A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures 2008- Chris Waitt

A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures takes a more personal approach to documentary. Chris Waitt documents his journey in finding out why he such a terrible boyfriend. He uses a gonzo style of documentary in order to effectively create an invasive feel into his life.

The personal element effectively ties together Chris' issues and the light humour of his misfortune. A majority of the film takes place in his flat. The mise en scene of his flat gives the audience an insight into his personality despite creating an extremely personal feel to the documentary. The messy interior of his flat connotes his is unorganised and furthermore doesn't have much about himself. His messy flat is an issue later addressed by his mother. 

The documentary creates a sense of catharsis for the audience. Leading to one issue to another, such as; mental health issues, erectile dysfunction, failing to successfully fix his erectile dysfunction and just the overall sense of loneliness he gives off, makes the audience sympathise for him rather than empathise as he appears pretty hopeless. 

The Act Of Killing 2012- Joshua Oppenheimer

The Act Of Killing uses the perspective of the killers in Indonesia to show the audience the extent of the mass killings. Despite merging talks about the events from the main figures such as; Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Yapto Soerjosoemarno and others, Anwar and his past colleagues present the killings in Indonesia through the median of film.  

Film is one of the main themes in the documentary. There a multiple scenes of Anwar and Herman reminiscing about going to the movie theatre as they were "movie theatre gangsters". Depicting this theme within the documentary is effective in bringing a group of mass murderers down to a human level. The dream like opening scene and focusing documentary on celebrated killers in Indonesia presents a gap for within the characters that separates them away from humanity. Having the common interest of film grounds the characters as they have been set above those around them and brings a sense of normality into the documentary.

The crimes that Anwar has committed appears to be haunting him compared to fellow killers, how this is portrayed can make us question whether he actually is truly bearing the burden of murder. When Anwar is talking to Adi, he talks about how a specific method of killing haunts his dreams, Adi then mentions a neurologist for his troubles. In rejecting this we can question whether he really does care about how his past effects now. This can be compared to the scene in which he shows how he killed accused communists using a wire. He dances on the site in which he killed people, his performance during the documentary connotes different emotions towards his violent past.

The dream like scenes add a different tone to the documentary. Generally, The Act Of Killing has a dark tone due to the subject. During the dream scenes it comes across as the mass murders being celebrated. The girls dancing in bright coloured costumes throws off the topic. It could possibly connote the patriotism the main characters have as it appears to be traditional to Indonesia. 

Undefeated 2011- Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin Compared To Bowling For Columbine 2011- Michael Moore

Undefeated differs to the style of Bowling For Columbine. Lindsay and Moore document different topics in differing styles.

In Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore uses a participatory style of documentary in order to show the audience the topic he is covering. Using the participatory style is effective for bowling for columbine because Michael Moore puts himself into the documentary and agitates the people he is interviewing. The topic is covers has had such a negative effect on society across America and people truly believe that having a gun is a safe thing. The way in which Moore agitates the interviewees effectively draws out answers to shock the audience and show them the effect a heavy gun society has on people that live within that society. During a lot of scenes within Bowling For Columbine, the camera is handheld and relatively shaky, this can show the audience that they are filming the majority of the time to give as much detail of the place surrounding them to show the impact of guns in America. A main focus of the documentary is the school shooting in Columbine High School, despite this, the topic of gun control leads onto many other events in America that was caused by loose gun laws.

Undefeated differs to this as the directors follows the journey of a football team in Manassas High School, rather the Moore's technique of the participatory style in Bowling For Columbine. In particular we follow the coach, Bill Courtney, and three students; O.C, Money and Chavis. This has a different effect than Bowling For Columbine. Even though we are following a journey of a football coach and three students, we are still shown by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin what is like to be part of an elitist education system in a extremely area; inner city Memphis. In order to show the effect the school system that America has, the director's enable the audience to emotionally attach themselves to people that are struggling within that situation.  This is effective in ensuring the audience's emotional attachment and making the issues that are presented within Undefeated resonate within the viewer's mind.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993- Henry Selick

The Nightmare Before Christmas ties Halloween and Christmas together in the genre of a fantasy musical. The character of Jack Skeleton has an identity crisis once he enters "Christmas land". He tries to force those who follow into celebrating Christmas.

In a way, Jack Skeleton can be seen as a stereotypical man having a mid life crisis or the man that is fed up of his day to day job in desperate need to make a carrer change. We can see this in the way in which Jack forces those around to completely change what they are surrounded by. He is oblivious to the fact that no one else around him can grasp the concept of Christmas. Turning Christmas toys into evil toys that terrifies a whole village show the clash between Halloween and Christmas. 

Despite not directing the film, Tim Burton created the characters and the story of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas compared to Tim Burton more modern characters in other film such as Frankenweenie have a lot more characterisation. Frankenweenie was directed by Tim Burton and was more character based. Another contrast between the two films is the style of the characters. To suit the theme of Halloween, the characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas are extremely skinny and willowy. If not, they are short, with dull colours similar to the setting they are in. On the other hand, in Frankenweenie, the characters are black and white and pump. Despite his style changing this could be down to the story and the characters background. 

Rust And Bone 2012- Jacques Audiard

Audiard presents power through the relationships in Rust And Bone. Comparing Rust and Bone to the other films we have looked at, City Of God and La Haine there is less focus on the society the film is set in, Rust And Bone focuses on the protagonists life and the hardships that his situations puts his through rather than the hardships the society he is in puts him through.

One main theme within the film is family, despite the fact he dismisses his family for the majority of the film, it is still a factor that impacts the main character. The main element of the family theme is Ali's son. He plays a big part in changing Ali. Despite appearing to brush him off, Ali's son still has a power over him, we can see this in the scene where he stops to buy a toy tractor for him, after he abused him. The guilt obviously plays on his mind. Another family aspect of the film is his sister Anna. She looks after the son and puts up with too much trouble from Ali, she experiences his true selfish and angry personality. Guilt is Ali's weakness, we can see from his performance how he guilty he felt when he found out he was the reason why Anna lost he job.

Loss is another theme present in Rust and Bone. An obvious representation of this is Stephanie losing her legs. She copes with this loss, but we can see how the loss effects until she gets prosthetic legs. The loss that she experiences in personal and causes a massive change in her life, the close up shots of her legs leaves no boundaries to the audience as every detail of her scars can be seen, this helps the audience to empathise with her as they gain a personal view of her loss through camera angles. Ali's near loss of his son made him realise how vulnerable his son is, despite hurting the little boy physically and emotionally, it took his son being in a coma to make him realise how precious he is. This break through can be represented through Ali punching the ice to rescue his son. The blood on the ice, underneath shot of the ice and the tension created during this scene can show the audience how close minded he is towards his relationship with his son and how hard it is for him to finally realise his true love for his son.

Audiard presents Ali's personality throughout the entire film through the use of his performance. He lacks the ability to plan and acts quite rashly. Particularly in the job interview for the role of bouncer we can see. Despite him having experience in fighting, we he is asked for proof we can tell by his facial expression, the way his face drops, that he has not planned for this. Another way in which the job interview reveals his personality is the fact we can see he jumps from job to job. Audiard puts Ali into different job roles that all have elements in common with each other. The fact he moves to different job helps to develop Ali's characterisation to show the audience his personality in order to help explain his other actions, such as the way he treats his son and how blunt he can be with Stephanie.

The opening credits are extremely significant for the film. To have almost poetic clips of the film and to compliment them with abstract light can almost be a synopsis for the film within the opening credits. The sound of the young boy, Sam, breathing can connote multiple things. Either he is asleep on the way down to the south of France or he is in a coma. Either way you interpret it, it is still extremely dream like from a young child's perspective almost giving a sense of hope early on in the film.

Comparison of the opening scenes in La Haine and City Of God

Comparison of the opening scenes in La Haine and City Of God

The opening scene of La Haine differs from the style of the opening scene in City Of God. In La Haine, the opening scene is a series of documentary images showing rioting in France. This sets the theme for the rest of the film. The track “burnin and lootin” is playing in the background. The choice to use this track is effective as the relaxed vibe of the music contrasts the violent images of the riots. Both the scenes of rioting and the reggae music contrast the traditional french culture. City Of God’s opening scene differs to the opening scene of La Haine as it presents traditional Brazilian culture rather than contrasting it like in La Haine. The busy social scene such as people dancing and cooking together present a typical culture. It also sets a different theme and mood than La Haine. Despite differing in how they present the cultures in the scene they are set. Both opening scenes are similar because they both have the intent to present the culture that will be represented within the rest of the film.

Violence is presented in both of the opening scenes. In La Haine, the footage of riots is one blatant way in which the director presents the violence that we will later see in the rest of the film. The representation of violence in City Of God starts off subtle. One way in which it is presented is the sharpening of the knife. Other subtle ways that can be interpreted as the representation of the theme of violence is cutting up the chicken and the bowl of chicken. Later on we see more obvious hints of violence such as Lil Ze and his gang carrying guns. The violence in the opening scene of City Of God is linked directly to the characters rather than linking it to society in La Haine.

Cinematography in the opening scenes also differ. In La Haine, the documentary footage is relatively but steady but shaky at some points whilst focusing on large groups of people using long shots to show the masses. City Of God differs from this as the camera is a lot more shaky, the director uses close up shots to show more detail. The characters story can be hinted through the camera angle of the chicken. We can see a point of view shot from the chicken, as it is running the camera is very shaky. The fact that we see a point of view shot from a chicken that is trying to escape can connote how the characters want to escape from The City Of God. This is a contributing factor to the themes as the close up shots have many connotations that help the audience to understand the themes.

Both scenes are set in the poorer areas of big and popular cities. Les Banlieus in Paris and the Favelas in Rio De Janeiro are where the government put the poorer people to keep them away from tourists in the capital. This is one way on which that opening scenes are similar. We can see from the setting that they are in poorer areas.

In the opening scene in City Of God, we are shown the main characters. Lil Ze and Rocket personalities are set as soon as they are introduced. Lil Ze is clearly the leader of his group, we can see this from the way in which those around him listen to him. Rocket is more quiet and his passion is presented; photography. In contrast to this, La Haine does not show any of the main characters. This is effective in presenting the topic of the film as universal, rather than making the issue of police brutatility focused on the three main characters the director relates it to those that have suffered by showing the documentary footage.