Tom's Film Blog

Trainspotting uses various elements of film form to convey to the audience straight away the themes and characters of the film. The film starts off straight away in an action scene by showing Renton running away from the police frantically. This gives the film a fast pace and tells the audience that the film is going to have a fun tone. Starting a film with Renton running away could be seen as dramatic or maybe even intense, but other elements of film-making are used to subvert this. For example the music in this scene is chaotic and upbeat, allowing the audience to feel upbeat too. This perfectly displays the chaos of Renton’s life and thrill he gets from it: more specifically the thrill he gets from heroin. This is true because the music continues into the scene where Renton is taking heroin. It shows the audience how it feels to take it. This aligns us with Renton because now the audience knows what he is feeling. It also depicts the issue of addiction in a light-hearted manner. May...

Both No Country For Old Men and Captain Fantastic uses elements of sound and visuals to engage the viewer with the characters, narrative and themes of both films. First of all, No Country For Old Men uses mise-en-scene, editing and camera angles to visually tell a story. This is evident in the final scene of the movie where we see Bell's retirement. It starts by slowly fading from the previous scene: Chigurh walking away from the crash and transitioning into Bell in his home looking into the distance. The editing makes it look like Bell is looking at him walking away and he doesn't do anything about. This is a recurring theme throughout No Country, that Bell is ineffective and can not stop this new wave of crime that Chigurh represents. Also the shot frames Bell at the center, aligning us with him and the transition preceding the scene seconds before could symbolise this is what Bell's thinking: that Chigurh escaping the crash represents him escaping justice and it is unset...

Chigurh's final scene subverts expectations of the viewer and the consistency of his character whilst still conveying the theme of fate vs chance. For example, the scene where Carla Jean and Chigurh have their confrontation, they are both framed in the center and at the foreground of each of their shot. This is also followed by multiple shot reverse shot of them staring directly at each other. Not only does this continue a recurring theme throughout the film and the consistency of how the film is shot but also creates an intensity to the scene: the quick cuts back and forth causes the viewer to feel nervous and wonder if Chigurh is about to kill her. This idea is subverted when she is killed off screen, the same as her husband. Maybe this is done just to create dramatic irony or maybe it is a conscience move by the Coen brothers not to upset the the audience because of the innocence of Carla Jean's character and killing her on screen would be to upsetting or unnecessary. The mi...