GENRE EG4 My Beautiful Laundrette (Working Title, 1991)

My Beautiful Laundrette poster

My Beautiful Laundrette is a social realist/black comedy film, and was made by Working Title before they became a subsidiary of NBCUniversal (when they were an indie company similar to Warp). The film is completely different to the kind they make now, with the plot following the (eventually) romantic relationship between Omar, a Pakistani living London and the street punk/squatter Johnny (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) as they become managers of a laundrette. (Wikipedia)


OUR INFLUENCES

• Initially we were going to have the protagonist be in a mixed race gay relationship, but due to issues of casting we had to change this despite wanting to include non heteronormative representation to explore social issues surrounding the subject (more on this under the "other points" sub-heading)
• The happy music that begins to play (which doesn't seem to fit with the genre) is something we want to avoid, as the example of Tyrannosaur uses incidental, acoustic music much more effectively and fitting with the genre 
• The detailed shots of the set dressing for verisimilitude (similar to Withnail and I and Submarine)

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PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY

PRODUCTION: Working Title, Channel 4 films DISTRIBUTION: Orion classics
BUDGET: £650k
BOX OFFICE: $2.5m
BBFC 15, MPAA R

• the film was never intended for theatrical distribution
• got it because of Channel 4's interest in the film
• was screened in America
• managed to make a (very large) profit

  

  BoxOfficeMojo

• The BBFC gave this film a 15 rating - but how justified is it?
• There is cursing throughout
• there is a very graphic and realistic looking shot of someones skin rash
• lots of drinking
• In one scene a woman takes her shirt off and her nipples are censored or covered in any way through framing (there are scenes like this between Omar and Johnny where nether are wearing many clothes, but it is often the case that female nudity is more likely to be censored/sexualised)
• The interesting point is the violence: there isn't any graphic violence, or shots of realist looking wounds, and in the climax of the film a car is destroyed followed by a brawl in the street. In the example of This is England the fight scene at the end has graphic shots of Milky's bashed up face, with lots of blood - much more extreme than My Beautiful Laundrette - but the amount of violence and swearing in both of these films is nothing compared to the mindless and graphic violence you see in many WT productions, such as Hot Fuzz (which includes someones head being speared by a model church spire, someones head being crushed by a piece of falling building, someones hand being stabbed and many more) which also was given a 15 rating.
• 1988 Margaret Thatcher passed a law which banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools and by local authorities (Local Government Act 1988, Section 28)
• lead to a general avoidance of non-heteronormative representation and the propagation of homophobic sentiment in a lot of media
• Thatcher's homophobic sentiment was largely emboldened by the 1980's AIDS/HIV crisis
• this film was subsequently politically controversial 
• Marketing strategy:
• in the US trailer the film is portrayed mostly as a comedy in hopes of being more successful at the box office
• there is also no reference to the homosexual content in the trailer (they refer to the relationship between the two main characters as "a partnership of 2 young entrepreneurs", and include a scene of one protagonist kissing a girl)
• lots of neon lights were used 
• made the film look more upbeat/comedic
  
  
• Low-key lighting used throughout the film
• part of social realist genre but also signifies low budget
• Hand-held cameras
• reflective of the British Documentary Movement
• also signifies low budget
• adds to realism
• 
  

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TITLES

• The titles don't fit at all with the genre
• The white serif font is similar to what was in other films (Withnail and I, Tyrannosaur, This is England), but the animation is very different to any of the other examples 
• The jokey washing machine animation really doesn't much sense as it does not signify the genre, and there is only a small a comedy aspect to the film
• All these could be a part of the hybridity aspect in hopes of making the film more marketable (similar to the misleading US trailer)

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MISE-EN-SCENE/FIRST SHOT

• First shot:
• not an ELS
• is immediately grim, no grand image
• immediately the action begins - adds impact, reflective of the violence which pervades the film 
• also follows Barthes action codes, very similar to in '71
• the furniture is old, cheap looking, dirty
• blocking the door
• not fancy
• walls are decaying (similar to in This is England)
• low-key lighting 



first shot

• immediately signifies poverty/social realist genre

• Props:
• the mattresses do not have sheets on them
• neither do the duvets
• multiple mugs are on the floor
• protagonist uses a black bin bag to pack his (very few) belongings
• all adds to verisimilitude
• connotes poverty (makes sense as you find out they are squatting in the abandoned house)



2nd shot (mattress, costume, protagonist in foreground)



wearing a coat but no shirt

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  mugs/rubbish for verisimilitude

• Costume:
• character asleep on the chair is wearing a large coat to sleep warm
• the fact that he's asleep on a chair rather than in a bed in the first place is a part of mise-en-scene
• clothes are all worn and dirty looking
• one man is wearing a large coat with no t-shirt underneath 
• prioritised keeping warm
• protagonist's jeans are ripped
• may be purposefully to signify he is a rebel/punk
• may be to show that he cannot afford new ones
• could be both

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PROTAGONIST

• how he is anchored as the protagonist (in the opening only, the 2nd protagonist is introduced later):
• shown in MCU high angle 2 shot in 2nd shot

  

  durable jacket, bleached hair, packing
  clothes in a bin bag

• is closer to the camera 
• is the first person you see
• camera follows protagonist and cuts back to show his reactions
• also uses varied focus to keep shots of him clear for longer than other characters
• one of the first characters to speak
• is on-screen for longer than any other character
• costume/hair
• the ripped jeans make him look like a rebel, but also suggest he might not be able to afford another pair
• is wearing two pairs of trousers to keep warm (further signifying poverty)
• oversized jacket (on top of a t-shirt and jumper) with the collar turned up
• connotes rebelliousness/non-conformity 
• is a durable jacket (made to last), part of a 'fashion' statement but also suggests he does not have enough money to regularly by more 'trending' clothes
• the layers signifies poverty (is a squatter, so he can't be assured he'll have a warm place to sleep)
• bleached hair
• is not bleached at the roots (suggests it has been a while since he last did it/can't afford to get it done again)
• signifies rebelliousness
• shows he does pay attention to his appearance/artificially changes it
• may be part of the non-heteronormative representation as it is stereotypical of gay men to pay more attention to their appearance (though there is no explicit gay content in the opening)
• Actions/dialogue:
• tells another man staying in the house to get up because they are being raided, and then physically hauls him off the ground
• when leaving the house he walks in front of the other man
• establishes the protagonist as the 'leader' of this group
• has a northern accent



throwing his bag out the window 

• does conform to stereotype that associates northern accents with poverty/lack of education (he is homeless)
• also conforms to stereotype of northern English focus on community (wakes up his friends when police arrive rather than just leaving without them)
• throws his clothes/belongings out of the window
• they are not very valuable/breakable, no sentimental attachment 
• This does change as the film goes on (character arc) as he gets a job and is given a place to live by Omar's uncle (realistic character arc/development)
• part of the social realist genre, as the character is also forced to face up to his fascist, anti-Semitic past
• non of this is seen in the opening though
• These things a UK audience would be more likely to pick up on than an international audience
• Stuart Hall's theory of readings: this reflects cultural knowledge and an element of preferred reading (similar to the banging of the bin lids in '71 as a warning for authorities), which makes sense as initially the film was never going to get an international theatrical release at all, so was made for a UK audience

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SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION

• Though not explicitly stated anywhere, this film can be said to be a part of the emerging New Queer Cinema movement (coined in the 90's)
• This emerged in a similar way to feminist theory in the 80's, focusing on turning societal shame into pride
• Throughout My Beautiful Laundrette, Omar and Johnny have to repeatedly hide they relationship, and despite being rejected for it by the Tania character they continue to be together
• The depiction of their same-sex relationship is unapologetic, and other characters are created as antagonistic/villainous (Propp's archetypes) in their disdain/disapproval

• The happy music that begins to play with the titles does not fit at all with the genre, the scene or the rest of the film (but as stated earlier may be part of the hybrid aspect to increase audience appeal)

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OTHER POINTS

• To be clear, we did not intend to "straightwash" our initial idea, and we want to maintain the integrity of the social realist genre by exploring controversial themes in gritty, realist light, but now this will not include non-heteronormative representation (due to casting issues)
• Although when My beautiful Laundrette "came out"... there was inherent shock value with it being not only a same-sex relationship, but also a mixed race one, a film with central queer representation would be far less radical today, though still controversial
• a good demonstration of this is 2017's Call Me By Your Name, distributed by Sony and WB (2 of the Big Six), set in the 80's with the plot flowing the romantic relationship between a 17 year old boy and and the visiting 24 year old graduate-student assistant, Oliver. 
• This film won 12 awards in total - a critical and financial succes
• The other protagonist of this film (Omar, an young, enterprising anglo-pakistani) is not seen in the opening, but the casting of a '"model minority" in the lead marked a positive change in the representation of non-caucasians in film. Though the majority of representation is still caucasian and heterosexual, and this film was a low-budget indie production, it shows the importance of government funding (grants and the BFI) for more controversial films and the need for more diverse representation (also shown by the critical success of the film).
• Although Omar is not shown in the opening, this maybe an attempt to initially make an audience more inclined to continue watching (through identification, but also the narrative enigma created in the first scene)

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GENRE EG1: Tyrannosaur

(SAM'S WORK) - input by me in green
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Budget: £750k
Box Office: $299k (Worldwide) / $22k (US)
Ratings: 84% (RottenTomatoes) / 7.6/10 (IMDb) / 3.5/4 (Roger Ebert)
Production Companies: Film4, UK Film Council, Screen Yorkshire, EM Media, Warp X, Inflammable Films
Director: Paddy Considine

IDENTS:

No Idents.

TITLES:

• serif font
• white font on black background connotes seriousness and drama
• different sizing between the titles and names to distinguish the different roles 
• the main title is centered and all capitals
• animated titles, fade in and out
• different positioning of titles
• for aesthetic purposes
• duration of title sequence: 00:00:03 - 00:02:04
• numbers of titles: 12
• In the other Paddy Considine film we looked at (Journeyman) there were also no titles before names (other examples had "with" "starring" "introducing" etc.)

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Tyrannosaur credits from harriet Barlow

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SOUND:

• soft guitar sound with notes that are a few seconds apart has an impact on our mood
• it connotes drama / seriousness
• get the serious feel
• makes us calm
• ambients sound of radio to add verisimilitude
• the incidental acoustic music is very conventional of social realist films
• it kicks in just after he has kicked his dog - this encourages the audience to empathise with the protagonist, rather than see him as a villain

1st SHOT:

• establishing shot
• starts with a close up of a male character
• narrative enigma because it's not very clear how the male character looks like due to shadows 
• using natural lights
• lowkey lighting

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CENTRAL PROTAGONIST + NARRATIVE:

• the male character is in every shot
• tracking shot when he is walking back home while having his dog in his arms
• shot variety of him
• he is always in focus
• it cuts back to him
• anchors he is going to be the central protagonist
• he is coming from the working class ( track pants, white and dirty shirt, drunk, is desperate for money)
• The music allows the audience to empathise with him, rather than see him as the villain who just kicked his dog to death in a drunken rampage
• This is quite a controversial and dark theme, something more commonly found in social realists
• the protagonist is an anti-hero: complex an din shades of grey, not a 2 dimensional stereotype
• this is similar to what was found in the New Wave movements

MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION:

•  small room 
•  squeaky floor
• bland colours
• anchors poverty
• The beer cans are used to confirm that he is drunk

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TRANSITION TO MAIN FILM:

• The equilibrium is disrupted when the central protagonist kills his dog
• Todorov's 5 point narrative theory:
• establish equilibrium
• the protagonist is a violent, alcohol drinking, swearing unemployed man
• disrupt equilibrium
• when accidentally injures his dog and realises he has to kill it so that it won't be in pain anymore, he later has a breakdown, and realises he must change something in his life, but has little power to change much
• the rest of the theory is not seen in the opening, but is present throughout the film

Fail or Success?

From the ratings I can tell that the movie was quite a success. Paddy Considine even got an award for the best film and best debut director award. Olivia Colman who plays Hannah in the movie got an award for the best actress.

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However, the movie didn't do well in Box Office. One reason is because it only got a limited screening in America in just 5 theatre. Also, Warp managed to get Tyrannosaur quite widely distributed on DVD and not so much in cinema which the Box Office doesn't count the sales of DVD's.
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It only grossed £299k (only the Box Office worldwide), whereas, the budget is £750k. The movie received a positive reviews and currently has a score of 83% on RottenTomatoes. Stuart McGurk of GQ magazine even called Tyrannosaur  "The best British film of the year". This is very rare for Indie movies to win awards and get good reviews from companies such as GQ or RottenTomatoes. This also indicates that the movie was a success. But still in the UK the movie doesn't sell well due to it's genre "a brutal, frank, and ultimately rewarding story of violent men seeking far-off redemption". 

For our film opening I took influence of the background music. It's a guitar with notes that are several seconds apart. For the font I like the serif font, it connotes seriousness. However, I am definitely including the white font on black background that anchors seriousness and drama. 

GENERAL CONVENTIONS 5: central protagonist & narrative

MY INFLUENCES:

• make the central protagonist clear in our film opening
• using tracking shot
• different focus 
• central framing (rule of thirds)
• make the character stand out
• shot-reverse shot

A protagonist is the leading character of a story. The protagonist is at the center of the story (central protagonist), it makes the key decision, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist will provide obstacles and complications and create conflicts that test the protagonist, thus revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character
Summary

• Uses & gratifications theory - identification (Submarine)
• Todorov 5 point narrative (Submarine)
• Counter+stereotypes - realistic representation (eg Molly Pretty in Pink)
• Binary opposition (eg Bridget Jones Diary)
• Archetypes (Bond)
• Narrative enigma + voiceover (Bond, The Mexican, Drive, Baby Driver)
• Amount of time the camera spends on protagonist/first character introduced - cutting back to protagonist - reactions, rule of thirds(Drive)
• iconography as part of narrative (Baby Driver)
• establishing/panning shots + tracking (Bond)

  

  Todorv's 5 point narrative (from DB media blog)

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Vodcast

Baby Driver and Submarine take very different yet equally effective approaches to the central protagonist and the narrative: Submarine uses a voiceover for exposition and has a heavy focus on set dressing (mis-en-scene), whereas Baby Driver has almost no dialogue and begins with an action sequence.

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RESEARCH(MINE):

Submarine

Submarine opening shot

The voiceover offers a lot of exposition, as the protagonist is stating that he does not believe he is a completely unique individual as the rest of the word does, and this level of awareness makes him feel unique. This is reflected in his positon in the shot: awkwardly cramped into the corner of a cluttered room, seen from a high angled long shot.

• Uses and gratifications theory would suggest that a teenage boys would identify with the protagonist, making them the primary target audience. 
•  This is indicated by non-glamourizing low-key lighting (also reflective of the institutional background)
• Welsh accent (rather than a southern English or American)

• Todorov’s 5 point narrative theory would suggest that the film begins with an equilibrium. This film is clearly divided into parts (intertitle “Prologue”)

  

  Submarine intertitle

•  the protagonist feels alone, surrounded by people who feel as though they are unique – the equilibrium is established to the audience
•  There will then be a conflict, or change to the equilibrium – in this example a romantic narrative – the introduction of Jordana Bevan later in the film

From the other examples I’ve looked at a voiceover for exposition is used in Apocalypse Now, Mean Girls and L4yer Cak3

• A use of counter and stereotypes is employed in the representation of the protagonist:
• The Welsh accent implies a sense of regional identity within the uk and the stereotypes that come with it: areas in the North are considered poorer, more industrial, grim and sometimes less intelligent, but also more friendly.
• This protagonist seems intelligent, but arguable antisocial, and was filmed on location (Wales) giving the film a rural rather than industrial setting.
• There is also a mild North-South binary opposition between the protagonist and his parents

Baby Driver

The opening scene in Baby Driver tells us a lot about the protagonist and the narrative however with no dialogue or voiceover.

• The first character we see is a medium-close-up of the protagonists face (also rule of thirds), and as the 3 other people in the car leave - the film stays with the protagonist
•  In special features the director, Edgar Wright, stated that the film was built around the character (it has also been stating that a large part of all his films is having characters which are easy to draw - recognisable & memorable)
•   The framing of shots make it clear that we are seeing the world form the point of view of this character, and also that he is not properly committed to crime (he stays in the car while the others go inside, and in the opening credits when he is getting coffee for everyone else but not himself)via GIPHY

• The sunglasses are used repeatedly throughout the film for iconography: when the protagonist wear them he is choosing to blind himself to the immorality of crime (music is also a way in which he does this) – when gunshots are heard in the bank he watches over the top of his sunglasses, showing how he cannot truly do this
•  This shows that the character has a moral compass and makes him easier for audiences to identify with

Baby Driver opening scene screenshot 

• Through visuals we learn more about the main character than through any dialogue (that he is a good getaway driver but has reservations in his attitude towards crime, he likes music and dancing, he is on a lower level to the people he works with as he’s the one who goes to buy coffee)
•  All we learn about the character through dialogue is his name

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Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now has a voiceover very late in the opening sequence, but the narrative focus/genre is signified only through visuals: an establishing shot of helicopters flying over burning palm trees denoting a war setting. The layering of the protagonist face on top of this also introduces us to the main character before any other, like in Baby Driver and Submarine 

Apocalypse Now opening scene screenshot

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RESEARCH(SAM'S):

Spectre (2015):
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• First, there's a tracking shot of a man wearing a white suit (stands out) where you would think he's the central protagonist but it then changes to Daniel Craig. 
• A dis-equilibrium is created
• Narrative enigma created by Daniel Craig wearing a mask
• Also he's with a woman who's also wearing a mask which let's the audience ask themselves who that woman is (narrative enigma)
• The tracking shot of Daniel Craig signifies that he's the central protagonist
• The camera zooms in
• We see him the longest on screen
• Opening scene is a 4 minutes long tracking shot of Daniel Craig which anchors that he's the central protagonist

Drive (2011):

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• Voice over before we see a character gives us a suspicion it’s the central protagonist talking also another way of creating narrative enigma. 
• The map makes the viewers think why did he use the map (What is it for)?
• The first short starts with a tilting shot of the man which again creates narrative enigma. 
• Always cut back to the driver (to see he’s reaction or face expression) 
• Tracking shot of the driver getting out 

Baby Driver (2017):

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• First shot starts with a red Subaru pulling up which creates narrative enigma (who is driving?)
• Not showing face of the protagonist immediately
• First showing hands and MP3 player (again narrative enigma)
• Protagonist is earing sunglasses which doesn't allow the viewers to see the whole face of the male character
• First chracter we get to see is the male character wearing sunglasses which already gives us an idea that he is the central protagonist
• 00:48 the 3 chracter wearing a black Bandana and sunglasses are out of focus, where the male character is infocus with his car in the background
• Male character is the central protagonist because we see him the longest on screen
• It always cuts back to him to see his facial expression (reactions)
• At 00:58 when he is dancing/singing in the car we get a lot of shot variety of the central protagonist