The most beautiful man in the world – Short Film

At the beginning of the extract camera is used to show the young girl watching TV, the camera shots are close ups showing her emotions of boredom and also Intimacy. The camera pans slowly across her body to her face showing her outfit which is slightly inappropriate for a girl of her age. This camera movement sexualises the young girl which makes the audience think maybe one of the themes and issues in this extract is the sexualisation of children, which is a much wider social issue.

The child’s hair and makeup makes her look scruffy and unkempt as her hair looks greasy and her skin looks sweaty, highlighting the fact that her carer may be neglecting her as she does not look like she has been taken care of.

The lighting in this scene is low key with the only light coming from the television, this may symbolise that the only entertainment or fun she is getting is from the television.

In the next scene you see the girl laying on the floor with the dog next to her, but the dogs head is out of the frame. This shows that the dog may be a higher status than the young girl and that nobody cares about her. In the corner of the frame you see a ladies feet going to pick up the ringing phone, the voice of the woman sounds sad and like she has a lack of energy, assuming this is the girls carer you start to get a slight insight into why the girl seems like she is getting neglected.

The title then shows up “The most beautiful man in the world” which is quite peculiar considering that there hasn’t been a man showed in the film yet, maybe hinting that this person may be someone new in her life about to come in.

The mis-en-scene employed in this scene show a room which is quite bare containing a few old fashioned patterned furniture. This may be connotation that they are of a low social class and cannot afford modern furniture.

In the next scene you see the young girl riding on her bicycle, but she is riding around in circles. This starts to explore the issue of neglect and of how her young mind is not being stimulated. The way she rides around in circles also shows the repetitiveness of her life and also resembles a goldfish trapped in a fish bowl.

When she gets to the fence it acts as a barrier to the open world and the way she looks over it is like she wants to escape. The spikes on the fence seem to represent the danger on the other side of the fence. Just before she crosses the fence she goes off screen for a while, I think this was done to create tension and to leave the audience wondering whether she is actually going to cross the fence, but after a while we see her on the other side.

The sound of the crickets as she is walking through the field gives us a sense of freedom and like she is experiencing things she has never experienced before. When she puts a stick into the pond there is a distorted underwater view of the girl showing her interest and how it’s something she is new too. The sound effect of the water that accompanied it is either being connected to the idea that she is out in the open or the complete opposite about how all her life she has been confined and suffocated.

The smooth hand held camera movements behind her makes it seem like someone is watching her but it is also giving us the same rhythm as the protagonist herself.

The cuts in this scene were fast jump cuts creating a magical feeling and showing us her newfound freedom but also the fast jump cuts are also creating tension and showing the longer that she is out there the more dangerous it is becoming.

When we are first introduced to the man he is shown in the same way she was shown in the beginning of the scene which helps create a link between the two characters, maybe showing him as more of a father figure rather than a sexual predator.

The shots in this scene were also close ups showing the intimacy between the two characters.

We then see the mother staring at the young girl and the man from afar but she is not doing anything, which makes the audience think maybe she knows the man as if her child was in danger she would go out and get her.

The film ends with the child running back home after seeing her mother staring at her and sitting on the stairs, showing she is back to her old routine of boredom and neglect.