The Stylistic Conventions of Pleasantville

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The Stylistic Conventions of Pleasantville

Pleasantville is a film that uses stylistic conventions to help anchor

the ideas suggested by the plot and reinforce the meaning of the text.

There are many ways it does this.

The narrative starts of from TV stations giving the idea of sci-fi as

the basic genre. Pleasantville is introduced by the clips of the TV

marathon; this is an old 50's TV show. There is a boy called David and

his twin sister Jennifer. David is seen in the early stages of the

narrative lacking confidence, no luck with girls, few friends, loves

Pleasantville and is obsessed by the perfect lifestyle. Pleasantville

is viewed as nice, with no extremes and no changes. The first part of

the movie is cutting between the twins to sow the difference, this

helps us see how they develop throughout the film and understand the

meaning of the text, as we build to their prospective evenings.

With the arrival of the TV repair man we get more sense of the sci-fi

genre, he arrives without being called; he has an old-fashioned van

and speech. Then when the lightning strikes at that time this causes

suspicion to the audiences mind. The 2 pairs of siblings then argue at

the same on real life and on screen. David and Jennifer end up in the

program.

Pleasantville is all black and white to start of with. Examples of

life are: big family, big breakfast, cat up a tree, skip martin (high

school jock), basketball team always wins, nothing outside

Pleasantville, characters lack understanding and can only follow what

asked to do. This is the start of the plot showing what life is like

in Pleasantville.

The first change is when bud imp...

... middle of paper ...

...nt and there is vandalism

they realise there has to be peace between the 2 kinds. The stylistic

convention got this over into the audience's mind.

I think the sci-fi genre is suspected when the electrician comes in

and gives Bud an old remote. When they get sucked into the TV the

audience realise it's a sci-fi film. Their expectations are for Bud

and Jennifer to escape. But as you go along these expectations change.

The stylistic conventions help to anchor the ideas, and reinforce the

meaning of the text by using colour. A certain object in the movie

changed for a reason and because something happened. This make's the

audience think why that certain object and what effect does it have on

the Pleasantville society. In conclusion colour help anchors the ideas

by making a certain object colour for a particular reason.

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