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Aesthetics

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Aesthetics is the style and tone of a film.

Realism

Realism is an attempt to make the audience believe in the world the film creates

Verisimilitude – When a film conveys a sense of truthfulness and realism, sometimes requiring suspension of disbelief

Intruder (1989, Scott Spiegel)

The Hitcher (1986, Robert Harmon)

Social Realism – The movie displays a social environment and its impacts on the characters in it.

Perfect Blue (1997, Satoshi Kon) – Kon uses the film to critique the Japanese idol system and how celebrities are treated.

Magic Realism – Surreal and fantastical elements have been incorporated into an otherwise realistic setting

Carrie (1976, Brian De Palma)

Hyperreality – A film in which the reality portrayed is exaggerated, or is “too real to be real”

The Matrix Reloaded (2003,The Wachowzkis)

Visual Style

Iconography – Use of reoccurring visual symbols that convey emotion and provide symbolism

Lady Vengeance (2005, Park Chan-Wook) – the colour white is used in the movie to show purity, revenge and devotion.

Intertextual Referencing – When a film incorporates aspects of another work (another film, book, series, poetry etc)

The Crow (1994, Alex Proyas) – The graphic novel the film was based on was heavily inspired by the band Joy Division and quoted song titles in the artwork frequently, and the film itself quotes classic literature like ‘Paradise Lost’ and Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven‘

Visual/Sound motifs – Recurring element in a film to help the story like announcing a character, punctuating a plot point or highlighting a theme

Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento) – Suspiria uses a lot of unnatural red and blue lighting, creating a dreamlike feel and being used to announce the appearance of supernatural forces or death

Colour Grading – changing the colour of footage in post production to create a constant colour scheme or to represent a theme

Manhunter (1986, Michael Mann)

Auteur trademark – a visual technique used prominently by a particular director that an audience can use to recognise as their work

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974, Brian De Palma) – De Palma uses split screen often in his works

Tone

A films tone is how it portrays its subject matter and how the audience should feel while watching the film

Pathos – Something in a film that invokes pity and compassion in the spectator

Stand By Me (1986, Rob Reiner) – Gordie dreams that his father tells him he should have died instead of his brother

Bathos – an effect of anticlimax

Se7en (1995, David Fincher) – The main antagonist of the film turns himself in

Suspense – When the director creates anticipation and anxiousness in the audience during tense scenes

Black Christmas (1974, Bob Clark)

Comedy – aspects in a film intended to make a spectator laugh and entertain them

Scary Movie (2000, Keenen Ivory Weyans)

Dramatic Irony – When the audience knows something a character doesn’t

Woman Of The Hour (2023, Anna Kendrick) – The audience knows Rodney is a killer. Cheryl doesn’t.

Distancing Effect (V-Effekt) – When the audience is reminded that they are watching a film and are “alienated” from the world of the film

The Muppet Movie (1979, James Frawley) – Dr. Teeth reads the films script

Postmodern Humour – when a film subverts mainstream audience expectations

Return Of The Living Dead (1985, Dan O’Bannon) – The film subverts the standard horror movie format at the time by making the main cast a group of punks and low wage workers and giving them personalities and depth

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Exam Feedback

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  1. Phrases/vocab: Diegetic, reframing, stylised,
  2. Diegetic – in the world of the film
  3. Catharsis is strong emotions being released, e.g the audience feeling justified or relieved by a characters fate or actions
  4. Reframing – to change the way a thing or a character is thought of by the spectator
  5.  Throughout Joker, cinematography is used effectively to create a sense of chaos within the film’s diegetic world. This is particularly evident in the scene towards the end of the film where Arthur is shown in a low- angle, close-up looking out of the police car window and reacting with glee at the riots taking place around him. Here, the camera is used to position  the spectator as not only connecting with Arthur, but now looking up to him. This suggests to the spectator that the tables have turned and Arthur, who was earlier depicted as pathetic and sad, is now depicted as powerful and heroic. This “reframing” of  the central character” has a potentially cathartic effect on the spectator who has, up until this point, been encouraged to sympathise with Arthur’s point of view as a victim of circumstance. The deliberate and stylised use of this slow-motion reaction shot, enables the spectator to get a sense of poetic justice being served: Arthur is now on his way to prison.
    Yellow = Point, Green = Evidence, Blue = Explanation, Purple = link
Representation, This is England

This Is England (2006) Representation

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Young People

Young people in This Is England are presented in various ways. The main character Shaun is presented as a lonely child who is picked on by crueller children, who make up a lot of the films other representations of young people (like the fedora wearing one who makes fun of Shaun for his dead dad). The skinhead gang is also presenting young people, as Woody and others are only in their early-mid twenties, which implies Woody had a similar experience to Shaun as evidenced by his friendship with Combo. This representation of younger people are kinder than the school children we are shown first (aside from Pukey) and are also presented as being relatively content with their lives as they are right now.

Older People

In a lot of the movie, older people are presented quite negatively. There aren’t a lot of much older people in most of the movie until the introduction of Combo and Banjo, who are “first generation” skinheads, and the other older people in the movie are introduced because of them. The older people are the nationalists in the film, giving speeches about how Britain should be for the British, etc. and overall serve as an antagonistic force, targeting younger people like Shaun and Pukey to persuade them over to their prejudiced way of thinking.

But not all older people are presented this way. Shaun’s mother is presented as a kind and caring character in the movie, always trying her best to look after Shaun even if Shaun doesn’t appreciate her efforts. Even when Shaun gets his head shaved and gets new clothes, she isn’t incredibly angry. She does become quite upset but she meets with the skinheads and thanks them for making Shaun feel happy, showing she does have his best interests at heart.

Class

The majority of the films characters come from the lower class, suggesting reasoning as to why they decided to become skinheads. The skinheads hang around in run down buildings and find fun in wrecking them, and they don’t normally complain about their life situations. The only one who does is Combo, who blames immigrants for his poverty. The highest class member of the group we are shown is Smell, who’s family is shown to own a relatively nice house with nice furnishing and such. Higher classes are only really shown in the nationalist speaker Combo takes Shaun to go see, who rants on about topics similar to Combo, despite it being implied that the speaker is in a comfortable position in life. The lower classes are usually presented as people looking to make the best out of what they have, while the upper classes are shown complaining about things that don’t even affect them in the slightest.

English People

The English people make up a lot of the main cast of This Is England, but unlike Trainspotting their English identity forms the basis of the plot of this film. Characters like Woody and Lol aren’t really impacted by their English identity, and characters like those are normally presented as the most comfortable. However, the idea of an English identity is used by Combo (and the nationalist speaker) to convince people to join their gang. Combo twists the idea of patriotism to convince Shaun to join his gang, and very nearly persuades Milky to join by telling him his English identity is more important than his Jamaican identity.

Asian/Black people

There isn’t a lot of representation of Asian people, but it is very important regardless. The most apparent presentation is the shopkeeper, who is seen at the beginning and near the end of the film. He is presented as a man who is just trying to make a living, but is given trouble by Shaun in the beginning due to him being am annoying child, and later by Combo, Shaun and the rest of the gang, when his store is hit by them for a racially motivated reason and slurs are hurled at him during the robbery. This scene is quite hard to watch, as it shows this shopkeeper who didn’t do anything wrong being threatened by a machete while his store is robbed. The gang also steals a ball off of a group of Indian children, during which they also make racist remarks. These characters are shown as receiving a lot of trouble for doing basically nothing, and the audience should feel pity for them

Most of the black representation comes from Milky, the only black member of the skinhead gang. Milky is English with Jamaican heritage, and is treated the same as any other English character until Combo is introduced. Combo uses the fact that Milky is black to fuel a lot of his argument in the scene where he attempts to break up the gang, by using the fact that no one stood up for him when Combo made a very racist joke at the party to say that English people don’t stick up for each other anymore. This argument falls apart at the end when Combo is just very racist towards Milky and beats him, showing that he doesn’t care about any of that and really is racist. Milky is initially presented as a normal Englishman before Combo weaponizes his race to back his nationalist beliefs.

Men

The men in This Is England make up a lot of the cast. Their presentations vary, from Shaun’s wannabe masculinity where he idolises men he views as strong (Initially Woody then Combo, though this idealisation of older men in his life probably stems from how highly he views his father), to Woody wanting to enjoy life and protectiveness of his friends, and Combo’s ideas of masculinity tying in with his nationalist ideas. A lot of male characterisation features strength in some way, but they often display extreme emotions as well.

Women

Like Trainspotting, women are usually wives or girlfriends. The most prominent female character, Lol, is Woody’s girlfriend, but is given a lot of her own character and story. Smell as well is only in the story to act as Shaun’s girlfriend and serves no other purpose in the story, so why she is included I have no idea. Shaun’s mother is given strength in her widowed status, having to look after Shaun by herself, giving the audience respect for her. The women in This Is England, while still designated to set roles, are given their own aspects of strength and character.

Place

The films English setting is, in my opinion, the films biggest strength. The film presents a familiar, small town English setting, and shows the audience the mundane nature of the town streets, the brick buildings and flat grassy areas. The film shows how boring and stagnant life for a young person would be in this town, and so gives reasoning as to why Shaun joins the skinhead gang, and why the skinheads find fun in wrecking abandoned houses and have house parties: because the audience can tell from the town that it is set in that there is nothing better to do. The setting of This Is England is presented as common and familiar to an English audience, and as dull and boring to the characters, though through the films cinematography it can form some shots that are very nice to look at.

This is England

This Is England (2006) Micro Elements

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This Is England Micro Elements

Sound

The scene at the end when Combo snaps and beats Milky into unconsciousness uses a piano score as the backdrop. Another filmmaker may have decided to include high tempo, energetic, dramatic music behind such a brutal scene, but Meadows instead uses a slow, sombre piano score. This could be to show that this is the biggest emotional low point of the film, and the biggest turning point of all the main characters present: It breaks Combo, it leaves the kind and well meaning Milky a battered unconscious body, and most importantly it disillusions Shaun to Combo’s nationalist rhetoric. The sound also uses pretty heavy sounds for Combo’s punches, making it clear to the viewer that he is really trying to do serious damage to this person who never did anything to him.

Editing

The film starts with this montage of archival footage of 80’s British culture set to ’54 To 46 That’s My Number’ by Toots and the Maytals. It sets the tone of the film well, editing various clips from children’s shows and news footage together to give the audience a feeling of the space the film is set in, showing clips of people at school, music performances, dance exercise videos, Princess Diana etc. What really stood out to me was the short beats at some points in the song being overset by footage of disasters, usually explosion. These parts stood out to me because I liked how the footage synced up to the audio and because I found it funny.

Mise En Scene

This screenshot is taken from the final sequence of the film, where the members of Combo’s gang meet at his apartment for a sort of party, to which Milky also comes. This uses Mise En Scene to show the state at which Combo lives in: a totally empty floor, a sofa and bed pressed against the wall, some pictures stuck to the wall, and a large St. George’s cross flag that Shaun stole across the wall. This tells the audience that Combo is really in a bad economic state and is fairly alone in life.

Cinematography

This shot uses a long shot to show off all the characters and the urban setting. Woody is on one side of the tunnel, the rest of his gang on the other, and Shaun is in the middle, illuminated by the sun before entering the tunnel. The shot has some really nice symmetry that makes it pleasing to look at, and also some potential symbolism, like Shaun being illuminated by sunlight while the skinheads are in shade under the tunnel, showing Shaun’s innocence compared to the harder, rougher lives of the skinheads.

This is England

THIS IS ENGLAND (2006) FIRST RESPONSE

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This Is England (2006, Dir. Shane Meadows) First Response

Rating: 8/10

This Is England tells a story about a lonely young boy who starts out just wanting friends and to belong and ends up at the centre of a nationalist gang. The film does a really good job at showing a bleak story, and makes great use of its British setting, making me connect to the film as the scenery creates a sense of familiarity in me, especially scenes in the fields or the streets. The story is told well and the characters are interesting, though I found the scenes with Smell and Shaun quite uncomfortable. I would probably watch this again.

Memorable Scene: Combo Splits The Gang

This is the scene where the actual plot of This Is England begins. Combo, one of Woody’s friends, has just been let out of prison, and in the prior scene he made a racist joke in front of Milky, the only black member of the gang. In this scene, he begins by apologising to Milky, and then begins berating Woody for not doing anything. He then begins a monologue after asking Milky if he considered himself English or Jamaican (to which he responded English) in which he claims the idea of an English identity is fading and that British people are being forced out of living comfortably in their country while immigrants get housing and such. Its a rant that clearly shows the type of character Combo is, and immediately the audience should be clued in that he is becoming the film’s antagonist. The scene uses long shots (such as the one above) showing Combo’s back as he gives his speech to the room of skinheads, and close ups of the characters faces in response to his ranting. In the speech he brings up the Falkland Islands war going on (the film is set in the 80’s), which prompts the main character Shaun to tell him that his father died in that war. What follows is what cements Combo as the villain: he uses the death of Shaun’s father to manipulate Shaun into joining his nationalist group. He weaponizes ideas of patriotism and death in war meaning something in order to convince a young boy to join a nationalist regime. In the end, Woody leaves with Lol, Milky and some others, while Gadget, the groups punching bag, Kes, the short tempered one, and Shaun stay behind. Combo has officially separated Shaun from the kinder people in the skinhead gang, and Shaun is now vulnerable to Combo’s preaching.

Representation, Trainspotting

Representation – Trainspotting

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Young People

In Trainspotting, young people are presented in a disadvantaged position. All young people we see in the film are or will be going through something. Renton suffers addiction, Begbie is a violent mess who has to crash in Renton’s London apartment, Tommy goes through a rough breakup that results in his death, etc. Young People in Trainspotting are represented as having little future and little ambition, or so they believe themselves. This changes by the end when Renton runs away with the money and he realises he can make something of his life, which is a positive note to end a movie that often shows only the negatives of youth.

Older People

Older people are not very present in Trainspotting. There are a few scenes involving the character’s parents,. namely Renton’s, Gail’s and Diane’s . From what we are shown, the older people in Trainspotting are represented usually as quite kindly and at least attempt to be friendly. There is the dinner scene with Renton’s parents where his dad snaps at him for his drug abuse, but aside from that, they attempt to help him kick the habit by forcing him to go cold turkey. Gail’s parents are kind to Spud and are understanding of the fact that he made a mess while drunk, and Diane’s parents are very nice and welcoming to Renton. They are represented as a group of people who grew up with more opportunities than the current youth of Trainspotting.

Working Class People

Trainspotting is not a glamourous film, and it’s portrayal of the working class is a good example of this. A lot of the ensemble cast are of the lower classes, explaining their need to go to drugs to feel something in a world where they haven’t been given anything to experience. The only people at the start of the film who don’t do drugs are Tommy and Begbie, who both seem well off. Tommy however loses his comfortable social state when Renton inadvertently causes his girlfriend to kick him out of her house, bringing him down considerably. He’s forced into a grimy looking, very cheap apartment, absolutely nothing inside, not even a proper bed. This display of the poor working class, in dirty housing with little possession, also allows the audience to sympathise more with the character’s reasoning of turning to drugs. The working class are presented as struggling and in need of help, which leads them to drugs as an attempt to get something out of a life they have nothing in.

Scottish People

Due to the story taking place in Scotland, the main characters are obviously Scottish. The movie doesn’t really bring a lot of attention to this, though. The Scottish people are presented as the status quo of the story, and so we are led through normal Scottish lives. There is a scene where they go see some Scottish mountains, which in any other movie would be a big moment of beauty and awe in the characters, but in Trainspotting they really don’t care about it, and don’t see the point in going all the way there to look at them. It would just be normal to them. Scottish people are not represented in a romanticised light, nor in a negative one: what the characters see as normal is presented to the audience as normal.

Addicts

The addicts in Trainspotting, despite making up the main cast, are not presented positively in the film. All scenes of drug taking is not glamorous at all, quite the opposite. They are most often seen cooking up and shooting heroin in a dingy backroom, which looks disgusting and not somewhere people should be. The scenes in which Renton takes drugs are always presented as a low point: he betrays his family and friends by going to get a hit from Mother Superior immediately after being let off a prison sentence under the promise of going to rehab, he OD’s and is treated without any care by Mother Superior who just lugs him around and by the taxi driver who takes him to the hospital, who dumps him on the ground, and when he shoots up in a bus toilet, which is a low point due to him being totally clean up to that point. While not presented positively, the addicts are given a lot of sympathy, like Tommy resorting to heroin to feel better after his life is ruined. Addicts aren’t even really presented in a villainous way either: the worst character in the whole movie, Begbie, is totally clean throughout the entire film. Addicts are presented as human beings deserving of sympathy and care.

Men

Men make up the main cast of characters in Trainspotting, giving us a lot of different representations of men. Trainspotting gives us aggressive men like Begbie or sensitive men like Tommy, etc. There is a lot men have in common in Trainspotting, though. All of them want relationships, which is shown in the scene where the above screenshot is from, where Spud and Sick Boy talk about their gripes with their respective partners, and in the same sequence at the bar Renton gives narration on how he wants company and gets with Diane. Other aspects of male representation is the constant banter between the characters and the stereotypical male pastime of football, but opposed to what these stereotypical representations would suggest, the male characters are allowed to be emotional, like the scene where the aby dies and all the characters are very upset about it.

Women

Women don’t have as much representation as men by a lot. Often the women are restricted to roles of girlfriend, wife or mother. They are given little screentime compared to the male characters as well, but they aren’t totally sidelined. While they usually are in the role of girlfriend to the main characters, they are given moments that characterise them and give them strength, like Spud’s girlfriend Gail saying that she’s been refusing to have sex with him just because she finds it funny that it annoys him. But compared to male characters, there isn’t much representation of women in the film.

Representation

Representation

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All aspects of film form including narrative contribute to the representations of cultures and societies (gender, ethnicity and age) including the ideological nature of these representations -All aspects of a film, from performance to story, can portray ideas about different people and societies

Performance

  • Age
  • Ethnicity
  • Costume
  • Facial Expression
  • Bodylanguage
  • Gestures

Ideology

Ideas and ideals that an individual holds about a concept, group of people, place or thing.

Stereotype

A stereotype is a character based on a fixed and oversimplified idea of a type of person

Countertype

A countertype is a character that is the opposite to what the stereotype would be for that type of person e.g black president

Representation – Sarah Connor

Terminator 1

 

In the first Terminator, Sarah Connor is a very standard representation of a working young woman. She is part of a character type that was present in a lot of movies in the 80’s: young, single, overworked, ditzy, clumsy and average. She’s meant to be a sort of everywoman “normal” character

T2

In the sequel, T2, Sarah Connor is a very different character. She has evolved from the relatable “normal” character from the first film, and has changed from that previous character into a hardened action movie hero style of protagonist. Instead of her first introduction, where she’s late to work and is shown being clumsy and overworked, in T2 she is introduced in a mental hospital doing pull ups on an overturned bed. The character is much more capable and is able to fill the role of the character of Kyle from the first film by herself, and is a much more memorable character than he was. Her outfit has also changed to suit this development, going from her pink waitress outfit to stylish, practical clothing suitable for combat. T2’s Sarah Connor is a more action movie heroine character, a countertype to the working girl stereotype she was in the first film.

REPRENTATION IN TRAINSPOTTING

  1. Who is doing the representation? – Danny Boyle (Director)/Irvine Welsh (Original Novelist)
  2. Who is being represented? – Lower/middle classes in Scotland, drug users, young adults
  3. What social groups are omitted from the representation?- Elderly
  4. What messages about particular social groups are being conveyed? – Drug users have a hard life, everyone needs money, life in the UK is not very glamourous for common people
  5. Which characters or social groups have power in these representations? – Drug dealers, higher classes, court system
  6. Do the characters adhere or challenge stereotypes? – The characters challenge stereotypes, as the drug using characters are portrayed with sympathy and as good people rather than being vilified, and a character that doesn’t do drugs, Begby, is the most villainous character
  7. Are the characters typical of films in that genre? – I think that in the genre that Trainspotting is (black comedy drama), the characters are not typical. The drug users would not be the nice, sympathetic characters they are, Begby would not be the aggressive, borderline evil character he is etc.
  8. What do representations tell us about the time the film was made and set? – The film is set in the same year it was made (1996), and the representations show understanding of drug use and normal people, as well as showing us that there is a lot more understanding about people in general.
  9. How are elements of film form being used to construct the representations? – Boyle uses shots that hold for a long time to create a boring, monotonous atmosphere to make the pubs and streets feel normal and familiar and not at all exciting, like the scene at the London pub after they picked up the money which uses long shots and close ups that hold for a while to make the place feel boring, and more frantic editing is used to show drug use, like the scene where Renton ODs, which uses creative editing of the red carpet framing Renton’s POV shots.

Trainspotting

Trainspotting Micro Elements

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Sound-

Boyle uses sound in this scene where Renton goes through withdrawal to create a frantic feeling by adding techo music to the action. It makes the scene more unnerving as the out of place, fast paced music plays over Renton’s eerie visions.

Editing-

Spud’s job interview scene utilises a lot of shot-reverse-shots to create a dark humour through the contrast of the high and hyper Spud and the stone faced interviewers.

Mise En Scene-

This shot utilises mise-en-scene to show the atmosphere of the bar and the personalities of the characters. We can see from the wallpaper and the shiny oak tables this is quite a well off establishment, and the large collection of glasses tells the audience that the characters have been there for a while and enjoy drinking. Bigby is positioned directly in the middle of the frame and is holding one of the glasses, telling the audience he is the focus character in this scene.

Cinematography-

This shot utilises a long shot for this scene of Tommy and his girlfriend at the video store. They went to the store to try and find a sex tape Tommy believes he must have accidentally given away (Actually Renton had stolen it) and this shot is them after not finding it. The long shot is utilised to show the distance between Tommy and Lizzy that has been created through Renton’s action, and that they are going to break up.

Trainspotting

Trainspotting (1996) First Response

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Trainspotting (1996) Dir. Danny Boyle FIRST RESPONSE

Rating: 7/10

Trainspotting is a grungy movie filled with dark themes, flawed characters and a really good soundtrack. The acting is extremely good, and most of the main characters are very memorable, from the well-meaning Renton to the unfortunate Spud, and the psychotic and hateable Begbie, among other characters who go through a lot of horrible experiences. It creates a grim reality around the characters filled with substance abuse, crime and death, but while the film has its nihilistic elements, it ends in a way that leaves the audience hopeful. The people who deserve a good ending get it: Renton ditches his awful friends and Spud is left £2000, and the characters who need punishment get it: Begbie, who spent the movie violently attacking and threatening innocent people, finally gets arrested. The characters aren’t one dimensional though: Each character has their own flaws and aspects that make them imperfect – Renton ruins his friend Tommy’s life by stealing a sex tape of Tommy and his girlfriend, which results in Tommy’s death, or Spud’s compliance with everything. And the soundtrack is especially memorable, using britpop and techno music to create an atmosphere of normality amongst the grime and filth that decorates the rest of the movie. The movie has a lot of interesting aspects and it all works together well, but its just not the type of movie that I really love. For what it is, however, it was very interesting and I enjoyed it.

Memorable Scene: Renton Goes Through Withdrawal

This scene stands out to me as it is an incredibly absurd scene in an otherwise pretty grounded movie. There are other times when the reality of what you are seeing is called into question, like when Renton completely submerges himself in a grimy toilet and he is shown swimming through an ocean of clean water, but this scene throws away any concept of sanity the movie had attempted to retain. Renton has just been taken out of the hospital following an overdose, and his parents have locked him in his childhood room in order to force him to go cold turkey. The following scene depicts his withdrawal hallucinations and is quite an unsettling few minutes. These hallucinations range from his friends appearing in his room to stare and talk at him, to Begbie being under his covers, a sickly-looking Tommy standing next to him, his room stretching away from him and his parents on a TV screen taking part in a quiz show where the questions have to do with his situation (questions about HIV etc). The most memorable hallucination though is him seeing the baby who died in their drug den crawling across the ceiling towards him, which culminates in the baby’s head twisting around to face him, and then the baby drops from the ceiling onto his face. The scene is uncomfortable and sickening, and the baby makes it quite creepy. Throughout the whole scene, techno music playing behind Renton’s panting and pained screaming., providing a darkly comic contrast between his visions and the music.