Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
đLiterature & Writing (B.A)
đFilm & Writing (M.A)
đSecondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
đBirmingham, UK
Stories (1964/0)
A Filmmaker's Review: "Dark Victory" (1939)
âDark Victoryâ (1939) is a film you do not come across too often because the storyline is just so twisted. I remember sitting there thinking if this could potentially happen in real life and honestly, it could. In this film, Bette Davis stars as a beautiful young woman who falls from a horse, faints down the stairs and comes up very sick and, after falling in love with her doctor they decide to marry. When Bette Davisâs character is receiving treatment, the doctor tells her she is all better and by this time, they are engaged. Whilst a party ensues, the best friend of the bride-to-be notices something is uneasy and starts to question every single thing that the doctor is doing, she is rightfully concerned that her best friend is all of a sudden doing fine instead of having a sickness she was suffering so badly with. Once the gears start turning, the engaged woman discovers something absolutely horrifying and yet, cannot bring herself to tell anyone - just yet.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Sunday's Children" by Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman directed one of my favourite films of the last decade. When I was fourteen, I watched âThe Seventh Sealâ for the first time and, not really understanding it I watched it again. Over the next decade, I watched it some ten to fifteen times and it still has the same impact as it did back then. It tells us that Ingmar Bergman is actually a very good storyteller, if not sometimes a little confusing and philosophically deep. This book also displays the similar aspects of his films in which it has these long moments of internalisation, long moments of introspection and long moments of just nothing physically happening in which the characters are shifted from the outside to the inside. It is something that Ingmar Bergman is very, very good at. But not only that, we get the existential concepts of human nature becoming something physical. Like death as a person in his movie, the book makes physical these strange existential and incomprehensible ideas. I love the way it is written because Ingmar Bergman has the most strange and almost celestial understanding of these concepts. âSundayâs Childrenâ is an incredible homage to his youth whilst displaying the knowledge he gained in his adulthood.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
The Cyberbullying Problem
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the newly founded Tik-Tok (of which I know very little about unfortunately) have become more and more of a part of our lives on a daily basis with the latter gaining popularity more rapid than most things I have ever seen. Before all of this though, there was MSN and chatrooms etc. these are the things that I spent an evening or two a week a part of - chatting with friends or even going on to chatrooms to talk about things I enjoyed such as: films, books and at that time I was also a massive Green Day fan. But, since way back then until now, I have noticed one, main thing: cyberbullying was around back then and it is still around (and far more rampant) now.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Psyche
Book Review: "The Man in the Red Coat" by Julian Barnes
âThe Man in the Red Coatâ is possibly to this day, one of Julian Barnesâ greatest works. About the doctor, Samuel Pozzi, this book does not just tell us the autobiography of this man but also the surroundings, the people within his circles, the culture and the downfall of the fin-de-siecle belle epoch of France and England during this time. As someone who loves British and French decadent cultures, I got into this book very quickly as it starts off by simply giving us the surroundings, the atmosphere and the background of the novel and its non-fiction set up. The decadence is a bubbling pot of debauchery, drugs and intrigue. The courts and upper classes are filled with people who [as Barnes put it in a line of the book] are âladies above scandalâ. And yet, Barnes also tells us about how this culture was so set on its own self-serving patriarchy that there was absolutely no way it could have survived. It comes crashing down with the outbreak of the First World War.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: Subtext
In this chapter of âthe filmmakerâs guideâ weâre actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the âfilmmakerâs guideâ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how youâre doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmakerâs guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Britain and the 'Good Savage'
It is well documented that Britain does not have a good history with diversity. When I say 'history', I do not mean five or ten years' ago, I mean actual history. Imperialist Britain saw the rise of the Empire and then, the eventual fall. But the strength of the civil vs. savage argument is still there. The point of the Victorian stance was that if the British army went over to these particular countries (Asia, Africa etc.) they would be able to civilise the savages. Since then, there has been discussion of whether this is still going on without explicit movement. This rhetoric of what a 'good' immigrant is whether they be first, second or even third generation - some of the white-British make it clear that though you were born here you will never be one of them.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in The Swamp
A Filmmaker's Guide to: Trickster Archetypes
In this chapter of âthe filmmakerâs guideâ weâre actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the âfilmmakerâs guideâ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how youâre doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmakerâs guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" by Christopher Isherwood
âMr. Norris Changes Trainsâ is one of the more interesting reads I have read this year. I always like novels in which one man is influenced by another to do something that is entirely out of character for them. The subject becomes almost obsessed with the other personâs being and ultimately isolates themselves in their own psyche to become something they are not. Like the traditions of âEdward IIâ by Christopher Marlowe in which Gaveston influences the King, or in âThe Picture of Dorian Grayâ in which Henry teaches Dorian about youth and beauty, in âBrideshead Revisitedâ where Charles Ryder is warned about the influence Sebastian Flyte will have upon him or, in the more volatile friendship of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty in Kerouacâs âOn the Roadâ - one man influencing another to be âout of characterâ has fascinated readers for generations - Isherwoodâs novel of influence follows this tradition with an air of haunting oddity that, from the very beginning just feels oh so dark. This text contains that feeling of tension and impeding doom that I have never gotten from a Christopher Isherwood novel before - the great narcissism makes the bookâs effect seem all the more likely because of its title characterâs intentions to persuade. The question is whether it is persuasion or simply unrequited obsession - and that question may leave your being like an out-of-body experience by the end of the text.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide to: Supernatural II
In this chapter of âthe filmmakerâs guideâ weâre actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the âfilmmakerâs guideâ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how youâre doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmakerâs guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Les Enfants Terribles" by Jean Cocteau
âLes Enfants Terriblesâ by Jean Cocteau is a book that reminds me of the time I read âRingolevioâ and in that, I mean that it is where life is basically made into this metaphysical type of game. Sometimes this game can be amazing, filled with vigour and actually quite entertaining and other times, it can be dangerous as hell - and for the mind of children it can get a bit much. One thing I noticed in this book though is that no matter how dangerous or profane a situation may be for children or teenagers of their age, the writing style is almost fluently decadent and observational. It is always presented as beautifully tragic, as if we are supposed to believe that these children will be completely unharmed and thus we, are also participating in the strange imagination of this game. I donât want to give too much away about the game itself but if you are going to believe that this is purely fictitious and in the childrenâs imaginations - then please reconsider. The game ends up being a degenerate and dangerous, a manipulative and ghastly thing, morphing from childhood to the teen years and all the way into pre-adulthood. It seems like there would be only one option to end the game itself and that would be if both children involved were to die. I will leave it up to you to find out whether that actually happens.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Britain; in the Age of Brexit...
I have been wondering about this question ever since the referendum stated that Brexit was, of course, going to go ahead. What did these people think that Brexit was? Was it going to be exactly what people voted for or something entirely different altogether? And, at the age I was - I was old enough to vote but probably not smart enough to understand what people who voted 'leave' were actually voting for.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in The Swamp
Book Review: "My First Wife" by Jakob Wassermann
âMy First Wifeâ by Jakob Wassermann is a novel about a man who marries a woman after falling in love with the idea of her, her presentation etc. only to find out that she is entirely different in reality. This is something that I think people experience often and, in reality, it can lead to people just flat out hating each other. Jakob Wassermann expresses this as a very real problem for the protagonist and yet, there is nothing really wrong with the woman he is in love with - it is the idea of her which is simply very different to the reality of her. When you really think about it, both of them seem like they married for a reason that was not really loving each other but the protagonist marries for the fact that he likes the idea of the woman and the woman (Ganna) marries for the fact that she likes the idea of marriage. Both of them are completely dissatisfied since Ganna still wants her chaotic life to go ahead, but then again the idea of her that the protagonist had in mind was a mild-mannered wife-like woman who was both shy and intelligent. In reality, her life is in fact, very different. Besides this incredible storyline, the book is told in snippets and anecdotes that represent situations and times in the romantic relationship and during the marriage. The writing style, though sometimes tedious and a little repetitive, is actually pretty telling in some places about the difference between expectation and reality.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks