The idea of changing perspective is a big issue in the film ‘Radiance’, directed by Rachel Perkins. This ‘art house’ film is set in Australia and is centred on 3 Aboriginal family members: Chressy, Mae and Nona, who are strangers. It deals with their efforts to come to terms with each other and with the devastating consequences of family secrets.
Throughout the film fire acts as a symbol of both destruction and regeneration. The burning down of the house destroys painful memories, but at the same time regenerates the image of their mother. The technique of lighting is used in the scene where the girls burn down the house. The brightness of this scene coincides with an illumination of truth. The music used at this time of the film is very loud to give the effect of a dramatic scene.
Mae plays an important part in the topic of changing perspective as she struggles with her own identity. She was the one who stayed to look after her mother, which is the reason why she reveals her pain in a moment of catharsis. Mae changes from hating men, because of how they treated her mother, to accepting them. This results in a big change in Mae’s personality: from a harsh to a softer woman. A close-up shot of Mae on the beach during her cathartic moment gives the effect of the deep emotion that lies within her. It makes the audience finally understand Mae as a strong character in ‘Radiance’. Mae is partially lit up in this scene to reflect the meaning of radiance.
Nona is the driving force of the film that has a much more dramatic journey than Mae and Chressy: from a carefree, spontaneous girl to someone with great inner resolve. Chressy’s moment of catharsis has a big impact on Nona’s perspective. Nona now has to accept that there is no ‘black prince’ and that her eldest sister is actually her biological mother. The close-up on Nona’s face shows her tears and emotions, which proves that change is a continually evolving process whether it’s good or bad.
The sparkling ocean reintroduces the theme of radiance when Nona is at the beach. The scattering of her mother’s ashes lets Nona gain maturity and a sense of purpose for the first time in her life.
The technique of music changes throughout the movie from European to traditional Aboriginal music to the two combined.
...sed in the first scene; the white family appear more superior over the aboriginal family, music, such as the Celtic music used in early scenes to foreground the idea of white settlement and the reluctantcy to incorporate any values or ways of life that the original inhabitants had. Her powerful dialogue seen in ‘this land is mine’ scene, which significantly empowers to audience to question whether the white settlers have failed to incorporate any of the ways of life and values of the Indigenous people. Finally, Perkins’ fine editing skills allows audiences to physically see the contrasts of the two families and their beliefs, values and ways of life. From the film, audiences can learn, and also forces them to question whether they have failed to learn from the original habitants of the land they live in today.
The imagery of fire continues in the story; the building of their fires, how the man molds the fires, and how they stoke the fire. When the boy gets sick the father is referred to many times of how he builds and rekindles the fire. This actual fire is a symbol for the fire that the man and the boy discuss carrying within in them. The man fights to save his son and the fire within the boy
In Australia the Aboriginals face discrimination daily. The film opened with four young Aboriginal girls singing on a makeshift stage facing their community. When the camera panned to show the smiling faces in the crowd it gave a feel of unity and love. Later it showed two sisters who were trying to hitch a ride into the city from the main road. Yet every vehicle passed them by; once they saw who they were, frustrated the older sister. Gale stated it was because they ‘were black’. When in the town playing their song on the stage in a bar, the youngest sister turned up and took
In the film, symbolism was everywhere. In the beginning of the film, the pictures of the city were in black and white and dull shades, giving the city a gloomy look. The camera angles made the cars in the city appear tiny, and the buildings appear very large to symbolize how small everything was amongst the city. The interiors of the office buildings and the panic symbolized that there was no way out. The soundtrack of the film was symbolic to the tension of the film. The darkness of visual composition of the lighting in the film, symbolized the darkness of the human nature in the story.
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
My film, ‘One Night The Moon’ recounts the classic tale of the wild Australian bush and the fear that it holds by utilising different distinctive voices of characters, specifically Albert Yang, played by Kelton Pell, and Jim Ryan, played by Paul Kelly, to express their thoughts. It mainly focuses on the treatment of Aboriginal people by the
The sound used in this scene are all diegetic, the sounds of gunfire and explosions show that the characters in this scene are in very real danger of being shot or blown up, this helps the viewer develop a more personal connection with the characters since the scene is towards the end of the film, the viewer has developed a personal connection with the characters and do not want them to die. The diegetic sounds of military personnel can be heard, this is used to show the urgency that the military personnel have to get The Sapphires and Dave out of the dangerous situation. This scene is used to emphasise the danger that Dave and The Sapphires are in very real and very lethal danger, the mixture of sinister camera angles to emphasise the visual danger that the characters are in to the inhospitable sounds portrayed by the scene to highlight the explosive danger that the characters are in. The lighting used features the darkness and the difficulty to see due to the night sky.
In an interview with Sherman Alexie, Alexie states that, "The smoke that originates from the first fire in the movie is what causes these events, and the smoke from the second fire brings about the beginning of resolution." The first fire is the tragic house fire and the second fire is a fire that the healing figure of the movie starts in order to burn down the trailer Arnold Joseph lived in. The trailer's fire symbolizes letting go of all the pain Arnold Joseph caused in the world. It helps show that Victor is slowly letting go of the pain his father caused which in turn means the fire that burns within him is starting to smolder as
In Jeannette Wall’s book The Glass Castle, the narrator and author Jeanette has had various terrifying encounters with chaos and destruction. She was burned cooking hot dogs when she was young, frozen in the winter, and starved when her family was low on money. Each time, she has pulled through and survived. In The Glass Castle, fire is a symbol representing chaos, destruction and fear. Jeanette has fought many battles involving neglect, starvation, and poverty but she has always pulled through these destructive experiences just like when she was a child burned from the hot dogs.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
Throughout the story the ocean represented Edna's constant struggle for self-realization and independence. From her first flow of emotion on the beach to her last breath of life in the sea, the ocean beckons her. The voice of the sea lures her onward in her journey toward liberation and empowerment.
The society believed that the firemen were not supposed to show an emotions or signs of mercy towards anyone. Beatty started to panic a little when the woman continued to refuse to leave her house when they were about to burn it. The purpose of this visual imagery here is to display in a meaningful and illustrative way that deep down, Beatty has a heart. Imagery is important in our understanding of the novel because it is a powerful way to get a message across or describe something.
A journey of 1,500 miles starts with a single step. Noyce illustrates their enormous, vast journey through the barren desert and how difficult it will be. The extreme close up of Molly looking at Olive crying in the shed after being punished for running away, it conveys to the viewer that if they get caught that’s what will happen to them, it makes the journey so much more intense. The cross-cutting between images of the girls fleeing and Moodoo the tracker setting off creates a sense of danger because we know the repercussions if they are caught, it emphasises how challenging their journey home will be trying not to get caught. Not only is this just a psychical journey, it is also an emotional and...
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
The first musical component I will talk about is the vocals heard in the song. In the beginning of this song, a rising sun is being shown on the image track. To give us hints as to where this is taking place, a form of verbal chanting is played in the beginning. This chanting has a tribal feeling to it, which tells us that we are looking at some rural area rather than a metropolitan area. This depicts to the audience the setting for the rest of the song along with the rest of the movie. The chanting is also in a call and response pattern, which can be heard when the other group of voices responds to the one voice. As the song progresses, an African choir can be heard, and when they ...