Shirley Valentine (1989)
In the film Shirley Valentine directed by Lewis Gilbert techniques that were used to deepen my understanding of the theme self transformation was dialogue and flashbacks. Gilbert presents the transformation of a stifled middle-aged housewife who wonders what has happened to her life. She compares scenes with her current life with what she used to be like and desperately finds a way to bring back her old self throughout the duration of the film.
The film techniques in the title sequence and openings scenes help to establish Shirley’s character before her self transformation. She is dreary, boring, routine and stereotypical and this is transpired by the use of visual images, sound and editing. The images at the beginning convey information in relation to Shirley’s life and what she does. The sketches are unfinished representing Shirley who is unfulfilled. The sketches are painted blue which tells us her life is depressing, cold and boring; they are on a white background representing her life as plain and empty. There is a sound track, “the girl that used to be me, used to be free”. This tells us her life has changed for the worse. At the beginning of the movie the first exterior shot and the first interior shot we see Shirley walking to her house carrying shopping bags and walking into a house where we see her talking to the kitchen wall. This tells us that she is a housewife and she lives a dull and boring life, this is empathised by the outside of her house, it is raining and there is thunder and it is dark.
