"Curfew" won the 85th Academy Awards for Short Films, which tells a short film inspirational story: the male protagonist received a call from his sister asking him to take care of his daughter for several hours in the process of suicide, and the male protagonist repeatedly hesitated to give up suicide and promised to take care of it. In the few hours spent with his sister and daughter, the male protagonist received affectionate care and finally gave up the story of suicide.
Theme: Redemption
Whether it is the use of color or the change of composition, this story reflects the two words at the center of this story, that is, redemption, the redemption of one's own life
Second, color
The use of a large amount of red and black in this short film reflects that the protagonist no longer has hope for the world, reflecting the protagonist's thoughts at that time
The protagonist twice stained the pool red with a large amount of blood in the bathtub, reflecting the withering of life.
The sister's side uses a lot of cool tones, reflecting the estrangement and indifference of family affection, and also showing that the characters are in a state of bondage.
Therefore, whether it is the warm color on the brother's side or the cool color on the sister's side, it will make people feel depressed and give people a feeling of helplessness
Three: Composition
A good movie can often be paved with a single shot.
The protagonist and the little girl in the bowling alley form a symmetrical composition, which makes people feel the estrangement and indifference of the two.
After the protagonist takes the picture book for the little girl, leaves the little girl alone, and uses a long-range picture, the dim lighting and the large area of black make the little girl look more helpless.
After the protagonist shows that he just wants to show her the album, after the little girl and the protagonist finally have no opposition in the unified side, it can be seen that the little girl gradually recognizes and accepts the protagonist.
After this, the composition also presents a balanced picture rather than the previous symmetrical opposite picture, expressing the little girl's trust in the protagonist.
On the way home at the end, it was once again changed from two separate compositions to a unified composition. It can also be seen that the current little girl is dependent on the protagonist.
After sending the little girl home, the male protagonist finally returned to his home again and began to commit suicide, but his eyes and actions have begun to waver
Here we can see that compared to the beginning, the surrounding colors begin to be brighter, and it is more comfortable than the large area of black at the beginning that makes people feel so depressed. This is also the inner change of the male protagonist, his heart began to have hope, and someone needed his help.
The man who struggled for many times finally plugged in the phone line again and spoke with his sister again, which showed the man's redemption of himself.
Summary: The director of this Oscar-winning short film spent 19 minutes perfectly showing us a story of self-redemption, the pursuit of dawn and no longer giving up. Showed us a kind of warmth of family.
ps: Personally, I think the protagonist is still dead, and these scenes are just an illusion before he dies
Because the protagonist is a drug addict, and he also has a certain depression, so he will commit suicide, as to why it may be because he threw the little girl when he was a child on the ground, resulting in the death of the little girl, falling into extreme self-blame (because the original film still has a lot of content I did not talk about here for reasons of length) So you can also see why the girl's mother will be so distant from the male protagonist, and there is a dancing scene in the bowling alley, there are two advertisements on the wall, respectively, the two sentences that the little girl will not die and life is eternal.
So I think this is just an illusion of the male protagonist before he dies, and it is also a kind of redemption for himself.
Of course, a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets, I hope you can enjoy the original film and share your impressions with me after watching it