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Character development introduction
Family dynamics and family structure
Family dynamics and family structure
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Swimming Upstream is a 2003 Australian biographical drama that portrays historical family events, from childhood to adulthood, written and co-produced by Tony Fingleton, directed by Russell Mulcahy and produced by Howard Baldwin, Karen Dianne Baldwin, and Paul Pompian. Swimming Upstream begins in the 1950s, and follows the true story of Tony Fingleton from his point of view, surrounded by his dysfunctional family. Always overshadowed and underestimated by his mentally and physically abusive father, Harold Fingleton, due to his enjoyment of piano and lack of enthusiasm and passion for football, Tony is discovered to prove himself worthy, setting up himself a reputation to show extreme strengths in backstroke swimming, and hopes to win over his …show more content…
father’s heart and acceptance. The film concentrates on the themes of a father/son relationship, failure and success, sport and domestic violence. I do believe that those themes are time-related to the 1950s, as sport was very much a part of every day Australian lives. Even with a population as small as it was, we were known to dominate in tennis, cricket and swimming. Sport brings a lot of people together in a community and I feel that was something that was significantly explored throughout the film. Relationships in general and domestic violence were never spoken about during this period of time; there was no outside help or support available like we have now. My selected character was Harold Fingleton.
I chose him because his character extensively shows evolution in resentment towards his son and wife, is always inclined to situate his children in competitive circumstances, and is always willing to put his whole family on line in exchange for a gold medal. These traits were interesting to witness, and an analysis will help me understand his character. The despise everyone feels towards Harold is intentional to a high degree. His character was portrayed as an abusive father who (potentially) abuses his wife physically, and is shown to be mistreating her mentally, to the point where she attempts suicide. His relationship with his son Tony is also very unstable and misleading, as we see in the beginning of the film Harold grabs his two sons to fight each other right after Harold Jr. (eldest child) pulls down the fallboard of the piano onto Tony’s fingers. As the firstborn is evidently winning at beating the other up, both Harold Snr. And Jr. name-call him “sissy”, “fairy” and “poofta.” This scene gives Harold a reputation of being substandard father who just wants to beat up his kids, and conceivably misleads the audience. As the movie progresses, we see his drinking habits being introduced and enlarging as he re-lives memories and deals with his own expectations of …show more content…
himself. The scene I chose begins with a high-end car driving in towards an aggrieved crowd behind a restricted fence at the wharf where Harold works.
Two gentlemen exit the car doors in suits; one places a smart-looking hat on without losing self-possession, despite the vociferous and resentful crowd, he arrogantly walks up to Harold (behind the fence) with a vainglorious yet devious smile. This particular part proves the superiority of the ‘suspicious’ man, as the shot is calm when focused on him. But when it turns to Harold and the mob of people, the shot is rocky and agitated. As this man walks past the crowd, he catches Harold’s eye and recognises him. Giving him a cheeky glance, he walks up to the fence confident with the knowledge he is about to remind Harold of the disturbing incidents he faced as a young one. “Thought it was you! Surely you remember.” “You got the wrong bloke mate.” “No. Right bloke son. I even remember how much I paid ya. You and ya mother.” The camera then zooms up to the hand of this man as he allows coins to drop to the ground in slow motion. The dialogue in this scene hints at Harold’s trauma connecting to the reality of his mother serving as a prostitute during his childhood, and him having to witness and experience that kind of actuality at such a young age. The next shot slowly zooms up on Harold’s face while the crowd behind him are filmed in a time lapse; he gets pushed against the gate rapidly, but appears to be mentally blank, with the back of
his head being shown. This segment is shown in a way that makes the audience feel as if their original judgments on Harold were deceived. As if their opinions could have been too harsh; not knowing the story behind his personality. In this moment Harold has his back towards his life, he doesn’t want a bar of anything that’s going on. The rest of the scene is frantic and involves fighting with the intense sounds that give you a shock, and that greatly contributes to a new side of him and a step in his character development.
This left Hitchcock films as some of her mother’s favorites. Pemberton, went to a Hitchcock festival as an adult, this time watching Rear Window, which she had not seen since she was a child with an objective examination, she found a scene that would shift both her and her mother’s perspective of this movie. As Jimmy Stewart’s character, Jefferies, realizes he is in danger, telephones his friend Wendell Corey, who was not at home, but he spoke with the baby-sitter who did not appear on screen, but was portrayed in a voice that would convey imagery of a “familiar black image.” Asking the inspiration for this essay “Do he have your number, Mr.
Situated in the rising action of the film, Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954), this scene depicts Jeff sending a note to his neighbor, Mr. Thornwald, with the help of Lisa and Stella letting him know that they know about his crime. Hitchcock's use of mise-en-scene elements such as, lighting, setting, props, spacing and expressions between characters all allow Hitchcock to prove Jeff’s’ inability in the situation and develop important themes such as opposite perspectives and peoples’ engrossment with lives other than their own.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window is truly a masterpiece, as it uses fascinating cinematic elements to carry the story and also convey the meaning of voyeurism. Throughout the film we are in one room, yet that does not limit the story. This causes the viewer to feel trapped, similar to the main character, while also adding suspense to the detective story. The opening scene itself, draws the viewer in. In just five minutes and 27 shots, the viewer is given an introduction to the main character, his lifestyle, his condition, and his neighborhood. The lighting, the costumes, and the set are all presented in a way to catch the viewers eye, compelling them to crave more. Combining vivid lighting, edgy cinematography, and unique set design, Rear Window, proves why Hitchcock is still remembered as one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time.
The turning point of the movie is when Harold starts to believe his inability to manipulate his own fate. That is after Harold stays home to control the plot of Karen’s novel and sees his apartment being unexpectedly destroyed. If we recall back to the movie, on his day off, Harold is watching a science program about how animals are unable to control their deaths in the natural world on TV. A memorable quote in the show “The wounded bird knows its fate. Its desperate attempts to escape only underscore the hopelessness of its plight,” describes Harold’s helplessness. Minutes after the quote is stated, Harold sees a crane crashes into his living room wall with his own eyes. The next day, Harold reveals these facts to Professor Hilbert, and Hilbert reinforces the idea that Harold needs to accept his fate. He suggest...
She sucked in her cheeks but stared past him and said nothing. Anders saw that the other woman her friend, was looking in the same direction. And then the tellers stopped what they were doing, and the customers slowly turned, and silence came over the bank. Two men wearing black ski masks and blue business suits were standing to the side of the door. One of them had a pistol pressed against the guard’s neck. The guard’s eyes were closed, and his lips were moving. The other man had a sawed-off shotgun. “Keep your big mouth shut!” the man with the pistol said, though no one had spoken a word. “One of you tellers hits the alarm, you’re all dead meat. Got it?”
Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 ‘Rear Window' is a brilliant crime-thriller film that shows the true human nature and how obsessive human curiosity and voyeurism humans can be and to what extent it will take you. The film in itself is a masterpiece that is full of symbolism, narratives, voyeurism, and characterisation. It shows Hitchcock's as a strong auteur by creating it in a way in which he uses similar themes that are previously recognized thought his many movies. He also uses specific signature themes, such as; character parallels and heavy use of vertical lines, as well as an active protagonist. In the film, it mainly focuses on the main protagonist Jefferies, who is a photographer who recently went through an accident and is now restricted to
... His parents engaged him in conversations that promoted reasoning and negotiation and they showed interest in his daily life. Harold’s mother joked around with the children, simply asking them questions about television, but never engaged them in conversations that drew them out. She wasn’t aware of Harold’s education habits and was oblivious to him dropping grades because of his missing assignments. Instead of telling one of the children to seek help for a bullying problem, she told them to simply beat up the child that was bothering them until they stopped.
Through his choice of setting, camera angles and lighting, Hitchcock makes the conversation at the bar a pivotal scene. The audience and young Charlie are finally brought into Uncle Charlie’s world. This scene’s contrast to the stereotypical American town is what makes this scene so important. Even though Uncle Charlie was able to conceal his true self from most of Santa Rosa, a few people saw him for what he really was. Just like there is a bar in every American town, there is evil as well.
Cheever, John. “The Swimmer”. Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary. 6th ed. Ed. Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
Two of them can be seen specifically in Harold, identity vs. role confusion and intimacy vs. isolation. Identity vs. role confusion is the psychosocial stage of development that Erikson said that adolescents go through. Identity in this stage of development is usually seen when adolescent define who they are and figure out what they value and direction in life. This can also be seen in personal relationships, sexual orientation, and ideals in adolescents (McAdams, 2009). Role confusion can be seen if an adolescent has lack of direction and definition of self or they seem unprepared for adulthood (McAdams, 2009). Harold can be seen to have role confusion throughout the movie. Harold does not seem to have a specific direction that he wants to take his life, other than faking suicides and attending strangers funerals. Harold seems extremely unprepared for adulthood, he shows no signs of looking for a job or a way to make money, he still acts rather childish, as his mother puts it. The only real self definition that Harold that could be seen as identity, is that he is preoccupied with
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, L.B. Jeffries, played by Jimmy Stewart, becomes completely obsessed with spending all of his waking hours watching his neighbors from his wheelchair. He even uses a camera to better his view and thus enhances his role as both a spectator and a voyeur. This contributes to the creation of a movie being played right outside Jeffries’ window. In this “movie within the movie” his neighbors’ lives become the subject for the plot. Each window represents a different film screen, each which is focused upon only when Jeffries directs his attention to it. He witnesses both the anxieties associated with the beginning of a marriage and the heartache of relationships ending. The plots that are played out before his eyes become more important than his own personal life. In fact, Jeffries renounces the idea of marriage due to the scenes he witnesses from within his apartment. This is displayed by his initial rejection of the beautiful Lisa Freemont, played by Grace Kelly. She is unable to divert Jeffries’ attention from the window even with the most forward flirtations. It is not until she puts herself on the other side and into the “movie” that he becomes interested in her. Lisa finally becomes the subject of the gaze and only then does Jeffries show any sexual attraction towards her. When Lisa breaks into Thorwald’s apartment, Jeffries does not see the same Lisa he saw when she stood by him and sat in his lap. He now looks upon a “guilty intruder exposed by a dangerous man threatening her with punishment” (Mulvey 207). He is aroused by this new spontaneous side of her. From this scene we see that Lisa Freemont cannot become a part of the movie until she becomes a character in the “movie within the movie.” This creates a new perception of Lisa for Jeffries and clears away many of his marriage anxieties, providing closure to their dispute and foreshadowing a relationship and eventually a marriage between the two.
In other words, the higher class creates the beliefs on how the rest of the lower classes should be seen or what ideals they should follow. The lower classes do this to themselves to reinsure their nature of national identity. Cinema is used as an ideological apparatus. Hollywood puts their ideals on the screen and renders them invisible. Such ideologies that are on the screen are heterosexual and it is embedded in almost every genre. Other ideals consist of social class of an individual, the gender of the individual and the age. There are two states of apparatus that are spread ideologically on screen. The first is repressive, discriminates other people to in oppressive state, such as laws that discriminate against certain groups. Second is, Ideological state apparatus, covertly spreads ideologies such as family, church and school. Hitchcock uses the reality effect in Rear Window to draw the audience more into the cinematic experience. He does so by making the protagonist look through the lens of his camera to view his neighbors and look inside their apartment and how they live their daily lives. By doing so, we see the world through Jefferies eyes and he himself becomes part of the audience. While viewing every apartment window we see how people live in their natural state and give the film a sense of realism. Each window shows what life was like, living in America in 1950. Each character represents different social classes. As Jefferies lens focuses on apartment complexes across the alley, it displays a capitalistic view of the tenants. On the top floor lives a hard working pianist in what appears to be apartment house suite with the great view and accompanied by other people that look well kept and pampered. His social standin...
Stam, Robert & Pearson, Robertson., ‘Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Refluxivity and the Critique of Voyeurism’ in Deutelbaum, Marshall & Poague, Leland A. ed., A Hitchcock Reader (John Wiley & Sons: 2009).
There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène.
directed by Russel Mulcahy, that is based on a true story of a young boy, who overcame a family dysfunction to become a world-class athlete. Swimming Upstream is a poignant and powerful film about dreams, ambitions and family dysfunctions whilst Shine is applying an emotive feeling to emphases what the characters are feeling. Russel and Scott utilise various Actions, Characters and Themes to contribute to the variations of the films.