英语电影赏析

英语电影赏析

The analysis of film

—The Truman Show The Truman Show is a comedy film. It is a film within a film. The following is the cinematic analysis in three aspects: character, narrative and critical perspective.

1.Characters and performance

Cast Design in The Truman Show

Characterization in films is sometimes novelistic, in the sense that novels typically seek to convey depth and intricacy of characters. In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank is the protagonist who is a happily married insurance salesman living in a normal life in a small town named Seahaven Island. But Truman still pursues his first love—Sylvia. It is in conflict between the two situations. Conflict is that which causes problems for the character in the pursuit of his goal.

In essence, the engine driving character development and the “transformational arc” come from the change that occurs within a character when his intentions are confronted with an obstacle and he must adapt to deal effectively with it. The outer motivation (what the character wants to achieve) plus the outer conflict (conflict against external forces), develop the new abilities of protagonist in the face of challenge. Many different factors block Truman to go to Fiji to find Sylvia, on the contrary, Truman has stronger desire to get out off Seahaven Island and find the truth of obstacle. He lives up to his name Truman (true), at the end of the film, he risks his neck to conquer the storm which is made up and then, go out. Truman often says “In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.”This hints Truman is a man breaks the normal procedure, so the outcome doesn’t come as a surprise—Truman breaks away from the Christof’s controlling.

Meryl, Truman’s wife, seems virtuous. Everyday she goes to hospital for her work—nursing. When she comes back, she always brings new products back, and then she introduces them with a way for the promotion of the product. Meryl is a professional actress but not a good wife. She

doesn’t love Truman but married with Truman. In the wedding, she crosses her fingers for luck. Because the actress does not present herself but instead represents the character she is play, so the style that downplays the reality of the actress has been called the “representational style”. She repeats all words from memory, not the true words from her heart. Meryl successfully reveals her motivation—through “character-in-action”.

Sylvia, Truman’s first love, is an unusual lady. The first appearance on the scene, she was named as Lauren (her performing name). Sylvia sympathizes with Truman and makes an attempt to tell Truman that everyone knows about him, everyone is pretending, everything is faked for him. Her motivation is exposing the deception for rescuing Truman. She criticizes Christof is a liar and a manipulator. What he has done to Truman is sick. Her performance style that emphasizes the reality of the actress has been called the “presentational style”because Sylvia presents herself to the audience as herself in the show. It conversely compares with Meryl. But Sylvia’s power is too tiny to rouse Truman to believe her words. Due to the appearance of Sylvia, the whole film seems more illuminating.

Christof, the producer of this show, a very important man in the film, regard himself as the god. Everything around is under his controlling and monitoring. He controls Truman in his sphere of influence for 30 years which attribute to “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented”. Christof seems to be the creator of Truman, nevertheless, without Truman, Christof is nothing. Christof model himself as Truman’s father, a father would not let his child in a sick world. He deems it there’s no more truth out there then there is in the world he created for Truman.

2. Narrative:

Momentum

From the beginning of the film, Truman wants to leave for Fiji to find a girl named Sylvia. Why does he look for this girl? That leaves us suspense. The suspense is that the audience will experience suspense if they are uncertain of the outcome of an event. To produce this uncertainty, scriptwriters and directors will commonly present a character with a strong intention and then lay significant difficulties in his way, which will lead to uncertainty concerning the outcome. Also, suspense is one of devices scriptwriters and directors employ to generate momentum in the films.