Atonement Film Essay

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The wide range of skilful cinematic techniques used by Joe Wright and Seamus McGarvey in Atonement, has definitely given the plot new profundity and has proven this movie to be a work of true cinematic adepts. Atonement is not your typical "And they lived happily ever after" love story. It is passionate, tragic and suspenseful, with twists and turns that leave viewers astonished and heartbroken. The movie is set in 1935, in the English countryside. A naïve 13 ear old girl, Briony Tallis (Romola Garai), has to deliver a letter written by Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), an Oxford graduate, whom she secretly likes. She has to give the letter to her sister, Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley). Cecilia and Robbie have passionate feelings …show more content…

The scene where Robbie is typing a letter is match-cut and cross-cut with the scene involving Cecilia looking at herself in the mirror. The movie is non-chorological but with Paul Tothill’s marvellous and skilful editing, he has managed to make the transitions among scenes smooth and plausible. The non-chronological arrangement of scenes further emphasizes the confusion and also intensifies the plot. The rapid, dramatic and vivid scene changes and scenes involving changes in perspective or in other words, point of view editing, are other commendable aspects. For example, the scene where Robbie hands the letter to Briony is quickly followed by a flashback and Robbie realizing that he had handed her the wrong letter and then another quick scene change to Briony opening the letter. Wright takes good advantage of these rapid and intense scene changes to create anxiety and eagerness among the viewers to know what will happen next and in keeping them engrossed in the movie, also the point of view editing really helps in capturing the contrasted point of view of Briony and the viewers. There is a clever use of a typewriter playing staccato notes, in Dario Marianelli’s score for the movie. Marianelli employs the clack of a typewriter as the central music piece to the movie and this recurring and urgent one-note beat of the typewriter helps create tension and an ominous effect, increasing the intensity of the

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