CASE STUDY The Selfish Giant (2013)

The film The Selfish Giant is a social realism film mad by Clio Barnard. It has the themes of poverty, theft friendship and children. It was released in 2013 and has made $943,209 and received The Europa cinema award in the 2013 Cannes film festival it also had won best film at the 25th Stockholm international film festival. The mise en scene in this often uses symbolism and it also tells the audience what is happening before anything has been said in the scene. I shall also be looking at cinematography and what the different types of shots are showing.

In the film it's very clear that the two boy have their differences for example Swifty is kind, likes animals and wants to have a good life. Meanwhile Arbor whose name has two meanings in both mechanical and natural meanings is a violent, greedy and only concerned for the present. It's strange how these two are friends even though they have contrasting personalities however they both compliment each other. As Swifty keeps Arbor in check before he does too much damage and Arbor gets Swifty to have more courage sop that he will attempt and hopefully succeed.

Often in the film the different camera angles will show how the relationship between the characters are. For example in one shot both of the boys are sitting on one either side of the carriage they have. It shows the difference of views the two have at that point have a difference of opinions, as it's after they look at the power cable. Other camera shots show us that the two boys haven't gone down to other people's level. This is shown during the horse race as the two are up above them showing that they are better than them however the two do go down to their level as they want to race for them later on.