Anastasia: Don Bluth & Gary Goldman

My film this week was Anastasia, the 1997 film about the urban legend, claiming that one of Tsar Nicholas' daughters, Anastasia, survived the execution of her family. Historically and politically, this is an interesting film to look at because of the way that the American production company - Fox Animation Studios - portray communist Russia compared to Imperial Russia. Obviously the USA are very anti-communist, and this is shown clearly in the film in the portrayal of Rasputin as a distinctly evil character, despite the doubts about his level of influence on the Romanovs and his level of involvement with the overthrowing of the monarchy (although he was definitely somewhat involved).

In this version of events, Anastasia failed to get onto the train that her grandmother escaped on, and ever since her grandmother, who moved to Paris, has been offering a great reward for the safe return of her daughter. However, Anastasia slipped and hit her head that day, and so she lost her memory, and has grown up in an orphanage. The only clue that she has to her heritage is a necklace, that we see she was given at the start by her grandmother, that is also a key to the music box that her grandmother gave her. Anastasia sets out from the orphanage to find her family, and encounters Dimitri and Vladimir, who aim to train a young girl to act so much like Anastasia that they fool her grandmother and take the reward money for themselves.

One of the very interesting aspects of the film was the use of lighting. The film begins with a ballroom in which the Romanovs are holding a dance. It is full of golden, warm and light colours, to represent the positive view of the characters in it and the situation. Then Rasputin enters, and his skin is grey, his hair is long, straggly and black, he is wearing dark brown monk's robes, has very bony fingers and talons in the place of fingernails. This all shows him to be a evil character, immediately setting him up as the antagonist as soon as he walks in. Any magic he performs (as he is a sorcerer in this film) is a green colour, which is used excessively within cartoons to demonstrate evil-doing.

Some examples of green representing evil in cartoons, L to R: The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid

Rasputin in Anastasia

Another interesting aspect I noticed was when Anastasia first sees St Petersburg. She's very excited to be there, having just reached the end of a song about going on a Journey to the Past to discover her history and hit a very long note as the brass builds in the background, but her excitement contrasts greatly to what we see. Anastasia, or Anja as we know her at the moment, (presumably the name she was given at the orphanage, it's never actually explained) reaches the top of the hill, and there's a wide shot showing the skyline of St Petersburg. The only impressive thing is the tower of the now derelict palace, and other than that all we see are industrial buildings, all with large chimneys belching out a dirty yellow fog that takes over the sky. This again reflects the American view of the new communist Russia compared to the Russia of the Imperial Rule.

Anja's view of the beautiful St Petersburg - the tower of the old palace is central and the tallest thing in the shot, showing it's power and importance.

For my focus scene I chose the scene in which Anastasia first goes back into the palace, and sings Once Upon a December (watch here). The palace to begin with is gloomy, dusty and generally looks uncared for. Anastasia picks up a plate and polishes it, and it immediately returns to pristine condition, showing that she is the saviour for this situation, and can restore the prestige and grandeur to the palace. It also reflects her being able to become and Imperial Princess again, as she is currently dressed in an oversized coat, flat cap and fingerless gloves - not exactly the attire of choice of many members of any royal court. As she sings, the room lightens, until dream-like figures, similar to the ones shown at the beginning of the film, burst out of the painting in couples, a golden aura around each of them, and dance on the ballroom floor, interacting with Anastasia as she dances between them. As the song builds to the instrumental, the Tsar and the members of his family that died due to the revolution walk through the couples as they part, and Anastasia's clothes change to a dress with it's own golden aura, and a tiara (SPOILER ALERT: very similar to her attire at the end of the film when her grandmother holds a party for her, that then gets ripped and destroyed, representing her new dream of being with Dimitri) representing her subconscious dream of finding her family. She dances with the Tsar as she did as a young girl at the start, mirroring the words of this all being a memory that she cannot access, and as the song fades out instrument by instrument, until only her voice is left, the couples and her family gradually fade out too, to be interrupted by Dimitri running in and asking her what she is doing there, ending her dreaming and thus my focus scene.

Hairspray: Adam Shankman

I chose this film this week because we were having a movie marathon at my friend's over the weekend, and as Hairspray is one of my favourite films, I thought that it would be interesting to look at analytically.

Hairspray is the film of the West End/Broadway musical, which was based on a film itself. It revolves around telling the story of Tracy Turnblad, an overweight high school student with dreams of dancing on the town-famous Corny Collins Show, and how she achieves that dream at a time when segregation was widely accepted and even encouraged by some in Baltimore.

Mise-en-scène was a major part of this film. The settings and the lighting were used to show the differences in conditions for the people we see in the film. We only really see five major places throughout the film:

• Tracy's house
• Penny's house
• Motormouth Maybelle's record shop/home
• The School

There's a great difference in the locations to show the audience the level of difficulty that each character faces. Penny is in the best social situation of them all, as she is thin, blonde and pretty, and she has a Christian mother who hates integration, and this is reflected in her room. It is light, well furnished, well decorated and cleaned. Interestingly, she also seems to have several sets of curtains. This could reflect how her mother is trying to shield Penny from any world that she does not approve of.

The next place on the scale is the school, with a diverse range of rooms - the classroom in which Tracy has history is white and clean, as that is the class that the kids from the TV show - Link and Amber included - are in, and they are the most privileged teens that we meet. The detention room, however, is dirtier, busier and generally less well kept, because it is frequented by the black youth due to the teachers' racism. Tracy's house is just below the school, with dark green paint on the walls and a rather cramped layout, leaving little room for the larger ladies of the house to move around it. This reflects problems created not only due to Tracy's size, but also her full support of integration.

This leaves the residence of Motormouth Maybelle. Dimly lit, dusty and dirty, it reflects the situation of its inhabitants, who are all black. When Tracy, Penny and Link are there, they are lit normally, clearly showing that the low-lighting is relevant to the struggles that the black people have.

I noticed that with the majority of the songs, the track came in, growing in number of instruments, complexity and volume as the characters were still speaking. This made the songs seem a more natural progression of the narrative, rather than just beginning somewhat randomly.

My focus scene would have to be the first time we see the Corny Collins show (Youtube link here). As the backing track begins, the camera alternates between short shots of Tracy's foot tapping and the clock ticking, all of this in time with the music we hear beginning in the background. The bell rings, and the shot switches from one of the school to one in the studio, where a similar sound is heard as the people on the show prepare to begin. We then alternate between short shots of Tracy and Penny trying to get home to watch the show and the show's cast preparing for it, all as the music grows, building tension. As Tracy and Penny get into the living room of Tracy's house, the show begins, and at first we hear it as if it is coming through the TV set. Then the camera zooms in on the black and white image on the screen, and when we zoom out again, we are in the studio, looking at the black and white screen of one of their cameras, providing a great transition into the show. The camera zooms out further to a wide shot, showing all of the dancers of the Corny Collins show. As the song progresses, we get close-ups of Amber, who we had not properly met before, but is established through these close up and long shots, emphasising her pushing and mistreatment of the other dancers (and in turn their negative view of her) as a bad character. The camera switches between shots of the studio and shots in Tracy's living room. Interestingly, when we go back to Tracy's living room, the sound quality continues to be that of the studio, rather than reverting back to that of the TV set, giving the impression that Tracy feels very much part of the show standing in her living room. Tracy is shown to be the same as the people on the set, but in harder conditions through the colours of the rooms. The set is a bright green colour, showing how the people on the show are in a much better position that Tracy is attempting to implicate, but not to the same effect.

The interior of Tracy's house during the Nicest Kids in Town Scene

The set of the Corny Collins show, with it's much brighter walls

At the end of the scene, Edna (Tracy's mother, played by John Travolta) is introduced. An upwards panning shot is used for maximum impact, as most people knew that John Travolta was playing Edna, but would not have seen him in the full drag costume until this point. This shot also adds importance to her character that her words do not, as simply asking that the girls turn down the TV so that she can iron is not the first thing that an audience expects to hear from a major character.