy to motivate action. |
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Composition with Red Yellow Blue and Black | Painter: Piet Mondrian | 1921 | The Hague | Netherlands |
[Seems mute] |
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Confectionary Basket from Japan, Fukui region | Designer: Anonymous | unknown | Japan |
Life can be dynamic and purposeful and intriguing -- because of the dynamic form and economy of materials and diagonal symmetry of the composition. |
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Crane Under the Rain | Ohara, Shoson: | 1928 | 1900s | Japan |
Life is difficult. |
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Rashomon | Director: Akira Kurosawa | 1950 | 1931-1950 | Japan |
The world is terrible and full of disasters and mankind is awful and pathetic. |
Objectivity is a myth -- everyone sees a different reality, a different "story". |
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Senso-ju Temple at Asakusa | Hiroshige: | 1840s c | 1800s | Tokyo | Japan |
Pure, simple, quiet tranquility. |
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Ferrari Dino 246 GT | Designer: Enzo Ferrari | 1969 | Italy |
The world is a place of speed and elegance. |
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Green fabric | Designer: Mariano Fortuny | circa 1920 | Italy |
Still produced by the Fortuny fabric company. |
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David | Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti | 1504 | 1500s | Florence | Italy |
Man is a strong, indomitable creature who has the intelligence to overcome terrible odds. |
[requires assumption of some context of this work -- not a "cold" introduction to it]: A man able to face a daunting task, with tremulous calm and determination. This is the depiction of the David/Goliath story of the Bible in which David takes on the much more formidable Goliath and wins. |
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Pirelli Calendar Diver | Photographer: Uwe Ommer | 1984 | Italy |
Women can be strong, dynamic and unconsciously beautiful. |