The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

Narrative

1. How does the narrative of the film and its structure reflect the key themes and messages of the story?

Throughout the film there are 2 elements to the same narrative, one being his reality, and the other being his imagination. In his reality the narrative truly reflects his life as being repetitive and mundane, as nothing really causes a change in emotion. In the other reality his imaginations are lucid as if they were reality, this causes a stir in emotion as we see him moving, driving, kissing woman, and in a quiet quirky scene when he is looking at his own reflection in the glass in his wheelchair, a pretty woman tells him to "get up nothings wrong with you" and he just gets up out of his chair as if nothing happens, again this reflects his life showing that much more is going on in his imagination as apposed to his reality. The scene where Jean-Do is in a diving bell suit screaming and no one can here him reflects his reality, and the other part of the film title "The butterfly" shows how his brain is working and all over the place like a butterfly, so to translate the title of the film, it means he is completely restricted to any physical emotion, but still has access to all of his metal emotion, but no one can see his mental emotion.

Mise-en-Scene

1. How does mise-en-scene create meaning throughout the film?

-What devices are used to communicate the frustration of paralysis?
The diving bell suit is a device used to show how Jean-Do is submerged in full body paralysis with only slight movement in his eye, this contrasts so much to how his minds imagination wonders like a butterfly, both of these visual elements are devices to show the frustration of paralysis.

-Compare the mise-en-scene in the father's day scene compared to when Jean-Do's children visit him. How do the representations and roles within these scenes switch and alternate?
The use of acting in the fathers day seen shows how the role of Jean-Do is to look after his father who has struggle moving so he shaves him as he con no longer do it for himself, later we see how Jean-Do's role switches to when his children visit him and he takes on the role of his father, he is immobilised and unable of taking care of himself, so his children wipe his mouth, and in general help cater his needs which he cannot fulfil himself. This use of mise-en-scene shows the contrasts how in the first fathers day scene he is scurrying around after his father and full of movement, but then in the end fathers day scene he is completely immobilised and his children are full of movement, wearing clothes which blow like a flag in the wind.

-What are the significance of the iceberg images throughout?
In the closing scene the use of reverse motion icebergs breaking shows how at the end of his life he was able to put everything he could put back together in his mind was successful.

Performance

1. How does Mathieu Amalric bring emotion to the role of Jean-Do despite spending mose of the film in static position.

Mathieu Amalric brings emotion through the role of Jean-Do, despite the fact he is completely static he can move his eye and blink, for example in the scene when Henriette has to sit and listen to his wife tell him how much she loves him and he replies in the same way, Henriette is crying and yuu can see his eyes are shakes and welled up as he is upset

1. How do the female actors bring "humanity" to their performances in the way they interact with Jean-Do? (Henriette and "Claude")

Henriette and Claude treat Jean-Do as if he is fully able and this brings humanity as it makes him feel more free than he is and it makes him happy to be alive rather than just existing.

Gender Representation

Vertigo
-The male character loses his strength and power as he becomes more obsessed with the female.

Scotty loses his strength and power as he falls in love with Madeleine/Judy, he loses control of his relationship with her, throughout the film he develops from strength to strength with love for her and he loses his sight of everything else. He is sent to investigate Madeleine but it os found he actually is falling in love with her as the film progresses.

-The representations of gender reflect the pre-feminist gender politics of the late 1950s.

In this period women were seen as objects, woman were doing menial jobs such as clothes jobs or in a flower shop, whereas men work as high ranking police officers and business owners, Scotty chooses how he want Judy to look, down to the detail of her hair colour, what she wears and even hair style. This is a perfect example of how pre-feminist gender politics is reflected in the late 1950s.

-The placing of most of the camerawork from the male's point of view serves to make the audience identify with the male and therefore sympathise with his sexist view point.

Throughout the film most of the camera work is in the view of Scotty in this film, this engages the spectator to see things from his perspective, and we start to sympathise for him even though he is being very sexist towards Judy, its hard not to sympathise when you can see his feelings for her. We can see the sexism as he is trying to objectify Judy as he make her look exactly how she want and she just listens to him and does it.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest
-Female characters represent both repression and sexual liberation.

The two prostitutes Candy and Rose are the characters which represent sexual liberation as they are sex objects to men, significantly to Billy as he loses is virginity to Candy, And the nurse
Miss Ratched has the sexual identity that represents for sexual repression as she isn't married, she hasn't got a partner, she is "married to her job", she is sexless and completely opposite to Candy and Rose, a very significant act of sexual repression is when Billy loses his virginity to Candy, Miss Ratched does the worst thing to Billy and says "i will tell your mother", Billy whom is already scared to tell his mother about his sexual deems and she knows this will crush him even though he has not done anything wrong at all.

-The film is ahead of its time in terms of the way it represented femininity.

Even in 1975 woman were second class descendants to men, this era was when equal right to woman were being introduced, this film is ahead of its time as we have a female character who is the main dominant character who is very masculine, and in order for her to be masculine and to be bold she has been stripped of any of her femininity for example she doesn't wear any make up, she essentially becomes a robot in the way she shows no femininity. Which was very unusual for female to act this way in the mid 1970s

The emasculation of males in this film is represent the way Nurse Ratched metaphorically castrates McMurphy in particular, in the way she stops the men on the ward from being free to be whatever they want.

Film-Form, Vertigo/OFOTCN

Mise-en-Scene

Vertigo-

• The use of the colour green creates meaning as green has connotations of jealousy/envy
• The opening scene uses Mise-en-scene to introduce us to the settings of the film as we see the icon golden gate bridge
• We are also viewing a police chase on top of high roof tops which end up explaining us Scotty's "Vertigo", as he has a fear of heights.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-

• The use of the yellow juicy-fruit packet of gum in the scene when chief reveals he isn't in fact deaf and dumb and McMurphy is about to go in for lobotomy treatment, this use of a prop shows us the peak at which McMurphy and Chief are sane, this contrast of a harrowing scene and happy scene enhances the roller coaster of emotions experiences by the spectator.
• The mysterious headlights of a car appear from darkness, from nowhere, in an atmosphere of a bleak hostile mountain with snow at the peak of it, the cold and unwelcoming part where there are gloomy fields which look very hostile this use of Mise-en-scene is used to represent the bleakness of the mental institution and how McMurphy comes along and cuts right through it menial day to day life.

Narrative

Vertigo-

• The narrative of this film is a classic 5 part structure, and ends up in equilibrium as Scotty overcomes his fear of heights, although Judy does plunge to her un-seemingly death. The chronological order of the seen isn't spot on due to the fact we see a lot of flash
• The use of binary opposites os shown through the look of good an evil, Scotty being good and Gavin Elster as evil.
• The use of character types again shows us Scotty is seen as the hero but a flawed hero and Gavin Elster being the Submissive Villain, as he gets away with the murder of his wife he wanted to get rid of.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-

• The narrative of this film is again a classic 5 part narrative apart from the end isn't a flawed equilibrium as McMurphy is free and he isn't controlled by the nurse, but however ultimately he is dead so has he really got what he wanted.
• The use of normal and mental as a binary opposite between McMurphy being normal and The rest of the patients on the ward being mental, although McMurphy clearly isn't normal to your everyday mundane person living in the outside world, we see him as the normal one as an affect of binary opposites as this is how it creates meaning.
• The character types of McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, the hero being McMurphy and the Villain being Nurse Ratched, this is a classic twisted view as even though McMurphy was in prison for multiple counts of statutory rape we still see him as the hero, and Nurse Ratched just doing her jobs, not murdering anyone, we see her as the villain, this is like a classic cops and robber view where the cops who are standing for the law are seen as the villain.

Codes

Vertigo-

• Action- 
• Enigma-
• Cultural-

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-

• Action-
• Enigma-
• Cultural-

Captain Fantastic Essay

Question 2(c): 

Explore how far spectators respond in the same way to a film. Illustrate your answer by close reference to your chosen film.

In your answer, consider:

• what you understand by spectators responding to a film in the same way
• how aspects of film form are used to encourage a particular response
• to what extent spectators respond in the same way to those aspects of film form   

                                                                                                                                                            [20]

This essay will explore how far spectators respond in the same way to the film Captain Fantastic. Spectatorship theory is the emotional responses a spectator experiences with fully engagement of a film, and factors that influence this response.

In the opening scene the filmmaker uses camerawork as a key structural element to encourage the spectator to respond in a certain way, we see a close up shot of a beautiful deer, focusing on its eyes, we then zoom out slowly and watch as Bo as he slowly closes up on the wild beast and brutally murders it with a hunting knife, this use of camerawork is designed to encourage the spectator to respond with feeling of anger/sympathy, the most important reason Matt Ross encourages the spectator response in this way is due to position/alignment of how we see this scene, for example, we are in a close up point of view perspective, of we were looking at this from another angle perhaps as a whole shot the spectator would not be encourage to respond in the same way.

Another piece of information about the emotional response to this opening scene is that each spectator will not respond in the same way depending on personal affecting factors such as whether they agree or disagree with the killing of animals, spectators will feel angry/sad if they disagree, as apposed to someone who agrees with the killing of animals. The emotional response would be shock and sympathy as it is brutal to kill a wild animals, however the rational response is the fact that his family have to eat, they are killing to eat, not for pleasure, the deer has lived a nice and lustful life and not in a cage being fed all sorts of growth enhancements for it to be killed as better meat for supermarkets. It is most likely the spectator will appreciate how the filmmaker's use of camerawork encourages them to respond with shock and sympathy. For the spectator with strong opinions regarding the killing of animals, this would result in  a negotiated response as the spectator feels shock and sympathy but they are also acknowledging the rational side that it is necessary as without its death, the family would die, they also aren't mindlessly killing the deer. On the other hand a person who is very strongly against the killing of animals could completely disagree with this scene and therefore they will have an oppositional response.

Another way of looking at spectatorship is by looking at the relationship with Rellian and his father, and how the filmmaker stimulates the spectator to have an active response, the filmmaker has used the performance to lead the spectator feel shock/sympathy in the scene when Rellian lashes out and expresses his hatred for his father and blames him for the death of his mother Lesley, this behaviour of Rellian is shocking and gives the spectator this active response as it is seen is wrong for a child to treat their parent like this, however spectators could sympathise with Rellian as he is only asking to celebrate Christmas and receive normal gifts as apposed to Noam Chomsky Day and receiving bows and hunting knives. It can been seen as child abuse when Ben forces Rellian to clime a rock face which he clearly does not want to do. An example of an emotional response is shock when Rellian tells his father he hates him. A rational response is sympathising as Rellian is being treated unfairly.

The way the spectator responds to this is dependent upon personal factors affecting them, for example a spectator who is a widowed parent will disagree with Rellian, it must be hard enough for Ben losing his wife but also knowing his son blames him for it is seen as shocking, this is a dominant response the spectator holds against Rellian. On the other hand what Ben is doing is seen as wrong, for example when he makes Rellian climb a rock face (which he clearly does not want to partake) can be seen as child abuse and therefore a spectator who has been through similar situations as a child will agree with Rellian and respond with sympathy for him, this is a negotiated response as Rellian shouldn't treat is father like this but he is also being treated unfairly.

This essay has in fact shown that spectators do not tend to respond in the same way to Captain Fantastic, this is the essence of spectatorship, despite the fact to people could see the film in the same circumstances they can both come out and have a different point of view. Spectatorship is the view of how each spectator will respond in a different emotional ways to one another dependant upon personal factors affecting them.

Inception

Initial Thoughts

My first thoughts on Inception is very challenging to watch in the way that you have to devote 100% attention to each scene to understand the very complex multiple narratives, most people just say "it is very confusing" and "i don't understand" and never give much thought of it, all aside once you engage into it i think its a truly fascinatingly good film. The fact it has outstanding actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine star in this film makes it even more intriguing to watch. The VFX in this film are used amazingly, the way they get the zero gravity corridor in the hotel, every scene uses VFX so well you cant tell they have been used. In conclusion I find this film deeply fascinating and increasingly engaging. The film must seem confusing as there is this dream walking theory, and dream manipulation theory, at this day in age we have very little research to prove it wrong or right, so there is very biased opinions on wether is becomes a sci-fi film or a realistic film we have yet to discover, it is most certainly a horror film, and possibly an action film, we almost get this heist them in the way that they have this mission to retrieve private information without anyone knowing, at the end of the film all of the characters look at each other as if they don't know each other. This broadness of genres can make the film more popular as they are very likened genres.

End Sequence

Camerawork in the ending scene is very closely intense shots, to create this wall of emotions that they have completed what they need to and can finally lead there normal lives again, we see tracking shot to  create a feeling that we are walking along side them through this stage of the film.
The end scene has very small hint of a heist film as once they all complete what the extraction they all blindly acknowledge each other in the luggage area of the airport, no body knows they have been working together. The ending on this film is very ambiguous and uncertain, in the way that nothing is said between the group of what happens next, but most certainly when Cobb finally goes back to see his kids, we see their faces which tells us he is in reality but just before this he spins his totem and it carried on spinning, we do not see it fall suggesting he is still dreaming.

Emotional Responses

The first thing that creates arousal response is the good looks of each character mainly Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, whom females and even males flock to see at the cinema. We get a feeling of sadness when Cobb's wife Mal commits suicide. We get shock when we first see the dream sequence when Cobb and Ariadne are sat drinking coffee on a street in Paris and Ariadne realises that she is in a dream, and all the vegetable stalls blow up, windows smash, chair and tables explode, when she makes the earth completely lift up and break the laws of physics and make the ground fold over, when she erects a bridge in seconds, and she uses to parallel mirrors and smash's them to make those infinite reflections a real bridge over the river, from all of this we get our first emotion of shock. Most importantly we get a very pessimistic emotion when the centre of attention is directed to Leonardo DiCaprio's character but then almost out of nowhere as Ellen Page's character gains all attention and becomes the main person of the film, this is something we wouldn't have seen 50 years ago as only males dominated the key role in a film.

VFX

The use of visual effects in this film are remarkably well done, the fact places we know like the streets of Paris are exploded. The fight scene in the hotel corridor when there is zero gravity, it looks amazing well done so much to the fact you think it is real, all of these things are used to create a lot of realism.

Motifs- (A reoccurring idea which symbolises the happening of a key event)

-Totems: Cobb's Top, and his wedding ring before his wife dies.
-Water: Water has connotations of cleanliness and the dream state are refreshing.We see water in the opening scene as Cobb washes up on a beach, also when he is pushed into a bath of water and in his dreams the windows in the Japanese palace collapse with hug tidal waves.
-Lifts/stairwells: we see these a lot, and they are used to show different levels of intensity, in the way the gamers have difficulty levels that they have to progress through, a game is losing yourself in virtual reality, which is essentially what dreaming is, so this element of the film is used to connect with the real life gamers spectators of this film as they will empathise the different intensity level.
-War/fighting: Cobb is trying to achieve going back home and seeing his children who don't think he still exists, that is his battle, and anything that is achievable is worth fighting for.
-Musical motif- Leitmotif "Je Ne Regrette Rien", this song is played to wake them up from a dream.
-Tempo of the score reflects the level and depth of the dream and how fast the brain functions: Depending on what level of dream they are in music is played the the reality before the dream a lot slower as the brain functions a lot faster in dream state.

Wider Representations

-The implant in Fischer's head is to stop him from capitalising and going ahead with further plans of gaining to much power, so this film can be seen as an anti capitalism film.
-Male trauma post 9/11 attacks: Most of Christopher Nolan's films, especially the three Batman movies, the main male character is dealing with trauma.
-Crisis in masculinity: it was seen that males should't care too much about there appearance and buying product to alter that, but it is more and more common for males to by al ot of hair products and even beauty cosmetic products, masculinity is becoming much more feminim

Captain Fantastic

Initial Thoughts

This film is about a family who have disassociated themselves from the mainstream society we live in today, a father of 6 raises his children in a forrest as their mother suffers from bi-polar and commits suicide.

My Personal view of this film is that it isn't for me, despite its good use of narrative i am in conflict with the films premisses, the way that Ben's wife and himself want to live their live is fine but they shouldn't exert it on their children without them having any choice, the film starts off very slow and then the ending is all mashed into one bit at the end, which i can understand as it seemed rather boring to me so they had to speed the film up before people lose interested. The ambiguity in this film shows that we should be in acceptance of people wanting to live a life away from mainstream society, and also people who want to live in mainstream society. The message this film is trying to get across is that we don't all have to fallow consumerism we can live alternate lifestyles if we please such as how Ben and his family do. The element of flawed masculinity, the role of a father is to protect the family, which he doesn't always intend to, they need a mother, he hasn't got enough masculinity to bring up the children, he only teach's them masculine things like hunting and fighting, he has made their lives masculine, when an element of a mothers femininity is needed.

Ben & Jack

Neither Ben or Jack are the true villains/heroes in this film as in their own way they are both right and wrong, Ben is right by wanting to save his children's lives but he is wrong in not giving them a choice, Jack is right as he tries to look after his children and save the from Jack but it can be seen as villainy for trying to take them away from Ben.

Capitalism

If we look from the point of view of Ben, he see's capitalism as a system which the world is run by and it is wrong, he thinks it is better to home teach his children, give them unique names, teach them how to fight and hunt, to kill and make your own food and clothes, living of the land if you will, on the other hand Jack see's this as absurd and child cruelty, both views of which are right and wring i their own terms, but due to the way the world is run Jacks opinion is in favour as everyone is run by capitalism.

Child Representation

- Gender equality is shown in children as their are 3 of each gender, which makes gender equality fair if you will.
-Rellian represents a child whom wants to live a "normal" life, celebrate christmas and go to school/play video games, we see this when the family meets their cousins and Rellian is almost instantly playing video games and enjoying it, we also so it when they celebrate Noam Chomsky day, which they have created and Rellian turns around and says, "why can we celebrate christmas like the rest of the world", this shows he doesn't want to live the life that his father has lead him in the direction of.

English Mark Scheme