'Beneath Clouds' by Ivan Sen

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Date Due: 22/07/04

Teacher: Mrs Bernhart (10E4)

By: Dilshan Mendis

Ben Young

Jeff Frazer


Beneath Clouds

The Beginning of the Film (Dilshan Mendis)

  • How does the film begin?

The film begins with the opening credits appearing across a fish-eye lens view of a magnificent sequence of accelerating rolling cloud movements matched with thunderous orchestral music. Next the clouds fall back languorously accompanied by significantly slower music. This cycle of slow-fast moving clouds is the main theme repeated a number of times during the beginning the film. The clouds and music then fade away and are replaced by outback road trains which roar along the highway.

  • Why do you think the film maker chose the images of rolling clouds?

I believe the film maker chose the images of rolling clouds to symbolise what is ‘cloudy’ in our thoughts. Since clouds are formed from water, and water generally epitomizes the emotions, they can symbolise the emotional issues clouding our thinking as we watch the film. I suppose the, dark fast rolling clouds symbolise the anger, the slow rolling grey clouds may serve to indicate depression and the light, puffy clouds may represent the light at the end of the tunnel.

  • What impression do you gain of what life is like for Lena in the first few minutes of the film?

For Lena, the need to get out of the small town she lives in is evident from the first scenes in the film. In the first few minutes of the film we see Lena, a fair skinned, blue-eyed girl in a flattened landscape walking on a gun-barrel highway with her friend Ty. The girls walk in a lofted manner without hurry or pressing goals, heads down. Her face is a totem of closed understanding and anger as she thinks about her world. She then sees ants overwhelming the body of a butterfly in the roadside gravel.

This gives us the impression that Lena is from a small isolated country town where there are no life choices available, other than teenage pregnancy, pretty crimes, alcohol abuse and unemployment.

  • Why do you think the film-maker decided to make the pace so slow at the start of the film?

The film-maker decided to make the pace so slow at the start of the film to complement the massive amount of non-verbal communication in the film and to emphasise the fact that they are in a rural location. The slow pace film and the slow-moving orchestral music work strongly together to highlights the characters emotions and feelings.


In the opening scene, the young girls are walking along a desolate road, in the heat haze.

  • What adds to the mood of desolation in the opening scenes?

The underlying sense of cation and mistrust between the characters that is emphasised by the frequent silence creates a mood of desolation.

The barren flat landscape in the opening scenes emphasise the lack of opportunity, and the isolation of many small towns. The wide open roads and bright blue skies add even more desolation to the mood of the film.

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  • Why do you think Lena says to her friend, “You are never going to get out of this shit-hole?”

In the opening scene Lena looks across at her friend’s boyfriend and says “You know you’re never gonna get out of this shit hole don’t you Ty.” By this statement she is referring to the continuous cycle of teenage pregnancy, pretty crimes, alcohol abuse and unemployment found in this isolated country town.

  • What impact does the rain have in the opening scenes?

The rain in the opening scene is a metaphor for the sadness that Lena is ...

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