Sep 21 2012
Realism in a Film
![](https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3239/2012/09/15221305/PIc.jpg)
Sep 21 2012
Sep 21 2012
Wasp is a heart breaking short film about a poor single mother that neglects her four children so she can have a night out on the town with other men. Wasp belongs to the auteur genre, and parts of director Andrea Arnold’s life are portrayed in this film using her unique voice. According to her interview, Andrea Arnold had a poor single mother with four children. The use of part of her own life makes the film more personal because her authentic emotions are more palpable to the viewer. Camera angles make this film more personal like when Zoe is frantically running down the stairs and the shaking camera captures her frantic and uncertain behavior.A hand held camera is also used to capture Zoe’s anxiety and shakiness about the possibility of losing her children. Music plays an important role in this film. Music symbolizes the shift in tone through the film. Music is played after the fight scene to signal the shift of Zoe bringing her children to the bar, and music is played at the end of the short film to suggest the children might have a slightly better future ahead. Zoe loves her children and this is shown when she runs to her baby’s rescue after hearing his stinging scream.
Sources:
image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3PPSVIEZjQo/TKYQPEA3rxI/AAAAAAAAAC4/bqS_nY6wHXE/s1600/wasp.png
interview: http://www.scotsman.com/news/film-andrea-arnold-interview-1-1355790
Sep 21 2012
On Wikipedia.com I found that Andrea Arnold’s mother was 16 when she gave birth to the future Oscar winning director. She raised four children on her own much like Zoe did in Wasp. When Professor Davis mentioned that this film reflected her childhood I thought perhaps Arnold lived in poverty but I didn’t think much more of it. It’s chilling to think about how similar the film and real life was to Andrea Arnold. On Wikipedia.com I also read into the synopsis of some of her other productions I found that the poverty stricken, damaged mother daughter relationship was a common theme in many of her films.] In directing her films Andrea Arnolds seems to incorporate her childhood to some degree, which is one of the characteristics of her personal filming style.
Again, looking into a blog commenting on several of Arnold’s films I found that she also uses close ups frequently. The author of the blog, ‘Cinema of Andrea’ felt that these close ups allowed her to feel a closer connection to the characters being filmed and gives us, the viewers a greater insight into the complexity of the character. I completely agree with the author of the blog. There were several instances in Wasp in which those close ups helped us to understand Zoe. The close up on the sticker regarding Barbie as we mentioned in class shows us that Zoe might be a mother, but she is far from mature. The close up on her feet earlier in the film when she’s speaking to David and the moldy bread in her kitchen are used to highlight the poverty in which Zoe and her children live in. Although the author ‘The Cinema of Andrea’ focused on the importance of the close ups on characters’ faces, I felt that the close ups of the objects were equally significant because they too help us to uncover the story behind the characters.
“Andrea Arnold.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Arnold>.
“The Cinema of Andrea Arnold.” JustAtad. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.
<http://justatad.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/the-cinema-of-andrea-arnold/>.
Sep 21 2012
NOTICE HOW THE LITTLE BLONDE GIRL
IS HOLDING UP THE WRONG FINGER 🙂
Sep 21 2012
Sep 21 2012
I mean, any woman who leaves her three young girls plus a baby outside of a bar for hours on end as she flirtatiously plays pool deserves to be smacked, yes? Not to mention enabling two of the girls to play bumper strollers (with a real baby in one) on a parking lot close to a busy road with no adult supervision in addition to the nonchalant cussing embedded in their daily vernacular and the violent example of how to solve problems by rushing to the enemy camp barefoot and pulling hair finished with a synchronized flip of the finger. I guess it’s obvious that this film angered me. But I also loved it.
Zoe is a woman whose background and motives are mysteries that one can only wonder about. She represents a sub-sect of society that we all know exist but only laugh at and shrug off. Most people are quick to judge these people, shoo them into a category called Trash, shake their heads and be off with their own lives. But if one really thinks about each person, Zoe for example, you can’t help but feel sympathy. Most of us do not know what it’s like to be alone and really have nothing and no one. Well that’s Zoe, times ten. She holds her children close despite her inability to properly take care of them because they are all she has. They are all who provide her the respect, love, and attachment she yearns. Furthermore, she lives in this lower class pocket of society where economic and social factors proliferate this type of lifestyle. In no way do I think her decisions are wise or right but I do acknowledge her reasons. She loves her kids and she’s raising them as well as she knows how.
I’ve watched another short film set in the same type of town and culture. I highly recommend you watch this little boy named Frankie.
Sep 21 2012
This movie hit me very hard because just this morning, I was so upset and complaining about my life. I was thinking about how all my friends are going to fancy and expensive schools, how I can’t get everything my friends get, etc. And then a few hours later, I saw this film that put my life in perspective.
When Wasp first started, I first thought the family was getting evicted from their home. The raw, choppy footage, the dim lighting, and the grainy view all created the picture of a poor, somewhat broken family. When I’ve seen TV shows and movies on one of those giant-screen-HDTV televisions, I always felt like I was living in the movie. Although this footage was not a super high quality like an HDTV – it was the exact opposite – this videography made this movie also come alive, in a kind of different way.
I found so much symbolism in this film – namely, obviously, the wasp. At first we see the main character, watching the wasp on the window sill, and then she opens the window, and the wasp flies away. It is free. And she is watching, wistfully, I think, imagining what it would be like to just fly out that dirty window into the wide open world. And then, through the rest of the film, we see her running to start a fight with her neighbor, running to the bar, running to an old car to fool around with a guy. We see her trying to escape from the reality of her life. This is completely understandable, as her life is obviously terrible and any normal person would try to find a way to escape. Unlike the wasp, she is a person, and people can’t do that – we can’t just escape.
I think it’s so interesting that Andrea Arnold was the oldest of four when she was growing up – I think she chose the oldest daughter in the film to portray herself growing up. Because the film seemed to end on a somewhat uplifting note, I couldn’t really tell if Andrea was trying to spin a positive or negative perspective on the story. I came to the conclusion that Andrea was creating a neutral voice, not putting her opinion, in the movie. She was showing us the reality, painting for us the stark picture, of what that kind of life – her life – is. The perseverance to live in that world, the brutality and the horror, the effects it can have on people, the lengths people take to try to break free, the strength one learns to go on. And she lets the viewer decide what to make of it, what his opinion of that kind of life really is.
Sep 21 2012
Family Fun
Source: http://iwff.net/images/films/wasp09.jpg