Free Nightmare Surrealism Essay Sample

The movie Los olvidados (“Forgotten”) was chosen because it reveals significant issues of adolescent building up, relations between them and adults. The movie is rather difficult to watch because it reveals a feeling of sympathy to some characters. Moreover, when watching such movies, one realizes that problems between adolescents and adults remain the same. The peculiarity of the movie is that from the very beginning the reasons for such behavior are obvious: poverty. Mexico is not one of the richest cities in the world. Hence, there are many poor districts, where teenagers try to earn money, sometimes, illegally.
One the one hand, it is rather difficult to determine the sub-genre of the movie. From the very first sight, it seems that it is a simple drama. There are many dramas about “teenager – adult” problems. However, during watching the movie, an audience realizes that the director revealed problems that occur in teenager company, as well. Moreover, there are some crime scenes. Hence, one may conclude that the movie belong to criminal drama sub-genre. However, I should admit that it is not the right term to describe the movie. I would suggest to call it criminal life drama.
The peculiarity of the movie is that it is independent movie. The movie Los olvidados is one of the masterpieces of Mexican art house cinematography. Although the movie was broadcasted and even translated into several languages, I cannot agree that the movie belong to classic (Hollywood) style. The peculiarity of Hollywood movies is their happy end. In Los olvidados an observer does not see any single hint that something good can happened to protagonists. Moreover, art house, independent, movies are aimed at revealing the sharpest society problems; the problems that people prefer to forget.
In my opinion, the aim of the film is to show how teenagers can suffer; how they strive to survive in the cruel world. In one of the episodes, a judge told Pedro’s mother that she could have better raised her child. In my opinion, these were the main words in the movie. The movie is about forgotten children, children of the streets. The movie cannot be called entertaining or political. I suggest that is it rather social or even educational film. One of the aims of the film is how parents should behave and raise their children. Obviously, poverty is the reason for such parents’ behavior. However, it is not the reason to forget children. As for me, the movie has achieved its goal. After watching it, I realized that raising children is rather difficult and one should feel some responsibility for them. In one of the episodes, Pedro’s mother confessed that the boy had been born when she was fourteen. She did not feel any responsibility for this child.
The content of the movie is forgotten teenagers who were trying to survive in the world. The form of the film is ordinary life. In my opinion, content drives the form. The form is not very significant; it only helps shape the story. The storyline is, obviously, dominant in the movie. When watching it, an observer does not pay much attention to the scenery, but to the story. One of the peculiarities of the movie is the diegetic world created by sound directors. Music is one of the means that help create special atmosphere of the movie. In Los olvidados, sound effects play a significant role in story telling. Another advantage of the movie is that the film takes all advantages of cinematic medium. In my opinion, if the story was written, I would not affect readers so much. The point is that while watching the movie, an observer sees all emotions on actors’ faces. When reading a book or listening to a lecturer, it is impossible. Unlike some other movies based on social problems, in Los olvidados there is no narrator; the audience fulfill that role. Besides, the audience is not even invited to identify with the character’s through eye-line matching shots point of view. When watching the movie, the audience is only a silent observer.
Another peculiarity of the movie is that it is black and white, although, it was shot in 1950, when color movies already existed. I have already mentioned that form is dominated by storyline. Hence, the director did not pay much attention to mise-en-scene. The key aspects are:
- Settings. Settings in the movie are not significant. That is why, settings look almost the same in all scenes. On the other hand, settings help improve an observer’s impression about the story. Settings of the movie show a poor district where all protagonists lived. It is an ordinary district in Mexico with its own market, poor houses; it resembles a village rather than a city district.
- Lighting. Director tried to create the feeling of natural light. At night, there was almost no light, whereas days were very bright. In some movies, directors try to outline pleasant scenes with more light. In Los olvidados, the director tried to show natural lights. In this aspect, Los olvidados resemble a documentary, where lightning is needed only to give light. The director did not use any specific lightning composition and technique. The lights are only to give light.
- Space. Space is one of the main key aspects while analyzing a movie. In Los olvidados, there is almost no free space: this effect is used to show all the poverty. In Pedro’s house, there was almost no free space: beds were standing side by side in a room, kitchen was so small that two people could barely stay there together.
- Composition. In Los olvidados, composition is balanced. Moreover, in Los olvidados, all the scenes are centered: there is no scene where action took place in right or left side of the frame.
- Costume. Protagonists wore clothes that poor people used to wear. Costumes is one of the most significant aspects that helps to create right atmosphere in a movie.
- Process. The process in the movie is linear. The director showed the development of boys’ character. The peculiarity of the movie is that there are no flashbacks. In my opinion, it is good because it does not confuse an observer. In some cases, when a director uses flashbacks, an observer finds it difficult to follow the plot. In Los olvidados, the director tried to avoid it. in this aspect, the movie resembles documentary.
- Shots. The movie is not interesting in this aspect. The peculiarity is that shots do not change often. Moreover, in some scenes, camera could not transfer all emotions due to lack of zooming or wrong position. For example, in one scene Pedro’s mother came to police department. There she met a judge who told her that she should have better raised her child and paid more attention to him. In this episode, I would use over shoulder shot to see Pedro’s mother face when she heard these words.
- Editing style. While watching the movie it is easy to define some styles of editing, such as cuts, dissolves, match cuts, etc.
When speaking about visual effects, I should address to the chosen scene. For this analysis, I have chosen the scene of Pedro’s nightmare. When his friend was killed, Pedro came back home and went immediately to bed. The peculiarity of the scene is that it is surrealistic. Night is the time of dreams and unsuspected decision. The director tried to express that with sound and light. Unlike other night scenes, there is centered light in this scene. It seems as if there is an invisible observer in the room with a lantern in hands. The peculiarity is that the light is pointed to the opposite wall, above Pedro’s mother’s bed. It is not in the center, however, it helps to outline the most significant parts of the frame. The sound helps the audience understand how frightened Pedro was. The volume is increasing and decreasing from time to time, which helps to feel Pedro’s emotions and fear. However, although, the dream was surrealists, it had its meaning. The boy worried about his relationship with mother and witnessing a murder. He worried about his mother’s attitude to him. The scene is unlike other scenes of the movie. In Pedro’s dream, his mother loved him, his friends was not dead. The scene is rather interesting; it stands apart from the entire movie. Moreover, this is the episode that influenced Pedro’s life and the entire plot development. After this surrealistic dream, Pedro was trying to change and become a good boy. Instead, his mother brought him to a jail.
Pedro’s story is one of the main stories in the movie. The problem is that Pedro’s story showed that past would always come back. Moreover, sometimes, past can spoil the present and dreams about future. The movie Los olvidados is a psychological movie that is meant to show how difficult it is to survive in Mexican streets. In my opinion, the movie is aimed not at ordinary audience, who watch movies for entertainment, but for those who think about their future. As I have already mentioned, the main reason for such behavior is poverty. Although, nowadays there are only some districts where people live beyond the poverty line, the problem exists even in wealthy families. The point is that in the modern world, poverty was substituted by money. Nowadays money become the reason for such cruel behavior not only among teenagers or even children, but among adults as well. The reasons for problems, revealed in Los olvidados, changed, but the problem remained.