Sunday 7 December 2014

Schindler's list: Emotional Response

Schindler's List, Spielberg 1993

  1. Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto: The liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto is the first point in the film where you see mass murder of the Jewish people. It is also the turning point for Schindler in the movie.

  • Macro:
  • Viewpoints of the Jewish people:low angle shots
  • Increase in extreme violce
  • Turning point for Schindler: he finally has a problem with his job (slave labour) and his choices.
  • Micro: 
  • Sound effects of gun shots etc as score: makes the violence become deafening for the audience you feel like you're surrounded by it.
  • Cinematography:
  • lots of close ups of faces to see people's reactions e.g. Schindler who looks shocked
  • Foregrounding:
  • loss of focus
  • ed camera movements
  • Little girl in the red coat
  • Jewish prayer over the scene
  • Amon's voice over
  • Contextual Factors:
  • German school children were forced by the German Government to watch Schindler's list= racial guilt as there grandparents were a part of WW2
  • Jewish descendants= are going to be more upset than others
  • Banned in Saudi Arab countries: Jewish relations have never been good
  • Audience Interpretations:
  • Preferred reading: Shock and disgust
  • Negotiated reading:feel for both sides little boy used by the Nazi's
  • Oppositional reading: denial.
  1. Schindler and his secretaries: films can't keep their audiences at high tension for the whole film as the audience would not be able to connect with this for the whole film and so Spielberg has used these scenes of light comedy and relief to ease the trauma of the film. In this scene Schindler is interviewing a group of young Jewish women for the role of his secretary the scene adds humour to the film and also makes you like Schindler as he could be seen as a love-able rogue and a bit of a player.
  • Macro:
  • Keeps the film entertaining
  • Buffer to the horror 
  • Makes Schindler likeable as Liam Neesons peformance makes him humorous
  • Illustrates he is a womanizer show's his flaws
  • Stern is established as responsible compared to Schindler
  • Micro:
  • Timelapsed: to show how long he is taking
  • Sound effects: typewriter, 
  • Close up of Schindler: to show how he edges forward on his seat as each beautiful woman enters. Falls back in his seat when the last woman enters as she is not young and pretty, but she is the best typist.
  • Facial expression and posture: smirk, smoking at end: bored face and slouched
  • Jump cuts:lots of women in his life
  • Upbeat violin score: comic score
  • Always lit from 1 side: highlights good face, shadows bad face.
  • Contextual Factors:
  • Gender
  • Relationship status: just been cheated on, may not think his actions are funny
  • Audience Interpretation:
  • Adds humour to the film. Lightens the mood.
  • Some may find him a bit sexist
  • Some may feel it has nothing to do with the context of the film
  1. Burning of the bodies: for me this was the most traumatic and horrific scene in the film. This scene illustrates how the Nazi's really had no mercy or respect for Jews they truly believed that they were better than them and that they deserved what they got. The Nazi's made the Jews remove the bodies of their own dead on to a conveyor belt: th bodies didn't even get a burial instead they were dumped and burned for ease.
  • Macro:
  • Using Jews to remove their dead:no respect
  • Dig up their dead: no repect from Nazi's
  • Show's the magnitude of death
  • Foreshadowing Auschwitz
  • The bodies look like rag dolls being dumped: no longer people they have had their identities taken away from them
  • Children playing in the ash which looks like falling snow at first
  • Schindler and Amon's breaking point.
  • Micro:
  • Ash looks like snow, pure and white
  • Score: Orchestral singing. Church funeral
  • Little girl in the red coat on the cart
  • Close up of Schindler
  • Noisy: shouting of Officers. Officer laughing
  • Close up of Officers covering faces
  • Reaction shot: when Schindler decides to change: removes handkerchief and see's girl in red coat.
  • Audience Response:
  • Horrified and disgust. Shock
  • You could also suggest that people don't want to see this as it is to much
  • Context:
  • Recent death in family
  • Racial guilt for Germans
  • Ancestry: Jewish upset and distressed



No comments:

Post a Comment