With reference to a film of your choice, analyse a 30-45 sec clip for two areas of film language. Film: The Mexican, DreamWorks, 2001

Task: With reference to a film of your choice, analyse a 30-45 sec clip for two areas of film language.

Film: The Mexican, DreamWorks, 2001

Director: Gore Verbinski

Starring: Julia Roberts

Brad Pitt

The scene I’m going to analysing is one of my favourite in this film, because of the passion and the presentation of Julia Roberts’ character- Samantha. The way she acts in this scene is really good, impressive and authentic and by the argue we can easily understand what happened before and what is going to happen next in the film, we are told the relationship’s story, so that we can make some conclusions about the characters and what they feel about the relationship and about each other.

Sound

There is only diegetic sound in the scene, which actors and audience hear. There is no soundtrack in the scene, because actually there is no need of it- the whole scene is a dialogue between Sam and Jerry. If there was music it would probably distract our attention from the dialogue, its importance and the structure of the scene, as well as it won’t be quite realistic and we would probably receive different impression. The sound, the dialogue in this scene creates an atmosphere, emotion, as well as tells us the genre of the film we’re watching. The atmosphere is really “hot”, because of the fight, which dialogue tells us the narrative, the story before this scene and what’s film going to be about. This scene is full of emotions, which help us understand what the job in Mexico means for Sam and for Jerry, how Jerry and how Sam feels about them going to Las Vegas. We can understand that they are not married yet. From the dialogue it’s quite easy to understand that the film’s genre is a Crime- Romance.

The background noises are from the passing by cars and a bike. From the sound of Sam’s footsteps we realise she’s wearing shoes at home, and this means that she is a person who even at home, when she’s alone and there is no chance somebody to see her is wearing shoes, so she likes to be pretty and always dressed nice. The echo of shouting and talking gives a sense of space to the scene, tough the space is shown by the camera movement and framing.

The only soundtrack we hear, which is non-diegetic is the music in ...

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The only soundtrack we hear, which is non-diegetic is the music in the very end of the scene. It’s a funny melody and suits perfectly to the situation, when we think that Sam is going to forgive Jerry. It is whistling and suits to the smile on Sam’s face. This music makes an impression of nothing serious, of something not to be worry about, it is saying “everything’s going to be ok”, which suits to the scene and to the film’s script and genre, which except being Crime-Romance is Comedy, as well.

Mise en scene

Mise en scene are the actors, having a fight. They are outside the building they are living at; Sam is on the balcony, while Jerry is under it on the ground. Sam has packed up his clothes and thoughts them out on the street. The place looks like a city in the South of USA, because of the hot weather and palms all over there, probably it’s California. The building where they live looks like a cheep one with not worthy people living there, which impression I got from the sound of a crying baby, when the couple was arguing. From my point of view the scene is really well structured. For example if Sam and Jerry were fighting inside the impression of the scene, and what it represents would have been quite different. This makes me ask myself the simple question why she is on the balcony and he is down in the street. My opinion is that this represents the difference between the characters, like for example she is the sky and he is the earth. This impression becomes stronger when we distinguish that the building’s colour is blue and there are no plants or flowers on the balconies (which represents Sam’s temperament and her point of view). Jerry is in the street, standing on the ground- grey and cold, but there are quite a lot plants and flowers around him, which makes him more connected to the earth. This whole structure represents the differences between the two people. They are arguing outside and from this I think that they’re quite open to the outside world’ but not understanding to each other, because during the dialogue she’s accusing him of being selfish, while she was selfish as well, saying he’s being selfish. This presents them as different people, but close as well, because they are dressed quite similar. The clothes she is throwing out are casual, from which I can say that he is a man still living as a child. The colours of the clothes they’re wearing are bright, which makes an impression of young, fresh people. Their clothes are on them for a reason- to show us what kind of life they live and what kind of people they are. It’s contradiction for a man doing his job to wear this kind of clothes including the purple sun glasses, bright rings, the wooden necklace and the clothes’ colour, which is important to the character, and this makes him an anti hero and an archetype. On the background there is a house with a lot of flowers in front of it, but it’s showed backwards, which from my point of view is their dream for a quiet life, from which they are far away.

Elena Hristova 12JK