UK film Case Study comparison

UK film case study comparison:

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold), My Brother The Devil (Sally El Housaini) and The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)

All three directors use the living standards of families living in poverty and with crime in working class areas around the UK to show the audience what it is like to continuously live that kind of lifestyle. The directors do this in several various ways. For example, in Fish Tank and The Selfish Giant, the protagonist doesn't overcome the poverty and crime they were living with, however, in My Brother the Devil, the protagonist overcomes the life of crime and gets out of the ongoing circle of it that many others are still apart of.

In the three films, the protagonists all differ from one another. They are used to represent how people deal with poverty and crime that occurs on their doorstep everyday. Anyone can be apart of crime or poverty, no matter what race, sex or age they are. In Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold uses a female protagonist which is a common feature in her movies. She does this to show the audience the different problems that females go through when living with crime. Mia, the protagonist, has to deal with different problems than that of those in the selfish giant and my brother the devil, for example the statutory rape of Connor and the verbal disputes with her mother. Arnold wants to get the point across that women can live in poverty and with crime and can deal with it just as much as men can. The use of a female protagonist can be used to shed light on, financial struggles and gender struggles. Mia can be seen as almost breaking the stereotype of a woman. Surrounded by dancing girls trying to impress boys, and boys only looking for one thing, she is not only a symbol of escaping from the estate she lives in and the social class she is set in. Arnold gave the character of Mia, certain traits that set her apart from other girls. One clear example of this, is her violence, she hesitate to use violence.

In The Selfish Giant, the protagonist is a young boy, which is different from My Brother the Devil and Fish Tank as the protagonists are both teenagers. Clio Barnard is trying to express how living with crime and in poverty can happen at all ages. This effects the audience as they understand that poverty and crime should be dealt with by someone older such as an adult, and in the selfish giant the young boy is right in the middle of everything, which lets the audience sympathise for the young boy and it highlights the problems that he must face alone.Barnard uses a child protagonist because this makes the film a lot more emotional for the audience. This is because of how Barnard puts a young child through events similar to that of someone of an older age, but gives the young child the same strength as someone older, can really put into perspective, how poverty can control someone from an extremely young age.

In My Brother the Devil, the protagonist is of Egyptian descent. Sally El Housaini is flipping the script to show that it is possible for anyone to be apart of crime and poverty. As the familay is Egyptian, religion is a very important factor in the movie. Even though morale is low because of the situation they are in, the family look to their religion to give them hope and belief of a better life coming their way. Mo, the protagonist, is the baby brother in the family. His older brother and parents are trying to keep him away from dealing drugs and going down the path of his older brother, but this doesn’t work and he ends up dealing drugs anyway. Housaini is highlighting how hard it is to keep away from crime as it is in their lifestyle. 

The Inside Man

The Inside Man Dir. Spike Lee

This film is a 2006 American crime thriller. It was directed by Spike Lee and was produced by Imagine Entertainment, Film works and was distributed by Universal Pictures. The films budget was $45 million, but the box office was $184.4 million.

The scene opens with the credits of Universal Pictures and the company Imagine entertainment. Just over 30 seconds into the film, we see a white man saying “My name is Dalton Russell” introducing himself to the audience. This was a direct approach to the audience called breaking the 4th wall, it makes the audience feel more involved and intrigued to see what he’s going to do or say next by drawing them in more. He also says “pay attention to my words”, which again shows the audience that the he is talking directly to the audience. Performance is shown as Dalton uses his dialogue to indulge his audience,within minutes. The use of the phrase “I don’t repeat myself” could connote that he is a straight to the the point type of person.

Mis en scene is used to show that behind Dalton it's pitch black with a bright light focused on him, making it look like he is in an interrogation room or is under the spotlight in a play so all the attention is on him, however it could suggest that he is in prison connoting that he is a criminal, showing a sort of threat and his motive behind the storyline. This scene was shown through a close up shot of Dalton, focusing on his emotionless expression, showing us the time of character he is to this film.

Inglorious Basterds Analysis

Inglorious Basterds Dir. Quentin Tarantino

Inglorious Basterds is a 2009 American-German war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership. Tarantino wrote the script in 1998 but struggled with the ending and chose to hold off filming and instead direct the two-part film Kill Bill. A co-production of the United States and Germany, the film began filming in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany and France with a $70 million production budget. Inglorious Basterds premiered on May 20, 2009 at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. It was widely released in theatres in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.

Mise-en-scene: The outfits and scenery blended the performances and the music very well. For example the American olive coloured uniforms to show us what side they were on nearly immediately, as well as the black uniforms of the Nazi and the various close ups of medals and the Nazi Swastika. It gives us plenty of information with just a few seconds without wasting time with dialogue. The lighting of the cinema was also very sinister and dark during the end when the Nazi's were trapped in the burning building. This has connotations of the dark minded people meeting a dark, grave ending fitting for the crimes that they have committed against people.

The film opens with the title, directors and company production credits. It then says ‘chapter 1, once upon a time in Nazi occupied France’, this shows that the film is going to be based on or around the Nazis. From the word ‘Nazi’ this suggests that it is most likely a war like film involving the holocaust and someone's perspective of what happened in World War 2. The scene opens up with a wide shot view of a house based on a farm with cows, a green field and a man chopping down a tree. The scene then presents a woman hanging washing, then noticing a vehicle coming her way from afar. Performance is used by the woman showcasing her fear when she notices the vehicles coming and also by communicating with the man shown to the audience first saw at the beginning. The use of a close up shot of their face shows what they feel, which could be fear and nervousness.