Film Style
Age of Innocence: Style is the Substance
When thinking about film style, we can often relate certain styles to certain filmmakers. We can also think of stylistic schools; i.e. groups that have same film styles.
Wes Anderson
Everything is usually symmetrical and centred within a shot. Usually uses warm and saturated colours. Wes Anderson usually uses warm colours to induce nostalgia within the audience. He consistently uses the same cast and always includes David Bowie and The Kinks within the film score.
Anderson usually portrays family as dysfunctional and always has characters with their own specific traits that adds to the family’s dysfunction. He also often makes films with eccentric and wealthy families.
Tim Burton
Consistently uses the same cast and his films are very whimsical and ‘fantastical’. Alternative view of horror and is usually quite comedic and creepy. Usually uses the same composer to generate consistency over films.
Quentin Tarantino
Uses lots of blood to make something look more dramatic and unrealistic – almost comedic. Constantly uses himself as a cameo appearance to generate a consistent brand throughout his films. He plays with our suspension of disbelief in a very playful way. He loves movies and is a big fan of genre and exploitation film. He combines different facets of cinema in a very fascinating way.
Sofia Coppola
Often uses young, unhappy women as the protagonists. Usually the protagonists are wealthy and privileged but lack a sense of agency and have deep social and psychological issues.
We can often ask 4 questions that can help us analyse the film:
- What is the overall form?
- What are the primary techniques being used?
- What patterns are formed by these techniques?
- What functions do the techniques fulfil?
The Age of Innocence – Martin Scorsese
Scorsese said that this was the most violent film he’s ever made – interestingly not in a physical way, but rather in an emotional way. This film is littered with motifs and symbols, everything is a symbol or references to something else within the film and even the dialogue references this:
Everything in this new world is labelled; everyone is not.
Writing and text is important within the film because it is the main source of communication. It is also based on a book which is extremely important in regards to the use of text and ‘notes’ within the film.
Flowers are also an important motif within the film – in particular, yellow roses. They represent a characters unconventionality.
Lace is used within the film to obscure thing. There are laced curtains and lace veils to separate characters from the world.
The movement of the flowers is very sexualised – it resembles the opening and discovering of certain things within the film i.e. desire and truth.