Director Joe Wright said “light tells the story, light reveals the truth” about his film Atonement. His use of lighting effects encapsulates the way he shaped the audience’s response to the idea of repentance and perception. The use of costume and sound are two other key techniques used by Wright to tell the story of Briony Tallis on her journey to atone for her false accusation of Robbie Turner for the rape of her cousin Lola. Consequently, this allows the audience to understand that Briony has atoned for her sins which were caused by her altered versions of reality and naïve mind. Therefore, Wright’s use of cinematic techniques enables the audience to parallel the issues prevalent in the film to reality and this shapes the way they respond …show more content…
When Briony witnesses her sister Cecilia and Robbie making love in the library, half of her face is shadowed by darkness, contrasting the other half which is illuminated by light. This is hugely symbolic of her perception of the situation as she can only see half of what has happened, causing her to misinterpret the situation. Similarly, when she discovers Lola being attacked, the torch blinds her, and she is momentarily thrown into light and then darkness. As she sees what is in front of her, glare from the torch fills the screen, making Briony fade, representing sight and how it can hinder one’s understanding rather than enlighten it. Moreover, light is also used when Briony attends Lola and Paul Marshall’s wedding. As Briony stares up into the church ceiling, light falls upon her, signifying a sudden epiphany as she realises Paul Marshall was guilty of Lola’s rape. Here, light represents knowledge and understanding. This is further enforced when the detective asks Briony “did you see or do you know?” in a dimly lit room where the absence of light symbolises Briony’s lack of knowledge about the incident. Briony then repeats the phrase “I saw him, yes, I saw him, I saw him with my own eyes”. This further suggests that Briony is lying, and also warns the audience that perhaps all is not as it appears. Wright …show more content…
At the beginning of the movie, the typewriter sound effect is diegetically echoed as Briony struts around the house in military style. Not only does this foreshadow the war, but also eludes that Briony is writing her novel in atonement for the sins that she would later commit. The repetition of this sound throughout the movie also reflects the events being recorded in Briony’s novel as they unfold on screen. As a result of repeating this sound effect, Wright is able to shape the audience’s response to Briony’s repentance as it accentuates her atonement of giving Cecelia and Robbie “what never had but they both so longed for and deserved”. The typewriter is symbolic of Briony’s imagination, the way in which she uses words and stories to control and manipulate. In the scenes where the audience discovers Briony has fabricated the events, they are accompanied by the rhythmic, fatalistic sound of a typewriter. Again the typewriter sound effect implies that Briony is able to use words to shape the audience’s understanding and to twist the truth, something which only comes to light at the end of the film. Therefore, Wright has successfully used sound effects to shape the audience’s response to the idea of perception and repentance in
The word choice throughout the last four paragraphs must have been very deliberate. The decision for the story to be a short story must have been a very conscious one that Baldwin made. He uses only what is necessary and combines musical terms and common speech to pack the myriad of emotions evoked into as few words as possible. The narrator never really verbalizes the actual feelings that he or his brother feels but rather lets the readers see them and feel them for themselves through the images he portrays and the history attached. Much as music infers emotion through the gut rather than the ear and gives you shivers without saying a word at all Baldwin's descriptions convey maximum emotion with minimal language.
A soft light can establish innocence or youth in a character, and a hard light can establish the evil in a character (Barsam, 222-24). During the bar scene with Terry and Edie, Edie has a softer light that symbolizes her innocence. Edie has been sheltered from the trouble in her town; therefore she is not aware that Terry is in the gang that killed her brother. The main mob boss is often shot with a harsher light. The boss is older and he is pure evil, he is not afraid to kill Terry for ratting him out to the police. The overall film is shot in a hard or high-contrast lighting that features deep shadows (Barsam, 223). The shadows increase the film’s drama and dark style. The overall lighting connects the setting with the plot and allows the audience to feel a certain way about a
The business of making a book together was new for both of us. Difficult. Awkward. Another book could be constructed about a writer who goes to a prison to interview his bother but comes away with his own story….the inevitible conflict between his role as detached observer and his responsibility as a brother would be at the center of such a book. When I stopped hearing Robby and listened to myself listening, that kind of book shouldered its way into my consciousness. I didn’t like that feeling. That book compromised the intimacy I wanted to achieve with my brother. (Wideman p. 723)
Darkness is one of the main themes in this scene. She said, and brought in cloudy night. immediately. I will be able to do so. Spread thy curtains, love performing night', this.
2. The author creates tone, which changes from peaceful and calm to horror. Words in the story like humorlessly and awkwardly help the reader feel the tension in the town. In the story, “She held her breath while her husband went forward” proved that the characters was dealing with ...
Martin McDonagh employs multiple techniques in In Bruges to express to the viewer various ideas surrounding redemption. These ideas are explored largely through the characterisation of Ray as he seeks forgiveness for his crimes while wishing to survive the enormity of them. The character of Ken is used as Ray’s moral counterpart who serves to protect Ray from Harry’s own idea of redemption, demonstrating that redemption is an individual concept that differs from person to person. The cinematography is used to further enforce these ideas along with other techniques such as mise-en-scène, sound and editing. All this works to accentuate McDonagh’s exploration of redemption and ultimately enable the audience to grasp a firmer understanding of the film.
A peculiar silence seems to have taken over the moment. A feeling so intense it instantly revitalizes one’s core. The moon gives of an exceptionally bright illumination and instantly the winds are calm, a bright and magnificent figure stands alone on the bridge. Only a radiant brightness reminiscent of an angelic halo surrounds the head of the figure so that the face cannot be seen. The two men touched with the full meaning of atonement. A stimulating sensation penetrates deep into their hearts, transforming them from a consciousness of conditioning, into an awareness of repentance. They drop into a spiritual state of consequence an ultimate conviction of soulful satisfaction, falling to their knees in an obedient state of humble remorse. Only tears of disappointment possess their eyes, their hearts intense with a sharp pain of conviction and their souls crying out to be
“It’s …coming…from…the…mirror,” Breanna stated as her voice slowly forced itself out between her chapped colorless lips allowing itself to be heard. She looked up at me and through the dimmed room I could make out her soft teary blue eyes. I began to feel really bad about allowing her to come when I knew how dangerous places like this are. I was soon jerked out of my thinking when a cold gust of wind blew between me and the mirror.
The extraordinary film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) skillfully uses cinematic devices appropriately within the context of the theme. Part of the underlying theme of this movie as explained by Truffaut himself is, “... to portray a child as honestly as possible...”(Writing About Film, 1982). It is the scenes in this movie that are most helpful in disclosing the overall theme of the film. Within the scenes, the camera angles in this film play an important role in accentuating the emotions behind the scene. The camera angles used in this film will be the primary focus of this paper. The high angle shots utilized in The 400 Blows are effective in helping to develop the overall feel of a scene. This movie uses the high angle shot in three different scenes to evoke three different emotions and it still works extremely well.
In Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, he illustrates a Bildungsroman, a coming of age of novel, that shows the reflection of the young protagonist Briony Tallis.From a young age, Briony was passionate about writing and desires to become a sophisticated writer that has recognition for her works. However, there is an alternative motive to her writing since it is her coping mechanism to the demons in her head and she chooses to express her thoughts and frustrations through her work. When Briony receives her rejection letter from the paper for her novel, McEwan reveals that people hide behind their decisions and attempt to justify their actions until others scrutinize their former mistakes.
...re, “a film is a close adaptation when most of the narrative elements in the literary text are kept in the film.” Hampton’s film therefore can be seen as a faithful remake of McEwan’s classic. As alluded by Yvonne Griggs “given the moral complexities of a novel like Atonement (2001) it is easy to categorise it as either a text which falls in the realms of the so-called unfilmable book, or one that requires radical reworking in order to “fit” the narrative expectations of mainstream cinema”, she continues “but like the novel from which it is adapted, Atonement (2007) attains a postmodern playfulness that invests cinematic narrative with ambiguity, reiterating in a cinematic context the novels debates about “authorship”, aesthetics and audience reception.” Essentially the tale translates well onto both mediums making Atonement successful both as a novel and a film.
The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes and cinematic techniques as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles (director) portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane. Also, Welles furthers the image of how demanding Kane is of Susan and many others. Mr. Welles conveys the message that Kane has suffered a hard life, and will continue to until death. Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography through use of light and darkness, staging and proxemics, personal theme development and materialism within the film, Citizen Kane.
In conclusion of the novel, Briony did her best to apologize for all the harm done to Cecilia and Robbie whether or not it was accepted is unknown, Lola and Paul did marry, the Tallis home was constructed into a hotel and golf course, and Briony did achieve her dream of being famous writer. Ian McEwan clarifies the themes of guilt, perception, and innocence all through Briony. Briony in this case plays God; she decides her life on whether she is atoned for her actions done. The letter in the last chapter spirals everything the reader would of thought but also defines truth, because the book “Atonement” was for the mind’s eye. It would be up to the reader to believe what is factual or misleading.
In part three of the story, Briony is older and working as a nurse hoping that it is a type of repentance for her sin, many years ago. As a nurse with the lower class, she sees the horrors of war and can’t seem to do her work properly. This adds to her suffering too. She also writes and even though a journal article she writes is rejected, she continues to write the story of her sister and Robbie. This is where she writes a happy ending because she doesn’t get the opportunity to apologise and tell the truth to them in real