UK Comparison- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold), My Brother The Devil (Sally El Housaini) and The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
Andrea Arnold, Sally El Houssaini and Clio Barnard, all use the desperation of their protagonist and the living circumstances of the protagonist to portray the underlying issues the audience wouldn’t typically see. Fish Tank, My Brother The Devil and The Selfish Giant, are extremely effective in opening up a lower class world to an audience, that might not understand this situation. Whilst all films give an insight into the working class struggle, all directors successfully create empathy within the audience, through the emotionally raw and uncensored scenes within the films.
In Andrea Arnold’s, Fish Tank, she uses a female protagonist. This typical trait in Arnold’s films, does give a different view to a working class struggle than Houssaini’s use of a male protagonist. The use of a female protagonist can be effective in giving light on, not only money struggles, but the struggles of being a woman. Mia can be seen as almost breaking the stereotype of a woman. Surrounded by dancing girls trying to impress boys, and boys only looking for one thing, she is not only a representative of breaking free from the estate she lives in and, furthermore, the class she is set in, but a representative of breaking free from the oppression of women. Arnold gave the character of Mia, certain traits that set her apart from the “typical girl”. One clear example of this, is her violence. Not once does she hesitate to use violence. For example, one simple provoking statement from her old bestfriend causes her to flip and headbutt the girl. This is one way in which Fish Tank differs from My Brother The Devil, in the sense that, My Brother The Devil raises different issues such as racism rather than sexism. This also differs from The Selfish Giant, as the protagonist is extremely young. But, this can also be viewed as a similarity due to the fact that they use un stereotypical protagonists to convey all aspects of the effects of living with crime, through different races, sex and age.
Sally El Houssaini, stepped away from a typical hood drama by using an Egyptian protagonist rather than a black protagonist; Which is what you would typically see in hood dramas such as Brotherhood. Using the same method, Sally El Houssaini effectively uses this Egyptian protagonist to broaden the victims of poverty. The difference between the use of un typical protagonists from all directors is the message they were aiming to convey. Another way in which Houssaini steps away from stereotypes is the characterisation of Mo. In Fish Tank and The Selfish Giant, the protagonists are similar in the way they are so easily angered and are determined to fend for themselves. Mo differs from these characteristics. One example of this, is that he is clearly held back. His parents and older brother try to prevent him from leading the life that his brother leads. In a way he conforms to this and later on discovers, drug dealing is not the lifestyle for him. Mo gains supports and guidance from his family. It’s clear that they know of his brothers lifestyle and try and baby the younger sibling to prevent him from leading his lifestyle. They can see his potential in education and try to encourage this. The theme of family can be seen in all films. My Brother The Devil differs from the other films, as the theme of family is much deeper and valued in the film. Neither Mia or Arbour get the same support from their family that Mo does. Furthermore, out of Mo’s whole family, his older brother cares the most. His older brother can almost been seen as the glue of the family in the sense that he gives his mother money and steals gifts for his brother. The juxtaposition of committing crimes to do something good for his family is an extremely powerful way of portraying the effects of poverty on a family. My Brother The Devil looks at the effects of poverty on the family. Housaini effectively highlights the strains of poverty on the family.
The Selfish Giant differs from Fish Tank and My Brother The Devil greatly. Instead of a teen protagonist, like Fish Tank and My Brother the Devil, Barnard uses a child protagonist. In a way this makes the film a lot more emotional for the audience. This is because, how Barnard puts a young child through similar events as that of someone of an older age, but gives the young child the same strength as someone older, can really put into perspective, how poverty can control someone from an extremely young age. Arbour's ages and determination that is not typically see from a child his age is another way in which the director uses the desperation of the protagonist to portray underlying issues caused by poverty.
All three directors use an un stereotypical protagonist to portray the depth of the effects on poverty. The audiences wouldn’t typically understand how far poverty reaches and what makes it harder to overcome. The three directors use protagonists of a different, age, race and sex to show widen the knowledge of the effects of poverty for the audience.
At last Lucy you are back on form and where you should be with your writing, it is smart inclusive and uses elements of CCCEO. Going forward be clear to fully explain all points.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Vinay, one of Barrington's (best) 2nd year film students. He asked me to look at your work.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I love your writing style, you write confidently and lay out each point as if you firmly believe it. This is important as it shows that you are capable of setting aside outside influence and taking the full subjectivity of film to the next level. You justify each of your points, showing how it relates to the film you are analysing, and in each paragraph you mention all three films and how they link.
Your ability to analyse and compare at the same time means that you look for links outside of the obvious. When I was analysing these three films last year, I never saw that the directors of each used very un-stereotypical protagonists to portray their stories. This is a good point that you expand upon that leads to a very good assessment of the work done by these directors.
However, one thing to remember is in an analysis, it isn't always about the positive aspects of the film. You should try to look for differences, how each director uses their unique style to completely surpass the conventions that the other two lead. You did notice in the gender of the protagonist, but I would like to see what other aspects of the films you can identify. For example, look into where each film is set and how the characters change depending on the setting, you might just find something interesting there.
Lastly, I know Barrington goes on about 'CCCEO', but it is quite useful. Structure is always the easiest thing to fall into, but with film analysis you want your writing to flow, you've done exactly this, which makes your writing even better. I like how you've incorporated context into each paragraph, the hardest element to evaluate, showing you understand each film's individual process and environmental factors.
Overall, your analysis skills are superb, but just make sure to expand further on certain points. Reach out and try to come up with out of the box ways to link the films together. Well done.