Review of Red Road (contains spoilers)

*Warning this review contains spoilers which will ruin your experience of this film if you have not already seen it*

Red Road (dir Andrea Arnold, 2006) is the first part of a Lars Von Trier project called The Advance Party.  Trier challenged three directors to create films with the same group of characters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Party_(film_series)

Plot synopsis

Red Road is aptly named as this is a tense journey for the characters and viewers. The film opens with the main character, Jackie (Kate Dickie), working as a CCTV operator in front of a wall of TV screens, showing various run down parts of Glasgow.  She is following people’s lives and smiling as they play with their dogs or rock out listening to headphones whilst clean office blocks.  These moments are small and mundane but they become important to her (and us) as she watches them on screen.

As the film goes on she becomes obsessed (or maybe “entranced”?) with Clyde (brilliantly played by Tony Curran) whom, we glean, has been freed from prison earlier than expected and is known to her. Jackie goes from observing Clyde on screens at work to stalking him in person and eventually to insinuating herself into his life.  We don’t find out her motives until near the end of the film.  Eventually we discover that Clyde, under the influence of drugs, plowed into a bus stop where Jackie’s husband and child were waiting. They were both killed instantly.  Although this happened several years ago, Jackie still has their ashes in the house (we see her cuddling the urns under the duvet in one scene), which is causing distress to her in-laws who would also like some closure.

Jackie seems lonely from the outset and we quickly see her voyeurism go too far – this is symbolised by her standing next to one of the people she regularly notices on screen, a man with a sick bulldog, at the newsagent window.  It seems that she has no real life of her own even though she is well-liked by colleagues and has a lover.  She seems passive at first, largely avoiding emotional exchanges. Soon she proves to be incredibly ballsy though – lying to Stevie about how she met Clyde, turning up at the party in the flat uninvited and so on.  We don’t see a clichéd powerless victim.  Has she just reached a natural point of having nothing left to lose or are we just seeing her as her sense of boundaries become blurred, jolted by Clyde getting out of prison before she’d had chance to prepare (before justice was served)?

Cinematography

The style of photography and the editing enhances the sense of never fully being able to see the whole picture – we shadow Jackie through lots of claustrophobic close-ups, often in dark sets and sometimes out of focus.  This makes for uneasy viewing. We are always off-balance, frustrated by trying to catch sight of more of the story.  Even though we are very close to Jackie, we can’t follow her thought-processes and I can’t really understand her choice of revenge. The camera work is at times jerky, very documentary-style and some of the parts seem to have been played by non-actors.  The only music is diegetic, which adds to the bleak realism of the film.  The sense of Jackie moving on at the end of the film is enhanced by brighter scenes (similar to, but not as extreme as, Dolores Claiborne (dir Taylor Hackford, 1995)) and devices such the man she used to watch with the fat, sick bulldog now has a frisky new dog.

The scenery around the Red Road estate is well chosen – apart from the obvious litter and barbed wire, lack of trees etc.  The terrain is very bumpy and all the buildings and shops facades are filmed from uncomfortable angles.

Tension is created as we see things from the intimacy of Jackie’s POV – Clyde is portrayed as a criminal, possibly dangerous and yet she takes great risks to get close to him.  Our first sight of him is in a potential rape situation and in several frames he seems wild (carrying all the beer for the party) or predatory (waiting outside the school and approaching the teenage girl) or dodgy (the unbranded locksmiths van and raiding the skip).  We go on the whole emotional journey with Jackie as the story unfolds, but soon we find ourselves seeing Clyde as charming, sexy and apparently keen to start a new life.  This is a flipped version of our impression of Stevie – we see an increasing number of moments of him being unpredictable and frightening. Clyde is the one who gets Stevie under control during the pub brawl.

The film does not tell us what to think about the UK CCTV culture, the justice system, the false rape charge or Jackie taking matters into her own hands  – there is no moral message about the state of our society.  The surveillance is merely a device for telling the story and a metaphor for Jackie’s relationship with the world rather than being part of the story itself.  She is disconnected from everything, including herself in a way.  There are lots of indications of this in the film (eg waving at her aunt through the hatch at the wedding disco; sex with her lover is from behind and filmed through the dog safety mesh in his van).

The sex scene with Clyde is widely referred to by reviewers and on movie website message boards and it does seem to be pivotal.  This is the moment we really start to like Clyde. He suddenly becomes a real person, not just an image on a CCTV screen or in our nervous imagination. I like the unpredictability of the sexual tension between them. We see strong indications that he is very interested in her too – the erotic obsession is on both sides.

There are some powerful moments where we learn much of the human story and the emotional impact of what has happened but with a very frugal use of dialogue:

Jackie says to Clyde: “You didn’t even look at me in court!”.

One of the most moving moments is when she stuffs baby clothes inside the jeans and jacket of her daughter and then hugs and sobs over this 3D facsimile of her dead child. 

We learn that she cannot remember that her father-in-law Arnold has ever visited her house – he mentions a conversation about a plum tree, of which she has no recollection.  This is a brilliant way to show the depth of her grief.  Arnold has to pull hard to open a door we did not know was there and then we see him bathed in light before going into a garden she has neglected.  When she calls to withdraw the rape charge she steps out into the garden – this is a symbol of her being the healing process.

Plot holes/criticisms

Some commentators have said that we are kept guessing for too long and that it becomes a distraction from the art of the film.  I would also argue that the “reveal” is not quite dramatic enough – I struggled with the accents in that scene and I am still not clear on how Stevie looking at the photo of Jackie’s child would make everything fall into place for him (haven’t we have been told earlier that Stevie knows nothing about Clyde’s previous life?).

It also bothered me that she excuses herself from work on the premise of not feeling well and then immediately goes to a pub that is being watched by her employer’s CCTV. She behaves suspiciously – looking at the ground to find a rock (an indication of how pre-meditated is her plan to frame Clyde for rape) – before going into the pub.  When they leave Stevie and Clyde are in an apparent fight, which surely would have raised concerns back at the CCTV monitoring station?

I also found the part involving the rape accusation and then her rescinding this to be very unconvincing. There was no allusion to the fact that the police would have known there was a link between Jackie and Clyde and I think there would have been much more fall-out. My understanding is that it is quite difficult to stop these legal processes once they have been put in motion – especially for ex-cons.

After a confrontation, Jackie tells Clyde that his daughter visited the block of flats (which I thought was a bit too twee in the first place) and he asks how she knows that.  This was another reminder that her voyeurism had gone too far. I felt slightly embarrassed for her, even though she is sharp enough in that moment to avoid having to confess everything to him. I found this part of the scene to be messy and I am not sure what the point of it was.  To show that Jackie cares enough about Clyde to want him to reconnect with his child?  Cycle of life, etc? Or maybe just part of the closure and an attempt to fix the disruption she had caused with the false rape charge.  

Summary

Although I have these few minor gripes about this film, I felt it was a very authentic piece of storytelling and portrayal of a community.  The slow pace did not bother me as there were enough powerful punches and a thrilling story to keep me very engaged.  It is ultimately a story about guilt, forgiveness and closure and in that respect is very satisfying.  There is no Hollywood ending and I am sure the subject matter and edginess is not to everyone’s taste but overall I would rate this film highly.

Notes for future research and further reflection

How exactly has the director succeeded in making us feel so close to Jackie?  This is crucial – we have to care about her.

One theme is around how the observer may feel the impact of what they are seeing more powerfully than those being observed.  Some reviews mentioned similarities here with The Conversation (dir Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) ; Blow Up (dir Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966); Rear Window (dir Alfred Hitchcock, 1954); Exotica (dir Atom Egoyan, 1994).

Clyde’s daughter as a device. What does this sub-plot reveal about him and about Jackie?  We discover that Jackie was dismissive of her own daughter just before her death and that she feels pain and guilt over this.

Why is she hurriedly picking his belongings and looking at things in his room while he gets mugs and something to drink before the sex scene?  Is this just a bit of cheap pulse-quickening drama or is she still undecided about her course of action?  Did she already know exactly what she was going to do when she picked up the stone outside the pub?

Some notes on Lars von Trier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95

Two notable and recommended Dogme films are:

Gypo: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443526/

Italian for Beginners: http://www.imdb.co.uk/title/tt0243862/

The goal of the Dogme collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other technical gimmicks. The filmmakers concentrate on the story and the actors' performances. They believe this approach may better engage the audience, as they are not alienated or distracted by overproduction. To this end, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg produced ten rules to which any Dogme film must conform. These rules, referred to as the "Vow of Chastity," are as follows:

• Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
• The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
• The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
• The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
• Optical work and filters are forbidden.
• The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
• Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
• Genre movies are not acceptable.
• The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
• The director must not be credited.

Exercise: Camera angles

I have tried to find a few good examples of camera angles used to create atmosphere or alter the meaning of a scene of shot.  This will be an ongoing process as I watch films in future.  

It is important to consider whether the angle affects:

Viewpoint – does it indicate a specific POV?

Relationship – does it change your relationship with the characters on screen?

Status – does it indicate the status of the character on screen?

Suspense – does it create suspense, tension or expectation? How?

Mood – does it create a particular feeling or mood?”

A well-chosen camera angle should:

• Deliver information (context or detail)
• Create impact
• Facilitate editing
• Enhance performance of the actors

Rain Man (dir Barry Levinson, 1988)

Probably one of the most well known images from Rain Man - this is a powerful moment in the film and quite different from a lot of the claustrophobic scenes throughout.  This is showing the two characters as equal in status and the camera angle has helped to create that. These brothers have different histories, skills and demeanours but both have dignity and power in this image.  It also suggests they are a partnership, as they are walking in step and side by side.

A Single Man (dir Tom Ford, 2009)

Single ManThis camera angle - the over the shoulder shot - suggests, without quite being a POV subjective shot, that we are seeing Kenny from George's point of view and simultaneously seeing how Kenny looks up to the professor. There is attraction and fascination. The film has lots of quite extreme close-ups, particularly of eyes. One interpretation is that is to portray the heightened awareness of a suicidal man.  It also emphasises the emotional connections he makes during that time.  There have also been suggestions that the pupil dilation in the movie is a deliberate indication of sexual attraction.  Some also say the eye close-ups are to do with him feeling invisible - a commentary on the homophobic culture and his advancing age compared with the other people he encounters.

In the same film, when George gets the phone call to say that Jim has been killed, the camera lingers on him excruciatingly - close enough that we feel involved but perhaps not so much that we feel manipulated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGLrSZuMnqw

EDIT: Fellow student Stuart has just pointed out that over the shoulder shots also create a sense of depth.  He has encouraged me to read Grammar of the Shot ...

Goodfellas (dir Martin Scorsese, 1990)

The Copacabana clip in Goodfellas is another famous sequence which uses a shot from behind, with the photographer using a Steadicam to follow the actors into the room in one single shoot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBMKyNJvNV8

This adds to the message that Henry is seamlessly part of this world, that he fits in, that doors are literally opened for him.  Very effective.

At Close Range (dir James Foley, 1986)

This scene in At Close Range uses a camera angle to show what is happening from a specific POV which is as Sean Penn's character is seeing things.  This gives him (and us viewers) an insight to the ruthlessness of Brad Whitewood Snr (played by Christopher Walken). I think the long shot also gives us a sense of helplessness during the murder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=B_sMKV7_Qs0#t=272s

Seven Psychopaths (dir Martin McDonagh, 2012)

This camera angles is from Sharice's POV - she has lost Charlie's dog and he is planning to kill her.  It enhances the sense of his status (he has all the power) and creates suspense.  It also helps to establish his psychopath credentials.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (dir Guy Ritchie, 1998)

This end of the card game scene is a brilliant portrayal of a man who has just lost everything - we get a strong sense of his feelings of dizziness and nausea and the camera angle pulls us right into that, really adding tension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56jekYL2h7k

Guy Ritchie uses a lot of creative camera angles (for instance often using the dutch angle for flashbacks) and some quirky editing techniques which are not to everyone's taste but he does have a very distinct style that seems to work with his scripts and characters.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

This film uses lots of close-ups to bring us into the action and get caught up with the characters - we see every emotion with great intensity - it feels relentless which adds tension and leaves us feel very unsettled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxJSGMK9yRE

Tarantino - low angles: https://vimeo.com/37540504

These pretty much tick all the boxes of viewpoint, relationship, status, suspense and mood.

Reflections on the Alcoholic sequence

• I suspect I tried to put in too many frames
• Kept quite close to storyboards (am still trying hard not to let my awful iPad sketches hamper my creativity!)
• Not happy with the transition after first spotting the vodka - unnecessary clip
• The falling bottle should have been shown to be more precariously balanced or an indication of why it fell (disturbed by a cat?) - perhaps too confusing that there were two bottles?
• Smirnoff label too prominent - looked like deliberate product-placement
• More creative use of camera angles?
• Could have added more atmosphere with sound (music playing in background?)?
• I prefer the black and white version - just seems a bit more like a depressing alcoholic scene

Thoughts on other people's videos...

I really like a number of the versions of this made by other students. It is a difficult and unrealistic brief really. A true alcoholic would probably know exactly where the booze was and are unlikely to have a glass sitting next to a bottle of wine I would imagine so this is always going to be a tricky project.

Lots of different styles though. I think the panning needs to be fairly fast and realistic.  Loved how Richard's light fixture had to come into focus at the start. Emil's sound distraction (kid's toy?) was really effective and quite eerie.  Emily's beautiful use of light and colour.  Quite a few created a good sense of desperation and anxiety (especially with the ticking clock).  Several interesting ideas to think about.

The Alcoholic

The Alcoholic from Helen Rosemier on Vimeo.

And a black and white version:



Alcoholic B from Helen Rosemier on Vimeo.

Exercise: Shooting a short sequence

The brief is: 

• You are an alcoholic alone in your home
• You look around your empty room
• Nothing interests you
• You notice a bottle
• You hold the bottle and unscrew the lid
• Something attracts your attention, you look round
• Nothing happens
• You look back at the bottle and pour yourself a drink

Key areas to consider:

What information you wish to draw attention to?

I want the information to follow the brief fairly closely: empty room, lack of interest in anything except for the booze, finding the vodka, the distraction - an empty bottle falling off the table, pouring the drink.  I want to try to show the alcoholic's love/hate relationship with drink.

How you want each shot to feel?

I want to portray disorientation, fuzziness, quiet desperation. I want the room to seem flat and empty, unrewarding but then with lots of focus on the vodka.

Choice of frame?

I think this will be powerful if the frames stay close to how the protagonist would be seeing things so I am going to avoid using a tripod. I know this will make for a jerky film but I think it will feel more authentic that way.  This will put me right in the action. 

Where are the borders of perception drawn in each shot?

I think it will be fairly obvious that the protagonist has woken up at home (although I guess it could be someone else's place which might change the mood) so there is not much need to show much outside the main focus of the alcoholic which is to find more booze STAT!

The storyboards

I have drawn these up to ensure that I cover the key information and that I have a good road map for the sequence.  The brief suggests that I try and replicate exactly what I have drawn when I create the video sequence.  So that will be hilarious.

This is a view of my desk and the window from the POV of lying down on the sofa - the frame is as a person would see as they open their eyes. I thought this would be a interesting start as not obvious what is it and therefore deliberately disorientating.

Our alcoholic hero now slowly sits up so the view of the world at least becomes slightly more normal.  A bit easier to now see that this a window, chair and curtain.

The alcoholic looks at the bottle they were drinking from last night but it is sadly empty.  Quite close up, not very focused.

Turns to look over to the right in a wide shot to see if they can spot any more booze...

A further scan of the room reveals a half-bottle of Smirnoff, a more close-up frame as here is the really important thing to look at, but still with some context so it doesn't look like an unnatural leap of POV.

The alcoholic goes towards the bottle and holds it rather shakily (maybe a bit tentatively?) ready to pour a drink (or maybe just feeling reassured that there is something for later?).

The empty bottle from the small table teeters off onto the floor and distracts the protagonist - they look round suddenly and stare while the bottle rolls on the ground.

Nothing is broken though, there is no one there and nothing else happens so the alcoholic turns back, now determined to have a drink. They unscrew the bottle.

                                                               

A view of the sofa and the small table as the alcoholic moves towards the glass.  This wider shot of a comforting part of the room is a small re-orientation for our addicted hero as they get close to achieving their goal.  They are returning to the scene of their last bender.

They pour some vodka into the glass on the small table, rather shakily, close up as this bit needs to portray some of the clumsy desperation.  I also want to somehow show the sinking pleasure that the alcoholic will feel as they dive back into the bottle.

Editing snippets

Today was the first time I created something having obtained snippets of footage, this case with a view to creating a taste of Havana video and edited them together. I thought I should tackle this asap as I have been very nervous about using the iMovie software and that has felt like it could be a big barrier to my progression. It wasn't too bad and hopefully iMovie will suffice for the time being.

The video itself is rather boring and I can see a number of areas which could have been dramatically improved:

• Needs a lot more music as that is a constant feature of Cuba
• I should have filmed much more interesting things - I captured the feel of things with the old cars but there is so much else that could have been crammed in
• More people interacting with the camera and with each other 
• People talking 
• Could have included still images (Duckrabbit style)?
• The clips need to have a logical relationship with each other (journey through a day or links from people or views)
• I need to think more about pacing when I am choosing what to film to ensure I have a sufficient variety of footage
• I should have planned the whole project much more deliberately rather than just filming moments that appealed 

All in all though, I am quite pleased to have been able to move this forward without any major dramas...

Onwards and upwards!

Toy Stories by Gabriele Galimberti

Brilliant:

http://www.featureshoot.com/2013/03/photos-of-children-from-around-the-world-with-their-most-prized-possessions/


http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/

Project: Emotive frames

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012 dir Benh Zeitlin)

This frame is very powerful for me because it is the moment when Hushpuppy turns to face the beasts which up until then have not really been seen properly.  The aurochs are supposed to be harbingers of death and represent her fears. The framing is perfect for this: simple, classic profile with a clear indication of the scale - the beast is even spilling out of the frame. It is wide enough to give us a sense of the landscape and the context which keeps consistency with the rest of the movie (this is important as it is a surreal interlude) but there are no other distractions. Hushpuppy, whilst tiny, is strong and has summoned all her courage for this moment.  The image arouses a primal fear and an instinct to want to protect the child but there is also the emotion from the powerful interaction between the two creatures.  I think I may actually have stopped breathing at this moment when I saw it on the big screen.  Very emotional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZAcmIIfZE

Down by Law (1986 dir Jim Jarmusch)

This is one of those butt-clenchingly excruciating moments in the film where Benigni's character Bob is put in the cell.  Zack and Jack have just had a fight and are not speaking to each other and Bob has to deal with the awkwardness of being silently stared at and then ignored.  My feelings are of claustrophobia and tension but also of good-hearted humour - Bob seems like a harmless, friendly guy.  The framing exacerbates the intensity of the situation by really conveying the sense of the small cell and the close proximity of the three men as well as the boredom of prison life.  The fixed viewpoint also reinforces this sense of their imprisonment.  We are only shown the bare minimum of what we need to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqBpvKNbdGg

Tyrannosaur (2011 dir Paddy Considine)

This is one of many very shocking moments in the film.  The scene starts with this close-up of Joseph (played superbly by Peter Mullan). He is uncharacteristically calm and seems sober, clearly sitting out in broad daylight but splattered with blood which all creates great suspense. We know that something has happened but we don't know what until the camera pans further out. This is a heart-breaking moment in the film as Joseph has crossed a line but he is portrayed as now being in control and with dignity.  This close up shot lingers on his face, urging us to really look at the man and try to understand how he got to this point and what he must be feeling.  

Warrior (2011 dir Gavin O'Connor)

Easily the most powerful part of this movie for me,  Nick Nolte plays the rather pathetic father of the two fighters who has been sober for several years but then suffers a relapse. Hardy's character has shown nothing but contempt for his Dad through the whole film so it is very poignant that he comforts him now.  This frame makes me want to cry because Nolte is so convincingly going through desperate agony - he is trying to resist the hug from his son because he does not feel worthy.  I feel very close to the scene from the framing - this gives empathy with both characters.  The whole scene is presented in a slightly jerky, documentary style which makes it feel very natural and real - intensifying the emotional response.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0PIz8EG1Kk