Depict film analysis

 

 

2. La Flamme

 

Narrative Structure

The narrative structure for this film is a classic realist as it has a beginning, middle and end. At the beginning of the film is the protagonist ( a woman) is waiting on the beach for her boyfriend. When her boyfriend comes she is overwhelmed with his arrival. It stays in a state of equilibrium until the middle of the film. The disruption of the equilibrium is when the celluloid starts to burn as her boyfriend is running over to her. You could say that the pathway to the resolution is the boyfriend trying to escape from the celluloid burning but he isn't fast enough so the closure ends sad. There is a bit of humorous gore in it as the woman's dog starts eating the mans hand as it had blown off, as he got caught by the burning celluloid. The woman then shocked by everything she has seen faints and that's the end.

Identification

  In this film there are no point of view shots used as it's all about her reaction. The close ups are key in this film as it emphasis's all her emotions that she has. We know that the woman is in love with the man because of how happy she is to see him and how her face lit up when she saw him. Reactions are also important in this as she exaggerates when she finds out that her boyfriend is dead by fainting and how she over exaggerates her smile when she's happy.

 

Suspense

In this cuts are  the only thing used for suspense other than the woman's performance. The cuts start to get quicker towards the middle as the suspense builds as the burning celluloid comes on screen. This is to make the audience hooked to see what is going to happen to the man.

Mise-en-scene

 The main prop in the film is the woman's hat. This is important because the hat symbolises what era they are in which is the 1800s or early 1900s. Another prop is the dogs lead, this is important because near the end the dog actually comes off the lead. Another important prop which helps symbolise the era is an umbrella she is holding but not a waterproof umbrella but a fashion icon which was quite popular in those days.

 

The clothes that they are wearing are from hundreds of years ago. This tells us that they created the film to look as if it was filmed hundreds of years ago, even though it wasn't. The man is wearing a formal outfit which consists of trousers, a waist coat and a suit. The woman is wearing a dress which has buttons from the very top all the way down to the bottom of the skirt part. We know by looking at their clothes that the characters are from upper class background because of the clothes they are wearing.

 

When this film starts we get the idea that the characters from this are upper class because the establishing shot shows big grand buildings. We then are shown a beach which is where most of the filming takes place. We know that you have to go down some stairs to get to the beach because when we see the man for the first time his is up on a hill. The lighting that is used in this film is ambient lighting.

 

The main thing that makes the film as good as it is, is how the actors perform.  Like when the woman see's the celluloid start to burn her facial expressions are over exaggerated which is the whole point because in the past when people created films they didn't include sound, so everybody had to over exaggerate their emotions to show the audience how they were feeling. The woman showed that she was shocked by widening her eyes and showing her eyes wide open. 

Camera

The only camera angle that is used in this is the straight on camera angle. This is because all of the shots are still in movement. In this film the shot distance are close ups, medium shots, long shots and establishing shots. Close ups are used to show the emotion on the woman and mans face's to show  how much they care for eachother. Medium shots are used to show the characters body language, like we know that the woman fainted because we saw her big arm gesture. Long shots were used in the film to show the man trying to run towards his girlfriend. At the beginning of the film establishing shots were used to show the setting of the film, so we knew that the buildigs were right next to the beach as they were shown before the beach.   

Editing

 At the beginning a fade in, in the shape of a circle was used to open the beginning of the film. I think it was in a circle shape to emphasis how big the building is and how open the land is. Cuts were also used in this just to make sure all the film sequences flowed together.

Sound

In this a score is used either created by them or it is copyrighted music that they have asked to use. The sound of the song is quite sad and a soothed tone. This fits in with the film as its calm at first but then something bad happens and the song finishes on a sad note. At the same time you have some more non diagetic sound when you hear the sound of the tape going round. The sound of the tape gets louder as the buring celluloid comes on screen and then it stops after the man dies. This is also asynchronous sound.