Fish Tank

 Fish Tank - Arnold 2009

Overview - CONTEXT

• New mood in British film in mis 1990s
• Lack of funding for British films during Thatchers time in office (1979-91)
• 1990s new initiatives on financial front contribute to output from different directors
• Work varied reflecting social and cultural contexts of Britain 
• Work of Gurindha Chada - marks contribution of Asian-British film production - Bhaji on the beach (ethnic diversity from gender perspective)
• 1990s onwards - continuing to offer what British film and cinema does best in terms of social realism but also new directions across genres: sci-fi, comedy, horror, urban - Danny Boyle, 28 days later, Shaun of the dead, Attack the Block, Under the skin
• Social realism continues to respond to new social issues: Loach, Leigh and also Andrea Arnold, Carol Morley, Sarah Gavron, Sally Potter

New wave cinema 1960s

• Rebelled against social hierarchies - making working class people (ordinary people) and their issues visible and important
• British film post 1990s reflects push to visualise diverse representations across race, gender and ethnicity too
• Work of Andrea Arnold focuses on working class lives but also from a gender perspective
• Mike Leigh continues to show his interest in ordinary people but he stays grounded to social and political developments. 

In our two film study we examine:

• Narrative structure and theory
• We focus on the difference between ‘plot’ and story
• Examine narrative devices and techniques
• Engage with ideological critical approaches: e.g Feminist and Marxist Ideologies which our reflected in narratives
• Explore key elements of film form and their contribution to the films narrative development

Opening sequence

Use of sound:

• All diegetic
• Realism
• Music is contrapuntal to the argument - Mia’s behaviour and anger - diegetic 

Camera work:

• Hand held and shaky 
• Camera shows us what Mia sees
• Focuses on her perspective and also others’ perspective of her
• Wide shots of the girls dancing - close together in one shot
• Opening shot - back shot of Mia - looking out the window - trapped in ‘fish tank’

Editing:

• Slow paced - reflects realism 
• Uncomfortable pauses and long takes - boredom and anticipation

Performance:

• Immediately introduced to the main character - rude and brash - confrontational 
• Movement - tracking shots - trying to keep up with her
• She commands scene - presence 
• Interaction with others 
• Use of space in frame
• Framing and composition 
• Feisty performance - head-buts 

Importance of dialogue 

• Dialect
• Slang and swearing
• Realism - not necessarily to the people watching it depending on class

Main Theories

Todorov’s stage of narrative based on ‘cause’ and ‘effect’

There is a distinction between the ‘PLOT’ and the ‘STORY’

Plot - Summing up the ‘action’/events

Story - The plot is fleshed out with characters, emotions, and context AND this same plot can be constructed into a narrative in a number of ways - USING NARRATIVE DEVICES AND TECHNIQUES.

Story unfolds as ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ from the first equilibrium to the last equilibrium - The final equilibrium is not the same as the beginning.

Everything that has happened in the interim.

TODOROV 5 KEY STAGES

1. Equilibrium 
2. Something happens - Sets the narrative in motion
3. A realisation that something has happened
4. Trying to put things right
5. New equilibrium at the end

Vladmir Propp: archetypal characters

Archetypal characters

He argues that a good story always needs a specific set of archetypes

The characters themselves are not important - focus is on their role on function as a type

Hero, Villain, Victim, Helper and messenger, Anti-hero

Folk tales - Emphasis

Levi-Strauss - structuralist approach: conflict and binary opposition

Social anthropologist who studied primitive societies who communicated with signs/paintings/drawings - visually

Not spoken or written!

Primitive drawing/painting on a cave for example - recognise ideas around conflict - opposites/binaries - Strauss develops this to argue that intrinsic to most cultures is an understanding f the world through CONFLICT and OPPOSITES = MEANING

Levi-Strauss - Key points

• Conflict
• Binary opposition
• Discipline - Social Anthropologist
• Studies storytelling in primitive societies, exploring hoe visuals on caves told stories
• He was an Anthropologist 
• He studied primitive societies
• He didn’t develop a theory for written texts/storytelling (integral to all communities)
• He explained that the common element was meaning arising from conflict
• Conflict is constructed through binaries which clash - binary oppositions
• Meaning emerges from the antagonism between sets of values or ideas (which are conveyed in characters)

Binary Opposites - For example

Masculine	Feminine
Good	Evil
Primative	Developed
Barbaric	Civilised
Black	White

Meaning emerges from the conflict of opposites 

• Struggle and oppositions of binaries ultimately creates meaning
• Reading/Understanding one idea/concept in relation to understanding its opposite (villain - victim)

Can we apply this to any film we know?

Sunset boulevard - Joe and Norma

Bonnie and Clyde - Law/Lawlessness and Sexuality = Bonnie and Clyde

Some like it Hot - Gender norms

No country for Old men - Ellis vs Chigurh; Chigurh vs society; Carla Jean vs Chigurh - Moral codes

Think about visual codes - creating opposition