About a Girl textual analysis
The girl is of a lower class, and clearly presented as material deprived through all technical codes. Her costume appears cheap due to it’s lack of branding or expensive materials, and doesn’t fit her properly. Her large coat could suggest it has been passed down from an older family member, which implies that they haven't got the money to be buying new clothes. Her large circular earrings are an accessory often associated with a lower class type of person. The girl is shown at a medium close up to allow spectators to see the run down settings she walks around, emphasised through desaturated colours and dull lighting. The pathetic fallacy of cloudy weather not only match the dark tone to the film, but also reflects the family’s deprived situation. Fast paced cuts with handheld camerawork mean the background often changes, allowing spectators to get a bigger picture of many of the uninviting settings.
The sound throughout the short film represents the lower class of the girl and those around her. She has a strong Manchester accent which matches stereotypes of places in the north of England being working class. The sounds of football fans shouting as she is outside the pub are loud and rowdy, suggested they are not civilised or ‘classy’ people. The players are singing “We’re shit and we’re beating you” which is off screen diegetic sound as we see the girl being exposed to this language whilst outside on a bench. She tries blocking out this chant by singing to herself, saying “I’ve had enough” which could be symbolic of her being fed up of her life.
As a young teenage girl, the main character is represented as unfeminine. She is seen in settings like a football pitch which is considered a masculine environment. The girl is also framed to the left of a mid shot with a bridge on the right behind her. The deep focus of the shot shows her along with the decor of graffiti on the bridge which has boy’s names on like “Lee” and “Ryan”. The composition of this shots as well as the similar colour of her coat and the bridge allows spectators to draw a connection between the girl and her more masculine attributes. She doesn’t match the stereotypes of young girls in films often being sweet and innocent, and instead she is “not that innocent” and ends up throwing a baby into a river. This film offers a challenging view of both femininity and age, with her actions being uncommon for someone so young.
The director is trying to generate both judgemental and sympathetic reactions from spectators, creating a more intense experience as we question whether we should feel sorry for her. This confusion is created through her actions and technical codes, as we are forced to be aligned with her as we track along beside her and as she breaks the fourth wall to directly address spectators, but also we distance ourselves from her and judge her at the end when she throws the baby in the river and walks away at an extreme long shot. The high angle in this final shot makes spectators look down on her both physically and metaphorically.
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