British Social Realism

British social realism is a genre of film which emerged during the late 1950’s. It was previously known as ‘kitchen sink drama’ and is styled as filmmaking reflecting real experiences. British social realism captures the reality of British life, rather than the glossy American version that film is so used to. These kinds of film often have a low budget, but there are not many expenses needed. The genre is linked to the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers. Techniques include diegetic sound only and dealing with common, every day topics such as unemployment and working class life. The genre is reputable for being grim and pushes the boundaries of what’s acceptable within audiences on cinema. This could be violence, gore or intense swearing. Films of British social realism gained popularity for their ability to effectively document being working class and British; many audiences could relate to the films and therefore enjoyed the genre, wanting to see similar filmmaking in the future. Shean Meadows and Danny Boyle  took the subject matter of British social realism, however, they made it more acceptable by including a modern, more mainstream approach. They did this by using modern, successful techniques to appeal to the more mainstream audiences, which resulted in high popularity.

Shane Meadows, Auteur?

Shane Meadows reflects Shawn Field in many ways. He created the character based on himself when he was young. His father was involved in a murder case, although innocent, which cause him to be bullied.

Meadows’ style is social realism; representing a realisic, raw version of society. Many compare his work to ‘kitchen sink realism’ which defines a young boy, angry with the world. In the case of This Is England, the boy represents himself. He often speaks qbout preferring not to dedicate his films to a genre, rather a personal experience. This seperates him from other films and makes his unique, classifying him as an autuer. His films tell stories of his childhood. Bullying is a consistent theme between his films as it is close to home.

Meadows often uses heavy montage to define the time period and place. An example of this is This Is England is the montage of the Falklands War and news reports.

He often uses the same actors and crew to make his film. He also gives the actors lots of rehearsal tim which is unheard of in the film industry. This is so that the actors can fully develope their characyers along with the interactions with eachother. This allows natural imrpov and a good connection between everyone which ultimately makes a better film. Meadows films long takes, allowing scenes to play out to capture any improv.

He films scenes using multiple cameras at different angles on the same take so he has lots of option for which areas to show and whos reaction to show. Hand held camera work is used to intimately involve the audience.

Meadows uses very manipulative, non-diegetic composed scores to make the audience feel a certain way. Furthermore he uses music of the period to establish the time and place in which the film is set.

Meadows also presents a strong political message with explicit ideology.

In his films, usually two binary opoposite characters are presented as potentially influential. In TIE, these characters are Woody and Combo.

This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2006)

The film follows Shaun, a young boy who’s father died in the Falklands War. He has trouble at school and finds comfort with a group of older skinheads who take him under their wing. Under their influence, he transforms himself into a mini skinhead despite his mothers concern. The leader of the group, Woody, is caring and protects Shaun against his temperamental friends. Soon, violent, ex-prisoner, Combo is introduced to the group by Woody. After a patriarchal speech, the group divides into Woodys’ and Combos, leaving gullible Shaun in the hands of a white supremacist, who eventually batters Milky infant of the young boy.

The film demonstrates life in Britain during the 80s in areas of somewhat poverty. The culture of original skinheads is represented alongside the takeover of the culture by white supremacists.

The 80’s can be defined by the riots and revolt for change. Miners who had lost their jobs sinked into poverty, fuelling them with rage. Controversial Thatcher rose to power and defined the era, dividing britain politically. Britain saw unemployment rates rise causing outbreaks of riots all over. The Iraq war also took place during the 1980’s. Over 1 million people lost their lives as a result. More close to home, Britain got involved with the Falklands war and many lives were lost. On a more positive note, much loved Princess Diana married into the royal family in the early 80’s.

Skinheads originated from the 60’s in industrial London. Their style of short hair and Dr.Martins was culturally revived in the 70’s and 80’s by working class people who were proud to be a part of the working class. These skinheads were influenced by the introduction of the Jamaican culture into Britain. As they were revolting against the social norms, the group attracted far right radicals, which gave them a bad reputation and resulting in a divide into left-wing skinheads and right-wing skinheads. The culture still battled with the assumption of being racist radicals despite the divide in political opinions.

 

 

Danny Boyle, Auteur?

Danny Boyle was the artistic director for the Olympics in 2012. He created the theme of Britain for the ceremony which featured the industrial revolution. This strongly links to the theme of his own country which follows through into Trainspotting as he depicts Britain here also.

Some argue that his trademarks include POV shots, high-angle shots, low-angle shots, cameras in impossible places, surreal sequences, strong use of colour, time-lapse sequences, dream sequences and voice over narration. Boyle says that he enjoys working alongside others but believes that a film is ultimately the directors vision as they bring everything together.

In Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting, the main characters travel through poo. Mark dives down a toilet into glistening water, implying a theme of ‘euphoria salvaged from filth’. This is an example of Boyles brave explicit style. He shows on camera unpleasant things which are often hidden or glamourised in films but he shows all to the audience, sometimes with no escape of viewing it. This is present in transporting with a close-up of the dead baby Dawn.

Having made these points, it is also important to note that Boyle often jumps from genre to genre. This means his type of film is varied however there are many notable features which make the film his own.

Boyle often includes distinctively disturbing, gory shots which make the audience uncomfortable. He also uses camera movement to plunge the audience into the action and make them feel as they are in the scene, moving alongside the characters.

Boyle often manipulates time. He uses flash backs and time lapses. An example of a time lapse in Transporting is when Renton is sat at the pub while others move around him. Furthermore, a trademark of Boyle’s is hallucinations/ dreams. These are present in Trainspotting as Mark attempts to go cold turkey from heroin and is locked in his room as he sees disturbing images such as dead baby Dawn and Tommy in a very bad way.

Boyle uses bold sound design. He includes songs high in the mix that the audience cannot miss, enhancing the engagement in the action. He does not shy away from using brash sounding music, however, this works as the soundtrack for Transpotting became extremely successful.

Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

Trainspotting follows a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh. Mark Renton, the protagonist, makes attempts to clean his life up but he is dragged back into his old ways by his friends. The film is a portrayal of the real, rough culture of Britain; featuring near derelict buildings and characters in poverty during the 80’s. Sick Boy is also a drug addict but attempts sobriety alongside Renton, more sucessfully. Spud is a dim character who seems gullable to whatever the friendhip group go along with. Tommy begins the film with his life somewhat in order; he has a relationship and does not do drugs, however, by the end of the film he died a disgusting death due to drug use. Arguably, this could be due to the poor influence of his friends as Renton introduces him to heroin.

The film is directed by British Danny Boyle. He grew up in a working class, Irish Catholic family. His style is often a form of social realism as he exploits a version of Britain which is recognisable and relatable to many. This portrayal of the culture is fresh and different from other romanticised versions. Boyle uses main themes of poverty and drug addiction; tackling real world, relevant problems in the 80’s.

I enjoyed the realistic style of the film as it was something not done by many and it worked. The narrative, however, I found difficult to follow as it did not follow the standard structure of a character with an aim, it was more a series of random events happening. I liked the aesthetic of grittiness. The violent exploitation of drug use, child deaths etc, is a bold move from Boyle as many may find this offensive. There is no hiding from the gory parts of the film as explicit close-up shots are used which do not allow the audience to hide from the brutal reality of what is on screen. I really enjoyed some of the camera work, especially the shot during the screaming over the death of baby Dawn. The screen is blue and the camera moves forward and follows through into the next room. There is also a lot of hand held cinematography which aids the raw aesthetic. I found the monologue very effective and the use of it at both ends of the film was alsio effective.

Component 1b: ESSAY (American Film Since 2005)

How valuable has ideological analysis been in developing your understanding of the themes of your chosen films?

PLAN

WB

synopsis 

show its a film that audience wouldn’t expect- its not a male world (SQUIRREL SKIMMING SEQUENCE, REE FULFILLING MALE ROLE, TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO HUNT. SCREEN TIME IN FAVOUR OF GIRL>BOY. BOY REFUSES TO PULL GUTS OUT SQUIRREL WHILE GIRL ROLES UP SLEEVES)

bechdel test + mulveys male gaze theory (CONVERSATION IN BIRTHDAY PARTY SEQUENCE IN WHICH 3 FEMALE CHARACTERS SPEAK, IS ABOUT MAN BUT NOT DIRECTLY, HE IS THE PROBLEM)

female director and cast, feminist world. Fixing the problems the men have created.

focus on film, 

evidence from film for point 

NCFOM

audience expect classic Hollywood story 

ideology presented is not typical Hollywood 

not outright feminist but questions patriarchy 

solving problems in typical Hollywood masculine way does not work + villain succeeds 

fails bechdel test, against mulveys male gaze theory 

CONC

both against audience expectations 

both present an ideology 

the analysis with ideology has been valuable in understanding the films meaning 

 

Winters Bone (Granik, 2010) follows the narrative of Ree, a 17 year old girl in the Ozark Mountains. She is the carer of her mother and two younger siblings but faces struggle as their home will be repossessed if she does not find her father, who is missing. Carrying the heavy responsibilities left by her father, Ree stands alone fighting for the safety of her family.

The audiences ideology is a western patriarchy in which the world is run by men as this is the society we live in. Typically in Hollywood films this ideology is presented; men handle problems and women remain weak and vulnerable. This is most prevalent in Disney films, where the set mould for the narrative is a helpless, pretty princess who needs a prince to come along and save her. This is what the spectator would expect from the film, however, it is not what they get. Winters Bone presents a matriarchy from the perspective of a feminist; Granik is a female director who uses a predominantly female cast with a female lead. This breaks the typical format of a male-produced which usually fits the ideology that men run the world and women are secondary.

Granik flips this ideology and presents the women as more competent than the men. For example, in the squirrel skimming sequence Ree teaches the children how to shoot. This is traditionally the job of a father which means the young girl is fulfilling the role of a man.  Ashlee and Sonny represent the genders. As they shoot the squirrel Sonny makes too much noise and is overambitious, making the test at hand more difficult, whereas Ashlee remains calm and collected and then spots the squirrel, helping shoot it. This explicitly depicts the directors’ ideology that men are sporadic and clumsy, often in a boisterous manner whereas women quietly are more efficient and competent. Furthermore, Sonny refuses to pull the guts out the squirrel as it is being prepared in the foreground of the shot as Ashlee remains in the background, rolling up her sleeves. This is an explicit example of Graniks’  feminist ideology as the characters represent men in the limelight, being useless while women are pushed into the background doing the ‘dirty work’ which keeps the world running. The editing for screen time in favour of Ashlee presents the directors focus drive for a female-based film, furthering her feminist views.

A way to measure the equality of a film is the Bechdel test; in which to pass, a film must feature named, women characters who have a conversation with each other that is not about a man. Although the test sounds simple, most Hollywood films fail as the film industry is run by males in a ‘mans world’. In the birthday party sequence, Ree, Gail and April discuss how to find Ree’s father. Although they converse about a man, they speak about the trouble he has caused and the mess he has left behind. For the context of the conversation I would argue this film passes the Bechdel test.

Laura Mulvey scribed the ‘male gaze theory’, which describes the way in which women are presented in media and film. The theme is that women are presented as sexualised objects for the entertainment of heterosexual males. Over time, all audiences including both genders and all sexualities have accepted this picture of women. There is little escape from the misogyny which Mulvey describes.

 

 

No Country For Old Men (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2007) is a mainstream, Hollywood film. However, the directors are notorious for their independence in filmmaking and strong heads in what they want to covey. Mainstream audiences expect classical Hollywood narratives from film. This involves the simple ideology of good and bad in society. To appease audiences, most films present good characters who triumph and entertain a ‘happy ending’ as a result of being a good person. In parallel, villainous characters are forced with an unhappy ending, often taken down by the hero for being bad. This ending is satisfying for audiences as it provides a comforting ideology that being a good person will lead to favourable consequences.

No Country For Old Men presents an ideology which is not typical of Hollywood as the audience would expect. Throughout the film, the characters who appear ‘ good’ to the audience all end with tragedy; most being murdered. Alongside, the ‘bad’ character, or more specifically Chigur, lives doing what he wants to as a free man, with a happy ending and no consequences. The audience is plunged into this ideology from the onset. A narration at the beginning speaks of a 14 year old who killed a girl and felt no regret. We then see Chigur kill a cop. He says “I’ve got it under control” as a smart one-liner in the way that a typical hero would when defeating a villain, however the roles are switched as a murderer is victorious over a policeman. The scene is violent and graphic leaving no escape for the audience of a more comfortable reality. Chigur then continues to lure a stranger who tries to help him fix his car. This man seems nice, providing a gesture of good will to a stranger, however, Chigur kills him, too. Within the first 6 minutes of the film, the protagonist who would usually be considered by the audience as good, has murdered 2 people. By his shady dress sense and performance, with lack of emotion or empathy, it is easy to identify him as the villain, however he is perversely placed in the space of the film where a hero should be. In the sense of typical, Hollywood, hero/villain ideology, No Country For Old Men reverses what the audience would expect, as none of the characters get what they deserve which is what an audience craves.

Expanding on the typical Hollywood ideology, the template for gender is that men solve the problems with violence/conflict. Mostly a good and bad character will fight, resulting in favour of the hero. This, however, is reversed in No Country For Old Men. As the male hero characters act as expected, confronting the evil, nothing is resolved. This indicates the ideology that men are not the heroes that society makes out they are.

In the two films studied, audience expectations are denied. They present a representation of gender in a different way to what we are used to in Hollywood. Men are presented as less important. In the films, they cause problems and are not useful. This is the opposite of the heroic men we are used to in film. Both films, upon thorough research, have a deeper meaning when ideology is considered. Mainly, this is related to gender. Winters Bone presents an ideology of women being more capable than men whereas No Country For Old Men is a mans world, but none of the heroic characters are successful. These ideologies provided a lens to a much more complex film.

Feminist Film: An Introduction

Laura Mulvey created the ‘Male Gaze Theory’. This describes the way in which women are presented in media and films. Essentially, the theme is that women are presented as a sexualised object for the entertainment of heterosexual males. Over time, all audiences including both genders and all sexualities have accepted this representation. Although she identified the issue in the 70’s, there is still no escape from the same misogyny which she described. Three main categories of the theory are 1 how men look at women 2 how women look at women and 3 how women look at themselves. Although many films express the prejudice towards women, a new film which changed the norm is Frozen, which presented girl power and feminism to young, influential children. Most Disney princesses need a prince to save them, whereas Elsa and Ana work together or independently. Most films are male dominated which contrasts Frozen, a female dominated film. Looking deeper into Disney princesses, they are created with the heterosexual male in mind. The princesses have extremely unrealistic bodies, with minuscule waists, an hours glass figure and long skinny legs. All the proportions are unattainable yet these are the most attractive to men. It is perverse that children’s cartoons are sexualised.

The Bechdel Test is used by film critics and general audiences to assess the gender stereotyped of the film. Te three questions asked are;

  1. Does the movie contain 2 or more named characters?
  2. Do they talk to each other?
  3. Do they talk about something other than a man?

Although the questions seem extremely basic and easy to pass, 2018s best picture Oscar nominees list did not contain a single film which passed the test. It expresses how little is asked for in terms of equality, yet still so many films face to pass which says a lot about inequality in the film industry.

Evaluative Analysis

In La Ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy, 1963), the film opens with a scene of two men dancing in front of a table. This opening theme of celebration is something I wanted to incorporate into my own film as I felt it plunged the audience into the lives of the characters. To do this in my short film, I began with the notion of my main characters anniversary through the man looking at anniversary gifts on his phone. I also somewhat visually recreated the first scene when my main characters stood up from their table and danced in front of it, as in La Ricotta.

The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park,UK, 1993) features an evil penguin who is living with Wallace and Gromit. The penguin has a presence in the story line throughout and keeps the plot exciting and entertaining. I decided to take on board this narrative feature as well by including evil characters throughout the whole film. My characters held more of a firm place in the story as they were the lead characters, however it was for the same effect; to keep the narrative compelling. Furthermore, the couple are brutal murderers with graphic scenes of blood which is very different to a light hearted cartoon comedy.

Stutterer (Benjamin Cleary, UK, 2015) is an emotionally moving short film about a man with a speech impediment who pretends to be deaf to avoid embarrassment. This film majorly stood out to me and influenced a key feature to my short. The film is a shining example of the lack of necessity for dialogue in short films. The main character in Stutterer is physically unable to speak and yet the narrative is clear and a very strong emotional attachment is made between the audience and himself. This proved to me that dialogue was not a vital part of the narrative and being able to tell the story without it is much more effective. For this reason, my short film has the bare minimum amount of speaking. I decided to only include small remarks such as ,”Thank you.”, and ,”Sorry for the wait.”, to make my characters more natural; none of the lines are to tell the story.

Wasp (Andrea Arnold, UK, 2003) tells the story of a neglectful, single mother living in poverty with her children. The film did not follow the classic narrative structure of: a gradual increase in action, a climax and a resolution. Instead, action was spiked throughout with high intensity, such as the very beginning when the mother fights with another woman. This inspired me to not follow a classic narrative structure. Like Wasp, I included a moment of high action at the beginning with the murder of the first victim. I felt this grabbed the audiences attention in both Wasp and my short film early on so they are captivated throughout.

 

La Ricotta has a unique, jarring sound design which influenced me. More specifically, the use of the diegetic sound stood out. Background noise is almost silent and loud, harsh dialogue contrast this, being high in the mix. This created some uncomfortable feelings within the audience which I wanted to replicate. The scream during the second murder in my film is piercing and not pleasant to listen to, mimicking the feelings of terror from the victim. Furthermore, a Pomeranian dog is featured in the film. We get a good feeling for the character type by the way they treat the dog, for example; selling it. This tells the audience the character lacks sensitivity.  I included my dogs in my short film as the two characters are very affectionate and kind towards them which makes them seem like kinder people. This was to create more of a shocking effect when they turned out to be murderers.

Wasp is an aesthetically exposed and graphic film in many ways but the mise-en-scene has an incredible impact on the way the audience feel. From the very beginning, the way the characters are dressed says a great deal about them. The mother wears a blue night dress and leaves the house with no shoes or socks on, showing a high level of disregard for her self-care, let alone the care of her young children who’re barely dressed. In her arm she carries a child with a bare bottom which shocks the audience as it is not what we are used to seeing. I decided to taylor the mise-en-scene in my short film also to create an effect. I bought a lot of fake blood and mixed it with different things such as hair dye to get the best look for different shots. I did this to get the time uncomfortable feeling which is prolific in Wasp. This follows through to the end of the film in the wasp sequence in which graphic close-up shots of the thrown-away food which the children are picking at are shown. These close-ups continue as the wasp crawls into the baby’s mouth. I decided to use the same technique when shooting my short film. From Wasp, I decided that close-up shots of the gore has intense effect which I recreated by filming the same style shot but of blood dripping in the first murder from scissors and running down the basin in the last murder.

Stutterer is an aesthetically pleasing film to watch. The carefully adjusted colour grading gives the film a serious tone which compliments the story. Greys and crisp finishes identify the film as intense and shows the cold, harsh world the man is living and suffering in. This technique stood out to me and inspired my own short film. I used two separate colour scales; warm and saturated contrasting a cold, blue scale. The first is enhanced when the couple are loving towards each other to create a meaningful relationship for the audience to interpret. The second is used for harsh scenes such as the murders and disposal of the first body. This is because I realised from stutterer the effect the colours have on what the audience interprets. Similarly to other art forms, such as painting, colour has massive effect which I had previously neglected in filmmaking. The two colour schemes in my film contrast as they are opposite ends of the colour wheel. This is to represent the two sides of the couple and the two different feelings the audience may have for the characters; one being fond for the warm tones and the other being harsh and hateful for the cold tones.

My short film intended to create a variety of meanings and effects, the two main ones being opposing; fear and content. To create a content atmosphere in my short film at the beginning, I set my characters in a cosy, warm toned room with a romantic song in the background and relatively long shots. I pictured them with their dogs who cuddled beside them as they relaxed in their lounge. This idillic setting was adjusted to replicate a recognisable ‘cosy’ home which audiences would feel a connection to. The affectionate exchange of smiles between the couple is emphasised through close-up shots to make the audience feel they have a strong, natural bond with each other as the simple things in life make them happy and they are content in each others company.

In contrast, to create fear and panic in my short film I used a cocktail of fast paced shots, a variety of sounds such as breathing and a whine, gory close-up shots and cool tones. These aspects of my film are uncomfortable to watch as I intended to make the audience feel the way the victim would; scared. I included no comfort breaks from the action, forcing a spectator into the moment with no escape, again, replicating the feelings of the victim. This brings audiences closer into the narrative as they feel connected with the various characters which, in turn, creates a deeper engagement with my short film.

Both of these aspects I exaggerated to intensify the other. I made the plot twist as shocking as possible by creating a lounge sequence which is relaxed and warm contrasted to the cold murders. I create such a contrast that the film flips genre; from the romantic love story of a couple getting close to an anniversary, to two chilling villains who lure victims into a hair salon and drink their blood while partying. I decided to mix opposing genres to create the ultimate, dramatic plot twist to an unsuspecting audience.

However, after shocking the spectator with the first murder, I turned back to the couple in a loving way with romantic music even while they dispose of a dead body. The situation is sickening yet the characters are portrayed in a loving way to turn the audience on the side of the couple and like them even though they have just witnessed such a shocking act. This was to create a confusing relationship between the audience and characters, as is shown in Wasp. The mother is clearly a terrible parent and severely neglects her children, however, because the characters accept the situation the audience feels compelled to, also. For example; in the first, fight sequence, she trails her young children out on the street, bare-footed and barely clothed. At first, this is shocking to watch and we as an audience feel disgusted, but as we feel the children are unbothered by it, reaccept this is the way they live and concentrate more on what happens next. I did this in my short film as I initially created shock with the murder but the characters showed no panic so the audience accepted this is what they do.