Film Review

5.1       Review and critique at least one short film production

The film I reviewed was called “Discipline” it was a Swiss fiction film directed by Christophe Saber and produced by Box Productions.

The film opens in a food shop in the evening, and the “main” storyline follows a little girl (about 6) who wants her dad to buy her sweets, the father says no and the child has a tantrum, and runs through the shop. When the father rushes after her he knocks over another shopper and a jar is smashed, the father because cross with the child and slaps her across the face, not overly violently but to most European people it would seem appropriate. This treatment of the child leads into several different debates between customers about race, religion, immigration and class and it eventually escalates.

The film is essentially about the different social beliefs people have (what is appropriate to do or say, in BOTH public or private settings), there is not a clear black or white message to the film and is more a topic to begin a conversation/discussion in the audience, because it is left so open it is particularly powerful, the director has taken no clear side and therefore encourages people to share there own opinion on the cause and result of the arguments.

At the start of the film, the sounds are relatively quite and slow paced, the loud noise of the jar of mustard smashing sets off the development of the argument and therefore louder noises, and many of characters display their anger by smashing things (e.g. a car windscreen) and this is made more dramatic by the audio.

The camera often got very close to the faces of the actors in order to intimidate the audience, and demonstrate the high emotions of the characters. The more chaotic the film got, the more the camera moved, echoing this chaos.

There is the use of wider shots that carry on much longer at the start of the film, and it eventually speeds up as the arguments develop and escalate and more people get involved, creating a more chaotic environment for the audience.

The setting was a domestic environment, it felt natural and seemed like a realistic sort of argument, the characters were introduced one or two at a time so at no point were you overwhelmed and the natural environment meant you were fully focused on the action unfolding between the characters rather than the setting.

The film is well suited to most audiences, though it would be particularly powerful if watched by a person who has particularly strong beliefs about topics like the discipline of children physically. It did sort of seem ridiculous at the end (although somehow realistic?). The child, who was treated as if she was being irrational at the start by her father when she wanted sweets and refused to apologise, ends up in the middle of lots of adults who have completely lost their sense of social etiquette.

In my opinion the film worked exceptionally well, the director shared no strong opinion so it felt as though whatever side you were on, you felt like you had to defend yourself, very much echoing the action on screen and it would spark conversation amongst the audience, I would definitely recommend the film.