domani è venerdì...

"...del resto oggi è giovedì", mi risponderete voi...e potremmo continuare a filosofeggiare sui giorni della settimana...ma, con l'affermazione "domani è venerdì..." mi riferisco al fatto che domani in tardo pomeriggio farò quello che faccio tutti i venerdì, "che cosa prof?" mi direte voi miei bei Mignolini, ed io dirò "tentare di conquistare il m...ehm, no quello è in programma per sabato, tentare di domare quei tre piccoli mocciosi, Mignolo, quello che faccio tutti i venerdì!"...questa volta mi sono preparata un piano bomba che, come è ovvio che sia, esploderà fra le mie mani non appena lo metterò in atto...

...così, dopo la visione di Frankenstein Junior, procederò con la visione di Edward Scissorhands (Edward mani di forbice)...ma, questa volta, mi sono preparata, con il validissimo aiuto di Annalisa che adora questo film oltre ad averlo visto (cosa che io ho fatto solo in parte), una scheda del film corredata di domande...che ora vi allegherò...così mi potrete dare dei suggerimenti...che sono sempre molto graditi...

Edward Scissorhands

 

It is a 1990 film directed by Tim Burton and co-written by Burton and screenwriter Caroline Thompson. It stars Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands, Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs, and Dianne Wiest as Peg Boggs. Vincent Price also has a role in the film; his last performance before his death. The film centers on Peg Boggs who meets a young, shy, quirky and bizarre looking man named Edward - with hands made of scissors - and adopts him into her own 'typical American' family.

The movie is a fable set in an exaggeratedly stereotypical vision of American suburbia that intentionally combines clichés from both the 1950s and the late 1980s. It also has a central theme of the isolated, misunderstood major character, a theme that recurs in much of Burton's work. Further, many of the motifs and themes of the 1931 film Frankenstein are referenced in Edward Scissorhands. Burton uses imagination[1] to reveal the aspects of human hypocrisy towards those who are different, “monstrous”.

Production

The genesis of Edward Scissorhands came from a childhood drawing of director Tim Burton, which reflected his feelings of isolation and being unable to communicate. After making Batman, he found that Warner Bros. was unreceptive to the idea, but 20th Century Fox were interested. He hired Caroline Thompson to write the screenplay, having been impressed by her short story First Born, about an abortion that comes back to life.

Tom Cruise was initially interested in playing the lead role. In 1989, Johnny Depp read the script and "wept like a newborn". Meeting Burton and producer Denise Di Novi in Los Angeles, California, he and Burton got on very well. A few weeks later Burton hired Depp in the role.

The movie was filmed on location in Lutz, Florida, Dade City, Florida, and Lakeland, Florida. The street of dizzyingly matched pastel homes was Tinsmith's Circle in Lutz, Florida, although the houses were painted pastels just for the movie. The entrance to the "castel" is an empty lot on the circle to this day

Literary antecedents

Frankenstein

The plot of Edward Scissorhands bears resemblances to Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, in as much as Edward is an artificially created man; however, such similarities to the novel are limited.

For example, both Edward and Frankenstein's monster are "monstrous", yet Edward's Creator adored him and wished to give him all he desired. This stands in contrast to the case of Shelley's Frankenstein in which the creator abandoned, despised, and hated his creature.

Instead, the film bears closer similarities to later adaptations of the original Frankenstein story. In particular, Edward's appearance, with black clothing, shambling, almost mechanical gait, and pale, scarred face, resembles that of the Frankenstein monster in the 1954 Hammer Films version. Additionally, the plot roughly follows that of the 1931 motion picture Frankenstein in that Edward, a creature without malice or knowledge of deception, is naïve to the selfish, malicious, deceitful, and fearful nature of his human hosts. As a result, Edward's innocent mistakes are interpreted as malicious acts by the people of the neighborhood leading to his ultimate downfall in which those who Edward had trusted and loved reveal their underlying fear and misunderstanding along with their selfish motivations for befriending him (such as availing themselves of his artistic abilities).

As well, the final scene involving the confrontation with townspeople at Edward's castle is an homage to the original 1931 Frankenstein.

In the book, Frankenstein, the monster's maker pursues his creation into the arctic wastes of snow and ice to an unstated and therefore ambiguous end.

Struwwelpeter

Edward Scissorhands was apparently inspired in part by the 19th Century German children's nursery character 'Shock-headed Peter', from the book Struwwelpeter authored by Heinrich Hoffman. Struwwelpeter was a moral fable about the benefits of good grooming. Peter is a slovenly child who refuses to wash or allow his nails to be cut or his hair to be combed. Peter's frightful appearance is mirrored in the plight of the feral Edward Scissorhands, unable to groom himself due to his predicament, and having similarly messy hair and sharp scissors where Peter had untamed fingernails. Another tale from Struwwelpeter, The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, features the Scissorman, a sort of Boogeyman in the form of a tailor, who uses his shears to cut off the thumbs of children who suck their thumbs.

 

Questions

 

1. Which is the rhyme with whom the girls of the neighborhood call Peg while she is working?

 

 

2. What was Edward’s duty while he hadn’t a human shape?

 

 

3. Which is Edward’s dream? Would you have the same dream in his position?

 

 

4. Which is the title of the article over Edward’s niche in the creepy mansion?

 

 

5. Do you think that the people of the neighborhood are honest towards Edward? And why?

 

 

6. Kim at first is scared by Edward, and then gradually starts to love him and respect him; how do you think this change happened?

 

 

7. Edward’s artistic talent at first is seen as fascinating by the neighborhood, but then it is perceived as a sign of mental disorder. Can you explain why?

 

 

8. Do you think that Edward is too innocent and naïve to live outside the mansion? And why?

 

 

9. How would you react if in your neighborhood arrived someone like Edward?

 

 

10. Which is for you the meaning of the word “different”, and why people are so scared of it?

 

 

11. In the “real world” who are those that are considered different? And why? Are you scared or fascinated by them?

 

 

12. What idea of the typical American suburb did you get by watching this movie?

 

 

13. Would you like to live in the town shown in the movie?

 

 

14. What is your idea of the typical American family? Can you do a comparison with the Italian one?

 

 

15. If you were the director of a movie, how would you express the idea of isolation and diversity that Tim Burton symbolized with Edward and his scissor hands? Tell it in a short plot.

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[1] Imagination is a form of verisimilitude often invoked in fantasy and science fiction that invites readers to pretend such stories are true by referring to objects of the mind such as fictional books or years that do not exist apart from an imaginary world.

In this sense, it is not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity, but, up to a certain point, free from objective restraints. The ability to imagine one's self in another person's place is very important to social relations and understanding. (Some psychiatrists suspect this is beyond the grasp of a sociopath. All they know is the gratification of personal pleasure).

In various spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus a man whose imaginations do violence to the elementary laws of thought, or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the reasonable probabilities of a given case is regarded as insane.

The same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis. Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional explanations which are constructed by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular science.

 

sempre sperando che i bratz dei miei stivali non leggano questo mio blog...altrimenti mi son bruciata tutto 'sto lavorone!!